August is a pretty busy month for us. Both the kids' birthdays are in August as well as our anniversary.

When Tiff and Justin were little we would take turns having the big birthday party--alternate years. We had pirate parties with treasure hunts, Strawberry Shortcake parties, Hawaiin parties, Dalmation parties, swimming parties...you name it. Every year included a family party (usually with extended family present) as well so I don't think anyone every felt left out.


As for our anniversary, Kenny was very sure we had our yearly mini-honeymoon. I remember the year I was pregnant with Justin. We left Tiffany with my parents and went camping. The picture I have in my mind of me being nine months pregnant climbing over logs still makes me laugh. My favorite though was the year Kenny took me back to our "ole stomping grounds"-- where we met, dated, and married. He found a vacation house next door to the house I was living in when we first met that we rented for the weekend, then took me camping in the same campground we first camped together in. It was all very romantic. Our mini-honeymoons have somewhat fizzled over the last few years but we now get to do so many fun trips and we have so much time to ourselves the need for time alone isn't as pressing.


This year both the kids are out of the house so spending their birthdays with them seemed so much more necessary for some reason. We met Justin, his girlfriend and her family in a little town in the mountains and played for the weekend--fishing, swimming...eating. It was so re-assuring to see Justin truly happy and fitting in so well with them. (We are very blessed to have known her parents since before they were even married!)


(This is a picture of Ken and Justin practicing their scowling.)



For Tiffany's birthday, her boyfriend decided he wanted to surprise her with a camping trip...
and he pulled it off really well! I was definitely surprised. It rained all of the first day, but my eagle scout of a husband would have made the boyscouts proud. We enjoyed, fly-fishing, huckle berry-ing, campfire singing...and even saw a black bear. A truly fun weekend.

( This picture was taken at my niece's wedding the weekend before our camping trip--Tiff's the cute one.)

I have discovered this year that even though we no longer celebrate with pirates and clowns, birthdays are still exciting, interactive, maybe even cheaper and certainly less stressful. It's more like celebrating with dear friends and less with your toddlers. Gifts are still fun but usually more practical, definitely bigger. The party is more about the adventure and just being together than about "let's see how many friends we can fit into the living room". Don't get me wrong, I still miss those--the planning, the cake. But right now...I wouldn't trade this year's parties for anything!

Family Reunions

Personally I love family reunions, reconnecting with siblings, cousins, people we may not see but every few years. My immediate family tries to get together at least once a year which is a challenge as we are spread over the northwest including Alaska, and one of us even lives in Europe. Admittedly reunions are also a lot of work...cooking, cleaning--pre and post, planning. They may even be a just a tad stressful.

We had somewhat of a family reunion just this weekend centered around a niece's wedding. The wedding party was beautiful, the bride glowing and the scenery fantastic. But there was a lot of stress involoved. I won't bore you with all the gossip but we were left totally exhausted. Yet, amidst the turmiol, there was a lot of laughter, of course tons of food, and even an olympic style volleyball game. And...lots of conversation. I learned things that I would have thought in the 40 plus years I've been around I'd have at least heard about them in passing!

Did you know that you could kill your husband simply by making him soak his stinky feet in a pan of clorox water every evening before coming into the house? (What's your husband's life insurance policy looking like?) The spring before Ken and I were married he had been planting trees in the south. The having to wear tall rubber boots, showering maybe once a week, having his clean laundry stolen out of his truck which left him with no socks left him with the most rotten smelling feet. Taking his shoes off at the end of the day would fill our small apartment with an odor that would knock out a skunk! So...every evening he'd have to remove his socks and shoes outside the house, sit on the steps and soak his feet in a pan of well-diluted clorox. It worked! And I didn't kill him off!

Did you know that just because your man's voice is snarly and somewhat raised, his eyebrows furled, and he has that dart-throwing glare in his eyes, it doesn't mean that he's upset? The men in Kenny's family are very good at that. They all have a deep, gruff voice and piercing eyes. In fact all his brothers and he sound the same over the phone. Many years ago, I got a late night phone call from whom I thought was Kenny...and we talked and talked, for about an hour. I remember thinking, "Kenny must be having a really boring night at work. He never talks this long on the phone." When the conversation was done I asked that he stop and pick up a gallon of milk for breakfast. There was a pause, then Scott said, "Toni, this is Scott. I'm still in Alaska."

