Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Author Archives: dawnkinster


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What we leave behind

Braun and Badger 052I’m getting ready for a road trip, my favorite kind of travel; a little random, sometimes spontaneous, always interesting.  Freeing.  But as I’m packing the last bits of things into the suitcase I look around.  Is the house clean?  Is the bed made.  Are things put away?

Do you do that?  Check out the house before you walk out the door?  I do.  Every single time.  Whether I’m headed for work, a week long trip, or just running to the grocery store.  Because you never know if you’re coming back.  You never know if someone else will be walking into your home after you’re gone and you wouldn’t want the house to be a mess.

I’ve been this way for ten years.  Ever since the summer of 2004 when my mom went off to church and didn’t come home, and then dad went to the airport for a holiday visit and didn’t come home either.  Neither of them knew they were leaving home for the last time.  I often picture mom picking up her purse, climbing into the car and driving off to town.  I picture dad tossing his luggage in the trunk and heading out into the dark morning.  I imagine they checked a few things, mom making sure she had her reading glasses because she played the organ at church, dad making sure the thermostat was turned down because he’d be away a week.

Neither of them could possibly imagine that their children would walk back into that house in tears and without them.  But I can image it.  I know what it’s like to walk into a place that was once someone’s home and is now just the keeper of the memories and the stuff belonging to people we loved.  So before I head off on the next adventure I take a quick look around.

Just in case.

Because you never know.

 

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WordPress Photo challenge: Signs

Many years ago, seven to be exact, I spent a week in New York City as an intern at the Queens Public Library.  It was part of my graduate school experience, and it was wonderful.  Not the internship so much, but the New York City experience.  It was my first time there, and I negotiated the subway from down near Chinatown out to Queens every day and just soaked in the…well…the New Yorkness…of it all.

This week I’m very busy in a different part of the country and I don’t know if I’ll find a new shot that I find interesting.  So for this photo challenge I’ll give you one from that week in March of 2007.

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Signs of a commercial shopping center reflected in the windows of the Queens Library.  It made me smile then, it still makes me smile today.

I hope you smile too.

 

To see other examples of signs go here to the original post and check out the comments.  Or here and here and here are a few of my favorites so far.  There’s still a whole week to post so there will be lots more of wonderful interpretations I’m sure.

If I were you I’d check back at that original post again in a few days!


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Company!

Here we all are together.

Here we all are together.

Katie here.  Guess what, guess what, Guess What!?!?!  We had company this weekend!  And Cole brought his Mom too!  They were only here for a little while, just one evening and overnight, but I sure enjoyed visiting with them.

OK.  I’ll be honest.  I really enjoyed the canned pheasant that Cole’s Mom Jamie let me taste.  After all I have always liked the finer things in life.  Not that I ever get the chance to enjoy delicacies like pheasant with my mama, but I sure did like it right away!

Yummmmmmy!

Yummmmmmy!

Cole and I were OK with each other.  I was a little bit more curious about him than he was comfortable with.  Give me a break, how often do I get to sniff a boy’s, well, you know?  I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by.  But my mama and daddy were having none of it and I had to go on my leash after I wouldn’t leave Cole alone.  Darn.

We sat out in the living room and talked for a long time.  Cole had hurt his foot during the day on his trip north, and his Mom was trying to put ice on it, but he wasn’t having any of it.  Still, he did get a nice tummy rub out of it, so I guess he felt pretty good.

 

Tickle tickle!

Tickle tickle!

And then you know what he did?  He took himself off down the hall and went to bed!  All by himself!  I guess he’d had a busy day and was tired.  I know how that feels.  I went off in the corner and went to sleep myself.  But Cole went all the way to bed!

 

Nite nite Cole!

Nite nite Cole!

It sure was cool to have them visit us!  My mama says she thinks this is the fifth blogger friend she’s met in person now!  She and I went to visit Ricky’s Mom and Dad last year, and we went up to see Gerry and Sadie and Cowboy this summer, and mama’s been to see PJ and her dog Sarah, as well as Ellen and her dogs Tika and Boost without me (unfair!!)… and she says everyone is just as nice and fun as they seem to be in their blogs!  Now she’s met Jamie and Cole!

Isn’t it cool that we get to meet people we’d never know without the internet?  I think so. (Mama says she hopes she didn’t miss someone in her list above…if she did, let her know!)   I think I need to make a list of all the people I can get mama to take me to visit…or you guys could all come up here – – right mama?

Well maybe not all at once…but we’d be pleased to have you!

Me and the flowers Cole's Mom brought us! Aren't they pretty!!

Me and the flowers Cole’s Mom brought us! Aren’t they pretty!!

 


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What’s your favorite part of the weekend?

