Mia my darling Mia

I took these photos last week, but felt I had to finish my trip blog first, and now, Mia!






Shaking the Piggy's


Giggling Bath Time

The final Chapter of Our East Coast Trip

We drove all day Sunday. It will shock those who know me and how much I hate riding in the car to know that I did not hate this ride. We stopped every time we needed a bathroom (no guilt to do so), we stopped to look at anything and everything we wanted, and Becky drove. Somewhere along the road trip we found this cute little New England church.


Becky laid in the grass/leaves in the front yard of the church to get this shot!

Washington DC
We stayed in Baltimore and took the train to Union Station in Washington.


I need to make a correction in post # 4 of the trip. I said we left from Grand Central Station/Terminal.........that was wrong. Those are pictures of Grand Central, and everything I said about it was true, BUT, we left from Penn Station. Another big beautiful building.



We arrived at Union Station, bought tickets for on of the tour buses and off went went. Our time in DC was limited, and we knew from the beginning that it would be, so, we were content to see most of it from inside the trolley. Besides, it was cold and raining...........BUT, on the list of MUSTS was the Lincoln Memorial.








I do not know why this particular memorial was such a necessity for me to see, but it along with Arlington National Cemetery were the two places that I felt I "needed" to see. They were on my "bucket list".

Audie Murphy is buried at Arlington

We were told over 320,000 soldiers are buried here.

For me, like the Grand Canyon, pictures just can not convey the real sight of this place.


I was moved by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the story of the guards who stand over it, 24/7. I know I have a whole lot of links on these posts, but if you follow none of them, please follow the one about the guards. It is AMAZING what these young men give up and have to sacrifice to have the honor of guarding this tomb.

The tomb

Standing guard

Changing of the guard


We drove past and I took pictures of the Jefferson Memorial, the Capital the White House and other national buildings. I won't bore the reader with more photos that you have seen before except this last one............

Can't you just hear Jenny hollering "Forest, Forest!", and see Tom Hanks running through this reflecting pool shouting "Jenny, Jenny".




Oh, and another fun fact we learned. There is only ONE Monument in all of DC, but lots of Memorials, and the difference being, a Monument (Washington Monument) was commissioned while good ole' George was still living............all of the other Memorials were commissioned after the passing of the one "memorialized".

Well, I am calling this "The End".........as I have been posting, I remember more and believe it or not, wish I had added some more info here or there, for my own sake so someday, I can look back and remember. Remember how much I loved this whole journey, how much I loved sharing it with my dear friend, how blessed I am to have had the opportunity to see sights I have always dreamed of seeing, and if I ever forget, how proud I am to be an American.

East Coast Trip......part Five

We left our cut rate hotel and drove to Boston. Found Faneuil Hall. We shared some wonderful New England clam chowder and a lobster roll. Apparently there are two types of clam chowder....Manhattan (red in color) and New England (white in color).........we loved the white, and not so nuts about the red. We walked around and accidentally came across a weekend only farmers market..........the produce was beautiful and SO cheap! But, what were we going to do with a bundle of asparagus, even if it was only a buck?!

And now we are off for the Catskill Mountains! a Preview maybe?!?!?

On the way to the Catskills, we ran across several apple orchards. We stopped at one for a few "Kodak moments" !
Becky by the apple trees



Lovely


We had decide to drive to the Catskill Mountains to really get the full extent of the colors of the East Coast. We stopped at a little bagel shop and visited with some nice folks there who told us about a little drive where we could see a great view. We drove to Ferncliff Forest.



There we took a 30 minute hike into the forest, and climbed fire watch tower that is open to the public.



I will admit that we did not go all the way to the top...........it was VERY high, but, we did go high enough to get these photos.

The Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River.






Oh and have to say, from a little road side fruit stand, we got an apple cider donut and shared it..........it was very good, but I could not tell it from any other cake donut!

From here, we drove through Pennsylvania and on to Baltimore. The scenery was beautiful, with a mixture of trees and rocks and colors and hills and a great friend to share it all with!

