So Much Character!!!

Magic Kingdom Episode

If you've read the Frog Blog post then you know what a delightful time we had at the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday. We stayed until the end of the fireworks and were leaving the park with the innumerable crowd of people when (a long way away from the exit) I realized I was starting into a Hypo episode. Estimating from the front gate (0ur exit point) to the castle, there were about 20,000-40,000 people. Not a good place to lay down and have an episode. We were shoulder to shoulder with the unwashed masses. Then ... it began to rain. Now, many people would be intimidated by these obstacles, but not my King. He began working us toward the edge of the crowd and found a porch to sit under, a cold bottle of water to take medicine and a brownie for Princess during the wait. God is so sweet to provide what we need! We sat and waited for the episode to pass and eventually we walked to the exit of MKingdom. We walked to the point where we could see the line for the monorail (to take us back to the car) and my heart sank. All those thousands of people that we were shoulder to shoulder with were now in line for the monorail. It was at that moment that I realized I was going into another episode ... or at least the first episode was coming back. Either way, we headed back inside the park for a resting spot. Now things were getting a little more interesting because they said they would stop running the tram through the parking lot at 10:30. It was about 10:00 by now and I couldn't walk. King found a wheelchair and we proceeded out to stand with all the folks in line for the monorail. I sat there and prayed, "Lord, you made all the people and the materials for the concrete that we are standing on. Please make a way for us to get to the car quickly." Not 5 minutes later, one of the WDW employees that was directing traffic proceeded to chain off the area to the monorail and directed us to another set of chains. My heart sank. Then it soared as I realized we were directed to a new area for the monorail and would be way ahead of all those other folks!! Sure enough, they loaded us up and the monorail took us to the Transportation and Ticket center where we were supposed to catch the tram to our car. It was 10:45 by the time we could catch the tram and it was already supposed to have stopped running 15 minutes ago and there it came. It scooped us up, took us to our car and we were able to leave the borrowed wheelchair right beside the car for some nice WDW employee to come get it after the parking lot cleared out. By this time, my episode had improved greatly and I was able to climb into the Jeep by myself and walk through the hotel a few minutes later.

The bottom line is that God provides in ways that we can't imagine and in times when it seems completely overwhelming. He always provides a way out and never gives us more than we can bear. He's the abundant Provider. The picture is during the first episode under the porch ... a place to rest, have a brownie and watch old fashioned disney cartoons of Donald, Mickey and Minnie. Life doesn't get any better than this...

NASA Interviews

While waiting for the launch of the Discovery Shuttle, we went into the museum and took pictures under the Saturn V rocket. We also looked for any NASA personnel to "interview" for Princess' Family Project at school. We decided the NASA trip would make a cool project. After taking pictures under the rocket, we asked a lady with a lanyard if we could ask her a few questions. She was so kind, yet declined as she is a contractor with NASA. She said, "You know who you need to talk to is Bob Seik. He was the Launch Director here at the Cape for many years." She then proceeded to give a description and wished us luck in finding Mr. Seik. I thought there was little chance we'd get to talk to such a VIP, yet was determined to find him for Princess if at all possible. There were so many neat exhibits and hundreds of people. Our contractor friend gave us a great description because 1/2 way through the building we found the prestigious Mr. Sheik and sure enough, he was surrounded by old friends. After we waited a while, he noticed us and came over and the "interview" began. Princess, for all of her gregarious nature, really doesn't like to be in the center of attention. She has such a hard time talking one on one especially in a situation like this. I had helped her think of a couple of questions to ask him, yet she was totally not wanting to do it. I can not tell you how personable this man is and how he was so good with Princess. Turns out he has grandchildren Princess' age and knows how to talk "space" on a kid's level. He answered her two questions and then proceeded to give her a great little talk about how important it is to take risks and how to evaluate a risk. He advocated broaching new territories despite fears and enjoying the results. It was a great and inspiring talk and Princess exclaimed after we walked away, "I wasn't nervous at all!!" The reason she wasn't is because this man is a gifted communicator and is obviously passionate about his dreams. We could all stand to be around more people like Bob Seik.

Epcot Blessings

After spending all day Tuesday at NASA, we went to EPCOT for dinner and the Illuminations show. While planning our trip, I purchased a book called The Unofficial Guide to WDW. I highly recommend it as it gives all kinds of great info. We tried out a dining place in the United Kingdom area of World Showcase in Epcot. Our dining establishment was right on the lagoon in the picture and we were hoping for a seat outside by the water. The book said you have to reserve in advance for this kind of table, but we thought we'd walk up and ask if anyone had cancelled their reservation. Now, mind you, this is on the heels of a most blessed day at NASA that I have only partially blogged about. I'll have to really tell the whole story of blessing in another post. For this post, I need to tell you how God went over and beyond and abundantly blessed us. We not only got a table for dinner, but outside! Not only that, but our server took our order and then escorted us out to a viewing area to watch the show. After the beautiful show, we came back to our table and our food was served 5-7 minutes later. The show closes out Epcot for the night, so essentially we were lingering over dinner while the park cleared out. Sweet! The food was delicious, our table had a beautiful view and we felt immensely blessed! We go back for a day at Epcot Friday morning.

Segmented Stories

There are so many individual stories to share from each day that I would overwhelm you if I tried to fit an entire day in one post. Consequently, I will post stories from our days in their own blog posting. This picture was taken after a show this morning at the castle in Magic Kingdom.

