Friday, November 27, 2009

Hiatus and Beyond

Hello all. To tell you every ounce of my life since I began a computer and Internet hiatus would take a zillion posts. Suffice to say that due to several accidents, hubby's computer and mine went kaput. Just this last week we replaced broken parts and are back on the airwaves coming to a home near you. The break was good for us all. I, who once was a face book junkie, is now realizing how liberating it is to be Internet free every so often. Lovely actually. The Internet is like Disney World. It Wow's you and you jump on for a ride or two or three or a bazillion (ha ha no red squiggles...is that ACTUALLY a word??) and then you realize that this is a make believe world and long for real life again. You get off, get out into the real world, look back and say to yourself, "Why on Earth did I waste so much of my life on that stupid tea cup ride??" You shrug your shoulders and go on to loads of laundry and the neighbor battling cancer who needs a shoulder.

Don't get me wrong. I still love to write. And though a few brave souls have commented to me how much they enjoy it or get a laugh from it, the truth is that my blurbs are like those paintings that look better from a far off. The closer you get the more messed up they become. :) BUT....my life has been busy. I have taken on a new hatred for the phone. If you want to drop me a line or come over for a cup of Earl Grey or Sleepytime...... go for it. If you want to call me, think again. My world is too crazy right now, and I have too many who make like banshees when they see me reach for the handset.

I will give you an update on Alayna, for those wondering. She is marvelously sweet and squishy at her 14 plus pounds and today she is persactly 5 months old. Her peach fuzzy headed self is just the most precious thing to us here on Haywood. Sometimes we just sit and look at her and thank the Lord again for the miracle that she is and for leaving me here to enjoy moments like these. She is physically behind for her age which is expected, but mentally and socially she is coming along fine. I will tell you that she is already a talker and will goo at you trying desperately to tell you something........and though we cannot understand what she is saying, I am beginning to think by the look in her eye that she is asking me to eat a lot more caramel for her....... Okay perhaps that is just me.

I trust you all are fairing well. God is good, heaven is a day closer to enjoying, and family is the most precious thing that we have here on Earth. I learned this lesson again yesterday evening celebrating another Thanksgiving with my side of the fam. We are all as different as night and day. We even look so much different from one another. Yet I looked around as we were playing a game and reminded myself that this was MY FAMILY. We all have a unique bond that no one else shares with us. We have stories and memories that will last a lifetime that are only funny to us, like the time Denise snuck out on Christmas Eve, anxious to see what Santa, who, by the way, had the same handwriting as my Mom, brought her. She climbed up on a chair to get to the top of a stack of presents and........KABOOM landed smack dab on her Cabbage Patch doll. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Then there were the ferrets Dawn insisted on having which brought with them a multitude of friends which will forever be called the "de Leon Flee Circus." Or Frankie singing "Jingle Bells" for my uncle as he videoed him swinging his arm and bellowing out the words, pausing only long enough to wipe his runny nose on his sleeve between verses. And no de Leon stories are complete without tall tales of Grandma Barnum crying over her beloved spoon blessed by the Pope, or of her stop dropping and rolling in the mud puddle in front of our house RIGHT before she was to leave for a special dinner for her Anniversary. Yes it was hilarious and YES she was wearing all white, and yes we kiddos stood at the front window and laughed until we cried. Actually we still do that in fact.

Of course there are stories about little 'ole me in the mix as well. More famous ones involve me saying the Pledge of Allegiance for ANYONE at ANYTIME, and eating my sister's chap stick that she just got for Christmas behind the couch because they smelled like food. Yes it has always been about the food and yes Christmas just brings out the hilarious in my side of the bunch.

Anyway you can imagine just how hard we were laughing last night and how good and therapeutic it was for all of us. We laughed until we began to hug each other and realize that there is still a strong cord that binds us together that nothing can ever sever. These people are MY people and I love them.



Youngest to oldest, or what we like to say is, tallest to smallest! Frankie, Me, Denise and Dawn.