We has big snow in Atlanta and it felt like home. As the snow fell and fell a wonderful sense of calm came over me. The world outside my windows looked like the world I lived in for so long up north. But as a I recall those days I never remembered being so excited about snow unless it was Christmas or school was cancelled (which rarely happened in the land of salt and plentiful snowplows). We worked around the snow and dealt with the snow. We never experienced the snow like this.

Today as I drove my boys to soccer practice we were captivated with the remnants of numerous snowmen. Everywhere. It was unlike anything I had ever seen growing up in Ohio. Yard after yard had a tiny snowman left melting, some with little mittens and branches sticking out. It filled me with utter joy. The people of Atlanta don't take the snow for granted. It is so seldom and random that snow falls and actually accumulates that it becomes an event here. The more we drove, the more we laughed. We began a competition to see which side of the road had more snowmen. They were everywhere! I could picture families stepping away from technology to bask in the pure delight of a snowfall. Did they have snowball fights and make snow angels too? It reminded me of the Goethe quote "nothing is more important than this day." We sure did live in the moment on our snow day, Atlanta.

I must now pose the question of what are we taking for granted?

Lent

since I am religionless, I kind of pick and choose the good things from different faith. Hey, at least I am honest. I love the lesson behind Lent. Many years I gave up a vice and I have never succeeded with chocolate. For the past few years I decided to be proactive and do something good, add something to my life that is difficult but worthy. I am going to follow this sage advice:

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity. —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790); philosopher, printer, writer,inventor, scientist

Forgiveness-done. I don't really have any enemies (that I know of). Tolerance-done. For some of my girlfriends I gave the following:

to my girlfriends. a heartfelt valentine to you. Happy Valentines day. just wanted to send out some love. Here's what i love about you (among other things)

Christa- you can make me cry with your sentimentality. we should have coffee and clove candy. forever.

Jenny-I can see you after years and we pick up like it has been an hour.

Whitney- you are the "I can do it" girl. Without hesitation you try and succeed. your girls have a wonderful mother

Joanna- we can laugh, huh? You made me do it and you celebrated my victory! I'll ride in teacups anyday

Karina- instant friendship is what we found when we got to know one another. every day is fun. you make the world more lovely.

Carolyn- if you write it on a list, it gets done. You amaze me! I could go on and on

Beth- you make me laugh. you are more than that, but the best is that you make me laugh.

Amy- you are so dear to me. I love your gifts, so thoughtful and creative. I loved how you weren't wearing underwear the day we had to try on dresses.

Heidi- snort, giggle. you are so fun

Ann- you always have a story that astounds me and you are so fun to run with

Sarah- you beat cancer! and I have so much fun with you

Karen- I will never be able to express all the lessons I have learned from you. You taught me how to mother and gave me confidence for this role. I am forever grateful.

Laura- you love to run and I am envious of that. you are getting to truly know yourself and it is great to be along for the ride

Crystal- oh how you get me and can make me laugh. I am envious of your origami skills.

Jenpop- so creative, such a quick wit, wonderful chef

Kerry- terrific mother, confidant. you always say it like it is and I love that

Mary Margaret- funny, beautiful, smells a little like pumpkin pie

Karen- who knew one of my closest friends would be a neighbor. how lucky are we?

Charlotte- you have always been there for me and everyone knows your amazing role.

Shannon- your mothering skills could win an award. you are so beautiful in the role of mother.

Laurie- you give the soundest advice with love and grace. I adore you

Sarah- you are a lovely and adorable mother and friend. I am envious of your gentleness.

Amy- I loved you the moment I met you with brownies and a mix tape in hand. I cry when I look at your beautiful family. happiness.

Vanessa- so gorgeous and so much fun to work alongside. with just an eye movement I get what you are saying and you, me

Rebecca- beautiful, fun, always there for a chat and cup of coffeee (seriously you always have coffee made), amazing mother and loving advocate

Meredith- I miss you. my earthy, jewelry making, dog transporting friend

Ann- you are a terrific leader and confidant. you are someone to be admired

Stacey- you are fun and artistic and a ball of fire!

Sue- you are a wisher and a dreamer and a doer. You get this great look on your face when you really love something whether it is the call of an alligator or the song of your child.

Lisa- you are an artist and an advocate. I love how you can say what you feel.

