Thanksgiving...

HAPPY THANKS~GIVING!

At our home, Thanksgiving has always been a time to be thankful...for food, family, friends, the true fruits of our lives...well, this has me thinking about a lot of things.  I had paragraphs of things to say, thanks to this one and to that one, for this and that...This year, I am going to share my thanks.

My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and on, are the ones who in combination, have passed on the genes that I wear.  The more immediate being my parents...growing up our house was always full.  Every holiday our table was filled with family, friends, extended family...all taking part in the merry making memories.  Sometimes we had so many people that we needed every room in the house and on the porch to fit us all.  The kids were usually mixed in with the adults as the parents didn't believe in a "kids" table.   Laughter was the loudest talk amongst the adults and kids...usually there was an adult, my dad or one of his brothers who would be chasing the kids around, playing tag, playing frisbee, hide and seek, cards or any other game of choice...

I grew up with my dad always saying, "The good Lord shall provide!" and by goodness, we always had enough.  Dad walked on early in his life at 51, I was two months from 16.  Life changed drastically.  However, the holiday's did not...every one was met with many familiar faces and always a new one or two...some became return eaters and some moved on to their own homes with their own families and new traditions.  I am truly, deeply full of thanks for my father and the lessons I learned from him and his family.

One of the Thanksgiving's after dad walked on...was at the Trailer home my mom rented from Dwayne and Doris Linden...it was a lean year and a small basket from the church with a turkey and the fixins for the meal...so we had one pumpkin pie to be divided between mom, my brother Tom, his wife Janette, their three boys, Gerry, Jeff and Tommy,  Kevin and myself.  My mother was sitting in front of the kitchen window, to her left was, Janette, Tom, myself, Kevin, Gerry, Jeff and Tommy being the closest to grandma Gerry (my mom).  We had just finished with a spectacular meal put on by my mom.  Tom passes the Reddi wip to me, I used it and pass it to Kevin.  Tom says, 'Kevin, I will give you my piece of pie if you can hit ma with that."
Kevin shakes it, sprays my mom and hits her face and the window behind her.

Silence.  The boys start to giggle, their parents scold them to be quiet, mom reaches up to wipe her glasses in that classic way that only comedy on TV can do.  Immediately I start to laugh, Kevin reaches over and grabs Tom's piece of pie, mom starts to laugh, the boys fall on the floor laughing and the day goes down as one of the most memorable gatherings ever!  We laughed about that every time the story was told...we still laugh, even tho mom has joined my dad on the other side...I can still see her face and hear her laughter...

I chose the picture at the top of the page in honor of my mother, father, family and laughter...it is because of the way I was raised, and a little help from my mother herself from the other side, that brought even more family together. It was her desire to locate and have a relationship with her grandchildren and for them to meet their siblings that they didn't know and for cousins to meet and to form long lasting relationships.  She asked me if we couldn't find them before she walked on, if I would be sure to continue the search after and to be sure they met.  The year she walked on, within six months, I found all of them.  Every time some searching mechanism worked out, I could hear her giggle next to me.  A year after we buried her, we all gathered at our home and great relationships were made.  Our family truly grew and the laughter multiplied by a hundred!  That picture of the dreamcatcher tattoo is to represent her dream, the bear is to represent family and the feathers are for our prayers of love and thanks to always go to the Creator of all that is...As mom said, I continued to search for my sisters.  Within a year after the gathering, through a string of interesting events, Teresa, my sister Bonnie's daughter found me.  Through this meeting, I was able to connect with Bonnie and once Teresa supplied the last name for my sister Paula, and a location, I was on facebook again and found Paula...my family grew again and the laughter is now even ten fold...

For me, I am so very, very thank~full and grateful for my family, friends, extended family and our fur kids, Cedar and Zuni...and those that have walked on to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us there. Our time here is so very short. I sit here writing this and think...wow! I am 50!  Where has the time gone? Makes me even more grateful for those family lessons early in life...

