Dionne Warwick, friends and me....plus edit...

I'm leaving tomorrow at 5:30am , that's AM, for a flight to Toronto, then on to Denver. From Denver, an angel will pick me up and take me to Colorado Springs for the weekend!!

Jane Austin will be feted while I'm in The Springs.

Then on Monday, another angel is driving me to Albuquerque...via???


SANTA FE!!

Redheads, you have NO IDEA how THA-RILLLLLED I am to be merely driving through that town, let alone stopping for lunch and a teensy bit of shopping.

From there, on to Albuquerque (ABQ), then, from ABQ, my 'Tour With Ted and Evie' begins.

God is SOOOOO good. He's blessed me with people who will share their home and their Navajo culture and answer a tonne of questions. I am over the moon!! And yes, I will be documenting everything. I even have a voice recorder on my phone. Insert grin here.

Feel free to start praying for them NOW.

After that, I take the train from Gallup to ABQ, then I get to meet an online friend I've "known" for years. Yet another reason to be excited.

Overnight in ABQ, then fly back to Denver, and another angel will take me back to The Springs. Or COS as they say.

I fly home on the 27th and flop for a few days.

Then back to work.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!


* that online friend is a girl,in case anyone is curious. NOT a Russian millionaire named Igor...

The '2 steps forward-2 steps back' grown-up dance.

Do you ever have days when you just drop your jaw and think "But...I thought I had it all together? I thought when I hit (insert your age here) I'd stop screwing up?"

Days when you crawl into bed and you're too weary to take out your contacts? Too indifferent to brush your teeth? Too worn out to even read?
Stuff is coming at you from all sides and you toss it all in the air and curl up in your blankie and sigh? But you can't sleep because it feels like you've had 14 lattes...and they all tasted bad?
You're a grown-up but all you want to do is call your mom and whine, and I mean WHINE about all the things that are piling up. But since you're a grown-up, you can't, because people need you to get it together and be present in the day to day life that you're supposed to have all together.

But deep inside, there's a kid who just wants to lie down on the floor and play with Legos and eat Halloween candy until she's cross eyed and shaking.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Normally I'm Perky McPerkerton. But yesterday Perky...wasn't.

In late afternoon, when I got to where I was supposed to pick up #4, one person thought it'd be funny to tell me someone should have called, because he got injured. 
Then she waved it off, telling me she couldn't do that to me. She's a doll, so I wasn't too mad, AND I knew they'd have called.


At least dinner was good. 

And so was the knowledge that I still have one TINY piece of Toblerone hidden in my house.

And I have a steady supply of Earl Grey tea, and cream. 

When I woke up this morning, my hair was so bad I laughed out loud. It was pointing straight up and waving.

Today is the day to fill the shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse, how can that NOT be fun? 
And buy Canadian chocolate for certain people who I'll be seeing in a few days.

My house is quiet.

It's NOT snowing.

I have more books than freckles.

I have a lot of freckles.

I just found out I have TWO pieces of Toblerone left.

Make that none...


I have the King of Heaven on my side, and I know I'm loved.

I'll leave you with one more thing...

*tiny bit of housekeeping duties...and I feel uncomfortable asking this...but you on on the lower right, that 'followers' thingy? If you haven't already, and only if you want to, can you 'follow' this blog? Thanks.

And now I feel all "will you go to the Fall dance with me?"

What happens when I write a blog post when I am SUPER tired...

I am tired.
Tigh yerd.
I woke up at 4am yesterday.
But when I'm writing this it's Tuesday night at 9:20pm.
I'm so tired, I could laugh at a dish towel.
"OH wow, it's COTTON! HAHAHA!"

THAT kind of tired.

So. Okay, up at 4am because I didn't want to sleep through two alarms and 5 snooze buttons to get our youngest to 6am hockey practice.
I know, I KNOW, 6am is INSANE. Try it when it's -20.

SO...we all roll in at 5:30am and wait. The "rink guy" always arrives at 5:30am and lets us in.
So AFTER I suggested a bunch of the boys go sit in Quentin's truck, I went back to my van, turned on the heat and relaxed.
Quentin's dad was all thankful and stuff that I let 5 boys goof off in his truck.
Not really.

And the rink guy? Let's just say he never arrived.

We got home at 6:30am and I crawled back into bed.
I rolled over at 8:30am and hopped out of bed, brushed my teeth and drove down to the hospital for my blood tests. Which were at 8:15am.
Which is when I was alseep. Oops. Asleeep.

I was all in a fluff and lather...liar... I didn't care at all. I took a number and waited with all the other sheep. Once I got my blood sucked out of my arm , I went up to the cafeteria and tried to act cool, but what I really wanted was a trowel to scrape vast quantities of food into my maw, as I hadn't eaten since the night before.
When I saw the line up and the bacon and egg counter, all I could think was "If those people weren't there, I'd just use my hands and scoop up scrambled eggs.

Sooooo. I went to Walmart, bought a few things...must stay awake...then went home. I sat at the computer and made stupid -girl comments on blogs then went back to the hospital for a neck x-ray....must stay awake...then to Costco...must get an ice cream...then home...must stay awake...
Oh, did  mention that the lady who took my paperwork for the x-ray gave me a very sweet, sympathetic smile and said "You should have gone straight to x-ray after your blood work. Didn't they tell you that?"
Now, this lady was very nice.
But I wanted to march down the hall to the blood suckers and yell "I could have been SLEEPING this morning, but, NOOOO, you couldn't figure it out and send me to x-ray??"

But, that doesn't exactly sound all that coherent.
So I didn't.

Because I'm so nice I weep at my niceness.
Not really, but what could I do? Other than whine.

SO. Off to Costco for toilet paper, since between the family of SIX, we had 2 half rolls left and a 2 boxes of Kleenex.
And you just know someone is going to bring home the Mother of all flu bugs...so I bought about 800 rolls at Costco and drive home and fell into the house and oh my...

A fresh cup of Early Grey and a few chunks of well hidden Toblerone, and ahhhh.

Don't worry, I know my kids don't read this. BTW? HAHAHA! It's in the dining room.

Okay, I NEED to get to bed, because I am losing it...

Oh wait...meaningful lesson for today?

Don't eat the foil on the Toblerone.

Breakwaters.

It's been sorta busy around here.

And it's just going to get busier.

So what does a mother of four do, when life kicks into gear and the schedules fill up?

Leaves town. Again.

On the 15, I'll leave for a 12 day research trek through Colorado and New Mexico. That give me 11 days to get A LOT done.

Thankfully, I have earthly and heavenly constants. 


My own personal breakwaters, if you will.

A husband who proves time, and time again, that he is proud of me and supports my writing down to the nth degree. Kids who are proud of me, no matter what I do. 

Even in the calm, my family are all there. 

And a Saviour who gives me the creative skill to write and the opportunities to go and be in the places that I put on a page.

And who reminds me that no matter what happens, He knew about it before I was born.

And the world can go ahead and try to knock me over...

...He is all I need.