I plan to read this summer.  A lot.  I have a stack of books just waiting for me.  Here are the titles I have lined up. 

Currently reading:

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson

I have wanted to read this for quite awhile.  I am finding it to be a fascinating story of how one person, with enough faith in themselves and a stubborn refusal to give up, can make a difference in the world.

Next up:

A Complaint Free World, by Will Bowen

This is the next selection for my book club.  I am hoping to learn some lessons about how to complain less and enjoy the life I have more.  From the back cover:  “…an engaging, enjoyable, easy-to-read reminder that the only permanent, constructive changes you can make in the world are the changes that you make in yourself.”  That seems a little contradictory to the message of the previous book, but more along the lines of change I can personally accomplish.

After that (in no particular order):

Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky

Having just read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, I am revisiting the WWII era.  My Dad is a WWII vet, and I am ever more interested in this period of history. 

Mistaken Identity, by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak with Mark Tab

This book was recommended to me by my mother. 

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, by Ben Sherwood

This book just sounded intriguing. 

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

I don’t know why I am drawn to biographies right now.  This has to be one of the greatest true-life survival stories ever. 

The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

This is a book that might take me awhile to digest (pun intended. sorry).  I think I will read chapters here and there scattered amongst my other literary adventures.

John McCain: Faith of my Fathers, A Family Memoir, by John McCain with Mark Salter

Because I want to know more about the man who could be our next president.

Obama: From Promise to Power, by David Mendell

Ditto my comment from the preceeding book.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

A classic, but one I have not yet read.  I plan to remedy that!

Smilla’s Sense of Snow, by Peter Hoeg

Another recommendation.  The person who told me about this book said “I was hooked by the end of the first page.”  To me, that is a good sign!

Odd Hours, by Dean Koontz

This is the fourth book in a series of book with the same main character by the name of Odd Thomas.  I have read several Koontz books, but the Odd Thomas books are my favorite.  Yes, the stories can be a little creepy, but I find that they generally have hopeful messages, which I appreciate. 

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That should keep me busy most of the summer.  I also have to allow for the fact that I will get side-tracked from this list at some point by a new book that catches my attention.  It is ineveitable.  In my world, there are far too many books, and not nearly enough time for all of them!

Guess how many pictures I took on our vacation?  Just guess!  OK, I will tell you.  SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY EIGHT!!! (778)!  Among them I think I have about 100 pictures of sunsets/sunrises.  Also about 25 pictures of Cinderella’s castle from Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  Also 100 of various parades at Disneyworld, and 20 or so pictures of fireworks, most of which did not turn out, despite using the “fireworks” setting on my camera.

Lucky for you I don’t plan to share all 778.  I have pared the 778 down to 88 of my favorites that illustrate the best parts of our vacation.  They are in an album which you can find here. I will post the best of the best (in my opinion) in this blog entry.

This is my favorite photo of the entire trip.  It was sunset on our first night on the Florida coast (after we had done three days at DisneyWorld).  We took everyone out to eat at a restaurant with an outdoor deck that served great seafood and had live music.  It was so much fun, and so relaxing after our busy days in Orlando.

This was our first day at Disney (second day of the vacation)–we went to Animal Kingdom.  Everyone but me is in this picture (I was taking it — amazing how I manage to stay out of almost all family photos by appointing myself official photographer!)

This picture was taken while waiting in line to go on Animal Kingdom’s newest ride, “Everest”.  Disney really knows how to make waiting in line interesting.  The line for this ride was a re-creation of an expedition to climb Mt. Everest.  You felt as if you were entering a Himalayan village, in this picture you can see Tibetan prayer flags and bells.  There was also a museum-like display with lots of information about mountain climbing, with some “yeti” lore thrown in for fun and drama.  (Yeti being the lesser known name for what is commonly called the “Abominable Snowman”).  Some of the information about mountain climbing in the Himalayan mountains was fact, but the lines between fact and fiction are often blurred at Disney, and it is hard to tell where those lines are!

 A “Yeti” statue.

Isaac watching the roller coaster “ascend” Mount Everest.

Free music!  Say what you will about the entrance fees to DisneyWorld — they are not cheap, but you do get a lot of entertainment for your dollar.  These drummers were amazing!

They pulled Brittany out of the crowd to dance with them as they drummed.  She has taken years of dance class and teaches a dance class for kids at the rec center she works at, so she was a great choice!  It was fun for her, but she was also a little self-conscious!  (She is the one in the black t-shirt)

The gift stores provided us with some “cheap” entertainment as well.  These hats are fun, but quite useless.  Instead of buying them, we decided just to have fun trying them on and taking pictures.  We were having so much fun I started to worry that we would be asked to leave the store!

