An Engaging Day

I have friends who post beautiful heart warming words in important events in their lives, or their daughter's lives.  

I don't seem to have any heart warming words to write today, but they are in my heart.

My daughter went to Ireland with her boyfriend and his sisters.

When she came back, she was engaged.

My dear girl, we are very happy for her. 

No Teenagers Here

There comes a time in every family.  

The last child turns 20.

There are no more teenagers at home.

A barrier had been crossed. 

A torch has been passed.

Or something like that.  

There are new little kids coming up, (none teenagers yet, thank goodness).

It feels a lot like an empty nest these days.

Birthdays bring family home and Lynette's birthday party filled up some of those empty spaces. 

Lynette tried out her photography skills on her sister's family, and it looks like they got one of her and the newest family member.  

For the Millers, not us.

While I was decorating birthday cake and helping Mom make the chili enchiladas that are her specialty for supper.  We had a little boy visit us.  He decided to stay even though I told him he would have to play by himself, I would be too busy.  

He got a better afternoon than he expected since Papa came home, set up his loader bucket, gave him a pile of sand to play in and then took him back of the shop where he spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the dirt pile Jim made while clearing a spot for a concrete pad. 

He gets a special photo since in the one above with Lynette and the two boys, he was behind the couch. 

The Measuring Wall

There is a wall in our house that we don't want to paint.  

It is a record of our lives.  

It isn't really a wall, just the edge of one

that is a perfect spot for measuring the kids' growing up.  

We have the adults up there, too, so the kids' can see who

they are catching up to.

We love to look to see when Nathan and Lynette were the same height, 

to see how soon someone is catching up to Mom. 

(Nobody is going to catch up to Dad.)

Even the neighbor girl is on the wall, so she too can see

how much she is growing.  

We've know her for ten years and they don't

do this at her house. 

We had a place to measure when I was growing up, on 

the painted trim in the kitchen.  The walls and trim were yellow then

and we watched our names rise from year to year.  

That spot is gone now, who wants a kitchen to stay sunshine yellow

forever?  I suppose someday we will have to 

paint over this little memory.  

But, the nice thing about memories, is that some day they make good stories.