Random Thoughts: The week before the 4th of July edition

I have been off caffeine for almost 8 days.

I have been off sugar for 13 minutes.

I have been in Pennsylvania for 3 weeks.

I have been 1000 times happier.

I have only missed the peace and sweet, blessed quiet of having my own apartment a few times. Like 100 times:)

I feel like there are so many good things that are coming. It's almost July. Which makes it almost August. Which is only one month away from FALL IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Fall in Pennsylvania is my definition of heaven. Every day, every moment is magical to me. I've dreamed about it for three long years.

Lori Ann

I thought that I heard you laughing...

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,

And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,

Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Shakespeare

My favorite Shakespearean Sonnet for my favorite poetry reading people!

Lori Ann

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen

See an old Pennsylvania Covered Bridge

One Summer Goal accomplished. About a million more to go!

Lori Ann

Hey Jealousy aka Elly's Fancy Cooking...

I know that I inspire (jealousy in) many of you in a myriad of ways. Whether it's my athletic prowess, my divine home design skills, or my amazing free form poetry..there's been a time you've cried yourself to sleep, wishing you were me, right? It's ok to admit it... take comfort in knowing that you're not alone. :)

Well, prepare to cry some more because my niece (the unsinkable Elly Monroe) and I have just gone and conquered the cooking world. Here's our first show-we expect the network to pick it up any day now...

Yours truly,

LORELLY!!!

Come as you are...

Blue sky jello I made with the kids. After we ate it, we danced to Nirvana and forgot about all of our cares for a while.

You know how they say that you never forget how to ride a bike?

Or how some people; who are dancers or artists or whatever, can come back to their craft, even after a long absence?

That has been my experience over the last week.

After 3 years of working almost every single day I have slid back into unemployment with the ease of someone who never left.

My mom made me get in the shower at noon today. I tried to explain to her that if I was in the shower, that there would be no one to watch "say yes to the dress" and "48 hours mystery".

Gosh.

I have also slid easily back into my pattern of showing my mom every cut and scratch, asking my dad to move stuff for me and to fix my car, having my sister Danielle french braid my hair and organize my life.

It's nice to be the family baby again.

Baby Lori

Mi gente

I am back amongst my people. They are strange, it is true. And I'm still completely disoriented from the move. But it's nice to have people who make me dinner, move stuff for me, listen to my problems, and encourage me. And people who dance with laundry baskets on their heads. I love those people the most!

Lori Ann

Penguins and Such

I'm home. It's been a adjustment for me to be surrounded by the craziness that is home. But change is so good for me. And this is going to be the best summer of our lives!

Elly's bathing suit. She put it on and said "Isn't it so beautiful? It's like a penguin"

Lori Ann