Nonni

Nonni is our Italian term for Grandmother. I had two of my own nonni's (three actually) growing up. My last living Nonni passed away six years ago and I miss her, as me and my children had moved in with my parents in May of that year and Nonni was living with them. We had four generations living under one roof for about four months and then Nonni passed August 23rd. I started to date my future husband about 1-1/2 years later.

His Nonni is still alive. She is a beautiful woman, inside and out. She is 97 years young. She lives in her own apartment and the whole family takes care of her needs. She comes to my house on Sundays after we attend church. As soon as we get back to my house, she wants to know where the laundry is. She folds two loads of laundry for me every time we get home from church. She is the most adorable person. I want to be just like her when I'm 97. I want to REACH 97.... This is Nonni watching the Yankees play on Sunday (she tries not to miss a game) with my husband's Steelers blanket keeping her warm. Love you, Nonni!!!!

Layoff Survivor Sickness

We had layoffs here at work last week. Because it is such a small company, everyone took it hard...especially me.

I just spent an hour filling out DOL paperwork and there is still more to come. I read about Layoff Survivor Sickness - where the people who don't get laid off feel as bad as the people who did get laid off. I feel like I have it...sad, sleepless, anxious, etc....

I'm doing what the article tells me to do to get over these feelings, but it is still hard and I know "this too shall pass". I know this too well. But it doesn't make it any easier today.

Friday Night Football

My daughter is a cheerleader. She goes to an all girls school and she cheers for a school which is all boys. She loves to cheer at football games. My husband coaches another high school football team. (These two teams do not play each other this year.) So Friday night, I went and watched my daughter cheer at one game and then we went to the last quarter of my husband's teams football game. My daughter's team won, my husband's team lost. Good thing I like football...

This is how Fridays will be for the season. And then on Sundays....the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Change

Change. Is it good or is it bad? Yesterday, change was a bad day, a sad day. We had to lay off five employees. Since there were only 15 of us, 1/3 of us were cut. Suffice it to say, it was a difficult day to say the least. Sue is gone. Her and I became fast friends over the last three years. I miss her terribly. We were kindred souls in so many ways.

I know change happens. I know it is a door closed and a window opened somewhere else....but it is hard. The work will get done, but the sadness will be around for a while.

Fall is coming next week, the season is changing. I have lived through 45 changes from summer to fall....I'll live through this change at work, too.

Doing nothing...

Tuesday night, I had nothing to do...Or I should say, I had a couple of things to do, but I did nothing and it was soooo good. I went in the hot tub for my back as it is still hurting due to the wonderful bear hug I received.

Once in a while, we all need to chill out and relax. Tuesday seems to be that day for me. No exercise class, no cheer leading for my daughter, no meetings, so Tuesday is my new favorite day of the week. I was going to trim the hedges and stop and see my parents and stop at the optometrist to get my new contact lenses, but I did none of these things. I cut down my stargazer lilies and closed the coop and sat in the hot tub... I love Tuesdays.

Chocolate...

Okay, I love dark chocolate! Don't all women? The other evening, I had the craving for some dark chocolate. I asked my husband if we could go get some ice cream. My favorite kind is called Razzmanian Devil - it is made by a farm about 25 minutes away and it is vanilla ice cream with Dark Chocolate pieces and a swirl of raspberry sauce.

Well, we really didn't have the hour to go up the farm and back so we settled for the supermarket 5 minutes away and got the "replacement" - Friendly's Fudge Berry Swirl. It is actually frozen yogurt with the same ingredients and is really, really good.

I had two bowls....My craving was cured! Thank you, Friendly's.....