My babies, Margaret and James BOTH start Drivers Ed on Monday!!! Yikes! In my head they still look like the pic here, but my babies are growing up! Speaking of, Margaret is also going to her first formal this weekend, the Sub Deb. Double Yikes.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving, my sister hosted all of us, and it was delicious and tons of fun. Of course, the turkey barely has a chance to digest before the Christmas shopping pressure begins. I HATE to shop, and hope I can accomplish most of it in front of the computer wearing my bunny slippers... ; )
Some new music I LOVE LOVE LOVE- Obadiah Parker, Hey Ya.

Another wedding pic- I remember when these guys would clink their baby bottles together and say "cheers!" They've come a long way....

Wow, what a stupendous weekend!!! I really didn't want to have inflated expectations, it is Deer Hunting season here- notoriously a time where we dance dangerously near to disliking each other. We vowed this year was going to be better, and it REALLY is...

Friday night M & J spent the night with friends, and I ran to the store and got little steaks and crab legs (on sale!) and we had a delightful late surf and turf dinner at home. We made killer Bloody Mary's and cooked side-by-side, and Dan's fave western TV station featured "Duel in the Sun" which we settled in to watch and it was hilarious! It was a western for him, a classic for me, and so amusingly overblown- Jennifer Jones just about writhes with sensuality, bahahaaaaaa.

Saturday morning Dan went hunting and returned early enough for us to get to the bank, do some errands, and we wound up at SunnySide for lunch, using our $30.00 gift certificate. An outstanding lunch. When we returned Dan watched the big Michigan/Ohio state game, and I finished my book (The Other Woman by Jane Green, acceptable chick lit, not amazing...)

Sunday morning Dan hunted, then returned and we got a turkey going. (We'll have dinner at my sister's and when you go somewhere else on Thanksgiving, you miss out on all those great turkey leftovers for sandwiches...) Brian called and we went over with both our vehicles, taking him a table and chairs for his dining room. It was a beautiful day, sparkling and bright, even though the leaves are 98% gone, it's still Fall-like. I came back to finish dinner, and Dan hung with his buddy BW awhile longer.

James was dying to go hunting, so Dan took him out in the evening. Still no luck.

It was a wonderful weekend, and like I said, I never dreamed we would be getting along so well in hunting season! I'm very mellow, Dan is not obsessed, and I'm happier than I've been for a long time. Counting my blessings already, even though Thanksgiving is Thursday!

My niece sent me some more pictures from Danny's wedding. I LOVE this one, it was as they walked into the rehearsal and everyone cheered, look at that cute Danny smile on his face.

Yesterday was the big day off for the kids and Dan. Dan hunted from dawn to dusk and saw no deer.

About 4:30 James took Petey out to potty in the yard, and a 6 point Buck and a large doe ran past our yard, like 6 feet from James. Then they ran off toward the area where James and Dan usually hunt around here. Soooo, if he had stayed home, he might have bagged his deer. Wasn't that the whole point of the Wizard of Oz? You can search for your happiness, but truly , "there's no place like home".

The Burning Bush is still flaming on in the backyard. Although the leaves on the trees are about 60% gone, there are still delightful pockets of color. Snow is predicted for tonight, and tomorrow morning-I saw a guy in shorts today.

My kids have the day off school tomorrow, which is being sold as a "Planning Day"- but we all know it's because attendance is so low on opening day of firearm deer season, here in dear ol' carnivorous Southern Michigan.

Geez, there's this radio contest where you have to call in if you hear a Santa "ho ho ho".. -it's kinda inserted subliminally, Now, I am sooo randomly listening at work, and I don't hear that well anyway, and I NEVER hear the Ho's.

TODAY, I heard the Ho's! I shot across the office to grab the phone and dial in... I thought Sue was going to do the duck and cover with her desk, she had never seen me move so fast. I liken it to when I touched our cabin's antique light fixture with wet hands. I moved THAT fast. But still, I got busy signals. I kept redialing and got registered! Ummm, I don't even know what the contest is, i know it's a shopping spree of some kind, i have to check it out online. I just know the other contest they are having involves callers gobbling like a turkey, and even I, freak as I am, have more dignity than that.

OMG, I can NEVER hear our phone ring!! We are using a new phone and the pitch of the ring always sounds like it's a part of the TV buzz in the room. (Yeah, we live loud, See randomly listening and deafness referred to above...) Then, today I made this big effort to go look for the ringing phone, and it WAS the TV.

Sweet little Sean Alan, we're sharing the love at the rehearsal dinner!

