Sweet Dreams

The other day, Gary asked me if I could remember the name of a guy that he was friends with in high school and that I knew from my camp counselor days. At the time, I could not think of his name.

This morning, I woke up at 6:00am from a dream that unlocked his name and at least 6 others. I got up out of bed, stumbled over to where Gary was standing, mumbled the guy’s name and went back to bed. (I am not a morning person, so stumbling and mumbling is a true depiction of my morning)

These other names were of people I knew from my pre-teen and teen years; I had completely forgotten about them. These were friends I had outside of school, so I would not have seen them at a reunion.

Well, of course, the first thing I did was search for them on Facebook; to no avail. None of those people use Facebook; go figure.

Anyway, the interesting part of this story, to me, is that in the middle of my sleep a whole chunk of my memory (from 25+ years ago) was restored. I didn’t even know it was missing. I had no reason to think about it…until Gary brought up our friend Pete. It is incredible how our minds continue to work through issues when we aren’t even aware of it.

This gives me hope that all of lifes little issues will resolve themselves…with a good nights sleep.

Sweet Dreams!

The Princess and the Pea

Have you heard the fairy tale, by Hans Christian Anderson, The Princess and the Pea?

The tale goes like this: A prince would like to find a "real" princess to marry. He searches the kindgdom far and wide, but can not find his princess. One dark and stormy night a girl comes to the castle proclaiming she is a princess, but because she is such a mess from the wind and rain the King and Queen don't believe she is an actual princess. The Queen decides to put her to the test. She piles up 20 mattress and 20 down beds and puts one little pea under the bottom mattress; without the girl knowing. In the morning, when she awakes, the Queen asks the girl how she slept. The girl says horribly I was up all night, tossing and turning, my body is bruised from sleeping on something hard under my mattresses. The King and Queen believe she is a true princess, because know one but a princess could be SO SENSITIVE. The prince has found his bride.

That princess is ME. I am serious, you can stop laughing anytime now.

I am SO SENSITIVE to the slightest barometric pressure change I can tell you when it is about to happen. Most of my friends already know my keen ability to predict rainfall, within a couple of days.

Last night after the Angels game (hooray for the Angels win) I came home with an awful headache, the kind I get when the weather is changing or it is going to rain. I told my mom and she said there are hurricanes off the coast of Mexico. I thought, that's probably not it, but didn't rule out the possibility. I went on with my day.

At 1:00pm my head starting hurting the way it had last night, so the first thing I did, after popping a couple of Advil, was check the barometer. Sure enough, the barometeric pressure had dropped so low and the humidity had climbed so high that it actually showed rainfall. Obviously, it wasn't raining in the house, but the humidity is so high that the digital thermometer is confused.

I guess the moral of my story is two-fold: Always listen to your mother and always remember who you are.

If you are ever in need of a princess....you know who to call!

Boys will be Boys will be Dads Someday

My sister and her family are in town and we have spent the weekend going to the movies, swimming in the jacuzzi and BBQing.

My 2 year old nephew fell head first into the jacuzzi with three adults standing near by. No splash, no cry- just shear panic and guilt, after the fact.

My 4 year old nephew kicked the pants off dueling swordsman on the Wii. When we left for the evening, he stood at the window and watched us drive away.

My 9 year old, after dinner and after beating everyone, even the two year old, at dodgeball said, "Hey, can I get some ice cream, or what???"

My 13 year old threw out the word, triskaidekaphobia (I had to look up the spelling), in conversation. How long had he been storing that piece of trivia in his head??? Your guess is as good as mine. The word means fear of the number 13.

My brother-in-law was banned from playing dodgeball, by my 9 year old, because he threw the ball so hard it hurt when it hit.

My husband was actually the instigator that got my brother-in-law playing dodgeball in the first place. The two of them were throwing the ball so hard at each other the rest of us feared for our lives.

My Dad took no prisoners in the jacuzzi. The boys were squirting him with their water guns...he took out the hose and hosed them down.

Past, Present, Future....Grandpas and Dads were once little boys and they will always have a bit of that little boy inside them.

I love you Dad for everything you do for me and my boys; for setting an example for my boys to follow.

I love you Gary for giving our boys the foundation to become the best that they can be. Our boys look up to you and because of this, they will make excellent Dads to their kids.

I love you Doug for giving my nephews a father who loves and adores them.

Happy Fathers Day!!!!

Scared of Bears

A few months ago my sister convinced me that a Yosemite camping trip would be an awesome experience. She got me so excited I woke up at 6:00am on the designated reservation day just to reserve a site at the Upper Pines campground; months in advance. It is very hard to get a spot at this campground and because of my fantastic organizational skills and early morning wake-up call to my sister we got two sites right next to each other. YES!

We were going to hike and bike, see the falls and majestic beauty of the land. Ahhhhhhh, so peaceful and calming to be one with nature. Until the middle of the night you hear BAM BAM BAM; the clanging of pots and pans to scare away the bears!!!!

That's right, you heard me...apparently, there is a HUGE bear problem in Yosemite. I had seen the shows on the travel channel warning travelers to be cautious and not leave out food(bear bait). That didn't seem to be a problem; I could put our food in the bear locker. But, it's not just food; fragrant soap, detergent, cooking utensils, dirty clothes...anything that has a scent and could attract a bear. Now we are talking a little more work.

I began having visions of my 2 year old nephew stashed away in the bear locker at night. Second thoughts started creeping in....


Someone from my office just came back from Yosemite and told me he could hear the bears breathing outside of his tent at night. OK, I have heard ENOUGH! I definitely can not see myself sleeping in a tent surrounded by bears. I could barely sleep at my last campout and we only had squirrels surrounding us.

I called my sister and explained the bear phobia and we agreed to find a new location for our camping adventure. We have decided on Lake San Antonio...no bears, just lots of fun in the sun and time on the lake.

Ahhhhhh, peace and calm, once again.