More like peacefully aglow… for my first week back to BSM in I’m not sure how long. A little glow from the Pacific Northwest… and yes, it’s raining!
Join Tracey over at Mother May I for more Best Shots this Monday!
I’ve been on the Michael Phelps diet. It was all anyone was talking about during the Olympics… so I figured, “Hey, the old bod could use a boost, a jolt to the system and what the hey, I’m on holidays, after all. Relaxed. What better time to implement a new diet regimen?” I mean, look at the guy… who wouldn’t want to have a body like Michael Phelps? The female equivalent, of course.
And what better place to implement new diet plan than at the beach. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware… home to Grotto’s Pizza. And more Grotto’s Pizza. Thrasher’s Fries. Nicola’s nicobolis. Wings To Go. Chicken Ed’s. And, well, more Grotto’s. Oh, and The Fractured Prune… home-made, hand-dipped, fresh-to-order donuts! Did I mention Rehoboth beach is home to Grotto’s Pizza?
Oh, yes. I embraced this new diet with my heart and soul… all 12,000 calories a day of it. Fast tracking to cut biceps, ripped abs and nothing but sinew for thighs.
And what do I have to show for two weeks of consumption a la Michael Phelps? In short… Fattened. Ass.
Upon further research, I see I overlooked the small fact that I must also simultaneously implement the 5-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week exercise regimen. Shit…
This is supposed to be a Best Shot Monday post. It isn’t. I have wads of photos filling up cards, yet to be transferred over to computer for editing. We just arrived at the in-law-family-beach-house in Delaware last night after many hours on the road and tons of fun visiting family and friends. I am happy to settle in… get newsletter done… and just relax!
While we’ve been tired, sometimes cranky and sleeping in various different beds, these past several days have been tremendous fun, as well as a little inspiring in the areas of parenting and homeschooling.
After leaving Northern Virginia we headed south to western North Carolina, where we spent an overnight with my cousin and her family. I haven’t seen my cousin in over 15 years. Of all of us we were the closest cousins, during childhood, meeting most summers at my grandmother’s house in Northern Ontario. I was in her wedding. That was the last time I saw her. As an aside, that last time I saw her, as recorded for all of eternity in her wedding photos, I had a hideous cold sore eating up the lower right quadrant of my face. Our reunion on Thursday… a hideous cold sore eating up the lower right quadrant of my face. Weird.
In the span of time since last seeing her I’ve gotten married and had three kids. In the same span of time, she has had nine. Yes, you read correctly… NINE. She has nine of the best behaved, interesting, beautiful kids anywhere. In fact, I almost took one home with me. The baby. He would have made for a perfectly delicious, chubby, smiling, giggling, wondrous addition to our home (currently screaming out for another baby, I might add), but I was wrestled to the ground as he was pried from my arms I resisted…. something about his already having a wonderful, loving home… what-ever.
Anyways, despite my nervousness, seeing her after so much time apart and our lives so changed, sharing time with cousin and her family was a pleasure. She is a wonderful mother. Thanks to her sense of structure and painstaking organization, there is no chaos or mayhem. And the woman homeschools. Sure, there’s the possibility everyone was on their bestest of behaviour with company- freshly beaten lectured just before we arrived- but really, things just ran too smoothly for that to be true. It was evident that these were just well-behaved, thoughtful, intelligent, happy kids… regardless when anybody shows up.
I took notes.
After leaving North Carolina, it was back to Virginia: Hampton Roads. Hubby’s business partner and his family. More familiar in the noise and chaos. Perhaps less organized than our hosts the previous night… but like I said, familiar! It’s always fun and we hit El Mariachi. My favourite Mexican place. Anywhere. And we took the gang to Busch Gardens at Williamsburg. OMG! I had a blast. Not being of age, or more specifically interest, for rollercoasters and other harrowing amusement park rides, they were pretty bored until they got to the bumper cars. Watching mummy depart each ride, swaying and swerving, slightly green-faced, grinning like an idiot only has so much appeal to the young ‘uns. But, hey… I. Had. A. Blast!! Apollo’s Chariot. Alpengeist. Lochness Monster. Loved. It. I didn’t get to the Griffon. I wasn’t quite ready to ball up for that one. Maybe next time. And perhaps a kid might actually go with me….
This is likely our last night in the suburban DC area for this trip. We head on to North Carolina, back up to Norfolk and then spend the remaining time at the Delaware beach house.
Other than our trip to the zoo, it looks like we will not make it into DC again. No Mall, no museums, no monuments… none of the stuff people ALWAYS see when they visit this area.
Is that weird?
We did live here for over six years… So, I have seen all that stuff. But the miscreants haven’t in quite some time. Certainly not at ages where they might actually enjoy these sights. I mean, who homeschools… and travels to only miles from the centre of the world US capital… and doesn’t visit all the stuff that everyone actually comes here specifically to see?! Who?!?
