Old Friends

We finally cleaned out the storage unit today where the rest of Mom's things were stored.  I was happy to give away alot of the large pieces of furniture to my dear friend who my parents adored.  Once again I find myself going through my Mothers belongings wittling it down again and gettting rid of things that almost 2 years ago I thought I could never part with.  Funny how you begin to get numb to giving away your memories. And the thing is, alot of the time, it's stupid things that hold strong memoies...like pens!  My mother had hundreds of pens...and some of them I have seen rolling around our house all my life. They don't necessarily work...But they are familiar and remind me of my old home and my old life that seems so far away now.  Mom also had a hundred journals,notpads and day planners.  Most of them not even used. She was big on anything having to do with getting organized but never really got it all together...I guess I know where I get it from!  It's all rather depressing to go through these things again and again....But fate works in mysterious ways, and today I got to spend some time with two of my most favorite men on earth besides my husband. Two friends that I have had since I was just 14 or 15 years old and who know me better than I know myself sometimes. One of these friends lives in San Francisco and I only see him every few years when he comes for a visit...The other lives nearby but he is so busy with his work and new family that we are lucky to get together once a month. It's just another reminder to me how blessed I am to have such incredible friends and how timing is everything.  This could have been a bad day if it werent for them.  But it turned out to be pretty darned good.

5 months later....

I had such high hopes of posting more often back in November...Here it is 5 months later and I am finally getting down to it.  I've sat down and opened this blog probably a dozen times in the last few months, but have either had nothing to say or not enough time to put it all together.   I'm having a "Stay home day" today with my daughter who is overtired and cooking up some kind of either cold or ear infection, so I figured while she is tucked into the "big bed" (Mom and Dad's bed) watching Horton Hears a Who with her teddy bear, I have 1 hour and 29 minutes to fiddle around with this blog.   I changed the background picture to a watercolor I recently did.  I have always loved drawing fish and if you had asked me when I was a kid, what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was "A marine biology illustrator".  Well, I'm a secretary...close enough.
   Anyway, the last few months have been interesting to say the least.  Carlie has grown by leaps and bounds. My husband finally found a job he LOVES and is local and is a great fit for him. (YAY)!  We have added a puppy to the family, her name is Boo and she is a black as night Shih-Tzu.  She and Cricket (our older Shih Tzu) made fast friends and are now inseparable. It's interesting how Boo has brought the puppy out in Cricket.  All they do is chase each other, wrestle and snuggle together.  It's like having 2 new dogs!
      We moved Carlie into bunk beds which was a huge ordeal.  Henri wanted her to have the bunk beds that he and his brother had as kids. I wanted her to have a full size bed that we could also use as a guest bed when we have company. (We live in a very small house and space is limited) . Henri and I argued back and forth about this for a  months,  sometimes in good humore...sometimes not so much, and got Carlie involved as much as possible trying to get her to take sides.  He finally won.  He managed to convince her that bunk beds were way cooler than a big bed of her own and I got over ruled. So I insisted they be at least painted white if they were coming here.   Henri spent about every day off he had, traveling back and forth to his fathers house in CT where the beds were stored, sanding and painting them with his Father and his brother even helped out with the project.  After a few weeks, the beds came home and I have to admit...They're pretty damned cute.  Carlie and I enjoyed shopping for new bed sets for them and chose one with owls and birds which is absolutely adorable.  She looks so small now in that bed.  Time just keeps marching on...