Wood Smoke: May 2008

My eldest grandson has finished the 4th grade. He has been with his teacher for 4 years and next year he will go to a new school and have a new teacher. This has been a hard time for him. He came over this afternoon to go through the steps to take care of the cat while we are gone for the month of June. I took some pictures out on the stump. I have pictures of him at the end of each school year since kindergarten. He was very subdued today but he will get over it as only children can.

We leave early tomorrow morning for our trip. We are driving to Bellingham, WA where we will board an Alaska Marine Highway Ferry for Sitka. We will stay with friends in Sitka for a week. On our way to Bellingham I will get to meet my cyber friend Heather in Nampa, ID. While in Bellingham I will get to meet my cyber friend Becky. This is very exciting. The internet certainly makes the world a small place. After our return to Bellingham on June 20 we will visit with friends near Olympia WA and then drive down to Yachats OR where we have rented a beach house for 4 nights. Another friend is coming to stay with us. My husband met him on line 10 years ago when they both started flying Red Baron and participating in cyber WWI combat missions. Something they continue to this day. We have met him in person before and look forward to seeing him again. It is sad, his wife died just over a year ago and he is now just starting to get out and about. We are so glad that we will be near to his home and that he is coming to stay with us. After Yachats we will go to Ashland OR for a couple days for the Shakespeare Festival. Then we will come home through Susanville CA to Reno NV and down to Tonopah for the night and then through Vegas and home the next day. Whew!! Can't wait, have been counting the days. I will have many great photos I am sure.

I leave you for awhile with these things to ponder:

One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
Pollsters say that 40 percent of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
Reindeer like to eat bananas.

Have a good one.

Wow where does the time go. I have definitely been absent too long for this blog and my dear friends who read it. No excuses. I just am getting busy. Am tryng to finish up a scrapbook for my sorority and made some digi Mother's Day presents. I will post a couple at the end. My high school is having a reunion this summer. We have them when anyone is in the mood to organize one. They are great fun and they are always in Phoenix, which is only a 140 miles from me. But, I can't go to this one as it is June 6-8 and we are leaving on vacation on June 1 and won't be home until June 27. My high school friend, Linda is organizing this reunion and she sent this out to all of us.

OLD AGE, I DECIDED, IS A GIFT I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body; the wrinkles, the baggy eyes and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don't agonize over those things for long. I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, and my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will. I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong. I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

Here are a couple of the digi mother's day present's I made:

These are 6 by 10 story boards and they look so good framed. They are of my two youngest grandson's and I gave them to my daughter-in-law for Mother's Day.