Saturday, July 25, 2009

Festivals, Photos, Friends and Challenges


It has been a busy week, but what else is new in our fast paced American lives? Last weekend was the Lavender Festival in Sequim and I had 4 UW college students come for the festivities. We had a lot of fun. We also went to the game farm to see the animals. I let Suzanne drive my car with Susan and Catherine up front so they could see the animals up close and personal! It was very funny to see Catherine leap away from the window when a yak decide to stick his head in!!! Fun times.
Rachel also had some portraits taken. She has wanted to take them with the pickup for a long time so we took dad's old 66 Chevy and grandpa Chumley's old cowboy hat and had some fun. She has done some great editing to the photos for color emphasis but I don't have those on my computer. She is very good at photo editing. So it has been a fun busy summer so far.
She is sure growing up fast!

This past week Rachel was off to cheer camp
so I did a little traveling. I saw my mom and Phil. Then I went to lunch and dinner with a lot of different dear friends and spent some time with the Munks. So it was a fun trip for me. By the time I picked up the girls from cheer camp, we were all ready to go home.
Now that we are home, well it is boring and I am back to the same old stuff. Mow the lawn, file papers, go through boxes of stuff. . . it can really get old. That will keep me busy for awhile until I get restless and want to go again!
On another note, I find it interesting that even when we are happy and enjoying life, we really never seem to be completely happy with ourselves. We are very critical of ourselves. For example, instead of focusing on my smile, every now and then I find myself focusing on my weight. I guess it doesn't help when I come back from my mom's place. I told her I was going to go in her bathroom to take a shower and she asked me if I would fit in her shower because it is small. Excuse me? Just because she weighs 100 pounds doesn't mean I am that huge! I have dealt with that all my life with her. I guess I didn't get her metabolism. It makes me feel like I will never be good enough for any one unless I get thin. What is with that and why do we do that to ourselves? True confessions from my marriage? I never did feel good enough for Mike. There was always something wrong with me. I don't ever want to feel like that again!!! We always said he was honest to a fault, (if that is even possible.) If I walked downstairs ready to go somewhere, instead of complimenting me he would point out what was wrong. One time he told me the color of my dress wasn't appropriate for church...WHAT? We have church colors??? Anyway living with that and my mother, I guess sometimes I let it get to me and I go off track. I love who I am. I can always get better. I don't need the world to tell me what I should or shouldn't look like. Now if I can just believe that 100% of the time and not let the world's standards get to me...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Yet ANOTHER example, of the millions already, of just how superficially dumb your mother is.

You are beautiful mom. And an absolutely wonderful person. I wish I was more like you

serenity now said...

I love what you say in the last paragraph and admire your ability to tell yourself truth in spite of negativity from others. And I wish I could have tagged along with Suzanne and Company on their lavender festival visit with you. Sounded like fun!

Otter Mum's Den said...

I fell in the trap of looking at myself through others' standards. Growing up in France in a very superficial world where the definition of beauty was rail thin models, I was considered fat when my measurements were 32-28-32 and I weighed 144 #. Those five pounds above what was considered a healthy weight for my height of 5 feet 7 inches by French standards (yup 139 was the upper end of what was considered normal for that height in France) nearly sent me on a loop of bulimia and anorexia, until I said, "Enough is enough! I like ME, just the way I am!" Kudos for expressing that on your blog!