California Dreaming

Can someone pinch me? I have arrived and any moment I will be hugging my Cali girl again. I am a lucky girl to have a daughter give me such a wonderful Mother's Day gift, the reason I made it to California for 10 days. (My thoughts on My 29th when I arrived in California). The waiting for her to pick me up was unbearable, I kept looking in every Lexus I saw. Finally across the road at a light waiting to turn I spy her finger combing her hair. I laugh for this is something she does so it had to be my beauty.. Hugs and we are off. The scenery along the way is incredible and I keep asking how it all became. 

A good nights rest and tomorrow we head to San Francisco.

I ask if the Man cut out should come or stay at home. (Will the humor of having him along get lost along the way or will it be incredibly fun?) Cali girl insist Dad needs to be with us on this journey to see college son's new apartment. Off we go.

We stop along the way at Pizmo beach to water the dogs and grab a bite to eat. I enjoy fried clams and a corndog while they share a bread bowl loaded with the best clam chowder. Although it seems every restaraunt lays claim to this.  I am not a fan so I couldn't attest to it.

Upon arrival and address being sent to me I crack up. Street address: Leavenworth. Why wouldn't there be a street named this with Alcatraz being a notorious prison in San Francisco. I say, "He lives on prison street." My companions are dumbfounded. So, Google to the rescue with Leavenworth's information. Fun facts shared. When in doubt, Google that sh**. There he is, my College son waits on the corner where he lives. Crazy how being with him again brings me this intense joy just like the joy I am feeling sharing this with Cali girl and her hubby. College son's apartment is really nice for a first place of his own. A small bedroom that his queen size bed eats up but a generous living area where he has nicely placed his new furnishings.

The  mirror as a headboard your never alone. Laughing inside as I remember seeing the bonding of siblings as it happens. "Documentation" I say. Click goes the camera. I have always taken pictures for nearly every event, something the Family has become use to. We stay in for the night and order pizza, tomorrow, on the hunt for a furry friend for College son.

We must fuel ourselves before embarking on the task of the day. We walk a few blocks up hills to a restaraunt College son and I grew fond of the previous year when he moved to San Francisco. 

It feels as if you are eating in a diner/cafe of the 50's. The Man orders up a breakfast of Champions.

 I order breakfast while everyone else chooses lunch. Off to the SFAS (San Francisco Animal shelter) we head. Let's find a friend for College son. We are on the hunt today to find a dog for him. The hunt is not an easy task for there are guidelines to follow in his apartment building.

I crack up seeing this hounddog behind the circus themed room. What a beauty. Woof, woof.

College son finally homes in on a sweet 1 year old named Checker who is full of personality. This love will be short lived once he tries to ge approval from the landlord.

No says the landlord, I can not be reassured he does not have pitbull in him, you can not convince me he does'nt. Disheartened. Back to the drawing board, which will be tomorrow. An adoption fair with other shelters and more choices will take place. At the end of the day we find ourselves in search of a park for the canines we have with us. Cali girls family. 

Whoa, what a tree the Man would love. Cali girl has no fear and quickly climbs within with the Man in tow. The climb to the top of the park was fun sitting up on a hill, looking from below we had no idea what we would find. This park may be a little too far for College son to take his canine to once one is found. 

That night we take the Cali couple to an Irish restaraunt not far from the apartment. The menu was intriguing, what to have? Something irish based or something light? I chose light, halibut which I love for there would be an opportunity for me to sample the corn beef. The service unfortunately was not up to par. Waiting for our entre's seem to take forever. So how do you get your waiters attention? That's right, see how high you can stack your cast off dishes without it falling.

 Tada! Amazing, our waiter rushed over. This was very entertaining to say the least. Now we wait for tomorrow and while the night away playing a game and hanging out for the evening. Not gonna lie. San Francisco on a Friday night comes to life in the wee hours of the morning. Fights are abound outside and the sounds of them are carried into the apartment creating a sleepless worrisome night for a few of us. College son has lived in San Fracisco for almost a year now and none of this stirs or bothers him. 

A little OJ Pops before we continue the canine search? 

