Check your jeans before you put them on.

Soooooo, the other day I was folding my laundry as it came out of the dryer. I pulled out a pair of jeans that looked unfamiliar. I usually wear Liz Claiborn jeans but these were by a company called Style & Co. They were my size, 8 petite. I knew they must belong to a woman. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe Kara left them here when she was visiting a couple of weeks ago. I emailed Kara. She called and said that she wears that brand of jean but not that size. The only other person in the house who might know would be Paul, maybe. So I trotted them into his sacred computer den and asked him if he knew where they came from. He studied them for a few seconds and then a light went on and he said, "Oh yes, I've been wearing them. I found them in my drawer". Awwwwwkkkkk. The light went on in my head too. I suddenly remembered buying those jeans over a year ago and never wore them because they disappeared on me. I've been looking for them EVERYWHERE. I must have put them in his drawer by mistake. Paul has been wearing MY jeans........an 8 petite. Weren't they a bit uncomfortable? Maybe this no fat, no cholesterol diet of his is a little too extreme.

You know what your mother always said about making sure your underwear was in good condition in case you were in an accident. I guess you should also check and make sure you aren't wearing ladies' jeans if you're a man. That would set the ER nurses tongues to wagging, wouldn't it??

The Birthday Boy

Thirty-two years ago today, the day after Christmas and the day after Pauls's birthday, our middle child made his grand entrance into this world. I remember the first time I held him. His very big blue eyes looked straight into my eyes and he wouldn't look away. Those eyes, so new to the world, looked deep into my soul as I snuggled him close. At that moment I fell so in love with the little guy and I never stopped.

Events happen in life for a reason. I often look at Brett and think that, because of certain life events the year before, he almost didn't exist. From the moment they placed his tightly swaddled being in my arms I knew that he was meant to be and that things really do turn out for the best.

Brett made me cry when he oh so sweetly said "God Bless Us, Everyone" in his tiny little voice when he played Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol". Brett made me scratch my head in puzzlement as I watched his outstanding athletic skills in soccer and basketball. Very few people with the Frueh gene have ever gotten high marks in coordination. Brett made me laugh when he embellished his part as a boring mundane pirate in "Peter Pan" into something so full of humor that he stole the show and had the audience laughing non-stop. He made my heart ache when he broke his leg during the first practice of his varsity soccer season. Brett raised my eyebrows when when he dyed his hair red, then blue and formed a garage band called....The Sexual Chicken. Brett has made me proud with the gentleness, care and concern he shows for everything.......people and animals. Brett has amazed me with his artistic talent. I have a hard time drawing a stick figure. Brett makes me smile when I see so much of my father and grandfather in him.

Happy 32nd birthday to a sweet, caring, funny, gentle person. May your two sons give you as much happiness as you have given me.

The best day of the year

My very favorite day of the whole year, Christmas Eve, is almost over. I want it to last forever. I love the peace. I love the music. I love the memories of Christmas Eves past when magical happenings were in the air.

This morning I finished some last minute Christmas shopping, of course. After lunch I drove to Falls Village to pay a Christmas visit to my Uncle. He had just come in from doing a little skiing, looking quite dapper in his ski pants and Norwegian-looking socks and jacket. He looks so good that it is hard to believe that he is in his 90's. I was happy to see that my cousin and his wife, who I haven't seen for a while, were also there. We sat in the dinette where I used to have many happy visits with my aunt. We spent an enjoyable hour catching up on family news. On the way home I stopped on the mosquito path and took a look at our old farmhouse. The snow-covered hills behind the house were so quiet. I let my thoughts wander back to the days when we lived there. On a day like today the hills would have been full of the sound of laughter and child-chatter as we would drag our sleds up the hill and zip down them, all day long. I wonder if the hills miss us??

Our low cholesterol diet is non-existent this week. Tonight I cooked a divine roast beef. I think it tasted so divine because I have been deprived of red meat for so long. I truly could have eaten the whole roast beef by myself!

Tonight is a perfect Santa Claus night. The full moon makes the night seem like day. The trees are casting dark shadows on a sea of "glow-in-the-dark" snow. I wrapped my last present at 10:30. Then I made myself a cup of cocoa and sat in the Belly Acres room next to the Christmas tree and listened to Christmas carols. It was so relaxing that I fell asleep. What a wonderful feeling.

Now it is off to bed to wait for Santa.

Christmas 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE ! ! ! !

Comfort bubbles

Everyone has comfort foods. Mine are homemade applesauce and homemade macaroni and cheese. They are comfort foods because of their ability to make you feel warm and peaceful. They are almost always foods that recall a certain feeling of comfort in your childhood.

Just as there are comfort foods there are also comfort sights at Christmas that recall a happy time at Christmas when you felt that same warm and peaceful feeling. My comfort sight is bubble lights. When I was a little girl I had a girlfriend who had a tree with bubble lights. She was the only person I knew who had these magical lights on the tree. We had no lights at all on our tree and when I saw her tree with the colored lights that bubbled I was mesmerized. I loved watching the calm, bubbly movement. It made the tree feel warm and almost human. I could almost hear them humming. I was in awe of that beautiful tree.

When our children were small I saw a set of bubble lights when I was out shopping and, of course, picked them up and took them home. As soon as I strung them on the tree and turned them on the magic began all over. I was a little child again, in awe of the Christmas magic that the bubble lights gave forth. Modern things are never made as well as the same things that were made in the "old days" and the bubble lights were no exception. After a couple of years some of them broke and some of them stopped bubbling. I threw my string out and never bought another.

A couple of years ago I was shopping at a little gift store in the tiny town of Canaan and came across a bubble-light night light. Once again, I couldn't resist. I brought it home and plugged it in. The magic was back. I only use it at Christmas. Each time I look at it I am that mesmerized little girl again, standing in front of my friend's Christmas tree feeling warm and calm and happy.

Do you have a Christmas comfort sight that makes you feel that way?

Calamity Jane

The closer we get to Christmas the faster my pulse and respirations go. So little time and so much to do. How do I squeeze it all in and still manage to eat and sleep? Every day this week I have spent those precious two hours between school dismissal and dinner trying to get in as much shopping as I can.

