Life | Page 19 | Minivans Are Hot

Pause

September 29, 2010 by Kelli

Tonight I will celebrate, along with hundreds of others, the life of my friend and mentor, Gary Varner. I told you about Gary a couple of months ago. And my best friend, Lindesy, a girl who I grew a unique kinship with during our times in Ukraine under Gary’s leadership, wrote about him on Monday. It was a beautiful tribute and I urge you to take the time to read it.

There are a lot of emotions to process when thinking of Gary Varner. Laughter at the memories, heartache at the early end of his earthly life, grief when I think of his wife and kids, regret that I didn’t keep in touch better through the years, gratefulness for his faithful pouring into me, and, most of all, a challenge to live my life to the full as he always did. Gary practiced what he preached and he lived life the way he encouraged others to do so.

“Worthy goals are rarely ever easily achieved,” is a quote from Gary that has been passed on in the days since his death. No one understood this more than Gary did. He was a passionate man, filled with love and he will truly, truly be missed.

I am thankful for Gary and his ministry. I’m thankful to him for pouring into me as a youth. I’m grateful for the graceful way he lived his life and endured his illness. I’m thankful for Gary Varner.

Pray for Gary’s wife, Carol, and their kids, Clayton (and Clayton’s wife, Courtney) and Jessica. The days ahead will be filled with mourning, but also so much joy, laughter and memories. There is nothing easy about saying good-bye to a loved one. But we do not mourn as those who have no hope.

Gary is in the presence of the Almighty King. He is standing before the throne. There is no more pain, no more sorrow. We say goodbye but for a time. But for those left behind, especially those closest to him, the time will be filled with difficult moments. Pray for strength, for peace and for comfort in the days ahead.

Tonight we will all listen to Gary speak one last time. He wrote out his memorial service himself. For those that knew him, that’s not a surprise. It even makes you smile, probably, because…of course he did! He’s going to get the last word.

I have no doubt it will be a good one.

Filed Under: Life, Random Tagged With: death of a friend, Gary Varner, Gary Varner Memorial, Portage Perspectives

Italy

September 24, 2010 by Kelli

Well we have had a whirlwind few days here in Italy. It’s been a lot of fun and good with a bit of frustration sprinkled in. It’s definately harder to be spontaneous in Italy and we’ve found it difficult to find nice, affordable places to stay. Minus our hotel in Florence, which was a bit of a dump, we have managed to stumble upon some nice places. We are now in Genova for the next two nights. The hotel is beautiful – we’ll see about the city. It’s a little too bustling for my taste, but we’re going to give it a try tonight. We may head over to San Margharita for the day tomorrow to enjoy the beach and the beauty.

Here are a few pics. We have definately seen all of the beauty of Italy. One observation – Italy is truly a beautiful country, but it’s been tainted and marred by a lot of grit and grime as well. We’ve found that you have to be willing to either drive through the ugly to get to the beautiful or else drive a long way out of your way to see the beautiful alone.

Places we’ve visited are:

Northern Italy. The drive from the mountains of Austria into Northern Italy was nothing short of spectacular. We were sad to see that part of the trip end and, knowing what we know now, we probably would have spent one more day in Austria…

San Gimignano was one of our favorite places in Tuscany. We made it from Hallstatt to S. Gimignano in one long day of driving. We took back roads through the mountains and through the Tuscan Hills which made it longer but much more fun and scenic. Our Agriturismo in S. Gimignano was my favorite place. It overlooked the city and was just a beautiful place to stay.

Tuscany is absolutely gorgeous. The hills are so green and it’s just such a fun place to drive and explore. Of course, driving in Italy has been a fun experience. If you see Lee, ask him about driving the streets of Florence. Let’s just say God’s mercies were upon us!

After S. Gimignano we headed to Sienna. We LOVED it! We totally regret not spending the night there instead of heading over to Montepulciano, which was a beautiful city, but very boring. Anyway, here are a few pics:

The Tuscan Hills. So beautiful. This was at a winery where we did an impromptu wine tasting. Now we have to figure out how to get the three bottles of wine we bought back home...

The sun setting over the hills from Montepulciano.

From Montepulciano we headed to Florence. This was our stressful day. We couldn’t find a hotel we liked got totally stressed and finally paid too much for a hotel we really didn’t like. Despite the crazy of the morning, however, we got into the city by 3:00 and stayed until midnight. It was amazing to watch the sun set over the Duomo knowing that for centuries that building has graced the horizen. I was fascinated by the history in Florence. It’s so beautiful, but again, I find it sad that the history is buried between so much nonsense and commercialization. It’s unfortunate.

