52 Things I'm Grateful For - A Birthday Tradition

Over the past couple of years I've been working on establishing a new tradition of creating a gratitude list on my birthday for every year that I've completed.  It has proven to be a fun way to reflect on the year and focus on all the good things in my life.  Here's this year's list in no particular order:

1.  All of the friends and family who reached out to wish me a Happy Birthday.  You don't make it through 52 years of life without meeting amazing people along the way.  I'm so very grateful for all of  "my" people.

2.  My robe - I bought my robe for $12 when I was pregnant with Becca (who just turned 21 in January).  I wasn't much of a robe wearer until a couple of years ago, so mine has been mostly unused for about 19 of those 21 years.  I suppose the relatively new use of my robe is indicative of the changes in my life in the past couple of years; namely, being an empty nester.  As a mom, I hit the ground running almost every day.  That meant getting up and getting dressed before all of the day's crazy began.  Now most of my mornings are more leisurely.  I put on my robe, feed the dog, and eat breakfast while I listen to my favorite podcast. And then, a good hour into my day, I get dressed.  The robe is not only comfy and warm, but it reminds me of the fullness of days past, and the joy of being able to take life at a slower pace now.

3.  Blackout curtains - Living in Alaska and North Dakota has given me an appreciation for black out curtains.  

4.  Deodorant - The world would be so stinky without it.

5.  Extended family - I always appreciate opportunities to connect with my extended family.  Recently, with my dad's death, I was able to see many aunts, uncles and cousins that I don't often get to see.  It was truly a silver lining in an otherwise somber occasion.  

6.  Showers - Baths have their place.  Soaking and relaxing in a tub is something I can appreciate.  But for day to day convenience, showers are better.

7.  Photos - Between my mom's 80th birthday celebration last February and my dad's death in January, I've looked through a lot of old photos.  They are priceless to me.

8.  Airbnb - Being able to stay in a home with multiple rooms, bathrooms, and a kitchen where I can prepare meals on the cheap has made travel so much more enjoyable.  It's seriously brilliant!

9.  My treadmill with iFit - It's truly one of the best purchases we've made.  While I'm far from the picture of fitness, the iFit trainers keep me coming back for more week after week, and I don't have to worry about the weather or how I look.  

10.  Sunday evening Facetime with my kids - It's a highlight of every week.

11.  iTunes - For this girl who grew up in the 70's and 80's making mixed tapes off the radio, having pretty much every song ever recorded at the touch of a finger is nothing short of miraculous!

12.  Church responsibilities - Over the years I've been called upon to serve in many ways, and those opportunities always teach me new things help me become a better person.  Currently I work with the children at church, and they are so fun!  

13.  Diet Mt. Dew

14.  Brownies

15.  The "Sistas on the Loose" trip that I took with my sister in October - I've always wondered if Jill and I could talk for pretty much a week straight.  Turns out, we can.  

16.  Pedicures

17.  Kleenex - especially the super soft lotion-y kind.  

18.  My dog, Colt - Having a pet isn't always convenient, but he gives me a reason to get out of bed at a reasonable time in the morning, he's always super happy to see me, he gives me snuggles and he makes me laugh at his shenanigans.  

19.  My family - Jeremy, Becca, Isak, my parents and my siblings - what can I say?  Family is everything and I'm grateful for mine.

20.  Reliable cars

21.  Air travel

22.  Bagged salad - I wouldn't eat nearly as much salad if I had to cut all those veggies all the time.  

23.  Hello Fresh - We've been using this meal service for a couple meals most weeks and it's been really fun to try new foods and new cooking methods.  And as I've adjusted to cooking for just two of us, it's been so helpful to have the portioned servings.  I honestly thought I'd never try a meal service, but we've actually really enjoyed it.  

24.  Volunteers - I've been a part of a lot of volunteer organizations at church and in the communities we've lived in, and I'm so grateful for people who are willing to jump in and work, asking nothing in return.  Some people truly amaze and inspire me.

