Dreaming of sleep

You may think by reading the title and looking at this photo, that I am going to start whining about how tired I am.  Well I am tired.  I left the house at 7:30 this morning and returned around 7 pm tonight. I went straight from work to take my mom to an appointment and on some errands.  Those of you who know us, know that Mom lives 45 minutes away.  When I arrived home, both girls, were in the zombie zone.  I could at least carry on a conversation with Cara.  Alyssa has been passed out, uttering only one word nonsensical answers.

I have been tired for a few days now....and as I was headed home, visions of being cuddled up in my nice soft bed were swirling through my head.  I arrived home, said some hellos to the offspring, and then went into the kitchen, where I proceeded to make two cakes.  Cake # 2 is in the oven.  I have approximately 30 minutes to complete this blog....and when the last cake is done...I will be high-tailing it to my bed, I will jump in (ok, maybe not JUMP) and then, much to my children's chagrin, I will exclaim in a voice loud enough for the whole house to hear that I love my bed and I love sleep.  I will do this until I hear groans and complaints on their part...what can I say? Cheap thrills!

So, why on a night like this, when I feel like the walking dead, would I decide to bake a couple of cakes?  (And once again, let me insert here, that I do not use cake mixes unless truly pinched for time, I bake from scratch).  The answer is because I love people, and I believe that when you love people you need to go out of your way for them.  And as much as I wanted to run right to bed tonight, the love was stronger than the tired.  There are a couple of people that I needed to bake for.  One because I've missed him...and what better way to say it, then with a baked good?  The other...because there is an occasion coming up, and spiritually....this friend just needs to be baked for..

I see it over and over again.  People don't want to do anything for anyone if it is going to inconvenience them....if there is no benefit  for them.  That may be the saddest thing about the age we live in.  I believe that if people matter...then we have to show them.  I try to drum that into my kids.  People are the most important commodity in this life.  If someone is important in your life...you need to go out of your way for them.  Nothing else matters quite so much in life...all the other stuff will pass away, but it's the relationships you have with the people in your life that makes your life rich and and meaningful and worth living.  I am not going to tell you that I always put others first.  I am not going to try to make you believe that I always make the right and noble choices in life.  Some days...the tired wins.  But my heart is definitely in the right place...and I truly try to do my part to make my corner of the world better.  It's not necessarily about baking....that's what I do, not always, but sometimes.   In these particular instances...I know it's going to make two people happy tomorrow.  There are so many ways to be there for someone....to show someone that they are important enough for you to go out of your way, to rearrange your schedule, to get up early, or stay up late or travel a few hours out of your way to be there for someone...whatever it takes.

In two minutes, the timer is going to beep, I am going to stick a toothpick in that cake and hope it comes out dry.  I am going to turn all the lights off, have a little pow-wow with Alex and then I am going to get in bed and proclaim loudly how I've missed it all day and about 5 seconds after that, I will be out for the count.

 I could already be sleeping....but it's more important to present two people who are dear to me with a cake, that I didn't have to bake, that I didn't have time to bake, that wasn't necessary, that I was too tired to bake...but that I baked anyway...just because they are who they are and because they mean something to me.  I went out of my way....when I didn't have to...and  I will do it again tomorrow because it's important...and because people are important and they need to be shown.

There's the timer... on my mark, get-set-go....you know what happens next.

"Not all of us can do great things.  But we can do small things with great love."

~ Mother Teresa

Game night

Cara and Alyssa's camp counselor friends have routinely gotten together for game nights this summer/ Tonight's game night was at our house.  We are huge lovers of board games in this house, and I am excercising all kinds of decorum and restraint by keeping myself from going right in there and pulling up a chair.  So nice to see that people still get together and have good wholesome fun!  Now if that isn't a comment that makes me sound ancient, I don't know what is.  I know the girls will have wonderful memories of these times and these friends made this summer.

I told someone once, that once you become a Mom, no matter how old your kids are...you just always want to know they are with people that care for them and value them.  I know this group of people has been caring and nurturing....and fun!!  Who could ask for more??

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing."

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Sunrise

Despite a very long and tiring day yesterday, the girls got up at dark o'clock this morning...literally...5:00 a.m. ...to say goodbye to some friends they made this summer while watching the sunrise together.  I have met these kids, and heard the stories about days spent with them...and so I too, have grown fond of them and I hope that after these summer days spent together become memory, they will be able to remain close.

Sunrises are the beginning of a new day....and so I hope that watching the sunrise together will be symbolic of new and lasting friendships.  As the sun sets on their days of working together, I truly hope that the sunrise brings close and lasting friendships with some really good people.

In lots of ways this summer has absolutely flown by....it's been fun, busy....and often exhausting.  But at the end of the day....and at the beginning.....I am thankful for the gifts the summer has brought us.  No gift is as precious as friendship....and I am so glad the summer has blessed us with new friends.

"That time of day when the sun hasn't come up yet, but you can already feel it coming.  It's an elusive warmth, like a subtle promise whispered in your ear and you can go on with your day knowing you've been given another chance to get it right."

~ Cassia Leo

Over tired

In this family we are well aware of what happens when someone is over tired.  It's usually Alyssa, and sometimes me....and on very rare occasions Alex.  It is usally a combination of laughing at just about anything and then crying and then laughing and crying for no reason.  But tonight it was Cara.  I have only seen her like this one other time many years ago.  It ws the night before Easter and the girls were helping me put together little goodie bags for my church choir.  The hour was late and after a certain amount of ribbon curling, she crossed over to the beyond exhausted side.

