August 12-13, 2006

When we initially planned our Pink Piranha’s Retreat, I was very excited. But as the weekend approached, I was feeling pretty drained and not sure if a weekend with eight other women was what I needed to be rejuvenated. The Pink Piranha’s are a group of women who get together for Bible Study and prayer once a month and a Book Club once a month. I met with them before we moved to Prague and was allowed to rejoin upon our return. I love meeting with this group but I wasn’t sure how it would go when I was running on empty. It was the same feeling I get when I go out to eat in a restaurant, a rare occurrence in our household, and I feel the pressure to order the right thing because I don’t want my money or the evening to go to waste. I didn’t want to waste a precious weekend without my family on something that may not be the right thing.

But . . . it turned out to be a great weekend. We rented a house in Cambria (Central Coast) and had a good time talking and laughing. We stayed up very late the first night but I couldn’t sleep in much. I snuck out of the house and took a 90 minute walk by myself. When I returned, the sleepyheads were beginning to stir. I read my book and relaxed while the others got up and had breakfast. In the afternoon, one group went window shopping and I took another group kayaking in Morro Bay. The four of us who went kayaking had a splendid time paddling around the bay. We got up close and personal with a sea otter who was trying to break open an oyster shell on his tummy. A sea lion also popped up his head not far from our boats. We crossed over the dunes to the other side and enjoyed walking along a deserted beach. We just had a marvelous time together. The next morning I again rose early and borrowed a car so I could drive down to the beach. I loved looking in all the tidepools and collecting moonstones and other colorful rocks and shells on the beach. I made a quick trip into town to a French bakery and picked up a delicious Bear Claw which I took back to the beach and ate there. Two hours later I made my way back to the house. We had hoped to all take a little hike together but with nine women trying to decide what and when and where, it didn’t happen. Thankfully, I took along a bookmark to cross-stitch so I had something to do while others showered, ate, packed, chatted, and what not. That would have driven me crazy if I didn’t have a project to keep my occupied. Brendan was thrilled that I finished his bookmark because he has been nagging me for weeks to finish it, usually asking me to work on it while I was in the middle of preparing dinner or something like that. Because I made the time to be by myself in the mornings, I was able to really enjoy everyone else’s company the rest of the time and to come home feeling refreshed.


Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006

We had some new friends over tonight, a couple from the East Coat that is new to our church. We had a great time getting to know Matthew and Shawna and the boys took to them right away. So much so that when we found a spider to feed to Brendan’s captured praying mantis, Brendan ran to the bathroom where Matthew was needing a bit of privacy and began banging on the door and screaming that he had to come watch the spider get eaten. It was pretty exciting, I must admit. But we had really only known Matthew an hour or so and maybe he wasn’t ready for that kind of intrusion yet. We try to give our guests at least a two hour window before things like that occur.

On our way home from a walk on the trails with Matthew and Shawna, the boys spotted Art, our next door neighbor. Art came over to chat and said he had a confession to make. Apparently, last week Brendan had asked if Art had ever been in the army. When Art said yes, Brendan asked if he had fought in the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. Art replied that he fought in the Revolutionary War. Brendan, wide-eyed, asked if Art was in the boat with George Washington when he crossed the Delaware. Straight faced, Art replied that he was the one that steered the boat. Brendan was awestruck. So the confession tonight was about all the lies Art told. He had to come clean and admit to Brendan that it wasn’t true. Brendan was disappointed but I think their friendship will survive.

Friday, August 25, 2006


It has been a busy week with Brendan taking art lessons at the Armory Center for the Arts all week. Every morning he had an hour and a half class which he really enjoyed. The theme was “Deep, Deep Oceans” so he made an angler fish out of clay, a telescope with papier mache, a squid out of weird materials, painted fish, and more. After the first few days of staying in the lobby with Jason while Brendan became comfortable on his own, Jason and I took off during the class. One morning Jason got a booster shot and took it surprisingly well. He watched it all happen and didn’t cry at all. We laughed later that he forgot to cry. Another morning we had a playdate with a friend. The art class was very good and I hope we can enroll both boys in it again sometime.


This week we also visited Huntington Gardens with friends where the boys got completely soaked in the children’s garden. It was a hot day and I’m sure it felt refreshing! Another afternoon, we went in search of a racing car museum with other friends. We finally found it after a bit of looking since there were no signs anywhere. We walked in the back door and made our way through dozens of antique racing cars with the sensor lights coming on as we entered different rooms. The kids ran around, careful not to touch any of the cars, and squealing with delight. My friend Kathy and I were not so into the subject matter but it was fun to see the kids so jazzed.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

So awhile back I told my friend Ty Buxman that he should apply for the Amazing Race with me since he would make a perfect partner. Peter is my perfect partner for the rest of life but I was worried about being mean to him on national television plus somebody has to stay home and parent our beautiful boys. So Ty was game to apply and we are in the process of doing that. But in the meantime, he found a much smaller race that was local. So we decided to register, knowing that it is next to impossible to actually get on the Amazing Race TV show. So today was the big day that we drove out to Santa Monica for an adventure race that is called “Urban Dare.” This is basically a big photo scavenger hunt with a few tasks thrown in for good measure. Teams of two have to find certain destinations all over town based on clues that are given to us at the beginning of the race. Ty and I had done a bit of research on the area to familiarize ourselves with Santa Monica and I have been running a little bit to get myself into some sort of shape. But not much more than that has happened in terms of preparation.

