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September 27, 2005
If a picture paints a thousand words...
Then my little girl is growing up!
I look at this picture, taken 9 years ago and I think, "awe, what a cute little girl she was!"
Then I look at this year's 8th grade picture...
and I can't believe my eyes!! She is growing up WAY WAY too fast!
My oh my, where does the time go?
Posted by tracey at 08:45 PM | Comments (2)
September 25, 2005
Autumn
So, in getting out of this depressive blog funk...
"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."
~ Autumn Equinox Ritual ~
Image Courtesy of Charles Freitag.
Posted by tracey at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2005
Death and Dying
Gosh, I think I'm in some sort of funk here...all I do is think and talk about death. I recently completed my advance directives, well, filled them out anyway. I still need to have them signed by a witness and than disperse copies to those who would need them.
The other day I called around for prices on burial plots and I made the decision to be cremated and decided I would be an organ donor. (I've really struggled with the whole cremation/burial thing,) neither sounds very good, but it's gotta be one or the other and so I finally chose cremation.
Anyhow, it's just weird that I am in this funk, trying to get things in place, as they say, you just never know.
Other than that, all is well!
Posted by tracey at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
This gave me goosebumps
TO REMEMBER ME
~ By Robert N. Test ~
The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under a mattress located in a hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying.
At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.
When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body with the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the Bed of Life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
Give my eyes to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face, or love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might see his grandchildren play. Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones, every nerve and fiber in my body, and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, some day, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat, and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window. Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the Devil. Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or a word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.
Posted by tracey at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2005
Christmas Shopping has officially begun!
So, I've spent part of this morning looking online at some personalized Christmas ornaments and updated my wish list for the year! I LOVE ornaments and have started a bit of a tradition to buy them for everyone on my list every Christmas. Can't have too many ornaments right???
I found ones for the new babies this year, the ornaments that are personalized and say "baby's first christmas" 
All the kids on my list get one and then my sister and younger brother and his wife.
So, I've been having fun doing that! Course it's hot again, hot hot hot and I am not impressed with this weather especially given the fact that I am fighting off a nasty cold thanks to Hannah Banana. Oh, it's awful, but today I feel much better although I'm still sneezing some and coughing, but it's better!
I am also quite proud of myself this morning too. We had a leak in the bathroom that was ruining our kitchen ceiling. Plaster falling down and it didn't look good. This area is directly under our tub upstairs so I began to investigate yesterday while Hubby, who isn't much into home repair was at work. Well, first I called four different plumbing outfits and no one could come! Imagine that!!! Too busy they all said while in the meantime my kitchen ceiling is falling in! So, anyway, I called a friend, she's always done her own home repairs and she came over. We started checking things out and discovered that it was most likely the fact that my tub and shower tiles were leaking because all of the calking around it was loose and or missing. (My house is old btw) So, we started pulling things up, found out that sure enough water was getting behind the tiles and running down the wall and it was a mess. So, we spent the entire day fixing and repairing and this morning Dev gave it the first test, showered and no water in the kitchen ceiling!!!! YEAH!!!! Oh yeah, hubby was quite impressed too! LOL Course, I may have shot myself in the foot cuz next time something happens he'll just think I'll take care of it!!! LOL
Oh well, problem fixed for the moment, but I still want to do something better with it later on.
Well, guess that is enough rambling for one day. Hope everyone is having a great week!
Posted by tracey at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2005
The Loss of GREAT Woman...
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
~:psalm 116:15:~
I received bad news today that someone was sick, very sick and than later tonight I got word she had passed. Devon was devastated, I was shocked and dismayed.
Her name was Barbara and Barb was a great person, friend, nurse, mother and grandmother. Oh how she loved her kids and grandkids. She often spoke of her mornings "frogin" with them when she would take the little ones over by a pond near her home and they would look for frogs half the morning.
She was a jokester, always smiling, laughing, bringing cheer. She was a great friend and confidant and co-worker. I learned alot from Barb during those endless hours of the night shift, a shift she had worked for nearly 30 years. Barbara loved her patients too, there was nothing she wouldn't do for them and make them laugh, she could always do that! I will always fondly remember in the early morning hours how she would sing to them and you would hear all over the floor, singing away and the patients LOVED it! Having known Barb and working with her was truly a great blessing.
God, I loved Barb and when she retired 8 years ago we missed her so much, I missed her so much!
