Back to the Real World

Well. . . Vacation is over and it is back to the real world for me.

I had a great time with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew, and Sharon. I missed having my Hubby Ken with me though. I would have loved to see him Parasail with the rest of us. That experience was the highlight of our Cruise for me. We have Cruised to Mexico before but have never parasailed. I thought I would be scared since I have a fear of heights but that was not the case in the least.

When we got back to San Diego on Saturday, I called Ken to let him know we would be getting off the Ship in one of the first groups. That way we could get to the Santa Fe Train Station and get our tickets for Amtrack and make our way to Irvine. (That was the original plan) Ken told me that Southern California was experiencing major fires in numerous places and that we needed to try to change our (Mine and Sharon's) Train to the earliest possible train because the Freeways were being closed and it might take us longer to get home.
We went to breakfast and after we had eaten we started to make our way to the waiting area for debarcation. I spotted one of the Cruise Directors and decided to talk to her about our delima. She was able to move us up to the first ones off after VIP. We were in the group of passengers who had early "Flights" to catch. Thank You Weezey! ! ! I called Ken to up date him on our progress and he said to try to get the ticket changed to take us all the way to Santa Barbara and they would meet us there.
Getting off the Ship was quick and easy compared to some of our other experiences. We then made our way to the Train Station and stood in line for about 10 minutes. We were able to change our tickets and take the next train (it was waiting on the track) and we were able to take it all the way to Santa Barbara.
Let's see Car-Ship-Boat-ParaSail-Train-Car. . . .yep, that pretty much says it all.

Not packed yet

I guess I SHOULD be getting my stuff together so that I can start packing my bags. I am going on vacation but I haven't started to pack yet.

I guess I SHOULD be thinking about what I want to take with me, so that I can start getting my stuff together so that I can start packing.

I did make a packing list. So. . .I guess I SHOULD go print it off so that I can start thinking about what I want to take and I can start getting my stuff together and start packing.

If I keep this up much longer, I will have to start un-packing. . .so. . .good-by for now. I will let you know later how wonderful my vacation was.

Did I tell you I am going on a cruise with Two of my Grandsons?

I'm such a lucky Grandma. ;-0

Near Catastrophy - Times Two

Yesterday I worked at our office in Cambria. It was a pretty UN-eventful day until about 15 minutes till closing time.

It had been a relatively warm day in Cambria and one of the employees had oppened the front door and the back door in order to let the nice ocean breeze blow through. Unfortunatly a humming bird flew in the back door and couldn't find his way back outside. He kept flying in big circles close to the ceiling and weaving in and out of all the halloween decorations that they have hanging from the ceiling. It was wierd watching him go around ghosts, bats, spiders and pumpkins. It was also very dizzing because humming birds fly very fast.

Add to the equasion that there is one of the staff that is petrified of birds, and you can just imagine the site. Here I was trying to swat at the humming bird as it sped past me and then losing my balance due to the fact that I was spinning around trying to keep my eyes on him. Finally two of us were able to shoo him out the back door and lock him outside.

Then it was time for me to balance my cash and secure it in the vault. Without revealing too much about the workings and layout of the vault, let me just say that I was not visable to the other staff members at that time. I heard someone yell "Don't shut the vault yet. Mary's still in there!!!!" Whew. . .that was close. . . .if that person hadn't seen me walk into the vault, I might still be in there. HA HA HA

Sunday Morning Special Music

Have you ever practiced something and were confident that you had everything just right only to have something go terribly wrong? Well that is what sort of happened to me this past Sunday. I got to Church early and went over the song that I was going to sing that morning. We got the volume just right and I knew the words by heart. This was a song I had sung many times before and I was ready.

