thoughts of more fun-filled madness

shared by Marlo R. Beall, her sister

Last year, I posted a blog entry about our family's tradition of competing in a bracket challenge for March Madness. Well, it's that time of year again...and our tradition is still going strong. In honor of this year's Big Dance, here's a photo of the bracket that Cindy created in 2003.

thoughts of a capsized canoe

shared by VJ Rabuy, her sister

I remember my first experience of floating down a river in a canoe. I had been on a boat before, speedboats in beautiful Lake Tahoe, and on a fishing trip; but the first time I went canoeing, I was in a canoe with my sister Cyn.

We were on a weekend trip with Arlene and some of the members of the youth group from our church. We would have our food on the grill, such as barbeque and corn, and we would play Mindtrap at night. I remember that I forgot to pack an extra pair of pants and I only had one pair of shorts for the entire weekend.

On the only full day of our trip, Cyn and I teamed up to travel down the Russian River in a canoe. I remember thinking that paddling would be easier than it actually was, and I recall getting pretty tired after a couple of hours.

It was a long canoe trip and at one point I tried to put my one pair of shorts back on after they dried from the sun. I stood up in the canoe to do so, then we tipped!! Our whole boat capsized!!

It was a fun adventure because two kind men helped us and got our boat right side up. It was a great first canoeing experience and Cyn thought it was funny.

thoughts of random friendly reminders

shared by Marlo R. Beall, her sister

Yesterday I read an article about a college basketball player whose jersey was going to be retired on his senior night. And I thought, that's pretty cool. When I saw the picture that accompanied the story, it made me smile because - in addition to the player looking like a nice, talented, young man - his jersey number was 22. And that reminded me of Cyn...because she was a basketball player and fan, and her birthdate is the 22nd.

Not a day goes by that I don't think of Cyn, usually several times a day. So it's always fun to come across random things or occurrences, like this story, that make me think of her in that given moment.

As I read more about the player, I learned that the reason he wears #22 is because it was how old his brother was when he died unexpectedly and tragically. So sometimes, there are times when that small reminder feels a little less random; and I like to believe that those are instances when it's just Cyn's clever and subtle way of sending out a little "Hi there!" from above.