The only thing we made it a point to see in Florence was the statue of The David. Neither of us are huge art lovers and while it would have been nice to see some of the great masterpieces, we didn’t care to wait hours in line. So we kept it simple.

There’s no other way to put it, other than to say seeing that statue of The David was awe inspiring. Knowing it was carved out of a single piece of marble by one of the greatest sculptors in all of history 506 years ago makes it jaw dropping. But when you see the statue up close and see the precision and detail that went into it, it takes your breath away. I’m really glad we took the time to visit the museum, and I’m glad we persevered and stayed in Florence – we ended up having a great time.

I hope you appreciate this picture because I totally broke the rules by taking it. Yes, I know he's naked...

The painting inside the Duomo was fascinating. There was so much thought, depth, spiritualism and talent that went into creating these masterpieces.

The sun setting over Florence from the Piazzale Michaelangelo

Gettin' a kiss from my favorite guy as we onerlook the city. I do eventually plan to crop out the poor girl's legs behind us.

We spoke to a couple of local girls at a restaurant earlier in the afternoon and asked them to tell us a good hot spot for after dark. They directed us to a very swanky cliff top restaurant called Flo where we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet, excellent wine and views of the entire city. It was us and all the Italians…and we were under dressed. Stupid Americans…

This morning we got up and took our time driving through Pisa where we dashed to the Leaning Tower, took a picture to prove we were there, then hit the road again. We stopped Lerici for lunch – a beautiful spot right on the water, then drove down through Portofino to Genova where we actually reserved a hotel room for the next two nights. The hotel is very nice and relaxing. I’m not sure we’re going to love Genova, though. It’s kind of crazy. So we may drive up the coast a bit further to spend the day tomorrow. Today is Lee’s birthday so I’m letting him take an afternoon nap then we’ll head out for a late dinner, hopefully with a view!

Pardon the dreadful sunglasses. Mine borke after we arrived and these were the only ones I could afford without paying too much. Yikes...

Pisa - We came, we saw, we conquered. Pardon the dreadful sunglasses. Mine broke after we arrived and these were the only ones I could afford without paying too much. Yikes...

We've seen all there is to see on this trip - Mountains, Countryside, City and Beach. Yeah!!

The view of Lerici from our lunch table. Not too shabby.

So here’s to hoping we have fun in Genova tomorrow and can enjoy the next couple of days before heading home. We’re having fun and have loved our time, but we’re looking forward to seeing our kiddos in a few days! Ciao!

Filed Under: Lee, Life, Travel Tagged With: European vacation, Italy, travelling Italy

Hallstatt – A Day in the Life of the Postcard Town

September 20, 2010 by Kelli

Rise and Shine. The view from our hotel window and the morning sun glinting on the Hallstatter See.

The Protestant Church in the morning sun.

Despite our best efforts we never could find the town schmuck...

This picture wasn’t lifted off the internet. I took it!

After a bit of shopping and walking the streets, we took the rail up to the top of the mountain next to Hallstatt.

It’s just too bad it wasn’t pretty. This was the view from our lunch table. I KNOW, right?!

After lunch we hiked down the mountain. Yes…after ten years of marriage we’ve learned a thing or two – one of them being, always hike down, never hike up!

We were greeted by this swan at the bottom.

Despite the fact that we were exhausted and our legs were burning, we decided to take the cable car up the mountain on the other side of the lake. GREAT decision.

We ended up at the very highest peak and could see for miles.

We spent a good deal of time watching local paragliders take off. And I wished desperately one of them would take me along.

Utter peace.

We added rocks to a stack that had been started on the edge of the cliff. It was slightly precarious, but ‘sall good now so…

We then headed out to the Five Fingers platform which held you directly over the 2,000 km cliff wall. It was exhilerating and terrifying all at once.

I don’t know how this view could ever get old.

Everyone should kiss on an Austrian mountaintop at least once in life. Just sayin’…

We ended the day watching the moon rise over the mountaintop. Perfection.

Tomorrow – Tuscany!

Ciao!

