A Couple of Dozen

Exactly two dozen years ago, my daughter came quietly into this world. My maternal grandmother had come to visit us for a couple of weeks. She was going to watch Derek when Terry and I had to go to the hospital. I remember waking up in the middle of the night but I can’t remember why we decided to go to the hospital. My water did not break, like it did when I went into labor for Derek in 1986. I probably called the doctor and they must have told us to head in to town to the hospital.

I remember seeing the moon as we drove in. For the longest time, I thought it was a full moon. But I went and checked a star chart app at Astronomy.com and discovered it was waxing and actually set at 1:30 a.m. that night. So I’ve confirmed I did see a moon while we drove to the hospital, just not a full one as I had misremembered. When I arrived at the hospital, the birthing wing was quiet, but it wouldn’t stay that way long. I was the first of many women who would arrive over the next few hours. By the time the sun rose, the birthing wing was overflowing with laboring pregnant women.

Rachelle was born a few minutes past sunrise on that Monday. She weighed six pounds twelve ounces (easy to remember since she was born in the sixth month on the twelfth day at 6:24 a.m.).I had not decided upon a name for her until I saw her. Then the name ‘Rachel’ popped into my head. But I didn’t want her to be a run-of-the-mill ‘Rachel’ (and let me assure you she never has been) so I mashed it up with a version of my middle name and the name of a cousin of my favorite Aunt Melody. Her name was ‘Rochelle.’ So, I spelled my daughter’s name ‘Rachelle’ but I pronounced it just like you would ‘Rachel.’ This caused all of us headaches when I enrolled her in day care and later in public school. I just shrug. My daughter had it a lot easier than I did, growing up a girl named Jon (pronounced just like ‘John’).

I miss her so much nowadays. She’s so far away. I console myself with her self-portrait and the day lilies that bloom each year on her birthday:

Happy Birthday Rachelle!

Last year’s birthday post.

And the year before that.

Happy Birthday Apollo

This past Thursday May 9th, Terry and I celebrated the anniversary of our adoption of Apollo seven years ago. Since we rescued him we don’t know his exact birthday. Our family vet estimated that he was a year or year and a half old when we rescued him.

So we will give Apollo the benefit of the doubt and round down to eight, which is probably over 50 in human years. Welcome to your midlife crisis Apollo. You’re over the hill now and it’s smooth sailing from now on.

This morning I took a half dozen pictures of Apollo as the lounge on the couch. I tried to take a couple more outside but there was too much difference between the shadow of the house and the bright morning sunlight on the grass behind him. I upload them to my Flickr feed but I uploaded one separately here to this blog for your enjoyment.

Happy Birthday Apollo!

Crouching Tiger, Dying Dragon, Springing Snake

TerryDerekAndKingEaster1987 — Terry, Derek and King (Easter 1987)

Tomorrow, I celebrate the 27th anniversary of my journey into motherhood. And the little bundle of joy I brought kicking and screaming into the world twenty-seven years ago, arrived safely, after a long drive north from Texas, to visit us just before 3:00 a.m. earlier this morning. In a strange juxtaposition of events, tomorrow also happens to be the last day of the Year of the Dragon. Even stranger, Derek was born on the very first day of the Year of the Tiger in 1986. Sunday begins the Year of the Snake, the second for my daughter, since as she turns twenty-four in June.

My feelings about this past year are mixed and bittersweet. Part of me grieves with the passing of my fourth Dragon year and part of me is disappointed with where I am, what I’ve accomplished (or failed to accomplish), where I’m going and what, if anything, there is to look forward to by the time the next Dragon year rolls around. Right at this very moment, I’m not even sure I can muster any enthusiasm about it’s arrival or whether I’ll make it another twelve years to enjoy it (or not). Gloomy, I know. Perhaps it’s a by-product of two consecutive days of insomnia.

Derek Supporting the Lotus F1 Team — Derek at the USGP (Nov 2012)

But enough of my maudlin thoughts. I came here today to write a short blog post celebrating my son’s birthday. I haven’t seen him since last November, when all of us (my husband, my son and his wife, my daughter and her boyfriend and myself) traveled to Austin, Texas for the return of Formula 1 to the United States. Derek opted to support Kimi and the Lotus team (see photo at left) in direct contradiction to his father’s preferred team, Ferrari. I was clearly the underdog, since I cheered for Michael Schumacher. Today, though, I am very excited to have both Derek and his wife, Royna, visiting us. All I have to do is survive a gauntlet of meetings at work today followed by the commute home. Then I’ll be able to spend quality time with both of them. I even ordered his favorite type of birthday cake earlier this week. I’ll pick it up from the local Dairy Queen tomorrow morning.

