Update

It has been so long since I have posted. Life has been way too busy. Kyle is now a rookie PO for the city of Newark. Shelby is finishing up her first year in college. Both my dad and my father in law are living with me and Jay. I have been to the Philippines on another Alliance For Smiles mission. And life rolls on.

This morning I woke early and got to see one of the young foxes that live somewhere near my home. He was running around playing in my backyard. I ran, got my camera, and took a few quick shots to try to capture his image. Not great shots but still I got a couple. Then, as I was writing in my prayer journal I hear some "barking" from our lower yard and there was the mother fox calling for her young ones to come. She wasn't quite as thrilled to see me as I was to see her. I am so thankful to have been up early enough to catch glimpses of them. It is a little

gift to me in the morning when I get to see some of the wildlife in our area.

My dad goes for his second cataract surgery tomorrow. I pray that once his vision is clear he will get to see the foxes. He gets up each morning and looks out of the window hoping to see them but usually they are out too early for him to see clearly. Prayers that this surgery will change all of that.

Happy Thankgiving

My life has changed so much over the past few months. No kids live at home and my Dad has come back to live here minus a part of his leg. Jay and I look to adapt to these changes and on this day all I can think of is how thankful I am for the life I have and the man I have married. How blessed am I that I have 2 kids that are out there doing productive things in the world? Conversations with Kyle have changed from what are you designing to how do you like the new handgun you were assigned? Or, So what take-down techniques are you learning this week. He is well on his way to becoming a wonderful police officer and Newark is lucky to have him. And Shelby is growing so quickly in this amazing college she is in. She can speak some Russian now, knows all about African women in Colonial history and can write on positions of philosophers that I have never even heard of. I hope I recognize her when she comes home in December. Dad is 85 years old and has lost the lower half of his left leg and yet he continues to challenge himself to be independent. He will not let anything stop him and while I have had my breath held on a number of occasions as he tries to jump something or do something on his own, I am so proud of him. He is a great role model for any of us that think growing old means becoming less capable. And most of all I cannot say enough on how thankful I am to be married to Jay. He is so kind hearted and right there for me all the time. I love how he is with our children and I fall in love with him more and more each day as I see how he is with my dad.

Tonight all I can say is Thank you God for putting such amazing people in my life.

Announcing.....

My son Kyle, has just been officially accepted by the Newark Police Department to begin training at the academy to become a police officer. He has worked so hard to get into the academy and I am so proud of him. While my "mother heart" is shaking in its boots with concern for his safety I am still so amazed at this kid Jay and I raised. He is so driven by public service having served on our local fire department, ambulance corp, Hackensack hospital EMT, and for the last 4 years as an EMT for Jersey City. Now he begins the task of learning all he can to protect and serve the people of Newark. What a lucky city. I just hope this will get me off of any speeding tickets I might get in the future ; )

Way to go Kyle, way to go!

Landslide

So Sunday morning Jay and I were driving through Minnesota and The song Landslide by Fleetwood Mac came on the radio. Add one more sob fest in for me. You see on Saturday we left Shelby at her new school/home- a 20 hour drive from here in NJ. This parenting thing is not for the weak hearted. I cannot say how difficult it is to help your kids make choices that are great for them but so heart wrenching for you. I am so proud of Shelby- taking off half way across the country to enter a school where she will learn and be challenged. This is a place where she will be a part of an amazing academic community where she will be nurtured and grow. I love the school and I love Northfield, the town where it is but why does it have to be so far from us?

So flash back to the car ride, we had left Shelby at school the day before and I was bringing Jay to the airport. I was sappy and teary eyed and then Jay takes note of the song on the radio and brings it to my attention...

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, Ive been afraid of changing
cause Ive built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
Im getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

Yeah, bring on the tears. That song will never be the same for either of us now, it will always bring us back to that ride as it really hit us that we were leaving Shelby at her school and we were going to return home without her.