Today I went to a local gift shop, never a quick trip due to the store owners' gift of gab. He loves to talk. And talk. And talk. Today my heart went out to the poor man. He told me that recently his 54 year old brother, who he was very close to, had been killed in a car accident. Shortly after that his father passed away. And shortly after that he was driving down the interstate on a rainy afternoon and his car was hit from behind and totaled by an 18-wheeler. All this happening at his very busiest time of the year. On top of this he also has to go back to Portugal to settle his father's estate. He is having such a hard time dealing with everything that has happened. It puts lots of things into a proper perspective. (Quit your moaning about too much to do, Miss Midge)

After I talked to him I wandered over to his candle display to check them out. Two glass displays at eye level consisting of 5 shelves each with a 6 inche space between the two displays. There was a large, heavy candle in a glass container which was blocking my view of another. Sooooo, I went to move it over a bit on the glass shelf. Or, what I THOUGHT was the glass shelf. What I thought was the glass shelf was actually the space between the two displays. CRASH. The candle dropped like a boulder 4 and a half feet down between the two shelves, bouncing off the glass shelves and taking a couple of glass gift items with it. Dead dead silence in the store. "Uh oh", I heard someone say. Everyone looked at me. I felt like a naughty child. "The poor man", I thought, "On top of everything else, now this". I slowly opened my eyes to assess the damage. I could NOT beleive it. Not one thing broke. Not even the glass items I dragged down with the candle. "Nothing broke. Nothing broke", I shouted to the store of shoppers. I heard a collective sigh of relief as the hum of holiday conversation began again. How could I have been that lucky? I am NEVER that lucky. Just ask Paul. I am Calamity Jane. If he were with me he would have walked out of the store.

And now I need to unpack my groceries, clean up my kitchen from dinner, put some laundry in the dryer and go to bed. So much for my hopes of getting to bed before midnight tonight.

Tomorrow Damon comes! Yippee. I hope he doesn't mind a house that looks like it has been struck by a tsunami.

Christmas weary

It happened again. Another Monday morning with a delayed opening. Why is it that whenver we have a delayed opening our shortened school day seems so much longer? We have two hours less in our school day but it seems like it will never be over.

The "blockbuster" storm was not very blockbusterish. Lots of sleet during Saturday night, but not much snow during the day on Sunday. Enough to make things pretty and white but not the 2 feet that were predicted. Today felt like I'd been transported to the innards of Alaska. Bitterly cold and terrifically windy. It is the kind of weather I enjoy.

The tree went up yesterday, to the cats' delight, but still no candles in the windows and I don't know when I will find the time to do it. Oh dear. I guess I am getting Christmas-weary. I'm still running around after school trying to get my shopping done and starting to panic because I can't find what I want. On the plus side, I sent out about 3/4 of my Christmas cards today. Usually they don't go out until Valentine's Day so I guess I should pat myself on the back for that accomplishment. I hope I can get those folks at the end of the alphabet sent out by Valentine's Day.

The push to shop

Scenes from an overnight winter metamorphosis. It's hard to believe that I was raking leaves two weeks ago.

This is the scene that greeted me when I looked out my bedroom window yesterday morning as the long list of school delays was being read on the radio in the background. Maybe the reason I love the snow so much is that it always reminds me of my father.....certainly a very pleasant thing to be reminded of.

Today I attempted to get most of my Christmas shopping before the next storm hits tonight and tomorrow. I think EVERYONE had the same idea. I went shopping in the next town. Traffic was backed up so badly that a drive that normally takes me 20 minutes took an hour. The traffic was all headed to the same shopping village where I was headed. Traffic beyond that point was running smooth and fast.

By the time I got home it was well past dark and I still had to choose a Christmas tree for Paul to cut down. I grabbed a flashlight and slogged through the snow. I found something that looks good in the dark with a flashlight shining on it. We'll see how good it looks in the daylight when we set it up tomorrow.

Last night we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the umpteenth time. (I LOVE the scene where he kisses the broken knob to the newel post on his stair case). I have three favorite Christmas movies and that is one of them. The other two are very different from this one and from each other; A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

What is your favorite Christmas movie??

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.

We have a phone chain in school for school closings and delays. Someone calls you and then you call someone else. I ALWAYS opt out of it. In the first place, I can't stand to be jolted awake by the telephone. Secondly, I just don't like to talk to people in the morning when half my brain is still on hold. I set my clock radio for 5:30, which is when the announcements come on. So all I have to do is wake up, listen to the announcement, turn my radio off and snuggle back down under the covers. I never understood why anyone would want to do it any other way.

This morning I heard the no school announcement and rolled over for another two hour snooze. The storm wasn't expected to hit until mid-morning. I took advantage of that window of clear weather to do my usual Thursday weekly grocery shopping. The store was filled with the usual group of neurotic, hyperventilating people who were madly filling their shopping cars with rolls of toilet tissue and jugs of water, all for a storm that was supposed to end by early this evening.

When I wheeled my cart into the parking lot after shopping there were a few flakes just beginning to fall. By the time my car was loaded and I was driving out of the lot the ground was covered with white. I have never seen a snow-storm start so fast. I quickly went to City Hall to vote on a city referendum and then stopped to buy some milk. By the time I got home there was already an inch on the ground and it was a very white world. At 7pm we had 12 inches of snow on the ground. Traffic became a nightmare. One man reported that it took him 3 1/2 hours to drive 14 miles. It was a fairly short storm but wild and heavy while it lasted.

This weekend we have a nor'easter heading our way. My kind of weather. I'm smiling!

Too much to do. Too little time.

I think one of the things I'm going to like the most about retirement, if that day ever comes, is the extra time I will have at Christmas time. There is so little time when you're working to get things done. As soon as school was out today I went shopping and didn't get back home until 8 o'clock tonight, very hungry and very tired. I stilll have a long way to go and am trying to squeeze lots of shopping in very little time. The weather isn't being too cooperative either. Tomorrow we are expecting between 8-12 inches of snow and then on Saturday/Sunday another 1 1/2 to 2 feet. If I can get out on Saturday before the snow starts I might be able to get some things done. But EVERONE else will have the same idea.

There is still the tree to be cut and brought in and the house to be decorated. The Christmas cards haven't been mailed. The first year that I am retired I vow that I am going to have everything done by December 1 and then I'm going to spend the month of December curled up in my chair, looking at my tree and listening to Christmas carols. Sure. And I also thought that when the kids went off to first grade I would have more time. And then I said when they get into high school things will get easier. And then college........... And then when they all leave home..............! I'm still waiting.

Groundhog Day

Do you remember the movie, Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray's character seems to be stuck in a time warp so that he relives the same day over and over. That is what my weekends are beginning to feel like. For the second Monday in a row we have woken to this .....................

..............a sparkling ice-clad world and a day off from school.

I longed to spend the day like my cat, curled up in my favorite chair in front of the fire. But having an extra day off is such a great opportunity to catch up on unfinished business. And I have LOTS of unfinished business.

I headed for the basement where I have stacks and stacks of papers that need to be sorted through, thrown out or filed away. This is a project that I have ignored for far too long.