Imported Photos 00692Friday night, snug at home, out of work clothes and into something more comfortable, putting the badge up on the shelf where it lurks until Monday morning.  That’s my favorite part of the weekend, when hours spill out into the future, nothing quite set in stone, potential for adventure or rest hiding just out of site, yes that’s my favorite part of the weekend.

Or Saturday early morning waking up automatically at 5:55 a.m. glancing at the clock and sighing because you know that alarm is going to shriek in five minutes and then you realize it’s Saturday and you don’t have to listen to that obnoxious sound and you turn over and snuggle back into the warm blankets and soft pillow, now that’s my favorite part of the weekend.

Maybe it’s at 6:05 a.m. when your sheltie-girl sighs and stands up  and shakes and you know any semblance of sleep is over because she drops a kiss on your face and then stares at you while softly whimpering until you give up feigning sleep and gather her up and head out into the day.  Yea, that’s pretty sweet too.

But don’t forget the sheltie adventure planned for some time in the next two days; a hike through the woods on a beautiful fall day,  or a romp in the backyard with her Frisbee, can’t beat that, surely that is the favorite time of any weekend?

This weekend we have company coming on Sunday.  Katie says she thinks, for this weekend anyway, that is going to be her favorite part of the weekend.  She’s resting up now in anticipation.

So, what’s the best part of your weekend?  Inquiring minds (and shelties) want to know.

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Turn it off

I was on the way to the grocery store this morning having forgotten a few things during my major grocery shopping expedition yesterday.  We have company coming for Sunday dinner this afternoon and those small items missed (even though they were on the list) were crucial.  I was stressed, driving along the freeway, not noticing how nice it was to drive without rush hour traffic.  Not noticing how the clouds were scudding across the early morning blue sky. Half listening to the radio.  Reciting my short list in my head.

And then it hit me.  I was stressing over having company…and the company wouldn’t care if there was organic soy milk creamer for the coffee or what type of sweet potatoes I served.  Or even if there was whipped cream for the pumpkin pie I made last night.  And the radio, full of ads for heartburn and fast food was just annoying.

So I turned off the radio, noticed the rising sun hit the tip of the trees and took a deep breath.  It’s Sunday.  It’s a day of rest.  Enjoy.  Sometimes you just have to turn it all off.

I hope you’re enjoying your day too.


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WordPress photo challenge: Endurance

Endurance..is the power to withstand something challenging… according to Vocabulary.com.  For this week’s photo challenge I could have gone in a dozen directions.  But I decided to honor family farms; my mom grew up on one and it’s an honorable, though difficult lifestyle.    So for this week’s challenge I give you — a soybean farm:

Soybean barn

Because it’s beautiful.  And because it endures.

You can see other interpretations of endurance here, here, here and here.

Or go to this link and see many more.

Enjoy.


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We now return to our regularly scheduled blog

Katie here.

Things have been kinda strange at our house.  For one dad’s been missing in action.  I guess he was just down South enjoying himself at the lake, but I wasn’t sure and it was a bit worrisome.  Then my mama has been having my best, most favorite teacher in the whole world come and take me out at lunch time.  I really like that but usually when that happens it’s cause my dad is missing, so it’s a mixed bag.  When my dad comes home my teacher lady goes missing!  It’s all just so hard for me to figure out.

And then, did I tell you, the most horrible thing of all happened right in the middle of all the crazy comings and going!  I had to go to doggie camp!  For 6 whole days!  Rumor has it that my mama went down South too to hang out with my dad at the lake.  I ask you, don’t you think I’d like to go to the lake once in awhile?  OK, so I don’t like to get my feet wet.  Whatever.

So when my mama picked me up from jail…um…camp…I was real excited to see her and then I made her feel really bad by sleeping up next to her all the time making sure part of me was touching part of her.  All. The. Time.  So when it finally got to be the weekend she took me to a different park and we did some exploring.  I even pulled her way down this big hill.

I'm a mountain climbing doggy!

I’m a mountain climbing doggy!

I didn’t make her go back up it though, we walked back to the car along the creek.  We had fun, but it was only one adventure in a really really long time.  And right after that we had a big storm, and all my barking didn’t make it go away fast enough and there was a big lightening bang and guess what?  It fried the modem thingy, whatever that is, and the big TV!  So mama didn’t have a computer or TV for more than a week!  All she had was her phone and she wouldn’t let me write a blog on that!

I just knew all my peeps would be worried, so when dad fixed the computer tonight I got right on line.  I wanted all of you  to be able to sleep tonight.  I know it’s a big weight off of my shoulders, so I think I’ll just go to bed now myself.

Happy almost Monday to you all!  Mama doesn’t seem happy that it’s Monday tomorrow.  But I am, cause I’ll have my dad all to myself!

Night night!

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