Memorial Day

It always rains on Memorial Day weekend. You see, I grew up on the west side. (Yep, Pete, even more west than this!) And it rains most of the time. But always, always on camping weekends. My sister and I learned to play pinnochle in the rain over many Memorial Day & Labor Day weekends...in leaky tents with soggy cards. Lanterns hissing, fires sputtering, skin pruny. Somehow, those were still the best of times.

Although, then, I didn't know about baseball. Ahhh...baseball. The Bruins had their first outing. Saturday, the sun shone brightly and the boys won one, lost one. We all got sunburned. On Sunday, just like on the coast, we were rained out. Then Monday, the sun was out again. It's been the oddest spring.

After the game Monday, we did some shopping. Got Zach a new bat. Man...how can a cylinder of metal cost so darn much???

And we all got haircuts, ready for summer. Here's mine:

I'm having a little trouble with the straight part. As you know, I'm a rocker chick from the 80's. I like hairspray. And I have this insane urge to blowdry it upside down and add some fluff. Kate follows me with a straightening iron. I mean really. A straightening iron?? What's any self-respecting Bon Jovi or Def Leppard groupie doing with a STRAIGHTENING iron?? I guess I'll get used to it.

Sigh. Kate got her eyebrows waxed along with her haircut. She looked like she had warpaint on because she had these neon pink stripes of skin above and below her brows. It was kinda funny. But she was really brave. It might seem weird, but I have seen so many girls tweeze their brows into oblivion, that I told her when she entered middle school that someday she might decide that she wanted to do something different with her eyebrows and to PLEASE not do it herself, that I would take her to a professional. Kenny thought it was a hilarious process. Especially the faces Kate made.


Kenny looks pretty handsome, too! He likes to get it short when the weather is hot. Zach's is short, too, but you can't see in his pics cause of the helmets.

We got to come home on Saturday and celebrate Bob's birthday and see Nana Edith and Aunt Diana. It was good to see them. We'll get to see them later this summer when we travel to Lewiston for baseball.

In just a few weeks we go to Kelso for Jake's graduation. Wow. It seems only a short time ago that I was in the airport, with a huge Kenny-tummy, waiting for Denise to deboard the plane, anxious to meet 5-month-old Jakob. You have to go to the flickr site and see pics of him in his tux. Wow.


"Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’
I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’"

And it does. It keeps on turning. Sometimes so fast, it makes my head spin. And some days, I want to hide from it. It rained on Sunday and I hid in my bed. Slept away most of the day. It felt good.

But...not for too long.

Soon it was time to get up, face the day, do what needed to be done, move forward.

Breathe.
Step.
Breathe.
Step.

And somewhere in there....
smile.

Laugh, even.
Yes, laugh.

And shout.
And cheer.

And get ready for the next go-round of that big wheel in the sky.