More "Where We've Been..."

And for part II of our time away, the kids and I headed over to Ohio to celebrate my Grandmother's upcoming 90th birthday! On our way over, we stopped to pick up my Mom and DS 2.
We had a lovely "pizza buffet" out at my Aunt Sandy's our first night in town. I'm telling ya' this crew can put away some pizza! It's always so fun going out there and hanging out at her place in the country. Relaxing and filled with fun and laughter.
DH flew his own plane up on Friday to join us. He spent time taking everyone who wanted to go for a short ride around the city and country. Here you see DS 3 and my brother SQUEEZED into the back ready for flight!

Here's the crew meeting the plane after a flight. I think in all there were four flights that day filled with happy passengers!

And later that evening, we gathered back out at Aunt Sandy's for Hot Dog cookout and more visiting.

Now one of the things we love to do when visiting our hometown is to go to the cemetary. It's just so inviting and interesting. We visit the graves of our family members that have gone on before us. This year, we found something new waiting for us there...DSs 2 and 3 thought it was a HOOT and decided to model the sign for us. For those of you who can't make this photo bigger, let me tell you the sign says: "Special Offer: Buy one grave, get the second grave free." So here the boys are showing you who ended up with the FREE one:

On Sunday, we met at a local park for the picnic to celebrate my Grandmother's upcoming 90th birthday. Here is a picture of her immediate family with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren....This is only a fraction of the people who attended this special event for this very special lady.
Here's my grandmother, in the chair with her sister.
Here is another treat we got over the weekend...we got to my brother Dan's new GF. It's so neat to see the two of them enjoy each other and be so happy!

So there you have it....Parts 1 and 2 of "Where We've Been...". Hope all's well in blogger land!

Let's start at the...END???

I'm a chronological blogger for the most part. When I blog, it's usually a "thinking post" or an "informational family post". Pretty much when my posts are bringing bloggers up to date with the happenings in my life, I start at the beginning. Not today. I want to start at the end.

Most of you know that DS 1, my brother Dan, and I went to Ohio to surprise my Grandma for her 88th birthday this weekend. We had a great time. I DO intend to go back and fill in the missing events from the weekend, but I am limited on time to blog right now. So before I go back and fill in with pictures (which is easy to do), I want to tell you the part I don't want to forget.

It's all about coming home.

We flew out on Monday afternoon from Louisville, KY. There was a better deal if we left from there, so we made the four hour drive between the airport and Columbus both at arrival and departure. On the way, I think I mentioned to DS 1, "I hope we can remember where the car is parked at the airport in Tampa." He had the ticket, so we didn't talk too much more about it.

My brother in the meantime, tells us about losing his car in the airport once and walking from floor to floor looking for it. He mentioned that he "knew" he was "higher" than the first floor, so he never went down. [Side note: Keep this detail in mind. It's going to be important in a moment. And suffice it to say, I DIDN'T keep his little story in mind until later.]

DS 1 and I arrived in Tampa at 10:15PM. We had our bags by 10:30 and headed out to the parking garage. DS 1 looked in the pocket of his shorts that he wore on departure day...but he couldn't find that little ticket that told us where our car was located. Both of us were sure we had an idea. And we could at least use the key to "beep the lock".

Down we went to floor 1. We peered out the elevator doors and didn't see the car, but we KNEW we'd parked right in front of the doors and low in the lot. So, DS 1 beeped the horn from the remote key. We could hear it "calling to us"...but it didn't sound like it was on floor one. It was a distant honk.

Up we went to floor two. We could still hear it...but it wasn't in front of the elevators. Now there ARE several elevators. So we walked and beeped until the beeping stopped. Then we'd turn around and walk in another direction until we couldn't hear the beep anymore. We repeated these steps SEVERAL times. In fact, we even found a young couple who were in the "We-search-for-our-car-for-an-hour" club.

DS 1 looked at the assistance phone and it said to "dial 3 for help". Turns out the other club members DID that exact thing and found out that if you know your plate number they can tell you exactly where it is.

Now, picture what I'm picturing. It's almost the middle of the night. We are SCHLEPPING our stuff around several floors of a very large hot parking garage. We find a phone to use for "help"...and all I can think is there has to be a guy sitting in a room somewhere watching the whole thing on security cameras with sadistic glee! I didn't want him to tell me verbally where my car was...I wanted him to get in a cute little golf cart and TAKE me to my car!

DS 1 determined that he knew my tag number. Almost. It is one off from my DH's (who knew?). So we called DS 2 who really wasn't too happy about being asked to go outside at that hour to look at his Dad's car plate number. I am pretty sure he picked up on the fact that his Mother wasn't happy either! In fact, by that time I was quite CRANKY!

He gave us the number and we called the "help line" in that parking garage. I barely got three numbers of my plate out when the parking lot guy tells me that my car is ONE FLOOR BELOW US. And he was quite amused because "another couple just called and their car was almost in the exact same spot"! I won't even go into the fact that I really wanted to know how they KNOW that! It's not like we stop and give our numbers on the way in! Weird!

Perhaps our trouble was because the floor is labeled on the elevator as "Floor BC". What the heck does "BC" mean? We were on FLOOR 1. Sure enough...we went down ONE little story and there she was beeping away when we called (Ok pushed the button) for us to come find her!

Now, on this end, it's a funny story. DS 1 reminded me in the midst of it all that we just needed ONE MORE STORY to make the weekend even MORE memorable than it was. And it was good for a laugh. Whatever!

