What's Hot

I had this random desire to do my own What's Hot/What's Not List:

HOT

3/4 Length Sleeves (my arms are really short)

David Duchovny (I still love him even after his stint in sex rehab)

Criminal Minds (TV Show, not literally)

Cruise to Greece

NOT

Skinny Jeans (because I'm not)

Rush Limbaugh (he was never hot)

American Idol (just bored with it)

Snow in Portland

Lost & Found

Back in November, on a train from London to Windsor, Joey left behind Michael's camera with, at that time, the only pictures of our trip to London.

As soon as we realized he had left the camera on the train, we ran back to the train station, but the train was gone. Apparently, Lost & Found on the London Rail is not such a high tech department. The station master at Windsor called the station master at Oxford, who told him Lost & Found items were only returned to London (the origin of the train), once per week. And for that particular train that day was Monday. Unfortunately, we would be on a plane back to the US on Monday.

Well, there is a happy ending to the story. The camera finally ended up in Bristol, England and after six weeks of calling train stations and enlisting the help of a friend in London, the camera finally ended up back home with us this week. Pictures intact! Interestingly enough, after we got over our disappointment of losing the camera, we purchased a disposable camera at a gift shop at Windsor Castle--which is now lost. Anyway, here are the lost pictures from Michael's camera:

Waiting for the On/Off Bus outside the National Gallery off Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square

In the cab on the way to High Tea at The Ritz

Big Ben & Parliament from the On/Off Bus

The Tower of London

Horse Guard at Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

All four of us (a rare picture) outside our hotel at the Marriott Grosvenor Square.

Bridget's New Job

Since Bridget brought her tools with her today when she came to visit, we decided she was ready for a real job.

So we put her to work as Danny's assistant.

She really seemed to enjoy the pink spackle.

Until the spackle dried and turned white and then she said it was broken.

Sibling Chronicles: Chapter Five

Wow, first a bit of a preface and an apology to siblings that got their posts early on. The longer I do this, the more pictures I find. Plus Kim is the oldest of the Karen and Loy Godsey clan, and the oldest always has more pictures to choose from, it's just the way it is.

I am really excited that I am nearing the end of my sibling chronicles... Of my ten siblings, I am on the countdown from three down to one and, yes, Kim is my 3rd sibling.

Born, February 25, 1972, Kimberly Godsey Williams has no middle name, so for a while she did go by Kim Berly Godsey.

Kim was born at Woodland Park Hospital and at the time, children were not allowed to visit the maternity ward for fear of passing on all kinds of nasty germs to new babies and new mommies. So, since the hospital is all on one level (or the maternity ward is on the ground level, I can't remember), we walked around the building and found Karen's room and then Dad lifted me and Tiff up so we could see in and wave to Karen and see our new baby sister--and she was a cutie.

Kim at four months. They have really improved on the binky designs since 1972.

These old family photos are classics. Everyone in the photo seems to be looking at the same photographer, except Dad.

And, the bathtub shot

My favorite memories of Kim as a baby definitely included lots of curls and lots of cloth diapers. I don't believe disposable diapers were mainstream when Kim was born... and so with all her cumbersome cloth diapers she waddled around everywhere.

These two photos were taken on Kim's first birthday

Here it is. Way back on May 6th, I posted a picture to my blog of me making cookies at Nana and Papa's house and I promised a picture of Kim sitting on the stairs, looks like she is even wearing Papa's fishing hat

Buffy was not that big of a dog, but he sure looks like it in this picture. That green chair really shows up in a lot of family pictures.... does it still exist?

Jill, Kim and Baby Byron at the trailer on Jim and Mary Jane's property. How can I tell? Why orange shag carpet and orange and white poly drapes, that's how. Gotta love the 70's.

Christmas celebration at the Church House. Kim does not look very happy about being on Santa's lap.

Kim is a great big sister to her six younger siblings. As previously posted, Kim did dominate Jill some when they were little, but when Kim got older, she adored her siblings and spent a great deal of time nurturing them. The back of this picture reads: "Kim is sleepy, Andy is hungry"

Kim and Joe on their wedding day.

Kim, Joe & Jake Williams. A pretty special

little family of three.

Stolen Question

My sister Betsy has a blog and she does a weekly post called "Question of the Week". Her question last week was: Which countries have you visited, which are on your list to visit?

Since Michael and I will be celebrating our 20th Wedding Anniversary this summer, I decided to "borrow" Betsy's post idea and make the 'which are on your list to visit' part the planning list for our anniversary vacation.

So, which countries have I visited:

Canada: Vancouver & Victoria

Mexico Land Trips: Punta Mita outside of Puerta Vallarta & Zihuatanejo, we also visited Cozumel on a cruise. On this same cruise we visited:

Roatan, Honduras & Belize City, Belize.

