Happy 16th Birthday Son!

Could it be? My son is 16 already? I'm so proud of the fine young man he's becoming....all the sports he plays, his good grades and nice friends he has in and out of school, and how I'm sure he helps his mom with all the man stuff around the house (I hope!). No doubt he's running out right away to get his driving permit...what 16 year-old boy doesn't do that on his birthday?!? Sure he's itching to get behind the wheel and go places with his friends. What an exciting time. Any time you'd like to go out driving, son, just give me a call. Happy to take you any time. Birthday gifts are on the way, will wait til I'm sure he got them before talking about them on here. Enjoy your day my son ~ love and miss you very much ~ always your Dad <3

Father's Day

I celebrate Father's Day with the same joy I have for the last 17 years ~ because I know in my heart that my children love and miss me as much as I love and miss them. I hear their silent prayers and pray for them in return. Hang in there kids, keep love in your heart and we'll be together again when the time is right. Enjoy your Father's Day with your Papa and uncles, I'll be thinking of you both!

This year, I will share Father's Day with my beautiful goddaughter Abby. Abby just graduated with National Honors from high school and will have a graduation party all day at a park on the lake. In a few weeks Abby will leave for boot camp, that's right boot camp! She has joined the Army Reserves and will serve our country for eight years. In return she will receive a ton of help paying for college, which she is going to need because she wants to go to med school to become a clinical child psychiatrist with her own practice. I'm so proud of her and thrilled to share in her special day with her.

Also this year, I share Father's Day with my beautiful niece Sydney who's 18th birthday is today and is also preparing to go off to college. She is headed for Dalhousie University in the fall with an academic scholarship - go Syd!. Hugely proud of her and know she's going to be all she wants to be - she's got the brains, the talent, and gosh darn it - people like her :). Can't wait to see her and her sister this summer when they come to visit.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to all the other Dad's out there reading my blog who also won't get to see or talk to their children on Father's Day (or any other day of the year for that matter). It hurts, but know they love you and keep the faith. If you need someone to talk to...you know how to find me.

Be sure to check out the great photo collage on my facebook page.

Fourwheeling Fun

Spent a great day outside clearing paths in the woods near my house where the guys in the neighborhood and I hunt for deer.  One of my neighbors and I took a big field mower and a chainsaw out back and cleaned up last year’s trails and made a few new ones. Saw a ton of tracks and rubbings and even a few turkeys and a bunch of young deer running through the new corn fields. Another couple months or so and we won’t even be able to see them through the high corn. Checked on our tree stands and made sure they were still intact, and after all that hard work and a nice sunset dinner on the back deck, we went for a long ride on the fourwheelers and just enjoyed the scenery.

The trails go way out through what used to be swamps until we figured out where the beaver dams were and asked the town to clean them out. Now they are nice open grass fields with big old trees, lots of bedding shrubs and a creek running through it. The trails twist and turn all through the field trees and then go up the hill around the farmer’s fields and down through the ravine between the fields and a huge bog on the other side of the hill. Despite all the rain lately it wasn't all that muddy, even in the thicker parts of the woods and the bottom of the hill near the bog.

My kids would love the trails, they would be out there every day either walking or on the fourwheelers with the other neighborhood teens. My daughter loves to hike in the woods and my son has been driving wheelers since he was small. Plus they would love the views from the top of the hill. It feels like you can see forever. Great start to the long holiday weekend….hope you are enjoying yours too....here comes summer!

In other news, my daughter just went to her junior prom...yep, junior prom, where does the time go? My princess is growing up so fast, next thing you know she'll be off at college and exploring the world. She's also got auditions for next year's musical coming up in a week and her music banquet the week after that, then final exams and then, finally, summer for her. Busy couple of weeks. Glad to help in any way I can...rides, driving lessons, study help, checking out colleges...you know how to find me baby girl, just ask and I'll be there.

My son is on his way to academic stardom. His grades are phenomenal and he will once again receive an award this year at awards night. He is super smart, just like his Grampa Chapman, and school has always come easy for him, but still I don't know how he does it. In addition to good grades, he plays sports all year round...and really intense sports too. This year he played football and was quarterback, then he jumped into wrestling, and from there he switched to lacrosse. So he does all that and still keeps his grades up. I am so proud of him! I'll be thinking of you son as you accept your award next week and go to your sports banquet the week after that. Good luck on your finals and have a great summer. Would love to take you out for some golf, or shooting, or fourwheeling this summer...oh wait, you're going to be 16 soon, we can go out driving...that would be fun...call me anytime!

Love and miss you both very much. Hope to see or talk to you soon.

