Our Search for Treasure

Today we decided to end spring break on a good note and took the kids geocaching. Or "treasure hunting" as the kids like to call it. It's all about finding places on the web that people have hidden treasure boxes, then searching them out with a GPS system- it is actually a world wide thing. We always manage to wind up with the same amount of junk as we left with, but it is new to the kids I guess. We managed to bring home jacks, baseball cards, mighty beanz, bubbles, beads and tools-go figure. Maybe even a tick or two, we'll know at bath time. After tromping through the woods all day I realize I have aches n pains I've never had before. Would have been less tromping but Brian isn't exactly a pro at running the GPS, we go in circles a lot. And then there was the "treasure" Brian and Alex hiked up a huge hill to find, only to figure out the treasure was actually the spring at the bottom...huh. Anyways, it was a good way to get the kids up and moving, (though I'm not sure it makes up for the stop at the deli at RJ's we made) and we took them to some of Martin Co.'s out of the way places. Martin Co has some really amazing places. There is so much in the way of history and natural beauty here we tend to take for granted. The kids-and adults-did get tired, but what a wonderful way to spend the day together.

Life Lived Well

I had a client this morning on hospice care due to cancer. I felt so very priviledged to work with her, to be allowed into her life. And it got me to thinking about my grandparents. My grandpa died from cancer back in 2001, and he also was on hospice care. As heartwrenching as it was to watch him leave us, it was also one of the most beautiful times in my life. I would go up in the mornings to help Grandma, and then my aunt would come up in the afternoons. But in his last few days, it was pretty much my entire family camped out at their house at night. You couldn't walk through a room without tripping over someone. My mom, me, my aunt, cousin and grandma pretty much stayed awake with him his last 3 days. We would take turns reading the Bible to him and massaging his legs and feet with lotion (he had to have the softest legs and feet on the planet from all of that stuff!). On that last day, we knew it was getting close to time. He looked so very much at peace, but was hanging on. That entire day my grandma sat by his hospital bed, holding his hand and murmuring to him that it was okay for him to go. She sat there so long like that that for days afterwards she had bruises on her arm from leaning against the rails. Late that night, he peacefully died with the family and his hospice nurse gathered around his bed. Grandma and Grandpa had celebrated their 50th anniversary earlier that year at the hospital. All of my life I never saw them seriously fight or have anything but the utmost love and respect for one another. Theirs was truly a give and take, unselfish love. I can't imagine what it was like for her to lose him after so many wonderful years. But the way they lived their marriage certainly impacted me.

A Good Day

Brian let me know I haven't updated for awhile, but I haven't really felt inspired lately. Today was a good day. Ashten and I spent lots of time outside enjoying the sunshine. She caught her first "butterfly" of the year and it now sits on my bar in a Tupperware dish, I'll have to have her free it soon. You know when it's spring around here, Ashten always has jars of bugs sitting around the house. We spent an hour or so at one of our favorite places (along with our 2 labs) - the creek down the road. The Ya Ya gals have decided today to attend the WOF this year. I'm a newbie to the group, last year I got a text telling me how awesome it was and how I was missing out. I moped around all weekend. I've always wanted to attend one. I am so looking forward to it. We also made reservations today for the annual family vacation. We typically go to a different Florida destination every other winter and take a smaller (ie cheaper) one on the off years. This year we have rented a cabin in Brown County. Brian and I rent a different cabin at least once a year by ourselves-we have 2 anniversaries, the one when we met and the one were we got married, more excuses to celebrate that way. This will be the first year for our kids at a Brown County cabin. They are still young enough that just hangin with mom and dad is still fun, so we will continue to take advantage of that while we can. I worked this afternoon-well if you can call it work-I love what I do. It was nice enough to have my office door open while there. I could hear Brian and the kids on the four-wheeler, Ashten singing Dinah Blow Your Horn at the top of her lungs (I think I heard Dad in there too). He's typically pretty good about everyone laying low while I'm at work, but many of my older clients love to see the kids out playing when they come. I'm so very blessed to be able to work at home. We had dinner out on the screened back porch and then sat and read the paper on the front porch swing. Now the kids are "exercisin" on the Wii. I'm off to watch my show -Ghost Hunters-soon. Everyone else in the house makes fun of me, I don't care. I think it's really more about it being "my time" than anything. Dad stopped by, he is doing pretty good now, finding his way. Actually, he just called. He's in Greenfield and said the tornado sirens are going off. I asked if he was somewhere safe and he said they are in a barn out in the middle of a big field. Not really what I would call safe. I'm sure I'll hear back from him in a few minutes. He is the "caretaker" for Lark Ranch. They've been running all over the country getting ready for spring. I'm thankful that he has something to keep him so busy. Looks like a storm is coming in, so I'm off to watch it on my front porch...

Grampa Jones and me

Alex found out from his papaw today he has claim to fame. He's very excited. So excited that we had to watch HeeHaw reruns tonight..remember that show? Man that brought back the memories. We had an old round screen TV that sat on top of the even older TV that no longer worked. Like Brian says, you turn them both on cause one is for volume, the other for the picture. I was about 4 and would lay on the lovely shag green carpet with the rest of the family gathered around on Friday? Saturday? nights. You know back in ancient times..Alex wasn't even sure we had TV then, let alone electricity. He's amazed that I remember the first microwave, VCR, cordless phone (remember dial phones?)... what could the world have possibly been like without playstations and Internet? Anyways...Alex found out today that his great-grandma's cousin married Grampa Jones. Yeah, I know, not real close relations there or anything, but cool to him. He still doesn't get why his name was Grampa. Didn't really get the amazing complexities and deepness of HeeHaw:) Really didn't get the hairstyles. But he has decided that is where he got his love of guitar. It's in his genes. I didn't have the heart to tell him that doesn't fly when the guy isn't even blood related. Oh well. Maybe he'll come up with a new method for acoustic playing...hammer style.

Who needs sleep?

It was a rough night at the Tedrows. Ashten came into our room about 1 saying she had had bad dreams. She hasn't been feeling well this week, we had been to to the Dr. Tuesday for an upper respiratory infection. So after settling her in on the couch-her fave place to be at night-she started coughing, and coughing, and coughing. I tried everything I could think of, over the counter meds, breathing treatments, steamy showers, my Grandma's Vicks remedy on the feet, but we were still up at 6 when Brian left for work. Finally, around 8 we both crashed on the couch. So I get a call at 8:30 from Alex's teacher. He had forgotten his lunch. Uggh. We've had this particular occurence a number of times now. But bless his worrier heart, I could just see him out there panicking. Not to mention he was very excited because he had a Nacho Lunchable. All that kid has wanted to eat since he was sick last week has been corn chips. Must be a salt need. Anyways, I'm trying to figure out what to do cause I don't want to wake up Ashten. I'd already called Brian to cancel her and my hair cuts for the day-we've been needing one for weeks-but I call him back..again. I no more than say hello and he says "I'm on it." "I'm just gonna go through town and pick something up at the store and run it out there, go get some sleep." Aww. So at this point of course I can't sleep, but I sure am giving a big hats off to all the single moms out there. Not just the big stuff, but all those little things that come up, it must be hard. And I'm being thankful for the little things this morning. Like all night kid friendly cartoons on Disney. Like schizophrenic housecats who decide to take a day off from their usual hour long morning ultimate fighting stint throughout the house so she can sleep. And of course thankful for the bigger things that sometimes I take for granted...kids who for the most part are healthy (they would be more so if they would quit avoiding all things brightly colored-by nature anyways- to eat), a wonderful husband who is fortunate enough he can get away from his job for a few minutes to do a thoughtful thing, and even a teacher so concerned that she calls me back (I had let the first message go to voicemail that is why she called Brian) just to make sure I didn't bring something out also. Very thoughtful I thought. No, none of this has been such a big deal, just another day in the life of family. So anyways, now its off to laundry and dishes and work and guitar lessons and picking up milk and stopping by the vet and making phone calls to the doc so we don't have another night like last night....

When I grow up...

