My Bucket List

Tonight I pulled out a journaling book that I started in 2007… it has in it, among other gatherings of words… my Bucket List.  One hundred things I want to do in my lifetime.  It’s been at least a year since I went through the list… that only goes up to 72 at the moment.  When I accomplish a listed item I highlight it.  There were eight lines highlighted already.  Surprisingly, tonight I highlighted three items from 2009 that were accomplished. 

I read somewhere long ago that if you write down your goals your brain grasps onto them subconsciously and even if you’re not remembering them… you are drawn to accomplish them.  I’m not sure if I believed that until I was married about 14 years and came across my scrapbook from my senior year of high school.  There was a page for 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goals.  What 18-year-old has any clue what they will be doing when they are 28???  Please.  Unbelievably, all the goals that I wrote down had been successfully completed… without me remembering that I jotted them in my scrapbook in 1984. 

Back to tonight and my Bucket List.  In case you live in a cave, a movie came out a few years back called the Bucket List and the premise was about two old guys determined to live out life’s wishes before they kicked the bucket.  I never saw it.  Anywho…. I highlighted three lines on my list tonight.

#10.  Take the kids on a missions trip.  Larisa, Austin and I went to La Mision, Mexico last summer… and it was Austin’s first time seeing an impoverished city.  It changed him, as I knew it would.  My 11-year-old son still is on the list to go, but I highlighted it anyway.  I firmly believe every American kid needs to see poverty, desperate need, and the happiness that is still available in spite of living conditions.  We are so spoiled blessed.

#51. Live close to the church.  For more than 10 years we have driven 30 minutes to church.  When your kids want to get more involved… an hour round-trip is a long way.  When gas is over $3 a gallon, every little trip counts.  Little did I know that we would be changing churches in 2009 and the new one is 8 minutes away.  Glory!

#61.  Publish a book for married women.  Last September my book Learning to Laugh in the Midst of Marriage came out.  Sweet! The book was not even started when I made the list!  See…. subconsciously!

Some of my other entries include traveling to far away spots on God’s green earth that I have studied and long to see.  Others involve helping others, teaching the kids new tricks, taking an emergency truck ramp…. quit laughing… they are so tempting,  learning a few tricks myself and reaching many for God’s kingdom.  I believe 2010 will bring at least three more highlighted lines… maybe more!

Do you have a Bucket List?

Antibiotics

It seems that Larisa brought something home from Mexico that we didn’t know about.  We spent today at the doctor’s office and the pharmacy.  We explained that we were in Mexico and that’s why we didn’t come in right away when her sore throat started.  I laughed when the doctor asked Larisa how much water she thought she drank snorkeling or swimming in the pool or ocean.  Uh, she did drywall.  There was no snorkeling, no swimming and no pool.  There was the ocean for 1.25 hours… but the water was at least 65 degrees and it was overcast and breezy.

Today’s purchases were all about Larisa.  Remember being sick as a kid and your mom bought all the stuff that made you feel better?  I know it’s weird, but even after we were married, when I got sick I wanted pablum.  Yes, the baby cereal that looks like papier mache.  I’m over that now.  (Probably shouldn’t have admitted that.)  Anyway, today I bought chicken and stars soup, peaches and cream oatmeal, saltine crackers and chamomile tea.  There, she should be better by morning.

I Got Plastered in Mexico

I wish the picture showed it better, but on the front of my shirt covering most of the southwest is a huge blob of plaster.  Yes, I walked into a house in La Mision, Mexico that was being mudded and taped and knocked the spatula tool right out of the guy’s hand.  It hit me on the way down and also coated my shirt, sunglasses, jeans, flip-flops and feet.  NICE!  It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to say that I was plastered in Mexico.  Literally.

We had a GREAT time this week.  I was asked sort of last minute to go with the youth on the missions trip.  Sooooo last minute that I neglected blogging for three days before we left…. and now we’re home.  Thankfully, my husband was left with the secret blogging MSJ password so he could let you know what was going on.

It was quick 5 day trip but was filled with ministry in many locations in the lush coastal valley of La Mision.  The “city” lies an hour south on the border on the Pacific Ocean between Rosarito and Ensenada.  And can I just say that it was a blessed relief to be in cooler temperatures in July and away from Phoenix.  We left our windows open.  We wore t-shirts and capris day and night.  We sucked in the ocean air.  We loved on the people of La Mision.