Day three — we went to Magic Kingdom.  Since we did not have time to go to all of the Disney parks, and this was Isaac’s first trip to DW, we simply HAD to go to Magic Kingdom — it is quintessential Disney.

Speaking of quintessential Disney — Mickey and Minnie!

Some of my favorite Magic Kingdom sights:

Disney after dark:  I had never stayed late at Magic Kingdom before so I was enthralled by the color changing castle.

Waiting for the late night Magic Kingdom Parade.  It had been a long day!

One of the better fireworks pictures I took.

We had to leave by midnight.  We didn’t want to turn into pumpkins — and besides, the park closed at midnight.  What a day!

Day four — Blizzard Beach.  It was over 100 degrees this day — and not a drop of rain.  Perfect day to spend at the water park.

“Summit Plummit”  — a 6 story drop.  I did NOT try this ride!

Juxtaposing “Blizzard” with “Beach” made for some incongruous moments, especially when the speakers that played music all over the park blared out Christmas music or yodeling.  Here the boys are catching drips of water from the “melting snowman”.  Anything to stay cool!

Day 5 & 6 — the Atlantic Ocean.  We spent two days pretty much being beach bums.  We stayed just north of Daytona Beach.  Normally I am not a heat & humidity kind of gal, and I don’t spend much time in the sun, but after the miserable winter and spring we have been having in Minnesota, even I welcomed this change of scenery and weather!

Sights we saw while walking along the beach one morning:

Sights around St. Augustine, Florida — our last day before heading home.

Can’t forget to include a few of my MANY sunset/sunrise photos!  Staying where we did, we got sunrises over the Atlantic, and sunsets on the inter-coastal waterway.  The first picture is a sunset, the next two are sunrises.

The only picture from the entire trip with all nine of us.

One last picture, one where you can actually see that I was an active part of this trip and not just the planner/photographer.  This was in the pool at the resort we stayed at in Orlando.  I love swimming after dark!

It was a wonderful trip from start to finish.  Everyone had a great time, we all got along with each other.  No one was sad or disappointed.  Everyone felt relaxed and happy.  I am thankful to have had this time to spend with the whole family together, and happy we were able to include our older sons girlfriends, who feel like part of the family (and possibly will be someday?)  What memories we have made together.  Sharing time with my family is one of life’s most precious gifts to me. 

 Photo Meme — 10 random pictures, glimpses of the everyday

This is not an original idea, I have seen it on two other sites.  I think you are supposed to be “tagged” to participate, but I’m not good at that.  I think if it interests you, do it — if not, do your own thing!  The thing that I find so intriguing about this photo meme is that the things are so ordinary — for the most part.  And often things we would not think of putting on display!  For instance:

My kitchen sink — typically if I were going to invite you to visit me in my home I would clear the dishes and clean the sink.  Here it is in its everyday state.  Beautiful? — no.  Real? — yes.

Next a look inside my refrigerator.  This is another forgotten place in my house — one visitors rarely observe (unless they are bringing food to share and need to find a spot in the refrigerator to put it until it gets used.)  The trouble is — in my refrigerator there is rarely a “spot” to be found.  I guess there are a few reasons for that — first, I am feeding a bunch of growing boys, so I always need to have plenty of food on hand — second, I don’t go through and clean out the leftovers often enough — and three, I am blessed to be able to keep the refrigerator full to capacity (most of the time) with healthful food (okay, ignore the leftover pizza and the rows of fatty condiments in the doors — take that “healthful” with a grain of salt — better yet, for your health, you can skip the salt ).

This is the toilet in my bathroom — not the bathroom that visitors generally use.  This is the last bathroom that I clean when I know company is coming, because it is the least likely one they will ever see.  Again — how fortunate I am to have my “own” bathroom (I do share it with my husband).  My mother is 81 years old and has never had her “own” bathroom.  Master bath “retreats” are all the rage on the home-improvement TV shows, and they are commonplace in most new construction, but really — are they necessary?  Not really.  A few years ago, as history measures time, merely having indoor plumbing was a luxury beyond imagination.  Matter of fact, that is still the case in a large percentage of the world.

This is Part 1 of “What are your kids doing right now”.  Isaac is busy playing legos — it is his favorite pastime.  Part 2 is coming up a few pictures down the line.

