I think more folks need to know about this. I am sharing it…will you?
Home Life
DIY: Phantom of the Opera Themed Tea Party
In April, I was pretty happy to participate in another Tea Party! This time our theme was “The Phantom’s Masquerade”. I think our table turned out well.
Here is what we used:
Fine China
Crystal Goblets
Crystal Pitcher
Real Silver Utensils
Real Silver Candelabra
Cloth Napkins
2 Black Satin Table Cloths
Masks (purchased at Hobby Lobby)
Long Stem Red Roses
Lots of Gloves
Vintage Inspired Stationary from www.vectoriadesigns.com
Strings of fake Pearls
Opera Glasses
Old Fashioned Opera Purses
and A Playbill from “Phantom of the Opera” circa 1996.
The only things purchased here were the black tablecloths, the roses, the jellybeans, the masks, the vintage designs and the strings of pearls. The rest either I owned or borrowed. See how much fun this can be? I loved it even though I was at work that morning from 5:30 am to 9:00 am, but so is the life of an On-Air personality. Hope you enjoy this!
Border Patrol Union says Pay Reform is key – Imperial Valley Press Online: Local News
Reblogging this from Imperial Valley News Press:
Border Patrol union says pay reform is key – Imperial Valley Press Online: Local News.
My family has officially lost 25% of our salary. And while I understand that has never been a guarantee (though he has had it for the last 19 years)…my husband’s job requires call out time. How is he supposed to go on call outs if he cannot claim AUO? The whole system is jacked up right.
Learning A-Z Mini Books – Super Coupon Lady
Life in Seconds
So, I have been back in radio for almost a year now. And I can honestly say…I love it. I love living by seconds! Putting on a great show! Listening to music for three hours and talking! I mean…what’s not to love, right?
I love it so much that I often fantasize about sending my kids back to school just so that I can have a “bigger” position at the station I work at and make it more fulfilling for me. It’s a totally selfish reason…and it’s rather ugly, but there you have it.
So what happens when your needs are being met by God but your wants are not?
You wait. You wait patiently/impatiently for Him to tell you different…but you wait. You wait in thanksgiving and expectation.
See…the reason I went back into radio is rather funny…and it was a God “thing”, I can see that now. Last year around this time, we were looking at a HUGE pay cut through my husband’s job, our main source of income. My husband is a good man and created a studio environment for me that I could work out of, but he’s so good…and he knows me so well…that he didn’t push me into it. Like a lot of people I am sure, I am terrified of failure. Who wants to fail, right? I mean, I have failed at so many things…but something that I totally love, was I willing to put myself out there for that? He knew I wasn’t. He didn’t push. He just did…and then had me look at the results. How can this change or what would you do, he would ask. And so it began. And God knew it was the right way to approach me. And we have been totally successful at it! Praise the Lord!
So…the threat of losing pay passed and I got a phone call and I have been back working at a radio station ever since. And I love what I do. I just wish sometimes there was more of it. I guess that is the way it goes.
I await my turn. I am being a good and faithful servant. I hope my complaining about it doesn’t harm things in the long run. But I am sure, you gentle reader, will know what I am talking about. This is our season of obedience.
We were made for more and I am thankful for that.
An Interesting Word
We have been struggling with our 2nd daughter for some time. Maybe struggling is not the right word. Maybe I am using the wrong word to describe our often…difficult…relationship.
strug·gle/ˈstrəgəl/verb
gerund or present participle: struggling
1) make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction
2) strive to achieve or attain something in the face of difficulty or resistance
3) have difficulty handling or coping with
4) engage in conflict
5) make one’s way with difficulty
Nope. We have definitely been struggling with her. We just cannot seem to understand her; nor she us. She fights everything we try to do. If we are ‘up her butt like a ham sandwich’ (good imagery there right?)…or we are giving her space…it never seems to be the ‘right’ thing.
And it breaks my heart. Because I want for my child to be happy. I understand she is going through a lot of changes right now. We are homeschooling for the first time. Her best friend left this past summer. (Mine too!) She is going through hormonal changes. And now…we have discovered an unsettling trend. She seems (and I am not a clinician, but all signs point to this) to have a slight eating disorder. I mean, it either is or isn’t…close enough only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Image courtesy of Simon Howden ‘Message’ / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I found this online and thought it was brilliant!
