Loud and Embarassing

Julieanne told me that they had to go around the class to tell what they liked/disliked about their moms since it is " Mothering Sunday" tomorrow in England. She volunteered that she likes how I am her friend as well as her mom and she likes being able to talk to me. What she doesn't like is that I can be loud and say embarassing things. For instance at hockey and soccer matches I often find myself falling back into the cheerleader mode which is fine in high school but not on the sidelines as the mom when no one else really does that here. Also, add for effect the very obvious American accent and you have an embarassing moment for a child. Nathan has told me that some of the boys mimic me at school saying, "Go Whitehaven! Hustle boys. " Wounded, I replied "Well, they are just jealous because their moms don't come to all of the matches" -so there! Hmph! Anyway, point taken and I have tried to bite my tongue more at the matches but I do have unexpected bursts of 'Julie-ness" that make my children wish they could duck.

One of the most memorable embarassing things to my kids was in London with the Willis family. We were at the infamous Tower of London where hundreds of people were beheaded. The tour guide, the famed Queen's Beefeaters who was quite a dramatic fellow, told us to really get involved so when he told us to reply, "Where are the headless bodies?" I gave it my all, while everyone else in the audience only gave a half hearted reply. As you can imagined, my enthusiastic history major voice boomed over all and the whole Thompson/Willis clan stared. None wanted to be identified with me.

Today I did another embarassing thing at the movie, Young Victoria, which I highly recommend. In a day when it's hard to find good stories that are clean and engaging this was refreshing and historical so a bonus for me! Anyway, I have this way of nodding or making this agreement noise when I particularly like something I hear. Maybe it's activie listening, maybe it's just annoying. Anyway, during the movie, Anna Catherine leaned over and said, "Mom, would you quit agreeing with everything out loud." Oh whoops, didn't even realize I was doing this. I remember one time Emily Freeman calling me out for this. Embarassing. Oh well, at least they still like to be with me - loud and embarassing and all.

Retreat

Last weekend, we took 18 kids and 4 adults to the Scottish Borders for a retreat. There was time for physical challenges, heart stirring, laughs, goofing off time and getting to know the kids better. Getting away has always proved a significant time for building relationships. I remember how much we enjoyed the retreats with the singles when Dennis was the 'elder' in the class - such sweet memories of friends still dear today.

Anna Catherine had invited 7 from her school, the other 11 are the core group of regulars from the youth group from a variety of schools. Friday night after setting up we showed them '16 Blocks' (Carl Rogers would have been proud) Saturday we were at breakfast at 9 which is early for teens. Tom, the Curate or asst. pastor, led us through an exercise of discovering our worldview using images - it was new for some, enlightening to others and revealing to a few. We then headed off into two groups - mine and Dennis' group hit the high ropes for two hours while Karen and Tom's group spent an hour in the sports hall and then another hour on the low ropes course. After lunch we switched.

Last year, I discovered on a high ropes course, how terribly afraid of heights I am so I must say I was not looking forward to a repeat performance. Still I gave it a try and with much encouragement and lots of screaming I did it!! I jumped out to the trapeeze and then hung upside down. That's a picture of Dennis hanging upside down. The low ropes was good fun because it required team effort. The favorite was trying to pass our team through the spider web - stipulations - each of the 11 people had to pass or be passed through an unused portion of the web and no body parts could touch the web. (This was an earlier group of three practicing.) You have to trust people as you are being hoisted up and through the web. Of course it was cold and raining which added to the challenge.

We went swimming and were supposed to play a night game of Capture the Flag. Dennis and some of the other enthusiasts had staked it all out but it was cold and very rainy and some people had not come with the right kind of clothes to be out in this. It was a tough call but Dennis gave up Capture the Flag and we watched 'Cinderella Man' and played cards instead. They especially liked the movie so if you haven't seen it, put it on your 'must see movie'list.

