Ready for take-off, I think ....

I was 'officially' cleared for take-off by my doctor today! He took one look at my x-rays and said, "It looks fabulous" which must have meant I have behaved myself for the past almost four months. He told me it was time to shed the walker as much as possible but when he asked me if I had good balance, I had to plead the fifth! He thought perhaps I should keep it handy yet try to walk as much without it. He did suggest I take it shopping -- that it will provide protection and I'm sure it will. People will avoid you like the plague if you are in a wheelchair or with a walker. Somehow they are sure that it has to be "brain" related unless you say a few words to them that assures them that you are truly 'all there'! Interesting to say the least!

So, I will try sprouting wings -- not really. But I will venture out more and more on my own. Pretty funny to feel like a child who is learning to walk -- "Look, Mom! I can walk now"! Or, "Look, Mom, no more training wheels". Okay, I am beginning to feel pretty silly and quite foolish so better stop before I really go over the edge ...

Reflections on my parents' wedding day ...

My Aunt Wanda shared this with me this morning ...

Dear Linda,

How well I remember Dec. 2nd. We had moved to Chicago in the fall of 1943. Your mother had started nurses training, so she was left behind. But when she quit that, my Dad insisted that she come to Chicago also. She also got a job at Montgomery Wards and your Dad was drafted.

I know she went out to visit him in California in February. But then when he was to go overseas, understandably, they wanted to get married. They told my parents on Saturday and were married the following Saturday, in Rock Island. Thanks to a lot of help from my parent's friends, the Bertlesons, there was a very traditional wedding. Naomi wore their daughter's wedding gown, and she had two (I think) friends as bridesmaids. I was only 13, so my job was to be the candle lighter!. They had a reception in the church basement. I think they had the rest of the week for a "honeymoon". They may have gone to White Pines State Park. Then at the end of the week, I think it was, that Dick had to report for duty.

Of course, during the war, it was not at all unusual for couples to have a "hurry up" wedding. I know they never regretted theirs!

Love, Aunt Wanda

December 2, 1944

... that was the date of my parents' you can see from the photo, my dad is in military uniform and within a little over a month, he would be heading overseas to fight in World War II. They planned their wedding quickly -- my dad said he wanted to be married before he went overseas because he fully expected he would nev wedding. Aser come home again. For anyone who knows my dad, they will know he is one of the most patriotic men you will ever meet.

They were married for almost 62 years when my mother went on to heaven. They were committed to one another until the day they died. Oh, they were typical married folks and I chided them when they got to discussing something that neither wanted to give in on! For many years, they kept their disagreements away from us (kids). They wanted us never to doubt their love for one another and were always hesitant about discussing anything they felt would undermine the other. So much so that we had to remind them that they needed to be a little more transparent so we would all know we were normal!! But, I appreciated that so much about them. Their disagreements were not in front of us -- other than small things that didn't really matter in the scope of things.

My dad misses my mother a lot -- some days more than others. I think he misses having her walk by and grabbing her hand just for a moment or his request to her, "Please pray with me", when he was going through a difficult struggle. He had health issues that we expected to take him on to heaven before my mother. But, God chose to take her first.

My dad treated my mother like a queen ... If they were riding in a car together, I don't know when I ever saw him not open the door for her and then making sure she was comfortably seated before he went around to his side. He taught us that men should always walk closest to the road when walking down a sidewalk -- that a man should be the protector. Of course, he taught my brothers to open doors for ladies and to always be polite and courteous. He was and still is a true gentleman. We used to laugh whenever Rachel and I would call and my dad answered. "This is one of my sweethearts -- I have three, you know." (Of course, he added the granddaughters on after that.)

He strives to treat Rachel and me like queens now -- oh, he can't open the door for us but he is quick to grab our hands as we pass by (if he can see them since his sight is so limited). He never ends a phone call without saying, "I love you sooo much".

I am sure tomorrow will bring back a myriad of memories to him ... we'll all call him sometime during the day and remind him that we haven't forgotten! After all, they have truly left us a legacy of love!

I have gone through a lot of photos over the past few years and it's hard to know which ones to post. Rachel and I had fun going through old photograph albums -- basically pulling them apart to give photos to each of the kids. My mother was one of those who had a camera handy -- okay, so mine is in my purse -- is that handy enough?

So, Happy Anniversary, Dad ... we know that Mother is never far from your mind and we want to honor her on this very special day as well.

Notice in this photo below that Dad is holding my mother's hand -- while we knew we were important in their lives as children, we always knew their relationship came first -- as it should! Great examples of marriage and as parents!

