Monday With Mom: The Need for Respite

When life is chaotic and the candle is rapidly burning from both ends, it is time to find a moment or two of respite (per the dictionary – a temporary suspension of distressing or trying times)

Stress is bad – Relaxation is good.

I am in stress overload mode. I declared a much needed day of respite (well ….actually it is a ½ day– the morning was spent in meetings). The afternoon is to be spent driving from Montezuma, Iowa to Omaha, NE – but that is irrelevant. I will find my respite on the road.

The goal – I have 3.5 hours in the car and I am going to find as much laughter and relaxation as possible at 70 mph.

Available tools – a camera (to capture the moments) , 44 oz Diet Dr Pepper, the open road and a great radio station.

First challenge - my rent car had manual roll down windows. What?? How I am suppose to snap pictures while driving if I have to lean over and manually roll down the window.

And the Fun begins…

Montezuma pant-less man – I zipped past this house and at first glance, I thought someone was hanging from the porch. Slammed on the breaks, backed up and took a picture. Shortly after snapping the pic, the front door opened and a boxer wearing man said….”hey – what are you doing”. I sped away.

Trucks that I saw…. the HUGE tires, a HUGE tank and a marathon cheese truck (why would anyone think that branding cheese with “marathon” was a good idea)?

Signs I saw…Rest Area with Internet Access (very cool, Iowa) and the rivers…..Upper Skunk, Upper Raccoon, Middle Raccoon,….I guess the rule in Iowa is first vermin to be spotted gets to name the river? The river pics didn’t turn out, I was driving pretty fast and my aim was off.

Buildings that I saw….HOLY MOLY, Harley Davidson of Des Moines is in at barn with a silo. Love it.

More signs and things that made me go ….ahhhh, I wish I had more time….Bridges of Madison County, a Iowa vineyard and John Wayne’s home town. Yes, I would have absolutely visited all of the above except GPS kept warning me that I might miss my flight.

Bottom line – it was a wonderful ½ day and I am rejuvenated. Grab your moments of respite when you can. A little bit can go a long way. Even on a solo drive through Iowa, much relaxing laughter can be found.

Monday With Mom: Birthday!!

In honor of 25 years of Laura-ness, I found some classic pictures that chronicle her journey

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First – Laura tames the beast. In addition to her experiences with the wild animals of Africa, as a young child she tamed a wild horse and exerted her dominance over the fish of the sea.

 Second – Laura masters mobility. To address her need for speed, Laura learned to drive a motor cycle (check out the expression) and learned to snowboard (in most snowboarding pictures she is on her buttocks)

Third – Laura learns that a big smile goes a long ways. Whether holding crayons in her nostrils or wearing the birthday girl propeller beanie, Laura knew that her big smile was a great asset.

Last but not least……Meet Queen Tut. Ready to conquer the world.

Happy 25^th Birthday Laura!!!! You make my life rich!!!

Love, Mom

Monday With Mom: The Things They Carried

My teenage sons were given a reading assignment to read the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. It is the story of soldiers in Vietnam. I haven’t read the book but the title is thought provoking. I am in the midst of combining the “stuff” in the Greenville house with the “stuff” in the Owasso house. This is an exercise that is fairly common in the Grimmer household. We have moved 12 times. Each time, we go through the “stuff” and decide what items will make the cut and be the tangible reminders each chapter of our story. The “stuff” has no monetary value but a poo-load of sentimental value. Here are the five things that are making the cut (including a bonus treasure from 1998).

FDN magnet– I “borrowed” this magnet from the side of a FDN service vehicle when FDN became NuVox. I was walking out on my last day of work and couldn’t resist grabbing it off the side of the truck.

Target man- Amy and I decide to shoot the “man” as a team building event (hence our journey into becoming redneck women who could protect themselves).

Yellow spudger– my first and only telecom tool.

Plus a small box of miscellaneous – golf balls, markers and score cards (reminders of all the fun and memories on golf courses in Florida, South Carolina and Alabama), bear bell from my boss (so he could easily find me) and a smattering of other small treasures (including the corks from some very special bottles of wine)

Take a break and revisit the things you carry. It is good for the soul to stroll down memory lane. Enjoy!!!




And the bonus (a newly found old treasure that will be kept forever)…… while searching through the “stuff”, I found a newspaper clipping of Laura’s first surgery. She was unable to save the patient. :-)

Mondays With Mom: Refrigerator Doors

So my sister and I both have blogs, and my mom felt like she didn't have quite enough material to justify her own blog but still liked the idea of sharing her thoughts with the world.  So Rachel and I invited her to be a "Guest Blogger" on each of our sites once a month.  So here's her first post on Running With Scalpels!

By way of introduction, I am the proud mom of four talented and cute kids – (Laura is #2). I run in the corporate rat race in Greenville, SC during the week and spend the weekends hanging out with my hubby and boys in Owasso, OK. As a result, I have enough frequent flier miles to circle the globe and spend lots of time on planes pondering life.

I considered several topics for today –but settled on the following:

A tribute to the refrigerator door... The refrigerator door (RD) reveals the personalities and peculiarities of the inhabitants of the home. Snippets of life are memorialized on the RD. It is an ever -changing scrapbook that never completely changes. See picture below of our refrigerator. It currently displays 37 magnets, 19 pictures, 10 expired coupons, an magnetized oven mitt??, a 2006 award certificate for Daniel ( no one remembers what for), Ben’s solution to a complex math problem, the wrestling schedule (although wrestling season is over) and an essay Rachel wrote in 1997.

Random fact ….The average refrigerator/freezer is opened 58 times a day. It makes sense that we would load up this most visited location with the stuff that makes us happy – the smiling faces of family/ friends and silly memorabilia from our adventures. When we move (and we often do) – the refrigerator door treasures are loaded into a Ziploc bag and are among the first items to be unpacked and placed on their new home. Once the refrigerator door is loaded, the house starts feeling like home.

When Grandpa Grimmer was sick with cancer, we took a picture of the refrigerator door and made it into a puzzle for him. He delighted in seeing all the treasured pictures when he was unable to walk to the kitchen for a personal viewing. See below for the picture of completed puzzle.

When I visit my parents, I always spend a few minutes reviewing the RD. It is the fastest way to catch up on what is going on and I always smile remembering the times that my art work held the place of honor on the RD. See fuzzy picture below.

A refrigerator provides for the feed and caring of the body by keeping our milk unspoiled and our produce fresh but thankfully, it also provides for sustenance for our spirits – by reminding us 58 times a day of the joy in our lives. Or more succinctly said by my husband (when I asked for his thoughts for a conclusion)…..”the important stuff is on the outside".