MONDAY PEACE OFFERING

Another week has begun. 

Our alarm clock woke me from a deep sleep with a punch of noise that, on this morning, instantly made my head hurt.  My dreams were still jumbled in my head and I took some Excedrin and gulped down some water and lay there for less than 5 minutes, taking deep breaths, determined to get out of bed and get on the treadmill before work.

And after I pushed myself out of bed, into my workout clothes and churned through a good workout, my head pain lessened.  Locked on auto-pilot, I showered and got ready for work and was out the door.  Sunglasses on, music turned up loud and feeling thankful that the traffic was light, I cruised down the freeway.
 
As I neared downtown, I braked to a stop behind a line of slow moving traffic and crept for a few minutes--what was everyone slowing down for?  An accident?  A disabled car?  And then I saw it.  In the distance, standing on one of the bridges crossing over the freeway, I could make out the silhouette of a man...was he sitting on the rail?  No, please, don't jump.  Was he standing?  Leaning?  As my car rolled closer, I could see him better.  He was standing, facing the oncoming traffic. An empty grocery cart was next to him. Homeless, perhaps?

Suddenly, he raised his hands above his heads and formed a V with his outstretched arms and made "peace signs" with both hands.  He stood there motionless as my car passed under the bridge and the traffic ahead of me sped up.

I was shaken up and barely remember the short drive left.  As I rolled into the parking garage at my office, I wondered: 
What did this mean?  What was he trying to say? Was he feeling invisible?   Was this the cry for help of a man that no one understood?  Had he stopped making sense and people stopped listening? 

As unsettling as it felt to me, I wondered if maybe he was just a man who paused on his walk to offer a message to his audience.

Peace.

RANDOM MUSINGS

The following may be of interest to writers and non-writers alike, or of interest to only me, since they are my musings. I have decided to write it down here for me.
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RELATIONSHIPS
Some are very complex and others are very simple.

I suppose I could say that I have a simple relationship with the homeless man who often stands at the end of the freeway exit by my office. I don't know his name or what brings him to this corner. We greet one another with mutual smiles, a wave and everytime, he gives me a thumbs up.

He stands there in the very early morning, his breath visible in the cold air. His full thick mustache draws attention away from his thin face.  Tugging at the dark beanie pulled down over his ears, he holds a piece of cardboard box that has printed with black marker, 'God Bless You'.

I can't tell you what days he is there or not there, only that I can rely on his presence more often than not.  But now, several day have passed and I have not seen him.  Each day as I exit the freeway, I expect to see him and he is not there. 

I feel a little sad.  I miss our greetings through the car window.  Thumbs up, my friend, wherever you are.

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INGREDIENTS OF A LIFE

In a memory, I am captive by desert sunsets fading into a mirage of ocean.

In a dream, I slow danced beside a campfire with the ghost of a love that never lived.

In a nightmare, I suffocating in fear and a flood of tears; lost in efforts of foolish giving while the echo of midnight prayers remained constant.

In reality, my strength has been honed by memories, dreams and nightmares. Like the iron forged by flame, and the diamond shaped out of coal, I could not be who I am today without the process of my past.

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FINISHING UP A FRIDAY

What have I been doing?  Ummmm...working, working out...watching DVR'd shows....taking care of business...ya know, the usual...

Last night, I met a bunch of fun friends at a local favorite hangout with GREAT food and wine to celebrate our friend, Linda's birthday.  We had a great time!  Drank glasses of chilled wine, ate yummy thin crust pizza (one just a yummy garlic cheese type and the other, a red pepper, arugula, and asparagus pizza) and then, our wonderful banker (who should ditch banking) baker friend, Leeann brought us a grand variety of crazy good cupcakes to dive into.

I am not kidding when I say crazy good either.  I indulged in a Snicker's cupcake...devils food with a chocolate butter cream frosting and snickers on top.  She baked 9 different varieties of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes...I wanted to eat one of each, but the amount of time I would have to spend on the treadmill to burn those ingested calories...well let's just say, I might as well walk to Phoenix, AZ.