25.  A good night's sleep - Those rare mornings when I wake up and realize that I've slept for 6-8 hours straight are exhilarating.  

26.  Medications

27.  Lotion - Not only does getting older dry out your skin, but living in a dry climate and being a compulsive hand washer makes my skin downright leather-like.  I don't know what I'd do without lotion.

28.  Pillows

29.  TDY's to Florida - In the military, TDY means "temporary duty station".  This past year Jeremy has had multiple temporary duty assignments in Florida.  Each time he was able to add on a little leave to his trip and I was able to tag along.  That's why you you've seen so many Disney and Universal posts this past year.  It's been so fun!  It also gave us the opportunity to spend time with our friends that we hadn't seen in many years.

30.  Puzzles

31.  Books

32.  My new laptop - My Christmas gift from Jeremy was a new laptop to replace the super old and slow desktop I've been using for I don't even know how long.  

33.  Chocolate milk - I've always love chocolate milk, but there is a local brand here in ND that has the BEST chocolate milk.  I have a little bit almost every day.  

34.  Reading glasses - I always have to have a pair within an arm's reach.

35.  Leggings with pockets

36.  My hair dryer brush

37.  Fans - I always need the air around me circulating.  I don't know why, but I appreciate electric fans that make that happen.

38.  Military discounts - It's a small perk that makes a big difference for military families.  This year I'm especially grateful that Disney and Universal have special discounted passes for military families.  We used the heck out of our Universal pass in 2023!

39.  Visits to Indiana - Although Grand Forks is a 12 hour drive away from Indianapolis, this is the closest I've lived to home in over 10 years.  I've been able to take several trips to Indy over the past year - an opportunity I will truly miss when we move to Spokane.

40.  New opportunities - Of course there's Jeremy's upcoming opportunity to be a squadron commander in Spokane, but also this past year Becca started a new job that she loves, and Isak is constantly exploring educational and career opportunities.  Good things are happening for my family.

41.  Games - Over the past year we've spent a lot of time playing games with friends.  Board games, card games, trivia nights, bingo, etc.  

42.  Lip balm

43.  Blankets - Some may feel that I keep my house too cold, but really its just an excuse to use all of the cozy blankets we own.  

44.  Flowers - Flowers are pretty.

45.  Evening walks - Many evenings Jeremy and I will take Colt for a walk.  When the weather's nice and other people are out, it gives us the chance to chat with neighbors and friends.  When the weather's not so nice, and we're the only crazy people out, it gives us time to chat about our day.  

46.  Things to look forward to - I'm grateful that I have many things to look forward to, but a couple of things in particular that I'm looking forward to right now - our 25th wedding anniversary in March and an upcoming trip to Mexico with my mom, siblings and spouses in October.

47.  Naps - Naps are a luxury that I frequently enjoy.

48.  Massages - Whether its a session with a professional massage therapist or a shoulder rub from my hubby while we watch tv, there are few things in this world that I appreciate more than a massage.  

49.  Teeth - They're amazingly useful tools built right into our bodies.  They're also my husband's livelihood, so I'm pretty grateful for them.  

50.  GIFs - Whether you pronounce them with a hard G or a soft G, they're a stinkin' fun way to communicate.

51.  Texting - It's truly a dream come true for people like me who hate phone calls.  Quick and efficient communication without actually having to say words to people?  Yes, please.

52.  Printer ink subscription - Never having to worry about running to the store to buy ink when you suddenly run out in the middle of a print job is life changing.  Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's pretty great. 

