Lost and found

Such a long day. I'm falling asleep here at the computer! The quiet house, the hum of the CPU......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. We didn't finish dinner until 8:30 tonight. I had a doctor's appointment after school and then I went grocery shopping. I was loading the groceries in the back of the station wagon. I had a box containing a golf bag that I had picked up for a friend of mine who was going to deliver it to her daughter in Boston. It was about 3 1/2 feet long and needed to be moved to make better room for my groceries. As I was moving it I heard my necklace catch on it and then "pop", I could hear the cross ripping off. The necklace is a very special piece of jewelry. The cross was left to me by my Aunt Margaret when she died when I was in high school. It did not have a chain and sat in my jewlery box for years. Last year Paul bought me a lovely gold chain for the cross and I wear it all the time. So when I heard the "pop" I froze and looked all around me. The chain was still around my neck but the cross was gone. Couldn't find it anywhere on the ground. Looked all over my grocery bags and on the seats of the car. Looked under the box. Checked my clothes. The box has one of those narrow perforations that you can punch in so you have a couple of handles to make transporting the box easier. I thought maybe it might have dropped down in that little perforation. A long shot.......I know. I put my hand down in there and felt around....nothing. There was no way I was going to leave that parking lot without my sentimental cross so I called Paul on my cell phone and asked him to come down and help me look. Four eyes are better than two, especially when you get older! He said he'd be right down. Isn't he sweet??? Sooooooooooo...I continued looking. Down on my hands and knees under the car. I still thought it was possible that the cross had gone through the hole in the box but maybe it had fallen a little farther forward than I could reach so I opened the box, pulled out the golf bag and looked around on top of the golf bag and still nothing. I am getting depressed. Really depressed. Then I thought...I did lift up the box to look underneath it. Is it possible that the cross could have fallen in that little hole and then fallen to the back of the box when I lifted it up? So I pulled the golf bag all the way out and waaaaaaaaaaay at the very bottom of the box was sitting my precious little cross. Just picture the smile on my face. Can you imagine if I had not looked in there? The golf bag would have been pulled out and the box tossed in the trash in Boston and the cross would have been gone forever. I can't stand the thought of it.

Here's something especially for marypam! It was from the "Turning Back the Pages" section of the Lakeville Journal today:

50 years ago - September 1955
Lime Rock - Frank Patchen took his daughters, Judy and Holly, up to the Springfield Fair last Sunday. Howard Bain accompanied them. It was Hollyh's ninth birhtday on Monday Sept. 26. The fair was her birthday treat and on Monday her family gave her a samll party in honor of the occasion.

I'm guessing the Springfield Fair must be what the Big E is today. I can remember going to the Big E when I was in high school. I skipped school (with my mother's blessing) to go to the fair. It was the only time I skipped school in all 4 years. She very nicely wrote me an absence note so I wouldn't get into trouble, but wouldn't you know, I forgot the note and was given detention for "fogetting an absence note". Sometimes you just can't win.

Such bright blue weather.

Such spectacular weather today. I just love the bright bright blue of the fall sky. And the leaves look so startingly green against that blue. One of the teachers said to me after school, "This is why I can't wait to retire. I want to be able to spend a whole day outside in this beautiful weather". What a luxury. When the weather is this nice there are a few of us who opt to eat our lunch outside at "Cathy's Cafe". "Cathy" being one of the school nurses and the "cafe" being the bench on the sidewalk outside the nurse's office. Our table is a large, empty, upside-down maxi-pad box, compliments of Nurse Cathy. When it's windy we sometimes have to go chasing after our maxi-pad table. It's not very fancy and it's only half-an-hour, but it's the best half hour of the day....no children, no vulgar language, no noise, no stuffy inside air. We just turn our pathetic little bodies to the sun and drift away and relax. We better enjoy it while we can because the north wind and snow are waiting right around the corner. And I really cannot wait for the snow!

