Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wickity-Wick Weekend Goodness!

Lord V, MiniWarrior and I shall be a cabin-ing this weekend.
The last weekend of Summer vacation for MiniWarrior before school entrapment.

Where the heck has the Summer gone?

Anyone...

Anyone?

*sigh*

I've really enjoyed this time off and am struggling to let the sunshine slip away to the drizzle and grey skies of Winter.


hammock goodness

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

30 Minutes 'Til My Friday!

We've had visitors from our Mississippi team this week at work. I've been dragging them around to local things (by our work) trying to give them the most Portland, Oregon experience as I can.

Tomorrow (if my boss Ok's it) I plan on driving them to Multnomah Falls so they can get some true Oregon/Washington Gorge experience :)

Should be fun!

Bring on my weekend. BRING IT!

I'm so ready for it.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Wear Clean Underwear and Use Your Manners!

Remember the advice your Mom gave you?

Wear clean underwear--'cuz if you're ever in an accident you don't want to go to the hospital in dirty underwear?

Now I follow that advice even though I've never understood that whole "accident/hospital/clean undies bit. Maybe it's just me? But at an age where a vigerous sneeze threatens the pristiness of my unmentionables, I'm pretty sure that if I'm in an accident? I'm not laying on the emergency table unsoiled.

You know what I'm sayin?

Now the "use your manners" Mom advice I've always strived to follow and I've worked religiously to instill that particular Motherly advice thing in my own son because it's important. I mean, let's face it...nobody likes a rude person, right?

Which brings me to reason for my rambling blog post.

Friday, I went to visit my knee doctor. He had been on Sabbatical in Italy the past year learning new doctor thingies which is cool, 'cuz I'm the first to admit that I'm an enigma and most docs that deal with me? Scratch their head and mutter things under their breath and then send me on my way.

I was sitting beside him in his office when my Doc pulled up my medical records to refresh himself as to where we were in my medical diagnosis. The first few lines at the start of the record caught my eye, "Patient is a pleasant white female who has a refreshing out look on life..."

???

I had no idea they put personality details in ones medical record!

I mean heck, you'd think they'd warn a person like our school counselors used to beat us over the head with in school. "Behave! Or your actions are going on your permanent record!"

What if I had been rude to my Doc? Would my record then say, "Rude, white female with a sour disposition who should be admitted to the nearest psychiatric hospital for daily shock treatments?"

That's some scary shizzle, Peeps. Scary shizzle.

I'm just sayin'...

So listen to your Mothers, Peeps. 'Cuz apparently? They know what they're talkin' about.

some times...

most times...

well whatever, just do it!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Nest Stealer!

Summer Time's Last Call

One more week of Summer Vacation for us and then it's back to school.

We have one more 4 day trip planned with family and then Summer will officially be over.

MiniWarrior starts Middle School September 2nd. (What's up with that, anyways?!) Summer vacation was always over after Labor day!

New beginnings for us all. I worry a bit about MiniWarrior heading into the big kids arena but I think he'll be OK.

He's such a strong, independent social bug. Something which defies the very definition of Autism.

He's clever and I think if I keep working with him on the nuances of relationships and conversation he'll survive the Junior High years as well as most kids do.

Junior High. My body shudders in rememberance of those years.

Wish us well, Peeps.

We're gonna need it.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Lazin' In The Hammock

It's official.

No Meteor shower watching for me this weekend.

However, I did get some zen hammock time in despite the freakin' Northwest clouds!



At one point MiniWarrior joined me in the hammock, wiggling and chattering my ear off.

I shooed him back to his summer time bug hunting vigil so I could continue my Cloud/Hammock Zen time. :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Drizzly Humpday

It's my Friday--YAY!

It's raining--BOO!!

I was all set to lay on my Hammock tonight and watch the Meteor Shower that's supposed to be playing in the night sky...but I awoke this morning to grey clouds and rain showers :(

*sulk*

I was really looking forward to it!!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hammock Goodness!!

I ordered a hammock last week with birthday money I had received.

Yesterday UPS delivered it and I couldn't wait to get home from work to set it up!

I chose a Cypress wood arch hammock stand



and a Euro Quilted Blue and White Striped hammock.



Lord V helped me put it all together yesterday and I spent an hour happily swinging in the evening breeze!

It was awesome! (sing-song voice)

Sunday, August 09, 2009

End Of The Road

Once we finished chomping on our burgers at the Hana restaurant, we drove down the hill to the "ancient general store" to snag some liquid fortification for our long drive back down the Hana Hwy.

