Tales of the Ordinary Days

The cropped picture A rainy Saturday in Omaha. I have experienced many of these over my 27 years of calling Omaha home. This March day that had bursts warmth along with the precipitation, held nothing of particular difference over the early spring days of past. But that's exactly why it was such a great day. The ordinary days full of old friends, new faces, family, and the comforts of home rank high on my list. With lots of recent travel and fun on the road, the rhythm of normalcy within the heartbeat of our Omaha home has been a welcomed haven. It truly is the little things in life that bring the the greatest pleasures. Today's blog post is simply going to recap my ordinary day. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I am going to use my pictures from the day in telling my story (Instagram meets blog post??)... __________________________________________________________ The original 'uncropped' picture. We obviously aren't good at photo boot...

The thought for the day, my friends.....slow down. This theme keeps resurrecting itself amidst the chaos around me. And by the sounds of the conversations and interactions I have with my friends, I am not alone. Having a three day weekend ahead of me sounded like pure bliss. With the less than stellar weather forecast, I planned on working non-stop for the entire weekend. A time to play catch-up; both for work and household duties that have been staring at me from my carefully sketched out to-do list. Go, go, go...the current story of our lives. With hefty work goals and busy kids dominating our time, Garrett and I try to keep true our workout schedule and date nights. Neither get gold stars, but we're trying. And the kids are older. By appearances, they would seem collectively self-sufficient. But my dear friend Robbie hit the nail on the head in her explanation to me on growing kids many moons age. Although Robbie and I are the same age, Robbie's kids are 5ish year...

The boys after surviving our Christmas Eve road trip This story serves as a follow-up "bad parenting story" from my last blog post. Since the kids in my previous story were not my own, I thought I better come clean on my own parenting prowess. When the boys were young, we would spend time over our Christmas breaks skiing in Colorado. The days of our stay would vary, dependent on family schedules. On this particular year, we chose to ski the week before Christmas. The plan was to drive home on Christmas Eve. This would get us home for the Lane extended family gathering on Christmas Day. Our ski trips would many times involve other families. Russ and Robbie were with us on this trip. Following a great week of skiing, we packed up Christmas Eve morning. We set off on our road trip with happy thoughts of landing in the warmth of our homes by late afternoon. Plenty of time to enjoy this special night and prepare for our Nebraska Christmas. As is typical with the mountain...

Boo-Boo and Russell after they were corrupted I have a confession. Well, technically WE have a confession. Robbie and I weren't being responsible. Once. Just once. Hmmmm....let's further narrow it down to the holidays. There was this one time over the holidays that Robbie and I weren't exactly responsible. Not horrible, but not our shining moment either. The Setting: December of 1989. Apartment living off of 108th and Maple in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cast of Characters: Sandy: 22 years; Robbie: days shy of 22 years; Russell: 3 years; Brynnie: 18 months. Scott worked nights at the jail. Robbie went to surgery tech school and lived with Scott & Sandy during the week. The Story: It was a very cold early-December Friday night. Robbie and kids decided to stay the night in Omaha. Scott was at work until midnight. I thought writing Christmas cards was a good idea. Robbie agreed. So we wrapped up the children in their warmest winter-wear and walked across the...