Inspired to go to Yellowstone

A friend of mine who also happens to be a photographer just returned from Yellowstone. I have been there twice - both times in the summer. His photos inspired me to book a trip for the family. Lindsay is a budding photographer, studying it in college and my husband, John, is the ultimate outdoorsman. So we are planning to fly up to Bozeman and drive in to the north entrance - much of the park is closed in winter. Above are a few of the photos that inspired the trip. In a few weeks I should have some images of my own to show you. With Steve's advise and a little luck maybe they will be as awe inspiring as his.

Honor at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

This morning was the Denver St. Pat's Parade and my kids were Irish Step Dancers in the Parade. It is one of the of the largest in the country and goes on for hours. A lot of different groups go by - radio stations, Irish Heritage Groups, Irish Dancers, Clowns, etc. But there was one person today who really touched me and made me think about "Honor". We had been standing in our spot for about an hour and were still waiting to see our kids. I could hear the sound of the Harley's coming and looked up to see the banner for the Vetrans group on motor cycles coming up the street. There was a man standing in front of us in a white T shirt and Khaki's. It looked like he was with his grandson and was maybe in his 50's or 60's. I did not notice anything in particular that would have defined him as a Marine or a Vet. He must have saluted the group as they were going by. Then one of the fellows on a motorcycle looked and him and saluted and mouthed, "Thank you". Then he parked his bike and got off and walked over to the gentleman in front of me and shook his hand and they thanked each other. They both looked a little teary and both my husband and I were welling up too. He turned and jumped back on his bike and drove away. My husband thought that they must have known each other and that the guy on the bike saw him and ran over because he knew him. I found out later that wasn't the case.

As we were going back to the staging area to pick up our kids I saw the guy on the bike sitting with his group. I decided to go over and ask why he had stopped to salute and shake the man's hand. He said it was because he recognized that the man was a Marine. He said that he is always aware when looking at the crowd during the parade and tries to make a point of recognizing and thanking his fellow marines. "It's just something that I do." I thanked him and told him that it was the most special moment of the day for me.

People may debate the war and the military but I have to say that they create something very unique in their men and women. They have a sense of respect and honor for one another that is so often missing in the rest of the world. I wish this was something that was taught in schools. I wish I understood more about how they create this. We would all do better to treat each other in the way in which these soldiers recognized and respected one anothers contributions and sacrifices.

Genetic Engineering

On the way home yesterday the local radio station was having people call in to discuss whether or not they thought using genetic engineering for "designer babies" was a good thing or not. I only got to hear one call but it raised so many interesting questions about the ethics of genetic engineering. What difficult choices there are going to be in our futures!

1. If some people start engineering their children for intelligence, beauty, etc. where does that leave those children who get "left to chance". Will they always be a lesser class? Read the book, The Giver, it sort of reminds me of some of this concept.
2. If we start engineering babies, will God/the Creator (whatever you choose to call the higher power) kick something else in gear that counters that?
3. If you could engineer out genes that make people sick wouldn't you want to do that? I would because then I could engineer the Parkinson's out of John, the allergies out of Lindsay, the blood disorder and diabetes of my Dad and probably the bad genes I inherited from both of my parents out of me. But then isn't that part of what makes me or John or my Dad who we are? The adversity we have to handle as a result of these things make us what/who we are. If we have no adversity because we engineer everything out - what does that make us? I wonder. do you?
4. And what if we make so people don't get sick because we've fixed there genes and they live for very, very long times. What does that do to the world population. I mean the world wasn't made to handle a population that consumes the way we do and lives for 100's of years. Will some massive disease come along and wipe out a bunch of people in order to stabilize the planet.

I think these are interesting questions. If you have some of your own thoughts, please post them.

Meetings, meetings, meetings

I used to take every Monday morning and work from home. This way I could get through all the stuff in my inbox uninterrupted and actually find some time to think about issues and resolutions instead of shoving the papers around from one corner to another on my desk. For the past 4 weeks my Mondays have been stolen by an endless bunch of meetings. Don't get me wrong, we need to have them to make sure we are all on the same page but they exhaust me and take away the time I was using to keep myself organized and sane. It feels like lately we are having so many meetings that there is no time to get the actual work done that is planned in the meetings. This gives me a headache most of the time. I am a great delegator but it still takes time to sift through it and figure out who to delegate it to and what information you have to give them to get it done right. I should be at the office now trying to get caught up.

