A look back at 2011 & ahead to 2012

There is no other way to say it, this year has flown by. Some of the things I wanted to do I managed to get done and some didn't quite happen. Thankfully this past year was really more ups than downs. Lots of things happened in the news, and celebrities got married, divorced, had babies, got in trouble and more. Those things happened, but I want to look back at what happened in my own little world. My own little highlight reel of life. The first thing that comes to mind is how much Jake has changed. He has grown tremendously in size, and once in awhile I see it in maturity also. :) We have not lost anyone this year that was a close family member. Though I have friends who have. We took nice vacations and added Lily the wonder dog to the family. She has brought joy to all of us and is a loved part of the family. We are all a year older, maybe even wiser. I have started my dog business and feel like I am getting the hang of it. We had a baby boom in the Spring which will make next years reunion great fun! We are in the last year of middle school and feel like it is going well, most of the time. Jake is more independent and everyone is in good health.  I feel like we have been blessed  this past year. I hope you were too.

Now for this year. There are always resolutions that people make. Some are funny ones, some are serious, and some are made just to be broken. I don't usually make resolutions. I don't see the need. I am a great procrastinator so I am always waiting for Monday. I hope to make some changes this year. To myself. As a parent, I want to take this year and make some changes. I would like to "unplug" the family on occasion. Take more neighborhood walks, go to the parks and walking trails and spend some time. I would like to get back out on the golf course this summer and play a round to two as a family. It can be fun! I hope to get out a visit more family and friends that I haven't done in awhile. Especially the older members. I want to get outside more and take those long walks. I need to change some of my personal habit to start doing a few more things for myself that helps make me a nicer person. Relieve stress in ways that I know will work. I want to make "inside" changes. I think if I do a mental make over, then the physical one will fall into place. It's worth a shot. So, last year was great! This coming year is unknown.  I plan on smiling more than frowning. I want to be happy with who I am and what I do. I hope to write more, enjoy my dog business and not let a few peoples negative comments get to me. That is how I want 2012 to be. Check in with me on occasion and we'll see how it's going. My wish for you in 2012, is that you are Happy and Well. I think that's all we need. Take care!

Hello Again!

Hi there! Did you miss me? Life is hectic here in the sandwich generation. Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas and Hanukah is right around the corner. Not to mention ringing in the New Year! This weekend is another of out multi boy sleep overs which I am sure will make me ready for a long winter night!

Our Thanksgiving was a wonderful one. We had another new baby, welcome Caitlyn, Natalies little sister, and it was Lily the wonder dogs first inside family Holiday. Kids and dog went together very well. I sat and reflected on Thanksgivings past while waiting for midnight to start my cyber shopping. We are really blessed in so many ways. We have never been alone on Thanksgiving. We have always had family or friends around for a nice dinner and with wonderful conversation and laughter. Lee and I went out to lunch yesterday. We were sitting in Panara and at the table next to us was an older couple. We started talking and ended up spending 30 min. chatting about things past and present. It was nice. I'm hoping that when we are older there will be people we don't know willing to sit and chat for a min. We enjoyed taking just a small amount of time and sharing our day. This time of year is so busy. I hope you have time to sit down and have a chat with someone, if you know them or not. Take time to enjoy the season. Take care!

United Nations, Lite

The other day I was able to experience a middle school United Nations. Jakes school participated for the first time, along with about 7 other schools. There were approximately 200 kids. The topic that they had to work on was world hunger. Before meeting, the group that volunteered was broken into smaller groups. Then each was assigned a country and they had to research what that countries needs were, and how they could help. Then at the UN meeting, they all came together and started talking. It was really fun to see. These kids were grades 6-8. First they had to learn how to work with the delegates of their own group (country), then they had to work with other countries and try and get them to see their side of the issue. After all the meetings, there would be a proposal and the whole United Nations would vote on it. There seemed to be a lot of canals being dug. Never mind that some of them weren't really near water, or that they would have to run through several countries to get where the water was needed. There was also a lot of trading extra cash. These kids haven't had that big dose of reality yet. Why would a country object to having a canal run through it, just to get water to a neighbor in need? Why would a country object to giving another country money to buy food, seed, farm equipment and much needed clean water? If everything that they had come up with would actually work, it truly would indeed be a great accomplishment. It's harder to explain a country to a child when they haven't seen it in person. They don't live in an area with no running water, dirt floors, and people starving.   I would love to see a student US conference. It would be interesting what these kids would come up with to fight hunger in our own country. Do they know that some kids in their own city don't have breakfast or dinner? Do they realize there are kids in their own school that wouldn't have lunch if it wasn't paid for by the government? There is certainly a need all over the world to fight hunger. I just wish that we would start with our own country. Soon there will be food drives for the food banks, pantries and free store. If you see a good sale, stock up and drop if off. Every little bit helps! Take care!

