Acts of Love and Tradition

So I come from a family with lots of traditions...whether or not obvious to everyone else there are certain things that just are. One big tradition that as we've gotten older we've lost is our holiday family get together's. Growing up we always spent days with my moms sister and her family and my grandma. We would take turns at each others houses for each holiday, but we were always together; all the same jokes were told, the same games played and the same rolls served. My grandma, god bless, her was always good for a few laughs, lots of help where needed and her fabulous rolls. As we've grown old and moved all over the country we've spend the las few Christmas's apart. And it was just never the same. Well this Christmas we are going back to our old ways. All 13 of us will spend the holidays on Marco Island at my aunt and uncles house; grandma too! She's now 92 years old and loosing her mind (sometimes) her balance (a lot) and her stamina (she sleeps at the table). However I have taken it upon myself to make sure that we have rolls! I called my mother, who has the recipe and has tried to make them before. She said o.k... they're not easy, they take a while... So I planned to practice many times to get it right so that on Christmas morning we could have grandmas rolls. I also told my grandma of my plan and this is was her reaction; (it makes smile) "ooooh you are? (she chuckles) Good Luck!" She still has her spunk.
This past weekend I went to the store and got all the ingredients...and while Adam watched football on my couch I began the arduous task that is Grandma's Rolls.
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4 hours later.........(they have to rise!)

Adam helped by cutting the rolls "make them pretty" the recipe says :)
then you wait......another 3 hours!!!!
Finally @ 11:30 p.m. I finished the now infamous rolls...and they came out perfect!!

Now I just hope that when I make them again, for Christmas, they come out as good. This batch is going to N.C....after Adam and myself "tested" 4, just to be sure.

The whole process of making these rolls really is an act of love, I appreciate all the time my grandma put into to make these for us 3 x's a year...and making sure that we always had them. I am proud to keep this tradition alive this year. I just hope she's proud...and that she remembers that she didn't make them....cause that would be the start of a whole new story to tell!!

October

So I promised to tell of the good times in my last post...and times have been good. It's been a few weeks full of get together and day trips and Neil Diamond! Yes I was lucky enough to get offered free box seats to see Neil Diamond...and when i say seats i mean plural...18. So I called everyone I know and found some takers. We had originally planned to attend the annual pumpkin party at Mankow's, but Adam straightened me out and said, Let's go! It was a lot of fun and very random. We did make it to the party later, no pumpkin to carve, and there weren't many people left, but we enjoyed good conversation, SNL clips and beer.

The following day I had signed us up for the AIA modern home tour. Something I've attempted to attend in the past, but actually made this year. I didn't give Adam much of a choice in going, and was very happy when I realized he was enjoying it. He used to work on houses and someday soon will work on his own, so he liked looking at all the neat add-ons that go into a custom home. I just enjoyed it because it inspired me...and I'm an archidork :)

And that shower is completely surrounded by curved glass, it's hard to tell but the only thing protecting the gardener from seeing you is a whole lot of plants. It was by far the coolest thing.

Later that night we attended the annual Smith Halloween Party. That's always a good time and there are some great costumes. Adam and I went as Jack and Jill. And believe it or not most of our costume came from target...in the children's dept!

After many hours of fun and a nap in the guest house it was time to go home.

The following day brought us beautiful weather and Tara took us all sailing. Here a couple shots of that:

As you can see it was a great weekend.

We've enjoyed other great weekends...and tours. Trick or treating with the kids, attending my first National Frisbee Tournament (they GIVE you beer!) and Logan's 9th birthday party! at which I got to get my baby Maddox fill and had dinner with my Auntie and Uncle. I also beat Adam in bowling!! 130.

I guess that's were I'll leave off for today. There are much more fun times to enjoy and I hope to share them all.

Seven Things...