We got an email in school to inform us that the farmer next door will be using his "machine" to scare the migrating geese away from his pond. The machine makes terrific loud noises that sound just like gun shots. The first year he used it one of our teachers heard the noise and, oh dear, he was sure that someone was firing a gun in front of the school. He called the office and quietly and calmly told them of his suspicions and the administration immediately called the police and put the school in lock-down mode. We had to lock ourselves in our little "areas of refuge". The kids kept asking us if this was "the real thing" and of course we all were sure it was but didn't want to tell them that and tried to be real cool about the whole thing. Was the administration's face red when they found out what those gun shots really were!! So now we are warned every fall when they are about to start their shootin'.

Rain and thunderstorms tomorrow. Looks like "Cathy's Cafe" will be closed.

It's raining Moose!

Last night and today we have had such lovely rainy weather. Last night I went to bed listening to the wind blowing the leaves around. I love that sound. I love to sleep with the window open and snuggle under the covers while the wind blows over me. Luckily, when I was in college I had a room-mate who used to love the same thing and on rainy, windy nights I remember we used to open our window as wide as we could and let the wind swirl around the room, our curtains in a horizontal position. What a dilemma we would have had if she had wanted the window closed at the first hint of wind or rain. She also loved sardines and crackers as much as I did. Windy rainy nights.........sitting in front of our open window eating our sardines and crackers. Great memory. It was a good way to keep others out of our room. One smell of the sardines and they usually did an about-face and left!

We had a few moose sightings this weekend. I think they are here to stay. We have 25 "registered" moose in the state. The one this weekend spent some time frolicking in the pond by the high school. I haven't seen one of these creatures yet. I just don't want my car and the moose to meet.

I'm really enjoying the book, The Big House. It is such a pleasurable book to read. I love to read it slowly and let every word sink in. The descriptions are so GOOOOOD! Anyone who has ever been to Cape Cod, even once, would really enjoy getting lost in this book. I have only been to the Cape twice. We went camping there with Kara when she was small and had a great tent site right on the lake, but my first time to Cape Cod was my best. It was the REAL Cape Cod. The Cape Cod before it got busy and noisy and full of people. I was 10 years old and my friend, Rosemary, invited me to go with her and her family to their cottage, Bunny Dune, in Wellfleet. I was a tad nervous because this little farm girl had never been very far from the farm. And I was going to be gone for two weeks.........a long time when you are 10. Their cottage was just how you picture a cottage at the Cape. It was at the end of a tiny street, sitting on top of the dunes just a few steps away from the water. Not winterized, gray shingles, bare wooden floors, that "summer camp" smell, lots of sea air blowing through it. I had never seen anything like it. Rosemary seemed to have everything......really cool toys, nice house, her mother drove us around in a convertible..........and now this! A house right on the water. The only thing I had that she didn't was lots of siblings! And I wouldn't trade them for anything. But I was really in love with Bunny Dune. The first night was a little hard. Rosemary had a migraine and spent the night throwing up in a pot next to her bed. I think I kind of wanted to go home right then. But once she recovered it was heaven. The Cape was so different then. So quiet and non-touristy. I can remember Provincetown as being little old ladies and tea rooms. I can remember my first taste of fried clams......oh yum yum. Sitting on the smooth, warm, gray boards of the porch sharing a big bucket of those yummy things. I never knew anything could taste so good. And my first taste of lobster. MMMMM. And my first sight of REALLY big waves. I never knew anything could be so big. And my first taste of salt water. I never knew water could taste so bad. And going clamming in the clam flats. I never knew anything could smell so bad. I often wonder if Bunny Dune is still there and who lives there. Does Rosemary still go there or has it been passed on to another family? I wonder if I drove to Wellfleet.....could I find it on my own??

Feels like Fall

This is the first day that it has actually felt like Fall. It was overcast, cool and windy. The kind of weather that makes you want to build a fire and make some homemade soup......or clean the attic. And that is just what I did. Not the fire and soup part (don't I wish), but the attic part. There is only a small margin of time when you can work in your attic, as most of the year it is too hot or too cold up there. The attic climate was just right for working today. I spent most of the day up there and now have 1/4 of the attic cleaned and organized. The rest of the attic looks pretty nasty. I have a long way to go. I filled up two of Paul's "body bags" with trash. I came across a dead bat in Brett's old Spiderman wastebasket. Ugh. I think I should throw away that wastebasket. I think the bat may have been caught in the attic when we sealed around the chimney after our bat invasion last summer. Swept up quite a little pile of bat guano from around the chimney. Double ugh.

