Grace

Steven Curtis Chapman is still singing! http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=84138e76e13c5c50e12c

Leslie's Baby Shower

Today was our cousin Leslie's baby shower. It was so much fun to be with family and we are so excited for Leslie and Joe. This will be their first baby and they are so excited to welcome their little guy sometime in November.

Tara, Alex and Kate. Alex stole the show, what a cutie pie.

So many gifts! Leslie opening all of her gifts with the help of her girlfriends.

Alex and his Grandma, Jim's sister Lorraine

Jim's sister Debbie, and his Aunt Jackie ( soon to be Grandma)

So great be together again!

Random

Neglected. My blog, my house, my dog, my book, my prayers, my friends, even my toenails for crying out loud. I cannot figure this full time thing out and am beginning to think this is it, how it is. My days at work are brain numbing. So much work, not enough time to get it all done and beginning 10/5 it is all mine. This is not my style...I am a great second fiddle and feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders with all of the responsibility for getting the claims out and money in for this practice. Hopefully, in a few months I will look back on this entry and realize I was just being silly. There is good stuff too. Jim has expanded his cooking repertoire and cooks dinner for us on the days that he works from home. I love that! Also, as overloaded as I feel at work, the girls have adjusted to my presence and seem to actually like me. Huge! This was a tough/tight crowd. Another thing, they finally hired a 3rd receptionist so I never have to fill in again (unless 2 of them are out at the same time). So I can fully concentrate on my own job and I am no longer the new girl. I have been asked to sit in on every Monday night meeting with the doc's and office manager and they seem to value what I have to say and have implemented some of my suggestions.
Kate informed me today that she has accepted a part time job at Tommy's Tanning in Oxford. Terrific that she is trying to earn extra money to pay for school. She is such a hard worker...never misses a day of work or school. I am just concerned about where she will be working. If you know Kate you know that working in a tanning salon would be like me getting a job in a bakery. I saw on the news that using tanning beds is like ingesting arsenic, it is that deadly. You know, I spent countless summers coating that child with SPF 30+ and it is so disheartening that she has probably undone all of that and then some. Is it possible to disconnect when your kids are doing something harmful to their bodies...the body that I took such good care of for so long. Is that the right thing to do? Stay quiet? I need help in this area. I need more help now being a Mom than I did when they were babies. Mostly because it is hard to just let go. They are grown ups and I am not in charge anymore. And even tho no one in this world has their best interests at heart more than me, it is not my job anymore. My mind understands that, my heart does not.
Quick flip...
Jim went down to visit John for lunch and he had a wonderful day. It is chilly here tonight and Jim has opened the window. Crisp air tinged with the smell of burning wood is wafting into the family room. Tofu is snugged up tight with me in "our" chair. Kate and I will attend a baby shower for our cousin Leslie tomorrow. Jim's sisters will be there and it will be so good to see them.
It's getting late and I should wrap this up. If you have hung in for this entire post, thanks and have a good weekend.

I Need a Hazmat Suit

Today is my first sick day from Westside Medical. Tuesday night my throat went from normal to raw/sore in about 1/2 hour. I worked on Wednesday but really felt punk and by 6 o'clock I just felt like laying down under my desk. I came home and donned my pink chenille bathrobe with the big white buttons that I only wear when I am sick. Jim cooked dinner, I ate and went to bed.
Woke up with the worst chest cold and am laying low today. I knew on Friday and Monday when I had keyed in Bronchitis as a diagnosis about 50 times that I was doomed. No amount of hand washing or Purel (and we have the super duper stuff that only medical offices can get) could keep me safe. So here I am watching Dr. Phil on Oprah and I have not done a single thing today and it's coming up on dinner time. So hard to be home and not be doing something.
Jim is hard at work upstairs, Kate is working, and Zach sent me some sweet messages on facebook. We are looking forward to watching the season premier of "The Office" and "Survivor". All is all not too bad of a day.

Sunday

Today was an especially good day! Jim and I bopped from one end of the state to the other. Left the house at 9:20 for church and did not return home until 3:30.
Great service, great message and the topper...we shared a pew with Rachel and Karen. Loved that! Got lunch from Dannys Drive In and took it over by the Devon bridge and watched all the boats go out while we munched on their famous hot dogs with hot chili sauce and onions (Mom, they bought Kuhn's old recipe...when you come to CT we will have to go). Jim wanted to check out the Christmas Tree Shop, so we did. Then got on the highway for a long drive out to Lyman Orchards. Peaches are at their peak here in CT, and I wanted to make a peach shortcake for tonight's dinner. In addition to the peaches we got some cider, corn, apples and a few cider donuts. We jumped back in the car and drove all the way up to the top of the Lyman land and ate our donuts and enjoyed the view.

the dog

looking out toward Devon

toward Bonds dock

the sunflower maze at Lymans

this was beautiful

our peaches

fruit trees as far as the eye can see

juicy goodness

Hey

After all of these years, Jim and I still joke around like crazy and do fun little things to make eachother laugh. One thing we do is sing songs in one another's company so it will get stuck in the others subconscious. It makes me laugh when I can hear Jim whistling or humming one of my "planted" songs. Today I planted Black Eyed Peas, Gotta Feeling...and it took. He is upstairs right now whistling it and I am smiling. I had to get him back because my brain has been playing "Jimmy Cracked Corn" for over a week.

Just when you think you've got it together....