I put away the stacks of ironing that had been sitting on my coffe table and went to work. Before long I had replaced the ironing with neatly stacked piles of papers, all arranged in chronological order and ready to be filed. I went upstairs and made myself a sandwich for lunch. I bit into the sandwich and, uh oh, out came my temporary tooth. All I can say is that it is a good thing I wasn't eating in school. I called the dentist to see if they could secure it in the proper place until my appointment for the installment of the permanent tooth on Thursday and they said , Praise the Lord, that I could come in right away. When I got there I was told that my permanent tooth had just come in and since they were ahead of schedule they would put it in right then. What wonderful words to hear.

So that is done. I am all finished with the tooth ordeal. Now I have those stacks of papers to file. I need another snow day. Maybe next Monday??

Christmas is coming..........too fast.

Christmas Eve is almost two weeks away but you never would be able to tell by walking into this house. I have done no shopping, have no decorations up yet, and didn't order my Christmas cards until today. I think the thing that I will enjoy the most about retirement is having the time to be able to get Christmas things done on time.

Today I finally brought my autumn scarecrows in and took down my turkey flag from the front door. I put away all my summer flower pots, still overflowing with dried out flowers, that have been cluttering up my deck. I never finished the fall raking and now the leaves are frozen to the ground, which is where they will probably stay until spring. We are having another night of freezing rain tonight. I tried to start my holiday shopping on the internet but because of the rain we had no signal so that was the end of that shopping trip. Something doesn't want me to get into this Christmas business quite yet!

Last night we went out to dinner with Gail and Charles. That is how I really enjoy spending time during the holiday season. "Ya hoooo" holiday parties are not my thing but I love getting together for a quiet dinner with friends that I haven't had time to sit down and talk to for a while. Sometimes I feel that in this high tech world of computers, cell phones, iPhones, iPods, Blackberries (or is it raspberries?), HDTV's and other things that I don't even understand, we are slowly losing the art of conversation. It is so satisfying to sit down with friends to talk, listen and laugh. I hope that text messaging and IM'ing never become the preferred method of conversation.

A journey to Christmas past

Ho Ho Ho! When I opened the Lakeville Journal today there they were. Two pictures dated December 3, 1949 of children lining up to talk to Santa at Barnett's store in Lakeville. How strange to see a picture of something that I remember from a child's point of view so many years ago. Two of the little girls pictured were the daughter's of our high school's vice principal. One little boy, whose father owned a drug store, used to scare the holy heck out of me. I was only a little over 3 when this picture was taken so I'm sure I did not stand in line that year, but a year later I was probably there, twitching with excitement at the thought of being within a frost's breath of the "real" Santa. For this was really really the REAL Santa to me. Next to my father and grandfathers, this was the man I loved most in the world.

I drove to Lakeville with my mother and father and little sister in the old black car that my father had to start with a crank in the cold weather. Santa must have been moved upstairs the year I went because I can remember climbing those stairs in the background. I thought I was climbing my way to the North Pole. I was sure the attic was his workshop. While I could hardly contain my eagerness in being able to share space with Santa, little sister Lauri cried in fear and refused to go near him.

I see in the picture that Santa is writing on a piece of paper. That is something I had forgotten until now.....that he diligently wrote down (or at least pretended to) everything that you said you wanted for Christmas. We all have certain incidents in our life that stick with you forever. This was one of mine. I really really truly believed in Santa and thought he was THE most magical person in the world. My mother never ever told me that Santa was not real. When I would ask her if he was she would always feign shock that I would even suggest such a thing. If I asked her today I'm sure she would say, "Of course he's real". She kept the magic going for a long time. There's always a little bit of me inside that still wants to believe. Now I can satisfy that longing to keep the spirit alive by being Santa myself. Two years ago I sent a gift certificate in the mail to an acquaintance who had had a difficult year, signing it only "Santa Claus". Maybe for an instant she thought there really was a Santa. There really is, isn't there?

Feels like winter's coming.

It has turned bitterly cold here. I like it. I like being bundled up in my scarf and mittens and ear muffs. The frosty air feels invigorating. It feels like Christmas. And everyday there is always the hope that sometime in the near future it may snow, really snow.

Along with the cold comes a new set of challanges, such as making sure the children don't bring snow balls into school and keeping them off the ice spots outside when they get off the bus in the morning. Water has pooled and formed a small "rink" next to the building, away from the sidewalk and behind a group of benches. The are drawn to this spot like a magnet. They will walk waaaay out of their way to get to it. They don't walk over it with little mincing steps like I would would. They RUN. They have no fear and fewer brains. I have visions of bleeding and injured children scattered all over the mini ice pond. I get the "look" when I ask them to stay off the ice.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a Feng Shui lecture at the library with my breakfast club friends. I know I will find out that my furniture arrangement in the house is not conducive to peace and tranquility (no kidding) and I will have to do a total rearrange of the whole house.

Time for my favorite part of the day. Shower, bed and book. Sometimes when I make my bed in the morning I look at it and say to myself, "I can't wait to get back in there tonight". I'm reading Widow of the South. So far.........excellent. A little hard to get into in the beginning, but now I'm hooked.

My prediction was right. We had a 3 day weekend. School was cancelled today because of ice. I really think we could have gotten by with a late opening like every other school in the state, but it did feel good to turn my alarm off and get an extrea 2 hours of sleep.


I spent the morning catching up on lots and lot and lots of ironing. As you can tell, it's something that I keep putting off. For me it's one of those rainy day projects where I confine myself to the basement, watch garbage tv and iron and iron and iron. This pile is so precarious that I don't even dare breathe near it for fear it will topple over into one big depressing pile.

Brett has another funny video of the twins. This one shows how totally different they are. Click here to watch. Enjoy!

Marble Squares

This was quite a busy weekend. Tonight we are having some freezing rain and sleet so maybe things will stretch into a three day weekend!

On Saturday morning I drove to Falls Village to attend a memorial service for Ella Fitch. I don't think that little Congregational Church in Falls Village has ever held as many people as were there on Saturday morning. It was a real testament to how adored she was. It was also probably a fire marshall's worst nightmare. Extra chairs were set up in the aisles and in the back of the church. The rest of us had to stand against the wall in one continuous circle from one side of the church, across the back and down the other side. We were literally breathing down each other's necks.


Ella was known for her baking. She loved an excuse to share her baked goods with friends. Our family was the recipient many times of her delectable goodies. One of her specialties was "marble squares". Anyone who knew Ella had to have eaten a marble square at least once. When we got married she gave us a set of her favorite recipes carefully written out on recipe cards and one of those recipes was, of course, marble squares. In the days preceding the memorial service her family must have been working feverishly in the kitchen for at the end of the memorial service trays and trays and trays of (you guessed it) marble squares were brought out from the back and passed around to share with everyone. What an unusual and lovely way to honor her memory. Ella also loved to feed the birds. On the way out of the church there was a large box filled with small bags of bird seed so that we could "help feed the birds for Ella".