Frog Blog

Wednesday night while seated at the foot of Cinderella's Castle watching the evening parade, I was enthralled with the intricate beauty and details of the individual floats. Each character had their own float complete with thousands of lights and it's own theme music. King was on my left and Princess in front and to my left. The only thing to my right was my backpack. Again, we were sitting on the concrete with thousands of others. In the middle of the parade, I felt something on my right thigh and unconsciously reached down to brush it off. Well! I just happened to gently lay my hand right over the top of the "thing" on my leg. At that precise moment, I frighted the object on my right thigh and the thing decided to leave it's new resting spot. In 4-5 split second moments I had laid my hand on a very wet frog, he wriggled and jumped through my hand!! As the wetness and "aliveness" entered my conscious thought I screeched and flung my right hand (poor frog) toward the right. King started asking 3-4 rapid fire questions along the lines of "are you okay???" Followed by his comment to "just calm down". Everything was so beautifully intense ... the beauty of the parade, the loud music, sitting at the base of the Castle, watching Lauren enjoy the parade and now to go to the opposite intensity of "GAG! Something alive and wet just jumped and wiggled on me!!!" I had a huge adrenaline rush. When I got my words, I told David, "I *am* calm. You don't know the restraint I used." Ok, so I managed to only disturb the people around me during the screech and the flinging of my hand. For the next few minutes I just worked on not having an episode from the adrenaline rush. All was well. The parade ended and we turned around from facing toward the street to facing the castle. Turns out that this was the ultimate spot for viewing the parade and the evening fireworks 30 minutes later. Tuesday night, we watched the evening show at Epcot ... amazing. Really beautiful. However, there's nothing like sitting at the foot of the castle and seeing the firworks over the castle and backlighting it. King video'ed the whole thing and I'm so thankful. It was incredibly special. I'm not a magic person as I think there are two kinds of supernatural powers: those of God and those of His enemy. So, some people would use the term "magical" for our evening Wednesday and I would use the term ... blessed. If, however, you go with the magical idea, you could begin to see a theme here. I was approached a second time by Mr. Wet Frog during the fireworks ferpete'ssake!!! He jumped in my lap this time!! Either it was a prince who wished to be released from his magic spell, or I had one terrified frog in a throng of people who just wanted a safe place to sit for a while. As nurturing as I am, there was not enough room for me and a wet frog in my lap at the same time!! I jumped again and screamed. Thankfully there were new people around me this time or they might have called security. I explained in 7 words or less that it was the second time he'd jumped on me that night. They didn't care. They just wanted me to sit down, shut up and let them enjoy the magical show. Alas. I will never know if that prince had his spell broken. There were so many people in that park that no one would have notice a new person suddenly appearing from a frog.

Space Shuttle!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday was NASA day and boy were we blessed!!! I'm so thrilled that King wrote our senator and got the VIP tickets. We'll set up a digital scrapbook of the day. Ya'll, we were only 2.5 miles from the shuttle. You could see the shuttle on the pad from where we were (with a telephoto or binocular). The tickets we were given were in the VIP section of the viewing stands. When we viewed liftoff, the three of us sat at the fence (as close as you can get) and took pictures. King had the video and I had my new Nikon. Oh, ya'll. It was amazing. I set the camera on continuous shooting mode and photographed the entire launch from T minus 1 until the shuttle was out of sight. I even got the solid rocket booster separation and the main engine cut off. It's so cool. We kept saying over and over how blessed we were.

Pardon the haphazard nature of the post. We had A/C trouble again last night and are functioning on little sleep. They replaced a fuse once and the A/C twice between 11:00 and 3:15. (yawn!) After replacing it at 11:00, we woke at 1:48 to an engine locked down quickly followed by "boom", a flash of blue light and smoke in the room. I had an episode while King called guest services and we did the whole "pull the a/c out, put in another one" routine until after 3:00 a.m.

I woke at 8 and peeked out the window to see the cool front looming to the north. We are up and the girls are bouncing up and down trying to get King to wake up and take us to the Mouse House. I'm trying to throw this post up before we leave. Today is Magic Kingdom day!!

This internet connection is as slow as trafffic on MoPac at 5:00. I'll post photos later. Only one episode so far (the one at 1:48 this morning). Woo-hoo!

Travel, Epcot and Jeep Trouble

It's our first day of vacation. King got up at 2:15 a.m., I got up at 4 and Princess at 4:30. They slept on the plane some ... I did not. For some reason, I can not sleep when I'm strapped to a moving object ... especially a hollow metal tube with jet engines and a guy named "Murphy" at the wheel. :)

We arrived in Orlando, got a Jeep Grand Cherokee from Enterprise, got some lunch (at 3:30) and found our hotel room. After a bit of freshening up, we headed out for Disney. The lateness of the hour determined that Epcot was our only real option. We enjoyed a couple of shows and all of a sudden Mommy became tired. Very tired. Exceedingly tired. It was 8:00. Thankfully, we arrived so late that we were able to obtain a close parking spot. If you've ever been to a mammoth amusement park like Disney, you know the relative term "close". We finally found the silly Jeep among the thousands of other Florida license plates and the goofy thing wouldn't unlock. We tried everything. Princess even resorted to tapping on the windshield with this little voice, "Won't anyone let us in??"

Finally, we decided to call Enterprise. Oh, the kicker is that the key fob is one of those new things with no key. It's a plastic nub that is absolutely useless when it comes to locking or unlocking the door. King gets Enterprise on the horn and after being transferred all over central Florida, an "enterprising" employee told King to push a button on the fob and pull the end. V-I-O-L-A! A key appeared. In 2 minutes we were in and driving. Ahhh. Technology.

Shuttle liftoff is tomorrow morning. It is unrealistic how many people are here just for the shuttle launch. We'll update tomorrow.

ATTENTION prayer warriors: I have been up 16.5 hours with not a single episode. God is incredibly gracious and compassionate. I can only think of the KJV of this verse and can not think where it is, but it comes to mind regarding you guys who prayed today ... "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" Thanks for praying!!!!!!

Health

I haven't updated on my health lately. I am still watching my food intake and am hanging in at 34 pounds lost so far. I really want to make it to 40 lbs, but I'm doing great, so I can't be too frustrated with myself.

Paralysis is pretty good. When I have episodes, they tend to be whoppers. I haven't had to use the oxygen in a while though, so that's good.

Princess is sick again this weekend. Another horrible cough and a sore throat this time. We have to get her healthy because we leave a week from tomorrow!!

D40

So, my sweet hubby bought me my birthday present a bit early. Because of our trip to Florida, we decided to update our camera situation in order to capture Princess' birthday next month and all the Disney/NASA stuff in a couple of weeks. I'm very, very excited about the new present. Here it is ... my Nikon D40!

This is one of the first pictures I took. It's from the rose bush in my back yard. Below are some others we took at the nature center at Princess' school. How very blessed

we are!

Disney, NASA, Periodic Paralysis, oh! my!

A week from Monday, we embark on a mind-boggling 7 day adventure from Texas to Florida and back again. Monday is travel and Disney. Tuesday is the shuttle launch and lunch with a real-live-for-real astronaut! Tuesday night is Disney. Wednesday is Disney, as is Thursday and Friday. Saturday the Periodic Paralysis conference starts and goes through Sunday. Sunday night is Disney. Monday is pool, sleeping in and flight home.

Whew.

We will be posting pictures and videos during our trip. Stay tuned!

S-N-A-K-E!

A bonus! After a drought of two weeks and no blog postings, I am posting twice in one day. The reason for this second post is ... the snake.

