I do believe I stayed home all day...wow!

 Yes, I did, I stayed home today.  I went outside with Sunny a few times, got the mail, raked up some messes from the yard, thank you Little Miss Sunshine.  I washed dishes and three loads of bedding.  I vacuumed, then Mariel came over in the afternoon.  She baked five dozen cupcakes, and brought them over with frosting.  Chocolate with peanut butter frosting, vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and gluten free carrot cupcakes with browned butter cream cheese frosting.  They look lovely, and it was fun.

Char and Cam were busy doing their classwork, I don't think they even went outside today.  Paul is getting up, in Budapest, at four am, and heading to the airport and towards home.  It's been a long two weeks, and I'm super excited to see him again.  I hope his flights are better this trip, and that his luggage makes it here too.  (he finally received it after eight days...and Swiss Air only wants to compensate him for half his clothing purchases...)

Some random pictures because although Random is not my middle name, it should be.  Ben and Ashley, taken by Anya...(Benjamin is my oldest son...isn't he handsome?  Ashley is so pretty too...:))

....with Anya, Elise, Declan

The oldest grandchild (Anya is almost 12) holding the youngest (Kaia is three weeks old)

These two put with a lot from me...ha.  We went thrifting the other day, and I found two "fat lady bathing suits", no offense, but that's what I call them, for $3.49 each.  A roll of wrapping paper, some grandchildren clothes, and some things for the girls.  We declared it a good thrifting expedition.  

Just a beautiful morning on the deck.  The flowers are so lovely, I hate this time of year, because of saying goodbye to them all...ugh.  The garden too, so many half formed tomatoes!  Soon I'll just pick them and see if they ripen in the windowsill.  We still get so many grape tomatoes though, every time I go out there, I get another bowl full.

Sometimes I miss my mother so badly, so out of the blue, it hurts almost physically.  I clean something and my hands smell like bleach, and like a punch in the gut, I think of her.  It didn't take much to make her happy, I would pick her up and take here along on my errands.  If I had to run in the pet store for chinchilla food and that stuff they roll in to take a bath (yes, I once paid money for "dust", the things you do for your kids!), she would gladly wait in the van with the kids so I didn't have to unbuckle like five car seats and bring them all in.  She would tell them stories and give them tic tacs and make it fun for them.  (sometimes I remind myself exactly of her).  (I remember her pushing Aaron in the cart in Kmart and giving him the Tic Tac container, he put it in his mouth and bit it and cracked it...oops!  Once she had him in Walmart, and took him into the photo studio and had his picture taken...he was like 18 months, and SO cute...(he's our sixth child, I probably had the other five with me, including newborn Molly Rose...)

I remember going into Kmart not long after she died, and the old woman in front of me in line, her hands!  Her hands looked just like my mother's, long fingers, wrinkled...it broke my heart.  I just had such a strong longing for my mother, I wanted her back.  

If you still have your mother, call her, visit her, tell her you love her.  :)

I miss my mother-in-law too.  She was a bit spicy, and not always the nicest to me, to be honest, in the early years.  I can't say I blame her, she just didn't understand us having all these kids, and she worried about us, which I get more now.  But in the later years, she mellowed out, and we became genuinely good friends.  She was astute and very smart, and she could figure people out, and she said some outrageous things.   But she had a good heart, and she became quite humble in her old age.  I would love to go back in time and give her a big hug too.  

Ah well.  Tomorrow is water aerobics, then I am going to pick up something for my sister's birthday celebration.  It's very exciting, her daughter from Australia came, and her daughter living in Norway, and the one from Ottowa...hopefully Elle from Ohio too, to join her three daughters who live locally.  Yes, she has seven daughters!    I'm looking forward to seeing them all tomorrow!  

And...good night!