Numbers

Today is my birthday and I am 66 years old!  Wow! I'm closer to 70 than 60.  I don't feel old even though the mirror tells me that I am.

This is the card George gave to me!  Made me laugh!

All day I have been thinking about that big number - 66!   I have lived on the earth for 66 years!  And it has been wonderful!

Here are some other numbers of my life.

• I graduated from Lonoke High School  48 years ago.
• Transferred to BYU 46 years ago
• Got married 44 years ago
• My children are now 41, 38, 34, 31
• My grandchildren are 1 and 3.
• I've lived in 10 states and 3 countries
• Visited 99 countries and 45 states
• I've been a member of 9 Wards (church congregations)
• As an adult we've lived in 12 different homes. 
• 4 in Colorado
• 2 in California
• 3 in Idaho
• 1 in Oregon
• 2 in Barcelona
• I've had 4 surgeries
• Gone on 6 cruises
• Made an innumerable  numbers of friends all around the world
• Plus I've had  innumerable numbers of moments that have taken my breath away. 

I still believe this to be true!  The best is YET TO BE!

Happy birthday to ME!

#24 Yep I'm crazy!

Do you ever do something and realize that you are a little bit crazy?  I had one of those experiences yesterday.

I am totally enjoying my two weeks off from teaching early morning seminary but I have long lists of things I want to get done.  Top of my list yesterday was to put away all the Christmas decorations and get my house back to normal.  In the morning I got a call from Guide Dogs for the Blind asking if I wanted to take a foster dog for a few days.  We haven't had a dog in months so I was really excited about this!  I made arrangements to drive out and pick him up in the afternoon early enough that I wouldn't get caught in the crazy Portland traffic on my drive back.  Time came for me to leave to get him and I was still right in the middle of putting things away.  My house was a disaster area!  I thought, "Oh I can't go get him.  My house is too messy." I felt myself getting all anxious and was racing around to finish. 

Then it hit me....the dog doesn't care if my house looks like this. What's he going to do?  Report me?? I'm acting crazy!

I left immediately and we now have Foster Guide Dog #24 - a very large and very relaxed lab/golden cross named Burke who didn't complain even once about the boxes.  He'll be matched with a blind person on Monday so we only get to enjoy him for a few days.  I'm adding dog snuggle time and several walks a day to my 'to do list' and it feels great!

Birthday - The Good and the Bad

First the good - I had a lovely lunch with friends at Skamania Lodge complete with this yummy dessert.

Well one bad part of this - instead of a chocolate cookie underneath, it is an oatmeal raisin.  Don't you think that is one of the biggest disappointments of life?  You are totally expecting a sweet chocolate chip and discover a sticky raisin!  It wasn't too bad this time because I could disguise the taste of the raisin with ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

More good stuff - George got me the camera I have been drooling about for months!  I think he got tired of looking at it every time we went to Costco or the mall! A wonderful gift from my sweetheart!  I'm so excited about it!

Really only one bad thing - On my very birthday I got a letter with these ads:

Yep, I am being invited to try state-of-the art hearing aids!  How depressing is that?  Probably even more depressing that sometimes I think I need them!

Mother and Father's Day

I was blessed to have been raised by such wonderful parents.  I learned so much from them about kindness and hard work and love and what it means to be in a family.

This picture was made just before we moved to Sicily.  I was in the 1st grade.  For most of my early years Daddy was stationed in the northeastern part of the United States.  I started school in Bainbridge, Maryland.  Momma says that they hoped they would get transferred to Florida or someplace close to home in Arkansas after they left Maryland.  When Daddy's orders came, they were to move to Sigonella, Sicily. I have a very clear memory of asking "Where?" and being told that Sicily was the 'football' that 'boot' shaped Italy kicked.  Certainly not very close to Lonoke, Arkansas.

Sicily was a great experience for me.  I attribute my love of travel to our two and a half year Italian adventure.

Taking the bad with the good...

The good - I have the best volunteer job in the world.  Yesterday I cuddled dogs as they came out from sedation.  The young dogs who arrive at Guide Dogs for the Blind go through a complete medical workup prior to their training.  For their hip and elbow x-rays they are sedated and I get to sit with them as they wake up.  These two cuties both wanted to be in my lap.  Vino is a Golden Retriever and Henry is a Lab/Golden Cross.  He is the first black cross I've seen.  His personality was all Golden Retriever even though he could have passed for a black lab. 

