Time Warp Tuesday

The picture on top is from the first time we went skiing in Germany. This is when we were leaving to go home - train to Munich, then flight to Sicily. The bottom picture is out the window of our cabin we stayed in at the military resort. We managed to get the same cabin two years in a row. My kids are so much taller now - and so much fun, even now. 

We miss, miss, miss going to this place every year. It was our post Christmas tradition - my husband could never get leave over Christmas, so we'd take it the week after, and go skiing for a week. We'd stay in these cabins, not in the hotel, because it was much cozier - and far less people. We didn't go a gazillion places when we lived overseas, but I think we wrote a good story when we allowed this tradition to develop for the kids, and for us. It let us get to know a place a little bit deeper. 

Time Warp Tuesday

My Dh and I were talking yesterday morning about how we really, down the road, want to buy a large amount of land out in the country and have horses, etc... That was what we really wanted when we moved here but it just wasn't going to happen - between the bank, available properties and reality of three teens or almost teens...
I've always loved horseback riding. Started when I was quite young at a friends "gentleman's farm" in Virginia when I was about 6. They put me on a horse and about 4 hours later I reluctantly got off. This picture looks like it was taken when I was about 7 or so, and had been riding Dolly (the horse) for awhile. Dolly was an older horse, very gentle, and who only occasionally stood me in the cow pond for ten minutes at a time.
Riding horses taught me so many things, not the least of which was a love of riding. Because it was a farm, with lots of open space, as soon as Mr. T said I was ready, he taught me how to gallop. There is nothing like that feeling in all the world. I can close my eyes, see the empty cow pasture ahead of me and remember that feeling. I wish I could recapture that feeling.

The farm also had chickens ( I Loved collecting eggs), and a fabulous old farmhouse (used as a guesthouse - people built their houses on plots of land up on the surrounding hills/mountains and shared the farm land communally). The farmhouse had been two houses actually and connected by some former owner. So you had this huge barn like room inbetween that was HUGE. And it had a great little farm kitchen, and a little room they used as a library - read Wuthering Heights there for the first time. And there was always a little scuttering of mouse feet when you turned on the lights in the kitchen! Heady stuff for a suburban girlie like me. I loved it. Still do, even though our friends are gone and I haven't been there in probably 20 years. Still, we  drive by it on our way up to see my family (I'd see the town name on a sign) and think I'd love to go and just see. But sometimes memories are sweeter than reality.
Thanks to Jenn at Juggling Life for Time Warp Tuesday! Next week, I think I'll do some kiddo ones :)

Cough, Cough, Sneeze

So now 3/5 of us have some version of a cold. Blech. And the weather is being terribly indecisive. Pick one. Warm or Cold. I'm good with either, although I prefer cold.
Tree up and almost done. Still have to add snowflakes. Tree generally looks like this:

Snowflakes made by my Grandmother - a tree is not complete without them. The Angel needs some work before I can put her up there this year. And this is the year I need to restarch some snowflakes. But still. Now to figure out what I still need to buy. 

And to send out cards. Because I get to say my oldest son is going to college! I'm so excited! 

Time Warp Tuesday

Okay, thank you over to Jenn at Juggling Life I am reminded that it is Tuesday and time to look back for a bit.  The last week of November/First week of December is a tricky one. Dad's birthday, Parent's Anniversary, and Dad's death all cluster around this. He died in 1991, a few months after I got married. This is my Dad, probably in the 70's - the anti smoking literature in the front, and the lovely tape recorder he is holding. He worked for a medical association, and did a lot of special projects. I remember being paid 25 cents a survey to tally a survey of Physicians on breast cancer. Learned how to do mean, median and mode, let me tell you.

This is one of his medals from WW2. He enlisted in the Navy and then went through Officer training to become an officer during WW2. He went to college on the GI bill. His people were poorer than church mice. 

We giggled when we found this in his papers. My DH's folder of this type looks EXACTLY the same. 

And here's his youngest daughter (me) starting college at his alma mater. I think he was pretty thrilled that I chose to go there. I think he was even more thrilled that I graduated in 4 years !!! This was taken in the summer/fall of 86. Where the HECK have those legs gone?????