Every Photo Has a Story

December 20, 2017

Annual Thanksgiving time family photo, two years ago. The story behind the picture: Nobody was happy, everyone was cold and grumpy--especially me--, it was way too dark already to take the photos. But Bree was getting ready to head back home, and I was desperate to get it done. Not just because I'm a maniac about pictures, but because this was just a little after my diagnosis, just before my first surgery. At the least, I'd never exactly look like this again. Even more than that, even though it was caught early, even though I was one of the lucky ones, the future was still a question mark. A tiny little irrational voice, persistent but quiet, kept whispering, "But what if this is the last time we get to take a family photo? What if this is the last time the kids take a picture with me? I want the kids to at least have this." Irrational, but I wouldn't let it go until we got a few shots. See how dark it is in the photo? It's so much brighter now on the other side of the shot. In this photo, I see gratefulness.

The Next Best Thing to Home

November 24, 2012

It was really strange to not have all three of my kids home for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Bree's schedule and finances conspired against us getting her home for the long weekend, especially since she had just been home a couple of weeks before.  However, she was able to make the relatively short journey to spend Thanksgiving with her Aunt Lisa, which was the next best thing to home.  On one of the vacation days, Lisa took all the kids, plus some additional friends of her girls, and the went to the local trampoline place to bounce off some energy.

Reflecting on Thankful November

December 1, 2011

Several of my friends posted on Facebook throughout November all of the things they were thankful for. I like this idea, but I decided that I'd keep a running list of my daily 'things that I'm thankful for' and post them all here at the end of the month. As is turns out, I'm kind of glad for the opportunity to go back through my list now, since I need to keep things in perspective in light of my van's transmission going out. It's depressing to think how much that van's been a money pit. It helps to focus more on all the positive things I have going in my life. In the balance of things, I've got plenty of happy to outweigh a little transmission problem.

Days of November--the little things that make me happy:

1st--Today I am grateful for after-Halloween sales, because my hubby loves to spend money to dress up our Halloween yard in style. The only tough part about it is that he has to wait a whole year to get to use his new purchases.
2nd--Today I am grateful for the return of one of our favorite television shows--Top Chef!
3rd--Today I am grateful for finally finding Danielle's costume for her play. It's tougher than I thought it would be to find a drop-waisted 1920's style dress for a twelve year old. These are the times I wish I could sew.
4th--Today I am grateful for our tradition of Family Dinner Night. Even when times are tough, I made sure we were able to keep this tradition.
5th--Today I am grateful for having a husband who is with me at the sidelines of all the soccer games we attend, cheering just as loudly as I do for our kids.
6th--Today I am grateful for all of my girlfriends. I am blessed with a loving, strong, and dynamic group of girlfriends I admire.
7th--Today I am grateful for a husband who makes me laugh and smile every single day.
8th--Today I am grateful for a safe, warm home. It may not be the biggest, or the fanciest, but it is our home, and it's full of love.
9th--Today I am grateful for kids who are healthy and happy.
10th--Today I am grateful for three-day weekends. I love my job, but I also love and extra day off now and again!
11th--Today I am grateful that at 44, I still have excellent eye-sight. I went to the optomistrist today and got that confirmed for me.
12th--Today I am grateful that my sister has met such a great guy to bring into our family. The engagement party was lovely!
13th--Today I am grateful for an incredible extended family.
14th--Today I am grateful for my students, and for having a job I feel can make a difference.
15th--Today I am grateful for naps. Enough said.
16th--Today I am grateful for the wonderful arts and sciences programs that CUSD offers for my children to participate in.
17th--Today I am grateful for some great colleagues that I call friends.
18th--Today I am grateful for special one-on-one times with my kids.
19th--Today I am grateful that I am married to my best friend.
20th--Today I am grateful that I live in Clovis.
21st--Today I am grateful for a lovely week-long vacation.
22nd--Today I am grateful for my sweet and loveable birthday boy.
23rd--Today I am grateful Brianna had a safe trip home with her step-sisters.
24th--Today I am grateful for plenty--plenty of family, plenty of friends, plenty of food, and plenty of love.
25th--Today I am grateful for getting some good Black Friday sales.
26th--Today I am grateful for having fun taking pictures of all of my kids together.
27th--Today I am thankful for my sister, who is my best friend.
28th--Today I am thankful to have found a place to write and share my ideas, whether it's the big stuff or the trivial and mundane. At the very least, my kids will have a record of who their mom was and what kids of stuff the valued and thought about years from now (knock on wood) after I'm gone.
29--Today I am thankful the kids' dad and I have a strong co-parenting situation. Not everyone is so lucky.
30--Today I am grateful for my hilarious and generous sweet birthday girl.

Giving Thanks that My Baby is Home

November 24, 2011

It makes me oh, so happy (and thankful!) to have my baby home for Thanksgiving. Not that we did anything particularly exciting--a little holiday meal, a little Black Friday shopping, a lot of laughing and chatting as a family. All of us together again for a little while.