Several Animal shelters are assembled and the fee for adoption today is FREE including shots the animals may need plus spaying/neutering your new pet. Who could ask for more? The dogs to choose from are amazing and then there he is along with his Brother, a dog who resembles Checker, younger with a longer snout which should not alarm the Landlord into thinking pitbull. College son falls in love. This puppy is so sweet and loving. Decided. He becomes the one for College son. This little guy is Amazing.

True moments to treasure, being able to be a part of the joy of a Son. Wish the Man could have been here along with me in person. Now how will he respond around other dogs? We will find out soon, with Cali girls dogs waiting for our return.

The canines take to each other with no problem at all. We found a park close by for them to frolick and play. What a beautiful day. This will be our last day spent together in San Francisco and one of the happiest. Our evening is spent relaxing at the apartment and online ordering linens and what not College son is in need of. Online ordering seems to be the way to go for convenience. Tomorrow morning will come too soon for me. I miss my Son so terribly and I am not sure he realizes how much. Hard to have two children live clear across the country. I hope I have supported my children to the fullest in allowing them to spread their wings to soar towards their chosen destiny and they feel I have.

Time to say goodbye, morning spent sharing a last meal at once again our favorite breakfast place around the corner. The Man drops in to say goodbye and make his presence known.

The car is packed and it is time to say our Goodbyes.

      My last hug and a snapshot to treasure.

Back to Ventura and the rest of my stay with the Cali couple. So long Son and San Francisco. The memories of this trip will be held dear in my Heart.

Coming soon: Part II of California Dreaming

 

Traveling Fun

Here I am sitting on a Delta Flight heading to make my connection in Minneapolis. I am excited, for this connection will take me onto Los Angeles and to my Cali girl. I do realize I have yet to finish my telling of 2012 and where I am in my life now. I apologize for the incompletion and promise to finish the synopsis of 2012 in the near future. Shall I say where I am now I can travel whenever I like with little to no stress in preparation before my journey. I no longer must worry about delivery dates, working late the night before my trip, when I will find time to pack, nor do I feel the guilt of burdening others with the duty of telling clients they can not have their fittings or alterations done at the moment. Life now is and can be everything I so desire to make it. On occasion I find myself to be semi retired, then weeks go by without a stitch of sewing done. (funny, right, stitch.) The days without sewing bring me pleasure for it leaves room to while my day away or plan a day for redecorating a room or two, organization or even surfing facebook cake fan pages for inspiration. Yes, I am so cake obsessed and must publish a post soley dedicated to it and the cakes I have created. Since semi retirement I have created seven cakes.

Minecraft cake I made for College son's birthday. He hates cake sad to say, I just can't help myself. "A party without cake is just a meeting." (Julia Childs)

This is a lemon, blueberry filling cake I made for my birthday. So yummy and the second cake I made. Who wouldn't like two cake for their birthday?

Easter. What child wouldn't love an easter cake basket that is all edible?

Olivia turns 4. For this cake I was fortunate enough to receive an airbrush gun from Cali girl for my birthday making creating the black pot for this cake oh so simple. I no longer will struggle trying to make white fondant black hoping the product doesn't break down and stays pliable. I found my joy once again for Polymer clay and created a keepsake Lalaloopsy from the medium. I learned quite alot of what not to do. Cake, white chocolate with apricot mango filling and orange flavored buttercream frosting.

When I created this cake I felt as though I had finally achieved something in the way of caking. My first at making a mold for pouring sugar, my first at pouring sugar, first at airbrushing detail and stacking cake to a depth of 9". I am proud of this. So this is what I dream of and on occasion fill my day with. 

Just a few, a little teaser I guess.

While waiting for my connecting flight my cut out of the Man and I stopped for a drink and a bite to eat. Choose your poison Dear. What a nice airport, food was great along with a stiff drink and an iced vodka latte to go. Heck I am on vacation, why not unwind and relax.

I now sit on my connecting flight watching the movie "Oz". I downloaded a movie to watch for the flight "Beautiful creatures" then low and behold a free movie I wanted to see at the movies. So the hour delay and the scared feelings I began to have due to the plane needing repaired at the gate before take off have now subsided. Joy, I may need to own this movie and watch it on the big screen in the darkness of my family room. Missing the beauty of the movie on a small screen without surround sound. I also seem to be laughing when no one else is. Okay I am spoiled a wee bit. Hurry plane I am so ready to see my California based children again it has been far too long. Touch Down, I have arrived, staying awake through the whole flight. That's a first.