Sweet photo ....

Black Friday shopping ... not for me!

My family is a little different from me -- well, part of them are anyway. I do NOT get up well before the crack of dawn to go stand in a line for hours at a store to get early Christmas shopping done! For some reason, I just cannot bring myself to do that. I'll just hit 'overstock.com' at home and have it delivered to my door (free delivery usually)!!

However -- I do have family members who do that! Such as Roxanne and Shonna who left our house at 3:00am ... yes, 3:00am ... to arrive at Toys R Us at 3:20am and waited until the store opened at 5:00am. Roxanne said she and Shonna had great fun -- go girls! I'll stay home and sleep, thank you very much!

Sandi is more like I am -- she and Tim went a little later in the day and actually got some things they wanted that had not been picked over too much.

Teri -- she lives about 1-1/2 hours from us -- told me that she, Marley and Rudy went shopping this year but I forgot to ask how early she got up. With an 18 month old, who knows?!!

My sister is the most predictable of all -- she leaves her house around 4:30am every year. This year, she just had her two oldest girls - Jene, 21, and Shara, 18, going with her. I think it was extra special for her as the girls are both away at college most of the time. More than even the shopping, they have a blast (and probably laugh a lot especially if Shara decides to do one of her 'embarrass Mom' antics, and have their favorite places to eat, like P.F. Chang's.

I stayed at home and let the girls do the shopping. Sandi called me with a couple good deals so I had her grab those for me.

I thought it was so sad that a person was trampled to death at a Walmart, no less. It seems that shopping days like this bring out weird things in people and they forget all about the Christmas season and that it represents "love" not "greed".

I am thankful for a family who wants to give to others rather than think about what the will receive from their list. And I never want to forget the ultimate gift -- a baby in a manger!! What an awesome example of the ultimate gift -- so that we might have life!

Thanksgiving through "other" eyes ...

I 'stole' this note from Sandi as she did such an awesome job of sharing our day yesterday ...

This Thanksgiving truly felt like a "real" thanksgiving! We were definitely thankful and we had spent a great time with family sharing a meal together. But our next door neighbors (originally from India) had no one to spend Thanksgiving with. Tim had run into them at the grocery store and told them they should come over and share Thanksgiving dinner but they were somewhat hesitant to 'intrude". Even though they have only lived next door since August, Mike and Lufah and Janefar have become great friends. Janefar is only a year older than Ty and they spend many afternoons playing together. Just a few days ago, their home was robbed during a daytime burglary and that has shaken them.

I decided to go over and invite them again. I asked if they celebrated Thanksgiving - and they said they were "trying" even though they really didn't understand. They had heard that you should eat turkey and so they were attempting to make one along with traditional Indian dishes. Lufah wanted me to sample some of the things she had made (delicious by the way even though I still can't pronounce them!) and they agreed to come over for a little while. They brought some of their Indian dishes while their turkey proceeded to cook. We had a great afternoon with them and Lufah asked me later, "So this is Thanksgiving - everyone comes together and brings a dish to share?" I told her that was part of it and that it was a day to be thankful for the many blessings in our life. She said that they were beginning to understand now what Thanksgiving meant. She told me to make sure I tell her what to do when things like this come up! ;-) They truly want to assimilate and understand our culture and it was also so cool to understand a little of theirs. They grew up near Calcutta and it was interesting hearing stories of their family. When they left, they insisted that they would have everyone to their house for a big dinner sometime soon.

Mom said it reminded her of what Thanksgiving was all about and I would have to agree. What we would have missed out on if we wouldn't have taken a minute and shared an invitation. We sampled some great Indian food, they shared some traditional American ones and we all shared friendship that spans cultures and even language (at times!).

I am thankful - for my family too - they welcomed them just as they would any of our family or close friends!

SO Happy Thanksgiving - I am grateful for the chance to share what Thanksgiving is really all about!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Doesn't Christmas come AFTER Thanksgiving?

Well, it's supposed to be although in most stores, Christmas stuff is now up before Halloween. Go figure! Our younger generation will be completely confused. Then again, probably not! They won't know any different.

