Of all the things……….

that I have to be thankful for, this man is what I am the MOST thankful for!! His unconditional love and support never fail to amaze me! I am very, very blessed!

a long time has passed

My goodness the time has passed and I’ve neglected my blog!! I guess that life got in the way. Things are going well, I’ve been spending some time developing healthier habits. We really had no winter to speak of……only two very small snow “storms”…..and that isn’t good if you love the snow, like I do!! But winter is officially over and I do love the colors that Spring brings. I took this picture a couple weeks ago. Our neighbor has lovely flowering cherry trees and we get the benefit of their beauty.

Calliope Jane

Five years ago today, this lovely creature came to live with our family. At the time, our family consisted of three….my husband and I and our cat Belukha. Two days prior to Calliope coming to live with us, our first cat, Moscato, had died very unexpectedly and I was trying to make sense of what had happened. My husband said that he wanted me to go to our local SPCA and adopt a cat. So that afternoon, my Mom and I went and found Calliope. She was very timid and hiding in the back of her crate, her history said that she had been a stray that was found and brought to the shelter. She was tested for feline leukemia, given her shots and she came home with us. That night she was a bit of a live wire, she even jumped into the dish of corn that was on the table during dinner (my husband maintains we should have named her Maizie). She was a bit skittish, the printer scared her to death and she developed “kennel cough” shortly after being adopted. There have been some trials and tribulations with her…….when we adopted a litter of three kittens a year and a half later, we ruined her life and she became a real diva. This past February, she had an accident that could have left her paralyzed or dead, but she recovered fully and so tonight, the cats shared a can of tuna and we celebrated five years with our Calliope Jane…….thankful that she is still here and part of our family……which has now grown to 8 with the addition of the three kittens and our dog, Minnie.

Of all the things I’m thankful for………

My husband ranks number one!!  I was 35 years old and thought that I was never going to find someone to share my life with……..and the rest is history.  I’m so grateful that I have someone to love me on good days and bad days and days where I want to shut out the world.  Honey, I love you…….more than I could ever put into words!!

up, up and away

About a year ago, my two best friends and I each made out a list of 25 things that we would like to do…..not really a “bucket” list but sort of  a bucket list.  Some of the things we included on the list were big things and some were small.  I actually forgot about one of them and made baklava and missed the hoopla associated with completing one of the things on my list!!!  This past Friday night, my husband and I took a ride in a hot air balloon and that completed another thing on the list!!  And the ride was AMAZING!!!  I will admit that once we got up to about 2400 feet and I looked down (at the same time my husband decided to STAND UP and take pictures) I had about 45 seconds of shear panic that we were up so high but I was determined to enjoy the experience and looked straight out not down for a couple minutes, the pilot dropped down a few hundred feet and it was one of the most spectacular things I have ever experienced in my life!!  It was like floating slowly on a cloud!!  We had the calmest, most gentle landing and it is something that I would do over and over and over again!!!  And, if all goes well, by the end of 2011, I will have accomplished two more things off my “wish” list……so stay tuned!!  Oh, I nearly forgot…….this is a picture of us taking off….thanks Tammy!!!

an emotional week

This week has been full of many different emotions. The Northeast was devastated by horrific flooding and flash flooding.  Areas that never flooded before were under water and  the 50 mile radius that I’ve known and loved my entire life will never be the same again. Rainfall totals, in some areas were as high as 15 inches in two days.  Roads and bridges were not only under water but when the water subsided, there were no longer roads, only large craters where there used to be a road.  The water came up so fast in our town, that two car dealerships had no time to move cars out.  Four out of five ways out of our town were closed to traffic.  This picture shows a water rescue (one of many water or helicopter rescues).  This rescue was less than two blocks from our house. My husband’s hometown area of Binghamton, New York was also devasted by this flooding.  During the worst of the flooding, the road to my Mom’s was covered in water and my nephew and his family (who live on top of a mountain) had to be evacuated to the fire station in their town.   Our town is situated on a gradual incline and our street is high enough that we don’t get any flooding.  This week I felt concern and worry, empathy and sadness, fear but also relief and gratitude.  My family and friends came through the flooding with minimal damage………we are fortunate, we are blessed and we are thankful.

boys of summer

I have lived my entire life in Pennsylvania. My whole life spent within  25 miles of South Williamsport………home of the Little League World Series.  I had never paid any attention to Little League, until I met my husband and he couldn’t believe that I had never been to a game and encouraged (actually sort of coerced) me into going………and I was hooked!!  The overwhelming feeling of fair sportsmanship and unity that is felt is truly amazing……and I always shed a tear for the little guys on the losing team.  So every year for the last 13 years, we pick a day and go to a game….it doesn’t matter who is playing, we just go when we have time.  This year, I am super excited to go because we have “a home town” team in competition!!!  The Mid Atlantic Team is from right here in our part of the state….their home base is about 30 minutes for Lamade Stadium!  So, just for this year, I’ll be rooting for a specific team and I can’t wait to get to the stadium because the whole place is going to be on fire because of the home town boys!!!  Go Keystone….make Mr. Stolz proud!!!

long hot summer

My goodness it has been a long, very hot summer this year.  I am not a lover of hot weather and would be content if the temperature never got out of the 70’s….and we won’t even talk about the humidity (can’t take it).  For many years, I’ve declared that June, July and August were my least favorite months of the year.  I am anxiously awaiting September and the start of my favorite 9 months of the year!!  This morning we woke up to temperatures in the low 60’s and it gave me “fall fever”.  I am so, so ready for cool days and cooler nights, changing colors, walking through fallen leaves, apples fresh from the tree, the smells of cinnamon and cloves and in October, renewing our wedding vows on our  10th wedding anniversary!

every time I see them I think of you

These  flowers grow wild in Pennsylvania…..I’m not sure what they are called, we always called them Tiger Lillies.  My brother Dale loved these flowers….I’ve really never seen another man as crazy about flowers as he was about these lillies.  Dale was the middle child, sandwiched between me and our other brother, he was twelve years older than me. He fought a long, long battle with cancer and died sixteen years ago last week.  How appropriate that he died the week  these flowers come into bloom.  You can’t go a mile down any road in Pennsylvania and not see these flowers right now.  I think of him every single time I see a tiger lily. I think of my big brother and his sweet sweet smile and how much I miss him.

and one to spare

 

 

My husband and I own an old car……a 1967 Rambler Rogue convertible.  We’ve had the car for a couple of years and there have been a lot of interesting things happen since we got the car……but today we had a “first”.  Our first flat tire…..in the middle of nowhere!!  We were driving along and we heard a noise and I said “sounds like we have a flat” and Adam checked and chuckled and said “we do have a flat”.  Tonight I’m thankful for several things: 1) that he chuckled when he saw the flat, 2) that we worked together and changed the tire without a cross word spoken, 3) that in 1980, when I bought my first car, my Dad made me rotate the tires “so you will know how to change a tire” 4) that we are learning to see the humor in things, 5) that we were in the shade and not the blazing sun and 6) that we had a spare tire that had air in it!