After the service we drove to a reception in the neighboring town. It is always said that the only time you get to meet with old friends is at weddings and, sadly, at funerals. This was no exception. It was like being sucked back in time. I saw someone who remembered dancing to "The Sugar Shack" with me in the fellowship hall of the church when we were in high school. I saw one of my partners in crime when we rang the church bell on Halloween. He was also the "limbo champ" at our church dances. He was surprised that I remembered that little fact. I thought he was a natural at it but he confessed to me yesterday that he used to practice over and over at home. His mother would hold one end of the broom and put the other on a chair while he competed against himself. I saw a young girl who I hadn't seen since she was at a birthday party for Henry that I organized when he was about 10. I could mention the Mosquito Path to someone in a conversation and the knew exactly what road I was talking about. It was a journey back in time, but the nice thing about it was the one thing that we all had in common, happy memories of Ella.

When I came home Kara and her family were here to cut a Christmas tree from our "out of control" Christmas tree farm. We had a nice dinner and a relaxing evening in front of the fire in the Belly Acres room.


This morning Kara and Paul, armed with his chain saw, set out to cut the perfect tree that Kara had chosen.


There is Kara with her perfect tree. It's much smaller than the Griswold Family Christmas tree of last year, thank goodness. Like Sparky Griswold, Sean prefers those oversized things but Kara had veto power this year. She did a good job. This one is the perfect size for their bay window.

The Flower Lady

One of my mother's very best friends from her Falls Village days passed away on Tuesday. Growing up, we always politely referred to her as Mrs. Fitch to her face. But behind her back we always called her "Auntie Ella" because it felt like she was part of our family. She was my mother's best friend. She was the sister my mother never had.

I think that she and my mother were drawn to each other because they shared so much similarity in their lives. They were each mother to five really active children. My brother and one of her daughter's were in school together. Another daughter was best friends with my sister. My mother and Auntie Ella both lived in houses with continuous unfinished projects; Auntie Ella's front door led to a long drop to nowhere because it was years before the front steps were in place and we had closets in the house that were studded out but no dry wall was ever put up. Both homes showed the chaos that comes to a home with five children where loving is more important than organizing. There wasn't much money in either home but that didn't seem to matter.

My mother always felt comfortable with Auntie Ella. She was unpretentious. She was down-to-earth, practical and fun to be with. When I think of Auntie Ella the visual is always of her sitting in the kitchen with my mother. There they talked together, laughed together and sometimes even cried together. They were each other's moral support. It was a happy time. Lately, when I would make trips to Falls Village she would always grab me, shake her finger in my face and say "Now Midge, you tell your mother to get up here and visit me"!

The inside of Auntie Ella's house may have shown the confusion that reigned with a big family to care for but her outside was like an Eden. Her passion was gardening. Every year she would plant more and more beds until her yard was an eye-popping delight to drive by. If you dropped by her house she would grab you and take you on a tour of her gardens, proudly pointing out all her plants and naming each one by name, a feat I still can't do with the few beds that I have. She was unable to contain her gardening passion to her lawns. If there was an empty spot in town that needed sprucing up, she was there with her trowel and flowers. The evidence was everywhere. The ground at the base of stop signs would be dug up and planted with her plants. She even received a special citation from the governor as the "Flower Lady of Falls Village". No matter where Paul and I would travel, if we came across a little group of flowers popping up where you would least expect it we would point and say, "Oh, Ella's been here".

She made the world a more beautiful place both spiritually and visually. When we come across a little crop of flowers waving their heads in the breeze we will still say "Oh, Ella's been here". And we will have to wonder if someone actually planted them or was "Ella here".

First word.

Our little grandson, Elliot, says his first word. Click here to listen! The perfect word for the grandson of a veterinarin to utter!

Rain on the roof

Vacation is over, it's back to work and all is well in my world. My mother is home from the hospital and happy to be home. Little Chloe is home from the hospital. I went to the dentist today to have the impressions (gag gag) made for my final tooth for my implant. In two and a half weeks the crown jewel will go in and I will be free from the dental chair, for a while.

It's been a rainy, misty day. Driving back from the dentist tonight in the dark was like driving through swirls of clouds in black velvet. When I got home I took a little glass of sherry into the porch and snuggled down into one of our new chairs in front of the fire and listened to the rain on the roof. A simple pleasure. Paul once told me that, because of the amount of insulation in the roof, we would not be able to hear the rain. He was WRONG (a rarity). It makes such a wonderful sound. Reminds me of that old song "You and me and the rain on the roof" (by the Lovin' Spoonful) from my dating days. If I remember right there were great sound effects of rain and thunder. We used to love those sound effects on records. I can remember albums that I would buy that would be nothing but one big thunderstorm. In college my friends and I would gather in one dorm room, turn out the lights and lie there listening to the thunderstorm. Having a significant other whose image you could conjure up while listening only increased the thrill of listening to recorded thunder.

I started a new book, "Black and Blue" by Anna Quindlen. So far it is really good. I can tell that it is going to be one of those books that I have to read while I am stirring pots on the stove because I CANNOT put it down. And now I'm off to bed to read.

Smooth and bumpy.

The long holiday week-end is almost over and tomorrow it is back to work again. What began as a peaceful Thanksgiving holiday ended up on a bit of a chaotic note.

On Saturday morning mother woke up not feeling very well, a bit dizzy. She did the right thing and hit the "Lifeline" bracelet that she has. Help came right away and she was taken to the hospital. She seems to have recovered quickly from whatever was ailing her. We went to visit her today and she looks wonderful, sort of like she was relaxing at an unusual type of spa. If she looks this good tomorrow she will be going home.

I was talking with her on the phone last night and as soon as I hung up the phone rang. It was the daughter of one of mother's long time friends to tell me that her mother had just suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and was not expected to live. Although she was unable to respond they believed that she was still able to hear and she was calling to ask if mother could call and say a few words to her. Mother did call. I know it meant a lot to the family to know that she cared so much. My thoughts are with them at this very difficult time.

Just as I was gettiing ready to sign off my computer last night an email popped up from Liz telling me that her little Chloe had been taken to the Children's Hospital with an attack of appendicitis. The perpetrator was removed from her little body today and she is doing just fine. Ironically, the Children's Hospital is right next to the hospital where mother is. If their rooms were in the proper position they could wave to each other from their beds! We like to keep our famly close!

Today was a lovely day, weather-wise. When we came back from the hospital I managed to get leaves raked and put on my gardens but I "have miles to go before I sleep". I hope I can get the rest done before winter really sets in. The signs don't look too good. Tomorrow we are getting freezing rain and sleet.

