Nag - Nag - Nag

Several years ago Keith's friend gave him a mug for Christmas.  Keith loved it but I didn't appreciate the humor. 

The mug pairs old horses with the words, "Nag, Nag, Nag."

When our friend Brendon (who I've referenced before as Waldo, the Driving Instructor, and the Nose Breaker) comes over, guess which is his favorite mug?  

We have a good selection. 

Such as:

Our old McDonald's Batman cup

The Marine Corps Hymn mug

Since Keith was a Marine, our kids had to learn the song.

and our amazing Exodus Wonder Mug - the picture shows Moses crossing the Red Sea.  Hot liquids makes the water roll back and people cross on dry ground. 

Keith didn't know the cup did this. He bought it at a garage sale and got quite a surprise the first time he used it for coffee. 

Despite these good options, Brendon still likes the Nag mug best. I try not to be offended that both Keith and Brendon think this cup is funny. It's not like I ever nag. 

Last fall the unthinkable happened. The Nag cup broke. Brendon mourned it's passing and often comments when over at our house "I wish you still had the Nag Cup."

When his birthday came around I wanted to give him his own Nag Cup. Piece of cake I thought. You can find anything on the internet. 

Wrong!

Leanin' Tree doesn't sell the mug anymore.

Neither did anyone else. I scoured the internet with no success. I found a magnet and a note pad but they didn't have the same impact.

I found this framed picture but decided we didn't like Brendon enough to pay $750 for it. 

I was about to give up when one last internet search turned up an Indiana Buffalo Farm gift shop that sold these mugs. I couldn't wait to give Brendon his gift. 

We had Brendon over for a birthday dinner. He's been to our house enough that he knows where things are so he was rummaging around in our cupboard, whining commenting once again that he wished we still had the Nag Cup.

Rachel played along and asked what the Nag Cup was. Brendon described the cup and how much he liked it and how he wished it hadn't broke. 

We gave him the gift after dinner. He was tickled to have his own Nag cup. The only down side is he took the cup home so we still don't have a Nag Cup to use. If I'd been smarter I would have replaced Keith's broken Nag cup at the same time.

I'm going to be the bigger person and choose to ignore Brendon's comment that there are six "Nags" on his cup and I have six daughters. I'm going to forgive my husband for pointing to me and saying, "They're still six nags. Anna doesn't nag." 

So if you come to visit and don't like our mug assortment, feel free to bring your own.

Good-byes Are Never Easy

(Picture source - Google Images)

Their picture is on my refrigerator.

Dear friends from college. Three months ago happy and whole.

Today, grieving the loss of husband and father.

Colleen and her three daughters had no warning. One day he was there and the next he wasn’t. Their world’s been turned upside-down.

He was only 49.

Though I hadn’t seen James much in his later years and didn’t know the man he had become, I knew him in his earlier years and had a part in his becoming.

1980 or 1981 - College Banquet

James was a novelty at college. He’d grown up a missionary kid in Mexico, so had graduated high school early and started college at 16. Good with cars, he breathed new life into an old Mercury Comet. He often carted me and my friends around.

He was responsible and worked hard to put himself through school. He was helpful, kind, and loyal.

He was also fun. I vividly remember going after hours to the empty parking lot of Cinderella City Mall in Englewood, Colorado in his Comet crammed full of people. On one side the parking lot had heaved in a long series of concrete rises. He drove really fast over the rises and we’d bump, bounce, and occasionally fly. Once a guy in the front middle seat threw up.

My fondest memories are the Spring Break road trips.

Six of us laughed, played Dutch Blitz, took two hour driving shifts, and drove the Comet twenty-four hours straight from Colorado to California.

After a week of visiting people, we hit Disneyland on a slow day so didn’t have to stand in long lines. We went on rides over and over again and our stomachs did loop-de-loops for hours afterwards.

We drove to Tucson to visit their families, quickly seeing where James and Colleen got their niceness from.

I feared we might die on our day trip to Nogales, Mexico. Mexicans are crazy drivers. James had learned to drive in Mexico so was totally in his element. He zipped in and out of traffic and I closed my eyes after the third close call.

We went shopping in Nogales. The aggressive vendors tried to take advantage of us since we were obviously American. James rattled off something in Spanish and they backed off.

While driving over Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado, James and Colleen started to argue. To argue more discreetly, Colleen crawled on his lap. Us back-seaters exchanged worried glances, wishing James would argue later and pay better attention to the mountain pass!

We made the same trip the next year. We also took two road trips to Nebraska to visit a friend’s family.

1981 - Kearney, NE  (James on left, me - second from right)

Once James bit a green jalapeño-like pepper, saying it tasted great. I eyed the pepper suspiciously and asked if was spicy.

James said, “No, not at all. Try it. It’s really good.”

So I did and instantly burned my tongue. It hurt so bad. My eyes teared up and James roared with laughter. The stinker could bite hot peppers with a straight face.

Our group of friends drove to Tucson for their wedding. They were the first of us to get married. They were the first to have kids.

1984 - Kearney, NE

Eventually college ended and we went our separate ways. We’ve kept in touch the last three decades by Christmas letters. On my own road trip two years ago, I stopped by their house on my way home.

2010 - Kalispell, Montana

We picked right up where we left off. 

"The best antiques are old friends."

I didn’t know that would be the last time I’d see James in this life. But it’s not the last time I’ll see him. Though he’s my first friend to die, he won’t be the last. Someday I’ll see James and all my other Christian friends and family members again.

Thanks my friend for being a part of my life.  You’ll be missed.

Friends are friends forever

If the Lord’s the Lord of them.