So, my friend, Jamie, and I are having a picnic at lunch today by the little pond in this shopping center. It's mid-eighties outside, sun-shiney and we're having a great time. The only wildlife around are the fire ants that have decided to picnic on ME! We finish lunch and are walking back across this large grassy area, all the while talking of, yes, tarantulas! I'm describing a tarantula that my brother and I found as children. Just as I got to the part where the tarantula raises his front legs in a defensive posture, Jamie goes shooting directly sideways ... screaming. Geez, I thought. The tarantula... Then I thought, "TARANTULA!!! WHERE??" (This is all split-second timing, mind you) As she screams again, I am still looking for the tarantula when out on the sidewalk in front of us (our intended destination after the next 2 steps) slides a 15 inch snake! Yes, a SNAKE! So, it's my turn to jump and scream ... twice!

Poor little snake, he was minding his own scary little business until these two noisy girls approached. He tried, successfully I might add, to get away from us by sliding back into the grass where he instantly disappeared. I mean, like, gone. As we walked away, I almost wanted to look back over my shoulder to see if he was following us, but he didn't. Praise God!

So, remembering that it is a beautiful day, I start my 3 minute drive home. Windows down. Michael W. Smith on the CD player, thumping out a great beat. Life is good. I'm not dead from a snake bite and my tummy is full. I start down my street and notice that I have a passeger!! There is a yellow jacket waspy-thing IN MY CAR!! Right beside me on the passenger seat. Looking at me! AAHHH! After screaming at him, I realize he is ignoring me. I shoo him and he flies toward me. I am in front of my neighbor's driveway and as he flies at me, I slam the car in park and jump out. So, tauntingly, he flies to the doorpost of my open driver door and just sits there. I can't get in and I can't get him to leave.

Mind you, adrenaline rushes are triggers for my paralysis episodes. So, after my little excitement with Mr. Snake, I'm really not into having any more wildlife challenges!

I rang the doorbell and King came to my rescue. Of course, when he came, the waspy-thing was gone. Nevertheless, he drove the car to the house and parked it for me. :)

I'm safe now and no episodes!

Quiet weekends

Bacterial Bronchitis. That's the key phrase around our house the past three weeks. God bless the makers of Z-Packs! Both Princess and I had bronchitis and we both were very improved within 36 hours of taking our azithromycin. Woo-hoo!

The real fun has been her lincoln logs. Every weekend, for 5 weekends, we have played lincoln logs all weekend. We turn on the tv about 11-noon and begin watching football games and playing l.logs in the living room floor. It's creative, fun, great fellowship. This past weekend, the Polly Pockets came to the Old West for a visit. Very cute!

Chocolate Cake and Gluttony

Let me just tell you that the cake I made over the weekend was good. Really, really good! We'll talk about my gluttony in a minute, but here's the recipe for all of you who are steering clear of dairy and want some chocolate cake. The name is disgusting, but try the cake....

Chocolate Oil Cake

INGREDIENTS
2 cups white sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Optional: I added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter and then as soon as it came out of the oven, I broke chunks of semi-sweet baking chocolate over the top of the cake. After melting, I smeared the baking chunks around. mmmmmmmmmmmm.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.
Add water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat by hand until smooth.
Pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Ok, now for the gluttony. I'm not on Nutrisystem anymore, but I know how to count calories and watch what I eat. I've still been losing a bit and am very happy about where I am health-wise. Until this weekend. I ate chocolate cake every meal and because I was having so many calories, I skimped on other good foods. The result was ... Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you that I did a similar thing last weekend, too, so this is two weekends of gluttony to talk about. So, where was I? Oh yeah, the result of this cake eating-counting calories-gluttony madness is that I felt lethargic by the end of the weekend and to top it off, I started having Hyper episodes from all the chocolate I consumed! Last night I started having episodes and it was like I was caught in a meat grinder. I couldn't get away from one episode before I got slammed with another one. As I lay there in bed going over my last 36 hours of activities and food to try to figure out where these episodes were coming from, I thought, "Oh, good grief! The chocolate!!"

Today I have been a good girl and have been drinking lots of water and am sufficiently throttled for my stupidity. It was a great way for God to get my attention though. I'll never be sad that I ate that cake, but I am sad that I chose legalism over grace. There is nothing wrong with cake or counting calories, but when I chose selfishness and gluttony over living in grace ... that was my downfall. Counting calories is accountability for me. It helps me keep track of where I've been and where I am going each day in my eating. My mistake over the weekend was choosing myself first and then squeezing in the necessities later. When I think of the panorama of life and how harmful these choices are that I made, I shake my head. The great thing is that I can still choose to live and walk in grace. I can repent of my selfishness and gluttony and go back to great living right now. I'm so glad I'm redeemed and have hope. What a great God we serve. And how wonderful that He made cocoa beans!!

I'm a Yellow Crayon

You Are a Yellow Crayon

The clouds part and the smell of daffodils and daisies fill the air when you are around. Your sunny disposition cheers most, and makes others (the jealous and bitter ones) wish you'd never gotten out of bed.

Another quiz said the following:
Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors.You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius.Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way.While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme.Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

Proverbs

Today's post is a peek inside my quiet time. I'll comment on this more in the days to come. This is what God has been teaching me the past week:

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity so that He may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His loyal followers. Then you will understand righteousness, justice and integrity – every good path. For wisdom will enter your mind, and knowledge will delight your heart. Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, rescuing you from the way of evil – from the one who says perverse things, from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversity, whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious. It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a stranger with her flattering talk, who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death and her ways to the land of the departed spirits. None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life. So follow the way of good people and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land and those of integrity will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous uprooted from it.”

My Morning

So, this is how the morning went...

Woke at 5:15 to alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Snooze. Alarm.
5:35 Ok, I'll get up ...
Totally wasted the next 15 minutes reading the news ... got sidetracked by Pavarotti's death. Sad.
6:00 read my bible
6:15 woke Princess
6:15-7:05 fixed Princess' hair, made breakfast, helped get snack, water, etc ready for Princess and delivered her to my carpool buddy.
7:19 felt a sharp pain in my left calf.
7:20 Strapped on my workout clothes and went for a walk (the route you and I walked, Josh).
7:25 started running up the big hill (the one we walked, Josh). Got 1/4 way and had to walk the rest of the way. All the while thinking, "Boy, I must really be out of shape..."
7:26 realize at the top of the hill that I'm in an episode. Nice. I'm two big hills away from my house ... approximately a mile away. It's times like these that I realize I'm a tough little southern lady. I can really push myself. However, darn it, I can't MAKE my muscles unparalyzed no matter how hard I push myself.
7:27 I reset my chronograph and start back down the hill. I was curious how long it will take me to make it home. Going down this hill with weak legs was a bit scary. I kept thinking that my legs were going to give way and then I would bump and roll down the rest of the way like a boiled egg. I had to sit down twice. Normally this area would be pretty quiet, but the neighbors were all leaving to take their kids to school. Nothing like seeing a loafer in workout clothes sitting there on the curb, taking in the hill country views.
7:35 or so I make it to the bottom and am faced with going back up the same hill, on street over. This hill is longer, but just about as steep. I pass by the Jr and High school kids waiting at the bus stop and am trudging along, walking very slowly. Then the hill steepens. I'm positively poking along at this point. I can hear a car pull up and stop in the road beside me and (loud choir voices)! It's my friend from two streets over. I get in and she takes me home.

