Tree Tale

Before I start my story....
I have to say one thing about the new header.....
(blog talk for that picture of me at the top....yea I know....I am so high tech)
I NEVER MEANT FOR IT TO BE THAT BIG!
I am still learning so don't let it scare you whilst I figure it all out.
But back to my story
which isn't really a story but more of an amusing anecdote with a question for you.
We have a fig tree in our backyard.
 It came to us via a good friend I will call DH.
She is a woman of high energy and a green thumb.
And lucky for me she likes to move her plants around a lot and I have been the lucky beneficiary of her beautiful plant left overs.
The fig tree sat in her back yard for a few years and then dug up and offered to me.
If you have been following my little blog experiment you might remember that I have a brown thumb.
I usually don't invest much in the living things outside my house.
It just makes it sadder when it is time for them to be yanked out of the dirt.
But a free plant?
Hope springs eternal.
It was just barely bigger than the size of the back of the van with one of the bench seats removed  but with a few snips of the pruning shears we fit it in and brought it to it's new home.
We planted it by the back fence.
And by golly it grew,
and grew
and grew.

Despite my worst efforts it grew from about 4 feet to over 20.
A thing of beauty.
And the figs so plentiful and big that my tree is a favorite spot for all sorts of creatures.

And I fell in love with it.
A plant that was both beautiful and unstoppable even being in my backyard.
But that's not the story....
Every winter the tree loses it's figs and leaves and green glory.
All tall and bare and twiggy with only the promise of the huge green leaves returning in the spring
And yet I am still in love.
My backyard fence sharing neighbor not so much.
At least that's what I suspect.
I've never really asked.
She, unlike me, spends hours and hours in her backyard making sure it is all just so.
Mr. T trimmed the barren fig tree last week and one of it's branches fell over the fence into their backyard.
It was about 2 feet long and a couple of inches in diameter.
Mr. T ever the thoughtful neighbor was going to walk around the corner to their street after he was finished and ask to enter their yard to retrieve the stray branch.
Only problem is that by the time he had finished his chores he had forgotten all about it.
And would have probably never remembered until just the other day walked out
to the front yard and found
sitting where the trash cans are usually put.
One freshly cut fig tree branch about 2 feet long and a couple of inches in diameter.
Now of course we can't be sure....
But was that a message?

No parking stopping or standing ANYTIME!

I had to take a picture of this sign the minute I saw it.
Thank heavens for my trusty iphone.
(actually I have a pocket size Nikon I keep in my purse as a back up camera....yes I am a complete and utter photo nerd)
I understand the no parking part....
The stopping? I don't like it but I guess that's ok....
But NO STANDING?
That seems to violate a common liberty.
Isn't standing on a public street on a public sidewalk a right protected by the constitution?
I think I may have found a loophole though.
What about sitting but constantly flailing around?
It might just be worth a second trip over there.
But then again maybe I should just mind my own p's and q's.
I seem to have turned into the type of "older" person who just blurts out weird statements of fact.
I remember about 10 years ago I approached a sister in the ward who had been storing food storage in her garage after we had made a food order as a group.
I needed to ask a question about what was still left in her garage.
Now in her defense she had just finished with what looked like a pretty chaotic youth activity and although it was over she probably needed that all important "decompression" time that is vital with active service in the church,
But I thought I would just ask if there were any lids or cans, that came with the order.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked into mine, threw up her arms and yelled,
"I'M NOT THE PERSON TO ASK THAT QUESTION TO!"
I backed off slowly a little shocked by the answer.

