41/52

Space.



There are actually some very brilliant things about space.  For one thing, it helps you determine where one word ends and another begins.  The whole hashtag revolution really can mess with you before you start to get the hang of it.  #amItheonlyone #mybrainhasahardtimecreatingspacewherethereisnospace

Another thing about space is it allows you time to process and transition while you are reading.  Do you ever look at a long paragraph and get overwhelmed even before you start reading it?  I prefer shorter paragraphs.  Maybe I don't follow all the rules with writing, but my hope is always that as I change tracks and train of thought, you're able to follow along.

Space is also infinite.  There are billions of stars and millions of miles in between them - even though they look so close to each other from here on Earth.  But it goes on forever.  When you sit on a summer night at stare up at the sky, you realize just how big the world really is and just how small you really are. 

Space is also helpful between siblings.  I think it's why they invented captain's chairs in vans and minivans.  When my brother and I were growing up, we had a conversion van and very often we had this conversation:  this is your space, and this is my space.  You stay in your space, and I'll stay in my space.  (Not that he ever listened - LOL)

There can be the perception that space can be uncomfortable.  Think about conversations.  Sometimes people will try to fill silence because it seems awkward.  Sometimes it's good to process, to think, to analyze, to transition, to discover, to dream.  It can be like the space in between paragraphs in a book.  Some space can also prevent you from a knee-jerk reaction.  We're human and we can jump to conclusions or allow our emotions to overrule logic in a situation. 

Space can give you time to think.  Really think.  It can give you perspective, it can give you hope, it can confirm something you already know or help you realize that maybe you were wrong about it. It gives you the chance to change your mind.  Take a step back, create some space between you and whatever or whoever. 


So in short, space can be good. 

This space here is on a farm.  It doesn't look like much now.  There, in fact, isn't much to even work with in this picture.  Usually on the other side of the fence (to the left) are cows.  On the right side of this space are horses. 

But I cannot wait to come back to this farm in the summer.  The owner of this property doesn't keep any animals in this space.  Likely in a few weeks, though, they will work the soil and plant seeds.  They will water them and take care of them.  The last two summers there have been tall and stunning sunflowers in this space.  SUNFLOWERS.  Giant, strong, beautiful sunflowers.  I wish I had a picture to show you (how many times had I driven by wishing I had my camera?!).  Y'all, I really hope that this year is no different.  I hope it's not too late to be able to show you the beauty that comes from this space.  How the sunflowers face the sun and follow it through the sky during the day...

So sometimes space is necessary.  It might feel awkward at first.  It might not look like much at first.  You might feel inclined to fill that space with just anything, but resist, until you've really had time to think about it.  Just try.  Because space allows for things to grow if only you plant the seeds and take care of it.

40.6/52

Pike's Peak is a grand 14,115 feet above sea level.  It's website says is one of America's favorite summits and stand about 8,000 feet higher than other mountains in the area.  Where we're from (in Illinois) is 725 feet above sea level.  That's a bit of a difference.

Today we drove up Pike's Peak.  It's about a 19 mile drive, twisting and turning - mostly without guardrails.  We got to drive up to about mile 13.  The air gets thinner (for real, you get winded just walking a short distance) and your ears pop as you ascend and descend.  The other thing we noticed here is the headaches.  Like someone or something is squeezing your head or your helmet is too tight.  LOL

It was snowing at the top of the mountain, so they closed the road beyond mile 13.  Brian swears that with the Highlander's all-wheel drive and differential lock (whatever that is), we could have gone further, but okay, we'll follow the rules and turn around and head back down the mountain.

Since I had taken about 200 pictures at the zoo yesterday (I bet you couldn't tell that I took a lot of pictures at the zoo - LOL), I took some pictures off my memory card and loaded them onto the laptop.  Guess who left the memory card IN THE LAPTOP when we left for the mountain.  Ugh.

So all these pictures are taken with a iPhone.  Not too bad really.

Isaac, Abbi, Brian, me, and Emma

Those little white speckles?  That's snow.  :)

The website indicated that you should allow about two hours to get up the mountain.  I thought, wow, that's a long time.  But then when you see the view (and how it changes in a short distance), I can see why.  We pulled over to take pictures every few minutes.  Ha!!