I have no idea what time it is now, because it is taking every single bit of my stamina to put one foot in front of the other to get in the house. I hear King on the phone and realize I have JUST enough energy to get to the couch and get my "episode pillow" to keep my neck stabalized during myclonic jerks. I fall on the couch, manage to get my pillow under my neck and I'm done. I lay there paralyzed for a long time. King gets off the phone and comes to find me. He's sad to find me there and stays with me. When I can open my eyes, I notice my chronograph says 41 minutes. 41 minutes since I was on the top of the hill. I'm impressed with all I accomplished in just 41 minutes.

I was sick Friday evening, Tuesday and am sick again today. I must have a bug. Part of the reason I'm having episodes, I'm sure. Anyway, that's the way life goes in our house. I certainly got my workout this morning!! Nothing like walking through paralysis uphill. :)

Back to School

We are starting our third week of school. It's a great year, although a challenging one. Third grade is not for the faint of heart. Our head master said at Back To School Day, "School is hard work. It's their job." Somehow that simple phrase gave me new energy and enthusiasm for what lies ahead this year. We've begun latin and have a real math book as well. Princess loves it all and feels very grown up.

I'm mentoring young women again this year and loving it. I am also reading a book called, "Polishing God's Monuments". Oh, this is such a good book. The author (Jim Andrews, I think) tells the story of his grown daughter's baffling, chronic illness and the enduring love of Father God and this woman's husband. It's a powerful read, woven with solid biblical truth. I highly recommend it.

Our company is beginning to be in the black a bit. King still gets more behind every day as there is literally no way one guy can do 7 jobs. I help out as much as I can, but one of the side effect of my migraines is difficult speech. I stumble over my words and have trouble speaking coherent thoughts. Not a great idea when doing customer support. So, I have not been answering phones much lately, but have been keeping up with other tasks.

I am also homeroom mom for Princess' class at school and that job is settling down after the big back to school push. I enjoy serving our new teacher (this is her first year) and the families in class.

Weightloss: I'm maintaining. I am living a totally normal lifestyle now and while I occassionally lose weight, I am maintaining my weightloss and that's nice. I still plan to lose more, but it will be a very gradual thing.

Off to school! Have a great day!

Back to School

Ok, we aren't really back to school. That's Tuesday, but we've been up to school a lot helping out and doing parent things. Lauren met her teacher yesterday and we all agree that she is dreamy!! She is so sweet, kind, thoughtful, flexible, and it doesn't hurt Lauren's feelings that she is young and beautiful, too! :)

My weightloss is still going well. I'm losing inches as well and loving it. I'm using up my stock of Nutrisystem foods, but am not reordering.

The tropical depression is making things wet here. I know the whole coast from Florida (hi Amy) to Mexico is watching Hurricane Dean. Thankfully Dean is passing north of our beloved St. Vincent in the Antilles. They are still getting tropical storm stuff, but not like Barbados. Ouch. King and I were thinking what that outdoor airport must be like in Barbados this morning. I can't imagine the wind tunnels through that thing. Yeo.

Well, I'm off to school again this morning. New families to our school get to sign up for all the activities early before the rest of us old timers. I'm going to go host and answer questions. I hope I know the answers. :)

Migraines

Not much to report. I've had migraines every other day or so. I've only exercised once this week. I have lost more weight, so I think I broke through my plateau. I'm nursing a migraine today again, so unless it abates then today will be another non-exercising day.

Oh, wait. I forgot a fun fact. Our 15th anniversary was this week! One of our friends took Princess for an overnighter and King and I went out. We had a great time and bought something to commemorate the big 15th ... a wii! We stayed up until almost 2 in the morning playing. Silly kids. Actually, we plan to use it a lot when friends come over. King and I have a number of ministry plans for this fall and winter and we hope the wii will be integral for a ministry to guys. The new Madden football comes out in a week! In the meantime, we have fun playing the toy tank game together.

King

My King is back! How I missed him!! He went to help his parents after his dad's hip replacement. Did you know it only takes an hour to do a hip replacement?! I told King that it sounded a little too much like a GM plant assembly line with the surgeon finishing the last stitch and calling out, "NEXT!!". No, it really wasn't that bad and Papa is doing very well. Modern medicine just amazes me sometimes. I wish it was all so easy. But, then there is Periodic Paralysis and Autism. Sometimes I wish modern medicine would amaze me a little more.

I'm still taking care of customers this week and it is so much more fun than last week. I told King that what he did last week by leaving town and giving me the customers to take care of was like taking me out on a big lake, putting his foot on my bum, dumping me in the water and saying, "I'm pretty sure you can swim. I know you'll do a great job because you are doing your best! I'll be back in a week. Call me if you need anything!" And then, ZOOM, off he went in the boat and left me there. Aaaaaaah! LOL He was right, as always. I did swim. I did a good job. I did my best. He was back in a week. I did call him when I needed somthing. A lot. :)

Princess is doing her first Vacation Bible School. Yesterday was her first day and she loved it. The "tarantula man" was there with many creepy things. Glad I was working!!

And as for my SIL's birthday present ... it's still in my garage. It's shorter than a yard stick, too heavy to ship and veeeerrrry old. What could it be?! The good news is that she will find out next week if she comes to see me.

What Is It?

I bought my SIL a present today, for a certain special day in December. She's going to love it! I would love to show you a picture of it, but .... then she would know what it is. So. I will just tell you that it's nothing she can wear. It's larger than my foot. It's smaller than my house.

What could it be????

Hips, Work, Coffee and Plasma Cars

Princess and I are bopping along without our King. His dad's hip replacement went well, but we'd still love prayers for his healing.

While King is gone, I'm doing a lot more work for the company which is stressful and very fun at the same time. I love to learn; however doing anything new is stressful for me. I am realizing all over again what a perfectionist I am. I like to do things correctly if I do them which means that I put off doing new things. I also put off doing things that I am unsure of. This new work stuff is new and unsure. It's great to be pushed though and I am finding out that the customers are very forgiving. :)

School is looming before us and that is both exciting and dreaded. We love summer around here and we also love the routine of school, so starting school is bittersweet. I have volunteered to be a homeroom mom this year which is new for me. Most of the work for HR mom is done before school starts, so school things will ramp up next week. I also plan to mentor again this year and look forward to being matched up with my new ladies. I prefer college/singles, but we'll see who God has in mind for me this year.

