For Dieter and Rainer

Dear Dieter and Rainer,

I hope you are enjoying your advent calendar. I have one too.

Lawrence has lots of fun things to do at Christmas. This Saturday I am going to a Christmas parade. And EVERY YEAR Santa crashes on the roof of the Weaver's Department store here in Lawrence. He did it again last Friday! Can you believe it? The Fire Department had to come with their ladder truck and get him down. This year I took a picture with my camera phone so I could share it with you.





Hope you are having a fun Christmas season!

Kansas is very beautiful

I've been seeing lots of the Kansas countryside recently. And based on my previous experience, I would have told you that it was sort of dull. But I now know that it is in fact very beautiful and amazingly diverse.


This is a photo of Pomona Lake. It is a great photo except that it really was more sunny than the photo shows. I walked along the rocks from just beyond that point all the way to the ramp. I was very proud of myself when I actually saw what I had done.

Fall

These pictures were taken from a place called Four States Lookout in White Cloud, KS. It's one of my new favorite places.

Let's hear it for balloon rides

What a very fabulous thing, even if you skip the actual balloon ride.

Here's my kudos to romance and longevity - Happy 60th Anniversary to my Aunt Dot & Uncle Thad and to Mary & Jack Davidson.

Maybe, just maybe, there is hope for me.

The boy I love right now

I am in one of my very favorite places again. Last night Deiter told Mary Beth "I love you mommy and I love your friend too." There is nothing more pure than the love of a 4 year old boy.


Equally enjoyable is his toddler brother, the most articulate 2 year old I've ever met.

Waves of grief

I'm sort of moved into my new little house with the purple door and wood floors. I'm am still caught off guard by the grief that staggers me from time to time. It comes in the unpacking, the contemplation of buying a new sofa and with the understanding that Mark is very much moving on. He is in a place I've been before. I'm not there now. I can't even really begin to contemplate dating. I've signed up for one online dating site but I have no idea what I would say to anyone about anything. It isn't a surprise that Mark and I are not on the same page with moving on. We have never achieved any kind of synchronicity. I am sad. I don't have the insulation of having to rear children either. I don't even have a dog. And I'm a bit lost. I've always seen a clear path before me. Probably because there were fewer choices. I feel like the ability to go to graduate school has been stolen from me.

So, what now...

More tears, I'm sure. Also, a new shower curtain, a couple of new dishes, a new sofa soon and a trip to California.



In the meantime, the cat and I have a new view.

My new life

While I'm in California, I get to actually take time to think about what is to come.

Here is the front door of the new house I've rented. I move-in August 1st.






















When I moved I went through a mountain of paper, 26 years worth. I'm sending out the address of my new life on postcards made from the cards of my past.



Recycling at its best.

One of my very favorite places

At my friend Mary Beth's, soaking up the love!

And drinking GOOD coffee!

My 4th of July Weekend

I cannot begin to express how difficult the last eight weeks have been. I have experienced a sorrow that I didn't think possible. A couple of weeks ago, I put off my much needed California vacation I was planning for this weekend and agreed to accompany my mom, whose 70th birthday is Monday, to Colorado to visit her best friend from high school. I think it is going to turn out okay though. My mom and I had a great drive down and it is absolutely beautiful and peaceful here. These are a few pictures of the back patio area that I've taken with my laptop.
I'll post more photos later.

Lois Gunter 1915-2009

Mark's grandmother, Lois Gunter, died today. She was 94. Here is a picture of her and PA (Preston Albert, died 1990) on their 50th anniversary. Lois welcomed me from day one into her family. I think it is part of what maintained me during hard times over many years. I will miss her very much.

Here in my life

Divorce final May 21st. Mark and I are still very good friends. He's gone back to Virgina for now.

Lois, Mark's grandmother, and one of my very favorite people, has been in declining health for many months. She made it all the way to her 94th birthday and a little past before the worst of her ill health descended. She is now in the St. Francis end of life unit. Mark will be back soon for her funeral I'm afraid. I'm a better person for having known Lois Gunter.

Starting Monday, I will supervise a department of 15. Work is challenging.

Nathan started law school. Anna graduated high school May 23rd. She will attend KU in the fall. I will devote an entire post to her graduation in the future. In the meantime here are some prom pictures from earlier in May.

Thank you Dr. George Tiller

Dr. Tiller was shot and killed while attending church this morning.

Rest in peace and thank you for your service to women in Kansas and through your fearless commitment, to women everywhere.

