Gratitude

I am one of the most fortunate people that I know. I have had a good life and I am aware that there are many souls out there that have been dealt a bad hand and bellies that are left hungry at the end of the day. I have my days, especially with my mom's passing, that I have the blues or I miss home....well my original home I should say. I don't claim to be Mrs. Mary Sunshine or the picture of optimism. But even on those sad days, I know that I am blessed, my needs are fulfilled and I should be wearing a T-shirt that says "Life is Good." With that in mind, I have to share some exceptional things that happened this week that have touched my heart and are the proof that life has it's ups and downs, but loving thoughts and kind words are right outside your door.

The weather in this area never ceases to amaze me.  The thunder storms come on in a split second and the rain just dumps down.  The trees look like they will blow over from the force of the wind.  I got stuck in the store one afternoon during such a storm and was chatting with my in-laws while waiting it out.  Once the rain stopped, this was what we saw right outside.  Of course, the picture does not do it justice.

I was in the shower house one day, scrubbing away when I had a visitor.  Joe and Rona are a few doors down in our campground, we've met a few times and chatted about all things Angle and my lovely state of Washington, which Joe has visited before.  Rona is from Scotland and knows a thing or 2 about being homesick. She also has a daughter living in California and understands the feeling of missing your loved ones.  Rona stopped by the shower house with this book, "642 Things to Write About." The purpose is to get your creative juices flowing with suggestions for writing subjects, like your first heartbreak or "that time you peed your pants. (That's a story I'll tell sometime after I've been to Jerry's maybe.) It turns out they read the blog and saw my entry on writer's block. She saw this book and thought of me. We had a tearful chat about what it is to miss your family and be far from home. She offered an ear when I need to talk.  I was so touched by this gesture that a lump remained in my throat for at least an hour after her visit.  Thank you to Rona for the book, and to everyone that reads the blog and enjoys it.  Who knew my rambling would lead to such sincere gestures.

Since my return from Washington, countless people at the Angle have expressed their condolences about my mom.  People that don't have to say a word and that I would never have known that they even knew.  Everyone, and I do mean everyone, knew that I had been home and had lost my mother.  I wish I knew the proper thing to say when someone says they are sorry, and to express what it means to me that they would bring it up.  The feeling is one of warmth and security that I am surrounded by such caring people.  This community is full of such people.  Our neighbor Gloria stopped by one night with this lovely bouquet of Hydrangea and said she has been thinking of us.  She lives in North Dakota and is only here on the weekends, but had brought flowers from her home for us.  After she left, I had to get all choked up and remind Rick that when we lived in Washington, we knew about 3 people in our neighborhood and only said hello at the mailbox.  One neighbor that lived directly across the street was on the Neighborhood Housing Committee and never even came to introduce herself to us.  I am convinced that there is something magical and charming about the Angle.  Don't get me wrong, there are some iffy folks here too, let's not get carried away. Perhaps the exceptional ones make up for those that make you raise an eye-brow.

On one of my blue days, we took a little boat trip to a beach called Rabbit Ears and played in the water.  It was a Friday afternoon and there was work to do, as always.  But we live in a place with water and beaches right around the corner and work with family who understand my need for distraction sometimes.  I reminded Rick that we never would have had opportunity to do such a thing in our previous life.  He likely would have been out of town, I would have been working and the kids would have been with someone else that we were paying to watch them for most of the day.  This day was something we never would have believed could happen to us.

Sunday is usually a busy cabin-cleaning day and in a strange turn of events I didn't have to clean yesterday and we were able to attend church.  The speaker was using a projector to show his points and the words stood out at me as if they were being shouted.  MY CUP RUNNETH OVER.  I think that sums it up.

Mother Dog

This morning Tyson was watching "Babe" on TV while I was putting the baby down for a nap.  He loves the mornings we don't have work to do and he can watch a show and lounge around.  He came in to Andie's room with a frown on his face.

Me:  Why are you cranky?
Tyson:  I don't like the scary dog.  Can you skip over him?
Me:  Of course.
Tyson:  I like the Mother Dog.  I want to watch her.  She is just like you.

