Are we worth more than the sum of our parts? I think so. I don't think you can assess a person with scores on a piece of paper, and be able to give them full credit for who they really are. However, the world doesn't see it that way. We are judged and rewarded on a point system in everything we do. So...

Christian is 16. He is quite extraordinary in many ways. But right now, his short coming is school. And that little short coming is getting longer every day. His test scores are good, some even high. He did very well in AP Euro, which is an advanced placement European History course. He even gets college credit for it. And it's a tough one. But in other courses, he is just not cutting it, not bothering to do all the work. We've rewarded, punished, restricted, etc. And it's been a cycle for about 2 years. He claims the problem is mostly that his school is extremely overcrowded with close to 40 in every class. He says that there are too many distractions with lots of discipline problems. And that is disturbing to him, I suppose. On that note, here's something to be thankful for... All of his teachers tell us he is so respectful, and just a delight in class. Hmmm... wish he could be delightful and also do his work. Not sure what that's about. But it's gone on for too long, almost 2 years. And his grades are getting worse. So, we finally applied to put him in private school. Looks like he's getting accepted, in spite of his grades. And to be thankful again, apparently, he is being accepted, because of a glowing recommendation from our church youth pastor, who basically echoed what the teachers say about his personhood. Christian is just a really good kid. So, apart from the fact that he doesn't see the value in doing all his work, he's just a delightful young man to be around. He's fun, funny, and just as genuinely sweet as can be. What a little rascal!

Trying to remember what I was like at 16. And my sister said, think back to 14. Girls start trouble earlier. Oh yes. I was rebellious at 14. Thought I knew it all.

Last night, Greg and I were discussing the "Christian issue" with Joe and Heather. Joe's analysis was, "Sounds like a 16 year old to me." He went on to say that at 16, he thought he knew everything, and that we didn't know anything. Then, at one point he realized he didn't know much, and we knew quite a bit. I asked when that was. And he said, "At 17." SO funny. So it took one year. And Christian just turned 16. So we may be about to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

When I was in Jr. High, I had a friend in 4-H who got me interested in showing my roses at fairs. Little did I know how lucky I was to already have hybrid roses, Jackson & Perkins, my favorites. I learned alot about roses, raising healthy green leaves, lots of gorgeous roses, free of disease, rust, pests, etc.

When I bought my first house, I had 42 J&P rose bushes. Daily, I dead headed them, fed them with Ortho Systemic at the roots, and spent several hours on Saturdays, doing any major clean up. The rewards were fresh roses in nearly every room of my house. And I brought roses to everyone I knew whenever I visited.

Funny thing is, I don't have roses now. They require daily attention to keep them nice. And my lifestyle is now more of gardening once every few weeks, not daily. I have bedding plants that I tend to. But I guess my standards for raising roses are just too high!

My daughter in law acquired 8 good rose bushes in her new home purchase. I wasn't sure how good they were until I tended them, and saw their response. They had 4 strikes against them: no water, suckers galore, no dead heading, and had gone to seed pods. I would suspect they had probably not been fed either. I spent several hours a few weeks ago, dead heading, removing suckers, feeding, and watering. Heather has been soaking them daily. I taught her how to dead head, about 1/4 inch above the first healthy 5 leaf section. I also showed her what a sucker is and how to cut it off: This is a long shoot that grows from the side of the bush, rather than from the main base of the bush. With all these things done, by the 2nd or 3rd day, there was bright new growth at those little nubs where we dead headed them. They responded SO well. I gave them a good prognosis. And although they have suffered greatly, I think we will see lots of healthy roses, before the season is up!

Update: We just got back from having dinner at Joe and Heather's. She must have about 200 rose buds on her 8 bushes! The leaves are thick, shiny and green. Wow! There are no tags on the base of these bushes. But these are good hybrids for sure!

When camping, my goal is to eliminate dishes. Except for utensils, serving spoons and spatulas.

Last night, I made great mashed potatoes on the BBQ, with steak and asparagus.

I started by grilling asparagus with butter and seasonings in the center of the grill and started the steaks around the perimeter of the asparagus. Once the asparagus was done, I put it into an 8x8 small disposable aluminum pan, and covered with foil to keep warm. I put that on the table to serve, and figured if it's not hot when we eat, no biggie. We're camping!