Ditched at Sea!

This past summer we took a Caribbean cruise. It was very nice. We were on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. That ship was huge! We were very impressed by the size of everything on the ship. We were on the 8th deck and there still was a lot of ship above us. Besides having a baby pool, splash pool, adult pool, regular pool and several jacuzzis, there was putt putt, rock climbing, wave riding and ice skating. Add in the theater where they played movies and broadway type shows, night clubs, teen clubs, and the casino, there was something going on the entire time we were on board. When we went to Alaska, we did a bunch of family things. Played games, watched movies or just watched the scenery as it glided by. There were mostly "mature" people on the Alaskan cruise. This time was very different. There was a teen club that actually had teens in it. There were kids everywhere. All ages, sizes, countries were represented. In the afternoon, there would be a parade of little ones through the shopping area. They would be dressed in that days arts and craft. It was always amusing to see them strut through smiling and waving at everyone. The group that seemed to vanish was the 12-14 group. We left on Sunday, by Monday afternoon we had been ditched. That's right. Jake would get up and walk with us to breakfast at 9:30 or 10:00. One of his new friends would materialize out of nowhere and mention that a group of them would be at that table over there. As Jake melted into the crowd, we would yell out a time and place to check in. By Tuesday I was hearing names like, Jordan, Justin, Cameron, Matt, Jasmine...countries like Norway, Germany, and Canada. Once is awhile there would be a glimpse of a teenager. Wed. we set some rules. Jake must eat one meal a day with us, dinner. Attending the after dinner show was optional, but we would like his company. That night after dinner, Jake said he would meet us at the theater entrance. He showed up on time, with four of his buddies in tow. That was when we realized that Jordan was female and from Orange County. Technically he did attend the show with us. He just didn't sit anywhere near us. Usually on the other side of the theater! There were activities planned for the teenagers from 10:00am-1:00am. This was time to let him have some space. What could happen? There is always the he could fall overboard thought, but we were confident that Jake would not put himself in any danger and as far as we know, he didn't. Jake had a taste of "freedom" during that cruise. He met all kinds of kids and he is still in touch with a few of them. The Freedom of the Seas gave Jake a taste of independence. It gave Lee and I a look of what's  to come. Being ditched. If you have to be ditched by your kid, it's nice that he did it on a cruise ship that had all kinds of fun things to do, for everyone!! Take Care!

The end is near!

Yes, the end is near, of summer that is. I cannot believe that it is the end of August already. As far as I'm concerned it's the beginning of June! School just let out and we have hot, sunny, lazy days ahead of us. Which we did, two months ago. How time flies! When I was younger, it seemed like summer lasted FOREVER! I spent my summers on my bike. I'd ride "uptown"Bright and meet my friends at Jot Em Down or Rencks store. We'd get a can of pop, sometimes it would be frozen, then off we'd go. We would then ride the loop, which took us through Logan, down Mt. Plesant and then back up Sneakville to Bright. There were no bike trails then. We rode on the road, up and down hills, and waved at all the cars as they went by. It took a couple of hours and we had a great time. We had no video games or air conditioning to keep us inside. The world was different then. I can't say that it was better, just different. I would love for Jake to be outside more, instead of laying on the couch glued to TV/iPad/PS3. But I also can't blame him for laying on the couch in a nice air conditioned room when it's 90* with 80% humidity. I would have loved that too. Add in allergies and I'm right there on the couch with him. Maybe that's what happened. I laid down on the couch and went into a TV coma. It started in June and ended the end of August. I know we went on vacation, I'll tell you that story later, and I started my business, it's just all a blur! Now, this coming weekend is Labor Day. The official end of summer weekend. The WEBN fireworks will happen on Sunday. The family will get together several times over the weekend for pool parties. The evenings will become cooler as will the mornings. It's already started. The mornings are brisk, I love that. I can sit outside with my coffee and enjoy the cool air, in my mind. In reality I am getting breakfast, packing lunches and driving the car pool. Yes, the end is near. Next year I will take a bit more time to enjoy summer! I hope that you created some wonderful moments this summer, there are more to come! Take Care!!