Another example of how I am blessed (or cursed) with over-abundance.  Ta-da!   My closet.  Contrary to appearances, it is fairly well organized.  Those messy clothes on the top shelf — those would be hubby’s.  He is not as well organized.  Still — I have too many clothes.  One of my goals (after we get home from our vacation) is to get rid of the ones I don’t wear anymore.  I will donate them to either the boys’ choir garage sale or a local thrift store.  My friends tease me about my closet — my best friend/neighbor and her girls sometimes come and “shop in Leah’s Closet” when they need a special accessory or outfit for some occasion.  It’s nice to be able to share, but at the same time embarrassing to have such an excess.

A picture of my favorite shoes.  They are neither practical or comfortable, but I love them nonetheless.  They don’t get out much.  They are my “ruby slippers”, sans the sparkle.

This picture is the “Part 2″ I promised earlier.  The photo meme asked for a picture of my laundry pile.  I went to the laundry room and found the boys going through their clean clothes piles!  I don’t know why they even need closets or drawers in their rooms — they use the laundry room like a closet.  They wear their clothes, drop them off in the laundry room for me to wash, (which I do), then I fold and sort the clothes into piles for each individual family member.  The theory is they will come and get their clean clothes and put them away.  In reality, they come and get the clean clothes and put them ON!  Today was the first day of “summer vacation” so they had some extra time to attend to the laundry that had accumulated.  Also — they needed to decide which clothes to pack and take along on our upcoming trip.

Next on the list is a picture of my “fantasy vacation”.  I chose Italy.  I love the sun-drenched landscapes, the history, the architecture, the wine, the art — something might actually be in the works for me regarding a trip to Italy, and it involves singing.  My sister’s college alumni choir has been invited to go to Italy and Austria and perform several concerts, but they have also opened up the invitation to “extras”.  I would have to audition for a spot and attend some rehearsals in preparation, but wouldn’t that be an amazing experience?  I’m not sure if it will work out because of cost and timing, but I am working on those.

 This is a picture of my favorite room — my living room.  I love this room because it is usually the cleanest room in the house!  I love the window — the light it lets in and the view it provides.  The shape of it pleases me.  I also love my piano — it belonged to my Grandmother, and she gave it to me before she passed away.  She was a remarkable woman.  She was born in 1892.  Her husband survived WWI, her son (my Dad) survived WWII.  She traveled by covered wagon as a young girl moving to Minnesota with her family.  She taught school in a one-room schoolhouse.  She raised a family during the depression.  She lived to age of 105 — only a month short of her 106th birthday.  She was only 4 feet 11 inches tall (shorter by the time she died) and during her “prime” grandma years I think she was almost as wide as she was tall!  She had an ample bosom.  She loved to read to us grandkids.  She read her Bible every day.  She had a quiet, strong faith that served as a powerful example to me. I believe she also prayed for me (and all of her children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren) every day.  She started a “study club” with the women of her town.  She believed in education and independence for women, although she was as traditional a wife and mother as you can picture.  She died just 6 weeks after my youngest was born (her youngest great-grandchild).  He smiled for the first time on the day of her funeral.

This might be cheating a little, because the 10th picture is supposed to be a self-portrait.  The only reasons I say “cheating” is because I have used this picture before on this blog.  But it fits, and I like it, so I am using it!

I don’t want to be paranoid about this, but I am starting to wonder about my visitor with the Virginia footprints.  I mentioned this in a pulse yesterday and one recommendation was to turn off the RSS feed.  If you are reading this and recognize yourself in these footprints, snipped from my feedback page, please send me a message and identify yourself, or I will feel that I must turn off my RSS feed for my own peace of mind.  I appreciate readers, and don’t mind anonymity, but I guess the frequency of these visits is what is starting to cause me some concern.  If you are someone I “know”, then I don’t really mind.  If you are someone who just really enjoys my writing and photos, then I don’t mind that either.  But I am curious about why I am being visited 8 times in less than 24 hours (I don’t update that often!).

visited today at  3:12 PM

visited today at 1:42 PM and 12:15 PM

visited today at 10:44 AM

visited today at 9:16 AM

visited today at 6:06 AM and 4:34 AM (what’s up with that — 4:34 AM???)

visited last night at 11:37 PM

Pictures from our annual Memorial weekend fishing/fun trip!

First — some local wildlife:

A pair of loons were nesting near the resort.

The mallards paid us a visit as well.