Happy 17th Birthday Baby Girl

Can you believe it, she's 17 already?!? Hope my daughter is having the time of her life, as she always does, traveling with her school chorus friends on her birthday. I'm sure they will do something nice for her to make her birthday special. Every day my daughter gets smarter and more beautiful. I'm so proud of the wonderful young woman she is becoming. She's doing well in school, keeps very busy with singing and acting, and has lots of really nice friends to surround her with love and friendship. I sent her a package of gifts that I hope she gets when she returns. It arrived the day she left so she hasn't opened them yet, so I can't tell you about them yet. I'll do that in a few days after she's had a chance to see them first...wouldn't want to spoil her surprises ;) In the meantime, sending love and hugs your way baby girl ~ love and miss you very, very much! Can't wait to hug and see you soon!

UPDATE: So I'm pretty sure my daughter has opened her gifts by now, so it's safe to talk about them now. Plus she's had a lot going on - SAT's last weekend, Junior Prom in two weeks, and of course lots of school work catch up after being out of school for two days traveling with the chorus and then several days of in-school music activities right afterwards....poor girl is probably spending every waking moment catching up! Gotta keep up those good grades from the rest of the year, would be a shame to let it all go downhill now. Junior year is so important!

This year there are a bunch of new books out that my daughter would just love, she's an avid reader, always has been, would pour thorough books in mere days, even hours, but I obviously have no idea which books she has already and which ones she needs, so I thought an Amazon gift card would be a good bet. That way she can get whichever books she wants, or something else if she wants. Also sent her a panda bookmark from Chinatown in NYC that she can use in her new books. And what birthday present would be complete without a few cute purse things, she was always into that kind of girlie stuff. One was a purple patent leather alligator imprint mini-wallet and the other a hot pink velvet makeup bag with hand lotion and nail stuff. To go with her nail stuff, I found these tat-toes - no that's not a misspelling - they are tattoos for your toes. They were a really cute pink flowery print that is just sooo my daughter. A friend of mine also told me about an interesting video called MisRepresentation. It talks about the media's obsession with focusing girls on beauty instead of brains. It has interviews with teenage girls as well as Condolezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Katie Couric and other smart women. I hope it's good. I didn't watch it myself, so I could send her the unopened package, but I'm pretty confident in the person who recommended it. My daughter also likes to write stories, so I sent her another monogrammed journal and a fancy pen that she would like. And for her love of NYC and drama, a key chain from Broadway. Lastly, and probably the simplest but most fun, was a package of glow bracelets. Hope she saves them for her camping trips this summer with her friends. They would be perfect around the camp fire!

As for me, I'm plugging along with spring clean up around the office and the house. Have gardens in both places, so it's a bit of work every spring, but I do enjoy it. Love seeing the results of a neat clean yard, nice flowers and a lots of delicious organic vegetables. Just about finished with the clean up, still have some mulching to do but I think I'm ahead of the game this year thanks to the good weather. Need to stop by the town DPW for the free mulch...I'll take free any day. All the vegetables are already in the garden, hoping for an early corn crop again this year. Wishing everyone a happy spring, and my kids a good final push to the school year....keep those grades up and let me know if you'd like to visit some colleges this summer....be happy to take you around to see a few! Love and miss you both, and the other half of your family sends their love, hugs and kisses!

Well Happy New Year!

I know, I know, we're half way through January already and I'm just getting to the Happy New Year post. It was a crazy busy holiday this year, probably the busiest I've had in years, and it was great! Had stay-over company for nearly two weeks, did a lot of nearby traveling and visited with many of my friends and family in town. New Year's Eve was a lot of fun at a friend's house ~ all the younger children put on a special New Year's "Spectacular" Performance just after midnight, it was the cutest, funniest thing, reminded me so much of my kids. Perfect way to ring in the new year.

As promised on my Christmas post, here are the pics of the kids' Christmas gifts.

Now you know why it was hard to put up a photo ahead of time. It's pretty hard to disguise an acoustic guitar for my musical daughter and the family starter shotgun for my sports enthusiast son. You should have seen the size of the box I had to use to ship them both in together. Good thing my neighbor bought a really big deck box in the fall and had it shipped to his house...yep, recycling is a good thing, saves money. And yep, I had their gifts picked out and ready to go by the summer. I'm getting pretty good at planning ahead. You should have seen the look on the postal worker's face when I walked in to the post office to mail it. He laughed at why I would mail such a thing just a few miles away across town. We both got a good chuckle when I explained to him why. Seems everybody knows somebody who has gone through an ugly angry divorce, alas I'm never alone. I sure hope my kids enjoy their gifts. Would love to hear my daughter play something someday, and would love to take my son out for his first hunt. I'm sure they both know I'm just a phone call away.

And now it's mid-winter break time for my kids. Hope they have power at their house, with all this wind. Mine went out for a few hours this morning, but it's back on now. Both my kids are kicking butt in school this year. I'm so happy to see this, especially for my daughter. She really struggled the last few years, in some classes just barely passing at the end, but this year she actually has a 99 in trig going into mid-terms. I knew she could do it, just needed to buckle down and focus. Grades this year are super important to having choices with what you want to do in life after high school. Always best to have more choices than to limit yourself. My son, of course has always done well and continues to. I know he'll have lots of choices. I wonder what he's interested in after high school. He may not have even thought about it yet, he's just a freshman and really into sports, so I'm sure life after high school probably isn't even on his mind. Wishing them both the best of luck on mid-terms and regents. They've got a full week of exams ahead....study, rest and eat good! I'll know in a few weeks how they did.

