Mother's Day

I love being a MOM!

I learned about being a mom because I have had wonderful examples of being a mom...my mom (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!) and my grandmother, Mimi. My mother-in-law has also been a great example to me both as a mom and as a mother-in-law. (I hope Erica, Emily, and Donnie agree!)

I already posted the ADORABLY SWEET, PRECIOUS, ARTISTIC card Thalia sent me. (Can you tell I LOVE the card?) SHE is so sweet which makes the card doubly special. After Thalia's card, I received a card from Erica...now how sweet was that? Then a couple of days later came a make-me-want-to-cry-card from Joshua.

Friday, another sweet card came from Gabe. Then he called yesterday and asked if Ron and I wanted to meet he and Emily for lunch today! I wasn't understanding at first because they live 4 HOURS AWAY! Well, he and Emily were going to drive all the way up here just to take me to lunch. Instead, Ron and I drove and met them partway. It was wonderful...and made me feel so good. They came bearing flowers and a beautiful pitcher...

My boys and their precious wives - know how to make their mom feel special. Thank you so much!

The Great White

Ron has always named his cars/trucks. There was Brownie (the old brown truck he and Larry had in high school). Then there was the Old Blue Bitch (oops, sorry, but that was her name) who was an old, faded powder blue Fairlane. Now the Old BB had a little dog in the back window whose head bobbed while you drove. It was what you might - or might NOT - call a CLASSIC! When Ron and I got married, he had Opie. Opie was a little Opal Cadet. Now I had a little red Pinto at the same time. Ron HATED my pinto, always made fun of my pinto - until it became his pinto through marriage. Then he pampered her and called her THE PINTO BEAN! (We filled up the tank for $2.50!) Then there was Nellie. Nellie was a buick with NLE in the license plate. Joshua had the privilege of driving Nellie when he got his license. Little Blue was the Ford Ranger. "Little" because it was not a full size truck, and "Blue" because it was blue. ORIGINALITY is the name of the game here. You might recall that ORIGINALITY runs in Ron's family. It's his mom who names her cats by their color: Black kitty, brown kitty, orange kitty, etc. Oh yeah, Cocoa is her brown dog.

Now The Great White is Ron's truck...a 1993 Ford F-250. I DO NOT LIKE The Great White because it isn't smooooooth...my coffee spills when I try to drink it. So, I NEVER drive it. Well, our dear boys have encouraged Ron to make the truck look better. So he had it painted last April - an improvement - and then Josh found THE DEAL. The deal was some WHEELS...yep, we got them in NOVEMBER. Now, not to rush things, TODAY - ONLY 5 1/2 months later, Ron had them put on. He was so excited. He wanted me to make a VIDEO of him driving the truck...he thought the boys would be EXCITED. Um? How do I make a video...run along beside the truck? NO! Ron thought we could make a video of him driving in slow motion..in fast motion ("super speed") and then another in 'real time.' I told Ron I'd just take a PICTURE of the truck. Well, he decided he at least needed to be SITTING in the drivers seat!

Back in 1993 when THE GREAT WHITE was purchased, Ron's plan was to keep it until the kids graduated from high school. Well, they graduated, and Ron's plans changed and he decided to keep it until they graduated from college. Well, they graduated from college. Now his plans are to keep it until he retires. Um?
Well, his new plans also include new shocks (I'm sure the coffee-drinking will get no better) and a new seat cover.

Ron's thinking...but he says he hasn't decided....if the Great White's new name should be THE SUPER GREAT WHITE.

Have you ever seen anything so cute!

This is the drawing BY THALIA that she added to my 'Grandmother you are loved' Mother's Day card. Now how sweet is this? My heart melted.

I am amazed at her art...look at the feet on us and the curve of the arms! You have to remember that Thalia is 7 years old

In case you're wondering what I look like...I'm Mimi in this work of art. I should put this on the refrigerator so one day my waist will look like this again!

"We Are Family..."