Somewhere in the wee hours of the night, a few guys had to get kicked out of the girls lodge. They had come for a late night chat.....hmmm. anyway, Sunday morning we watched a few Chris Tomlin worship songs set to pictures to refocus our thoughts before Dennis then shared, 'The top of puzzle box' as he calls it. It's an illustrated version of life as it was designed by God and then ruined by man and then redeemed again by God. It's called the Bridge - a very helpful tool to help us understand the world around us and the God who set it all in motion. He could tell much of it resonated with the thoughts and feelings they knew deep inside. Lord, willing it will have stirred them up.

It was a fantastic time away and we look forward to seeing what comes of it!

Tears

Why is it we resist digging deep and allowing ourselves to cry? Are we out of touch with our true emotions, too proud, not willing to face the possibility of not being able to control it?

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love ~Washington Irving

I'm thinking of tears at the moment since my sister in law, Shelley and her husband George are standing beside George's dad, Tony, suffering with lung cancer on the brink of eternity. Overwhelming grief and helplessness and unspeakable love they feel at this moment. We are so sad for them.



I've just finished reading the book, "The Shack" which is NY Times bestseller, fictional work wrestling with the question of where God is in a world of unspeakable pain. This excerpt about crying made me pause.... (Papa is the name the main character Mack eventually comes to use for God, the Father.)

"Thank you," was all he could say to Papa as once more a waterfall rolled down his cheeks as if from an endless reservoir. "I hate all this - this crying and blubbering like an idiot, all these tears," he moaned.
"Oh child," spoke Papa tenderly. "Don't ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a streams of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak."
Mack pulled back and looked Papa in the face. Such pure kindess and love and hope and living joy he had never stared into. "but you promised that someday there will be no more tears? I'm looking forward to that."
Papa smiled, reached the back of his fingers to Mack's face, and ever so gently wiped his tear-tracked cheeks. "Mackenzie, this world is full of tears, but if you remember I promised that it would be Me who would wipe them from your eyes." Mack managed a smile as his soul continued to melt and heal in the love of his Father.

Mysterious 16th Birthday

For Anna Catherine's 16th we celebrated with 21 friends for a Masquerade Murder Mystery Dinner Party. Guests received invitations with their characters information and the requirement to attend in formal attire, wearing a mask. We had not ever done anything like this or even attended a mystery dinner so we weren't quite sure how it would go but we decided it sounded like something different and hopefully a fun non-alcoholic party for teenagers. 17 girls and 4 guys came as willing 'victims'. At 5:00 they arrived for the photo shoot and appetizers during round 1 where they received their envelope with specific information that needed to be communicated to each masquerade guest during the appetizer hour. We concluded the first round with "So you think you can dance game" where the kids were divided into teams, given the name of a type of dance ranging from ballet and waltz to salsa, hip hop, and African tribal. They were given 10 minutes to come up with a 30 second dance routine but all dances had to be performed to the same song, "Move It". this turned out to be hilarious as you can imagine. Believe it or not the 'ballet' dance won and the guys performance of the 'robot' took second.

Dinner was time to discuss the clues for the all important second round in which one guest would be notified that they had been murdered. Serving a three course dinner and running the game/party would not have been possible on our own. One of the new single guys from our church just happens to be a chef and he willingly came to help. Nathan enthusiastically helped him in the kitchen from about 1:00 - 7:00! couldn't have done it without them.

After dinner, while we played 'Fantastic Movie challenge' (which was really a bust because we didn't know most of the movies), Steven, who played the character Sherlock Tracy, was murdered with a non-alcoholic bottle of sparkling cider. The rest of the game was spent trying to determine 'whodunnit and why'. Basically it was a live game of Clue. After a game of charades they each gave their prediction of who the murderer was and the motive. Surprisingly, about 7 or 8 of them had nailed it. It was Serlock Tracy's former chef, Bameril Lacrosse who was guilty because Sherlock was about to reveal that she often gave people food poisoning and was going to pull the plug on her career and TV show.

In accordance with the convincing performances, prizes were given for Best Actress - Mag Niffie, Best Actor - Serlock Tracy, Best Mask - Secret Agent 002 and Best Costume - Bameril Lacrosse.

