Cold...

I'm thinking...

It's about time that I pull out the long underwear.

An actual hat too, not just a headband.

My legs, front and back, were frozen by the end of our walk this evening.

We ended up cutting it short. tsk

That does no one any good at all.

Annie won't wear her booties. 

I guess I'll need to make her some.

Booties that are soft and bendable,

but also water repellent.

The ones I bought hurt her ankles,

she simply stops walking.

She's a little large to try and carry.

Minneapolis is home to me.
Phoenix, AZ is Kira
Springfield, MO is Andy

Happy...

  

I was reading a Martha Stuart magazine at work the other day and came across an article about teaching your children about being thankful (it was a Thanksgiving issue) by writing what you are thankful for on a cut-out of a leaf, then tacking it to a framed board. I mentioned it to a co-worker and she said that she made a paper tree and each day they would all write what they were thankful for and also one nice thing they did for someone on a leaf, then attach the leaves to the tree. By the time Thanksgiving arrived, they had a real full tree.
She said it went over so well, that they were going to try something similar for Christmas, by writing on paper rectangles, gluing them into a circle and attaching them together to make a chain. Her children are 3 and 5 (plus she's a cool mom!)
I was reading Stacey's blog http://sdanddoublee.blogspot.com/ , and she is doing Christmas Wednesdays with her two. They've already started by writing letters, drawing pictures and sending stickers to some friends that live far away. It didn't go as smoothly as the article in Martha Stuart, but they did it together.

So, I was wondering what I could do with my children when none of them live at home and two of them live in different states.
I could try to get them to post on my blog everyday, but then I thought...yeah, no, won't work.  Then, maybe they could text me something they are thankful for, or something they did for someone, or something they saw that made them feel the love, beauty, power of God. I'm thinking that if I want this to happen, I'm going to have to bug them relentlessly, and then I just might defeat the purpose of doing it in the first place.

I'm going to give it a try anyway, and I'll start it out.

Tonight, while driving to church for a meeting, I was at a stop light when I noticed part of the Minneapolis skyline in the distance. Now, I might be just the tiniest bit biased, but I think Minneapolis has one of the prettiest, coolest, just perfect skylines. I can't say that I've seen that many, but out of those that I have seen, none of them can hold a candle to Minneapolis.
When Andy was going to the Art Institutes International downtown, I would sometimes drive him to school on my way to work. Every morning the skyline looked different, some days there was a haze, or fog, or mist that surrounded the buildings part way up, other days the sun was just coming up and shining against the glass. There is one building where the top portion changes colors, another that is green, another an odd shape. That skyline always, always, makes me smile and I always make a comment about it when I drive by, to myself if I'm alone. I'm sure my husband is tired of hearing how awesome I think it is, but it's something I just can't hold in. I simply love it!!

   

By the way...none of these photos are mine, unfortunately. I googled Minneapolis skyline and these are just a few that showed up under images. Pretty awesome!

Kilo...

When my youngest son moved out, nearly the first thing he said was that he wanted to get a dog. I tried to nonchalantly talk him out of it.

Dogs live a long time.
Dogs are expensive.
Dogs need shots.
Dogs need their teeth cleaned.
Dogs may not like other dogs.
Dogs may not be allowed to live in certain places.
Dogs can't be left alone for long periods.

He and his room mates were at the Humane Society looking around and had their hearts melt when they met a young Pit bull. He made sure he could touch the dog all over, put his fingers in his mouth, hold him on the floor, pick him up, all the normal things that people do to and with their pets. (or Should be able to do). He then called his sister, the zookeeper from the Phoenix Zoo, asking for some advice on whether he should get a dog or not. She tried very hard to talk him out of it. (her cat just had a urinary tract infection that cost her A LOT) Telling him how much work it would be and how expensive it could be. Well, no one has ever been able to talk my son out of anything he has mind set on.

Meet my new Grand dog, Kilo. (he won over both Annie and Oliver...he'll need to work on Little-Bit)
As I have been told, he and his room mate Dana have joint custody.

Andy was home for a visit last week for a few days, and now he's gone. He and Lauren flew to Springfield Mo., to find an apartment, then she stayed there and started work, while he flew back to Cincinnati to get her car so he could drive it home and deliver it to her parents (it was their car anyway). He got here Wednesday, November 2, and was busy every moment of the day, except for the time he was asleep, and flew back to Cincinnati on Saturday, November 5.
Lauren flew back also so they could finish packing all of their belongings into a POD to be stored for 6 months.  I have a feeling they worked like dogs all Monday to get things finished, ate one last dinner in the city they called Home for the last 17 months, then hopped in their cars and headed out on their new adventure at midnight that same night.
The apartment they found is fully furnished, Fully furnished, everything but their clothes, food and toiletries. Wow! They brought along their electronics too...of course.
I'm assuming he is frantically looking for a job, seeing as how he has lotsssss of bills to pay and no money coming in. I haven't called to find out how that is working out yet...I don't want to jinx anything.

I miss him.
I wish he was here in Minnesota.
I want him to be happy.
I'm not entirely certain he is. (that could just be the Mom in me thinking)
I miss him.

I've learned that it is very, very hard to not put my nose into the lives of my children. I'm sure they would think that I do, but...I...do...not, (even though I really, really want to sometimes)
I do make suggestions, and offer stories, and alternatives though. Just so they can have other options to think about while they are wondering what the heck to do with their lives.

They are at a point in their lives where they don't have anything holding them anywhere, so if they get a chance to move to a different state or even country, or heck, even try a new career, they should go for it. Once they get married and have children, they won't be so easily able to move around.

My advice to my children...