Then, I used about a 9x12 small roasting pan, about 2-3 inches deep in the center of the BBQ for the mashed potatoes. Continued grilling steaks around outside of the pan. I made 8 servings of mashed potatoes according to the recipe on the box of potato flakes. I melted the half stick of butter in the pan as the steaks were still going. Then once melted, I added the milk, water, and salt. I kept the lid closed. About the time the steaks were done, the liquid in the pan was piping hot. I stirred in the flakes, and turned off the grill and closed the lid. We all served up delicious steaks and piping hot mashed potatoes right from the grill. The asparagus was pleasantly warm and all got gobbled up.

Normally, I like to rub my steaks with olive oil and seasonings to sear in the juices. But my olive oil had gone bad in my camp box (from last trip). So I rubbed the steaks with mayonnaise instead. Wow! Everyone loved the juicy steaks. And they had a saucy coasting with the seasonings. When I confessed it was mayonnaise, everyone was surprised, and agreed they liked it better than ever!

Of course, we ate on sturdy paper plates that I had bought on sale with coupons using www.TheGroceryGame.com. So I washed the serving spoon, tongs, forks and knives in about 5 minutes. Threw away the 2 disposable pans. Easy and delish!

There's nothing like some chop to really work out those glutes and thighs! Still sore from yesterday. It's Sat. at the lake. I got some good water early this AM. Then we taught 2 cute neighbor kids how to wakeboard. Marie is 17 and Rudy is 12. We got to know them and their parents last night. Shared some dinner with each other, and solved all the worlds problems around the camp fire. Both kids went out for their first time to learn to wakeboard, and got up and rode on some good water. It's so fun to see those grins when they finally start to ride the wakeboard. Kids are so funny, especially little boys. Rudy still wanted to take some more wakeboard runs in oceanlike chop. He learned his lesson. And we all got some good laughs. Boys are scrappy though. He just kept going at it! I know better. It's just work when the lake becomes like an ocean!

The lake is crowded with lots of campers all crowded in for beach spots. But it's fun to meet everyone's dogs and kids. Now that the lake is dangerously full of boats, we came in. So we're under the canopy, trying to keep cool. Just relaxing. Even Marley is enjoying his piece of the shade. It's fun to camp with a new puppy. I think he's discovered his purpose in life. He's a camping/boating dog. Also feels the need to be on guard at all times. So funny at 4 months. The tough guy. Just loves the whole thing!

Finally got to the lake. First time this summer. And here we are! But it sure wasn't easy. So many loose ends to tie up with business. Then, I realized that Marley had an appointment for the vet to get his stitches out tomorrow, Friday. So I called, and they said I could come in on Tues. before, "Better early than late, so they don't get embedded." So I made the trek on Wed. instead, about an hour round trip. Marley puked in the car on the way there and back, poor thing. He gets car sick. My little baby! Only to find out they were closed on Wed. So I called Greg on the way home and told him what was up, and didn't want to postpone the trip another day, so I said, "... you were a combat medic in Vietnam. So can't you just take the stitches out after we get to the lake?" Sure. No problem. He put together all his doctor stuff. So today, Marley was perfectly still and sweet, and knew we were helping him, and "we" got all the stitches out. He even fell asleep and was snoring on my lap while he was being worked on. My medic "hero" cleaned him up good, and gave him a clean bill of health. Greg is SO handy with things like this. He's like a doctor to me! And Marley has been trotting around the campground, all good to go!

So last night... Got to the lake at about 8PM, with just enough daylight left. Found a nice spot to camp right on the lake. The boys built a fire and we roasted hot dogs on sticks, and ate around the fire with Fritos and hummus. We were "dog tired". So we went to bed early. I had 4 press interviews this AM. My dear and wonderful publicist scheduled them all to be done by 10:30 AM. So I got up at 6:30. They were all on the East coast. So timing wise, that went well. And would leave my day open to play! While I worked, Greg and the boys launched the Sea Doos. So the boys have been riding those all day.

I want to wakeboard, but we still have to launch the boat. And now, after I made sandwiches, my boat driver (Greg) is taking a nap. Let him sleep. He promised me I would wakeboard before sundown. So I've been swimming in the cove... Loving on my precious little Marley, who is enjoying all the people, kids, sights and sounds.

It's a lovely day at the lake!