Thanksgiving 2011

November 24, 2011

On the afternoon of Thanksgiving, the kids were all over at their dad's house. We try very hard to make sure that we both get to see the kids on all the big days of the year--Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, etc.--so we weren't going to see them until later on in the evening that day. While the kids were over there, we went to Doug's mom's house to spend Thanksgiving with his side of the family. I really enjoy being a part of a bigger family like this, especially since my own siblings are so spread out that we don't always get a chance to get together at Thanksgiving. I'm thankful to have in-laws who welcome us and include us as part of their celebration.

I think Miss Zoe is thankful she's got a cushy seat!
Doug and Jonathon, playing cards.
Doug and his sister, Lisa.
Justin and Courtney
Doug and his mom.





Lisa and Larry


Doug and his nephew Justin.

Thanksgiving 2010

November 29, 2010

Despite being sick for nearly all of vacation, we had a great Thanksgiving. Lisa, Devin, and Bailey came up (Taylor was with her dad in Oakland), and Jim and Kathryn joined us for our feast. Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, sparkling apple cider--the works. We ate til we couldn't eat anymore. Not long after, we went back for more. During dinner, I asked everyone to say something they were thankful for, as I do every Thanksgiving. Our responses this year?

Bailey--I'm thankful for parents, because they get you stuff.

Devin--I'm thankful for everybody I know, even the mean ones, because they've taught me I can face them.

Danielle--I'm thankful for food, family, and when cousins and aunts come. I'm also thankful for pizza and softball. The emphasis is on the FOOD.

Taylor (by phone)--I'm thankful for all my family and friends.

Nicholas--I am thankful for this wonderfully wonderful dinner.

Kathryn--I'm thankful for good teachers, because I can learn so much, and for this day because it's been good so far.

Brianna--I'm thankful for everyone being able to be together, and not just getting together once a year.

Lisa--I'm thankful for family and our extended definition of that, and that we can all be together for the holidays.

Doug--I'm thankful that in these tough economic times, we have too much food, rather than too little.

Jim--I'm thankful for economic easements instated by the government.

Donna--I am thankful for our family, and how we are blessed with not just the family we are born into but the ones we have chosen to be family as well.


On Friday Lisa and I took the kids to the Oh Wow Nickel Arcade, and later to the pool room. Saturday Laura came up to join us, and we converged on the baseball field at our neighborhood park for the annual Mayes Girls Thanksgiving Softball game. I think this might have been my favorite softball game so far, since it started raining on us during the middle of the second inning. Softball in the rain is far more desirable than our ill-timed 100+ degree game at the Fourth of July celebration! That evening we all gathered for one of our famous family and friends pizza nights, and then the adults all headed out to Thai Fusion for a little karaoke. What a blast! We closed the place down, as we have been occasionally known to do, and then Doug, Laura, and I came back home and talked well into the night.

Although we missed the members of our family who weren't with us, I am so thankful that so many of us are able to get together and really have fun. I love my family!

Yeah, We're a Little Weird

November 14, 2010

Some of you might recognize Eric. Eric became part of our Halloween celebration several years ago, presiding over our 'dressed-up-for-the-holiday' lawn. He holds court over the graveyard and all the creepies and ghoulies that inhabit our yard in October. A few years ago we decided to keep Eric around even after we packed up the Halloween graveyard, and he became our honorary Ghost of Christmas Past through December. We realized, however, that Eric seems a little awkward hanging out in the yard in the Thanksgiving interim between his two holidays, so this year we bought him a little something so that he could feel like he was playing a part in the Thanksgiving festivities as well. Eric looks pretty dapper in his Fall hat, don't you think?

Thanksgiving 2009

November 29, 2009

My sister Lisa was able to come up from Corona to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. Both her kids and my kids have been beside themselves waiting to see each other again. (I just love how much our kids love each other!) Jim (who is the closest thing to a brother that I have, besides my ACTUAL brother) hosted the feast at his house this year, taking on the turkey duties, along with gravy, candied yams (which I just don't get, but his daughter Kathryn really likes), mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie (made by Kathryn), just to name a few dishes. At my house, we cooked the ham, dressing, corn, rolls, and deviled eggs before packing it all up and heading to Jim's for dinner.

At Jim's we all took turns sharing what we were thankful for before digging in and relishing the food and conversation. Things we were thankful for varied from being thankful that we could all be together to being thankful for Team Edward (my niece, Taylor) to being thankful for rolls (Nicholas was hungry!)

After letting our (quite) full bellies settle a bit, Doug broke out the karaoke, and we all took turns singing for hours. Doug has an amazing library of karaoke songs, so we were able to sing 80s pop, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, Frank Sinatra, Kings of Leon--you name it! Everyone got up and took turns singing solo, duets, and background. Perfect family entertainment for a family kind of day.