Tales of the Ordinary Days

As my mom so famously says when it's time wrap a FaceTime conversation... "Well, that's about it then." Total code phrase for 'time to hang up and move on'. On day 6 of a week long senior family trip that includes me and Grant representing our family, I am feeling both joy and a bit of angst as I close a long chapter in my life. And although I've experienced many lasts with my youngest over these last few years, the permanency has become very real as we close this trip. In total we had 13 recent grads with their families join our excursion. TimeHop reminded me this morning of the same trip I took with Ben and classmates, 4 years ago to the day. Those four years have flew by at a pace that is now hard for me to fathom. Zach joined us for that trip, as did many other siblings his age. We had a ball. Zach started gunsmithing school two weeks after we returned and Ben was packed and moved to Lincoln within a couple of months. The blo...

The final picture...filter applied Tonight I am finally getting together with my friend, Angelique. It's been way too long. With a close friendship and our birthdays just short of a month apart, we find ourselves celebrating many of life's milestones together. Although we have know each other since our youngest children were in kindergarten, the closeness of our friendship began shortly after our 40th celebrations. Like our birthdays, our divorces coincided in time as well. Now with 48 years under our belts, about eight of those years as single parents, we have experienced many highs and lows of life together. Our memories are full of our adjusting to single-motherhood. Together. Stories from our joint family vacations are reminisced by our young adult children with great laughter. Mother's Days have included family golf outings and brunch. Our kids have a close kinship with each other, just like their moms. I have no doubt that collectively we will always have ...

Next week is Spring Break for Grant. And he's spending the week in Denver with his brother, Zach. Although going to Denver wasn't a surprise, spending the whole week was a late-breaking development. Months ago we planned a weekend in Denver that including friends from Omaha. Recently as I was mapping out details of the trip, Grant looked at me confused. "I'm only going for the weekend?" With my confirmation of this being fact, Grant said nothing with a hint of disappointment in the air. Last weekend, I was going through the same detail mapping with Zach. Completely independent of Grant, his response was near the same. "Why can't he come for longer? Isn't he off all week? He can play my X-Box and hang out while I'm at school. And then he can hang out with me at night." Feeling tag teamed, I paused a bit over an idea that escaped my planning brain. Yet it didn't escape the thoughts of my bookend sons. After some circling ...

Sam ~ far left, Ben ~ far right I saw on FaceBook that a friend's elderly father had passed away. Although I hadn't seen her dad in years, the posted pictures and obituary brought back fond memories. The Ferrara's have been very good to me over the course of the last twenty-five years. Although I would consider myself a casual friend of this big brood, some friendships have run deeper; dependent on the time placement within our life cycles. The posted reflections gave me a life look-back on my own interactions with the family. I moved to Omaha in May of 1989. Other than a handful of Scott's family, I knew no one. We lived with his grandparents that first summer and I worked downtown at Kiewit. Since Scott had attended college for two years at UNO, he had some friends that we soon made arrangements to meet. We moved to Omaha on a Sunday. I started work on a Monday and by Tuesday night, we went to a slow-pitch softball game to meet up with some of Scott's bu...

I received an unanticipated message on FaceBook a couple of weeks back. It was a cute note from a friend's nephew. I hadn't seen him since he was in footie pajamas; looking out the window at the home of my future in-laws. He is now twenty-eight. Five years older than the age of his uncle when he died. He gave me some nice feedback on my blogs. I was shocked, yet pleased, that he read them. And then my young friend asked if I would be interested in meeting sometime. I quickly realized that Darek shared the same sense of humor as his uncle. After asking if I wanted to join him for a coffee, he admitted to hating coffee. Beer was much better. Just like B.L., he made me laugh. The connection made my day. Our current FaceBook friendship didn't come out of our acquaintance during with his footie pajama years. He remembers all the Lane's, but not really me. We became friends two years ago after I posted a blog about his very loved uncle who died way too young. BL blog p...