The views were amazing all around.  Throw in a few cute kids and you might possibly have next year's Christmas card!

Abbi (and her great hair day), Emma and Isaac

Even the Crystal Reservoir was photogenic. 

Can someone remind me why I live in Illinois? 

40.4/52

I love animals.  All kinds, really, but there are two that reign supreme.  Giraffes and elephants. Hands down.  No question.

Yesterday we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  Our first stop?  The giraffe exhibit.  We bought the equivalent of three heads of romaine lettuce and spent about an hour feeding them.

Give me that lettuce!

I'll take that!

How about me?  Do you have any for me?

Isaac is a little afraid of that long tongue!

Giraffe selfie!!

After the giraffes, we went to see the elephants.  Elephants are Abbi's favorite.  We got there just as they were doing a little demonstration.

This is Lucky.  She has arthritis in her back and one of her back legs.  They do elephant yoga with her  (and all the elephants) every day and do all kinds of exercises with positive reinforcement to strengthen their bond with Lucky and so that they can examine her so she stays healthy.  In this demonstration, she started purring.  Seriously.  Watch the video.  I didn't even know they made this noise.  It was the cutest thing ever!!

And even cuter than that?  Elephant art.

I'm pretty certain I know my next dream job.  Hosting art class with all my elephant friends.  

I love all the interaction opportunities with the animals at this zoo.  Check out Isaac with a budgerigar.  It's also known as a budgie or a common pet parakeet.  Some were very friendly and would come down and perch on you to eat the birdseed on the Popsicle stick.  

Abbi petting a wallaby.

And we ended our day at a row of rocks.  Smiling.

Well, we were smiling until we got to the little shack that sells cotton candy and realized they were closed.  Do you know how difficult it is to find cotton candy??  LOL

40.2/52

Who knew my family would love skiing so much!??  It took a bit to get us all booted and skiied up, but once we did, Brian gave us all a lesson.  How to stop, how to ski, how to turn around - all that. And in no time, we were ready to hit the ski lift!

My skis, Isaac's skis and Brian's skis. That shadow?  That's the girls on the chair ahead of us.

Isaac was a natural.  He is wired just like Brian - it's so easy for them to learn things.  The girls did great too - a couple of falls, but soon they were going on the harder trails.  I have been skiing only once before (also with Brian - and his friend, Chad, too) about 19 years ago.  Sheesh, that sounds like a long time ago!!  It took me a bit to feel comfortable, but then it was sort of like riding a bike, it all started to come back to me.

R - L: Me, Emma, Isaac, Abbi and Brian. Check out the mountains behind us!

The last run we took, I decided to go down the same trail as the girls.  Someone forgot to tell me to stay to the left.  The right side of the trail was, let's say, bumpy, hilly, not completely flat.  I couldn't tell and all of a sudden I'm struggling to stay vertical.  Expletives were said aloud and I prayed that I wouldn't die.  I made it out of that crazy terrain and then almost slowed to a stop, just to catch my breath.  I'm glad I survived.  

When we were returning the boots and skis, I was surprised to hear how much everyone loved it and how we have to plan another ski trip.  Yes!!

Thankfully Wisconsin is closer than Colorado, so it's definitely doable.  

40/52

Happy Easter to everyone!  

As I sit here writing from a desk in a hotel room, I'm looking out the window to see snow covered mountains.  It's Spring Break for us and we opted to do something a little different this year.  Brian and I love the mountains, and the kids had never been skiing before.  It was completely logical, then, to go to Colorado.  

Brian and I (and our kids for that matter) have always lived in Illinois.  It's flat there.  You look out into the horizon and see nothing.  Sometimes clouds would form a ridge along the horizon and I would imagine they were mountains off in the distance.  

Mountains are majestic, awe-inspiring and beautiful.  Being close to mountains, or being on one reminds you how small you are and how big they are.  And makes you thank God  that he created them.  