It was a rather bumpy end to our holiday weekend but things seem to be smoothing out nicely tonight. And all my children are safely home from their holiday travels so I can sleep well.

What kind of Black Friday person are you?

I really don't understand all this excitement over "Black Friday". When did this craziness start? What is wrong with our society, lining up in the cold, dark dawn just to get a "deal". I saw a news clip today of a mad rush to the doors at 4am.........hordes of people squeezing,pushing, shoving and stepping over each other just to be one of the first ones in the door. One man said he was standing in line at Wal-mart to get his daughters an LCD tv for $200. Is that what kids get for Christmas these days? Their own tv?

While this shoving match was going on I was cozily curled up in my warm bed snoring away (yes, I sometimes snore). While shoppers yesterday were walking shoulder to shoulder through the mall, rubbing their aching backs as they stood in line, dodging the coughers and sneezers and hackers and listening to the same annoying Christmas songs over and over I was in my quiet home, listening to the wind roar outside as I cleaned and read and made lentil soup which we ate by the fire.

What is your preference for Black Friday, the pulsating mall or a quiet home?

So much to be thankful for.

Our Thanksgiving weather last year was dark, rainy, dreary and chilly. Some of our guests went outside to play Bocce and came in soaking wet and hugged the fireplace to get warm and dry themselves out. Today it was too warm to build a fire in the fireplace. Sunny and in the 60's, it was too warm to even wear a jacket. Of course, I would have preferred a raging blizzard but I'm in the minority on that thought.

Last year we hosted Thanksgiving and had 19 guests including two of my children. Liz hosted the day today. It was much smaller with only 10 guests and none of my children. Despite wishing my children could have joined us we had a wonderful day. Liz cooked a superb meal, as always. And I must say, it was rather nice to be able to sleep late this morning and not have to get up early to chuck a big turkey in the oven. Besides enjoying the bounty of good food, it is always good to sit around the table with your family and enjoy fun and interesting conversation and share some really good belly laughs. I enjoy that part of Thanksgiving even more than the food.



After dinner mother got that funny "auntie mary" look on her face and told us that she had an announcement to make. She always makes us play "Twenty Questions" with things like this. We also get very nervous when she does this. We peppered her with rapid-fire questions which finally led to the fact that it was actually Henry who the "announcement" was about.

So we started peppering Henry with a barrage of obnoxious questions. He was suddenly struck with that funny "auntie mary" look as we all questioned him en masse.

As you can tell by the look on Henry's face when we finally guessed, it was a rather happy announcement. But sorry, I'm going to leave you hanging! I don't know if it wants it "publicized" on the web yet so I'm not saying anything about it here. If you want to know, you'll just have to email me!

After dinner we moved into the living room for our usual free(Frueh) tag sale. I brought some clothes and Ellen brought some books for people to poke through.

Some people let the turkey tryptophan take over and collapsed for an old-fashioned nap.

While some people slept the rest of us joined in the Sundet Thanksgiving tradition of coloring their Advent calendar.



And no Thanksgiving is complete without a good walk to work off all the cholesterol and calories from that oh-so-good meal. I think a walk feels better on Thanksgiving day than any other day.

I hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did. And now I'm going to end it with a UCONN basketball game. How good can this day get?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!!!!

Breaking away

In the 70's Paul and I happened to catch a "sleeper" movie called Breaking Away. By far one of the best movies I've seen, and I've seen it more than once. It is a coming-of-age movie about a young blue-collar boy who has just finished high school. While his friends are not sure what they want to do with their lives he knows that he just wants to become the worlds' best bicyclist. He knows that the leading bicycle racers are Italian. He also knows that he is not. In order to become more "Italian" he races his bicycle around his hometown singing opera, speaking with an Italian accent and befuddling his blue collar parents with newly-learned Italian words. When he meets an Italian exchange student he endearingly practices his new Italian vocabulary on her, trying to be oh so cool and nonchalant.

Fast forward to today. Damon calls tonight after flying from Germany to Seattle for the holidays. While he is talking to me I have a little bit of deja vu. He tells me he is having a good,(well...GREAT) time in Germany. I can only assume what he says is true because his speech is peppered with German phrases after only spending a week there. He has probably learned more German in one week than all the Spanish he tried to learn in a year in high school. I don't always understand what he is saying. I do understand that there are lots of blond, blue-eyed young women in Germany and they love to help the young American boys with their English. Paul IM's him tonight to tell him that he is downloading a program in my computer. The last thing Paul says to Damon is: "Ought to be a little faster for her now". Damon's answer: "Jah".

Ah Damon. You so immerse yourself in a culture. You must have stepped right out of that movie!

Twins Sunday

When Paul and I heard that Brett and Megan and the twins were going to be visiting my mother today we couldn't resist.........we just had to put down the rakes and garden-way carts and take a trip to Glastonbury. The last time we got together I had a cold and couldn't hold them so I have been waiting for a chance to make up for that.


Brett and little Albion met us at the door.

Not far behind were Megan and little Elliot. They are both oh so cute but oh so very different. They are "twins" in name only. Albion is so much like his father. A mass of quivering muscle, he wants to be on the go all the time. He's already cultivating a sense of humor. His binky is his most precious possession. Whenever you look at him he smiles.

Whenever you look at Elliot he senses stranger-danger. He gives you fair warning with a little down-turned lip and then lets out a wail. Like his mother, he is sweet and patient and has an endearing smile that lights up his huge blue eyes.

Megan has gotten very adept at feeding two boys at the same time. She moves that spoon back from twin to twin at lightening speed before they even have a chance to wonder when the next bite is coming.

While she was feeding the twins, great-grandma was in the kitchen giving Paul lessons on how to cook hot dogs.

It was such fun having two little ones to play with. Babies are such fascinating little munchkins, aren't they? All too soon it was nap time, which translates into "let"s get the twins in the car and get moving on home".

True to their personality differences, Albion sat in his car seat and contentedly sucked on his binky while Brett and Megan gathered all their stuff together.

Elliot, on the other hand, did that lip-trembling crying thing everytime I looked at him!

Brett and Megan should be very proud of the way they are bringing up these little guys. They are doing a great job.

Snoozing on a Friday night

Today felt like a day in January. It turned much colder with very strong winds. My only thought all day was of sitting by the fire. By early afternoon we had a little snow squall come through. The students in the library squealed with glee when they saw it and began chanting, "Early dismissal, early dismissal". We had to remind them that it was only a squall and in 10 minutes the sun would be out, which it was. The sight of snow, even if it's only flurries, always revs up their little engines.

When I got home today Paul had already lit a little fire in the gas stove for me. Or was it for him?? I started dinner and when I went back to the porch to set the table this is what I found.............................................