GoldAndSilver — Derek (2nd Place, 69kg Division) USJA Junior Nationals (July 2000)

My biggest adjustment to ’empty nest’ life has been a less hectic schedule for the last four years. During the last Year of the Dragon (circa 2000), we traveled all around the country, taking Derek to compete at regional and national judo tournaments. That schedule only increased through high school with the addition of wrestling, soccer and lacrosse. My Saturdays are decidedly quieter, as compared to a school gymnasium crammed to the rafters with screaming parents and ten or twelve wrestling mats. And warmer, compared to all-day tournaments in the early spring for soccer or lacrosse.

I do miss the excitement, though. Watching him compete. Or even listening to him sing at a choir concert. The quiet life sometimes has its drawbacks.

At least I have him, and his wife, for the weekend. I take what I can get when it comes to visits from my kids.

Happy Birthday Derek!

Protected: Turkey Surprise

Four Dozen or Four Dragons

Four dozen years ago, in my first Year of the Dragon, I began a journey. I breathed my first breath. I probably cried, maybe even hollered. I saw light, or probably just blobs of colors and contrasting brightness. I heard sounds. I felt someone hold me. My parents gave me a simple three letter label: Jon. Simple, yet complex, and either ahead of the times or a sign of the times (hey, it was the sixties, man).

I began my seventeen thousand five hundred thirty-third day about like every other day in recent memory. My cell phone alarm woke me with the rock organ chords to “I’m Okay” by Styx from the Pieces of Eight album. I snoozed once, just because it was my birthday. The second time I heard the rock organ, I cancelled the alarm and took a peak outside. Clear skies! The best birthday present ever! I could finally try out my new binoculars. Wow! I could see at least three of Jupiter’s moons and several of the nebulae in Orion’s Sword. Oh, and the Pleiades looked might fine as well. I avoided the waning but still very bright Harvest Moon so I would not blind myself before the sun came up.

The riders of my vanpool got together behind my back (literally) and all signed the card at right. I’m not quite sure how they managed to do this without me knowing, since as far as I can tell, they don’t get together outside the confines of the van, and I’m usually driving said van. Just another one of life’s little mysteries, I suppose.

But that’s beside the point. I wish to give a shout out to my riders here and say “Thank You!” for thinking of me. You all make the beginnings and endings of my workdays more enjoyable. I look forward to each and every commute with you and the traffic adventure that is I-70.

I also received cards early, from my father and my daughter recently, but forgot to take photos of them to share here. I woke up to several posts wishing me happy birthday via Facebook and email. My dad also called to wish me well. I called my husband to remind him to wake up for a doctor’s appointment and the very first thing he said to me when he answered his cell phone as an enthusiastic “Happy Birthday!”

I received a touching email note from my Aunt Melody that included her recollections of that long cold night in early October, 1964. She stayed up all night with my mother (her older sister), waiting for me to be born. She remembered how cold it was in the nursery and how they forgot to warm up the incubator before placing me in it. Good thing I developed my own internal heat source, which my husband shamelessly takes advantage of during the long winter nights.

I will miss having lunch with my retired co-worker and friend, Marge, today. She traveled late last week for a funeral and won’t return for a few more days. That makes two years in a row when journey’s end encroached on celebrating the journey’s start. I know that will become increasingly common in the years ahead.

I am reasonably confident I will see a fifth Year of the Dragon in 2024, and probably my sixth in 2036. I am more health conscious than ever, thanks to my employer’s Health & Wellness programs and benefits. I even signed up for one of their free exercise classes this month. I joined the strength training class available over the lunch hour on Mondays and Thursdays. Since I don’t want to invest (or store) weights, bands, balls, rings, etc. at home, I thought I should take advantage of this class to help keep my bones healthy and strong. I want to stave off osteoporosis. I continue other exercising (Yoga, aerobic, balance) with Wii Fit Plus and Apollo takes me for moonlit evening walks most days.