So I saw this on my friends blog and enjoyed it...so I snatched it for myself :)

Seven Things I Plan To Do Before I Die:
1. Get Married
2. Start a Family
3. Go to Paris and learn french
4. Rent a sailboat and sail the Caribbean
5. Become a registered Architect
6. Get my very own Golden Retriever :)
7. Design and build my dream house

Seven Things I Can Do:
1. Lick my elbow
2. Make people laugh
3. Dance
4. Drive stick
5. Sail a boat
6. Design a 1 bedroom 1 & 1 1/2 bath 600 sf apartment to code.
7. Find the good in everything

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. 32 fouettes on pointe
2. Speak another language fluently
3. Resist candy
4. Drink tequila
5. Understand bigots
6. Shoot an animal
7. Sit still

Seven Things that Attract Me to My Mister:
1. His smiling eyes
2. His dedication and determination
3. His kindness
4. His understanding
5. His ability make me laugh out loud
6. His love of children and the way he lights up around them
7. His spontaneity

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
1. Huh?
2. Ok, when do you need it?
3. Pointe your toes
4. I'm hungry
5. I'm tired
6. Is it time to go home yet?
7. Uggg move over!!

Seven Celebrity Admiration's:
1. Marcel Bruer
2. Gelsey Kirkland
3. George Balanchine
4. Kathy Lee Gifford
5. Pope John Paul II
6. The Beatles
7. Heidi Klum

Seven Favorite Foods:
1. Crab legs
2. Moose Tracks Ice Cream
3. My grandmas baked Chicken
4. Mom's spaghetti
5. Pleva's Beef Jerky
6. Carrot Cake
7. Uncle Doug's Jalapeno Sweet Potato soup

Hard Times-Deep Thoughts

So it has been an up and down week. First off last Wednesday, 29th, my office laid off 13 individuals. It was kind of a shock and especially a shock of reality. Early in the week we had lost a big job that we had been told was our and we, me included, had been working our butts off on. When we lost that it really set us back. that was the job that was going to take us into the next years and keep us afloat. I am grateful to still have my job and i feel for those who lost theirs. As that horrible day went on in our office i recalled reading my friend Erin's blog and something that I thought was very inspiring. As i reread it that day I realized that i needed to share with everyone those words and remind us all that we will get through this. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that God will get us through the tough times. So here is what i had read and i thanked her for sharing it as did so many of my colleagues who really needed some light at the end of their dark day.

Scripture tells us that God is unchanging. He is the same today as he was yesterday, as he was thousands of years ago as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Think about the things that once consumed you with worry-last year, five years ago, last week-and then how He saw you through. We can look to the future with confidence in believing that the same God who saw us through the past will see us through the future. Because He says that He will. The same God who delivered Moses, who parted the Red Sea, is the same God who is with us today, who wants to take all of our worries, our doubts, our insecurities about the future and envelope us in His perfect Grace.

I will continue to remind myself of this as I work through other hard times in my life. Which is inevitable.
Yesterday I got a call from my dad informing that a very old family friend had taken his own life Sunday night. Mike was two years older than me, but I had known him my whole life. His mother used to watch me when i was first born, our family's visited in Denver, for a short while he attended my school and our biggest tie was our love for sailing. Both of our families where active in the Yacht Club. I was told his reasoning's were over the breakup of a girlfriend. However I have to wonder if there was more. I just CAN NOT grasp the idea that someone would take their own life over another person. I know that having your heart broken feels horrible but you will get over it, you will make it through, and life will go on. I will always remember him as a smiling happy guy. Every time I'd run into him he was always happy and chatty. But it just makes me sick. My young cousin did the same thing last year over a girl. And it literally tore my cousin (his mother) apart. People need to realize that their lives effect so many others. They may be hurting, but by ending their hurt they are in turn hurting so many more. It is such a selfish act. I hope that i never have to go through this again, but I'm sure i will. Such is life and such is our society.

So this post has been a real downer. I'm hoping to see the light at the end of all of this. And in time I'm sure I will. I will save the happy parts of my past week for another post. Because like I said within all of this sadness I have had some happy times. And for that I am grateful.