Mom turns 60!

To celebrate such a momentous occasion, the family flew to Scottsdale, Arizona and rented a huge house for a long weekend. Although the weather was barely warm enough to use the pool a few of the days, we had a wonderful trip! We did some beautiful hiking in the desert and had some very delicious meals out! For mom's birthday dinner, we went to Chelsea's Kitchen which was amazing, and the ambiance was perfect. Mom enjoyed opening all of her gifts, including the memory album that we made for her. Also, all of the girls took mom to a special spa day to spoil her, including a lunch by the spa pool! The kids had a blast, and since then Raegan has been asking if we can move to Arizona. Frankly, I think she just liked living in a house with 10 people! There is always something to do, somewhere to go, someone to play with! :)

Happy birthday to my amazing mother! 60 and fabulous!

Halloween 2015

This is a very late post, but I HAVE to write about our super fun superhero Halloween. Raegan decided she wanted to be a superhero this year, and I thought wouldn't it be fun to have a PAIR of superheros!?  So, we bought a few components and made a few components of the costumes....which I think always makes it more fun. When they put on the costume for a trial run, Raegan comes sprinting into the room announcing, "It's super Raegan and her super sidekick Bubba Boy!" I have some great video of them zooming around the house! They both really enjoyed trick or treating, and we were able to go with Raegan's best friend, Lilly, from preschool who just lives down the street. Also, since it was on a Saturday this year, Aunt Meg drove up to join us in her Minion costume! The girls were fast and furious running to each door, and Owen did his best to keep up! They were both determined to hold their own buckets, even when they were filled to the top! (Daddy and I would have to secretly empty them into another bag as they were getting too heavy!). At the end of the night they dumped their treasures onto the floor and enjoyed the sugar! After the sugar crash, the kids went off to bed, and the adults headed to a Halloween party - Daddy as a Hippie, Mommy as a butterfly, and Minion Meg. :)

Earlier that month, we took our annual trip to the pumpkin farm. The kids had a blast riding the train, eating caramel apples, petting the farm animals, picking out pumpkins, riding the hay ride, riding the ponies, and much more! This is definitely one of my favorite Fall activities!

The smell of cookies

I was talking to mom on facetime, co-cooking lunch with her using a sunbasket recipe, when she mentioned making chocolate chip cookies. I thought, that is an indulgence I haven't had in a long time. I didn't give it much more thought than that, until I starting smelling the cookies baking in the oven.....and then I remembered......the last time I made cookies I was at my parent's house in Illinois. We were there because Grandma T was in the hospital. She wasn't going to make it. I was at my parent's house, just Owen and I. We had been back and forth to the hospital for what seemed like dozens of trips. Sitting next to Grandma and holding her hand, singing to her, reassuring her that we were there, reading to her..... wishing that this would end for her and wishing she would not go.....

To pass the time before our next trip to see Grandma, I had decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Owen was running around the house playing with toys. I could smell the cookies in the oven when my phone rang. It was Meghan and she said I should come to the hospital quickly. I hung up, in a panic. Before I could even process my next step.....grab Owen, find the keys, get the diaper bag.....the phone rang again. It was Lindsey. Grandma was gone.

What I think I will always remember the most about her is how I felt when I was with her. Always loved. Always cherished. Always important. I also loved her stories about her life on the farm. She could retell them with such vivid detail. She also would tell me about her life as child.....how she used to go to businesses to sell candy when she was a child so that her family could put food on the table. Her father was a jack of all trades. He even ran a laundry mat at one time to earn money. I think this might be one of the things that I am most sad about.....that all of her stories and all of her history are gone with her. Tell me again, Grandma, how that clock on the mantel was a wedding gift to your parents. Remind me, once more, the story about your footstool and how many times it has been reupholstered. I wish, now, that I would have listened more closely to each tiny detail, or written these things down. And then, after I had my own children, she would tell me how modern advancements have made parenting so much easier. How she used to take the cloth diapers out to the wash tub, scrub them clean, hang them on the line to dry outside, and then take them off the line. I would say, "I don't know how you did it! Six boys!" She would always say to me, "You just take one day at a time." 

She always took one day at a time, and lived in that day. For someone who outlived her entire immediate family and best friends, and lived through wars and the Great Depression, she never did sweat the small stuff. She took it one day at time. She lived with such grace. I'm not sure what I did in some past life to have deserved to be her granddaughter in this lifetime, but I am forever grateful. 

Losing someone so special

Shortly after I wrote the last blog entry, my family lost someone very special, my Grandma Trutter (Grandma T, as we often called her). She lived a long and wonderful life to the age of 97. I think I had always thought she would at least make it to 100, and so although by any measure she lived a long life, her passing was very unexpected for me. I have not blogged since she passed. Each entry would be emailed to her inbox, and she would read every word. She would then comment when she would talk to me on the phone, or email a response, or mention to my Dad how much she enjoyed reading the posts. Sometimes I think I was blogging just for her.....to keep her updated on my life.....and because I know how much she enjoyed reading the updates! Similarly, she also loved letters! She loved writing them and getting them. She wrote me dozens and dozens of letters when I went off to college, and she and I wrote each other often ever since.

I know that she is still here, somewhere, watching down on us all. Now she can get all of her updates in real time, I hope.

Vita mutatur, non tollitur.

I will always love you Gram. You will always be such a significant part of who I am.