THE SHOWER!! Photos Only

Our very own Prince William and Princess Cate!!

My flowers!!! Beautiful roses from my son, the groom and a mother's wrist corsage!!

The cake!! Sandcastles on the beach in Hawaii...check out the neat dolphin

The invitation

The happy couple in hula skirts!!

Tony and his women!! My sister, Fritz, my niece, Sarah and my sister, Lynn.

What a great time we had.

A Sunday Showing

Our house has been on the market for two weeks now. We've had a lot of "traffic" through the house, but no offers yet. Today was the first Open House our realtor has had so we headed for Hermes Vineyard, one of our favorite places. The wine was more "minerally" than we are used to, but it was good to get in the car and drive and see the country side. We took a side trip to the restaurant where Marie's shower will be and were very impressed by the view and location.

But now we're back. It seems odd to know that people were walking through your house and commening on your decorating and things about the house that are no longer an issue for you. We know people were on the upper deck outside of the master bedroom and that they were in the "kids" bathroom. We could see footprints on the carpeting, so we know we had "foot traffic" we just don't know how the house went over. But, it's still funny to me to know that strangers were in our house when we weren't. Oh, I know when our kids were growing up, there were probably alot of strangers in our house when Tony and I were out of town...but somehow that's different. We smelled cigarettes after the last visit and I was very offended that "guests" to whatever degree might think it was OK to smoke in our house. Wrong. It is not. But, the house is on the market now, so I guess some of this comes with the territory

I went to "Sister Lunch" yesterday with Fritz and Lynn and Sarah joined us. We had fun poking fun at Lynn this time. We are all going to Marie's shower next week. I can't wait. I hope Jenna can come and bring Ellie.

We have more showing scheduled and I know that at some point, this one will be THE ONE. I have ragged on this house for 22 years, but the thought of leaving it is harder to take than I thought it would be. So much new stuff and so much unknown.

Must be a sign of age....change is getting harder for me. Even good change.

She Was Ours Before the Gavel Sounded

Today was a wonderful day. We were invited to go to Columbus to be present at the adoption hearing that would make Ellie ours for good. But, to Tony and I, Ellie was our grandchild well before the gavel sounded. The judge, who was wonderful, went through the proper proceedings, he read all of the appropriate material and let the court appointed attorney do her questioning. He let all of the "parties of interest" give their testimony and then, after some laughing and pre-celebration, pronounced with the banging of his gavel that Ellie was Elizabeth Purdum, our grandchild. Except, from the moment she was born, Ellie was ours. Ellie was a Purdum, through and through. She has two brothers that love her unconditionally and two parents who do the same. She has aunts and uncles and grandparents who would literally fight anyone who said she is not part of our family. Ellie has always been part of our family. And so today, the court system said she is too. And maybe we needed that...maybe for tax purposes or other legal things. But, from the heart, Ellie has always been ours. We didn't need a gavel to tell us that.

Once again, Miss Elizabeth Rae Purdum, welcome to your family. The people who will love you all the days of your life.

Lunch With My Other Son

If any of you have opened your cooking and life lessons cookbook, you may recall that I put in a life lesson that says, "when you get married you just don't marry your spouse, you marry their whole family." As all of you now are either married, or about to be, I'm sure you can see the truth in that statement.

You walk into different traditions and make new ones with different people. Sometimes you mesh very well and other times you feel like a catus in a sea of babies breath. You have to try very hard to fit in--but the family has to try equally hard to let you in.

It occurred to me this past Father's Day, that I needed to do a better job of this with Jon, my son-in-law and one of the best fathers I know. So, this past Saturday, we went to lunch at Salmon Dave's in Rocky River. We just talked. There were no long pauses or wishing the time went by faster. We talked about a million things and I learned things about Jon I should have asked 7 years ago when he entered our family.

I learned that besides being a wonderful husband to my daughter and father to their children, that Jon is creative and funny. We talked about his childhood health problems and how he didn't let that stop him from swimming competively. We talked about the inequities of the working world and things that he wanted to be when he grew up. I found out that we share the same dislike of country music but we both love the Lakewood area because of the small shops and hometown feel it has to it.

We talked about Jon the person who sometimes gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the kids and making sure Jenna is feeling OK.

When your children decide to get married, you hope that their spouse will love them, treat them with respect and care for their well being as much as you have. In this, Jon has far surpassed my hopes.

I went to a fortune teller a long time ago. She told me I was going to have 3 children--a girl and two boys. Well, I had the girl and inherited the two boys. But somewhere along the line, in the halls of National City and in a church in Berea, I gained another wonderful son. We had lunch on Saturday and I hope we do it again very soon.

A Day With Miss Elizabeth Rae Purdum

Happy Mother's Day To Me And 3 Hours for Jenna

I decided what I wanted most for Mother's Day was to see the kids. I also thought a nice present for Jenna would be some time with Jon....so we took the kids for 3 hours today. I bought new toys to play with--we had lunch--the kids played with Papa and the hot tub and when we took the kids back, Jenna and Jon look a little more relaxed and glad for the time together. Happy Mother's Day to Me, and to Jenna, the best Mom I know. See what fun we had!!

The Fun We Had Babysitting!!