The Deer that Guided Us Home

A memory shared with me by my mom, Judy Ferguson

I’m thinking it would’ve been the winter of 2008, which was probably my last winter in Spokane, WA.  We lived about two or three thousand feet above Spokane Valley, out in the country, off of a country road.  I had been there a few winters, but not anything really drastic.  We might have had a few days of bad winter weather, or a storm that would come and go.  I remember this so well because we lived in a single wide mobile home, two miles out into the country on two acres of property.  Neighbors were far off.  We did have neighbors, but they weren’t right close to us.  There were horses and deer and all kinds of things that you find out in the country like that.  We had gotten word that there was a bad storm on the way, and of course, Dan and Nadeen always seemed to be prepared.  It was probably a little bit from her family background because that’s the kind of family she was raised in, and then Dan just being the conservative, concerned man that he was.  He was sure to check and see that we had kerosene and batteries for flashlights and different things like that that you need to check on when you know a storm is coming. 

We were in bed that night and we heard the wind blowing so hard all night long.  It was just so bitter cold and such strong winds.  I thought maybe it just seemed that way because I wasn’t used to being in a mobile home.  We got up at daylight and went to look out and see what the outside looked like, and we couldn’t see out of our windows or get our door open.  The snow had drifted so much.  We weren’t sure what we were going to do.  It didn’t take us long to realize that we had no modern conveniences whatsoever.  I didn’t get real alarmed.  I thought, “You know, this happens.  And in a few hours they generally have things back on.”

Well, I’d never lived up on the side of a mountain like that before, out in the country, in a state that far north.  Little did I know that we would be marooned there for six or seven days.  We didn’t have electricity.  He had some kind of a radio that we could listen to things on.  I don’t know if it was battery operated, or what.  I’ve forgotten.  Through the week we were totally snowed in.  I think they measured nine feet on the ground, and of course there were drifts on top of that.  It was the worst winter weather I had ever encountered.  Dan had encountered that before, but not on a regular basis.

There were some young people that lived further up on the mountain, and there were older people, like us.  They all had ATV’s or snowmobiles, different kinds of equipment where they could dig out their own roads on the mountain.  They started coming by, three or four days after the storm.  Every once in a while they’d stop and knock or yell to see if we needed anything.  After we went through this for about a week, it started wearing on my nerves considerably.  He seemed to be at peace with it, but I had never encountered anything like that before.  He said, "You know what, enough of the neighbors have been out.  Some of the drifts have been cleared.  I really think with my four-wheel drive we can get down the hill and get into the valley and pick up milk and bread, and maybe grab a bite to eat if there’s anything available, just so we’ll have something warm in our tummies.”

So we took our big adventure and we went out around lunchtime.  Sure enough, things were fine once we got off of the country road.  The main roads were fine.  We went down into the valley where, if you kept going past the temple, that’s where most of the restaurants and stores and things like that were.  We decided that we would just check it out and see what we could do while we were out.  We went into Denney’s and all of our neighbors were in there!  We all looked like Eskimos because we were all wrapped up in winter clothes.  Everyone had taken advantage of  the sunshine and gotten out too.  We had quite a little gathering there in the restaurant with our neighbors and other people that were there.  It was old time-ish.  Like something right out of the past.  We decided we would stop there by the temple, there was a grocery store, and we thought we’d stop and see if we would be lucky enough to get any milk and bread, which we did. 

Dan said, “We need to start getting back up the hill because when that sun drops, it’s going to drop fast.”  So we decided we’d head back home.  He had four-wheel drive, so we got up that hill okay.  Some people were having trouble, but we made it okay.  We got up there and we turned left onto our road, over the railroad track, and we could tell that it hadn’t been traveled and there must have been a lot of drifting going on.  Sure enough, when we got out of the little town (there was about two blocks of a little town) and got out where that country road started, you couldn’t see the road anywhere.

It was scary.  Dan said, “Well, I’ve driven this road a lot.  Let’s see if we can make it back to our property”.  We were driving and he was very cautious.  The problem is that on that country road, on either side of the road, there was at least a two-three foot drop off.  We knew we had to stay on the road or we were going to be in trouble.  He was driving so slow.  The sun was setting and it was getting a little dusky outside, and it was very cold and windy.  He was very nervous, and I didn’t see him nervous very often.  I was kind of ignorantly oblivious.  I was scared and worried, but not like he was.

