Gentle Years

I don't go to the parade on Memorial Day that often.  But when I realized that we were just sitting around, I told Aidan to grab his shoes and we'd race two towns over to catch it.  We made it just in time.

Then, because it was a perfect summer day-hot and breezy-I took Aidan and my niece to swim.

My posts have been limited over the last few months by both computer issues and lack of time with Mom dying.  So this post should make up for that.  Here are some of the things we've been up to lately:

My lovely niece, Angela, graduated from Plymouth State University with a degree in business/human resources management.  She is already employed at a nearby college and the party was at her house.

Aidan had a good time celebrating!

I decided it was a good opportunity to take a photo of some of our Plymouth State alumni, then realized I could have been in the shot, too.  Angela is on the left (the graduate), Audrey got her BEd and MEd there, Eryn got her masters in counseling there, and I got an MBA there.

The next day we went to Audrey's bakery....

...to give her feedback on her deli the week before the actual opening.

I even got a picture of my "little" sister Ruth (three years younger-Audrey is one year younger).  Ruth is usually behind a camera so it's hard to get a shot of her.

Then we went to a Crossover ceremony....

...where Aidan went from being a Tiger Scout....

...to being a Wolf scout

The best thing about spring is that everything begins all over again.  The purple lilac is my favorite flower and part of it is what it symbolizes.  Then there is the delicacy, the fragrance, their dependability in blooming regardless of the winter, and their memories.  To go to my grandmother's house, I walked up the road, over the ditch, around the apple tree, around the porch and the lilacs, and past the peonies-something of a double ess  and a fragrant journey in the spring (you have to understand that spring in NH is actually from late May to early June).

At 4-H Camp we sang this song.  I can still remember coming home and singing it to my mother, who already knew it because she sang it when she was a little girl:

I wanna wake up, in the morning, where the purple lilacs grow,
Where the sun comes a-peepin into where I'm a-sleepin, and the song birds say hello!
I wanna wander through the wildwood where the fragrant breezes blow,
and drift back, to New Hampshire, where the purple lilacs grow.

(The purple lilac is our state flower)

I received an idea from another blogger to write about five famous people you would invite to your table for dinner.
(You can see her blog at:  http://lovehasmanyflavors.blogspot.com)
So I have been thinking about this for a few days and here is my list:

Today Aidan had his "crossover" ceremony at Scouts-crossing the bridge from being a Tiger to a Wolf.  I explained to him that two belt loops wouldn't be there for the ceremony but that he would get them early next year; one for snow sports and one for heritage.  When he asked me to explain the heritage, I said that was for taking Chinese New Year gifts into school and explaining his Chinese background.  He said that everyone knows he's from China, that kids ask him about it, and that he tells them he is.  I got the impression he has experienced some teasing about it, though, so tonight he and G had a conversation about that when G put him to bed.  It went like this:
G:  "Mommy says that some kids at school have said stuff about you being from China.  Is that true?"
A:  "Yeah."
G:  "Does that bother you?"
A:  A noncomittal shrug and grunt.
G:  "Would you rather you looked like me?"
A:  "No." (Pause)
A:  "I would rather you looked like me!"

Today our fire department and some neighboring departments had a controlled burn, taking down a motel in town that became town property through a tax lien.  Aidan and I went over to watch it.

It has been raining for days, which makes it perfect for this; I just love summer rain showers!

Spring is the season of change.  For us that means that Little Baby comes home from college.  If you've never had a child in college, let me explain that they have two of everything-one for their life on campus and one for their life at home-which means that when they're home, you have all sorts of stuff to store with no room to store it in.  Here is what the television room looked like on her first day back (just feet from her bedroom door, of course):

The birds are also back, which I love, though not always at 4:00 in the morning when their song wakes me up. But I saw a hummingbird Sunday and several times a day we see a robin who comes swooping down below the porch roof.  It turns out he/she has been building a nest behind one of our porch chairs, of all places:

Every day last week Aidan anxiously said, have they called yet?  I wish they would call! because he couldn't WAIT to get his glasses once he decided that he wanted glasses (which took all of about five minutes after entering the eye doctor's office and seeing the glasses on display).  So we got his call last night and here he is sporting his new lenses:

And, on the adoption front, we finally got a letter that I think (hope?) will pass muster.  I scanned it in and sent it off yesterday to our agency.  Thank you, Myra, for your help in drafting this!

Almost two weeks ago my doctor and Aidan's Tiger Scout leader were involved in a head-on collision, each driving the opposite car.  Our Scout leader has a badly broken foot and the other foot is sprained; of the four sons in the vehicle at the time, only one has a major injury-fractured jaw-but not major enough that he lost teeth.  Our doctor's thigh bone is broken and he will not be returning to his practice until the end of June.  This accident coincided almost perfectly with a request from the Chinese government for a follow-up letter to our medical forms.  Our doctor's partner is on vacation until May 9 so our request was sent to the other office of the practice.  Today I got that letter from a doctor there that I do not know.  It actually improves my profile and makes my husband's profile unacceptable for Chinese adoption.  Our doctor had been very specific on the medical form in his choice of language, making sure that he was completely truthful and that our file would be acceptable.  Our agency got our medical forms reviewed last August and were assured that they would be fine.  Our doctor offered to write a letter where he could further explain-the form is limited in space but not limited in time (it doesn't ask if you've had anything in the last two years, it asks if you have ever had any of the following).  We told him no, we were all set.  We're not.  I'm tired.

Nothing says spring like worms!  RB is fascinated with them; when he found this one, we put it in a butter container and he took it home to show his father.

And then there are the "saddle rock" riders

Not to mention the "explorers" (even Snuggly Bear goes out into the woods)

Not to leave out the little one-"Pumpkin" a/k/a MB