#427 Happy Mother's Day

It's been 10 years since I've been able to celebrate Mother's Day in person, but I like to look back through the years, through all the letters and homemade cards, through all the photos, and remember. 

This particular Mother's Day card must have been made by me during my horse phase.   The card's inside left page shows my incredible knowledge of horses (probably copied from the World Book) and my amazing ability to scissor.  The card's inside right page highlights my early poetry skills.

About the time I created this card, I liked to ride our pony Shortstop at our home in Fairfax, VA.

And here's my lovely mom long before she ever thought about me or my silly Mother's Day cards.

Yours in remembering Mom,
Mary

#426 Floating the Rivanna

Think about your dream job.  What would it be?

Hmmm...something that would make people say "You get PAID to do that?"

I recently met Allan Thomson. He has a dream job like that. He takes people on canoe trips to raise awareness for a healthy Chesapeake Bay watershed. Cool. He invited me to join him and a group from the University of Virginia for a day on the Rivanna River as part of Earth Week festivities. Even cooler.

So here's Allan steering our canoe.

A few international students in our group had never been on a float trip. With guidance from Allan and his colleague Pat, they did just fine. And they introduced us all to the concept of delicious boxed cake for shore lunch.

After lunch we hiked through woods to find the massive cut-stone remains of a long abandoned river lock.

Too soon our six-mile float was done and we were all smiling for the camera.

So Allan did his dream job well and we all left feeling a little more aware of our local ties to the Chesapeake Bay.

Yours in supporting dream jobs at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation or anywhere,
Kelly