Filed Under: Lee, Life, Marriage, Travel Tagged With: anniversary, Austria, celebrating marriage, Hallstatt, places to see in Austria, vacationing in Austria

Girl and Boy Take Europe

September 17, 2010 by Kelli

Holy Moly this is really happening. At 7:30 this morning we will board a flight that takes us to Washington DC where we will board another flight to New York where we will board our final flight to MILAN! Deep breaths.

I got a little emotional last night tucking Landon in mostly because I don’t think he fully grasps that he’s not going to see us for ten days and that makes me sad. But then I started packing and I had this moment where it all hit me. WE ARE ACTUALLY GOING THROUGH WITH THIS! It was actually up in the air as to whether we were going to go a couple of weeks ago and a little of the wind was taken out of my sails, so now that it is upon me…it feels surreal.

I’m going to Europe with my husband! Yahoo!

We’ll have a computer. If we have time and Wi-Fi and the desire we may post pictures now and then. Or we may not. We’ll just have to see. Because for ten days I can do what I want when I want and how I want.

So for now I will sign off with a big, fat CIAO!

See you in ten days!!

I”M GOING TO ITALY WITH MY HUSBAND!!!!!

Filed Under: Lee, Life, Marriage

I’m excited, but…

September 16, 2010 by Kelli

I’m really, really going to miss these faces:

I try not to think about it too much because I know they’ll be fine. But Italy is a long way away…

And I just really,

Really,

Adore them.

Really.

Filed Under: Family, Life, Marriage, Motherhood Tagged With: Loving Kids, Missing kids while mom's away, Motherhood

I learned something about myself today

September 14, 2010 by Kelli

It’s not totally outside of my capabilities to be organized! I mean, I’m not a sloth, nor am I completely unorganized. But in certain areas of my life, I’ve always assumed that I wasn’t created to be one of those “think ahead” kinda girls. But today I totally thought ahead.

It, um, wasn’t that hard actually.

We leave in two days. TWO DAYS! And while I have a million things spinning through my head of what I need to do to get myself ready for a ten days adventure, I also have a gajillion things running through my head of what needs to be done for the little people I am responsible for on a daily basis. Namely, feeding them while I’m gone.

I am not a bake meals and freeze them ahead of time gal. In fact, I don’t know how to make a single casserole. And if I did, I am most certain my children wouldn’t eat it because they’ve never wrapped their lips around a casserole in their lives. So sorry to my parents and in-laws, but I’m not that organized.

Baby steps.

But, take a gander at this:

That’s food, food, glorious food! I shopped today and stocked the freezer so full I almost couldn’t close it. There’s chicken, beef, fish, frozen vegetables, chicken nuggets, waffles and pancakes in there. I even bought popsicles and ice cream – two things I never buy – so that you guys could come out on top and be the good guys.

How awesome am I?

Now, check this out:

Milk, juice, fruit, eggs, enough bread to feed the state of Rhode Island, yogurt, lettuce and pickles. I even restocked the ketchup and barbeque sauce, which have been low/gone for weeks.

Ah, but that fridge is but the icing on the gigantic cake of awesome! Check. this. out.

That is an entire cabinet filled with no less than 75 snack baggies all individually filled with a variety of goodies from cereal to trail mix to the ever popular Cheez-Its. Just grab and go. No thought, no preparation. If I were like this more often, folks, my life would be so much easier.

Of course, I would hate to deviate too far from the half crazy world I live in. If I were really becoming organized I would survey my cabinets before heading to The Walmart. If I did this I’m most certain I wouldn’t end up with this:

In case you’re wondering, that’s four bottles of Paul Newman salad dressing in the first picture and ten cans of tuna in the second. Why so much tuna? It’s hard to say given the fact that we don’t really like tuna. Lee likes it and he will eat it…when he remembers to since it’s hidden in the cabinet next to the trash can.

Top of the list for our next house? A Pantry!

The Paul Newman makes a little more sense. It’s the only dressing we eat and we eat it on just about everything. Wanna spice up the chicken? Paul Newman. Wanna add some pop to your beef? Paul Newman. Wanna fall in love with cucumbers? Paul Newman. Four jars, though, is a bit excessive. Again I blame it on the lack of pantry. Two of those were hiding behind the tea cups and I only found them when I was moving things around to prepare the snack cabinet of awesome.

So parents? I thought ahead just for you. I prepared something just for you. Not a meal, although I may make a pot of spagetti tomorrow for you to have on hand through the weekend. (Mostly for you – the only kid who will touch spagetti around here is Landon. Tell me, please, what kind of kid doesn’t like spagetti?!)