Over 4 years ago, Lindsey and Donnie got married in January...then in March, Gabe and Emily got married. It's hard to believe 4 years has gone by - but at the same time, it's hard to imagine life any other way. At Lindsey and Donnie's wedding, after their pastor pronounced them Man and Wife...the song WE ARE FAMILY started playing...thus the name of this post!This weekend we were staying with Gabe and Emily since I had a meeting. Don and Susan, Donnie's parents who live in Montana, were visiting Linz and Donnie. So..on Saturday night, we headed south and they headed north and we met in San Rafael. I LOVE that little town. We met at the Broken Drum and had a beer and dinner. Ron and I had a great time visiting with Don and Susan who we hadn't seen in 4 years!

A few of the many things I learned from Camilla

1. more about loving others
2. family is so very precious
3. always live life to the fullest
4. compassion
5. laugh often
6. enjoy the beauty of flowers
7. true friends stand by you
8. perseverance
9. determination can carry you a long way
10. appreciate good health
11. when in airports, search out the chocolate
12. tell those you love that you love them!
13. clothes don't make a lady...but a necklace might
14. make things happen
15. life should never be taken for granted
16. strive to do your best
17. protect those you love
18. be smart
19. cats are a comfort (I knew this, but I saw it more with Camilla and Embers)
20. friends come in all ages
21. most closets are too small to hold a decent wardrobe
22. creative ways to solve problems
(Judy, take this duck and give it to Ginger...and don't leave a trail!)

What all have I learned from Camilla...there's so much more...
What did Camilla teach you?

A Tribute to Camilla

It's been a difficult week...

My mind has been consumed with thoughts of Camilla... remembrances ... images of her when she was healthy. I was afraid I would only "see" her as she was at her weakest. I was wrong.

Our community has been amazing. Some of us rounded up photos and Connie mounted them on boards which we had up in the foyer of the church and at the reception. Now they hang in Camilla's home. As I look at them, my mind goes back to the first half of her 4th grade year - when she was so healthy...so happy.

I flashed on when Eskie died, and how Camilla advised me to make a "Memorial to Eskie" and even told me which pictures to put on the blog. I had posted about losing Eskie, but she didn't think it was good enough. So that made me think...and I decided to post some photos of a more healthy Camilla...
This is Camilla with her good friend, Eve. This is a girl who use to be a friend of Camilla's, Maren. In the center is her good friend, Dana...and then there's Camilla. I think this was in 3rd grade.
This is Kelli and Camilla playing soccer together. Camilla had actually been diagnosed when these photos were taken, but as you have learned about Camilla, that didn't stop her from playing.

Here is Camilla in the beginning of her 4th grade year. In the first photo, Camilla, Dana and I were taking photos of each other. In the second one, Camilla was sharing about herself...she loved to swim, thus the goggles!

I LOVE this photo of Camilla and Dana. This was "Friday Silent Reading"...which is usually not too silent. They were sitting outside the classroom looking at a photo album. Wonder what was so funny? In this second photo, Camilla was leading the pack as they lined up to come in from recess.


Here, Camilla is sharing...not sure what. In this second picture, look at this absolutely precious face!




This is another of my favorite photos of Camilla and Dana...and then typical Camilla - giving 100% on her school work.

Another sweet shot of our beautiful Camilla. This second picture is Halloween. Cody is Dorothy...a very pretty Dorothy, I might add. Then comes Camilla the "surfer dude" and Dana the ... is that a mouse? Megan must have been a princess?

Junie B. Jones were some of Camilla's favorite books in 3rd and 4th grade. This last photo is one that Dana took of us...I love it.



Still more to come.........but it's late now....

She fought the good fight

Our precious Camilla passed away today. I am resting in the fact that she is not suffering or in anymore pain.

