Little Bits of This & That

We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

We had a good time this last weekend. Mark won the 'fish tourney' that no one knew about until he declared he had won with 7 fish!

Kids went paddle boating, swimming, tubing, boating, shot fireworks. Lisa was in awe of Brian and Tyler lighting the spinning flowers then throwing them into the water and watched them go lighting under water. Gabe (7) thought it was cool so monkey see monkey do. Only he threw his very close to the boat, Brian freaked. Mark tried to shoot a bottle rocket from his hand only to throw it up and shot back at us. He also threw a firecracker in the bonfire. It blew up sending hot coals into my lap. I had to be careful as my first instinct was to throw off my shirt! (mom hence the spider at you house!) Thank goodness it wasn't a drunk fest this time. Couldn't get Mark and Dave to tube. But poor Dave though. Saturday night we put the kids to bed and went fishing down at the cove for awhile. On our way back up to the house we loaded up the back of my truck with stuff and cooler sitting in back of Dave. Apparently Dave and Brian had just said they weren't sitting on the tailgate very good when I gassed the truck up a step incline. In which made Dave's sandals go flying off his feet and the cooler pushing Dave off the tailgate. I heard "Whoa, whoa, whoa - the cooler!!!". In the light of my brakes, I could see the cooler sitting on the hill (right side up) - but I had no clue I made Dave fall off too. I apologize up and down to Dave and he said it was ok. He was able to land it on his two bare feet! It was his slick shorts that didn't help the situation!

We also went fishing Sunday night on the boat in the middle of the lake. That was a little bothersome to me as the kids were alone in the house and I wasn't close. Ty would have had a fit knowing we were on the lake rather than on shore. It was peaceful on the lake and the weather was awesome. We watched a thunderstorm move over the hills to the north of us. Far enough away we only saw the lightening never hearing the thunder. Mark was teasing me that the tornado was coming to get us! I was soon able to relax with the help of the trivia questions we started asking each other of old shows and trends. In which had us talking about the Blue Ridge Mall and the stores we once loved to shop in. We started naming them because there was one Dave and his girlfriend would always shop in and he could remember the name. It sold both men and woman's clothing and carried brands like Z Cavaricci. Beside the obvious Jones, Wards, JC Penney's. Gift Horse, Woolworth's, Russel Stovers, Wicks & Sticks, KB Toys, Musicland, the Nut Hut, Wild Pair, Learners, Woman's World, Space Port, movie theater, Hallmark, Heaven sent, Petland, McDonalds, the carousel restaurant, post office, Steve's shoes, bowling alley, V's, etc. If you can think of any more please list them in the comment section or your favorite memory from Blue Ridge Mall.

One more item for the day Randy Pausch. You've probably have heard of him for his famous "The Last Lecture" on the Internet. If you haven't seen it and have time to listen, I highly recommend it. I knew Prime Time was featuring him on their show last night. What I didn't know was that he lost his battle to cancer last Friday until my mom called and told me last night. She knew I was a fan and didn't want me to miss Prime Time. (If you missed it - you can click the link to watch it now.) After watching the documentary, not only is he a great man, his wife Jai is a wonderful woman too. WOW! I was caught once again crying - but this time - I didn't get any remarks from Tyler nor Brian in which I was happy about. The Pausch family is a truly inspiring family. I hope I can learn to be as happy an as optimistic as Randy was. I have also purchased his book. I haven't began to read it yet, it will be my next book I dive into. I know there is good lessons and reminders in it and I hope one day Brian and Tyler will read it too and get out of it what I will have.

Peace.