Ode To Joy....

Pow!

There is no fight club....its actually an amusing story but yeesh...

Banana!!!

Accused…

To find out that I am being vilified for something that I did not do hurt more than expected.  I'm glad that the person who asked me was at least checking facts before jumping on the bandwagon.  Even worse is that no matter what I say, the source has made up their mind that I am the one responsible. 

Check your inner circle - the person who slipped up is someone who sees your parents at least twice a month.

Was not me - thanks for thinking that I would screw you over like that.  Sad that you would assume the worst.

 

Back To JH....

I had not been back since before the hurricane so it was time 

to make the drive and finish hiking Safari 2. 

More overgrown gates...

More gate controls.....

More tracks....

And more offshoots that revealed more cages!!

Hiking Buddy!

Our first trip was a success - those little legs 

were overjoyed (and tired) after the outing! 

Partly Cloudy...

Am loving that all the Pixar shorts are together in a DVD collection - here's one of my favorites!

Another Z Name!!

Definitely an adjustment for her – she is used to farm life and having puppies and now her home involves a paper shredder, hair dryer and *gasp* a potato peeler!! 

Wonderful personality, wiggling nub of a tail and a big motivator to get outside and move about!!

Goodbye 2012!!!

2012 has been a nutty year and instead of listing everything that went wrong or sideways, I wanted to say Thank You to those:


That introduced me to new cuisines

That listened about the car accidents, hospital visits and house selling adventures

That played music so I could dance

That reminded me that nothing good happens after 2 am

That remembered my birthday

That gave hugs

That made me question everything

That reminded me that unicorns do exist

That motivated me to spend a week in the mountains

That were fuzzy

That may not have agreed with my choices but could still be my friend

That made me sing without doing a thing

That took care of us during the hurricane aftermath

That reached out

That cried with me about Louise's cancer and passing

That gave love even with everything that they had going on themselves

That are still there despite the time and distance between us.



Thank you.

2013 will be better for all of us.

Marker...

Made by a family friend - a nice addition to her grave.

Why Kitty Drinks...

The Future...

I don’t think that our forefathers could have even imagined this kind of craziness when they drew up the amendments - freedom of speech being used by a church to protest at a child’s funeral and the right to bear arms protecting a crazed person who wants to kill innocents.

We all deal with these tragedies differently - some will go buy guns for protection, some will change their daily routines to ensure that they give extra love to their kids and/or loved ones, some will use it as a lesson to teach their kids about paying attention to their teachers, some will pay it forward, etc.  

If it was a foreign country, the shooter’s body would have been hung in the town square and beaten like a piñata before anything mentioned above happened.

What scares me the most is that once all the media attention dies down, people will forget.  The same way that the movie theater shooting was pushed to the background of our minds.  Life will move on in its usual rushed pace.

Maybe “forget” is not the right word – life will forge ahead and draw us along – something else will happen that will need our attention. 

I really hope that this incident will not be swept aside – we owe it to the future generations of leaders to make sure that they are safe until they can run the country.

Law of Averages

Horrific, shocking - what other adjectives can we use to try to describe last Friday’s school shooting incident?  Seriously, who the hell can shoot an innocent child?!?!? 

And how the heck did a week pass by so quickly?

The law of averages was against us – having gone to college in CT, many friends have settled in the state to raise their families as well as their parents still being local - of course we would know people affected.  But still a shock when I got the email early on Saturday morning that one of fellow band geeks from my years at school lost their daughter.  It created a sickening feeling since the email came from a friend whose children are in the same school and even though they were physically safe, they were affected in another way.

I know that there are people out there that want every little detail but I personally do not want or need to see a photo of a woman’s reaction to finding that her sister was killed or the sobbing parents as they leave the firehouse after finding out that their child was a victim.  I’m sure that the people involved do not need that horrible moment immortalized either.

What can we do?  Donate to the funds? Pray for the families? Write blog posts?  Make grandiose statements on FB?  Hug more people? Buy guns? Ban guns? Debate over guns?   

Nothing changes that fact that these kids are gone.

The sun was shining so brightly in Connecticut on Saturday that I did stop a few times to bask in the glow and wondered if this was a sign from the children that were the victims of the shooting. 

The feeling of “Has life gone crazy?” that weekend was fought off by being with friends on Saturday night.  We all had some guilt at enjoying ourselves but it was great to be with them for hugs and laughs.  Sunday was kid therapy – a visit to a friend to play blocks with his son and make “froofies” (fruit smoothies).  The moment that made me lose it though was when the little one conked the dog on the head with a piece of plastic corn on the cob and then gave the dog a hug (they’re the same height) and in his sweet little voice clearly said “I’m sorry Nico, I love you”. 

May we all find peace in our own way.