For Me

So, when I started this blog, or the other blog, or that first blog before that, many many years ago, I thought I was doing it for you. And really it is for you. I want to keep you all in the know, and send pictures and all of that awesome stuff.
Then about 3 1/2 years ago I convinced myself that I was writing for my mom, and that became problematic and seemed very unnecessary.
But as I think about my life and how things are going and the way I'm spending my time, and on what, I realize that I've always blogged for me. If I stop now then I'll have to go back to buying interesting looking journals. I've used up my supply.

Here it is. My record of me and my family. Starting now, with a shocking lack of pictures, because for some reason I also stopped taking those a few years back. Lame!!!

Fall has been beautiful. MaryEllen keeps collecting the leaves. One day it will be the brightest shade of yellow or red. The next day it will be the teeny-tiniest. Today it was THE BIGGEST LEAF IN THE WHOLE WORLD. She said that many times as she showed me the large oak leaf very, very close to my face. When I opened the back hatch of our mini van to pile in trash bags bound for the dump, the wind somehow caught her leaf and blew it from the back seat, where she was buckled in, out the back hatch and onto the drive way. I hadn't seen all of this and didn't know anything about it until I got mad at her for unbuckling and getting out of the car. I tried to herd her back in, but she was undeterred. She yelled, "My leaf," many times before I got it and let her go. She was frantic. We found it and she happily hopped back in. I would offer you a picture of THE BIGGEST LEAF IN THE WHOLE WORLD, which was indeed an impressive size, but somewhere between dropping Jill off at preschool and going to the dump the leaf was ripped to shreds in the back seat of our van. All that remained was THE LONGEST STEM OF THE LARGEST LEAF IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

A few facts about my first impressions on New England's trees:

Snow shoveling begins before there is any snow. mounds of leaves are raked from yards weekly. In our neighborhood big trucks with huge vacuum hoses come by to suck up the leaves the way a snow blow and dump truck would take away the snow.

New England rock climbers hook their equipment up to the trees because they are more of a challenge than the New England mountains.

We love trees, but our first major home purchase since our arrival here has been a chain saw.