A good hat is a night owl coping mechanism

Time: 7:15 am

How I Feel: Sleepy and annoyed

The next to last alarm out of eight finally woke me. (Yes, 8.) I had trouble going to sleep and staying asleep. 7:15 probably feels really late to a lot of people, but not me.

Yesterday I was getting over the awful migraine I had 2 days ago. I went home from Compassion and went to bed. That was probably 1/2 of my problem last night–I just wasn’t tired when I finally got in bed at 10:40 pm. But, boy did I need that nap!

The world doesn’t realize how difficult it is to be a night owl. Your body clock is at odds with all of humanity. You’re awake and productive precisely when the rest of the world is slowing down. You are annoying to early birds because you’re turning on lights to get work done.

Conversely, you are completely annoyed by the world because they won’t let you sleep until at least 8 am.

latte

If you followed my posts on FB prior to the start of MIP, then you know that I have been a long-time supporter of Keurig machines. I confess that I’m pretty picky about my coffee in the morning–it can’t be too strong or too weak; I prefer Hazelnut coffee to all other flavored versions; and any syrup or creamer additives can’t taste “cheap.” That last part is a standard offering at most fast food establishments and convenience stores, unfortunately.

Until the Keurig machine I couldn’t find a cheaper alternative to my favorite coffee place: Starbucks. The hubby calls Starbucks “Starcrooks” due to the excessive amount of money charged for a Hazelnut latte and I tend to agree with him. Thus, about the only time I allow myself this luxury is when my darling family gives me gift cards for my “hallowed” coffee shop.

That is, until I discovered Keurig machines.  And I happened upon them unexpectedly. In fact it was an accident. It was probably around 2007, but it may have been sooner, honestly!

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Warning: War and Peace was shorter.

If you’re a fairly regular visitor here, then you probably have detected a little theme—MIP went on vacation with the extended in-law family last week. Early in the 2000’s my hubby’s family decided to do destination family reunion vacations together. Despite the diversity of people in the family, we manage to get along with each other in sometimes tight quarters for an entire week. Quite a feat for what was then a group of 24 people total. 24 people showed up this time, but that’s now only 3/4 of the family! We are up to 31.5 with a new great nephew due in early October (Yesss! More people to spoil rotten and then swiftly return to parents!).

We have taken on a number of destinations now (or they have taken on us and lived to tell the tale??): Branson, Virginia Beach, Nashville (IN), Hilton Head and now Estes Park, CO. Here’s what I learned this week while hanging with the fam-in-law:

1. Never believe the emails from a property management company regarding lock box codes.

2. Never believe the codes in the vacation home “renter’s manual” for how to unlock the dumpster. (Yes, the dumpster. Reminder–there were 24 people! And yes, locked. Bears in Colorado think a dumpster is fine dining.)

3. It doesn’t matter how much you emphasize that 1/3 of the food cost is built into each family’s housing fee, we’ll all bring food.

4. Because of # 3 and because we are all too generous, there were enough tortillas to feed a 3rd world country, not to mention fruit and Keurig cups.

5. The best solution to early morning people demanding coffee immediately is to have too many Keurig cups next to a Keurig machine.

6. Your biggest hassle arriving in the nation’s snow playground is renting a car for clear roads.

7. Breakfast for 24 takes 3 full grocery carts and 2 cars to transport.

8. When feeling the effects of thinner air, drink water.

9. You can never buy enough bottled water in Estes Park.

10. To satisfy the soda drinkers in the house, you may need another fridge for the week.

11. The freezers stay empty. This includes ice for water. And no, I still don’t understand why.

12. No hot tubbing after 8 pm. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

13. If you ask the “sub-families” to each cook one dinner meal, your biggest problem will be finding enough dinner meals for everyone and giving everyone the Monday night meal.

14. With families coming from 3 different states, the dinner meal variety is simply awesome.

15. If you didn’t get to cook on Monday, volunteer for Friday and Saturday night. You can do “leftover night” either time and it’s remarkably wonderful…and cheap!

16. If you want to do anything with the Fowlers, get up at 2 am.

17. The earliest I went to sleep was 2 am.

18. I wish I’d had more time with the Fowlers. Wait. Did they even come on this vacation???

19. When the hubby and the DSL are ATV-ing, make sure all insurance is paid up.

20. My niece’s last name must be Andretti.

21. If I ever video my entire life, call the other niece. She was smart enough not to drive.

22. Yes, you can get a speeding ticket on an ATV in Colorado. It’s a Communist plot.

23. Your spine will tell you about your ATV-ing a full 2 days after the actual event.

24. Plan your visit to the top of the Continental Divide the day before the huge thunderstorm.

25. Elk are not intimidated by goofy tourists.

26. Elk don’t respond to, “Hey Elkie, come here!”

27. I need 2 bottles of water to get to the top of the Continental Divide.

28. I brought 1 bottle of water to get to the top of the Continental Divide.

29. I need my heart meds and frequent stops to get to the top of the Continental Divide.

30. I left my heart meds in the car.

31. When you’re at the top of the world, you need 2 gift shops. Here’s a thought: add on to the already-existing gift shop??? Oh, wait. That would require fewer tax dollars. My bad.