If I can keep this up, and make progress to a better, healthier version of me, then perhaps I might even see my seventh Year of the Dragon, in 2048, at the ripe old age of eighty-four. Both of my grandmothers made it past that mark. Here’s hoping I will too!

The Twenty-Third

What? The twenty-third what you ask?

Well, obviously (to me anyway) the twenty-third anniversary of the birth of my daughter, Rachelle, that’s what.

I want to take this opportunity to stroll down memory lane and share a few memories with you.

RachelleClimbEveryMountain — Rachelle ‘climbing’ the ‘mountain’ … one of my favorite early photos of her (c. 1990)

MossFamily-copy — Silly family photo (c. 1989 or 1990)

FlowerGirlRachelleAndRingBoyDerek — Flower girl, Rachelle, and ring boy, Derek, at my brother’s wedding.

We’ll skip ahead a few years (the years during which I took mostly video to VHS-C tape and not film photos), to the time when Rachelle perfected ‘the look’ of exasperation because I loved taking candids of her with a digital camera.

Work4God1stHalf-016 — Rachelle giving me the ‘look’ during vacation Bible school (c. 2005)

BonnerSpringsMeet-PANA0079 — On the tennis court (c. 2004)

Of course, there was the ever changing (sometimes by the week) hair color:

RachelleAFreshman — Blonde, First day of School as a Freshman (c. 2004)

July25th-PANA0069 — Reddish Blonde (c. Sumer 2004)

BlackAndTeal-006 — Black and Teal (c. Summer 2005)

Rachelle played various team sports, including soccer at a young age (and I can’t find any of those photos, probably because they are in a box in the basement with the videotapes of the games). She also learned some judo and jujitsu, but never competed. Besides tennis (shown previously above), she also played fast pitch softball for a couple of years:

RachelleSeasonOpenerSoftballMay2003 — Rachelle on the field during the season opener (May 2003)

Rachelle played lacrosse for three years, the only female in an all-male league, who went undefeated that last year and she earned the Player of the Year award from her coaches.

scan0002 — Bulldogs Goal Tender (c. 2005)

But singing became her first love and most beautiful talent, joining a youth choir in third grade and continuing to perfect her voice through a succession of choirs and voice instructors.

HonorRecital-PANA0019 — Performing her solo at the Honor Recital (c. 2006)

Rachelle graduated from high school with honors.

RachellesGraduation-468 — Graduate Rachelle (May 2007)

Rachelle received two full scholarships (one academic, one music) to attend a local community college, where she continued her pursuit of vocal performance in various choirs and voice studios, including the Jazz Choir (notice the dark hair color).

RachelleJazzChoirMar2008 — Rachelle performing with the Jazz Choir (Mar 2008)

She gradauted with honors, but declined to attend graduation, so I have no photos of that non-event. In August 2009, just three months after graduating, she moved to North Texas (as did her brother and his wife). Rachelle enrolled at the University of North Texas and Derek joined the Guildhall at SMU. Terry and I found ourselves empty nesters rather abruptly.

RachelleApril2010FunnyFace — Funny Face (Apr 2010)

Rachelle studied abroad in Europe (Germany mostly) during the Summer of 2010.

RachelleAndTerryBeforeLeaving4AirportMay2010 — Rachelle with her Dad before leaving on the plane for Europe (May 2010)

For the last three years, Terry and I have made the annual Thanksgiving trip to North Texas to visit them.

KidsTdayDentonTexas — Rachelle transfers the ‘look’ to her boyfriend (finally, I’m spared) (Nov 2010)

But she still tries to hide from my camera.

SillyFamily — Rachelle and Terry hiding from my camera while tailgating at the UNT v KSU football game (Nov 2010)

And both my kids know how to ham it up for a photo.

SillyOffspring — Rachelle (smiling sillily) with Derek (Dec 2010)

For Christmas, Rachelle comes home (usually by plane) and Derek and Royna rent a car and drive up to visit. Usually, she helps me trim the Christmas tree.

RachelleSettingUpXmasTree — Setting up the Christmas Treet (Dec 2010)

This past spring has taken us to North Texas twice. First to visit for Easter and second to attend Rachelle’s graduation (again with honors – manga cum laude) from UNT.