United Kingdom: England & Scotland

San Juan Puerto Rico (which is technically US territory, but it doesn't feel like it)

Germany: Berlin

Sweden: Stockholm

Estonia: Tallin

Finland: Helsinki

Denmark: Copenhagen

Russia: St. Petersburg

Japan: Lots of cities, having lived there for a period in 1987 and then visiting a few times since then

British West Indies/Caribbean (on multiple cruises): Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, Nevis

French & Dutch Caribbean: St. Martin/St. Maarten

Now for the fun part. Which countries are on my wish list for a visit, in no particular order (I know this is a long list, but it is a wish list):

Peru

Ireland

Spain

France

Norway

Switzerland

Germany

Italy

Greece

Fiji

French Polynesia

Maldive Islands

Australia

New Zealand

We welcome any suggestions...

Neil Diamond Rocks

I am really too tired to post much more right now other than Neil Diamond is AWESOME. I know I use that word too often, and it is dated, but it really does describe exactly the word I am going for, so I will keep using it until I find a better one.

Michael purchased Neil Diamond concert tickets for my birthday last May. They were for Neil's Portland stop on his World Tour, scheduled last September. Unfortunately, Neil had to cancel a few dates on his tour due to illness--Portland was one of them. Thankfully, the concert was rescheduled for tonight. I am here to say, no one has a voice like Neil Diamond. The guy is 67 years old and unbelievable. His old stuff, his new stuff, even songs I don't really care that much for were fantastic in front of a Rose Garden full of Neil Diamond fanatics. I am thinking the average age in there was 50, but that did not matter. Who would have thought that much excitement could come from a nearly geriatric to downright geriatric crowd. Arms were waving, feet were stomping, women were screaming, gray hair was bobbing everywhere. I think everyone left their shirt on, thank goodness.

Well, I guess I'm not that tired. For as long as I can remember, my parents have been listening to Neil Diamond. When I was in high school (and there was no such thing as computers) I had fun "business" classes like typing and shorthand. Shorthand actually can come in quite handy and weirdly enough, sometimes I still think in shorthand (stay with me here, I promise I have a point). Anyway, one day in class the teacher decided to combine learning with fun and so she brought in some albums (yes, real vinyl albums) and said she was going to test our skills by playing part of a song and seeing how many words we could get of the song (in shorthand, of course). Well, she thought she was so clever and the first song she picked was Neil Diamond's Done Too Soon which goes something like this:

Jesus Christ, Fanny Brice,

Wolfie Mozart, Humphrey Bogart,

Genghis Khan and on to H.G. Wells

Ho Chi Minh, Gunga Din

Henry Luce and John Wilkes Booth

and Alexanders King and Graham Bell.

I particularly love the part that goes:

They have sweated beneath the same sun,

Looked up in wonder at the same moon,

And wept when it was all done

For bein' done too soon

Anyway, back to class, so she puts on Done Too Soon (which is pretty fast) thinking no one's going to get past the first couple names... little did she know, I had this song memorized. I had listened to it dozens and dozens of times. Its one of my favorites. Anyway, she stopped the song about half way in and every one else was just looking around and I was still writing... not only had I written the part she had played, but I finished writing the entire song in shorthand. The teacher just stood there. Anyway, I know I was pretty much cheating (and quite the nerd), but it was fun anyway.

A while back we rented a movie named Keeping up with the Steins or something like that. It had a pretty good cast, but it was a crazy movie about rich Jewish families trying to one up their friends with these over the top themed Bar Mitzvah parties. The movie wasn't very good, however, a bit of dignity was redeemed at the very end when the kid decided to have his party in his own backyard and Neil Diamond showed up to play Hava Nagilah. It was.... AWESOME.

Anyway, I gotta get to bed, but I'll end with a couple of really hokey Neil Diamond lyrics and a couple of my all time favorite Neil Diamond lyrics:

Hokey:

Money's sweet but it ain't nothin' next to baby's treat

(Forever in Blue Jeans)

Singing So Good, So Good, So Good, three times

after Good times never seemed so good when Singing Sweet Caroline at the Neil Diamond Concert (they even had it printed on a t-shirt for sale)

Favorite:

So if they ask you when I'm gone

Was it everything he wanted?

When he had to travel on

Did he know he'd be missed?

You can tell them this... Hell yeah he did!

New Favorite:

Because of you, I get home before dark

(hey, I might even have to go out and buy the old guy's new album... well, I don't really have to "go" anywhere, I can probably sit right here at my computer and buy it on iTunes because we have computers these days :-)

Resolution

So, there's a joke that I think is funny.

I heard it again recently which made me think...

Here's the joke:

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. Then when you do criticize that person, you'll be a mile away and have their shoes.

I still think the joke is funny, but it makes me think about the original proverb which goes something like this:

Don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes. Don't judge another person's life until you've been forced to live it.