Cali girl oh what a beauty you are, happy, happy, happy to be with you again. The scenery is amazing.

The hills are mountaneous. What a beautiful drive to Ventura.

We will spend the night catching up, chilling at the house and planning for our drive up the coast tomorrow to visit College son in San Francisco. The Man has not seen San Fran yet what adventure can we take him on? Good eats, maybe Alcatraz? We will see how it plays out. Fun may tie me up a bit. Documentation will be had. Truly ECSTATIC to be with my lovlies.

New Year a New Life

Here I am once again in a New Year. Two months into a new year. Where did 2012 go? Looking at my postings I find not one post sharing my trials and tribulations of 2012. I seem to have lost a year catching up on 2011. One post dedicated to 2011 in 2012. How can one post sum up a whole year? I guess you can sum up a year in this manner when work over rules life. Time to put 2012 behind me and move forward into 2013 to see what my new life has in store for me.

A little synopsis of 2012. Humor me for I will try to sum up 2012 in two post, like the posting of year 2011. I will touch on the highlights of the year and the all important decision made with the support of the Man for my new venture and reinventing of me for my new life.

What fun it was ringing in 2012. A party with loved ones far and near. My Sister, Nephew along with Teacher daughter, Soldier Son and their friends were present for the ringing in of a New Year. The Young with a few old folks. We rang up those afar thru video chat hours ahead of their New Year to bring them into 2012 with us. Cali girl is who I speak of. Oh technology, an Xbox with kinect was shipped as a gift in time for us to have this hook up. This would prove to be helpful for future hookups.

January would bring my Cali girl home for a visit. We brain stormed on a business she was trying to start up. I finally learned how to screen print with the help of the Yudu screen printing system purchased the year before..http://www.cricut.com/shopping/products-Yudu-218.aspx With Cali girls know how of Photoshop she was able to tweak her logo to get a perfect image for screen printing product bags I would make for her. 

The best treat during her visit was a day spent with the Grandbabies. Let’s play dress up. Fun, fun, fun.

The enjoyment of the New Year subsides and once again I must throw myself back into the job. Workloads become so overwhelming, February passes by in a flash. My Birthday nor Valentines Day found it’s way into my life with Celebration.

March rushes in with a Birthday celebration for Olivia turning 3. I must find the time to host her party, clean and bake a Minnie Mouse themed cake along with creating a banner to boot. My first cake pops. The cake went together smoothly, a purple Minnie for this is her all time favorite color. I went to my shop for a few hours and the Man was helpful with the cleaning of the house. The day did not go so well. A day to be forgotten (except for the smiles of a child on her birthday) and lessons learned when it comes to having others across the country joining in via video chat. Something so harmless in my eye became a potential wedge in my relationship with the Oldest Daughter. Sorry Olivia for you are precious to me and those who can’t celebrate with you due to distance. I also have never felt like more of an outsider in my own home. The Man and I were the only Family members present for this celebration in our home with the In-laws. I made the best of a bad situation by focusing my attention on the Grandbabies for they were the happiest people to be found in the bunch.  My eyes on this day had been forced opened wide to the relationship my adult children have formed. Like I said, a Day to be Forgotten with a heavy heart. Wow I just shared that. This is life and it isn’t always rosy. Family is family and my Daughter and I worked it out in the end with the passing of time, communicating our feelings about the day when they weren’t so raw and skewed.

 

Spring, Easter and Prom season approaches. Work, work, work. Trees are blooming and oh what beauty.

Easter in April and a trip to Indy for a visit with my Sister and Mom for the Holiday. Before we left for the weekend our annual Easter egg dying with the girls took place. This is always a treat. Here they are donning their personal aprons patiently waiting for the fun to begin.