We were just getting to the bend in the road that took us out into the country, where there were hills and dips.  Suddenly this buck leapt off of the mountain side, over the ditch, onto the road and just stopped there in front of our truck.  Dan stopped and we figured the buck would dart off as soon as he saw us, but he was obviously waiting on his family.  Sure enough, a few seconds later, there came another deer and a couple of little babies.  They had trouble jumping over, but they finally got off of the mountain side and onto the road.

They were just standing there and we were stopped behind them.  We didn’t want to scare them, so we sat there.  They would stop and look at us, and then they would turn and look ahead.  Then they started walking.  They didn’t dart off the road away from the car like they normally do.  They started walking.

 I said, “Wow, Dan! They’re walking right in front of our car.”  He said, “Well I’ll just stay back so we don’t scare them.”  So we just went real slow behind them and they would get a few yards ahead of us and stop and look back like they were saying, “Are you coming?” 

We started feeling very comforted and blessed.  I said, “Dan, those deer probably know what they’re doing.  He said, “I’m sure they do!  That buck does, anyway.  We’re going to be okay” 

This happened all the way for the next two miles.  The deer would walk as a family in front of us, they would get a few feet away from us and stop and turn around.  By then we’d already recognized it as a very tender mercy of the Lord.  But then it got even better because once we got all the way up to where our property line met the road, they stopped and looked at us, and then darted up to the right, down the road that continued.  We had to drive just a few more feet to get into our driveway, pull into the garage, and traipse inside through the deep snow. 

We always knew that had been a tender mercy of the Lord - for those deer to be there when they were, to not be afraid of us, and for us to know how to work with them.  They led us back home and we both knew that deep in our hearts.  It’s been many years, but it’s still so fresh in my memory.  It was a beautiful moment.  I can’t forget it.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

One of the greatest joys of the Christmas season is finding a perfect gift and seeing the face of a loved one light up when they open it.  I had this experience last Christmas with the gift I gave to my mom.  But before I tell you about that, let me tell you about a gift that she gave.

My mom has always loved to color, and when I was six years old she bought a giant T'was the Night Before Christmas coloring book.

 

I remember coloring with her and always being amazed at how beautiful her pages turned out.   You can faintly see in the lower right hand corner of this picture that mom colored it in 1979.

Although it was 44 years ago, I remember coloring this picture of ma and pa settling down for a long winter's nap that mom and I colored together in 1978.  I recall working so hard to make my coloring as nice as hers.  In the lower left hand corner, if you look carefully, you'll see on the top side of the turquoise circle a spot where I messed up and colored outside the line.  I was so disappointed in myself, but mom reassured me that it was okay and that she would help me fix it so that it wasn't very noticeable.  As I've reflected on that memory as an adult, I've appreciated the lesson that she taught that day - sometimes we mess up, but it's okay.  There are things we can do to lessen the impact of mistakes made.  This picture, even with its imperfection, is now my favorite in the book because of the memory and lesson associated with it.

Over the years my mom encouraged family members to color in her giant coloring book, and to sign their name and print the year on the page they colored.  Several cousins and grandchildren contributed to its now colorful pages.  As far as I can tell, the last time that anyone colored in it was in 1997, but the book was always a treasured keepsake of mom's.  

In 2002, my parents separated and divorced.  Mom moved to Washington with very few of her belongings and many of her things got moved around and ended up in storage.  Several years later, my sister and I cleaned out a storage unit that had many of our parents' things in it.  When I found the beloved coloring book, it was tattered and torn, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it out.

I hung onto it for several years, wanting to do something to preserve it, but not sure how.  Finally, last year, I decided that it wasn't the book itself, but the memories that needed to be preserved.  In this miraculous age of digital photography, I was able to take photos of each page and have them made into a book that turned out even better than I'd hoped.  Mom was visiting us in San Antonio for Christmas, so we got to be with her when she opened it.  It was truly a joyous moment to relive those memories with her as she looked through the book.  