After her retirement I would drop in occasionally to say hi, we use to get together once in a while, the girls and Barb, and have breakfast together to talk and laugh. Barb never drove so I would always pick her up on our outings and after breakfast she would always like to run to the local pharmacy to pick up a few things and we would always go.
When I got sick a few years back with my MS, Barb was the one to give me my first Avonex injection.
She was always giving me clothes too, bags and bags of clothes, sheets, towels, all things that her grandchildren had outgrown.
Barbara, what a special lady she was and I will miss her.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I give you this one thought to keep --
I am with you still – I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not think of me as gone –
I am with you still – in each new dawn.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~In Loving Memory ~
Barbara Marcotte
1932-2005
Posted by tracey at 08:54 PM | Comments (1)
September 10, 2005
On a Misty Morn...
I started off to work early this morning, just a little after six. It was chilly and so foggy, I had to wait for the car to warm up a bit and clear the windows.
Just a few feet down my road I came upon the neatest scene and so wished I had had my camera, but, I think even if I had had my camera I would have missed them!
Deer, crossing the road on a hill just up ahead and in the dense fog of the early morning I could make out their silhouette
perfectly. Deer in the fog...
Kind of like this pic, 
but no, I didn't take it! Just figures hah??
Posted by tracey at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
Try to Remember....
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and a callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow--follow, oh-oh
- Try to Remember, Lyrics by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
Posted by tracey at 06:36 PM | Comments (1)
September 05, 2005
Autumn is officially here!
The Indian Summer, the dead Summer's soul.
- Mary Clemmer, Presence
So, I've been thinking alot about the summer and all we did. It's feeling officially like autumn too, just because it's now chilly enough to wear a sweater in the evening and I cleaned out my garden this weekend!
We actually did quite a bit this year. Spent a few days out to the lake and Devon did some water skiing. Went to Granby Zoo, The Whale's Tale, Winnisquam NH, Connecticut, Three birthday parties, (Tatum, Devon and Tristan)and the Fair in Essex and an Alan Jackson concert. So, I guess we did ok.
I'm glad we got it all done too before the gas prices went ski high! I think maybe next year we'll be staying closer to home!
Enjoyed a nice day yesterday with Mom, Dad and Josh and his family. My little nephew Josh is growing like a weed!
I can't believe he is already six months old!
And...my girls just grow bigger all the time!
Well, I'm off to bed to do some reading, I really need to get back into the reading mode again. I've tons of books to finish!
More later, have a great rest of the week!
Posted by tracey at 08:26 PM | Comments (2)
September 02, 2005
OMG!
So, I wrote about my thoughts tonight and then see what I got in an email????
The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama. Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama. The judge's poem sums it up quite well.
America the Beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride;
I'm glad they'll never see.
Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty;
your house is on the sand.
Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain.
From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love
and a need to always pray.
We've kept God in our temples,
how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.
We've voted in a government
that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door,
Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.
You think that God's not angry,
that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?
How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?
If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face
and mend our evil way:
Then God will hear from Heaven
and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land
and those who live within.
But, America the Beautiful,
if you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God
withdraw His hand from Thee.
~Judge Roy Moore
Posted by tracey at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
Chaos or is it just me?
So, I've been really plaqued with some heavy thoughts since Hurricane Katrina. I go from thinking we are in the end days to, it's ok, things will get better for these people and life will go on. But...I seem to side with the first part rather than the latter.
I can't help but think that we are in the end days. The world is very shaky and seems to get shakier as the days go by. Not only are things just absolutely crazy, for example, horrific crime, very little morality, lost values, enormous greed, terrible disease, child hunger, endless war and the increase in natural disasters such as the psunami and now Katrina. What gives anyway?
Is it just because of the mass media today that brings all this awful news to our ears so quickly whereas years ago when bad things happened you didn't hear about them until it was all over? Or is it just because this is what is suppose to happen? Things winding down, getting totally out of hand until it's all over, no more?
Ugh, it's been bugging me alot! And, being a Christian soul I probably shouldn't let it bother me so as I want the world to be a better place, I want peace and no more war, hunger, poverty, etc, etc. I guess I just don't know if I'm up to the challenge of what it's going to take to get there. Or...maybe I'm just depressed!
But...until I can figure it out, if ever, I'll keep praying for the world and those suffering in the wake of Katrina. I plan to help the relief effort with a small donation and if I was 15 years younger and no family of my own, I'd be down there in a minute to do what I could to help!
Posted by tracey at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)