Today is the day!

Whee! I feel better. I didn't blog yesterday, I was just too exhausted from trip with the teenagers. We made it back home late yesterday afternoon and I declare I was in bed before dark, I had to get some rest. I guess I'm getting too old for this stuff.

I picked up the paint for my bedroom today. Finally gonna start on my summer project as time is running out! But first I am going to strip that wallpaper border off in my kitchen, that has been on my "to do" list for some time. I decided that I needed to spend the afternoon with my gorgeous niece that I've mentioned before, we call her Miss Priss. So I picked her up and we spent the afternoon just goofing around. Moments with her are precious beyond words and before I can blink an eye she'll be grown up. I'm going to capture the moments while I can. Here is a picture of Miss Priss with her new pony.

As a side note, my youngest went to the big city today and purchased himself a laptop for school, paid for it with his own money.......he's my baby!

I Don't Think I Belong Anymore

I've been off with a group of teenagers for a workshop this week. I have really enjoyed being around them. I also teach high school and thoroughly enjoy my job but I"m beginning to have my doubts. Several years ago I would have been right in the middle of what was going on with the young people in my life, especially if one of my children was involved. I don't know if it is because I don't have a school age child anymore (I kinda think that is it) or it I'm just too old but this trip hasn't been as much fun for me as usual. Now just two months ago I was in the big middle of my son's high school graduation and had a blast but now I kinda feel like I don't belong with these kids anymore.
The workshop has been great, the kids have been great and for all practical purposes this shuold have been a good trip but, I have felt out of place. We took the kids bowling tonight and I love watching them play but when I decided to sit it out, they didn't object. It's almost if older people are invisible. PLEASE don't get me wrong, these are very well-behaved kids and not a one of them would purposefully hurt my feelings but I see this happening in a lot of areas in my life. Somehow I don't think I have value anymore since I don't have a child to be involved in things with.
What I can't figure out is whether this is a mindset, a reality, or a little of both. All I know is, I don't like it. If anyone out there can help me pinpoint the problem, let me know. Thanks for listening.

Message In A Bottle

I attended another workshop today and we had a really great "get acquainted" activity. The theme of the day was "beachy" which provided a perfect opening for our message in a bottle game. We filled out a questionnaire, rolled it up and stuffed it inside the bottle provided for us. All our bottles were collected and placed in the sand on the beach (a child's blow up pool filled with sand). Throughout the day a bottle was retrieved by the instructor and he read the questions and answers, we then had to guess who filled out the paper.....it was a pretty cute activity.

This is not the only message in a bottle I want to tell you about. When my youngest son finished fifth grade my middle son was graduating high school so our entire family went on a cruise. I saved five small plastic bottles and had my youngest write a message including his name and address. In the message he asked that if anyone found his "message in the bottle" to please reply to him. We threw one overboard each day of the cruise. Yes, I know, it was littering, and I should have set a better example for him but I wanted him to have an adventure and I figured this was his best chance at it.

We hoped to hear from someone but time passed and we eventually forgot about the whole thing until one day about a year and a half later. I picked up the mail one day and there was a strange letter for him. Someone had found one of his bottles!

I wish I could say it was from far away but it was from Key West. Now the thing is, we traveled to Key West and Mexico and I don't know which of the bottles was found but he was excited. I think it was fantastic that he even heard from one! Who knows, the other four bottles are out there, maybe we'll hear from one them.

Happy Anniversary!

My middle son and his wife are celebrating their first anniversary today! It seems like their wedding was just yesterday. Just another reason for the title of my blog, The Empty Nester. In less than a year one son married and moved out and another graduated from high school. It is all happening too fast, I want to turn back the hands of time but I know that I can't.

I want to share with you what a beautiful marriage my son and new bride have created. They are both kind and considerate people, very mature, and are hard workers. When we see them they still act like newlyweds...holding each other's hand and thoughtful of each other. I see God first in their marriage. They have started their life together with no mistakes and I know them well enough that I am sure their future life together will be just as beautiful as their love story.

