The Precious Little Ones In My Life

                                                                    
Grandchildren fill a space in your heart that you never knew was empty.   Here's my granddaughters in their Easter dresses.  I live really close to them now, since I moved to Phoenix last year.  It's nice to be able to spend as much time with them as I want.  The older one has become very nuturing to her little sister.  The younger one takes after dad, she got the Navajo gene.  The older one takes after mom.  But of course, my grandkids all look like me!!!                              

I feel so blessed to have these little ones in my life.  Here's my only grandson (for now).  We are in California, babysitting him while my son and daughter-in-law are on vacation. My grandson does a lot of baby talking and his voice just melts my heart!  He's such an easy going baby, just like his dad was growing up.  Al and I are having so much fun with him! 

Karma

Belief in karma ought to make the life pure, strong, serene, and glad.  Only our
own deeds can hinder us; only our own will can fetter us.  Once let men
recognize this truth, and the hour of their liberation has struck.  Nature
cannot enslave the soul that by wisdom has gained power and uses both in love. 
~Annie Besant

When some people meet karma one day it likely won't be a very good meeting.  Mean people listen up!  Nice people get ahead in life and are generally happy people and make others happy in the process.  They give love and get it in return.

A Touching Video About Aging Parents

A friend of mine sent me this video.  I think anyone who has a parent with dementia can relate to the message here.  It made me cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUAE0aYrUBA

Europe Two Years Ago

Today is the two year anniversary of my youngest daughter's and my trip to Europe.   We planned this vacation in a period of about three months.  It just happened to be a time in our lives that we both were unemployed, so we saw it as our window of opportunity to do something we might not ever get a chance to again.  We had the time, we had some savings, and we both definitely had the desire to go to Europe.  I was so delighted that my daughter wanted to go on a month long trip with her mom!  My other two kids were married and had families, and I wanted to make sure it was ok with them that I took this trip with their younger sister.  I didn't want them to feel left out.  Once I got their approval and blessings, I felt better about it.  My daughter was 26 years old, and her boyfriend was totally supportive of her going on this trip, too.

I found the airline tickets online at AA.com about a month and a half before we left.  I was so lucky to have found these tickets!!!  It cost us each less than $300 for round trip, non-stop flights.  We flew from Chicago, where Alisa lives, and directly to London's Heathrow Airport, on April 1, 2009.  The flight was an overnighter, and it was comfortable since we had empty seats next to us so we could lay down, but it was still hard to sleep because of our excitement.  Coming home, we left from Frankfurt, Germany, on May 1st, one month after we arrived in Europe.

We arrived in London early in the morning on April 2nd.  We were dragging our feet that day but we managed to get a lot of sight-seeing in, by riding the double-decker bus and getting off at several different locations, and even went to a broadway show that night.  It's funny, because the show was a rock and roll show about the band, Queen, called We Will Rock You, and even with the loud music and awesome performance, we were both nodding our heads throughout the show.  That night we slept well, and after about a couple of days we became acclamated to the time change.

It was supposed to be a back-packing trip, but we soon realized we were not the type to walk around with back packs.  After about 10 days we both bought suitcases with wheels.  It was more difficult getting up and down the steps at train stations (funny stories about that), but all in all, it was much better for our backs.  Plus, we could pack our things a lot easier in the suitcases, and there was room for purchases, too.

One thing we did that was so important for me, was to go back to my former high school in Frankfurt Germany, and to the base we lived on in Hanau, Germany.  I lived in Germany my senior year because my dad got transferred there for his job.  I attended Frankfurt American High School, and graduated in 1974.  I hadn't been there since then, and I always wanted to go back.  The Old Argonner housing base was closed, but we could walk around and see it through the gates.  The former school closed its doors to the American students in 1995, I believe, and it is now a German technical school.  It was awesome being able to take my daughter there.  All these emotions welled up in me as we walked up to the school, as soon as we turned the corner on the street and I saw the school.  It brought me back in time.  I just can't explain it, but I was just so emotional.  Luckily, a teacher invited us in and let us look around.  It was so cool!