As far as nutrition and exercise, I am on track. My eats are good although I could be drinking more water. I've gotten hooked on coffee lately. It's not the caffeine, simply the trick that I play on my stomach when I think I am hungry and am simply having "head hunger". The sugar-free, low fat creamers are delish and bring that feeling of warmth and comfort. Today I am not drinking any coffee and concentrating on my water. I sometimes add the flavoring to the water to make it a bit more fun.



Night before last I pulled Princess on another plasma car ride, this time with Dixie on the plasma car as well. I did two full miles, maybe more. Sadly, I chose 6:00 p.m. to walk on a very hot day. I was wiped when I got home, but had a great workout. We went swimming afterwards. Tonight I plan to run/walk on the treadmill. Yesterday and today I have had a migraine, so I will have to ditch the running tonight if I can not get rid of the migraine.

Dry Run

I did a dry run this morning. I ran/walked with no rain showers and I also practiced my school morning routine with a dog involved ... something new this year. Both were exceedingly successful. It was confirmed that I absolutely can not work out in the morning before school. It took me 90 minutes to dress, exercise, shower and dress again. I was back at my desk for work by 8:00, but Princess was not involved in the morning at all. Alas. Looks like exercising will have to be done in the evening during the school year.

My FIL has hip replacement surgery tomorrow morning. Please pray for him. God has most graciously allowed him to advance this far in life without having ever been in the hospital. King will be staying with him on the night shifts while in the hospital. King also has a h-u-g-e business meeting in the morning before his trip to see his dad. Big week.

Ouch

These Low pressure systems here in Texas are great rain producers. They also can cause some whopping chest pains for a gal with potassium issues. I was feeling funky today, so I took some slow release potassium. I thought a walk might make the funk go away, so I changed into my workout clothes and hit the trail. About 3/4 mile into my walk, I started having chest pains that radiated down my left arm. I slowed to a stop and then had another set, then another. I decided I better call King to come get me. He and Princess drove over to get me and took me home. I was bummed because I didn't get my whole walk done. :) Bummed because I had a couple of episodes with trouble breathing after I got home. I forget so easily how scary it is to have trouble breathing and not be able to move or talk to get help. I'm telling ya ... God listens and prayer works. He is very attentive to His kids.

It's been a lazy day with swim lessons, friends over to play, computer work and ... episodes. All's well that ends well. It's ending well.

Progress

I did a few calculations and my BMI has gone from borderline "obese" to "normal". When I started NS on March 1st, my BMI was 29.2. Today it is 23.7. I've lost 2 inches from my body just since July 1st! I do not do anything dramatic in this journey to better health. I simply avoid paralysis triggers, take my medication, eat as sensibly as possible and walk. Walk, walk, walk. One of the things that has helped me is to buy colorful and fun exercise clothes. It is surprising how much more comfortable they are compared to regular "street clothes". When I put my work out clothes on, strap my sneakers on ... I want to exercise. It's fun. (Jamie, I can so relate to that "go to the gym feeling" that new sneaks give ya! Love them, by the way. )

It's supposed to rain again today. The last few nights it has been so cool that it feels like autumn or spring. The temps have been in the low 70's with the high in the lower 80's. Normally the low is in the lower 80's and highs in the upper 90's to 100's. We are so spoiled.

School starts all too soon. Princess and I are soaking up the days while summer lasts. She's had a sleep over in our room the last two nights and we've stayed up late playing games. She's so fun.

Plasma Ride

Last night I took Princess with me on my walk (normally 3 miles) and this time, she rode her plasma car. We have a lot of hills in our area and finding a means of transportation for Princess has been difficult. Her little legs have trouble keeping up with me. We've tried her bike, walking and now the plasma car. The plasma car is the definite winner. I strapped a leash to the steering wheel and pulled her up hills and she rode down them. It was great fun for her and a great workout for me. All totalled, I pulled 60 pounds up and down hills for two miles. We would have done the whole smash, but we ran into a good friend and walking her back to her house was more fun and important than getting in that extra mile. This morning she joined me for my walk again, this time on her bike. I can really tell the Periodic Paralysis is affecting her muscles more all the time. She just doesn't have endurance like a normal kid her age. Aside from the fact that it began pouring rain 5 minutes into our walk, she did very well for the first mile and then she wanted to turn around. I guess when she comes with me, I will go for shorter walks, but it is always fun to share that exercise time together.

My eats are good. I usually only eat NS food at lunch now. Last night I cooked for the first time in weeks! It was rainy again yesterday, so we had black-eyed peas and corn bread. I was out of milk, so we used Dan Active yogurt instead. It turned out really yummy! We also grilled chicken sausages (this flavor was pablano peppers with queso). They are not fatty and are very tasty.

Walking Again

My knee is so much better! I went for a short hike with Jamie and Princess on Sunday evening. Previously, I've posted a waterfall picture from our neighborhood. In the 4 years that we have lived here, I have never hiked down by the lake. I couldn't believe how pretty it was! It was getting dusky and there are "critters in those woods", so we turned around and headed back. I really want to go back in full daylight and enjoy the hike.

I went for my 3 mile walk this morning as a celebration of my "new" knee and also to celebrate my new official pant/dress size! I'm in a solid 10 now. Since the 1st of March, I have gone from a 16 to a 14 to a 12 to a 10!!! Yahoo. Josh, you know those beautiful cream slacks from Ann Taylor that you gave me? I kept thinking I would take them to the tailor to shorten the hem. I tried them on this morning and, alas, they are way too big. I also tried on my "inspiration" jeans this morning ... you know the jeans you keep stuffed in the closet hoping that one day you'll fit in them, but knowing that you never will? I tried them on and they fit! Ok, so a bit of a muffin top, but it won't be long 'til I'll be in them with no muffin in sight.

Dixie Update

Well, aside from being the cutest little poodle I have ever seen, she is adorably sweet. It's been two weeks now and still not one bark. King thinks that's not right ... like something has happened in Dixie's past to prevent her from barking. One can only speculate. She's hand shy, too. Obviously she's been hit a fair amount. It makes me sad to reach down to scratch under her chin and she ducks and flinches. Poor little punkin.

She does have knee cap problems, but they do not seem to limit her movement. Every so often you can hear a "snap", like the sound my knees make when I stand or squat down. She rarely whimpers when it dislocates, so I think it must not hurt terribly bad. I would love to do surgery on her, but we are going to wait. She's still almost deaf, but being a poodle, she learns fast, so she's picking up some hand signs and that's helpful.

