Sorry about the abandoned blog

Now that we're heading into basically our 5th month of winter, as this one started in mid-November and if you consider that it's almost March, it could be said that this is our 5th month (and it sounds good for complaining's sake) ... I seem to have few things to photograph or comment upon.

Here's an announcement: things are sometimes very dull here!

A couple of great things have happened lately... Mary Beth, Stella's godmother, got married last Friday in Seattle...yay! And my BFF Shannon might be having a baby as I write this! She's overdue...her due date was Feb. 21st. She has a little girl named Neva who will be a big sister very soon. Shannon was to be induced today.

Stella had a good birthday. Very low-key. I knew her favorite thing would be this:



And A.J. liked, it, too!



Stella recently changed classrooms within her special ed program. She was in the preschool ABA classroom, and was supposed to stay there until this fall, but the district moved her to the next grade level ABA so they could make more room for younger kids coming in to the program. It meant changing schools, and even school hours, and I was livid about it. I even met with the school principal over it. But in the end, it wasn't something they needed my permission to do, so I tried to be open to the change.

As it turns out, Stella really loves her new classroom and new teacher. We took pink cupcakes to her classroom on her birthday. It was only her second day there.


This is Stella with her teacher Dianne. How old do you think she is? I would've guessed 22 or so. And then she said she had teenagers at home!

She is 37. She is officially the single-most young-looking person for their age that I've ever met. I like her very much so far.

And Stella, who's been getting up anywhere from 4:30 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. (don't ask; I'm about dead from it), starts begging to get on the schoolbus as early as 6:00 a.m. ... and it doesn't come until 7:45. She just loves going to school.

Happy 5th Birthday, Stella

This is a video I made as a tribute to our beautiful Stella, whose birthday is on Tuesday the 17th. Since her birthday always fills me with emotions I can't always understand, I decided to use my energy for this. Turn up your speakers.



Song is "Seven Years" by Norah Jones.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl.

Goodbye to the sweetest great aunt (and uncle)

My dear Aunt Norma Hamblin died Sunday. I will miss her very much. Some of my earliest memories are of Aunt Norma and Uncle David's much-anticipated visits to Kansas, eagerly awaiting their car to show up after their long drive from the Chicago area, which seemed so far away.

Aunt Norma was also a displaced Kansan. She grew up on the family farm in Montana, Kansas...a town that doesn't even exist anymore, but spent her adult years in the Chicago area with my Uncle David, who was also from Kansas. She was the youngest of 3 ... Arwana, my grandpa Calvin, who died in 1979, and her.

I know the death of my grandparents, her dear brother and sister-in-law, was hard for her, and I'm sure she's celebrating with them again.

There was never anyone more cheerful than Aunt Norma, and she was always eager to hug me and let me jump on her lap. I adored her. My earliest memory of her is that one time she gave me Juicy Fruit gum out of her purse.



My Uncle David is also a wonderful soul. He is struggling with cancer right now. He's a WWII veteran of the South Pacific. He's a sweet person, too, and I wish I could be there with all of them now.

I know the Hamblins are a strong, closeknit family and are taking care of each other. Aunt Norma and Uncle David have had dedicated children and grandchildren around them. But I just wanted to express how much Aunt Norma meant to me. Thinking of her makes me think of those hot Kansas summers in Parsons, trips to the Peter Pan and picking watermelons ... lots of great happy memories with my loving aunt.

Aunt Norma always had a smile in her voice, and I will never forget the sweetness of that sound.

Just a post script...my Uncle David died two days ago. He and Aunt Norma are together. It's very sad, but they would have wanted to be together.