Children

I have to admit I was raised the "old fashioned way". That being that I read and believed in all the fairy tales and romance stories and that someday my Prince would ride into my life on a white horse, carry me away to his castle, and we would live happily ever after. Well, I got my Prince, with a few warts, and he got his Princess, with a few warts of her own. And, I think I can say we are living happily, even though there have beens some bumps along the way. But we've worked through them and here we are 43 years later.



The one thing that has turned out just the way I wanted and expected was my children. They are, without doubt, my greatest joy in life. Everyday I marvel at how wonderful they both are. They both are loving, caring, hard-working, fun, funny, smart and great parents. I'm sure I've left something out that they'll give me a bad time about but I'll take my lumps later. I feel so lucky that they both continue to involve us in their lives. I consider them my greatest accomplishment. OK, so I have to give some credit to their father as well.



But, today, I want to focus on my son, Jason. Because today is his 38th birthday. The kid's birthdays' always cause me to reflect about them. I can remember the day was "got" Jason just like it was yesterday. I say "got" because we adopted him. We received a phone call from the agency telling us that we were chosen to be the parents of a baby boy that was four weeks old. We were to pick him up in another city in a couple of weeks to bring him home. Have you every tried to put a nursery together in two short weeks?

Anyway, we were both so excited we could hardly sleep. When the day came we were both so nervous. We left town two hours before we really needed to just to make sure we got there on time. Of course, once we arrived we were way too early but we had to find the place so that we knew exactly where it was because we didn't want to be late. We went to some small cafe to get something to eat but we were both so excited neither one of us could eat anything. We drove to the location and we were so early we had to sit and wait in the waiting room for at least an hour before our appointed time.

Finally, they took us into the "baby room". This was a room set up as a nursery. It had a changing table and a rocking chair. The door opened and in came a lady carrying our baby. She handed him over to me to hold. I can't even explain the overwhelming emotions I had at that moment. Immediately Jason and I bonded maternally. As I rocked him in the chair, his eyes kept following Greg around the room. This amazed all of us since he was only six weeks. I gave him over to Greg to hold and he rocked him for a while and held his hand.

We were told we could take as much time as we wanted in the room. We were told to bring our own clothes so we had to dress him. Once again, we were so nervous I think it took us over an hour to get him dressed. And then, we drove him home with us. No car seat but laying flat, on a baby blanket, on the car seat between Greg and I. Can you imagine!!!

Jason, I love you more than I can ever tell you. I love to watch how loving and caring you are with your own children. And, I'm so proud to be your mother. Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

Crusin' is Great

Okay, so I'm no good at this blog thing. I just noticed I haven't posted anything since December. I find it difficult to find the time for some reason. Too much other hand work that I do, I guess. Like knitting and crocheting. I still have three blankets to crochet yet so I shouldn't even be blogging now. Plus I have a cross stich project to finish.

Anyway, we just got back from a crusie and we had a great time. We went to one island, Costa Maya, Mexico, that had been struck by a hurricane a couple of years ago. The destruction on that island was incredible. Practically the only housing left for people are houses that have been built since using any items they could still find on the island. We went to one of their "resorts" to lay on the beach. The beach was beautiful, the water was cold, and the islanders are glad to have the tourists as it is their only source of income. The cruise lines have just now begun to return (they had to rebuild the pier). At the resort you could get an hour massage for $1. Unbelievable.

We love to go on these cruises but it's even better to get home. We really missed the grandkids as well as our own kids. We love have our whole family so close by. Our son and daughter are great parents and we enjoy that they include us in their activites. Life is good.

I'm going to try to post some of our cruise pictures just to see if I can do it.

Be Careful What You Wish For

....you just might get it. Last year, when I retired, I'm sure I said that I hoped it snowed and snowed next winter since I wouldn't have to go out in it. Well, unfortunately, I got my wish. And, I'm really sorry for saying that!! Now I'm worried that our Christmas will be somewhat modified if my daughter and her husband can't get here on Christmas Day. We'll still celebrate but just not on Christmas Day with the full family. But, right now, I'm determined that somehow, someway we're going to be able to get them here that day.

Today, however, I'm excited that two of our grandchildren are coming over to help us make our Christmas cookies. This is a tradition that we love. Lena loves to bake and she helps with the whole process while Aaron likes to play video games but loves to help when we put the sprinkles on the cookies. Well, some go on the cookies and many go directly in his mouth. He loves to eat sprinkles. I can hardly wait to see them.

Brrrrrrr......

I don't know what it is about the Christmas season that cause my household not to function properly but here we go again this year. It is 19 degrees outside and our furnace is not working today. Luckily, we had already scheduled the furnace people to come today because of some prior issues. However, they aren't suppose to be here until 2:30. We called to see if they could move us up on the schedule and they told us that half of Bellingham is without heat. Hopefully, they keep their appointment. I guess I'll need to go turn the oven on just to get some heat in here. Last year, our sewer backed up into our house three days before Christmas and we had to cancel the festivies that were suppose to be helf at our house. I hope the furnace people can get our furnace fixed today and not be a problem that we'll have to, again, move out of our house for a few days. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Snowy Day

Last night it snowed so today I'm homebound. I retired in January and told my family one of the things I might do is create a blog. Little did I know how busy I would be in retirement with little time to do all of the things I would like to do. Between knitting, babysitting grandchildren, community involvement, travel, it seems like the days just fly by. My daughter, Jennifer, kept telling me about blogspot and how easy I could create a blog. So, since I'm homebound today, I thought I would at least give it a try. But, I can't spend too much time doing this. I have Christmas cards to get addressed ( I made my own this year, a first) and presents to wrap. Hopefully, I'll add more information later but this little bit is really for you Jen and your persistance in getting me to do a blog.