I promise the last installment will be Washington DC and the final chapter of this saga!

Blindsided

I was going to talk about these great shelves as the last installment of my East Coast trip "mini-series"...........but, I seldom do what I start out doing.

Pictures first




When Becky and I left for our trip, Cindy was here and graciously offered to drive us to the airport. Cindy told me that she had some work to do for this lady in town, and she was going to stay at my house an additional night. Little did I know, she stayed here and built me these shelves, custom made and painted, floor to ceiling, for my movies. Words can not describe how much I love my shelves. They are perfect! For the first time ever, I have enough room to organize and find my movies. I have tons of home movies..........I am getting to my point.

Finally having room to organize, I have been going through the old ones, the unlabeled ones, etc..........so, I have also found home movies, made on the old super 8 MM, silent movies, that I had put on VHS.........I found the movies of Jennifer's birth and homecoming, and Jessica's and Catherine's.

I am systematically copying these VHS tapes on to DVD's. This is a bittersweet process. I can not watch these films without seeing my family, my life, and myself as it was...........I don't mean the youth..........I mean the family. Husband, wife, father, daughter(s), in-laws, aunt, uncles, cousins..........lots of extended family on the Waldrop side, and for me, they are all gone, the relationships and the family gatherings, and holidays. ........so I wonder, is this what it is like to lose a close family member to death? Is there always mourning, even with the fond memories? I can't help but smile when I see my babies, just born, me holding and cradling them, even on the delivery table. The babies crawling and then walking for the first time..........and through all of this, he is there.............the one man who broke my heart, crushed my spirit, and took away the dreams we had together, and in my opinion, single handedly, destroyed our family.

It was a long time ago, and it seems like several life times. I can honestly say I am happy with my life and I think my girls are remarkable, considering it seems I did everything I could to screw them up.

Funny how a wonderful surprise of perfect shelves opens up an overload of emotions.

East Coast Trip......part Four

After dragging our self to the hotel, we ordered pizza to be delivered, ate and passed out. I did the Google distance thing, and for sure we walked over 6 miles that day, all on cement, and that does not count the up and down stairs for the subway. We decided that day that we both should have done the StairMaster exercise machines before we came!

We checked out of the hotel, caught a cab and went to Grand Central Terminal/Station

We had visited here before and tried our first Filaphal and couscous.....but this time we were catching a bus to New Jersey to get our rental car. This is a beautiful building, and it is HUGE!

I forgot my drivers license at home, and Budget rental car almost didn't let us have a car. I had a credit card, but no license and Becky had a license but only a debit card and they would not take a debit card. Finally after several negotiations, they said if I could get a copy of my TDL faxed, they would use that. No one was home, parents were not home...........nada. Becky suggests Juda Hegar, Mia's other grandmother. Thank you Juda for keeping us from having to walk all the way fro NJ to Texas!

Now, we are off to Rhode Island to see Catherine.

We stopped in Southport, Ct. at the Athena diner-restaurant. This is one meal we did not share. Becky had Moussaka (layers of fried eggplant and ground beef baked with a cheese souffle topping) and I had Souvlaki(marinated chicken breast on grilled pita bread with feta cheese). Our waitress was very nice, and really from Greece! Then we shared a piece of baklava.

Catherine helping carry stuff for their house

We shot a game of pool with Catherine and some of her friends, and played a game of Foose Ball, both of which I have not done in a very long time. We then sat in the game room and visited with some of Catherine's fraternity brothers (or something like that because some of them are girls). Catherine then showed us around campus some (it was dark) and we went to a little Crepe' shop to have a bite to eat. I didn't want to wear out our welcome, so, Becky and I hit the road. I mean, really, what are you going to do with your mom and her friend?

We headed for Boston, stopped for the night at a cheap dive of a hotel. We didn't see bugs, but that was about the best you could say...........

Next entry.........Boston and the colors of Autumn!