This really helped us put things in perspective with regard to her and we trying to make it work. She is not exactly a complete introvert, but there are a lot of similarities for her and it was a good talking point with her. I showed her this chart and asked her if she thought that any of these applied to her and she nodded her head and said yes. Okay. We can and will work with this.
Now before you think I have left the eating disorder issue, I have not. It’s just one more cog in the wheel of how this child ticks.
Through some research and observing her behaviors, my hubby and I think she has what is known as ‘Avoidance/Restrictive Eating Disorder’. (The link it to a site we stumbled upon about Restrictive Eating Disorder) She has been limiting things she eats and then avoids situations where she has to eat at all, particularly at a family friends house. This has come about in the last month or so. She has been cranky. Lacks focus. She has gotten skinnier than she already is. When I hug her, I can feel her rib cage and her spine. Mind you, she has always been on the thin side…so this is not normal. Dark circles under the eyes. Just a whole lot of things, that when taken separately might not mean anything, but when put all together…they produce a bigger picture that is not healthy.
Image courtesy of Idea Go ‘Corda Strappata’ / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I know, I have been there. Oh believe, me…I have been there.
I was a figure skater in my tween/teen years and I know about restrictive eating disorders, but because I ate, I didn’t think I had an issue. Boy, was I wrong! Counting every calorie, limiting my intake and avoiding certain foods are all part of this cycle…but because I still ate food…I thought there was nothing wrong with me. I exercised, ran, swam…did aerobics and skated on top of that! All while probably only eating enough calories to get me by…but because (in my mind) I was still eating meals, there was nothing wrong. I didn’t binge. I didn’t purge. I didn’t even starve myself. But if a package said, 5 crackers was 120 calories, I would only eat 5 crackers. It wasn’t until I was older and had my 1st child that I realized the problem I truly had with food. And I still struggle with my weight. (There’s that word again!)
The point is: We are watching, monitoring and hopefully, making the best choices when it comes to her well-being. We don’t want her to get to a breaking point. We don’t want to get to a breaking point either. We are trying to teach all our children that food is good for you. That everything needs to be done in moderation. Sigh. Parenting is hard.
Today was a better day. We monitored what she ate, but didn’t do it in a way that called attention to her. Made sure she ate foods that were rich in protein and not just junk. She ate a healthy lunch. So it’s going to take a while, but as with everything else, I know it will be worth it. And a light…a glimmer of good…when we prayed over our food today for lunch, she actually grabbed my hand and joined in! Lately, she has also been rejecting prayer too. Sigh. I know. Lots going on with this one. BUT…we are prayerful and thankful that we have our Lord to guide us through this.
Struggling with it All…
As a mother who homeschool’s and works, I often find it hard to find time to even breathe.
It is a tricky balancing act…one in which, inevitably, someone is not satisfied. Someone is mad and upset. Someone is usually crying. That someone is usually me.
I read something freeing the other day: “We homeschool not to teach like a school at home but to make our children love learning, 7 days a week at all hours. We teach them control, confidence and character. Our home is a classroom filled with wonder and is always on.” (Sorry for not quoting you properly…or citing where I read it, because I honestly cannot remember)
I loved that. It freed up some of what I have been thinking about, some of the guilt, like how will my kids measure up? Measure up to who though? My own pre- conceived notions of what they should be learning and what I think they would be learning at school.
I am learning too. I have one daughter who is an extrovert with some introvert tendencies. I have another who is a total introvert with a few extrovert tendencies. Learning how to be with both of them as an extrovert (I mean, dude…I am the poster child for extrovert) has been a challenge. I am your typical Type-A personality. See something, make a plan, go after it…get it done. My daughters’ ambling and plodding drives me slightly insane.
My son is learning, unfortunately, from his sister’s that there are some things just not worth his time…or so he thinks. I am unlearning (is this a word?) this behavior and making him face up to his mistakes. He has learned to make some great excuses. Today though, after lunch he told me he was going to get back to work and not make excuses for not doing his work. He wanted to be done.
