Bringing Home Baby

Our firstborn daughter hails from Royal Oak Michigan. She was born at William Beaumont Hospital in March, 1985. Her arrival was an easy delivery and we should have gone home the following day ... but a blizzard had dumped snow, closed roads, and even knocked in part of the Silverdome stadium ... so we were kept a day longer. Our precious charge had oooodles of black hair, and dark eyes to match. Daddy was smitten with his daughter. So smitten that on the way home he pulled into the parking lot at Toys R Us and said he'd be right back. Meanwhile, I was freezing in the car wondering what on earth he was doing. Out he comes with package in hand and inside the car he presented his little girl with her very first dolly. Such a cute doll, dressed in a wee Irish outfit, with locks of dark brown hair and dark eyes ... just like our darling. He's watched his little girl grow up before his eyes and turn in to a beautiful young woman ... soon to belong to another ... but always daddy's little girl in his heart.

DH Loved Her First

My DH said he'd like to listen to, "I Loved Her First" ... by the band Heartland at our daughter's wedding reception. Boy, was I shedding tears when I finally listened to the song. So far, most of the music the happy couple has selected is from by-gone years. Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, music from "Father Of The Bride" (by Steve Tyrell) ... and a nice mix of Christmas classics.


Engagement Photo: Elizabeth and Shane, October 25, 2006

Such Promise

Such promise in his eyes ... those bright blue eyes. My independent man is growing up. He still needs his dear old mama ... but, indeed, he's blossoming into such a handsome character.

Mr. Nathan ... 10/25/06 (finally a nice smile)

Cloud Break

This afternoon turned cloudy, then rainy, but, behold a break in the weather turned a gloomy day into one of intense beauty. After checking on the "homefront's" progress, and seeing that the roof is 95% finished, I drove by the lake to watch the sunset. Can't wait to be all snug sitting by the fire in the new home.

Peak Fall Foilage

Yesterday proved to be a great day for a drive. Check out these photos ... they speak for themselves.

The Wedding Trail

Date: December, 2006
Chapel, secured
Reception Facility, secured
Bride's dress and veil, on lay-a-way
Announcements, purchased
Reception decorations and plans, finished

We are planning a very small, wedding for the bride and groom's nearest friends and relatives, about 20 in all. Nothing lavish, just simple, intimate, elegant and affordable. The wedding is mid-afternoon followed by a sit-down dinner at a secluded hamlet in the North Woods. The resturant will be decorated for Christmas, and is nestled in the forest with lake views in their fireside room. Could it get any easier??? Tomorrow I'm off to take Mom to the airport and then check on the wedding cake and photographer. The area we live in is known as the wedding capital of the Pacific Northwest ... services abound. Can you believe I'm building a home and planning a wedding at the same time???

Progress

I've been a bit preoccupied this week with my mom's visit. We've been having a very great time, but also relaxing and making mocha drivethrough runs every chance we get. My diet has been on the back burner, but hope to resume it ASAP. Today we're off checking out wedding chapels for my daughter's upcoming wedding. Yesterday, while checking on the new home's progress, my little furry friend "Sawdust" reappeared all wet and dirty. I tried to find his owner, with no luck ... so took him home with me; he needed a bath, food and some water. Later I called the police department and they sent out someone from the shelter to pick "Sawdust" up; he was only with me for about 45 minutes ... then gone. They were going to scan him for a microchip, give him a vaccine, and try to find his owner ... and assured me that he'd find home ... hopefully his home.

Nathan has been progressing in school. Yesterday his aid wrote that He walked to his fifth grade class without any assistance (big milestone). The aid is trying to stay in the background as much as possible and let Nathan interact and participate on his own during the time he's mainstreamed with the fifth graders.

Have a great week.

Photos: Mom and Elizabeth, "Sawdust"

On Bended Knee ... The Answer

He said ... and then She said YES and wept!





Photo: THE ring 10/12/06

The Proposal

He's off to "pop the question" ... right now! Stay tuned tomorrow for her answer :)
Photo: Shane and Elizabeth 10/12/06