Seventy Eggs and One Ham — Rachelle hamming it up with the Easter eggs (Apr 2012)

RayaAndDerek — Derek congratulating Rachelle with a bear hug (May 2012)

Rachelle really needs to overcome her shyness problem when I point a camera (any camera, including my cell phone) at her.

Future Graduate Student of Vocal Performance — Soon-to-be Graduate Student of Vocal Performance (May 2012)

And so I reach the twenty-third photo featuring my daughter, on this her twenty-third birthday.

Between Sets — Rachelle performing at her Senior Voice Recital (UNT, May 2012)

Happy Birthday Rachelle!

My Least Favorite Day of the Year, Yet the Last Day of My Favorite Month and Season

I dread the last day of October, probably about as much as I look forward to the second day of October (being my natal day). All Hallow’s Eve, commonly compressed to Halloween (or Hallowe’en as I prefer to render it), leaves me cold and exasperated, at least as it’s hyped by the media and the movies.

Case in point: My husband and I slummed to the Lifetime Movie Network late yesterday afternoon in search of a non-horror movie to watch. In all the years we’ve been cable and now satellite television subscribers, we rarely (if ever) watched that particular channel.

I can expect to be invaded by children just a few minutes after I arrive home from work this evening. The City of Lansing stated the official hours for the invasion on their website and Facebook page to be between six and nine o’clock. Usually, the teenagers (and sometimes a few college students) trickle through past that time, but they can have the most interesting costumes. My daughter, a senior at UNT in Denton, Texas, dressed up as Flo (of Progressive fame) this year, even performing her Opera On Tap selection in it.

I don’t have many fond memories from childhood of Halloween. Since I grew up in the country, a half-mile from my nearest neighbor, I can count on one hand the times I trick-or-treated, because my mom had to drive us into town (Leavenworth was 10-15 miles away from where we lived). At least our local church held an annual fall festival for the children, which I did enjoy.

I do remember watching ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown‘ annually. I wonder if I’ve already missed the broadcast? Or do they even both to re-broadcast these old classic animated holiday specials from the 60s? A quick check at TVGuide.com confirms my theory that either I’ve missed it or it wasn’t aired at all this year. Oh, well, I guess I could watch it on my laptop through Hulu or some other similar site.

The true horror story haunting my sleepless nights concerns my large oak tree in my front yard. Even though I’ve raked ten bags worth of leaves and acorn shells, the oak tree still sports nearly all of it’s mostly green foliage. I’m looking forward to the windy day forecast for tomorrow, which I hope will strip the branches bare and I can finally put the nail in the coffin of that particular tedious autumn chore.

Dog Day Doldrums

Mid-August usually simmers, steeping the Midwest in heat and humidity; yet we’ve been graced with temperatures in the 80s and relatively low humidity. Daily (or nightly) thunderstorms greened up the lawn, found a leak in my new roof (or old chimney) and delayed the second major home improvement project to replace our disintegrating driveway.

My daughter and her boyfriend fled the persistent Texas drought and constant triple-digit temperatures to bask on the beaches of the Bahamas this week. They returned to the Heartland yesterday, making a brief layover at KCI in the early evening. She called us as we were driving to a friend’s 50th birthday party. No word yet if they made it back to Texas (but I’m assuming they did and were just too tired to call).

Roxy, one of our Rottweilers, made a trip to the vet this week, ostensibly to have a stubborn tick removed from her inner left thigh (and also for some advice for her mobility as she ages … she’s over seven or eight years old now). Terry and I found the ‘tick’ Sunday evening. We tried several times to remove it, but could not find the head or legs (only the ‘body’). The vet got a chuckle when he explained that what we thought was a tick was actually a skin tab … it just looked a lot like a tick. I really should have put my reading glasses on Sunday evening and saved poor Roxy the abuse.

Looking east/northeast from Parallel and 110th near the Legends.

I only got to ride in the van one day this week. I took Monday off, rode Tuesday and then drove the van the rest of the week. I saw some fantastic sunrises and tried to snap a few photos with my cell phone (while driving). As we near the autumnal equinox, the sunrise coincides (inconveniently for eastbound drivers) with our commute from Leavenworth to Kansas City. By the time we reach Parallel or State Avenue, the sun sits just above the horizon, so a bit of cloud camouflage eases the eye strain and makes driving safer. Finally, after nearly ten days of driving a loaner van, the vanpool returned our van to us from the repair shop. I opted to swap the vans Friday morning after dropping off the other two riders at Hallmark. I got almost all the way to the Plaza before I realized I’d left my cell phone in the loaner van. The guard at the KCATA garage probably thinks I’m blonde or something.

