Ah Monday! I really am glad to see you again. As I shared in my post last week, Wedding Bells and Adventures, I was in NY for the wedding of my step daughter.
If you have gone on a trip then you know your days kinda meld together and it’s worse when you get home.
We traveled back last Monday and I was off on all the rest of my week.
I went to work on Wednesday thinking it was Tuesday. I told someone I was doing something Thursday and they were like….oh, tomorrow?
And I was wondering how we were already approaching the end of the week.
Gah. Tell me you understand?!
The weekend has kinda reset me but getting started with a Monday will definitely put me on track again.
Speaking of my NY trip. I couldn’t help but snap this bathroom sign.
It’s definitely one of the more interesting I’ve seen….
It gets the point across I guess 🤪
In the ways of signs…..
I hopped on the elevator the first morning and saw this sign for hot sauces. Being from Texas, the land of all things wickedly hot, I found it amusing to be in NY and see an ad for hot sauce.
My kids decided they would get Mexican food on one of their nights out.
I had to listen to them complain about how horrible it was
Me: you’re in NY, not Texas. Did you think you were going to get really good Mexican food?!
They agreed it may have not been the best idea.
Back home
Did I mention on our return home, we were preparing for our daughter to move out and into her first apartment?
I’m not sure how this happened so fast but somehow she’s 21 and ready to fly out and start independent living.
This might not be such a big deal but it hit me one day as she was on her way out. She was standing at our front door, an overnight bag tossed over her shoulder, chatting about what she needed to get for her apartment and I saw in my mind, the little girl who came through our door years ago.
At 8 1/2 years old, we were her fifth foster placement within a 3 month period. She came in that same door carrying a small white trash bag.
The sum total of all her life possessions.
A toy, a book and a bag of poorly fitting clothes.
That memory was so vivid I almost wept standing there talking to her.
How had the years gone by so quickly that I was now preparing to watch her walk out that door just a few more times before she wouldn’t be doing it on the daily anymore?
Yet there she stood a much more confident, self assured, loved and wanted young woman ready to begin a new journey in her life.
I cursed myself for those emotional moments that crept up on me.
She is ready for the new chapter and we’ve done our work to prepare her for this new experience.
But still… those years went a bit to fast.
I love this pic from our trip recently. When she was younger she’d always want to know how people knew she was adopted. 😛
We do love watching people’s reactions when we they find out we are mother and daughter Haha
Of course I have decided to find positive things about her move.
Once the years of clutter, clothes and other items are removed from her room and I get to paint and return it to normal again I can move in a complete antique bedroom set I’ve had stashed in my barn. The bed frame has the wedding date of the couple written on the back from 1920. The vanity and dresser have beautiful tri fold mirrors on them. It will be fun to transform the room (and furniture) with this antique set.
Bonus? I got the whole set for 100.00.
So I have my own ways of dealing with these normal life events.
Press on and appreciate new changes.
On topic of new changes
Did I happen to mention I became a grandmother again at the end of April? My oldest son had his first. Little Maddie Blue was the youngest to make the NY trip and she did great. Ironically, if we’re lucky, it appears she may have blue eyes to go along with her name. How positively adorable is that???
Speaking of rolling with life
I was notified recently that the owner of the vintage shop where my little vintage business is housed does not plan to renew her lease meaning…I have to get out at the end of June. ( read my post The Journey of Opening A Vintage Business to see where it started)
Mind you…I didn’t plan on this…nor did I see it coming.
We were all given 30 days before lease was up…so. yeah. I’m sure this was a random decision 🙄
But I’m a person who always try’s to land on her feet so the day I found out, I was heading to our downtown area looking for a new place to house my little business.
And I did.
There is a large vendor shop on our main downtown walking area. I found a vendor who is also leaving at the end of June. Her spot is perfect and the rent is reasonable. The owners of this shop have been in business for over 30 years so I’m not worried about future lease issues.
Yes, it will be a pain to move everything and reestablish myself. I’ve determined to not be salty over this situation but to see it as an unexpected opportunity for growth.
My old location wasn’t on the main part of the downtown area. My new location is so I consider this a big win. I had considered off and on looking for a possible place in the downtown area but was comfortably situated where I was so never really got serious about it.
I’m grateful for a place to move my business and for all the exciting possibilities it holds.
Life is busy and full of changes isn’t it? We either learn to roll with those changes or we can be miserable and unhappy holding on to what was and resisting change when those changes could offer bigger and better opportunities to us.
What about you? Has life tossed you some new things that will challenge you to grow? How do you feel about that?
Don’t ask why but I thought it was cool.It was fun to visit the places of his life from his earlier years. He still has family there and some made themselves available for us while we were there to visit and catch up on our lives.The weddingAh yes. Let’s get to the good stuff :)Weddings are always sweet, beautiful and full of hopes, promises, and new dreams.I always admire the new couple and think of them starting this journey of marriage.I think about the roads I’ve traveled on mine in 35 years.I wonder if they will have all it takes to withstand lifes ups and downs once the honeymoon is over.For a writer and a people watcher like me, weddings are perfect fodder for my reflective, wandering mind and thoughts.This was the first marriage for my husband’s daughter. She is strong, beautiful, hard working, clever, and fun.She is 42 and found the man of her dreams ( we all like him alot too 🙂 )I’d say she has had plenty of time to consider all she would want her wedding to be….and it was beautiful. She was a glowing, stunning bride and as best as I could tell everything went perfect.Of course the reception is the time when everyone can relax and have fun.And have fun, we did.With a DJ that was a ball of energy, there wasn’t a dull moment.Ok dear readers, I need to admit it here, but yours truly loves to dance.And I did and by the end of the night the heels were off, my feet were tired, my makeup had faded and my flowers had wilted, but gosh, it was a fun night.
But it was one song that took me to that deeper introspection.He had all the couples on the floor dancing and they dropped out as he called out years you were married.It felt good to be one of the half dozen left standing when the years topped over thirty, then 35…that’s when we stepped off floor with only a few left.The grooms parents took it with 50 years.I thought about all the years of life lived with a person and all that goes with it.The good, the bad, the ugly and beautiful.And by damn….awards should be given!It takes a whole lotta work to get to that point in your life.Work. Sacrifice. Giving. Taking. Laughing. Crying. Inside jokes and getting each other in ways no one else on planet earth does. Years of being poor. Years of having plenty. Kids. Dogs. House payments. Sickness and health. Hogging the covers and taking over the bed. Learning to embrace and accept each other’s weirdness and idiosyncrasies.All of these thoughts rolled through my head as I danced with my husband, my partner in crime.I thought about his daughter and how she would learn these things too.You think you know your partner on your wedding day and you do.But you know them so much better year after year than you did that day.And it’s just the day in and out of life that you learn these things.
They will learn too. They will travel down the road of life together and realize a few years from now they know each other better than they did on this amazing day and there is such a beautiful sweetness in that.Now back to regularly scheduled lifeWe’ve all experienced it right? The fun comes to an end and its back to doing life again that got left behind while you’re off having fun.And here I sit, high above the earth as darkness creeps into the cabin, the passengers quiet as the plane speeds us closer home, waiting to resume life again at home.
The wedding was sweet. The time seeing the bride and her new husband was precious.Seeing a few family members let us catch up on life.The time away and having all our family there on a big trip was a first.The ages ranged from my new born granddaughter to us old people Haha and everything in between.Life is precious. But it’s the people in it that make it that way. As I come home tired and ready for my own bed, I’m reminded again of how truly blessed I am in my life.And I’m already plotting and planning when we can go on another adventure again.Have you been on any recent adventures?
sassyfitnesschick 