Staci- new friend I instantly adored. you have such a sense of style and you are such a fun mom

Laura- my oldest friend. I remember like yesterday when we buried our dishes when I had to move. you dug them up! :) even though you got the girl rabbit I will love you always love to all of you! Just thought I would say it out loud angela♥

Oh blog I have neglected you

blessed be the peacemakers.

This is my son and his very best friends on the National Day of Peace. His school created a wonderful movement...yes I said movement. I was moved to tears and filled with such emotion this day. Each child created a pinwheel colored with their thoughts and images of peace. After a group talk about peace and understanding and an amazing song in sign language we went outside on the most perfect day. All carefully placed their pinwheel into the hardened earth (remember we are in a severe drought) at the same time. At first it was simply good. Then the feelings grew in my heart, my mind, my soul. I can't put the feelings adequately into words. Cars came to a stop in front of the school to gaze and I wished that everyone in the world were doing this at the same moment.

The Place You Love is Gone--Read this Book!

This book is so profound and well-written that I actually took notes while reading it. I read paragraphs twice and thought about the essence of each statement. I could see this used as a text in sociology and especially urban anthropology. An entire class could revolve around onerous nomenclature. Like this ....

You do not have to be a past resident of Akron, The catskills or New Jersey to appreciate the meaning of this book although I had so many "yes! I love that place" moments when reading about my hometown. I came to realize just how important those places of my youth are to me, those vestiges of my former self. Are they there to this day, or are they a WalMart? It's always a Walmart. So read Melissa's lyrical verse, settle in and get ready to remember all those places you touched as a child that are a part of your soul.

I especially like this part "imagine you wedding at the end of the birch allee." This is where I always dreamed of getting married as a child. This is where I came back to to get married. Stan Hywet was my castle just waiting for me and my knight in shining armor.

One of my favorite quotes: "Ephemeral, meaningless. But they amount to forces that shaped the rocky earth and waterways (the buildings and institutions and beliefs and histories) that made me. Guard against its theft, the past of the place that made you. At least notice it, if you cannot save it." On that note, what on earth! I heard that they are closing and possibly tearing down the Rubber Bowl. Wha? You can't take away my Rubber Bowl. This is where we played the turkey day football games. It spells out Akron and you can read it when you fly over it. The blimps pass by it. You can get custard across the street from Strickland's and be in a state of sheer bliss. Thieves! Stealing my memories, my joy, my hometown from me. I'm off to listen to some Pretenders.

They better not mess with the Civic Theater!

Halloween

oh blog how I have neglected you. Facebook has taken me away but I remembered you.

We did not take Halloween for granted one moment this season. It was jam packed with festivals, parades, costumes, trick-or-treating and a Day of the Dead party. Sigh. I hated taking the decorations down.

Here is my hansberger hamburger and my scary ghoul guy. I guess we have reached a crossroads of no longer allowing mom to make ironic or cute costumes. We must now be scary and masked. He freaked me out in that white mask. I think it was so scary because it was expressionless and vacant like customer service. but I digress..

We took a trip to Burt's Pumpkin Patch with the Boyers. Perfect day! Lots of pumpkins and strangely shaped gourds to play with. We had roadside barbeque, deep fried oreos and even stopped at the apple orchard before landing at Brick Store Pub. Couldn't have planned a day like that!

Marc and I dressed as Juno and Paulie Bleeker. It was hard not to laugh at ourselves. If only you could see my hamburger phone and jug of sunny D. When I stopped at the grocery store to buy ONLY a jug of Sunndy D and orange tic tacs, the clerk said "oh my. It is about your time!" I shocked her when I revealed that it was, in fact a kickball. We went like this to the Little 5 points parade.Where we saw people like this...

When this scary woman walked by I said "yikes, she's scary." The woman next to me gave me a gentle pat along with "don't worry darlin. Your baby's not going to come out like that." seriously. After the parade we headed over to 6 feet under, another tradition. I forgot how difficult it is to eat gumbo with a big ol belly.

Our Day of the Dead altar of remembrance

songs for my love

per request, Bub, here is my playlist for my love:



Avalon (Roxy Music)--this is Our song. It is necessary for us to dance to this whenever we hear it. Beware shoppers. This comes on a lot in the grocery.



Harvest Moon (Neil Young)--we fell in love in the fall and we both love this song. When it came time to paint our first baby's room, we wanted it to be perfect. We played Neil Young all night while we stenciled falling leaves on his walls.



