Here I go again on my own..

For the last two hundred...umm.. two years, I have been a mommy blogger.

A mommy blogger with no children.

Strange, I know.

For the most part my blog has documented my adventures with my nieces and nephews. Everything from tee-peeing our own house to racing rubber ducks down the Dan river.

It was a wild ride while it lasted.

Now those munchkins have moved and I find myself alone. Well, it's me and my good friends PEACE and QUIET!

However, as I indicated a few posts ago, my blog is at a cross roads.

After a lot of thought, I decided to rename my blog

"THE SPINSTER CHRONICLES".

I read this amazing quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it goes:

There are a lot of things I have missed in my life. Wedding day. Babies. Exaltation. A really great deal on a foreclosed home that I redecorate with stuff from pottery barn. :)

Some of it, I might still have. Some of it, I will more than likely never have.

I don't regret it though. Just as all of those mommy bloggers would never say that they regret giving up some of their freedom and choices to the responsibilities of marriage and children.

I rejoice in the life that I have. Yeah, I've missed a lot, but there is a lot that I have gained.

There is a kind of a dizzying thrill in being a spinster. There is free time galore, a career, getting my Masters, the opportunity to pursue all of my dreams, trips to Europe, no compromising about stuff, and the thrill of sleeping in.(which I didn't appreciate until I saw my sisters life!)

So, from this post forward, this blog will document my adventures as a future crazy cat lady, my long distance love affair with the kids, my bizarre job, and really any random thought that comes into my head.

I hope the excitement doesn't keep you up at night!

Lolee

My Wish for you..

The muffin babies have left me.

Moved to Pennsylvania and living the summer of their dreams with Nana Terry.

To those muffin babies, I say:

(in the immortal words of Rascal Flatts)

I hope you never look back, but you never forget,

All the ones who love you, in the place you left,

I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,

And you help somebody every chance you get,

Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,

And you always give more than you take.

But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my wish.

All my Love,

Aunt Lori 

Random Thoughts Thursday

My sister's former roommate and an AWESOME blogger does RANDOM THOUGHT THURSDAYS...you should go check it out!!

Anyway, on with the random thoughts...

I am just not a big fan of the flower birds of paradise. I just don't get it.

My sister and her girls are moving up to PA to where her husband and boys have been waiting for them for a week. This makes me SAD, because I am going to miss those munchkins and game night with Jackie boy and Danielle, but HAPPY because now I can live my dream of peace and quiet. I swear I am ready for the rest home!

Today, the car in front of me was pulling up to red lights, looking both ways and then RUNNING the red light. What the heck? It was so strange. The law abiding anxiety that I feel was making me angry, but then I was like "eh.."

I hate the heat. Summer..when will you end? I despise you!!

My boss shaved his head bald.

I watched all of season 8 of Last Comic Standing on Hulu last night. Hilarious.

Now that Danielle is moving , I am going to have to wash my clothes at a Laundromat. Yuck. If someone asked me to live in sin with them, the first thing I would say wouldn't be "How dare you? NO!"..it would be "Do you have your own washer and dryer?"

Where do we go from here?

I am trying to redesign this blog. I change my mind 100 times a day. I think that is my defining quality..my wishy-washyness.

I like the idea of being a trend setter, but I am much more comfortable being a trend follower.

I look at every one's blogs and think "I want that" or "I need that".

I veer between blog designs and topics. One day I want a bright pink blog with posts about my job and pictures of my apartment. The next day I want a black and white blog that is all about politics and my opinions on everything.

I don't know.

I guess I need to come up with something. Go in some direction.

Stay tuned.

BLOG UPDATING IN PROGRESS....GET EXCITED!!

Sweet Land of Liberty..

I really do love the Fourth Of July. I haven't celebrated all that much in the past few years, but I vow to celebrate more in the years to come!

What I love about being an American:

1. our amazing history

2. The principles our nation is founded on

3. Our unique traditions and customs!

4. that being American is not about a shared ethnic history or similarity in appearance, but a group united by a set of ideals

5. That this really still is the land of opportunity!

I shall conclude with the lesser known, but most kick ass verse of the Star Spangled Banner (the 4th verse)..

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Whatever it Takes: A Review of Pride and Prejudice..

As many of you know, (or possibly none of you know), I have long avoided Jane Austen. I like the idea of her books, but have always been unable to commit to them due to (what I percieved as) their excessive wordiness.

I like to read books that carry you along from page to page, rather than making you backtrack and reread, because of unfamiliar words or phrasing.

However, I am trying to read the 100 greatest books ever written and Pride and Prejudice has been on that list, glaring at me for the last several years.

With determination to finish, no matter the suffering, I applied myself to reading every hour that I could over the last two days.

The first couple of chapters were sheer torture..so much dialogue and I kept getting characters confused and I would look at the page number and think "Oh my gosh, I've only read to this page?"

The next couple of chapters were a little bit better....

By midway through the book, I was hooked! I could scarcely put it down!

I wanted to know what was going to happen with Jane and Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and even Lydia and Wickham. (I could never have had Jane and Elizabeth's restraint..I would have smacked her the second she walked in the door!)

I loved the humor that Jane Austen wrote with, and how it translates through these hundreds of years. I love Elizabeth's relationship with her father, and the crazy, flighty character of her mother and her various sisters. I felt every character was relatable to someone I know in real life.

Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is amazing.

It's a little bit slow at the beginning, but keep reading, and give it a chance...you won't regret it.

Now, on to Sense and Sensibility..

(14 out of a hundred books down, 86 to go...)

Lolee