And did you know that bloggers are LAME? I couldn't believe it when my darling daughter informed me of that fact. She is having a hard time with the fact that I'm a blogger. "Mom, you should just write a book! Why waste your time with a blog?" When asked if she's even read any of these she of course said "no". And I'm thinking, then why am I being so careful with what I say about her? I could be telling such juicy stories...and there are a few! I wouldn't do that though. But why AM I blogging instead of writing a book? It did make me once again ponder. I have always enjoyed writing--I was one of those kids whose favorite class was English and grammar. I didn't always get good grades in those classes, but I did enjoy them. I do have a few ideas about book topics but we'll see what happens with those. I've begun blogging probably because it's much more cost effective than publishing a book and certainly a lot less intimidating. It also has that immediate satisfaction thing that we so often seek. It fills that need for writing I sometimes feel.

So back to family reunions. I love my family--both sides. With all our weaknesses, flaws, and frustrations, we do have a lot of fun together. Getting together helps us realize how much we miss each other--not that we're ready to move back in with each other! But it does help us remember that we need each other, even more now that we're adults. And reunions do teach us many things--things that we can pass on to the "youngsters" which they in turn can pass on down the line.

The Olympics

Kenny and I have been very busy watching the Olympics this year--more than in the past it seems. I've been keeping up with events we miss (this whole "everything's happening after I go to bed" thing is very frustrating to me--I can't stay up that late anymore AND go to work the next morning) on the internet...not quite as good as live prime time but it'll do in a pinch. And we've both been watching it in the evening as we eat our supper till it's time to go to bed.

These atheletes are amazing to me! And Michael Phelps...oh my goodness...where does he come from?! Where do they get this drive, this energy...what could I accomplish in one week if I had just the energy they put out in one race?! And that competetive spirit....I truly don't understand that. It comes at such a young age for them. Some of it is obvious--the ones who's parents both competed in previous Olympiads or were coaches. But what, again, about Phelps? I guess the question should be "how many kids are out there with that spirit in them just waiting to be discovered, let loose"? If we were to take all these ADHD kids and turn them loose in a pool, or on a bike, or something other than sitting them in front of a video game and giving them pills to quiet their energy....would we have more Michael Phelps and Justin Springs?

I have come up with a lot of questions since the games started:

Why is it that (to me) male swimmers have the perfect physiques, but on a female....just doesn't quite look right? Yet....the gymnasts bodys are very similar to the swimmers, yet female gymnasts look much better than the female swimmers????

Why do they require the female beach volleyball players to wear skimpy bikinis, but make the men wear baggy shorts and tank tops? And what is it with those lens-less glass frames!!!?

Why is pain attractive to some people?

And this whole competing in the rain thing...--me and rain---I know I'd melt.

And ping pong? Now I enjoy a good game of ping pong--round robin's down right fun...but in the Olympics?

And why is this the last year for soft ball?

And have you heard how many calories these guys and gals have to put away?!!!! No wonder they can afford to do the McDonald commercials...3 hamburgers and they have their daily quota. What they don't tell us is for the rest of us those same 3 hamburgers is our monthly calorie quota! Isn't that just a little deceiving?

How would it be to do nothing but what you love, eat and sleep....and get prizes and money for it?

What wonderful bodies God has given us! What could more of us accomplish with them if we took just a fraction of the time these boys and girls, men and women from all over the world, from all circumstances and situations take to train, to eat appropriately, to use our bodies in the way it was originally planned? How we (I) have abused these fantastic machines that could serve us so much more if we would only give up certain types of foods and....not spend our free time...sitting...watching....the....Olympics....

So many questions--some of which I'm sure many people have the answers for. But I've been having way too much fun watching and pondering, spending more time on it all than I have a right to.