Lunar Landing

Sunday News

 Filling a need and finding joy there!

 Appearances!

Nice knowing you...

Rob's back before the FIX

We leave this afternoon for Abilene and Rob's back surgery tomorrow at 9:30AM.

We have peace in our hearts, as well as ice cream in our bellies and

a whole array of little gift books I created yesterday, not to

mention the novel Rob read in record time.

Aaah! Diversions do keep us sane.

Will post as able.

Now, I'm going to go put on my walking clothes/shoes 

and see what I can snap in the park.

It is a gorgeous day, and I have no good excuse that I can think of.

Back in a bit...

Transformations

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For the Love of Gravity

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Just Wondering

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Friendship Swirl

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PJ Day

When Shannon picked up Sawyer yesterday, she said,

Well, it looks like you've really worn out Emmy and PapaRob! 

I wasn't aware that our weariness was so obvious, but 

apparently we were too tired to try to hide it.

So, when I got the text from her last night that she would be 

keeping Sawyer this morning and Zack would cover her patients

so we could have the morning off, I rejoiced!

I have stayed in my pajamas all day...creating.

And no, I did not walk in my pajamas.

Hecky-DOO!

This has got to be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.
Thanks, Marsha, for making my day! 

Oh, and you can ask Rob what's with the "Hecky-DOO!"

 

Pricey in China

Here's a little update from Nathan on Price's adventures in China:


Price threw the biggest tantrum of his life last night. His little brother would have been proud. It was pretty impressive, the nurse even came to our room to see if he was okay. I told her everything was fine, except I had to say it a few times because she couldn't hear me over the screaming. Like I said, pretty impressive. (I'm not sure exactly what set him off, but it had something to do with his Blue's Clues DVD not working. It's a love/hate relationship with Blues Clues, really). So what do you do when your 3 year old is losing their mind and it's close to bedtime??? You get them in their PJ's as fast as humanly possible and get them in bed. Since he was already blowing the roof off the place and it takes 20 minutes for the water to get warm in the bathroom, I decided to skip bath time, but I did go ahead and wash his hands and brush his teeth. Let me tell you how much he loved that. By this point he was almost spent but he was still doing that involuntary sniff jerk motion in between breaths they do when their running out of steam. I stuffed a pacifier in his mouth and turned off all the lights and waited for the end to come. There was some faint moaning for a little while, but he didn't last long. I was actually kind of proud of him for putting on such a show. We said we were hoping he would do at least one new thing as a result of us coming here. Well, not exactly what we were going for, but hey, we'll take it. 

Don't worry, Price was back to his usual smiley self this morning. Praise the Lord. 


Nathan

Nienie's Blog

My today has been such a mixed blessing...

Sawyer was sick and restless and cute and fun and wearying..

and I am tired...too tired to walk.

So, I want to share Nienie's Blog, one that I visit daily

because it keeps me thinking straight,

whatever that means.

Stephanie Nielson and her husband Christian were in a horrific airplane crash back in 2008 that left them both with

challenging injuries, especially Stephanie.

Their story is amazing!!

Here is Stephanie's (Nienei's) blog for today: 

 FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012

Mr. Nielson and I worked in our office today.
Cleaning, clearing, budgeting, rearranging, and organizing.
Nicholas played with odds and ends {staplers, hole punchers, paperclips,cardboard boxes,
you know stuff like that} around the office while eating cherry juju lip gummies.
As I was clearing off my desk I found a box.
All of a sudden, I recognized the box.
This box sat in the corner of my hospital room all those months.
Inside the box I found hundreds of sweet cards from people all over the world.
I remembered back to the time in my hospital room during dressing changes
or horrible days when I needed a little pick me up, my mom or Mr. Nielson {or my nurse-or anyone for that matter} would pull out a note from the
box and read it out loud to keep me going.

Today after finding the cards, I read a few out loud, and some struck deep in my heart.
Then I broke down and cried.
They meant so much to me, and most of them from strangers.
Strangers! I am so blessed and grateful, they pulled me through such hard times.
Hopefully I can do the same for someone else in their time of need.

Have a fabulous weekend.
I am going skiing {we got snow!!}
Finishing up organizing.
Lunch with Andrew and Reachel!
Date night with Mr. Nielson

Spiritual Enlightenment here.

Whew!

It's been a full day of Sawyer-ing,
and I'm tired.

It was so tempting to sit down and start sipping 

my little glass of wine as soon as Sawyer left.

