“The big reveal” We rolled a bunch of wedding anniversaries, Father’s Day, a baby shower, and birthday all into one big family celebration this month at our home along with an informal reveal of the office and exterior of our house remodel. For all intent and purposes we met our many goals…. after scaling back a tad knowing we need to save our pennies and put a lot of thought into re-landscaping the backyard and remodeling the pool.

We worked with several subcontractors who did an outstanding job from the landscape demo, to sandblasting, the replacement of the entire fascia on both stories, trim painting, re-stuccoing, and some unexpected roof repair, *ouch*. All the sweet touches were loving attended to first by me with all my crazy ideas and thrifty shopping to the other half of our dynamic duo who labored to place each jewel in the perfect spot from exterior lighting, welcome plaques, address numbers, and plants to dozens of other small touches that really has made our house a home…… thank you sweetheart… you do awesome work! All we need now are rain gutters and to have the house tented… then we can take a breath or two until the next project begins =]

Our “Family Celebration” took place on Saturday, June 20th…. all the guys went bowling while us girls had a shower for Kari and baby “Ollie” then enjoyed a yummy BBQ for Father’s Day and for dessert a birthday cake for me. Lots of gifts were given & received by all and I was completely surprised with a gorgeous ring to replace my very well worn wedding ring that had not only lost its luster but several diamonds as well over that last 29 years. I was shocked but pleased and can’t take my eyes off it…. Michael feels the same way about his Weber BBQ… I’m sure LOL

I can’t believe we are half way through 2009, although we have accomplished a ton of things and celebrated many family milestones we still have a lot to look forward to in the months ahead including the much anticipated births of two grandbaby-boys. I missed my dad terrible this Father’s Day but have learned how important it is to enjoy each day and everyone who is still here… thanks to my brother Tommy.

June 22nd…. welcome to the summer of 2009, I am so lucky to be me!!!!!!!! And give praise to God for all His blessings.

If your behavior doesn’t bring happiness, you have the option of changing it. You don’t have to judge it, criticize it, or make yourself wrong, but just observe your behavior, see that it may not be working for you, and give yourself the option and opportunity of changing.

What greater success can you have than being happy with yourself? ~John-Roger

May milestones… We enjoyed a yummy dinner at El Torito for Michael’s 58th birthday and to honor five of us mommies for Mother’s Day. The exterior rehab of our 40+ year old home is going well. The painters, new window install and re-stucco will be completed by end of month. Then the jewelry can go up! Leann’s more than half way through her 1st pregnancy and she’s having a BOY!!! Brodie Thomas will have his own website five months before he’s even born… thanks Pop Pop =] Our number 1 grandson turns 8 while having been inducted into the Huntington Beach school district’s “Scholar Squad” for someone who best represents scholarly ideas and a desire for academic excellence. Check back in twenty or so years to track his achievements… right now he wants to be a fry cook like Sponge Bob and a tattoo artist who plays in a band on Friday nights!!! You go T. C. Bon Voyage Roz Savage and everyone please join me in remembering why we have Monday off for Memorial Day… our military heroes are the real “American Idols” God Bless them all and their families. FYI, it’s been 7 years since I quit smoking… YaY for me =]

“What I’ve Done”~Linkin Park

Spring has indeed sprung us headfirst into a busy year of wedding plans and the sweet anticipation of the arrival of two new grand-babies. Remolding has graduated to the outside of our 40 year old home that’s in much need of a facelift. Everything’s on schedule and looking good!! Matt & Kari hosted Easter this year and the baton has been passed off for future years as well. Our oldest grandson celebrated his 1st Communion, let Jesus be your co-pilot T.C. and we took that leap into the stock market as official card carrying 401K investors. Talk about late bloomers!!!! Better late than never say’s I =]

“She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.” ~Brian Andreas

For a long time I’d cried because I was sad… now I find myself crying even more but mostly because I’m happy =] Makes perfect sense to me!

April 18, 1975, my high school sweetheart and husband of seven years was killed in a solo motorcycle accident leaving me with two son’s, one four and a half the other 18 months old. As the years pass there’s fewer and fewer who knew him and what a special soul he was. Thirty-four years have passed and the 27 years he lived hasn’t faded a bit for me. He was gentle and loving, clumsy and silly; he had the most beautiful blue eyes and the most handsome face. He was courageous and strong. He was loyal to his family and friends and very hard working. He was mechanically inclined and although he was very careful he still had a daredevil-ness about him. He was wiry and had a fist fight or two while in his prime. He was like the Fonz. Cool hair, leather jacket, jeans, white T-shirt with a pack of smokes tucked in a rolled up sleeve.… it was the 60’s you know! Everyone liked Trinon. He was a man’s man but the girls liked him too because he was tender and charming. It’s amazing how our oldest son had his daddy’s sweet disposition growing up and our youngest son looks so much like him. His 1st grandson, and name sake, carries on his charming sweetness more than three decades later. I believe he was his parents’ favorite because he was so loving and family centered. There wasn’t a thing his folks asked him to do that he didn’t do. He wasn’t perfect… unfortunately the year he spent in Viet Nam as a foot solider scared him deeply. He wouldn’t talk about it, to anyone. And if he’d lived much past the six years he survived after coming home I believe he would have had major problems dealing with the horror of combat. I think God took him so he wouldn’t suffer, but not until we’d had 12 years together and two precious sons. And once he stood up to the demands of his parents and told his father he had a young family of his own who deserved his time and energy he finally felt like the man we all knew he was. I sometimes wonder what would have been and know that if Trinon had lived my life and our boys would be totally different than they are today. I strongly believe everything happens for a reason and even though I would never have chosen his untimely death there would be people whom I love dearly and can’t imagine not having had in my life for the past 28 years. There are paths that present themselves that we might never have chosen. Stopping to turn and look back occasionally keep those memories vivid. I own him that much and miss him terribly. My biggest regret is our sons will never really know him on this physical plane…. we all will have to wait to meet him on the other side.

