Today's Grab Bag of Thoughts

Recently I have felt that maybe we are too attached to sites like Facebook and Twitter or just texting.  Yes, I update my status a lot, but more so because a thought came to my head and I had to say it. :-)  However, now of course I have this blog and it makes the constant status updates not as necessary.  What did we do when we did not have phone in our hands at all times. How did our friends live without hearing from us every 5 minutes?  There are so many other things that can happen while texting and we have to draw the line somewhere.  Enough is enough people, you don't want to be labeled like the people below LOL. When is texting too much...click the links below. Dumb Bride Fountain Girl Blind Metro Lady Moron If it is unladylike, fattening or fun I'm in - unless it involves texting. HAHAHA

So as I mentioned briefly yesterday I am planning a pretty big party at my house for my family.  We are at about 25 adults and a few kids.  WOW I have a big family.  :-) While I have been trying to come up with a menu and a game plan that keeps me out of the kitchen when my guest arrive I came across this great article.  I say great because it made me laugh.  See my commentary below. Three Weeks Before (really 3 weeks??? ugg that is this week.) Make an invitation list.  For a large cocktail party, invite 20 percent more people than you can fit, since typically only 70 percent to 80 percent of invitees attend. - Or invite your whole family and make them sit outside if the house gets too full.   Decide on a theme, if you want one.  Make, buy, or borrow any decorations or music you may need to fit the theme. - Theme was decided in February..but you tell me where you can buy 11/11/1

Daily just like everyone else I have my issues and problem, but I am trying not to dwell on them.  Leaving my worries to God.  So instead of siting here worrying or writing about the crap in my life, I will write positive stuff.   While I was on vacation, I was reading through a book called "21 minutes a day for 21 days - A daily journal of faith" and there were some great exercises in the books.  On one of the days you were to write down your blessings and I simply wrote "My Family." As they days passed by I went back to my completed list and decided that I needed to elaborate on each group of blessings.  I did this and I thought I would publicly tell you all about how much God has and continues to bless my through my family.  (Wow I've used a lot a quote marks in the post already) My Family and why they just rock, inspire me and bless me daily. My Parents - raise us 3 very well.  Even while they were apart for those years, they still made sure we all

Got very tan - laid out 7:30 - 4:00 pm in the most beautiful sun Ate breakfast 8:30 am Fiji Ate lunch 12:30pm Fiji Ate dinner 5:30 pm Fiji Ate snack 10:45 pm in the air Ate breakfast 11:00 am in the air Ate lunch 3pm in California Ate dinner 8:00 pm in California Let's just say Tuesday was heaven on earth! Fiji was awesome and I'm so glad I was able to go.  What I learned: you need sharpened stick to open your coconuts!

Slept in until 8am today.  It rained so hard all night it sounded like we slept under a waterfall.  Bill the taxi driver was ready for us at 9:45am and we were off to the beach.  RAIN or SHINE.  Yes, rain much more than shine. This beach was like an hour and 45 minutes from where we were staying.  But is was very pretty and worth the drive.  We got out and walked about 2 miles in one directions (in the rain) and then came back.  After our raining yet beautiful walk we found a restaurant on the beach to eat lunch and "dry" off.  It was a burger and fries day for me.  So Yummy.  Of and I had a few other scraps of the other ladies plate.  Next we walked around the Intercontinental Hotel.  It was beautiful!  Expensive but very pretty.  I paid a GAZILLION dollars for a tube of Stop itch.  If it works it will be worth it.  I also grabbed a ready to drink Rum and coke.  Bounty is the local rum. Let me tell you I am not sure that there really was coke in that drink. WOWSERS it was

Today is Sunday.  E and L got up early to head off to the local Catholic church up the road.  S and I are heading to church with a lady that works at the house.  We will be going to a Methodist church run by Koreans.  Church was an amazing and moving experience for me.  They had a special service to bless the new chapel they just built.  The service combined 2 local Methodist churches and a Baptist church.  We were also able to hear Reverend Bishop Kim from Korea preach today.  A group of missionaries were in town and he was with them.  I was just amazed on how many different nationalities were there.  No one saw color they only praised God.  The music was so cool.  Bishop Kim's message was (Jeremiah 29: 11-15 ): God has a plan for you God gives hope God answers prayers God give freedom Everyone was so welcoming to us. I am very glad I went today.  Chips, protein bar and a coke for lunch today.  Well there is a bit of sun out today so I am going to go hand out.  We laid out fo