This book represents so much to me:  Mom's love of coloring, time spent coloring with her, her patience with my imperfect efforts, family gatherings at the holidays, holiday traditions and treasured keepsakes.  Mom's giant coloring book has definitely been a gift that keeps on giving.

Becca's 18th Birthday!

I'm not quite sure how half of this year has gotten away from me, but here I am, in June, feeling the need to catch up on recording some important milestones we've passed this year. 

I'm going to be focusing a lot of attention on Becca in my next few posts.  This year is the year she turned 18.  The year of leaving childhood behind and officially becoming an adult.  The year of graduating from high school, leaving home and venturing out into new territory.  The year of achieving goals that, up until now, she's been able to put off.  

I feel like most teens look forward to this time.  Becca has dreaded it.  I mean, it makes sense.  When you deal with anxiety, more freedom and responsibility just seems to bring bigger chances of screwing up.  Having experienced early adulthood myself though, I know how much fun it is, and how much learning, growth and fulfillment comes from those life experiences.  I wanted her to be excited about turning 18, and I wanted to build her confidence in her ability to navigate adulthood.  To that end, our gifts to her included a list of  18 Things That You Can Do Now That You're 18, with gifts to go along with each one, and and a book of advice for adulthood from some significant adults in her life.

18 Things That You Can Do Now That You're 18!

#1 - Vote

#2 - Buy a lottery ticket

#3 - Get a body piercing or tattoo without parental consent

#4 - Book a hotel room

#5 - Be called for jury duty

#6 - Go to the ER alone

#7 - Give blood

#8 - Apply for credit cards and open a bank account

#9 - Buy fireworks

#10 - Get married

#11 - Go skydiving

#12 - Get a 10-year passport

#13 - Get a Costco or Sam's Club card and buy in bulk

#14 - Sign a contract

#15 - Be the only one home when a service or repair person needs to enter the home

#16 - Work full time (I had a hard time coming up with something for this, so I regifted her a Hydroflask thermos that she already owned to represent taking your lunch to work)

#17 - Buy a car

#18 - Join the military

I'm not sure that this list was very reassuring to her.  It may have just scared her more. But I had fun putting it together and it was a fun way to show her the world of possibilities that is open to her now that she's an adult.

Becca is fortunate to have many exemplary adults in her life who love her: grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, church youth leaders, friends who have reached adulthood before her, etc.   I was able to collect letters of encouragement and advice from 18 special adults in Becca's life and compiled them in a book.  My hope is that it will be a guide and comfort for her over these next few years as she learns to embrace being an adult.  

It's hard for me to believe that she's already been 18 for almost half a year!  She has certainly had her fair share of struggles of late (a topic for a different post), but in spite of those struggles, I've watched her challenge her fears and take on adulthood like a beast.  I can't wait to see what her future holds!

Drivers Education

 From time to time I have this interesting experience as a parent.  I’ll be dropping a truth bomb on one of my kids when suddenly a voice inside my head says, “Are you listening to yourself?  There’s a message here for you too.”  That voice is the Holy Spirit, and He testifies of truth.  And when the Spirit testifies to me that something I’m saying is true, I’m grateful.  I appreciate the reassurance that I’m teaching my children correct principles.  But sometimes this feeling, while enlightening, can be a little uncomfortable.  It’s as if the Spirit is taking my proverbial pointed finger and turning at back on me, forcing me to evaluate myself and whether or not I am willing to practice what I preach.