However, I have remained committed to 

THE WALK.

And, what do you know?

Not only did I come back rejuvenated,

(It was a gorgeous windless evening)

but my camera couldn't stop snapping, and 

I just can't choose a favorite.

So, here they are...

all of them!

Walking the Talk

Fast Food Heaven

Yin & Yang

Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

Still celebrating...

The Walk

"Mom" was a little late picking up Sawyer, so my evening walk

was timed perfectly with the sun's amazing performance.

WOW!

"We'll leave the light on..."

Sidenote

Every day is a surprise with Sawyer...

Pre-Upchuck

Post-Upchuck

Whatever! No worse for wear...

just shirtless until his shirt comes out of the dryer.

Everything belongs.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pricey update from Daddy Nathan...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Chinese New Year

It's Chinese New Year's Day. It's like the 4th of July but way colder and with way more fireworks. It's one of 2 days a year anyone in the country is allowed to shoot off fireworks so they take full advantage. It's like a celebratory Shock and Awe. I now have a better understanding of what it sounds like to be in those places you see on CNN with all the explosions going off in the background behind the reporter. .

Price did great on the recovery after his most recent lumbar puncture. That's 3 down 1 to go. Everybody keeps asking if he's doing anything new, you know, like are the stem cells working. It's hard for me to say how much he's changed because the changes are probably subtle, and I've been with him every waking minute these past couple of weeks. But, that being said, his new tricks include crawling in and out of his stroller and, my favorite, he now manages to take his pants off in his bed every night. Now when I say to him. "Price, keep your pants on," I literally mean, keep your pants on.  Nathan

Price's two favorite nurses, Lucy and April 

Taking his pants off...again

Delightful!

Miracle Thinking

That was the title of my Nepo-reading this morning, 

and here's a bit of today's wisdom:

Being human, 

we struggle constantly to stay with the miracle of what is 

and not to fall constantly into the black hole of what is not. 

This is an ancient challenge. 

As the poet Ghalib said centuries ago, 

"every particle of creation sings its own song 

of what is and what is not. 

Hearing what is can make you wise; 

hearing what is not can 

drive you mad."

The breathing meditation suggests that we

let go of all the imagined outcomes that are not yet real,

and settle into the miracle of what is.

This reminds me of Jesus' invitation to consider the lilies of the field.

So that I can keep this truth as my mantra, I've shortened it to

Deal with the Real.

So, for today, here's what's not real:  
The outcome of Rob's surgery and whether insurance will cover it.


Now, here's what's real: My walk in the park

 Winter Sky

 "George"

 Sizzling

 Civil Servant

 Twiggy

 Optical Illusion

 Home Is Where the Heart Is

WELCOME!

More play from yesterday...

 Light Saber

 Fuzzy

Glow Worm

(Totally untouched by Photo Shop!)

 Well, hello there!

Come on in!

Photo play

A walk in the park...

 Photo-evidence

 ParkART

Meanwhile...

Inside, however...

My beautiful birthday tulips are opening up.

Thanks to my wonderful daughter-in-law, who can't abide "throw-away flowers",

I get to watch them do their "opening act" and then plant them 

and enjoy them all over again.  Thanks, Shan!

Yucky!

"Yucky," he exclaimed,

when he looked out the window

and saw this.

Yucky indeed! Just another Lubbock mini-haboob, 

and my excuse for not taking my daily walk today. Tomorrow is another day.

Deep and Wide

A quote from my massage-therapist friend, Trish, who

treats both my body and my soul:

Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.

We were talking about how overwhelmed people can feel when they see

the tremendous need throughout our world.

And then, because they don't know where to begin 

and it seems they could never do enough, they do nothing.

Any gesture of love or connection made with any one person

is significant, because it is what we can do.

As Trish says,

If you can't go wide, go deep.

(I'm sure Trish would give credit to the author of these words,

but for now, I'm giving them to her.)

I saw the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close yesterday,

and today I watched I AM on On Demand.

Both of these films speak volumes about the potential 

that lies in each of us to change our world, 

simply by doing what we do!

Walk on...walk on!

I must get back to my walking.  I don't want to.  

So, I'm tricking myself into walking by making it a photo-opportunity.  

That makes it much more fun, and I'm more likely to just do it.  

So, as of today, January 21st, I shall walk daily 

and report back with one photo-highlight of my journey.

(Now I'm committed!)

As for today:

Trimming of the Valentine Ficus