Camilia and the kids

Camilia came to visit yesterday with her three children:  Hannah, Hudson and Ava.  What a wild time.  They are so beautiful, bright and curious.   Hannah, who is allergic to anything related to nuts, picked up a walnut shell that had been discarded by a squirrel in the back yard.  Then she rubbed her eye, and by the time they left, it was beginning to swell shut. She took it all in stride and it didn't stop her from climbing up in my lap and saying, "I love you".  Thankfully, there's Children's Benadryl. 

It seems like only yesterday that we offered a room, and what turned out to be our hearts, to a waif of a girl needing a place to stay to be close to her fiance while he was at ESU.  She was the first of quite a few beautiful long haired girls who have shared our home.  We have been so blessed by their presence and the relationships that have continued since.  When she left yesterday, Camilia took the Christmas tree that we decorated together some nine years ago.  She wanted it more for the memories than it's value as a Christmas tree which has dropped with every passing year....unlike our memories which continue to be made.

Pass the Drumstick, Please!

The table is set, we're ready for guests to arrive....wait a minute...that was a time long ago.  Long ago when I used to do the entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself, and threatened anyone else who dared to bring another dish as it would wreck havoc with my menu.  This year we've been texting, calling and e-mailing for a week to determine who is going to bring what.  I'll still be doing the turkey, dressing, and cranberry sauce, but the rest of the dinner for eighteen will be doled out among family who will be coming.  Today at rehab we were taking about our mothers and aunts preparing Thanksgiving dinner in the past.  All of a sudden I was back in my grandmother's living room waiting for my mother and her sisters to finish up the last minute touches so we could enjoy the fruit of their labor.  That generation, with the exception of my ninety year old mother is gone, and I'm not sure those of us that followed did a very good job of picking up the pieces.  I missed the holiday with family until we moved back to Kansas ten years ago.  That's when I hosted the first Thanksgiving dinner prepared by myself...just ten short years.  Now there are others, almost the age that my mother and aunts were in that memory, who are ready to do their part, and I'm ready to pass the torch, or at least the drumstick.

Oh, the Places We'll Go - part 2

When I signed on for this deal twenty-three years ago, I had such a dim view of the possibilities.  I don't know what I was invisioning other than the two of us in our little house on Mackey Street.  I must have thought we would grow gray together, but didn't give much thought as to how that would happen.  I couldn't see all of the struggles we would have, all of the disappointments and conversely all of the joys and thrills.  I didn't know we would be part time parents not only to your kids, but to a variety of others from all different lands and cultures.  I didn't know we would live in four different states in at least seven different houses.  I didn't know we would be constantly renovating, and when we were not doing that traveling.  We've seen the slums of Egypt and Mexico and the view from the Eiffel tower.  We've hiked, climbed, canoed, flown, cruised, and in deference to me,taken a train whenever we can.  You've put up with my love of animals, and I've put up with your love of anything sports.  We've loved, hated, discussed, argued, agreed, disagreed, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Maisie Comes Inside

It got cold and started to snow Monday, so by Tuesday morning, Maisie, one of the outside cats, decided she finally had enough and wanted to come in.  It's a bit earlier in the year than usual, as Maisie will stand the cold better than she will stand another cat.  Somewhere along the line, she must have been cornered by another cat and taught a lesson she refuses to forget...cats cannot be trusted.  Her forays into the house are usually accompanied by hisses and back arching even before she's seen another cat.  This of course arrouses curiosity in the three house cats, especially Emma Lee, who will come bouncing down the stairs from wherever she has been to greet the interloper.  A scenario that has repeated itself every winter for the past five years, with clawless Emma yet to harm Masie who still has all of her claws.  Emma usually doesn't get that close, but that hasn't stopped the hissing.  After a while the indoor cats lose interest and our dog, Ranger takes up his place guarding the door and Maisie in turn.  That she is being protected by her natural enemy does not bother Masie, in fact it makes her feel more secure.  It makes me wonder, are there any correlations between Maisies actions and our own, perhaps fearing the ones we should trust and trusting the ones we should fear?  Curious!