The Language of Apology

Many people know about the 5 Love Languages. If you don't, take the time to learn about it as it will change your relationships with others. Like a foreign tongue, you may be speaking German to your French spouse and both of you feel like the other isn't getting it.

You can go here for a quick test:
http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/
If you are married, get the book from the library and read it. Learn how to love your spouse (and children) so they know how much you truly love them.

This week our family took the Language of Apology test which is also at the link above. OH MY. I scored 18 out of 20 for one type, my hubby 17 out of 20 for a different type, our oldest child was 17 out of 20 for a completely different type! The conversation we had afterward was hilarious!

"I would read the questions and think, 'These are all so stupid, who would want to hear that!'"
"I was answering the same for each question and after awhile I thought something must be wrong."
"Me, too."
"I was thinking, 'You're sorry...yeah...but what are you going to do about it!"
"I don't want you to DO anything...I just want to know that you really are sorry about it."
"Well, it doesn't matter if you're sorry if you don't make it right."
"Or ask forgiveness."
"I have always thought, 'Will you forgive me' sounded so lame. I wouldn't want to hear that. I want to hear how sorry you are."
"And I want you to fix it."

And round and round we went, each thinking what the other person wanted to hear was not AT ALL what we wanted to hear! It was quite funny...except for the fact that for over 20 years we have been apologizing to each other in a way that the other person didn't really understand or appreciate. It was eye-opening to say the least.

The Power of Our Words

I followed a link...don't we all...and came across a gem of an article about proper etiquette when someone has cancer or another serious illness. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I read this paragraph:

"One day when I was in the middle of chemo, my daughter’s nursery school teacher said to me: “Aren’t you supposed to be looking worse during chemo? How do you get more beautiful every day?” I swear I wanted to leave my husband right then and there, and marry this woman. I will adore her for life, not because of some compliment that more than likely wasn’t true, but because of her generosity of spirit and the gift of hope that she gave me through a few simple words uttered with pure intentions."

I forget the power of my words. God forgive me. I pray that God will give me more wisdom on how to use my speech to edify those around me. May I be more generous with my praise and encouragement.

Colorado Trip - day 2

So after our exciting airplane ride, we slept for a few hours and rose the next morning to head to northern Colorado where Clankeeper's family lives. The family scheduled a family reunion/picnic but since the weather was not ideal, they moved it inside a community center. Good idea, since they got about 2 inches of rain the day before and it did rain while we were reunioning!

The family provided a wonderful potluck and we were able to sit and chat with Clankeeper's mom, brother, sister and brother in law, nieces, a nephew, an aunt, cousins and 2nd cousins. We weren't the only "strangers" since some of the relatives introduced themselves to each other. They all live within an hour of each other but it was Clankeeper's grandma who used to have everyone over to her house for holidays and after she died I guess they don't gather all together very often.

After lunch and chatting, we went to Fort Collins and checked into our hotel and settled the children, who were thrilled to watch cable TV, which we don't have at home. Clankeeper and I went back to met with his siblings and cousins at their grandmother's house, which contained misc. items that we were invited to go through and remove items to remember her by. It is so sad to see the treasures of someone who has died...things that were special to them but now you have no idea why. What was the story behind that figurine? Why did they keep the butter churn? So many stories and no one to tell them. The whole experience was uncomfortable and sad to me.

There were some wonderful photos that brought tears to my eyes, even though I did not know Clankeeper's family well. We are hoping those will be scanned and shared with us. I was drawn to the old books. They are planning on selling the valuable ones, which saddened me. I realized that I did not see those books as dollar bills but as stories my children could read and enjoy. We love to go to book sales, yard sales and thrift stores in search of those wonderful old stories that have old fashioned values, a rich vocabulary and wholesome storylines. Our eyes light up at finding those treasures...not for their resale value (since we never sell our books anyway) but because of their value in instilling imagination and wonder in our children.

I found an old Princess of Oz by Baum that had black line drawings inside. If you have seen them you know they look perfect for coloring, which is what some young child had done. I didn't know who until later when Clankeeper's mom confessed it was her. That is a memory I would like to give my children...a book their grandma colored when she was a little girl. I am hoping that one doesn't make the cut and they will send it to us after the appraisers look at it.