                                        

The bad - when I arrived home this letter was waiting for me, inviting me to be part of a select group testing hearing aids!  They were looking for people like me 'who may be experiencing some level of hearing loss'.  Yikes, I really am a senior citizen!

I LOVE PAUL!

Hidden in the deep recesses of a box somewhere in our house in Boise are two buttons; one proclaims  "I am an official Beatles fan" and the other proudly tells the world that "I love Paul."  I remember how my heart just did flips and flutters when I first saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964! As the music to "I want to hold your hand....." blasted out of our TV,  I was smitten with a serious case of Beatlemania. Beatles posters covered my walls and Beatles records played non-stop on my record player. I read every magazine article I could find about the Fab Four.  I was a serious fan!

Thanks to a very indulgent Daddy, I did get to see the Beatles live in 1966 in Memphis.  What a thrill that was!  I remember screaming along with all the other girls in the crowd!

Years later when our daughter Mary was a preteen, she and I were looking at a magazine with photos of the young Beatles.  When I told her that my favorite was Paul, she asked, "Which one is Paul?" and I replied, "The cute one."  She studied the photo for several more seconds before asking, "Which one is the cute one?"  Seriously how could anyone not see immediately that Paul is definitely the 'cute one'.

When I heard that Sir Paul McCartney was performing a concert in Seattle, I knew that I had to go.

Paul may be 71 years old but let me tell you, he can still rock!  And he is still cute!  During the three hour concert he sang 39 songs and came back for three encores.  Finally he said, "I know you want to rock but sometime I have to go home.  Sometime YOU have to go home even if it is Friday night."

When I see Paul perform now it shocks me to see the 'Paul expressions' that I have loved for so long on that definitely older face.  Then it hits me I have been listening to him sing for almost 50 years!  50 years....that is a long time! Practically a life time!

The Paul I swooned about in 1964 looked like this

The little girl who did the swooning looked like this:

                                  

Yep 50 years is a long time!  

Almost a lifetime later, I still think Paul is the cute one!  And watching him still makes my heart flutter!

What an amazing 50 years I've lived since then!  My life has been full of 'heart flutter' moments much more profound than that little girl could have ever imagined.  For that I am so grateful! 

Projects

 One of my friends told me that when her husband goes out of town on business she makes plans like 'take a flying lesson' or 'go to the Grand Canyon'.  When George leaves I think of things like trips to the Container Store and the Scrapbooking Store and what movies can I watch!  I guess I am just boring!  But this week I have caught up on my scrapbooking and I managed to organize my office closet.  On Friday it looked like this:

And after only two trips to the Container Store it looked like this, organized and labeled.

I'm excited and hoping the labels will help me keep it looking like this!

My next project is to do something with this box of photos.  They are from my mother's house and have been sitting in this box for at least 4 years.  I sorted them last night and there are pictures from my mother's childhood, my childhood and of my own children.  Should be a fun project for this week! Hope I can get it done before George comes home!

December 31 - Goals

Scott inspired me when I read this quote from Christmas Eve on the Desert on his Facebook page -

I should not fail to set my feet upon the star-bound trail.

Then I saw this on Facebook

                                                          

                                 so I got inspired to think about goals for 2013!

2012 had 12 goals.  I did 6 of them 100%; 3 of them about 75%; one not at all (and I don't even care); one I'll be working on for the rest of my life, and then there was my weight goal....hmmm...let's just say that I think I gained about as much weight as I wanted to lose last year!  Not good!

2013 has 10 goals.  Hopefully I'll have better success next year.  Here's to success on the 'star-bound trail' and worthwhile writings in the book of 2013!

Remember Stan?

Stan was the Guide Dog puppy we fostered for a couple of weeks while he recovered from some shoulder lameness.

 http://bondia2000.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Meet Stan today....

A fully trained Guide Dog who will spend his life as a guide, companion and friend!  George and I are so proud of his success!   And he remembered us with joyful, very un-guide dog like exuberance and kisses!

To quote from the Guide Dogs Website:

We create a truly unique partnership between two beings. A collaboration that enhances the individual potential of each partner, where the dog and the person have better lives together than either would have apart.

You'll never guess where Stan is going to spend his life....Eagle, Idaho!  Small world!

