Looking Back

Just for fun, I decided to go back through my blog postings and reread everything that I’d posted since I started this blog just about 2 years ago.  Boy has it been a busy 2 years. 

1) There were the births of the babies in Aug/Sept of 2007.  Now the babies are toddlers, walking, talking and developing great personalities. 

2) My pseudo Brother Ben was deployed to Iraq with his unit and they served our country and the world honorably and returned to their families safely. 

3) I wrote 2 novels through the National Novel Writing Month.  I spent my “vacations” in 2008 and 2009 at Sturdy Memorial Hospital, but have made a resolution NOT to continue that trend!

4) I’ve been in my home for two and a half years now.  WOW!  Over the past weeks I even decided to invest in my back deck, so I bought some planters, and I’m now trying to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and parsley.  (Plus I hung the Topsey Turvey Tomato Plant grower up, and filled it with dirt, so those tomatoes can be donated to the local food pantry.

5) We had another family wedding, which is leading to another birth (a boy), which could happen any day now.

6) The United States went through an election, unlike any other, which in the end gave us President Barack Obama, and California being in the middle of the battle for gay marriage rights.  (And yes, Jason and Chris’ marriage is legal according to the court in CA!)

and finally

7) The kids are getting bigger.  Addie is 9 and her family is expecting a baby brother for Addie in August.  Varnai is 6 1/2 and just finished first grade.  I went to her end of the year dance recital.  She was too cute up on the stage dressed as a can-can dancer.  Seth is 7 and also finished first grade.  He is a total Star Wars fanatic.  He can’t grasp that Karen Marie was around when episode 4 first came out in the movie theater.  (He thinks they were made in order 1-6.)  But he is highly impressed that I can name Luke’s friend Lando.  And Bella is one of those babies born in September of 2007.  Every time she sees me, she says “kay ree, chip eeezz”  which means, “Karen Marie, chips please.”  Too cute.

So hopefully life will be good enough to allow me to write about more things for another couple of years.  Thanks to all of you for coming back to read what I’m writing.

love you all lots

karen marie

My family

Many of you have been wondering how my pseudo brother Ben is doing now that he’s back from the Middle East and out of the armed services.  Well, I talked to him yesterday and we had a quick, but great conversation.  The best part of our relationship is that we can talk about the important stuff, laugh together and tease each other, all in a short amount of time.  Plus Ben ended the conversation with the “I love you sis.”  That always gets me.  And chokes me up.  I’m so glad that he is home and safe.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that sometimes the best family that a person has is a family that we create out of important people in our lives, and not necessarily our blood, biological, or the family that raised us.  I’ve been so blessed to have created a new family for myself as I grew up.  It’s a combination of friends, both old and new, family that I’m actually related to by blood, and people from my church.  What I consider to be my family has people from a couple of weeks old to people who are in their eighties and above.  I have white people and people of color in my family.  I have straight, gay and people who are on different places of the sexuality spectrum in my family.  I am called “Aunt,” “Mentor,” “Auntie,” “Friend,” “Cousin,” “God-Daughter,” “Sister” (by more than 3  people , and more other names than I can think of now.

So as I begin this Lenten Season of reflection, I’m thankful for all of you that are part of my family.

Ben’s HOME!!!

Ben came home to Massachusetts last Friday night.  There was a huge crowd at Providence’s (RI) T.F. Green Airport to welcome our hero home!  (My mom Ellen is holding the yellow sign and I am in the center with my head cut off.  Ben’s mom Mary is kneeling in front of me, Ben’s girlfriend Lindsey is on the floor holding the red “Ben”sign and Ben’s daughter Hailey at age 6 1/2 is also on the floor next to Lindsey and Mary. )

 It was such an emotional homecoming.  We all got to hug and kiss Ben individually and then take pictures with him.  As soon as I saw him, I couldn’t stop crying.  Therefore, I am only showing happy pictures.   My sign read that Ben had been away for 221 days, 12 hours, 56 minutes and too many seconds to count.  It was great to see my parents be able to greet Ben too.  So here’s Ben and his “other” parents and his sister Karen Marie.

Ben, you are our hero, and we are all so proud of you and your fellow soldiers!  It’s so good to have you home!

