Swingin Like an Ape!

Yesterday, a young woman in my yoga class said she was going to Trapeze Class. For whatever reason, I decided to go too! Since I can't do ANYTHING by myself, I called Nan and informed her that we had a fun activity. She, of course, was on board with the adventure.Off we went to Berkely!!!

This place was. . . WOW!!! There were trapezes hanging from the ceiling everywhere. I was thinking, "Yeah, like they're gonna get me up on one of these?" Yup, they did!!! I was swinging, twirling and having the time of my life!!! If was so dang much fun.

I told Princess that she was coming with me in two weeks when she's out here visiting. I'm in awe at how free and uninhibited I felt. I love, love, loved it! Thank you, Self, for going outside of your box and exploring something new. I like who you are becoming. It's way fun!

Popular Me!!

Today I went to Safeway to grab some stuff since I've been pretty neglectful in that arena lately in my life. After waiting in a line about three people deep at the checkstand it was finally my turn. I was interacting with Jacob and not paying much attention to what was going on around me. The cashier then said, "Oh, I wonder where Amanda is."

I'm like, "Pardon me?"

He then said, "Amanda, the courtesy clerk. She saw in you line and said 'oh, I want to bag that lady's grocerys. I fricking LOVE her!!' "

I felt like an idiot. Who the heck is Amanda? Well, the cashier paged her and this sweet young woman came rushing up to the check stand. I honestly do remember her from my trips here before but nothing stands out in my mind that would make her "love" me. I felt special. We chatted and laughed about this and that and then I was on my way.

It was so nice to feel so appreciated after having had a pretty crappy event happen in my life just about 20 minutes prior to this exchange. Thank you, Amanda. You made my day!!!

Odd Dog

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to go for a run up at the park. I have a lot on my mind so I just wanted to go work it out with my sneakers and the dirt.

When I walked out to the car the dogs knew instantly what my attire meant. PARK TRIP!!! Um, no, dudes this is just me today! They weren't buying it. Nope, not at all. They were jockeying for position to launch in my car but I was successful in getting in without companions (or so I thought). I left and headed up to the park (a mile away). When I got there I went on my much needed run. As I was approaching my car after the run here comes Pierre just ripping up to me! WTF??? Right behind him was Madison. Naughty puppies!!! How the heck did they manage to find me all the way up here without getting eating by coyotes or run over by cars? Scared the tar out of me. I loaded them up and was touched by their loyalty and eagerness to go with me.

Fast forward to the afternoon. The twins wanted to take the rabbits out to be in the sun and eat grass. No biggie. Pierre, for whatever reason, thinks that Thunder is his new playmate. At first I thought he was mauling the poor bunny but then I found out he was trying to play with him. When he realized that Thunder was clueless, he layed right down beside him. It was pretty cute.

So today? Yeah, I'm going for a run after yoga. Dogs? Oh heck yes!!!

Blue By You

This picture is the studio where we practiced our yoga twice a day in Belize. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the late afternoon. It was so wonderful. Of course when the wind blew it got a bit nippy (hence the blankets around us). In the afternoon/evening session each day, Gloria let us meditate on the sun going down. One of my faves.

Next door is Sally's house. Sally is the woman (really, Sally is the woman I am in my heart) that owns the studio and she prepared breakfast for us each morning. One thing that so touched my heart was that, when she discovered that I was a vegan, she made meals that catered to my needs. I felt so special. I ate well at Sally's. I had scrambled tofu, granola, whole wheat pancakes and there was an endless array of salsas, fruit, spreads etc. It was heavenly.

Looking at this picture reminds me of how cold I was so much of the time. When I was grabbing blankets or whatever I could find I would look over at Nan who was so comfortable without anything extra on. I couldn't believe it! She told me that it was probably a good thing that I didn't go on the snorkeling excursion because SHE was actually a bit cold and knew that I would have been freezing. I had a grand time that day anyway. I zoned Gloria and John and I hung out at our hotel and just chilled. Of course, when Nan came back, it dawned on me just how much I had missed her. I exclaimed, "Nan you're back! I totally missed you today." Sad thing is - I meant it.