(I know, this is going on FOREVER, but I want to be able to look back and remember)

East Coast Trip......part Three

We went to Times Square (truth be told, we had to ask someone if that is where we were!)

This is where Good Morning America's studio is.........the sign was Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We did not see Diane Sawyer or Robin Roberts, but we were not there early in the morning either!
And another view of Times Square.

We really did walk ALL DAY LONG!

But before we called it a day, we went to Ground Zero. We really debated over if we wanted to even go or not. So sad and we didn't want to go just to "see" it. We then decided we really wanted to go to pay our respects. We followed signs that said "World Trade Center PATH". Now, wouldn't you think that would be the "path" to where the World Trade Center was? I suppose it was, to a degree. But in this case PATH stands for Port Authority Trans-Hudson..........Now this is where I need to add, we were going there between 5 and 5:30 PM........quitting time for 3 MILLION New Yorkers heading home to New Jersey through the PATH! I thought we were going to get run over. Those guys walk SO fast, while we were just strolling along.

From here, we journeyed on to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty at sunset. We did not take the ferry out. These photos do not do justice to the beauty, the grandeur, the magnificence, and the pride of being an American I felt.

East Coast Trip......part Two

The weather our first morning in NY was perfect! Cool and crisp and sunny. It was lovely. We ate at the Ben Ash Delicatessen across the street from our hotel. We shared french toast made of Challah bread, (I had never heard of this Jewish bread, but Becky had) fresh fruit and an extra large quantity of crisp bacon (the bacon was my idea!)

Since our hotel was just a few blocks from Central Park, we walked to the park. We decided to take a carriage ride through the park, and this was really one of my favorite parts. Our driver was from Ireland, and he had the most beautiful accent. We also found out that Central Park is like, 850 acres, so I am glad we didn't take off thinking we could see it all.

Sean Denehay...........our Irish gentleman


Central Park


Me and Becky in the Carriage




Then off on the sub-way we went, heading for Chinatown. We found Chinatown with no problem and Becky bought some perfume. We found a place that made bagels and shared a warm fresh bagel.

Then walking, we went through the areas known as Soho, Loho, Greenwich Village, on our way to find Quincy Market (as seen on the Food Network).

Becky at a Greenwich Village Park



Somewhere along the 500 mile hike we took while we walked the entire length of NY, we found a wonderful little French Bakery. We shared a small cream brule (it was awesome), and the famous Black and White Cookie, along with a few small raspberry tart like cookies. All of it was wonderfully tasty and fresh.

When we first arrived in New York, we spotted these signs. They are numerous, and we found it odd that there were particular places your could not stand! We later learned that those signs mean "no parking".....not literally no standing......I still think its odd.



On our walk we shared some sort of chicken wrap from a street vendor. It was great, and we sat along a building, on the ground and ate it. Now the interesting thing to me was the looks we got. I am not sure where the New Yorkers go to eat the food they buy off the street vendors, but we found no benches or anything of the sort, and we were tired, so we sat and ate. I think if we had put a can out in front of us, we might have been given some money!

Two quick notes:
1). I know it sounds like we ate a whole lot all the time........we didn't, but part of our trip was to try the local food, so I am mentioning the food on purpose.

2). That is all for this part Two.

Bad Movie Saturday

I don't have cable TV. My choices of TV viewing are not the best. I currently don't have a Netflix movie..........so, what did I do, but pull an old one off the shelf, one that coincided with what they were showing on TV, that way I didn't have to watch the commercials.........Armageddon. Not a huge fan, BUT, there are a few great lines in that movie....."Did you know we are sitting on 2 million gallons of fuel, a nuclear weapon and a thing with 270,000 loose parts that was built by the lowest bidder. Kinda makes you feel good don't it? That made me LOL.

I also had forgotten, they pay tribute to the greatest song writer and singer to ever walk this earth.........

So, since the night is young, I am now deciding if I will do a "Bruce Willis" night, and watch "Die Hard", or a "space" night, and watch Apollo 13.