My day off went so well. I woke up early and accomplished everything that I had set out to do. I started out by stripping and remaking my bed with clean crisp sheets. I did 2 loads of laundry, folded it and got it sorted for Jim to put away. I cleared off the front porch, scrubbed down the siding, railings, and furniture and put everything back. I weeded all of my flower beds and then hosed down the front walk and driveway. I picked all of the ripe tomatoes. I then shopped for some fall scrubs on line and caught up on some e-mails. I made meatballs and sauce for tonight's dinner. Put together a menu for the week and then made a grocery list. Just before I was about to leave for Stop & Shop my girlfriend whom I have not spoken to in a long time called and I caught up with her for about an hour. I hightailed down to S & S to get the shopping done, and I have to admit I was feeling pretty good and together. Maybe too much so. As I walked in to the store something large flew into my hair and got stuck in all of my hair products. I flipped my head over and tried to shake/fling it out and an overwhelming smell of poo infused my nostrils. Yup, poo and as I fussed with it the smell got worse. I was thinking that someone actually must have tossed a piece of it at me. Finally, I dug my fingers into my over spritzed hair and something fell/flew out and skittered across the floor before I could get a look. Jim thinks it was one of those monkeys that throw their poo at people hiding in the rafters. I think it was some sort of stink bug. Thank goodness S & S now has little dispensers of Purell wipes because I must have used about 10 trying to clean myself up.

I began my shopping feeling disheveled, disoriented, and smelly. That bug certainly put me in my place.

The Yard

I hardly had time this year to do any garden tending this year. I was on probation for my new job from May to July, working over 45 hrs each week and then trying to catch up on everything on the weekends. My biggest surprise...everything bloomed...in spite of me. The sweetest surprise is that I was unable to plant my morning glories next to the front porch...and lo and behold, they sprouted anyway...from last years seeds.

A hydrangea that I had nutured for years got no attention this year and is 3X the size of last year.

Amazing

Morning glories have grown up to where we can see them when we sit out on the front porch.

All from last years dropped seeds

The impatients, struggled at first from no TLC...but managed to come around

My only failure were the tomatoes. Too much early summer rain and not much sun, coupled with my lack of time produced a small and dismal crop. My other disappointment was the herbs. All of the parsley and basil were eaten by deer early on and the rest just yellowed and died from all of the rain.

All in all not a bad gardening season, in spite of my neglect, nature went on without me.

Mitchell Kyte

We just received word that Jim's Uncle Mitch passed away early this morning. His wife Jean was by his side. He was happy and active right up until the beginning of this past week when he began his stay at the local hospice. He went out to dinner on Friday night and played cards with his friends...just 1 week ago. I have such nice memories of him. He was such a sweet man and always had such fun and interesting stories that entertained the family on every occasion that we were able to be together. His warm and personable children are a testament to the kind of man that he was. I feel so badly for Jim not only because he lost his uncle, but he feels like he has lost the last link back to his Dad.
We are so happy that we were able to spend some precious time with the Kyte family this past May and enjoy Uncle Mitch's company one last time. I will never forget these sweet moments.

And of course this...

Our Newlyweds

I had to post this picture. Taken at Nicole and Chris's wedding by the photographer. It is such a sweet shot.

For some gals it's shoes or purses

For me it's dishes. If you know me well, you know that I have a love of dishware. I am a card carrying member of pfaltzgraff.com. It makes me happy to set a pretty table. It's silly, but it's just my thing.
Funny story. I now work with a woman who is even more obsessed than me. She has purchased 3 different sets just since I began working with her. When a set that I love went on sale I pointed it out to her and she promptly ordered a service for 12 for herself. I was so excited for her and when they arrived she brought in a placesetting in to show me. They were beautiful and would look so great in my kitchen...but alas they were still very expensive and trying to watch our pennies I would never even think of buying them right now. Well, Monday she told me that she had ordered another new set from pfaltzgraff and was wondering if I would be interested in the other set. WHAT?? She wanted to give them to me, but I could not accept such a generous offer. I offered to buy them and so she named a really low figure...and now...they are mine.
My dishwasher is now humming happily in the kitchen... full of Pfaltzgraff-Nuance of gold,red and sage. Anyone want to come over for dinner?

Random September

I feel happy today. It is cool and clear outside. The bright blue cloudless sky of a typical September day in New England. Today is my day off and I ran around like a nut trying to get a bunch of home stuff done. It's around 5 now and I am sitting/lounging on the front porch waiting for our dinner to cook. Tofu is sprawled out on the top step, front paws outstretched, ears perked. She looks like the Sphinx or one of the lion statues on the front steps of the public library.

We are surviving missing Zachary. The missing him comes in waves for me. Last week I had a complete meltdown the night before school started here in Naug., and I realized that I had nothing to prepare for. It is just plain weird trying to figure out how to cook for only 3. Several nights we ate dinner watching "Cash Cab" in the family room. It's not bad, just different.

Kate started school last week and she was happy enough to let Jim take her "front porch" picture. I think it must be strange for her as well to be here by herself with Jim and I.

They have scheduled Jim's meniscus surgery for November. Now we just wait and hope the pain stays manageable. He is hanging in and remaining positive, which totally amazes me considering he has been in pain for over 2 months.

Labor Day is almost here and I will have 4 days off in a row. We have nothing planned which actually feels nice. Think we might go and pick some peaches here http://www.lymanorchards.com/about/ and sample the seasons first cider donuts. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!