The breeder. Oh dear. She's a piece of work. When we met her, we could tell she is a "hard woman", if you know what I mean. She's an older lady and she an her husband are not in great health. Looking back on our hour spent at her house when we picked up Dixie, there were signs that we should have followed up on. We were choosing to think the best, so we extended lots of grace. I'd do the same thing again (extending grace), but I would ask a lot more questions. King can be dramatic just like me, that's why we have so much fun together. However, when he relays a conversation or talks about life in general, he's very understated. I, on the other hand, apply full dramatic license and paint the most colorful, yet truthful, picture.

So, King calls the breeder and explains that we weren't looking for any money, we just wanted to hear more about Dixie's past, from her perspective. When she heard the first of what King had to say, she went on the attack. King will not tell me what she said (ouch), only that we are never dealing with this woman again. She hung up on King three times. Enough said.

So, we are loving on this little gal, enjoying her antics and all around becoming poodle people. You know, "those people".

What To Do?

We picked up our poodle, Dixie, on July 8th and have had her 11 days. Of those 11 days, she's only eaten 3 of them. We've been to the vet twice and two different vets have concluded:

1. She's going deaf.
2. She has a very bad case of canine peridontitis (rotten teeth and infected gums)
3. Her knee caps (patella) are dislocating on both legs
4. She is not 6 years old as purported, but 8 years old



We are waiting on a return phone call from Dixie's breeder. We are all attached to Dixie already, but Princess especially loves having Dixie sleep with her at night and playing "veterinarian" with her friends. The vets say that we are looking at approximately $2000 to fix Dixie. I can't pay that kind of money. Dixie was offered as a dog who needs her teeth cleaned, but is otherwise completely healthy. I am hoping that the breeder will cover the vet bills that correspond to the "completely healthy" label that Dixie had. Since we bought a "completely healthy" little dog, I am stunned to hear that the popping sound I heard yesterday is actually Dixie's knee dislocating and popping back into socket! Stunned also that her "teeth cleaning" will consist of massive dental surgery and possible oral surgery at a price tag of $400-$900. I'm surprised that this "completely healthy" dog has both knee caps dislocating and have been dislocating long enough for it to have rubbed the bone down around the knee! Ok, so I've already mentioned the knee thing, but geez. That's a hard way to pass the days. And finally, this "completely healthy" dog is almost deaf. Now, honestly folks, how can one mistake all of these issues and sell a dog to an 8 year old girl who is expecting a healthy little pal for the next 6-8 years? I don't want to indicate that the breeder is less than straight forward, but she's been less than straight forward with us. And I'm miffed.

I honestly do not know what to do. I hate getting attached to animals because invariably I have to make hard decisions like this. Just pray for wisdom for us and that we will have a gracious, yet crucial conversation with the breeder. We'll keep you updated.

On the NS front, my eats have been good. My knee is almost back to walking status (the foot stool is working great!) and my weight is going back down.

Persevering

Yesterday was a tiring day. Ya ever have those? The days where you slug through it and when you get to the end-ish of it, all you can think of is comfortable jammies and a book? Well, I had one of those and if I don't keep in motion, today will be another one. I really want to persevere. Persevering requires commitment. Commitment requires discipline. Discipline requires pain. Pain requires a decision - "lay down or fight". And we're back full circle to Persevering.

1 Cor "Love ... always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Kings "But your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time."
Psalm "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Proverbs "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
Prov "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."
Prov "Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding."
1 Cor "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
Titus "Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined."
Hebrews "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."


I figured out why my left knee is hurting so much. I realized that it was a ligament, but couldn't figure out why it was hurting. This morning it dawned on me that it's the way I am sitting at my desk. My feet do not touch the floor, so I tuck my left leg under me and sit ... and sit ... aaaand sit. I guess I'm pulling that ligament the whole time I'm sitting. So, I have a little foot stool under my feet now and we'll see if it fixes my knee. I hope so ... I can't go walking again until my knee is better. Thus, I can't burn any serious calories until my knee is better.


My eats have been okay this week. Yesterday afternoon I didn't have much to snack on that was healthy, so the hershey's kisses won out. That was silly. One thing I love about mess ups is that as soon as I mess up, I get to try again! I'm going to the grocery store this morning, so healthy snacks should be a no brainer again for a few days. I'm off to put the kisses in the freezer where they are not accessable or desirable. BTW, I'd love some delicious and easy low-calories or low fat recipes. Wanna lay some on me? I'll send you some kisses...

A Girl and Her Chocolate

Well, my laziness the past couple of weeks is paying off. I've gain a couple of pounds back, I think. Weight fluctuates so much that it's hard to guage how I'm doing by the scales, but I'm not going to deny the effects of the Supremely Chocolate Mudpie Thing from Cheesecake Factory pictured above, the chocolate shake I shared with my family and the cream cheese brownie yesterday. Are ya seeing the chocolate theme?? Now, I did share all of these things with others, however, I did my share of partaking, too!

The aforementioned Mudpie was last Tuesday on date night (Amy, this is the date when we thought of you and Ray) and happily last night for date night we walked around Town Lake. Here is a picture that Jamie took this past week. It had calmed down some by the time we went yesterday I guess because they closed a flood gate. They still have two flood gates open to Town Lake. Ok, for those of you who do not know what town lake normally looks like, I'm going to have to find a picture ...

Ok. This is what Town Lake normally looks like. Did I mention that we've had a lot of rain lately?

So, I'm not sorry for the treats I've had this week, but I am glad that I walked 3 miles last night and 3 miles again this morning. Be gone, extra calories!!!

A good week

Summer seems to be a hard time to blog. There is a lot going on and nothing going on. Between the two, I seem to forget to blog.

We've taken a break from cleaning the garage because I bought 20 rose bushes from Home Depot this past week. Now we have to make spots for them in the yard. It was a good thing, really, because we've had these scary plants out in front of our house. They are called cotoneasters, but really they make our house look like the Munsters' house. Yesterday, King wrapped onto them with heavy chains, put the pickup in 4x4 and ripped them out. It was impressive! Now the fig ivy is really showcased. I think we'll plant roses in most of the bed (the sunny spots) and fill in with nandina, holly and jasmine. I can't wait. It will be so much more inviting when we are done. King keeps teasing me that I'll be known by the kids as "the rose lady". I think he must've had some past trauma from childhood in regards to finding lost baseballs in thorny flowerbeds. Bless his lil' pea pickin' heart. I'm still planting my roses.