You Know You're a Redneck If........................

You duct tape your back porch light to your house..............the added flair is the use of "camo" duct tape!


Oh, and I live in a trailer (they like to call them "manufactured homes" now, but, call a pig by any other name, and it's still a pig.

East Coast Trip......part One

It has taken me a while to get to this post. I think because, even as much as I like to talk, I am not sure that my words will convey everything I felt and the memories I still have........so, I will attempt to do this in parts, as my attempt at not boring the reader, and still logging/blogging for my own pleasure.

Becky and I left for New York on the 22nd of October. Our plane left Houston one hour late, and we arrived at LaGuardia airport at about 4 pm, East coast time. I had pre-arranged for a van to take us to our Hotel, the Wellington, located in Manhattan at the corner of 7th and 55th. We went through the borough of Queens, and I think we both thought surely we were going to be in a car accident. New York drivers are assertive with their vehicles and their horns!

Our Hotel was in a great location. The room was small, and the Hotel older, but it was clean and convienient and affordable. We were on the 18th floor with a window that opened to the street of New York.

I took the advice of a friend (thanks Joanne M) and pre-ordered tickets through the Hotel to the Empire State building. We left our bags, found the subway, and after some much needed assistance from some nice young ladies, we purchased our subway tickets and off we went! As Joanne's advice was perfect, there was no waiting in line anywhere. Right in we went and right up to the top! It was cold and ever so windy, but it was beautiful none the less.



We left and began walking the streets of New York. We shared almost everything we ate, so, we could sample many different foods. We ate some authentic New York pizza. It was GREAT! We had a hot dog with sauerkraut (that was for you Cindy) and we tried a Knish..... Hot dog was good, the Knish, not so much!

We ended up finding a Korean bakery............very modern, very New York feeling (to us at least), and we went in. The decor was totally cool, and the bakery goods unusual. Becky got a red bean donut and some hot chi vanilla tea. I bought some cookies (which I ended up leaving in Baltimore).


Becky wanted to have her picture taken with our waiter.....he really didn't know what to think, but he obliged! What a nice New Yorker!


We continued to explore the area, found the subway, found our way back to our Hotel, and found our room, all in all, we did GREAT!

We slept with the window open the first night and the expression about New York being the "city that never sleeps", is oh so true! But we did. In bed about 11 PM.

Confessions of a bad Mother-in-Law

Let me set the scene:

Jennifer is 36 weeks pregnant. She and Mia are here visiting while their kitchen gets demoed, ready for the remodeling. Jennifer has been experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions pretty regularly and intensely

Mia is in bed sleeping. Jennifer and I are visiting and I ask permission to play a joke on Rex. I want to call him and tell him her water broke. Jennifer says it is a bad idea. I remind her that Leah, Rex's sister substituted butter for ice cream in their mom's desert, just this past weekend. She tells me if I call, she will only let him believe it a few minutes before we must tell him the truth. I agree to these terms.

So at about 10 PM, I call Rex. He does not answer, so I leave a message similar to this.... "Rex, I don't want you to worry, everything is Ok. Jennifer's water broke, and we are coming to Austin. I have to pack my bag, and then I will call again once we are on the road".

Now, in my defense...........I did not know that Rex's phone was acting up.

About 1 hour later, Rex calls me back. Very concerned, with much love in his voice....he asks things like "how is she doing? did she call the Dr?" I tell him she is fine, I have her sitting on the couch, and that I had to go down and wake my mom to get her to come and stay here with Mia, since she is already sleeping".

Bragging a little...................I am VERY good at making crap believable........Rex is buying it hook, line, and sinker.

Rex asks to speak with Jennifer, and before my laughing gives me away, I confess everything..............

I have been told in the past things like:

1. Not everyone has your sense of humor
2. Not everyone appreciates your sense of humor
3. You are not funny

It is at the point when Rex hangs up on me and turns his phone off that I start to believe that maybe those three statements have been true when said by others in the past.

