tuesday's are "friends and wings" day

Hot drinks, beer AND wings? Now that's a combination that is just asking for friends. It just happens we actually were with friends while consuming the above. It was a good time, Julie joined Dan, Nick, Kev and I - so we actually got to meet the lovely lady for real. I approve, Nickolas.

So then after wings, etc. we went grocery shopping. Which was more fun times. It went a little like this: Kev pushing the cart like a frenzied maniac through Sobey's and me piling food in my arms chasing him down to put them in the cart. A very effective method we thought.

And now - off to other important things.

eureka!

I was thinking today... why is it that people come up with conclusions from studies like this?:

"It has been proven that women eat 5x less candy when the container is sealed and put 4 feet away from them on their desks, then when it's at arm length and open."

I'm not lying here folks, I read this. And I thought to myself, I wish I had the type of job where I studied things that everyone else learns by common sense. Like:

"It's been proven that when you use your shower every day versus once a week, the shower get's dirtier."

Or...

"It's been proven that men are more likely to pee standing up than women."

I think I have found my career calling.

'cause I had a bad day

Bad days suck. Let me say that first off. Bad days that stretch into bad nights, now that's even worse. But when a bad day stretches into a bad night and then into another bad day... that's getting pretty close to reaaaalllly bad.

So yes - I am having one of those stretches.

And now, because I want to remember the days that are not bad - here is me on an absolutely great day.

dancing

I love to dance. Not a lot of people I know do - at least in the circles I move in. Most people I know are scared, awkward, disinterested or horrible dancers who pretend they hate it to fool everybody else.

That being said, I'm not trying to put any of my wonderful blog readers down. No, I'm interested - does anyone else out there who reads this love to dance?

Dancing can be so many things. It can be misused greatly, but then again - what can't? Dancing is expressive, it's bonding, it's fun, it's something that you do for an hour before realizing that you're completely out of breath. It can be sexual, it can be worshipful - even both at the same time. I don't believe that God gave us bodies, made to move, to express and to interact with others and then made it so that dancing was not an acceptable way to use that body. Think of a little child, when they hear music that moves them.. what do they do? They bounce up and down on their chubby legs. I love to see that - the innocent expression of enjoyment.

Think about it.

moments of childhood captured

This past weekend we were priviledged to spend time with my 3 youngest siblings - Esther, Robert and Eric.They are all very unique, loud, wonderful, hilarious kids
who I don't get to hug enough. We did all kinds of fun things,
from Niagara Falls to playing in the park,
to reading stories together.

They loved their "vacation" - the pictures don't do the weekend justice.

algonquin: the saga

So the saga. Well, maybe not the saga, but definitely an adventure. It was absolutely fantastic to get away from the day to day life and relax by ourselves. Ah - nature.

We started out Monday morning after a hurried packing of things that didn't get done on the weekend due to M&D VH's 25th bonanza. Good times had by all. What a blessing to be able to participate in a celebration of 25 years together. But as Kev said, imagine how God sees 25 years in his big picture of time! Sorry for the tangent.

Anywho, we packed and headed out in our trusty Elantra. After 4 hours of driving, too many rounds of 'find the alphabet', lots of music and snacks - we arrived. We checked in and then went to campsite 76. We were less than impressed; a gravel circle that you could fit about 1/2 a person on. Needless to say we turned around and picked a new campite. Apparently, reservations don't always turn out!

Our first challenge was to set up a tent and make dinner. Dinner went good until we tried making garlic bread. Over a campfire stove. Didn't go so well, we burned out the bottom of the pan we were using. Brand new pan, too!

I won't go into the details of how the campfire didn't get started, or how the wood was wet, or how the paper didn't burn or how I made a hilarious joke about bringing a man who could start a fire next time, or anything like that. After that we went to bed. But it was still fun, because we read in bed with flashlights. Reminded me of when you're a kid and trying to sneak in ONE more chapter before your parents catch you reading after bedtime...

Tuesday was full of beach time, lots of reading and swimming and sunning and talking. I love not having any responsibilities. There were tons of kids on the beach, three stood out though. There were two special needs kids there with the same mother. She spent the whole day helping them play in the water, giving them snacks, normal things - that took more effort than usual. I was blown away at her level of energy and love for them. In the afternoon as they slept on her lap, she sang "I Love You, Lord" to them. It was awesome to feel a bond with a woman who I had already admired as a human being. Apparently she got her energy from the greatest power source ever.

The other "kid" I noticed was probably a 17 year old who was paralyzed, sitting in a wheelchair. A man, I'm assuming his brother, carried him in the water for over an hour. I was also impressed with this guy's dedication to his brother/friend, giving up all of his water time to let his brother enjoy it too. Really cool to see.

Tuesday night we got a good fire going, and cooked hotdogs. Mmm.. ash and burnt goodness. Then just as we were settling into our fire time - a huge thunderstorm blew up. So we went to bed early again food and books in hand. At least we were borrowing the 'rents tent and not using our little pup tent. I might have gone crazy.

Wednesday morning it was still raining but we got everything packed up in between rain showers and headed back out on the road. A short trip, but long enough to have relaxing and goooood times.

Peace, y'all.