This is where I want to be at this very moment. In fact, if I close my eyes and try hard enough I can feel the cool breeze off the ocean water, the warm sun shining on my face, and hear the waterfall hitting the soft sand. Then, I open my front door and BAM, back to reality!
This is a picture of McWay Falls, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park near Big Sur, California. Very close to Monterey, if you are familiar with the California coast. I’ve never been here, but it’s now on my bucket list of places to see. I found a picture similar to this one as I was going through my uncles Facebook photos. I googled the place and found this amazing photo and had to share. I can hardly believe a place like this exists somewhere I can actually go someday. Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been to, or do you have a place you dream of seeing with your own eyes?
I think I’m going to stay in this frame of mind all weekend. Peaceful, serene, warm. It’s supposed to get cold again, and more snow is in the forecast (not too much I hope.) I knew this warm weather was just teasing us. Mother Nature can be so cruel.
I hope everyone had a good week, I for one am glad it’s over. What are your plans for the weekend?
Us Girls..Our Views 
Well, my husband is leaving me so that’s how my weekend is looking. He’s been talking about it for a long time, but I never thought he’d do it. And since he’s choosing to leave, it’ll just be me and the kiddos. At a 2 day basketball tournament. Up north away from home. He picked a fine time to scram. Aren’t you all jealous? So, we’ll just have to make do and try and have fun without him. On the upside, we are staying at a waterpark for the occasion so I think the kids won’t think too much about dad. I still have to pack but am choosing to sit on here instead! It’ll be a long weekend and I’ll be happy when Sunday comes because then we’ll all be together again. Oh, didn’t I mention he’s only going away for the weekend to a ice fishing festival and will be home Sunday just dying to see us?! Have a great weekend!
ahaha have fun with all the kiddos!!
Ha ha! Do you know the song:
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille,
With four hungry children and a crop in the field.
I’ve known some good times,
Lived through some sad times,
But this time your hurtin’ won’t heal.
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille.
This song will be going through my head today. Thanks!
BTW, I’m used to “just me and the kids” and frankly, I consider it one of the perks of single parenthood. But I guess it would take some getting used to.
Have fun!
Edit to the 3rd line of that song, I think it’s “bad” instead of “good.” Rhymes better, anyway.
You’re right, it’s actually bad.
Saturday is our ‘crazy day’. Tae Kwon Do practice in the morning, then our Den is in charge of Setup for the Pack’s Blue & Gold Dinner, which will start at 4, and go until 7. That’s a long time to keep a bunch of energetic kids quiet and pacified, lemme tell ya!! The good part is, at 7, we get to skedaddle – since we have setup duty, we’re excused from cleanup! Woohoo!!
Sunday is still a bit up in the air. A friend and I are trying to arrange a *playdate* for our boys… but she’s been dealing with a sudden illness this week, and has been up and down. She’s also invited to a jewelry party, so we may go to that and take the boys with us – the hostess has a boy the same age, so we figured we’d just lock them in the yard and let them do the damage that they do so well… But I don’t know if that’s going to happen.
The BIG deal this weekend is tomorrow night. Two weeks ago, we instituted Friday Movie Night around here. I’ve decided that Josh’s fear of movies has gone on long enough. So we broke him in with Star Wars, which he “refused” to watch, but I kept catching him peeking in at the door. Then last week, it was Empire, and he made it through all but about the last half hour (he didn’t want to see Han go down, or the big fight between Luke & Vader). This week, of course, is Jedi. I think he might make it through this one…. we’ve told him the important parts, and that it ends happy, and all those guys who died come back for a bow. So unless he gets really tired, I think he just might make it.
Oh, I forgot! Nikki, what a lovely picture! It’s almost as peaceful as my Bora Bora pics! yours is a little more attainable though.
To answer your question… the loveliest place I’ve ever been. That is one very, very hard question. I love the peace and simplicity of the Northwoods (Northern WI & MN). I love the massiveness of the Grand Canyon. I love the wildness of Glacier National Park (Montana). Denali and the Kenai Inlet took my breath away. I even love the gentle rolling hills where I live now, in Iowa. I guess it just depends upon my mood as to which one is the most beautiful, when.