Two-yes-two grandbabies coming this year. Leann and Matt heard their baby’s heartbeat today so we can stop holding our breaths and look forward to their first baby coming in early October just two months after Kari & Matthew’s baby Oliver is due the end of July making Stella the official “Big Sister” WOW, five grandchildren… Pop Pop Michael and gram-gram Speedy are lucky-duckies!!!!!

We’ve actually moved back into our remodeled home office… I thought it would never happen. Two months turned into 10+ but we were able to do all the things we wanted and it’s lovely. We came in way under budget and have been breaking our arm’s patting ourselves on the back. There’s really nothing more rewarding than doing it yourself. We’ve begun several other major projects and hope to complete most of them by June but this time we are hiring professionals… should be interesting. The front and back yards have been trimmed back and a parade of contractors will be giving us estimates for re-stuccoing and painting the outside of the house as well as termite repair and a tenting and the replacement of an old bay window. We must have our pool replastered and some hardscape issues addressed as well as new planting in the backyard…. Yep, we are doing our best to stimulate the economy =]

March milestones: Trinon and Kathleen will celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary on the 30th.. way to hang in there you two in spite of all the family health issues and pink slip scare. On March 10th Ryan knocked on our front door and asked for our blessing to marry our youngest daughter. We, of course, said yes and look forward to him joining the family. Ten days later on the first day of spring we traveled to Big Bear and along with Ryan’s parents surprised Katy at a dinner celebrating their engagement. We are excited about planning a wedding for the spring of 2010 and wish the couple all the joys of this special time. Our family just keeps getting bigger and better all the time. What a wonderful way to end the winter and begin a new spring. This March turned out to be so much sweeter than last March….Thank You dear God =]

LOVING EACH DAY……..
Issue yourself a challenge and let that challenge manifest to you all the time: From this moment on, this moment of existence, I will start to find happiness and peacefulness in me. I will call upon the name of God morning, noon, and night. And I will totally dedicate and devote myself to the uplifting of every consciousness who comes by me. Therefore, I will smile inwardly and outwardly. I will not be ashamed of my love. I will demonstrate my love totally. I will just be there and allow everyone else the same space in which to unfold. ~John-Roger~ “Rededicating to Soul Transcendence,” on the New Day Herald website

My Resolution for 2009…… to purge.

I stopped making resolutions many, many years ago for all the same reasons most people do but this year I’ve decided to resolve to making my life simpler and the first word that came to mind was purge. While checking the thesaurus for a less graphic definition I found that purge is more than perfect for what I want to accomplish over the coming 12 months that lie in wait beckoning my desire to cleanse, clean, eliminate, do away with, clear, remove, flush, pardon, exonerate, absolve, and forgive, both myself and others. This will involve more than just drawers and closets and cupboards. I plan to get physical, emotional and spiritual as well. So to get started I’m revising some of my bucket-list for 2009..

Skydiving is out…. Parasailing is in.
Italy is out…. Wine tasting in the Napa Valley is in.
Competing on “The Amazing Race” is out… Owning and watching all 11 episodes of “Planet Earth” is in.
Having more babies is out… Having more grandchildren is in <---- next one due 07/30/09, congrats Matthew & Kari and big sister Stella. Edited: Another one due 10/05/09, congrats first time parents, Leann & Matt!!!!!!!
Buying, restoring and flipping a house is out… Finishing the office remodel is in.
Owning land and building a log cabin with a wrap-around porch is out… Renting a cabin with a hot tub is in.
Riding extreme roller coasters is out… Closing my eyes and remembering ALL the times I did is in.
Retiring is out…. Enjoying a little bit of each day as if I don’t have to work is in.

Happy New Year everyone and may all your resolutions be realized and for those who plan to diet and take better care of them self remember…

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
Remember people, even more than things, have to be restored,
Renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
And as you grow ever older, you will discover that you have two hands,
One for helping yourself and one for helping others.
So roll up those sleeves and start building a better 2009 for EVERYONE!!

