Happy Fourth of July (on the fifth!)

I hope you all had a great day celebrating the Fourth of July with friends and family.  Here are a few snapshots of our day.

Grey skies and lots of rain

Festive kids

An All American Hunk (who is now officially walking fyi)

And fireworks, of course!!

Happy Birthday, America!

What did you do to celebrate?  Do you have any special holiday traditions?

We Met At A Cafe In Paris

First off, sorry for the delay in posting!  I had some technical difficulties with my computer, but it's all good now!  Sorry!

WE MET AT A CAFE IN PARIS

In 1995, I spent the month of June traveling around Europe.  I was eighteen years old, and it was my first time to fly across the Atlantic. During that month, I visited six different countries with two of my closest friends, LeAnn and Kim.  Our fist stop:  Paris!  We landed and hit the ground running, trying to stay awake to avoid jet lag.  The plan was to stay in Paris three or four days.  Luckily, Kim had some friends living there at the time, so we crashed on their fold-out couch in their small apartment.  The first few days were spent seeing all the major historic and iconic sights:  The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Musee de Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and Napoleon's tomb.  Our final day was spent taking it easy and doing some shopping.  For dinner that last night, we chose a quaint restaurant with cheerful red awnings covering the many outdoor tables and chairs.  We were quickly seated outside at the table nearest the front door.  From that vantage point we could see the steady stream of patrons both entering and exiting the cafe.  I remember watching a street performer just a few feet away from our table.  The sights and sounds of such a vibrant city were amazing.

A while later, we had eaten our dinner and were getting ready to head out.  It was evening, but it was not dark yet as I happened to glance up at two girls entering the restaurant with an older gentlemen who appeared to be their dad.  What struck me right off the bat was that the younger of the two girls was wearing a t-shirt with the name of an obscure band that I listed to.  Without hesitating I called out to her and asked about the band.  After chatting for a few minutes, it was obvious that we had a lot in common, so I invited the girl and her family to join us at our table.  Her name was Janie.  She was traveling with her sister, Andrea and their dad. 

Sometimes when you meet certain people, you just click right away.  It was like that with Janie and her family-- we just all got along so well!  They were from Illinois, we were from Oklahoma, and our conversation never slowed down.  Instantly we were talking and laughing and sharing stories like we old friends. And so it was that the six of us stayed at the restaurant until midnight! In fact, we all had to run to catch the last metro train, scribbling out our addresses on scraps of paper, promising to write (these were the days before email). 

And write, we did.  Janie was only a year younger than me, so we had a lot in common.  Six months later, Janie flew to Oklahoma to visit.  Six months after that, my friend Heather and I drove to Illinois to visit Janie.  We all attended a week long concert event called Cornerstone together along with Janie's other sister, Laura (who was not on the Paris trip).  The next summer, we flew back to Illinois to visit.  And so it went-- back and forth, even attending each other's weddings!  Today we don't see each other as often because we are all in different states across the country, but we still keep up via email and facebook.  We each have careers and families and lives of our own now.

And it all started when we met at a cafe in Paris. 

Travel Stories:: An Introduction and The Cat Lady of Barcelona

There are certain moments in time-- a day, an hour, an event-- that are filed away in my brain, and  each one can be brought to the forefront of my mind with perfect clarity.  While other memories are hazy or fuzzy, these are the ones where I can remember not only what happened at that particular moment, but what the sun felt like as it warmed my back, or the way the wind whistled around a street corner, or the tinkling of music floating out of a nearby window. Each one of my five senses can recall specific memories. And if I close my eyes, I can almost feel like I am there again. It's as if these particular moments are forever cemented in my mind.

Most often, these memories usually involve a place I have traveled to.  I absolutely love to travel.  I love to take in the sights, sounds and smells of a new place.  Have you seen the movie Dan in Real Life?  It is one of my recent  favorites.  In the movie, Juliette Binoche's character is asked to describe her perfect day.  Among other things, she mentions that her perfect day would begin in another country, a country where she doesn't speak the language.  I love being in foreign countries.  So in honor of that, I am going to do my best to describe a few of my favorite moments from my travels overseas.  Each night this week I will try to retrieve those crystal clear memories and put a few of them into words.  Enjoy.

THE CAT LADY OF BARCELONA

After a busy day of sightseeing, shopping, and exploring, our feet were absolutely aching, screaming out for a respite.  The winter sun was slowly moving westward, and we could feel the January chill start to seep into our clothes.  Feeling exhausted, my friends and I stopped to discuss our next move.  We were tired and travel weary, and I think we could all feel that cranky, irritated tone slipping into the conversation.  Should we press on to our hotel and just call it a day? We are in Barcelona for crying out loud!  The sun is just now  setting, and there is still so much to do and see! I'm starving!  Where can we get some good paella? 

It was then that we noticed the park across the street.  I do not recall the name of the park, but I can see the ornate, iron fence defining it's perimeter.  I can see the trees waving the in cool breeze.  Without really saying anything, the three of us wandered over to the entrance and stepped inside.  Colors were getting less distinct as the sun kept creeping down further and further.  There was a purple haze to the sky and the trees took on shades of hunter green and black.  We found a bench and quietly sat.  It was the kind of park where you might expect fairies to flit around sprinkling their pixie dust.  It was enchanting.  The sounds of the bustling city seemed distant and muted.  I think we knew that we needed to rest and recharge.  There is something so comforting about sitting in silence with good friends.  So we sat.  And we filled our lungs with the crisp evening air. 

