One of the things that I love about living in SoCal is that in late October you can swim outdoors. We are blessed with having a beautiful pool in our yard and a perfect house for parties. Tonight we had about 30 boys over and I was thrilled to see them having so much fun in and out of the water. We had a team bonding party here at the house for the boys JV and Varsity water polo team. There was a fine variety of food; lumpia, hot dogs, chicken wings, pasta, chips, soda ... all of the good stuff that makes a party fun. Of course, pool side music was provided by the OutCast wireless speaker!

We have been heavily involved in water polo since Alex was a freshman and he is having a stellar season his senior year. In fact, he is team captain and has just broken the school record for most goals scored in a season and there are still three more games to play! Maybe we are just a little bit proud! Also, this last past weekend he played in a invitational regional tournament and won Most Valuable Player. He was presented with the medal shown here. We are so happy for our son. It seems that teenagers get such a bad rap, but I can honestly say that the teenagers we know through sports and our church are a great bunch of kids.

Random thoughts of a typical weekend

Last night we had some old friends over for dinner. It was nice to spend time with them and catch up with the details of their lives. We shared a delicious meal, if I do say so myself and drank some very nice wine. All in all it was a pleasant evening and reminded me of how important friends are in our lives.

Sunday we headed off to church early. There are lots of people that we have not seen at church lately so I thought that they may go to a different service than we do. Sure enough we ran into some friends that we had not seen for a while. During the service I began thinking that I need to get more involved with our church again. There was a time that I was busy with church things three times a week . I miss that and although I am not sure that I want to be quite so involved, perhaps I need to be more involved than I am now. I am seriously considering hosting a couples bible study at our house, so I have decided to pray about this and see what direction God wants me to move on this.

After lunch I felt the need to hit the road, so I donned the bike gear and headed out for a good long ride. I felt jubilant when I was able to make it home without stopping except when I got caught at a light near the end. I can see that I am improving and I like that. This week I am going to begin lifting again. Not sure where I am going to fit this into the schedule, but it has been a while and I am ready to push myself and take this to the next level.

Today we received the official invitation to Christmas dinner with the Tait's. We will need to made some decisions fairly soon on this otherwise we may not get the best flights. I have never spent a Christmas at home and although we had intended to head south, I am now thinking that north may be the best option. In a perfect world we would go north for Christmas and south for New Year's....hmmm if only we were really, really rich!

This is a photo of David with some friends at Church today. He will be 14 on Tuesday. Where has the time gone? Notice the hair! About a month ago these three kids had long hair now they all have short hair. At least David has hair since the other dudes look like they got the prison cut.

Happy Birthday Paul!

It's not every day that someone you know has an 83rd birthday and it just so happens the this weekend our friend Paul did just that. It is so wonderful to have a friends of all ages as it makes life more interesting and gives one a different perspective on life.

I have known Paul for about 20 years. It was my husband who introduced us as they had a working relationship, but it turned out to be Paul and I who really ended up making a connection. Until recently we worked together, if you can call it that. For me it was more fun than work, but it was work just the same. Bottom line is that for four months of every year I run his company for him so that he can take off and do what he loves to do...travel to Mexico!

During our time I have had the good fortune of helping Paul out of some terrible medical situations. When he talks about this he says that twice I have saved his life and that might be true. Although what I did for Paul is not anything that I wouldn't have done for another friend. Isn't that what friends are for!

One of the things that I love about Paul is his great sense of humor and the fact that he laughs at my jokes makes me like him even more.

Happy Birthday my dear friend! I hope you are with us for many more.

Dear Dad!

Today is the anniversary of your last day with us on this earth. I remember well that you so desperately wanted to leave and that I felt happy for you when your time finally came. I miss you so much, but I know you are with me always.

The perfect thing about today was I was actually able to feel happiness. You know it is not in my nature to be sad. It took me a while to get here, but I know you would want me to be happy and I am.

One of the special things that happened today was it rained. It has not rained here for a long time and today it did. Of course it made me think of you. Please stay close to me Dad, I still need you!