UPS fun….

This afternoon the UPS guy came by with a little box of joy for the Lawrence household.  Well, ok, it was a box of joy for me and Dave, as it was a shipment of wine.  The UPS guy is pretty friendly, and we get a lot of UPS shipments (not all wine, don’t panic, Mom), and he often chats for a moment.  I find out neat stuff about the neighbors, several others get wine shipments too, apparently our neighborhood has about the highest per capita wine deliveries.  I think that is because we are all so sophisticated and urbane.  That must be it.  Lots of other book lovers in the are as well, judging by the number of Amazon.com boxes. 

So, today, I meet Mr UPS at the door, and he hands me my wine box(not to be confused with box wine, although some of that is not too bad).  We say nice things about the weather and the upcoming weekend. 

Then he says:   ”so, do you work?” (is it unusual to find someone at home EVERYTIME a package is delivered?). 

And I respond:   ”no, not really” (too hard to explain the working 12 hours a week thing, it doesn’t really count as work). 

And he says:  “oh, because you’re rich?”

And I am thinking:  well that would explain the tiny house, 12 year old minivan and 17 year old pickup

But instead I say:  “No, because I am lazy.”

Dropped jaw, stunned silence.

And finally:  “Well, ummm, you’re honest.”

More vacation photos

the ever adorable Kajsa Stanley-Erickson

The closest I am willing to come to a picture of me on the beach. 

our little beach buddy.  He was crawling all over our snorkel gear one morning.  We watched him for a long time and took LOTS of pictures.

Facebook…..

it is very fun, but it has taken me away from my blogging.  Dave yelled at me about it today, so here I am, because I am good wife. 

Making the round on facebook right now is a request to write 25 things about yourself.  So, I am re-posting it here, so you non-facebookers can see this.  It has been pretty fun to read peoples lists, and I would just love it if you would write your own list for me in the comment section!  (Hint hint)

Yep, the 25 things thing. Here is my version.
I have seen this titled “25 random thing about me”. “25 thing you don’t know about me” “25 things you don’t want to know”.

Mine is 25 things about me. Many of you may know some of these, I am not sure anyone knows all of them.

It has been so much fun reading the lists others have written, I got kind of jealous and wanted to write my own.
the deal is that you are supposed to tag 25 people and then those 25 people are supposed to write their lists and if you are tagged it is because I want to know more about you. Well, i want to know more about you, each and everyone of you.

1. I married for love and and a sense of humor, not for money.

2. consequently my dream of being a philanthropist with world wide impact may never come true.

3. I once audtioned for “Star Search” , I did not rise to national fame, perhaps my choice to cover the Sex Pistols was misguided.

4. I took the SAT, in 7th grade, my scores were fine and I never took it again. I have not lived up to my potential.

5. I After my 2nd year of college I moved to Alaska in search of a grand adventure. I found that adventure, I call him Dave.

6. I had my first piece of poetry published in 6th grade.

7. I have a forklift license.

8. Three kids does not seem like enough, although in truth I would say that even if I had ten.

9. Sometimes I wish that my mother was crazy, because everyone I know that has a crazy mother is also a fabulous writer, and I would love to be a truly great writer.

10. I am raising 3 really wonderful writers.

11. I like to make up silly songs, primarily about history.

12. I cannot sing “Children of the Heavenly Father”, “It is well with my Soul”, “I was there to hear your Borning Cry” or “Let all things now Living” without crying.

13. I want all those songs sung at my funeral, by a volunteer choir.

14. Although I love to make bread, I really don’t enjoy eating sandwiches. Too much bread.

15. When my kids are naughty, it is everything I can do not to cheer them on.

16. I love the idea of living communally and I hope that becomes a reality for us someday.

17. I throw myself into each and evey community I am a part of with reckless abandon. Every place I have ever lived is eactly where I wanted to be. Each time I have to move, a part of my heart is ripped from me, and that little piece stays behind. This is wonderful, because I have so many places I call home.

18. I got my first tattoo at 19 because I was sure that eventually I would marry a pastor and was convinced when that happened I would no longer have any fun. I married a chemist who later went to seminary, and have since found that many pastors are among the most fun. And I have added to my tattoo collection.

19. I felt petite once.

20. I can, if I have to, change the brakes on my vehicles. I prefer not to.

21. I have pictures of my dog on my phone, but not my kids.

22. When I see the suffering around me, locally and throughout the world, I am ashamed that I have ever felt sorry for my self in any way. My life is so good.

23. I went on a blind date that had all of the following: blood, flame, dirty diapers, doggie diarrhea, orange shag carpeting, a screaming infant, a malfunctioning toilet, stray hair on the entree and dental floss.

24. I don’t watch tv, I have never seen American Idol, I have never seen Desperate Housewives, I have never seen Lost. This is not because I feel I must shield myself fromt he evils of the world. I don’t watch TV because I am really lazy, and if I started watching TV I would never get anything done ever again.

25. Everyday I am thankful.

Haircut….

Ich bin trophenfrau..

That was my answer to what my profession is when asked last night at my German class.  Do you know?