My little man was in lullaby land. That room is REALLY REALLY relaxing. I have to say that it is the best thing we have ever done (besides making 3 beautiful children, of course).

Cold cows and cozy cats

This morning was cold, the sky was gray but the trees and grass were white with frost. I looked out the window and saw two cows making their way through the lacy grass. A cold sight. On days like this when I was a little girl I liked to slip into the barn and feel the cozy warmth of the animal world. The rhythmic sound of the cows chewing their cud and the jiggling of the stanchions would lull me into the security of a quiet and peaceful world. As the cows puffed warm clouds of moisture from their noses I would settle on the steps of the feed room and watch my father mound sweet smelling hay in front of them and then go down the row with a bucket of molasses, pouring the sweet syrup on top of each mound of hay. The combination of hay and molasses smelled so sweet that I almost wanted to be a cow.

The weather warmed up to almost 60 today but by afternoon the sky turned gray, the winds picked up and things started to smell like rain. The cats scooted in the door at dinner time and promptly curled up on the sofa in front of the fire. They looked so warm and content and peaceful that for a moment I almost wished I were a cat!

As I was flipping channels tonight I came across Ken Burns' "War". It was the last installment and was so good that I wished I could have watched the whole thing but it doesn't end until after midnight and I can't do a late night in the middle of the week.

We saw a brief glimpse of a little boy watching a news reel in the movie theatre during World War II. Paul said, "Do you remember watching those at the movies?" I had almost forgotten about that. Do any of you remember the news reels they used to have before the movie started? And watching news reels in school? We used to all troop down to the cafeteria to watch the black and white news reel. Each showing would start with a count down from 10 - 1 and we all would have to count the numbers out loud, en masse. Our teachers always made us take notes. We would try to scribble as legibly as we could in the dark and then we would be quizzed when we got back to our rooms. I loved to watch those news reels but I was always frustrated by the fact that I had to take notes and couldn't simply sit back and watch what was happening on the screen.

Did the same man narrate them for all those years? It seems like the voice never changed.

Two Days..........Two Special People

A happy Veteran's Day to one of my very favorite veterans, my mom, Lieutenant Margaret Chapin. She entered the Army early in 1945 as a nurse. She first went to Fort Devins and was then transferred to Camp Edwards in Mass. Because she was prone to hay fever the army doctor told her that if she wheezed at times she would not have to go over-seas and THEN asked her if she wheezed. He was making it easy for her to get out of overseas duty but she couldn't tell a lie so was subject to an overseas call. She ultimately ended up in the psychiatric section at Cushing General Hospital in Framingham, Mass. (as a nurse, not a patient) There was no better person to raise the morale of those men suffering from the trauma of war. She has a picture of her on the lawn of the hospital surrounded by a group of smiling men in their army pj's and robes. I'm sure they never forgot that nurse with the big heart and even bigger smile who made them forget what they had just been through. She is listed in the Women In Service To America Memorial in Washington, DC; a very fitting tribute.



Today is also the birthday of my sister Lauri, my very first friend. It's hard to believe that we have been together for 60 years! Sixty years of happy shared memories. A Scorpio is listed as being loyal, generous, supportive, protective and humble. She is all that. When I read the negative traits of Scorpio she was NONE of them. I can't imagine growing up without her. Whatever I did and wherever I went, she was always there. She was my other half. Happy Birthday to my quirky little sister who had a color for every day of the week!

Sunday chores

Paul and I spent today each working in our own little world. I washed windows in the Belly Acres Room............all_fifteen_of_them. That's the one downside to a sun room. There are lots of windows to wash. It took me about 4 hours. The whole time I was washing windows I could hear the drone of Paul's chainsaw in the background, a noise that will forever remind me of my father. He was cutting up some especially hot-burning wood to be used for the coldest days this winter.


He brought it back to the house with his tractor and stacked in on the deck with SPECIFIC instructions that the wood on the right end of the bench is ONLY to be used during those really cold days in January. Woe is me if I forget which end he said and burn the wood on the right end on a "left-end" burning day.

Late this afternoon, after we had both finished with our chores, we decided to take a drive to Home Depot to look for lamps for the porch. Paul's idea was to go to the Connecticut Lighting Center. I checked out their prices on-line. Table lamps started at $250 and kept on going up to over $700. Yikes. With that plus the two floor lamps we needed we could easily spend over $1000 just for something to light up the porch. I don't think so.

Not really thrilled with what we saw at Home Depot we got back into the car and drove down the road to Target. There we found just what we were looking for.

A nice little Mission style lamp that matches our furniture perfectly. Just the right size and only $39.00. How could we say no. We found two floor lamps so now we can sit anywhere in the room and read read read. It's so nice to have a room that is a quiet space.

Damon is safely bedded down in Germany tonight and seems to be enjoying his stay so far. Tomorrow he will go to work. Today he did a little exploring and got a little lost but his built-in GPS got him back on track. He says that Nuremberg is a fascinating city, especially from a historical perspective.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my temporary tooth implant with the permanent one coming two weeks later. I am SO ready to get rid of this horrid flipper.

Lazy Saturday

I love having three day weekends. It feels like there is so much less pressure on Saturday to get things done. I remember reading a couple of years ago about a few school districts in the United States that were experimenting with 4 day work weeks. Everyone went to school an extra hour a day for 4 days of the week and then enjoyed a 3 day weekend. The students loved it. The teachers loved it. And I know I would love it.

Today I filled the bird feeders and hung them outside. I took off the screen doors and put on the storm doors. Just a few more signs that winter is coming. I'm hoping that it will be a bit warmer on Monday so that I can finish that darn yard work.

Damon is on his way to Germany. He left at 9am (Seattle time) and will get there tomorrow morning at 6am (our time). A very long trip, but I know he is planning on spending lots of sleep time on the plane. He'll be there for a week, fly back to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle, and then fly back again for 2 and a half weeks. That's a lot of back and forth. I hope he isn't bothered by jet lag.

Right now I feel like I'm jet-lagging so I'm going to bed and snuggle with a good book. I just started reading "Drowning Ruth". So far it is a great read.

Winter marches ever closer

Each day I'm feeling closer and closer to winter. I often think of Kara's high school friend who lives on the other side of the globe and who, with each passing day, is getting closer and closer to the warmth and lightness of summer. We have had several frosty mornings in a row. Temperatures are expected to drop into the twenties tonight with a little snow-spitting from the sky expected tomorrow night. I've been reluctant to get out my wool coat and scarf but I think the time is coming near.