Back to Christmas -- Roxanne decided (well, we all agreed) that we would get the tree done before Thanksgiving so I guess since it is Wednesday, today would be that day. So, Chris and I put the tree up -- I sort of helped. No, we aren't quite as ambitious as going out and chopping down a tree or even buying one already chopped down. Artificial, I know but Chris did have to drag it in from the garage. Does that count as far as dragging a tree to a truck or car or whatever? I can hear all those who will only settle for the good ol' cut down tree thinking we are taking the easy way out. Maybe so -- maybe not. We have to figure out how to put that big 9 foot tree in this bag after Christmas instead of dragging it out to the road for someone to pick up. Putting the tree up meant putting the four pieces together (that makes up a 9 foot tree), making sure we find what plugs into what (we didn't master that completely) and then fluffing all the branches prior to decorating the tree. We did the decorating a little later after had all eaten lunch and were sufficiently in a good enough mood not to get in each other's way and fuss over who was putting what where.

I do one thing quite differently -- we do not have an angel or a star on top of our tree. I do have lots of angel ornaments and some stars but on top of our tree is a crown of thorns. I got it during an Easter season so I can assure you that we handle it with care. Anyone who doesn't usually pays the price of being stuck by one of the thorns! It sits on top of the tree as a reminder that while Christ came as a baby, he also gave his life on a cross for us.

Once we got the tree put together and the crown of thorns on the top, we tried to decide whether to use our typical ribbon on the tree this year and thought we might just do something a little different and leave it more simple. We did cover up the bottom of the tree so it doesn't look quite as artificial! lol!!

Of course -- remember when I said we can never do anything without a silly photo -- sure enough, today was no exception. Roxanne held the camera out and said, "Okay, everyone together ..."

Have camera ... will capture ...

It seems I inherited one thing from my mother (among other things, too) and that is always having a camera handy. However, years ago, that wasn't the best thing to have. I would take lots and lots of pictures and throw the film into a drawer to be developed later. Ha!! Some of those didn't get developed for more years than I'd like to think. I guess when they are developed and they have a yellow tint and looked washed out, it's probably been too long.

So, no one was happier when the digital stuff came down the pike then me. Then again, as I have shared before, I have saved many, many photos onto CD's and forgot to mark the CD's. However, I really like flash drives now! It seems I can store more. But, I doubt I will make it much easier on myself. It just doesn't seem to happen that way.

Back to 'have camera' ... Between Chris and Ava's daddy, Dylan, they kept Ava occupied and somewhat entertained this afternoon. So, here is their story ...

Ava's daddy, Dylan Lantz

Thanksgiving Trivia

A friend of mine forwarded this link to me this morning and I thought I would be so brave and would pass the test with flying colors .... WRONG!!

So ... in case you would like to try it, click or gobble here and if you're brave, share your score! I'll admit, I'm more Thanksgiving challenged than I thought!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words ..

They say a picture is worth a thousand words -- to try to put the past weekend into words would be difficult so thought I would just simply share the photos with a few captions underneath some. From Tyler's 8th birthday party to our trip to Atlanta and catching up with my brother, Tim, and his family as we left there, it was a busy, great weekend. Needless to say, Bob was quite thrilled with his little great-granddaughter, Ava!

So, without further ado .. here are the photos ...

Sandi wasn't too thrilled about this photo but it showed the setup for the party!

Tyler wanted a 'camp out' theme this year!

Tyler with his two new friends -- the girl on the right is a neighbor.

Thanks to a donation from Home Depot, the kids enjoyed craft time!

And there were goodie bags for kids -- age appropriate!!

Check out G.O.R.P.!! "Good Ole Raisins and Peanuts Trail Mix"!!

All the stuff to go in the "G.O.R.P."

Tyler and R.J.

It was pretty cool outside -- at least for us southerners!

And, of course, there was a birthday cake. It was a challenge for Sandi to make a 'tent' from a cake!

Tim, Sandi, Tyler

Cousins and best friends

Remember the 'camp out' theme! Bonfire, hot dogs, S'mores, and all. And it was warm!!

There's just something special about a bonfire!

Cake close up -- camping out!

Now -- on to Atlanta ...

On to David and Amy Balty's where they treated us to dinner!! It was great -- and Ava found a place in their hearts quickly!

And more family ...

Don't you love Kasi's expression at whatever Jonathan said!

Okay, so we will smile this time!

Ava with Aunt Susan!

.. and Jonathan

... and Michael

... and Uncle Tim

The family -- Christopher, Michael, Susan, Tim (with Ava), me, Kasi, Jonathan (Rox took the picture)

Special aunt and uncle!

... and last, but not least, Ava with Christopher and she's awake!

Finally, Roxanne gets in the picture with Tim, Susan and boys.

So, there is at least part of our weekend! All in a little over 48 hours! Wow!