Kangaroo

Erica referenced the kangaroo when she was referring to Mylo spread out on the bed like a sprung kangaroo the other night! It gave me a new visual to which I could relate, having seen the actual animal in it's native land only a few years ago. I am headed there again perhaps as soon as December this year.

Wednesday was getting close to the 2nd annual summer run and Team Sussex was taking full force ~thanks to all my wonderful friends help and support. Marilyn headed up the team again this year for the second year ~ with the help of "Team Mom" Bonnie Sanborn and Co- captain Cori Nickerson! Not to mention ALL my wonderful supporting friends and family ~ what an amazing event, yet again!

Wednesday was open house day and we had a lot to catch up on because the inventory is piling up faster than it can sell here on Mercer Island and Bonnie, Erica and I needed to tour the new listings so that we can keep up with what is selling and what might be good for our clients-or ourselves-Erica just bought, Bonnie just sold and is looking to purchase, and I just listed our home-so we better know the market! Thursday was Steve's birthday and I needed to write an offer and meet with our builder regarding a waterfront lot, so that took up the afternoon plus I was taking Friday off to celebrate with girlfriends, Cori's birthday, which is a whole story in itself-we took the ferry (2 cars & 10 alpha females) to Whidbey Island and hiked, ate, wine tasted, shopped, and basically had a fabulous escape day. I skated in a 7 PM Thurs night with groceries to make Steve's special dinner-forgot the candles, and the cake I left at the check out counter. I had to send Dan back to get it as it came time for desert and I scrounged up one candle that I pieced back together just long enough to sing happy birthday and cut the cake. We all retired early because the morning brings workout classes at 6 am and I had an escape day to prepare for, and a Saturday neighborhood garage sale to set up for since I knew I would be gone most of Friday. I couldn't easily bow out of the garage sale since 10% of the proceeds were dedicated to my ovarian cancer cause besides which I NEED to get rid of lots of clutter and Steve, Erica and Dan were all helping out. Rita and Larry even offered to fix dinner for us so that we could concentrate on the sale.

Steve bought a bike for his birthday, and Dan followed suit and went to pick his bike up on Saturday during the garage sale. Erica and I took turns manning the weak garage sale. We made about $20 for the day since we ended up buying a washer and dryer from the neighbors, and looking at the neighbors stuff to see if we could trade garage space with some of our stuff. Funny but I think we ended up with more stuff than we started out with. Every time I do this I swear I won't do it again, but then again, unless I can recycle it, I cannot seem to part with it.

Sue was wearing her Team Sussex hat in preparation for the run Sunday morning, and we stopped in Langley to go shopping. She had her sunglasses perched on top of her hat covering the letters SUS with the nose piece. The clerk glared at her and asked "what does your hat say?", "team SEX"? We all had a good chuckle and decided later that the idea of Team Sex would actually be a better marketing theme next year. Anyone want to join?

Sunday morning 6:30 came early needless to say, but the adrenaline from all the build up kept me going. I was going to run the 5K and Steve was going to pick up the group and walk. I ate an entire carton of blueberries, grabbed a piece of whole grain bread and banana, and headed out the door. Andrea had walked up (after doing the Torchlite run the note before) from her house to carpool with us, and we were psyched to go. As before, the rondevu at the church pumped me up as the group convened to pick up shirts and entry numbers and head out to meet at the race. Jim took pictures again this year so I will be posting some of them and we can save the rest for the party in a couple of weeks-(and the website will still be open for donations till the party, so sign on and donate and I will have your email to the invite). The race was relatively flat and I managed to catch my breath and run the whole race with one exception near the end when Erica ran up behind me from the 10K overlap and pushed me up the last hill. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line in 32 minutes. I retraced my steps to finish again with my wonderful supporting husband-thanks Steve for coming out-with bad knees, he really was encouraging-proves you don't have to be a runner to come out and support. Bonnie passed out shirts and entry numbers from early registrants, sold Team Sussex hats and rallied the team at the end of the race. It was cold and the parking lot was stagnant so we headed to Starbucks to grab our stimulants and warm up, then returned home to clean up the remains of the garage sale, ride bikes, go to Enso's 2 year old birthday party and crash. Tomorrow starts the tour de Mercer and I plan on kicking off the first leg that starts at Mercerwood at 5:30 am.

