Dedicated to...

One of my long-distance friends ‘got onto’ me about my lack of blogging as this is the way he stays caught up with my life. He said if I was struggling with material that I could write an entire post dedicated to him…so here it is!

My dear friend DBL!

Obviously God destined us to meet and become the best of friends from the very beginning! You were one of the friendly faces in that Physics Lab and we hit it off immediately. Silver never knew what hit him. The pranks we pulled and the rides with the t-tops were so fun…after you taught me how to remove those t-tops. You made that big University transition do-able and ultimately enjoyable.

I love your ability to teach anything. You can show a person how to do ANYTHING you can do and you truly embody the spirit of ‘give a man a fish he’ll - eat for a date, teach a man to fish…’

Okay maybe not ANYTHING because I could never do all the nursing things you do. I do remember going on ride-alongs and watching you teach your patients…so patiently, how to take care of themselves. I remember your compassion with all those patients and how it changed their lives to the end.

I remember the CATS audition in Dallas. I remember math class and the paper on suicide in nursing school. I remember even in our absolute differences of opinions, we could still discuss freely and passionately our ‘side’ at no cost to our friendship. I remember the all-night study sessions and waking ‘Ginger’ up to call the radio.

If someone asked me what your adage of life was then; I would say the one I remember most is: ‘Don’t burn your bridges’. You taught me to value speaking clearly and to articulate and to say ‘yes’ instead of ‘yeah’.

You taught me to choose my battles carefully (particularly with regards to family). You taught me that blood is thicker than water. This was important during some of those rough family times. You taught me to keep my mouth shut, when it seemed like I would burst if I didn’t say something! You taught me to think about what I’m about to say (and I need that reminder to this day)! You taught me to value my husband and remind me regularly how blessed and lucky I am to have Paul as my partner.

You taught me that life is not a goal, but a journey. You taught me that it’s never too late in life to do and accomplish things.

I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished. You have changed lives for the better. You have overcome challenges that might have debilitated others. You have passion and fire and work harder than anyone I know …sometimes to a fault (remember the grass you cut with scissors for my rehearsal dinner?).

I hope you remember the things you taught me about the importance of family and how you can never get those times back. I hope you remember that family is more important than another zero on your pay-check. Personal success is far more important than professional success. Our lives are absolutely measured by the lives’ we have touched.

To this day I would travel thousands of miles to be there for you if you called and needed me and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you would do the same. You are one of my most long-term friends and I thank God for you in my prayers.

I know I would have survived had we never met, but I thank God that He saw the value in our meeting and that we have weathered distance and time apart. I thank God that you are my friend!

I love you.

Blog-Dog

I’ve been a blog-dog lately and not only have I not written anything, but I’ve been extremely lax in reading my favorite sites too!

Let me see if I can post an update if for no other reason than to have an entry for the month.

1. My 11th anniversary is tomorrow. Since we are not blessed with children of our own…it is still one of the most treasured days of my life on earth…right up there with birth and graduations.

My husband is still the ‘one’ and I hope we have many more years together.

2. We just returned from a mega-vacation. We had really anticipated going to Disney World this year (and we still will one day)…but instead decided a trip to see my brother and SIL would be better. They live in a lovely township across the bridges from Philadelphia in Mt. Holly, NJ.

Thursday: We did so much traveling. We drove from OKC up I-44, to Indianapolis the first day (LONG DRIVE). We didn’t site see there, too late to do much.

Friday: The following day we drove over to Canton, OH to see the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Very cool, if I do say so myself, oh and we happened by this darling Smucker’s outlet that is the site of the original Smucker’s kitchen. I had no idea Smuckers, Pillsbury, Martha, some coffee company and a few others were all one big company now and they all represented.

Saturday: The next day it was on over to Mt. Holly via the Poconos and Northern Pennsylvania. We saw TONS of corn. As a matter of fact from IL through PA we saw corn, corn, corn, corn! I can’t imagine what the real CORN state is like.

Once we arrived in NJ, my brother had made a dinner of homemade ‘brick-oven’ style pizza, then we drove over to Wildwood a beach on the edge of Cape May, NJ. It was about 9:00 pm when we arrived there and PACKED OUT! The first thing we did was walk the ½ mile across beach to put our feet in the water. I always feel so at home around the beach. I’m definitely a water person!

We walked the boardwalk (miles of it) and then headed back to their home. We got in after 1:00 am…slept like a log!

Sunday: The next day we were up and out early to go to their local Flea Market. It was like a giant garage sale with local food. It was very cool. I picked up a couple of little things for my home.

We went to their very URBAN church in downtown Philadelphia that evening and I was amazed to see so many homeless people attending. It was d efinitely a different but great experience. The sound wasn’t great, so it was hard to hear the message, but it was cool just to sit and observe.

Monday: Labor Day, we drove to Staten Island and took the Ferry across to NYC. We spent all day at NYC. We walked about 20-25 miles during the course of the day and my legs were beat!

Tuesday: We went to Amish Country and shopped and ate…
Wednesday: We went to downtown Philadelphia and were typical camera carrying site-seers.

Thursday: Hung out close to Mt. Holly and then attended the Philosophy class my brother teaches at a local college.

Friday: Headed out early and drove to Knoxville, TN (LONG DRIVING DAY). Did see this lovely creature there...at a gas station no less! He had the nerve to Cock-a-Doodle-Doo me (when I took his picture) and it was already after 8:30 am

Saturday: Over to Memphis to see Graceland (Swooning for Elvis) and then to Mississippi to a River-Boat Casino.

Sunday: Home again, Home again. The dogs were SO happy to see us.

Monday: Laundry and mentally prepare for work.

So…I do have an excuse for a few weeks in preparing for the trip and being gone and without a laptop to blog-long-distance anymore, it makes it hard to keep up.

I still go back and forth about whether to even continue this blog, but I just can’t bear to close it up. It’s been so therapeutic for me so many times and it’s much more hand-friendly than handwriting a journal.