I missed the Perseid meteor shower, like most of the rest of the United Stats, thanks to a full moon (and hazy clouds or even thunderstorms). My husband sat outside one night this week, but he reported the moon lit up the atmosphere so much, he could hardly see the brightest stars. In fact, he had trouble finding the constellation Cassiopeia, normally very easy to spot as it looks like a W or an M (depending on it’s current rotational position around Polaris). I did spy the waning moon one morning approaching Jupiter and snapped a photo with my cell phone since I was headed to the van and running late (so couldn’t setup the good camera on a tripod for a more professional-looking amateur photo). Saturday morning (early early early), if the clouds had been absent, would have shown Jupiter within five degrees of an even thinner moon.

Wednesday night, WolfGuard auditioned a drummer to replace the drummer/lead singer who recently moved to New Mexico to pursue better employment opportunities. Thursday night, Terry and I ventured into North Kansas city to the other Sears store (as opposed to the one down south on Metcalf). Sears seems to be the sole remaining tenant of the dying Antioch Center shopping mall. We’re still wrangling with Sears over a refrigerator we purchased in May, so we went looking at different, hopefully better models. We also stopped at two office supply shops to look at shredders, during which a beautiful sunset occurred and once again I only had my cell phone camera with me (sigh).

We wrapped up the week spending some time celebrating the life of a good friend at his 50th birthday party. We had a great time visiting with old friends and heckling the over-the-hill dude. I’ve still got a couple of years to catch up with him.

Twenty-Two Twenty Eleven

I saw the waxing moon last night near Spica and Saturn. Twenty-two years ago, the moon was full while I labored to bring Rachelle into the world. Compared to her brother three years and four months earlier, childbirth the second time around was quick (but not painless). Terry and I got to the hospital room sometime between midnight and two o’clock, and by 6:24 a.m., we were the proud parents of a six pound twelve ounce baby girl. Later in the morning, I weighed her down with the longest name in our Mossy microcosm: Rachelle Gwendolynne. The first feature I remember from that day were the fingers on her hands … long and beautiful.

In 1990, just before (or after … ah the memory fades as I age) Rachelle’s birthday, we traveled from Wichita to Easton to see my mom and dad’s almost finished new home. My paternal grandparents were also visiting and wherever the Andreas gather, there you will find a multitude of cameras and the obligatory (and in some case less refined) posing for family snapshots:

Mosses_circa1990 — The Mosses (circa 1990)

Once Rachelle was old enough to walk, she participated in my brother’s wedding as flower girl (Derek was the ring boy):

AtBrothersWedding — Rachelle as Flower Girl, Derek as Ring Boy at Brother’s Wedding

I knew Rachelle would be a musical phenom from an early age (she was singing before she talked I swear), but she also excelled as an artist (both 2D and 3D). Here is her self-portrait for 2007, done as an art project her senior year in high school:

One of these June twelfths I hope to spend this most happy day with my daughter. One of these Junes she will actually be here, near me, rather than hiking the mountains of Colorado (June 2007, 2008, 2009) or half a world away in Germany (June 2010) or on a jet plane to Boston (June 2011). Perhaps twenty twelve will be the year I hug my daughter on June twelve and wish her a very Happy Birthday in person.

Happy Birthday Rachelle!

Remembering and Missing My Grandmother

Doris Andrea Visitation June 2011 — Doris Andrea Visitation June 2010

The first anniversary of my Grandmother’s passing is tomorrow, which also would have been her eighty-ninth birthday. I preserved an electronic copy of her obituary and my memories (compiled a couple of days before she died). I still have not had the courage to view the video I recorded of her memorial service held last June at Foxwood Springs chapel. I at least backed the raw video files up to a DVD though (something I should have done months and months ago).

All of Doris’ children are gathering in Ohio to attend her youngest granddaughter’s wedding this weekend. I shall miss them, as I miss her, and wish Katy and her groom abundant joy and prosperity in their new life together.

Continue reading “Remembering and Missing My Grandmother”