I would like to publicly apologize to my son-in-law. I am very sorry that I pulled that prank on you. I meant no harm and I hope someday you can forgive me.

I also hope someday I will quit laughing internally, because, well, truth be known, I still think I am funny.........

Mia, my darling Grand Daughter

I wrote this blog almost a month ago, and stupid blogger saved it as a draft and would not let me publish it,

Words can not describe how much I love my Mia. She is a shining light that makes my heart sing with such joy and happiness. I had the blessed time with her this weekend. Especially today, she and I, at my house, for several uninterrupted hours. I bought her a little tea set, and today, we had our first tea party (sorry, no pictures, I was just staying in the moment). She practiced pouring (I had to change the "table cloth" three times), and I did not mind cleaning up as we went along. I tried to show her how to hold her pinky out when drinking a cup of tea, but, well, we seemed to be more interested in "slurping" the overflowing cups! She does want Memaw and Granddad to come to a tea party, so I told her the next time she was here, we would take the tea party to their house.


Jennifer calls these "Miaisms" I think.

This weekend I was giving her a hard time about her pronunciation of words with the letter "L" in them. Cinderella sounds like "Cindawehwa"....and when I said it like she does, she said, "No, it not Cindawehwa, it Cindawehwa".......she did not find the whole thing as amusing as I did. Anyway, today, we were having a similar conversation, and she did manage one "look" and not "wook", but after a few minutes of "GG's Speech Class", Mia just turned to me and said "you say your words different than me". Pretty much put an end to my speech class. She, so young and so wise, just put the kibosh on me. And so, I said "I love you Mia", and she said, "I wove you too GG".

Coming home in the car, she informed me that she can speak Spanish. I was, needless to say, shocked. I said, "oh, you can?", "what words do you know?", and she said..."mmm, I know....mmm", and then promptly changed the subject.

There is a DVD that we have, put out by Pixar, that is all Pixar short films. There is one short called "Birds", and all of these little birds sit on a telephone wire, and then a big one come along and sits beside them. Anyway, any time she sees a bunch of birds sitting on a telephone line, she says "I see Pixar birds"......cracks me up every time!

She sat on Memaw and Granddad's coffee table and then proceeded to tell me "Moma and Rex tell me not to sit on the table." so, I said, "well, you should follow their rules, even if they are not here, shouldn't you?", and she said, "moma won't be coming here.". What insight, to know that she already knows what rules are here, or there ( I do try and enforce her Mom's rules, and she did get off the table), but her innocence at this point prevents her from not knowing to tell on herself.

A few weeks ago, she told my mom "I can talk" and mom said, "yes, you can" and Mia said "I talk a wot".........Yes, she does!

I don't know if I mentioned the name of the new baby coming. At this point, I believe it will be Eleanor Grace........but, before a name was mentioned, I asked Mia what she was going to name her new baby sister. At the time, Mia's video of preference was Bambi, so I suggested Falene(spelling here, but it's the little girl doe in the movie.) Now, this was just a joke on my part, but in Mia's little mind, it has stuck, so if you ask her, what her baby sister's name is she says, "baby Elanore Faweene" or some mixture of those three words.

Mia seems to pick her nose a little more often that I would like, and her mom has the habit of accepting the found "treasure" and wiping it on herself somewhere. I love Mia, so much, but I am not so fond of her "boogies" and she and her mom call them. So, Mia was sitting her the back seat of the car, and she said to me, while picking her nose, "I getting something that you don't want GG", and she did, and I was given the "gift"!

Oh, I had such a wonderful time with her today. My joy, my love, my Mia.