 

 

 

 

Our lovely (teacher daughter) Katie tags along to Indy. My Mother cracks me up when I spy her in the kitchen wearing an apron I made in the 7th grade upon our arrival. Too funny, Isn’t she cute? How weird to still have this around after all these years. I had found the time to make cake pops to share with everyone. The day was very enjoyable and a little disappointing when my youngest sister was unable to come for the day. Maybe next time. I know all to well how impossible it can be at times to always be able to be with your Family for the Holidays.

 

 

It is difficult for me to get away when I am always made to feel guilty and not treated like a business owner when I decide not to be available 6 days a week at the DCS. I am growing more exhausted by the minute. Mentally, physically. I am working 18 hours a day. Tempers of the Manager are beginning to fly and he often takes it out on me. What to do? May, still no work for the Man. He try's daily to find work. Prom season is growing stronger along with the onset of wedding and graduation season. May will find me slumped over a sewing machine at times ready for a nervous break down. I Really would love to hire help but the percentage break does not allow me to. A 60-40% cut, not really a fair deal, 60% to me. I run the counter at times, have very little time to sew in the shop, which is small, I supply everything needed to complete repairs and alterations plus fittings during this time eats in to the production time. I still have clients I see in my home base shop trying to fit their alterations into the work load I bring home. The unhappiness subsides occasionally with my Sister visiting at least once a month for 4 days to a week. I hate leaving her at home daily while I head off to a place I have begun to hate. All that said, I find her visits to be a happy distraction and very helpful with my work loads. She comes to my shop and brings me coffee and food. My poor Sister however is witness to my distress and often says that I am a better person than she could be. She would never put up with the crap dished out to me by the help or the customers. I too am growing very weary of the customer service industry. Befuddled by how much I hate what I know and do best. Quality alterations and custom sewing. Looking forward to the day I can choose “to sew or not to sew.”  Enough moaning. Can you feel my stress?

May brings a long weekend holiday, Memorial Day and the celebration of my Oldest Daughters 30th birthday. Must party big. The Man is so generous and agrees a big party is in order. Happy news from Soldier Son. He has fulfilled his contract with the Army and will be home soon, unfortunately not in time for our big party. Where shall we celebrate? My search led me to a fun restaurant/club which offers private rooms for a party reasonably priced. They offer food and drink with servers designated only to us. Oldest Daughter helped with the invites. We broke out the Cricut and cut fun invitations.

She has invited coworkers and Family. Not all Family members could be present which we have grown accustomed to for this is life. Now the planning of a spectacular cake. This cake will be my first stacked cake. Three tiers with a jewel on the top. Sad to say, my oldest daughter does not like cake but “What is an event without cake, it is just a meeting.” (Julia Childs) I tried to plan the construction of this cake well in advance. With the help of my Sister and Nephew in the making of the small details for the cake things went smoothly and was a hole heck of fun, alleviating stress and a much later night for me. A cake can only be constructed a few days in advance to preserve freshness. I have learned the correct time frame and what to do first now. Fondant decorations first, cakes no more than two days in advance, the day before construct. So, what do you think? My first 3 layer stacked multi flavored cake. An Emerald adorns the top cut from sparkly paper for her birthstone. The making of this cake will bring on my obsession for caking. The night was long creating this masterpiece, sleep did not occur until 4:00 am. Stacking and attaching decorations happened the day of the party. Thank goodness we were having the party somewhere else for there would be no time to host a home party. Off to the club we head, 25 minutes across town and the cake on a very hot day made it in one piece. Let the fun begin. We held the party late enough in the evening on a Saturday to ensure the DJ started spinning music for dancing.

 

 

The Casino room was set up for a party with plenty of seating for our guest.

My Oldest Daughter relaxing with a drink before the guest arrive. The servers knew who to keep an eye on for the night and it would be the Birthday Girl, she was not once without a drink and never had to ask for one.  My favorite part of the evening was seeing the Birthday Girl ride the bull. You see, because it was her birthday she could ride as many times as she desired without payment. What a night, what a party. Most of our guest including her husband got in on the ride. Me, no, to old and I feared being injured. Just what I needed to fall off break a hand or what not and not be able to sew.

You rock http://www.fmohio.com/ I hope to have a party again at your establishment.

