Onward to the New

September 2.

The day after graduation, Fernando, Thomas, and I drove over to Thomas' apartment to finish packing up his stuff, do some last-minute cleaning, and get moving on to Thomas' destination.

After packing most everything, we met up with an old Navy buddy of Fernando's, and went out to eat, us two couples and Thomas.

Then it was back to the apartment, finish up, and take off.

 Goodbye, Orlando!

Typical scene as we drove north then west through the Florida panhandle.

Driving west along the Gulf through Louisiana.

Time to gas up and clean off the bugs.

Up and over the bridge, then more driving along the Gulf...

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey a week earlier, much of the low-lying areas looked like this...

More aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Finally, we drove into Texas!

There's a reason the houses down here are built on stilts.

Pumps were pushing out the floodwaters from the oil refineries and other areas.

On and on, and finally into the setting Texas sun, we drove what seemed like forever.  The sunset was beautiful, even through the front windshield of Thomas' car.

Late that night, we reached a new place, a place of beginning for Thomas.  A place of hello and goodbye, a place of promise and hope, and newness.



Back to life,
Christine

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Home Times Two

Friday, June 30.

Fernando's birthday, and the day he came home!  His plane was scheduled to arrive later at night, so he missed going with our good friends C and C, plus M and T, and a bunch of kids, to a White Sox game.  We met at C's and C's home, piled into their 15-passenger van, and headed into the city.

Chris brought his tablet, since he loves to track airline traffic.  He asked what flight Fernando was one, and once I told him, he let us all know when Fernando would be flying by.  It was during the National Anthem, so I snuck a photo with my phone as his plan flew by in the distance!

I brought my camera for a few fun shots of the game.

After a great fireworks show at the end of the game, we made our way back to C's and C's home, and I drove home from there, twenty minutes to greeting Fernando and starting the weekend together.

I was telling Fernando about a song he needed to hear, and rooted through my purse to try to find my phone.  I turned around, and THOMAS WAS STANDING THERE!  I screamed, hugged, cried, hugged again.  He told no one he was flying home for the weekend!  Fernando had arrived home, then noticed a car pulling into our driveway.  He looked out, and Thomas got out of the Uber driver's car and came walking up!  They all waited for me to get home to complete the surprise!

The next day, I had to go to work (this is getting old fast, now that Fernando is home only for a few days!), so Fernando snapped a pic of Thomas and me together.

The weekend flew by, we brought Thomas to O'Hare Airport to fly back to Orlando, I worked some more, and then drove Fernando to Midway Airport to fly back to Rhode Island.  Too short, but packed full of together.  Thank You, Lord!


Back to life,
Christine

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Two Weeks of Waiting

The next two weeks saw ups and downs, from lights coming on as I drove our old BMW to work one day, to waking up to a migraine on another morning.  I struggled to find little things to celebrate.  Some days, the biggest blessing was a clean microwave.  Although I was tired, I could be thankful for even simply that.

Small blessings...

A yummy lunch.

Beautiful flowers in my front yard garden.

A free iced tea at Chick-fil-A.

The boys deliberately leaving bananas in the fruit bowl so I "had" to make three loaves of banana bread.  None of us complained!

I worked the day before Fernando came home.  I drove home in the evening, and got swallowed up in a monsoon-like summer thunderstorm.

It was okay.  Fernando will come home tomorrow, and we'll make some more memories together.  I can't wait!


Back to life,
Christine

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Hitting the Beach

Time to Fly, Part Four -- May 8.

A super late Sunday night arrival at our hotel resulted in a late morning breakfast in the hotel breakfast lounge.  Fernando wanted to fuel up on coffee for the day, which would consist of mostly relaxing--on the beach!

Less than an hour away, up and over the bridge, and into Cocoa Beach.

We passed the famous Ron Jon Surf Shop, and I snapped a phone pic and sent it to my heart-sister Lori, whose family served as hosts for a week-long trip to this same area a several years back.  Fun memories!!

Since we were still not publishing the fact that Thomas was with us (and was the main "star" of this adventure), I left him out of my photos as you can see below--only two sets of feet.  :)

One glorious day at the beach, and then back to our hotel.  The exciting stuff will start tomorrow...


