Topic : Is This Normal Social Discussion

Glad things are going well for all of you....especially MJ since she has such a wonderful g'ma to spend this time with.  I'm so looking forward to seeing some pics from you.  :)

The wedding day is zooming up at mach speed.  I'll be a Mrs. in less than 2 weeks.  Yeah!!!!!

So when you gonna head out this way for a cup of tea?  How is J?  I really miss him.

B1 and B2?  are they Bananas in Pajamas?????  cute.....

love the pic!!!

Stephanie is almost 5 and the girls will be OMG 6 in Oct.  ...... gosh, I better take a nap 'cuz I feel the age creeping up on me.  The girls are actually going to be starting school this fall and riding the school bus.........geesh!!!

Sunday is my last day of work here.  Did I tell you guys that I actually love my job???  Its been so much fun meeting and greeting visitors to my wonderful country/province.  But I've asked them if I can reapply next summer.....(fingers crossed)...here is hoping they will agree.

Anyways, got stuff to do....

cya

Ah Trace so good to hear from you my dear. Sorry you are still dealing with the ickie side of things but I can sure see the silver lining in all of it!! MJ is one lucky chickie no doubt to have you for a granny. In another situation with a different sort of grandma it could have been bad. It isn't and that is worth all celebrating for sure!! Too funny about MJ's father. Come now don't all men think their presense is that important in reality? Well lots of them anyway or so has been my experience! =P j/k I just couldn't help myself your description is a hoot!!!! So glad you can find the dark humor in it all!

Kak, I sooooo concur on the bird thoughts! hehe I always said I never needed pets at all, sheese I have boys....lol

Speaking of boys, WOW! Today my middle son (Matt) turned the big 2-0!!!! We were able to surprise him with is gf arriving and him having no clue she was coming!! She flew in from Louisville early this morning and we did the airport run without him having a clue. (Kak I am getting good at this airport business!!) It was all good and too much fun! After they get so old it is just hard to have much great birthday surprises but no doubt this qualified!!!!  So that puts my count at 22, 20 and 12 these days. You all and your 5 and 6 years olds...hehe you are just youngins yourself!!  So tonight at dinner Matt and John reminded me that I don't have any teenagers for now. Unreal, I have had at least one teenager for the last 9 years and many of those years I had two teenagers. All of the sudden I have NO teenagers!! But wait that will only last for the next four days! Then I am back to having another teenager, John-boy will be 13 on the 3rd!!!! So it is like ummm, the Haley's comet of teenagerhood in my house!! A four day window of no teenagers!!!!!!!!! Then it will be a teenager again for the next seven years! hehe John just glowed, he thinks it is going to be so cool being a "teenager". *rolls her eyes* I hate to burst his bubble and tell him ahead of time just what "hormone hell" is all about. =P Oh well he will know soon enough! I think I will start wearing all black and just be in mourning! I have no more babies left, once they hit 13 you can't even begin to think of them as babies anymore. =( Not to mention they will kick you in the shins if you even hint at it! Gaaaahhhh, I feel old, oh wait that is because I AM old! =P

Hehe, oh well I knew John-boy was growing up this week when I decided it was time to stop being such a damn victim to all this sickness and do something about it all. The docs this week have just irritated me to no end, prescribing yet more meds for me. I have entirely too many meds as it is and one more just sort of pushed me over the edge and made me feel like I am giving these docs just too much control over me. Now whether this is a good way to look at things or not, I am really sick of being sick and everyone seeming to be ok with me being sick. Pffft, I don't want perpetual medication, I want to be healthier...doh! So I headed out to our new neighborhood fitness center and just waddled my fat butt in there and signed up. Well John was with me and he asked if he could too. Whhhaaaat? Sheese the last time I was a fitness guru was five years ago and his main interest was Thomas the Tank Engine and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!! When did all this attention to how he looks come about??!!! He tells me he wants to be "buff". Eeeeeek, I remember now the little girl at his orchestra banquet last month came over and gave him her phone number!!!  Whaa, whaa, my baby wants to be buff and is getting girls phone numbers!!! Oh pffft, let's focus on the upside, I now have someone who wants to work out with me everyday!! hehe. Anyway he just isn't a baby anymore, I feel old, ackkkk I AM old and broken down, but dang it I am going to let Nautilus bounce me back to the picture of health!!!

Oh and last thoughts on the fitness thingy, tonight I am so sore I can't move. I went to buy exercise clothes....well that sucked. Spandex on lard-butts is NOT cute in the least. I wanted to ask the clerk "what section do you have tents and potato sacks please?" That is what I need to be wearing it seems!! Well I ended up with a big t-shirt and kneeknocker biking kind of shorts. Ok I can live with that. John kept saying "this is silly mom, no one is looking" HAHAHA!! He so doesn't get women at all, of course they are looking ALWAYS! But he is right, it isn't a fashion show (good thing). So the first day all my worries and self consciousness just melted away forever. One absolute sure way to feel thin is to go to a fitness center. And you can truly be happy with how you look immediately!! Why? Because I promise you there is that one person who DID pour themselves into spandex, that person who has more balls than a Christmas tree, and just lets the rolls of flesh flow and flow over the boundries of all known tailoring skills! That person you look at and wonder how the laws of physics bent and stretched and managed that warp in space and dimension. That person who smiles and says "I wear a size 6" when you know it should have been a 16 and you want to mourn the poor clothes they just stuffed all that flab into. I love these people, I really do, I love people who truly don't give a sh*t about how they look because they always make me feel great!!!!!! Sorry I am a law abiding citizen who will never be charged with a fashion police felony (misdemeanors maybe but no felonies)! And I gotta say I love those felons, omg they are good for MY ego!!!!!

