Friendships

I don't have a lot of close friendships. I've never been one to need a whole gaggle of friends; just a few trusted friends has always sufficed for me. Most of my friends do not even live very close to me because we move so often. But the friendships I have tend to be long term friendships despite the fact that most of them are long-distance friendships.

My oldest friendship is now nearly 40 years old (man, that makes me feel so old!). Lori and I met in kindergarten nearly 40 years ago. We also were neighbors, growing up in Maine. We graduated from high school together. The natural progression of life took both of us away from our hometown, to different parts of the country. Sometimes years went by without us speaking to each other (other than yearly Christmas cards). Yet when we did speak, it was always as though we never had ever moved away from each other. Whatever it was that drew us together at the age of five was still there.

It was an odd friendship we had. I was a shy, almost timid, child. She was bold and in your face. I was a bookworm; she was an outgoing people person. She was bossy and sometimes mean; I was meek and often envious of her outgoing nature. She was often critical and I accepted that too because she was my friend.

Lori now lives in Maryland; about an hour away from me. We had not seen each other in nearly 15 years. Today, Marcus and I traveled to Maryland to have dinner with Lori and her husband. I was so nervous. I was worried that she was still bossy and critical; that once again I would feel some how inferior to her. Made me wonder why we were ever friends in the first place. But, I mustered my courage and I went because I have changed--I am not longer the meek girl I used to be. I'm comfortable with me and the person I am and other's opinions about me do not mean that much to me anymore.

Having said all that, I have to say that I had the best time! Memories of all the wonderful fun things we did as children came rushing back and I remember why we became friends and why we remained friends. We clicked just like we did nearly 40 years ago. And it is true what they say about time and age tempering people. Lori isn't bossy and critical like she was as a young girl. I honestly enjoyed every minute of our day together. Our husbands get along well also, which is nice. We already have plans to get together at our house soon. I am looking forward to it!

On Her Own

So, it has been just about one month since I left Shannon in Louisiana to fend for herself. I must say that I am so proud of her; she is doing just wonderful. A big part of me really thought she would blunder through these first few months of being on her own; I guess I under-estimated her. She seems so grown up now and really has been capable of handling things. She does still call me every now and again to help her plan her budget out, but she is doing great with budgeting her money. Since it has been her winter break from college she has been working a lot and has managed, through wise spending, to save herself up a nice little stash. So much in fact that I am wonder why I am still paying her rent--LOL. But that is the agreement we made with both of our girls for their first four years of college--we cover their tuition, their rent and help with other bills as long as they remain in school and earn good grades. She is pulling her end of the bargain (4.0 GPA last semester!!), so we shall pull ours.

Here are some photos of her very first apartment (it's a nice little place--about 800 sq feet):

The entryway with the kitchen and laundry off to one side and the dining off to the other






The living room which has a balcony overlooking the pool off to the left.



The bedroom, which is actually very large. To the right of the bed, further along that wall she has her computer desk and along the wall across from the foot of the bed she has a bookshelf and a walk-in closet. The door along wall where the head of the bed is goes to a full bathroom.

Finnegan

As is evident from my latest blog entries and many photos, Finnegan was recently here for a much needed visit. He and Mommy have since returned to Colorado and my home will never be the same--it is soooo quiet! Too quiet! But we had a wonderful time together; have I mentioned before how much I love being a grandmother? Finnegan is such a breath of fresh air to have around. He is rarely ever in a bad mood and he just ate up all the attention GeeGee and PawPaw showered upon him.

At nearly two (22 months) he is so inquisitive about the world around him. He wants to know what everything is and how everything works. He surprised us all with the fact that he can count to 10 (he particularly loves the number nine and attempts to interject it in often). He knows his ABC's. He loves to "read" and be read to. When he arrived, we promptly made a trip to the local library and checked out about 15 books. We read them over and over during his stay and by the time he left he knew the title of every book!

On every venture outside the house we were constantly reminded what every vehicle we saw was--hearing continually from the back seat "car," "taxi," "van," "mail truck," "cargo truck" and so on. I taught him how to hail a taxi so now he gleefully yells "Yo Taxi!" PawPaw taught him all about abs, so now he lifts up his shirt and beats close-fisted on his little tummy and yells "abs!" He insisted upon exercising with PawPaw every morning.







Anyway, our visit with Finnegan was wonderful and we are eagerly awaiting our March trip to Colorado for Finn's 2nd birthday!

For Miranda!

As promised:

Airplanes!!

Another word we frequently heard Finn yelling during his visit was "Airplanes!" The boy loves airplanes. So much in fact that Marcus and I decorated one of the guest bedrooms in airplanes just for him (pictures of that room will come at a later date). On the flight here Finnegan was so excited to get on the airplane. The flight attendant noticed his excitement and offered to take him into the cockpit to meet the pilot while Lindsay was hooking his carseat into the plane seat. Lindsay said she could hear Finn screaming "PILOT" all the way at the back of the plane.

Since Finnegan loves airplanes, we planed a trip to DC to the Air and Space Museum. Lindsay and I were completely bored out of our minds but Finnegan and PawPaw had a grand time. PawPaw took the opportunity to talk Finn's ear off about all the different planes, the history of planes and the history of space exploration. I'm not sure Finn understood a word of it but he came out of it with a few new words added to his vocabulary.

Here are a few pictures taken at the Air and Space Museum:









When we returned home from the museum Finnegan had a lot of fun trying on Pawpaw's flight helmet.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Part 2

Say it with me folks--Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Don't forget to slap your hands to your cheeks!

Anyway, here are some more photos of our trip to the zoo. Notice the glaring absence of tiger and lion photos? Apparently it was too cold for them to leave their den and come outside for the cute little boy who was so eager to see them
:( . Wusses!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

I spent hours on this blog entry last night, only to have it disappear into the vast unknown of cyberspace upon hitting "publish blog." UGH. I think I tried to load too many pictures to it, so today I will attempt it again in two parts with a few pictures in each.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! seems to be an appropriate title for this entry because it quickly became the mantra during Finn's recent visit. One of the activities that Marcus and I had planned was to take Finnegan to the National Zoo. The day prior to our zoo trip I said to Finn "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" and from that point, and for the remainder of the week, Finn gleefully shouted "OH MY!" while slapping his little hands to his cheeks. It was soooooo cute that my heart just melted everytime he did it. Here is a photo of Finn shouting the week's mantra:


We had a wonderful time at the Zoo. Here are some photos of Finnegan viewing the zoo from the best vantage point in the world--upon PawPaw's shoulders.





And, finally, my favorite photo of the day!

Lots of Catching Up To Do!

I didn't realize that I had not updated my blog since Christmas day! I guess the time just got away from me. I'm not really prepared to update now either--I'm just too tired to even think about it. I do, however, have a lot to write about and plan on doing that some time this weekend. I also have a lot of pictures to post, so stay tuned.