And now I’m going to rest my weary head upon a pillow because tomorrow’s project is to tackle the nasty surface called a floor in our home. Don’t look too closely at that last picture, you might be repulsed at how we are living (but only for about 12 more hours!)

Filed Under: Family, Life, Motherhood, shameless self-promotion Tagged With: leaving children behind, Motherhood, preparing meals ahead of time, preparing to go on vacation

I Said “A Boom Chicka Boom…”

September 12, 2010 by Kelli

This post has nothing to do with that title – I have just really wanted to title a post that for a long time now…

Actually, this post really has to do with nothing at all. You’re ripe with excitement to read further aren’t you?

Maybe I should do an entire post of one liners.

So there was this blogger who walked into a bar…

Nah.

We’re T – four days and counting until the big trip. I’ve had some freak out moments in the last few days, the biggest being when I realized that we might have to cut Hallstatt out of the itinerary. My Hallstatt. My preciousssssss.

I fretted and fraught (fraught?) and worried and moped. But it was a reality that we had planned way more than we could probably feasibly accomplish in our short time over there. And I really didn’t want to cut out Tuscany. Something had to go. Until…wait a minute. Maybe not.

What it boiled down to is this: We need to be flexible. We I need to be willing to cut out Hallstatt if it becomes apparent that there is just no way we’re going to make it all the way there and still have time to book it down to Tuscany. And so I still have hope, my friends. You see, the goal is to try and stay off of the AutoBahn (and Autostrada) as much as possible. We want to explore and get the flavor of the land. We want to round a curve and be looking down at a village nestled in the mountains. This means that it will take longer to travel. But it also means we’re going to have an adventure.

And if we miss Hallstatt, we’ll just have to go back, right? Deal!

Moving on…

See? More one liners. There is always room for one liners.

Too bad these aren’t the funny kind of one liners.

They’re kind of boring actually…

Ah well.

Sloan woke up with a low grade fever tonight. I gave him some Tylenol and piled him back in bed where I hope he’ll wake up fever free for school tomorrow…because I’m that mom. If you’re not dying, you’re going, kiddo.

We’ll see.

We will also be buying Emergen-C in bulk tomorrow. And Zinc. And Echinacea. I will not come down with a fever on my dream vacation. Oh, and to our parents who are splitting kid duty for the ten days while we are away: I’m so, so sorry. Here’s to hoping whatever Sloan has doesn’t spread. Or maybe he doesn’t have anything. Here’s to hoping that.

Speaking of Sloan – he and I had a duke it out, we-might-not-make-it homework session tonight. I won. Barely. We’re having this minor issue with child #1 in that every.single.time we bring him to the table to do homework, he brings along a massive chip on his shoulder. He is heaping with sass these days and it’s never more apparent than when he is under educational duress. It is especially evident when it comes time to do russian homework. Ay-yay-yay.

When it was all said and done and that which could have been completed in twenty minutes was finally finished after an hour of sweat and tears (no blood, thankfully) I felt defeated and dejected. Now that I know he is running a low grade fever I feel a little better, but the truth is – homework is often painful.

But, just before bed, Sloan grabbed my hand and led me back to our bedroom and sat me down on the bed. “We need to have a little talk,” he said.

“I had a bad attitude tonight and I was just angry and upset and sometimes russian is really hard and I feel like I can’t do it. But I didn’t act right. I wasn’t ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry’ and I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?”

He did that on his own. Without any prompting.

My heart is still a little gooey. Of course I was quick to offer my forgiveness and apologize for my lack of patience. Amends were made and we agreed to work as a team to make homework more fun. It is moments like those that I truly, truly love being a parent. Sure it’s cool when they hit a home run or draw you a picture, but when they exhibit a heart attitude that you have worked so hard to help shape and mold? That is when parenting is most rewarding. Just when I felt like I was the worst mom ever and totally incapable of successfully parenting that boy, he reminded me that his sweet little heart is full of gold nuggets just waiting to be dug up and harvested.

Do you harvest gold? Did I just mix metaphors?

So yes…parenting is wicked hard. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I wouldn’t even trade it for Hallstatt, Austria.

I Said “A booma ticka rocka ticka rocka ticka boom!”

The End.

