For the first time in 17 years, we aren't taking a "First Day of School" picture.  I honestly don't know what happened; how my life got to this stage with me barely noticing the months and years go by.  You just put your head down and do what needs to get done day to day then POOF --it's gone and you don't need to put your head down except to regain your composure when it's time to leave the dorm room.

The house is too quiet and the afternoon hours drag their way into the evening hours.  The quiet has a different tone now that Amy's starting her life as a real grown up and Ryan has started college.  It's scary and it's deep and I suspect I'll get used to it.  In the past 17 years there have been times I said to myself  "My mother told me there'd be days like this" (she didn't) and "Someday I'm going to miss this" racket chaos and confusion.  How did we get to "Someday" so fast?

Ryan wanted to come home this first weekend; he and I both knew it was too soon.  It was one of those times when you do what's incredibly hard for you for their benefit and I told him I thought it wasn't a good idea.  When we discovered he was scheduled to work the entire weekend at the Mets, a lovely door labeled "Excuse" opened right up.

Ryan is adjusting really well to college and I'd misjudged his reasons for wanting to come home.  It healed my heart to see him and hear his stories about his classes, his room and his friends.  For these few days, we each got to judge the other's state of mind and the silence slipped away.  Taking him back was a joy since I knew he was happy, ready and able to start this next phase with confidence. 

I think I can face this opening day with this visit in my memory bank.  How ironic that this weekend was so healing yet it went against every single piece of advice given to parents of college students.  Sometimes you just have to go with what's in your heart in order to mend it. 

                                      

Happy Birthday Mom

This is one of my favorite pictures EVER. It was taken on Mom's birthday (I think in 1998) I know that this is a few days early, but this week is usually terribly busy for us, so here is my tribute.

First game is a win!

Both boys are both playing varsity soccer and the season started off well with a win over BG. Happy back to school!

BKTF Day 2010

Spoil someone today! But not with cigarettes, beer and gambling.

A surprise around every corner

 It's kind of hard for me to believe that I could still be finding things around this house that surprise me leftover from Mom and Dad.  I was cleaning Amy's room and found the Grandmother's Book I gave Mom so she could record her memories for her grandchildren.  Today the book itself is in the same pristine shape as the day I presented it to her but tucked inside I found a sheet of paper handwritten by Mom with the notes below.  I assume these are her memories in freestyle format.  I thought they needed to be shared.  The notes are handwritten in pencil on yellow paper and don't reproduce well, but it was a site for sore eyes to see her careful handwriting (and questionable spelling) once again!


A world without plastic, wringer washers, clothes lines as dryers, milk in glass bottles delivered everyday, cream frozen in winter, all wool snow suits, Run Spot--See Jane--Dee Dick, cloth diapers only, rationing food and gasoline, shortages of hose and cigarettes, 10 cent movies, soda shops that smelled wonderful, calling a store with a grocery order and having it delivered, two mail deliveries a day, ice boxes, an hour fo rlunch from school everyone went home, sterile silent gloomy libraries, not being allowed to see Gone With the Wind until I was in college--too risque, fish on Fridays, no TV until 1954, radio stories--suspense, Green Hornet, Gang Busters, Jack Armstrong, FDR, WWII, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, March of Time, standard shift, two lane roads, 25 cent gallon gasoline, ethnic prejudice (racial and religious), Wooden sleds with metal runners (coasters), Shirley Temple, Betsy Wetsey, passenger trains, beautiful train stations, doctors who made house calls, polio, iron lungs, measles, mumps

Tucked into this folded sheet of paper was a collection of photos, some of them new to me.  This one is dated August 18 1975 almost exactly 35 years ago.  It's riddled with tack holes presumably from being on the cork board by the refrigerator for a lifetime.  Gotta love those pigtails Paula!

Everybody's Got One...

This is Dad at his graduation from St. Bonaventure with his mother, brother and Aunt Bud.  Something about the way Dad talked about his Aunt Bud always made me think he had a special bond with her.  She is Grampie's only sister and closest to him in age.  I've been told she was beautiful and this picture seems to reflect that.  Her name was Violet and she was apparently in love with a married man and stayed with him for some 20 years waiting for him to leave his wife, which he never did.  Gotta love that stylish purse she's got!

I think maybe Breyen will remember Kathy's recent visit as a special time for him.  I know that I will!  The party was GREAT despite the rain (maybe the rain forced everyone a bit closer to each other creating better conversations) and I'm so glad everyone could be there.  Time spent with sisters was very restorative for me--I'm still smiling at how wonderful it felt to have everyone together. 

Maybe every family has that member who kind of goes off and does their own thing--I imagine Aunt Bud's brothers worried about her sometimes too the way we do about Kathy.  I don't think Kathy is comfortable with the thought that we sometimes worry but it's mostly due to distance and the lack of personal contact distance generates.  I see Aunt Bud took the trip out to Olean for the graduation which I'm sure made Dad as happy as we were to see Kathy for the graduation party. 

We didn't get to recreate the picture from 4 years ago, but I love this and expect it to be one of my all time favorites.  Thank you all! 

Hummingbird Kisses

These baby birds were nesting in a tree in our yard until recently.  I hope they left because it was time for them to leave--they look fairly big here--and not because my camera stalking chased them away.  I just think this is a very cool shot so I wanted to share it.

Yesterday I was standing on the deck talking to Jim who was working in the yard, so I was kind of leaning on the railing.  There was a little commotion in my peripheral vision and I turned to look straight into the face of a curious hummingbird!  She was right there so close I could touch her.  She was just suspended in the air looking straight at me as if to say "you got anything for me?".  It lasted longer than I would have expected it to before she took off leaving me feel like I'd had a special connection with nature (yea, me--a special connection with nature!).  I'm still feeling the wonder of that encounter today so that's my Daily Notice for Aug 8.

A rare visit--just like Kathy's upcoming trip!  Somewhat fleeting but I don't think a connection to nature will be on the horizon........