A baby turtle crawled along the beach.

The wildlife that provided our excuse for being here in the first place — the fish!

…or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them “dinner”?

People pictures:

It was just nice enough, for at least part of the weekend, for the kids to enjoy the beach.

Some even braved the chilly water!

Kyle and Lindsey soaked up some sun.

Grant tried fishing from the dock — without much success.  I don’t think he minded

Mark played with Isaac on the slide.

Nathan is concentrating hard during an intense game of wiffle ball!

Mark is playing “outfield”.

Isaac prefers catching fish to cleaning them — he wasn’t too thrilled about having his picture taken in the fish cleaning shack!

He was much happier about posing for THIS picture!

This is Lissy — she was celebrating her 6th birthday.  Isaac was so happy in the previous picture because of her birthday cake!

My honey.

Some not-so-local “wildlife”

Grooving to the tune of “Working at the Carwash”

Best Friends Forever (BFF’s)

All the excitement just plumb wore him out.

My favorite people:

The five best boys in the whole world!

Seven Happy Campers

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Only three more days of school, yay!!!  This week my parents are visiting again — Dad is getting his hearing aids that were ordered during thier last visit.  Next week we will be off on a postponed spring break trip to Florida (because we didn’t get a spring break in the school calendar this year).  We might bring the laptop along, so there is a possibility I could post some pictures, but if not, I’ll see you all when I get home again. 

Minneapolis and St. Paul are affectionately known by native Minnesotans as the “Twin Cities” — or often just plain “the cities”, as if no other cities matter or even exist anywhere else in the world.  They may claim the name of twins, but they are definitely fraternal, NOT identical.  They each have a unique personality.  Minneapolis is the fast-paced, trendy, business-like urban sibling, while St. Paul is the laid-back, historical, artsy one.  Debates have been going on for years over which twin is superior.  One thing is certain, wherever your interests lie, you can find something to satisfy them in one or the other of Minnesota’s famous twins.

When I was a young girl, growing up in the far reaches of northwestern Minnesota, a trip to “the cities” was an EVENT of major proportions.  One of my most embarassing childhood moments involves a trip to “the cities” when I was probably about 14 years old.  I was accompanying my Dad and older brother on a trip to the state high school cross country meet.  My Dad coached our high school team, and we had a runner qualified to run for the state title that year.  Since it was a six hour drive, it involved an overnight stay in a downtown Minneapolis hotel.  In those days, the place to stay when visiting Minneapolis was the Curtis Hotel.  Not far away was a restaurant my Dad liked as much for it’s name as it’s cuisine — The Hungry Eye Cafe.  Both places are lost to time now, but in my mind I can still picture them.  On the particular morning I am recalling, we walked the two or three blocks from the Curtis to the Hungry Eye.  I was acting like your typical small-town girl on one of her first visits to the BIG city.  I was gaping in awe at all of the “skyscrapers”, particularly the (relatively) new IDS tower, which at 700+ feet and 55 stories completely dominated the skyline.  Unbeknownst to me, as my gaze was directed upwards, the street I was walking on suddenly and violently thrust a curb in my path, causing me to trip and go sprawling headlong right in front of the large plate glass window that provided a spectacular streetside view to diners at the Hungry Eye.  Imagine my humiliation when I picked myself up, examined my scraped palms and bruised ego, and then proceeded to follow my Dad and brother into the restaurant and had to walk past the gawkers who had so recently witnessed my awkward acrobatics.  My Dad and brother still break out into uncontrollable laughter at the mere mention of “The Hungry Eye”.  All at my expense, of course.

Over the years, my history with “the cities” has grown.  In college I spent many weekends in one of the southern suburbs while visiting my then boyfriend and his family.  After college I spent a year completing a Medical Technology internship at a downtown Minneapolis hospital and then worked for the next 5 years at Memorial Blood Center in south Minneapolis.  Eventually life led me back to a small-town environment.  In considering where I wanted to raise my own family, I returned to my roots and chose the small town over the big city.  With one difference.  My small town is now within an hours drive of the attractions which make city life appealing — the dining, the shopping, the culture.  Especially the culture!