Now I have a huge smile, my heart swelling with pride that he has made a connection and sees her as a nuturing and loving mother, taking care of her children.

Me:  That's so nice, how is she like me?
Tyson:  She eats dog food.
Me:  Oh.......Sigh.

Writer's Block

I'm having some sort of writer's block or brain clutter issue. I have photos of things to put on the blog, but nothing to say about it. A lot of the photos are from before my trip home, so too much time has passed and I can't remember what I wanted to say. I have a case of the blahs. My days, while sunny and enjoyable, blend together in a blur of cabins, toilets, store shifts and kids growing like weeds. The temperature doesn't really get above 90 degrees, but the humidity makes it a little suffocating. The bugs that people kept warning me about are here. Huge black flies that bite. My morning runs are kept interesting with the flies swarming around my head and my hands sticky from the muggy air. At this moment all of our cabins are full and our campground is over-full, people stuffed in every nook and cranny. There were people putting boats in the water at 6:00am and the store was buzzing all morning with activity and customers. Big Rick looks pretty happy. Resort life is good.

The day before I left for Wenatchee, Tyson had his 3rd birthday.  It's so hard to believe that time goes this fast.  I thank God everyday that I am home with him to watch him grow in to his own little person, with opinions and understanding of the world around him.  I would challenge anyone to find a happier kid than  this one.

We had a little surprise party in the store during lunch.  That is Ava on the left and Bridger in the jeep.  The 4 kids look so much alike, it's almost creepy.  Like the McKeever gene pool is so strong that it's taking over the world, one little blue eyed child at a time.

In other news, Andie has started crawling and is motoring all around the house.  In about 3 weeks time she has learned to say da da and ma ma, she waves goodbye and now she is a professional crawler.  (Sorry for the Tyson butt in the background.  It's nothing you haven't seen before.)

I promise to find something fun to do and write about it.  I will go out in search of interesting stories and report back.  This time of year, it will likely be about fish or what someone left in the fridge of a cabin.....These are the days of our lives.

I Love Golf!

There are 3 things every little town in this country must have: a bar, a post office and a golf course.  I think you are required to have these things to get a zip code designated to your area.  We may live in the middle of nowhere, but we have all 3! The Angle has a lovely little 9 hole golf course that I've shown pictures of before from Mens Night. I've had no desire to go there because  I golfed once in my early 20's and thought it was boring and too hard and swore I would never do it again.  Until one night Jenny and Nikki invited me to go.  None of us knew how to play and had each been out once or twice before so we weren't expecting much........Well this just in---GOLF IS FUN!

Nikki on the first hole, driving away.  We played Best Ball, I think that's what it's called anyway.  So you hit from whatever ball had the best shot.  This saves so much time and let's face it, it is just degrading trying to hit your ball out of the weeds or the woods, over and over again.

Jenny firing away. I have no idea what hole this is.  I have no idea how far it is.  Don't expect that much detail from this rookie.  We had such a good time and it wasn't near as time consuming as we expected.  Plus we were all actually impressed with ourselves.  We weren't too bad!  There were a few expletives and beers, but we were there alone and not offending anyone with our mouths or our non-skills.

So after such a good time with the girls, I agreed to try out Ladies Night on the next Tuesday.  Pat goes to this and had asked me to come before.  I kept saying no because I thought it would be embarrassing since I was so bad.  Linnea and Susan, 2 of my favorite Angle ladies, had started going so I couldn't resist.  ( I have a few favorite Angle Ladies up here so don't think I'm leaving anyone out.  If you think you're on my top 5 list, then let's just say you are!)

Linnea loading up her cart on the left and Susan chatting somebody up on the right.  We get divided into 2 groups each night and sadly I haven't golfed with either of them yet.  They are both very funny and Susan has the best sayings when stuff happens, like "Well forever more."  Love it.

Grammy Nancy taking her shot.  (This is Jenny's mom.)  She has some skills!  At Ladies Night, no matter what kind of shot you have, everyone will say something nice about it.  It's like getting applause and an ego boost, even though your ball has disappeared into the woods forever, for the 8th time.

