All my growing up years I dreamed how it would be when I was a mom. I’d take great care of my kids, keep them safe and love them deep and they’d love me back. I’d give them everything they wanted, everything I could think of, and everything I didn’t get emotionally. I’d be their best friend and then when they grew up, they’d put me high up on a pedastol, maybe even enter me in BEST MOM contests….
January 1 2010 Brad’s mom died a few days ago. Brad’s the man that rocks my daughter’s world My daughter wasn’t feeling well, I could hear it in her voice when she called to tell me but she was in her car and on her way to Brad’s… close to an hour drive from her home. She was crying. Crying for her loss because she’d grown to love his mom over the years and crying for Brad…
It was the last week in August 1984. I’d been waiting for that day forever. We were moving…..far away. We were leaving our home, our friends, our family everyone and everything we knew to make a dream come true. CALIFORNIA! It was a bittersweet good-bye, filled with hugs, kisses, promises and tears yet there was excitement and curiosity at the same time. My girls were my pioneers heading west and I promised their new best friends were waiting to…
My daughter called yesterday. She was stopping by to drop something off for me. “I’ll meet you outside,” I told her. I stood masked on the driveway edge, and watched her pull up, mask up and walk toward me. I only let her come so close before I began backing away. Even now I find it hard to fight back the tears when I think about it. This is my youngest adult-woman-child. The one who sat on my lap…
My husband told me a story once about his brother that always makes me laugh when I remember it. Houses that we grew up in were quite small…..small living rooms, small kitchens and small bedrooms, that’s it. No family rooms. The living room and the family room were the same room. In our adult life, we’ve honestly had bedrooms bigger than the living rooms most of us grew up with. So when his neighborhood high school,…
Within the past 30-plus years, we’ve felt fortunate to share our lives with four awesome furry friends. First came Bartles and Jaymes, brother Schnauzers. We had no intention of coming home with two dogs the day we walked past the pet shop and saw two black and gray little furballs huddled together in the window. We stood and watched them for a while. We felt sorry for them so decided to go in and hold them for a few…
In the very beginning of our story……….well, not the VERY beginning, that was in high school, a time we call Phase One. After Phase One, there was a short, interesting next beginning, that was Phase Two…..not then either. It was in Phase Three when we began our once-upon-a-time life together that I realized my sweet man was a “fussy butt” and I was never going to be able to surprise him with gifts, not his birthday, not Christmas, not…
I attended concerts before they were called concerts. I’m not sure what they were called back then. I guess just somebody live “on stage” doin’ their thing, playin’ their music. I don’t remember when the word concert came along. Anybody know? (Phillip Kennedy, I’ll bet you know.) I’ve been to concerts when the band was on top and hot right at that time and I’ve been to concerts where I’ve realized that my favorites have grown old right along…
His nickname in high school was “King,” dubbed by the rest of the guys who played sports with him. My guess was, as much as it was accurate, there was some male sarcasm there….maybe even a little jealousy? Do guys get jealous? But he was King, there was no denyin’ that. He was excellent in sports especially football, a serious good looker… tall, blond, blue eyes and just a good heart…..the entire package, KING he was!! I honestly…
This morning while we were taking our walk, I wished out loud that I had some Gummy Bears. It reminded me of something from our once-upon-a-time…..THE STORE. But before THE STORE, there was THE PHARMACY. When we first began to road-trip travel, we often found ourselves always needing something. We did lots of pharmacy stops for things like; Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Tums, cough drops, indigestion pills, gas pills, allergy pills, eye drops, band aids, triple antibiotic ointment, sun tan lotion,…