Their wedding last year was picture perfect as they are a handsome couple and picked a beautiful location. I was shocked at first when they told us they were getting married. They had been engaged for about six months and said that it was going to be a long engagement, at least a year. After the engagement I told my heart that at least I had one more year of his being at home before he was gone. When he came in and told me they had decided to go ahead with the wedding I think my heart skipped a beat. My time with him was up. In six weeks he would be gone. You mothers will understand. I was happy for him to marry such a wonderful girl and I knew that it was going to happen sooner or later, but my last six months vanished. I'm not going to lie to you it was a shock and I didn't handle it well. I wanted to plead with him to give me a little more time, but I couldn't. All I could do was try to smile and wish them the best.

I have survived this last year secure in the knowledge that even though my time with my son has ended he brought a new member to our family. One that we are proud of and love. They will share my final years with me here on this earth and see me off to be with my heavenly father when my journey is over. I hope they will be as proud of me as I am of them.

Dinner and A Movie

My son and his girlfriend just left for their Saturday night date. They were so attractive, I was so proud of them. I said, "Where you going?" They're reply, "dinner and a movie" and I had to chuckle inside. They're idea of dinner and a movie is so much different than what I experienced with my DH when we were dating. I'm sure they will probably wind up at Red Lobster or some steak house for dinner and then scoot over to the Stadium 16 Movie Plex where they'll have a choice of at least that many movies. SSSSoooo much different that when we were dating.

For my DH and I, a fun Saturday night was drive-in food and a drive-in movie. I'm really about to clue you in on my age because when we started dating there were no fast food restaurants near us and certainly no walk-in movie theatres. The nearest walk-in theatere was much too far for us to travel on Saturday night and you can be sure there was only ONE movie showing that night. We ate at an A & W Drive-in. Yep, we drove up to the post, looked at the posted menu and out comes the waitress. She took our order and we sat in the car and waited. Pretty soon she retured with that tray on which most of the time we had ordered burgers and french fries. On the bottom of the tray was a drop down hook that allowed her to hook that tray of food right on our rolled down window (yes, rolled down, no such thing as electric windows then or if so, we didn't know about it). We ate there every Saturday night as did most of our friends, it was THE place to be seen!

As soon as we finished eating we headed to the edge of town to the drive-in. As we drove in there was a little building where you stopped and paid. I'm pretty sure it was $2 each. We always had our same spot where we parked. Again, stop by a post, reach out for the speaker, roll your window up high enough the speaker can hook onto it and you were all set. In the middle of the drive in was a building that housed concessions and bathrooms. You always tried to avoid the bathrooms if possible, they weren't very clean. I do remember the popcorn as being the best in the world.

We were all set. Sounds pretty good? We thought so. I guess looking back now we didn't think so much about how hot we were in the summer or cold in the winter. We were just happy to be together. The best part of my week was Saturday night. I will never, never forget sliding over to the middle of the seat so my husband could put his arm on my shoulder and I could lean my head on his arm. We would sit like that for hours. Content to not say a word, just watch the movie and be together. AAAhhhh, young love.

A Fine Friday

Yippee, skippy, it's Friday! Now why I'm so excited I don't know because right now I off for the summer. You can bet when I'm at work that Friday's are a BIG DEAL. I guess I'll just name the things that are delighting me on this Fine Friday. I got my hair done this morning. I was sssoooo tired of those gray roots. I declare I absolutely had a spring in my walk when I left the hair salon. Getting your hair done can just make you feel better all over. Ohhhhh and when I got home my hubby had brought home fresh shrimp for you us to grilllll......doesn't get any better than that. Now I'm sitting here surfing and blogging, cozy on my sofa, watching it rain outside...rain we so deperately needed. I might just slide down and take a little nap before time to grill those shrimp. Have a great weekend everyone!

