Cat Lady

Escape Room

We went to an escape room last night.  We did the room 44 Winterwood Lane.  It was fun, scary and not too hard. We escaped the room just in time and came in 4th place so far for the month of November.  Highly recommend it! 

Thankful

We had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday in Marshfield...

I'm thankful to have all three children with us to celebrate the holiday.  Although I'm not so sure how thankful Nicholas is to be home. I think getting the first taste of freedom living on his own, new friendships and playing hockey as a full time job was pretty sweet.  It abruptly came to a halt when they were on their way to Pennsylvania for a 4-day trip to play a bunch of games and they had to turn the bus around and head back to VT.  Not exactly sure what the heck happened, but I'm positive that Covid once again reared its ugly head.  Not one kid has been sick on either team so that wasn't it.  I think someone had a problem with them traveling and complained.  We're not sure what is in store for the team now.  We'll just have to wait and see how it will play out like everything else in our lives.  It's just plain old difficult for everyone.  

And exciting news!!  Julia was accepted to her very first college in the nursing program!!  This is a safety school for her but still very exciting!!  

At least we know she's going to college! : ) 

Do what makes you happy

Treasures

Once again I came home with some real treasures after cleaning out my Mom's house the other day.  This time in the basement we found a large paper bag filled with precious memories from our childhood.  There were piles of cards (birthday cards, anniversary cards, etc.) like this Easter card from my Nana to my Mom right before she died, signed "Love from a grateful Mother"...

And there were dance recital programs, dance competition programs, gymnastic show programs all from our elementary school years. Numbers my sisters and I wore at Irish Feis competitions with the results written on them. I'm very proud of this one as it was my one and only Feis and I won two first place medals...

Newspaper ads for my Mom's children's consignment shop she co-owned with one of her best friends back in the 70's...

Pictures of my Mom and Dad from 1955 before they were married...

But most incredibly...we found letters from our grandmother that she had written to each of us from 1972, just one year before her passing, while she was in Florida on vacation with my grandfather.  It was surreal reading those letters with my siblings at my Mom's dining room table (which once was my grandparents living room).  We each took turns reading our own precious letters and postcards written just to us from our Nana. She knew each of us so well.  I was just 8 years old when she died...

Thank you Mom...

Another message

 

And this one cracked me up!  Inside joke : ) 

Wise words

 

Thanks Mom

I needed the laugh...coincidence?

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mama.  The first one without you here. There are no words to express how much I miss you. It hurts. 

And another message from Sandy yesterday.  It literally takes my breath away every time.  These messages have never shown up in my Facebook memories before.  What a gift.  

I never could have imagined that I would lose my Mom and Sandy four months apart.  I know Sandy is giving my Mom a warm birthday hug today in heaven just for me.  I can see it. 

Dinner time

Mom, it's dinner time!  Don't you know that I eat at 4:00 and it's 4:17?!?!

 

I miss my boy

I haven't seen my boy since August 30th.  That's 10 weeks!!  I can tell you it physically hurts me at times.  I miss his presence in my life so much.  Getting a ton of hugs from him a day...nothing can replace that.  But yes I'm happy that he's doing what he loves...or I should say...trying to do what he loves.  His team has only played a total of six games in the past two months...and Nicholas has only played three of those games as they rotate the goalies. The team is struggling to schedule games. They can't play in Vermont so they have to travel out of state to play...and that means they must quarantine when they return....which means they can't even practice in their own rink when they get home.  It's been very frustrating...as it has been for everyone.  Do I dare say that we may see him this weekend in New Hampshire?  Every time I think I'm going to see him something happens and we can't.  So I won't get my hopes up about this time either.  We're not even sure if he'll be home for Thanksgiving as that would mean more time lost with quarantining.  Yes frustrating. 

I just miss my boy...

Beautiful Sunday

It's been in the 70's the past few days.  Not the typical temperatures for November around here.  What a gorgeous day for a long walk...

The Haunting of Hill House

"There's no without. I'm not gone. I'm scattered into so many pieces, sprinkled on your life like new snow." 