By way of introduction I mentioned a time in 1969 when someone at work asked me what song I was humming and I said "He Touched Me". The person then said with a very "worldly" tone, "that sounds like fun" . I was too shy at that time to reply that the Song was about God's Touch on our lives and not about man's touch. Then I nodded to Ken (he was running the sound board) to let him know I was ready for the music. And then. . . . . . nothing happened. I told him "Trac 4" He said "Nothing is happening". . . so I said. . . "Well, I think I know this song well enough to sing it without the music. . . . .I began to hum the intro to get the key, and then I sang the song a capella.

It went very well, and it just proves that God's Hand truly is on us when we trust in His power to accomplish things for His Glory and not our own.

Looking Forward To. . . . . . .

Vacation. . . . .

In November while Ken is at the State Convention in San Diego, I will be taking a Cruise with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew. Oh yeah, and my BFF Sharon is going to be my room-mate. Yippee, Yay, Hoorah!!! Sharon's hubby Dewey gets to spend the week with Ken. (Will they go to the convention or play hookey????)

To get to the Ship we will be driving down the night before and staying at Jason & Karyns house. Then we will caravan to the port, say goodby to the two guys and board the Carnival Elation. I will have to fill you in later on details of our trip but once it is over Sharon and I have to get from San Diego to Irvine because while we were gone our Husbands will have attended the afore mentioned Convention and will have traveled to Irvine for a 3 day (?) training class. My wonderful Husband got on line and booked us on AmTrac from San Diego to Irvine so that we will arrive close to the time they will be finished with their training.

In the span of one week we will have traveled by Car, Ship and Train.

I think I will need a vacation from my vacation once I get back home.

Right & Left Grand then Prominade Home

Well here I am in my finest shirt , fancy pants and red bandana, doing my best to keep up with the caller.
This was taken at the Mother-Daughter Retreat that Christy and I went to this month. She is in the center of the picture on the far side also wearing a white shirt and fancy pants. Someone in red is blocking her.
We had loads of fun even though it rained all day on Saturday.

On being a Grandma

Nathanael will turn ten this month on September 24th. He was the first of our 5 Grandchildren. His little sister Grace is our last Grandchild. We will now have to wait for the Great-Grands to start arriving, but that will be sometime in the distant future. In between numbers 1 and 5, we were blessed with 3 more boys.

Nathanael was and is a huge blessing to us. I was sooo ready to be a Grandma. I love being able to buy things for my Grand kids and just spending time with them. Nathanael and I share a love of Giraffes partly due to the fact that I gave him a toy Giraffe as soon as he came home from the hospital. He is such a wonderful big brother and a good helper to his Mom and Dad.

Our second Grandson was born a little more than three months later on January 7th. Timothy made his grand appearance on our Wedding Anniversary. Wow Christy and Mark, thanks for that gift. Tim is the deep thinker in our family. He sometimes appears older than his 9 1/2 years. What a joy he too has been to our family.

Number 3 on the list is Matthew. Matthew is the second Son of Our Son Jason and our Daughter in Law Karyn. Matthew is a tender heart and very considerate of others. I love the story that Karyn told about the time when Matthew sat at the table without eating until someone asked if something was wrong with his food. Then he said "No, but we didn't pray."

Our Fourth Grandson Jonathan is just a tad bit stubborn. He must get that from his Auntie Christy. ha ha ha I love that little boy! As I love all of them, but Jonathan has his own mind and knows very well how to make is presence known.

And then we were blessed with Grace. Wow! What a way to wrap up our years of welcoming new Grandchildren. Grace will be the last one unless something changes some one's mind. hint hint. But that us OK with Papa Ken and Grandma Mary. We love to watch the antics of Grace and look forward later this month to see all of the Grandkids when we travel to Southern California for Birthday Party's.

I thank God for each and every one of our Grand Children and I pray for them daily. I also pray for the girls that I will one day call my Granddaughters. . . the girls that marry my Grandsons. And I pray for the young man that will some day ask my Granddaughter to marry him. God knows the plans He has for my Grandchildren. All we need to do is to follow His plan and not our own plan.