Beating a Dead Horse.............Sonic

So my latest issue with Sonic. It has been established that nothing beats Sonic ice, and I have admitted to leaving a huge carbon foot print with the number of Styrofoam cups I use (average of one per day, which means 365 cups per year)...........what my new habit is, I go to Sonic here in Waller and get 4 Rt.44 cups of ice, in a drink holder, because I can not carry those without them. I come home and put the cups and ice in my freezer, then I use them up, and anywhere from 3 to 4 days later, I replenish my supply. Today, I was in Tomball ( a little town 17 miles up the road), and I went into that Sonic and got my ice. I paid $1.04 there, and here in Waller, the same things costs me $1.74 !! Now I ask.........WHAT'S UP WITH THAT!

Frequent Flyer

I am not..........a frequent flyer that is. I have flown a few times,(I think I can count on one hand how many) but I still get excited thinking about flying. Not nervous, but excited. I wish I had frequent flyer miles stored up somewhere, mostly so I could see Catherine more, or be able to have her come home more. She is not coming home this Thanksgiving. It is very expensive to fly when you are on a limited budget. Maybe I should try and get a job with an airline, at least then I could fly on standby and not have to take out a loan from the bank! I am going up there in a week, and will see her for a day, but, with Catherine, it takes more than a day. Conversations with her are, well, there are not any, which is fine, since it is who she is, but, I still miss them, and yes, I miss her. I think I might worry about her more than I acknowledge, even to myself. I think I worry because it is impossible to talk to her, because of her schedule, and because of who and how she is. So, I say, Jami, don't worry, it does no good. And I say, Jami, what are you worrying about? and I have no answer.

But, a year has passed, and another one is well into itself, so, I will be at peace with what is, and make an effort to not worry about things that I can not answer.

Money, Money, Money ( a little and a WHOLE BUNCH)

Pre-warning..........for those who are expecting anything of substance (not that I ever have much), this is just an entry of random thoughts about money.

With all of the "economic crisis" in the news, and a few other things in my life, I have been thinking about money lately.

First, once again, I feel blessed that I am "borderline poor". Barely middle class, according to my income. But, if I had an IRA, or lots of money in stocks, or living on my interest in investments, or having any thing of value anywhere, I might be a little more concerned. As it is............I am doing with this "crisis" as I do much in my life, wearing my rose colored glasses and telling myself "this too shall pass". (besides, I hate to admit this, but, those folks who are loosing their house to foreclosures need a place to live, I rent places to live to people who need a place to live)

Second, having more to do with the "other things in my life" part.........it came up again, in my business dealings that what a "whole bunch" of money is to one person, it just a drop in the bucket to another. I made a business deal on behalf of someone I work for, made him $3000.00, and me $300.00, without having to do anything but say "ok". I am totally happy. $300.00 bucks to me is a WHOLE lot of money, to the other person, their $3000.00, is not considered a good deal............that person is not mad at me, and it will stay a "deal", but, it just put once again, into perspective for me, that, different amounts of money, can be and are, perceived as a "WHOLE BUNCH" to different people.

Fast Food Rant

I blogged once, (I think) about how much I agree with another blogger about Sonic ice, and how wonderful it is. Combine Sonic ice with Tazo Black Ice Tea, and you have a wonderful refreshing drink!

When Catherine was home, we did a Sonic drive-by and she got a small hot fudge sundae. We got home and the fudge tasted "burned". I called Sonic, and they said, next time you come by, get a free sundae. Blah blah blah.....a few weeks ago, I remembered about the sundae, and decided, a caramel sundae might be nice. I got my free sundae, got home, and it really did not hit the spot, so I left it alone.

Here is the point of my story. It sat out all night, and when I went into the kitchen the next day...........IT LOOKED THE EXACT SAME !......so, now, what is that they use for ice cream????.......I still love the ice, but never again on the fake ice cream!



and now, for Jack-in-the-Box

I am boycotting that chain until they stop running the commercial that has the grown men riding in a stroller, crying like babies..............I HATE that commercial. I know hate is a very strong word, but I feel very strongly about that commercial

Never too old? Part Two

I have photos to go along with Part One now....in addition, I did not yet mention the paddling test we had to do..........which consisted of.....tandem, paddle in a straight line....turn the boat, and then weave through a series of 4 buoys....switch paddling hands, and do it again, then "dock" which is to pull up sideways to the bank, and then do the course, again, but BACKWARDS!