As you know, yesterday was my 25th wedding anniversary.  It was one of those times I was glad for my proximity to the cities.  Given that this milestone date landed smack dab in the middle of the work week, an extended romantic get-away was out of the question, especially considering my husband’s highly developed work ethic.  But an evening out was within the realm of possibility, so after a bit of discussion we (husband and I) arrived at a plan.  Dinner and a concert.  In St. Paul.  I got to choose both the dinner and the concert.  As luck would have it, my college choir was performing a free concert at the Cathedral in St. Paul, so planning that part of the evening was easy.  As for chosing a restaurant, I decided to take the recommendation of my 22 year old son (that was wierd — taking advice from my son on where to go out for dinner with my husband!).  We had a very nice, relaxing dinner at the Downtowner Woodfire Grill, followed by a spectacular performance by the Bemidji State University choir, directed by Dr. P. Bradley Logan.  The acoustics at the Cathedral are amazing, to say the least, and every song was performed acapella.  The choir sang songs by many of my favorite contemporary choral composers, including Morten Lauridsen, Steve Heitzeg, Eric Whitacre, Philip Stopford and Eric William Barnum.  I am particularly proud of the last composer, Eric William Barnum, because he is a shirt-tail relative of mine, as well as a fellow Bemidji State University grad.  (I know, only in Minnesota would there be a university with a name like “Bemidji”.)  I encourage you to check out Eric’s MySpace page to learn more about him — or if you just want to listen to some of his choral works, you can chose the second link to get his MySpace MP3 player (also available on his MySpace page).  I recommend skipping the first song, Inferno and listening to the others first, especially The Lady in the Water, and my personal favorite, Afternoon on a Hill.  If you like his other works, then go back and listen to Inferno.  It’s pretty avant-garde.

Eric’s MySpace page

Eric William Barnum

Finally, I leave you with some images from my evening in St. Paul last night—-

The Downtowner Woodfire Grill:

The Cathedral of St. Paul:

All-in-all, it was a wonderful way to spend my anniversary.  One I will remember for the next 25 years!

Twenty-five years ago.  It seems like forever — it seems like a moment.  We were so young, so sure of ourselves and our love.  We knew nothing of the tests we would face.  There were times it would have been easier to give up, but through it all we have hung on.  We have been blessed with so much.  I am so grateful for my patient, generous, impulsive, fidgety, energetic, kind, responsible, trusting and trustworthy husband.  He loves me for who I am, what more could I ask for?

May 21, 1983

(As for my fashion sense — remember, this was not long after Pricess Di got married!)

 

I know this edit is coming long after I originally posted this entry, but I thought I should include an e-mail I got from my niece, Betsey (the little flower girl on the left side of this picture). 

 

She wrote to me:

 

 

“I was 7 years old and thought my aunt Leah was the most beautiful woman in the world. I was so excited, because I was going to be a flower girl in her wedding, and my mom told me what an important job that was. I got to wear what HAD to be the best dress EVER – it was TWIRLY!! I had to walk down the aisle and stay in a straight line with my cousins, then be very good and not fidget during the wedding. After the wedding, we got to have cake, which was yummy. We had to take a lot of pictures, and back then that was a lot of fun. My cousins and I twirled and twirled in our beautiful dresses. My mom said now I had a new uncle, which seemed like fun. I felt like a princess all day long, and wished I could be in a wedding every week.

 

Those are my memories of your wedding day. 25 years is a pretty great feat – I realize that now that I’m married myself. I appreciate so much the examples in our family of couples that still enjoy being married after so many years. It gives me something to look forward to =)

 

Congrats -  Betsey”

 

We spent several hours earlier today packaging food for an organization called “Kids Against Hunger”.  It is based here in Minnesota, but has satellites throughout the United States.  For more info on this organization, check www.feedingchildren.org

Our group packaged 3207 meals in about 2 hours.

Hairnets and aprons are cool!

Sunday edit:  Just before going to bed last night we turned on the TV and a local news station was doing a feature story on “Kids Against Hunger”.  You can watch it here. 

May is concert season in my world.  Here are pictures from concerts we have attended in the past week-and-a-half.

Choirboys Spring Concert — May 3rd

(The first two pictures are from the rarely seen warm-ups, the others are from the concert)

High School Concert Choir/Symphonic Band Concert — May 5th

Grant is a first tenor in the choir and plays the flute in the band — a brave choice of instrument for a guy, but he is good at it!

Chorale Concert(s)  May 9th & 10th:

(I am 4th in from the left in the second row, not that you can recognize anyone in this photo!)

Ninth Grade Band Concert — May 12th — Mark plays the oboe (I also played oboe when I was in high school).

 How appropriate for mother’s day — the baby robins have hatched!  Yesterday two of the three eggs hatched, today all three babies can be seen in the nest.