This is our second trip to Colorado as a family.  We flew out here in 2008.  Abigail and Emma were just little midgees then, 7 and 5.  And Isaac was just two.  Brian and I would remark at the beauty of the mountains as we drove through them and the girls were nonplussed.  Although they really enjoyed the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the hike we took to the Flatiron Mountains, so thankfully the trip wasn't a complete bust for them.  

On Saturday, as we began to see the mountains along the horizon, the kids were instantly excited.  And with every mile, the enthusiasm grew.  Until we were driving THROUGH the mountains.  We all couldn't even contain ourselves.  At one point, Brian actually let me and the kids out of the car so we can run up a ridge and take pictures.  

It was cloudy on Saturday when we drove in. 

It was snowing through some of the mountains as we drove through.  Beautiful fluffy snowflakes swirled around us.  

Yesterday we tubed at Copper Mountain.  It was so much fun!  And then we had dinner (notice that even though there is snow on the ground and all around, we aren't wearing coats!) and the kids actually asked for their picture to be taken.  You better believe I took advantage of that!

Blue skies on Sunday!

Their future is bright, isn't it? 

So this morning, we are off to ski.  We are beyond excited.  I'll try to check in again if I can. :)

39/52

Have you ever seen the movie "The NeverEnding Story?"  You may not have.  It wasn't ever a big hit.  It was released in 1984 and was pretty cheesy.  But it was and still is one of my favorites.  I think my dad took me to see it in the theater.

Without giving too much away, I'll tell you a little about it.  Bastian, a daydreaming boy, gets his hands on a book like no other.  About a land called Fantasia, that is being destroyed by the Nothing.  The childlike Empress that rules Fantasia is sick.  So Fantasia needs a hero.  Enter Atreyu.  He is asked to go on a quest, with his horse Artax, to save their world.

Atreyu journeys through the Swamps of Sadness, where it is said that if the sadness overtakes you, you will sink.   Morla, the ancient one, lives in the Swamps of Sadness.  He is thought to know how to cure the Empress, although he doesn't seem to care that the Empress is sick or that the Nothing is destroying Fantasia.  "We don't even care whether or not we care."  After sneezing on Atreyu several times (ick), Morla refers Atreyu to the Southern Oracle.  Atreyu is excited for the information, until he finds out that the Southern Oracle is 10,000 miles away.

Unbeknownst to Atreyu, he is being chased by Gmork, a fierce wolf-like creature.  Just as Gmork is closing in on Atreyu in the Swamp of Sadness, Atreyu is rescued by Falcor, a luck dragon. 

Falcor carries Atreyu 9,891 miles - almost the entire distance to the Southern Oracle. Before he can get to the Southern Oracle, he has to pass through two gates.  The first gate has two sphinx statues.  "The Sphinxes eyes stay closed, until someone who doesn't feel his own worth tries to pass by."  The second gate is a mirrorgate.  This is where warriors see their true selves.  "Kind people find out that they are cruel.  Brave men discover that they are really cowards."

Atreyu finally makes it to the Southern Oracle.  As the winged Sphinxes start to crumble they explain that the way to save the Childlike Empress is to give her a new name.  A human child, beyond the boundaries of Fantasia, must give it to her. 

As Atreyu and Falcor fly to get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia, the Nothing is growing stronger.  In the storm, Atreyu is thrown from Falcor's back.  Atreyu comes face-to-face with Gmork, but Gmork doesn't realize that it's Atreyu as he gives his villainous monologue. 


G'mork: Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries.
Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
G'mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger.
Atreyu: What is the Nothing?
G'mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.
Atreyu: But why?
G'mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control... has the power!
Atreyu: Who are you, really?
G'mork: I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness. His name... was Atreyu.

I won't give the ending away, because I know that you now desperately want to go to the WalMart $5 DVD bin and look for this movie.

But here are the lessons to be learned from this cheesy, 1980's children's movie:

1. Fantasia is real.  It's where all your dreams live.  The Nothing is also real.  And it comes in the form of the busy-ness of life, time that gets away from us, and it's threatening all your dreams.  Gmork is very real.  He is the negative force in your life that doesn't want you to achieve your dreams.  He pretends to be a healthy dose of reality and caution, but really he is just mean. 