But the sad fact is, other than our trips up to Bethesda to visit with SIL and her kids, I’ve enjoyed hunkering out here in the burbs, south of the beltway, tucked away off the infamous ‘mixing bowl’, the labyrinthine maze of lanes and over-passes that is the junction of 495 and 95.
I mean, really… it’s scary out there people. Particularly for one now so accustomed to life back in the sticks, nestled in the cold, solitary safety of the Canadian Rockies. Braving the rushing traffic, road rage and over-priced parking is now only a little overwhelming. And so… rather than the Jefferson and Washington Monuments, I’ve been to two local Targets. And rather than The Mall, make it Trader Joes! OMG… I would give my husband’s left nut for a Trader Joe’s! And rather than the Natural History Museum, Sally and I hit cheap $2 Tuesday and IronMan at the movies- alongside every kid this side of the Potomac!
But we’ve also been to Baltimore. Not DC… but Baltimore. We had to drop hubby at the train for his quarterly trip to his office in Wilmington. Baltimore… where we enjoyed three hours at the aquarium amongst a thousand rabid Red Sox fans with time to kill pre-game. The Baltimore Aquarium is way cool, but for the love of Pete, does there have to be a friggin’ crowd every where we go?!?
Honestly, there are people everywhere!
Today. Today… why, Costco, of course. Really, who doesn’t need 3 kilos of Frosted Flakes and 36 rolls of t.p. when travelling?! And the APPLE STORE!… where hopefully, with the promise of some dutiful, yet eager, wifely servicing, I will be rewarded with some form of Apple product. Truly, I do believe I could get used to the suburban life a little too easily.
The subject of this weeks Best Shot Monday is just downright spooky. We are here in Northern Virginia visiting hubby’s family. His sister has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and only last week began her very aggressive chemotherapy treatment. When the chemo is over she will lose a breast.
After managing their way through the trial of the diagnosis, the information gathering and the just plain old life changing nature of the experience in a very short time, she is now feeling for the most part lousy from the chemo. She will lose her fertility and her hair. But with this most aggressive treatment her prognosis is good.
Here’s the deal. She’s turning 40 next month. She’s married. She has three kids, ages 6, 3 and not yet 2. She has a tremendous fight ahead of her. I don’t know that she quite has her head around what lies before her, I don’t know that anyone would… or could. But she is keeping a fabulous attitude. She smiles. She laughs. She is moving forward with incredible strength, grace and humour.
She’ll shave her head on Wednesday. And in anticipation of that event she asked me to shoot a portrait. The quintessential ‘before‘. She rallied, gussied, put on a smile and sat by a tree nearby her home. Despite being tired, feeling sick and emotionally exhausted!
In honour of all those battling this disease and my dear SIL, with a big shout out to Caring Bridge, where she shares this ordeal with family, friends and others- a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend- a superhero….
funny…
generous…
alive…
loyal…
loving…
vibrant…
joyous…
strong.
We spent an afternoon at the zoo. National Zoo. Downtown Washington, DC. I do enjoy a good zoo… and National is top o’ the heap… cuz, y’know, it’s like, free. If you don’t count the $20 bucks for parking.
Anyhoo. We get to the zoo every time we visit the in-law family on the east coast. This year, in an effort to let SIL rest, we took her kids, too. The cousins. Three. Ages 6, 3 and almost 2. Along with our own miscreants. Six kids, Filipes and I. Thankfully she had the foresight to pack snacks and drinks. For six kids. Because, we packed NOTHING! And while conscientious, organized SIL handed us a cooler pack full of afternoon at zoo sustenance, all husband and I could do was look at each other sheepishly, while pulling one another’s heads out of our respective asses. I mean, who plans to take six freakin’ kids for an afternoon at the zoo in 90 degree heat and packs NOTHING?!?! Perhaps we figured we’d spend a fortune on hotdogs, french fries and pop…. or maybe just get ‘em jacked up on over-priced lemonade and cotton candy. Or perhaps, just perhaps, we did not think at all…. But, I digress. Off to the zoo….
Mr. Gorilla Cranky-Pants…
See… just not in the mood for company…
And nothing but ass…
More Cranky-Pants… Orangutan style. Regarding his adoring public with disdain…
And some pretty- stinky!- flamingos!
Shnoooort…. Schnuuuurzzzzzzzz…. Schnuuuuuuuuummph…
Zzzzzzzzzzzz…. urcccchh…. huuuunnngh…. zzzzzzzzzzzz……
And along with the animals of course….
The girlies….
The challenge of the water fountain….
Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. -Charles Kettering
Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them. -Orison Swett Marden
… when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. - John Keats
Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve! - Andrew Carnegie
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. -Henry David Thoreau
