Spring Break

My exciting recreation over spring break is scanning slides. We have oodles of them. I took hundreds during my year in Holland (1978-79). I started out scanning them but got side tracked with some from the early backpacking years of our marriage. We always liked to go check out the view from the highest points we could get to.

Will could no doubt tell you the exact location where he stands in this picture, but I am ashamed to admit I cannot. I'll fill it in when he comes back. He and Nick are camping. I'll join them toward the end of the week if I ever get my work done at the office, which, by the way, is freezing. Everyone knows it is not cost effective to heat a building just for a secretary and custodians. I wore my gloves at my desk today when I wasn't typing.

Yep, that's me back in 1984. Quite the beast of burden. I was having fun. Really. It was an amazing meadow filled with blooming lupine.

And of course, Will has always had a gift for finding great places to relax.

Treasures from Idaho

Will and I have been going through some boxes of McAnulty family treasures from Idaho. There are many pictures, photo albums, documents such as his parents' wedding invitation, his birth announcement, and both of his parents high school graduation announcements. I love all the pictures of Will and his immediate family, from a baby picture of his mother to his parent's wedding pictures, and childhood pictures of Will and his sister growing up. There were even pictures of our own precious little boys that I hadn't seen before!

After several boxes of pictures and papers, it was very exciting to open a box of carefully wrapped glass items, where I unearthed some very special treasure. I love china teacups. Imagine how much fun it was to unwrap one cup and saucer after another, matching them up until I had 11 cup and saucer sets!

Will's sister Sue says their mother worked in the china department at the Bonn in her youth, where she bought some of them, and others were passed down from their grandmother.

Sue has special memories of these, saying, "If you were feeling low, a cup of tea was the trick. :-) I don't remember too many times drinking out of the finer ones tho!" As far as I'm concerned, they are all very fine ones! When Sue comes to visit she can take what she wants, but in the meantime I will display some of them and enjoy their beauty.

Another treasure was some beautiful crystal vases with dusty old silk/dried flower arrangements. Apparently they were from something special but Will didn't know what. So I thought his mother would like for me to use the vases, but I took a picture to preserve whatever memories these might have. I threw away the flowers, and awhile later when I washed the vases I noticed the little sticker on the bottom that said "D&L McAnulty wedding". I felt horrible when I realized I had discarded flowers from his parents' wedding. But then again, a few years ago in a coldly unsentimental cleaning frenzy, I discarded all the flowers I had saved from my own wedding. It just seemed pointless to have them stored away.

So I'm glad I took the pictures, and we will have happy thoughts of his parents when we see the vases.

Pictures from Amsterdam

When your son is halfway across the world, it's hard to know which is more exciting, receiving a phone call or pictures. This week was a double blessing as we received a phone call Sunday and some pictures today. Here is Craig and his special friend Sarah in front of their Amsterdam home, the YWAM base. Do they look happy or what?Craig's 22nd birthday was last Tuesday, March 4, and he was very blessed to be taken out to dinner for a 1 kilo steak. (That's 2.2 pounds!) This was a very blissful event for him. (That's probably an understatement.) The boy loves steak. As do all McAnulty boys.
On Saturday, he and Sarah got to take a daytrip to the beach.

Aren't they so cute! Possibly a Dutch beach is even windier than an Oregon beach! It makes this mother very happy just to look at these pictures. I can't wait for their visit in July!
God is so amazingly good!

I'm Back!! But Will's not

Did anyone miss me? I haven't been gone or anything, it's just been awhile since I've been inspired to write anything here. I've been inspired to do many other things of course. It's not like I'm just sitting around doing nothing. Honest.

Will has to leave tomorrow for another trip to Idaho. His wonderful Aunt Hazel passed away last week, so sadly it's his turn to go to a funeral. Aunt Hazel always insisted we park our RV at her beautiful place when we visited Idaho, and she and her daughter always gave us fabulous meals and great hospitality. Will has very fond memories of his teen summers spent working on their ranch, eating Aunt Hazel's outstanding meals. Here's Will, Eric and Nick at our last family visit in 2006.
Their place on the Snake River has a gorgeous view and amazing wildlife viewing. On our trip in 2000 Eric was about fifth grade and loved raccoons, she set up their spotting scope on her picnic table, found the raccoon family on the island and made sure Eric got a good look at them.

So this reminded me of my own aunt and uncle I recently lost, and tonight I got out my digital recorder and got started transcribing some stories Aunt Jeannine told during our visit in 2006. She told me many things I hadn't know about my mother. I was so touched by the end of our recorded conversation about her. I'm going to share a little of it.

Jeannine said, "The Lord gives you strength just a day at a time, a step at a time. Your mother told me, "I asked the Lord to give me life just a little bit longer for Dougie until he goes to school" and then when he went to school she said "I told Him just however long yet that you will let me stay here with him because oh, she thought of Dougie, because he was her youngest." ("Dougie" was only three when Mom was diagnosed with cancer, and eight when she died.)

One day at a time. One step at a time. That's all we ever have to do. Some days are so much harder than the others, but I am so grateful that the Lord indeed gives the strength we need even during uncertain, difficult days.

What's On My Mind: RVs, Low-Fat, High Fiber (Will is Such a Lucky Man!)

Another week has flown by. I was chatting with my former assistant principal yesterday, telling him a little about the past week and how tempted I am to tell some stories on my blog that unfortunately would violate the confidentiality rules I am bound by. Perhaps some day far in the future after I will retire I will write a book incorporating some of these stories and embellishing them slightly, so I can put the disclaimer at the front of the book saying any resemblance to any event or person living or dead is pure coincidence. Human nature is so fascinating and life can be such a comedy of errors. I have also noticed a couple of times recently that working in a school office sometimes resembles the job I held in my early twenties in a police dispatch center, as staff members go on foot pursuit of a runaway child and other various suspicious activities occur. But really, the vast majority of our student population is quite law abiding!