Paul decided he wanted to go out for dinner tonight and after spending all day in the attic with bat dirt I was ready for a nice evening out. But just as I finished my shower he got an emergency call and spent 2 hours over at the office. Just like that my nice evening out turned into a boring dinner at home! He is back over there with another emergency. And I am going to do some ironing and settle down to the season premiere of "Desperate Housewives".

A swinging day!

It was a perfect day for working on little Eamon's swing set. And we worked until it was done. I should say Paul worked until it was done because he did most of the work. It really is a "man" project. I helped by "holding things". Working with Paul on a project like this is about as much fun as being stuck with him in the car for 8 hours. Not easy! But it is done and all ready for little people. Not only will Eamon and Elizabeth and other grandchildren be able to use it but also all the little grand-nieces and nephews-to-be at our future family picnics...........kootchy koo!

A couple of evenings ago when we were going for our walk we came across a mess of stuff that one of our neighbors had put out for the garbage man to take away on trash collection day. Amongst the junk was a REALLY nice Bentwood ice cream parlor chair with a caned seat. I don't know why he was throwing it out because it was in absolutely wonderful perfect shape. Not a thing wrong with it. We have 4 of them at our table and really needed one more so on the way back we scooped it up and took it home. My first trash retrieval. I have never taken anything from someone's garbage pile before. I have a friend who is really really good at this activity and has gotten some cool stuff from other people's garbage piles. She really is the queen of trash retrieval. I'm just glad she wasn't driving up University Drive last week or we would probably have had one less chair tonight. I always feel like I am stealing when I do this and I'm afraid someone will come running out of their house, waving their arms and saying, "Stop, stop. What do you think you're doing? Put that down......NOW". But they are just throwing it away, right?? Anyway, it looks great at our table. I can't wait to find another treasure to "steal".

Welcome to Autumn

Yesterday was the first day of autumn. I greet it with mixed emotions. It means the end of the season that I love the most........the season of long days, iced drinks, sweet evening breezes, green grass, fresh flowers, pregnant gardens (never heard that phrase but that's how I think of a garden that is always bearing fruit!), cool shade, crickets and katy-dids, warm rain showers, cook-outs, outdoor concerts, parades, porch-sitting and a life that just slooooows down. But I also love the change in seasons and always look forward to what is coming next.

Even though we have had this crazy string of warm endless-summer San Diego days I can still tell that fall is creeping up on us. I hear geese flying over more and more often. The days are getting so much shorter that we seem to be in a race each night to finish our dinner so we can take a walk before darkness takes over. The nights are getting cool enough so that we need to shut the windows and put on an extra blanket. The stores are selling buckets and buckets of mums. The trees are beginning to turn and my garden is beginning to look like it has gone through labor one too many times.

One of Kara's friends interestingly said in a recent blog that the smell of chile peppers roasting in Albuquerque was a reminder of fall and brought back years of fall memories. Funny.......I never thought there was any other fall smell but leaves and apples and pumpkins and wood smoke and cider! How isolated we each are in our own little part of the world. I wonder what other smells of autumn people enjoy that I am totally ignorant of in my little New England world. The only "other than New England" smell that I can recall in the autumn was when I was in West Virginia. There was the same lovely smell of leaves but then the West Virginia rains came and came and came and came and I remember so well the smell of rotting leaves. I have never smelled it anywhere else and must think it is unique to West Virginia in the fall.

Does anyone have any autumn smells that are unique to where they live or where they have traveled??

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BRETT AND MEGAN!

Happy 3rd anniversary to Brett and Megan...a really sweet couple. It seems like only an instant ago I was zipping off on a 30 minute car ride to Winsted AT 9PM to retrieve a forgotten binky (pacifier) to bring back to a frantic, screaming Baby Brett and then suddenly, there he was, saying wedding vows to his sweet bride. It reminds me of that wonderful song from Fiddler on the Roof: Sunrise, Sunset. "I don't remember growing older, when did they?". I couldn't have asked for a more perfect match. Megan is everything a mother could ever want for her son! I wish you many more years of togetherness and being each other's best friend. Enjoy one another. I love you both!

