After- thought: August 2007

We are off to relax for a week! I didn't realize I was so ready for a vacation until the plans solidified and it was all a "GO!" We'll begin our school year when we return. There is a ton of stuff going on in Sept., so this is going to be the calm before the storm! We're looking forward to seeing friends and family, and being hugged and laughing, & having some real heat and summer weather. Please be praying for us. Our van isn't in Primo shape, and we are on a tight, tight budget. We'll be driving around 18 - 20 hours, with 3 teenagers (who love eachother, blessing or blessings!) and Cricket of course.

Doug, if you are reading this, Cricket can't wait to see you!

I may post while we are away. If I even think about a computer in that time!

I was an introspective kid. I don't know that it was on purpose, but having few to zero friends put me in a place where I spent a lot of time thinking. Once I became a Christian, God began to invade those times and they became all the sweeter, but less about me. When I was about 11 or 12, after a particularly hard day of school, I came home and grabbed a notebook and pen and started writing a list. At first I just wrote, then as I sat there the Holy Spirit whispered to me and I wrote His ideas down too. The list was one of "things I would like to do or see while I yet had breath in me." I began it because I wanted a purpose to life beyond what I was experiencing. Over the years I have expanded it, but I committed to never remove anything from it because I wanted it to remain a catalog of God Sized possibilities and not within my limitations.
I was thinking of how wonderful it feels to be an Auntie, when I realized it was another thing to check off the list of "While I yet have breath"...
I thought I'd share the entire thing with you. It is in no particular order. I didn't # them on purpose as I didn't want one to seem more important than another... Prepare yourself! You may be surprised at a few...

Things to Do / See While I Yet Have Breath In Me

· Fall deeply, helplessly, and unconditionally in love with someone who returns the sentiments and marry him. X (11/26/1988)
· Be an amazing friend who has amazing friends.
· Teach someone to read. X (1991, 1994, 2000)
· Ride horses on the seashore.
· Give birth, breastfeed, and raise loving children. X (1989, 1991, 1993)
· Be someone others respect deeply but do not fear.
· Be rescued.
· Memorize a book of the Bible.
· Be hugged by my Dad for no apparent reason & hear him say, “I love you.” For the same reason. X (11/22/06 - he died later that week unexpectedly)
· Bathe in a claw foot tub with tons of bubbles. X (11/26/2000 Anacortes, WA)
· Learn to tell the truth, in love, tempered with grace.
· Take a vacation with no time limits and stop whenever and wherever I wish. Have picnics, explore, photograph everything of interest…
· Make my own jewelry.
· Work in a soup kitchen for a holiday.
· Talk in an foreign accent for an entire day, some place where no one knows me.
· Sit on a jury.
· Milk a goat.
· Meet at least 2 people I do not know, whom I admire deeply.
· Attend a Broadway Musical or a Ballet on Broadway.
· Swim with Dolphins.
· Ride a camel in Africa.
· Send a message in a bottle in the Atlantic Ocean.
· Pet a Harbor Seal Pup.
· Learn to speak a foreign language fluently.
· Learn Sign language well.
· Be covered in butterflies.
· Visit 5 of the 7 continents. (N. America, Asia...)
· Be someone’s mentor.
· Learn to really dance. All styles (except western).
· Write a novel and have it published.
· See the Smithsonian and the rest of DC.
· Watch a lunar eclipse. X (3/3/07 another one happens on the 28th of this month!)
· Write my will.
· Experience weightlessness.
· Kayak with Killer Whales.
· Hold my grandchildren, and see them laugh.
· Walk through history in the original 13 colonies.
· See the Northern Lights.
· Ride in a hot air balloon.
· Design and grow my own secret garden.
· Watch a lightning storm at sea.
· Visit the birth places of my ancestors.
· Own one classic, classy evening dress.
· Volunteer at an AIDS clinic in Africa.
· Buy a home near a stream or pond with a big porch & have a “revolving door” for friends, family, and needy.
· Learn to sing so others at least don’t mind listening.
· Spend Christmas in the Alps in a chateau by a fire with the one I love and wrapped in Cashmere.
· Have our family portrait painted.
· Throw a huge party where everyone who has ever been dear to us is invited and attends.
· Watch the sun come up on the ocean embraced by someone who loves me.
· Tour countries by bicycle for a year.

· Become an Auntie X (8 / 10/ 2007!!! to Connor)
· Fly a plane.
· Take serious art classes.
· Be a “mama” to hundreds of orphans.
· Go white water rafting.
· Be kissed so passionately I get dizzy.
· Have photos published.
· Experience a spa day ~ a total pamper and primp.
· See the Cirque de Soile`.
· Ride a motorcycle. X (beginning in 2002 - 2005, Honda Nighthawk 750)
· Make love in a sleeper car on a traveling train.
· See my children marry someone who loves unconditionally, passionately, and deeply and have the wedding they dream of.
· Help build a house.
· Become knowledgeable and passionate about a cause.
· Live somewhere without TV / Internet / Telephone / Cell Phone for a year, where there is a tight community of people. (almost like early America)
· Photograph: A birth, a wedding X (10/3/03; 11/13/04; 5/5/05; 8/4/07; ), a funeral.
· Speak at a large conference.
· Wander through: sleepy New England villages; and the fallen leaves, flea markets, ancient ruins, coffee shops, sandy beaches, museums, gardens, vineyards and attics of the Grecian Isles, Scotland, Ireland, Giverny, Tuscany, Madeira, Maine, and Prince Edward Island.

Lately I've added: