Friday, May 25, 2012

41 and His Mommy Still Calls Him Baby

Today is the anniversary of the day I became a mother. My adult son was born 41 years ago tonight around 11:30 p.m. in the old ST. Anthony Hospital where the nuns told me to stop breathing like that (panting) I was going to hyperventilate. I was on the crest of the natural childbirth age and got my learnin' from a book, not a class, so panting was my strong suit. It worked. 8 hours of fairly intense labor and a beautiful 11lb6oz bouncing baby boy entered this life. I always wax nostalgic on the days of my children's births, I consider them birth days for me, too. Happy birthday, Ry. Find your dream.

Small Memories of Bob and Linda

At 5 and 6, I was 6 and he was 5, I got one of those metal dollhouses for my birthday and, to my dismay, he got a big fat metal airplane......on MY birthday!
Somewhere near that age we were going to marry. each other.
When I was 10 I had to take the "little ones" trick or treating, he got to go as far as he wanted and would come home with grocery sacks full of candy, he was a boy. Once we made a pact to read the entire bible together, we may not have made it through Genesis. He very cleverly learned that if he broke a few dishes, he wouldn't be required to wash them.....grr/ When our baby brother got burned, we had to sit out in the car while Mom and Dad went up to visit, This was during those barbaric days when Mothers were not allowed to stay over in the hospital. I punched him in the nose and gave him a bloody nose. I always feared his retaliation, and when I asked him about it 15 or 16 years ago, he didn't remember it. Whew.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

still practicing-jogging my memory a bit

 try some text. Oh
it's right here. an IL sky if I remember right.
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the problem with short attention span

I forget how to do things like post pictures unless I post pictures. I chose areas with no text and forgot how to put more than one picture in a post. AND I let Leah get away before I realized this. Maybe Speedway can help me out here. Jeez, sometimes I feel like an idiot!

don't try this without a title

 
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trying....

 
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ok screwing up

 
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some trophy heads

 
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bird

 
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winged dragon.

 
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I think this is right

 
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Saturday, May 5, 2012

Memories from a Decade 9/11

What was I doing on that sunny blue-skied day? Teaching science-- Most of the nation's tragedies in my lifetime have taken place while I was in school-- a student, an aide, a teacher. The sky was spectacular. Who said turn on the tv? I cannot believe I do not remember that detail. I remember the full on horror as the second plane hit and the paradigm shifted. Was I wearing my feel good yellow dress? Maybe a student of mine would remember that--I don't. The day followed in stunned quiet. We had to go out for a bomb threat and stand, the entire school, on school property as far from the building as physically possibly yet within the "safety" of the fence. Did we do that twice in one day or twice in the week? At the end of the day as quickly as I could I went to the blood center and got in line where I stood for hours, was it dark when I left? I had thought of an act I could do. It was so difficult, I was still so very heavy. Some local business person sent pizzas to the people in line which was so thoughtful. Eventually my turn came and I was able to donate. Later it became clearer and clearer that the blood would help no one in that hideous pile of rubble. Maybe it only helped me to feel as if I had done something. There turned out to be no need for blood at all.

That was a week also wrapped in family drama. Larry was trying to drive to Texas before his dad died, he didn't make it and had to drive home. Rayne was on her honeymoon in Vancouver, Canada and the car rental company said keep the car, drive it home, do not try to fly out of Seatac. So they were trying to get home for Grandpa's funeral. Grandpa was on the very last plane to land in Indy before the skies were closed, he just missed sitting on the tarmac in Canada for the duration. Leah lived in Durango and needed to get home for the funeral. I was alone in Terre Haute handling the details of the funeral. Leah was on one of the first flights after the skies opened again, another terror filled flight for mom. Leah did a beautiful eulogy for her grandfather, not the last one for a grandparent, she has lost two more since then, the rest of the grandparents.

Have I said how beautiful the skies were completely empty of jet trails? I had no idea how much of what I see in the sky is from technology. It was so quiet for those days. Quiet and beautiful and hideous.