So, I didn't post a full picture of my new dress, but here is the top of me in it with two dear family members. Note the new haircut. Well, okay, it's not new. It's the same cut I've had for over a year, but my hair grows so fast and cuts are so expensive that I've tried to stretch it out and not go so often. The result is that I have 2-3 different hairstyles in 8 weeks. Alas, I have resigned myself to go and get a cut every 4 weeks and look the same all the time.

Did I mention that we got our little Dixie this past weekend? She's been with us a week as of today. She acts as if she's always lived here. She's been a mama dog most of her life and lived in a kennel. Having said that, we are amazed at what a doll she is. She loves people, kids in particular. She is completely housetrained, does not bark (we have not heard her bark, ever), is not hyper and is overall precious. The kennel part comes in with the fact that she doesn't seem to know her name. This dog just turned 7 years old! She was one of the breeder's favorites, yet "dixie" means nothing to her. And, to top it off, she doesn't seem to be able to hear very well. I'm hoping that it's just wax in her ears. I plan to take her to the vet this next week. She's a doll though and we love her so much already. This is a picture of her and Princess in the car on the way home about 15 minutes after picking her up. What a cutie ... and the dog is, too!!

Cleaning

Hubby and I are still cleaning and organizing the garage. It's going to be great when we get finished ... it's just taking so long!

I got my hair cut today. It's basically the same ... short and flippy.

Last week I walked 10 miles. I began to run periodically during my walk and am amazed that I am so lacking in stamina. In college, I did aerobics 3x a week and ran 2-5 miles the other two days. Now, after 7 years of paralysis, I just do not have the stamina to run. I am amazed at my progress in overall endurance though. To walk 10 miles a week is nothing short of stupendous for this paralytic. :)

I bought a new dress (and shoes) today for a wedding we are going to this weekend. I bought a medium size dress. Haven't done that in years! I also made a goal to be in the 130's by the end of the week. Well, I made 139 yesterday! I hope to be at goal weight by Christmas. I'll try to post a pic in my dress, shoes and new hair in the next couple of days.

Eats have been good. I got my last NS order last week. I will miss the convenience of having yummy diet food premade for myself.

Well, I'd better get back to the garage....

I'm back

Where, oh where, has Misty gone? Where oh where could she be?

I had a great vacation and never came back to bloggerland. My sweet friend, Jamie, has insisted that I get back to blogging. She's right. I just haven't thought about it.

Since I got back, I had a lazy week and my eats were not terrible, but not great either. I only gained 3 pounds on my trip, but I think I put a couple more back on when I got home. I'm now 1 pound away from where I was when I left for vacation. I lose slowly ... about a pound a week or less. I've been walking and working around the house. I've shampooed carpets, moved furniture, reorganized my workroom and helped clean out the garage.

We are reorganizing the garage because we found a super good deal on a used car. David has been driving the same pickup for 14 of our 15 years of marriage. The pickup is like the Israelites sandals ... it has never worn out. However, we've been praying about what to do for his transportation. Monday, out of the blue, we found this car and bought it the next morning. And here it is...

Last Day

Today is our last day on the island. O booked us a fun deep sea fishing trip today. We all took an anti-motion sickness pill before we left. We had a bit of breakfast and then got on the boat. We made a beer stop and off we went. Our guide told us that they like to fish on the Atlantic side because the fishing is better. Fine with us. J and I were singing the praises of Bonine (motion meds) for the first five to seven minutes. Then J got quiet and then I got quiet. Suffice it to say that the guide turned the boat around after about 10 more minutes and headed back to the island. It was scheduled to be a six hour trip and after they dropped J and I off, they probably had a four hour trip left. I hope O and King have a great time. J and I are in bed. Suits me fine as long as I am off that darn boat. :)

Today is Thursday. Tuesday we played tennis all morning. We played doubles and had so much fun. I thought we were going to play a game or two, so I didn't put any sunscreen on. We played a set and we were pretty evenly matched. We tied up at six games a piece and then played a tie breaker game. So, all in all, we played thirteen games of tennis over the course of two hours. You know what is coming next. Part way through, J sprayed some sunscreen on my back and shoulders. Problem is that the wind was blowing and we found out later that only a few wisps of sunscreen made it onto my shoulders. I got cooked. All the islanders said, "Oh, yes. Our morning sun is the most intense." Yeah. Well, I found that out. Back at home, the afternoon sun is the worst. Here the afternoon sun is mild and sets around six p.m. or so.

The snorkeling has been so much fun. I'm so glad King bought me the nice snorkel set. It's made all the difference in the world. Yesterday one of our friends here saw a baby octopus just off the beach. I think the food is my favorite thing here, followed by tennis and then snorkeling. I'm so very glad O and J joined us. It would have been neat for just King and I to enjoy our stay, but the terrific fellowship of O and J has the made the trip perfect.

My camera battery died, so O is taking all the pictures. I'll post some when I get back home. Tomorrow is "fly day". We go all the way from the boat dock at 7 a.m. to Houston at 11:30 p.m. and then the 3 hour drive home. We'll be tired kids...

Day 5

Where has the time gone??? O & J arrived safely night before last and since their arrival, we have totally goofed off. Our days consist of sleeping in, a 1-2 hour breakfast, nap/goof off, lunch which is 1-2 hours, snorkel/beach and pool time, dinner and games like 42 or Spades.

Last night we went out to "Sunset Point". Here is O & I enjoying the view.

Pictured above and below is the view of our dinner from O and J's balcony. This is the Mahi Mahi fresh from the boat and about to be filleted.

This morning, we went into Kingstown, the capital of St Vincent. Our taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of town and we shopped with the islanders. These weren't "tourist traps", but the shops along an alleyway where all the locals were. We bought a bunch of stuff (some stuff for you, too, Princess!) and enjoyed the local culture. We had two hours to shop and then our driver picked us up again and we stopped by the grocery store and headed back to the dock to catch the ferry back to Young Island. All the currency here is EC or East Caribbean. The currency conversion is 2.60 EC to 1.00 US. It was too much math for me. We made King the banker for the day and J and I just shopped our hearts out. :) Very fun. I got the cutest shoes for $2!

The rest of the day today was napping and beach time. King and I swam with the cutest silver fish. When we had a fish tank growing up, we called fish like this "silver dollars". I think they liked us as much as we liked them. We also saw a "flounder" that was a fairly young one. It's second eye had just moved up on top of it's body. He was so professionally camoflauged that I marveled at God's creativity. We tracked him, but as soon as he got still in the sand, we would lose sight of him. He was camouflaged like the Desert Storm vehicles that I've seen pictures of. Very cool.