 

Back to life with May at our backs, the heat and the anticipation of Soldier Son’s arrival home. June will now begin. July and August will hold three more celebrations. My caking immerges to a degree I didn’t know I possessed with excitement and before a double celebration in August I may find myself calling it quits in the Alteration business for good. Stay tuned to find out what the next 6 months of 2012 held in it’s hands.

 

 

 

Thank you for looking back with me. I am also grateful the camera exist for if it wasn’t for looking through my pictures I would have forgotten the year past. It is true how pictures can tell the story of your life and what you lived even when you are the one behind the camera. Thank goodness someone is.

Hello (time to post, year gone by) Make way for new news

Hello, it has been a very long time. I have missed you. Time, where did the time go? I realize you have not heard from me going on 9 months. Unrecorded time due to life getting in my way. So much happened at the end of year 2011 and the beginning of 2012. When I was a teenager it was important for me to write nightly. “Dear Diary today I”. How funny, we make sure at a certain age to document or purge our daily ins and outs. This happens because our daily struggles are possibly more monumental to a young woman at the time and we know not how to deal that we must write it down for comfort. Now just finding a moment in our days makes it impossible, so we carry it within and hope for the best. Some of us find it very satisfying to document daily through out our lives. Such as Diane Keatons Mother who kept journals for life documentation ending her life with 85 journals when she passed. Amazing. Ms. Keaton has put her Mother’s journals in a memoir for all of us to read and treasure drawing from them for her memoirs. A must read I believe.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/diane-keaton-writing-memoir_n_1460008.html?ref=books To document me once again, for life should be tracked for the future Family Generations.

August of 2011 might have been more bearable had I purged it from my head for sanity. Many weekends were spent closing the estate of a loved one past. Not without heartache of deceit, betrayal, disrespect, and in the end a payoff just to finalize the close of this estate which had begun to eat into the finances of our household. The frustration of it all seeped into my relationship with the Man and had I not been aware of the reality of the stress he was under it may have brought a huge wedge between us. Realization of the anger he was projecting on me had nothing at all to do with me. I chose to step back,  and offer no advice without permission. Sometimes support is all that is wanted. A relationship of the only close surviving relatives in his Family (immediate family members not included) has ended and may never be mended. The needed  glue that bound the Family are long gone, his Mother and Father. Apologies are warranted in order to heal.  Will’s left without clear cut clarity are and can be damaging to Families, along with attorneys who move forward when all the paper work isn’t in hand to protect the one’s dealing with a loved ones estate. Getting thru the process has left us very aware of the steps we may need to implement so history doesn’t repeat itself. The house was emptied for another Family to flourish and make their own life memories. Rooms are bare with one last item to retrieve hanging in an emptied closet. The pink Volunteer smock worn proudly by Muriel Casassa. This love of helping kept her going with a feeling of purpose and love from all who knew her.  Memories of our loved ones life surrounds The Man and I daily from the furnishings and trinkets collected by the loved ones at rest now. We move forward, and the Man smiles seeing his Mother’s birds adorning our shelves and Sunday mornings are spent filling in the Sudoku's at the oak table his Father refinished. Two are now rekindled and in God’s Hands.

                                                    

 September brought me Joy and reconnection with a long lost sister who timidly and cautiously opened her life up to me once again. Something I have desired for many years. Picture of our first reconnection before her visit.I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and for whatever reason we have been estranged from each other. I know the reasons but time has passed and we are older and wiser now.  Labor Day weekend found my younger brother along with one of my sisters and her daughter together for a fun filled weekend on my territory. My quilting sis approached the weekend with trepidation, instead of staying with us she had a room at a near by hotel for escape when the atmosphere became to overwhelming for her. How smart. I can’t blame her for that. Personalities have changed, when and if drama arises she can have a safe haven to go to.  I have done the same thing when paying a visit to others I might need to escape from on a long days visit for brain shutdown. I will be referring to her as my Quilting Sis. She has found her passion making quilts. Like me she has many talents. I also celebrated my Granddaughters 4th birthday and created for her one of my best cakes buttercream frosted. A cookout and the Daughters in-laws made for a good time. I did the cleaning, cake baking, Daughter and Son in-law provided the cooking and food. We held the birthday in our home, I was never more happy to do so. Nice time.

