I wanted to share with all of you an email that I received recently from a friend of a friend.  You see, my friend has been keeping a bunch of us updated as her friend goes through her personal battle with cancer.  I look forward to each one of these emails because I learn so much from her strong faith in Jesus Christ and the power He has to carry His children through such things.  This one really got me thinking and hit home with me.  This one is something to ponder…….

Well…

After a great (and you could interpret that word "great" to either mean "long" or "fabulous" and you’d be absolutely correct!), my chemo pills came in the mail today. 

And, it got me thinking:  I wonder if the FedEx man would have such a big smile on his face and say, "Have a good day!" if he knew what was contained in the package he was delivering to me.

Or I wonder what my new neighbor would think – that is different from the assumption that she may have made – if she knew the real reason why I received flowers today?  (Yes, they were from Laura who wanted me to have a "good" delivery instead of just a yucky chemo delivery today. Sweet, huh?) 

Or I wonder what the bicyclist thought who was trailing me for a minute as I walked down the road, headphones on, singing out loud (hopefully, not loudly or out of tune, but who knows!) if he knew that I was trying to fill my mind and my heart with the truths I know about my God instead of the worries about what tomorrow will be like as I swallow those pills.

Hmm…do I even need to say it? 

Sometimes the assumptions we make about someone may lead us to conclude something that is about the furthest thing from the truth as possible.

FedEx Delivery?  Could be something yucky.

Flowers?  Might be trying something to try to counter balance something yucky.

Singing out loud walking girl?  May be because she’s desperate to remember the things she knows that are true, rather than the challenges that swirl around her. 

I have a friend who heard some hard news today.  Not life threatening news, but certainly life changing news.  Things that limit the activities that he’s used to doing, that he loves to do, that he’s dreamed of being able to do for years to come as the involved, on-the-go husband and dad that he is. 

The adjustment is going to be hard for him, hard for his family.

I’m sure that people who don’t know the real reason he’s sitting on the sidelines may make some assumptions about him from time to time.   They’re going to be dead wrong.

You see, he’d do anything to be on that field with his son, with his daughter.  He’d do anything to be as able to take care of the workload around his house. 

He just can’t.

At least for right now.

See a guy on the sidelines?  See a crazy girl walking with tears on her face?  See a floral delivery and wish that arrangement was for you?

Hmm…yep….that’s stuff to ponder all right.

Love to you all

K.

These are pictures of a friend of mine’s house that was condemned after the flood.  Notice the X on the door.  After many hours of trying to salvage anything from the rubble, he hung the American flag and walked away…….to me a symbol of the American spirit that says no matter what we will triumph.

Here I sit in the Middle School lobby as my two youngest “move” their stuff into their lockers and find their way around the building for the start of a new school year. There are seasoned veteran moms and first timers….the distinction clear. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was the one that carried the baby around while I tried to help find class rooms? It certainly feels like it! Now that baby is finding her own classes because now I know the importance of the confidence she will have by doing it herself (with a friend of course). As I sit here I can tangibly feel how fast time flies as I watch it walk by me. It reminds me to treasure each moment left because before I know it they will be walking by in cap and gown and off to the next adventure in their lives. All you have to do is blink and you are there.

Psalm 19:7-9

After some R&R at Club McCall it was off to Vero Beach, Florida, where my oldest son, Mark, and his wife Tanya live.  Mark has been here for almost two years. One of those years was at Aviator College getting his commercial pilot’s license and his flight instructor ratings.  The last year has been spent as a flight instructor for Florida Institute of Technology Aviation in Melbourne.  Mark and Tanya were just married in May of this year. Tanya moved to Florida after the wedding and was able to transfer from JCPenneys in Johnson City to the one at the Vero Beach mall. 

Once we got on 95, it has become tradition for our family to have pictures taken at South of the Border under Pedro.  (There is a certain thing that we call this tradition, which will remain family insider information only. :0))  Looking back, I believe I was Zach’s age when I first had my picture done here….which by the way was the start of this whole thing. The other thing that this next generation has started is the trying on of the funniest glasses you can find in the gift store and having your picture taken with them on.  Rod did not hesitate to stake his claim to his first pair! We thought it was a good look for him!  hahahaha

Once we got close to Melbourne, I texted Mark to see if he was still at work so we stopped by the airport to say hi.  We were greeted by very friendly employees at FIT who showed us to the Pilot’s Lounge to hang out while Mark finished a flight lesson with one of his students.  When he landed, he treated us to a full tour of FIT’s facilities, including the simulators…..which Zach and Carlene looked at more like real-life video games than actually teaching tools. 

