Second Visits

Last week Mom and Papa Fisher came to sunny Scottsdale for a visit. Actually, what's funny is, it wasn't so sunny. Mom didn't find that funny. (These rhymes are unintentional.) I felt terrible, because obviously, one comes to Arizona expecting rays and heat and palm trees. And that is our norm 364 days a year. Mom and Dad just happened to be here on the annual week of clouds and gloom and rain.

The horrible part: I loved it.

It made me want to curl up and read and snooze and watch movies. And actually, for a lot of their visit, that's what we did! That's what's great about Second Visits. You don't have to have the traditional "let's go see the sites" kind of time together. You can have REAL time together. As if they lived down the street, and we happened to take a Saturday to shop at Tempe Marketplace.

That's my backwards way of saying I'm trying to bamboozle them into moving down the street.

(Although I don't think that would be too hard, honestly. The excessiveness of Dad's "oohs" and "ahhs" at the scenery and his endless references to foreclosed homes was telling. AHEM.)

On an honest and more somber note, I can't describe the yuckiness of the ends of Mom-and-Dad visits. I've blogged before about how I'm not cut out to live this far from them. When they leave, all I can think about are these pretty childhood memories that I wish I could grab back.

But homesickness ain't nothing a little bitta Aaron Michael and Biggest Loser can't fix, right? At least temporarily.

So this week got off to a tear-filled start when Mom and Dad caught their return flight on Monday morning, but it's looking up now. After all, it IS the 99th anniversary of the Titanic's voyage. Coolest week of the year. What have you been up to?

Monday Nonsense

Ok, friends. Here's the dealio, as Michael Scott would say. Due to the 'political' nature of my new job, my boss is a bit wary of me having a public blog. (They were burned in the not-too-distant past by an employee with a weak social network filter. Ahem.) However, upon hearing that, after I got over the initial devastation (not really) I researched and found a way to have an invite-only blog. So for now, you all and I share a secret. :)

That being said, I didn't start this post with a lot to say. Just wanted to be in the blog world again.

So, my sweet Mom and Dad are coming out to ol' Scottsdale tomorrow for their yearly April visit, and it feels like Christmas Eve. Aaron and I just completed the Baer Apartment Deep Clean of 2011, and that feels lovely. We blasted Mute Math, John Mayer, and Eisley. Also the vacuum joined in on the noise factor.

While I was cleaning the shower and Aaron Michael was sweeping the furniture, I had one of those existential moments where I realized I was actually having fun, and that Aaron is just the stinkin' bee's knees. Sometimes I think people imagine the 'domestic' parts of marriage to be anti-climactic. I certainly used to, before we got married. But I would trade the awkward tension of dating for the happy hum-drum of cleaning together almost any day.

We were born in different states. We literally never knew of each other for the first 18 years of our lives. Now we are inseparable and we clean our apartment together in music-filled silence. Who could've known?

That reminds me of a line in "Memoirs of a Geisha," which I just finished and have been mulling over all day. But I can't quite recall the line right now. It is about the rhythm of life and how our destiny is like a stone falling toward the earth... it's the most beautiful line and I'm butchering it. But this is where I tell you that if you really want to hear it, you'll have to go read the book. Then, of course, call me so we can chat about it!

Alright, time for my nightly glass of cranberry juice (girlfriends: jump on this train. If you'd like to know why, Google it or e-mail me.) and then a little bit of reading. Tonight I'm starting "Water for Elephants."

I have to say a thank you before I go, though. I was nervous putting myself out there to have an e-mail only blog, because I wasn't sure if I'd have any takers. But ya'll made me feel very loved and I'm so glad we can share this together. And hey - if you have a blog too, would you mind leaving it in the comments? I really really want to follow you.

Goodnight, friends.
Maria

How Grand

Mom and Dad are here. I could reflect on how rarely I see them, etc., but I'd rather just say how much fun it is to have them here, and how much fun we are having! Yesterday we went to the Grand Canyon - the first time seeing it for all four of us (my hubby included.) It was incredible... it was so fascinating what confusion it brings to one's depth perception. You could honestly look at it from a few different angles and believe it was 2-d... it's hard to imagine how vast it is, even while looking at it. How much fun God must've had creating all of that.

Isn't it kind of cool to know you're seeing exposed rock that was there when the dinosaurs were here? I think I was the only person in our group yesterday who found that endlessly fascinating, but I embrace it.

There's Aaron Michael, me, Ma and Pa! Yes, I had dreams all night of falling off the edge.

Well, Mom and Dad got here on Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday afternoon I found myself in the hospital with stomach pain so bad, I thought they really didn't take my appendix three years ago and it was attacking me again. As we were on our way to the hospital, I started thinking what absolutely ridiculous, exasperating and horrible timing this was. I haven't seen my parents since Christmas and don't really know the next time I'll see them, and here we were going to be spending our afternoon at Scottsdale HealthCare hospital.

Whenever my plans are frustrated like that, I usually try to condition myself to think of how it could be worse; or why it might be GOOD timing and I'm just not feeling it. For example. I kept telling myself on Wednesday that I should count myself lucky, because my mom just happened to be here for my hospital visit - and who doesn't want their mom around when you're feeling awful? But I was having trouble convincing my heart to be positive...

And I thought about how God felt about the afternoon. I am sure that He gave me that stomach ache (the doc. believes I have an ulcer - have to go for a follow-up next week) at that moment for a reason, and that it happened at the 'right time.' That might sound silly - that God gives that much attention to my minutia - but I think He does. Not because I'm important, but because He's God. That's a blog for another day, I suppose...

But anyway, I started imagining how OFTEN God must be whispering "just WAIT...I know what I'm doing..." and how He must feel whispering that. Do you know that feeling? It's like that feeling when you're doing something kind for someone, but they interpret it at first as cruelty.

I'll give a silly example. On Saturday before Easter, I made Aaron a yummy batch of Funfetti cookies (Aar has a funfetti problem) while he was at the baseball game, and hid them in the storage closet to give him on Easter. That night, after dinner, he started begging me to make a batch of cookies. I kept telling him no, and he got frustrated enough that he decided to make them himself. I eventually just got out the funfetti's and let him at it ;), but while he was asking for cookies beforehand, I really felt like I came off pretty cruel. Why wouldn't I make him some? He seemed legitimately bewildered. But I felt anxious - I wished I could just tell him "WAIT! I know what I'm doing!" Do you know that feeling? It's not comfortable. It makes my belly hurt. (Though I guess these days, what doesn't? Nice.)

Anyway, my goal is to keep God from that stomach ache; to be able to tell him "I believe you. I'll wait to get frustrated. I'll figure this is for the best." Don't know if I'll ever get there, but I'll keep trying. Good thing we have a God who smiles on trying.

(That reminds me of my favorite CS Lewis quote: "He wants [us] to learn to walk and therefore He takes away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with [our] stumbles.")

Well, the stomach ache is on the back burner for now (always there, but not nearly as bad) and I am loving the time with Mom and Dad. We are back from the Grand Canyon and going to eat at an awesome Italian restaurant tonight. :)

Happy Saturday!