Enough feeling sorry for me- Shelby's new school is amazing and I am so happy that she has the opportunity to go there. When we went to visit there last year we passed the sign on the road announcing the school. I wanted to take a picture of her there but she said we had to wait until she was accepted. I got to take that picture this weekend.

Shelby's dorm room is not the biggest but it is amazing how well you can arrange things in there. Or I should say how Shelby could arrange things in there. I am sure things will change again and again but It is just totally cool. Her room mate seems really nice and so do so many of the kids we met there.
And how cool! Shelby gets her own mail box, well I think she has to share it with one other person but still I love the mail boxes, I've never had one like that and it just seems so cool to me... I know I am a total dork.

So now the emails, text messages, video chats and cyber stalking begins. I don't want to bother her too much but am dying to know how she is doing... what she is doing... who is she hanging out with. You know, I never knew I was a helicopter parent before this weekend. I guess this is a good thing for the both of us.

Happy Feet

I have been a plain kind of pedicure kind of girl always but today that ends! I was having the grays hidden at my hair salon (Suzanne's house of Hair and Colour in Oradell, NJ) when I noticed something new there. They have something called Minxes which are some kind of wrapping for nails in all kinds of patterns and colors. They are supposed to last for up to 6 weeks and let you have some fun. I was torn between the cheetah print and a floral pattern but figured flowers work for summer. Well, I love my new Happy Minxy Feet. It is so totally unlike me to have something like this but how much fun to go a little wild. The only thing is I think I might be totally addicted to these things ; )

Say it ain't so...

But it is, My little baby girl is now 18 and a full fledged legal adult in the eyes of the law. Yesterday she had a bunch of frinds come over for a toga party. The cake? A replica of the death mobile cake parade float from Animal House (it took 2 sheet cakes and 2 8" round cakes to get the right dimensions for the cake, and 4 things of icing- can you say Sweet?) It was great watching the kids have such a good time and you can see they are starting to realize college is just a few weeks away. They seem to be trying to cram in as much together time as possible before they start to head out. Most of the kids arrived in toga wear (Shelby's had a batman motiff) but before long the togas came off. And somewhere along the way my daughter truly became a supper hero- Is that a bird? Is it a plane? NO... its Super Shelby! I love that kid

Life keeps rolling on....

Well another milestone has been passed. How come they seem to be going by faster and faster these days? I am now the mother of not one but TWO high school graduates. On June 6th Shelby walked (or should I say hobbled?) up to get her diploma. What a beautiful day. What a beautiful experience. Can I just say that I loved her four years at Academy of the Holy Angels? What an amazing place for a young woman to spend her high school years. I think I was not the only mother with tears in her eyes not only from the emotion of seeing our daughters graduate but with the realization that their time at this special school is over. My prayer is that St Olaf College will bring her the same kind of nurturing with growth.

And enough about that, Can I just say how much I love my daughter? I am so amazed at the person she is growing into being. I call her sunshine but I don't think she really realizes how true that name is for her. She brings such light and joy with her, unless her light is covered over by a storm cloud- it happens. I am so proud of her and am so excited to see who she goes on to become. I am going to miss her when she is so far away, not as much now that we can iChat but still will miss her. Way to go Shelby! Way to go!

Its here!

I am not going to apologize for not writing since I was in Kathmandu- it seems I have apologized too much in the past and I will refuse to feel guilty for being too busy to get on my blog, a good friend of mine told me yesterday she gave up feeling guilty for Lent and I am going to join her.  Instead I will jump in with my thought for this week... It really is Spring. I write this and my house is creaking and shuddering from the strong winds blowing out there and some of the April showers still wetting the earth. 

Pongo and Perdita, my yearly visiting ducks have not showed up yet but it is still Spring. I went to the Celery Farm a couple of times this week and I can see evidence that the earth is renewing itself. First, the robins are all over the place. They kind of escorted me through my first walk of the year. Squirrels also visited with me. An little bits of green kept popping up through the dead leaves promising that soon all with be green and the trees will be full again. I am so ready for this. I really do love each and every season  but there is something special about the coming of spring, even on blustery days like this that might feel more like winter than spring.