January 2009 milestones... Historic swearing in of our 44th President of the United States of America Barack Obama... It’s a New Day and I am more hopeful and filled with joy than I have been in a number of years for our beloved country and it’s citizens. Gina was 6 months on the 10th and doing better than anyone ever expected. Happy 81st Birthday to my beautiful mother who is the definition of “grace”. 12 week ultrasound of newest baby Carter shows there just may be a teeny-tiny penis there; we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Brother John wraps-up the month with is 59th birthday and our business continues to thrive in these dire economic times… thank you God for all the blessing you continue to bestow on our sweet family.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings. ~Socrates

Thomas James, Gina Louise’s paternal twin, never was well enough to go home with his earthly family. He has instead been called home by his Heavenly Father and Jesus who teaches still, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” Matthew 19:13-15 Born three months premature, lived 5 months and a day, will be forever in our hearts. Tommy taught us unconditional love and the importance of letting go. Another tiny angel freed from pain and suffering to rest in eternal peace and be reunited one glorious day with his mommy, daddy, sister Gina and grandparents who morn not only for the loss of a baby but for their own child’s loss as well. My God, it’s been a hard few years. Three grandfathers/husbands/dads, an uncle/son/brother and baby/grandson/nephew/cousin have all suffered so and taught us all about letting go and loving unconditionally. Lessons that have changed our lives forever…. good-bye 2008.

On a happy note, Christmas/New Years really was wonderful. Michael and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary and we love eachother more now than we ever have. My mom survived a whole year without dad. Our business is thriving, all our children and their families are happy and healthy and we are expecting another grandbaby this coming summer. I truly believe 2009 is going to be wonderful inspite of anything fate throws at us… after all it’s not what happens to you but how you handle it that matters and there IS “Good” in every situation.

Congratulations to the new President elect Barack Obama, called at 8PM PST. It is the time for a new beginning, a wonderful moment for America. Thank YOU God!!!!

WooHoo my girl’s back…. “Finally the tables are starting to turn….”

November highlights…. as usual November was chock-full of gooey-deliciousness just like every November, it’s no wonder I love the fall sooooooo much!!! Besides wedding anniversaries’ and birthdays, my first born, Trinon, turned 38, OMG I swear my kids are getting older than me, BigRyan’s 26, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of sparkling cider. We hosted 25 for Thanksgiving and had a very lovely day. Stella kept everyone amused walking “all over the where”… what a sight, she’s only 17 pounds and 28 inches tall, lol the turkey weighed more than that, so sweet our little pumpkin pie!!! Unfortunately Gina’s twin Tommy is still not stable enough to come home yet, they celebrated their 4th month on the 10th as we all continue to pray for the family. This was the first Thanksgiving without my dad; there was a huge hole in the day without him and my brother Tom. Mom and I remembered Tom on his birthday with a trip to the Huntington Beach cliffs. The salty air was magically healing as we watched the sky and saw a beautiful parting of the clouds that revealed a colorful prism, sort of a rainbow with no rain and no beginning and no end, just magical. John & Debi spent the day with mom that would have been she and my dad’s 62nd wedding anniversary…. eleven months and counting since he passed away, the first year is so very hard but life goes on and I’m learning not to concentrate on life’s unavoidable pain but rejoice and be glad in all the wonderful moments that fill each day besides there’s always something to look forward to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! T.C. & Riley chose a flock of ducks this year through Heifer International as one of their Christmas gifts from grama speedy and poppop Michael. When I asked Riley what else she wanted she said “Oh grama, I need some footwipes for my french fries, they got all hairy!!!” heheheh God, I love our grandkids =]

I usually don’t go all political, I leave that to couchmouse, but it’s October and we are rapidly approaching that pivotal day in early November when we have an opportunity to be instrumental in choosing our Government through the VOTEing process. I love my country but I’ve grown to fear my Government so I’m praying that each American citizen “do-the-right-thing” and VOTE for the candidate who will take this country in a direction that is for the highest possible good of ALL concerned. Yes, the best for everyone… not the few, not the elite, not those who have the most $$$… because we all know it’s ALWAYS about the money and that’s exactly why America is suffering so right now! Don’t think that one vote can’t possibly make the difference… watch the debates… be informed. Weigh the consequences of your VOTE and use the hindsight of the past eight years as a guide when you exercise your precious right to VOTE on November 4, 2008.
The video below comes from a blog “Politics After 50″ that I highly recommend… like she says “It’s never too late to get pissed off!!

OCTOBER highlights… On our way out the door to the Bowers Museum to see China’s first emperors’ TerraCotta Warriors exhibit we found a newly hatched tortoise crawling down the driveway headed for the street. Quickly we did a twice-over of the surrounding area and the backyard to see if there were any more hatchlings… Michael found a suspicious area that looked like a nest and covered it with a bucket until we returned later in the afternoon. Once home he found one in the pool and one half way out of it’s shell. Five more eggs were unearthed… one was unfertilized, three were cracked and rotting and one perfect uncracked egg that may, in the next few days, give us the third viable desert tortoise out of a clucth of eight eggs…. as of 10/31/08 only one hatchling has survived. Matthew/Kari/Stella move into their new home and mark their 8th wedding anniversary, Matt (35) & Leann (34) celebrate birthdays with their niece Stella this month turning 1 years old while taking her first steps!!! Happy Halloween everyone =]