HAPPY 24TH BIRTHDAY DESIREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yipppeeee!!!

I just got the CD I ordered: Big Smith & Family "From Hay to Zzzzzz: Hillbilly Songs For Kids". I love it. My favorite song is "Leap As You Run". What a great song to listen to to get yourself back to the basics in life! It takes me back to my carefree childhood and running barefoot through the woods in upstate South Carolina. Ahhhhhh! Happiness abounds. We should all leap as we run through life. Break it up a bit. Have some fun. Enjoy the simple pleasures.

Don't Put All Your Eggs In The Sunshine Basket

We are back.

The trip to Belize was great. The plan (at least for me and Dave) were to sit on the beach and relax. The relaxing was definitely accomplished. I will try to recap the last eight days:

Day 1: Christian and I wake up at 3:00 am, shower, finish packing and drive to Atlanta to catch our flight. We have a layover in Miami, so it is mid-afternoon when we get into Belize City. We then get on a puddle jumper to take us to Placencia. It is about a 30 minute ride, but we had several stops to pick up other passengers and cargo. That was an fun trip. The "runways" at each stop are barely long enough for landing and taking off. There is no taxiway, no lights, no paving. There were a couple of times that we didn't see where we were going to land until we were right on top of the dirt runway. We land in Placencia and Alex is waiting to take us to the Maya Breeze Inn. The road we travel (as are most roads in the whole country) is unpaved and very bumpy. The van ride to the Inn took about 20 minutes. We passed through the village of Seine Bight. This is a Garifuna village. Driving through, you realize that you are, indeed, in a third world country. The "housing" can barely be classified as shacks in our country. I am not sure that there would be running water, electricity or indoor plumbing in most of these structures. It is like what you see on the advertisements for "Feed the Children". We get to the Inn, check in, and hit the beach. We still had about two hours of sunlight left.

This is the view from the front porch of our cabana:

This is our cabana:

We sat on the beach and soaked in the rays, then headed to dinner. We were both exhausted, so we hit the bed early.

Day 2: We awake to overcast skies, but no rain. After breakfast we hit the beach to sit back and relax. Christian, of course, could not do this for long, so he took the kayak out along the coast and into the lagoon behind the Inn. That evening we go get dinner and again hit bed early. Let me mention that sunrise was about 6 and sundown is around 6:30, so it kind of throws the schedule.

Day 3: We woke up to forcasts of a rainy day. Instead of sitting in our cabana all day, we decided to take a tour inland and went to the ancient city of Xunantunich. The ruins are amazing, and the views were spectacular.

This is a view of El Castillo (the temple):

This is a veiw from on top of El Castillo. We were only a few miles from Guatamala:

The drive was 3 hours each way. We went North on the Southern Highway, Northwest on the Hummingbird Highway, and West on the Western Highway (there are only two other highways in the country). We were up in the mountains and the views were unbelievable. I would post more pics to accompany these descriptions, but evidently I have already reached the limit of post pics. After the tour, we had lunch in San Ignacio. The cusine in Belize is very Spanish influenced. When we got back to the Inn, the Fenders were there waiting for us. That is when the vacation began! Christian and Lynee immediately jumped into the kayaks and went along the coast for about half an hour. Dave and I got a drink and laughed at them. When they got back we went to dinner and started catching up.

Day 4: Sunny skies!!!! We all hit the beach after breakfast and soaked up as many rays as possible. Christian hitched a ride into Placencia Village to go to the ATM. When he got back, he and Lynee got back in the kayaks and went out to False Caye to do some snorkling. Dave and I sat on the beach. (Do you see a pattern here?) We just drank, talked and enjoyed the day.

Day 5: Christian and Lynee went on the Monkey River Tour where they took a boat up the Monkey River. They hiked in the jungle and saw Howler Monkeys. Dave and I sat around and talked. It was rainy most of the day, so we stayed on the porch. We had some great conversations. It is great to be able to grow closer to friends. That night we we had some more great food and conversation.