Mupa

I had been told that before we left Kenya we would each be given a tribal name.  I worried that I would be something like, "She who complains" or "Picky eater who refuses our goat stew".  When we had been in Taru a couple of days, Joseph, the Kenya Keys Director said to Rinda, "Your friends are quite fine.  Dr. Liz is very smart and Marilyn is most jovial."  So I started hoping that maybe my name would be "Jovial".  I was pleased when my Duruma name was "Mupa" which means, "Cheerful Giver."  I like that and will try to live up to it! 

 

After Joseph told me my name, he invited other Mupas from the audience to come and join me for a photo.  

Just as we were getting in the van on our very last day, this sweet young Mupa came for one last hug and picture.

From now on, I will really try to be Mupa - a Cheerful Giver! 

Feels like home to me....

Have you ever heard the Chantal Kreviazuk song, "It Feels Like Home To Me"? If our foster dog could sing, I think she'd be singing the chorus," It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me. It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong."

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Education Week

With apologies and compliments to my Education Week buddy, Jan who did this post about our week.......http://jandegiulio.wordpress.com/ I'm going to steal her post and adapt it to my blog.

Education Week was wonderful this year. I went with Jan De Giulio. We had a great time learning, laughing, visiting and eating together. She is the perfect ED Week partner! It was fun to have Jan's daughter, Terrah, join us for a day and go to a few classes with her. I will write more about the classes later. Here are a few fast facts.

• About 36 classes taken.
• Tons of good stuff learned.
• 114 pages of notes taken.
• Seven pages filled with inspiration that came into my mind as I listened
• New goals set.
• Lots of excitement about teaching the Old Testament this year

The most amazing facts are below

• No fudge eaten.
• No ice cream eaten.
• Only 2 Amazing BYU brownies eaten. How I did this I will never know! (But I admit I wish I had one right now!)
• One over priced Costa Vida Salad at the Marriott Center eaten. Learned my lesson there! It’s almost a crime how much they jack up the price to sell at BYU.
• Found out the bathrooms in the BYU Art Museum are amazing, with no lines EVER!!! I did not share this secret with anyone lest they be overflowing with people when I went in them.
• The Cafe in the Museum is a great inexpensive place to get a good lunch.
• Two dinners at the wonderful ZUPAS!
• Weight gain ZERO!
• LDS Women can take over a men's bathroom when the need is great!
• The speakers I've heard for years, like Michael Wilcox and Randall Wright, are still favorites and still inspire and teach me.
• My favorites list can grow longer with speakers like Brad Wilcox and Anthony Sweat and Kenneth Alford.

I've been to BYU Education Week over 20 times and each year is fantastic. For those who may not know what it is...it's five days filled with classes from 8:30 in the morning until 9:25 at night. Classes range from religious to financial planning to parenting to history to music to mental health and diet and exercise. There is something for everyone. This year there were 20,000 participants ages 14 to 96. I'm serious about the 96 year old! Some people stay in the homes of family and friends, some in motels and some in the dorms. Jan and I were in the dorm. Fun late nights talking and talking and talking! A great week in every way!

Happy birthday to me, a day late!

I forgot to do a post for my own birthday. Here I am when I was one year old! I still have a hard time believing that I am on the downhill to 60 years old. I always thought at some age I'd start feeling mature....but it hasn't happened yet. I still feel like a 'kid' and am surprised when someone asks me if I qualify for a senior citizen discount or what I'm doing about the medicare prescription drug plan! When my mother had her stroke and the paramedics asked me for her insurance cards I immediately thought, "I don't know where they are. I need to call my Aunt Mary, she'd know." Then I remembered that Mary had just died and I got this panic.......oh no, I am the grown up now! Am I supposed to start feeling like a grownup some time soon?

Pleasure #4

Keep your child's baby shoes in your desk at work. You know how you keep a bag of almonds in your drawer in case you need an energy boost in the afternoon? Place something emotionally resonant there as well for the times when your mood needs a quick lift. Stash a few objects that are connected with treasured experiences - say that 1997 vacation to Barcelona- and occasionally take a moment to pick up one of these items and look at it closely. Elation is sure to follow.

