Day 20: Sports

Sports are very important to me.  I love to be active and watch others being active.  It was practically pumping through my veins as a child.  My family is a huge football family.  I have very fond memories of huge (and I mean HUGE) Nebraska Huskers parties.  I always thought my Dad kind of resembled Herby the Husker.  :)

I grew up playing soccer.  In Junior High, I added in basketball and volleyball.  In high school, I started diving.  My boys play sports -- and I love that in addition to being so good at them, they really enjoy them.  Soccer, football and now wrestling takes up a lot of our free time.  I wouldn't want it any other way - it's a great way to grow up and have things in common with your parents/your child.

I have vivid memories around the football fields watching my brothers too. In fact, that is when I became a Packer fan.  My brothers played Pop Warner for "The Packers" -- I was all of  4 or 5 and started my love and loyalty for the green and gold back then.  And, today, my favorite Packer announced he is retiring.  Although that makes me sad, Donald Driver is such a class act.  I couldn't be happier for his loyalty and dedication to the Green Bay Packers -- and for keeping it classy.  (Still question the "Dancing with the Stars" commitment, but hey, he won!  LOL)  Anyway....thanks #80 -- and I, personally, will miss you!

Day 19: Fireworks

When I was growing up, we spent the fourth of July at our cabin in Nebraska.  We had the biggest and best firework shows there...ever.  My parents must have spent a fortune on things that literally went up in smoke in the matter of seconds.  It was there that I learned to light them off, fire them at my brothers and sisters, and heard the BOOM of m80s, 100s and even 1000s.  My Dad delighted in throwing a package of blackcats at our feet during dinner and I often awoke from my nightly slumber to cracks of fireworks and the peaceful smell of smoke bombs.

(I was going to write about how I literally saw and felt fireworks when I first kissed my husband....I mean it -- it was like the stuff cartoons are made of....but I'll refrain... well, sort of.)

Day 18: Wild at Heart

Today is Martin Luther King Day.  I am a big fan of his....and believe in my heart that I would have walked beside him in his plight for equality.  It takes a wild heart, a brave soul, a determined courage, a never ending love and a dream -- we cannot forget the dream.

Some of my favorite quotes from a beautiful man:

Quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.:
*Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. 

*I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. 

*Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

*I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

*The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

*A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

*Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

*A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

*An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

*In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

*Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

*Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

*A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
*Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

*We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

*The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

* A lie cannot live. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Day 17: Graveyard

Of course this reminds me of my Dad.

Back in the day, I was home from college and in the car with my parents, when my Dad told me he wanted to show me something.  We pulled into the cemetary.  "Strange," I thought.  Dad drove around to the back and we all got out of the car.  He came up next to me and said, "I just bought this land for your Mom and I."  "Ew, Dad, this is creepy."  He laughed his silly cackle laugh, put his arm around me, spun me around softly and said, "Look, you can sit here and visit us, and have a perfect view of Camelback Mountain!"  "Ok, great, can we go now?"

And, that's the truth.

So, there lies my Dad...and when I visit, I gaze up to the huge mountain and can almost hear him say, "I told you so."

Always the thinker, that man.

(Here is a picture of me, my brothers, and my baby boy wishing him a Merry Christmas with a bottle of Jack -- you can't see the mountain in this picture though...cause...well, duh!...we're looking at it!)

Day 16: Different World

Day 15: Books

(I actually just got some -- my school books just came in the mail -- here we go again.  boo!)

I am not a huge reader -- I like books that tend to make me better.  I like the books that are more along the self-help type.  I started reading them a very long time ago -- things that make me happy or make me think differently.  After the divorce, I read them more to help me make sense of the struggle I had created and help empower me to take control of my life and create happiness.  In my quest for contentment, I stumbled across Buddism and my reading took off.  There are a lot of awesome books out there about Buddhism.  I've read several.  The Storms Can't Hurt the Sky was an UNBELIEVABLE BOOK that helped me actually start to get along with my ex-husband a bit.  I really should read it again, as we are at odds yet again...as evidenced by the current book on my nightstand...