--Michael W. Smith--

How to Adopt a College Student

1. Invite a young college student over for dinner

2. Discover a mutual love for Dutch Blitz 

(A favorite conversation went like this)

Christina:  We'll have to teach Nathan how to play Dutch Blitz.
Nathan: (insert cocky tone) TEACH ME (extra emphasis) how to play Dutch Blitz?

Apparently he already knew how to play and we didn't have to teach him. Sweet!

3. Make the adoption official

(another favorite conversation)

Amy - At the other church in town, they adopt college students
Lani - Then let's adopt Nathan
Amy - We didn't adopt him, he adopted us.

4. Go to his hockey games. 

Brrr!!!

 5. After his hockey game, play six games of volleyball, eat too much raw cookie dough, and play Dutch Blitz, then have your youngest girls take advantage of the tired guy's good nature.

Start with a brown winter hat

Add sunglasses

Add American flag because he's Canadian

Switch hats and add Mom's reading glasses

Add gloves and math problem since he hates math

Top it off with rose, necklaces, and stuffed animal

6. Take his picture for the church directory

7. Make his hair look like Justin Bieber's

8. Plop babies on his lap

9. Share meals, Bible studies, prayer requests, jokes, You Tube videos, Facebook insults. Watch movies. Play lots of games. Stuff with cookies. 

10. Take him on Book Across the Bay with us and rename him "Eric."

11. After he yanked Christina's chain by telling her that Canadians club baby seals as a rite of passage. (Please know he was just kidding), post baby seal pictures on his Facebook wall.

Pretending to be a baby seal

Erica pretends to club him

Erica drags the seal home

12.  Discover you know mutual friends. His Canadian father went to college many moons ago in Southern California with people we met when we lived in Colorado. What a small world.  

13. Let him fight back

  We sincerely hope that's a different carrot

than the one he stuck up Christina's nose.

It's been a fun year.

  Thanks so much for adopting us. 

We'll miss you.

The Little Mermen

Once upon some friends came to visit the Viks. Old friends like they've known each other a long time. Good friends like the kids played together in the sandbox when they were little. The Viks took the friends to the beach and the kids swam awhile before declaring the water too cold to swim in.

What to do? What to do?

So even though most of them were teenagers,
they reverted to the default -- playing in the sand.

They decided to bury someone in sand.

One thing led to another and before

they knew it, they had a muscular merman.

The second merman said to Amy,
"Give me big muscles too."
To which Amy replied,
"No way, I'm not giving you big muscles.
I'm gonna make you skinny."

Ta-dah!!

The second merman had trouble extracting himself.

Everyone knows the best way to
rinse sand off is to jump out of a tree.

And a good time was had by all.

The End

Monday Mugs - Play

Hoping no one notices that I'm doing Monday Mugs on Tuesday. Heather of Oswald Cuties hosts this weekly fun by choosing a theme and we find pictures for that category.

This weeks theme is play.

I decided to share pictures from Memorial Day. Two good friends and three of their daughters from where we used to live drove up for the weekend. We had lots of fun and the girls definitely played. We spent a nice afternoon at the beach. Then us Moms stayed up late having fun with Picnik messing with pictures.

These pictures make us miss our good friends and nice weather. Today is gloomy, rainy, 60 degrees. Vik family rules prohibit turning the heat on in June. Brr.

I Was Part of My Friend's Christmas Present

Thanks to all who made this possible.

For Christmas, my friend's children gave her an all-expense paid overnight getaway in Duluth with two friends. I was blessed to be one of those friends and we finally got away two weeks ago. Our only instructions were to laugh and have a good time and take a picture with the leis my husband sent along.

We went to Applebees, Engers Tower, Canal Park, Omnimax, Olive Garden, the Maritime Museum, Grandma's Restaurant, watched Curling (the sport), swam at the hotel, ate WAFFLES (my favorite!!) in the morning, walked for miles on the Lake Walk, toured Glensheen Mansion, and went shopping.

My friend was reluctant to have her
picture taken, saying that's what kids do.

We told her anyone could take silly pictures
and then proceeded to demonstrate:

A Karate Kid pose by Enger's Tower overlooking Duluth

This moose just begged for someone to take its
picture. That's my story and I'm sticking with that.

A Viking bicycle rack

Yours Truly

But we could only get two people...

in a picture unless...

...we asked someone to take our picture.

Down by the Lake Superior Lake Walk, a man offered to take our picture. Without planning we had all worn blue coats. After careful thought we named ourselves the Blue Bunny Club.

Finally we boldly asked a (gasp) total stranger jogging on the Lake Walk to take our picture. She laughed and said she's asked that all the time. Whew! That was easy.

This picture has a story I'm not allowed to tell. It's so hard to resist that I fear it might accidentally slip out. She said we weren't supposed to tell anyone, but she didn't want us to lie so if someone asked specifically if she hurt her leg doing a cartwheel by Enger Tower then we could say yes. But you didn't hear it here.

Okay, now she's relaxed and getting
the hang of taking silly pictures.

This next photo was a bit more challenging. We were in the Omnimax Theatre waiting for the movie to start. Who to ask to take the picture? Were the people sitting in front of us good sports? They didn't look friendly from the back but we took our chances. They turned out to be much more friendly from the front than they were from the back.

And now for the grand finale. We still hadn't taken a picture with the leis. At our last stop, the friend who originally was reluctant to take pictures said, "I've got the hang of this now," and she asked a guy loading his car to take our picture.

We told him he might be wondering what this was all about.

He smiled real big and said, "I don't need to know." He snapped this photo and drove away smiling.

This trip was such a treat. Our kids are friends. Our husbands are friends. But it was really nice to get away for a day with just us Moms. We had so much fun that we told our friend to suggest to her kids that next year we want to go to Mackinac Island. Wonder if it's okay to do cartwheels there. Oops, I didn't say that.