After the walk through of the house, we went back to the hotel and had pizza with our children and watched TV together. We had two rooms - A king bed and fold out couch in our room, which we shared with the little girls, and 2 queen beds and a fold out couch in the other room that the 4 boys shared with Merry getting the couch. We all headed to bed early, since we were bushed.

Colorado Trip - Day 1

Our entire family flew to Colorado on Friday to visit Clankeeper's family last week. We had planned to visit this fall but Clankeeper's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer so we moved the trip up a bit.

The week before the trip Merry was overcome by spring fever and made an exuberant leap on a flight of stairs and hurt her leg. Yes, the one that was shattered in her car accident. She couldn't walk on it for 5 days, using crutches to get around, but X-rays showed nothing was broken and by the time our trip began, she had just a milk limp.

The day we were leaving for the airport, we were all in the van ready to go when Aragorn remembered something and flew into the house to get it. He severely sprained his ankle going down the stairs but being the strong and silent type, he didn't mention it to us when he came back out. We left for the airport and it wasn't until we were about to go through security that we noticed he was feeling faint from walking on his hurt ankle. He had to sit and rest it for a bit but we all made it to the gate ready to leave with plenty of time to spare.

There were severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Colorado on Friday and so our plane was late arriving to pick us up. We ended up leaving the airport over an hour and a half late. The crew was quite funny and gave us the most hilarious safety speech we have ever experience on a plane. "If the cabin looses pressure, oxygen masks will come down. Stop screaming and put on your mask and then help those next to you who are children or are acting like children." All of their funny comments really made the beginning of the flight nice. Little did we know what we were in for later...

The trip was going well until we got near Denver where there was quite a bit of turbulence and we all were tired and not feeling too well. The pilot told us that in his 30 years of flying, he had never seen thunderstorms quite like these storms. Usually thunderstorms come and go in Denver, but these ones were stubborn and stuck around and stayed. They put us in a holding pattern and told us that we had plenty of gas and they would let us know if we had to divert to somewhere else. I had the feeling that some Frontier Airline pencil pushers were debating the risk of our plane landing versus the cost of housing and feeding 150 people who would be diverted to another city if they didn't land in Denver. Ultimately they decided to let us land in Denver. That last 30 minutes were pretty rough, especially since it was almost 1 am and we were all stressed to the max. Martin, The Queen, and Emma Darcy were all feeling sick but thankfully no one threw up. Even after the plane landed it was tossed back and forth on the runway! It was something we have never experienced before and quite scary. We could hear hail hitting the outside of the plane while we taxied to the gate. What a flight!

We got our luggage and tried to locate someone to help us with our rental cars. I had called to ask what procedure we should follow but obviously the directions given to me applied during normal working hours, not at 1:30 in the morning when no employees were to be seen. It was pouring rain but the cool fresh air revived us all, despite the stress the parents were feeling. We finally found a very helpful employee and we ended up being given mini-vans, even though we only reserved full-sized cars (they were parked a lot closer to the covered sidewalk and we think the employee didn't want to go out in the rain any further than he had to!). The parking lot was flooding from the downpour and we all had to walk through about 4 inches of water to get into the cars. We drove down the road to our very nice hotel room where we all fit into a 2 bedroom suite and fell exhausted into bed, thankful to be safe and in a warm, dry bed.

End of day 1

Blog update

So, I doubt too many folks actually read our blog, especially after such long absences. Our dear Merry is so busy and does not post here much, and I am not much of a writer, so we haven't posted recently.

I LOVE to read about my friends and am so thankful when they make time to write on their blogs about what is going on in their lives. Of course, when I sit down to write something it seems terribly mundane, self-centered and generally lame, so I don't write anything. I decided recently that I would at least try to write a little for those who might care and mostly as a record of our lives and all those little things that get forgotten over time. So...here we go!

About Health Care...

So we went to the Driver's Licensing Dept to get my son a driver's permit. We checked the websites before we left, since we live about the same distance from two different offices. One had an average wait time of 45 minutes and one was 2 hours. This is to get your license renewed or take a simple computerized test. Who in their right mind wants the government to be in control of our health care? Can you imagine the lines and the waiting? It is frustrating enough to be shuffled from line to line; wait to get a number, wait to turn in paperwork, wait to turn in test results, wait to have your picture taken, wait to get your permit. Crazy. What will it be like when your health or your LIFE are in the balance?!

Those who didn't get the Nobel prize...

