Category: Memories

Nineteen Years

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary. I have spent countless hours trying to put into words how I feel about my loving husband. Then I stumbled across this wonderful poem by Sharon MacFadyen, and her words said everything I was feeling in my heart.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

wedding photos
A Gift Of Love

Author: Sharon MacFadyen

My gift to you is my love
Given from deep within my heart
It is the best I have to offer
And its yours until this earth we depart

You have captured a part of me
A part so very fragile that I am in fear
For it is my heart I have lost
To you my love, the one I hold most dear

I chose to love you now
With all that I have and all that I am
And I pray that God follows us
To guide our steps as we cross this land

For it is with His blessings
We will live most at peace with each other
For He is the reason after all
We found one another …….. I Love You!
Love

,

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Architecture

brandenburg gate 2

This is my friend Uschi and I standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany.
It was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791.
It was built as the grandest of a series of city gates constituting the passages through the customs wall encircling the city at the end of the eighteenth century. It is the only gate which survived, because it constitutes the monumental termination of Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which led directly to the residence of the Prussian kings until the destruction of the city castle. The entire construction and ornamentation of the gate reflect the extraordinary importance it was granted by its builders.



Quiet

We are due for the mother of all storms tomorrow. They are saying we will get two feet of snow. And due to the temperatures around here being a tad warmer than they have been, I suspect it will be fairly heavy snow.

I like snow. I do. It’s pretty to watch as it falls, and if you go outside during the storm and stand very still you can hear something wonderful.

Quiet.

I think in this day and age most people have forgotten what real quiet is. We have the noise of TV, or music or automobiles or machinery. When was the last time you can remember hearing nothing? That sweet silence that you can only hear during a snowstorm.

I was about six years old the first time I realized that there was such a thing as quiet. I had gone outside of our house when the snow was falling after dinner one evening. I remember coming back in and asking my mother why it was so quiet outside and she explained to me about the snow soaking up the sound.

Pure quiet.

After that I would always try to go out in the snow during the storm, even if it was just for a moment. When I listen to the quiet of the storm it would always bring me back to that first time. When I was so very young and so very innocent. Back when a good snowstorm meant a day off from school and snowmen in the front yard and snow Angels on the lawn.

So tomorrow I am planning a little trip. Just a few steps outside my door where I will stand alone and listen and remember.

Quiet.

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Antique


When I was a little girl, I would go to visit my grandparents quite often. They had a few toys at their home on Murdock Street in Brighton, Massachusetts, but the toy I always wanted to play with was the wooden Noah Ark. It had been my grandfather’s toy when he was a child in Germany (Papa was born in 1897) and came to this country with him when he was 9 years old. It was very fragile and I was only allowed to play with it in their living room while I was being very, very careful. I spent many hours playing with this wooden ark filled with hand carved animals and of course Noah’s family. It sits in my family room now, untouched by anyone but me, and when I do touch it, I am taken back to those long ago days when Papa and Grandma had me at their home and I played, happily.

Feb. 16 010



Kathleen Alynne November 8th 1978

(to speed up click the plus sign)

My youngest daughter Katie was born 28 years ago at 5:29 AM. She weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces, and was 23 inches long. She had little red curls and green eyes.

As Katie grew she was best friends with her sister, Amanda. They went everywhere together, did everything together and more than anything loved each other deeply.

Katie was a happy child. I enjoyed her sense of humor, her quick smile and her silly little giggle and the dimples she had in her cheeks! They somehow suited her red curls and green eyes, making her look a bit like an elf!

I was lucky to have her in my life for 6 1/2 years. Yes, it should have been more, many, many, more, but I am grateful for the time we had and for the love we shared.

So, today on her birthday I will think of her with love, and yes, an ache too. Until the day when God reunites us, our love will remain, somehow frozen in time.

Thursday 13 #26

food-turkey
Why I Am Looking Forward To Thanksgiving

1. Chestnut Dressing. This is a family tradition and both my cousin Janet and I are addicted to this.
2. Pumpkin pie. I think this is my all time favorite pie. Made with a little bit of brandy, Mmmmmmm!
3. Mashed potatoes with butter, not gravy. I know a lot of people like gravy with their potatoes, but not me. Gravy is for the turkey and stuffing.
4. Butternut squash made with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. This year I will have my own squash on the table.
5. Turkey. The best kind of poultry ever. I just love it!!! The day after Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches are the very best!
6. Apple pie I love that too. Let’s just say that dessert has many layers in our house!
7. Cranberry sauce. It is the perfect condiment for a turkey meal!
8. Plum pudding with hard sauce. My mom makes the plum pudding from an old family recipe. It’s fabulous!
9. Gravy. Home made and smooth. (God willing that my gravy will be lump free this year!)
10. Pickles, and relish and olives. We love to have these on the table to dress up the meal.
11. Pearl onions. Not one of my favorites, but Hubby really loves them.
12. Fresh green beans.
13. The traditional, day after turkey sandwich. 2 slices of hearty bread toasted. Mayonnaise and cranberry sauce spread on each slice. About 2 Tbs. stuffing spread on the toast, and then several slices of turkey. My all time favorite sandwich and one I look forward to every year!!!

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FOOD

Food

A few years ago, as I was leaving to visit Uschi in Germany, Hubby’s parting words to me were, “Don’t eat too much!” (he said this because he knows of my love for German food).

Well, the food was great and it became a joke, whenever we sat down for a meal, we took a picture and emailed it back to Hubby at home. This is a small collage of that trip and the food, glorious food, that I ate!

**Note to all** This is a true story. Not even the names have been changed to protect the guilty!