In the mean time, think snow and enjoy the winter break! Too bad our Giants aren't in it this year, but I'm rooting for Baltimore. Who do you like? Love and miss ya both very much!

It's almost Christmastime!

I can tell because the house smells sooo good right now. Depending on where you walk, you can smell the fresh-cut Christmas pine tree, or the pot of homemade pasta sauce on the stove, filled with venison meatballs, or the freshly baked cookies ready to be wrapped up as gifts for the people I'll see over the next few days of Christmas, or the cinnamon or baked apple or cookie-scented candles burning in every room of the house. I love this time of year! The snowfall yesterday was a huge bonus, hope it lasts long enough to have a white Christmas.

Talked to my dad the other day, he sounds good, sent me a great picture of him and my stepmother taken at a Christmas party they went to with friends. Makes me so happy to see him smiling. His knee surgeries are on their way to healing and he'll be golfing before ya know it. Talked to my mom and sis, aunts, uncles and cousins from Naples recently too. Everyone is in good spirits, preparing for Christmas and sending much love and hugs to my kids ~ passing it along ~ muahs ~ everybody loves and misses you both, can't wait to see you again.

Did something a little different for my kids Christmas presents this year, hope they like them. Instead of a bunch of small things, they each got one thing bigger and more exciting. It was really hard to wrap them and even harder to try to disguise them so they can't guess (and even harder to package them to mail them). So I wrote on the outside of the shipping box to open on it on Christmas, because once they see the inside of the box they're going to guess pretty quick. Wish I could see their smiling happy faces :) They won't be able to help but smile. I'll post a pic of the presents here after Christmas to see if any of you can guess what they are.

In the mean time, keep dreaming those happy dreams and keep love in your heart, it's the only way. Know that as much as you love and miss me, I love and miss you that much more. We'll be together again when the time is right, hang in there ~ love always wins!

Happy Turkey Day!!

Wishing my kids a very happy Thanksgiving! Preparations are already underway here, as I'm sure they are at their home with their mom too. Made the homemade corn bread and wheat bread for the apple raisin stuffing last night, it's laying all over the house drying and making crumbs, lol. Got the pumpkin all cooked and pureed and ready to make a pie, although I did skip the homemade crust, I'm not nearly as good at that as my dad is, he can whip up a crust like it's nothing...I apparently didn't get that gene.

This year, I decided to smoke the turkey, with a molasses glaze that my Uncle mentioned to me the other day while I was in Naples hunting with all the cousins, so it's in a bag full of molasses & thyme and being massaged every few hours, lucky turkey, ha ha. I also got a beautiful 8-point buck on that hunting trip, so I'll be grilling up a few venison tenderloins as well. On opening day of gun season, I made the traditional trek to Naples to hunt for the weekend with all my uncles and cousins, we had a great time. My favorite Aunt made us her famously huge lunch and most of us took home a deer and tons of prizes from the raffle in town on Friday night. It was a spectacular weekend weather-wise too...there have been times when it was snowing or raining or just plain miserable, but this year was picture perfect....crisp, frosty, sunny mornings and mildly cool afternoons. I talked to my dad on the phone a few times while we were all down there. I could tell he was missing being there now that they sold the cabin and moved to Florida full time.

As much fun as I had, Naples just isn't the same any more now that my dad has moved. I remember how much my kids loved his cabin. We would take them there all the time. We would pull up and the kids would be out of the car before we could park...off running into the woods and down to the creek to find whatever creatures they could capture and bring to us, usually a frog. They loved exploring the woods, riding four-wheelers, and having campfires. It's just not like that anymore without the cabin. I walked up there a few times to check it out and walk the property. Sadly it sits empty, the family that bought it got transferred and hasn't sold it yet, so it sits unused. It's so sad, it's such a wonderful place that really needs a bunch of kids to enjoy it. Lots of great memories there though. Actually, I got my deer right there on dad's old property, in a spot I've always sat on opening day for close to 30 years now. The deer still live there, lol. Maybe someday I'll be able to bring my son up there again and he can enjoy hunting with all of us on opening day. He would love it, so awesome to be surrounded by family and enjoy the outdoors.

Ah, but we're on to new memories and I'm sure my kids are too...enjoying their holiday with their mother's half of their family, which was always fun, lots of new cousins on that side too, so I'm sure there will be lots of new great memories to be had. Sure wish my kids could enjoy the wholeness of spending time with all their family at the holidays, but perhaps someday. I'll be thinking of them and their quirky turkey habits, I'm sure those haven't changed much. I'll say a prayer for them and wait for them to come around, with love in my heart and my arms wide open for a great big turkey hug. Have a blessed holiday everyone and thanks for all the notes, outreach and good wishes...keep 'em coming!