The other thing that is so draining in these meetings is people's lack of respect for each other. I think Dilbert captures it frequently in some of the cartoon strips but not exactly. There's generally this undercurrent of some level of contempt for people in the various departments. I include myself in this observation. While I try to be respectful and understand people's perspectives after a while I just get irritated. I am somebody who needs to have communications be sparse/meaningful - get to the point fast and I am your fan for life - drone on and on and I will stop listening to you or interrupt and tell you to get to the point. How do I temper this impatience when I have to attend several meetings in one day. By the time I get to the third meeting I am already aggitated and the internal "bitch" is just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. I have worked on this really hard for the last 5 years with a coach. I had gotten a lot better but this was before all these meetings. Maybe I just have to draw a line in the sand and say that I won't attend more than two meetings in a day. I wonder if that would really work in the real world. If I were the CEO it would but I am not. Besides, I scheduled a bunch of these meetings anyway because we were communicating well. Does this sound nuts? Maybe that's because it is.

A Post for Mark Irvin

I am writing this for a friend of my husband's who was hoping to find some discussion about sex here on my blog. Since my 18 year old has this blog address too, there's not likely to be a lot of sex talk here. I will say this - my husband emailed me an article from forbes.com about this 10 year study in Europe that indicated that people who had more sex were healthier. We decided that we should have more sex. Sadly though since we read the article and agreed that we should have more, we've actually had so much other stuff going on that we've had less. I wonder if it takes the thrill out of it if you just put in "the calendar". Then I think that just proves that I am way to obessed with organizing and scheduling and "getting things done". So Mark Irvin, if you read this - give me some suggestions on how to solve this dilema. Or anybody else for that matter because we want to have better health.

A little humor from my old friend - the other Martha

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn't want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe. So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn't notice her. She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed. The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for the whole week. As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy's Little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally he said to Timmy, "Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?" Timmy nonchalantly replied, "Yeah, I know who she is." The friend said, "Well, who is she?" "That's just Shirley Goodnest," Timmy replied, "and her daughter Marcy." "Shirley Goodnest? Who is she and why is she following us? " "Well," Timmy explained, "every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my pray ers, 'cuz she worries about me so much. And in the Psalm, it says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life', so I guess I'll just have to get used to it!" The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift His countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26) May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always.

A Beautiful Day

What a great Sunday. The sun was out all day and it was warmer but the wind was chilly. Slept late (later because of the time change) then headed to the store with the kids. John went to church. Came home and grilled burgers for lunch - yum! Added a little fresh basil from my indoor herb garden, some avocado and a tomato. Sadly the tomatoes here in Colorado are mostly hothouse tomatoes - not much flavor. I love a good tomato. You can grow the best tomatoes where I grew up in Kentucky. I wonder if it is the limestone in the soil or just the fact that the ground is really rich and the air is moist and hot. Anyway, when I was growing up we used to have a garden with my granddad and we had tons of tomatoes. I used to eat them like apples. I would eat so many that the acid would eat up the lining of my mouth. I didn't like the garden though. There were lots of bugs there and my brother used to throw the big, fat, green tomato worms at me. It gave me a worm phobia that I still have today.

Anyway, after that I had a massage. For anybody who has never had a massage...... You just don't know what you are missing. I starting getting massages about 7 years ago when I was training for this 60 mile walk and my hip was bothering me. So I have had the same massage therapist for all these years. She comes to our house and she is awesome. She gets all the knots out that I work up from stress at work every two weeks. I think I would rather go without food than to go without a regular massage. I think it helps me survive my stressful life without going off the deep end some days. Its the one time that I really do relax and let go. I highly recommend it.

After that I got on the spinning bike and then the Nordic track - still working on those 10 pounds. Just 30 minutes but according to my exercise watch I burned 300 calories so I guess that's good.

After picking up the kids at a friends we all came home and prepped dinner - put it in the oven and went for a walk. Dinner was ready when we got back. Pork tenderloin with an oregano, thyme, garlic rub, roast veggies (eggplant, carrots, broccoli and green beans) and some quinoa with tomato and basil. I have to say it was pretty good - even Jack and Mac ate most of it. I doubt Lindsay would have eaten it if she had been home but one of these days maybe she'll try. She doesn't like much of what I cook. Maybe its because she's a teenager. Who knows. She always ate whatever my mother cooked for her - but not my cooking. Anyway, she was over at the old neighborhood playing roller hockey all afternoon.

John and I cleaned the kitchen and I am sitting here "Chasing Vermeer" with Mary Mac.

I think I will go to bed early! Because tomorrow at 6 when the alarm goes off its going to feel like 5 - who invented Daylight savings time anyway. I think its a dumb idea.