I Miss You

There's never a day that I don't think about you. When I step out of the house, I see the two maple trees you gave me that celebrate the births of Maggie and Emma. The trees have gotten very tall and provide shade in the summer. The girls know which one is theirs and they like to compare the sizes of the trees. "Mine's bigger!" "No! Mine's bigger!" I had to point out that Emma's tree is slightly uphill from Maggie's and just looks bigger, but Maggie's tree is the tallest.

Whenever I pass by the Target store, I remember how we used to laugh and say that we planned on being at Target everyday! The planned shopping centers are now open and the Walmart store is huge. I know you'd be there everyday!

I don't go to yard sales much anymore. I see the ads for them in the paper, starting in the early spring and going on 'til late fall. I remember how we'd circle the ones we thought were promising and we'd spend Saturday morning and early afternoon going from one to the other.

I often look at the pictures of us when we went to Michael's to help him pack up to move. Wow! We had such a good time. I don't mean packing - that was hard - but getting on the bus and going into Seattle and tramping around the Pike Place Market. I especially liked the fish market and the guys throwing the fish around. I think you wanted to get in there and throw some around, too! Going into Canada was such a treat for us both. What a corny picture of us standing with one foot in Canada and one in the U.S. I remember how we laughed at that!

I really remember us laughing alot. Sometimes we'd laugh so hard our stomachs would hurt. We'd be screaming at each other to "STOP IT!" and then we'd laugh even harder.

I still have the stepping stones we made that hot summer day. I put them in front of the girls' playhouse and they are still there. Some of the "jewels" have fallen out, but they still look good.

The other day, I was looking back through my journals and I noticed that almost every weekend for the past five years that I've been keeping records, you and I had been going somewhere together. "Book fair w/Nancy", "Winc. w/Nancy", Yard sales w/Nancy". Time and time again, we found something interesting to do. Laundry? Housework? Not for us! Out and about was our motto!

I cherish my memories of you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You'll always be 54.