Mark was off to work instructing so our first full day here was spent, where else, the Vero Beach Outlets!  Hahaha….I know what you where thinking….the beach, right?  Tanya had the day off so we hung out all day together.  It’s great to see both of them again.  We were actually able to find some very good deals and Zach and Carlene are pretty much ready for school. When Mark got home from work, it was off to the Tiki Bar in Fort Pierce.  This has become a regular place to go when any of us come to visit.  The Original Tiki Bar and Restaurant is a lively restaurant overlooking the beautiful Indian River in Downtown Fort Pierce.  The last couple of times I’ve been there, there was live music….and pretty good live music at that.  It has a real Margaritaville feel to it complete with open sides and thatched roof.  The atmosphere is very beachy and the food fantastic.

Rod and Zach took off on the second day here to see the Navy Seal Museum.  Zach thoroughly enjoyed this and has been telling us for a while now that he wants to be a Navy Seal when he grows up.  I don’t know what it is with my children that they have to do things that keep me on the edge of my seat and on my knees in prayer for their safety all the time!!!  Of course, Carlene and I took this opportunity to go to the mall.  I know what you were thinking again……why wouldn’t we get dropped off at the beach!  Nope…..off shopping again.  He’s the advantage with that……as you know….my DIL works at JCPenney so that means DISCOUNT!!!  They have very good sales here….like $2.97 and with the discount $1.49.  Can’t beat that!  I can’t get clothes second hand for that price. 

Now……after another full day of shopping, it was back to Mark and Tanya’s apartment.  I cooked, of course, because every child needs good home cooking when mom is close by.  The fun part of cooking here is I’m cooking for an apartment full of pilots, some who live here and some who come and go, but nonetheless, a place full of men in the early 20’s who all LOVE a home cooked meal by mom.  For you moms out there, I know you get this!  It is shear delight to serve your adult children in this capacity.  Little side bar here……if you really knew these guys….you might hesitate to fly next time.  Just kidding, they are all great guys and they all take their jobs very seriously. We have now added Mike (he’s been a part for 7 years), Macg…that’s Mack with a g…..and Jordon as part of our family.   Something that Zach enjoys doing when he’s at Mark’s is trying to teach a room full of pilots how to fly.  There is a 4’x5’ white board hanging on the wall in the apartment.  Zach loves to draw and explain flight to these guys and they enjoy it just as much as he does.  So fun to watch them all laugh and have fun!

Finally……a day where both Mark and Tanya have the day off together.  The best part…..we have them all to ourselves for the whole entire day.  That never happens!!!  Now I know what you’ve been thinking……when are you going flying???  Well…I have good news for you……today!!!  Mark was able to get a plane so that he could take a few of us up anyway.  You see…..there are weight limits to airplanes if you have the goal of actually getting off the ground.  Here’s how the lottery went…..Carlene had never flown so she was a definite…..Rod had never flown with Mark so he was in…..Zach was in because he weighed less than Tanya or I.  Darn, that diet that never seems to work!!!!  We had to be at the airport for a 9:00a.m. time slot for the plane.  That meant up at 6:00 a.m.  Now, I know what you’re thinking…..that’s nothing for you Tina.  HA…..now I’m used to staying up late and getting up late.  Six am was a killer this morning!!!

The plan was, take-off, fly up to Merritt Island, land, take-off and come back down the coast.  Low and behold, that’s exactly what happened.  I love it when a good plan works out…..especially when it involves flying with more than half my family on board.   Again….dangerous and on my knees!  Honestly, Mark is a very good pilot and he is very safety minded and professional.  He doesn’t take chances….thank God for that part.  I’m giving you the rest of this second hand, but apparently Carlene was a little nervous on take-off but once they were in the air thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  In her words….when can I go up again? When asked if she would like to be a pilot…..the answer was very enthusiastically YES!!!  Again I say…..on my knees!  (Thank goodness I know a good flight instructor.)  Now I have to be sentimental here.  My father was a private pilot.  I first flew when I was 3 weeks old and flew many, many times with my father growing up.  It has been a delight to have a child follow in those footsteps and to have Mark be able to give both Zach and Carlene their first flights. My Dad would have been so proud and delighted.  He knew Mark would fly one day and when Mark was 14, gave him all of his flight gear before he passed.  Mark has used his grandfather’s flight gear and was also pinned with his grandfather’s wings when he got his pilots license.

Ok…………

One of the nice things about friendships is catching up when one moves away.  This trip has been no different.  One of my fellow bus drivers moved to Florida in January to drive bus for Disney.  I know…..great job!!!  She says it’s like being on vacation all the time and she’s wondering when it ends.  Nice!  Joanne and one of her new friends met up with us in Melbourne and they joined us for lunch.  It was great to catch up with her, meet a new friend and have her meet my family.  Thanks Joanne for making the trek to Melbourne and spending time with us!

The rest of our day has been spent just “being” with Mark and Tanya at their apartment.  Mark and Zach playing video games, Tanya cooking her “first” meal for the in-laws, Carlene now drawing on the white board, watching movies.  Really, just enjoying each other’s company.  It has been such a blessing to share this time with them.  They will soon be embarking on a new journey as Mark becomes an airline pilot.  We are not sure where that will take them, but we are confident that God will go with them and bless them wherever he takes them and, besides, we will find them and we will spend more treasured memories with them there. 

For stop two of our tour we are at Club McCall.  For those who don’t know what Club McCall is (and that should only be very few of you) it is my sister Lisa and her husband’s house in Wilmington, North Carolina.  Club McCall is our family’s place to come, unwind, enjoy the hospitality of my sister and her husband, and just have nothing but fun!

This stop is only for one day so no time could be lost with trivialities. As soon as my eyes opened, which is quite early for me since 4:30 is my regular getting up time, I donned my bathing suit and was ready for my day of nothingness.  So the day was spent……laying out by the pool in the bright North Carolina sunshine.  There were the occasional water gun fights, lots of floating around,

jumping,

jumping,

 

 

 

 

and just general nothingness that we all crave on vacation.

This trip to Club McCall was a bit more special, I must say.  This time my brother-in-law was home from Abu Dhabi.  It was great to see Ken and get to spend some time with him.  He is an amazing host as well and was kind enough to prepare lunch and dinner for us…..and a very good cook he is.  (I must add at this point that it is a good thing because Lisa is better at ordering out.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that!)

I’m sitting here staring at the screen on my computer with so many thoughts of the week running through my head.  This trip, for me, is on the top 10 list of favorite trips in my life.  What made it so amazing wasn’t where I was and all the luxuries I experienced, it was about the people I spent it with.  I think for the first time in a long time, I felt so much more a part of my family.  Not because they have never made me feel like family, but because of an amazing work God has begun in my own heart of turning it towards home.  Even as I type, the tears begin to roll.  You see, no matter where you’ve been and no matter what you’ve done, family is family, and my family has always been especially good at showing unconditional love.  I have always said, that my father taught me what unconditional love looked like, but all of us have learned that and I see in the loving eyes of Blue Granny while she sang to me, my Mom as she “begs” me to stay longer, in the eyes of my sisters as we share good times together and in the hugs of my “little” brother.

I’m not sure what God is preparing me and, for that fact, my immediate family for, but I do know that he’s in the business of knitting hearts back together in ways that are much healthier than they have ever been.  I am praying that as we move forward on this journey I will pass on to the next generation a sense of healthy,  loving relationships called family.  A place where they can be themselves, work through the hard times together, know that no matter what they are loved and always feel like they can come home.

Ken and Lisa…..you have truly been blessed and thank you for blessing us! 

So, in closing, I am going to share with you the memories of the past week in the way my Dad did it best…..in picture……….

Danville, Virginia

Raleigh, North Carolina

Club McCall, Wilmington, North Carolina

Club McCall Renovations…….

And…..lots of time by the pool!!!

Can it really, possibly, be Thursday already?!  Why is it that just when you are getting use to slowing the pace and relaxing, the vacation is almost done.  Two more days….that’s it…..two more days. So instead of looking at the glass half empty, I choose to look at it half full.  Two whole entire days to bask in the bright North Carolina sunshine and totally and completely chill out.

And a bright, beautiful sunshine it was today.  The sun had a “halo” today which is created when ice crystals are in the atmosphere.  It was so cool! The tunes of Margaritaville were playing in the background.  Rod and Zach took in a “Stick and Puck”, which is the equivalent of open hockey in the north.  They are only an hour long down here so they weren’t gone long before they joined us by the pool.  Carlene was our “pool girl” today and skimmed things out for us.  She, like her father, enjoys doing these things like that. Me, I enjoy the sitting around the pool part. She also played a lot of fetch with Dunx, my nephew Zach’s lab mutt. (Yes, we have two Zachs, my sister’s youngest is Zachary and my son is Zachariah.  My Zach and Carlene affectionately refer to him as “Cousin Zach”.

Cousin Zach and Zach spent time by the pond fishing today.  Something that my Zach had never experienced before.  My Zach caught a “big”, according to him, turtle.  I had never heard of catching a turtle before, but okay.  We did find a baby turtle on Monday and I suppose where there are babies, there are mommas. 

After dinner, we took a ride to Kure Beach.  Kure Beach is my favorite place to go.  It’s small, not very crowded and not very commercial.  There is a fishing pier and souvenier shop.  After shopping for a few things, we took a walk out on the pier.  The air was getting cooler as the sun set and it felt cold on our sun kissed skin. The sunset from the pier was absolutely beautiful. At the end of the pier two pelicans were perched on the railing waiting for a fisherman, who felt generous, to throw them a fish.  I was very surprised at how close they would let you get to them.  They had very watchful eyes that followed your every move.  The kids got a big kick out of watching them.

And so, another day comes to an end.  I feel like I’m just starting to settle in and enjoy my time.  I really would like another week, but then I might not come back!

I will call this the day of transition at Club McCall.  There has been construction going on all week.  A bench built in to the original deck, an extension of the deck across the rest of the back of the house and the addition of what my sister calls “The Tiki Hut”, or something like that.  She had a platform built on the deck that the grill will sit on and it will have a thatched roof over it “for grilling when it’s raining”.   The BIG window in the bedroom also came out and in went even BIGGER windows with a door so you can access the deck from the master suite.  The hole in the side of the house was big enough to be another garage door.  By the end of the day, Club McCall had many very fine additions for a already very fine vacation destination.

At the same time that all this construction was going on, Lisa was getting ready to leave to celebrate her husband’s birthday and their 30th anniversary in Dubai, where he works.  While she was preparing to leave Club McCall, my husband, Rod, on the other hand was on his way to the Binghamton Airport to catch his flight to Club McCall.  Off to the airport we went.  As Lisa’s plane was taking off, Rod’s plane was landing……..literally.  The reins of Club McCall Management had now been handed over to me.

As soon as drop-offs and pick-ups were finished, it was back to the pool we go. Now, down to just my immediate family, with the occasional drop-in of nephews and nieces.  I could get used to the occasional drop-ins of family, it’s nice to see them.  Zach and Carlene, for the first time since we left New York, are actually playing…..together…..in the pool and a “time-out by the pool” wasn’t necessary, at least for the moment.  Rod and I moved the grill to it’s newly installed “pad” and grilled burgers for dinner. Ken is going to love his new outdoor kitchen.  After dinner, the guys were off to watch a hockey game at the rink and the girls took all three of the Club McCall mutts for a walk. (Only a reference to the gene pool here and not the sophistication of being the pampered pups of Club McCall). 

I could most certainly get used to the laid-back days of vacation and need to re-evaluate the busyness of my day to day life at home.  How is it that we get so caught up in what has to be done and miss chances to slow down and enjoy the life with our loved ones that we are given each day?

Oh the joy of just being able to sleep in and not have to be anywhere at any specific time.  Now that’s what we all live for on vacation, well, at least I do.  Of course, now that my regular time to rise in the morning is 4:30, 6:30 has now become sleeping in for me.  Something is really wrong with that picture……

Somehow all roads in my life eventually end up at an ice rink, and even though I’m deep in the south, well, there’s an ice rink here.  Actually, quite a nice ice rink.  I took some time to take Zach to an open skate at the Wilmington Ice House.  A fairly new rink here which has sand and palm trees around it, but nonetheless, a NHL size very nice rink.  As soon as I walked through the door it was as if I was transported to all too familiar hockey rinks in New York except that I could actually tolerate a light jacket, flip flops and shorts.  Not the usual attire I would wear at home.  Zach, however, was surrounded by figure skaters coming in for some practice.  Not one single other ice hockey skater.  He took to the ice with the enthusiasm and excitement at the opportunity to check out a “southern” rink.  In his words….”The ice is perfect here.  Not too hard and not too soft.  I can really practice my starts because my skates don’t dig in too much but just enough. My skates sound great and I can really go fast.”  Eventually, the figure skaters overtook him and it was, much to my delight, back out the door to sand and palm trees.

It just so happens that just about everyone in my family has a birthday in April, so catching someone’s birthday while being here in April is pretty easy to do.  I had the privilege of celebrating my nephew, Kenny’s, 29th birthday.  With just the two sister’s together, we have eleven people to help.  Off to Henry’s we went for some fine dining and celebration.  Apparently, we were a bit overwhelming when we walked through the door because they took us to our own room. It worked out well for us to have our own room.  I’ll leave it at that.  (Insert my previous comment about our Irish heritage here.)  The food was good and the company even better.  For me to be able to be a part of a celebration with my family is a real treat and doesn’t happen often enough.

True to fashion at Club McCall, it isn’t a day unless you finish it off in the hot tub with a glass of wine and the sounds of Margaritaville playing in the background.  (For my NY friends, yes, Red Cat is good with a hot tub. No false advertising there.)  Back we went, but down to six of us, and in the hot tub we go.  Ahhhhh, so relaxing.  Well, as relaxing as it can be with two under the age of thirteen and four dogs circling……  Gizmo, the youngest of our four-legged friends and only four months old, decided he would take a walk around the pool side of the hot tub and proceeded to fall in.  Carlene was quick to rescue him and all was good.  And so ends another great day with family at Club McCall.