Today, the girls went tubing with their camp counselor buddies...and it was a long day of traveling and tubing and Cara was driving....and by the time she got home, at first she was sort of walking around in circles as if she didn't know where she was going.  But the exhaustion really kicked in when she was trying to make her lunch and find the necessary items...she started laughing and crying and from that moment on she was just in a state of delirium.  Alyssa gave her an understanding hug...and enjoyed watching this role-reversal and being on the spectator side for once.

As I write this they are both safely tucked in bed....but not for long...they have a date to see the sunrise in the morning with  new friends that they met at camp this year, before one of them must go back to school....so I fully expect to see them both exhaustedly delirious tomorrow evening as well.  Want to be entertained? Come on over...should be very amusing with both of them in that state...

"I've never been so sleepy since I can't remember when.

You can take away my breakfast.  Give my egg back to the hen.

Nobody's going to get me up, no matter what he does.

Today's my day for WOOZY-SNOOZY ZIZZ-ZIZZ ZIZZ ZAZZ ZUZZ."

~ Dr. Seuss

Engaged!!!!

I have shamelessly stolen this photo off of my friend's facebook wall.  These two wonderful kids got engaged today and we in this house could not be happier.  Sometimes you see a couple that just fits so well...that just seem meant to be together.  They are like two pieces of a puzzle...and their relationship completes each of them.

I don't have all the details yet, but it appears that they got engaged this morning at Disney World...and some of the bride's family were present....so romantic and sweet...ahhhh!!! I wish this beautiful couple a fairytale life with all kinds of dreams come true!!

Jessa and Chris...we love you both and couldn't be happier for you!! <3

"True love stories never have endings."

~Richard Bach

The cost of love

When you love someone...no matter who that someone is....a human or a pet...there are joys and sorrows and peaceful times and those of stress.  That is just how it goes...and it is in the span of all these times that your relationship grows and your love deepens.  Ultimately, in any worthwhile relationship..you get more than you give.

They say that cats have 9 lives...but  I am pretty sure our pup, who has a cat name, has used up a few lives already...and actually...now that I think about it, I am not sure if they are her lives....or ours.  In any case there was a close call tonight...and she is fine...but it certainly jolted us into the realization that we don't really want to live without her any time soon.  Tonight had it's costs. There were definitely a few lives used up, spent in the anxiety of what could have been, but what she somehow escaped...and none more than Alyssa's....who gets so worried at these times.And then there was the emergency vet bill.  But in the end, as long as Miss Allie is healthy, all is well with the world.

We are all safe and sound and back to normal and tomorrow we will be checking under couches and furniture to make sure there is nothing else dangerous lurking around for her to snack on.

"In a dog's life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred.  Like any relationship, this one had it's costs.  They were costs we came to accept  and balance against the joy and amusement and protection and companionship he gave us."

~ John Grogan

Adventure awaits

Tonight I wish our friend Cheryl a bon voyage and many wonderful and exciting adventures ahead of her in the coming year.  Cheryl and Cara go back to 6th grade....and any friend of one member ot the family becomes a friend to all of us....whether they like it or not.....that's just how it works.

So... Cheryl has been a part of our life for quite some time...all sorts of crazy sleepover and get together memories, marching band memories.  She was so quiet at first...but I soon learned that she was one of us.....with just as quirky a sense of humor as the rest of our family.

College came and went, and Cheryl has been one of the keepers.  I always knew she would be...one of the ones that Cara stays in touch with and Cheryl actually helped get her a summer job last year....so Cheryl is one of those golden ones, that can't really do much wrong.  I would be an IDIOT if I thought otherwise.  The  "idiot" reference is one of those silly private jokes involving a few people in a time that seems long ago and far away...but that, as they say, is another story ...

Cheryl is leaving on Monday to travel to New Zealand where she will be an Au Pair for the next year.  What an adventure!!  I am in awe of her for making this decision...to travel to the other side of  the world for a year.  It is exciting...but also so courageous.  I am not sure if I could have...at any point in my life...had the courage to do it.   Thankfully, in this day and age with the advances in technology, it is so much easier to be on the opposite side of the world...and still feel connected to home.

I can't even imagine the sights that she will see and the people she will meet and all the amazing experiences she will have.  What a thrilling opportunity this is!  What an intriguing adventure she is about to set out on!!

Adventure is filled with the unknown....exciting and terrifying at various times along the journey...but in the end so rewarding.  I know she will experience many emotions throughout  her journey and learn so much about herself and the world.  Cheryl is not much of a facebook junkie....and I don't see a fraction of the photos posted from her life that our family puts up.  But I am begging her to put them up somewhere...so I can keep track of her in this next year...and make sure she is ok.  And.... so that I, her old "Mama B", going through the day to day routine in Pleasant Valley, can live vicariously through her.

I will have many questions for her upon her return....but for now, I have just one....is it possible to mail oreo balls to New Zealand? Can that be successfully done?

Cheryl you will be in our hearts and minds especially this next year...go have yourself a wonderful adventure!! Love you!!

Bon Voyage!!! Have an adventure or two for me!!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.  So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover."

~ Mark Twain