End of Summer

This is the official ending of the Summer of 2010. However hot it was here in the Northeast, it was a lovely three glorious months!

It seems like the days are already growing shorter. It gets dark earlier-boo hoo! It is cool sleeping weather--yay! We see the fat red tomatoes bending the stalks over the stakes. The green ones will be moved in to the kitchen windowsill to redden a bit and then eaten in slices.
The school busses are around town. I see kids on skateboards whizzing around getting their last licks in of freedom. The school clothes are being chosen, even though shorts could still be worn for a few more weeks.

We kids went off to Parochial school all our scholastic years. The only year that I didn't wear a uniform was in first grade! My kids wore uniforms, also. It made it nice and easy for me(and them) in the mornings. There was that occasional "I don't have a shirt to wear" morning, but we were pretty flush in the shirt departments, just for those times.

So, off to school for the kids, teachers and bus drivers. The rest of us, it's hunkering down for the end of year push, planning for the winter activities, looking into a warm vacation spot, saying goodbye to the gorgeous beach and finding some good projects. My website is my procrastination project! I should be really working on it but I find it much more enjoyable to talk with all of you!

Adios, summer! I'll catch some more of you during September and October but it won't be ever like this again.

Marking the Dates

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of our wedding. It's so ironic that I am performing weddings now, legally and joyfully. My husband, Bruce, is a great partner in life. He and I have known each other for 42 years. Our own wedding was a blur, we were so darn young. How does one know who you are, much less who you want to live with for the rest of your life at 22?

But, with God's gracious grace, we survived and thrive! We are blessed with great kids, family, grandchildren to spoil and be silly with, friends that we can call on at any time of the day or night. We rely on each other for strength and know that we also have our own backup--our higher power. If it were not for that Source, all the above would not be.

I am so honored when asked to perform a wedding. I would perform one a weekend! I love the people that I meet, love to hear their stories of how they met and what got them to this point in their journeys. They bless me by asking me to preside over one of the most important events of their lives. This date will be etched in their hearts forever!

As we mark this date, with a nice quiet dinner and beautiful cards to each other, I will reach back to that August day in 1970, and be grateful, very, grateful. I will remember the family who aren't with us anymore and thank them. We will drink a toast to longevity, loyalty and love.

Birthdays!

This month, we celebrated my Dad's 88th year of life. Today is the date, 49 years ago, President Barack Obama was born. So many years inbetween those two men! Such history has ocurred in the decades! Who would have ever expected, in the 1920's, that an African American, or any person besides a Caucasion white male would be eligible to run for the highest office in this country, and WIN! With Senator Hillary Clinton's addition to the ballot, we made additional history with the first woman to throw her hat into the mix!

We call my father's peers "The Greatest Generation". Surely, they earned that title. They scraped and saved, lived through a very, very severe Depression(not like the Rescession we are in now) where they had nothing to eat. They lived from meal to meal. They stood on long lines for jobs. Then, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, they ran to sign up to defend their country.
There is never a day when my father doesn't fly his flag. At his house on the beach, when he is home, it is up, flying proudly. He's instilled that in me. I fly my flag on national holidays, and sometimes on the weekends, when I am home. I sing the national anthem at baseball games, hand over my heart. Some things are imprinted in my brain forever!

I'm proud to be American, and love that my country is a symbol of freedom. I pray for those who are fighting to defend freedom around the globe and those who have sacrificed their lives for freedom of others. I wish we didn't have to be the first - always - to sign up for the job! I want each man and woman to return to us intact and appreciated.

Happy Birthday, dear dad and President Obama. May God bless you both.