OK you athletes

Ready, Set, Go...We are off and running. I am on a roll this week and it is very exciting. The 2nd annual summer run is coming up and this past week has been amazing. I have a neighborhood garage sale coming up this Saturday and 10% of the proceeds are going to benefit the ovarian cancer research. Sunday is the run that starts at 8 AM so if you want to join us we have quite a team signed up already but would love to see everyone there (we are meeting at the MI Presbyterian Church at 6:45-7:10 for those who want to carpool) or you can get more information online and sign up there -here is the link-
http://community.swedish.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=20 -

Then, my swimmer friends are doing the Tour de Mercer starting on Monday the 28th and will be fundraising on my behalf also, so the goal of $11,000 may actually become a reality even though the weather hasn't been too cooperative, nor the economy for that matter...I love it that everyone is sooo supportive. It really gives me strength.

So thanks again all you diehards! I am gaining energy every day and enjoying life. Love you all. Hang in there and get moving!

energizer bunny

Mylo has become a frenzied dog whenever she gets to chasing balls. She cannot control herself and becomes a wild barking maniac and an embarrassment just like any wild 2 year old who has a will of their own. There is never any doubt that she is visiting when we are down at the Casita near the waterfront. She has learned to swim and doesn't want to get out of the water. She will bring the ball up the stairs and drop it at your feet but give you no time to even pick it up before she is barking uncontrollably. We all have to try to be consistent in our discipline. We have tried the bark collar, spraying her with vinegar water till she stinks, yelling at her-"NO BARK", hiding the ball and ignoring her, all to no avail. Sometimes we actually think we are making progress with her-we grab her by the collar, hold her muzzle, and look her directly in the eyes-"NO BARK", till the tail stops wagging (it is only then that the message is heard and she can calm down-don't let go too early).

The other day she escaped from the backyard when I left the gate open for a minute to throw the trash away. I came back into the house and began looking for her as I was needing to get into work. "MYLO!","Here girl". She usually comes running. I searched the house and returned to the yard, then I heard her bark from across the street. I trotted out the back to see a flash of brown across the street at Bill and Joy's house. Oh dear! They are fragile older folks and I was worried about the rambunctiousness of the terrible 2s Mylo, but at least I could see that she was with Dirk, the son. I apologized to Dirk for the escape, but failed to grab Mylo before she had dogged me and run into their house. Joy yelled, "Dirk, there's a dog in the house!". We both hurried into the front door just in time to see Joy rounding the corner into the kitchen with her walker, Mylo on her tail, as the tennis balls on the end of her walker legs were the focus of attention. But wait! Between Joys legs rolled a moving whole tennis ball and Mylo slipped between Joys walker legs to fetch the rolling ball. We avoided catastrophe and I caught Mylo and we exited the house to calm down. Whew! The story has since been elaborated upon and we have all laughed at the visuals it has conjured up. I am acutely aware that tennis balls have new meaning in our house right now. I wonder if Mylo will ever graduate from the school of bark.

Wedding bliss

I have a bazillion pictures of the wedding and haven't had time to figure out best way to share them and tell about the fabulous event. We are already planning our family trip to go to Australia and visit our extended family! It is great reflecting on the tourist things that we did because that is what this great Northwest is all about, and the weather did cooperate fully for their entire visit. The pictures came out beautifully because it was a bit overcast and that meant that we could dance the night away and not get too sweaty. Many afternoons were spent just watching the guys out there on the wake boards having a blast. The music was such a gift! We had 5 different musicians play-Val and Chad played violin and guitar as the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the gravel pathway toward the waterfront. Lionel, Dan's brother, played the didgeridoo (an native Australian instrument) at the beginning of the ceremony, and Ari and Tom played guitars and their own awesome music as the bridal party arrived at the reception at the Backes' house. We released 5 white birds (my brother-in-law raises homing pigeons) as symbols of peace, love and free spirits and we all celebrated the homecoming of our empty nests. The event was international and the world became smaller...