A pleasant beginning........and a painful end.

This was supposed to be posted last night but because of "server" problems things just weren't working right. So when I say "this morning" I actually mean yesterday morning. When I say "today" I mean yesterday. And when I say "tomorrow" I meant today! Got it?

Sometimes it is really nice to start the day with a pleasant surprise! I woke up this morning with the news that the middle school was closed due to a power failure. All right!! They seem to think that the school had a lightening strike during Saturday's storm and they needed to shut down the power to the school to correct whatever the problem was. Usually when we have a school closing it is due to snow or ice and you are stuck in the house for the day. So it was quite strange to be home when the weather was sunny and warm and you could leave the house and zip around here and there. What a great feeling. I spent the morning returning something to Baby's 'R Us.....a 45 minute drive. I've needed to do it for a while but just hate to go after school because the traffic is so bad at that time. So this was a real gift today!

When I came home I mowed the lawn. The recent rain turned our brown parchment into a plush emerald carpet and I've been trying to figure out when I would have time to mow it before it turned into a hayfield. Today was perfect! I was almost finished and was mowing under the volleyball net. I grabbed onto the rope that holds the volleyball net up and pushed it up like I usually do so I can ride the mower underneath it but somehow the lower end of the rope caught on part the mower which means Midge and the mower are zipping forward but the rope is going backward. Ouch ouch ouch. It sliced right into my hand. Left an ugly hole. I knew if I went to the emergency room in Torrington I would wait at least 4 hours....they are so bad there. So I drove the extra 20 minutes to Winsted where I only had to wait for half an hour. They sewed it up with 3 stitches and put a couple of steri-strips on another smaller cut. Can't get it wet or dirty for two days. Dr. said my husband would have to cook dinner for me. I said ha ha ha ha you don't know my husband. So Paul and I went out for pizza tonight! It's a bit sore but bearable. And now I'm going to go find a plastic bag to wrap around my hand so I can take a shower. I told the doctor that the worst part of having something like this happen is when they say "Now, don't get this wet".

Power is back on at school so it's back to business tomorrow.

The power of a song.

We just went out for ice cream and while driving back we saw the most BEAUTIFUL moon. I wish our digital camera were fixed. It is really gorgeous. It was almost orange and so bright and so big. Take some time tonight to go outside and enjoy the sight. It is so lovely. The September full moon is called the Harvest Moon. In reading about it I find that at the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. I can understand that because it is just so bright. Another interesting factoid: usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Okay........class dismissed!!

Tonight while waiting for dinner to cook I was plunking around on the piano and started playing "our song". Then I wandered out to the kitchen to work on dinner while listening to my favorite Sunday night radio programs, Big Band Jump and American Standards By The Sea with Dick Robinson. Love those programs. Lots of old songs from the 40's. Old and romantic. Puts me in a very melancholy and peaceful and happy mood. I was thinking as I was listening to these old songs that many of them were "our song" for so many couples. I always find it interesting to hear what makes a song "ours" for each couple and why. I would love to know what that special song is for any of you. You don't have to give me your name.....just do it anonymously if you want. Just in case it might be a bit embarrasing as to what makes it so special!! Ours was "Dear Heart". Paul loved the movie and the song was special to us because it was about a couple who were apart and missing each other. I guess you could say we spent alot of time apart and missing each other; four years worth! I think today they call that a "long distance relationship". We didn't have a fancy name for it back then, it was just "he's there and I'm here". Whenever I heard that song I felt every word right down to my little toe-nails. Even today when I hear that song I can see my little train pulling out of Grand Central while I wipe the fog off the window to get a last look at little Paul and I can smell the West Virginia coal smoke as I arrive back at school and feel that longing to be home with him. That is why I am happy every day to be right HERE! How does your special song affect you?

Book Suggestion! Just started reading "The Big House" by George Howe Colt. It's a non-fiction book about a man's family memories of the summer home that has been in his family for 100 years. I have only read one chapter but I just can't wait to pick it up and start reading it again. If you enjoy family history and memoirs you will love this.

Movie night.