Rumor has it…

The rumor mill on this the 200th day that Ben has been deployed in Iraq, is that he is going to be able to come home for a week’s worth of vacation later this month.  That would be awesome to see him again.  I’ve been getting updates from his mom, Mary, his daughter Hailey (who at 6 1/2 is still so cute!) and from Ben’s girlfriend Lindsey.  So we had a LOT to celebrate at church this Easter.  Miss ya Ben.  Stay safe and come home soon!

Happy New Year!- My Resolutions

As 2007 comes to a close I am pondering what my New Years resolutions should be.  Here is what I have come up with.

1) I am going to organize my house by taking big bags and simply throwing out all the junk that I’ve accumulated over the years.  Take stuff to the Salvation Army that can be reused and recycle paper and plastics.

2) Continue faithfully on the diet that I’m on.  (This is a big one, because I didn’t do so well in 2007.)

3) Go to the gym as often as I am able.

4) Keep a positive attitude.  (Some days this is easier said than done.)

5) Keep working towards (and praying for) peace and justice in the world.

6) ??????

Happy New Years to All!

And my prayers go to Ben and all those troops who are serving in areas of conflict in the world.  May we find solutions to peace soon!

Happy Thanksgiving- 10 Reasons to be Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends out there.  I am especially grateful this year and I thought that I should make a list of 10 things that I am thankful for in 2007.  These are in no particular order and I’m just thinking off the top of my head.

1) That I have a beautiful roof over my head.

2) That I was able to see my family in Florida.  This was so much fun and I have pictures and great memories to help me remember Chad and Meridith’s wedding.

3) That all of my friends (so far) have had successful pregnancies and have beautiful baby girls.  And that it’s looking good for the last friend to have her child too.

4) That I have enough to eat and that I’ll spend Thanksgiving with family and friends

5) That I know how to read.  This may seem stupid, but in many other parts of the world, women are not encouraged to be educated, and I really value my education.

6) That medical science has progressed far enough to come up with wonderful medications and techniques to diagnose and treat things like breast cancer, arthritis and heart disease so much better than they did even 10 years ago.

7) That I have the privilege of being Aunt Karen to children so wonderful as Natalie, Veronica, Varnai, Grace, AJ, Katie, Hailey, Kaitlyn and especially Addy and so many other kids.

8 ) That I know that my God is there for me always and loves and forgives me because of a thing that we call GRACE!

9) That I have learned how to use my computer (to post on this blog, to write my novel on NaNoWriMo, to play games with the kids on Webkidz, to e-mail, etc.)  I am one of the lucky ones.

10) I am thankful for Ben being safe so far and even though he’s been deployed for 65 days so far, he and his fellow soldiers are in my thoughts and prayers.

So Happy Thanksgiving All!

25,187 That’s Halfway through !

It’s not yet the 15th, that would be Thursday and today’s only Tuesday and I’m halfway through my word count.  Yeah!  I still haven’t gotten to the wedding yet, but I do know that my male main character who I had planned on being the one getting married (his name is Lord Henry) may or may not be getting married.  He’s met the woman of his dreams, the only problem is that she’s actually twins, and he doesn’t know yet that he’s fallen in love with two different women.  But two of what I thought were minor characters are making puppy love sick eyes at each other every chance they get, so maybe they’ll end up being the ones married.   This is the great thing about not planning everything out before hand, that I can just go where ever the characters take me.

And Stace- as for actually reading this “novel” at this point.  Never gonna happen!  I may print an excerpt, but part of the rules are that we have to turn off our internal editor, which is really hard for me.  (Ms Type A personality :0 ) I turned off the spell check function and the grammar check and even that’s driving me nuts, not to go back to the last sentence to correct mistakes.  And even if I make factual mistakes, I just have to go on.  The whole deal is just to write.  It’s actually very calming.   I really can’t believe I’ve gotten this far!  (Many thanks to my writing buddy who has a lot going on herself, but has been very encouraging to me!)

Ben has been deployed for 57 days.  That’s almost 2 months.  I can’t believe it’s been that long, on the other hand for deployments, that’s nothing.  I just keep praying that he’ll come home soon and safe to his family and friends!

