Halloween Cruisers 2002 Where are you?

[ennazus]

I thought I'd share with you that we finally booked another cruise!! but it is soooo far away! 533 Days to be exact
October 9, 2004

 

["Ginger"]

We'll miss you by 3 weeks, we are booked for Oct 30, 2004.

 

[JLSE50]

Suzanne: have fun looking forward to that cruise and planning for it !!

I am home from my Mother's house. She lives in upstate New York. I drove so that I could bring back anything she is ready to part with. 12 hours. 700 miles. alone. Wish I had taken my books on tape of Lord of the Rings.

We were busy and had a good three-plus days.
We sorted some piles,
we looked at pictures,
we put the missing hooks on the front drapes so they hang right now (after the painter was there they were not put up right),
we watched the JESUS film (which is a world-wide outreach based on the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus says only what the book of Luke says that He says, and is produced in nearly 800 languages that has resulted in amazing conversions and life-changes around the world),
we took an old Smithsonian magazine to a friend who will enjoy the article in it on hot air balloons,
we took some dried artichokes to a garden club friend of mothers who loves doing dried arrangements,
we took the sand and gravel from the winter salting and sanding of the road out to a country place where we could dump it,
she showed me where friends live or used to live in parts of the city I had never been to before,
we drove 118 miles around her area,
we laughed a lot,
we had lunch with two different friends on two different days,
we dug the last Rose of Sharon that survived the removal of the rest by Dad and my brother, Charlie, years ago and I am taking it to the daughter of the donors who now lives in Kokomo, Indiana, as she once told Mother that she wished she had some of that bush from her Dad,
I went to church with her because it was clear that she wanted to show me off, even though that extended the day on which I was driving 12 hours home--(good thing I decaffeinated myself last month, the coffee and cokes kept me going, but I made more rest stops as a result so the trip took 12 1/2 hours.)

The last night I was there I was lying in bed feeling like I had not accomplished as much sorting and getting rid of papers as I had hoped and I was telling God I wished I had been able to do more.
The still small voice--more like an idea--but not from my brain, said
WHAT MATTERS MORE TO ME, PAPERS OR PEOPLE?

WOW

I felt better immediately.
We had spent quality time together.
We made a dent in 50 years of accumulated items and the leftovers of the three ladies for whom mother was executor of their estates.

I told mother about this revelation on the way to church in the morning and said that I am determined to apply it to myself. I have a PILE of things to read in a chair in the breakfast room. I am going to recycle most of it--without reading it. If it has been there this long, I obviously can live without knowing it. I have handouts from classes I have taken that I have never read. When I want to look up something I use the internet, I think I can recycle that stuff too. I already put a 4 inch stack of articles and papers in the recycling that have been in a basket in my bathroom for 8 years waiting for me to read them.!!

FREEDOM!!

Love, Jan

 

[ennazus]

Ginger,
We chose those dates because our DS usually has a 1/2 day on the Friday before we are leaving (the day we'd be flying down) and no school on the following Monday, so we figured it would be better for him this way as he'd be missing less school. I hope his schedule works out the same.

Hmmm and think of all the extra room I'll have in the suit cases w/o all that Halloween candy & the costumes

I hope I find a group of cruisers that are just as great as you guys... but those will be hard shoes to fill!

Wow Jan! You sure were busy!

We had spent quality time together.

That is the most important thing!

 

[JLSE50]

SUZANNE: Did you start a thread for your cruise date?

Jan

 

[ennazus]

not yet....

 

[JLSE50]

I bet you will have fun with a thread for that cruise too!
Jan