Add to that the soap opera of staff relationships and interactions and life is full of drama. I woke up yesterday morning and turned off my alarm, thinking it was Saturday. I previewed the joys of the relaxing day I anticipated, going off with my husband to look at 5th wheels, and went back to sleep. Nearly an hour later I woke up to Will's alarm and realized it was Friday. I was so annoyed, I just couldn't get up for a few minutes. Will was asking why I was still in bed and I groaned, "I have to frame my mind right." "What are you going to frame it around?!" he asked. Of course I meant I had to get back into the right frame of mind for a Friday before I could even get out of bed, and it was difficult after having my mind set for Saturday. I have received a few cracks from Will since then about my mind being framed, but oh well!

We did have an enjoyable time RV shopping today, but fortunately we did not find any 5th wheel that we couldn't live without. We always plan and anticipate this type of purchase for a long time. Not one salesman looked at Will and exclaimed, "Wow, you're a big one" as one did last year. We did have one who we feared we would have to either pry his hand off the pickup door or drag him out of the parking lot with us, but he finally let go!

When we got home, Will got to sit at the table and eat fresh veggies -carrots, green peppers, and broccoli, while I broiled some turkey burgers (from Costco) to serve with melted fat-free cheese slices on whole wheat bread. I counted it quite successful because although Nick was whining before dinner about needing real meat, he liked the turkey burgers. Will might have liked his better if I hadn't slightly overcooked it, but he would never complain. It's such a virtuous feeling to eat a healthy meal! I put lots of lettuce, some onions, green peppers and light ranch dressing with mine and it was delicious! A turkey burger has 5 grams of fat versus the 22 grams in Costco's lowest fat sirloin burger. Our arteries are thanking us right now! It's time for me to stop!!

The big red stuffed dog and balloons that were delivered for a student on Valentine's Day are still in our office. I personally showed it to the child on Wednesday when he finally returned to school, but he has never come back to pick it up! Perhaps I need to threaten him that I will put it on the Lost and Found table....

Reviewing Valentines Week

Here I am at home without my husband again on a Saturday night. We were supposed to go to dinner at a friend's house but he got called to work this afternoon. He got a camera on his last trip to Idaho. It came with a cool program which he used to frame a picture of himself with his dad.

What a week it has been. Much stress at work, with my dear office co-worker suffering the effects of her first chemo treatment, trying to work as much as possible but not able to be there as much as she wanted. Something happened that I have never seen before at school - a girl bit another girl's arm in anger, and felt it was an acceptable thing to do under the circumstances. I got yelled at by the victim's mother. During a break in her ranting, I requested a second time that she please take a seat until the principal could be with her. She turned to her daughter and said, "Is she stupid? I already told her I did not want to sit down." I almost laughed.

Then came Valentine's Day, always fun at our school, with parents and friends dropping off balloons, flowers, candy, stuffed animals, etc. for us to deliver to their darlings. A church youth worker even brought gifts for nine students and seemed annoyed when I respectfully requested that they not bring their valentines to us to distribute next year. (Note to church youth leaders: Please I beg of you don't ever do that to a school.) With about 40 extra note deliveries and then passing out the valentines as students came to the office at the end of the day added to our normal busy office duties, somehow one child did not receive the notification that there was something in the office for her. I was fortunate enough to answer the phone call from the parent who called shortly after school was out, demanding to know why her child wasn't notified, what kind of office do we run, who should have taken care of this, she and her daughter were so disappointed, her daughter was crying, she was so disappointed in us, how could we fail to do such an important thing, she was extremely disappointed, etc. I was also fortunate enough to get a lecture from the girl's father the next morning when he brought her to pick up her flower and balloon. "I'm very sorry" just wasn't good enough for them. My advice is, celebrate Valentine's Day with your child at home, it has nothing to do with school.

A great big red stuffed dog with a Happy Birthday balloon and a Valentine balloon was also not picked up. I called the home of the child, fearing that he also had not received a note. His mom said, "He just walked in the door and said he forgot to pick it up. No big deal." I was so relieved. The student was absent the next day. His gift is still sitting in our conference room.

I did enjoy going out to dinner on Wednesday night with my husband and attending the Valentine's Banquet at church with him last night. Valentine's Day is not ALL bad.

And today - what a happy day. Beautiful blue skies and sunshine - and I went to the wedding of a friend who was on her deathbed a couple of years ago, with cancer in her bones and liver. She got better and has felt great for the past couple of years. Her doctors are mystified. God is amazing! I was her daycare provider for her youngest, and it was fun to reminisce with him about the good old days when he and Eric made action figure movies together!

Not Bored Anymore

It's great to have my husband back home. We were quite social over the weekend, attending the sheriff's office awards dessert on Friday night (where we were privileged to preview a foretaste of Will's next career as a "soft rock singer" after he retires, his first music video - "I'm So Ronery") It made me laugh til tears flowed. Saturday was the monthly pinochle party, where I won a prize for having the lowest score. Good times. Sunday Doug, Anisa and Duane came to visit. Nick and Uncle Doug engaged in a rousing thumb wrestling match. They both started on the couch, but Doug thumb wrestled him to the ground. I love the look on Duane's face. What you can't see is that he is wearing one of Nick's enormous size 13 shoes, exclaiming, "It's so roomy!"You will notice Nick got a haircut. His hair had been quite big and disorderly. He came home one day and said he needed a haircut right away. I asked what changed his mind. "I caught a glimpse of myself in the window when I was walking into school, and I just looked goofy!" was his reply. I wasted no time getting out the scissors.