Volleyball on the lawn

Some are in it for the fun (that'd be me), some are in it for the glory of the win (that'd be Mike), but no matter what inspires you, you just gotta get in there and play! We had about twenty show up for last nights games and it was the best five hours of my week so far. One day I'm gonna learn how to do that "jump at the net and smash it down in your face move too!"

A few summers back Amanda and Alex flew to Oahu to visit us. We hiked trails, body-surfed waves, explored the North Shore eating shave ice along the way, but one of the most amazing moments was when a green sea turtle popped his head up a few feet from us swimming in waters of Kailua and allowed us to catch up with him and cruise a while. Mike actually got right up along the turtle as he came up for air. He turned his head and looked Mike straight in the eyes before diving down again to feed on the sea grass below. We followed that turtle above and below the waters for at least 20 minutes before he headed out to sea and so began my deep love for these gentle creatures.

Here in Cyprus we have the 5th largest sea nesting sites in the Mediterranean and are the host to not one - but two types of turtles each year - the green sea turtle and the loggerhead. They started arriving in early June to lay their eggs and the night before Tara left we spent a good part of unusually warm summer night on the beach waiting for a mama to come and lay her babes. At this point of the season there were already protected turtle nests lining the beach as far as the eye could see. We didn't have any sitings that evening, although one set of tracks were found on the beach a little west of us, but it looked as though she had returned to sea maybe to return the following evening when she had found just the right spot. The volunteers who spend the summer there did have a bucket of hatchlings they had plucked from a rescued nest earlier in the day and we did get to see these teeny little babies get lined upon the waters edge to follow their ancestral instincts and head out to sea. Some babies ran and some needed a few pointers in the right direction, and finally, one by one, the sea lapped them up to disappear into the dark waters of the night and we cheered over and over as each one headed out on their own journey as if they were our own.

College bound

My nephew Alex is heading off to Buffalo for his first year at college this month. I know my sister Sandi is on that rollercoaster of emotion right now, as well as my friend Lisa who is packing up her son Frankie for his first year away. And then there's my Shelly-Shelysa who's got two boys - her son Michael has his bags packed and his twin Keefer starts his first job as a high school graduate. I am just feeling excited for all of them and can't wait to see who they decide to become. I thought I'd offer up some advice they can really use since I'm sure these mom's have already covered all the practical stuff:

Minimize food budget by scheduling classes around Happy Hour.
Enjoy being a Sophomore — It will be the best three years ofyour life.
Wear an athletic cup to panty raids, because it’s all fun andgames until someone loses their ‘nads.
Lemon juice and baking soda make an excellent bong waterstain remover.
If an 8:00 am class is required for your major, change your major.
Boring lecture? Start a wave!
College-level algebra: 5 returnable bottles = 1 deliciousRamen Noodle dinner.
“I Phelta Thi” is *not* a real fraternity, except at state colleges.
Remember – almost no one complains when you puke in adumpster.
Clever margin manipulation can turn a 4-page outline intoa 100-page senior essay.
Football games were never meant to be observed by sober people.
Don’t think of it as sleeping with your professor — think of it as “acing Biology.”
In a pinch, beer can be used as a milk substitute in your breakfast cereal.
*jokes found on "That was Funny" website

Hang in there ladies, before you know it you'll be finding good use for that extra bedroom!

What its all about

I've been promising myself for months now that I'd find the time - and the energy - to start my very own blog and today is officially the day - welcome! I've been so grateful for our overseas adventures but so many precious moments get lost in the day to day grind - until now. My favorite story from July is definitely the funniest. Tara and Gary came to visit and also spent a few days down at the beach. We drove them down and stayed for a couple of hours to enjoy the warm summer night at the outdoor bar. I was telling a story, gesturing with my hands to give it the right oomph, when suddenly I flicked a bug into my hair - or so I thought. Suddenly there was this frightening feeling that the bug was actually in my ear and not my hair but how the hell could it have made it past that mass of thickness AND my outer ear thingie? Sure it enough it starts flapping inside my head and I'm like..."Tara there's a bug in my ear"...first at a pretty calm level of holy shitness, but quickly moving into a crazy frenzy of THERE'S A MOTH IN MY EAR! I should mention I've got baby Arianna in my lap half asleep so I can't jump up and shake my head yet. Within seconds though I'm tossing her into Tara's lap and opening the "thingie" in my ear for Tara to inspect. "No mom, there's nothing in there" she says with a laugh. So I sit still and decide I've got water in my ear from swimming and I'm just being paranoid, but then the fluttering and flapping goes insane. Gary is looking at me like I'm crazy by now and Mike and Mikayla are staying over at the pool table a few feet away pretending they no longer know me because the whole bar now knows I have a bug in my ear. I leap over to Gary and open my ear to him and he looks inside..."Holy shit! You do have a bug in your ear Lys!" Okay I'm not crazy...at that thought, the damn moth flies out of my ear straight up to the lights above and Gary tells me that that big ass moth up there was the one in my ear! It must have had to do a full 180 just to get itself back out - you can not imagine what kind of noise that can make in your head. I'm still trying to figure out how the hell it got in there and more importantly, why? I do know I'm glad I clean my ears every single day and I'm pretty sure it wasn't in there long enough to lay any babies...I hope. So, the point is, keep your ears clean lest the wax trap uninvited visitors in your head and smile big and pass it on!