It’s okay, no one else really answered the question either. LOL
I’ve been to Glacier National Park, it’s gorgeous. I had friends who lived in Whitefish, which is really close. I love Montana!
Banff is gorgeous and I’d love to go back there and I also love MN’S north shore on Superior. The Lake of the Woods area in Ontario are gorgeous too. I love privacy, water AND woods.
I’ve only seen Banff in photos, but I would LOVE to see it in person!! I wonder, do you know, how long it would take driving?
It would take 2 days driving from here at the minimum.
Well, there goes that idea!
Ikr, it’s so gorge! It looks like a tropical paradise, unbelievable almost–in Cali?! I wanna go, lol
Weekend plans: CLEAN UP (never ends), go to the mall, and rest. We have a three day weekend:)
I thought the same thing! I grew up not too far from there, certainly close enough to visit. I showed my husband, and said, “SEE, we can go on a nice “tropical” vacation and not fly out of the country and spend thousands of dollars.” He gave me the, “oh gosh, here we go again.” look. LOL
Well, I don’t really know what is the most beautiful place I’ve been to. There are so many different kinds of beauty. I’ve seen some really beautiful sights close to home – amazing sunsets over the frozen lake (possibly my biggest thrill of all time), ice castles in the shrubbery in winter. I’ve seen the glaciers melting into the water in Alaska. The blue-green ocean water of the Caribbean. The deceptive vastness of the Grand Canyon. The greens, reds, and whites of Colorado in the summertime. The exotic beauty of a tropical island in Brazil. The incomparable power of nature at Niagara Falls. The surprising beauty of the Taj Mahal. The untainted faces of little peasant children in rural India, Peru, China. An orphanage for abandoned baby girls. My girls’ bedroom when they are just waking up on a lazy day.
I’m not sure what the weekend will be bringing me. I will be going home today when Paul’s done with work. My mom has a doc appt Monday so I’ll be here to take her to that.
I’ve also discovered another thing. I haven’t used oxygen the whole time I’ve been here so I need to get rid of at least 3 cats and will be stopping on Monday to pick out new carpeting. I feel wonderful here. What a weird thing. I can’t get rid of Ella though I’d like to. I’d like to only keep Maddie but I know how much Paul loves Willy. It’s funny how much those pets make me sick. I think as long as we keep Ella groomed we’ll be okay with her. She really has no hair to shed when we shave her. All I know is it feels good to feel good and I haven’t felt this way in a year and a half. So I know this weekend part of the time will be getting everything out of the living room so we won’t have to do it all at once. My mom has a lot of stuff coming up so I’d like to get as much done this weekend as I can.
It’s supposed to get colder also which really isn’t a bad thing but my mom said we’re supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow over the weekend. It’s been so warm now and the snow is just melting too fast. My brother got water in his basement and I’m sure I’ll find water in mine when I get home. It’s got to melt slower. I know they’re already making sandbags in Fargo and Grand Forks for the Red River already.
Well, you all have a good one.
Glad you’re feeling good Joy! But at the same time that’s sad to hear that you feel better without your pets. But I guess you gotta do whats best to make you feel better!! Good luck with those decisions….
Let’s see, this weekend. Dinner tonight at the Cheesecake factory. Work tomorrow morning, and a lot of shopping in the evening. I have to make a bunch of stops for:
– Groceries
– Drainpipe to replace the one I ran into next to the garage
– Turbotax to do my friend’s and family’s taxes
– A shower curtain
– New car seats for the girls
Unfortunately, each of the above is at a different place, so it will be difficult to squeeze it all in with two 4-year-olds in tow after working til 4pm, but I will try.
On Sunday, it will be church and work as usual, up to 4pm. Then I will go do my friend’s tax return and have our annual chat, where we solve all the world’s problems in record time.
