And a Stench to Greet You

You know how sometimes you don't realize the freezer door is slightly ajar and you leave for 3 days and all the precious meat and fish thaws and drips through the fridge's insides and a noxious wave of rotten meat smell greets you when you arrive home with your beloved late at night and he spends a LARGE portion of the entire next day cleaning out the freezer and fridge, like really cleaning it out, (by which I mean that after removing all the wretched wrecked food and wiping the thing down he opened the back up and  poured vinegar water all through the drains of the fridge so that wherever stinky liquids ran, a flush of vinegar water followed) and he never once look very perturbed, except for just slightly when he saw exactly how much meat and fish was going to waste?  Well, that's when you know that despite not always being really great at making sure the freezer door is closed,  you  really are extraordinarily great at choosing a partner.

Departure Day in Review (or I Love Byron)

The final week in the States will probably always remain a blur to me. Looking back on it, I am most thankful for the sweet times shared with friends and family in the midst of the last minute stress and details of leaving.

Every time we do this, every time we leave one continent and head for another, I am thankful all over again for Byron. We have totally different styles of prep. I get nostalgic and weepy and generally un-useful. Byron gets practical and efficient and generally unfriendly. Dang, I love him. He's the reason we arrive with all we need. Whether that be school books for the next year of home school, a chainsaw for some project's needs, an electric piano for a daughter who is head over heels in love with playing, or a fruit dryer for an income generating endeavor for women at risk, we'll have what we need because Byron will have packed it... and packed it well. We would be a mess if the packing were left to me.

Of course, we would go nowhere if the booking of flights and arranging of schedules were left to him so maybe I am a little useful after all.

I don't know how many bazillion hours Byron worked during our final week in California but I do know that he worked from 5am to 5pm on our day of departure. We then left for the airport at 5:05pm.

After getting all 12 large bags checked (and winning points from check-in guy for good organization, leading to an upgrade to nicer seats) Byron collapsed at the gate and slept for about an hour on the floor.

Heather put these Starbursts on his tummy cuz he loves them and she loves him and because we were spending all our leftover US change at the little shop there.

Byron... I don't know anyone else like him :-)

By "Beautiful" I Mean BEAUTIFUL (and Byron's back hurts)

It's beautiful at the springs. We camped there Saturday night with Tait and Hunter and Tehur (and Colin and Heather.)

Byron's back has taken a nose dive after the last 3 weeks of too many long hours on bad roads and too much heavy work, but even he was happy to be there. Better to rest on a blanket under the trees than to lie on the rug in the living room and get tempted by all the work he thinks he should be doing. But the drive home was painful for him.

We saw the physical therapist today and she was very good. We travel on April the 1st and so the goal is to have Byron out of pain and able to handle the long hours of travel between here and LA. The therapist had Byron figured for sure...

"The problem with people who have a history of back trouble," she said, "Is that they are used to it and they expect it to get better if they push through and so they don't necessarily do what they should do to treat it."

Um, yes. That is the trouble. She held her tongue nicely and didn't come flat out and just call him a dork for not taking better care of his back. He's fifteen and half years post a very successful back surgery... and he should know a little better.

So, back to beautiful.

Tonight, I feel 2 things simultaneously. I feel deeply content after a 24 hour stay at the springs with people that I love. (Tait and Hunter made us all crepes with multiple delicious toppings for breakfast on Sunday.) But I also feel sad about Byron's back pain. He looked lively this evening for a while when he was excited about some very cool solar lights he was looking at that are designed to save Africa. But he soon faded again. I've tucked him in now with a hot pack.

Heat, rest, stretches, brisk walking, ibuprofen, cold packs if he wants them... these are his orders for the next few days. With prayer added, I think we've got the bases covered.

I'll put this photo up as his desktop to bring on the memories of a happy weekend. I'm certain those will be good toward the healing.

We Interrupt This Program...

To say...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Byron's Birthday! He's 48 today, Thursday, 22 November! I remember sitting in the DC at Westmont talking with him just a few days before he turned 21. I was really hoping he might start to like me :-)



We'll be on the road for a while now, making the long journey to the north of Tanzania. We are helping out with some stuff up there.

Should be back by next Wednesday the 28th. We'll see...

Happy trails!

Boy at Work

It's a nice night after a late dinner on our porch. Warren Zevon is playing on the stereo. The dog is asleep at my feet.

I don't have anything to say except that I thought this photo I just took of Byron turned out cool. He's busy drawing up plans for a double bed for our guest room. I hope it's ready before Bill and Tina get here next week :-)

Tuesday Last

I like this boy I've been married to for the last 25 years. Yessssirrreee!

(Photo by Jesse Borden)

Day Trippers (or Dusty Boys are Happy Boys)

Byron and the boys have had a couple recent day-trips on the motorcycles with the Russell boys. They've had such a lot of fun.
I'm happy for them to have these little safaris out to enjoy time together.

It draws to a close quickly now...

Photos by Jesse Borden

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Everyone deals with stress in their own peculiar way. I clench my teeth in the night and get knots in my shoulders.

I wish I didn't.

Byron sighs heavy sighs and carries a panicky look about him. (He can also get kind of grumpy.)

I wish he didn't.

But lately we're turning over a new leaf in stress management.

The closer we get to departure, the more the crunch comes down on us, the more frequently we watch Nacho Libre.

Yep, it's Jack Black to the rescue. (Three times in the last five evenings!)

I think it's the missionary theme and the work with orphans that must be drawing us in.

Ha!