Julia and I finished watching the final episode of The Haunting of Hill House last night.  Funny how we watched The Haunting of Bly Manor first which wasn't very good.  We only liked the last two episodes.  But Hill House...I thought it was so well done.  Great acting, great storytelling and really really scary.  The last episode was so powerful that it made me cry several times (including episode 6 Two Storms) and caused me to have horrible nightmares last night.  I don't think I ever want to watch it again...but I loved it at the same time. 

I'll just leave it at that.  

The Election 2020 style

2020 continues to be a shit show. Election day was yesterday and...

This is what voting looked like yesterday at our local high school...

Yup...only in 2020 would we still have no clue who won the election the day after and see caution tape at the polls.  

Where focus goes, energy flows

Happy Halloween

We had quite the beautiful Halloween Eve day snowfall...

I loved working from my couch in front of the fire with my tea and watching the snow...so did Eli...

Waking up to this gorgeous morning today.  It's a winter wonderland...

My camera phone doesn't do it justice.  It's so beautiful with the sun shining on all that heavy snow...

And yes it's Halloween today!  Why not have snow on Halloween?  It's 2020!  Anything and everything is happening this year!  

Meanwhile...another message from Sandy : )  

And she continues to send me messages...

What a gift these messages are now...

She's talking to me straight from Heaven : ) 

Now I can carry her with me wherever I go

Yesterday was Sandy's birthday.  Last night her sisters, Annie and Marylou, as well as Jill, Laura and I celebrated.  We sat around the kitchen table eating Chinese food and cake and drinking wine and beer.  We had lots of conversation about Sandy and just about everything else too.  I've known these women pretty much my whole life.  And my only connection to them is through Sandy.  It was very comforting.  We went through Sandy's jewelry and some other personal items...and this is what I brought home with me...

a colorful scarf, a warm winter scarf, her high school graduation tassel, two pairs of earrings that she just bought herself this year for Mother's Day (a little gift to herself from her dogs), two Christmas ornaments, a pair of earrings I know I will wear, a funky necklace and an adorable dog charm. I also found my 8th and 9th grade school pictures with notes I had written to her on the back.  Funny because I still have the ones she had given me back then too.  

We went through all her pictures and there were lots from our high school days.  This one is my favorite though. This was her birthday party from either 9th or 10th grade so that was forty years ago!!  Yikes!  I'm on the way left with the stylish brown striped velour top...

Jill found the article below called "Cassie's Colorful Closet" this past weekend and brought it with her to share with us.  She thought it was such a coincidence.  I don't believe it was a coincidence at all.  I know it was meant to be seen and shared with us.  Unlike the article though, Sandy left us very unexpectedly.  But if she knew she was leaving us, she would have most definitely wanted us to take her most precious and sentimental things home with us. 

"I would love you all to come to my closet and pick out things you would like. Pieces of clothing that would mean something to you."

Sandy "loved to laugh and crack jokes, even during the most challenging times. Without her, we'd lost the comic relief we needed so badly to get through this."  

"I wish I could tell her what a gift she's given us.  She knew that her clothes would bring us comfort and help us stay connected to her in a way that we couldn't fully appreciate until she was gone. Now I can carry her with me wherever I go."  

Preschool Days

As we continue to pour through thousands of pictures at my Mom's, I came across this one of me and my best friend from preschool.  

Her name was Patty which ironically is the name of my best friend today.  I'm still in touch with this Patty through Facebook.  We went on to graduate from the same high school but we weren't friends again after preschool.  Simply because we went to different elementary schools and never had classes together in HS.  I thought the picture was so cute though and shared it with her through FB messenger.  She got a kick out of it too! She said I made her day!! : ) 

I'll never forget our teacher's name...Mrs. Boomhower!  That's probably why I'll never forget it!!  She was the best!  She ran the preschool out of her home which was a beautiful old house with super high ceilings and a great big back yard with a colorful jungle gym.  I remember snack time was just before recess and how she would have us rest our heads on our desks for a few minutes.  If you fell asleep you would miss recess so I used to make darn sure that didn't happen!  Just once I fell asleep and I remember waking up all groggy and confused and so disappointed that I missed it!  I also remember graduation day very well.  

The preschool was just across the street from my Dad's office.  On the first day of school, the teacher told the parents not to be late for pick up.  Sure enough, my Dad got busy at work and panicked when he realized the time. He said he ran all the way over to the school to get me!  I loved hearing him tell me that story.  : )  

The Boy