Taking the Scenic Route

I was asked to give a speech at a fund-raising event for the University’s Speech Language Hearing Clinic.  The theme was “Nifty Fifties”, and we had the option of dressing in costume, so we did.

Zach was left alone with the camera while I finished getting ready.

Under that sweater is a pocket protector.  Perfection.  He was going to shave his goatee off because it wasn’t historically accurate.  I had to beg him not to cut it off entirely, but it still bugged him.

Yummy food, good chocolate, and the best little cupcakes I have ever had in my life. After I spoke I could enjoy the complimentary champagne too. I don’t know what made me more tipsy, the sugar rush or the glass of champagne.

A relaxed and happy day, kids who went to sleep early, and a nice dinner for us.  My soul is happy.

For my birthday dinner we went to Il Vincini, our new favorite place.  Dad wasn’t able to make it because he is sick, so we missed him, but it was really great to finally meet Nora, Steve’s new friend.  She seems like such a neat person and I can’t wait to get to know her better.

So, for my birthday, the three ladies had a Menage a Trois.  lmao.  What a hilarious name for a wine.

Everybody had pizza, except me, who had an awesome salad.

It is so good to see my brother happy again.

It was a great dinner, although we all agreed that I can’t possibly be turning 40 in a week.

We got the family photo back.  It was a little off center, so here is my corrected version. 

We had our Christmas Photo taken, and since we needed a new avs for Facebook (especially me…that photo, although good, is from a funeral that I don’t want to think about every time I see it), and here are a few of the shots we got.  The official photo coming later, after we get it.

On Saturday we participated in ROCKO’s respite care for the kids. For four hours, the kids were doing crafts, playing games, and otherwise being entertained. So, we went on an actual DATE! We went to see “Fame”, which was fabulous (and satisfied the kid in me that was so upset that I couldn’t see it as a kid, owned and memorized the record of the soundtrack, and watched the TV show faithfully). It was the first time I ever saw dancing on a movie screen too, so that was very cool to me. After the movie we went to TGIFridays and split a burger and fried green beans, then went to retrieve the kids.

They both had a ball. We got to pick up just a little early, and the last half hour they basically ran the kids so they would be calm and tired when the parents picked them up. YEAH! Zora actually fell asleep on the way home.

When I woke up this morning, I had known my husband less than half my life. When I go to bed, I will have known him more than half my life. I am so glad I married my best friend.

#151 The Knight Token for the win.

The Catan Card game is SO much fun.  We were saving it to play in Germany, but that’s not happening, so we broke it out tonight.  It is for two players, unlike the regular Catan game (which is for a group), and is a nice combination of (some) luck and (mostly) strategy.  It moves fairly fast once you get the hang of it.  You have to get 12 “victory points” and if you earn the knight token (by having the strongest knights) it is worth one of the 12 points.

Here is the winning hand of the evening.

#106 Fourteen Roses for Fourteen Years. I have a sweet husband. On a funny note, on our Anniversary, when Zach brought the roses, the florist messed up and gave him 14 stems, but only 13 roses. He went back to retrieve another rose to complete the set.

Zach refuses to take meds for anxiety, which sort of drive me crazy (ironic, isn’t it), but I understand and support him. After much discussion, we have decided we are going to make a concerted effort to exercise more, including Yoga & Tai Chi type things, and start practicing meditation.

By “coincidence” (I don’t believe in coincidence) there was a show on one of the science channels about a mummy found, that talked at length about Buddhist monks and their mediation practices (the mummy was a monk), and showed the scientific evaluation of how meditation helped control breathing, heart rate, etc. and how dramatically it could help. That sparked a search for a local place to meditate at, which lead me to the discovery of several places in town. However, all of them were strongly Buddhist (and I think one was Hindu) and we aren’t comfortable with that. We both appreciate Buddhist thought, but it is because there are a lot of parallels to Christianity that we find inspiring, but we aren’t Buddhist. We are Christian.

I have always thought of meditation as a form of prayer, and I don’t feel comfortable praying to anybody except God. There are a lot of calls to meditate in the bible (“Be still and know that I am God” is one that comes to mind first, and Jesus’ going off to a quiet place to pray at length is another). After some more searching, I found two websites that offered Christian meditation information/education. Christian Meditation and World Community for Christian Meditation. The latter appealed to me more, but the first one seemed a little more like “Christian Meditation for the Clueless”, which we are right now. I know you don’t need anything to meditate, but I thought the more guided meditation would be a good set of training wheels while we learn how to do this, how to quiet our thoughts better. I can do it in short bursts, but not for an extended period of time, at least not without my thought going all over the place. The closest I get is when I zone out during knitting. So, we got some of the mp3 downloads from the first site and are trying that. (some of the downloads are bordering on offensive to me, but most of them look good. I guess I will find out. lol)

I also found this cool Yoga-type video that I want. It is called “Yoga Prayer” and the following line in the description caught my attention: Ryan seamlessly harmonizes prayers like Psalm 84, the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis, and the Beatitudes with vitalizing yoga postures to create a uniquely powerful spiritual practice. (IMO, the Beatitudes are among the most important passage of the bible, and the Prayer of St Francis is one of my favorite writings ever). I had just gotten “Yoga for Inflexible People”, so I will do that for a while until I get a little more physically able to do the stretches (I can’t even touch my toes right now, so a lot of the stuff is just so far beyond me at this point there really isn’t any point until I get into better shape), but this is on my “list of things to get” when I am ready for it. I saw some other aerobics tapes “for Christians”, but many of them look too dorky for words, and this is coming from somebody who actually bought a Richard Simmons tape along with the Yoga..inflexible tape. lol.