Leaves

Freshly-fallen Autumn leaves are one of those smells I would bottle if I could. That spicy mysterious smell. I do love it. Raking leaves takes it out of you though. As close as I am to complaining about raking once again this fall, I'll keep my mouth shut. On this kind of a glorious day it would be like a hex. See why I want to complain though?



I just threw the last few bags on top of this monster of a pile... there are at least 23 bags, with 10 before that which have already been picked up. And we had the original 10 sliced by some kids so we had to do those all over again!

Today is a very special D-Day: my Nan's, who passed away in '97. It has been so long but still I remember and miss my grandmother so much. She died way too young. In a poem I wrote about her back in high school one of the lines was, "... so on a calm November 4th there were golden leaves and sun..." the day she died was one exactly like this. So beautiful! Miss you so Nan.



Also I am missing Pops; he died in '06 on November 14th. I looked at this laceleaf tree today in our yard and imagined myself looking at them with him, touching the leaves (he landscaped the yard and had a love affair with laceleafs). I had a moment to myself and I could hear his voice. I had a little conversation with him. I told him that they looked electric orange and then literally choked on a lump in my throat and started crying. I miss him!



A couple of weeks back we had a raking party at Grandma Beck's. Many hands make light work, even when those hands are itty-bitty. My darling niece and nephews ages 6 and under helped out a lot!



Time out for pogo lessons, thanks Auds



You had to stand in line to try it out



Crosby needs one for Christmas I think!



Here's my Grandma Beck with the rakers



The sad thing is that it is already time to go rake some more!



My friend Karin has been in town waiting for her visa to get back with her 18-month-old to her hubby in England. Yesterday was her birthday and so we went to eat at Happy Sumo with her sister-in-law Anna. Lucky I had a cupcake at home left over from Sunday dinner. I don't think she cared about the 2-day-old baked goods, it was celebration time!



Karin and I both had recently gotten pedis, so we had to show them off :0)



Here's the best part. She thought she might have to wait one or two months longer to get her visa but she talked to someone yesterday and they said it's in the mail, WOHOOOOOO! What a birthday present, eh?



Thanks for the fun night girls. And thank you SO much Mom and D for wrangling the boys.