Here Comes your Man (Pixies)--I always said that if we renewed our vows...which we will, in the desert somewhere...he could walk down the proverbial aisle to this. perfect! It could also be "Gigantic" because we have a big, big love.



Fragile (Sting)--he loves this song and always puts it on cd's (or tapes back*in*the*day) for me.



Perfect Blue Buildings (Counting Crows)--almost all of the songs on this album make me smile for him. We lived in Nashville during this musical period and we even met Adam Durtiz on the street. We were complete dorks as we tried to not be impressed by him. Still makes us laugh. He was reading a book and marc asked "whatcha readin?" I laughed and then said the profound "hey, we're walking with you to go see you."



In God's Country (U2)--The Joshua Tree is always our out west soundtrack. As we traverse the desolate highways and dirt roads to get to whichever gulch, river or canyon we are excited to hike, we listen to this ans smile. "Desert sky. Dreamed beneath the desert sky..."



#41 (Dave Matthews Band)--sighh



The Scientist (Coldplay)--because I would do it all over again...go back to the start



When the Stars Go Blue (Ryan Adams)

Into Dust (Mazzy Starr)

The Luckiest (Ben Folds)--because I am

Take this Rain (Jackson Browne)--because he can always make everything better

Snow (Gustavo Santaollala)--just does

These are days (10,000 Maniacs)

Charlotte Sometimes (The Cure)

The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)

why no postings?

It is nice to know that people actually care about my postings. You know that saying "if you don't have anything nice to say.."? It seems like the phone keeps ringing with bad news. I can't post that on a blog about good things, right? In my prayers right now: the Hansen family, the Hudnall/Haygood family, the Golobic family and the Kenner family. good thoughts. good thoughts. good thoughts.

Williamsburg

Don't you wish you had one of these at home sometimes? I had such a flashback moment when I took this photo, as I remember standing in the same spot when I was 10 (only I was sporting a more bad news bears look). My kids both said "man it's hot here" which is also what I remember most about my trip to Williamsburg as a kid. good times. Soon after this we bought a fife and carried on down the road. Then we headed back to 2008 where there was air conditioning and strange people in way too much clothing didn't stop you to say "good day my lady."

someone can read my mind

Shut the front door! A chocolate pig with bacon inside. Get thee to Vosges chocolates now. Last year my sweet husband bought me the chili/dark chocolate skull and I was shocked by it's beauty. But this....this is so lovely. Sorry vegans. Bacon is truly the dealbreaker with me and becoming a vegetarian. I don't have the will power.

deep greens and blues are the colors I choose..

I was singning along to James Taylor yesterday when random thoughts came into my peaceful mind. First, how lovely those lyrics are-- "deep greens and blues are the colors I choose. Won't you let go down in my dreams..." J T always makes me feel like fall inside. Mountains, cool air, falling leaves. His songs remind me of college, falling in love, hiking, hanging out with my dad as a child and dancing with my children. He always puts a smile on my face.

I also thought of the little boy for whom I was a nanny when I was in grad school. This dear sweet boy is now 6 feet tall but back when we spent our days focusing on fun, he was just an adorable munchkin. We would sing and dance together every day and he had great taste in music. He knew all the words to the aforementioned song and we both would giggle when he sang along to "thinking about women and glasses of beer." He was the ring bearer in our wedding and will always have a special place in my heart. My first little boy. Here's a photo of him fixing my dress for a wedding photo. He was always by my side in those days.

you had me at sauerkraut balls!

I recently finished a great book which had me waxing nostalgic for my hometown of Akron. Even if you have no love for blimps, DEVO and the pretenders, you should read David Giffels' All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House for his wit and wisdom. While wasting time on the internet, I stumbled upon an interview with him and now I love him even more. If you are interested, you can find it here: http://www.cautionarytale.com/questions/giffels2.htm

Maybe someday I can write a book describing Akron the way Willa describes the plains. What would I have to include? hmmmm. Cadillac Hill, the Go-Go Goodyear sign, the big Ol Indian in Fairlawn, Stan Hywet, Glendale Cemetery, Luigi's (cheese on my salad? was that rhetorical?), DEVO, the Soap Box derby, Chrissy Hynde, and yes--sauerkraut balls.