Lost, But Not Alone

This morning I woke up and just stayed in bed for a while.  Whenever I do that my mind starts to wander and I think.  My thoughts were turned to a time when I was visiting New York City in July 2004 with my family quite a few years back.  It was a fabulous vacation of driving up the east coast, eventually stopping in Palmyra, New York to visit the sites and my parents who were serving a mission there. Easton was just a little guy, about three and a half because he was still being pushed around in the ol' umbrella stroller.  Bren and Janelle were hanging with us too on that day in the big city.

The setting for my daydreaming adventure was the busy and chaotic Penn Station with it's masses of people buzzing about in transit to their destinations.  Our little family had spent the day in New York City seeing the sights and walking the energizing streets of that great city.

We were preparing to board a train that would take us to our hotel in New Jersey.  As we waited at the right spot to catch our line out of the city it was decided that I would take one last bathroom trip with Easton and Landon before boarding the train because we had a little time to kill.  Stephen waited with Ashton, Dallin, Bren and Janelle while I headed to the restroom with the two youngest boys.  We wove through the crowds of people, quickly and uneventfully finding the facilities we were searching for. The journey back to our waiting family was definitely a different story.

As we retraced our path it soon became clear that I had no idea where I was going.  I didn't even know what train line we were searching for because I had simply just followed Stephen wherever he went through Penn Station with Easton in tow.  I didn't even know what city we were heading to in New Jersey.  We were always the caboose of our little traveling group, simply followers in a sea of people.  And obviously I had been a great follower just pushing along and enjoying the scenery.  To make matters worse for our scenario, I didn't have my cell phone with me, having left it in my bag with Stephen.  I can honestly say that I began to panic.  I knew our train was leaving soon and let's face it....I was lost in Penn Station, not a good place to be lost in.  My little entourage and myself wandered for quite sometime hoping to catch a glimpse of familiar faces or to recognize a path that we had traveled before.  Everything started looking the same and we just simply kept retracing our path as we wandered "lost in the wilderness"!  I said a little prayer in my heart and acted brave for Landon.  He calmly tried to help me look for the right hallway or signs.  We stopped at the police booth and I told them my plight.  They asked me over and over what line I was taking, which direction I was headed and what city we were staying in...sadly, I had nothing for them.  Finally one of the policemen started to just walk with me, pointing me in the direction of different lines heading to New Jersey, hoping we would run into our group.  Nothing.  Then, we had an AHA moment.  The police used his cell phone to call Stephen and we were eventually reunited.  Too many questions were asked by Stephen when he gathered us to safety and I am sure that he is still baffled today at the fact that his wife was literally lost in New York City with his two youngest!

And what did I learn from this life-altering experience?  I learned some life lessons that I still use today:

1.  Always know where you are going, know your destination.  If you don't know your destination how can you possibly get where you need to go?  When I travel now I always use a map that I have looked at before hand and I am very aware of my location.

2.  Take charge of yourself, don't rely on others to get you where you need to go.  I placed too much trust in Stephen and was a follower.  I didn't think, question, and definitely wasn't aware of my surroundings.  I just followed.  I learned to be an active participant in the process.

3.  Always have your cell phone with you.  What good is that little box of amazing little box of technology if nobody can contact you on it and if you can use it when necessary.

4.  Stay calm and know that things will work out.  Saying a little prayer in my heart helped me arrive at my destination.  I somehow knew that it would be OK.

Stephen and Landon are safely riding the train back to our hotel in New Jersey!

 

 Easton made friends with this little fellow on the train.

Just a Little Project

Summer is in full swing here in Georgia and with the warmer weather I get the bug to head outside and get the yard work going!  this week I finished up a project that was started at the end of summer last year.  I purchased these stackstone bricks to create retaining walls for some of my flower beds.  I have actually fought doing this for years because I just don't like the contrived, predictable look of the retaining walls.  But, after battling the loss of dirt and erosion over time, I succumbed.

 I began working on the front beds with the stones that had been waiting on my driveway turn around spot for six months.  It went rather quickly and the bricks were quickly used up.  Easton (against his will) and I went to Lowe's to purchase another truckload.  We purchased 84 bricks, all that would fit on the push cart at Lowe's and drove the heavy load home.  It's days like these that I miss my beast of a car car, the Expedition.  It would hold so much!  Friday I worked for hours and got the stones laid in place.  It was a little bit challenging to get the walls level because the stones were uneven to begin with and when I used a level it just never looked right.  I just had to eyeball it and do my best.  As I look at these pictures I still see some spots that are a little uneven, but whatever!  It's done and I'm happy!  And I used exactly 84 bricks in the process...no more, no less!  How amazing is that?

Next on the project list, bring in bags of soil to fill in the bricked-in areas and then plant my summer flowers!  Can't wait!  Oh, and I have to fix my brick path.  Tree roots have grown under the bricks and caused them to pop up and be uneven.  The list of work never ends at this place!

Yummy Breakfast

The three of us, Easton, Stephen and I went to IHOP on Friday morning to celebrate the end of the school year.  It's been a family tradition for years to haul the kids to an early morning breakfast at IHOP to ring in the summer and to congratulate them on a job well done.  It seems like our breakfast gets later and later every year.  We ate around 1:30 pm this year.  We'll have to start having lunch or even dinner at IHOP in the future.  I'm the only one who can get up in the morning (I know I'm weird) and I just sit around waiting for the rest of the crew to roll out of bed.  

