God Does Have a Sense of Humor

Cousin Liza has always been independent, motivated, and liberated. She has been a successful businesswoman for a long time. A husband and kids were not on her agenda, especially the later. And then four years ago she met Larry, a terrific guy, a divorcee who came as a package deal with a young son, Spencer. After watching her maternal skills which I did not know exist, and the obvious chemistry between she and Larry, I asked the question, "Could there possibly be wedding bells in the future? She answered, "It could happen. Can you believe it? ME!? Just proves God does have a sense of humor!"

Larry, it turns out is a terrific story teller. I posed the same question to him when we had a moment alone. "Could be ..." he answered and then he got on the story about their second date. The first date had gone extremely well and he was smitten. For their second date, he was thrilled that she offered to cook dinner for him. He asked what he could bring. Wine she had answered. He didn't know whether he should take red wine or white. He didn't want to be a pest by calling her again so he bought a nice bottle of both. On the way to her house, he had a terrible accident and rolled his car twice. It came to rest upside down. When he came to, the first thing he thought of was those two expensive bottles of wine. As he crawled out the passenger window, with an unscathed bottle of wine in each hand, a policeman began to lead him to an ambulance. "No, no," Larry argued. "I'm OK, just bumped and bruised. All I need is a cab - I've got a date!"

If you saw the "Bucket List", you know that one of the things on the list was to laugh til he cried. If I had a Bucket List, I could mark that off. I laughed a lot during this holiday but I laughed til I cried when my son took me for a requested ride on his jet ski. I don't know why I was so overjoyed and tickled but I laughed til I cried. There also were some screams when he seemed to feel confident that I was not scared, but quite the opposite, and he decided to test my bravery by doing some fast speed "power slides." I hung on, laughing and screaming and finally he slowed down and approached the houseboat where he did a very slow power slide. I have no idea what happened, after all the speed and power sliding but at about 2 miles per hour, he did a turn that landed BOTH of us in the water! No body got a picture of that as it was so unexpected.

Since I was in the water, I yelled for the kids to join me. They were all so hesitant - the water is cold, bla, bla.

I said, "I will give a five-dollar bill to the first one whose toes hit the water." They all three flew into the water. Rachel was first by a millimeter - probably because she is the tallest. Anna really thought she was first so I gave her $1 for second. Later, when I paid them, Spencer was in line with his hand out. I told him that he had to earn money. "What can I do," he asked. Because he had been a human alarm clock that first morning, I told him that if he would be quiet as a mouse the next morning and wake up no one, I would give him a dollar. He countered with $2 - sold! It worked like a charm, every morning! This prompted Beth to tell me a story about one morning months prior, when Rachel and Anna were acting up, picking at each other, arguing, slapping, whining, pitching, poking, and annoying Beth to a breaking point. She finally yelled at them, "STOP! If you will be kind to each other and be quiet all day long, I will give you $5 each." They did and there was peace for an entire day. At bedtime, Beth asked her oldest, "Now wasn't that a nice, calm and pleasant day?" Rachel admitted that he was. Beth then turned to 9-year-old Anna and asked her the same. Anna held her hand out and said, "Sorry Mom, it's all about the money!"

Things I leaned about modern day children - bribery works! They rap to nursery rhymes and make home-made tattoos. Anna made a little heart on my hand and another on my arm. Only after her artwork dried did I find out it was indelible ink! Later, my son saw my hand tattoo and was alarmed. "Mom", he exclaimed, "you really need to have that checked!"

Captain Doug ran a good ship and had a good crew. It was a memorable and wonderful holiday in the wilderness.