Some Funny Vacation Moments

1. While we were FINALLY ready to load the plane in SFO (we had a 6 hour delay due to plane challenges) the announcer came on and informed us that it would be in our best interest to quickly load on the plane and not spend too much time dilly dallying with our overhead luggage. Nan turned to me and said, "I so hate it when people take forever putting their stuff away and make everyone else wait." Somehow Nan and I got separated by like 6 people between us. While I was walking on the plane the line stopped. I waited, waited, waited and then peeked around to see what the deal was. Holy crap! It was Nan trying to smash her suitcase in that overhead bin! I yelled, "Are you kidding me?" Her face got redder and redder. When I finally got to my seat beside her I then said, "I am NOT with you. I do NOT know you!" We both cracked up!

2. Almost every single time that Nan had no or minimal amounts of clothing on, I, for whatever reason, would decide that we needed air in our hotel room and would throw open the door (that opened out to the pool area) without checking with her. She would yell, "Jode! Ahhhh!!!" Sorry Nan.

3. We were walking along the beach when a young boy approached me and asked if I wanted to buy a conch shell for $1. I couldn't resist. He was so dang cute!!! I said, "Sure! You live around here?" (thinking I was doing my part in helping out a sweet boy and his impoverished family). He answered, "No, I'm from Seattle. We are on vacation." Well, it turns out the shell got confiscated at the airport in security. Shows to go ya!

4. When we got to Caye Caulkner airport (a little strip out in the middle of nowhere with a shack called "terminal" nearby), a taxi driver was waiting in his golf cart. He said he was picking us up. I said, "Are you Juan?" (remembering the name Gloria had given me for the driver picking us up, of course). He said "No." I refused to go with him. He then said to Nan, "You are Nancy?" She was surprised and asked how he knew. He said that Gloria had told him that Jody was the blonde and that Nancy would be traveling with her (me). I then asked him what his name was and he said, "Lulu." I then (blushing and laughing kind of nervously) said, "Oh yeah, that's right! That's the name we were supposed to be listening for!" Duh!!!

5. We are in the Miami airport waiting for our flight home. I went to use the restroom and came back exasperated. Nan asked what was up and I said, "I had such a hankerin for some peanut M&M's and couldn't find any anywhere!" A few minutes go by and she leaves to use the restroom before our flight boards. She comes back and throws a pack of M&M's in my bag. I look up and say, "Score! Where did you get these? You rock!!" Later we are on the plane and I decide that we need to write down our funniest moments. I am busy writing and notice Nan is quiet. I look up and notice she has a frickin box of See's candy open in front of her. I'm like WTF??? What the hell is this??? I didn't even ask. I just dove head first into her box of candy. We both regreted it later but, DANG!!, it was pretty frickin awesome while it lasted.

I love Nan and am so glad we got to do this trip together. We had so many laughs, good heart to heart talks and some really awesome moments where we learned stuff about ourselves. The picture above is our last night at the yoga studio as the sun was setting. A bittersweet moment. Thank you, friend, for making my vacation one of the best times ever! I love you, man!!!

Simple Life

One of the most delicious things about going on a yoga retreat with Gloria is that she always takes us somewhere where there isn't a lot of distractions. We get to be with real people living a real life. I really like that. No five star hotels, no fancy dancy restaurants. Nope, none of that.

The island of Caye Caulkner, where we stayed, is pretty dang simple. There are two big generators that power the whole island that is 1 mile long by 1/4 mile wide. The main mode of transportation is walking and bicycles. There aren't any cars and the taxis are golf carts. The streets are dirt - no pavement. How cool is that?

I so didn't want to leave. I loved the whole vibe of this island. The one thing that I took away from this experience is that I want to simplify my life. What can I get rid of to feel the way I felt here? The stress level was almost nil (of course I wasn't dealing with my kids and the stress of my life at home). I was able to look deep within. I haven't done that in so long.

