Kite Tails

Last Days Of Summer

They're going fast now, these last days of summer.  Leaves are changing shades of green, hinting at the hidden colors yet to come.  Cool days are now outnumbering the hot ones and hoodies are hanging by the backdoor already needed to ease the chill of early mornings.  Today when Kasey jumps in sister's pool I'll be wondering, is this our last day of summer....

This Is What It's All About

Sister and I stood in her living room window looking out over the yard below watching our husbands with their daughters fishing.  The house was filling with the thick sweet scent of blackberry pie in the oven as the sun crept lower in the sky and the light began fading.  Watching our little family out there on the lake's edge playing, laughing, and enjoying each others company spun my heart with threads of joy for this is what I had envisioned life being like when Bruce and I had decided to move to Indiana. 

These are the sweetest of moments for me and I wish I knew how to convey all these emotions that is spurred by them...but I don't, so instead I grabbed my SX70 and hurried downstairs and outside just in time to capture these two shots before the sun dropped too low on the horizon. 

Tonight Kasey hooked and reeled in her first bluegill, sister and I revamped her closet (since I'm the family's organizer), and Bruce and Matt sat in the kitchen eating pie and talking business...a blissful ending to a somewhat chaotic weekend.

How was your weekend?  Highlights?  Any euphoric moments that inspired you?  Please share! :-)

The Art Of Slowing Down

We're here.  We're moved in.  The boxes are for the most part unpacked.  The house has now taken on the warmth of a home as the walls take on new color, and furniture, rugs, and framed art take their place in this 1100 square foot home. 

Now that everything is beginning to calm down and we're falling in to some sort of routine I've come to notice that I'm moving faster than all my fellow Hoosiers as if I'm in some sort of race.  My first reaction to this was, "What's wrong with these people!?  Why is everyone so dang slow??"  Then at Target as I impatiently checked out of a slow line and began hurrying out of the store past slow people I came up on a small family blocking my quick exit....  A mother, father cooing to their baby, all smiles, slow steps, not a need in the world to rush through this moment they were enjoying.... and then there was me, bustling to get somewhere, hurrying to the next self imposed errand, walking as fast as I could without breaking into a sprint and for what purpose?  I couldn't stop staring at that baby smiling, and that mother glowing and that father so proud and I realized my pace had slowed as if I'd fallen into some sort of trance.  Am I missing something that everyone here already knows?  That life is not the tiring race I've made it out to be? 

I'm now trying to walk a little slower, enjoy the moments I encounter, and breath a little deeper then ever I was able to in Orlando.  I think Indiana is going to be good for me....no longer do I need to move at the break-neck speed.  I'm finally discovering the art of slowing down.    

Another Time Out

This is the last day for packing and then tomorrow everything will be loaded up on the truck.  Seeing how it's my last full day in Florida I couldn't resist rushing downtown to Orlando to visit the Dandelion Cafe for a glass of my favorite mint mango iced tea.  Tomorrow we'll spend the morning loading the truck at an easy pace and working around Kasey's schedule as best we can.  Tomorrow by 7pm we should be on the road with a 1000 miles ahead of us before we reach our new home.  Yeah!!

Hope She Remembers...

Our days are numbered here in Florida and soon we'll be calling Indiana home.  That's fine for me but for my husband Bruce and my daughter Kasey Indiana is a somewhat foreign land.  Now down to three days before we load up our Budget truck and head north I begin to wonder, what will Kasey remember of this place five, ten, fifteen years from now?  She's only three and a half years old so most likely she won't remember all that much but I have hopes....

I hope she will remember,

• Saturday mornings at the Winter Park Farmers Market, kettle corn, pain au chocolate, and fresh squeezed lemonade.

• Our days on white beaches with blue waters and yellow, green and purple plastic pails spilling over with all the shells we'd gathered from the waters edge.

• Watching her daddy perform on stage at La Nouba and the hundreds of people around us that applauded his final performance.

• Afternoons playing with Zach and Hannah in Lake Hickory Nut.

• Staying up late to watch Disney's nightly fireworks display from our back porch.

• This shabby little lake house and how we managed through such tough times with our heads up and our spirits high.

Happy Canada Day!

Push Pause

Warm waters...

White sands...

Tropical landscapes...

Spectacular sunsets...

And a lot of smiles...

It was as if for a moment someone hit the pause button.  We were given the chance to play, relax and forget all that has weighed us down over the past few months.  Now that we're back home I realize that the ball is now rolling down hill....Bruce's last show at La Nouba, Bruce's graduation, leaving Lake Hickory Nut, moving to Indiana....it's all less than 6 weeks away. 

Siesta Key

It was unexpected, a surprise from Bruce...a getaway to Siesta Key.  We packed our bags, left our laptops and drove West not even sure where we would stay once we got there.  It ended up being the best two days we've experienced in the past twelve months.  It's late and I still have sand to clean out of my suitcase.  I'll share more about our little trip with you in the morning.

Page Henry Allen

Page Henry Allen

1995-2010

Page was given to me when I lived in Virgina in 1995.  He has been my sidekick even since.  He lived in Virgina with me for two years, Indiana for another two years and Florida for eleven years.  He was supposed to go home with us when we moved back to Indiana this July.  He was always a hyper dog, even down to the last few days he'd still try to bounce around as if forgetting he was no longer a pup.  He was a sweet dog too, fifteen years and he never acted out aggressively towards anyone.  What a joy he was in our lives.  He'll be missed...terribly. 

In The Mail Today...

It arrived in the mail today, fresh out of the mailbox, my very own copy...and there he was, my sweet husband, page 161. 

A year ago if you would have asked my husband Bruce what he did for a living he would have told you, "I'm a janitor."  Then he would have moved on to other topics of conversation.  He did this because he wanted people to know him for who he was, not for what he did.  Now with less than two months left at La Nouba and the photo of him (left) and his twin brother Stacey (right) in the Oprah magazine he's beaming and sharing..."I'm a performer for Cirque!"  Honestly it's been a nice change to witness, seeing him finally enjoying the spotlight off stage.

As for me, I've become giddy every time I see this June issue of Oprah in line at the grocery store or at Barnes and Noble, etc.  I just want to grab a copy off the newsstand and share with the nearest person..."Look, that's my husband!"  Thankfully I've not geeked out and done that yet but I may...and I'll enjoy every moment of it....heck why not?