We met next to the pier in Santa Monica and were given our blue racing shirts with our team number. We were intrigued by the other eleven teams that would be our competitors. The couple sitting next to us was taking this whole thing very seriously. Since we were allowed to use phones to call friends who could use the internet to help us solve the clues, this guy was ready. He had several guys on a conference call and was prepping them all before the big race. He even had a guy who was an expert on environmental science and safety, should a question like that arise. He kept a running commentary going the twenty minutes leading up to the race. When he had to hang up for the start of the race in which no phones were allowed, he told his “phone team” that he was going to go “incognito” for the next few minutes and then they would all hook up again. Ty and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We also found out, through eavesdropping, that there was another team named the “Fluffy Bunnies” that were fierce competitors. These two guys have done adventure races before and apparently we were all going to have the opportunity to race against “the best” or so our neighbor said. Ty and I were pretty low tech with our phone and camera. We did not have a GPS system or one of those nifty ear pieces or even the ability to conference call. Oh well. We hoped to finish in the top half of the group. No high aspirations. But soon we made it our mission to beat Mr. Incognito. That was our goal!

We had to answer a few trivia multiple choice questions to stagger the start time. We did not fair too well on that but it gave us more to laugh about. We finally got our clue sheet and took off running. We recognized only two or three of the thirteen clues so we called Peter to do our internet research. He was fabulous and was able to find answers and locations to the rest of the clues. We did a good job finding a route to the different landmarks where we had to take pictures of ourselves with the sculpture or sign or whatever. We were very lucky in hopping on buses three different times where we only had to wait a minute or two at a busstop. Otherwise we might have had to wait up to thirty minutes with the weekend schedule. We had to do a few different “dares” or tasks but they were a little cheesy. We had to throw golf balls attached to a string, over a bar. This wasn’t easy but we did OK. One of us had to jump in the ocean and get completely wet. Ty graciously offered to be the one and I graciously reminded him to take off his shoes as he was sprinting to the water. We found a nice group of Australian college age kids to do a pyramid for us and let us take their picture. We asked a different group earlier, and the woman who was rolling her own cigarette said, “We don’t do those.” How often are you asked to form a pyramid? Like you have a repertoire of pre-determined things that you will do for others?

We raced to the finishing line and had to complete a puzzle in order to officially finish. When we arrived at the pub, there was another team already working on their puzzle and had completed the top half of edges. We quickly set to work. Thanks to putting together a million puzzles in Prague with Brendan, I have had a lot of practice. Ty and I moved very quickly and had it completed in minutes. We looked over at the other team and it looked like they hadn’t progressed hardly at all. We told the organizer that we were done and he told us that we were the winners. We stared at him in disbelief. We looked around for other teams but there weren’t any others. I asked him if he was joking and he replied that he doesn’t joke about these sorts of things. We were totally flabbergasted! Completely in shock. Absolutely speechless. We managed to finish the race in 2 hours and 9 minutes. I must admit that I had a bit of winner’s guilt, beating out the other team of women that had gotten there first but took longer to complete the puzzle. We talked to them later and found out that they had ran and walked everywhere, not utlilizing the transportation system at all. They were so shaky and tired, they could barely think when they got to doing the puzzle. One was a native of Santa Monica and knew all the answers to the clues and where they were without help, with only one exception which her dad knew. The Fluffy Bunny team would have definitely beat us but they got hung up on one tricky clue so they probably weren’t happy about that. Mr. Incognito raced in about a half an hour later, probably in seventh place or something like that. I hope he went easy on his partner who may not have taken the game quite as seriously as he did.

So what did we win? We won the chance to do it all again! We won free airfare and hotel to the Champions Race which will be held at an “undisclosed destination” Dec. 8-10. The winners of that race may win some small prize but the organizer said it will be minimal since he has had a hard time finding sponsors. So for now we won bragging rights, tired bodies, and the opportunity to race against the winners of the nine other Urban Dare races held around the country this year.

Ty and Annika came up after the race to celebrate with pizza. We wouldn’t tell anyone details until dinner when we all were together and could share the entire story all at once. My boys are very proud of me though Brendan wasn’t keen on my prize. He wanted me to get a trophy. It was a fun day and I’m glad we “dared” to do it. I think I am most happy that I have something else to motivate me to keep exercising. A goal like training for a race is necessary for this unmotivated exerciser. So there you have it. I am an adventure race winner. Unbelievable.

Sunday, August 28, 2006

I am officially done growing. Summer is over and with it are my opportunities to try new things and take risks. This morning I sang my first solo at Pasadena Mennonite Church. I had been on worship team a number of years ago but never dared to sing a solo. But this morning I took a chance and belted out an offertory. I had a friend play violin as well which I must say was a very smart move. Everything sounds better when there is a professional violinist improvising on your song. I guess you could say I found my voice in Prague when I sometimes ended up leading worship on my own. So while it was common knowledge at IBTS that I could sing a bit, that part of me was yet to be discovered at PMC. The song went well and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. It has been a big weekend for trying new things, what with the race yesterday and the solo today. So now I need a break. And that is OK because now I need to focus on getting Brendan settled in school and soccer and setting up Jason with fun activities and opportunities for when Brendan is in school. Besides, I need a bit of time to dream up what I want to do next!