We have instituted a schedule now. My girls are up at 7am. My boy at 8. They have classes they have to take and an format to follow. I am hopeful that this will help my introvert child have more structure which I believe she needs. My extrovert child likes to watch TV. There, enough said about that issue. 🙂
I am working two part time jobs. And not because I have to…or maybe because I do but not for monetary reasons. I love them both for different reasons. One because it gets me back into the profession I love and the other because it get’s my creative juices going.
My husband and I are working more as a unit and are prayerful, watchful and eager to see where the Lord leads us. Some days it feels as if I am in a swampy land with lots of lichen and cobwebs…and other days I see us on a plateau and there’s nothing but soft, even ground to be covered. Going to the horizon. Those days are sometimes few and far between…but they make me appreciate them all the more. I am more aware, more awake than ever that what we are doing is for His Glory and not ours. It is humbling and sometimes a heavy burden…because I want to be weak. I want to be sinful and I want to let my flesh have it’s way. But I resist…I resist for the greater good. I resist because my children are watching. Oh my Word are they watching. And we are unlearning behaviors, together.
"Image courtesy of Rainbow by Robert Bell / FreeDigitalPhotos.net"
Adventures in Homeschooling Continued…
Things seem be working much smoother than before. We have made some changes to our homeschooling schedule and routine.
Our 2nd oldest is now using the Abeka Video Tutorials. Honestly, Gentle Reader, I got tired of fighting my child. It was such a struggle to get her to listen to me, to learn, to be an active participant. And she fights…oh how she fights. And she’s not fighting the homeschooling…nope, it’s just her natural response to fight me. Sigh. She’s the one who kicked my pelvis on the way out when she was born. Yup, she sure did! I felt those tiny little toes push off my pelvis as she made her way into the world! I even said to my hubby, “She kicked me!” So, not such a big surprise she fights me now.
Our oldest is doing well…but we seem to be battling an internet addiction. She knows she is supposed to ask us if she can go to any online sites besides those required for her school…but we have found that she likes to waste time looking at YouTube and other sites just for music or to watch fan made music videos. We don’t want to stifle her creativity but at the same time, there are rules that need to be followed. We have also found that our child hides her true self by being loud and silly. She doesn’t like to talk about her feelings because it’s messy and ugly and yucky. She can’t get the words out and I understand that, I was once a 14 year old girl too. Surprise, surprise! We are slowly working with her so she can open up to us and get all that out. Double sigh.
Our boy is doing really well with the curriculum we have set for him. We are using a hybrid Abeka system with him. We use Abeka and other resources and he seems to be doing amazingly well. I sometimes worry that I am not teaching him enough…but then some of the work I give him is more geared to a 2nd to 3rd grader, and he reads it; understands it and can comprehend what is being asked of him so I feel he is doing good there. We study different people in history, the states and have fun.
The littlest one…she’s soaking it all up. I am reviewing site words with my boy and she sits in the review with him, and I am hoping that it will start to come to her as well. We will see. She can count up to 12, but after that has a hard time understanding the concept. 12 is a stumbling block for her. But she can write her own name (three letters, and two of them are the same!) and is in fact, writing on just about every scrap of paper she can get her little chubby hands on. She recognizes the entire Alphabet and can write all of her letters. She makes my heart smile!
We use several online resources. They are:
www.abcmouse.com (monthly subscription) Great for the Pre-K or kindergartener in your home.
www.enchantedlearning.com ($20/year) Lots of printable and fun activities to do.
www.ixl.com (monthly subscription) Math practice for Pre-K up through Algebra 2. English for 2nd-4th grade with more grades coming.
www.brainpop.com (free and monthly subscription) Pre-K through 12th Grade. Lots of fun videos, games, quizzes.
www.khanacademy.org (FREE!!!) Science, Math and more!
I constantly question if we are doing the right thing by homeschooling the kids…and whether or not I am truly hearing God correctly, because you know there are days…oh there are days…when I want Him to say :SEND THOSE KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL…but He is silent on this matter so far. But…but…but…when I see that sparkle back in their eyes, when I see that light emanating from them…when their joy is infectious and laughter abounds through my home…I am at peace. Until the next crisis/fight/fiasco.
As I told another homeschooling mom, I don’t think I will ever know if we made the right decision until they are successfully ensconced in college and are doing well. A lot to hang your hopes on, but it’s what I will take for now.
Blessings be on you Gentle reader.
