A Traveling Hodgepodge

Today I'm joining the Wednesday Hodgepodge with From This Side Of The Pond. She posts the questions on Tuesdays and we answer them, then all link up on Wednesdays. I read a few blogs that take part in this and I've always wanted to join! So, here we go!

1. What did you call your grandparents? If it's something unusual, tell us the story behind the name. If you're a grandparent, what do the grands call you? Who chose your moniker?

My dads dad died before I was born and his mom never remarried. My sisters, cousins and I called her Grandma. She would let us spend the night, she'd send us letters with a stick of gum in them, she was the BEST grandma! When we started having kids we all began to call her GG for Great Grandma. Even my dad began to refer to her as GG! My moms step mom didn't have kids of her own, didn't want kids because she didn't like kids. My sisters and I used to complain about having to go to the 'No No House', everything was off limits. We just called her by her last name: Grandma Kenney.

2. Ever taken a road trip along the California Coast? If so what was the highlight of your trek? If not, any desire to do so? If you were to take a trip along the California Coast what's one attraction you'd have on your must-see list?

I was born and raised in San Diego and my husband and I moved to Seattle in 1989. We have tried to calculate just how many road trips we've taken back and forth to San Diego over the years and we finally stopped counting at 35. I think the most dramatic trip was when we moved up here. We left SD on February 1, expecting it to take 3 days. We didn't expect one of the most major snow storms the West Coast had ever seen! Not having any experience with snow, we decided to take Hwy 101 figuring there would be less snow and even less traffic. We got into an accident (with my parents who were following with a second trailer!) on a snowy mountain pass and we realized later that the coast also didn't have snow plows. :(

 

 3. What are three things you don't know how to do?

I don't know how to drive a stick shift. Well, at least I don't think I remember how. We had a truck after we first got married that was manual transmission and I used to avoid all hills.

I don't know how to shoot a gun. 

I don't know how to file income taxes. I'm sure I could figure it out but I'm SO thankful that Chuck is good with numbers and doesn't mind doing it every year.

4. Tom Peters is quoted as saying, 'Celebrate what you want to see more of.' If that's true what will you celebrate and more importantly, how will you celebrate?

I'd have to say, family and friends. I love Washington State, it truly has become home but all of my family lives in San Diego and the older I get the more I miss them. I also miss my best friends from high school. We're scattered all over the U.S. and I almost ache to be able to spend time with them again. How will I celebrate? I want to start planning to visit them; put dates on the calendar; start saving money for these trips; and really make an effort to make it happen.

5. Thursday (February 16) is National Almond Day. Do you like almonds? Which would you prefer-an Almond Joy or a macaron? What's something you make that calls for almonds?

I don't like almonds very much. Although I'd definitely have the Almond Joy because I LOVE coconut!!

6. What does Saturday morning look like at your house?

We sleep in, enjoy breakfast together, it's very quiet and lazy. I work days and Chuck works nights so being together on Saturday is priceless.

7. Share with us a favorite book you've read this winter.

Leaving, by Karen Kingsbury. It's one of the last books in the Above The Line series. It's about two missionary families who have returned to the states to fulfill a call on their lives to make faith based movies. Leaving is the story of Bailey Flanagan, the daughter of one of those families as she heads off to college. The heartbreak that comes with leaving well-loved family and the joy that fills your heart as you follow after God's will for your life.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

We traveled a lot when our kids were small, even spending a week at an orphanage in Morelia, Mexico. But since they've gotten older our two youngest daughters have had the opportunity to travel around the nation and the world - without Chuck and I. Sharaya went on a youth missions trip to New Orleans to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina; they've painted churches in Canada, and held a street fair in San Fransisco. They've traveled to Chicago, New York, London, Italy, Australia and as a mom I couldn't be more excited for them to have the chance to see so many different places. To spend time with different people in different cultures. To experience the sights, sounds and smells of places other than home. Those are priceless adventures!