New Moon - Chapter 4

Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.

Bella Swan, New Moon, Chapter 4, p.93

It's true - thanks Bella for saying it.

Grandmas are the best.

My mom - the best grandma in the world - with her little ones: Maya Rose, Mason Wesley, Annabella Sophia and Riley Lane. Give us a month and we'll have Nina Elizabeth joining us :) Family, nothing better.

Don't take your eye off her for a minute!

Maya Rose - she's going to be a heart breaker and maybe break a few other things while she's at it! In less than a month, she will be the middle child of my sister's three girls. THREE GIRLS!

My sister, Marty, will have a house full of girls and I can't imagine anyone better suited for the job. It's funny how life can sometimes replay itself over and over. I find it interesting how much her oldest, Annabella, is similar to me in her personality and desire to please others and always follow the rules.

Then there's Maya Rose. You can't take your eye off her for a minute or she'll be at the top if the stairs or the slide. She's a mover and a shaker and marches to the beat of her own little drum, just like her mom :) It's a good thing that my sister is the one with all the girls. Her girls will grow up confident and unafraid and will make wonderful contributions to the world around them, just like their mom!

Watch out world! Here they come :)

We aren't that kind of family.

This is Riley Layne. She's five and is my second oldest niece. She, and her brother Mason, live near my parents and they have the good fortune of spending lots of time with Bonna and Granpy. Last weekend, Riley and Mason spent some quality time with Bonna. In one day, they baked sugar cookies with the leftover dough from the holidays, made peanut butter pine cone bird feeders, spent some time mulching the flower beds and dyed Easter eggs.

After a really full day, Bonna said to Riley, "Maybe you and Mason can make some more peanut butter pine cone bird feeders at your house."

Riley looked back at my mother and said (rather incredulously), "We aren't that kind of family."

My mom, holding back a laugh, asked, "What do you mean, Riley, you aren't that kind of family."

Without skipping a beat, she replied "We don't do those kinds of things at our house, Bonna." You've got to love five year olds.

2009, just in time

I will write again, I know I will. Somewhere inside of me are the words just waiting to come out. 2008 sucked the very life out of me. I have little to nothing left of what I was two years ago and it pisses me off that I'm as lost as I am. I'm not even at square one, I'm at square negative 10 or something. 2009 could not have come soon enough. I promise, this year, I will write and it will be meaningful and not full of anger or malice or sarcasm, all the things that I have felt. Those things are not me. I am on a mission to find the real Tracy and bring her home to stay. The malice has run its course and left its mark. Now, I have to turn my face towards something better or the true Flicted Friend that I loved will be lost forever. Maybe tomorrow when I'm running 5 miles in the snow, I'll trip and have a new story to share :) I'll keep you posted.