Today... in Honor of Lisa Heyman

Today we are missing a beatiful soul, but we will remember her light.

Today tears will be shed, but we will still laugh and find joy for Lisa and all our children.

Today I will rededicate a friendship circle. In Lisa's honor, I will let go of hurt feelings from past friendships and light a candle to celebrate my new friendships.



Today I will remember to be open and accepting and see the beauty of our life. Even in the face of sadness and death there is light, and there is hope.

Lisa's presence always filled me with light, love and energy. So, even if you never knew Lisa, please give your kids a hug today in her honor. Give them a hug filled with light, love and energy. Laugh together, love together, don't miss a moment.

Live your life to the fullest.

Really???

"U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft"

Read the whole story here:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html


Come on...

Sweet Lisa

We love you.

We'll miss you and wish we had more time with you.

We'll revel in the amazing love you shared,

remember the kindness you always showed us,

and hope to be as accepting as you always were.

An amazing woman, mother, wife and friend.

Our thoughts are surrounding you and your family~

Because I should be resting or unpacking and doing laundry.

My monster name:

Get Your Monster Name

Wow. I don't know if I dare show Abbi/cat lover this. And I never knew what a Lycan was before last week when both Alec and Abbi informed me that it isn't what's behind me on the tree on my meez. Eek!

They're so smart.

Back Home

We're home.

We had a great time in CA. A bit cooler than we hoped it would be, but missing -20 degrees is always good.




I'm planning on posting more about our trip and more pictures too, but right now I'm a bit pooped. My boy is sick and we were up most of the night. I think it's just a stomach flu but it's awful just the same.

Send some healing thoughts this way please.


**He really isn't grumpy, and we never call him grumpy, but he was quite taken with the "Grumpy" merchandise from Disneyland.

We're There! Finally!

OK, so our travel day didn't quite go as expected.

Ever seen the movie The Terminal? Yep. That was us. Engine trouble and flight canceled.

14 hours later, we flew to LA and this is our view this morning.




Heading to Universal Studios now, with free preboarding passes for the back lot tour!

Happy Sunny days to you all!

California Here We Come

We've printed out our maps, our confirmation numbers, and I'm just waiting for 7:00 to come around so I can even do the same with our boarding passes.

Isn't technology amazing?

A few places we're excited to visit.

The main reason we're going



Alec has loved legos his whole life. From the time he could pick up a Duplo (he built with those first) he's been enthralled with plastic little building blocks. It didn't hurt that Dad had all of his from when he was a kid too.

So when Tim found out that his meeting had been changed from Chicago to San Diego. We knew it was finally the time to get our butts to Legoland.


Abbi and Kyra are all about


Disneyland. We will be staying around for fireworks. I hope they do them every night. And we'll be joined there by Ronnie and fam.

Abbi is also excited for these places.





The Getty Museum in LA and







The Getty Museum in Malibu



I'm excited to visit this place and see costumes from these movies:

Atonement, The Golden Compass, Enchanted, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Beowulf, 300, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Nancy Drew.

And those are just the most recent.
And before we leave Minnesota we're also going to catch this exhibit in St. Paul.

What is Tim excited about? He says he's just content to relax and hang out with these people



Imagine that!


Better run , the ocean is calling

Travel Angst

So I'm trying to get myself pumped up to travel. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing new places and traveling, but the work getting there.. the prep, always seems to overwhelm me for a bit. I even sometimes feel like staying home is a good alternative to the research and work it takes before visiting a new place; and just the unknown-- new area, new highways (small town girl in a big city ! eek...)

But then I see this, as I'm looking into the forecast for southern CA next week.

Our weather today:


Sunday morning lows will range from just below zero in Des Moines and Chicago to as much as 25 below zero in parts of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Dangerously low wind chills by early Sunday will range from minus 25 in central Iowa and northern Illinois to near minus 50 in northern Minnesota.



We're the northern Minnesota part if ya didn't know ... and yes, it does say MINUS 50. It is only the wind chill but still... And what does southern CA have in store for us? Let's just say... today?

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 74F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

and tomorrow?

Sunny skies. High 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

So... to choosing,

This:

or

This :





Back to googling tourism southern CA :)


***
and if anyone would like to share their favorite spots to visit in southern CA please comment me, we'll be in the LA area for 4-5 days and then down in the San Diego area

Thanks!