I don't normally partake in New Year's Resolutions because they usually have something to do with things that I never really am able to change, like only eating chocolate once a month or losing 20 pounds, but this year, I have made a resolution to myself that I will do my best from here forward, not just in 2009, to not judge (to myself or out loud) the actions of others by my own standards.

An excerpt from the Paulo Coelho Quote:

"... It's one thing to feel you are on the right path, but it is another to think that yours is the only path."

I will do my best to embrace the good in people and, to preserve my own sanity, if I cannot embrace only the good, I will walk away.

Faith Restored?

It snowed again last night in Portland... maybe 2-3 inches even. But then in the middle of the night, it warmed up and everything was gone in time for the kids to go back to school this morning--after a very long three week break. Yay! My faith in the Portland weather is nearly restored.

Unfortunately, our power went out this time from approx. 9:45pm to 4:30am. That was not so great. The worst part is the power goes out when everything is in full swing, and then it comes back on in the middle of the night, TV's come on, lights come on, things start beeping.... and there goes a peaceful night's rest.

Do you believe in Karma?

On New Year's Day Michael, Sammy and I decided to go see a movie: Apple - Movie Trailers - Slumdog Millionaire. It was an amazingly good feeling that we could just drive out of our driveway with almost no snow in sight. We headed on down to Fox Tower Cinemas which is pretty close to our house and since we work in the Fox Tower, we pay for parking anyway, so we might as well take advantage of it on the weekend too. For some reason the excruciatingly expensive Fox Tower Cinemas was swamped (who knew everyone in Portland went downtown to a movie at 5pm on New Years Day?). At about 4:55pm we arrive for a 5:20pm show. For the first time in my experience, there is a LINE at this theater, and for our movie. Now, this movie came out well over a month ago and its not like its Harry Potter or anything. We got in line, but the theaters are super small at the Fox Tower so I knew it was going to be tough to find three seats together with as far back in the line as we were. We entered the theater and as people were scurrying to their seats I saw a row towards the back that had four seats left. We graciously made our way up to the top, patiently waiting behind, hmm, hmm older folks trying to get seated. We politely make our way past a couple at the end of the aisle and just as I am about to sit down, a guy and his girlfriend jump the seats and hurriedly sit down in two of the four seats. I say, excuse me, but we have three people and we were here first and we came in the proper way--and he looks me in the face and says: "since we are actually sitting in the seats, obviously we got here first" and then he looks away. His girlfriend actually did look mortified, but he looked rather pleased with himself. By the time this altercation ended, there were only single seats left throughout the theater--and the front row, of course. So, we exited the row and the theater and did not see the movie. We did not end up seeing a movie that day.

So, I have to be honest, a little piece of me is hoping some bad will come to that "guy"-- I actually wished some bad Karma his way... is that wrong?

A Year in Review

We have already said good-bye to 2008 and here's

a little recap of why it was a pretty great year:

In January, we spent a long weekend in Los Angeles with Michael's Parents

In February, Michael and I spent Valentine's Day in London. Michael is window shopping at the Portobello Road Street Market

In March, Sammy's baseball season officially started. During spring break we took it easy and spent a few days at the Oregon Coast.

In April, Sammy's 8th grade class spent two weeks in Japan. Sammy is looking upside down at the Amanohashidate bridge. If you look at it upside down, it looks like it is a bridge to the heavens. Michael was also in Japan at the same time as Sammy, for business.

In May, Joey attended his first prom with his girlfriend Julia. The boys also made their annual trek to the Sasquatch Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State.

In June, Joey did back to back outdoor trips with his school. The first a biking trip through the Redwoods which returned to school at approx. 7pm on a Sunday night and then he turned around and left at 7am the next morning for a grueling five day backpacking trip to Hell's Canyon. Sammy also graduated from the 8th grade in June.

For 4th of July weekend, we visited with the Lubitz & Bloch families in Bellevue, WA. This picture is taken at Snoqualmie Falls Lodge where we had brunch on Sunday. Michael is not in the picture because he had already left for a business trip to London and Paris.

August was dedicated to mourning for the passage of our Golden Retriever Kelsey and then celebration of the new addition to our family: Lily. Sammy and I also took a road trip to Salt Lake City to visit Uncle Andy and Lindsay and drop off some furniture to the new GTT-SLC office (no pictures for some reason).

In September, we celebrated a bountiful harvest from our garden. Sammy started high school and both boys are back at the same school again, yippee!

In October, Joey and Sammy went on a school rafting trip and Michael and I celebrated Michael's 45th birthday in San Diego, CA. We also harvested the pumpkins from our garden and had a party.

In November we took an extended Thanksgiving Break vacation to London and Scotland.

And in December, we got snowed in!

Cheers to a fantastic 2009 for everyone!