You girls know exactly what I mean. Don't pretend you don't.

I held myself to one cupcake and brought two home to my hubby.

I was so inspired by all that yumminess that I have decided to try my hand at some innovative cupcake making for family celebrations. 

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Tomorrow we are going to work in our garden.

Yes, it is that time of year!  Time to add soil, plant our tomatoes, jalapenos, basil and squash. We're going to implement a drip irrigation system this year.  We bought it last year but didn't get it installed in time.

And yes, you are right, we have narrowed the amount of types of veggies we are growing. What do we really want to grow?  We came up with the list above based on what works for us. I love making pesto, jalapeno jelly, and eating steamed squash and fresh tomatoes...and I am thinking a fresh margarita pizza will be so good this summer...fresh tomatoes and basil and cheese on a whole wheat pizza crust...maybe on the grill? 

I am sure that got my hubby's attention....(yes, he reads my blog).

I'll post our annual photos after we get everything planted.

BABY SHOWER TIME

Yesterday we hosted a baby shower for my sweet daughter-in-law, Heather and our soon-to-be born grandson. Their son is their first baby!  We are so excited!


The theme of this shower was Construction Vehicles and the colors were yellow and blue.  I found some cute art prints and frames of construction vehicles that they can hang in little man's room afterwards!

We had a great time and I had lots of help from Heather's sister, Melissa and her best friend, Dina.  They took care of ordering and sending out the invitations and handling the RSVP's and keeping me updated so I could concentrate on other details.

They helped me hostess and everything went off smoothly. Everyone had a great time!

Here are the happy expectant parents:  First born son, Cameron and his wifey, Heather!

Sweet sisters

Best Friends!

Memaw, Heather, Nana (great-grandmother), and Auntie Meghann

Girlfriends!

Grandma (Heather's mama), Heather and Auntie Melissa

Food Table (before we set the food out) 

We served Greek Chicken Pasta Salad, Green Salad, Fresh Fruit, Croissants with butter, and Mini Quiches

Dessert Table! 

Vanilla Cake with custard filling and whipped cream frosting, Lemon Bites, and Chocolates

We painted Onesies and everyone came up with such adorable ideas!

 I love our two precious grandchildren, Grace and Aaron and I absolutely cannot wait until the next two are born!  Our grand-daughter (due April 21st), who will be a baby sister to Grace and Aaron and our grandson (due May 6th) will be here soon to love and spoil! 

Four grandbabies! We are so blessed!

PAINT THE WALLS

We've been busy with painting projects in our house.  Last weekend, we got hit with a cold winter storm...lots of rain, wind and cold temperatures, so it proved to be a good weekend to work on home improvement projects. 

We worked all day Saturday and stripped off a ton of wallpaper, wiped down the walls and applied fresh coats of paint.  What a difference it has made to our house!  We kept the wall color neutral (a soft suede color) and the trim and doors a pearl shade for all of the main walls.  We went bold in the kitchen and we both love it.  I wasn't sure when I started on the first coat...but after I finished painting all of the walls and putting a second coat on, I loved it. 

It has a Tuscan feel to it and I plan to accessorize with that theme.  I have two plates to hang in that bare space over the stove...I just have to get the plate hangers tonight.

The photos are kind of dark and the paint is a richer deeper shade that the photos show.  The color goes perfect with the sunflower canisters above the stove. I think it looks more yellow in these photos....but these were the best of the ones I have taken (and they were taken with my phone). I'll have to dig out my camera and take some more--after I hang the plates!

We've painted our bedroom, entry hall, a wall in our dining room (we have to empty and move china cupboards to paint the others) and one of the walls in the living room (we have more wallpaper to strip before we can paint the other two walls but ran out of time for this project). 

Of course, our list of things to do just keeps growing....but we're enjoying the projects and we're happy with the results.