Post edit: Sloan woke up fever free this morning and he happily skipped to school (well, happily skipped onto the school bus anyway). Whoop!

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Kids do the darndest things, Life, Motherhood, Random, Russian, School, Sickness, Sloan Tagged With: Hallstatt, Hallstatt Austria, Homework, Motherhood, parenting, Raising Kids, Random, Sloan, Working with Children

Fluctuating Between UberExcited and Totally Freaking Out

September 6, 2010 by Kelli

We leave for Italy in ten days. Let me write that again in case you didn’t catch it the first time.

TEN DAYS!!!!

Someone actually asked me a couple of weeks ago if I felt guilty spending the money on such a “lavish” trip when the economy is bad, so many are in need and on and on. Um…no. I don’t “feel guilty.” I am proud and grateful, actually. Proud of my marriage of ten years. Grateful to a husband who loves me so much that he wants to do nice things for me and have an adventure with me. Grateful that God has blessed us with the funds to be able to take this trip (and the wisdom to be wise with our money and budget accordingly so we could save what we needed over the course of this past year).

We are not wealthy people. Not even close. But we are blessed. And we work really hard to be good stewards of those blessings. We don’t always do a great job at being good stewards. Sometimes we (ahem…I) make frivolous, unnecessary purchases. Sometimes we forget to tithe at church. Not because we don’t want to, but because we just…forget. We are working on these things (and many other things!). But we are careful with our money and we do try to use good judgement in how we spend it.

There is nothing I love more than being with my husband. I think he’s hilarious, fun, sweet, caring and easy on the eyes. Why would I not want to see the world with this man?! I can’t wait to spend ten days alone with him, exploring and making memories to last a lifetime. Memories that we will look back on in fifty years (God willing) and laugh with fondness of the days when we were able to travel the world without a box of depends and a walker…

We won’t regreat doing this in fifty years. We won’t regret it ten days from now when we step on that plane. And I have a couple of photos to prove why.

One of the first places we will drive through is Lake Como, Italy:

From there we’ll be driving through southern Switzerland into Austria. We’re planning on heading to Salzberg, although we have since found this gem of a town and are now contemplating skipping Salzberg, or at least just spending less time there, so we can have more time here:

Hallstatt, Austria. Did your heart just skip a beat? Because mine does every time I look at this photo. I want this very shot on my own camera. The hair on my arms is literally standing up right now. Isn’t God’s creation magnificent?!

From Austria, we plan to scoot down to Italy where we will spend four days in Tuscany at a gorgeous resort like this (we’re waiting on confirmation that we will be able to stay here):

We plan on tooling around Tuscany visiting Florence, Sienna, Montepulciano and wherever else the apartment owners tell us to go. Just me and my man. Why would I feel guilty about that?

I will tell you what I do feel…a little nervous. If I think about us being gone for ten days, driving through foreign countries, too long, I start to panic a little. What if something happens to us? What if something happens to one of the kids and we’re so far away. What if, what if, what if???

So I try not to think about it. Because the fact of the matter is, something could happen to one of us at the end of the street. I can’t live my life in fear of the what if’s. I can think about them and I can even panic momentarily, but then I need to move on and trust that the God of the Universe is in total control. Our children will be in the loving hands of all four of their grandparents. They will probably be spoiled mercilessly. They will likely be watched closer than they are when I’m home. You know…because I encourage them to play in the street and juggle knives.

I’m kidding. I never encourage them to play in the street.

And I am praying with full trust and belief that my God will answer my prayer, that Lee and I will be kept safe and we will be reunited with our children as a stronger, more united front in our marriage and parenting. I think this trip will make us better parents and better partners. So no, I don’t feel guilty about leaving for ten days to celebrate my marriage.

I do feel fleeting moments where I’m quite certain I could dissovle into a massive freak out.

But mostly I’m just so excited it’s kind of hard to sleep.

Not that hard, though.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Post edit #1: I wrote this last night when I was wiped out from a fun but busy weekend. However, when Lee and I went to bed we started talking about the trip and got so excited we couldn’t fall asleep. So Lee got up and searched the internet for more places to go and things to see while I tossed and turned, imagining all the fun we’re going to have. So it turns out we really are so excited we can’t sleep.

Post edit #2: I had the wrong date in my head when I wrote this. We’re actually leaving in eleven days. Whic isn’t quite as thrilling as leaving in TEN days. Re-read this tomorrow and I won’t be a liar…