Mystery Dog ... Case Solved

My children often begged for a dog. My answer was always, NO. We had our share of pets such as fish, hermit crabs, hamsters, even a three toed box turtle. I would often comment that we had a mini "boot-hill" on the side of our property that included many demised pets. Thirteen years ago I was home schooling my three oldest children. One afternoon my 11 year old son answered the phone at lunch time and when I asked who was on the phone, he said, "I don't know, but were supposed to pick someone up by the cafeteria." Curious as to whom/what someone could be, I further questioned my son. He honestly didn't know. I informed him to let me get the next phone call. Sure enough, one hour later I was answering the phone. A lady informed me I needed to come and get "Muffin" over by the school cafeteria ... and that she had already called animal control. Baffled as to why a total stranger would call me with such a message, I stated: "Excuse me, there must be some mistake as I don't have a dog named Muffin. Is this 265-8612? Yes" ... I replied. She even rattled off my address and said my dog needed to be picked up. I kept insisting to the lady that I certainly did not have a dog named Muffin. Very confused, I started grilling my dear children to see what their story was about this dog. Finally my eight year old daughter confessed that she had taken two of her scrunchy headbands and stapled a paper tag on each band and placed them around the necks of two pretty golden dogs that she had been playing with earlier in front of our house. She got a lecture about how you can't just take someone elses dog and claim it as your own. End of story, right? Wrong. Apparantly, one of the dogs eluded the dog catcher and made its way back to our home. I allowed the kids to borrow a few cups of dog food from a neighbor ... you know, just until we found her owner. Days went by ... then weeks. We ran ads in the paper, and read every lost dog ad too. We took her to the pound to be scanned for a micro-chip and to see if anyone had been trying to find her. No such luck. The shelter said that after running an ad for so many days, and if no one responded, we could claim her as our own. And that is how our beautiful golden retriever, Missy, came to be ours. She was about nine when she wondered into our lives and we enjoyed and loved her for three more years. I still tear up when I think about that special friend of mine. Not sure what ever happened to poor Muffin.

Pooch Talk aka Sleepless in Idaho

My "doggy" drove me a bit nuts again last night ... I've been a good pet owner, and have been taking her on long walks daily, she's well fed, has a little boy that has a love/hate relationship with her (it goes both ways I'm sure). She was fed, watered and put away for the night in her kennel inside our cozy home ... then around 1:03 AM she starts yipping. Being the good pet owner that I am, I put on my winter robe ... shoes ... and took her out in the backyard to go tinkle. She didn't have to go ... back to bed ... five more minutes of sleep ... then yip, yip, yip. Up one more time, I gave her a nice drink of water ... then back to bed ... not what she wanted. Yip, yip again. I got out her muzzle and put it on her ... Now, I'm back in bed and can hear her trying to yip and whine through the muzzle ... up once again and this time, I'm YELLING though the house (something about a Korean meat market). Out to the cold garage. Back to bed. Yip, yip. Up again to put on the muzzle again. How many times is that to get up? Nathan also got me up at least twice. This really is not the norm for her ... wish I could understand doggy yip, but I only know a few "words" ... I hope she behaves better tonight ... Mom is arriving today. PLEASE MISS HOLLY, BE GOOD FOR GRANDMA! Tomorrow I may share the story of our previous "mystery" dog ... stay tooned.

Mom's Coming For a Visit ... Time to Really Clean House

You know, I do keep a fairly clean house ... but when my mom pays a visit, for the first day or so, I really want the house to sparkle! This weekend I took care of the lawn duties ... as well as relaxed and made lots of mental notes about neat places we can visit while Nathan is in school. Quaint little coffee houses and shops to explore, antique shops, the Ace Hardware store in Coeur D' Alene had some neat oil lamps in the window that I need to check out, and there are still plenty of gorgeous autumn trees to admire. Perhaps we can even drive up to Sandpoint to splurge on a nice outfit at Coldwater Creek; usually once a year I buy a really nice outfit ... and it seems it must be about that time again. Mom will like that little side trip. So, with that in mind, today will be a day to spruce things up a bit. My car is desparately screaming to be cleaned ... and, of course, there are fresh linens to put on the bed. She's also anxious to see the progress on our home. Last time she visited, we hadn't even begun building ... so she's in for a treat. You may recall that two weeks ago I was whining for my "mommy" ... well, looks like God answered that little (a-hem) desparate prayer ;) May your week be blessed!
Photo: Mom, relaxing on her last visit, 6/06

A Happy Smile?

I was just trying to entice a "happy smile" from my little man as we walked through an older neighborhood in Coeur d'Alene yesterday ... you know, smile for Daddy. Mommy's going to send Daddy a nice photo, SMILE! Not sure what happened to his arms either??
Photos: Nathan goofing around 10/7/06 (click for a better "happy" view)

Weekend of Relaxation

This weekend I have absolutely NO PLANS. My calendar page is blank ... actually, most of my weekends are that way, what with the Mr. gone. Let's see, I think today would be a great day to try a new place for brunch, then maybe take a nice drive along the lakeshore ... stopping of course to skip stones with Nathan. Then this afternoon, there's a long walk in the works with my pooch to get some of her nervous energy out of her. Afterwards, I'll come inside for a nice pot of tea, maybe a black and white movie, then a bubblebath and of course some magazines. Tomorrow is church and then off to Wallyworld for dinner fixings. My cell phone may be turned off too! What is on your agenda this weekend?