Up early this morning and taking a walk on the beach with E.  My foot is still bruised from jumping off the porch the other day.  My legs are a mess with bites.  BUT I AM IN FIJI!  Caught a quick snooze before breakfast to get my strength up for the day.  On to the waterfall today! The waterfall and the trip to it were so great!  It was beautiful.  Paradise. Both E and L climbed the side and jumped off.  Not me.  Even Lucky got to jump off the waterfall with our teenage guide.  The people of Fiji all seem very UN-materialistic.  I wonder if it is a matter of not knowing XYZ exists or if they a humble enough to know that there are more important things in life then just THINGS. We stopped by a mini mart on the way home.  Joy of joy they had Diet coke and Chips.  SNACKS!!!!! I am so happy now.  Since we got home early we decided to go out to dinner tonight.  We went over to the local resort for some Chinese food. Seriously this has been a GREAT food day.  :-)  I told the ladies I could

I will call this day " Pick a hole".  Today I caught the village virus.  Everything is coming up or out.  Yeah me.  Great news!  Ok not really, it really sucks.  No horseback riding for me.  Just some hot & cold spells, achy body and lots of sleep.  By noon I felt a bit better.  Managed to keep anything left inside me.  The cook made me some fresh ginger tea and it hit the spot.  Kept down some advil and Banana chips.  With no computer or TV I just laid around and well slept all day.  I really need to be able to rally for Laura's birthday dinner tonight.  Ok showered, because I thought it would make me feel human...sort of work.  Today was spent doing a lot of sleeping and getting a lot of mosquito bites. Today I learned: That mosquitoes really think I am tasty.

Did I mention that our house is ON the beach?  Well if I did not, it is!  Breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal and juice..again.  The rain has caused the mud to run into the ocean so the shore is not crystal blue, but don't worry the rest of it still is.  I took a walk by myself today and tried to find a blue starfish to take a picture of it, but the water was too murky.  Next I laid on the raft in the pool for an hour or so until you guessed it, rain again.  It's not cold even though it is raining, well not cold for me LOL. Found out we have paw paw (papaya), coconuts, bananas and mango trees on the estate.  When the rain subsided I took another walk with E and L.  Then a great heart to heart with my E.  Oh and because I love her so much I jumped of the porch to take a picture of her on the swing.  Landing directly on top of a very pointy shell...thanks to God no skin breakage but a total bone bruise (it still hurts to walk).  Oh there is a virus going around the villages and well S

Up at 7:15am for a 3 mile walk on the beach with E.  The beach is not a easy to walk on as the beaches at home, there is a lot of broken coral and shells, but the view is much prettier than ours.  On the walk we saw crabs, ropey things (found out later they are a type of sea slug), and the prettiest blue starfish.  It was the start of a nice and HUMID day.  Sweat off a few pounds before a great big breakfast, right?  NOT, let's just say it's a good thing that I brought my own food (instant oatmeal and GF protein bars).  My breakfast was a half cooked egg that was supposed to be scrambled but it was cooked in the microwave and a bowl of oatmeal. After "breakfast" we all settled in to read or do our own bible studies before we start the rest of the day.  I sat there in the hammock swing and read and let my wander as I stared out to the beautiful crystal clear blue water.  Since we are staying on the coral coast of Fiji, the waves do not break on shore but more so abou

BULA Everyone!  Bula is how the Fijians say hello.  Actually Bula is like Aloha, it means a million things.  Below you will find a daily "summary" of our travel to Fiji.  October 2nd - Snack on the plane is gluten free (GF) but ICE COLD.  I tried to sleep but no such luck really.  I watched 97% of Transformers 3...of course they turned it off right before the big scene.  Breakfast GF and also nasty.  We land and yippee there is my luggage...um 45 minutes later no such luck for E and S. After filing a lost luggage complaint, we met up with our driver Hussein for our 1 1/2hr drive to the De Vos Residence.  While on the ride home our driver got pulled over by the police and all I could think of was this is where they check out what we brought, steal it and kill us...lol he just got a ticket for dark tint on the windows.  Since the ladies did not have any luggage we went clothes shopping in the local village store.  Let's just say it's a good thing my clothes came...w