After a quiet day doing housework and laundry we decided to take in a movie with our friends, Gail and Charlie. The last time we went to the movies it was something I wanted to see so this time it was Paul's pick. He has really wanted to see The Transporter 2. (Ugh) By the time we got to the theatre Gail and I decided we just could not sit through that man-movie so searched the board for something......ANYTHING but that. We were lucky enough to find one that began and ended at the same time as the guy movie. So off we happily went to our chick flick....Just Like Heaven........and left the guys to their guns and blood and noise and car chases. It was a nice, light, entertaining movie and with a non-depressing ending. Good for an escape.

Had a great thunderstorm this afternoon, but other than that it has been a quiet day. Tomorrow I'll mow the lawn. Our lawn is springing back to life after the rain we had this week. After all that work I will probably need a trip to the ice cream shop to pull myself together. All right!! Right now I am falling sleep at this computer. I think that's a sign to call it a day.

Almost done.

The floor project is close to finished. He will come back Saturday to do the bathroom, but other than that it is complete. And it looks AWESOME. And it smells so nice and CLEAN. So wonderful to be rid of that disgusting carpet. I went over tonight and helped Paul clean up and put things back in their proper place. It is 11:30 and we just got home. Have to get up at 5:30 for breakfast with "the girls" before school. Tired. Off to bed.

The renovation project continues......and continues.

Paul got up at 5:00 this morning so he could greet the linoleum layers when they arrived and "supervise" as they worked. Can you imagine how thrilled they must have been? They expected to be through this evening but it was a harder job than they anticipated so it probably will be Saturday before they complete the job. Paul was really tired tonight. He said he is just not a teen-ager anymore! At last he is confronting the truth. He was insistant that he had to paint the receptionist's office before he moved the office furniture back in and was going to do it tonight. He is a "I have to do it now" kind of person. But fatigue took over and he decided that bed was much more inviting. Smart move. And besides, he wants to paint it the same boring color it has been for the past 30 years. He has even kept the old paint cans and wants to use paint out of those cans. This is being frugal to the max. Gail was over tonight to view the progress and agrees with me that a new color is in order......and we already have picked out the color in our minds. I told Paul that we thought a nice pale sage green would pick up the green in the floor and be quite soothing. He wanted to run down to the paint shop tomorrow and just grab a can..........."so, you said jade green?". NO NO NO......not jade green!! Horrors. I think fatigue is getting the best of him. I'm really glad he's getting some rest. I know he will be totally rejuvenated tomorrow.

Our little project pales in comparison to the project that poor Brett has undertaken. Scenes from The Money Pit! That project is enough to test anyone's endurance. It's been going on since spring. Brett is an incredibly hard worker and Megan is a real saint. Paul has been watching, like a hawk, how the men have been laying the linoleum so now he can help Brett do his when the time comes, whichI hope is soon. He's learned much by watching.

Expecting rain tonight, and tomorrow, and Friday. That is very good news. The grass by the side of the driveway is white with dust.

The endless summer.

The summer just seems to go on and on and on. At least weather-wise. Lordy, it is so beautiful. Hot today...near 90. I made tomato sandwiches and iced tea for dinner and we sat in our Adirondack chairs (thank you Lala, Henny, Lizzie and Ellie for those) and looked out over the field and watched the sun go down as we ate. Took a nice long walk and watched the gorgeous moon come out. Unfortunately, along with the heat has come the dryness. Things are so dry that our lawn has crunchy spots and even the weeds are wilting. We found a baby snapping turtle making it's way across the driveway tonight. Probably looking for water, poor thing. We are expecting a soaking rain on Thursday and Friday which will be quite a relief.

Paul's new floor is halfway done. It looks really really grand. So much better than that dreary carpet. And it smells so much cleaner. I think going to work each day will be so much more pleasant for him. They will finish tomorrow.

Today I was working in the library and I heard an angry voice in the hallway. It was a father who had to pick up his son and take him home because of a discipline problem. They were on the way to the boy's locker. The father was really really really angry and I heard the "F" expletive several times. Then I heard him say, several times, something about "the damn Spics". Then I heard him shout out "the teachers don't do S _ _ T around this place". What a piece of work. Isn't he setting a great example for his child? His child had to be taken home because of a discipline problem and he is angry with the teachers?? This generation of middle and high schoolers is so "blame it on everyone else" oriented. Our assistant principal calls them the "enabled generation" because the parents are enabling them to be so dependant and irresponsible and not teaching them to take responsibility for their own actions. So all you young parents out there.......don't blame other people for your children's problems. The buck stops at home!!!!!!!!! Every home should post a "The Buck Stops Here" sign on their front door! I have a feeling my own children know what that means.