School's Out for Summer!

 Let the fun begin...staying up late, sleeping in, swimming, hanging with friends, and NO HOMEWORK.  School if officially out for this kid.  Easton is no longer a seventh grader at North Gwinnett Middle School.  He will be at the top of his school next year as an Eighth grader.  He had a great year and learned many new things.  He studied hard and did well.  We are excited for a relaxing summer!

 I made Easton a celebratory root beer float when he got home from school and tried to capture a picture.  I think the teenager in Easton has kicked in because he is so done with me taking pictures of him.  Oh well.....He's all I've got!  He's the only person around here to take pictures of.  He's the only one that has fun!  I guess I could just start taking random selfies but that would get really boring for everyone, especially me.

Subway???

 Friday night we gave Easton the option of picking out where we were going to eat.  He deserves that honor every once in a while since he lives with old people.  Out of all the places we could go, he picked SUBWAY.  Seriously.  He said he was craving a sandwich with the new avocado on it and we couldn't change his mind.  So....we ate at Subway.  That may be the last time we let Easton pick the restaurant!

Play It Again!

My sweet, brilliant and gifted piano students participated in their Spring recital last Saturday at my home.  They have been working on their songs for months trying to perfect them and polish them.  It was a successful recital.  I love seeing them perform and sharing in their success.  You can see the relief on their faces when they are finished playing their song.  And then we celebrate with a little open house.  This year I went low-key and just served a variety of ice cream cones and ice cream bars on sticks.  They cheered and thought it was great!  I have taught 14 students this year...if you count the heads in the picture you will see that a few were missing.  The sweet little boy in the front in the green and navy striped shirt isn't one of my students, but his older brothers are.  He is taking lesson from his Mother right now and he wanted to play in the recital.  So sweet.

Sing Your Heart Out

 I love that Easton participates in his school choir.  We went to his End of the School year concert and it was just great.  This group of seventh graders really has a nice blend and they sound very put together and polished.  My favorite song of the night was Heart and Soul, quite a bouncy little number.

Easton received a certificate for participation in Honor Chorus earlier in the year.  With only six boys in his choir he really holds his own.  He says kids from school will say, "You're in Choir???"  And he'll respond with, "Yea, you got a problem with it?"  Nope!

All Good Things Come to an End

 Breakfast on our last day before we head to the airport.  Notice the bowl with the golden pieces of mango, YUM!

And this lovely shot......you can see that I put on at least ten extra pounds from all the eating we did!

Another Day in Paradise

 Breakfast in our hotel was my favorite time of the day.  Who doesn't like to get up in the morning, get ready and then head to an amazing breakfast buffet with fruit, waffles, pancakes, omelets, pastries, Mexican breakfast cuisine and amazing mixed fruit juices?  I especially loved the fruits, especially the mango.  I never knew what a real mango was supposed to taste like.  Back in Georgia I am used to a dry, hard crunchy type of mango.  I now I know that mangoes are supposed to be a yummy golden color and oh, so juicy!

 Our servers each and every morning were so happy and pleasant.  Stephen spoke to them every morning in Spanish and made instant friends.  They treated us so kindly and were very accommodating and helpful.

Just walking around the resort grounds enjoying the beauty

 This photo is taken from a little walkway that juts out into the ocean along the beachfront.  It had an amazing view of Puerto Vallarta from all angles.

 We headed into town on our last night to take a trip on the famous boardwalk.  We took a ride in a taxi, a Nissan Sentra with over 420,000 miles on it.  These little yellow taxis were everywhere and the drivers were so kind.

 The view as we walked along the boardwalk

This man considered himself a "Stone Artist".  He would balance all of these rocks to create rock statues.  They just sat there balancing and not tipping over....crazy!  He even demonstrated how he did it while we watched.  Of course, he expected you to leave a tip for his hard work which we were happy to do.

There were street performers all over the place doing little acts for payment of tips and a few dollars.  We stopped at this outside theater to watch this clown for a moment.  We were the only Americans in sight and he was speaking in Spanish.  All of a sudden he noticed us standing there and looked at us.  In a very slow, methodical and mocking voice he said, "Hi!  How are you?"  Everyone looked at us and I instantly knew we were going to be part of his act as he mocked the Americans.  Stephen rattled off something in his flawless Spanish and the entire audience just busted up laughing!  Stephen turned the joke back on the clown and he was a little flustered.  They went back and forth in Spanish and the people were just laughing hysterically.  Another great moment of Stephen using his awesome language skills!  Ha!

These performers climbed up this huge pole in the sand and took their time wrapping long rope around the top of the pole.  After four men were at the top and the ropes were ready they hung upside down with one foot attached to the top square piece.  They twirled around and around until the square piece reached the bottom of the pole and they could touch the ground.  Kind of weird, but they will do anything for TIPS!

 Lots of sand art dotted the beaches with a nice little boxes to place your tips of appreciation in.

 A really creep statue in front of one of the restaurants/bars

Back to the hotel at night....we were so hungry and didn't eat dinner because we were too afraid to try something from the restaurants on the boardwalk.  We had come to the end of our trip without getting sick and we didn't want to risk it. 

We purchased some cereal and milk in the hotel lobby and decided it would be safe to just have a cereal party in our room.  It was tasty but even though the boxes of cereal looked just like the ones we have at home....they were definitely not the same.  Oh well....at least we didn't get sick!