This week has been interesting. A bunch of stuff relating to the car accident. Dealt with insurance stuff and made appointments to see the doctor next week, and to get my car fixed the following week. Received many calls and one mailing from ambulance chasers – attorneys and chiropractors! (Apparently the police report got into public records and somehow all these people get my personal info – freaky and disturbing.) I am still stiff and it’s getting worse rather than better. So we’ll see how this all works out.
I got our 3 passport applications in. This may sound simple, but there was a lot behind it for the girls. Foreign adoption, name change, birth certificate, passport => US visa => US cert of citizenship => domestic re-adoption and 2nd name change => US birth certificate => US SSN application => Revised cert of citizenship (for 2nd name change) => passport app. I had to send various original documents and only hope they will be accepted (and returned!). But at least this step is behind us for now. I am looking forward to the time when I can do things pretty much the same as other American parents do. It gets tiresome to repeatedly explain why their names are different on different documents, etc.
Speaking of them again – while making their doctor appointment, I was again asked (for the 3rd time in a month) whether they are Hispanic. Now if you think about it, this is NOT a simple question. How do you define Hispanic? I’ve seen at least 2 different definitions:
– Born in a country where most people speak Spanish.
– Raised culturally Hispanic.
Maybe there are other definitions, I don’t know. Here’s the data for my kids:
– Biologically, they are (reportedly) 100% indigenous native of Central America. (Mayan?)
– Not sure whether their birth mothers spoke Spanish or not. There are many indigenous languages still spoken in their birth country. But the official language of that country is Spanish.
– They are not being raised in a Hispanic culture. Their primary language is English.
So aside from considering these questions meaningless, I honestly don’t know how to answer them. Today I asked the woman to “define Hispanic.” I suppose she thought I was being an ass, but seriously. What does it mean? What is the survey for? She said it was to find out if Hispanic people were getting equal care. She also said I could decline to answer, which I did. But the last 2 times, I was not given the option to decline. This is frankly irritating. Is this going to happen every time my kids have an appointment or need to fill out a paper? Note that if my kids were, say, Asian Indian or Chinese or Irish, this would not be an issue at all. What’s the real difference here? A point to ponder.
I think we got spoiled with the weather we just had! NOT FAIR… although I can’t complain too much, it is MN! As long as the snow melts fast now. Tomorrow I think we’re going to St. Cloud to meet friends of ours at Buffalo Wild Wings. I haven’t been there for over 3 years now. I used to LOVE hot wings, until I was pregnant. Even the thought of wings would make me sick. That & spaghetti. When it was the Superbowl I tried wings again. Ever since then I’ve been craving them. So hopefully I’m cured! lol
Love the pic! What a great place to visit sometime, I’ll put it on my “someday list”. I love to drive and site-see. I haven’t any big plans for the weekend, but then I rarely do, since I actually work on Sat. for about 5 hrs. The timing varies weekly. Hope you all have a great weekend and it’s even better than you anticipate! 🙂
So today I got a bunch of personal stuff done. Rolled over my 401K; applied for reimbursement for my kid’s vision-related exams / therapy; made doctor appointments; contacted a company for a refund; did laundry; set aside a load of clothes to donate; signed to authorize the body shop to fix my car; and the usual everyday stuff. Of course each of these took some time as I had to make a bunch of phone calls, research, etc. So do you think I got any actual “work” done? Ha! Well, I did get up early and work before my kids got up, so all together, I got some hours in . . . need to get an email out pretty soon, though, or my butt is gonna be in trouble! It would be nice if I could someday feel productive on both the home and work fronts. But today, even though I have important “work” to do, I just didn’t want to put off the personal stuff for yet another week. This stuff is costing me money and I really need to be responsible about that, considering how high my tax bills are nowadays.
Going through my closet a bit, I just can’t believe how many clothes I have that are still new or like new and useable. I don’t know how I thought I needed to buy all those dress pants, suits, and blouses when I have never used them much. Not like I had a bunch of money to waste in those days, either. So now I’m thinking, how can I put this in a donation bag when it’s brand new and fits and is something I might actually wear someday? But I haven’t worn it in all these years, so . . . . I wish I knew someone my size (or a little slimmer) to give them to.