Alone

I’ve read an old saying somewhere that you are never as alone as you are when you are in a room full of strangers. I would have to agree. If you’ve been reading my blog you will know that day before yesterday I had to attend a meeting relating to my job. I traveled 80 miles one way by myself to attend this meeting and sat in a room full of people and didn’t know any of them. Of course we all had the same purpose for being there and obviously we had the same career but most people had come with a co-worker wherein I was alone. When lunch came we had such a short amount of time that most of us just visited the cafeteria. Again, I sat in a room with a few hundred people and knew no one. I felt very alone and vulnerable.
Now I must explain that being alone is not something that normally bothers me, hence the picture of the train station today (I’ll explain in a minute). I am an only child that was raised in a small town with maybe one or two other children. I didn’t have any cousins or extended family to speak of. I was taught at an early age to occupy myself. As I grew up I longed for “girlfriends” to share shopping trips and gossip and I did have some of those but we drifted apart as we started raising our families. God blessed me with three sons so once again when it was time for me to go shopping for a new dress there was no one there to give their advice and I got used to it. As a matter of fact, most of the time I prefer to shop alone…it gives me the freedom to explore something that interests me or wander from shop to shop, thinking through my purchases and what works best for me.
For some reason though, on Tuesday I felt very alone…can’t pinpoint it, just did.
Anyway, I thought I would share a time with you when I was probably the most alone and vulnerable in my life and it worked out beautifully. When you finish reading my story I wish you would share with me a time when you were most alone….and made the best of it!
Several years ago my oldest son had to take a business trip to Paris. When he asked if I wanted to tag along I couldn’t say “yes!” fast enough. So my DIL and I were left to our own devices in Paris while my son took care of business except for one day. I had purchased the three of us train tickets out to Normandy to visit the American cemetery and see the beaches. We boarded the train early that morning and had a beautiful time watching the scenery go by. The train made stops at every little town we came through and we knew we were supposed to disembark in Bayeux (sp) where we would be picked up by our tour guide. You should know that the stop for each little town was announced in French and we frankly weren’t paying as close attention as we should have until it dawned on us that we were at our stop…as luck would have it, my DIL had just two minutes earlier stepped to the bathroom. My son said , “go ahead, get off, I’ll grab xxxx and we’ll be right behind you”. But it didn’t work that way, I stepped off the train and the doors slapped shut behind me and I looked up to see my son and DIL waving and motioning for me to stay where I was (as if I would try to do anything else). I can’t begin to describe how I felt seeing that train pull away and leave me standing there alone. Now if everything was going as planned, there should be a tour guide there, but there wasn’t. I sat down despondent on a bench trying to come up with a plan. Maybe we had completely gotten off at the wrong stop. How long would it take for my son to get back. I couldn’t speak a word of French and it was a pretty desolate looking place (the picture above is the actual train station, the little building on the right is where I sat down). I had no phone, couldn’t speak the language, I wasn't completely sure where I was and I didn’t know how to get home….pretty sad. I sat for a few minutes praying and suddenly this volkswagon van comes to a screeching halt in front of me. Out jumps a little French man with a sign bearing my last name. Hallelujah! In his broken English he asks where the other two people are and I explain the dilemma. No problem he says and makes a few phone calls and tells me it will be 1 ½ hours before my son and DIL will be back. Then he does the most amazing thing, he asks if I would like to tour his little town? Here we go again, what do I do, ride off in the sunset with a little French man? What if my son makes it back early, doesn’t think I’m there and heads back to Paris without me. What if this whole thing is unsafe, I don’t know this man. What should I do? Well, I threw caution to the wind, climbed in the volkswawagon and had a private tour of the little town, the best 1 ½ hours of my entire trip. He dropped me off at the cathedral in Bayeux, the sister to Notre Dame in Paris and I was able to explore the entire cathedral alone. I couldn’t believe it was unlocked and he just left me there because there wasn’t any place for him to park. To see the inside of that cathedral and admire it’s breathtaking beauty alone. To be in the presence of such history, the drink in the glory of God’s work! How sacred! Something I know I will never experience again this side of heaven. Something I could never had done had I been with a group of people!
To finish the story, the tour guide picked me back up and we made it back to the train station to pick up my son and DIL and had plenty of time to tour the beaches at Normandy. What a memory. Thanks for hanging with me, I know this has been a long one. I hope it was worth it.