Here are a few worthy people. And here are some more.
I have a hard time understanding how Obama won. His nomination was submitted after he was in office only 12 days.
Oh, and in 2007, when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, this woman did not. This sickens me.

The Newest Addition to our Fleet

Merry and Aragorn bought a used Ford Focus last week. It needed some work but Aragorn negotiated a lower price and then had the repairs done. Clankeeper is very happy to have his van back so he doesn't have to drive the behemoth 15 passenger van to work anymore!

Big Government Health Care PSA

Hat tip to Headmistress, Zookeeper (TheCommonRoom)

Listen to Overpaid Celebrities

Funny and poignant!

What more needs to be said?

Hat tip to Ace Of Spades HQ & Charlie Foxtrot

When You Wish Upon a Star...

Hat tip to PatriotPost.us

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

As this 1961 audio clip shows, the Gipper was more on-the-ball than any politician since and lightyears better than any we have now!



I sure do miss having him as president! I don't foresee another one like him in my lifetime. So sad :(

Apparently, they were able to keep socialized medicine from passing back in 1961, but they're still trying to push it through. Let's hope that we can keep it from happening again!

European travelers coming home

Please keep the European travelers in your prayers. They are leaving London at 6pm London time (which is 1 PM Eastern/ 10 AM Pacific) and will arrive home almost 10 hours later. It will certainly take them some time to adjust. Please pray for their safety.

European update 7/28

Hello everyone,

This will be my last update from Europe. Sad yes, but we are all ready to go home. :)

Yesterday we went to tour inside Westminster Abbey. We saw the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Handel. There were also many memorials including one for Shakespeare. Yes, dad did go over and stand on Darwin's grave too. Haha.

One more cool fact is that they have Britain's oldest door there too. That was neat too see.

We also walked around on. The HMS Bellfast. The boys really enjoyed this one.

Our next stop was the British Library. To be honest, this was the place I was waiting to visit during the whole trip. We saw the Magna Carta, works by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Alice In Wonderland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Arnstein Bible, and Codex Sinaiticus.

I took my time looking at what I came for. Music written in some great composer's own hand. The Messiah by Handel and pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and Hayden.

They also had some pages from Da Vinci's notebook. It was amazing!!
Sadly, we had to miss out on the Gutenberg Bible because of the way the trains worked out. We had to leave right away to catch our train to get to the movie theatre on time to see Star Trek. Sigh. Oh well.


Today:

We were extremely lazy today. We slept in really late and then headed out to Greenwich to see the prime meridian. It was lots of fun to stand in two time zones at the same time, jump back and forth between the two AND stand on the line in between time. Haha. To much fun.

Sidenote: About the Gutenberg Bible...just kidding! We would never skip out on that just for a movie. Not even Star Trek. We saw it and it was amazing! (Did we give you a heart attack?)

Ok, so after the prime meridian us girls headed back to the hotel while the boys went to the Army Museum. Everyone had a good time doing their separate activities.

We are now mostly all packed up and waiting to watch Chuck in an hour.

Hopefully we will have a good trip back home and we cannot wait until we get there.

Sending lots of love,

Ladybug

European update 7/24

Hello everyone,

It looks like I am the only one sending back updates. Mitchell does not want
to, dad probably thinks the same, Doodle not sure why and MerryK is just too
tired of it. I am getting a little tired of it too, but I can type it over
the whole day so it is not that bad. One good thing about having a phone
that can send emails.

Anyways, I will give you a quick summary of our day and then get on to some
funny random facts from the trip.

We went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. It started
to rain, everyone put up their umbrellas and we couldn't see a thing. We
decided to ditch that and go on a double decker bus tour. It rained there
too and we got soaked up on top of the bus. At the St. Paul's stop we saw
the church and then headed back to the hotel. In the evening we watched the
show Wicked and it was fabulous!!!!! Perfect seats, awesome show and....wow.

Odd facts that we have discovered over the last few weeks:

Europe is famous for stairs. They are everywhere and we have probably walked
up and down a million or so. Not kidding about the number.

Us girls have had a contagious hiccup problem between the three of us. One
person will have them and then a day later someone else gets them. Somehow
the boys are immune to this odd infection. I have had them at least five
times, but I believe Doodle was the last to have them. Who is next?!

Doodle has another weird quirk that MerryK noticed. Each morning after
breakfast when we are about ready to go she burps. MerryK will often respond
with a simple, "Well, good morning to you too." Yet, today we were joking
about someone should burp her before we leave. We are weird as a whole I
guess.