**

Winter Carnival Weekend

We did go to St. Paul's Winter Carnival last weekend. We stayed right in downtown St. Paul with a view of the Mississippi river outside our window. This is 19 floors up.



Aren't the steamboats cool?

We were a bit disappointed with the carnival. There wasn't a cool ice palace this year and a lot of the sculptures had been vandalized. It made us a bit depressed looking at these almost beautiful pieces of work.

Here are some of the snow sculptures. They were located at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. We loved the tee pee one with the native woman inside. The detail was wonderful.




There was a snow castle that we all thought was pretty cool. Although we found out very quickly that when you are working with snow or ice the ground gets really slippery. We all had to walk very carefully.



We thought this guy was pretty cool too.


Right within walking distance of our hotel was Rice Park which had the ice sculptures. Also, the week before, St. Paul hosted the US Figure Skating Championships, hence the skaters in the ice.




I didn't take many pictures of the ice sculptures since they were so broken up. This was the first place winner. See the chunks of ice around it? Those were pieces of the work as it was meant to be.



And here is what it looked like before people took it upon themselves to be destructive. :(
They had photos up of what they looked like right after the artists had finished them. This one had fairies resting on the bed posts. Isn't it beautiful?


So keeping with the ice theme we also went ice skating. They had a rink set up in Rice Park also and it was Kyra's first time ice skating. Yes, that is a travesty that she had never been ice skating before.. and we live in MN, but it just hadn't happened. She was thrilled to do it this weekend.


And meet Speedy Gonzales...


While we were skating and looking at the ice sculptures Alec was enjoying himself with a friend of his. He's always happy to make the trek down to St. Paul/ Minneapolis to see Jakob. He also downloaded some of his favorite Japanese TV shows so he can watch those while we're on the road. Can you tell this one is a comedy?



And it wasn't only coldness and ice...





OK, so we weren't outside.

We were visiting the observatory at Como Park.

This is what it really looked like outside.



Beautiful in that northern whiteness... cold.. way... :)

Saturday night we also visited with my family. My sister and brother both live near St. Paul. We had dinner with my sister, her husband and family and my brother. It was really nice to see them.

It was a good weekend.

Bringing Across the Universe home

The girls and I are surrounding ourselves with




the music, the images, the messages....











the love

Quoting Peaceful Warrior

Wonderful quotes from the film Peaceful Warrior:

My favs:

"There are no ordinary moments." Dan


Socrates: Change...
Dan Millman: Know that nothing stays the same.

and

Socrates: Death isn't sad. The sad thing is: most people don't live at all.

and (hehe) for an unschooling feel

Socrates: Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs.
Dan Millman: Let me guess, and you want me to believe yours.
Socrates: No, I want you to stop gathering information from the outside and start gathering it from the inside.


And others:

Socrates: Everything has a purpose, even this, and it's up to you to find it.

---

Socrates: A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does

---

Socrates: I call myself a Peaceful Warrior... because the battles we fight are on the inside

---

Socrates: This moment is the only thing that matters.

---

Socrates: Where are you?
Dan Millman: Here.
Socrates: What time is it?
Dan Millman: Now.
Socrates: What are you?
Dan Millman: This moment.

---

Joy: [to Dan, touching his chest] I don't think your leg was the only thing that got broken.

---

Dan Millman: The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination

---

Dan Millman: The ones who are hardest to love are usually the ones who need it the most.

---

Socrates: Those who are the hardest to love, need it the most

---

Socrates: There is only the journey

---

Socrates: A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability.

---

Socrates: There is no starting or stopping - only doing.

---

Socrates: It's the journey, not the destination.

---

Socrates: There's no greater purpose than service to others.

---

Socrates: People are not their thoughts, they think they are, and it brings them all kinds of sadness.

---

Dan Millman:Life has just three rules?
Socrates: And you already know them...
Dan Millman: Paradox, humour, and change.
Socrates: Paradox...
Dan Millman: Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out.
Socrates: Humour...
Dan Millman: Keep a sense of humour, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
Socrates: Change...
Dan Millman: Know that nothing stays the same.

---

Dan Millman: I took for granted what I could do. I was sloppy with my life; I'm scared but I feel like I got rid of all the old stuff and it was the right thing to do.

---

Watch this movie



I know, others have said it too.

But watch this movie. Tim, Kyra, Abbi and I watched it and loved it.

It was first a book. I haven't read it, but I think I'm going to have to check it out.

Thanks Mary and Conor :)