Splendid

Every so often I allow myself to get totally immersed in a book to the exclusion of everything else. Today was such a day. Yesterday, I started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I know by now that most everyone else has read the book and it has been in my stack for a long time but I just picked it up yesterday and quickly became engrossed. This morning after running some errands I convinced myself that it would be alright to pick it back up and read a few more pages while I had my coffee. Once I started, I couldn't stop. It has been a long time since a book has touched me in the way this book has. Maybe it is because I have done so much soul searching in the last few months about what I want to do with the remainder of my life. My last child has graduated. Although I will ALWAYS be a mother I guess I am free to explore other areas in a way I haven't been up until now.
I would like to share with you what I think is the best quote from this book and maybe, just maybe, what I need to focus on....warning this may contain spoilers for those of you who haven't read the book.

"and yet she was leaving this world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence."

If this can be my legacy, I will gladly accept it.

Meetings!

Today I had a meeting. I don't guess I've mentioned that I am a high school Media Specialist and I also have a couple of other jobs with the school. Well today I had a state level yearly meeting pertaining to one of the other part time jobs. If you read my earlier post on family reunions and certain rituals you will understand what I mean about the requirements for a "meeting". Here is a list of things that describe an "official" meeting...the ones we all hold so dear!

1. A cold sterile room, devoid of any adornments on the wall.

2. A long rectangular table in the back of the "meeting room" that holds coffee, orange juice, and donuts.

3. Name tags.....we musn't forget the name tags and today we had not just the stick on ones where you write your own name but "official" nametags with the picture from our 20 year old driver's license imprinted on them.

4. Folders which contain various colored sheets of paper that have been stapled together and an agenda. You will always have the printout of the boring powerpoint so you can take notes.

5. A boring powerpoint.

6. "Miss Insecure" . She is the participant that has to have every bullet point of the entire powerpoint explained to her personally while everyone else sits and waits.

7. Mr. Know It All. He is the participant that tries to explain everything to Miss Insecure before the presenter gets a chance.

8. A "focus group". No meeting is complete without breaking up into focus groups. These are really an opportunity for people to sit around and shoot the breeze for 20 minutes.

9. Finally, the evaluation at the end. This is suppose to help the presenter gauge how well the meeting went but who is really going to bubble in how they feel!!! We all know one day we might have to be the "presenter".

Anyway, when I finally made it home I found I had scored big on an auction and won some more pieces of a set of dishes I am trying to collect. I'll bet you're familiar with it...Spode Pink Tower. Here is a picture...eat your heart out!

A Blah Monday

Hope this works, my first attempt! I had all kinds of grand plans for things I wanted to accomplish today but it just didn't work out. I did exercise on my new Wii Fit....I just love that thing except when I step on the scales and my little Mii says "Oh"....the last thing I need is a machine telling me I'm overweight.
Anyway, I thought I would share with you a video I made for our Vacation Bible School commencement. Being VBS Director is the best job in the world! I try to make it fun for the kids. I used online software that my favorite blogger uses. Let me know what you think!

Waffleless Waffles and Church

I love Sunday, it is my favorite day of the week. It begins with breakfast with my family and then off to church. Being with my family, sharing a breakfast of pancakes and then going to church and being with my church family is a joy. For me, church is a place of peace, uplifting, spiritual renewal and serenity. After church today my son grilled us steaks and what a great job he did. This afternoon has been a time of rest, a good book, a movie, just quiet.

Now I know you are wondering about those waffleless waffles. I have three sons. God did not see fit to give me a daughter even though I desperately wanted one. I accepted his wisdom and wouldn't change a thing but when a little niece came along after 25 years of an all male family..well you can see where this is going. We have nicknamed her Miss Priss. Welllll, Miss Priss loves to spend the night with us and we lllloooovvee for her to stay with us. One Saturday when she was about 2 1/2 she spent the night with us. Everything was going along just fine until Sunday morning. When she got up and started asking for breakfast she wanted waffles. My waffle maker bit the dust years ago and I never replaced it because my family wasn't particularly fond of waffles. We had a problem..we tried to entice her to eat her favorite cereal....Nope...we tried pancakes....Nope...we tried toast and jelly....Nope...we tried eggs...Nope...we tried it all..she wanted WAFFLES.