I haven't heard much complaint on this from other people, but I am
personally ready for the money belt to die. Doodle agrees. Whenever I can
take it off it goes flying down on top of my bag. I am waiting anxiously to
remove it when we get back home. Maybe even burn it.

Dad mentioned that we are having too much fun with the "theatre" side of
London. We have seen Harry Potter and Wicked. We will be seeing The
Mousetrap play by Agatha Christie tomorrow. But wait...there's more. All of
us are also going to try and see Star Trek again on Monday. Yes, we do love
the theatre...both kinds.

Tah tah.

Ladybug

European update 7/23

Hello all!

We left Paris around 1pm and took a 2.5 hour train to London. As soon as we
started out to find our hotel we got lost. Yep, we were not even a minute
out and we were lost. Luckily we found our hotel, though, and we all have
our own beds! Since we had nothing planned we decided to go down to
Leicester Square to see Harry Potter.

The underground (the tube) was packed. Imagine the greater Seattle area
stuck in the tube. That is what it felt like. Never have I been in such a
place so packed. Yuck!

We arrived safely to the square and it took us a few trips back and forth on
a street to find the cinema. Sigh. We had to ask where it was, but we found
it in the end! This was the first time that I have ever watched a movie in a
huge theatre that looks like a Broadway theatre. It was enormous! You will
see when I post the pictures when we get back home. No way to post pictures
now. :(

Harry Potter was amazing!! I think that was the best one so far. What was
even cooler was the fact that we arrived in St. Pancras station which is
connected to King's Cross station. Yep, we saw platform 9 3/4 the same day
we saw the new movie. They have a little sign setup between the platforms.
Pretty neat.

At the hotel all us girls were happy to have a TV with English speaking
people and some American shows.

23rd:

We went to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. Those were beautiful
and all the fancy tableware was made of gold. Wow, there were some big
jewels there on those crowns.

At one point they had this interactive portion where some people in costume
showed us how a small trebuchet and a ballista (shot arrows at 2000 pound
force) worked. That was really cool. The trebuchet threw some pretty awesome
water balloons. Haha

Next we headed over to Starbucks and Subway for lunch. Yes, we wanted a
taste of home. I am now feeling a little homesick. Mostly I just want my own
bed!

In the afternoon we took a river cruise down the Thames river and ended up
down by Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We looked
around for a while and then went to the Aquarium for something a little
different than a museum. :) We also took a ride on the London Eye. Way cool!

Something that we were not planning on doing here in London was going to a
Broadway show. Last night we saw Harry Potter and on Saturday we will see
The Mousetrap play. Yet, we saw that the show Wicked was here and got
tickets to see it tomorrow night. After discussing it we decided to splurge
and get really good seats. We will be up on the balcony about six rows back.
Sweet! All of us are really excited and can't wait.

This evening we have been having fun watching some Star Trek: Next
Generation, Rush Hour, and bizarre British shows. We also found out that
surfing the channels can be dangerous. You really never know what you will
find. Yuck and a little disturbing. : (

Cheers,

Ladybug

European update 7/21

Hello everyone,

Today was an extremely lazy one. We were given the privilege to sleep in.
Most of us got up around 10am and the rest closer to 11am (Cough....can you
guess who was last? Yep, Doodle).

Dad had to go get more food supplies for breakfast when everyone finally got
up. He brought back some nice yummy cereal. :)

It wasn't until around 1:30pm when we all went out to the post office and
the grocery store for lunch. We have saved a lot of money by eating at the
apartment. Tons of money!

It is now 6:30pm and we are sitting on top of the Arc de Triomphe. We never
left our place until 5pm. Like I said: a lazy day!

We will be having dinner soon and then attempt to head on up to the Eiffel
Tower when it gets dark.

11:51pm

Paris is absolutely gorgeous in the evening! The Eiffel Tower was all lit up
and even had some white lights that made it sparkle. Beautiful!

Unfortunately, the line was still huge so we decided not to go up to the
top. Everyone except MerryK was disappointed. :( she was not feeling up to
it today. Mitchell was very upset and says he will come back again just to
go up to the top.

Tomorrow we are heading off to London and will hopefully see the new Harry
Potter movie if time permits.

Hugs to all!

Ladybug