On December 17th, the doctors gave her maybe 2 weeks - 1 month to live...Camilla had other ideas. She has been the epitome of determination, of a strong will, of a lover of life itself. I think of all the things she has done since she was given the time table in December - she made the trip to the OC and Family Guy...she got to see Drew's movie "Music and Lyrics"...she saw other movies in the theater...she went to a production of CATS...she had a New Year's Eve party...she's hung out with her friends...she went to and watched some of John's sports...Camilla made the most of her time.

This picture was taken Saturday...Gabe is the only one of my kids she hadn't met. She had told me how much she wanted to meet him and Emily. Emily had a cold so didn't come with us. I'm so glad I took this picture!

Camilla...you will be missed more than words can ever express...

Way to go there Bonnie and June!

My mom and June are 2 good bridge players...well, maybe I should say they are 2 great bridge players! They are PARTNERS... You already know about my mom if you read this blog..but you may not have known about June.

My understanding is that they like to compliment each other on their hair. Ken, June's husband, told me they were identical triplets (he's including himself in this trio) ...I think that's what he said. You can see a photo of these 3 yeah-hoos (another Texas word that I won't waste my time on to look in any dictionary because I KNOW it wouldn't be there!) on the post about my mom's birthday.

"Shebang"

I AM a school teacher...I DO teach spelling...I AM from Texas...and there are SOME WORDS I may say a little different than ...say someone from anyplace else. So I am writing the post about my Mom becoming an Octogenarian and I wrote the word 'shabang'..cause I KNOW it's a word, I've used it all my life...but when I look it up to make SURE I'm spelling it correct - it's not there. My ONLY thought was that the dictionary was not up to speed. Did I even think I might possibly have spelled it incorrectly? Why no....

After I had finished that post...I was wondering about 'shabang' and thought 'uh-oh...maybe it's spelled with an E??? Well, guess what The Newbury House Dictionary says?

she-bang / n.slang the whole shebang: all of something (objects, a situation, an event, etc.): We packed all our files and equipment, and the movers took the whole shebang in our new offices. \\ The wedding was expensive, but her parents paid for the whole shebang.

Mr. Webster gave a similar definition...

I didn't want to write the whole shebang about Mom's birthday over again, so I just wrote this post so I wouldn't discredit myself as a good speller.

Happy Birthday, Mom

April 12th, my mom entered the Octogenarian Club. Now this is a rather exclusive club...you have to be at least 80 years old and no older than 89 to be included. My mom entered it in style on Thursday!

John David and Becky organized the whole shabang (unfortunately, if you look up this word in the dictionary, it won't be there, but us Texans use it so the dictionary must be at fault). My main job was to deliver Mom there at 5:40 p.m. I didn't think it would be too difficult of a task as she was to have her PEDICURE at 4 p.m. and then and ONLY then would she try on shoes with no socks! Texas toes must look good! Well, unfortunately, some one ran their car through the plate glass windows of the beauty shop and so the shop had to close and NO PEDICURE. Not a problem...we went shopping. We went to the FIREWHEEL... great place! Finding the Firewheel is another story. "Oh it doesn't take long to get there...I know right where it is." It was SUPPOSE to take about 10 minutes...we really enjoyed our HOUR LONG drive. Thank goodness we had a lot to talk about!

So here we are at 5:15 heading toward my brothers...but I had no intention of going to his house YET...I was still planning on mom trying on shoes. She had other ideas. Stall tactics came into play at that point...and they worked. I got her there on time and she was greeted with a big surprise.

After all the initial hugs and greetings, Becky served up lasagne, salad, and bread.













After we had eaten and visited awhile, we sat Mom down in front of the TV and showed a video of photographs that had been put to music. It started out with a photo of Mom at 14...then several of her and my dad when they were dating and first married. There were wonderful photos of my grandparents...and then there were photos of our families when the kid were young...growing up...and their weddings. What a beautiful gift.

After the video, it was time to cut the cake.



What a special evening it was. I, for one, was so happy I was able to be with Mom for her 80th birthday...but also just to have 2 1/2 days to just hang out with her.

Happy Birthday, Mom!