'TIS THE SEASON......

OF JOY AND THANKSGIVING!

My Thanksgiving post is a couple days late. I had to work both Thanksgiving and Black Friday with other chores to accomplish yesterday. So in the wee morning hours I am blogging my Thanksgivings.

First, I am grateful for my family. For the husband who loves me more than anything and is always there to comfort me and is so good with the knots in my back. And for the sweet little girl with the kind, loving, and helpful heart. You are my truest joy. I would be lost without you two. I love you so much.

I am grateful for loving and faithful parents who taught me the gospel and how to love unconditionally. They taught me how to make bread (not that I ever do it), and how to check my oil. They gave me their time. I have so many fond memories of both my parents spending time with me, playing, reading, teaching by word and example. I was blessed with goodly parents.

I am grateful for my siblings. At 9 years old I thought I was destined to be an only child. But then these two came into our family and though I was older we 3 bonded and enjoy a close relationship to this day. My kindhearted brother was always there to listen and comfort. He helps without being asked, and though he works full time and is also going to school, he lovingly and playfully greets his daughters and wife when he comes home and helps out around the house.

I am grateful for Lalagene, my stepmom. She has been such a support and friend in my life and was there for my dad after my mom died. I love her and appreciate her.

I am grateful for 5 years with my sister. I left home when she was little and we only got to see each other sporadically until she moved out here to get her masters degree. Though we are almost complete opposites with different tastes, opionions, and views, we enjoyed living together and having that time to really get to know each other. We taught each other things and bonded. I miss having her around.

I am grateful for David's parents, for the values, lessons, and life skills they taught him and for the love they shower on my daughter. They are good, simple people with country values. Now if I can just convince Pop Pop to leave some of the taxidermy behind when we all move. Ha Ha. ( I'm not kidding, there over 100 pieces, some full size, a mountain goat, ram, baby bear, bobcat, and the heads, many deer and one moose, as well as the full smaller birds and one fish. The man is very talented, if you have an appreciation for that kind of art.) Mom Mom loves to spoil both Miranda and the dog, both to excess. Sometimes I have to be the mom, which isn't too popular with any of them. But the woman is a powerhouse that never stops fussing and fixing while we are there. She has several medical conditions which cause her pain, but she doesn't slow down even when she should. She is stubborn but kindhearted. We love you Mom Mom and Pop Pop.


I am grateful for all the friends I have had in my life, the ones who led or followed me into wild adventures, for late night explorations of the meaning of life, for laughter and quiet moments of conversation, support, and friendship, and for girly lunches and shopping. For that strong shoulder to cry on when life got too much to handle. Some friends I am no longer in touch with, all I cherish both past and present, both related and not.

Not last and not least, but all I have time for on this post, I love my animals. Past and present. Thankyou for the unconditional love, for entertaining me, for curling up on my lap and comforting me when no one else is around. I cherish that bond and value it almost as much as human contact. In many ways it is simpler than trying to communicate with humans. But I'll take THAT struggle with the joys as well.

One last thought. Take time to smell the roses, to notice and acknowledge a kids smile, to really taste and enjoy your food, to hear the wind in the trees, to notice and appreciate the small beauties all around you. And take the time to make and cherish the small moments with your kids, your spouse, your family and friends. Remember birthdays, send cards, make calls. (A goal I am trying to be better about). Love, tolerate, forgive, cherish.

Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season.

Please Touch.......

Museum

This past Saturday we went down to the new Please Touch Museum that opened up in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. We had never been to Fairmount Park and it was really nice. There were some amazing old buildings that had been built for the Centennial celebration and so they are all over a hundred years old and amazing architecture. Beautiful old oak trees lined the street, although they are mostly bare of leaves now.

We met my friend Jessica, her husband Mangesh (Manny), and their beautiful little girl Layla Mungekar. Jessie is a dear old friend and my old roommate from Portland, OR. It was so nice that we both ended up on this end of the country close enough to see each other once in awhile.

Layla and Miranda became fast buddies and Layla followed Miranda all around the museum. Actually I guess Miranda did more of the following. Toddlers aren't known for long attention spans.

There was a beautiful old wooden carousel. It was pretty tame (slow) even for a Merry Go Round. Miranda was bored with it but it was just right for Layla.

She was waving at her DaddyThe butterfly was my favorite piece of art. It was in the Alice in wonderland garden.

Two cute.......

SLUG BUG COOL

Here is Miranda in the Zephyr

They had some cool old toys on display. This was psychadelic barbie....having lunch at McDolnalds.

And here is Stewardess Barbie (no, not flight attendant Barbie. We didn't have those in the 60's)

And who could forget Light Bright?


And don't forget Ken and Chrissie...

Halloween (Belated)

Happy November. Ok, Happy Mid November.

I know it is a little late but I wanted to document our Halloween. Halloween is a big deal at our house. I’m not so much into over decorating, but we put up some lights and decorations.

Miranda is on the right. I don't remember what the catalog called her costume. It was cute though. On the left is her friend Lauren.

We make icker green punch, float glow sticks, and put dry ice in it, all in a black cauldron. We heat the punch slightly which makes the dry ice bubble and foam. The kids, and even the adults, love it and people remember us from year to year.

David also sets up a ground fogger, strobe light, glowing skull, laughing skull, and we have Halloween music playing. We add a few more things each year and this year we got the punch just right. We had been ordering a green punch from Schwans but they quit making it so we had to concoct our own. We had peach juicy juice, Gatorade powder, lemonade, and Hawiian punch and added some V-8 smoothie to it which made it just a little bit cloudy (creepy), and it also seemed to make the dry ice bubble and spit even more, which really added to the witches brew effect.

My other project has been to start going through 10 years of baby gear and girls clothes. I went to the storage unit and hauled (from the back of the unit no less) all the baby clothes out and they are now clogging my living room as I sort them for friends, family, good will, or the garbage. Next is to get rid of the baby gear. I am not hauling this stuff to North Carolina. I already hauled it across the country, through one apartment and 2 houses. I has just sat there not doing me or anyone else any good. So out it all goes. It is very nostalgic going through all those little clothes though; Lots of memories. I am sorting some of them out for Miranda to keep. You have to have something you wore as a baby to put on your own kids. I didn’t actually have any of my baby clothes, but I had some of Jeanie’s. They may go out of style but it is about the memories.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!

Two weeks ago we traveled down to Greensboro for more house hunting. The previous offer we had made fell through. We couldn’t come to a price agreement. The builder seemed to want to charge us money simply for choosing colors, not for any upgrades so we walked away. We felt he wanted too much for the house especially for this

market. So we started over. After looking at 7 choices on Friday and Saturday we made an offer.

It is a traditional 2 story home on a beautiful wooded end of cul-de-sac lot.

It is double fenced with lots of roaming room in “the forest”. There is a fence through the middle of the main fence which was meant to be a dog run. Rusty will be so happy. This is the out building

It also has a kid fort (Didn't get a picture of that) for Miranda. I am assuming they will leave it.

It has a brick/stone patio and a hot tub. That was a nice bonus.

It has three bedrooms and a bonus room which will be David’s office and a tv room for Miranda. David doesn’t expect Volvo to provide office space like Mack has so he will be working from home at least initially.

We were to close on the house later

this month, but the home inspection brought up some issues that will have to be addressed before we will sign on the house. There are some issues with mold in the crawl space and the vapor barrier is

“bunched up”? There are some minor electrical issues, roofing seals issues, cooling system drainage and a gas leak issues: all stuff that can be fixed but will be done before we buy the house. But assuming all goes well we will own it by the end of this month or next.