Indigo

My trip to Belize was nothing short of fabulous. I really got to have some down time to recharge myself. Life isn't easy and lately it has been especially difficult (a lot hitting all at once). This trip came at the perfect time.

I went to every single yoga class (there were two 2-hour classes per day) and got so much out of it. Gloria (my yoga instructor) went through all the chakras and we worked extensively on each chakra each day. It was so awesome.

This particular day we were working on the 6th chakra, the one between your eyes. Gloria gave us each a bindie to put there. Everyone looked so beautiful. We even had an awesome picture taken with all of us lying in a circle with our heads in the middle with all of us wearing our bindies. I'll post that later when whoever has it passes it along.

I know that this week was tough on my family (especially Jacob) but I am so grateful that they did what they had to do so that Mom could go do what she had to do to be a better Mom.

I'll be doing a few more posts in the next couple day about my trip along with some pictures of Belize.

Belize

Can I just say that I'm pretty excited about my trip to Belize on Saturday? It was a kind of last minute decision for me to go. Nancy mentioned that she wanted to do it and kind of said that it would be cool if I could join her. It felt right, the stars all aligned and . . . wow! I'm going!

I week of doing yoga twice a day and (hopefully) zoning people in between. Some time in the sun by the ocean and some down time to meditate and try to come up with a direction in life. Something that all people need, I know.

I'm grateful that Skip doesn't seem to be too undone about me going. I'm grateful that Danielle can come stay with the kids the latter part of the week. I'm really totally grateful that Nancy and I are doing this together!

This just feels good and right.

Brace Face

Today was a day that Courtney has been looking forward to for like three months. She has talked non-stop about her braces and even pretended like she was "worried" about it (we saw through it, though).

Okay so here we are today! I come up with this fun plan to take her out to lunch and then spend a "girls afternoon" together going shopping to kind of make her day a little more special. After all, how could school possibly be more important than shopping, right?

Me: Hey, Snort, how about we go to lunch and then hit the mall and do some shopping this afternoon after you get your braces on?

Courtney: Um, do we have to?

Me: You don't want to go? Would you rather go back to school and show off your braces to your friends?

Courtney: (face lights up like 4th of July) YEAH!!!!

So that, my friends, is how it all went down. I was deflated. So what did I do? Yup! I went shopping and spent obscene amounts of money at the mall (just kidding, Babe). Well, I did go shopping but I didn't really spend money. I was kind of bummed that I got dissed.

When I talked to Brian on my way to pick up the twins from school and recited the story to him he said, "Oh, wow, are you kidding me? I would have killed to have spent an afternoon with you going to lunch and the mall! Those were the funnest days when you did that with us! I can't believe she blew you off."

That's ok. I'm over it. Tonight she's not quite so thrilled with those braces of hers. Nope, soup and applesauce for dinner. Ouch!!

The Good Life

When I was a little girl I wanted to be a teacher. I always put my teachers on some kind of pedestal (they definitely earned it, they had to put up with ME) and I wanted to be just like them. Then I got a little older and wanted to be a doctor. I stuck with that dream, kept it to myself because I was sure that I would be laughed out of town (I wasn't the BEST student and I certainly was considered a "problem" when I was in my teens). Well, a serious of unfortunate events occurred in my young life and that dream never really got realized.

Fast forward to me at the age of . . . 32 (ok, give or take a year or two) and now I get to help people in a completely different way than I ever really thought possible. I get a rush out of people coming to me and telling me what's going on with their body and I'm able to give them suggestions on how they can feel better. I get even a bigger rush out of it when they come back and tell me that it worked!

I may not be giving pills, shots and suggesting surgery but I think I have something even better! Foot zoning, herbs, oils and great diet advice. This may not be the most lucrative endeavor I have ever embarked on but it certainly is the most rewarding!!