Live, Love, Laugh and most of all, enJOY every second you can spend with your family.  May you all be blessed with peace, love, and joy...eat lots of feast food, share your good fortune because the Good Lord shall provide enough for you and to share.

Kevin ate Tom's piece of pie the whole time he was saying, "I didn't mean it..."  LOL "I did" was Kevin's reply...

A few family pics to share...some I know/knew and some I never met...

Geraldine "Gerry" Dresser~Martineau & Earl "Marty" Martineau

Bob and Vicki Cline

Aunt Sis, Jonathan and Aunt JoAnn

Brothers Clem, Bugsy, Paul, Wally and sister JoAnn (Martineau siblings)

siblings: Bobby, Farmer and Donny Cline and Anna (me)

Sister Bonnie, Elsie Martineau (Bonnie and Paula's mom), Paula and Teresa

Paula, Teresa, Anna & Bonnie

siblings, Farmer, Tom (cline) Anna Martineau, Don (Cline)

Everything happens for a reason...

You know, I truly believe that everything happens for a reason...today began with an agenda...my sister Paula and her son Jake, had dentist appointments in Red Cliff, 9 and 10 am, we would take two vehicles so when Paula was don, we could drive up to Superior for our cousin Caroline's funeral.  We would then come home, rest a bit and take our time driving to the Roadhouse for fish fry with some friends...come home in time for our neighbors, Bill and Celeste to bring over some tomatoes, squash and pumpkins...right before bed on Thursday night, I messaged Jenn, Caroline's daughter and told her I didn't feel comfortable reading the long bible verse they asked me to read and asked if maybe someone else could read for me...she said that was fine...sounds like  busy day and everything doable...

We woke up at 6:00 am...our day began, rushing around doing this and that, making coffee, taking showers, eating breakfast...the time comes to head out to Red Cliff...getting excited, the sun is out and the fall colors should be great!!!

I head out first to get the car started and to move stuff around so my sister could ride comfortably without all kinds of "junk" in the way...half way down the ramp we have, my feet slipped out from under me...up in the air I went, landing in slow motion, flat on my back with only an inch from hitting my head on the step.  Ouch, this will hurt...

The farther from home we drove, the worse I felt...I finally took some tylenol and an aspirin...called the chiropractor and he would be out of the office in the afternoon...dang it! I decided that this was a sign that I should just read the bible verse at the funeral, even tho I don't believe the verse, it was not for me, but for Caroline...so I would let the girls know just as soon as we got there...

I looked into my the bag I brought with my cameras inside...to my absolute horror, I pulled a camera out with no lense attached...I found the lens laying loose in the bag...I put it back on the camera and it falls off...the lens is broke!!!  To make matters worse...it is a lense borrowed to m because I broke the very same lens a few weeks earlier...now I have to replace it :'(

The dentist appointment ran late...meaning we ran late...we got behind cars driving 30 mph in a 55 mph zone...grrrrrrr...the funeral was at 11:00...we got there in one piece, however...we were very late...so late in fact, that I missed my reading time :(

Went to the cemetery, then back to the church for lunch...was proud and excited to introduce my sister to family she had never met...in the end, her send off was beautiful...her kids did a great job (with LOTS of help from above) with the arrangements...now will come the hard part...
Stopped off at Yonkers to pick up a sweater...left there three sweaters later and LOVE them all very much!

Took the back roads home, saw some amazing colors...got home, visited for a short time, then headed on over to the Roadhouse for fish fry Friday...met up with some great friends, we laughed, joked, talked...had Jake drive home as it was getting harder to move without severe pain in some arias...

We stopped at Bill and Celeste's house (our friends across the pond), they loaded us up with two HUGE boxes of tomatoes, some squash and two pumpkin pie pumpkins...

All in all, it was a great day...Caroline's day was perfect in so many ways...the sun was out, the sky was blue and the colors are spectacular...so you see...everything really does happen for a reason...if I would not have messaged Jenn about not feeling comfortable with the verse, no one would have been there to read...