Day 6: We had signed up to go out on a sailboat and snorkle, but the trip was cancelled due to the weather. It ended up being partly cloudy and we had some rain, but headed into Placencia Village. There were a few shops and resturants, but after a while we discovered that most of everything was the same. We stopped in a bar and had a drink, then headed back to the Inn. Dinner, drinking, conversation.

Day 7: More rain. We spent the morning bird watching. It cleared up a little, so we hit the beach and threw the football and frisbee. More lazing about.

Day 8: Our last day, and guess what? It rained. We had breakfast, packed and then hung out until we had to be shuttled to the airport. We had a couple of hours to browse through the gift shops in the Belize airport. Bought some knick knack patty whacks, and enjoyed the last bit of time we had with our friends. We got back home around 1:00 this morning.

The trip: amazing. Why? We got to spend time with our best friends. We could have been anywhere, and it would have been great. Leaving them (again) was incredibly difficult. Christian and I both cried when we got on the plane. I think this was harder than leaving them in Springfield. We also had an amazing chance to experience a country that is so unlike ours. I have a lot to say about this, so I think I will post that at another time. I will also post all of our pics.

Going, Going, Gone

So, this is probably my last blog for the next nine days. We leave for Belize EARLY Tuesday morning. Our flight leaves from Atlanta at 8:59 am. We have a layover in Miami and should land in Belize City at 1:45 pm. After a 30 minute ride in a puddle jumper to Placencia and a car ride to our inn, we should be there in plenty of time for a dip in the ocean, a little sun and off to a good dinner. After that, nothing but beach, ocean and mixed drinks for me. I guess there will be some snorkling and a few jaunts into the nearby villages, but nothing too stressful.

You know it is going to be a good vacation if you can fit everything for eight days into a 24" duffle bag!
So long everyone! Talk to you when we get back ..............................

I Can't See

Latest adventure:

I went home for lunch yesterday. While watching tv and eating, the power went out in the whole apartment. I thought nothing of it and headed back to the office. When I got home at 5:00 the power was still out. I checked the breakers - all on. I called maintenance and they said they would send someone over. I went across the hall to check with the neighbors. They had power and he went to check the main breaker for me - on. Then I thought to call Christian and make sure he hadn't forgotten to pay a bill. Highly unlikely, but just wanted to check. He informed me that we had never received a power bill. Since October.

I call the power company.

No, the account is not in your name, it is still in the property managers name.
Yes, your power has been turned off because the bill hasn't been paid.
Yes, we can open an account in your name.
The power will be turned back on between 8 and 5 tomorrow.

TOMORROW???!!!!?!!? What am I supposed to do? No light, no hot water, no electricity?

So, we get room at a hotel. Hopefully the power will be on when I go home for lunch.

I Don't Know Where I'm Going, But I Sure Know Where I've Been

I have been asked about my faith. I thought I would get it all out, past and present. It may help many of you know me better, and it may help me straighten some things out for myself. So, here it goes ...

I will start off with a little background.

I was raised Christian, but not in the traditional way. I was taught the entire bible. Christ came and died for our sins, but he did not do away with the teachings of the old testament. So, we kept the holy days found in the old testament. We did not eat "unclean" meat. We kept Saturday as the Sabbath. We did not celebrate Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc. I was diligent in obeying all of the rules until I reached 18 or 19. At that point, I was getting to the age that I could be baptized in the church. I did not feel that I was being called. I stopped going to church. I also took anthropology in college, and that raised questions, in my mind, about the validity of what I had grown up believing.

At the age of 21 we found out my mom had cancer. One year later, the day before my 22nd birthday, she died. One night I prayed and asked God to heal her or relieve her of her pain. The next morning my younger sister woke me up to tell me my mom was dead.

How could I trust and obey a God that took my mom away after I asked him for help?

I hated Him.

Even as I write this, the pain of that moment surfaces like it happened yesterday.