Ho Hum day for me. Work work work for Paul.

Another beautiful day. The nights are becoming quite cool, though. Last night we left the bedroom windows open and the heat actually came on. How much did THAT cost us?? The next couple of days are supposed to be pretty hot. We really do need some rain. Even my hostas are wilting. When that happens you know it's dry.

Paul spent the whole day at the office preparing for his new floor installation. He really has been working hard. He took the baseboards off, door frames off, painted the walls down near the baseboards, stained the woodwork and on and on and on. He did the same thing all day yesterday. After dinner we closed the pool for the winter; not one of my favorite husband/wife activities. Not at all. Then he went back to the office and did more "work". He is truly tired tonight and has the beginnings of one of those fatique induced migrains so is off to bed. They will be here Tuesday to install the new floor. Most of his clients tell him "it's about time". I think it's going to look really really nice.

I spent most of the day working outside in the gardens. Not a very exciting day at all but it was quite peaceful. Stopped at 4:30 and sat under the Black Walnut tree with a cold drink and read my book. Oh did I hate to have to get up to make dinner. I was really enjoying myself.

Okay. Boring boring day! School tomorrow so it's off to bed.

The weekend is finally here.

I thought the weekend would NEVER come. We only had a 4 day work week but it seemed soooo long. It felt like 7 days instead of 4. We are still enjoying fabulous weather. Someone told Paul that this is San Diego weather. I have never been in San Diego but if this is what their weather is like it must be beautiful. It has been warm and dry with a lovely gentle breeze all day long. The sky is bright blue with no clouds in sight. It's lovely weather but I still am getting a hankering for snow and wind and cold!

We went out for dinner last night. This husband of mine who is so carefully guarding his cholesterol intake hit the diet wall last night and had duck followed by creme brule for dessert. Yikes. I had a delicious dish of shrimp and tiny peas in risotto rice and strawberry sorbet for dessert. The sorbet had chuncks of fresh strawberries. I could have made a meal just out of the sorbet.

Paul has been working hard all day at the office getting his floor ready for the linoleum installation on Tuesday. The trouble with installing a new floor is that, once it is installed, it looks so fine that it makes everything else looks so tired and old such as the walls and baseboards and trim. So Paul spent the day spiffing up the trim and walls. He still has more to go. We wanted to go to the Brimfield antique festival tomorrow but it looks like we'll be staying home and working.

Reading a Jodi Picoult book, A Perfect Match. Have any of you Jodi Picoult fans read it? It looks like one of those books I won't be able to put down.

Not much else going on. A pretty ho-hum day but sometimes those kind of days are just really nice.

Oh........almost forgot. In between vacuuming and laundry and dusting and gardening today I worked on getting pictures of the Madden visit posted. I put them in a sub-album under the Cortesi Bed and Breakfast album. Enjoy!

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK ! ! !

Oh my oh my oh my oh my! Now that's a scary picture. What an "interesting" dress. A walking flower garden. Where did I ever get that thing?? A reader sent me this picture to show the resemblence of little Pitiful Miss Teen America Midge to Kara. I still don't see it! I know, Kara, you're hoping no one else sees it either! I really don't remember this dress and can't believe that I ever wore something like that. I guess it must have been the style then.....boy oh boy. I don't know how old I was when this picture was taken. I know it was in high school and this must have been before one of the proms. I really have VERY few pictures of me as a teenager so it is quite strange and surreal to suddenly come upon one and see what I looked like then. It's almost as if I'm looking at someone other than myself.

Meanwhile, our lovely weather continues. It just feels like summer goes on and on and on. The weather prediction is that it will be like this for at least the next 10 days. I love it.

