Ramblings...

This is my dad and mom at the local Memorial Day service here on the island. Dad was the guest speaker and did a great job of honoring our military, both past and present, with his insight and wisdom. Ever the consummate soldier, I love the way his dress blues still fit almost 30 years after his retirement!

I have started my apprenticeship as a meat cutter and I have a new set of sore muscles to prove it! Heavy work, but incredibly interesting and very fast-paced. The inherent risk of being an apprentice is the propensity for failure. I am not fond of failing- betcha didn't know that, did you?! har har. So each day is also a lesson in humility. I want to be teachable. I don't want to let anyone down. I have much to learn, and two years should be an adequate amount of time in which to do it. So aside from my uncomfortable position living on the 'knife's edge', I think I will enjoy this new career. I look at meat much differently now. And for that matter, I look at it every day, all day.

Emily is leaving soon for her world-wide outreach with YWAM. She's been at the campus on Hawaii since March, but that doesn't seem so far away for some reason. Cambodia, India, and all the other continents seem a bit more extreme! When we said goodbye this spring it was with the sadness of parting, but the joy of what lie ahead for her. It's seeming more real this week. I'm not going to see that baby girl for a long, long time. My dad and I were talking about how homeschooling them 24/7 for 9 years often made him wonder if they would ever leave home at all and how it would affect me when they did. Then when they graduated, POOF! They both flew the nest and headed to opposite ends of our lives. And you probably remember how very much I missed them for the first few months, but the realization that these two little Ones of mine are living far beyond the dreams of most of their peers, and following their passion for God, has eclipsed any sadness I could have for missing them.

So to Beanie and Chowder: Mommy loves you! You are Best In The World!

So much technology...

... so little understanding.

So I'm on Facebook now. If you're over 25 you've probably never heard of it. I have children who are under 25 so I'm in luck. Not that you might be missing anything, but personally I finally got to see my grandbaby (in tummy-o) by visiting Dianna's 'facebook'. It's a site full of people's 'walls'. You can write on their walls. You can 'poke' them. You can leave them messages. You can 'tag' them or yourself in pictures. It's virtual. That's all anyone really needs to know.

So here's my facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=738085639 Does that mean I'm the seven-hundred-thirty-eighth million and some-odd person to sign up? I feel absolutely cutting edge!

No running for the past six days. Shin splints. Or in today's correct vernacular: Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome. (It was only a matter of time before some type of stress overtook me.) Shin splints by any other name still means the same thing: No running for a while.

Four weeks to race day and I"m grounded. Ugh. But I'm going to play it smart and not over-do. My last long-run was 12 miles and I will be able to pull off 13.1 even if I don't run much between now and then. I am going to run my race. I am going to finish my race. I am not going to give up.

And everything else is about the same... house is good. Kids are good. My man is good. Life is good.

Now where's my icepack??

Alright, here's what's new...

Holy Moly! Where did May go!? Sorry I've been so lazy about the blog. And for as busy as I've been there's not a whole lot to write about.

Our new house is really coming along; the roof goes on this week and then they'll start the insides of it. Right now it's just framed, but still so fun to walk through and imagine where everything will go. I've had a greate time choosing colors, carpets, counters, cabinets, etc. After living in government housing for so many years it's a pretty good time! Sometimes it's as much about knowing what you don't want as it is what you do. You know the feeling: If I ever get my own house I'll never have _____. And having lived in over a dozen homes over the years my list is quite detailed. Fortunately, our builder is a dear man who seems to exist only to please my every whim. Ahh, home-buyer's bliss.

On the running topic, guess who ran TWELVE MILES yesterday? Oh yes, that was me!! It's part of my training schedule, adding one mile to my long runs each week in addition to the other two four- to five-mile easy runs. Okay, I'll put "easy" in quotation marks so no one rolls their eyes out there. I'm just sayin', if you run eight and ten and twelve miles at a stretch, five miles suddenly seems like a pretty nice little jog. What most pleases me is that I've cut time off my runs like you wouldn't believe! On my last three-mile run I ran 9-minute miles. On this run yesterday I ran consecutive 10:30 miles for the whole twelve. I felt like a rock star! And all this from someone who's Real Old! tee hee.

And on the job front, guess who got promoted to meat-cutter apprentice? Oh! Me again! (It's really fun to have a blog so I can talk about ME ME ME... good grief. Sorry to sound so self-absorbed. We'll talk about someone else next time. Ha.) So, for two years I'll train as a meat-cutter (please don't call them butchers, those are the dudes that kill the animals. Icky poo.) I'm going to know all there is to know about butt steak, flank steak, ground beef, swiss steak, tripe, tongue, liver, heart, kidneys and brains. There's a song that follows, but you'll have to hear me sing that in person with my Sister. It's a hoot, don'tcha know. At the end of my apprenticeship I'll be making the Big Bucks and better still, I'll be Really Good With A Knife.

So who would have thought that a career in knitting would segue into working seafood and becoming a meat cutter? I am a Julie of All Trades. The best part is I'm having a real good time doing it.

Okay. So that's my update. Photos of the house to follow. I promise not to stay away so long again. Next time I'll tell you about all the liberal tree-huggers out here in the Northwest who despise any and every thing there is to despise.