Back in September…

I was a model for a local fashion show.  Apparently the pool of “plus size” models is quite small here in Alaska.  There is no other explanation for my being asked. 

Anyway.  It was fun.  Spent the day in some beautiful clothes, had my makeup done by a professional makeup artist, and my hair done about 15 times over the course of the evening. 

A local not-quite-pro hockey team served as our escorts for the evening.  So those adoring, good looking young men you see in the photos, yeah, they had to be there and smile.  But they were very good sports about the whole thing, gentlemen through and through (well, except for the 2 that got thrown out for being drunk and obscene).

A couple of my friends went as they both needed a night of belly laughs, and Julia took a bunch of photos. 

So, here are a couple.  Enjoy.  Giggle.  Make obnoxious comments.  Or just be really insanely jealous because I looked SO good. 

After 3 weeks of company, one bout with a stomach virus and a wrenched back…

I went to the gym this morning.  Yeah, that was brutal.  It isn’t like I have done NOTHING for the last 3 weeks, just close to nothing.  I need to remember it is not starting over from zero, probably more like 2 or even 3. 

I have been walking the dog 2-3 times a day most days, although, he is an old dog and walks very slowly, so I am not sure that counts as activity. 

Now I am home, drinking coffee and eating a chocolate chip cookie. hmmm.  I guess I better work out a little harder tomorrow.

Crying cancer…

one of the features of my blog account is that I can see what search terms people have used to arrive on this site.  The other day someone had searched for “crying cancer” and ended up here. 

So I started thinking about that. 

Crying Cancer.  Like crying wolf.

I feel a bit like that is what happened with Dave. 

July 17th, Dave gets a PHONE CALL, and the Dr says “you have cancer, this is very serious and you need to get this taken care of RIGHT AWAY”.   Most of you know the story, Dave was in Alaska, I was in Wisconsin, all our worldly possessions were loaded on a truck and on the road somewhere between the 2 places. 

I reacted violently and immediately, called my mom, crying, cancer.  Called my pastors, crying, cancer.  Called my friends, crying, cancer. 

I am sure that much of this reaction was driven by my personality, as well as the fear the word cancer brings.  I am a talker (surprised by that little confession aren’t you?), and I draw energy from having my friends and family around me, so it seemed like the natural thing to do.  Call, cry, talk, to everyone I know. 

It was a tense couple of weeks until Dave had his appointment in Alaska, and then the news was a bit better, but still cancer. 

After Dave’s surgery, the news got even better, there were clean margins around the tumor, and no further treatment would be needed, no chemo, no radiation, no surgery. 

And I felt stupid. Still do.  Did I completely over-react?  Probably. Turns out it was nothing but a massive pre-cancerous-on the edge of becoming a life threatening malignancy-tumor. 

 But that is the thing.  It was a tumor ON THE EDGE of being really really bad. 

 It wasn’t really really bad, just really bad.  So Dave had been in doubling over pain at least daily for 4-5 months.  So blood loss was a daily occurrence.  So Dave was totally exhausted and losing weight at the rate of 8-9 lbs a month, it was still just on the edge of being really really bad. 

And now he is feeling great, running and lifting weights again, eating whatever he wants, sleeping less than 9 hours a night.  He has energy and a sense of humor again(I am SO thankful!)

And I can’t shake this feeling that I was ridiculous to get upset in the first place. 

I hope that we never get another phone call like that one we got back in July, and if we do, I hope and pray that I can keep it together a bit better. 

Right now, I will take this as another chance to thank all of you who were so supportive and loving when I called,

Crying Cancer.

Yesteday at the gym…

I decided to up the amount of weight I would attempt while bench pressing.  Now keep in mind, it still isn’t a lot of weight, but…

So, I added the weight and began my sets.  1st set went well, no problem, and I was feeling pretty smug.  2nd set, I got through it, and it wasn’t too bad.

Now the 3rd set,  I got through 5 reps and, wow, took a couple seconds to breathe and just then the next song on my playlist came on.  john Mellencamp’s “hurt so good”. 

Made it through the last few reps, and today, it hurts.  And feels really good.

I am supposed to be at the gym right now…

but my mp3 player needed to charge, and since listening to music with a fast beat can improve your workout by up to 30%, I took that a good reason to sit here, on my rear end, surfing the net and drinking coffee. 

Since Auntie Megan left, I have been trying hard to keep up the workouts.  I am not pushing myself as hard as she pushed me, but am getting to the gym 4-5 times a week for 1.5-2 hours a time.  Try to lift weights for half hour to 45 mins and then cardio for an hour.  A couple times I have participated in an “abs” class.  That was brutal. 

So you would think I might see a difference on the scale. 

No, not happening.  still a really big number.  Oh well, it will come off, or it won’t, and either way it is good to get the exercise.  I do feel good, energetic and boy do I get cranky if I don’t workout a couple days in a row.  I guess that means it is starting to become important to me. 

Well, as long as I am here at home, when I should be at the gym, I better get something done.  There are dishes and laundry that are calling to me.  Perhaps if I turn up the music a little louder I won’t hear them.