Sky Valley, Georgia

I have gone on yet another vacation. This has been the summer of travel. We returned this weekend to a cabin in North Georgia where we stayed last summer and had a wonderful time. On Friday we hiked a 1.6 mile trail that took took us 1000 feet up to the second highest point in Georgia - 4,600 ft. elevation. Needless to say, the air was thin and we are not in the greatest shape for hiking!! It felt like we would never make it and I seriously considered giving up several times...it didn't help that I had just heard on the news about those poor people being mauled by a bear, so I was scared too. But we trudged on. I started singing about halfway up and after a while, Chris said, "Can you think of any songs that aren't about death?" I really wanted to make it to the top because we had been told that you had a 360 degree view of the mountains from the summit. But, I kept thinking, can it be THAT great? Finally we rounded the final corner and to my surprise, I was suddenly in view of a twenty foot high rock tower with a platform on top. It was just incredible. The view was better than I am able to describe. It was breathtaking. All I could think is, this is what it will be like at the end of my life...when I see what's "on the other side." It will be so much more incredible than what I can imagine and so worth the journey.
The next day we went to a COOL (I mean temperature) waterfall and swimming hole and swam. I swam up to the waterfall and stood on an underwater ledge and leaned back against the wall and let the waterfall spill over me. Another incredible experience.
The last day we went to the Ocoee River and watched as the water was released from the dam for the rafters - yes you read that right, the water in this long stretch of river is about 2 feet deep until 10 am when the water is released and suddenly, as you watch, a rush of water fills up the once empty stream and becomes a challenging run of rapids for hundreds of thrill seekers.

Go to North Georgia. It is breathtakingly beautiful and very much like a verdant playground!!

New Job

Two weeks ago I was offered a job as Federal Programs Director at the district office in my school district. I have never had a job other than teaching in my adult life. I am excited and I am terrified. I have wanted to try another form of service to education. I am an educator. I never wanted to leave the field, but I have yearned for another direction. Well, I have it now.

Orange Beach, Alabama

I recently went to Orange Beach with my daughter, her husband, her friend and my friend. We stayed in a lovely condo and had a wonderful time. The beleaguered residents of Orange Beach put up a brave face, but they are hurting. Their precious ocean is tainted with oil, they are just recovering from Katrina and the tourists are visiting other beaches this summer. I know this is true because while the restaurants were full, we never had to wait for a table. It was beautiful as always. I have had a lifetime love affair with the Gulf Coast and it's only getting worse as I get older. I have begun to discover layers of interest there other than the beach. Last November, Chris and I discovered the local art museum where a resident artist holds glass blowing exhibitions and classes. This year, we discovered the Bon Secour River...on kayaks no less. The float was magical and I can definitely see myself spending more time exploring the river. I love my coast as so many others do, and it is my sincere prayer that the people out there working on the oil spill are imbued with wisdom for repairing the damage as much as possible.

Oregon

I just returned from a week in Oregon. My husband and I flew in to Portland and spent a couple of days with my brother and his family. They drove us over the Cascades to Central Oregon where we spent 4 days with my husband's brother and sister and their families. Oregon is the most diversified state!! It has mountains, ocean, rainforest, high desert, skiing and white water rafting all within 6 hours of each other. I love the Portland weather. My sister-in-law, who lives in Seattle, thinks I'm crazy because she gets so tired of the gray weather and rain, but the vegetation it creates is incredible. It was like going through the looking glass when we crossed over the Cascades: Blue skies, warm air, scruffy trees and bushes.
We were amazed at what Oregonians call warm. When the temperature shot up to a whopping 70 degrees, everybody jumped in the pool....in Mississippi in June, the temperature might dip down to 70 at night and we sure won't be caught swimming until it hits 80!!
I am so blessed to have family all over the place. It's wonderful to be toured around a new part of the country by locals...who let you shack up with them for a few days!! I seem to be rambling so I'm going to put the rest of this entry in bullet form:
Thursday, June 10 - Portland via Memphis and Dallas. The time change and layover in Dallas put us at 14 hours in the airport system. My brother picked us up at the airport.
Friday, June 11 - We had brunch in a lovely Cafe called the Tin Shed in downtown Portland. Great Food!! We visited the Portland Rose Garden and saw more varieties of roses than I could imagine. We visited several POI's in Portland ending up at the Bipartisan Cafe for coffee.
Saturday, June 12 - Brother, husband, 8 month pregnant sister-in-law, niece, big dog, me and luggage load up in a SAAB station-wagon to make the 4 hour trek across the Cascades. Stop at Multnomah Falls - it was really awesome to hear all the languages being spoken at both the falls and the rose garden - it seems we are all awed by basically the same things!!
Sunday - Wednesday, June 13-16 - I'm going to lump these together because Central Oregon is the land of the everlasting day and I can't separate what happened when now. The sun wakes you up at about 5:30 and then it might go down by 9:30 at night. It it absolutely exhausting. Our summer days in MS are equally long but somehow these days stretch out forever. I think the dry, cool air is the difference - you can golf or swim or hike or bike or whatever at anytime of the day so the possibilities are literally endless - you can really pack a day full whereas, in MS, you have to get your outdoor activities over by about 10:30 am and resume them at 4 pm unless you want to risk heat stroke. Our two condo's were 2 miles apart and we had only one vehicle, so we rented bikes to go visiting. We saw mountains and rivers and wildlife. We went golfing and swimming (burr) and walking. It was fantastic.
Things I loved: the roses, the mountain views, the cool and dry air, the AWESOMENESS of the countryside, seeing my precious family, the uniqueness of Portland.
Things I missed: The heat (seriously), friendliness, rhinestone sandals, women with make-up and fixed hair (LOL), Bubba's, people who don't think I talk funny.
We had an awesome vacation and I'm already looking forward to the next one!!