Well DH hit upon a brainstorm...he said to her, "Alright, I'm going to make you some of my world famous, never before shared, delicious, WAFFLELESS WAFFLES and he proceed to mix up pancake batter and as he poured the batter onto the griddle he painstakingly shaped each one into a square with his spatula. We sat her down to the table and held our breath as we placed the "square" pancakes in front of her. She looked at us with a quizzical look but began to eat. They were a hit! The rest is now as they say "history". Every time she stays with us she requests waffleless waffles. This is her up above, don't you agree she is a doll!! P.S. We think she has figured out the whole pancake/waffle business but she won't admit it.

Family Reunions

Let me say up front that today's blog in no way intends to be a put down or demeaning, I love all my family and I am a firm believer in family rituals but sometimes you just have to be amused at some of the things you see.
Today was our yearly family reunion and it is an understatement to say I'm not overly fond of family reunions and by family reunions I mean the ones where you gather with very extended family members once a year, at the same place and do the same things. These are the same family members that you will run into at Walmart next week and not even recognize! Let me give you a tongue-in-cheek look at some of our rituals.

1. No family reunion is legitimate without the required family reunion t-shirt that looks similar to the one above (no this is not my family, but the similarity is scary). You must buy the shirt so that the proceeds will go to pay for next year's reunion...a t-shirt you will never wear again unless absolutely everything else is dirty.
2. The same elderly male cousin I'll call "forgetful" that walks up to you every year and says, "You're new, my name is xxxx, I'm xxxxxx's great grandson, who are you related to?
3. The loud talking, gum chewing female cousin I call "ditzy" that wears a crazy hat every year.
4. The silent auction...again to raise money for next year's reunion, some hot items in the silent auction are the crocheted slippers, crocheted potholders, Dollar Store pillar candles and jars of homemade jelly.
5. The very blunt great aunt "miss straightforward" who just has to comment, "oh honey, you've put on a little weight since last year!
6. The "picture taker"..now don't get me wrong, I love taking pictures and do it all the time..but this "picture taker" always seems to catch you with your mouth full of food, or a picture of you from behind as you bend over to pick up your dropped napkin or he wants you to put your arm around your "husband" and the guy standing next to you is someone you've never met.
7. No family reunion is complete without the "bragger" who just built a brand new millon dollar house or bought a Hummer for each of his kids.
8. We mustn't overlook the "prize winners" these are the people that get a key chain with the family crest imprinted for traveling the furtherest distance to get to this yearly family reunion, or a camoflauge cap for correctly guessing the number of M & M's in the jar.

Oh well, I guess I've shared enough. I'd love to know if any of you share the same "rituals" at your family reunions! And by the way, I overheard them say that next year the silent auction items were going to be bigger...maybe flashlights and ice coolers....I can't wait!

What A Day!

What a strange day to start a blog. Within the last 48 hours I have experienced moments of great happiness and many moments of deep sorrow. I might share the sorrow with you later but I have chosen to share the great happiness with you now. My mother-in-law is celebrating her 76th birthday today and we (DH and I) took her out to eat at her favorite restaurant. I have been so blessed to have a wonderful mother-in-law these past 35 years. She has been a joy and a shining example for me!

I know I am suppose to have a purpose for this blog but I want to truthfully say I have many. I do like to decorate my home and I hope to share decorating projects with you. I also want to be a writer and this is a jumping off point for me. If I can stay faithful to this blog perhaps I might have what it takes to be a "real" writer. Another reason for me to jump into "blogland" is a deep desire to record the events of my family for future generations to read. I've said to myself so many times that I should keep a journal but the most I seem able to do is maintain my calender of appointments, hopefully this blog with be the catalyst for change. The last reason I started this blog is tied into the title I have chosen, The Empty Nester, because you see I am now living in an almost empty nest. My youngest child graduated from high school last month and it is really bothering me. We spread our children apart (7 years between each, don't ask me why, it just happened that way) so I have spent the last 33 years of my life raising my children and now in what seems like just a poof, they're gone.

I so admire you young mothers with small children, cherish these moments they will be gone quickly, but I admire you for taking the time now, while they are small, to record these precious moments, you will never regret it. Now, if I can figure out how to add a picture I will show you my youngest at his graduation. Oh, one little thing I forgot to mention....he was Valedictorian of his class..not bragging....just sharing.