Road trip!

[Hopalong]

Hi all,

It's not a big one, just 4 hours, but I can't explain how happy I am to be going to see my daughter. (It's also a lovely drive, no Interstate the whole way.) She's been eager too, lots of calls, etc. So I must unclutch myself from the board and get ready to go.

I will be happy to get back to the board Sunday night!

Hope you all have a relaxing and healing weekend.

love,
Hops

[axa]

Hops,

Have a wonderful, wonderful trip.  Enjoy the drive, the scenery, your daughter, the food that someone else cooks, the warmth of another's home, the break from your Mom and the well deserved rest.  Thinking of you with love and affection.

axa

[Gaining Strength]

So glad for you and your daughter.  Hope you both have a great time.  Can't wait to get your report on your return.- GS

[Hopalong]

Thank you GS and Axa...

It was wonderful. She and I had a big fight last summer when all her pain and anger from divorces, her exasperation at my mother (and me), her fury over her Dad's early death...poured out...then we were "cooled" for a while and it caused us both a lot of heartache.

This weekend was wonderful. Her new apt. is cozy and interesting. We feasted (she's become a wonderful vegetarian cook), went to a disturbing but excellent movie (The Last King of Scotland), talked more than in ages (which means I LISTENED, having set aside my ever-ready opinions and overanxious reactions), took a looooong walk in a beautiful park on a sunny day, went out and played pool together (both of us pathetic), had laughs with her pets, I went to her workplace and met her coworkers, bought her a nice jacket, and we went out to breakfast and to church together this morning and relaxed and meditated together and I left after a biiiiiiiiiig hug. It was so healing.

She is coming up here in two weeks.

I drove back on icy roads today (passed two bad wrecks, got behind salt trucks part of the way). Home safe and sound, Mom had manged okay with her "sitter", and I baked a huge yummy apple-pear-walnut-date-oatmeal-cristp thing for my covenant group Tuesday night.

All in all a nourishing weekend on every level.

love,
Hops

[gratitude28]

Hops, What a wonderful weekend. How nice that your daughter and you are having so much healing and happiness together.

On a purely simple note... was the movie the one about Idi Amin??? It looks so good if that is the one I am thinking of.

My mouth is watering dreaming of your apple oatmeal crisp... I love the top part the best (the crumb stuff

Love, Beth

[moonlight52]

Hi Hops ,

So good to hear your trip with your daughter went well.
Working through feelings all it takes is really wanting this
and also like you said  listening.
and Hops you are so caring .

I heard of that movie "The King of Scotland"
Mr m and I watched "the Illusionist" Really good movie

hugs
m

[Dazed1]

Wecome back Hops,

Missed you!

So glad that you had a good and healing time.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Now I'm hungry for your crisp.

love,
dazed

[Sela]

Hey Hops!

That's wonderful that you had such a lovely trip and connected with your D like that!  So glad for you both!! 
Wishing you many, many more such trips/visits!!  I'm sure they will happen too!

  Sela

[Gaining Strength]

Oh what a wonderful report about your time together with your daughter.  How wonderfully quick the reconciliation occurred.  So glad she could open her heart to the warmth and love you have for her.  Two weeks is a short time for another reunion.  Isn't it nice to have something grand to look forward to? - Much love to you and yours - Gaining Strength

[Hopalong]

Thanks, Sela and Beth...I still feel such warmth inside.
Forgot to mention I also had an amazing thermal massage bed experience...might account for some of the warmth!
My back pain evaporated. None driving home either, which is a huge test of my spine. For only $3000, I could have one! Ha.
BUT you can get about 2 months' worth of FREE massage treatments at any Migun center if you don't mind a half-hour lecture first. I recommend it for fibromyalgia, stress, back pain, etc. Their generalized health claims are BS and they've been sued to cool it, but it's still an amazing invention.

GS, Dazed, thank you! Just because I never cook and feel sooooo special when I do, here's the Crisp (I made up part of it):

VESMB Comfort Crisp

2/3 c. butter (what the hell)
1/2 c. oats
1 tablesp. cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar (or white sugar mixed w/2 tbsp. molasses, or Splenda-sugar mix, which I used, cuts calories by 17%)
4 or 5 apples
1 pear (those red ones, forget the name)
1/4 c. walnuts
1/4 c. dates

Pare and slice the apples (just slice the pear). Place apples in a deep pie dish (whatever that is--I used a Pyrex casserole thingy). Layer pear slices on top.
Mix everything else together and spread it on the top of the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream (or I used sugar free nonfat frozen vanilla yogurt). Drool.

Hugs and comfort to y'all,
Hops

[gratitude28]

Yum,
Maybe I will surprise the family with your recipe. I'll have to do it once the man goes back to work... he has taken over the kitchen... which is not a bd thing. In fact, I have to concede that for the most part, he cooks a lot better than I do.
Hops, do you put something behind your back while driving? I had back suregery about 5 years ago and had to attend a "back class" after. They said to drive with a rolled up towel or pillow beind your lower back (in the sway area). I should do it all the time, but I only do it when I get lower back pain. Still, it always helps.
Ahhhhh, that massage sounds awesome. I would fill out questionnaires to get a nice massage...
Love, Beth

[Dazed1]

Thanks for the recipe, Hops.

I'll give it a try.

love,
dazed

[Hopalong]

Beth,
That's a good idea. My new-old car has better seats but the lumbar can always use more support. I'll try that.

Recipe revision: You can peel the pear if you wanna, and it doesn't have to be a red one.

Decadent people can serve w/whipped cream.

(My D inspired me with all her wonderful cooking, and unlike here at home with Mom, it felt like being served good health with love. Made me want to step up and cook more and better food.)

Hops

[gratitude28]

Well, the pear actually probably won't happen here... although we live on a tropical island, fruit is expensive and hard-to-come-by. We found pears ONCE this year and my kids ate them before we could even get home from the market.In Italy, it was so cool to have fresh fruit by season... you'd eat em until you were sick of em and then a new fruit would come along. I guess the island is just too small to support major farming. Tiny watermelons cost 10 - 15 dollars each!!!! A box of five mangoes (the pretty ones) goes for 50 dollars. Strawberries are $5 a pint.  Alas...