Brian and I were enjoying coffee and the fireplace on our back porch Saturday morning. We were talking about what route Brian would like to take in his schooling. In the mean time, Alex had come out and climbed up on his dad's lap. I told Brian he ought to become a pharmacist or maybe a teacher. Alex looked up at his dad and says "but Dad, you're already a Tedrow, why do you need to be a pharmacist?" We just kind of looked at him. "You know, you work at Tedrow Wood Products, Inc, you're a Tedrow, you don't need to become anything else." How very cute. I love the way his little mind works. To Alex, his dad is already all he thinks he needs to be. What more could you ask for?

Think Spring!

Today has been a pretty good day. I got "free time". Spent an hour shopping, got a 90 minute massage-though the woman about killed me-she's too rough. When I got home, Brian took Alex to his guitar lesson while I fixed dinner. Afterwards, we went out and set on the front porch swing, snuggled up in blankets. Alex played guitar for us. The peepers are hollering already at my house. Man that is my favorite thing in the world. I love those frogs. Well, my neighbor swears it is crawdads that make that noise. Whatever they are, they are great. I love it when it is warm enough to open our bedroom window and the peepers are hollering at night. Even better when there is a soft thunderstorm in the distance, a little light rain. I'm so ready for warm weather. The flowers open, the cows at the neighbors have their little ones, our neighbors once again get out and about. 4-wheeler rides, fishing in our pond, planting the garden, opening the pool.....it has been one incredibly long winter. Nothing better than country living!

Touch

The power of touch. It's an amazing thing. I never thought much about it before going into massage therapy. Touch is something so simple, yet can make such a huge difference in someone's life. It has its "studied and researched" benefits in what it can do physically-lower blood pressure, boost immunity, help with depression, sleep, circulation, pain, etc. But what about the normal everyday touch? There are so many that got through entire days without even the simplest hug or touch on the hand. (Of course those of us with little kids always have someone hanging off an arm or leg or neck, and at times find ourselves wanting to run n hide by the end of the day). One thing that I see often in my practice, or read about in massage magazines, is how many people report "no one ever touches me anymore". Isn't that sad? So much can be done and said by that simple touch of the hand, just letting someone know they are heard, seen, loved. I go to nursing homes to do massage every month, and it is an amazing experience to see a resident open up and begin to smile after getting just a few minutes of touch-even those labeled with dementia. Can you imagine what their days are normally like? How about the homeless, the sick, the veterans, widows, the homebound? Do you ever find yourself sitting in a restaurant with your family, only to notice the elderly gentleman sitting all alone at his meal? Do you ever wonder about him? Boy I do. I know most of us are not all that "touchy feely". We like our personal space. But try stepping out of that comfort zone now and then and just see what it can do.

Just Thinkin'

I've been thinking a lot today about how I came to know Christ. I didn't grow up in church. I spent many of my years living with my grandparents, and they believed and brought me up fairly strict, but we never really went to church. I spent a few summers in vacation Bible school with friends,but I could probably count my childhood church days on two hands. I met Brian when I was 16 and in desperate need of someone in my life to guide me. At that time I had been through some pretty bad stuff, and I felt alone. I know God brought this wonderful man into my life at just the right moment, we had come so close to meeting in the past. But it wasn't so much him as it was his mom that brought me to know God. Brian had been brought up in church, but was young and not so interested at that time. His mom, however, was on a mission. She was very discreet about it. A word mentioned here or there, very unobtrusive. But it was enough to get my attention. I started getting interested in the Bible. I used to drill Brian about all the stories he knew. I felt I just knew nothing. So I started reading, and we started going to church. And one Sunday, after an amazing dream, I found myself sitting in church during the invitational wanting so badly to go up front, yet so incredibly terrified to get up in front of all of those people. Of course I finally just had to. I was baptized the next Sunday. It was Easter. The same pastor then married us a few months later. I can't say I didn't stray away over the next few years, I was young and stupid with a lot to prove. But God put some wonderful friends in my path to show me the way. And He is still doing so. There always seems to be just the right person at just the right time saying just the right thing to let you know He's there. But three certain friends and one wonderful uncle I am so very grateful to have in my life to help me grow-Angie, Andrea, Kathy and Randy-I love you guys!!