The Day the Devil Came to Play
October 2nd, 2012
My husband and I had just finished eating lunch. He was getting ready to go meet with DNR (Department of Natural Resources) at the local gathering place in our little town. The pager, since my husband is not only in law enforcement but he’s also a volunteer fire fighter, was going crazy. There were plenty of red flag warnings for that fateful day. It was hot, dry, and super windy. It is a day that will live in our hearts, minds and psyches for many years to come.
Let me go back.
I had just flown back into town that Sunday after spending 10 days with my parents in San Diego, California. I flew out to be with them since my mother was going to have a total hip replacement. She’s 71 years old and honestly, we were all concerned about her health…and whether or not she would make it through the grueling surgery. I hit my knees the day of her surgery, in my old room, crying out to God that He give me a little more time with her. I begged that if He decided to take her that day, if it was her time, the He let her know that her family loved her. She came out of surgery with flying colors. She is well on the path to recovery. Amen and Amen.
The night before I flew out, my mother had a particularly bad night. For a woman who is used to doing everything on her own, it was humbling for her to have to ask for help to even use the bathroom. My dad went to sleep at 9; my mother at 9:30 and I stayed up until 11 because I was finishing laundry. I wanted to be completely packed so that my dad and I would only have to get ready and stick my luggage in the car and go. At midnight, I could hear my dad and mom yelling at each other. My mom had had an issue, got upset and was yelling. My dad was trying to find some pills for her…and he could not. We finally got her calmed down and back to sleep.
My dad and I sat next to each other on the couch. It was now a little past 1 am, my flight would leave at 6:30 am.
“What time you want to leave?” He asked gruffly.
“Give me an hour to get ready,” I replied.
He nodded. “We’ll leave at 2:30.”
We left at the designated time. I got to say goodbye to my mom. I hugged her hard. I had not seen my parents for two and half years. I don’t know when I will see them again. I live 3000 miles away. It’s not as easy as it once was to go and see them.
My dad stayed with me at the airport until about 4am. We talked about my mom and her recovery and what his role was going to have to be with her.
When I arrived in Grand Forks, I was exhausted. I had had less than an hour of sleep in 36 hours. I was literally falling asleep as my husband drove us home. We received our first phone call about a fire on Pembina Trail on our way home. Our neighbors, adopted parents and grandparents, had also been in Grand Forks and they advised us that there was a fire on the road we would take home. We would have to go around. Not a big deal. We would just take the long way around.
My husband is amazing. He made supper for us, let me sleep for two hours (though, he didn’t have a choice since I totally passed out on our bed the moment I walked into our room and dropped the stuff on the floor) and got the kids ready for school for the next day.
Monday is a haze. I slept in. Tried to get bills, laundry and everything else organized after being gone for almost two weeks. My husband did an amazing job…but there are things that I pay attention to that no one else does. Sigh…such is the life of a stay at home mom, I suppose.
Tuesday dawned clear and bright. Warm and windy. Beautiful fall weather boding of beautiful things for a lovely October. My husband and his colleague were discussing the fire on Pembina Trail and the fact that the conditions were ripe for a fire bug. The fire department they both volunteer for had issues with a fire bug in the spring…would the fire bug rear his ugly head? If he did…it would be bad. After my husband’s colleague left to check something out, we had lunch and he took off as well. I had just poured another cup of coffee and the pager started going crazy.
I overheard the dispatcher calling Karlstad Fire Department to the site of Sunday’s fire so they could monitor the situation with DNR. Okay, no big deal. There was a fire in Viking. Another fire had sprung up in another town. Typical.
12:30 PM
Then I saw smoke and called my neighbor, Corienne. Where was the fire? It’s in the swamp she says. Hmmm…well, the swamp is far enough away. Since I have only lived in this area for 2 years, I did not realize that MY swamp is also the same swamp that borders Pembina Trail. How could I be so stupid? MY WHOLE TOWN SHARES THE SAME STUPID SWAMP! I ask her if she thinks it’s serious? She doesn’t know she says. She will have her husband call me when he gets back from in town. Okay, I say.