But, wait, you are not done yet...........now you have to switch positions, which means, the person at the back of the canoe gets in front and vice versa....and now, you get to do it ALL again!

But, wait, you are not done yet..........now you get to do the course yet one more time, in a solo canoe.........

But the fact of the matter is...............I did it. I had a blast, and I would do it all again ( just not too soon, I am still mending!)The EGGS motivate me!

Entering and re-exiting the canoe!





Swamped Canoe race

Everybody Poops

I am a regular reader of a blog posted by a friend of mines daughter in law. She writes with great humor about her two little darling boys. On one of her posts, she has a video of an uncle reading a book to several youngsters called "Everybody Poops"...its quite funny, the reading and the reaction of the kidos. The title of that book is the motivation for this particular blog.

I have a little green frog who lives on my back porch, and each night, he sits on the little window and eats the bugs that are enticed by the light that shines through my utility room. I very rarely turn that light out, so, I think he is a smart little frog who has found a great place for a guaranteed nightly dinner.

As with all animals, this little frog poops. He poops where he eats, and leaves his little gifts on my back porch.

Lots of big poop for one little frog!

Never too old? Part One

I have blogged in the past about going canoeing/kayaking with friends. I have had a great time, every time.

I had the opportunity this weekend, this ENTIRE weekend to take a flat water training course. So, I did.

First day, get up at 6:30 AM, leave the house at 7:15 AM and drive around lost for 45 minutes. I did get there at 8:03AM, and we were suppose to be there a little before 8, so, yes I was late......but, I tried.

We watched some video's on basic water safety, etc, then we had to haul 4 canoes off the trailer and "portage" them to a swimming pool, which is a fancy word for CARRY ! I will tell you, I think they are heavy, even if others don't.

We then left the canoes beside the pool and had to take a swim test, which consisted of swimming 4 laps (I can not remember the last time I swam ONE lap, not less FOUR !), and then we had to tread water while an instructor wanted to "chat" a few seconds (seemed like hours to me!), and then we had to float for one minute (this was the easy part, I float well!), and then they threw our life jacket to us, and we had to put it on while treading water. There is some sort of fancy way to flip over it, and go underwater and come out in it, but, I just tread water until I got it on...

Now, being that I am SO out of shape, I am now exhausted, but it is only 10AM....we now have to put the canoes in the pool and do the following:

1. Learn out to get in a tandem (another fancy name for two people canoe) canoe without out tipping over.

2. Learn how to jump out of the canoe without making it tip over, and come crashing on your head. (I was not looking forward to intentionally getting wet this way)

3. Learn how to get back into a canoe while treading water.
(I should add here, that the idea of having to do this, of having to haul my overweight, out of shape, body, that has absolutely NO upper body strength into anything, not less a canoe on the water, almost made to chicken out!

4. Learn how to fall out of the canoe when your partner attempts to get into the canoe. (This was actually not a required skill, but, the lesson was learned)

5. Re-learn how to enter a canoe while treading water.

6. Learn how to get into your canoe when it is full of water. ****note***canoes will not completely submerge (fancy way of saying sink)....they have some flotation stuff built in the walls, but it does fill up all the way!******

7. Learn how to holler out "hey, do you need help, it looks like your canoe is full of water?" This made me laugh and want to say"duh, you made me fill it with water", but, I refrained! Then you have to, while sitting in your canoe, and not falling out, flip the other canoe over, to get the water out, drag it across your canoe, to make sure every drop is out, and then flip it back over, and put it back in the water....did I say you have to do this and not fall out of your own canoe.....hmmm. well, yes, you do, and my partner and I actually did!

The above actions took until noon.......no one drown, but here is a photo of just one of my bruises..........



This is just one.............I have several matching pairs..........canoes are made of really hard material! I will write more about this later, right now, I need some more aspirin, and ice packs!