Skip to main content

Big Fat Trip

We went on a big, fat trip through our home state and various states we've lived in.  We drove 2200 miles altogether, saw friends and family, had one life changing moment and a few smaller moments that were just life.

It started when Ben got a job in Virginia for the summer.  We had planned to go join our family at the beach for Father's Day, but since Ben had to be in VA by the 25th, we thought we'd just change our vacation and have it while delivering Ben to his destination.

First stop was at a hotel about six hours down the road.  Nothing momentous to report.

Second stop was in Alabama to see my BFF Mary and her nine kids.  Nine.  And that's not all, there's more on the way!

Mary has been my friend for 13 years.  She can make me laugh like no one else.  My three kids and her oldest three kids were the same genders and similar in age.  They played together for years when we lived near each other and kept in touch long after we all moved.

Despite the fact that Mary and I talk or text several times a week, we haven't actually seen each other in person for seven years.
She's added quite a few kids to her family since the last time I saw them.  There were five or so that I had never actually met!  Two were missing from this photo.

Me and Mary

It's been so long, I have no idea why we took this photo!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more