June 8-10th
Today we arrived at Lake Buckhorn in Millersburg , Ohio Cleveland
When we were about 30 minutes away, I was scheduled to be on our team leader call with my Isagenix team. I made a commitment to be on this call as Marcia Weider, The Dream University, was going to be offering some amazing incentives exclusively to our team, to attend her remaining few workshops/trainings. The kids were great and understanding. While I listened to Marcia speak about her workshops I was in awe of her presence. She was so commanding. Her level of belief in what she had available to us was captivating. She definitely enrolled me….AND my programs around time and money scarcity popped up big time…that is another story.
When we arrived, the kids flew out of the car and went to see their pals Dominic, Nathanial, and Arianna. I remained on the call and sat in my car. I noticed that I was feeling guilt for remaining on the call AND feeling guilt for wanting to hang up. I was at my destination and I made a commitment to unplug while here. I decided to unload the car, and then hang up J . And I did! It was time to have FUN!
So, the kids took all of 3.5 minutes to get settled and they were out the door, with swimsuits on, heading down to the boat dock to swim. I found out I was sharing a bunk with Lauren (the nine year old who snores like a 500 lb. truck driver) …JOY!!! This is time to connect! Two other families, one of which we know, will be arriving on Saturday. This will be great…except Joe and Michelle are getting the room I coveted! Joy….connecting….carefree, right!!? I AM flexible and CAREFREE, so no biggie!
Ok, got all the food unpacked….the kids were already in their swimsuits and down by the boat. So, I change into my swimsuit and started worrying about my damn hair getting messed up once we head out for an afternoon of tubing, “jumbo dogging” and other shenanigans….fun, connecting….BE Carefree!! I got over it pretty quickly and off we went!
I love being out on the water, especially this lake that stays nice and calm and flat! The kids were swimming and then it was time to boat up. Christopher, my 7 yr. old tends to be a little trepidatious on the water. He will eventually get on the “hamburger” (giant tubing thing), but usually sits and observes from the boat for the first couple runs around the lake. Lauren, jumped right out there and off we went. I LOVE watching them laugh and seeing the pure joy on their faces. This is priceless to me. After several runs and the kids taking turns on the Jumbo Dog and “The hamburger”, Christopher asked me to go on the Jumbo Dog with him.
Pause…..
The Jumbo Dog…..Do you remember the movie “Jaws”? Do you remember the big rocket looking thing that people sat on that was dragged behind a boat? Well, the Jumbo Dog is quite similar, except it looks like a giant, blown up hot dog. It seats 5 and, well, the rest speaks for itself!
Ok, so me and Claudia (my friend and neighbor) climb on. I go in the back, she goes in the front and we have 2 children in between. You can only imagine the grown up jokes flying around about this! ;) heeheeheehee! Claudia’s husband, Mike, starts up and off we go. After about 30 seconds, I see Claudia bounce up in front; then I bounce up in back; then she bounces; then I bounce….Imagine if you will…and inflatable teeter-tatter. She yells at me to stop bouncing! I yell at her to stop bouncing! The kids yell at us to stop bouncing! OH MY! We were screaming and laughing so hard. And, Mike kept speeding the boat up faster and faster. It was all too much! It felt like and eternity and it was so much fun. Once we got ourselves back on the boat, regained our breath from laughing so hard we determined that the Jumbo Dog may be better suited for those with smaller butts!
We had an amazing evening and the kids crashed hard! And, sharing the room with the 9 yr. old snore queen was actually FUN. I think I crashed just as hard, because never heard a sound out of her.
Saturday, I honored myself with a 20-minute run….lots of inclines…Wow! We had a great day Saturday. Two other families joined us and Lauren was excited because she goes to school with Jordan and her sister Taylor. Interestingly, the boat dock roof also serves as a jumping board. Most of the kids jumped. Not my Christopher. He was content sitting and watching. Taylor
So for those of us who have deeply entrenched ourselves in K&A work, think of “The Edge” or even “Mount Everest ”. This was my little girl’s moment to overcome her fear. (Ironically, last summer she jumped off that roof for hours!). God Bless dads floating in the water, on their noodles, with Miller Lite’s in hand. The coached, encouraged, cheered rallied, and celebrated her. She stood and cried….tried to climb back down the ladder; went back up; got back down; cried some more; and then stood and contemplated. I sat and watched. She looked at me at one point, high up from the roof and said, “I am scared”. I said, “Jellybean, you get to go when you are ready. Make a choice and go with it. Choose and Move.” Lauren snarked back, “We aren’t at Sam Camp Mom!!” Ugh! I decided to shut up. This was her journey, her moment. Mr. Joe, floated close to where she could land, and patiently waited. And, then she did it! She jumped and came out of the water with the biggest grin on her face. So, need I say more on what Lauren did for the next hour? She jumped off the roof top, with joy!
My regret….that I did not jump off with her. She wanted me to do it. I noticed that my “looking good” programs popped up for me. What was I afraid of? I mean, my 9-yr. old dug deep to find the courage. I promise….the next time we go down there, the first thing I do will be to jump off that boat dock roof!
It was so nice to just BE, to swim with the kids and to watch them have so much fun. I did not miss my blackberry at all. I was not once tempted to check my emails. I enjoyed being unplugged and definitely look forward to more activities where I can do that again.
We played hard, and arrived home with more memories to add to our hearts and excitement for what else is store.
No comments:
Post a Comment