About ten minutes later, after listening to the pager go off like crazy and watching the smoke rise into the clear blue sky I receive a phone call from my neighbor, Wayne. What’s going on, I ask. Well, he says, you might want to get your hoses out and hook them up. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to get the water going just in case. Okay, I say. My 3 year old daughter is already dressed and is watching cartoons. I tell her to stay inside and out-of-the-way. I go outside, unhook a hose from up front and drag down to the back yard. I pull it out to the middle of our back yard which goes all the way down to the other street where my neighbors live. He then advises me that I should lean a ladder against the house and hook a hose up there too. We might need to hose down the shingles on the roof. Hmmm…going from bad to worse.
After running around and doing that stuff, I noticed something bad. Real bad. The wind had shifted. Instead of blowing northwest, it was now blowing northeast. Crap. My neighbor went and picked up her mother in law, Vivienne from the local assisted living home. When she was back, Vivienne went to my house to sit with Eve, my daughter. I asked Wayne, since he’s an insurance agent, what should I get ready? How many days does he think we will be out of the house? Documents, he says. Insurance papers. Clothes, money and pictures.
At 1:40, I received a phone call saying they were evacuating the school and that the kids would be put on busses and brought home. I heard later that the school was completely evacuated in under 9 minutes. Amazing. I waited until 1:45 and the kids were not home. I then received a phone call from my daughter letting me know they had been evacuated behind the local furniture store, Germundson’s. Are you going to pick us up, my daughter wants to know. No, baby. I can’t. I tell her. Then I ask her where her brother and sister are. She says they are on another bus. Damn. They are not together. In between this conversation, I am busy getting socks, underwear and money from my daughters’ rooms downstairs. Any important jewelry they might need. I run upstairs and throw these items in the back of my van. I had moved the van outside and left the keys in the ignition. I put the keys to the trailblazer in the ignition as well.
By this time, the smoke is thick and brown and is really pushing toward our neighborhood. Corienne has already gotten Eve and Vivienne out of my house and has them in her van. I gather all of our important documents from upstairs, clothes, toiletries, money, guns…and run outside to put it in the van. Now, the thick brownish red smoke is literally rolling over the roof of my house. My neighborhood is almost dark from it and the stench is choking. I run back inside my house and grab my husband’s laptop and the dog in her crate and run up the stairs. My neighbor comes over and asks if I need anything else. I say no. I run out the door and forget to close the garage door. The DNR and fire department are literally outside my house and they have just disced my front yard. One of the guys I know yells at me, “Mo, you gotta leave now!” I look at his bleak expression and believe the worst. Our neighborhood is a goner. I put the dog in the van and as I am backing out of my driveway, I watch floating debris fall from the sky and land in the neighbor’s yard. It is on fire.
We end up across the highway. I can see that my husband has set up a perimeter around the town. He can’t talk with me. I don’t know where my kids are, I just know that they have been evacuated. We move further down the highway to a neighboring property. I walk up the highway to talk with my husband and realize I left my wedding rings at the house. After rushing through trying to get everything we would need…I leave the thing that is super important to me. My wedding and engagement ring. I am devastated. “I forgot my wedding rings,” I tell my husband in a bit of a hysterical yell. He looks at me, his eyes kind, “It’s okay.” He hugs me and then tells me he’s got work to do. His face is now impassive. He’s now in Law Enforcement mode.
2:00
We notice the wind is now hitting east and the we keep hearing our street is gone. Wiped out. We move from our location because the fire is coming right at us, further down the highway. I finally hear from my daughter that they have been moved again…and they are being moved to another town because where they are is right in the line of fire. We literally are on our knees on the side of HWY 59, praying…crying out to God that He will protect our homes and our loved ones. We pray and we cry and we thank God for his wonderful provision. We form groups of prayer and we come together on that highway to be a community of bedraggled survivors.
I wish I could give you a further time line after that, but I can’t. It was very chaotic and I am trying to remember things from a while ago. My best friend ended up picking up my kids and taking care of them over at one of her church member’s house. We have been told multiple times that our street is gone. I did not hear from my husband…except for the occasional call outs on the radio that I knew were him because of his call sign…for almost 5 hours.
I found out my husband and the volunteer fire department saved our neighborhood. Fire literally was in my back yard and came right up to the back side of my neighbors garage. If it wasn’t for my husband and his determination to not let our neighborhood go, I probably wouldn’t be writing this story right now. It was that.BAD.
