The Travel Bug

I was looking up home exchanges in Greece this morning. I'm thinking some time on one of the Greek islands would be really nice right about now--or any time, really. Four weeks would be perfect. Warren says four weeks is too long. It's true. He thinks it's possible to spend too much time in Greece! Can you possibly spend too much time on the sandy shores of the Mediterranean? I think not! Still, I suppose he's thinking money (someone's got to do it) and he may have a point. I'm going to continue planning, though, because planning doesn't cost a dime.

In the meantime I'm going to live vicariously through the Redpath family. They're friends from our homeschool group who are embarking on a whole year of travel this coming June. Yep, they're selling everything and hittin' the road. Or the skies--they're flying off to Serbia June 22nd. They've already started blogging about their preparations and they'll document the whole thing online. Meet the Redpaths:


And if anyone knows Oprah or Ellen, or has connections with the chewing gum company that paid Matt all that money to travel the world, maybe you could put in a good word for them.

In other news, the Lebowskifest is finally coming to Los Angeles on a weekend that Warren and I can attend! Woohoo! For the last few years it's been in San Francisco on the weekend of Jerry's birthday, so we haven't been able to go. But this year it's in May, right here in our hometown.

Tomorrow Jerry and I are going whale watching with the homeschool group and on Wednesday we're going to Shakespeariance. Plus, we finally opened up the chemistry kit that came in the mail a few weeks ago. So we've got to put in some "lab" time before the litmus solution we made goes bad. It's shaping up to be a very busy week. Looks like life is finally returning to normal.

Dear Reader

Rejoice!

I have finally grown tired of the sound of my own pathetic whining, so I promise* not to write anymore pathetic whiny blog posts.

I just wanted you to know.

Love, Colleen

*I reserve the right to renig on this promise at any time. Sorry.

In Loving Memory

I thought I'd post the memorial tribute Warren and I made for my grandma's funeral. It's kind of long for someone who doesn't know the family, so it might get boring. But I think it turned out so nicely I just wanted to share.

You Know You're In Trouble When...

you walk into a bookstore with the intention of buying a book because you are completely and utterly depressed and buying a book always makes you feel better--always. But nothing excites you. Nothing. You don't even feel like being there (which is unheard of). Not once in your entire visit do you pick up a paperback and caress its cover or inhale a whiff of the binding (pages open) when no one is looking. You leave the book store empty handed and you don't even care.

Then...you go to California Pizza Kitchen and order your favorite pizza (which for several months has been off the menu and was only recently reintroduced) and when the pizza arrives you don't even feel like eating it! And when you do eat half of what you would normally scarf down it doesn't even taste that good.

Then...you go home, where you have no less than six boxes of thin mints in the freezer, you reach for an open box of cookies, inhale the highly addictive, minty scent, and put the box down. You don't even take it out of the freezer. You don't feel like eating a thin mint! That's right. You read it right, people, I did not want a thin mint!!

Have you dialed 911 yet? Because this is serious!!

Sadly, I can't even blog about it because it all started with a blog post that inadvertently hurt the feelings of someone I love (the post has been removed so don't bother trying to figure out which one it was!). Now the one place where I used to be able to write freely and openly and honestly about my feelings is no longer safe. This sucks.

I know I don't need to blog about my feelings. I mean, really, how lame would that be? But it's fun. And it's nice to vent on a blog, as opposed to with speech, because when you vent with speech it sounds so much more like whining. And blogging allows me to make fun of myself, which is always good. Sure, I could make fun of myself in Microsoft Word or TextEdit and save it into my Documents file, but it's so much more satisfying to make fun of myself on my blog and to know other people are laughing at my mistakes and misfortunes--it makes the mishaps seem like they were good for something, after all. And then of course there are the comments and the support I get from my blogger friends. They really help!

So this pretty much sucks. I know my life is still great in the grand scheme of things but right now I feel sucky and miserable and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do to pull myself out of it.

On a side note: My grandmother's funeral was beautiful. Warren and I made a memorial tribute DVD that was played at the service on Saturday and it was perfect. On Sunday we scattered my grandma's ashes at sea, just off the beach where her husband used to surf. We watched her ashes billow into the water like a ghostly cloud (something I wasn't quite expecting), then travel North with the tide, followed by a long, long trail of roses, stargazer lilies, snapdragons, and other flowers we had tossed into the sea after her. She would have loved to have been there. And I know, in a way, she was--just not the way I wanted her to be.