Here is the Reader’s Digest version of what we did in our three full days there:  purchased basics for 15 food boxes, distributed the boxes to needy homes and prayed for the families, put up dry-wall on the ceiling in a 1,500 sq. ft. room of the daycare, helped with the children at the daycare, went door-to-door handing out fliers for two events, visited an orphanage, performed street ministry with drama, had a “gratis comida” Night (free food!) where we BBQ-ed 160 hot dogs, put in a wooden floor in a mud-floored home, distributed clothing, bedding, shoes and toys to many families, played soccer every night (and were severely beaten by the locals), cleaned a yard of debris (that filled the back of a wide work truck), laid a stone path and spoke at the local church.  It was awesome and I’m exhausted.

Besides the plastered story there are several other entertaining bits including a horse lying in the road, the Sandlot dog experience relived, a bucking-bronco van ride, boiling water rituals, the burro video, eternally cooked beans and mucho more!  Please stay tuned.

Hotel Amenities

Yes, we are in Anaheim, my two girlfriends and our three teenage daughters.  The girls are attending the Revolve Tour and got to meet Hawk Nelson last night (a Christian rock band from Canada).  They were thrilled.  Forty-five minutes of their five hours in California Adventures yesterday was spent helping three-year-old Mason find his mom and dad.  Talk about horror at Disney for that poor family.  The girls said the mom was hysterically crying…. as expected.  Anyway, it all turned out, fortunately.  Our girls found security and reported the kid’s name…. that was thankfully sewn on the back of his Mickey Mouse ears.

On to hotel amenities….  one of the choice amenities this establishment has to offer, as is expected these days, is HIGH speed Internet.  Well, this is a farce.  There ain’t nothin’ highspeedy about this connection.  I’ve typed this blog up until now and my email page still hasn’t loaded…. good grief.  And there should be an international thickness regulator for oatmeal.  Good grief, again.  This stuff was like weak soup with the occasional oat flake.  Being that I’m with two of the pickiest eaters on God’s green earth, the management was notified of the oversight on the breaky buffet, but alas, this morning there was not much of an improvement. We can’t complain, though.  The room is decent…. minus the few bugs that we’ve located and killed.  The location is KEY, which is why we picked this place. 

And a special bonus for us… there is a “Gamers” convention going on across the street.  So, needless to say, if you’re not wearing black, you’re so not cool.  We’re not cool.  We keep wondering what in the world they do at a gamers convention?  Play games?  Watch video clips of how to beat the latest games???  Meet people dressed up like the mythical characters in the make-believe video games???  They’re here.  We’ve seen them.  Makes me wonder.

OH!  Yesterday Jill dragged us through Mexico City, right here in Anaheim.  It is the oldest indoor swap meet in the world, or so they say.  We did purchase some unique items for those we love, as well as taking cell phone pictures of lizards on skulls, wacky sunglasses and the general folklore that surrounds Mexico… right here in the good ol’ USA.

We dropped the girls off this morning and we’re off to the beach.  Wooo HOooo.  This is just like Thelma and Louise on their vacation: carefree,  wonderful, and the beach.  Oh to feel the sand between my freezing toes. 

BAGS end tonight!  www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com

Not So Famous Quotes

My son, Austin, (the one who is currently sunburned only across the bridge of his lily-white nose… “I thought I put sunscreen everywhere!”….. sheesh) came up with the idea to retain one memorable line from each of our family vacations.  I liked the idea.  It’s like an inside joke for the whole family.  A one liner that transports all of us to the same location, time and incident… and makes us laugh, creating family bonds.

Years ago we all went with Rick to Oklahoma City where he had a week of flight training.  The kids and I dropped him off each morning and went exploring.  The Cowboy Hall of Fame is in OKC… and they have an entire room full of drawers dedicated to barbed wire.  I had no idear (cowboy talk for idea) that there were thousands of ways to tie barbed wire knots…. but there are… and they are all preserved in drawers in OKC.  (That was cool side information not related to the Famous Quotes.) 