Photo: Lake Coeur d'Alene ... void of tourists

Feeding Fears

As an adult, there's not much that scares the bejeebers out of me. Not so as a small child .. I can recall two fears as though they were upon me yesterday. 1) the fear of riding in my parents car up in the mountain passes, on narrow roads with dropoffs ... sheer panic. 2) a recurring dream about the "boogyman" that would try to capture me ... I was allowed to hide behind the couch or in a closet, but I had this ultra fear of being caught out in the open. Finally the boogyman got me, and he/it turned out to be the Easter Bunny... go figure that one out (but the dreams stopped after that revelation)! As a child I "played" with spiders, and to date have no fear of them. Unlike my youngest daughter that lets out blood curdling screams even from pictures in her biology book (shhh, even in class) ... and my mil is deathly afraid of snakes and lizzards. Nathan, freaks at the sight of any tv show with a hospital scene. Do you have any fears? If so, how do you deal with them?

For Better Or Worse - Part II

The Story of The Green Faced Husband. This is the second part of my newlywed story. Now if the previous account about the contact lens solution didn't set my (green eyed) fate with dh, this next story surely would not soon be forgotten either. While cleaning up from one of our first little social gatherings at our condo, I was pulling kitchen duty. DH was probably puttering in who knows where, doing who knows what (you know hubbies like to putter), and most likely as happy as a little pig in mud. We had a little "honey-do" bell that had been given to us at the wedding ceremony. Just a little tinkly bell, that dh's friends would pass along from one to the other as soon as someone in our social circle got married. Now it was in our possession ... and I put it to use often. Ring, ring ... soon Dh comes to the kitchen to see what's the matter. Yours truly had, unfortunately, put down the sink disposal about two bunches of parsley, stems and all, left from a party platter. Might my mother have told me to never put such stuff down the drain this whole episode would have never happened! There it was, a backed-up drain. Swirling green water ... not going down. Out to the garage for the toolbox and a bucket goes dh ... and then he crawled underneath the sink to fix the stoppage. You know that very uncomfortable position of being on your back under the disposal and elbow pipe? Off goes the pipe and some of the mess drained in the bucket. Dh goes back under to finish the job and I being the helpmate that I am, decided to shed a little light on the mess. Oops, I must have turned on the disposal. Dh abruptly arose from underneath the cabinet wearing the remainder of the greens on his face. Fiddlee dee, I do believe if it wasn't against God's commandments, he would have smote me. Since the early years, my good wife track record has gotten much better :)!

Photo: Mr. and Mrs. Mac, Christmas 1981

For Better Or Worse - Part I

In 1980 DH and I began our life of married bliss. I brushed up on my homemaking skills every chance I had to impress the man. We were both on the neat freakish side of keeping our little condo sparkling clean. DH, of course, was a little more neat freakish than yours truly. He went as far as having all desk pencils sharpened and facing the same direction :) . He could also walk into any room blindfolded and find exactly what he needed; well, maybe he'd only have to remove his contact lenses or glasses as his vision was about 20/400. Back then he wore contacts to work and would make his own saline soluition from distilled water and salt tablets. One day, after being married for about four months, I saw dh get out a gallon jug of water from the hallway closet. I asked what he needed it for ... that's when he said, " to make contact lens solution" ... that's also when I informed him I had been filling it up at the tap and adding liquid plantfood for sometime. Soon afterwards, I got on the same page with dh and no longer mixed the twain. I told him that someday he would look back at my foible and laugh about the incident. Maybe tonight is a good night to bring up the subject again ... Remember when, Honey .........
Photo: Yours truly and DH Fall of 1981 ... yes, that's a maternity top!

Distractions

Lately, my life has had many, many distractions. At least I'm hoping that's why my memory is somewhat fragmented. I am multitasking in a few too many directions ... which scares me. Last night I almost burnt the homemade applesauce, the morning before it was my oatmeal. I'm used to a cooktop with gas heat ... not electric coils ... and can't seem to judge the heat up/down time needed for cooking. I wrote a few posts ago about my eyes getting fuzzy ... well, today while meeting with the builder, I kept looking at my "SUPER LARGE" watch and told him, "I have to leave in 20 minutes" ... we were going over the framing of the house, the landscaping, and possible laundry chute for the basement. I know I must have watched the clock for about 30 minutes and was sure about the time ... after I drove away from the property, I noticed the actual time was an hour earlier than I thought. I'm sure once dh returns so will my mind. You know, there's a good reason that God made us a helpmate. Will be soooooooo glad when we again live full time in the same state, same town, and under the same roof :) Hurry back to me dh of mine!

Would All The Crazy People Just Take a Time Out

What is it with all the school shootings lately? Do we need to send our children to school with flak jackets and pith helmuts just to stay safe while dodging bullets? Now, a milkman kills Amish girls in Pennsylvania!! The world is MAD. We have more "home grown" terrors running around the country seeking attention by killing innocent people than before 9/11. NO JESUS, NO PEACE, KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE.