Unexpected Events

These are my babies, Evan and Hallie. I love them very much.

Early this morning, around 1 a.m., I had an allergic reaction to something. I have been plagued by this most of my life. I take a deep breath outside and suck in some unknown particle and WHAM! My face swells up and I look a bit like Shrek. Or I eat a hamburger, with a soy filler, and I get the giant fat lip. Last nights reaction was just as fast and seemingly unwarranted.

I was awakened by a nauseating feeling in my throat and neck. I got up and was trying to look at my throat, in the blinding glare of the bathroom light. Squinting hard, I couldn't tell what the heck was going on. Then, my neck, chest, arms, and trunk of my body started breaking out in hives. I turned brilliant red. My throat began closing, tongue swelling blocking air and making it difficult to speak. I tried to take a Benedryl to calm the symptoms, but my body violently rejected this.

I live with my Mom, and I felt terrible waking her up to take me to the emergency room. On retrospect, I'll opt for an ambulance if this occurs again. Anyway, Mom gets up and drives me to the hospital. My care was very good. After a couple of shots and a few hours resting, I was released and sent home to sleep off the drugs. This morning, I am clear of rashes and swelling.

As traumatic as this experience sounds, it was nothing compared to what I heard while in the hospital.

This is Senior Week (more like month) in Ocean City. High School seniors swarm to the beaches for a week of sun and fun, celebrating the completion of their high school education. They come in droves! There are always sad stories associated with this visitation by young adults. This year will prove no different.

There are drug busts, the underaged attempting to get into bars with false ID's, jaywalking, jumping off of beach house balconies, usual childish pranks. And there are deaths.

There were 4 young adults in emergency care when I arrived at the hospital. At least one did not live. I know this because I could see and hear the arrival of parents and family. And the horrifying muffled sounds of a doctors voice, followed by skin crawling, hair raising, "nooooo," accompanied by heart wrenching sobs.

What a sad end to a young life.

Parents let your children read this and remind them that accidents happen. Don't tempt fate. Be conservative and stay alive. That Mothers cry remains with me now. She was devastated. The Father was stoically silent, eyes reddened, willing himself to remain strong for the family. Hearts broken.

So while I re-cooperate from this allergic reaction today I give thanks for all I have. For the fact that my children, ages 25 and 27, made it through the teen years. For the home I have with my Mom. For my family and their support. And for the ability to breathe.

Breathe deeply. Give thanks and praises. Play smart. Life is a gift. Don't toss it away lightly for a moments thrill.

Don't Forget the Sister!

For the past month or so I have been trying to get my sister to check out my etsy.com page. Not that she doesn't know what my jewelry looks like. I was just wanting her opinion and critique. Sisters are always good for critique! :) So this morning she tells me, "I finally went to your etsy site, but it was really your blog."

I am thrilled she read my blog - still waiting to see what she thinks of the etsy page - but, after reading my blog, she was not a happy camper. Why? Because I neglected to mention her in the sand castle blog of yesterday. It was not intentional.

My little sister had many jobs when we would gather at the beach for family reunions. Most notably, she was in charge of bringing puzzles. We have built dozens of puzzles over the years. Dragons, country stores, ocean scenes, shaped puzzles, puzzles with all the same size pieces - we've done it all.

It was also my sisters sand tools we used to build the castles. She had the youngest kids in the group, so she was still bringing shovels and such, long after my kids were done with that phase. It was also with her help, that I gathered and placed all the shells and beach finds on our sand creations. Building the "city" around the main design, was mostly her job, too. I could always count on her help. And we really enjoyed playing in the sand together.

Whenever you have family gathering in a condo for a week, you have unpleasant chores as well as the grand memories. Sometimes the chores and grand memories are one. So while Mom was cleaning and my brother was cooking, my sister and I volunteered to do laundry. It was not a hard task. It meant gathering and sorting the laundry everyday. We'd haul it down to the laundry room, 4 flights below the condo. Then every 30 minutes or so, we'd return to the laundry room to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer and haul dry ones back up to the condo. We considered the running up and down the steps as part of our aerobics for the week. It was an opportunity to get away from everyone - especially the young children. We secretly LOVED doing the laundry!

This year, we are not gathering. The condo we have had for the last 10 years or so, is no longer being rented. While a few relatives will gather at my Mom's house, it won't be the same as the past years. Kids are growing up, moving to far away places, jobs, girlfriends and boyfriends, they all play into vacation time, and it's gotten hard to gather everyone. I hold the memories of 129th St. condo near and dear to my heart.

Just like I hold my sister near and dear to my heart. We won't have the laundry room to run away to, but we could still build a sand castle together. Bring a puzzle and the sand toys. Maybe in the evening we could visit my site at etsy.com.

Have a great day!

Peace!

Still awaiting fame . . .

When my family would gather in Ocean City, MD for our annual family reunions, we all had our designated chores. My brother, the chef (for real) obviously, was relegated to cooking, while my Mom, did cleaning and pancakes for breakfast. I have always been handy with the camera, so I took the photos. I also was in charge of designing and building the sand castles.

My castles weren't of the caliber you see on some of the forwarded e-mails I have received from major competitions around the country. I didn't have any rising castles out of the sand with dragons swirling about them. But, mine were still cool. I put a lot of detail in them, using straight edges to cut walls and buildings, shells to decorate windows, path ways, and even draw bridges. I created dolphins swimming in the sea, turtles, laying eggs, dragons coming out of the sand and plenty of geometrical designs.

One year, a young girl, maybe 6, watched as I made my castle. She was very impressed. She ran and got her Mom. Mom was impressed, too. Then the young girl looked at me with such sincerity and said,

"You should be famous!"

I'm still waiting to be famous. But I do believe the young girl was right. I should be famous.

Please check out my jewelry at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beadhappy4u

before I get famous and run out of stuff!

Have a great day!