"It sucks to be me right now!"

No Getting Up!

I really didn't want to get up today. OK, yea, we were awakened several times in the night messaging back and forth with Trevor to find out when to pick him up where after his adventures at the prom. (Yes, he looked very cute all spiffed up!) But that wasn't it.

With three weeks till fly time I am fighting the feeling of checking out when I really cannot afford to check out. I need to stay engaged because there are details that I need to tend to.

But I told Byron I couldn't get out of bed because I was nauseated. He looked alarmed, or course, but I said:

"Not REALLY! Just figuratively. I can't get out of bed because I will continue to feel like throwing up until I know that the dog's travel arrangements are in place, that the check we posted by secure post to our bank (for $13,000!) is not lost after all, and that the shipper has finalized details and is coming for our little crate."

Byron laughed. He laughed at me!

"Don't laugh at me! I need you!" I responded.

"What do you need?" he said with his cute face on.

"I need some of your fried eggs," I answered, pulling the duvet up over my nose.

It's later now. I'm out of bed. I'm showered and dressed and ready to face the do list once again.

Beautiful isn't it how fried eggs with toast and a cup of tea give me courage for the tasks ahead :-)

(I do wonder how I would manage without the Egg Man.)

This Morning

In almost 25 years married I can't remember any time that I've actually pulled an April fool on Byron.




So this morning as we were still in bed I told him very seriously that I thought I was pregnant.

I'm 44 and our youngest is already 8. Poor sweet Byron was speechless.

I'm too much a softie to hold out for very long and so he was only in shock for about 2 minutes before I told him the truth.

That was fun, fooling him like that :-) He fell for it pretty hard.

Waiting Up

Just waiting for Byron to return from the El Rey down in LA where he went to collect Trevor, Colin, Becca and MacKenzie. They saw Brett Dennen tonight, which I'm sure was very cool.

Heather is fast asleep on Byron's side of the bed and I'm going to have to move her. She's too big for me to be carrying around anymore, but I still do it.

I should move her and then get into bed but instead I sit here like a dummie wasting sleep time because I hate going to bed without Byron. I'm answering emails and writing nonsense posts when I should be doing something really useful like tucking myself in.

I'm pathetic! I don't mind saying it :-)

Shopping Toward Departure

6 weeks till departure and I'm going over my lists. I spent the entire morning compiling vaccination records into one spreadsheet. We have little scraps of paper from all over the world telling us who got jabbed with what when. Now I need to focus on school stuff for Colin and Heather.

Byron's list is totally different. It's all heavy metal. It stresses him out to spend the money but, actually, that's what the money was given for. He does this weird breathing thing as we drive around on errands. It's like a big sigh every couple of minutes. "Stop it with the heavy sighs!" I said to him. "You're wearing me out listening to you!"

But truthfully, I wouldn't want his job. He bought the winch for the car today. I teased him later, "I can't believe you didn't get my in-put on which one to buy!" So he pointed to his computer screen and asked if I could help him choose an inverter for the house. He got a high-lift jack today as well. And a snatch block. I know what a high-lift jack is. I have no idea what a snatch-block is.

He took much longer than I expected on his final errands of the day and his phone didn't seem to be getting a signal so I couldn't reach him. I started to really wonder where he was. Then I started to worry. Then I started to wait for the police to show up at the door. As I waited for the bad news, I tried to figure out where the kids and I were going to live now that we were Byron-less. I wondered what this was going to do to Jesse's 20th birthday celebration tomorrow. What a bad way to turn 20.

But then Byron turned up with all his heavy gear in tow and my worries floated away. I guess I got over it quickly cuz I didn't even help him heat up his dinner. I just left him to it. (Of course I WAS helping Colin and Heather with home work issues by then.)

Tomorrow we'll take a break from preparations and go up to Santa Barbara to see Jesse on his 20th. That will be good.

And we still have Byron with us! Hurrah!

Happy Mood

Oh happiness of having come through a good but very busy weekend. What a lot of lovely people we met and hung out with.

And I am feeling particularly pleased with life because the cup of tea I just had was so very good and what can put you in a happy mood better then that?

Then, looking through the photos of Saturday night when we went out to a Christmas party, I had to crop and display this shot of Byron (even though it's a wee bit blurred) cuz look at him! He's so cute! This is my most favorite face that he makes.

I love this boy. And not just because he's so cute.

Bed-Head

Byron has great hair in the morning! Jenelle is staying with us for a couple of weeks before she leaves on her trip to Italy. She gets some pretty good bed-head going but can it rival Byron's? They are holding a competition while she's here. This is Byron's entry from Saturday morning. I'll post a Nelly entry when I capture one on film.... PS If you click on the photo you'll get a really big view of this amazing hair.

Beautiful Curry

I was sad yesterday about several different things. It wasn't a debilitating depression or crushing heaviness. Just a sadness like a cloak over my shoulders.

I had special people that I love around me most of the day. Barbara's hugs and Nelly's smiles and little emails do wonders for me. But there are things that are sad and need grieving in life and yesterday some of those were keeping themselves in the forefront of my mind.

By the time evening rolled in, our three boys had dispersed to other locations for the night. Heather was busy playing and Byron was serving up the most fantastic curry that he had made for me. It was hot and tasty and had just enough coconut milk in it to sweeten it. It was amazing.

We sat outside in the lingering warmth and ate this good food. It was good to my taste and good to my heart. I sat there, spoiled rotten by this boy who makes a killer curry. Beautiful food! Beautiful boy!