On a different day in OKC, we found a movie theater at 10:00 in the morning and decided to see the kid’s Christmas movie about the train with Tom Hanks…. title escapes me….  and when we walked up to pay for one adult and three kid tickets we were greeted by an old woman with a wicked witch voice.  She slowly raised her shaky, knuckled finger, pointed at Larisa and asked in a high screechy voice, “How old is SHE?”  It startled all of us. The volume.  The sound.  The accusing manner.  We ended up being the only ones in the theater, so Larisa sat in the first section, Keeve and I sat in the front row of the back section and Austin ran up and down the aisles throughout the whole movie.  Just this week one of our kids did the scary “How old is SHE?” line, teleporting us back to OKC. 

So our recent dental vacation south of the border produced so many great one-liners, we had a tough time deciding on the perfect ONE for that trip.  Most were great salesman lines from street vendors trying to sell us their wares.  And the nominations for Best Line in Los Algodones were: “Almost free today.”  “Just one Mexican minute.”  “I’m having a Chapter 11 sale.  I just filed this morning.”  (My personal favorite.)  But the all time winner was from a man selling a “leather” hat to Keeve.  The only leather thing about it was the little braided strap around the brim.  The rest was a great looking and feeling imitation, but the back was synthetic fabric.  So $20 was WAY too much.  Rick stepped in to barter, at which, I must add, he is a master.  Please, let me give you a little glimpse into how it went:

Guy: $20

Rick: $10

Guy: $19

Rick: $10

Guy: $18

Rick: $10

Guy: $17

Rick: $10 (See the pattern here???)

Finally the guy came down to $12 but Rick was stuck at, you guessed it, $10.  The fine salesman finally slaps Rick on the shoulder in a friendly gesture and says, “Why you have to be so Mexican?”  Priceless.  The ultimate term south of the border for being highly frugal…..  Mexican.  Albeit, Rick does blend in well down there with his jet black hair, dark skin and Mexican teeth, it totally made us laugh that the guy recognized Rick as one of his own.

A belated Happy Father’s Day wish to our Mexican.  You’re the best dad!  (a close tie with my dad, of course.)

My 100th Post at My Sister’s Jar

Lake Tahoe

Being the blogster that I am now, following blog etiquette, here are my 100 Things You Never Needed to Know About Me. (I tried to come up with information that would even be new to those nearest and dearest to me.)

1.  I have no Mexican dental work in my mouth. (Yeah!  We made it home safely and Rick is thrilled with his Mexican crown.)

2.  Even though I took two years of Spanish, my Spanish is extremely limited.

3.  I can count to 10 in five languages. (completely useless)

4.  I currently own 3 Spanish language learning systems… and use one regularly.

5.  I read Only When I Laugh in the past two days and was aghast when I discovered my grandfather’s name and story about him included.

6.  I consider reading therapeutic.

7.  I can sing the theme songs for the Brady Bunch, Beverly Hillbillies, and Gilligan’s Island.

8.  I don’t watch TV at home at all.  (We don’t even have it hooked up.)

9.  I loathe dusting.

10.  I abhor cleaning horizontal blinds…. which cover every window in the house.

11.  Watercolor painting is of high interest and relaxation to me.

12.  I’ve never had a manicure.

13.  I consider pedicures an Arizona necessity to avoid cracked heals.

14.  I have traveled to England.

15.  I have traveled to India…. curry lamb or curry chicken.

16.  I spent a summer in Kathmandu, Nepal… cooking for a missions team of 36.

17.  My dream vacation is to cruise the Mediterranean with extended stays in Greece.

18.  I have a list of 100 things I would like to do in my life.

19.  On my list of 100 things I would like to do in my life, only 68 are filled in.

20.  My eye color is green with gold polk-a-dots… but that doesn’t fit in the little space on my driver’s license.

21.  I have a birth mark on my left upper arm that looks like upside down bunny foo foo.

22.  Miss Potter is my favorite movie of all time. 

23.  I have watched Miss Potter at least 15 times.

24  I bought Miss Potter at Walmart the day it came out on DVD, having never seen it before.

25.  I have only owned Miss Potter for only 11 months.

26.  I have a pair of little white rhinestone-studded leather sandals on my computer desk for Zaza.

27.  I have four children, but Zaza is not home yet.  She’s waiting for us in Colombia, so she can be adopted.

28.  I met my husband on the first day of Orientation Week at Trinity Western University in BC.

29.  I was not real impressed when I met my future husband on the first day of O Week at TWU.

30.  I attended Rick’s High School Graduation with him.  (In Alberta they don’t have the ceremony until the results are back from their provincial exams…. in Sept.)

