50 is the new 30...

... at least that's what johnny says. i like it. i think i will adopt the saying. oh well, enough on that subject!

last night gram, sherry, annie and i went to the andre rieu concert. the mullens bought tickets for us. it was a combination birthday for me and treat for mom. we were the ones that were treated! mom/gram had been so excited to go to the concert. she enjoys wathing his dvd's until the wee hours of the morning. when we loaded up in the car to leave for the concert she said - "i hope i'm not disappointed." she wasn't.

how i wish all those who love gram could have been there to see her eyes light up. she smiled, she sang along, she clapped. it was an absolutely delightful evening spent under the stars at the usana amphitheatre, being entertained by a talented and beautiful orchestra, and gram! (in the picture below gram is holding what has become her signature sees lollipop. she tells me i give the to her just to keep her quiet! :) )

annie took a great little video of gram. i'll get a copy if i can and post it. she was listening to the music and then turned to annie, nodded her head and said in her very own gram style, "it's good".

thanks am and mike!

chuck e cheese

a good place to party. not a good place to eat!

happy bday anna and timo - what a night.

cindy gardner updates

for those who want to follow progress updates on cindy and what's happening to her will be posted on her blog http://gardnerscompost.blogspot.com/.

thanks for the care and concern.

thoughts

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell. ~Lance Armstrong If you're going through hell, keep going. Never, never, never give up ~Winston Churchill Cancer is a word, not a sentence. ~John Diamond

hallowed grounds

(statue to youth rising from the waves - normandy american cemetery)

d-day 1944, a 5000 vessel armada left the british shores, crossed the english channel and over 150,000 men from the allied forces landed of the beaches of france. six parachute regiments - over 13,000 men - were flown in 800 plus planes and dropped behind enemy lines. by nightfall over 9000 allied soldiers were dead or wounded, but the rest made it to shore. the average age of the men was 22. in colleville-sur-mer, normandy is the normandy american cemetery and memorial. in it are 9387 crosses or stars of david, marking graves of american soldiers who died on this day or shortly after. all facing west towards home. the names of 1557 americans who lost their lives in the conflict but could not be located and/or identified are inscribed on walls within the memorial. a father and son were laid side by side as well as 33 pairs of brothers. well over 56 million people, military and civilian, lost their lives as a result of world war II.

mom and i watched a pbs special on the american cemeteries in europe. french and belgian citizens visit these memorials often, giving thanks and homage to those who sacrificed for their and all of our freedom. it is on my bucket list to visit these hallowed grounds. i wish to see the poppies grow and walk among the crosses row on row.

i am told that many of these graves are merely markers. the us government has brought home any soldier who's family wanted them near. sue and steve watched "taking chance" this past memorial day and has urged us all to watch it. it is the story of a young soldier's journey as he accompanies another soldier's body home. i think i will rent it for tomorrow night.

in the meantime i shall continue to love history. i shall continue to love my country. i shall continue to honor those who gave and those who are now giving so much in order to preserve freedoms.

large lovely "charming" ladies

last year for cori's big bday all those close to her bought her a charm for her charm bracelet that was also bought. it took nearly a year for us then to get around to taking it into the jeweler to have the charms soldered onto the bracelet, then another 3-4 months for us to get around to going back into the jeweler to pick it up. and then....curses....the bracelet was not to be found at the store! the store owner looked high and look under all the "c" for connors files. he could not find the bracelet. he told her she needed her receipt because he could find nothing and the store kept two copies of all transactions and both of those were missing! hmm. finding the receipt was not an easy task because well, it was 3-4 months ago and cori changed purses and cleaned her car out many times and it just wasn't to be found. a few days ago i went back to the store with cori, without her receipt, just to see if they had found the charmer! nope, no record or anything close to it under connors or cori files. the owner asked if we remembered who helped us. we described the clerk - his regular and though she was not working that day he called her up and asked if she recalled the transaction. she didn't. as he was about to hang up i asked him to tell her that it was two "big" ladies (we like to think of ourselves as large, lovely ladies) that brought it in and we had a younger girl with us - annie. he laughed and said "you don't want me to say that". cori and i emphatically said "yes we do" and cori added "yeah and it was for my 50th birthday so we are old too!" he repeated our comments and lo and behold she remembered us. and just as she was telling the manager where the bracelet was filed, i simultaneously said "pineapple enterprises"! (that's the name of one of cori's business). sure enough the bracelet was safely filed away, waiting to be picked up. yeah! she wore it all day.

moral - it helps to have a memorable physique!

hello again

annie said i need to blog again. cori tells me it is time for me to blog again. (look who's talking) so here it is half past midnight, the lights are turned low, the back door is held open by a ceramic pig while the front door is propped open with an old shoe form. the screens are shut to hold back the bugs. a gentle breeze is flowing. the air is fresh, i'm watching a rerun of cold case and life in general is good!

i'm sure more words will come later, for a more interesting blog, but for now I am content. i will close this computer, curl up with a soft blankie and drift off to sleep. ( in about an hour or two that is, but the drift will be delightful.)