Be happy
Enjoy your work
Don't be afraid to show your feelings
Be forgiving
Swing
Twirl in circles
Lay in the grass
Find animals in the clouds
Have sympathy
Have empathy
Love
Take care of your body (you won't get another)
Be kind to yourself
Read
Relax
Go for walks
Exercise
Dance...at home...with abandon
Hold hands with someone special
Take time off to do Nothing
Call your Mother
More important...call your Father
Believe in God
Believe in ghosts
Believe in yourself
Just believe
Laugh
Have fun
Be a child
Love
Have confidence
Be happy

I love you all so much it hurts!

Empty nest…

It’s been a week now since my youngest left home. He had a chance to move in with a friend that just recently lost one of her room mates, and the price was perfect. He figured he would have a chance to live away from home and see how making rent and utility payments would be without having to do it all on his own. He had been talking about moving to Colorado, and I casually mentioned the fact that he had never lived away from home and wasn’t used to paying bills and managing his finances. I’m hoping this goes well, because he has been my one stubborn child, never wanting or allowing help. He always thought he could “do it” on his own. I’m having faith!! This vacancy happened at just the right time, and he seems to be very happy.  I’ll be happy as long as he pays me his car insurance and phone bill each month. I’m trying very hard to be cool and not bug him when I see how often he’s out with his friends, at restaurants and bars. (I keep track on Facebook).

I’m finding that I’m handling the “Empty Nest Syndrome” very well. As long as there are cell phones and Skype, so I can text, call or see them anytime I want, I can then survive until the next time I can see them in the flesh. Even when they were all living here, they seemed to be gone more than they were home, either at work, school, or out with friends.

Maybe someday, we will live within driving distance, short driving distance. Close enough to be able to get together for special times without having to make a flight reservation. At least they are all happy, healthy and doing fine.

Easter…

Kira is coming home for a visit this Easter! Yey!! David has been working very hard on the basement, but he is only one person, so it’s taking a while to get done. He’s almost got all of the electrical work finished so he can get it inspected. He has to run some water pipes to the tub and sink and get them inspected, then it should be smooth sailing from there to the finish. Putting up insulation and sheetrock will be a snap, especially if we can entice some strong young men to help out. (a little beer, a little food, OK, a LOT of beer and a LOT of food should do it) I’m taking charge of tiling the bathroom…can’t wait, it’s going to be soooo cool!  We found 50’s style light fixtures to hang next to the 50’s medicine chest that goes with our blue 50’s tub, toilet and wall hung sink. I bought metal legs with attached towel bars for the sink.

I found really cool hanging lights for the bed, but where I wanted to put the bed ended up taking up too much room, so we had to design it to be in the corner. We returned the lights (sniff) and found another cool style that screamed for a built in headboard. Thank you David, it will be perfect.

Anyway, where I’m going with this is, hopefully two months will be enough time for us to finish these rooms. Kira has already visited us once and we didn’t have a guest room, then Andy visited and we still didn’t have a guest room, so I’m praying that we can have a guest room by Easter.

This was in the beginning, I’ll post some in between pictures as soon as I clean up some of the stuff lying around. I’m so excited!!!

Christmas Day…

For the past few years, we go to Karen’s for Christmas Day, eat a wonderful ham dinner, then go see a movie. This year turned out a little different. First, we still went to Karen’s, but she didn’t make a ham, which I was really looking forward to, instead, she made a roast. Now the roast was very good, but I just had my taste buds all set for ham. Oh well. Second, we didn’t go to a movie, because the theater doubled in price from the previous years and the only movie we wanted to see was at a bad time. So, we played Texas Holdem! What a hoot! I’m not much of a card player at any time and poker isn’t any different. I was sort of getting the hang of it though, but my Mom, my 90 year old Mom, she held her own. Ethan was helping us for awhile, but she really didn’t need all that much help. Figures huh?!

Later on that night, we had a bonfire on our new patio. David and Ethan shoveled off a big area and got the wood going. Andy made up a batch of his delicious Margaritas. Oh man those are good! A bunch of Ethan’s and Andy’s friends came over for several hours and talked and drank and generally had a great time. I really like all of their friends, they’re fun and nice and don’t make me feel like I’m an ‘old lady’. I wish I had friends like that when I was young. Heck, I wish I had friends like that now, but that’s another story.

Christmas Eve…

I hadn’t seen Andy in 7 months. I had to work on Christmas Eve day, so I didn’t get to pick him up at the airport, which was probably good, because his friends did something pretty cool. They were dressed up and had a sign with Andy’s name on it like they do in the movies for people who don’t have anyone they know to pick them up. Actually, I saw a guy at the Phoenix airport with a sign. Then they went out to breakfast. So I didn’t get to see him until our Christmas Eve church service was almost over. We were humming Silent Night and walking out of church with our lit candles and in the very back pew sat Andy, looking all cute and Andy like with his black wool jacket and scarf, little scruff on his chin, holding a candle and smiling. I blew out my candle in the Narthex, turned around, went back in church and gave him a hug. I told him he would probably be safe making a break for it. I guess I taught him right, because he waited a little bit longer before sneaking out. After a couple more hugs, we hung around a bit to have cookies and punch and to let some other people say Hi.

We got home and put together all the food and drinks while waiting for the others to stop by. We had hard and soft tacos and chips and salsa, cheese and crackers and of course cookies. Andy was disappointed that we had tacos and not prime rib, but we never have a big meal on Christmas eve, never had and probably never will. We have our big meal on Christmas Day!

We took our time chatting and eating, trying to waste time until Ethan got home from work. He was to get off at 8 pm, but it ended up being a bit later. Once he got home, we Skyped Kira and proceeded to open up presents.  Kira’s boyfriend John was with her at the time, so he got to meet all of us and see how strange we are, but then, aren’t all families strange? We had a really nice Christmas eve. We got to have Ethan at home, we got to have Andy back at home and we got to visit with Kira complements of technology.