Photo Catch Up

I finally downloaded the photos from my camera (something I haven't done since before Christmas!) so I'm going to play catch up with photos.

Here's Charlie helping me sew some cloth napkins.

This is Jerry on Christmas morning with Garu. (Anyone else a fan of Pucca? We love Pucca!)Jerry and my brother in matching Nintendo t-shirts.Fun with milk, soap and food coloring.Aloe vera in bloom.My sister's daughter, the lovely Cora. And her big brother Carson.Playing with trains by the fire.Fun with corn starch.Things were pretty tame at first.Then the feet went in.And the clothes came off.And hilarity ensued.

And fun was had by all.

The end.

Darlene Lecroy Alldregde

Darlene Lecroy Alldredge
1927 - 2009

Darlene Lecroy Alldredge, longtime resident of Laguna Woods Village, CA, passed away on January 26, 2009, at the age of 81, just one month after losing her beloved husband, Earle.

Born to Helen Bechtold and Roy Kelley on August 6, 1927 in Avon, South Dakota, Darlene spent most of her childhood at the South Dakota School for the Blind, a boarding school, also attended by her older brother, Jesse.

Throughout her life Darlene endured numerous operations, with varying degrees of success, intended to improve her eyesight. Regardless of the outcome, she steadfastly refused to allow restricted vision to keep her from living life to the fullest.

Darlene married Robert Fletcher in 1946. They lived in Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Dakotas before settling in Anaheim, CA where Darlene worked as an operator for Pacific Telephone and Robert worked as a mechanic. They stayed together for twenty-four years, raising five children, before a divorce in 1970 paved the way for the relationship that would prove to be the love of Darlene’s life.

In 1984 she met and fell in love with Earle Alldredge at a community dance in Fullerton, CA. The happy couple moved to Leisure World in 1989, and married in 1998. Darlene and Earle spent countless hours at Old Man’s beach in San Onofre, where Earle rode the waves well into his eighties. They made the most of their time together, traveling to Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska and even cruising through the Panama Canal.

As an active member of the Leisure World community, Darlene planned outings for the partially sighted and fortified more than a few social groups with her boundless energy and optimism. She donated her time to the Braille Institute in Anaheim and took part in the prayer chain at Laguna Country United Methodist Church, where she was a member of the United Methodist Women’s group.

Darlene’s love of travel and devotion to her community and church was surpassed only by her commitment to family. Her happiest moments were spent in the company of her children and grandchildren.

Darlene will be remembered for her tremendous generosity, tenacity of spirit, and her extraordinary ability to rise above obstacles, always finding strength in the face of hardship.

Five children, thirteen grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, one sister, two aunts and several nieces and nephews proudly carry on her memory.

Smart Boy

Yesterday I spent most of the day writing my grandma's obituary while my aunt sat across the table from me going through old photos and letters we'd taken from my grandma's house. Dirty dishes filled the counter top and just below them, on the floor, were five boxes with the names of my aunts and uncles in bright red pen, scribbled on the front. The table overflowed with pictures and papers and photo albums, the recycling bin and garbage overflowed with--what else? Recycling and garbage.

When I had finally finished writing the obituary and started to make dinner (around 9 p.m.) I was feeling a little peeved. Warren had come home and gone straight to the office to transfer some video footage to DVD for my aunt. (Yes, I know it was nice of him. But what about me?! What about making dinner for Jerry so I don't have to do it!? What about me? Me? Me?) Jerry had been doing his own thing all day. I'd asked him to take out the recycling a couple times in the last day or so (it's his one and only ""job" at home) but it was getting fuller by the hour and he seemed to have no intention of getting anywhere near it. Normally this is not a big deal. But yesterday--well, the stress was getting to me.

Just as I was starting to wash dishes and make dinner (after wondering aloud if it was really necessary to feed a kid three times a day--shouldn't two be enough?) I asked him to take out the recycling again. Jerry complained. I took a deep breath.

Trying to remain calm (because it's really not a big deal), I said, "I'm starting to feel really bitter becau--."

"Okay. I'll do it," he said. My voice had gone up and octave on the "because." I was winding up for a meltdown but Jerry caught on. He went straight to the recycling bin with a speed he usually reserves for the walk from the car to Game Stop and took out the recycling .

He's a smart boy, that one.