October found me busy as busy can be with work, weather was changing and customers are gearing up for winter with coat repairs and weddings aplenty. I was in the midst of  learning something new for my trade with the purchase of an embroidery machine. This purchase proved to be not so fruitful as a money maker in the repair and alteration business but it proved to be fruitful in other ways. The embroidery machine brought my sister and I even closer. She helped me learn the ends and outs of said machine, she even invested time and money. First embroidery gig was a hit for my client who continues to come back for more logos to be embroidered. What a fun long night. Monogramming? I fins people want it until you price it out for them. If you have an opportunity for a garment with free monogramming, jump on it.( I will explain why in the future when I share the process, supplies and time involved.) October gave us a scare of a  potential job loss. Employees the Man had the pleasure to work with were being let go with an opportunity for placement with an outsourced company. Didn’t seem at the time it was going to happen to the Man so we continued living as we were living. Buying a wall unit, and a new TV. Sill concentrating on getting debt paid down for the day I could say Adios to the job venture I took on in October 2011. This venture has proven not to be as sold. I lack control, and even with all the improvements made to shop it is still an unbearable work environment, let alone I am constantly working 18 hour days. We fit in fun where ever we can.   We celebrated and dressed in costume for Halloween, a holiday which used to be one of my favorites. I would go all out decorating the outside of our house, (well the porch and front door) as scary as the theme for that year in my mind allowed me too. Never the same from year to year. One year little kids were too frightened to approach me handing out candy. I laughed. Probably wasn’t a good idea to be dressed as a witch. The night of the event arrives, reluctantly, because I am old, I donned my costume, (purchased) and helped the Man with his. We were the scariest dressed people at the event.  Me, a zombie Prom Queen, (finally a Prom Queen) and the Man a Vampire. Had I known many would be dressed as a character from the Wizard of Oz I may have gone as Glenda the Good Witch Zombie. I am laughing at the thought of that. It was befitting  for many to be dressed as these characters with the event out in the country, almost boonies with corn fields surrounding. We had a good time all in all for two old farts. Bare with me now, closing in on the end of 2011.

November, still busy I have managed to see Quilting sister several times. She has been so kind to come and straighten out business with the embroidery machine for me. (Software purchased for designing on my laptop.) I need a personal assistant at times. The weekend of November 11th Veterans day would be a Thanksgiving celebration for my loved ones. My #1 Daughter is cooking dinner for us on Thanksgiving, something she would like to do herself for a change. Veterans Day weekend is an opportunity for Soldier Son to come home with a 4 day pass along with his girlfriend and her 3 year old child. Seeing as how someone else would be cooking Thanksgiving and Soldier Son not coming home for the holiday, how perfect. I wouldn’t miss out at all on cooking. I went all out. The day was fun, the eats were as good as ever topping the evening off with cards being played in the kitchen and Xbox Kinect being played in the Family room. Two weeks later I prepared for Daughters Thanksgiving. I had been asked to bring my homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce. The Grandbabies love cranberry sauce. I threw in the dessert making a pumpkin cake that looked like a turkey. I Hoped the babies would get a kick out of it. They did, and the cake tasted ever so yummy. Pumpkin cake with orange flavored buttercream. Yum! Next time I will create it differently, test run looked pretty good seeing as how I am not a professional. Cali girl has her 26th birthday, I hate it that she is so far away and I can’t spoil her as I would like, with Family celebrating and gifts as if it were her own private holiday. (known for spoiling on my children's birthdays, I just get carried away. The reasons why is a story within itself.)  Next best idea, buy her a gift in Cali for her to have straight away where she can pick it up from the store.  “Hello. JoAnn Fabrics, I hope you can help me.” I purchased for her the Cricut Expression II an upgrade from what she had.  Cali girl was ecstatic. Next year Thanksgivings in Cali would be awesome and then a birthday celebrated with me.