So, from that moment I stopped believing in this God. I found the strength in myself to get over the loss of my mom. A few years ago I went through a major depression. It was through my own strength that I was able to get through it. So, here I am. I know I have an internal strength. I know I cannot go back to what I once knew as Truth. But, I know that there is wisdom beyond me. I am trying to get a balance in my life, in my attitude, in the way I treat others.

I have recently started studying Buddhism. I found that it follows along the lines that I had been thinking, but it gives me an outside teaching and understanding that I could not have found internally. I do not think my way of thought is the right, only way. I believe that everyone should find a peace in spirituality or religion, but it does not have to be the same teaching. If it makes you take stock of your actions, if it emphasizes love for others, if it teaches you and causes you to be a basic "good" person, then I am all for it. It may not be for me, personally, but I am not going to judge you for not believing as I do, and I ask the same in return. I think we are all looking for the same things, but there are so many ways to reach the summit (whatever that may be). And we don't all have to have the same goal. I don't necessarily care if there is a life after this one. I want to make the most of this life, and if it pays off afterward, then that's a bonus. I can't live this life hoping for something that may or may not come.

So, that is where I am and where I've been. Where this leads me is anyone's guess. It is both exciting and scary. The one hope I have is I can touch as many people as my mom did. You would have thought a dignitary had died at the sight of her funeral procession. And in many ways, it was true. I just wish she knew.

Architects (eye roll)

Happy New Year

Okay. New rule. For every "negative" blog entry, I need to write a positive entry. After a few comments and reviewing my recent blogs, I have been a little down. Things aren't really THAT bad.

We had a great New Years Eve and New Year. We had our first visitor from Springfield!!!! They came in from Savannah Saturday late afternoon. We invited our across the hall neighbors over and had a nice little spread of appetizers and spirits. The neighbors brought over the makings for martinis, so the apple-tinis were flowing. We had a lot of fun with that. (for all of you "Scrubs" fans - you know what I'm talking about). At 9:00 we headed to downtown Augusta for tapas, more martini's, and a lot of great conversation. The resturant served us a glass of champange with dinner. After that, we decided that none of us wanted to go to a bar for the ringing in of the new year, so we headed back to our apartment. Don't worry, we only live a few blocks from downtown, so we were walking the whole time. Things get a little confusing, but we did end up on the roof of our apartment. What a great view! Since our neighbors and us are the only two apartments on the third floor, we have a great secret roof top patio. We partied into the night (actually, I think 1:30 was the bedtime - we are all over 25).

The next morning we woke up (without a hangover, thankfully), and Christian used his mad-cooking skills to whip up omlettes, bacon and bagels. Very tasty! We got dressed and went out to show our guests Augusta. The weather was perfect! We went to the Riverwalk (boy, I can't wait to get our kayaks so we can enjoy the river more), drove through town and up to the headwaters. It was so beautiful up there. I love any body of water, so being this close is great. It'll help when it is a little warmer. After that, we went back to the apartment and said our good-byes. Later that afternoon Christian and I went to see Syriana. Good movie, but I have no idea what was going on.

All in all, the new year had a great start. We drove around Monday and found the neighborhood we want to live in. Hopefully we can find a decent priced house - what is up with the housing prices these days? I also hooked up my wireless to my laptop. That is awesome!!!!

The next couple of weekends will be spent running errands and getting ready for our trip. Fun times!

2006

Well, midnight came and went (and a few days since) and here we are in 2006. Funny, feels like 2005.

I don't make new year resolutions. The point would be???

I will make goals for 2006.

This is the year I will finally become a registered architect. Although, I don't want to be an architect any more.

Other than that, who knows what will happen. We may have a baby, we may buy a house, we may do a lot of things, but at this point, those type of things don't really matter.

I will continue to struggle daily with my attitude toward society and the human race in general. I will try to enjoy the little things I come across.
I will try to appreciate what I have and not worry so much about what I want.
I will listen to lots of good music.
I will read tons of books.
I will soak up the sun when I have the opportunity.
I will hang out and have great conversation with friends and family.
I will drink a lot of wine.
I will generally enjoy life this year.
What else have I got to do?