Homesick...

My friend posted a blog entry today about whoopie pies. Now, whoopie pies are not the same all over the world. In New England, whoopie pies are a delight for the palate. They are special and just don't taste the same in other parts of the world.

While I do miss the taste of whoopie pies, what struck me more was her connection to "home" that the treat evoked. I don't have many things that make me miss home much. I, of course, can't eat whoopie pies because of my surgery. Really though, there are no foods that remind me of home that make me that emotional. Rather, I see pictures of fall foliage (fall being my FAVORITE time of year) and that makes me homesick. I miss the crisp smell of autumn and the colors of the leaves. I miss the beginning of school and the need for a jacket in September. I miss the last dive into the lake when it's 60 degrees and we thought it was warm (now I'm in a jacket at 70 degrees!) and I miss my family. The strange thing is, when I think of home, I don't always think of where I physically grew up.

I physically grew up on the East Coast where I lived 1 hour away from the rocky coast and visited there often. I left there at 28 to go to graduate school in the west. While I did my physical growing up in the East, my EMOTIONAL growing up was done in the west. So which is my home? Hard to tell. I spent only 3 years in Utah, and yet I feel like that is home just as much as Maine. How can I be so loyal to two places at once? I'm not sure. When I visit Maine, I want to go home and when I visit Utah, I also want to go home. BUT, really I'm home here - where my wonderful family lives and works and we grow together. I come back to Nevada and find that the best part of me was left behind in my travels and I get to find myself again upon my return. I have the best time when I travel anywhere, yet I'm always thankful to be back with my husband and children again.

I miss my family and my friends, but I recognize that now it is not possible for us to be together in the same state. Maybe someday, we'll all be able to be closer and spend more time together. Until then, I just have to enjoy every minute of the vacations I spend with them.

A really bad day

So, today sucked out loud. I'm not sure what is going on in my head, but none of what I'm thinking makes sense. I really want to go back to bed and start the day over, but the truth is, nothing would guarantee that the day would go any better the second time around! The other sad thing is that when I do wake up tomorrow, I have to go to work. I didn't get nearly as much done this weekend as I'd planned on so I'm behind starting the week as usual.

Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

Tomorrow is another day???!!!!

Blogging in general

I've never been one to keep a journal. I've tried countless times to begin and I always set a goal of making an entry once a week, or some determined period of time. I always determine that I'm a failure for not "following through" and actually meeting my goal. So. This blog has no goal. No set posting dates, no plans for daily posts etc. The pressure is off. Since this will primarily be seen by only a few friends and maybe one or two family members, I'm not going to set myself up for failure again. Interesting to me that I feel like I do this in life too - my house is never clean enough, my crafts are never good enough etc. I need to get over it.

My mother is currently in the hospital with some cardiac issues. They originally checked her in with pneumonia, but then discovered some abnormalities in her cardiac tests (she has previous cardiac history). On Monday she goes in for a heart cath. We are hoping they can remove the blockage with the simple procedure. If not, she goes into the next room for a more significant surgery. She's scared, so is everyone else. We also hope this becomes a wake up call for her to take better care of herself.

Ethan and Lucas remain the cutest little boys on the planet with sunny dispositions and antics that make me laugh daily. Lots more to post about with those two.

I'll get the hang of this blogging thing sooner or later!

Oh What Fun It Is to ..........

Spend time with your best friend, doing what you like best, in the place you like best!

I travelled to Salt Lake City on 10/8 to go to a digital scrapbooking convention with my "BFF" Kaye. I always laugh hard enough to pee myself when were together and this time was no exception. Spending my birthday with her was awesome - although Mike complained that it was the third time in a row that I hadn't been home with him for my birthday. He made it up to me by giving me "shiny rocks" for my finger!

I love Utah. I really think I want to head back that direction someday. The sense of community combined with the spectacular views and really good friends makes it quite a draw. While we've
"settled" here in Nevada, we've never made good friends (well, we have, but they have passed on) like we did in Utah. Not sure I can convince Mike to move again, but we certainly want the boys in a better school system so when Mike retires, maybe then we'll go.

This convention was great - I learned a ton and just got to focus on scrapping for three whole days. Can't wait for next year (provided with still have only two young children).