Where Did These Body Parts Come From?

Did you ever do something and wake up the next day to find aching body parts where you didn't even know these parts existed before? Hence, today...

So I'm officially old now. We moved the majority of my stuff yesterday. Today I believe I have polio. Where the heck did some of these muscles come from? If you've seen me, six pack abs are not in my profile. I prefer to say I have "the puffy look". But today... a 90 year old could beat me in a walker race.

It got me remembering. You know how you always felt you were in OK shape from say, high school, on? We must tell our children old age feelings begin at age 13. I remember the first days of cheer leading tryouts. The hamstrings I felt were so properly stretched felt like iron rods in my legs the second day of tryouts. Guys, if you tried out for any sport, you can relate to this. My shoulders felt like they had swelled to the size of football players with full pads on. All for moving a few extra muscles. HA! Go Titans!! The first snowfall always brings back some hidden muscles. Beautiful, white, pretty snow until the next day. Crap needs to melt and go away!

The real kickers are the little muscles that sneak up on you. Like, hey, let's go bowling! Got to move well with bowling, after all everyone is watching you with each ball you roll. The gutter is where you feel you should go lay down the day after bowling. This was so easy as a kid, now... But the ultimate pain is shooting darts. How can a tiny dart, weighing so little, cause so much bodily harm the next day? Can't lift the coffee cup, pens weigh 5 pounds each, and God forbid you have to sneeze! Remember that?

So for those of you who are gym goers, or health junkies, know this, you too have a memory of a day of pain somewhere in your mind. Just know that my "extra muscles" are screaming out to me today and I intend to not let this happen again. At least not until the next time.

Moving Again!

I'd start this out by saying what move number this is going to be, but to be honest, after 30, you just quit counting. I'm sitting here typing rather than pack anything else. Due to an unexpected trip to Philadelphia on December 27Th we are now packing and moving by next Saturday. UGH!!!

We are going to move in with Kristy and William next Saturday. Actually, on Monday we are taking the first loads over. They will include mainly the furniture they will now get. My friend Heath, from Sports Authority told me today that he could help us move on Monday, so Monday it is. William is off that day too, so we should be able to knock out the heaviest stuff then. I am selling my wall unit, and Heath has agreed to store it in his garage until I either sell it or move again. He's been a great friend through all of this. His kids are close in age to the grand kids, so they all play well together.

This is my last night of rest for awhile. Tomorrow I need to pack everything in Tricia's room, the desk stuff, move the computer and disassemble the wall unit after packing its contents. All of this reminds me of the many moves we've had in the past. Dan was the master truck packer, so I'm sure we will miss not having him there.

This all made me think of the first inter-country move Dan and I had. We were moving from Spain to England. We had all of 30 boxes to our name. We found a cute two bedroom apartment in New Market, England. It was perfect and the location of the famous Thanksgiving dinner I wrote about earlier. The movers came right after Dan left for work that morning. They had everything in the house in just over an hour. It would have gone faster but there was a tea break in there. I remember closing the door and turning around to what looked like so much stuff. 30 boxes! Now I laugh ... 30 boxes.

I opened each box putting everything exactly where I wanted it to go. By mid afternoon I was ready to call Dan to tell him it was looking like "home" in our apartment. Just then the phone rang. It was Dan. "Hey, don't rush to unpack, we're moving to base housing. " I plopped down on the stairs and began to tell him how proud and excited I was to have unpacked everything. He just laughed and said welcome to the Air Force. We were in the apartment for three months and then moved to base housing. You have to laugh!

So here I sit, 32 years later, moving again. It's more boxes now, but it's also without Dan. I'm already hearing him telling me how to pack things and how to disassemble furniture. He's here with us, and he's making sure all goes well. I'll update you on the move itself next weekend. For all of you who are married and reading this, remember your first move together? You have to smile. It was the start of something new and great. This will be right for us too. I'm just so grateful the kids have room for us and are being so helpful.

Family, where would you be without them?

