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Thursday, February 18, 2010

$14.50 Worth of Silver Lining

As you know last week was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

But even bad weeks have their silver lining. My silver lining's name was Dolly. 

Dolly has been my friend for at least a dozen years. She knows me. And even better, she gets me.

She also knows my kids.

And my hub.

And all my friends from the island--Martha, Swirl, Anjeny, Colleen, Iwa, Mariko--she knows them all.

Well last week she came to Utah and we hung out.  We started at my Aunt Amy's yoga studio where we did handstands together and released our negative toxins together.


Obviously negative toxins look better on her than they do on me.

Then her cute mom and cousin fed us all-you-can-eat avocados.

And then, like pioneer children, we sang as we talked and talked and talked and talked . . . AND talked.

We talked about everyone and everything.  It made me so happy/sad.

sniff

LY Dolly.

This week wasn't as terrible or horrible as last week, but I've had a classic case of the blah, blah, blahs.  Plus I'm dazed and confused because we're trying to make expensive, life-altering decisions.  

Why do life altering decisions have to be so expensive and expensive decisions have to be so life-altering?  

Blah, blah, blah weeks have their silver-lining too.  This week my silver lining cost $14.50 and came in the shape of a mysterious package from Hawaii. 

It was prepared and paid for by another dear friend, Elaine, who also knows me, and my kids, and my hub, and all my friends from the island. She even knows Dolly . . . plus a bazillion other friends I've never even mentioned.

Elaine and I practically raised our kids together--we go way way back to play groups and preschool and PTCO presidencies. We were even roomies when we traveled to Mexico with the history department and we didn't stop giggling for a week. (I had no idea I could be that silly.)

Awww, shucks, of all the millions of times I've laid eyes upon Elaine, this was the very last time.

sniff

LY Elaine.

So I could barely lift the mysterious  $14.50 package from Hawaii onto my kitchen counter. Elaine must have sent it book rate because it weighed a ton. 

But it wasn't books, it was beach.

Inside was a heart shaped card that read, Happy Valentines Day! Here's some Temple Beach for you.


SHE SENT US TEMPLE BEACH!


At this very moment I have $14.50 worth of Temple beach sitting on my kitchen counter. How cool is that?  

(I hope that's not illegal.) 

$14.50 is enough to make a dummy's eyes sweat profusely.

And it's enough to make a dummy's kids eyes sweat profusely too.

"Why did you do this to us?" They demanded. "Why, why, why did you move us from Hawaii to Utah?"

I stammered out something about wanting them to learn valuable life lessons that they couldn't learn in Hawaii, like how to sit in the house all winter long and play video games.

"We could have learned those lessons on vacation!" They cried.


It's kind of a blessing to have silver lining sitting on your kitchen counter in the middle of February. 

But it's also kind of a curse. 

You get me? 


Still, I'm grateful for my blessing/curse.  As I'm grateful for all my blessings/curses.  

This one in particular: 



17 comments:

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

Wow, the sand is awesome. But I do have a question cuz I'm so confused...is the sand in the boyz nose? Is he digging it out with all the tissues or is he trying to keep it in the sinus cavity region cuz it's temple sand and therefore holy and needs to have it close to his heart?

I love the pictures of you and your peeps. Hopefully they will keep you happy....."periodically"

TisforTonya said...

love love LOVE the sand - best gift ever! We'd package St G sun for you if we could... it certainly would have cheaper shipping if we could figure out the details!

Sandi said...

Well good golly Miss Dolly is adorable! And what a nice friend Elaine is- seriously who wouldn't love a little bit of Temple Beach to arrive in a flat rate box when you least expect it? I'm with the kids..WHY DID YOU MOVE FROM HAWAII???
Well, I hope you make the right life altering decisions...no pressure or anything, right?

The Songer said...

First off those pics of your kids are hilarious.. i know you posted some the other day. but really.. i next time i get sick.. im just going to turn the TV on and stick tissue up my nose!

Aww... Glad for you fantastic week! I just wanted to say that you have the best friends.. really... (and i not talking about me) they visit you and send you the beach, and make the rest of us tear up and realize how much you're really missed here!

I hate thinking about moving away....

The Songer said...

BTW.. i think photogenic-ness runs in dolly's family genes.. even her mom and aunt take fantastic pictures! I'm jealous of people like that!

I am LoW said...

