Archives for May 2014

Bahamas Vacation

May 30, 2014 By 1 Comment

As I mentioned Tuesday in my blog about my dad, we took a whole family vacation to the Bahamas for my Dad’s 60th birthday.  When we asked what he wanted for his 60th birthday his response that he just wanted us to all gather together and go scuba diving (one of his favorite family activities).  So we all arranged to have the long holiday weekend off and ventured out to the Bahamas. My parents, all three of us kids, our spouses and my new niece!  My mom even made my dad one of her DE-LICIOUS Homemade banana cakes.  TO DIE FOR.

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My family has been diving together for about 15 years, and it remains one of the coolest things I have ever done… like visiting a whole new world every time.  And with the benefit of singing Finding Nemo songs in your head: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”  It was a quick trip, just four nights and 3 and a half days, but it was the perfect amount of R&R for us.  Mom does most of the research and travel arrangements and found a great place to stay on Green Turtle Cay called the Bluff House.  They were great hosts, and we had our own little house to use as a family (four of us stayed in another place just down the beach, but this was our home base).

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If you are looking for tons of excitement and night life, this is not really your island, but if you are looking for a beautiful locale, great diving, and a lot of relaxation, this place is PERFECT.  Its out of the way, so you have to take a ferry to the island, after a plane ride over from Fort Lauderdale, but completely worth it.

The scenery was gorgeous and we had our own little private beach:

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My husband and my sister-in-law got certified to dive for this trip, so it was fun to share that experience with them. We dove with Brendal’s Dive Shop, Brendal, CJ and Daniel were all excellent dive masters and a ton of fun to be around!  Brendal is quite the character and has tons of experience and has even been featured on quite a few television shows! Reese was most particularly excited to see the reef shark on the first dive, but I’m pretty sure that was Becky’s least favorite part.  My brother had his Go Pro camera with him, and snapped this super blurry photo of the husband and I.

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We took the golf carts into town a few of the nights (about a 20ish minute golf cart ride away from our hotel) and walked around, its a cute, sleepy little town with very nice people!

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Mostly we just hung around, enjoyed the sun and sand and being together as a family.  And took the opportunity to snap a few family pictures.

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Filed Under: Life, Travel

Chalkboard Garland

May 29, 2014 By 2 Comments

I got a great gift for Christmas that I just hadn’t found the perfect place for yet, but as I was upstairs in our bonus room I spied the perfect place for it!  The gift was a cute chalkboard garland that has 6 circles of chalkboard hung on some brown twine.

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When we hung the shelves in our bonus room I remember thinking… it really needs something over the TV to fill the empty void.  This turned out to be the perfect size! So I added in the words to one of my favorite hymns: “It is well with my soul” on the first five circles and on the 6th wrote the words to the first verse:

When peace like a river, attendeth my soul

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, It is well with my soul

Its a beautiful hymn and one that reminds me of the small towns I grew up in.

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I think it filled the space nicely! I wrote the words with a chalk marker so they would be clearer.  Voila… easy project.

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Filed Under: Bonus Room, Decorating

My Dad

May 27, 2014 By 1 Comment

I meant to have this ready to post last Friday (which was his actual birthday) but in the busy-ness of preparing for a vacation I didn’t get it done, but I feel like my dad has taught me so many important lessons, I hated to pass up the opportunity to share what I have learned from my dad with you guys.

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He turned 60 on May 23rd and to celebrate we all went scuba diving in the Bahamas.  (I’ll recap that trip later this week)  As our gift my brothers and I put together a book for Dad of pictures throughout the years and ended it with letters telling him what we learned from him over the years.  And since I think my dad is a great role model for how to be a dad, I’m sharing that letter with you:

Dad,

As I am thinking about your 60 years and the legacy that you have taught each of your children, I am overwhelmed by the amount of love and grace you were able to pour out onto us over our 30ish years of life.  As I watch my friends start their own parenthood journey and begin to struggle through how to raise someone up in this crazy world, I can’t help but to feel extraordinarily blessed by having you as a father.  I find myself over and over giving parenting advice to others because you and Mom were brilliant in many of the ways in which you raised us.  When I think about the lessons you taught us, I can’t possibly list them all, but some of the ones which have impacted me the most, I’ll list here.

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You taught us to care about the world. As we work with youth and other young adults, it is very clear to me that this has not necessarily been standard practice among others.  The world teaches people to care deeply about themselves, to protect what they are and what they own at all costs, but you and Mom taught us to care more about others and to seek out those who need help: Christmas caroling to the elderly, taking care of the sick, or just being there for the lonely.  And although that is of upmost importance, you also taught us to care about the world as a whole: to dedicate ourselves to public service, to care for the environment and conserve energy (you’ll be proud to know I almost always turn off all the lights when I leave the house), to fight for a better world in whatever career path we chose.

You taught us to think. It is so easy sometimes to coast through life, to do just enough to get by, but growing up, that was never enough.  Your expectations for us were set so high, it felt impossible to achieve on our own, but that was the beauty of it.  We were never alone. I remember night after night you sitting by my side teaching me math or science and always telling me IBIY- I Believe in You. Even as an adult when I struggle with difficulties at work, you are the one sitting next to me, helping me brainstorm or work on problems, and still telling me that you believe in me, even when I didn’t believe in me. It still means the world to me. I hope one day my children know how much I believe in them, even when they don’t believe in themselves.

You taught us to be generous in every way: with our time, our money and our grace.  I am in awe at the way in which you and Mom seem to be able to impact the world around you by giving of yourselves over and over again.  Some of my favorite memories are of deciding where to donate money at the end of the year hovering around the dining table, knowing that that money would go to help others.  But I also remember bagging groceries with you at CCA and working on mission trips side by side with you.  But you were also generous with your grace, you forgave easily and always told us over and over that we were loved.  And not just us, you loved everyone and treated everyone with respect.  That is not always an easy thing to do, and it is a legacy to which I hope I can live up to.

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But most of all, you taught us to love God and to participate in his mission. You showed me day in and day out what a Godly life looked like.  I’ve realized how vital that is and how grateful I am for such an excellent role model.  Life is far from easy or perfect, but I am blessed to have had you as an example of how to do it gracefully.

I love you more than words can possibly say.

IBIY,

MJ

 

 

Filed Under: Life
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