Shout outs

I just wanted to give a shout-out (that's "say HI" for all you fogies) to the couple of "new" people who have begun reading my blog. I know from reading the blogs of others that you can get carried away on the thoughts of others, so I appreciate the time all of you spend here. A lot of times it's easier to write my feelings than to say them-like if they get spoken they might be true, but if I write them, they're still ghosts of my mind. Sometimes I like my feelings to be that way. But sometimes, I really appreciate when people read what I write and say, "Hey, that's cool!" or "you're kinda funny" or "yeah, that really sucks", and I should say that out loud. It's nice to have the feeling and remembrance that people care. So often, I don't even get time to think until too late to call people, and if I do have time earlier, it's usually LOUD around here. I'm glad to know that even though I don't pick up the phone and call, some people are still listening. And I appreciate all of you. And, I will admit (but again, probably not aloud in the presence of others - some things should stay ghost-like...ha ha...gotta love family!), I love you, too.

Fort Harrison

I just want to get this off my chest first...why can't I see a bunch of the pictures I posted? They were here the other day when I posted them - I know, I looked!
Anyway, I'll check in a day or so and if they're still not there, I will try to fix them. In the meantime, here are a bunch more.
Did I mention it's been snowy here? :-)
Well, there's never been enough snow at once that lingers long enough for Sean to have a snow fort...until this year.

This is the view from the front entrance (the first hole dug)

Sean is in the lookout hole (the moonroof?!?) - he's not touching the ground inside, by the way. I think he's standing on Dad or something - Chip is hanging out the back entrance (no jokes, please), and the Nerf gun guards the front entrance you saw above. Funny story about that gun. I just about broke my nose on it when I tried to help dig some of the snow out. That was the end of Mom's helpful attitude. But it does seem to keep out the neighbors!
The smile I so rarely see anymore. I'm glad he's so excited by the fort. He and Dad spend scads of time out there (and I'm glad I don't have to...much, anyway)

Hardly Iwo Gima, but Sean insisted on having the flag on top, so people would know it was friendly fire, I imagine

I guess if the gun fails, the car's snow scraper will do the trick at close range. I hope it's back in the car now, in case we get dumped on with white stuff while we're out and about.

Ending on a high note

Three months since Fred has been gone. Doesn't seem possible. I keep a picture of him and Mom as my desktop background at work, so looking at it makes it seem more unreal, but comforting. He's making a subtle face that he always made, and it helps me remember some of the other funny (quirky) things about him.

Like his bathroom song.

his pride in his ..."wind"...

how he liked to sing songs (especially inventively re-worded versions) while he was puttering in the kitchen.

how he looked when he ate licorice.

how he would yell at the Jeopardy contestants.

his laugh - especially on of the last times I remember...laughing at the Colon saying Happy Thanksgiving on JibJab (I wouldn't recommend the faint of heart go online searching for it, but it was definitely Fred's kind of funny).

Just stuff like that.

And I still miss him a lot.

But I feel better when remembering those things. And when driving past the Civic Theatre...

Christmas photos

Yes, they're almost as late as my Christmas CARDS. Which, honest to goodness, I still have intentions of mailing. Someday. I kept hoping to have more solid news to put in them. Oh well. So maybe I'll send them in July as a festive something different...
Here are the pics:

after the Santa, before the chaos
is she biting it or opening it?!?
Grampa with the 2 babies.
Testing out the new thumb war ring...it appears that Gramps has the upper hand (pun intended)
Sophie and Gramma Marcia in NY. I don't have the opening presents pics...I think we used Gramma's camera. But we had fun there, too. Miss her. Maybe we'll get to go back for Easter.

Making up for lost time

When I came into the bedroom tonight, I was just going to go straight to bed. It was only 9:30, but I'd been reading "Great Expectations" for about a 1/2 hour, and - don't get me wrong, it's a great book - it was making me sleepy. But then I remembered I had started an email to my aunt and I needed to quickly finish it. Now I feel like I should make up for lost time on here and get some pictures posted (while I'm playing around on Facebook with all my "new" old friends!).
So, here are some more fun pics. Hope you enjoy!


Phone call from Grandma M:
I think he's reading her a book?!?


Sophie looks very impressed.
Now she's more interested.

Gramma - when are you going to talk to ME?!?
Unfortunately Gramma knows all to well that she has to do all of the talking in THAT conversation. Sophie will babble on and on until you give her a phone. Then she just likes to listen. And of late, shrug her shoulders.

Story Time

Sean loves reading to his sister, and she loves turning the pages!

It's the Counting Kisses book and she's kissing the page. Isn't that sweet?!?

Has it really been that long?

Wow, I see it's been nigh on a month since I've last posted. Well, that means in only a couple more weeks we should know whether or not the house deal went through (wow, and people thought I was a procrastinator!!!).


Life is still busy here. But the real news is all of this SNOW. It's all we're talking about around here, practically. It's been a record season, with over 90" or something close to that already, and we still have a good month of potential snowfall. It somehow has lost its luster as something wonderful to play in over the years...I guess the snow shoveling and driving (admittedly mostly RIDING this year) I have to do in it now...


But at least my kids are enjoying it!:






You can only see the small piles here. On either side of the driveway, they're over my 5'5" head!



I swear that is not a snowball!!! It was snowing so much, a fortuitous flake landed right on the lens!
(note the pileup of snow on top of the car that was clean just the day before when Sean and dad went bowling)