I think Cathy's Cafe is sadly closed for the season. We did spend a lunch half-hour out there last week because nurse Cathy, the "owner" of the cafe, called us all before lunch to tell us that if was "quite nice" out. I think the "quite nice" was the brief moment when the sun coming out and sticking her head out the door to check the weather conditions happened to coincide. By the time we got out there the sun had disappeared and there was a pretty brisk breeze. We were a rather pathetic sight to anyone driving into the school, hunched over and shivering as we tried to eat and keep our napkins from blowing away at the same time. For the very brief intervals that the sun would come out we would throw back our heads and shout "ooooohhh aaaahhhhh the sun". As much as we wanted to enjoy the fresh air and time away from childish voices it was all too much and we had to scamper back inside and end our lunch respite early.

Tonight it was homemade soup by the fire. After dinner the couch in front of the warm, dancing fire was irresistible. I lay down for a second and the next thing I knew I was snoozing. One of life's sweet pleasures.

Looking forward to a nice three-day weekend. I am so ready.

November.......already!

Thanksgiving play at Lee Kellog school in the '50's. That's me, the little pilgrim, 5th from the left, standing next to little Joey Solgovic. I was not tall, trust me. Joey was VERY short. And we still have a connection. He's now the sanitation man in Torrington and picks up our sanitary garbage. I remember this play because my skirt fell off in the middle of it and I had to walk to the front of the stage so a teacher could do damage control with a safety pin.

Wow. October seemed to fly by as fast as the skittering leaves. Now gray November is here. When I flip my calendar and see the November page I think of:

1. Gray gray gray skies. I love the gray. It has a cozy feel and makes you want to stay inside and make chili (well, I used to but, oh dear, it's too full of cholesterol now) and apple crisp and apple sauce and ginger cookies.
2. The promise of snow. How I love a dark, windy day with the gray clouds spitting snow.
3. Drawing turkeys in grade school with our handprint....the fingers being the feathers.
4. The Pilgrims arrival in Plymouth. There is something about the wind moaning through the naked trees in the woods that makes me feel like a time traveler. I almost expect to see the natives peeking out from behind the trees.
5. Thanksgiving, of course. White tablecloths, good china, candles on the table, fire in the fireplace,family, the smell of dinner cooking, fogged-up kitchen windows, the chatter and laughter of several different conversations, feeling good.
6. Elections. Paul never votes. I always do.
7. The first basketball game of the season..........oh YES!
8. Lauri's birthday.
9. Putting the bird feeders out, usually in the cold and windy weather.
10. Putting on turtlenecks and sweaters and feeling oh-so-warm.
11. Freezing at football games in college.
12. Watching my kids play soccer in the snow, trying to stay warm wrapped up in a sleeping bag with a thermos of soup and another of cocoa and obsessing about running to the car and turning on the heater at the end of the game.
13. Christmas music. I_CAN'T_STAND Christmas music, or ads or anything else Christmasy, before Thanksgiving.
14. Cold, cold rain.
15. Taking the bus/train home from West Virginia for Thanksgiving and being held by my Paul after being apart for 3 months. That was the BEST.

What do you think of when you think of November?

Lots'a leaves

I spent my first November Sunday raking leaves.......ALL _ DAY_ LONG. I raked until the early dark came. I really HATE raking leaves. But I guess it is the price I have to pay for having trees and I don't think I could live without my trees. But raking leaves is SO boring.

When I was little I loved leaves, probably because I didn't have to rake them. Leaves were something to play in. We would rake a big pile of leaves and jump into them, making that wonderful crackling sound, right off of the swing. Sometimes we would bury each other in leaves. Other times I would use the leaves to make a floor plan of a house and then spend hours in my little imaginative world, living the life of a princess in a castle or Mary in Little House in the Big Woods. When I was little, leaves were good.

Every fall my father would bank the house with leaves. He would rake them against the foundation of the house and lay boards over them to keep them from blowing away. He said it kept the drafts out of our old, drafty house. Once the house was banked he was through raking leaves for the year. He said it was better for the lawn to leave the leaves there. Now that I am older and hate to rake leaves I think maybe he said that to justify not raking leaves. After all the years of leaving the leaves unraked our lawn was still thin and sick looking.




When the kids were small I faithfully raked the leaves every fall because they loved jumping in the leaves as much as I used to. If I raked them up against the stone wall they could do a leap off the wall and into the pile. Great fun. When they were finished I would put the leaves on my flower beds for winter protection and my vegetable garden for food. Then I would take a couple of aspirin and go soak my aching muscles.

Several years ago we bought a lawn mower with a mulcher. It was great. No more leave raking. A few passes over the leaf-strewn lawn with my mower and the leaves disappeared like magic. It was a dusty, noisy job but so much easier and faster than the endless raking and lugging. There was a downside. I have noticed that the soil in my vegetable garden has been getting more and more anemic looking. It's looking quite hungry. I think it needs some nutritious leaves. So this year it was back to the raking and lugging and blisters. I have filled the garden with leaves. I hope it's happy.

I'm wondering if I transferred some earthworms into my vegetable garden if that would improve the soil or would the worms expire in the poorer soil? We have plenty of earthworms in some of the better soil areas of our property that I could move. Does anyone know if this has ever been tried? And does it work? How long does it take?

Living like a princess

When I was a little girl one of my favorite stories was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was the perfect story for a girl like me who secretly longed to live an exotic life filled with drama and intrigue. It was the story of a little girl who lived in a boarding school. She was treated like royalty because her father, who she adored, was very wealthy. When the boarding school received word that her father had died, the little girl's princess status suddenly changed. Because there was no more money the little girl was given maid duties instead of school lessons and was sent to stay in a cold, barren room in the attic. At the end of the story an acquaintance of her father's realizes what has been happening and intervenes. Every day while she is out of her room he secretly transforms her cold and drab attic room to a warm and cozy haven. He brings in rugs, wall hangings, furniture, food and even a warm fire. I couldn't get enough of the illustration of the transformed room. I wanted to be there. It was so inviting and warm and cozy. I wanted my father to transform our attic into a room just like that and couldn't understand when he said that was impossible to do.

Well, today our new furniture came for our Belly-Acres room. Conveniently,at the same time our carpet arrived two weeks early. After school I went to work. I vacuumed, shoved furniture about, moved old furniture out, unrolled the carpet pad and carpet. When I was through I felt like the Little Princess.



Our cold, barren and furnitureless room was transformed into something warm and comfy and cozy. It had lost it's empty echo. We still hav lamps to buy and painting to do and baseboards to attach but OMG.........I love it and I feel just like I'm living in the illustration in the book.

When the sun set I lit a fire in the stove and curled up with a glass of sherry. I looked around the room and smiled..........and smiled and smiled and smiled. We have never been this extravagant in our lives.

Paul has already claimed his favorite spot. I knew that's where he would land.

