A One Room Schoolhouse, A Fog Horn and A Flood Of Memories...

My grandkids are being home schooled and a little 12'x14' school room is being built in their back yard. Grandpa and Josh are building it and Saturday, all 4 walls were framed up and secured in place. Josh is an accountant now but when he was Isaacs age, he and his brother went to work with Corky over summer break and earned money cleaning up on the jobsites. Over the years they learned how to frame and build things, use the power tools and learn about working for their money. Isaac was so excited to help with keeping the site clean and of course hoarding cut off ends of wood and lots of nails to build the things only his little mind knows. He is an inventor you know. My heart was overflowing with pride to be watching three generations of my guys working together.:)

I was there to play with the kids and give mom the day to clean her house so Hannah and I did manicures and pedicures and had so much fun. Of course she was so happy with hers that she had to change clothes 4 times while I was there because all her clothes "matched" with her fingers and toes. While she was sitting on the patio table with her feet on my knees, her little hands were free to move about. She stroked my hair and checked out my earrings, tickling my face with those little fingers and said "Gramma, I love these earrings you wear, the dolphins are so pretty." I have had them forever, my Sissy, Corky's sister gave them to me for my birthday long ago one March. I am a Pisces and so is she and so is Erin (mom). Hannah loves my jade necklace too. She is so gentle with my jewelry and sees it on me all the time. These are things I will pass on to her when I am gone. A tradition starts as I did not have these special things from my childhood handed down to me. Way too long a story to get into right now. We dressed her dollies and Isaac took a work break to join us and take apart a Kodak Easy Share camera that had broken. The three of us had great conversations at the table while the guys worked on and mom continued cleaning:)

This is not your ordinary school room that is being built. Erin showed me the book she got her inspiration from. It honestly is my dream garden cottage I have always wanted to have in my garden!! It will be shingled all the way around and window boxes with flowers, dutch door, on and on, my perfect garden shed:) Our labor of love we gladly help with for the two most special little people in our lives. This is such a wonderful and rewarding time in our lives together:)

I mentioned the fog horn because it is still dark out this morning and with the window open in my office as I sit here, I hear the fog horn down the hill at the harbor. I love this time of year when we get our seasons with the ocean. You can smell the sea in the air up here and it is magical. I love to watch the fog roll up the street and through the yards, it is moist and wonderful and so full of life. I don't really like driving in it as it makes people crazy on the roads, but I love it.

Sunday we went to Bob and Sues and it was a great day with friends. They have 4 acres about an hour south of us and inland. Sue loves horses and has two of them. She is my horse friend:) She is trying to get more stables built so she can board horses and help meet the mortgage since Bob is dying and no longer bringing in an income. She found some pipe she needed on craigs list so we went in search of the property so she could pay the guy and arrange delivery. Corky stayed with Bob as he cannot be left alone. Another old friend Steve stopped by just in time so Corky had extra company and help. With Google directions we managed to get ourselves lost for over an hour, out in the boonies, street signs faded out from the sun. Memories started flooding in my mind as she apologized for wasting my Sunday afternoon getting lost. Over the past 41 years of our friendship, we have gotten lost too many times to keep count. I can't think of one person I love to get lost with more than her. I told her and the memories started pouring out. I loved the smile on her face that broke the fear on her face of such a sad and unimaginable future unfolding in life right now. We raised our sons together, riding in cars with hardly any brakes, the boys loose in the back seat, no carseats back then and we had to agree that God had his angels surrounding us in those days as always:) HE has always been the glue that binds our friendship through all of the ups and downs we have experienced personally. Our pride has always been the thing that got in the way but not anymore. God has been working on all of us with this and it is a blessing to be obedient to HIS gentle discipline. Such a long time to learn this but HE truly closes the gaps of time that our pride had stolen. And HE does it quick and instant.

Before we left I showed Sue pictures of my grandkids. I am getting better at realizing that she won't be a grandma, so her horses are her babies like my grandkids are to me. I am okay with that but wanted to put precious faces to the precious little people in my life. I think you have to be a grandma to really get it. I get that now. The most important thing right now is that our friendship is back on track and will stay on track. No room for pride anymore. My closest friends husband is dying and I want to be here for her, whatever she needs me to do to help her through. I seem to bring out the tears in her more often these days but she says it's all good, keeping it real as it happens. I want to share her pain and burden, it's the least I can do.

When I count my blessings I lose count so I just keep thanking the Lord for all that HE continues blessing us with because of HIS love for us.

It feels good to get things out here. It has been too long and I feel it is not entertaining to readers like you but if anyone still visits me:), I really miss and appreciate you.

Love and Hugs, Laurie