Today I have been Laura the insightful, Laura the capable (as opposed to this weekend when I was not-ready-for-primetime Laura...) I drove to work with my delicious cup of coffee, I've been running late the last two days (See above for unreadiness explanation), so I zip through town, but I take this dirt road beyond the college and I always see the coolest wildlife- little ferrety/mink things, braces of turkeys and woodcocks (woodcock?), it's like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, okay? Sooo, today I'm sipping the tall reg/ex cream, and a majestic buck bounds over the road before me, and off into the corn stubble. Again, this kind of thang is the reason I take this road, so I stop the car and watch his progress. Keep in mind, this is Michigan and firearms deer hunting starts on Thursday. By then minivans with Latte's are going to be the LEAST of this buck's concerns. Well, he does pretty well, he just keeps on dashing towards the woods... when, what does he do??? He turns, stops and looks around and makes eye contact with ME, chest forward in that whold "Father of Bambi" stance. I felt pretty bad for him; that could be a deadly failure of technique. I mean we all DO know what happened to Bambi's Dad, right?

Next big thought, I'm home early and cleaning my house, listening to a Neil Young mix on the iPod, when I come to an old fave "old Man". Old man look at my life, Twenty four and there's so much more... My eldest is 24. It's sooooo weird how you never think you will ever be anyone else's "old man"... I mean, NEIL is the Old man in the song now, too...Crazzzzy.

Love lost, such a cost, Give me things that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.

So, it's a gorgeous fall day, and Neil is sounding good... From Sugar Mountain to Down by the River. (I told you I was insightful today...)

It's a cold, dark, dreary and rainy day here in Michigan, but yesterday my son got on a Disney cruise in Florida, that's taking him to the Caribbean! I hope they have an excellent time.

My honeymoon was less stellar. I am a believer in taking a honeymoon at least a few weeks after the wedding- go away for a long weekend after a wedding, but take the big trip on your first anniversary... Here's my honeymoon tale...

I was married at 20, 3 months shy of my 21st birthday. At the time it made total sense, today it seems realllllly young. I didn't think about the whole cosmic aspect of getting married, and when the minister said who gives this woman, my dad made this sharp intake of breath, it echoes in my mind and heart today, and I think I finally GOT it, the cosmic aspect of what I was doing. I spent the rest of my honeymoon missing my parents, a lil' tearful over the people I had been actively trying to escape since my late teens.

Next, we went to my parents cabin in the U.P. - a sweet little place, we were the only cabin on the lake, no electricity or plumbing, just the two of us in the deep woods. That has always been our thang. Well, we stopped the first night at our parents place about an hour from the bridge. It was Oct. 11th, and it was cold. And this was young Dan, before he became Dan the Man, the fixer of all things. He couldn't get the heat going. I remember snuggling on the couch, not really from any feeling of passion, more from the desire not to leave our frozen carcasses stuck there till spring.

Then, on night 2 we hit the U.P., even colder and when we hit the cabin someone had stolen our propane tank- no appliances, no gas lights, and no heater. (Back in those days the cabin had a big ol' propane heater that used to be in a church- you were either cold or HOT) So, we spent night two curled together for warmth, not passion, again.

By night three we had our act together, heat, lights, and such- but we both had hideous colds.

Taking that 2 weeks later on would have been a berry good call for us. I hope Danny's trip is the antithesis of ours, a lovely time for all of them.

Wow! I took Petey outside, and the coyotes are howling like crazy freaks, over on the edge of the fence row. The dogs at all the neighboring houses are barking and the coyotes are yipping and howling in that crazy-sounding way they have. Click this link to listen to the audio, it captures the creepy sound.

My eldest son is now married! It was a wonderful wedding, a wonderful weekend- everything went off like clockwork! But man, I'll tell you, it feels so good to have it all over!

My sister's were soooo supportive- when we arrived at the Rehearsal dinner, they had it all set up and it looked like my fantasy of how it would look- how often does THAT happen?

Nancy got a make-over by the Amazing Amanda- it looked so cool! And it felt exciting to move around in a big crowd, taking up tables for 12 wherever we went. We hit many local Mexican restaurants and breakfast spots.

After the wedding, Dan and I stopped by to visit with Brian and his new girlfriend, Beth, and our dear old friends Mary and Randy. Beth is a doll, it was nice to finally meet her. We kicked the boys asses at euchre, and I can see more of that in the future.

Now, here we are back to the real world. The real world for us is- MICE!!! The season is changing, it's getting cold, and now is the time when the little turd-makers try to move in with us. Dan took time out of his deer-hunting frenzy to put poison where the mice will find it delectable, but our sweet pets can't find it. Soooo, this morning I wake up and I feel something on my foot- a little poison-dazed mouse climbed over my bare foot!!!! GROSSSS!! Then, he's just sitting there- I cannot leave a LIVE mouse in the house. So, instinct caused me to step on him, which was the final straw for him. It was a disturbing way to start the day- it feels good to reduce the rodent ranks, it feels gross to be so intimately involved in their demise.

Dan goes off this weekend to winterize his mom's place at Saginaw Bay, he'll leave on Saturday and be home on Sunday., I'll miss him even being gone that much- we are in LOVE. It's amazing how resilient a marriage can be, how many phases it can go through. There were some times when I thought it was time to end it, never would I dream that we undergo such a marriage resurrection, renovation, renaissance. How happy, how lucky I am.