My sister and I went in for our mammograms last week and we are awaiting results. Wouldn't you think they could just send us home with a pass card this time? I have to return to my Dr. for Avastin every 3 weeks for a spell (a year?), and I haven't had to do that alone without chemo yet, so I don't know what that will entail, but I am optimistic that I will be free of further treatments for longer this time around! I am regaining energy rapidly and starting to grow tiny hairs again on my head. New beginnings...

THE wedding

Last nite was the wedding of the year and culmination of a year of planning and dreaming. It was even more beautiful than I could have imagined, and a reminder of where we have come from when we were first in love. I just wanted to post a picture so you could see the love in their faces. It brought out the best in all of us and was an international event too.

Nap time

Who would think that Mother of the bride had any time to rest just 2 days before the wedding? This began when Erica put together a schedule for all the out of town visitors and Sean put Steve's cell phone number in charge of coordinating all the events. Steve quickly changed his duty to coordination of all events starting with NAP. I realized that was really not such a bad thing since Mylo-Erica and Dan's puppy, got herself overexhausted just trying to keep up with the Newton family, swimming for balls and jumping off the dock non stop on the hottest day of the year. It was set. 1-4 daily naptime until the wedding-then we had made it, and all bets were off. Anyone was welcome to join in, and I especially thought that Steve would be first to demonstrate what naptime meant-not the case. Master gardener he remains-shoveling yards of new dirt around the gardens that are still being weeded and tended to.

Last weekend, just fresh from 3 days of forced down time in the hospital due to some sinus infection and low white blood cell counts, Erica, Steve and I went to Tanya's wedding in Levinworth at the Sleeping Lady Resort. The setting of inspirational mountains and babbling river sounded like the perfect get away. I was sooo happy just to get out into nature and double excited to be amoungst so many friends at the same time. I watched mother of the bride directing traffic, organizing break down and set up of food, scheduling, and playing in jam sessions (she is an accomplished violinist) and admired her energy. Thank God I hired a wedding planner for this event! It was exhausting just participating in a few events and I realized that everything happens for a reason. I really did need to be aware of over doing it.

I had 3 scheduled events for the day. Michael David was coming at 11am to style my wig (Cori had heard me say I wanted to try a different style for my hair and arranged for this home visit). Marilyn had called me to go to yoga yesterday and arranged to repeat the following day at noon. And lastly, 4pm rehearsal-oh yes, naptime 1-4. Guess that makes 4 scheduled events.

Mylo started talking about a month ago and is getting more verbal all the time. All the barking gets your attention alright, but it is annoying also. She gets in a state of adrenaline high and cannot hear you getting angry and upset as the conversation continues to be onesided. We discussed debarking her, but it seems so permanent and almost cruel, and ended up getting a bark collar that sprays some foul tasting liquid into her jowels when she barks. I am afraid we may have purchased it too late-it is gone before she quits barking, or else we cannot find the collar when we need it, and this has to be a consistant thing in the learning stages, and nothing is consistant right now. Someone mentioned to me that dogs get frenzied and cannot control the adrenaline for hours (they said 24 hrs, but I think that was an exageration) and need to calm down and get centered in order to not be so annoying. It occured to me that this is not so different from humans, but we can calm ourselves by noticing what makes our hearts beat faster and our adrenaline pump and take a nap or excuse ourselves from engaging in whatever activity it is we need to calm ourselves from. I forced Mylo to take a nap with me today to test the theory. She immediately jumped up on the bed and began attacking my bald head and licking my face. I grabbed the sweatshirt on the bed and covered my head and she pulled at the blanket ready to engage me in some fun. I held fast, remembering forced naps with Sean when he was 10 months old, and Mylo calmed down and plunked herself on top of my legs and gave into the naptime energy I was eminating. Rejuvenated by 4pm, I promised playtime when I returned from the rehearsal. Sometimes I find when I leave Mylo alone she is mischeivious and takes pillows off the sofa, or gets into whatever food is left out, but she was not left too long and we played "go find it" and "tug of war" when I got home. She started her barking, but I discovered if I just feed her treats and pay attention to her, she doesn't really need to talk. Her body language and energy level just needs to be addressed. Aren't we humans really the same?