I am currently teaching my daughter to drive.  She’s been driving for about a month now, and I’m starting to look for opportunities to help her step up her driving game.  The other day we went out at the beginning of rush hour to run some errands.  While I normally try to not say much when my kids are driving (my son is currently learning as well) and let them figure things out as much as possible (if they were reading this I’m sure they would say this isn’t true, but I really do try!).  One thing they struggle with is being assertive when changing lanes and having to cross traffic.  It makes sense.  A month ago our driving mantras were “take it slow” and “be cautious”.  Now that they’re more experienced we’re suddenly saying things like “be more assertive” and “you’ll never get to go if you don’t just go for it”! 

On our recent afternoon errands run, we were pulling out of a neighborhood onto a busy four lane road.  Becca needed to cross two lanes of traffic to turn left, and then immediately get into the far right lane to make a right hand turn.  I knew that I would need to help her navigate the maneuver, unless I wanted to sit in that same spot until rush hour ended.  I explained that initially all we needed to worry about was getting past the first two lanes of traffic and stopping in the turn lane in the middle of the road.  We accomplished that with relative ease and I watched for a break in the traffic so that she could turn left.  The moment came and I said, “Go now.”  Slowly she started moving forward.  In the distance I saw a car, but there was still time for her to turn, so I urged, “Come on!  Go now!”  Slowly she inched forward a bit more and stopped.  I could see her anxiety building, “Mom, I can’t go!  There’s a car!”  Of course, I responded, “If you had gone when I told you to, you would have had plenty of time.”  Finally we made the turn and I looked to see if the right lane was clear for her to change lanes.  “Okay, go now”.  Again, she kind of started to move to the right, but hesitated.  “What are you doing?  Go!”  I may or may not have started losing my cool at this point.  I could see the confusion of the drivers around us as she, with turn signal blinking, continued straight down the middle lane of the two lane road.  If it weren’t for the fluorescent “STUDENT DRIVER” magnets  glowing from all sides our vehicle, I’m sure we would have become the targets of many a crude gesture and flowery language. 

After a few moments of confusion, we made all of the necessary crosses and turns and made it to our destination.  We sat in the car outside a friend’s house while she tried to explain to me why she hadn’t felt safe doing what I’d asked her to do (There were cars coming!  I didn’t have time!), and I tried to explain to her why she needed to trust me when I’m giving her instruction (Clearly I have a lot of driving experience and am qualified to help you navigate!).

Do you see where this is going?  Can you just guess at the “aha” moment I started to have in that moment?

At that point my thoughts turned to Peter, who upon seeing Jesus walking upon Sea of Galilee, stepped out of the boat and made his own attempt at walking on water. 

“And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on water, to go to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.”  (Matthew 14:29-30)

This story about Peter is stunning both in its miraculousness and its relatability.  Peter walked on water.  I mean, wow!  But then the winds about him began to blow and fear suddenly replaced his confidence in himself and in the Lord.  He began to sink.

As I shared this thought with Becca, I explained; Jesus knew what Peter was capable of with His help, and as long as Peter kept his focus on the Lord, he was able to do what he previously would have thought impossible.  But when he turned his focus to the wind and allowed fear to take over, he sank.  In our little driving scenario, I am the seasoned driving veteran.  I know what you can and cannot do.  I also understand that you’re scared, and that will cloud your judgement and make it hard, if not impossible, to act.  That’s why I needed you to trust me when I told you it was safe to go.  By not trusting me, you made the situation worse and very possibly could have caused an accident.

And as I was saying all of those things, the Spirit was saying to me, “Are you listening to yourself?  There’s a message here for you too.”  And mentally I replied, “Yes, I’m listening.  I know that God is all knowing and all-powerful, yet too often I let my fears, my worries, my concerns distract me from trusting in Him.  I will try to do better.  I will strive to ‘Trust in the Lord with all [mine] heart; and lean not unto [mine] own understanding.’”  (Proverbs 3:5)

Of course, the most beautiful part of Peter’s walking on water story is when, as he cries out for help because he’s sinking, Jesus immediately “stretched forth His hand, and caught him”.  He knows that we will doubt at times and begin to sink, but if, like Peter, we turn to Him to lift us out of our stormy sea, He will immediately reach out to us and save us.