Imagine, Know, Believe

Of everything I've posted so far, this memory is happening as I type and will be with me forever. It is also the hardest one I've ever done.

Imagine it is two weeks before Thanksgiving. You know you are not happy at your job. You've been job searching for a few weeks now. You believe for whatever reason, someone you work with has been sabotaging your work. You aren't 100% sure who it is, although you have a pretty good idea who. You aren't 100% sure why that person is doing it, other than that person has the most to gain from your being gone. You keep moving forward with your best efforts at work, despite knowing all of this. You are a Christian and will not accuse anyone without being 100% sure first. You go in to work as you would normally do, and get called to the main office. When you sit down you are told that you are being terminated. You are told that they no longer want you there. You calmly feel that God is "running the show" as you leave the store. You get in your car. you close your eyes and simply pray. You talk so openly to our Lord and say" I'm giving this over to you. I don't know what to do. I have 100% faith in you and know you will not punish me for doing nothing wrong. You know the truth Lord. I put this in your hands."

You turn on the car and drive home to tell your family what just happened. You are not angry, just numb. Reality tells you that you cannot fall apart. You just pray, pray pray. After talking to your family you get a phone call from a company you had previously submitted an application with and interviewed with. They want another interview that afternoon. "Thank you, Lord. Thy will be done."

At the end of the interview you tell the interviewer that you really look forward to being a part of their company. You hope we will be working together very soon. He looks you in the eyes and calmly says. "Don't worry. We will be working together very soon." On the way home from the interview you call the corporate office, as you were instructed to do, to give your feedback on the interview and let them know that you are still interested in the position. Yes I am, because of who they are and how they operate, not because of the mornings events. You imagine the opportunity, you know you could definitely bring the best to the company, and you believe the Lord himself put this opportunity before you.

Several conversations occur between you and the company you interviewed with over the next few weeks. You expand the positions you are qualified for with them and open your relocation to include 3 states. The contact at corporate could not be more helpful to you. She is amazing. But the decision is not hers. You also submit applications with numerous other companies, although your heart is with the first company.

Imagine it is now two weeks before Christmas. You've realised the situation your family is in due to your unemployment. You know you are doing all you can, and making some truly hard decisions about the future of where you and your family will go next. You believe that your Lord and your faith are your biggest strengths. You will get through this.

Imagine you are opening the days mail today. As you read the letter you know you now have no unemployment to fall back on to survive. The company you were with is telling them they fired you. You believe that you don't have the energy to fight that battle right now. Right now you can only find a way to take care of your family. You pray until you are screaming in your head. You believe you have to do something and once again ask God to take this and help you.

Imagine my day today. Know I have faith that all will be worked out. Believe me when I say that I will keep my promise to Dan and take care of my family. If anyone has any job openings they know of I will happily send you my resume. I will find a way to relocate if needed. I will make this better.

Most importantly: I imagine that our Lord is surprised at how humbled I am right now. I know that He is in charge of what happens next. I believe He will get us through this. This memory will never go away...

Stars and Clouds

For years I've loved to look at the stars and watch clouds. It opens your mind to see and imagine so many things.

Living away from our "families" as we did all our lives, I used to tell my nieces and nephews that if they missed me all they had to do was to look up at the stars and think of me. Wherever I was in the world, I would see the same stars and think of them. Now you may think that was just something clever to say to a child, but it was a real statement to me. Nearly every night of my life I look to the stars and think of people in my life. Sometimes I cry at missing people so much, other times it makes me think of a special memory and I just smile. Dan used to laugh at me because I would go out in the pool at night, in the dark of course. I'd float on my back, looking at the stars and thinking of family. He knew that if I missed someone I'd be thinking of them. I might be "moody" for a few days, but it was my way of staying close to everyone.