This hole leads out to the lake, you can almost see it there in the clearing.  There is at least one hole that is lakeside, maybe 2?  The woods on the right side contain a few of my golf balls.  Well, to be fair, I use Pat's clubs so they are balls that belong to her.  She'll get tired of me soon and make me get my own.

Pat and Bev in their concentration stance, watching someone tee off.  Bev gets mad at herself and says, "Oh Beverly!"  just like my mom used to say.  How can I not enjoy that every time?

My mother-in-law won't admit it out of modesty, but she is really quite a good golfer.  We play her ball  often.  (Ladies Night is Best Ball as well.)  I've been on her team both times I've attended Ladies Night and we've won both times, they are threatening to split us up.  When you get there, everyone puts a dollar in the pot and the winning team divides it up amongst themselves.  I've made $8 so far.  I've paid $20, it may take awhile to break even.

Linnea jumping from her cart in shear excitement.

The ninth hole, with everybody's ball on the sand except mine.  You can see my ball sitting just to the right of the tree.  I don't even know my own strength!

This is my Birdie!  I made this hole in 2 shots, this is my first shot from the tee.  IT WAS AWESOME.  My husband finally had something to brag on me about.  I don't know what hole this is or how far the drive was.  Not important.  Also not important, the fact that is was pure luck or my thumb in the photo.

There is a little fox that hunts at the golf course.  He/she has been there 2 of the 3 times I've been.  This is how you put the Angle twist on the golf.  Or if you went there when Rick goes and he is wearing Carhart jeans and t-shirts instead of a collared polo.  Or the fact that I thought I was going to use the outhouse and it was locked, so I had to squat in front of it, realizing later it was a deerstand.  Inappropriate?  Maybe.  Ok at the Angle?  For sure.  The best part of golf is driving away from each hole with my mother-in-law shouting, " I LOVE GOLF!!"  And I do too!

Reflection

I'm sorry for not writing in so long.  I was home in Washington to say goodbye to my mom. This blog post is not Angle related, but it relates to my life and deserves to be said.  Really, it deserves to be said in some beautiful poetic fashion.  I am no poet, so my thoughts in a few paragraphs will just have to do.

My mother passed away on Sunday, July 1st, after a long battle with cancer.  She fought 5 different cancers and beat most of them, but sadly she didn't have the endurance that this disease does.  Cancer did win the war, but she won a lot of battles along the way.  Maybe we'll just call it a cease fire.  I don't think Cancer should get all the credit just because it had the final say.

I accepted long ago that this disease would take her from us and I have mourned that fact as her time became shorter and shorter.  She was a dedicated mother, a doting grandmother, an extremely hard worker and she was funny with a quick wit that I could never compare to.  She taught me that you do whatever it takes to provide the right life for your children.  She was never pushy or nosy or aggressive with her advice.      She let me figure things out on my own and gave opinions when I asked for them.  Now that she is gone, my sad thoughts will move on to reflections of a kind and loving woman who endured her sickness like she went through her life, with a smile on her face and her mind focused on her family and our needs.

Do I believe mom is sitting up in heaven watching over us?  No.  I think there are way better things to do in heaven than to sit and watch this world going around and around.  But I do feel her presence in certain instances.....I see her face when I look at my own, I see her wedding ring on my hand that looks like hers, certain things happen and I think about what she would say.  Even at the funeral service I had things I wanted to tell her about who was there or about which flowers I know she would have loved.  It's a hard thing to wrap my mind around, the fact that she is gone and I can't call her up or see her face.  It is even harder to believe that my children will never know her and the love she had for them.

There is no way to sum up my thoughts well or in a way that my mom deserves.  Life was hard on her and she fought hard to live it.  My heart is sad for her, yet it is full with memories and love for her.  She doesn't have to worry anymore or suffer through another procedure.  Her worries and hurt are laid to rest.

Call your momma today and have a chat or give her a hug when you see her.  Talk about a funny memory.  Then remember this day when you need it.  Trust me, you will.

I miss you mom, with a full heart and a smile.