As always, there are lessons to be learned. Like...

* get the card and put it somewhere SAFE so you don't lose it
* sometimes answers are closer than we think
* usually there's a signal that can guide us in the right direction...we just have to look (or listen)
* looking on the bright side is more fun
* you might arrive at the solution differently than you expect to do so

And, as usual, there's that "kicker" of a lesson...

* you never know when you might be some parking lot attendant's middle of the night entertainment!

Hey, it's all for the cause, you know?

Bon Voyage!!

I am leaving this morning for a week long trip to the Caribbean. My Mom, Brother, friend Debra, and my cousin Lynn are tagging along with several staff members from Lynn's school. I'm excited! I'll update when I can...but won't have a chance to visit until I return.

Have a great week!

Just a Glimpse...

Finally I am here, in downtown Anchorage, where Internet is "free" and I can give you more of a glimpse into the past 7 days. But I am finding it hard. You see, I think there is no easy way to truly share what we have been seeing.



Last night, while visitng Prince William Sound, and seeing the Harvard Glacier, I said to DH, "This all seems so surreal." I mean there simply are no words for that which takes your breath away.



I found myself repeatedly feeling intoxicated by the clean fresh air that is aplenty in this state, yet sobered and awestruck at each changing view of scenery.



It is simply amazing.

These are just preliminary photos that I clipped out of DH's uploaded files. We have hundreds that will need to be considered for publication. In the meantime, know that this is a place that makes a Christian want to stand upon the mountain, applaud His creation, and exclaim: "HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!"

(We are off for two days of inland tours via train. I'll check in again when I can.

I'm Home, Physically...

But "I left my heart in New York City"...oops, wrong tune, isn't it????

Seriously, DH and I had an AMAZING time in the Big Apple. I'm going to recount some of it here and I'll add pics once I get them uploaded.

First of all, I am a total baby when I fly. I'm OK when I get up there; it's the take-offs and landings that make me a wreck. The thought of flying with my dh while the kids are on the ground, makes me even more of a wreck....I know, I know, it's a bit of a "sickness" called "CONTROL"! I told DH that I would fly to help me get over my issues....and I'm SO GLAD that he followed through on it. Having him next to me was much better than flying alone...which is what I usually do.

It took us TWO hours to make the 30 minute trip into the city from the Newark Airport on Wednesday afternoon. I had to face another one of my issues as we inched our way through the Lincoln Tunnel on a bus with other buses, taxis, cars, and tunnel walls only inches on either side of us. Again, not so bad with DH by my side.

DH told me that most of the shows had been sold out and some right up through March. He asked if I wanted to know "Plan B"...and he brought out the tickets for three shows. I LOVE the theater...and was totally excited about this part of our trip.

Wednesday night, we ate a magnificent meal and then we saw,
Monty Python's Spamalot a 2005 Tony Award Winner. Now, I am not a Monty Python fan, but this show WAS funny!! I enjoyed it. We walked to our little "home" on 42nd Ave. and 2nd St. It was quite a ways...but what a view as we passed through Times Square, Grant Park, and Grand Central Station.

Thursday, we went down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. The line to get tickets for the ferry stretched forever. So, we skipped waiting all day in the line, looked at the Statue from the shore and walked down Broadway. We saw Ground Zero and went into a deli across from the former South Tower. AMAZING! We also enjoyed walking through a mini-museum that has been created at the site. It was sobering to see artifacts from that horrible day. People were so quiet. Some cried. No one was loud. And no one moved fast. It was just a stillness in that place.

We saw Canal street....it was PACKED with people. We enjoyed visiting a local pub to rest our feet and people watch. We got back just in time to prepare for another MAGNIFICENT meal and head to The Producers starring Tony Danza. It was even funnier than Spamalot (in my opinion). I hadn't seen the movie and only sort of knew the music. It was GREAT fun!

Yesterday, we bought a bus tour for my sore tired feet. I wore new shoes the first night and I totally DO NOT understand how people walk around in their Prada shoes on the streets of New York. (And, Heather, I totally know how your Mother broke her leg there!!) So, to give my blisters a break, we took the tour. Anyway, we saw all of Uptown and Harlem, Downtown Manhattan, and Brooklyn on this. It was quite informative and a great way to cram a lot of "sites" into a short amount of time.

Last night, we ate at a great restaurant (dh did a GREAT job planning dinners)! It was another quaint restaurant with fantastic food. Then, it was on to the most coveted tickets we had....for WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have the CD for this show and LOVE the music.

It was stunning! I was riveted throughout. The scenery, the vocals, the theater....it was all....well....PERFECT!!! In fact, I want to go grab tickets to see it in February here (C, C, and Mom, let's stop talking about it and DO IT!). There simply was no way to stay in your seat after it was over....it screamed ovation. WOW!!

As with most "dreams" it all ended too soon...but probably right on time. I have a little head cold and definitely noticed the place getting more and more crowded in preparation for the Times Square festivities tomorrow. There is NO WAY I would be caught dead in that crowd. Walking through crowded Times Square two nights ago and imagining that number magnified by thousands, again confirmed that to me.

If I didn't say it before, I'll say it here...DH and I never really had a Honeymoon. We have not really gone on a true vacation together alone in 20 years. After these glorious three days, I know that we will not wait another 20 years to do it again.

I love you, hon!! And, to quote another song,

"Thanks for the Memory!!"