Just Checkin’ In

It’s so weird having a blog.  I’m not used to having people actually read what I write.  I’ve been away where I haven’t been able to access my computer easily.  My cousin Chad got married last Saturday in Orlando, Florida and I flew down for the wedding.  It was awesome seeing my wonderful extended family.  I always forget how big my family can be when you add the in-laws and in my case when you add the out-laws too! (I’m referring to my cousin Kent who lovingly refers to himself as “The Pirate.”- I’ll post a picture in the coming days when I have more time to download all of my pictures:) )

The only free time I had was in the car on the way to and from the wedding rehearsal and on the plane for as long as my computer battery would allow.  And all of that time was dedicated to the NaNo novel.  I’m up to 8400 words right where I’m supposed to be for today, but it’s going to be a challenge to get the 10,000 words for tomorrow, because I’m so tired.

So I’m off to sleep.

Ben’s been deployed for 49 days.

Another Red Sox Win- Plus Free Taco

It’s quarter after midnight here in the Massachusetts part of Red Sox Nation and due to the awesome pitching of Kurt Schilling, Hideki Okajima (the Player of the Game,) and of course our closer Jonathan Papelbon the Red Sox squeaked by with another win tonight.  Mike Lowell drove in the second (and game winning) run for the Sox which was scored by David “Big Papi” Ortiz.  The final score of tonight’s game was 2-1 Red Sox. 

In addition, in the 4th inning Jacobi Ellsbury stole second base and with that stolen base Taco Bell will offer a free taco to everyone in America on Tuesday, October 30 from 2-5 pm at participating restaurants. (Whew, I got all that information in )  So thanks to the Red Sox-even you Rockies fans can eat for free! 

Enjoy the pictures of Mike Lowell, Kurt Schilling and Hideki Okajima (I got them from the official Red Sox site.

GO SOX!

As of today Ben has been deployed for 39 days.

TV Shows Need Warning Labels…Oh Wait They Do…

I am totally all for free speech, but some TV shows need to put a better list of the content of the programs somewhere.  Oh wait, that’s called “TV Guide Magazine” or the Info button on my tv remote.  I just failed to use either today.

I think I’m a little bit more sensitive to what I watch on TV, since I’ve stopped watching all the different the Law and Order and CSI series last spring.  (They come on later at night here in the East Coast and I was getting nightmares, so I stopped watching them altogether and my sleep has been much better, thank you.)  So I basically watch the news (local, national and my favorite, BBC America, which has the best news, I think) sports (duh, if you’ve read any of my postings on this blog, you’d know my views on New England sports ) and I will admit that I tape my soap opera every day to watch when I have time.  (I’ve been watching the same soap- “As The World Turns” since I was a tiny speck in my mommy’s tummy.  I call myself an “in-utero soap addict” HA )

Ok back on track, I was watching the show “Ghost Whisperer” tonight and the episode dealt with an American serviceman coming home from Iraq and having the spirits of his dead unit buddies “haunting” him.  I totally lost it.  I was crying and weeping that snotty kind of tears, thinking about my brother Ben still being in Iraq (“still”, he hasn’t even been there a month!)  About what kinds of horrors Ben is going to see and how this experience is going to change him.  I was praying that Ben comes home safely to his friends, family, his parents, his siblings, his girlfriend Lindsey and especially that Ben comes home to his little girl Hailey.  I pray that all our service men and women come home safely.

I think I need to be far more careful in what I watch.  I’m really good at deciding what kinds of movies I watch and what kinds of music I listen to.  I realize that I am a mentor to some kids who really do look up to me and I realize that the decisions that I make can affect the kids, so I try and make good decisions.  (I quit swearing about 7 years ago as part of Lent, because I realized that swearing was taking the Lord’s name in vain.)  So for my own good, I think TV comes next.  Does anyone know if “Wheel of Fortune” can cause any bad side effects?

I leave you tonight with a nice prayer for those in need of comfort:

Make Me Brave for Life

God, make me brave for life: oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain, as a tree straightens after the rain,
Shining and lovely again.
God, make me brave for life; much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise
From sorrow with quiet eyes,
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God, make me brave, life brings
Such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light.

Author Unknown

Today Ben has been deployed for 25 days.