There's just way, way, way too much to tell about this trip, and I just don't want to start, because if I do, I will write pages and pages!  I have my journal to reflect upon today.  To sum it all up, it went something like this...thirty days of traveling, thirty two cities, eight countries, including England, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany, 4,500 photographs, riding numerous trains, buses, and doing A LOT of walking, getting lost at times, shopping, laughing, sometimes laughing hysterically, crying, seeing things we never thought we would, seeing things we came to see, yelling at rude Romans (well, one), learning more about the world and each other, surviving some dangerous situations, shopping in local markets, sharing meals if we ate at expensive restaurants, eating different foods, meeting people from all over the world, getting a little drunk once  (sorry, but it's true), learning different languages with every country we visited, trying to use those languages we just learned, writing our wonderful thoughts and experiences in our journals every night, staying at hostels, bed and breakfasts, and budget hotels, sometimes just leaving the train station to find one, washing our clothes in the sink and hanging them to dry, and hoping they'd be dry before we had to pack up and leave the next day, or going to the laundromat, doing what we wanted, when we wanted, but still following a basic itinerary and keeping within our budget, and having the most amazing, incredible, memorable time of our lives!

On the plane ride home, we both stayed awake the whole time.  It was a day time flight, so that was easier on us even though it was a long flight.  We finished our notes in our journals and then enjoyed reading each other's stories.  It was interesting to see our different interpretations and what we both thought was noteworthy.  The flight home was a time of reflection.

Here's just a tiny selection of pictures of our wonderful European journey...remember, we took over 4,500 photographs!

I'm standing in front of my former high school, Frankfurt American High School.  It is now a German technical school.

Luttrellstown Castle Belonged To My Ancestors

I recently discovered, while viewing my ancestrial chart on my grandmother's side, that my family are descendants of the Luttrells (that, I knew) who owned Luttrellstown Castle in Dublin, Ireland (that, I didn't know).  My grandfather (by 11 times) was Sir Thomas Luttrell.  He was born in the castle in 1496, a couple hundred years after the Luttrells started the castle.  He died in 1554.  He was a Knight, and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland. His first marriage took place when he was just a youth, to Anne Aylmer, whose brother, Sir Gerald Aylmer, was a judge and enforcer for King Henry VIII of England at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  He later married Elizabeth Bathe. The Luttrells were the first family to own Luttrellstown castle, and it stayed in the family for 450 years before being sold.  Now it is a 5-star resort with a golf course on the 567 acres.

Prior to the Luttrells coming to Ireland, they lived in England, and also owned Dunster Castle.  This castle was purchased by Lady Elizabeth Luttrell in 1376 and remained with the Luttrell family for 600 years until it was given to the National Trust in 1976.  Now it is a tourist attraction. There is some information that states that the Luttrells originated in France, then went to England, then to Ireland, until some of them started immigrating to America in the 1600s, where more interesting history has emerged.  No doubt there were other castles owned by the wealthy and notorious Luttrells!  At one point they were the biggest landowners in Ireland.

I got interested in all of this when my dad's cousin, Kim, sent me an invite to ancestry.com. He has an incredible amount of information on there, dating back to the 1400s.  I decided to do some research on the internet and I was able to put some pieces of the puzzle together.  Imagine how excited I was to learn our family came from royalty!  Nobody ever told me this before, but I have no doubt my relatives in Indiana know all of this stuff.  I just never see them or talk to them.  I know that they have done a lot of research and even have a website.  (The spelling of Luttrell changed to Luttrull during the time of the Civil War).  I do remember some stories my grandmother told me long ago.  One was that my great, great, great.....and so on, grandfather, fathered his first child at the age of 13.  That may have been Thomas, I don't know for sure.   And something about someone beheading a king.  hmmm  There's so much information out there, and I have been so fascinated with what I have learned so far.  I have to thank Kim for getting me started on this. There's so much more just waiting to be discovered!

