Traveling with an 87 Year Old Kid

Are we there yet? How much farther? I can't wait to get there! Oh, look at that! Tony, take a picture. This is so exciting! I will do that. I can't wait. I'm hungry. Can we go there? I want Ice Cream. Look at this. I want to ride the rapids. I am so excited. I can't wait. Hurry up. Come on, let's go.

You couldn't tell she is 87, with all of the excitement and energy.

Expressing myself with: awe and hope that I am like that when I get older......

35 YEARS

35 years ago today, I said, "I Do", when I married my High School sweetheart. I was 17 and 5 1/2 months pregnant, and all of the statistics (including some family and friends) said that we didn't have a snowball chance in hell (ok the statistics didn't quite say that, but they meant it). Here it is, 35 years later, and that just sounds like a really long time. Why is that? Before divorce become popular ( I was going to say, "easier", but it isn't really easy is it?), people stayed married forever (well until death do them part), for some, that forever felt like, "forever", for most it was just the way it was and they were comfortable with that. Yet in today's society, 35 years sounds like a long time. Don't get me wrong, I am not against divorce, in fact, quite the opposite. We are both from divorced parents and believe me they were much better off without each other, I am just rambling on about how most people seemed surprised that we have made it this far, and that 35 years to some, sounds like a long time, and it just made me think, "Why?".

Does it feel like a long time? I suppose it does in some ways. We have been together since I was 15, so he's been a part of my life, well, almost all of my life, so for me it is just normal. It is no different than having my sisters as a part of my life, or our children, so why should be being married for 35 years feel any different? It shouldn't, we are family, period.

Is 35 years a long time? You bet, so Happy 35th Anniversary - 35 years of ups and downs, tears and laughter, happiness, sorrow, anger, pain, friendship, growth, changes and family. Some of those years (or days) were fabulous, some have been very rocky times, yet all we need to remember is - that 35 years ago, two people said, "I Do" and through it all, have managed to not become another statistic and are celebrating 35 years of life together.

Expressing myself with memories of the past 35 years.

Blue Skies, Nothing But Blue Skies

After a very long rainy and gray Spring, I have this song going through my head - Blue Skies, Nothing but Blue Skies - every day for the last week.  It is not a song that I am real familiar with but for some reason it just popped in my head one day and would not leave. At first I thought it was because I really need some sun, but then I thought, shouldn't I be singing something like, "Sunshine on my shoulders make me happy."?  So maybe it wasn't just 'sun' that I needed, maybe it was a change in 'color'.  After all months and months of gray is a bit much.  Today not only did we have sun, the skies are actually 'blue'.  So nothing but Blue Skies are smiling at me (and everyone else). So SMILE!

Life and our plans

This weekend I had planned a workshop that didn't quite go according to plan and it got me thinking about my 'life plans'. I have a reputation as someone who can organize and plan things. This is my talent. This is something I usually enjoy. Most of the time I am even pretty good at it. But when it comes to my 'own life' I don't really seem to have a plan. The plans I have had didn't necessarily go according to how I would have planned them to. And I most definitely would not have planned my life to go the way it has over the last few years.  So why is that?  Why can I plan events but not my life?  Is it like people that are good at taking care of others but not themselves? People who can do but not teach, or people who can teach but not do? Is it because life cannot be planned? You hear of people who have planned out their lives to go a certain way, though quite honestly I don't know anyone like that. I am not sure, then maybe that is my problem? I am not sure.

Expressing myself as - totally perplexed and unplanned.

Cares just drift away

I recently got to spend four hours traveling on a ship from Everett to Anacortes. The ship is used for whale watching, and it had spent the last 2 months in Everett during the gray whale watching season, now it was time for it to return home to Anacortes just in time for Orca whale watching season. During this four hour vacation I let my cares drift away and just enjoyed the ride home. With the hum of the engine, the cool breeze off the water and the beautiful scenery passing by, I was reminded why I live in such a beautiful area. I was also reminded, that occasionally it is necessary to let our cares just drift away and to let the stress in life be replaced with beauty. 

I am expressing myself with beauty and a care-free moment in time.