Stars were great at night, but sometimes you think of people during the day too. So I began watching the clouds. You can see so much in them. They can calm you, warn you of trouble ahead, or give you direction to see something that brings back a great memory. There were a lot of times when what I saw in those clouds told a real story. For example: We were on our way to Mom Haynes' funeral, from Florida heading to Ohio. Somewhere over Georgia we took a picture of the clouds because what we saw just blew us away. In the clouds, if you look close, you can see faces. We each saw different things, but we all knew we saw something pretty amazing. I'm adding that picture to this blog for you to decide. I saw Dan waiting, arms open, to meet his Mom. I saw Christs' face, as I imagine it. You decide what you see.

At night, when I couldn't always see the stars because it was cloudy, I decided that beyond those clouds would be my family and friends, and for that night I had to close my eyes, imagine, and remember them all. And I did.

Now it's a regular part of swimming with Zamma to take a few minutes, rest your head on my shoulder as you float on your back, and look at the clouds together. We've seen everything from Mickey Mouse to a mean gorilla (LOL), but the best part is, when I hear "Zamma can we look at the clouds now?" I love it...

Every night I look for my Dan star now. He's there, watching all of us, knowing I'm looking for him every night. And if clouds get in the way I know that's just him covering over us to protect us until morning. Take a minute to look at the clouds or the stars. You'd be amazed what you can see, and even more amazed at what you think about while looking!

Meet the Haynes'

When you are a young girl and dream about getting married, it's only natural to dream that your new in-laws are going to like you. Now imagine getting married to someone while living in a foreign country. Neither of you gets to meet the others' families until after you are married. I remember flying home from Spain with Dan to meet the new families. Talk about nervous. With a total of fifteen hours of flying time to think about this special day, there was nothing to be nervous about, right? HA!

Dan told me about every member of his family; what they liked, didn't like, what drove them crazy, how to understand them, etc. The brothers and sisters didn't worry me, but the parents did. This was a big first impression I had to make. I made the decision to take Dan's advice to heart and try to be myself... yeah, right!

We met at the airport, with lots of hugs and hellos. I just met my new mother-in-law and father-in-law. They seemed so nice. Guess all that worry was for nothing. I remember watching Dad's face in the mirror as he drove. I saw him watching me at the red lights. Mom was watching me in the side mirror. What's wrong with that? I married their oldest son and they wanted to know everything about me. When we pulled in the driveway of the house on Highpoint, everything Dan told me about how to act was going through my mind. God, please don't let me mess this up.

I heard Dan say his Grandfather was coming, be ready. Ready? For what? My car door opened and a hand reached in to help me out of the car. It was Grandpa Haynes. He said hello and hugged me. We then proceeded to dance in the driveway! Waltz! What a funny guy! Wow, that relaxed me! Now for the rest of the family...

Mom immediately asked if I wanted something to eat. I was way too nervous, but thanked her anyway. The first brother I remember meeting was Brian. Cute, crazy, great smile...just like Dan told me. As Brian hugged me I saw Brad over in the kitchen. He looked scared to death, like I was feeling. He came over, introduced himself as Bradley, "but you can call me Brad". He had smiling eyes and I liked him immediately. Running in from the living room came this little girl who flew up into her big brothers arms: enter DD. She was so little and so funny. This whole family had the best smiles. I think I'm gonna like them. As we were walking into the living room, I met Grandma Haynes. The first thing she whispered in my ear was "don't be nervous, we don't bite. Thank you for taking care of our Danny."

I have to admit, on that day I saw the worlds ugliest, cutest dog, Mooloo? What was it? Was it really a dog? It was so ugly it was cute! I saw a door open at the top of the stairs and this cat came floating out. Yes, I said floating. I don't think it really stepped on the steps to come downstairs, it kind of just "floated". After the cat came another brother, Willie. He didn't look like the other guys. He smiled, hugged me and went back to his room. He had me wondering...