December, oh you wicked December. It happened. The Man lost his job. Final day with a company of 25 years will be done at the end of December. Really isn’t nice to keep an employee on and not allow them to interview with outsource company leading them to believe their job was safe. What now? How long before he can replace it with another? The Man is up there in years and in pay, who is going to hire him???? Because of years with the company a severance pay was handed to him. I have always found it to be cruel when companies let employees go at the holiday months. CRUEL. Now what? Another Christmas without gifts to give. I try to hold onto a quote “Joy is not in THINGS; it is in US.” (Richard Wagner) I didn’t even desire to decorate for the holiday, work load and the Man being jobless was coming down hard on me. Everything we were planning for my future, poof, gone. As far as I could see at the time. The Man asked me one day, “what would you like for Christmas?” Astounded, I replied, “ is that wise you without an income?” He informed me that I work far to hard not to have what I desire. I asked for nothing except the opportunity to give gifts to the children and grandbabies. I really didn’t need a thing for I generally bought what ever I desired and at the time desired nothing but being able to give. In agreement I found the energy to decorate a week before Christmas and planned the gifts to buy, a theme for all. Soldier Son would be home for a month. Everyone except Cali Girl would be present. Moving forward we put the job loss on the shelf for now. 2012 will be a new year with new opportunities. With hopes it would not be for long. Theme for gifts. Everyone received a new coat. The decorations were once again in the little time allowed, Cheery and beautiful. Bring on 2012. Let’s see what it holds for us. 

Next post:  synopsis of 2012. Hope you won’t mind.

Reflection, months past

Life, where have you gone? I know we had some good times together during the summer months. Looking back: I remember the end of June found me not celebrating my 25th year anniversary the way I imagined I would. How young we were.

Sitting on a beach writing postcards would have been ideal, without the bikini and goofy sunglasses though. Instead of a margarita a fruity drink would work. Hawaii was the plan, the plan failed.

Because I love my Soldier son so much, (my only son) I promised to for go my celebration for camping. The Man was down with that, what an inexpensive way to celebrate. Soldier son would be home on leave for two weeks. Being with nature can be beautiful in itself. What's the harm I thought. We could have some time to ourselves maybe sneak away into the woods for a long hike together. Boy was I wrong. The 4th of July weekend was the wrong time along with people (my brothers) tagging along. Could have and should have been fun. First half of the day at a crummy campsite (boat dock makeshift camping) without running water nor flushing toilets, there were moments of cohesiveness and relaxation. Solder son became the fire starter. Setting up a house of twigs. 

Laziness was found swinging in the hammocks by others. The Man did deserve to kick back a bit.

Night fell, sleep was needed but there would be none to be had. Drinks were pouring heavily, craziness was all around. Boom, boom, boom, all night long. A couple of fights broke out as well. Nature, where was nature? It was nice being back with my brothers once again, but their scene happens not to be this old gals scene at all. Soldier son wanted to hit the road at day break for he was not having fun as well. The rest of the weekend would be far to hot. The state of misery and sleep deprivation would make it quite difficult to stay pleasant. My younger brother could feel my discomfort and was very understanding and knew I was planning to leave. Always make reservations for a holiday camping weekend months in advance, they let you do this online now, go with those who camp as you do and respects the night and quiet time.Above all campground with rules a sundown. State Parks have this.

.Back in Ohio and our kind of fun begins. First up a well deserved and needed nap, later that night see a movie. Next on soldier sons list Waterpark, yes he would not go without his parents. Top it all off Family cookout. Perfect.

July also held a birthday celebration of Katie doodle. No fancy cake this year, took her out for sushi and bar hopping, Followed by a family gathering. Kt is a no fuss kinda girl and I believe and hope she enjoyed herself.

It is fun to look back  remember and document these moments, pictures captured during these moments make me smile and say I did have a summer and a little semblance of life outside of work. My days and nights flow into each other and the moments I have for fun are far and few. Seems as if I am strapped to a sewing machine majority of the time I spend awake. Time off is difficult to find and puts me behind in work when I do take it off. The proof of moments spent with the ones I love are in photos taken with love by me. A picture is worth a thousand words. I will always have a camera by my side and capture every moment handed to me. I say action, lights, camera, shoot.

It was a sad and distressing August and may be difficult to document. We wanted August to speed by, sadly it dragged it’s feet in turmoil with others. (Next post)

Winter is slowly but surely creeping up on us putting the heat behind and the holidays with loved ones in the forefront. I am catching up for these new pages of my life.