7/14/08 Back to Colorado..

My last 5 days in Hermosa Beach, I was alone.. well not really, but Steve & the boys flew back to Colorado, so I was kind of alone.. This is new for me.. first my kids went to Yosemite with Lynne for 6 days, had a blast and that was the first time our kids have been away from both Steve & I for more than a night ever..

So now I had 5 whole days.. to do whatever.. I went to yoga everyday, went blading on the strand, went to meetings everyday, walked with friends, talked on the phone a lot.. I've been continuing to work with sponsee's in Colorado while gone and it has been so wonderful.. I have been so enjoying working the steps, doing Inquiry work (Byron Katie style), practicing directing awareness into the body, I am so loving what God is sending my way... who God is sending my way.. so much gratitude!

I spent my last day having lunch with my buddy Kevin in Hollywood, having dinner with cousin Dean talking about Life, the future, what it all means anyway?? Then I spent the evening with my sister MIndy, my mom and her hubby Bryan, telling them the whole story about how exactly Steve and I got back togetherr.. leaving nothing out.. My mommy gave me a great massage, I slept like a baby and I left Monday morning at 4am and arrived in Boulder by 8pm.

7/4/08 Happy 66th Anniversary Bill & Dorothy

In May my Grandma Dorothy turned 84, which is great, but on July 4th, she celebrated 66 yrs of marriage to Bill. that is pretty amazing.. I have a small inkling of just how remarkable that is....
on June 21st, Steve & I celebrated our 10th yr anniversary.. and there've been some ups & downs let me tell ya.. long term relationships with children are no easy task.. most of my friends have not made it.. I am feeling very grateful to be in such great appreciation for my relationship..

Just after their anniversary I picked Grandma up and arranged for a visit at my cousin Teresa's and had my Great Aunt Ruth (grandma's sister) show up for a surprise visit with Dorothy.. it was great, we spent the whole day, my boys and Teresa's kids played Lego's & swam, we talked and ate.. about family, traveling, the works.. it was so good to be visiting with Ruth & Dorothy together, they had not seen each other in many months.. Of course with Ruth there, we got talking about God, service, & gratitude with so much passion and fire.. such a gift to share this intense passion for living life with such immense God awareness and appreciation.. thanks Ruth for always being such an incredible example for me.. I love you so much!
My Grandma and I laughed and shared so much on this visit, we got to see each other 5 times in the month.. making up for lost time in the last year.. and we went to visit Grandpa in the home he is staying at, showed him lots of photos.. he enjoyed that very much.. 66 years.. wow...

7/5/08 Round Up 08

7/4/08 Happy 4th of July!!

Well of course we spent the 4th of July weekend at the Torrance Marriot at the AA Round UP.. partying with 4,000 of our closest friends.. My kiddos were celebrating with Grandma Lynne in Yosemite, so for the first time in 8 years I got to actually relax, go to meetings, have uninterrupted adult conversations, yeah it was strange but wonderful. There was an extra bit of celebrating going on since we did miss the round up for the first time last year, in the last 17 yrs, but mostly cause Steve and I are back together after some time apart and we are both very happy about it! New love, deep love, such gratitude, amazing appreciation, what can I say, totally a gift!

So yeah.. and Steve's new best friend in Colorado, Brian.. flew out for a week and hung out with us, we meditated, listened to Adya, went to a crazy amount of meetings, danced, heard some great music, laughed a lot, hugged a lot of friends, played at the beach, stayed sober, and celebrated life!

We also had a party at Lex's, her whole family was in town, totally fun, love hanging out with other peoples families, especially Jewish women from Florida, yeah we laugh a lot, hula hooping, poking fun.. it's all good!

6/28/08 flying to Catalina Island..

one of the highlights of our trip to California.. was one day a friend called up and said how'd you like to fly to Catalina?
Sounds great but I have my kids.. I replied... great bring them was the response! After I asked how long my friend had been
flying .. we set a time and off we set. Leaving from Hawthorne airport... I did not even know it was there.. it took longer to get the plane ready and do all the safety checks then to actually fly there. The best part of the flight for the boys who rode in the back of the4 seat airplane was the speaker headsets, they sang, yelled, talked to themselves, etc.. fortunately for us, we could turn them off to our headsets!

We circled around the South Bay, checked out Lex's new house on 20th street where we were staying and headed out to sea for
Catalina, yes, I got to fly the plane for 20 minutes of so, piece of cake.. it is really only taking off and landing that are tricky. Just a little tiny airstrip to land on, don't blink or you'll miss it.. we had a great lunch of buffalo burgers and took a bus down to Avalon.
The boys were very excited to see the mini golf course, so we played this very technical course, most are par 4 and 5.
Then we headed for the beach, sun & swimming and playing in the waves. After ice cream we headed back for the bus, Luc
was fast asleep in my lap as we rode the 30 minutes back up to the airport. You get a bit of a tour of the interior of the island
heading to the airport that normally you can't see as it is protected area.
I was remembering the 2 bike fundraisers I did riding from the Isthmus to Avalon, some 17 years ago, got to see the whole interior of the island, such beauty, great memories. Rich full life.. oh yeah!

6/24/08 WE are Rich with Friends!!

6/21/08 Rockstars in the making..

Technology is amazing.. one of the funnest new things we discovered at Alexis's was the game Rockband! You need a singer, a drummer and a guitar player.. and the songs they perform are all old rock songs, like Creep, Wanted Dead or Alive, 29 fingers, MIssissippi Queen and the like.. The kids were amazing, you actually learn to play instruments and follow the words and they score you on how well you do.. oh and it's also about reading, so technically it is educational and super fun.. right up our alley!

We got to have my niece Hope for a whole week, we had a blast playing at the beach, going to homeschooler park day, celebrating Luc's birthday, attending Jenn's 7th birthday party and of course playing Rockband! Hard to believe Hope will be 11 in September, I still remember Steve and I were celebrating his birthday at a sushi bar in Manhattan Beach when we got the call that Hope had arrived, we drove straight to the hospital and had her in our arms 45 minutes after she was born.. that was the best birthday ever. For the next 2.5 years, Hope spent the weekends with us, giving her mom (who was 21 and just a bit overwhelmed with motherhood) a needed break. Her Aunt Jojo who was 31 and oh so ready to be a mom was so thrilled to pick her up every friday afternoon and play mommy every weekend. What a gift that was to share such amazing time with baby Hope and every summer she gets to spend at least a week with us.. life is groovy!

6/20/08 Hanging out with Aunt Keyanna

The best part of being "home" is spending time with our family... especially Aunt Kiki.. we had so much fun playing at the park, Kiki brought her guitar, which i'd never heard her play, she sung us some of her songs and best of all she brought the tape recorder! Keyanna hangs out at coffee houses, poetry readings, writing and playing music with friends is a major interest, it was very cool to connect with her and hear her music. Yes I did feel inspired to start writing again, after 3 years of guitar lessons and writing and playing music, I have not picked it up in over 10 years..

What a great plaything for the kids that tape recorder, they never grew tired of singing sillyness into the recorder and listening to themselves. Great day with Kaia & Noah at Valley Park, we hve missed being with our bestest pals. It's amazing though the kids pick right up where they left off, never missing a beat. I feel so lucky that we have friends all over the place, Hermosa, Boulder, Maine, Oregon, and it's only going to get better as we continue to travel the world!

6/13/08 THIS is what we came for.. the BEACH!

A gorgeous day in Hermosa Beach, we picked up Dillon, Reese's best friend, my sister Mindy came down with Hope and Austin and we headed to the beach. The house we are staying at with Alexis is only 5 houses from the ocean, how much better could it get? My kids just dug in the sand, buried each other over and over and rode their boogie boards in the surf.. Mom sat in her comfy chair reclined, taking in the ocean smells and sounds, heaven. My sister Melinda and I got to share and catch up, very nice, we spent some time doing spiritual inquiry work, looking deeply into our beliefs, asking is that true? really powerful work, nice to share it with my sister.
A huge blessing, feeling very relaxed, went running on the beach today, what a treat. Ran 4 miles, pier to pier, nothing like running on the beach, cleansing mind, body & spirit, so healing.

6/12/08 Family Time..

Oh sweet times, baseball games, pizza parties, sleepovers, game night playing apples to apples with the family. We all headed to cousin Deans house, trampoline, jacuzzi, nice time to celebrate Luc turning 5, Grandma Judy turning 60 something and my Nephew Nathan turning 19! Nothing like being away from your family to really make you love and appreciate them. I think Luc had the best time, he jumped and jumped and jumped on the trampoline, played ball with Duke & Ginger, gave a long drum concert, had a long massage in the massage chair and still had energy to burn.. Of course he wanted Pokemon cards, a razor scooter, tech deck dudes, and Legos... that will keep him busy for awhile..

6/10/08 California here we come..

Hello Summer Vacation.. the boys and I hit the road this morning headed West for the mighty Pacific and of course all our friends and family. It has been a whole year since I've been "home" and that's definitely too long! The drive along Highway 70 west is really spectacular, especially along the Colorado River and in Utah near Bryce Canyon. The boys were great in the car, hooray.. we can do long drives in the car, they are old enough, that feels very freeing. We pretty much drove straight to Vegas got a beautiful condo at Worldmark and headed for the jacuzzi, so relaxing after 10 hours of driving. We spent the next morning swimming and playing in the pool, making friends and soaking up the sun all for only $35, what a bargain, gotta justify that quarterly $200 fee.
Around noon we jumped back in the car and headed to LA to attend my nephew Austin's final baseball game... nothing like driving into LA at 4:30pm on a friday night, hello massive traffic.. but i did not mind, so excited to see my family!

6/9/08 Sacred Sharing..

One of the most amazing things about being in Boulder is the connections I've made in AA here. Shortly after arriving i met several women in AA who wanted to work the 12 steps and we jumped right in.. 2 of the women i've been working with have made it all the way through step 4 writing out an inventory of resentments, fears, sex, hurts, etc..

Today I had an opportunity to sit with both of them and do the 5th step and review the inventory, this is a sacred healing journey of mass proportion. I don't think i'll ever forget today, the heart connection, the openness, the intimate loving exchange was more than remarkable, healing, transformative. Deep inquiry into fear, willing to walk right in, be with it, embrace it, willing to drop all resistance and allow it to offer it's gifts was so expansive i was literally beyond myself for hours afterwards..

There is a line in the Prayer of St Francis that states .. it is by self forgetting that one finds.. it is so true..

Thank you Alice and Margo.. I love ya!