Who knew that teaching my kids to drive could provide me with such profound learning experiences?  Not me, but I’m grateful nonetheless.

The Calm After the Storm

I've been contemplating doing a bit of writing more consistently than I've done in quite a while.  So, here I am breathing new life into my Blogger account.  Today I'm going to keep it relatively simple, dip my toe into the water, so to speak.  Last night and this morning I've been reflecting on the craziness of the past two weeks.  It's been one of those phases of life when a task is placed before you and you just go to work and get 'er done.

Less than a month ago we received confirmation that we would be moving to San Antonio in mid-May, despite the stop movement order currently in place for military families.  I can't remember which day we actually found out that we would be flying out of the UK on May 16, it must have been around April 25, but I can tell you that within a few days our car was shipped, movers were scheduled and flights were booked.

Movers began packing up our household goods on May 11, which, at this writing, is just 12 days ago.  When I think back over the past 12 days, I can hardly believe what our family has accomplished and experienced in such a short time.

• We've decluttered, organized, purged unwanted items from and cleaned every inch of our house in the UK.
• We've had our household goods packed up and shipped.
• We had one of our sheds burgled and lost $600 worth of tools - ironically, in spite of frequent reports of burglary in our village, in the 2 3/4 years that we lived there, we never had any problems until the night before our movers came.  
• We took a quick trip to the ER.
• Our kids completed all of their schoolwork 3 weeks early so that they could get credit for the semester even though they were leaving early.
• The kids completed a total of 5 AP exams, 1 of which was taken in a hotel room on RAF Lakenheath, 1 taken in a hotel room in London, and 3 taken in an Airbnb in San Antonio.
• We spent a very long day - approximately 24 hours from the time we woke up until the time we went to bed - traveling from London to San Antonio.
• We've bought a new truck and started the process of putting down roots in San Antonio.
• And I have to add, we've done all of this in the midst of a global pandemic.

Life has come at us so fast recently that I look back and feel like we've had a year's worth of experiences in just a couple of weeks - or at least a few month's worth of experiences!  Although our 14 days of quarantine hasn't been as strict as we thought it might be, we are laying low for the most part.  And let me say, after the last few weeks, I'm very much enjoying the calm after the storm.

Who's a little Goofy?

I am. My goal for this year is to prepare to complete the Dopey challenge at Disney World. This involves completing a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and full marathon on consecutive days. Check out this training plan: http://as1.wdpromedia.com/media/ewwos/pdf/rundisney/training-programs/2014/DopeyChallenge14.pdf. 

I am crazy stoked. If I complete the challenge medals similar to all the ones below will be mine: 

This all started with my, admittedly unhealthy, fandom of Goofy. I remember when I became a fan. It was New Year's Eve in 1992-1993. My whole family had made the trip to Disneyland to celebrate the new year. We were at Disneyland and I saw a Goofy t-shirt that I liked and really wanted. My father initially wouldn't let me get it, as he didn't think having a Goofy shirt was appropriate. He confirmed that I "REALLY, REALLY wanted it" (my words, not his) and I ended up getting the shirt. I wore that shirt until it fell apart. I now have:

three (and almost a fourth) quilts made from retired Goofy t-shirts (thanks Melanie!!)

A bookcase to display my Goofy collectables:

(Notice the large Goofy statue up top)

A tub full of various stuffed Goofys:

And my gaming namesake (the movers broke the light saber):

I hate running, but I have to do it for the Air Force (1.5 miles twice a year within a certain time limit). When I saw that there was a medal with Goofy on it that was given to those who completed the half- and full marathons at Disney, I knew I had to start training for it. That unholy obsession morphed into my Dopey desire (what's an additional 15k [~10 miles] when you're already running 63k [~40 miles]?). And now, Tricia, the kids, and various extended family members are all wanting to participate in the Disney running events. Awesome!!