Along the reef, we saw a lot of sea urchins, the black round guys with long poisonous spikes all over their body. Just seeing them gives me the heebie jeepies.

We didn't get in the water early enough today to be lazy. We had to snorkel all we wanted and then go straight back and shower before dinner. The water and air seemed to chill quite fast.

Vacation Day 2

I'll start with a picture from our balcony this morning. All we went through to get here was worth it. And this is what I mean by "all we went through"...

Our second vacation day was also a travel day. We began in Miami at the Wyndham hotel which has recently been remodeled. The room was very nice and we slept hard. Our room service breakfast came about 15 minutes after we woke. We were so hungry and thankful to be pampered. As we stood there praying and thanking God for our luxuries, King (*see note below) began to fidget. I kept praying. More fidgeting. Praying. Fidgeting. Finally, David interrupted my prayer and said, "You can keep praying, but there's something in my pants and it's biting me!" Sure enough, he had ants in his pants! They looked like fire ants, but we don't think they were fire ants. Upon further inspection, he had them in his shoes, socks and pants. As we checked out from the hotel, we requested "special consideration" for the extra guests in our room. We'll see how Wyndham responds...

We hopped on the airport shuttle and had a surprise at the airport! We arrived an hour and 45 minutes before our flight, which we had read was plenty of time. OBVIOUSLY, that information did not take into consideration a Friday morning at the American Airlines International section of Miami airport. I have never seen lines so long. Ever. I don't know what the occasion was, but American employees were stationed everywhere and were answering questions from hundreds and hundreds of passengers like ourselves. I like organization and let me tell you, there was none at the airport. Not at American Airlines, anyway. The international section of American wasn't even labeled "international". We got in line and found out that they close the flight an hour before it takes off in order to get all the baggage, etc. That left us 20 minutes to get through a section with many hundreds of people. Later at our gate, we tried to estimate how many people were in the area and we guessed a couple of thousand? Anyway, we got in another line and we still weren't going to make the flight. I asked another American employee what we needed to do and she took our passports, swiped them in the machine there and told us to go over the the counter. Basically, we jumped over everyone else in line (at least a 40 minute wait) and our bags were checked. Then we had to take our bags to the next line to have them stowed for delivery to the plane. That line was growing FAST because their computer broke down. Finally made it through that line and then we had to go through security. That line was three lines wide and very long. God blessed us again as a very harried lady called out that there was another security area around the airport a bit and it had no lines. We shot out of there in search of the other security check through. She was right. It was a breeze ... until they called me aside to inspect my bags. I had no worries because we had been very careful of how we packed our backpacks. Duh. I had left a resealable diet coke in my backpack from the night before. God blessed us again as the guy just through it away and gave me a dirty look. Eeek. Off we went to our gate. I was so rattled by the time we got there that I was just sweating. As we encountered the chaos intially and throughout the ordeal, I truly believed that God would work out the details and get us on the flight, but it didn't look like it was going to work out time after time. Throughout the morning, He was so obvious in showing me that trust isn't about things looking good, but about ... trust. Believing in the Truth and knowing Who He is. He works out the details. I was humbled.

Our flight to Barbados from Miami was a piece of cake. Many of these little islands are their own little sovereign countries, so I got my passport stamped quite a bit, which I like! We flew a turbo prop airplane from Barbados to St Vincent. We went through customs and immigration yet again and walked outside to see a friendly guy holding a sign that said "Young Island" (our resort). Delight!! We drove from the airport a short distance to the dock and I was amazed to see how beautiful and enchanting Young Island is from a distance. Here I am with Young Island in the background. Our cottage is very visible in the background. See the two sailboats parked right next to each other (they are over my left shoulder). As you look at them, look at the one on your right. If you go to the back of the sailboat and then go straight up, you will see our cottage, the top one. There is one just to your right and lower, but we are the upper one. In the picture, there is something grey above our roof. Not sure what that is.

The little ferry that takes you back and forth from St Vincent to Young Island only takes about 3-5 mintues ... very charming. When we stepped out of the boat from our ferry ride, Giselle from the front office, met us and a nice islander also greeted us with rum punch. Strong drink, especially for this non-alcoholic gal! Giselle personally gave us a short tour of the lower part of the island and took us to our cottage. She gave us a tour of our cottage. We were already feeling so pampered. The weekly cocktail began about 15 minutes after our arrival, but we preferred to settle in. We unpacked and washed our faces before dinner. It is suprising how refreshing it is to simply wash our face. It truly takes away the "sticky" humidity feel.

We walked down to dinner which was served by the beach in a thatched, open hut. Very charming. It was a 5-course meal, so I can't remember everything we ate, but I do remember the bread! They bake 6 different flavors of bread daily and our choice last night was coconut bread and cinnamon bread. YUM! I had a carrot soup, smoked salmon roulade, Mahi Mahi with saffron and a warm bean salad. David had a salad with papaya and vinaigrette, the salmon
roulade, veal yams and tomato basil. We had banana cake and homemade ice cream sandwich for dessert. (licking lips sound)

When we got back to our room, we realized there were three of us inside! This little frog liked the a/c and decided to join us. As cute as tree frogs are ... we decided his songs would be a bit much a few hours later. Here he is pictured on our patio (after leaping from King's hand).

It's very humid here and has rained a couple of times, but they are quick tropical showers. The sun is shining now and there is a constant breeze. Last night we turned the a/c on in the room and by the time the room cooled off, we were wishing for sleep. The disco across the channel at St Vincent (200 yards away) tuned up after we went to sleep. It woke David temporarily, but I knew nothing until 6:45 this morning!

Breakfast was under the same thatched "kiosk" or hut as dinner and we had fresh fruit, vanilla yogurt, incredible omlettes, strong coffee, fresh orange juice and more cinnamon bread! You may wonder about the pounds that we will pack on this week, eating like we are. Let me reassure you that it might just all even out. :) We are on a volcanic island, after all, and just to get to our room, we walk up 39 steps! I can't imagine the hike up to the upper cottages. We are
down by the beach. I want to go play tennis a fair amount and it's at the top of the island. Last night we looked up at it and David says it was about a 30-35 degree angle from where we were standing. The local parrot is the St Vincent parrot and they are here on this island, too. They have a couple in a *huge* cage by the office and the name outside the cage is "Misty". The parrots are beautiful and talkative, even so late last night.

We can't wait for our friends to arrive. O & J arrive tonight around 8:45 and we plan to surprise them by taking a taxi to the airport and meeting them. This airpot is tiny and so unlike anything back home.

* As a reminder, "King" is my husband and I am "Queen". "Princess" is our daughter.