Today…

Today…

***I was blessed to wake up and see these visitors in our back yard:

The poor turkey was mightily strutting his stuff in pursuit of a female. Sadly for him, she was not interested in the least. Deflated, he lowered his feathers and disappeared behind the rock wall at the edge of our property.

This doe stood completely still for at least 5 solid minutes. I ran to get my camera, thinking she would be gone by the time I got back but  there she stood, as if to allow me to get a good shot. The only thing that moved was her head, as she surveyed her surroundings with an alert eye. Every time the shutter on my camera clicked, her head would snap back in the direction of the sound. It seemed as if she was looking right through the sliding glass door at me, despite the fact that we were 65 feet away from each other.

We have all kinds of wildlife meander across our property: black bears, turtles, foxes, coyotes.

I am still waiting to see a moose!

***I am missing a lady who was very special to me.

Her name was Carolyn and she was like a second mother to me. She and her husband Dale lived next door to our family for over 40 years and we loved each other through thick and thin. Our parents were the best of friends and their kids were like siblings to my brother Jeff and me.

Carolyn left this earth three years ago today.

Life just isn’t the same without the phone ringing and hearing her say, “Hi Suz!” Or getting a handwritten recipe from her in the mail. (To the end, she remained an optimist that I would one day love to cook. 🙂 ).

On my wedding day, she looked right into the video camera and said, “I love that girl like she was my own daughter.”

I loved her too.

***I still can’t quite believe that my son attended his first Driver’s Ed class last night. I am wondering where the time has gone. How did he go from this:

To this…

so fast?!

***I will be cheering Josh and Julia on at their track meet…

***I am looking forward to getting out on the lake with Doug on this…

***I am so happy that my oldest friend in the world finally joined Facebook this week. 

We grew up next door to each other. I love him like my own brother.  His work takes him all over the world now, so far from the little dead-end street where our lives began. Months (and sometimes years) may go by until we are back in our hometown at the same time, but when we are, all that time melts away and the familiar rhythms return.

When his mother died, I flew home to honor her life. He and I stood just outside the viewing room, greeting visitors. Without fail, every time one of the parents of our neighborhood friends arrived, we said (almost in unison), “Hi Mr. _________ or Hi Mrs._________.” There we were, in our mid-40s, still  reluctant to call them by their first names. 🙂

You know how the time flies
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised in a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days
—Adele

There is something so special about childhood friends who have known you through the good and bad, your worst days and your best days.  We share an unbreakable bond.

***I am wondering what has become of my mind. 

Since I turned 47 years old last month, I seem to be forgetting things right and left. Just this morning, I was walking on the high school track after dropping the kids off, and I was thinking how great it was to have a free morning.

At that very moment, I remembered that I did not, in fact, have a free morning…the previous week I had agreed to meet a friend  this day….in 15 minutes!!!!

I rushed home just in time for her to arrive. I immediately apologized for the fact that she had to see me in sweats and no makeup because I had totally forgotten that she was coming!

On the other hand, I may be losing my mind but I am apparently not losing my looks. Just yesterday, I was talking to a beautician who works at a local spa and she expressed amazement when I told her that I had just turned 47. She said she never would have guessed.

So there’s that.

Happy Thursday everyone! 🙂