Happy Mother's Day

I seem to lack pictures of my mother and I but here is a picture of her when she is within a couple years of the same age I am now. And at the age I am now, I understand.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

A work of fiction based on the news...

I had to laugh out loud when I heard Janet Napolitano on NPR this morning saying that if they had closed the schools it meant that you should keep your children at home. I am not in an area that has closed schools but I imagine protests from parents and conversations with their teenagers that go something like this…

Parent to self: “Sure Janet…I’ve told my teenager… “DON’T SMOKE...it will give you lung cancer, it smells AND it’s expensive; DON’T DRINK AND DO DRUGS...you’ve seen your Uncle, the reasons why should be obvious; USE CONDOMS...look at your cousin. Yes, I know the baby is cute, that’s beside the point.”

...Now you want me to tell them not to leave the house because school is closed...

Parent to teenager: “No. You can’t go out. The schools are closed because of the SWINE FLU outbreak. I don’t care if your boyfriend’s parents are letting him leave the house. Maybe they want him to get Swine Flu (maybe I want him to get Swine Flu). No, I have to go to work. Swine flu won’t pay the mortgage. Yes, you can eat the frozen pizza with bacon. No, I don’t think the bacon is from Egypt; you’re doing well in your current events class then? Can you go out if you take the recycling to the Mart? (Hmmm...Clean garage? Swine flu? Clean garage? Swine flu??? Hmmmm.) Yes, BUT BUY SOME FACE MASKS WHILE YOU’RE THERE! And some Sharpies. You and your friends can decorate them and show them to your art teacher when school starts up again.”

Sorry, I don't mean to laugh. But failing economy, swine flu, teenagers...as they say, laughter is the best medicine.

Spring at last...sort of

Well, at the beginning of the week the heat kicked on because it was so cold. Then yesterday it broke 80 degrees and today the high was 85. So, unless the predicted temperatures of 76 and below actually happen in the next few days, I'd say we've moved straight on into summer. I totally need a pedicure.

On a more fun note, I have been given some stemware and other items by my father's first wife. (That's a REALLY LONG post for the future.)

Here are two of my favorite items, though the pictures, just taken with my cell phone, aren't great.

There are three of these glasses...







And this very pretty blue creamer...

Where is spring?!?!

The weather here in Kansas has been sort of (and more than sort of!) cold. The only good part of that is that I have more time to get a pedicure! Any of my ten readers have any good packing tips?

I like it well enough

So, my daughter is sick and asleep at 7:45 and I am taking full advantage of unfettered access to the internet. I'm reading blogs. Or rather I was reading blogs. I much prefer the reading of blogs over posting on my own blog. And tonight, with all this internet time, after I finished reading my usual blogs, I went on the hunt for something else to read. I started with the news sites I look at: BBC, CNN and Lawrence's own LJWorld. Then I checked my email, a Yahoo account. And, maybe it was on the Yahoo news, a story about GOOP caught my attention.

GOOP is Gwyneth Paltrow's blog. Apparently, it has a lot of critics. Who is she to blog!?! Her advise is bad! That sort of thing. In any case, I checked it out and I like it well enough.

It isn't fancy. But hey, we can't all be Heather Armstrong, a web designer by trade before she made her living from a blog. The content is no more or less exciting than most of the other blogs I read. GOOP makes some endorsements of books and has a list of cool gifts like Mighty Girl started. I even found a pair of reasonably priced, $175, cuff links. If I had $175 to spend on cuff links, I'd definitely buy them! She also has some content on parenting that seems, and my children are 23 and 17, perfectly reasonable and sane.

My favorite blog is still the one authored by my friend Mary Beth. I think it is better written and has better photography than GOOP. But who cares? Blogs are like TV or radio; if you don't like it, don't read it, watch it or listen to it. I read blogs I like. I like the blogs of people I am connected to and blogs such as American Corespondent, with whom I have absolutely no connection, share very little in common and which I found entirely by accident. I read it because it is a different perspective from my own, and THAT is interesting.

I have 15 blogs bookmarked. Two are written by me. I read them nearly everyday. Some have new posts and some don't. I like them all for very different reasons. And despite the criticism, I've added GOOP. After all, Gwyneth Paltrow updates her blog fairly regularly. That makes for good reading.

GOOP probably doesn't NEED me as a reader. After all, it's a blog belonging to a very famous person (whose name I hope I've spelled correctly). My advise to Gwyneth Paltrow, though; ignore the critics. You GOOP girl! I've got you bookmarked.

Old Age

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

2009

May your year be the best possible!

Love you all!

Carrie