31.  I have over 100 guppies… but not for long.  VBS is next week when I give almost all of them away.

32.  I have two chickens named Olivia and either TJ or Sidney.

33.  I used to have three chickens, but we had two Rhode Island Reds and we don’t know which one died.

34.  I am not really a dog person.

35.  I have a Rat Terrier named Trixie.

36.  I am definitely NOT a cat person.

37.  I am drawn to royal blue.

38.  The colors of the sea are my favorites.

39.  When not loving blues and greens, I love hot pink.

40.  I have an Elvis bathroom in my home.

41.  I no longer have Elvis pictures that keep showing up on the walls in my bedroom.

42.  I love my husband.

43.  My husband loves me and Elvis.

44.  I painted the walls and ceiling in the Elvis bathroom red.

45.  I have a bathroom that looks like it belongs in either Graceland or a brothel.

46.  I have never been to Graceland, but I have been to Mississippi. 

47.  I lived in the lower mainland of BC for four years and never went to Vancouver Island.  (We were starving college students.)

48.  I have five male cousins.  That’s it.

49.  I grew up in West Coast suburbia in an Anglo Saxon, conservative Christian, Regan-loving-Republican, wooden spoon-spanking, fun loving home with a dad, mom, sister and brother.

50.  My teenage life of crime and mayhem consists of TPing and cruising the El Camino Real.

51.  I got a ticket for parking in a handicap spot.  $50 in 1984!

52.  I used to model for White Stag in Jantzen Beach, Oregon…. when I was five.

53.  I bought my very own purple Schwinn bicycle with a glittery purple banana seat with my paychecks from modeling.

54.  I take any opportunity to go fishing.

55.  I was flown into a fishing lodge at Margaret Lake, Alberta and fished with the chiefs of the surrounding Native reserves.

56.  I caught 6 or 7 large pike at Margaret Lake.

57.  I was the only one who caught any fish when I fished with the Indian Chiefs.

58.  My husband gave away all but one of my fish that I caught at Margaret Lake.

59.  I was left sitting on a gas drum at a dirt airstrip on a remote Native Reserve, Fox Lake, one summer evening.

60.  My husband tells me that he will never again leave me sitting alone on a gas drum on any remote Indian reserve.

61.  I have been to a tree stand designed to attract bear.

62.  I don’t appreciate tree stands.

63.  I have been a Christian for 37 years.

64.  I accepted Jesus as my savior by my bedside with my mom.

65.  I believe all US teenagers would benefit from going on a missions trip to a third world country.

66. I can usually sing a song about any word that my kids come up with.

67.  I have straight hair that is the envy of the 14 year old girls at our church who use straighteners daily.

68.  I teach my kids at home… we plan to homeschool through college.  (heh heh heh).

69.  I LOVE summer break.

70.  I had plastic surgery on my upper lip to repair a scar.

71.  I never had braces.

72.  My mouth is full of porcelain crowns… made in the USA.

73.  I have eaten chocolate covered ants… crunchy and chocolatey all in one.

74.  I have eaten ox tail soup… it was good if I kept my eyes closed.

75.  I could never be on survivor. 

76.  I’m wimpy.  Strange things make me gag… like stinky shoes, or a hair in the sink while I’m brushing my teeth.

77.  Believe it or not, I ran faster than my kids in a timed race at a rest stop three years ago (and won $5) I feel a rematch coming on.

78.  I don’t bet.

79.  I will never have a tattoo, or dreadlocks or piercings other than ONE hole in each ear.

80. I will never go bungy jumping, or sky diving, or cliff diving.  Remember, I’m wimpy.

81.  I’m not a thrill seeker, unless you include finding a sweet antique on sale from an un-educated garage sale giver.

82.  I collect Precious Moments nativity pieces.

83.  I am addicted to Diet Pepsi.  A half filled chilled can sits in front of me.

84.  I’m eyeing the corner of the backyard for a raised bed vegetable garden.

85.  I’m completely overwhelmed by the thought of digging and running the plumbing to the corner of the backyard for the raised bed vegetable garden.