Memories Sparked By a Pepsi

I just opened a can of diet Pepsi and immediately the fizz and taste brought me back to a time when I was about 14 years old, and I had just finished mowing the grass and trimming the bushes on a very HOT summer day.  I got up early on a Saturday morning and cleaned the house prior to tackling the yard.  Sometimes I would do the yard one day and the house the next.  But on that day, I did both.   It was always scary going out to the garage, because our lawn mower was real fickle.  It was hit or miss if it was going to start up or not.  If it didn't, I would get out the old fashioned push mower if I was determined to get the grass cut, and I was always determined.  It was the kind of mower that looked like a roller with blades on it...dull blades, I might add.  The only power it had was from the person pushing it.  And with my small frame, it wasn't far.  Numerous times Grandma and Grandpa would get a phone call, and they never failed to come to my rescue.  Grandpa almost always got the lawn mower started for me.  Can you imagine?  A teenager, excited about the roar of a lawn mower?

The breeze cooled my body as I sat down on the lawn chair, underneath the walnut tree in the front yard, with my bottle of pepsi.  I looked around at the yard and felt so good about how nice it looked. I watched the cars that drove by, hoping they were all noticing our nice yard and the work it took to make it look that way. I knew Mom would be happy when she came home from work.  She never said too much about me doing the yard work back then.  I just did it and never thought it was a big deal.  But when I got older she told me over and over again how proud she was of me for taking on so much responsibility as a young girl. 

I was the oldest of five girls, and Mom had to work, sometimes two shifts a day, just to make enough money to take care of us.  So I did what I did to help my mom.  I had time for my friends when Mom came home and I was relieved of my responsibilities.  All of my sisters were easy to babysit.  They usually paired up in twos and either played in the house with their dolls and toys, or with their friends in our yard, or at a nearby neighbor's house.  Sometimes us girls would each pick a room in the house to clean, and we would make a contest out of it.  When Mom came home from work, she would pick the room she thought was the cleanest.  We couldn't wait for her to come home and see our efforts to make our simple home look like a Better Homes and Garden home. Mom would walk in the door and we would all run to greet her and look at her face as she made admiring comments about how nice the house looked.  Mom probably had other things on her mind, like paying the bills, getting supper ready, and probably just wanting to lay down and rest for a bit.  But she never disappointed us when she walked in the door.  Her eyes, her words, made it all so worth it.  We actually looked forward to Saturdays, and not because there was no school and we could watch Saturday morning cartoons, but we could do something that made us all feel good, and help lighten the load for our mom, and put a smile on her face.

Over the years, even after I had my own family and yard to maintain, I sometimes stopped by to help Mom with her lawn.  She always appreciated it.  She would work with me on the yard, pulling weeds, trimming, etc.  We would have great conversations during that time together.  When we finished, we would sit on the back patio and talk some more...while enjoying a cold glass of ice water. The last couple of years I did her lawn numerous times and it reminded me of those younger years.  Those same problem areas are still there...the dip in the lawn by the neighbor's chain link fence, where the wheels of the lawn mower would always get stuck, the piece of cement behind the garage that sticks out and catches the blades of the mower, the hill, with the rocks, tree limbs, bushes, and steep back side, and the special area on the hill where we buried our pets...cats, hamsters, and even fish. Those days are over now since Mom is not in good health and is no longer living in our family home.  The house will be sold eventually.  But the memories will always be with me.

Is Your Health Worth It?

I am always interested in what I can do to maintain optimum health.  I exercise regularly, take vitamins and all kinds of supplements, watch what I eat, get 8 hours of sleep (most nights), and try to manage my stress level.  Even with all of that, I still think there's room for improvement.  It just so happens my boyfriend told me about a product he had used that claims to have a multitude of health benefits.  I didn't believe him when he told me all about what it is supposed to do, so I looked it up online, just to see for myself.  This product seems to be a super food, one that will boost your immune system, make you look younger, feel younger, improve memory, increase your body's cellular energy, make you more alert, help prevent diseases like cancer, dementia and diabetes, and so on.  The name of the product is Alfa PXP forte Polysaccharide-X-Peptides.  You can click here to read more about it.  I was surprised I had never heard of it before since PXP has been around for a long time.  Al gave me a bottle and I have been taking it for only three days now.  By the way, this stuff is expensive.  It doesn't taste very good (kind of like flour), but I can handle the taste. It is made of pure native rice grains from Thailand, and the finished product comes in powder form. You can add it to a glass of water or juice.  I like it with lemonade.  One thing I learned is that you have to wash the glass afterwards or the residual 'powder' sticks to the glass and dries, making it hard to clean.  We'll see how it goes after a period of time, and I will let you know if it makes me feel any better.  Hey, it's after midnight and I'm still awake...hmmmm.  Oh, and I spent 8 hours today shopping at three malls.  Could it be the PXP that gave me extra energy?  Now, if only I had extra money to shop!

8:43 and 11:11

I've always looked at the clock at the specific time of 8:43.   This has been something that I've done for years, and always kind of laughed it off and thought, "Oh my gosh, it's 8:43!!!  Almost everyday at that time, I seem to be glancing at the clock.    843 was also the prefix for the phone number my family had years ago.  Anyway, lately, another set of numbers I seem to be catching on the clock is 11:11.  Weird.  I wonder what it means?  Is it some kind of sign?  Maybe it's just a coinkydink, or maybe I should play the lottery!!! 

I Put My Red Boots On and Nobody Noticed But My Toes

My daughter asked me if I wanted to go out with her and her friends and I said that I would go and be the designated driver.  I don't go out very much, but it's something I used to enjoy doing, so I said that I could be their driver and see what's going on in Old Town Scottsdale these days.  Also, it gave me an excuse to get out those red boots I never wear. 

 

My blouse kept slipping off my shoulder so I just gave up and let it fall.  I don't know why I was so worried about my tank showing underneath, when about half of the girls out were wearing super short, tight mini dresses with the neckline so low that the bra was totally exposed. I believe the style was to pull the dress down completely under the bra.  My, have things changed!  I felt like I had no business being there, and not because my boyfriend had a huge problem with it...although, that may have had something to do with it.  I think those who noticed probably knew I was a mom out with my daughter, and thought, how nice. I could tell by the smiles. :-)  In fact, an older guy in the crowd (about my age) approached me and asked me which one was my daughter.  That kind of stung, I was hoping it wasn't that obvious!  But!!!  I did get carded at the front door, in spite of me saying I'm the mom, because the guy still said he HAD to see my license.  Regardless of the reason why, it kind of made me feel good.

I liked this place.  It's called the Saddle Ranch.  The music wasn't too loud, the crowd was mixed, it wasn't overly crowded, and we could watch people ride the bull.  I tried to get the girls to do it but they didn't want to.  Did I?  Nope, but would I???

It was fun for me watching the girls have a fun time together.  Three of my daughter's friends came from out of town, and my daughter was so looking forward to hanging out with them. However, the night before she was so sick, and wasn't able to do anything but go to bed early. I'm so glad she recovered, and the next day they were able to go horseback riding and go to the mall before going out.  Look how beautiful they all look!

I thought this was a cool picture.  My daughter's friend's boyfriend got us in to Axis/Radius, without having to wait in the long line outside.  Then he was able to get us VIP passes to go upstairs.  If you want to people watch, this is the place to be.  If you want anything else, I'm sure you'll find it here.

Here I am with my daughter. I'm happy she and her friends invited me to be a part of their evening.  It's funny when I look back at the night, the ride there was very informative and very entertaining, and the ride back was even more fun! 

Life and Family

The memories we give may a lifetime live in the heart of those we hold so close.
My mom and me...

Keep true to the dream of thy youth. ~ Friedrich Von Schiller

Like branches on a tree we grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.  Each of our lives will always be a special part of the other.

 Other things may change us but we start and end with family. ~ Anthony Brandt

...we have a common thread that won't be broken ~ by people or years or distance.