Finally, an Update!

One year older and wiser too...yes, that's me today, since yesterday was my birthday! Just wanted to post a note that I will continue to use this blog for updates related to my family, and future grandchildren. I feel quite lucky to live in a time when I can easily make a permanent record of the happenings in my family's life.

I am working on a couple of other blogs and when they are published, will put a link here.

So for now, a few thoughts flowing through me head...

Birthdays are funny. When we're little and don't really appreciate gifts, we get tons of them. When we're more mature and have learned how to appreciate gifts, we get few-to-none or we buy ourselves a gift! hahahaha

Ok, so let me admit that i did buy a birthday gift while in Fresh Market yesteday. It was a cute garden Gnome, and it was marked down as low as it could go. Morgan saw it and said I should wrap it up and give it to myself for Christmas. Actually, I'm going to ask him to find a box and wrap it up. By Christmas Day I will have totally forgotten about it, and since Morgan will have wrapped it, won't have a clue when it's "given" to me!

Hahahaha, we just must find the humor in life. There are times enough when tears and challenges arrive unannounced and unwelcomed, the rest of the time is for smiling, giggling, living gratefully and laughing as much as possible!

Well, I'm off to enjoy this wonderful new day with a huge smile on my face and in my heart!

My Mom - Jean Lila Ranade Price

Mom as a young mother

Mother's Day Musings May 13, 2012 Naturally my thoughts and heart have been focused on my own mom for much of the past week. It's been 7 weeks sinced she passed, and I miss her so.

The sharp pain of loss has now turned to a kind of dull ache. Now I know what a heartache feels like. The silver lining, because there always is one, is that there is a reason for that feeling of heartache. It's love. Taking the good and the not-so-good, that is what I have learned to do, while always looking for that silver lining, even in the midst of a challenge. Being alive is WONDERFUL!

But just being alive is not enough; I want to LIVE, to really LIVE, to go for those dreams of my heart. This is what I wish for all of my family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, just everyone I know or have ever known.

So, will I go skydiving? Um, probably not this week, but who knows. My sister Julie would say, "Hey ya dummy, you gotta get in an airplane first!!!" hahahahaha


One of my favorite pics

Today is a cool, sunny, blue-sky-beautiful day, and I love it! I hope you all have a terrific Mother's Day today. Here are some pictures that honor mothers in my own family.

Guess where I got my smile from?

Mom, Me, and Frank

Mom, Julie, Morgan, and Papa Frank

Pretty flowers from the Westwoods

Getting ready to sent love and letters we
wrote Mom/Grandma Jean to the Heavens

 



             

We decided not to stay where time stood still. It was hard, but very healthy for us.

I asked Julie's friend Heather James to cut 10 inches off my hair so I could donate it to Locks of Love, to honor my mother.

Over the weeks that followed there were many tender mercies, much insight into life and death.

Susan Davis brought a very pretty Gerbera Daisy plant, one of my very favorite flowers, and a book, which I am still reading and really enjoying.

Shelly Hedin brought us a yummy loaf of Cinnamon Burst bread, but more importantly, she brought herself. We sat on the front steps and gabbed. That gift of herself, of her time, is something I will always remember.

Other Great Mothers in My Family
Julie

My sister Julie (the short one in the middle)
with her awesome kids Kyler  and Jenny

Nana

Nana, my grandmother
(my father's mother)

Katie

Nana's mother Katie Podosky Tait
(my great grandmother)

 

Great Grandma Katie and Nana