We pulled into the tiny parking lot, climbed wearily out of our rental car and there...there was the reason for making the long drive worth while.

The scene was like something from a fantasy movie. So raw. So beautiful it didn't seem real.



You see?



Magical.



Worth. Every turn. Every twist. Every mile on that endless Road to Hana

Road to Hana--Continued

After our "plank of death" experience, Lord V and I gave up on any attempts to hike to hidden waterfalls for the rest of our road trip.

As I told Lord V, " Meh, it's water falling on rocks, really not worth dying to see!"

As it turns out, we didn't have to hike to see waterfalls. Right around the next bend was a waterfall we could happily see from our car. (freakin' guidebook) I scrambled out of the car and got a close up shot and we took off again.

The best part of our "Road to Hana" trip was "The Garden of Eden". OMG, Peeps. This was totally worth the trip (and the plank of near death experience!)

It was a paradise of tropical plants, trees and flowers with a smattering of wild peacocks, ducks and parrots living amongst it.



I can't remember now how many acres this garden was--but it was too vast for me to walk it all.

It was muggy and we were still exhausted from our failed tromp to the "hidden waterfall" so Lord V and I sat at a picnic table and munched on grapes, sipped water and flipped an occassional grape to a sassy mother peacock and her baby who climbed up onto our table to scope out what goodies we had.

I left Lord V sitting at the table and headed out with Chanda. I must have taken 300 pictures and I still couldn't capture the total beauty of this place.

I saw a sign labeled "Look out point" and followed the winding path. I broke through the gorgeous foilage and stepped into a magical grassy clearing that overlooked the emerald colored waters of Maui which was beautifully framed by towering palm trees.



There was a little stone bench perfectly positioned for one to sit and drink in the scene. I dug in my pocket and took out the momento I had taken with me to Maui. A little Pittsburg Steelers emblem of Mikeys. I knelt down and dug a little hole under that bench and buried the emblem there.

"Here ya go, Mikey." I whispered. "Best view on the island. Enjoy buddy."

I patted the ground and stayed a moment sitting on that bench. If there is an after life, I knew Mikey would be grinning his famous grin I wish I could see one more time.

When I walked away, I felt the heavy sadness that I had been holding inside myself since Mikey's and Guido's death shift. I felt sadness but it was a resolved sadness that was tempered with peace. Like a scar that remained after a wound had healed, forever there as a rememberance of what was.

I hiked back to the picnic area to meet back up with Lord V. We hiked over to the view of a twin waterfall where we watched a family of tourists decide if they really wanted to fulfill their island fantasy of bathing in a waterfall pool in Hawaii. The water looked a bit murkey from what I could see from my viewing perch way above them which might have contributed to their fantasy fulfilling hesitation.

We headed on the road again. Pressing on to Hana. We stopped at a rest area for a few minutes. A sweet lady was making jewelry there. Lord V purchased one her her necklaces for me. (You can read more about that stop and see a picture of her HERE).

Our next stop was the famous "Halfway to Hana" snack shop. Lord V ordered a shaved ice cone with icecream underneath and I picked up a hunk of ice cold pinneaple which was devinely delicious!!



We were tired and we were only halfway to Hana, but we gamely pressed on.

Many twists and turns and stops followed by more turns and twists and stops later, we finally pulled into Hana.



We stopped at the Hana Beach park for a bathroom break and then took off for the town of Hana.

Which.

Was.

One restaurant.

And.

One ancient general store.

!!!!!!!

We drove 70 miles. 4 hours of winding 25 mile an hour tourist clogged road.

For a restaurant.

and an ancient general store.



It's like a bad country song.

"It's not the end result, it's the journey."

Freakin' road to Hana...

While Lord V and I sat at the restaurant and munched burgers I frantically sorted through ideas in my mind of how we could magically transport our car and us back to our hotel without having to make the windy drive again.

But alas, I could not think any escape and we climbed our weary bodies back into our car and headed back down the "Road away from &%! Hana" and the comfort of our hotel.

The drive was spectacular.

The Garden was totally worth the trip.

The memories Lord V and I pocketed inside ourselves, priceless.

And...the shot I took at the end of the Hana road?

Worth. The. Entire. Drive.

To be continued...

More pictures can be seen at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Gabby Making Baby Noises

When she's not Gabbing, she loves to make little baby noises.

Gabby Abby

Gabby Abby Playing with her favorite mouse :)