Cryptic explanation for my absence but in the effort to play fair to all.....I can say only that life got rough. While we heal, and until I get the energy and know how to open another blog where more privacy can be practiced, I figured I'll just post an odd picture here and there with a bit of commentary. I feel the need still to provide the girls with a place to come and "have memories".....feeling a bit disingenuous by only posting the sugar coated version of this time in our life ...but the meatier memories really do not belong in the public forum!
So to go back and try to catch up....or put up the current and try to go back....hmmmm....thinking going back is still a bit risky emotionally so let's start here and work back slowly.
I am still sewing. Less frequently but it still provides me with solace and sometimes even helps to 'fill my bucket'...like with the pictured dress...not my most creative or artistic creation but one that is getting to live the life I had hoped for it ....and then some!!! Thought it would be cute for an Olympic opening ceremonies party...but it was bought for a little girl who will be wearing it to the ACTUAL opening ceremonies in London!!!
Had my Dad staying with me for a couple of weeks around the fourth of July. Certainly hope I have his longevity genes! 87 years old and he kept up with us 'kids' as we took in two straight nights of fireworks.
A proud grandpa with his granddaughters Alyssa, Julia, and Mari.
Not to be out done we have a proud Dad with his girls...
It was hotter than Hades all week so a little frozen treat was in order!!
A rare photographic feat...Patrick and I in the same frame!!!
We are still into our 'traditions'...this is our annual trek to The Original Rainbow cone on the south side of Chicago...almost no pictures to show because while we ate ice cream a big storm came pounding through and we had to duck for cover!!
As we drove home we feared for what we would find....
...and with each passing block it got worse!!
But we were spared any real damage!!! Better yet, we were one of the VERY FEW houses left in town WITH power!!! Meant we became the temporary hostel for my parents, my sister, niece, nephew, and a brother as the 105 degree days without electricity were life threatening
in their own way!!
In the end of June we held another pair of annual traditions....the family picnics!! One weekend devoted to Patrick's mega family and the next devoted to my mega family. Such a blessing really that my girls have 30 first cousins.
One of my favorite shots of the 'teen girls' at my family's picnic....if I wasn't on my laptop I might have been tempted to find one of them when they were the 'toddler girls'....but then that would be too depressing....seeing the change and knowing that Mari is the only one in the above picture who is not yet a driver or in driver's ed....but only because she has a December birthday!!!
To think this was only a portion of my immediate family at the picnic....because we waited too late in the day and missed a few of the early departees!?!?....kind of joyful that both of my parents were able to attend since not one single other of the cousins left in their generation were able to make it out to the picnic grove but also kind of depressing to see the wheelchair and walker in the picture )-:
Sentimental as well to see Julia starting to tower over her cousins on her Dad's side of the family....
...and see her in the sack race with her 'favorite' sack that once came to her neck!!!
We have almost NO family pictures lately...and then we get two in as many weeks that we really like...go figure!
Patrick had a lovely time with his brothers but this too was a bittersweet year for him...to only have 3 of the 8 siblings able to gather for the reunion....)-:
Now speaking of bittersweet!!!!!!!! Brace yourself for the last event to be covered in today's post.....
Yessiree Bob!!! I am now officially the parent to a HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN!?!?
Literally in that she has already taken one summer school class!
This moment marked an unbelievable milestone in our lives in so very, very many ways. All I can say is, while part of me was extremely relieved to have this moment....part of me wondered how the heck that little bundle of brains that walked with me onto a plane in Guatemala City had gone from a chatty toddler so eager to find out what those big neon letters on the store fronts meant that she taught herself to read at 30 months old...to a third grade wordsmith who found her spelling tests to be so unchallenging that she did all of her words backwards and loved to show off her skill to spell backwards to her Auntie Peggy at every opportunity....had become a young woman heading off into high school????
See what I mean??? This happened!! When all I see is ....
....the toddler who's eyes drew us in and led us to her in Guatemala!!
Okay, enough sappy sentimentality for one post!! Just leave you with a couple of pictures of Mari celebrating the milestone at her 8th grade Luau...