7:45
We are finally allowed in our neighborhood. Literally, I was still putting hotspots out in my back yard. I took my neighbors to get something to eat at the local gas station since they had nothing to eat all day except for some crackers. I still have not heard from my husband and don’t know where he is. I go up to one of the other guys I know who work for the same agency he does and I ask them to call Papa 6 on the radio and give him a message that his wife and kids are back home. The guy proceeds to pull out his CELL PHONE and call him. I about lost it. Poor guy. I looked at him, with 2(!!!) cell phones in my hand and say, “If I wanted to reach him on his cell phone, don’t you think I would have done that already? Please call Papa 6 on your radio and let him know that his wife and kids are at home.” The guy looks at me…and I am sure at this time I was pretty scary looking: ratty hair, ash covered…a little funky smelling. Yeah, I was that woman. Little bit of crazy in her eyes. Oh yeah. I was that woman. He does as I ask and I walk away.
The next day we receive a bit of rain and snow. A miracle! The next day we have a blizzard! All the power goes out. We prayed for rain and got a blizzard instead.
We survived. And the whole town smelled for months. But we made it through. I believe 6 houses were lost and more outbuildings were destroyed…but my neighborhood, directly in the line of fire was not lost! And not a single life was lost. I don’t even think there were any injuries reported from all the law enforcement and fire fighting personnel who helped out.
I am thankful for God’s protection and His provision. He heard us cry out to Him. I know He was with us that day the Devil came to play.
Imagine Dragons Road Trip
Holy.Cow.
First let me tell you…I totally bought tickets for me and my daughters (my daughter and me…geez I suck at grammar) back in May to go to this concert. I even left a track meet to get home and purchase tickets online. That is how much I REALLY wanted to get tickets for us. Sad…this is what my life has come to.
So, I went on to booking.com and got a hotel room. Can I tell you how much I love booking.com? Now, I don’t get anything from them (though if booking.com wants to come knocking…here I am!) I was able to get a really nice hotel room at the Best Western in Oakdale, Mn which was only a little bit away from where the concert was going to be at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. Booking.com had the best prices AND the best thing…totally the selling point for my family of 6, I only needed to have a credit card on file but they DON’T put a hold on your card. For a woman who doesn’t have credit cards and only debit, this is huge. It can cause such an issue when you are booking in advance and there is $200 missing from your checking account. And when you are on a tight budget, then this can also be a hindrance. Not anymore. Super excited that they offer this service. I booked three weeks in advance. Score! Okay, enough loving on booking.com.
My daughters and I got on the road…late. Sigh. Story of my life. We meant to leave at 9 a.m. but 3 hours later we headed out-of-town. The trip was not too bad. Where we live to the cities is about a 6 hour drive. Yes, I live in Mn but we live right under Canada so the Cities are quite a drive away. The trip was gorgeous. There is nothing like Minnesota in the fall…no matter how short it is. And sometimes it can be painfully short. There is a beautiful ombre that happens with the trees. Shifts of red, orange, yellow and green…just fabulous. Pumpkins lining the highway for sale…and the farmer (God made a farmer) plowing and harvesting his fields.
The hotel was super nice. Loved the interior. I was kind of disappointed it didn’t have a pool, but it did have a large spa and workout room. I am sure if I look I will see the they never mentioned a pool and I just assumed it did. The rooms at Best Western were nice. We chose a Junior Suite with a king sized bed and a pull out couch. Plenty of room for me and my two girls.
My oldest had to do her live lessons so my other daughter and I inadvertently got lost. Seriously. My GPS on my phone hates me. No joke. I wanted to go to Target and so I put that into my phone. Gentle reader, I AM NOT FROM MINNESOTA! I have been to the Cities once by myself…and THAT was Minneapolis. I don’t know the Cities at all. Oh my word…let the madness ensue. So…we get on the road. My 11-year-old is my navigator. And we’re driving and have no CLUE where we are going. Because we keep passing these Targets on the way. What-in-the-hell is going on? Where are we going??? The cuss words start flying. I suck. Literally, I wound up driving in circles in some neighborhood in St. Paul.
