I've never felt so much peace, than when he was sitting with me. Not saying a word, just being there. My Uncle Mike knew that my Aunt Laura's passing was hard on me and I felt like he made it his responsibility to make me feel as safe (I can't think of another word for it) as possible. Of course it was hard on all of us, she was 41 and had just come back to us. But he knew, and made sure I knew.

He's going through an unbelievable battle right now and, from what I hear, is being kept as comfortable as possible. No one is ever ready for anyone to die, it's just that from the time I heard he had cancer I assumed he would beat it. I always assumed he would just be there, just like he always has been. They've called hospice, which means he's stopped treatment. I think I'm too sad to try to process what's happening, what this might mean for my mom, Uncle Dave and my Grandpa, and for Amy, Ian, Conner, Somer and Corey... for all of us.

Couch potato to 5K

In my desperate need/want to get fit I’ve been trying to think of ways to motivate myself to do so, but how? We have a Wii Fit, that’s fun, but the guy yells at me too often (which isn’t often, which is the problem) about how long it’s been since he’s seen me. I dunno really what the problem with it is, it’s fun, but I just don’t do it. We have an elliptical but the problem with that is finding a space in our tiny house to use it. Well, there’s an excuse for all of it. Anyway, I’ve made mention of wanting to try running before. I know it has great benefits and those that do it seem to swear by it for the most part. So I remember hearing about this before, looked it up and it SOUNDS fantastically easy, possibly fun. But I’m very curious about your opinions, runners and non-runners alike. Yay or nay?

I saw a group or event, I’m not sure which, the other day on facebook – friends of friends were putting together a 5K in memorial of a friend of theirs, someone that Barry went to Tech with, and I thought that’d be kind of nice to be able to participate in… maybe with Barry, possibly get him excited and enthusiastic about exercise too – I need all the help I can get and it’s not BAD for anyone to try... right honey? ;) (JK - he's already expressed some intrest, I just thought I'd see what you all thought.) Anyway, that’s the kind of thing I hope to be able to do someday, possibly in time for said event?

A little catch up

So I suppose I’ve been neglecting writing on here, waiting to post from our journal, about our trip. Or at least that sounds like a good excuse anyway ;) Maybe I haven’t done it because it might make it so final? I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s probably because I have big ideas, but they involve quite a bit of work, most of which I don’t know how to do… I don’t even know how/where to load the video onto the computer in the back of the house… hint, hint, honey ;)

Anyway, we’ve had some good times – it seems like eons ago that we were back from vacation, but it’s only been two weekends! We went to visit Grandpa last weekend (didn’t make it this weekend :( ) to check on how he was doing, (I worry SO much while we’re away, anywhere) tell him about the trip, drop off some candies we brought back for him and he played along – oohed and ahhed about our stories and he cracks me up – he said "Sounds like you had a good time. I got a haircut. Doesn't seem fair.” Shaking his head, LOL! He can barely hear sometimes and can’t see very well… but man, does he have a sense of humor, and a delivery that no matter the joke, takes me a minute to catch on at how funny it is… he’s great.

We haven’t done much, other than talk to everyone who will listen about how much fun we had, most people seem genuinely interested, so that’s nice! :) We went to see Richard Dawkins lecture on evolution and genes courtesy of Dad, which was great! I had no idea what I was in for, other than what I’ve half listend to Dad talk about his writings for years, and knew the ideas seemed to make sense and I still only completely followed about half of what he was saying (it was a “lecture”, after all), but it was enjoyable. He was funny and pretty down to earth… made what he was talking about seem like common knowledge. It was fun to be a part of.

This weekend I think was a first for me though. I saw the same movie twice, at the theatre… not to mention in the same weekend! I really, really liked Watchmen. I feel only a little bad that Barry’s initial reaction to it was thumbs down – I’m pretty sure he went into it knowing that he was going to be disappointed though. I think 99% of the time though you can only be dissapointed by a movie when you've read the book firth. But for me, it was over 2 ½ hours and it flew by. There was drama, action, suspense, love, an everything kind of movie – and the story itself, book or movie, can’t disappoint. We got mom and dad to go to the Imax viewing of it yesterday (after Barry and I saw it Saturday evening) and then had a delicious roast they had cooking, afterward. It was a nice day! The only other thing I can think to write about, right now, is that we saved just over $20 by cutting coupons! So I didn’t feel so bad about paying to see the same movie twice, we paid for one of them (and popcorn!) by using scissors! ;)

Oh my, and I had so much fun with Elaine on Friday! It was so good to have that one on one, raw girl time. You know, when you can be completely uninhibited and just… talk. Didn’t matter about what, just talk. No kids (although I love them dearly) and no husbands (we love them too!), just us. She brought wine and cheese (awesome cheese from the farmer’s market – I don’t know why I don’t make it there more often!) and then we had a drink at Mitchell’s and Barry met us there for dinner. We came home and I attempted to replicate the Guaro sour, but didn’t come close… it ended up a fairly early night anyway ;)

A very happy birthday to Grandma Cook yesterday too! :)

Home again :(

Yeah, it's nice to be home to see (and talk) to family again, and to see the cats, and know that a stop sign actually means stop... but man do I miss being in Costa Rica. Pura Vida, pure life, is the saying there,  and they mean it! Barry and I talked about what kind of jobs we could get and which region we'd live in, all the way home - and it was a long day getting home. Mom and dad and Jackson picked us up at about 11:15 and we were home at about 1:00 am early Saturday morning, we left the resort at about 9 am Friday morning. Definitely not complaining though, every minute was worth it.

There's no way to describe what an awesome vacation we had... we booked it thinking that it sounded like just about the right mix of adventure and relaxation... it couldn't have been more perfect. We joked with each other, experienced new things together, ate (and drank) like a king and queen, learned a little bit about Costa Rican life, and only a tiny bit about it, I'm sure.

We had rainy weather in some parts, but were sheltered by it from either Volcanic hot springs or a swim up bar, or we just zip lined through it... we had HOT weather, windy weather, all of it was amazing! We hiked to the base of the most active volcano in Costa Rica (not active while we were there though), zip lined through the canopy of a cloud forest, saw crocodiles and monkeys, swam in the ocean and laid in the sun, and those were just some of the things we did. We drove on roads that I would avoid at all costs here, and were rewarded greatly for it. I honestly can't say enough about what an amazing trip it was. We did catalog some during our visit, and still plan to transcribe that here... but for now this will have to do. Back to reality soon.