I walked Mylo around the block but spent some time talking on my cell phone and catching up with friends who are all eager to help, thus slowing my pace of dog walking. Michael David and Cori were waiting for me as I walked into the house 3 minutes late and Mylo began her usual greeting of exhuberantly jumping on them both trying to engage them into play. I could already feel the schedule was getting tight in order to get to yoga by 12. No worries, I didn't HAVE to be at yoga-I just knew that it would be good for me to be there, and I had invited the Newtons to join me and Marilyn was expecting me so I didn't want to disappoint. The next 45 minutes were wonderful as we talked about hairstyles, first impressions, weddings, and relationships. Noon came along all too soon and bride, Erica, popped in to admire the hair and give me a ride to yoga. Yoga bliss it was-great stretches, relaxing and prelude for naptime and rehearsal. Take the time to just be in the moment, even if only just for a few moments.

The rehearsal brought new faces to the event as the bridesmaids had arrived from New York, Arizona, Latvia and California while I was napping. More joy and excitement as the musicians (all personal accomplished friends with talent) set up and discussed plans for their gifts of music to the event. Details were laid out and a joining of hands and blessing said and the kids disbanded all too soon to party on. I cannot wait for the symphony of Saturday when it all comes together in it's own unique way.

Pink

Dan and Erica have chosen pink and brown as their colors for their wedding. One would expect pink as the choice of the bride, but really, Dan is in love with the color and of course we joked with him about being in touch with his feminine side when he initially expressed his preference for a girly color. Now I am realizing that is one of the reasons Erica (and all the girls for that matter) are drawn to Dan's energy field. He has a very nurturing, caring side to him that is represented by the soft hue of the color pink, and he is man enough to be proud of his individual choices no matter what others think. I have noticed that in Australia, many of the men have what we Americans would call girl names. I wonder if, in fact, they are really more in touch with their feminine side.

Yesterday, imagine this, 8 Aussie men were in Macy's trying on pink shirts for their wedding attire. I wasn't privy to be there, but I can just imagine the commotion they stirred up-hunky, muscle bound young bucks with shirts off shouting to each other with that melt your heart, Aussie accent, over the isles of gawking shoppers, bare chested. I do hope someone had a camera to document the event. I guess they were ready to disband and separate the herd before the shopping was done, but under the direction of mother of the groom, were able to complete the task of buying matching shirts for a check off the to-do list.

I am picking up one event a day rather than try to fit everything in like I am used to doing, so I made the picnic provided by the Eng family which was to be at the Beach Club. Thank you Eng family! Sean, who arrived in town with Dan and his bachelor friends day before yesterday, and I went to claim tables and soon discovered no parking as there was a swim meet in process. We made a few phone calls and relocated to the Casita. Soon we were chowing down hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw, veggie plate, and deserts with no clean up because they were all on disposable plates. Thanks God for Costco and good friends! The good ole American way. Brendan, Dan's brother, made his impression by giving the women foot massages (I had bought a mask product for myself and decided to share it with the girls) and we found hidden talent! Lionel, Dan's other brother, serenaded us with the digery doo. It was the end of a perfect nite and the world became closer and smaller.