L and M...

The letter "L"
Love. Enough said.

Letters...nobody writes letters anymore. It is becoming a lost art. I got a quick note from one of the teachers at Elyria Catholic whom I have become close to this week. Her daughter was having a bad time in public school and was enrolled in St. Judes...Nick's grade. I talked to her at great length about it because she is a widow and doesn't have anyone to bounce things off of. I feel bad that she has to make these decisions by herself. She is so kind...anyhow, the note was so sweet. I miss getting the good old hand written note.

Leisure time. Not enough, not frequent enough. I know...I have teenagers and they are go-go-go with activities. I miss spending a quiet weekend as a family.

The letter "M"
The deviant male gene. Why can't they lift a toilet seat? Why must the first thing they pick up be the remote control and change the channel that I had been watching a movie on for over an hour.

MOM...I miss her. With her birthday last week, I have spent a lot of time thinking about her. It is funny...when I drive by the cemetery, I always say hi to her. My boys tell me that my sister, Valerie does that same thing. She always made a big production of Thanksgiving dinner. She would often invite someone who was having problems or was alone to dinner. You would never know who would show up. She had such a good heart...I see that in all three of us daughters of hers. I want to make a cookbook this year with all of my mom's "special" recipes.
I have yet to stuff a Turkey, and frankly I am ashamed that I haven't accomplished that. I wish I was the cook that my mom was. She was also a clean freak. I remember the one and only time that I truly argued with my mom...she came over and criticized me for having a dirty refrigerator grate. Yes, she was meticulous. She was great with crafts...she crocheted scrubbing pads from netting, made the large majority of our Barbie doll clothes...and our Barbies had trunks of clothes. I hope I make you proud mom.

Marti Mihalko is my other best friend. I love her dearly. I give Marti so much credit, she raised a wonderful son all alone without help from a husband. She is a survivor. She is always there when I am down and is so much fun to be around. She is well read...she reads so many different types of books and I tend to pidgeon hole myself into certain kinds of books. She is so close with her family and I love and admire that. Marti and I are both nurses, so we can talk work trash with each other. Love you, girlfriend. She is the Laverne to my Shirley, the Thelma to my Louise.

Busy weekend with kiddos having projects due this week that involved videotaping of productions. Nick did a newscast from the ancient greek Olympics and Ricky was doing a religon project. Kids all over the house. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight...was up three times last night. I hate when that happens.