Hehe, ok off my soapboxes. Next time you can get the rest of the story....bras that don't fit (^!!@#$%^)  and middle age men who tweak themselves all the time....sheese.....

Hugs to all, and JP, two aspirins and some b-12 and you will be fit as a fiddle!! Vicki, these next two weeks are gonna fly by!!

Laters peeps,

~Ami

Tonight I decided to get off MY butt and drag in a box from the garage, so that hopefully I can toss the whole dang thing.  And it was fairly successful, about 85% of it went in the trash bin.  But you'll never believe what I found!  Ok, so most of the stuff in there was from 1985-86, which was when I traveled with Up With People and the year after I got back.  There was new stuff too, anniversary cards, and baby's first Thanksgiving cards and stuff.  I enjoyed the 85-86 stuff, because there were letters (ttyped) from my mom written to me in Europe, and also a couple of letters obviously written to me by host families, because they were all in either German or Norwegian!  I saved those, in hopes I can translate them and see what funny things they say, before I toss them out.

But the best part of all was a letter I found that was written in the summer of 1973.  It was written by me (I was 12 at the time) to my Mom, saying "I'm having a great time at camp, but I really miss you... blah, blah".  It was written the first time I went to church camp!  And Erin is right now off at church camp for HER first time!  I'm planning to show it to Erin when I see her, and then mail it off to my Mom.  uh, oh, well, I guess maybe I'll just give it to her, I'll see her on Tueday, duh.  Anyway, it was a fun trip down memory lane.  Found some pictures of my grandpa from 20 years ago, and he passed on a numer of years ago.  Wedding invitations from friends, birth announcements... ah, life does just move right along.

It's been quiet with Erin gone, and I'm SOO looking forward to seeing her again.  10 am on Saturday, that's the plan.  I haven't gotten a postcard from her yet, but then I did encourage her to write first to the folks she skipped during her last camp.  So that's OK.  Maybe tomorrow. 

I'm not particularly looking forward to the trip to CA.  We'll be there from 7/3 through 7/11 and I really don't know how that's going to go.  I do know we have tickets to see As You Like It at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Saturday night.  And we have lots of other plans, but it's all up in the air, because Mom has gout in her big toe and can barely walk.  She's been dealing with it for two weeks, and none of the medication they've tried is helping.  Not sure what we'll do if she's still laid up.

All the best to all of you.  I'm sorry not to write anything more "individual", but my brain is fried.  Hugs to everyone, I keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.

And it was worth it! lol Tonight we're going to that same karoke bar where the retirement party was held. I've invited all my friends and my coworkers. I just left work and more and more people are going. This should be a blast and I just can not wait. Kinda like you and the weddin! Girlfriend it's soooo close!!!!!! Vicki I just love you and am sending you this great big hug. Congrats girl. You deserve it!

...and stop making fun of me missy.....

Yes Vicki, B1 and B2 are from Banana's in Pyjama's!! I named my bird's B1 and B2, cause they are yellow like banana's, but also because bird starts with the letter B and there are 2 birds!!LOL!!

It's so hard to think of our little girls growing into big girls and going school, right!! Oh well it happens to us all!! I'm sure that A and M will do fine in school and I know that when Stephanie starts school next year, she will also do fine!!

How many more sleeps till you and Ron get married now, Vicki? I bet you're both getting quite excited by now about it all. I am so very happy for you both and wish you both so much joy and happiness now and forever!!

Well you and yours all Take Care and Bye-for-now, Love Kelly.

Gee, going back down memory lane, wow!! I'm sure it must have been very interesting to say the least!!

I haven't kept too much from my past, other than my old school uniform from primary and High School. Also got my old school photo's too, they're good for a laugh once in a while.

One thing Mark and I had been getting for awhile was some CD's that has music from the 80's. We were getting a new CD each month and it was always fun listening to the CD and thinking about what I was doing when that song first came out. Arh the memories!!

Hope you enjoy seeing Erin today at her camp, also hope that Erin is enjoying herself at camp.

Well till next time, please Take Care and Bye-for-now, Love Kelly.

Catchya later, ladies!  Tomorrow, Erin and I are off to to the Golden State for a week or so.  I'm doing my best to keep a positive attitude and plan on having a great time.  We'll be driving a lot, but we hope to catch up with a lot of family and maybe do a little relaxing a long the way.  We're spending the weekend at Ashland, OR.... oh geeze, I think I've already said all this.

Well anyway, be good, and don't do anything I wouldn't do.  Which means, of course, that almost anything goes!  Vicki, you're probably already on your way to the City of Love (OK, I know that's Philly, but it didn't seem right to call it "Sin City" on this occasion)  I'll be thinking about you and Ron on Saturday and hoping that it's a splendid time.  I know you've waited a long time, but now you're going to be Mrs.... Ron (!), and I hope that both of you and your family will have many, many joyful times throughout your lives.

XOXOXO

I hope you and Erin have a wonderful time! It sounds like it will be, because no matter what comes along you have each other and home to get back to eventually! hehe Be safe and enjoy it all for us too!

hugs,

~Ami