One of the guys from school had asked Anna Cath why she hadn't invited him to the party to which she replied, "you said, 'all parties without alcohol were crap,' so I didn't think you'd be interested."

"Yeah, well this one sounds like fun," he said. Those whose personalities like drama and dressing up naturally enjoyed the night most but all seemed to have a good time. It was a load of work but certainly worth it. My parents had a surprise mystery dinner when I turned 16 and I hope Anna Catherine will look back as I do with fond memories of a different kind of 16th. We are so glad you are our daughter - you give us such joy.

6:00 pm and it's light outside

Light is a powerful thing and delightful gift! After many months of darkness from 4:30 pm - 8:00 am, we are beginning to see the seasons change. Yesterday I picked the girls up from school at 6:10 and it was still light outside! Nathan and I were enjoying the 'favorite daily view' cresting the hill to St. Bees with mountains to the left and the ocean before us. The sun was just sinking through the clouds to the horizon. Yay!

It's weird psychologically how the darkness effects you - at 6:30 you'll begin to get tired (when normally you wouldn't or shouldn't on a normal day) The cold, dark and damp nudge the desire to go for the comfort food and hot beverages which is not real helpful to the waistline. There is actually a disorder called SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder that results in depression among other symptoms from the prolonged darkness and lack of vitamin D from the sunshine. Up here in cumbria we have a very high rate of depression and I'm sure the lack of sunshine and dreary weather affects that. Alcoholism is over the top as well.

Dennis has commented that he didn't realize how 'southern' I was until coming here. I definitely love the sunshine both physically and psychologically. I like my sweet tea, grits, grilling out year round, wearing a pair of shorts which I maybe did twice last year in England, and being warm. All this to say, I'm celebrating the return of the light. Not only will the light return but it will be light in June from about 5:00 am - 11:00 pm. How's that for overkill? Nice huh?!

Two hour flight

One of the benefits to living in England, is the continent is a short plane ride or drive away. Just a two hour flight and hour and half bus ride took us to Italy to have a go at skiing for a week. We've skiied in the States on the east coast but nothing like this. Wow - the mountains were amazingly majestic, snowed covered and stunning! The weather was clear skies and sunny just below freezin and sunny enough to give Nathan and Julieanne sun poisoning and the rest of us a little tan on our faces.

Even though we were in Italy (20 minute walk from France) the hotel we were in was run by British and full of British on holiday. We even had British breakfast, fish and chips one night and the infamous Sunday carvery . It was little too 'packaged' for Dennis' adventourous/independence but he was able to apply that to his skiing and mountain exploration. We were in a very small Alpine village called Claviere surrounded by ski areas that were 'purpose built' for the Torino 2006 Olympics with huge hotels and amenities. We saw the Olympic bobsled run and the alpine skiing runs. All of these ski areas are connected by chair lifts so you could navigate your way across what is known as the Milky Way which is exactly what we did for the first 4 days. We were challenged but able to enjoy the slopes offered. I am the most cautious of all of us so I was usually bringing up the rear.

After four days of exploring the Alps, we traded in our skies for snowboards. Two years ago we had a snowboard lesson in Tennessee and aday to try it out. This time, everyone caught on quite well, particularly the kids. After a few body altering wipe outs the first day, I became too conservative to be any good. Seeing the occupied snowmobile stretcher going past didn't help. Dennis consoled me with, "Hon, you just don't have the snowboarder personality." I think it was an explanantion to why I wasn't getting it or was it an insult? Hmm - that's me laid flat, resting safely on the ground. Really, I laughed a lot and as I looked around, I realized I was living proof why there aren't too many 44 year old women snowboarding, in fact I saw none. I really did want to learn and be able to enjoy that new skill with the kids. Oh well.

At the end of the day, while we collapsed on the bed for some reading, a nap and a shower, Nathan immediately changed into snow boots and headed outside with his 'bum board' to sled and have snow ball fights with other kids. He never seemed tired or sore!! I guess that's a tell tale difference

between 10 years old and 44 years old.

It was a real treat of a week. We thoroughly enjoyed the winter wonderland, the time to exercise, read, talk, eat and rest just the five of us.