God's Checklist

I have had a roller coaster of a week. I spent Monday and Tuesday on a strict schedule of chores...that I had made up for myself. I got up Wednesday morning dreading the day because I knew that I could get my checklist done, but I wouldn't be happy even when every item on the to-do list was checked off. You see I have this conviction that my worth is tied up in my productivity - as though I were an appliance. I am 43. I hope not to die before I overcome this conviction. Wednesday, I spoke to the Creator and said, "Today, you make my checklist. I'll follow." So I began the day by tutoring this Chinese girl who has lived in the US for about 6 months and who I am helping to learn conversational English. This fact is one of many that makes both my family and friends roll their eyes and tell me that my life is very interesting - whatever that means. The girl is 21. She has an 8 year old cousin who sometimes tags along. One day I will devote an entire blog to this situation. The two girls hinted around about staying with me after we finished the lessons and finally told me that the older girl's mother was out of town at a wedding and that they would be lonely at home the rest of the day.
I had called a friend earlier to eat lunch so we just turned lunch into a luncheon of sorts. It was pretty funny to introduce two people to the world of Pizza Hut and all of the strange tastes there. lol They were not impressed - I thought everybody loved pizza. They then ran several mundane errands with me - Well, if I had been alone they would have been mundane. I felt like the FBI had dragged me in for questioning - it's funny how we take for granted the wonder of going to the post office and paying the water bill.
We then went to my aunt's house for a visit. She fed us all cookies and water and we enjoyed an hour on her sun porch.
Earlier at the library, the younger of the girls had checked out a craft book and had peppered me with requests to make this crafty teacher out of an eraser and pencils. So we went to my classroom and swiped an eraser then we went to my house and I gathered up scraps of this and that from my treasure trove of crafts. I must say that the result was an eraser teacher that looked even better than the example in the book. I discovered then that the girl was making it for her teacher. Of course, we had to drive across town to take it to the girls school. I told her that her teacher would not be there - but you know how it is when you are a kid - you can't conceive of your teacher not being at school, summer or not. So we went and thank goodness, the principal, who is fantastic, took the gift and promised to get it to the girls' teacher. When I finally convinced the girls that I really did have to take them home, they had me take them to their family restaurant instead where her father filled two plates with yummy Chinese food and sent me home with my supper made.
I ended the day relaxing on the porch with my precious husband - in absolute awe of the difference in my checklist of things to do and my God's checklist.
That set the tone for the rest of the week. I just let things happen. Some of them were hard work, some of them were fun, some were expected and some were total surprises. But I was not in the driver's seat. I was riding. For those of you who are control freaks - you know that that is not easy - but let me say that it is better, far better. I think I'll try it again this week.

Summer Plans

I am looking forward to my first unfettered summer in a long time....maybe ever. I am a recovering volunteer-a-holic and I tend to fill my precious 10 weeks of summer vacation with a variety of community service projects. But the last two years have really been challenging and I have decided to dedicate this summer to my self and to my home.
As soon as my youngest child left home to go to college, I began a very rigorous master's degree program in educational leadership. In the middle of the pursuit of the degree, my oldest child and only daughter got married. I feel like I have not stopped running since my daughter was born 22 years ago. I'm not complaining. I am fully aware that I am crammed my life full of activities and events and projects for the last two decades. I will probably continue to do so, but this summer, the only events I have on the calendar are three vacations.
HOWEVER, if you are a compulsively busy person (or maybe know one), you know that I'm not just going to sit around this summer and do nothing. I can't.
So....I gave myself 4 days to kind of lay around and recover from the 151 8th graders I had been penned up with for 9 months and to get my game plan together.
I know this sounds sick to those of you who are normal, but I actually typed up a work plan for myself for the summer. It includes a list of daily morning activities from laundry to meditation to flower bed maintenance. It includes a plan for deep cleaning my house from top to bottom and a plan for completely purging and redecorating the upstairs - you know, when your children have moved out, but their junk forgot to go with them!! - I am actually very excited about accomplishing this task and staying on this work schedule - like I said, I know you normal people will not get that!!
My only other goal for the summer (besides totally cleaned up house and reclaimed upstairs living space) is to learn to kayak and maybe stand up paddle. I am looking forward to writing about my summer experiences.