We took our luggage in and tried to settle in a bit. I was still too nervous to even go to the bathroom. By now everyone was in the kitchen, the heartbeat of activity for this family. Dad was at the end of the table and Mom was cooking something already! I asked if I could help her, but she said to just relax and get to know everybody. Heck, I could barely keep track of every ones name! Later I met Mary and Steve. Dan told me he and Mary were pretty close. She kept watching me, like a sister would, but just like the rest of them, had this really great smile. He husband Steve, now he was crazy! He had long hair, but not in a grungy way. He was so cool. He had everyone laughing all the time. When he hugged me hello he said, "if you need help with names, let me know, I've been through this already". He made me feel relaxed instantly. There was some commotion to which I heard "Pam is here!" In came Bill, Pam, a kid in a baseball cap who I later learned was Craig, and the most beautiful big eyed little girl, Colleen. She was Dan's God Daughter.

That night while we were all in the kitchen laughing at Steve and Brian I kept watching Mom in the kitchen. She never really sat down...or left the kitchen. She had such a look of peace on her face. Her son was home. She had a new daughter-in-law, and from all signs I was doing OK in her eyes. The jet lag was catching up with us so we were finally heading to bed. Now that's a weird feeling... when their son left, he was single and never had a girl in his room. Now he was home with his wife. We got into bed and Dan just cracked up laughing. "I'm in bed with a female and my parents are right across the hall!" I reminded him that the female was his wife and it was OK. He held me close, looked me in the eyes, and I blurted out "don't even think about it!" We slept well that night, that first night meeting my new family.

Walking on the Ceiling

Tell me you didn't do this...

Lay on the couch or on your bed. Hang your head over the side. Look towards the ceiling. Now pretend you are walking on the ceiling and the whole room is upside down. You have to jump over the ceiling lights because now they are on the floor. To get from one room to the other you have to step up over the doorways. The best part is when you have vaulted or cathedral ceilings because then you have built in slides on your walls! Because the floor (normally the ceiling)slants, you have to slide down the walls to get to other rooms. Now that's fun! When we had sky lights in our first Florida house, we had to be really careful. If you got too close to the end of the wall you could fall into the skylight and break it!!!

Or what about this: While you are upside down looking at the ceiling you pretend you are an ant. You have to climb over the texture in the ceiling to get across the room. The bumps are like mountains because you are an ant. I remember when I was in the dentist chair I used to stare at the ceiling and try to either connect the dots on the ceiling tiles, or make a path around all the dots on the tiles to get across the room. Hey, it beat thinking about what the dentist was doing! The hard part about the dentist is when he would stick his head in my way and I would have to start my "ant journey" all over.

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who did this. Today I did it with Kaylie. She had to jump over the blades of the fan to go across my living room. When she got to the kitchen she used the fluorescent light as a balance beam and did gymnastics on it. So I'm weird... but boy we had fun!!!

Kids Tupperware Parties

I'm sitting on the floor in any one of a dozen of our previous houses. The girls want to play and I'm trying to be creative and find something new to do. Then comes the obvious... the Tupperware cabinet!

Think of all the cool things in there. You can have some very cool tea parties with some very unusual dishes. Or what about playing aliens!!! Tricia had the popcorn popper cover on her head one time claiming to be E.T. If you have a really plush kitchen carpet you can smooth out the nap with your hand. Then push cookie cutters into it and you can see the cookies! If you stack three white different sized bowls on each other you can have a snowman. We did that our first Christmas in Lakenheath, England because we couldn't afford many decorations. Do you know how many musical instruments you have in your Tupperware collection? A few wooden spoons and you have one heck of a drum set! (Take Tylenol before that one.)

One time when my Nephew John was very small he came to visit us in Florida with my sister. We were all talking in the kitchen and John was on the floor playing with my Tupperware. (Let's face it, I didn't have many boy toys in our house.) He especially liked to hide the dishes in the cupboard and close the door, kind of like peek a boo with Tupperware. The funniest part was when he pulled one over on us while we weren't looking. John climbed in the cabinet with the peek a boo Tupperware and closed the door on himself. He proceeded to call out "Hey" until we found him. He thought he was "the Master" at peek a boo from then on. All thanks to Tupperware!

Lots of memories of kitchen play times... When you need to get the meal prepared and still watch the kids, head for the Tupperware cabinet!