A while back I went with my husband to one of his gigs at the University of Tampa. No matter how many times I have seen the Team Rootberry show it always amazes me what they do on stage. To some extent every show is different even in some small way because every audience is different; and as most performers know, everything doesn’t always go as planned (sometimes I don’t even know if they had planned to do something or if the show just went that way!) My husband, Jonathan Root and his juggling teammate Bill Berry have been performing together for 13 years as Team Rootberry. Their show includes comedy, sword swallowing, juggling and a poignant message about following your dreams. If you have seen them perform at a college, corporate show, military event or on a cruise ship I would love to hear about it. Just click on the comments link below and leave a comment about your Rootberry experience.

I met Alice for the first time when I went to take pictures of her and my son Cody going to homecoming last year-November 2008. At the time they had already been seeing each other for about four months! Needless to say I was pretty excited about meeting Alice, someone whom I had only known by name but was commanding a lot of my son’s time. I actually took Cody to meet Alice as she was finishing up a swim meet and her father had arranged for them to be transported to the dance by a pretty, I think the words are “pimped out”, Denali! It was an exciting night for me because I had now met my son’s girlfriend and it was, I felt, the beginning of me now being a part of this aspect of his life. I am attempting to not write anything that will completely embarrass my son, but we adore Alice and think her family is fantastic. And now we have come to Homecoming 2009. Alice, in typical girl fashion, went and had her hair, nails and make up done. Cody, in typical male fashion, showered and got dressed. Cody and Alice can both now drive, so we all met, took pictures and they drove off to their “Thriller” themed homecoming dance.

Today is Veteran’s Day. On this day we honor and thank those that have served our country and given their lives for our freedom. My father served 20 years in the United States Navy. My father was stationed on the USS Enterprise and floating off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War on the day I was born-he received a telegram telling him that he had a baby girl. At the time, he was working on jets (maintenance, I believe) when an opportunity to join the new nuclear program was introduced. My dad wanted to enter the program, they allowed him to but told him that it was an incredibly intense program and he would most likely not make it through. Well, he did and worked in the nuclear field throughout his naval career and after retirement. I feel very fortunate that during my growing up, formative years we were not at war. Except for the first few years after I was born I never experienced my father leaving into a known dangerous situation-for this I feel very grateful and blessed. My thoughts are with those families that have dealt with and are dealing with that on this day. I am my father’s daughter and am immensely proud of that fact.

My Dad & I

Have you ever uttered the words, “I’m bored”?  We are usually exclaiming we are bored because we are wanting the boredom to go away, we are wanting to feel like we are accomplishing something and not just wasting our time doing nothing. We are desperately wanting someone or something to take away our boredom and provide some excitement. The root of the word is bore, which is defined as “a dull, tiresome, or uncongenial person”-I don’t know of anyone that would want to be described as such. We have a pretty basic rule in our home that the word “bored” is not allowed. We are responsible for our own actions and reactions to situations so why not react to boredom in a genuine and uplifting way-it is not a waste of time, it is a time of ‘serentity’ and reflection. It’s ok to not be in constant motion and thought…sometimes it is ok to just be.

How do we react when something we are so extremely passionate about is taken away? Our family lost Adrenalina and the flowrider, when Adrenalina went out of business and shut down the flowrider last week. Adrenalina is the company/store that had a location in the Florida Mall, which housed the flowrider. Both my husband, Jonathan and my son, Cody began flowboarding in 2007 as soon as Adrenalina opened its doors and have rode and competed in the sport ever since.  I know at about this point you are thinking to yourself, “What in the heck is flowboarding or a flowrider?” Wave Loch, the creator of the flowrider, was started by surfers, but the sport takes in aspects of all the board sports. Flowboarding is skateboarding without the wheels (and the road rash), surfing without a fin, snowboarding without the mountain, wakeboarding without the boat and skimboarding without the sand (www.waveloch.com). I will dedicate an entire post to flowboarding soon because this post is about new beginnings and trying new things. With the loss of the flowrider (something they did every day) it was time to venture out and explore something new…yep, wakeskating! We live right by a cable park, Orlando Watersports Complex, so we all went-they rode…I took pictures!

Crashes are part of the territory!

Motivation to NOT crash…the walk back!A new passion has ignited… (along with some sore muscles!)

Halloween 2009 was a first for the Roots. A first because we actually dressed up and attended a Halloween party. We don’t usually do the whole “Halloween thing” ourselves except passing out candy to the adorable neighborhood kids that come searching for goodies to fill their bags (and, as a little one asked last night…”can I have one for my Mom too!”)  I love the fall but living in Florida you feel you have to pretend a little bit since it is still reaching the 90′s in temps here and we don’t get any of those beautiful changing fall colors of orange, golden yellow and red. So…I light pumpkin scented candles, put out my pumpkin gourds and appreciate the photos others post of the beautiful change and ushering in of fall (thank you to those that share!) I am also going to attempt a few fun fall recipes this year-I think I’ll start with pumpkin bread but first here is our inaugural Halloween party put on by our friends Bill Berry and Ariel James; this halloween was definitely rooted in friendship.