One of these days you are going to let me in on the secret of your kids letting you take such pictures.

So not fair!!

Love the package of beach. I SO get that!

I get to see my wittle baby sister AniC today and I have a similar such gift for her. yippeee

Momza said...

Your friend certainly knows the cure for what ails you!
Love the pics of your creative kleenex boy--hope he feels better soon!

Martha said...

Glad you got some beach and got to see Dolly.

You know one of the first times I remember you is when you did a yoga demonstration for 6th ward. This was before we had twins I think. You were doing these bending things and of course I can't even touch my toes. So once again I was like, "give me a ball and I'll show you guys".

So the life-altering decision is whether to move back to Laie, right? I wish. You guys were never sick like that when you lived here. We are healthier and happier.

LBBlum said...

Poor poor Zac! I have a million of those pictures like this.. floating around... of me- while on my mission. My companions thought it was HE-larious... but it is miserable.

yeah- what is this life altering decision? buying a house??? And you guys are happy there... right?

April said...

Awwww! How fun to have such awesome friends and to be so grateful for your macbook. But I'm thinking you should be grateful for your son. Bless your heart. I hope your son figures out a way to dislodge the tissue soon!
BTW, I'm with Martha on the yoga. I can't touch my toes no matter how hard I try!

Shelle-BlokThoughts said...

Hey Girl... you need to come to this TODAY which is Saturday! The only one I know going is Motherboard and Kristina P.!

It's like a hop skip and jump from your house!

Come COme!

here is the URL: http://borrowedlight.blogspot.com/2010/02/ladies-and-gentleman-we-have-location.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NavelGazingAtItsFinest+%28navel+gazing+at+its+finest%29

Email me at blokthoughts@gmail.com Lubs ya!

It's a two hour meet and greet with a bunch of bloggers... love it!

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Shelle, OMGOSH! Today is nuts, but I will probably be driving past that place today when I drop off my son at a friends house between 10-11. I will pop in and say ALOOOOHA!

Mariko said...

I could ask that Why Why Why question too. But I won't. Because you might feel bad.
Just think, you could have temple beach for free! :) You just can't build a house on it.
Is that the kind of expensive decision you're making?

Guess where I'm going for Spring Break?
NYC!
Hopefully I'll sight some famous people for you.

Martha said...

I saw Elaine today and I asked if she had heard from you since she sent the sand package. She said no maybe you hadn't received it yet.

I said, "Check the blog, because the whole world knows you got it except her". I just don't think she's ever left a comment on here.

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Martha, I wrote her a hand written letter. In cursive. You know how snail mail is.

Mariko, OMGOSH, NYC? I'm so excited for you. Do tell the deets. Why are you going? Who are you going with? It better not be Pam or Colleen or I will be on the next plane to crash the party.

Get it? CRASH the party! Hee hee

Emily Anne Leyland said...

Oh man- that got me severely tearing up. How sweet is that!?!! And Deb- you are so stinkin cute! Beautiful I should say. One day we will get to hang out and I can see your beautiful face in person. *sigh* :-)

Dolly said...

Oh my goodness. This is what happens when I don't read the blog daily. I didn't know I was on TMZ. Oh wait, this is CTD. But still, you are so popular so it may as well be the tabloid online press snatching a photo of me in my sweats. If I wanted to be seen in public after yoga class, I would have taken you out to lunch. (But the always ready avocado's are a sure hit and must be shared with special friends in Consuelo's kitchen. So it was good timing.)

I don't usually get to read the CTD diaries daily (because I can't do anything daily. 24 hr increments are for old people. I do more of a 96 hour cycle. It's my secret to staying young.) When I make it over here, I have to catch up all at once. Sometimes I start with the latest and sometimes I go back to where I left off and read forward. You are kind of a chapter book read, so I usually go back to where I left off but this time I started with the latest. Imagine my surprise. My 15 seconds of fame is long over.... but at least I'm with Elaine in the clueless boat. Which is great because Elaine is great company!

Actually, I had to force my self to stay off of blogs and facebook since I had to commit myself to my country. My country needed me to focus exclusively on her for a while. I think she was jealous of all of the time I have been spending in other countries and she is making me stay here and focus only on her. She even appointed a very special IRS agent specifically to me so that we could get super close and cozy again.

I'll tell you the rest of the story another time.

LY bunches! I'm storing up some new toxins for when I see you next. ; )