After half an hour or so, we saw her.  A dark, hobbling image slowly loping into the park.  She had come prepared for the cold, dressed in layers and wrapped in a shawl.  She reached a hand into the large purse she was carrying and retrieved a bag of something-- we couldn't quite make out what it was in the gathering darkness.  Then we heard her soft voice call out a few words and her tongue made a few quick clicking sounds.  From out of the bushes and from behind the tall trees, a parade of cats made their way to her as she scooped her hands into the bag and scattered what looked like small pebbles onto the ground.  It was then that we figured out what was in the bag:  cat food!  She was coming to feed the cats!  We watched her gently pet each feline that came up and rubbed against her legs.  Even though we couldn't understand her words, we knew her tone was loving and gentle.  What was her name? Where was her family?  Where did she live? How long had she made this her nightly ritual?  These were questions that we were all thinking, but didn't mention at the time.  We just watched, and kept our thoughts to ourselves.

Although most of this moment is quite clear in my mind, I don't recall exactly how long we stayed on our quiet park bench that night.  I do know that when we left it was dark.  I know that our feet were not hurting anymore; the irritated, cranky tone from our earlier conversation was gone.  And three formerly travel-weary friends left the park feeling refreshed, our spirits calm, and our souls warm to the very core.

Summer Staples

When I think of summertime, the following words immediately come to mind:

lemonade

watermelon

heat

blue skies

fireworks

grilling

Popsicles

crepe myrtles 
swimming
and...

 FRUIT SALAD

Almost everyday I concoct a new variation with whatever fruit I happen to have.  Strawberries are almost always included because they are of course perfectly in season right now.  On this day I added bananas, pineapple and mandarin oranges to the mix.  Sometimes I add grapes or apples or grapefruit; there are no rules!  You just can't mess it up.  There is something so wonderfully summer about a cold bowl of fruit salad.

What are some words that come to mind when you think of summer?

I Brushed Another Cat Out Of Tundra

Ha! The title of this blog post might be the strangest one ever written! For clarification, one of our cats is named Tundra.  She is what you might call plump, chubby, round or meaty.  Ok, who am I kidding, she is all of those words combined.  She started off as a sweet little kitten and over the last eleven years has grown into a massive ball of fur.  Very thick fur.  We jokingly call her "Ro-Tundra" because of her rotund girth.  Because she is so large, and because her fur is so thick, she tends to get knots in her coat-- especially where she can't reach when she grooms herself.  Thankfully, that girl loves a good brushing.  When she hears me go to the laundry room and retrieve the comb and brush from the shelf, she comes running.  I try to brush her once a week or every other week, but over the last month or so I had totally slacked off on my brushing duties and the poor cat had quite a few knots to undo.  So last night the two of us sat on my bedroom floor as I combed and brushed and combed and brushed until her fur was soft and smooth and knot-free.  Then I looked at the massive ball of cat hair that I had removed from her and was shocked because it was literally the size of a small kitten.  I kid you not.

Tundra giving the kitten-sized-hairball her evil pet eye stare.  Scary, huh?

I almost put it out in the yard because I thought some birds might use it to line their nests, but instead I opted for the trashcan.  

Silly Sign Game

Several years ago Mike and I created a silly game that we play when we are on a road trip or a vacation.  Actually, he started it and I just play along.  I think it must have started out of my husband's love and fascination with different fonts.  His graphic design background plays a big part of this.  He has several books about typography and he even likes to create his own fonts sometimes.  So here's the game.  As you pass a sign (billboard, a business sign, etc.) you have to take turns reading that sign out loud in a voice to match whatever font is on the sign.  For example, we passed a sign with letters that looked like they were on fire.  So those words were read in a voice much like the announcer at a monster truck rally.  Space age looking fonts demand that you read them as a futuristic robot.  Signs written in very fancy script or calligraphy must be read as if you are a royal queen or grand theater performer.  We've read smaller signs in a voice like the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.  Or boring looking signs in a sad Eeyore voice (you know...they donkey from the Winnie the Pooh books?).  Sometimes it is just the volume of your regular voice that makes a difference.  For example:

I would read the word "auto" in a normal sounding voice, but "glass" requires that I shout it out.

 
It absolutely keeps us laughing and makes the time driving go by much faster.  So next time you are driving around your town or city, give it a try!  You will either discover the hilarity of our game or think that we are nuts! :)

Light

Do you know what your first spoken word was?  The first word you said other than "Mama or Dada"?  I know what mine was.  Light.  And I know what Hannah and Leah's first word was too.  Light.  Really, I promise.  In both my case and in my girls' case, the word was pronounced "Dight!"  For my girls, it started with the question, "Where's the light?"  And with a chubby little hand, they would reach up and point to the nearest light fixture, their chocolate brown eyes sparkling with delight.  After a few months of pointing, we finally heard their sweet voices say, "Dight!!" as they pointed up.  This was always followed with exuberant applause from their Daddy and me. 

Guess what Lucas is doing these days? 

Mama:  "Where's the light, Buddy?"
Lucas:  reaches out his chubby (and tan!) little hand and points toward the nearest light fixture
Mama:  "YAY!!!" clap, clap, clap

I may be wrong, but I think we might hear "Dight!" in the near future.  What a sweet, sweet word.