For all you nature and bird lovers, I read an interesting item in the Lakeville Journal today. If you stand outside on a cool night, the later the better, in a quiet place and listen you may hear sounds from overhead - chirps, sips and seeps. These are the calls of the songbirds migrating at night. Most songbirds migrate at night to avoid daytime predators such as hawks and use calls to communicate with others. I did not know this. I went outside to try to hear them but the darn katy-dids are so loud I couldn't hear anything else. I probably should try on a colder night when the katy-dids are a bit slower. If anyone is able to hear these little chirps, I'd love to know about it. How long did you have to stand outside before you heard anything??

The birth of a swing set.

With our digital camera somewhere between here and the manufacturer, waiting to be fixed, we are reduced to using the camera on our cell phone. I REALLY miss our digital camera. It goes everywhere with us!

This pile of wood is the very beginning of Eamon's swing set. We were really hoping it would have arrived when The LIttle Family was visiting so Paul and Sean could have worked together to get it ready for Eamon. That way Sean would have learned all the things not to do when he builds his own in Albuquerque! I thought when we threw out the kid's old swing set that we were through with that stage in our lives, but it is coming right back at us again along with the kid locks on the cabinets, the gates at the doors, the portacribs and cars seats and diapers. But this round won't include college tuition and sleepless nights, just the fun.........Praise the Lord!

Paul is hoping to get a start on the swing tomorrow, in between mowing the lawn and readying his office for the new linoleum and seeing emergencies. If not tomorrow, maybe this weekend. We are having such a string of absolutely gorgeous weather....perfect for doing outside stuff. It was such a great night for a walk, not one cloud in the sky and the perfect temp and no humidity. Looks like it will be this way right through the weekend. We promise the swing will be ready for you the next time you visit, Eamon!

Mothers and daughters.

There we are. Women of four generations....my mom, me, Kara and Elizabeth. I always wondered what it would feel like to be in one of these "generational" pictures. It's SO hard to believe that it's been almost 60 years since I was Elizabeth's age. Life goes by so fast. You really have to take a long slow drink of it and enjoy every sip.

A real "labor" day.

Happy Labor Day to all. I hope everyone had a restful day. It was a day of real labor for us. Paul is getting ready to install linoleum in his office so we spent the day ripping out the old carpet and linoleum that was there and pulling up nails. What a hot, dusty, dirty, smelly job! I can't wait for the new linoleum to be installed because it looks pretty nasty in there right now, although it is better than the dirty old carpets that we just took out.

Yesterday we took the morning off to go to the Goshen Fair. It was a PERFECT fair weekend. The weather was sunny, warm and dry all weekend. Couldn't ask for better. I hit the used book tent again and managed to find quite a stash of books. Walked the midway, chatted with some friends, watched a tractor pull, bought some fresh corn on the cob for dinner, bought some raffle tickets for a quilt and then went home. We stopped at a couple of tag sales on the way home and found even more books. My lucky day. I now have two stacks of books waiting to be read. What a great feeling.

And now it is off to bed because I am very tired from all that manual labor on Labor Day. I will read myself to sleep!

How Sweet It Was!!

Belly Acres

Well, I guess it is now official. Labor Day is here and that means summer is over. My very favorite season. I love summer because it has always been a time for our families to get together, both now and when we were small. My very favorite family gathering as a child was held at Grammie and Banta's (my grandmother and grandfather) summer home, Belly Acres, in Sharon. It acquired the strange name, Belly Acres, because when my grandparents first bought it in the 1920's it was pretty basic with no heat or electricity andprobably no indoor plumbing. Everyone "belly-ached" about the inconveniences, thus the name!

I always loved our family picnic at Belly Acres because it meant I got to see my Chicago cousins, a once-a-year event. My father usually put Lauri and I on the back of the farm truck for a real thrill ride "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house".....wind whipping our hair around and blowing hay seed in our faces. I can remember the Bornemann cousins arriving in their old "woody" station wagon. I envied them so much with that cool, big wagon. And they probably thought it would be really neat to ride on the back of a farm truck. The grass is always greener..........! We would all pile out of our cars and trucks and Grammie would greet us wearing her denim dress, clapping her hands and opening her arms for a big hug. She always felt kind of soft and squishy and could fit several grandchildren in her arms at once. All the boy cousins would go off into the woods to search for snakes and other vermin...oh yuckie poo! I can remember once seeing them emerge from the woods with those squirming, wriggling things clamped in each hand. They ran up to Grammie with them and said, "Here Grammie, hold these"! Oh my dear Lord.

