Tropical Hawaiian Music

is definitely getting louder and playing in the background. Gone Surfing or Snorkelling or something like that .... Be back in a few weeks. Prayers for a safe Journey... Sunsets awaiting.

ALOHA

The vacation process is almost complete. Tomorrow we are off for some fun, sun, surf (I don't surf but it always sounds good to say) and what ever other adventure might come our way. Our friends are in Maui now and tell us the weather is good and the water is warm. Which is what you would expect from HAWAII.... we will meet up with them tomorrow afternoon if our plane gets out of LAX on time and all the other stuff goes correctly. I must admit I do get ant's in my pants now when I have to sit for that long and the movie always seems to be some kiddie flick about a mouse in a restaurant or some dancing penguin so having that is a distraction for a couple of hours does not work. The Bose's headphones are a lifesaver, they help almost as much as drinking adult beverages.... Time to go do some more items on the DO be FOUR YOU GO list.... I think I am starting to hear Hawaiian music playing in the background.... Happy Sunsets

STUFF

Lots and Lots of Stuff... to say, to do, to enjoy! Besides being a wife, mom, daughter, friend, aunty, and several other titles (titles other's call me may not be appropriate to mention here, I am sure they are always said in LOVE by others), I am a consumer. Mostly I have disappointing consumer stories - one such story was about my TARGET experience last January. Good News, I have still not shopped in a Target since January (my original goal was only 3 months). I did go in the door of one back in April, turned around and left.... Good for me! But there are some brands and places I remain very loyal too and for good reason so here are my stories from yesterday......


The good consumer story (ies).... took my Canon Rebel into the Canon center here in Irvine yesterday and they clean them for FREE... yes, FREE. I thought it was going to cost about $200.00. The attendant said if your camera is working fine it probably only needs to be cleaned. So I dropped it off and picked it up four hours later.... The test will be taking pictures next week on vacation. But the pesky spots I was seeing looking through the view finder are all gone. Now that is nice.... Second Story.... I had a camera lens which for some reason decided to act more like a quacking duck beak than a solid camera lens. I purchased it in February 2007 at Ritz camera at the Market Place in Tustin.... I returned it to them sometime this past June with the date of purchase and they were able to come up with my original receipt for the return and warranty information.... Amazing. To make a long story short, somehow the lens was lost and I never got a repair estimate for the lens..... Due to the long delay they found another lens just like the one I had and replaced it .... No more questions asked. I have always used Ritz camera and really like them. They do great film/digital developing of pictures. The prints may cost a penny or more but they have the best vibrant true colors on prints and I have always been happy with their processing..... Just like the other places you can upload from your home computer. Now aren't those nice consumer stories....

Vacation stuff is slowing getting done and Rich and I are looking forward to our trip. The emotional part is that they are having Aunt Liz's services when we are gone in Kauai. We will be there in spirit to hold sister Susan and her family close in our hearts and Rich and I are planning our own little "aloha", for Liz and Susan's family. There is this one BEAUTIFUL spot by the resort where the ocean, sky and land all come together. It is where we stood with Liz (and sister Susan) in September 2006 when we placed the flowers from our lei's in the water... You will find us in that spiritual spot at 7am Kauai time on the 26th not to say good bye but to say THANK YOU and ALOHA to a wonderful, brave courageous lady. We were so proud to call her AUNT but even prouder to call her FRIEND. Knowing she is not there any longer really leaves us with a big vacancy in our hearts.
Top of the blog - Rich Liz, and myself the day they were flying back home from Kauai. Beautiful Liz, tossing her flowers into the Pacific, her and sister Susan and finally - just the flowers floating in the rocks on the ocean tide. Life is so precious.
My prayer this week has simply been for the Lord to open my heart to how precious life here on earth can be and to know he is in control. It has been hard and there are lots of times I just want to sit and be sad. However, if there is one thing (actually there were several and they were all good) I learned from Aunt Liz it was to keep going, keep moving forward. She had been through very rough and emotional times and most people would have given up but she always quietly endured and kept going forward. Amazing example!

Liz, thank you for setting the bar so high on how to live this precious life.
xoxox Aloha GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!

