Happy Easter & Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Easter Everyone!

For those of us in Southeastern PA, it feels a little bit more like Christmas. I think weather-wise Easter will actually feel more like Christmas then Christmas did! If that makes any sense:) We were even supposed to have snow today but that ended up going further South. That's a relief, don't want to see anymore of that! Once Spring technically arrives, I expect the weather to automatically change over into sunny 70 degree days. Doesn't usually happen that way, but oh well.

Nevertheless, it is Easter weekend and I hope you all enjoy it with your families and friends!

I have to admit it will be a bit of a weird day for me tomorrow. Easter happens to fall this year on what would have been my Dad's 52nd birthday. Yup, would have been.

Hard to believe it was only two years ago that we were celebrating his 50th birthday with a surprise party. I bought him an inflatable walker and everything, all the stuff to rub in the age - over the hill and all of that. Even harder to believe that at that birthday we didn't even know he was sick. We found out in August that he had esophageal cancer and the cancer was bad. It had already spread to other parts of his body, he didn't even know he had it until he developed a lump in his throat that made eating difficult - which led him to go to a doctor. I don't want to bring anyone reading this down with all of the horrible details, too many of us know what this disease is like already, but it was my first time (and how I wish it will be the last) that I ever dealt with cancer so up close and personal and it was awful.

Dad passed away in November of the same year, just 7 months after his 50th birthday party. Suffice it to say, my mind will be on him a lot tomorrow. I am sure losing a parent at any age is difficult and in many ways I was lucky to have my Dad in my life for as long as I did. But 50 certainly feels young these days. My parents were young parents too, so I guess I had just taken for granted that they would be around for a long time to come.

So, wherever you are Dad, Happy Birthday. I'm thinking of you and I love you.

I would like to end this post with a little something that was read at my Dad's memorial service. I am not sure where it came from and believe it is anonymous, but it resonated with me and if any of you out there reading this have lost someone you loved, perhaps you will find some comfort in these words as well.

When I die, give what is left of me to the children. If you need to cry, cry for your brothers and sisters walking beside you. Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give me. I want to leave you with something, something better than words or sounds. Look for me in the people I have known and loved. And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes, your mind and…your Acts of Kindness. You can love me most by letting hands touch hands, and letting go of children who need to be free. Love does not die, people do. So when all that is left of me is love… give me away…

~Erin

Welcome Spring & Goodbye Shoveling!

Spring came on Wednesday! And although it has been raining pretty much since then, at least the temperatures are mild. Unfortunately, last weekend, just when I thought it was safe, my region got hit with one last nasty storm. The worst of the year actually, mainly due to the fact that it pretty much sleeted for hours upon hours, coating everything with layers of ice.

My home has a small driveway, 3 cars fill it to the brim, and we have a small sidewalk out front (luckily we aren't a corner lot) but let me tell you, the ice storm beat me when it came to shoveling out after it. My husband and I didn't even get our driveway and sidewalk shoveled until Sunday afternoon, on our fourth attempt of the weekend to do so. And even then, it was poorly shoveled, but I didn't even know if my arms would ever work again so I decided it was good enough!

Luckily, the temps warmed up on Monday and melted most of what we had left, and now that Spring is here, I hope we won't see anymore snow or ice this year. Or rather, ice, I don't mind shoveling snow so much but the ice was awful. I noticed most of my neighborhood, which is usually quite good at getting into gear after a snow, left their sidewalks unshoveled, even the few with snow blowers.

So even though southeastern Pennsylvania had a fairly mild winter this year, it certainly ended with a bang. I love Spring anyway, love Summer even more, but it is greeted even more openly following a winter ice storm.

That's my round-a-bout way of saying, Welcome Spring! Of course, Spring has its own issues, rain which leads to my yard becoming a swamp, that my two dogs love to run around in and then bring all of that mud inside, all over the floors....etc...oh boy...welcome spring.

~Erin

Relax & Unwind With Sand

If you've had a long day and need to unwind...click on the above picture (sorry, don't know how or if I can load the actual video clip on this blog) to be taken to the clip page of www.sandfantasy.com. Here you will find an artist, Ilana Yahav, who makes moving images with sand. The clips of her creating these amazingly intricate sand pictures are accompanied by soothing music. The clip for "Just Imagine..." from which the above photo was taken, was posted on yahoo's main page today and I took a look and loved it and thought I would pass it along. It's the kind of thing I love to watch and even gives me little tinglies down my back. I ended up watching all of her clips and hope she adds more soon. So if watching an artist create is something you would find peaceful and relaxing...please enjoy.

~Erin

Please note I am not affiliated with this site, just thought it might be something you'll enjoy as I did.

Giving Props:
Since I named my on-line store after my beloved English Springer Spaniel Abigail, who passed away in April of '06, (and whose picture can be found on the About Us page of the site) and also drew the store's logo as a cartoon of her, I thought I should at least introduce my boys. They were starting to feel a bit left out. Sam is our two & a half year old English Springer Spaniel and Tucker is our almost one year old German Shorthaired Pointer. Since these two are fairly close in age and have similar energy levels, they tend to get along great. They are brothers in every sense of the word. And although Tucker is technically the little brother, size wise he is outgrowing his brother by leaps & bounds (he's already about twice the size he was in this pic)! I wonder if Sam longs for the days when he had the upper hand?

So those are my boys, officially introduced!