Broken

Two Saturdays ago, the weather was warm and beautiful.  It was the nicest weather we'd had all year.  We decided to go to the park and have a picnic, maybe even do a short hike.  It was just a great day to be outside.  So after church, we headed to Washington Park to enjoy the great outdoors.  The lunch was yummy, and the boys had so much fun playing.  Daniel even made friends with a little girl.  He invited her over to our table for brownies.  She seemed to like that.  After a couple of hours, we packed up our things.  I was waiting at the picnic table while Jeff took stuff to the car.  I knew there was some kind of problem when he came back without the backpack for Simon.  He walked over and said our window was broken, smashed is more accurate.  He asked me if anything valuable was in there.  I said my purse.  He said, oh yeah, that's gone.  We immediately went into crisis mode, calling our bank and credit card company.  As the realization of what had happened on that beautiful day started to sink in, I felt nauseous.  I quickly remembered what was in there.  Not just my wallet, but our camera.  I hadn't downloaded pics for about a month, so we lost all of our Easter pic, our pics from Daniel's first race, and some other misc. pics.  Other small items were lost too: gift cards, the boys' immunization records, lipsticks, chapstick, tissue, a diaper along with some wipes.  Of course a lot of that stuff is replaceable, but still, I felt broken inside at the thought of what some random person did to our car along with taking my personal belongings.  We walked along the sidewalk, hoping that the person would have grabbed the cash (which was only a few dollars anyway, not enough to make it worth stealing my purse and damaging our car!) and tossed the purse.  But we never found anything.  On Monday, we got the window fixed, and I began the long process of replacing the items that were lost.  I'd like to say that now everything is fine and all is well with the world again.  But honestly, I'm still angry and feel very violated.  It also makes me have less trust in humanity in general.  Some things are just wrong, and breaking into our car and taking something that didn't belong to you...well, it's just wrong.

Another Resolution Update

Here we are, the middle of April.  And I thought I would check to see how my resolutions are coming.  I figured by this point I'm either keeping them, or I'm not.  Here's a review of what they were:

1.  Run in at least 5 races this year
2.  Make a new recipe each week
3.  Update this blog more than once a month

Number 1: So far, I've run in 2 races, and I am signed up for 2 more.  I think there's a good chance I can keep this one.
Number 2:  I've not made a new recipe every week, it's been more like every other week.  When we make our menu at the beginning of each week, a couple of times I've forgotten to factor in a new recipe, so then I try to make up for it and remember it the next week.  I'll keep working on this one.  Although I think I would be more realistic to say 2-3 new recipes a month.
Number 3:  I have updated this blog more than once a month, but I was really hoping to update it at least once a week.  I think I've fallen somewhere in the middle.  I will keep trying with this one too, and see if I can update the blog more often.

Not bad, overall.  At least I've not given up on them quite yet.  I find it fun and challenging to set new goals for myself and try to keep them.

Have a good week!

Memory Lane via Skate Plaza

Last week we were at my parent's house in CDA for a few days.  Since it was raining basically the entire time, we found some fun rainy day activities to keep us busy.  One of the things we did was go to Skate Plaza and go roller skating.  This is THE place to go roller skating, or probably the only place in CDA to go roller skating.  Either way, it was so much fun, because this was a big part of my childhood growing up.  As a kid, every Thursday afternoon, my dad would take me to Skate Plaza.  It was practically empty this time of day, and I had plenty of time and space to learn how to skate.  As I got older, it was a fun jr. high activity to get dropped off there on Monday night, otherwise known as the Christian music night.  Some of the fun songs we listened to, "Tide is High" or "9 to 5" or perhaps "Whip It!" jump to mind and bring back fun memories  It was just fun to go back there now and experience this with my own kids. 

Sam Gets the Hang of It

Daniel Having Fun

Shy Sam and Myself