In the Summertime!

Today is a perfect summer day. It is warm and sunny with a light breeze blowing. The pool water is warm and we are hanging out on the patio. Lee and Jake are playing RISK, Lily the dog is laying stretched out asleep and I am just hangin. This reminds me of growing up. I have mentioned before that I grew up in Bright Indiana. When I lived there, it was really country. Many of the roads were gravel, the town consisted of three churches, a grave yard, two general stores, a gas station, firehouse and the grade school. Most of the land was farmed, and "sub divisions" didn't exist. Bright is very different today. Once Hidden Valley was developed in the 70's, there was a building boom in Bright. The roads are all paved, they have home pizza delivery and a Chinese place. There are many more businesses and restaurants than I ever imagined. However, the farmland is a thing of the past, and sub divisions are the norm.

When I was young there wasn't really anything to do in the summer. There weren't that many organized club sports, especially for girls. There weren't any malls to hang out at and no air conditioning. That left us to hang outside. You could look out and see the heat rise off the corn fields across the street. There was a small groove of trees with a creek across the road. I would spend hours over there, walking through the woods, imagining, and playing in the creek. That is where I found the frog eggs and brought them home. We put them in a container and watched them hatch.  The sounds and smells of summers past was very different. There would be the singing of birds, the rumble of a hay wagon, the crunch of the gravel on the road as the milk tank truck went back to pick up the Grubbs milk. Once every couple weeks the "grader" would come down the road and smooth out the gravel. This would cause a large dust cloud to settle all over the place. Mom would yell for us to shut the windows so the dust wouldn't get inside. The smells would vary from Spring to Fall. There was the sweet, clean smell of rain in the Spring. There was also the stinky smell of manure being spread to fertilize the fields. The summer would bring honey suckle and a yellow dusting of pollen from the tassels of the corn as we ran through the rows. At night we could hear the frogs and crickets and chased lighting bugs that seemed to be everywhere. We could see brown bats diving for bugs at our light outside. Greg and I would put a cloth over a rock and throw it up in the air to watch the bats dive for it. I have no idea what we thought we were doing. It just seemed right at the time. There would be the soft ground from the turned dirt in the garden. I loved running barefoot outside, I still do today. In the Fall, there was the smell of cut hay, and a crispness in the air. The garden was turned and put to bed for the winter and we would prepare for ice, snow and electric outages. We raised hogs, so we would have litters of piglets over the summer. Sometimes there would be a couple that were rejected by the sows and we would end up hand feeding them. We would ride our bikes up to Rencks store and buy ice cream, or go down to the grade school and play on the playground. It was a very different time. Today, as I sit in my backyard, watching my teenage son. There is a TV attached to the wall, a iPad on the table and his cell phone. I can hear the hum of the air conditioners and smell the grills being warmed up. I can still hear the birds and later on my yard will glow with fireflies. We will grill out and have a grand time. These are the memories Jake will have when he is older. Playing games on the patio, a sleeping dog, grilling out, warm pool water and he might even remember the birds and fireflies. Everyone remembers things differently. It's your own personal past. I hope that you have wonderful memories of summers past, and that you are making new memories this summer. Take care!

Happy Fathers Day!

Today is Fathers Day. My Dad is 81 and lives with me, so I get to see him every day. I'm very lucky to have a great Dad. The things I remember while growing up was sitting on the couch and Dad reading the comics to my brother and I on Sunday mornings. Dad making sure that when Mom was in the hospital, we stayed together as a family. Even though my Grandmother offered to keep me at her house.  Dad running around the yard holding on to my bike as I learned to ride. That led to my spending hours in the summer riding. Dad making a maze for my science project. I won first prize. Dad teaching me how to drive a stick shift. Dad walking me down the isle, on Fathers Day, 27 years ago. Dad coming to Guam and snorkeling even though he isn't a great swimmer. Dad coming to the Wal Mart parking lot with the truck when Lee and I bought a grill to big to fit in our car. Dad fixing EVERYTHING that needed to be fixed in our new house, and every place we have lived since. Dad holding my newborn son. Dad coming to every event my son and my nieces have been in. Dad teaching Lee and Jake how to fix things, sometimes. Dad going to the markets and craft shows to help me set up. Dad taking care of Lily, the new puppy, when no one else has time. She follows him around like a shadow. I have a great Dad. I hope that your Dad is still with you, and if not, I hope that you have wonderful memories of times together. By the way, I have a great Mom too! Take Care!