Watching my baby grow up

I got to hear my favorite song performed yesterday. The words just jumped out at me and seem to fit this moment in time when I'm watching my last birdie fly out of the nest...so with a few small changes to the lyrics, I wanted to dedicate this song to my little Courtie Pie...

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them And we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true, but I know I'm who I am today because I know you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun...like a stream that meets a boulder...halfway through the wood...Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I know you, I have been changed for good. It well may be that we will not live near each other. So let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you.

You'll be with me...like a handprint on my heart.

And now whatever way our stories end I know you have re-written mine by being my daughter and friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea...like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I know you because I know you I have been changed for good.

And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for...but then, I guess we know there's blame to share...and none of it seems to matter anymore.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun...like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood...like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea...like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood.

Who can say if I've been changed for the better? I do believe I have been changed for the better. And because I know you...Because I know you...Because I know you...I have been changed for good.

Being in the same room

My mom got a picture today of her parents(on the right)...in the same room...smiling...and no lawyers present. It is the only picture she has ever seen of the two of them together. They had a nasty miserable divorce and then custody battle over my mom that went all over the tabloids...ah yes...the purple diary. But here they are...in black and white...in the same room together. At least once. It's too bad ex's can't get along--at least for their kids' sake. I sometimes feel like my girls are too worried or uncomfortable if I am in the same room as their dad. It's too bad. Grammy has only one picture of her parents in the same room...and never after that. I'm not sure what I can say or do so the girls can feel peaceful if their parents are in the same room. I guess time will heal...it only took Grammy 76 years to see her parents in the same room.

monsters vs. aliens

My friend Leslie and I went and saw Monsters v. Aliens this weekend in 3D. It was hilarious. It was a wonderful homage to the lovely sci-fi B flicks from the 50's. It brought back great memories of those scary sci-fi flicks my dad and brother and I would watch together on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. We loved Godzilla, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Teenagers from Outer Space, and my personal favorites:

The Blob

and The Crawling Eye.

Those two movies, in particular, terrified me. The titles were scary enough. My little (now 6'2") brother loved to see me jump out of my skin at those many breathless moments--like when the little girl dropped her ball and it slowly bounced, bounced, bounced, down the stairs...didn't she KNOW the BLOB was down there????

Monsters v. Aliens, however, had the cool elements of those funny old sci-fi flicks (don't worry, no spoiler here), but it didn't have any horrible scary awful parts. So we laughed...and I remembered...and I still jumped out of my seat even if it was just from wearing those psycho 3D glasses.

The Twelve Most Important People in My Life

The Twelve Most Important People in My Life are in this picture.

Haunted by Fruitcakes

For fifty years my mother has insisted I would by haunted by certain things "when she's gone." Well, it finally happened, and she's not even gone. There I was, erasing the lovely brick red color in my kitchen so that it could look like a rental again, and it happened...I needed my mother. This silly little jingle she always sang, got stuck in my brain and I couldn't erase it. I tried listening to every type of music...but the song would not go away. So I called her, and she recited it to me. It goes like this: "Say the Magic words, say Mission Pak and it's on its merry way! No gift so bright, so gay, so right, give the Mission Pak magic way." I wanted to ask her more, but I had been multi-tasking while talking to her and accidentally dumped out the water from the fridge vegetable drawer I was cleaning. As soon as I had cleaned up Lake Michigan in my kitchen, I decided to wiki this silly song and find out what it really was.
Here's where the fruitcake comes in. George C. Page, this amazing man came out west with nothing, started many businesses, and donated huge sums of money for museums (one of my favorites--La Brea Tar Pits), especially. He started a distribution company called Mission Pak to send California produce all over the world. Yes. The jingle was to entice people to buy fruitcake during the holidays. While on my mission, my mom thoughtfully sent me a fruitcake in October, thinking #1, I would get it by Christmas, and, #2, I somehow liked??? fruitcake?

I did finally receive the Mission Pak fruitcake...the last week in July. The best part? Every missionary ate a slice...and none of us liked fruitcake. It's just the food in Sucre was quite...well that's another post.