Back to life,
Christine

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Time to Fly

Time to Fly, Day One -- May 4

There's obviously a back story to this photo of a crazy-eyed Thomas, a pair of kitchen shears in his hand and camping gear strewn around the floor.  These things, plus a few more essentials, were all that he'd need for the upcoming weeks.

This has to do with a few posts ago, and an announcement from Thomas.  As you can guess by the title of this post, it was indeed time for him to fly--fly our nest, and it began with a road trip.

Fernando drove the Suburban, and Thomas drove his car with me riding shotgun for navigation if needed.  Fernando took the lead, we followed, and a new journey commenced.  In the below photo, we had just gotten on to I-80 East, and just as we did, Thomas flipped a radio station and Come Sail Away began playing.  It was the perfect song, and the two of us started singing it at the top of our lungs.  It was one of those forever moments.

I'm sailing away set an open course for the virgin sea

I've got to be free free to face the life that's ahead of me

On board I'm the captain so climb aboard

We'll search for tomorrow on every shore

And I'll try oh Lord I'll try to carry on...

Secular song, for sure.  But it captured the moment, the very beginning of a whole new journey for Thomas.  I posted the above photo on Instagram with a post reflecting the words of this song, not thinking much of it.  Thomas didn't want it advertised until he was ready, so since Instagram isn't Facebook, we left it there and drove on.

It started raining, a light sprinkle about an hour into our road trip when I begged to stop (that mug of tea...!).  Then it rained...

And it rained, all through Indiana and into Kentucky...

And it rained some more, into the hills and around the curves of the highway...

And on into the evening, it kept raining.

Into the mountains of South Carolina and into the fog--the dense, misty kind--it rained and rained, and never stopped.

Our first stop on this trip was in South Carolina, a nice resting stop with a family we hadn't seen in far too long.  That'll be the next post...


Back to life,
Christine

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March

March, in pictures and a few brief words...

March 1.

I had to take the opportunity to take a few pictures of Thomas working on Arabelle (my 2000 BMW 528i).  Since he was laid off, we've "hired" him to do work that would otherwise cost us an arm and a leg.

March 5.

Fernando put some time in at home working on a circuit board for his employer.  Meanwhile, I decided I wanted chocolate cake--hence the Skillet Cake you see in the foreground.

March 7.

A random photo of what happens many nights at our house.  We have to figure out who needs to park where in the driveway so that everyone can get out at the appropriate time in the morning.  With five vehicles crowding the space, it gets a little crazy!!

March 8.

One of the guys took this photo of me, on this day that was supposedly called Day Without a Woman.  I had the privilege of working, so I guess the only thing without this particular woman was my home.  In order to support the radical agenda of the liberal women's group that sponsored the day, women were supposed to wear red to show their solidarity.  True to my independent self, I proudly wore all blue.

March 9.

Thomas had an interview, and volunteered for me to take his picture.  Go figure.  I definitely took advantage of this rare opportunity!

That evening, our family attended a rally to re-elect our town's mayor.  Mayor Claar was happy to pose with us when we greeted him!  He is very involved with this community, and very accessible to its residents.

March 12.

I had to pick up Fernando from O'Hare, and I grabbed the first pair of shoes I could find--my leopard print moccasin slippers!

We also went out to eat (not sure this was the same date, though, so I stuck these two pics in here...) at Ted's Montana Grill, and of course we devoured the apple crisp for dessert.  Yum!

March 14.

March 14 is Pi Day, where geeks around the world celebrate by talking about math and baking pie.  It's also my half birthday, so it has always been a good excuse for baking.  I have only three pie plates, so I used a square dish for the lemon buttermilk pie, which tastes fabulous no matter its shape!

It also snowed, so I ran out to my back yard garden to take some pictures of this rare event--practically no snow at all this entire winter!

The rest of March.

I took random food photos the rest of this month, and here they are!

Hawaiian Haystacks.

Stir Fry Veggies and Black Beans.

Apple Crisp.

The promise of spring.

Spring is coming, never fear.  I was able to fit in a quick trip to the Morton Arboretum to see what I could find pushing its way up through the winter ground.  I was not disappointed!

Back to life,
Christine

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