32. I am a sucker for 3 types of stores: food, Christmas items and hand-blown glass.

33. I had the greatest quiche of my life in Estes Park.

34. There was an awesome farmer’s market last week in Estes Park.

35. There were only 3 Christmas stores in Estes Park.

36. One glass store (out of many) had an entire snowman village, including pine trees.

37. Creditors started calling our home this morning.

38. Only my hubby buys horseradish at the farmer’s market.

39. We will be playing “Ticket to Ride” this Christmas. It’s like Risk without any luck involved.

40. I predict I will be the loser of every “Ticket to Ride” game this Christmas.

41. The hubby needs to make raspberry & pecan pancakes to make me a morning person.

42. If we have granddaughters someday, they will get “princess pancakes”.

43. When I have to get up at 5 am to help the hubby with the princess pancakes, it’s probably smart to go to bed before 4 am.

44. It’s hard to shut off my brain at 4 am.

45. There is nothing as beautiful as a rodeo with a Rocky Mountain backdrop at dusk.

46. Your kids’ favorite youth director lives a mere 2 hours away from in another state.

47. My son lives 4 hours away in the same state. You’d think he lives in TX or something.

48. When visiting the farmer’s market, take your shower early. Let’s just say the temp of my shower and the cool temps were similar.

49. It takes a full car load to bring back half of our kitchen for princess pancakes.

50. My Surveymonkey membership comes in handy when analyzing family vacation feedback.

Monday’s Post: Did you fret and fume about spume? 

You Might Also Like: Grocery List for a Family Reunion Vacation; Would You Like a Family Like This?; Lessons Learned from a Family Vacation; and Lessons Learned from Lumosity.com

I originally posted this on FB on 8-16-11. If you want to see an update about Rachel’s effect on people she didn’t even know, go here:

Today I watched Today…like I do every “today.” Why? Because I just start my day that way. That’s what I’ve done all my adult life. It’s as normal for me as drinking my Keurig cup of coffee in the AM…essential, if you want me to be civil to you later on in the day.

Now, 9 times out of 10, I begin to tune out after the 7:30 am hour because it’s mostly “fluff” stories after 8 am and 1/2 of them are about raising toddlers, making fattening food, and shopping for the little black dress. I’m a little past the toddler stage at my house–since the youngest is graduating from high school this spring. And I’m a little past shopping for the little black dress. I prefer to shop for little black workout pants now.

But, today was different on Today. 🙂 Long after the 8 am hour, they told the story of Rachel, a 9 year old little beauty with a really big heart. At 5 years old Rachel decided to donate her long hair to Locks of Love….on her own…no prompting from the parentals. She did it again a few years later.

For her 9th birthday, Rachel decided she didn’t need any birthday gifts. Instead, Rachel wanted…water…for children in Africa. She set up a web page on charitywater.org to help her accomplish that feat. All on her own…no prompting from her parentals. She set a goal of raising $ 300 and that amount would create water for 3 families or 15 people. Rachel was a tad disappointed that she only raised $ 220 by her birthday, but told her mom that she wanted to do the same thing for her 10th birthday.

Less than a month ago, a huge “pile-up” crash occurred on the Seattle highways near Rachel’s home. Rachel was critically injured in the crash. As her mom realized that Rachel probably wasn’t going to survive the accident, she decided to reopen Rachel’s web page so that concerned family and friends could donate in her honor. Very quickly, Rachel met her $ 300 goal.

Word spread about Rachel’s page and soon Seattle talk jocks were talking about her page. As one DJ talked about her page on his show, he kept refreshing her page every few minutes. As he did, the amount raised on Rachel’s page kept going up $ 1000 each time!

Soon, the folks at charitywater.org noticed Rachel’s giant leap in donations and took great interest in her story. Sadly, Rachel passed away. But, the donation page kept going up.

Eventually, there were comments on her page from…Australia! As of this morning’s piece on the Today Show, Rachel’s water page total was…over 1.14 million dollars! One donor commented, “Soon, there will be too much water in Africa.”

Just now I refreshed Rachel’s page and…the total is now over 1.42 million dollars. Rachel’s page is set right now to help over 57,000 people! In other words, Rachel has met her goal 3000 times over!

The reality is that hungry people can survive a lot longer than thirsty people. And the reality is that we have the technology and ability to change the lack of clean drinking water today for people all over the world. All we need is the funding to go do it! Think about that as you drink your bottled water today.

Update: While Rachel’s water campaign is over, she wound up helping 60,000 people. Her wells are being built. Click on the link above to see Rachel’s mom visit the folks that are benefiting from her unselfishness.

“And a little child shall lead them…”

“When I was thirsty, you gave me water…”

Point to Ponder Challenge: The other reality is that all of us could do exactly as Rachel did–set up a water campaign as our birthday wish for this year and ask people to donate to it. Click on this link to do that today. And I will challenge myself to do the same if…five of you go and do it and submit a comment below giving me the link to your campaign! We may not help 60,000 people like Rachel, but if we help 1 person each, we will have taken care of an entire family! 

Tomorrow’s Post: The Holey Gospel…and no, that wasn’t a typo.