Fast forward to this morning where I received a phone call from a number I didn't recognize.
I should have just not answered,
but with all my kids away from home I have this fear that it is them calling from somewhere, possibly crying, hurt or bleeding using someone else's phone,
so let's just say I am ripe for the picking for ring ring ring of the marketing masses.
Once they begin their spiel there is not much time to cut in and I continue to fight the manners and etiquette phase of my youth about not ever hanging up on someone, so as she assured me that this call was NOT about selling me anything.....yeah right......she wanted to ask me some questions about my water supply.
The first thing that came to my head other than I do not want to talk to you was.....
I know nothing about my water supply other than you turn a knob and it goes on, you turn it the other way and it goes off.
And so I ended up simply saying in my best firm authoratative voice,
"I"M NOT THE PERSON TO ASK THAT QUESTION TO!"
and guess what?
It worked.

Big Bro

I don't think I have ever blogged about my older brother.
But that's him in the picture.
Standing to the left of Miss America
Yeah THE Miss America 2011 (it's not often I get the chance to do any name dropping)
But that's big bro.
He has a kinda modern day midas touch.
Sometimes it seems like he is one of the luckiest guys ever.
But I don't think that's it.
You want to know what I think?
Lean in a little closer and I will tell you his secret....
Big Bro is without a doubt THE most optimistic person I have EVER met.
Almost pathologically so.
For instance,
Accident on an ATV and his jaw wired shut for weeks?
Best thing that ever happened to him.
That's when he discovered a diet to further tone and condition his body.
Change in employment?
Couldn't be a better time for it. He was able to participate on a bike racing team.
Moving to a new house leaving behind their old home?
This is the BEST house ever.
It seems like by always looking at the bright side of life..
good things just seem to happen.
Even when things get tough.
I use to poke fun at it a little being the natural pessimist with a wee touch of sarcasm that I am.
But the more years I am on this spinning orb,
the more I admire it.
Not sure I can completely adopt it,
but I think he might be on to something.
So whether it's the top of a mountain you just climbed,
a professional bike race you just finished,
a new company you are in charge of,
or you just happen to be standing by Miss America....
Here's looking at you Big Bro.

Starting Over....

I'm back.
Well at least whatever "I" am now is back.
Which is in part,
what explains my absence.
I thought when I reached this stage of life there would be
a transition.
From active mom to long distance mom,
from active commander in chief to a nice cushy mother desk job
away from the real action,
That all of the skills and knowledge I had collected would be channeled
into this change
I thought that there would just be an "adjustment" period
and then life would smooth itself out
as it usually does.
But it's not going as planned.
This is not a transition but an ending and then another beginning.
And let's face it
Beginnings and endings stink.
It's really the middle of things that contains the very best life
has to offer.
I have to start all over again like some life sized game of Sorry.
SOOOOOORRY!
You are not you...
Even grocery shopping has changed.
My mom tells the story of when her last chick, Baby Davey left the
nest and she went to the store
she stood in the Spaghettios aisle
and cried because she always kept it in bulk for the little buggar.
No I am not crying at my local Kroger.......
but I wandered around
the store passing by all the usual choices.
By the time I reached the last aisle my cart contained enough food
for prisoner of war type rations.
It dawned on me that in the last 24 years I have really only shopped
for my kids,
Don't get me wrong, Mr. T and I still ate
as evidenced by our expanding waistlines
but
we were really only eating "their" food as it turns out.
I have no idea what to feed just "us"
I have never purchased a "bunch" of bananas that only included 3.
(Todd get's the extra in case you were wondering)
I know every favorite food of my three kiddies
but have forgotten what Mr. T and I liked.
A skill that I had previously excelled at but no longer feel confident in.
So I have not blogged lately because I am trying to start all over.
And believe me...
It isn't easy.
To make myself feel a little better today I purchased a 6 dollar bag
of real sea salt.
It's pink and pretty and I would NEVER have done that when the kids
lived here.
So ready or not...
here I go.
Me...
(P.S. The picture is one that Jack took. He thought it was so funny that I would buy a magic bloody knife with my groceries. But hey it was half off and you can NEVER have enough of those. Also take note of the hostess cakes, double stuff oreos and kolaches....that would be Jack's favorites...not mine! Not that I haven't been known to take the tops off of two of them and smash them together to make a quadruple stuff oreo occasionally, but again, not MINE!)