2. There are times in your life where we feel like you are stuck in the swamps of sadness.  You'll make it through if you have a little bit of faith and just keep swimming  moving.  If you stop, and lose faith, you'll sink.

3. You do have to feel you are worth it (and you ARE, you just have to believe it) - taking this chance to achieve your dreams (you deserve to!) - and take an honest look at yourself.  Who are you, really?

4. You have to give your dream a name.  You really have to give it wings (for the record, Falcor can fly, but he doesn't have wings).  Put some thought into it, map it out, and reach out and grab it.  

So I've been wanting to get my haircut for a while and just couldn't.  Something was stopping me.  Some nagging, annoying, naysayer in my head (that sounded an awful lot like my brother) telling me that it wouldn't turn out the way I wanted, I would look like a boy, blah, blah, blah.

Well, I fought Gmork and won.

Because when I was right around Atreyu's age, I looked very similar to a twelve year-old boy. LOL

 

So grab a bag of popcorn and your favorite friends and watch this movie.  Enjoy it's cheesy soundtrack, the fantastical creatures and encouraging plot line.  :)

38/52

Saturday morning, Isaac and I went to watch my nephew, Luke, play basketball.  All the boys played well and it was such a close game!  With just 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 20. 

But with a two minute overtime, the other team scored and won. 

When Luke wasn't on the court, though, I noticed how my brother interacted with him.

I have no idea what they are saying to each other, but my brother thinks it's hysterical.  Nathan is like an assistant coach for their team, so he often yelling out directions and encouragement to the boys on the court and praising them when they're off. 

I usually don't like my brother very much.  This is the kid that would endlessly practice wrestling moves on me after watching some WWF match.  Who bodyslammed me off a bed and knocked my front tooth out.  This is the kid that would tell me that he would give me a dollar to do his chores and then never would cough up the money.  This is the kid that teased me about all my imperfections.  I know, you feel really bad for me right now, don't you?  Eh, you shouldn't.  I got my revenge.  I once bopped him over the head with a metal lunchbox.  And then again some other time with a heavy metal shovel.  I am laughing as I write this, because, seriously, I was the "good" kid. 

At family gatherings now, we tend to reminisce about our childhoods and things we remember.  Lately we spend a lot of time talking about all the things I did wrong and all my crazy antics as a kid.  I think Nathan's strategy is to make himself look good by making me look bad. 

As we got a little older, we got along better.  He tried to teach me how to drive, except I forgot to take it out of park and just revved the engine thinking it would eventually go.  That was the end of my driving lesson.  He worked at a pizza place and would get off work at midnight and bring home pizza for us while we played cards with Marcy (his wife) and friends.  Sometimes we would go out to Lakewood for breakfast in the middle of the night. 

And now that we have our own families, we are still pretty close.  For all the trouble he caused growing up, he should have gotten rotten kids.  Oh, but he didn't (must be because Marcy was such a good kid).  They are all so sweet and kind and amazing. 

Front row, L to R: Nathan, Luke, Marcy. Back row L to R: Alexis, Jacob and Ashley

After the basketball game, we went to Portillo's for lunch (have I mentioned ever how much I love their chocolate cake??) and then to an indoor water park.  And after I expressed how unfair it was that he got such great kids, I did tell him that he was doing something right.  (It wasn't easy saying that out loud.)  Seriously, Alexis and Ashley are in school and have jobs and are in relationships and they are beautiful and are two of the sweetest girls I know.  Jacob plays excels at every sport he can get his hands on and is ridiculously smart (now if I could just get him to stop calling me MEG-an).  And Luke is just adorable and caring and cracks everyone up.  

His secret?  They do something as a family every weekend.  Now with the girls having jobs that require weekend work sometimes, they don't always get to participate (and they are disappointed when that happens).  It's something to look forward to and it's fun!

Nathan shared this with me: Take Vacations. You can always make more money.  You can't always make more memories. 

And it's so true, isn't it?  We only get our children for a time and then they are off to be young adults and grown ups with responsibility on their own.  And if you don't spend time together, what crazy stories (that tend to get a little crazier with every telling) will you share at family gatherings years from now?