Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Today I spent about an hour with my best friend.  We stopped at her house to give her kids some toys we had for them and while the kids played, she and I chatted in that comfortable way that close friends do, feet curled up on the chairs, oblivious to the noise, chatting about nothing in particular.  We left the living room, wandering toward my car and we talked about our gardens and she showed me her new greenhouse and what was growing in her front yard plot.  Nothing exciting.  Nothing blog worthy, right?  But what if you knew that just a month ago I thought I was going to lose my best friend.  She and her family were put in a tough position when her husband was laid off and she very nearly moved to Iowa.  We could still be friends, of course.  Cell phones, email and Facebook would have kept us connected.  Times like today, however, would have been a thing of the past. In the past few months I have thought a lot about what our friendship ...

My sisters, Kathy and Debbie, are much older than me.  When I was born I believe they were fifteen and seventeen, not unlike my own family.  When I was younger, my sister Kathy helped to raise me alongside her own daughters.  I always considered her a second mother and so it was until I was much older and we became friends.  My sister Debbie, however, was always my friend.  From my earliest memories spending time with her she treated me like her sister, someone who was a partner in the adventures of life.  This isn't to say one was better than the other, they were just very different relationships. I can remember back to when I was about 10 or 11 and my sister Debbie had her first child, my nephew Jeff.  I remember my mother being adamant that I was too young to hold him and definitely too young to watch him, but my sister had all this confidence in me and trusted me to hold my nephew and even babysit, with my father there for support.  I loved ...

Today we went to a memorial service for our friend, mentor and coach, Mike Whittles.  He fought long and hard against pancreatic cancer for sixteen months, but lost his battle last Thursday.  Coach Whittles has been the head football coach for thirteen years at Archbishop Spalding.  Personally, he was my husband's friend and mentor and my son's coach.  He was a kind man who was dear to all of us and he will be missed. Today's service was a testimony to the great man he was.  The memorial was held in the gym at the school and each football player and coach wore an angel holding a football to honor Coach Whittles.  The current players gathered in the chapel as the crowds began to fill in.  When we were all seated there were several rows for family and personal friends, a row for coaches and rows and rows of football players, starting with those who played this past season.  I knew that Coach Whittles had a great impact on alot of people, but today...

So it's been a few weeks since I have written on my blog and I have missed it!  It's a stress reliever for me and a way to journal and look back at what we have accomplished as a family. Last week we left on Tuesday morning to go on our first ParkQuest and then on to a camping trip at Jellystone Park in Hagerstown.  The ParkQuest was in Gathland State Park, which I had never heard of before.  It was a bit out of the way and I probably wouldn't have ever had the pleasure of exploring it without our quests, but it was gorgeous and well kept and we had a blast doing the quest and finding answers to questions about George Alfred Townsend, his wife and his life on those grounds.  There was a bonus quest hike that we enjoyed, as well, and the boys got along and were silly and I enjoyed every minute spent with them.  To get our passport signed we had to go to South Mountain Creamery where we, of course, bought freshly made ice cream cones to enjoy on our ride to Hage...