I think this will be my favorite spot. I love this chair and ottoman nestled between the two windows. I can't imagine any better place to curl up and read during a howling snow storm. And drifting off to sleep there will be quite nice, too.

Happy "Day After Mischief Night"

A Veeeery Happy Halloweeeeeen to you all..................................

As Halloweens go this one has been very quiet. We, of course, being the creepy old couple down the lane, did not have any trick-or-treaters. When I drove to my dulcimer lesson tonight I only saw two little groups out. Maybe because it was a school night things were quiet. I still think it is a very creepy night. Seeing people walking around in strange and scary masks makes me feel very uneasy. I don't know if they are safe or dangerous. I saw a "fireman" walking down the street. Was he really a fireman or was he someone who wanted to fool you into thinking he was a safe and trusted soul??

I think one of the best Halloweens I ever had was when we threw a Halloween party at our house on the farm. Because it was an old and rather creepy house in the dark it was a great scenario for a Halloween party. The fact that it had a couple of it's own resident ghosts added to the spooky atmosphere. I don't remember too much about the party except for my father's story telling. My father, who usually kept to the barn, always seemed to have a soft spot for Halloween. If I had to guess what was his favorite holiday, I would have to say that Halloween would be it. I think he liked the creativity of it as he was a great costume designer. Unlike me, he really enjoyed creating the perfect Halloween costume. He attacked the pumpkin carving with boyish zeal. I also think that he liked to spook people. The night of our party he came into the house from the barn to tell us a ghost story. He made sure we were in the proper mood by turning down all the lights. He gathered us on the floor around him and proceeded to tell us the scary story of "the man with the golden hand". A transformation came over this Thoreau-type man who enjoyed his solitude. He told the story with flare and drama, his eyes twinkling with excitement and his voice changing from a shout to a whisper. At the end of the story,when we all jumped and screamed with fright, his grin was as broad as the grin on our carved pumpkin. His story was a success. I looked at him and thought, "My father is a really great story teller. I'm so proud he's my father". I hope that wherever he is he knows that I think of him every Halloween.

Mischief Night????????????

There was a brief mention in the paper this morning that tonight was "Mischief Night". That was something I had NEVER heard of before. At lunch today I said that I had read about Mischief Night, had never heard of it and wanted to know if anyone else had ever heard of it. The lunch group collectively sucked all the room air in with a horrified gasp. They clutched the table, chairs and their hearts and grabbed the roots of their hair in disbelief. "WHAT??? YOU NEVER HEARD OF MISCHIEF NIGHT??? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN????"

"Falls Village?", I meekly and pathetically answered. I guess word of Mischief Night never reached our little town when I was growing up. We did all our mischief on Halloween. The only mischief I ever did was ring the church bell for which I was told that I will someday pay the price when the time comes to meet St. Peter.

Apparently Mischief Night is celebrated the night BEFORE Halloween and is specifically used for nothing but doing naughty things. I looked it up on the internet and I could only find a couple of mentions of it. It is an English holiday which is sometimes celebrated on Halloween (sort of like a Falls Village holiday), on November 4 or on October 30. It also seems to be pretty popular in New Jersey. Wonder if that is the underworld influence? I don't EVER remember having Mischief Night in Torrington. "DON'T YOU REMEMBER SEEING TOILET PAPER ALL OVER THE TREES ON HALLOWEEN MORNING?", the lunch bunch incredulously asked me. I don't EVER remember that. The only time I ever saw evidence of mischief was the morning after Halloween. I'll have to check things out on the way to work tomorrow and see if Mischief Night is really here.

Have any of you ever heard of this strange Mischief Night thing? I wonder if my own children went out and did naughty things the night before Halloween and I didn't know about it?

What a difference a day makes..................

How quickly things change. My poor impatiens tell the tale of the changing seasons. Yesterday they looked like this:



Today.................life as they knew it is over.
We had our first hard frost last night. The temperature was a brisk, invigorating 28 degrees this morning. Suddenly everything feels different. We have to give up hopes (or fears) of an endless summer. It's just not going to happen. The seasons change so fast, as does life. Enjoy every moment. Drink it all in.

Sunny Sunday

We woke up this morning to bright blue skies and brilliant sun. So much different from yesterday. But there was quite a brisk north wind which kept me inside most of the day. I spent about an hour outside doing some yard work but then headed for the warm inside. We are expecting a hard freeze tonight. Then we will be ready for some nice Indian summer weather. The leaves need to be raked but why bother until they have fallen off ALL the trees. That is one job I only want to do once. I'll never forget the year that we had a big wind storm after all the leaves had fallen off the trees and it blew every single leaf out of the yard! I could never be that lucky twice in my life.


Paul cleaned out the chimney today and then lit a fire in the stove. Oh man, did that ever feel good. It was getting a bit chilly in the house. There is nothing like the first fire of the season. Let the snow come!!

Love that rain

If you have to wake up to a rainy day there is nothing like doing it on a Saturday morning. I woke up at 7:30 and heard the rain on the roof and the wind blowing through the leaves. With the quick thought that at 7:30 on a work day I would be dressed and well on my way to work, I gave a very contented sigh and snuggled down for a few more minutes of shut-eye. It poured most of the day. There was a strong wind that did a good job of removing the leaves from the trees. It was a good day to bring out the winter comforter for the season.

This morning I had to make a trip to Target to pick something up for Kara. Paul needed to get something also so we made it a little "date". The traffic was terrible. There is a boom going on on that side of town. When we moved here 34 years ago there was nothing there but two gas stations, a tiny gift shop and a car dealership. Now we can find Wal-mart, Price Chopper, Pet-Co, McDonald's, a Super Goodwill store, two package stores, Japanese restaurant, Sushi bar, Quiznos, Target, Home Depot, Applebees, Wendy's and a host of smaller stores that I hardly notice. Next month Bed Bath and Beyond, Pannera Bread and Famous Footwear will be opening. There are a few new empty storefronts that are being kept a "mystery" as to who the tenants will be. All very different from the empty fields that were there 34 years ago. After we finished at Target Paul decided he needed to go to Staples so we drove all the way to the other side of town for the Staples errand. Then he decided he wanted to go to TJ Maxx so off we shlepped to TJ's. I think this man really loves to shop. What started out as a 30 minute errand turned into a two hour shopping marathon.

I don't know what the sudden attraction is that ticks seem to have for me. I have pulled off two in the past two weeks. And they have burrowed in so far that I am still carrying some of their body parts around with me. I can't understand the one I pulled off yesterday. I hadn't been outside at all except to go from the house to the car and the car to work. None of that requires walking through grass. Maybe the cats are bringing them in??



At 4 this afternoon the sun finally came out. How nice to end the day with the sun shining over a smiling picture of me and my first-born.