I definitely do this. I have a few Spanish coins that I keep in the deep recesses of my closet. Every time I do a thorough cleaning of the closet I find them, look at them, remember our 5 amazing years in Barcelona and then just kind of randomly toss them back in to be found again later. In one of my cookbooks I have an order form from the door to door frozen food salesman that came to our house in Barcelona. When I use that cookbook I can just taste the delicious frozen garlic bread that I would buy from him. Inside one of my desk cabinets, I have a couple of pictures of my little kids. Those always bring a smile to my face. I love these quick easy little moments of elation! Anybody else do this?

Chuck E. Cheese

Our family has enjoyed many a fun birthday party and family night at Chucky Cheese Pizza or, as it used to be called, Showbiz Pizza. Last Monday was another fun time there when Mary and I took the family from Somalia that I have been tutoring for an 'end of tutoring' celebration. They live about a block from the place but had never been. At first they were a bit unsure what to do but as soon as they figured out that the games gave you tickets that could be redeemed for prizes they were hooked!

Halima specialized in the basketball game!

The two little girls enjoyed the rides and baby Obama just liked looking around! He really liked Mary! Actually all the kids liked Mary. Children have always liked her. She is like my Daddy in that respect.

Baby Obama was only six weeks old when I started working with them. Now he is a cuddly little chunk who loves pizza! So cute!

I walked them home and we took one final picture on their steps.

Then the Mom, Bahati, said something to me in her language and Halima translated. She said for me 'not to ever forget their family and to come and visit them sometime." Not to worry! I'll never forget them. Getting to know them was a sweet experience and one I'll always treasure.

Noises

When I was getting ready for my early meeting yesterday (well it is at 8:45 a.m. but that is early for me these days) I heard a loud noise outside. I couldn't place the sound for a minute or two but then it clicked and I ran and got my camera just in time to see this.

The balloon went right over my neighbor's house and must have landed in the street just behind our house. I love balloons! So pretty and bright!

Spring is coming!

I know spring is on the way because:

WE tilled the garden!

Goose couples are all around the neighborhood. So soon little goslings will make their appearance!

And there are some flowers in my yard!

Wahoo! Spring is just around the corner!

I have a dream!

I am working for a company called Club Z Tutoring and part of my current assignment is to tutor two little girls, one 8 and one 12 who are from Somalia. I work with them in their apartment and have the added challenge of entertaining their two little sisters age 3 & 5 while we work! I have grown to love those 4 little girls, Halima, Maryamo, Mamona, and Hermisa!

Yesterday the 8 year old read me a story in one of the "Frog and Toad" books called, "Dreams". We talked about the story for a few minutes and then she said, "Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream." When I asked her if she knew what his dream was she instantly replied, "that little children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." I asked her to explain what that meant and she didn't miss a beat saying. "We should like people because they are nice and kind and work hard and we shouldn't not like people because they are black or white or brown." Then all the little girls started to talk at once (they had an 8 year old cousin visiting that day) telling me that a long time ago in America people who were black couldn't drink at the same water fountains or go to the same bathrooms or sit in the front of the bus or eat in a restaurant. I told them that when I was a little girl in Arkansas that was the way it was and they were amazed that I was that old. Then they asked me if I knew Martin Luther King and when I said no they were sure that I must have been at the "I Have a Dream Speech'. I told them that I was a little girl like they are now when he gave that speech but I did remember seeing it on television. One of the girls then told me how someone who "didn't have love and kindness in his heart killed Martin Luther King and that was so sad".

It was such a heart warming experience sitting there listening to these little girls share these tender feelings with me. We all laughed as we realized that I'm not white, I'm kind of pink and they aren't black they are more brown and that none of it matters.

I looked up Dr. King's speech when I got home. It was amazing!

• I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
• I have a dream today.
• I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I think the scene in that living room fulfilled Dr. King's dream as this great, great granddaughter of slave owners enjoyed coloring, playing games and reading with four little girls from Africa!!!

Job!

Here is George just about to hit the 'send' button to accept his new job! We're happy!

For the first time in 34 years I no longer have a husband who works for Hewlett Packard! Now I have a husband who works for Celstream.

Don't even ask me what they do exactly! The job will be similar to what he has been doing for HP the last few years and he is excited about it. That is what matters! We might be moving to Portland, Oregon in the summer unless George is traveling so much that it doesn't matter where he calls home! He'll be going to India and to New York regularly! Yes I am excited about the frequent flier miles!!!!! New adventures!!!