Up, Up and Away

Believe it or not, there's one last "event" from our Sedona, Arizona, trip last November that needs to be shared...before I can lay that week to rest: our hot-air balloon ride (photo album).

It was my first such balloon experience in my life and is one I will never forget. It's hard to describe the feeling of 2 hours in the air at slow speed in the quiet beauty of the desert morning with the redrocks in the distance! But I'm getting ahead of myself....

Before the sun rose, we were picked up at our vacation house and taken out to the desert spot where 5 different balloons were being set up to fly together.

Part of the fun was watching all five balloons get blown up at the same time. Ours was the last (to the left out of the picture, just getting set up).

One by one, all that hot air....and then lift-off!

Then the ride! OMG! For the next two hours we watched the sun rise over the Cathedral Rock formation, one of the 7 vortexes in the Sedona area (see this post).

We even saw the San Francisco Peaks off in the distance, north of Flagstaff (below).

The rest of the trip was just as fun watching the other 4 balloons and taking pictures of where they were, either above or below us the entire ride.

Besides all that, the actual details of flying the balloon itself were so fascinating. I was enamored with all of it, from setup to navigation to takedown.

As I said, I'll never forget it.

And at the end, a celebration! Champagne, strawberries-n-cream, and a certificate of having taken a hot-air balloon ride over the upper Senoran desert! What more could we have asked for from "our beautiful, our beautiful balloon!"

Life is a Puzzle

Even though it's been awhile since I've done it, I LOVE putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Always have, always will. The excitement when you get down to those last few pieces is hard to be beat!

But when it comes to putting together LIFE'S Jigsaw Puzzle...let's just say I'm still looking for the pieces, or maybe just finally finding them?

It's been a month since I last posted here, noticed by some of you. Thanks for your concern. The short story is that Donica and I are splitting up and I've been putting the house in order for the market...and getting Donica's stuff packed up. The house is now For Sale in this, yes, terrible economy, but it is as it is and we still wish for the stars. Donica closed on her new condo closer to the airport today and will move out when she comes back from her next trip in early March. I will remain until the house sells.

Remember all those Boyds' figurines from Donica's collection? Every single one of them had to be boxed up, so seek-and-find Nicholas spent another two times helping me find the pieces to the puzzle!

The figurines were in different places on 3 different floors of the house, so it really was seek-and find! Donica paid him $.25 a box, which ended up being $10/hour, more than I made at Starbucks, I told him. HA! One lucky boy.

See what I mean about a puzzle? There's not only a box for each figurine but a special way to fit into the box once you find it. That was my part of the job and I actually liked it. I told Donica later that I wouldn't mind making $10/hour doing a mindless job like that part-time. Much easier on the body than making coffee, I guarantee you!



And that began the next part of the puzzle, filling up half of the garage with boxes and boxes of everything Donica owns. After all her things are moved out the first week in March, I'll start packing my own boxes. Another piece to the puzzle!

So as you see, Life really is a puzzle and has kept me quite busy of late! But I'm alive and well, full of mixed and bittersweet emotions...wondering exactly what and where and when the next piece will be. The good thing is that God has always been bedrock for me. There IS a next piece and that's all I need to trust for right now!