We 4 girl cousins found better things to do. After about 5 minutes of shyness we were giggling and talking as if the past year had been but a minute. We would make up skits to perform for the family. The family also had to endure our singing and dancing perfomances. But they were all very nice and politely clapped and told us how "wonderful" we were. Even though I only saw Cally once a year, for that day I felt like she was my best friend and we made memories that would last until we saw each other the next year. I don't think in all the years that we 4 cousins played together we EVER had one argument or tiff. We just really enjoyed each other.

If it was a hot day we would take a walk through the woods to a spot in the brook that Banta had dammed up for a swimming spot. It was coooooold, clean, had a resident giant spider and was the best fun I ever had. After our swim Grammie would serve us lunch set up on make-shift tables outside under the trees. The only thing I remember that we ate was Grammie's spaghetti and it was sooooo good. It came out of the oven but I don't know if she baked it or just put it there to keep it warm. I wish I knew how she made it. The adults had a fine time sampling Banta's latest cache of homemade wine.

Uncle Mike loved to entertain us with his trumpet. Looks like I always had my nose in a book even back then! 

Let the band play on. He's gathering quite a crowd. Check out those saddle shoes on Mom! A sign of the times.

Banta was a very quiet, magical person. After lunch he would gather us all to play our favorite game, "Lollypops Grow". He would fill a bucket with dirt. He would ask each one of us to find a leaf and bring it back. Then we would plant our special leaves in the bucket. When that was done Banta would take a newspaper, a magic newspaper of course, and spread it over the bucket. Here you can see Jonathan and I (and I think Geoffrey) VERY carefully planting our special leaves.

Once our special leaves were carefully planted we would all join hands with Banta and dance around in a circle singing, "Lollypops grow, lollypops grow, one for Jonathan, one for Geoffrey, one for Stevie, one for Mary-Margaret, etc". After singing those very magic words we would stop, take the newspaper off the bucket, hold our breath and LO AND BEHOLD, right where we had planted our special leaves there would be a lollypop growing for each one of us. Magic magic magic! I think all of us cousins, at least once, tried to do this little trick on our own when we got home but we just didn't have the Banta magic. I always wanted to be able to perfect it because I thought how great it would be to have an endless supply of lollypops whenever I wanted!

There we are...enjoying the fruits of our labor. A lollypop was a really special treat back then. From left to right: Steve Bornemann, I think Henry Frueh...or maybe Julie or maybe Tim-bo, does anyone know?, Mary-Margaret (Midge) Frueh, Jonathan Frueh and Geoffrey Bornemann.

Before the day was over all the cousins were lined up on the stone wall for a group picture. It was always oldest to youngest. In looking at the pictures now I notice that little Lauri always ended up on the end. She wasn't the youngest but for some reason she seemed to end up at the end of the line! I wonder why. As more cousins were born the line got longer. Here we are before the final 3 Fruehs (Henry, Ellen and Liz) joined the line up. From left to right: Michael Bornemann, Jonathan Frueh, Stevie ( Sniggie) Bornemann, Geoffrey Bornemann, Mary-Margaret (Midge) Frueh, Carol (Cally) Frueh, Julie Bornemann, Timothy (Tim-bo) Frueh and Lauri Frueh. As the years went on we continued lining up on that wall for pictures: as adults and then with our spouses and families. What a happy world that was for me when I was a little girl. I was so lucky. Family is everything, isn't it?

Happy Anniversary

Three years ago yesterday our meadow was filled with family and friends celebrating the wedding of Kara and Sean. What a blissfully happy day that was. I can still remember how fast the day went by. I wanted to stop time because it was so good but it was over before I knew it. A whole year of planning and working and it was over in what seemed like a millisecond. But it was the start of something so much better.......the beginning of a wonderful family and the gift of two precious grandchildren. Every anniversary should be celebrated with a tradition of looking over your wedding pictures. It is so good to go back and live that happy day over and remember the promises that you made to each other. Happy Anniversary to Kara and Sean. May you always be each other's best friend!