So, then I realized that I originally put in the address for St. Paul’s Cathedral. Note: I stopped that destination…and put in the Target destination. Ahahahaha…stupid technology. Stupid woman for trusting stupid technology. So needless to say, we found our way to the cathedral but never did make it to Target. So we turned around and went to pick up my oldest. Hahahaha!
St. Paul’s Cathedral is Free…the parking ticket not so much:
Can I just say I hate the parking situation in St. Paul. There are so many dang signs of where you can park, where you cannot park…when you can park and when you cannot. OH.MY.WORD. I read the sign…well, I thought I read the sign. The $36 dollar parking ticket tells me no, no I did not read the sign properly. I parked like 20 feet from where I was supposed to. Literally I was just inches from where I supposed to be. Isn’t that the way it goes?
St. Paul’s Cathedral is wonderful. Absolutely beautiful. Stunning. Sad. It literally broke my heart…and Gentle Reader if you knew me, you would know I am Catholic. I am also a believer in Jesus Christ. I am not nor have I ever been a believer in the Church. Any Church. GASP! Sacrilege! To me St. Paul’s was more about the power and majesty of the church than it was about the mighty love of Jesus Christ. I was also struck by the influence of the Roman culture in our churches. Statues to the 4 writers of the Gospel. Statues to the Patron Saints of the Nations. Lots of pomp and circumstance. Lots of GIANT polished stone and gilt and cold…oh so cold. Please do not get me wrong Gentle Reader. I was awed. My girls were awed. But I don’t ever want them to think that the Church is more important than what Christ did for us on the Cross. What GOD did for us by sending His Son. Okay, enough preaching from me.
Getting Lost. Again.:
So, we got lost again. And i paid $5 for a parking spot we did not even stay in. St. Paul had some work going on downtown and my STUPID GPS kept taking us in circles, so I decide, in my inherent wisdom to just pick a parking and go for it. I mean, how far could it be, right? Anyway, we walk…and walk…and walk…
Finally, we go into the Crown Plaza and look at this huge interactive map they have. This really nice concierge named Neal, gave us a map and we were back on our way…to get our car so we could get closer to where we wanted to be. I don’t think we wanted to walk 13 blocks back to our vehicle at night, in a city where we are unfamiliar! ACK!
Following a real map, we found our location…even if we had to go in circles a few times (Yes, we did!)…and even more amusing…we ended up so close to the cathedral, it was almost comical…if I hadn’t been cussing like a trucker who has been on the road for 36 hours straight.
$80 Dollars later:
Do you ever feel like that dude in the Geico commercial who is riding the motorcycle with Dolla-dolla bills just flying off of him? That was me. I felt like that dude after the ticket, paying for parking twice AND buying shirts at the concert for $35 a piece. Sigh. But my girls were happy. The shirts I purchased for them from Maurice’s ($42) went straight off in the bathroom and on came the new shirts. Double sigh. Cha-ching!
We came, We sang, We bounced:
Imagine Dragons are good. And I mean, like…so amazingly good it’s unreal! If you like them…you will love their live performance. Their percussion and guitars and vocals and VIOLIN playing is just unreal. It was so worth it! Loved every single minute of it. And the lead singer of the band is so humble…just unreal. Super amazing. You should catch them if you get a chance!
The funniest thing happened after the concert. My girls danced and sang and rocked out so hard. I bounced in my seat (I am a MOM after all…some decorum is warranted) and sang and loved watching my girls have the time of their lives. What really struck me is how diverse the crowd was. There were a lot of college students, but there were a lot of 40 to even 50 year olds and then ‘tweens and kids in the venue. This older guy tapped my girl on the shoulder and said, “Best night of your life?” And she had this biggest smile on her face and said, “Oh yeah!” He then smiled at me and I smiled back at him. He nodded his head in my girls’ direction and said, “You’re doing it right.” I laughed and felt good about that. Yeah, I am doing it right.
This is an experience that my girls and I will always remember. There were moments of frustration…but there were also moments of sheer fun. Funny little inside jokes that my husband and my other kids won’t get because they just were not there. Did it cost more than I expected…oh yeah. Were the rewards more than I expected…oh yeah. Would I do it all again…oh yeah! But next time…I will have a map on hand, and use my map skills the old fashioned way.
Stupid phone GPS. 😉
nwminnesotamo 