POWERFUL STUFF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HpRO8g9Qds


Get a cup of tea, coffee, or your favorite beverage and give your self 9 minutes to watch this clip of Patsy Clairmont. She was just one of the speakers I did see this past weekend at Women of Faith in Anaheim. After watching this clip this morning I do feel renewed and ready... The good news is I am not in charge. On this same You Tube page there are some other good clips and be sure to check out Anita Renfro for some laughs... ALOHA

COUNT DOWN

Beautiful Liz.If my life were a reality show... which it feels like it is lately or a bad country western song. So much going on in the past month. Too many things and issues to deal with this year, this week! Yet, I pray and try my best to remain positive and maintain good humor (not the ice cream man... for those who can remember the GOOD HUMOR ice cream man). I guess you could call this LIFE, with all it's bumps, grinds, laughs, smiles and tears. The vacation count down has begun and in 7 days we are off to Kauai and the big Island of Hawaii. I should be excited, happy and anxious ready and willing (right) to do laundry so we can pack. Instead..... I have nothing to say no words of wisdom to "SELF". Something I do know ... this trip is different than last year. Last September we knew Rich would be going into City of Hope for his bone marrow transplant... we gave ourselves permission to have an outstanding vacation since their would be a long road and recovery. We did there was. In 2006 we went to Kauai and stayed at the Waiohai Beach Club, with Aunt Liz and her sister Susan. This year the trip will have lots of sweet memories of Liz and our trip there with her. I will never forget her comment about how much neater the place would look if they would only trim some of the vegetation. We still laugh about that one. Liz, we will have pineapple drink for you and picture you there with us just like it was September 2006....
The famous only to us "SISTAS" in Kauai

My head keeps arguing with my heart about isn't this terrible... could that be better. Could the 5 1/2 year old computer not need to be replaced (at least I have a computer).... Could the 17 year old washer and dryer not need to be replaced since they are on their last load... well at least I can have clean clothes. Could my car seat not have broken yesterday and need a bucket of money to fix. At least I have a car to fix... yeah- yeah... another head and heart argument... what a crock of ^%@#... says the head and the heart says no it's true you are blessed... To be Continued. The head -heart argument. Oh well the sun will come up tomorrow - tomorrow. I hope the heart wins the argument. It will...

Sadness and Great Joy

Some things happen in life and you just can not put them into words. You need to absorb, let it sink in and then try and figure it out. Which in talking to "SELF", I know I will never figure out on my own. So I pray and ask the great one (GOD), for some understanding in my heart and in my head. Maybe in a day, Maybe in a week, Maybe in an hour and then again maybe NEVER, will this earthly person have answers from "SELF" but the Lord will be not only my strength but I know he will heal my head and leave love in my heart where this amazing person once took up a living section here on earth. I pray not only my great sadness but that everyone elses sadness, in days to come be replaced with the great JOY in our hearts that she gave to all of us, unconditionally, every time we heard her voice or we were in her presents. Thank you, Thank God for you ... miss you... Aloha, tears and smiles.....

Labor Day

What a great day Labor day turned out to be.... It was supposed to be a day of staying home doing nothing getting ready for the week. We told ourselves this would be the case after spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Lake Arrowhead with our wonderful, gracious, friends Hardy and Phyllis. Their home in Lake Arrowhead is beautiful. They are the best host and hostess and they invited us to play in the Country Club golf scramble Friday. I thought I was just going to ride in the cart and Phyllis would say... Jackie get out - and hit the ball..... RIGHT... it has been at least 8 years since I was officially on a golf course and tried using those funny little sticks to hit the smallest dimpled ball in the world... (like shooting those sporting clays in Colorado - why not give it a try, you might actually like it) I actually managed to mostly make forward progress and I had one putt all day that went in the hole. DISCLAIMER... don't worry hubby GOLF can remain your sport not something I am ready to take up. Although, I do like the smell of a freshly mowed lawn in the morning. Rich and Hardy managed to play 64 holes of golf, Phyllis and I actually played tennis on Sunday and we took that funky little boat tour of the lake on the Arrowhead Queen... You know the one, where they point out where the movie stars lived or live and my favorite the big giant house with lots of acres around it.... a California LOTTERY winner... Life observation all those little tour boats are QUEEN something (Tahoe Queen, River Queen...)

Where oh Where is all this going .... to MONDAY of course. PHONE CALL.... Rich, says we have just been invited to go with Karen and Scott on their boat for the day. DECISION time, stay home (which is not a bad place to spend the day) or go enjoy some really fresh air, on a boat in the ocean??? Just like Jimmy Buffett says ... I'll take the deck of a boat any day. OH MY LORD (and he did not disappoint) ... the weather cleared up, the sun came out, the water turned blue, we were with great friends, on a fabulous boat.. then mother nature put on her show. Pilot Whales, BLUE WHALES and Dolphin.... I think we should have stayed home in our back yard.... yeah, right.

Pilot Whale... their must have been 30 or more.

Picture of "one" Dolphin riding under the bow of the boat. What you don't see is 8 of his or her other friends also under the bow. Jumping up so close you could hear them making noise and you could almost touch them they were so close. Amazing!

The BLUES

Sunset

and now it is Wednesday already. Life just moves a little to fast - so capture it. Take a picture or journal something about it... OR BLOG... !

ALOHA LOVE to ALL.