86.  Sunflowers make me happy.

87.  I use my dictionary and thesaurus regularly.

88.  I am a card-carrying Coupon $ense gal who cut her grocery bill by 50% in 4 months.  Wooo Hooo.

89.  I taught Special Education, which prepared me for marriage and mothering in many ways.

90.  I’m the mother of the fastest 10 year old hockey skater in the nation.  And proud of it.

91.  I’m sad that my daughter doesn’t wear ruffles and lace anymore.

92.  I’m excited to bring Zaza home and introduce her to ruffles and lace.

93.  I’m still looking for the perfect bedding for Zaza’s yellow room and purple bed.

94.  I absolutely LOVE going to Lake Tahoe every summer.  It’s the BEST!  47 days until we go to Tahoe.

95.  I think God did a great job with the creation deal… lakes, trees, birds, flowers, pinecones, especially flowers, rivers…

96.  Scrapbooking is my game.  Tonight is scrap night at Darla’s house.  I’m there.

97.  I have my original wedding band from 21 years ago.

98.  I have my original husband from 21 years ago.  While in Mexico this week, a street vendor asked me what I was looking for.  I said, “My husband.”  He said, “Jus’ get a new one.”  No way.  21 years of training!  Hello!!!!

99.  I wish I lived somewhere that was always between 70 and 85 degrees, with a stream close by, a large English garden, a green house, vegetable garden and towering trees surrounding my Victorian home in the country.

100.  Roadtrips make my travel-loving heart pound in glory.

www.LindaCrosby.com

A Quick Mexican Minute Message

HELP!  We are currently watching the Penguins come back to win game 6 of the playoffs… in a hotel room in Yuma while Rick wears his new temporary crown.  Tomorrow at 2:00 is the royal crowning back south of the border. 

The HELP part is that Rick is trying to talk me into getting a cracked filling repaired.  It doesn’t hurt… and I like paying full American prices. I just can’t do it.  I’ve seen the stains on the floor in the dental office….  I watched the crowns being delivered by the 14 year old boy on his bicycle….  I viewed the Wonders of the Deep DVD in the office with the 16 year old boy sitting behind the desk (and he’s not the receptionist???)

No Mexican dental por mi!

www.LindaCrosby.com

Dental Work in Mexico

Yes, Rico needs some dental work done and being the spend thrift that he is, we are heading to Los Algodones, Mexico today to get him some gold teeth.  Joking, Mom.  It saves us hundreds of dollars.  Keep us in your prayers.  It’s a two day deal but we stay over night in AZ.  You can walk across the border to the dentist.  Should prove entertaining, if nothing else.

Keeve, our 9 year old, was on babelfish.com translating important sentences that he might need to use, like  “My favorite letter is Q.”  Things like that.  Larisa, 14, asked him to translate, “Please don’t abduct me.”  I told her we would be surrounded by hundreds of elderly Canadians and Americans and we’ll be just fine.

I’m sure at least one really good blog will come out of this trip.  Hasta la vista.

www.LindaCrosby.com

Today is my Honey’s 41st Birthday!

Happy Birthday…..Rickey!  He’s the handsome, dark one in the blue shirt.  This is a classic picture of him taken in Puerto Vallarta last week.  We were lunching at Si Senior’s Cantina, which was fabulously delicious, with my “jar” sister (not pictured), her husband (standing up on the right), my brother and his wife (seated) when the Mariachi Band comes to play for us.  It was actually two brothers in matching shirts sporting a harp and a guitar.  If you need entertainers in PV, I highly recommend these two.  They were funny, bi-lingual and very talented musicians.  To my amusement, the harp player even moved to the other side of the harp mid-song so he could smile for the picture.  ANYWAY, they came and asked us for requests….. like we know any Spanish songs by name…. or tune for that matter.  So they tell us they will play something happy.  They break into a peppy Mexican song and Rick jumps up from the table and starts singing and clapping along. Now that may sound all good and happy, but he doesn’t know Spanish…. and he’s clapping on one and three.  Note there is no fear or trepidition in his eyes.  He just loves a party. 

Happy Birthday, Honey!  Thanks for being the life of the party.  XOXOXO