What a Long & Strange Month It's Been...

When the past month feels like half a year has passed, I know that it's been a long, strange trip down my life as a wife, mother & librarian.  (Not to mention all the other hats I wear!)

July 4th was filled with fun & celebration as we held the annual Corn Roast at St. Bartholomew's.  The parade featured antique cars, motorcycles, mopeds, and dozens of children in their red, white & blue decked-out bikes, trikes, & scooters.  (MG rode her bike without training wheels for the first time!!)  We celebrated the Eucharist together, then got in on to the corn eating!

Highs had been in the record 100s in the week previous, and cooled down to only 99 that day!  The kids were able to cool off with the California Wave!  It's better than a slip-n-slide because you run & jump onto 18" inflatable surface as you slide down into the pool of water at the end.  What a treat!  (Yes, I tried it and had a blast!)

Classes were back in session after an almost 3 week hiatus on July 9th.  It was good to have our students back to free me from quiet projects and boredom.

MG lost her two front teeth, plus two more that we "wiggled out" by the dentist to make room for growing.  I wonder what those two permanent teeth are going to think when they finally break through the gums in a few months.  "Hey!  Make room for us!"  She also had her first cavity filled.  Boy does that make me feel like mother of the year...

She started 2nd grade last week, and loves her teacher.  We're tickled, because we know she's the kind of teach who will love MG, but hold her feet to the fire.  Parent/Teacher meeting tomorrow night, so we'll get to learn more all about it.


Disappointment came my way in many forms this month.  First, I found out that the job I had applied for was finally filled when the new Dean of Libraries sent an email out to introduce herself. (Good one HR & the powers that be.  Real professional.)  I had figured out that the job wasn't the best fit for me or my family after I had interviewed twice, thrilled with how well it went, but knew that I couldn't handle a job that traveled so much.  Changes in my job with a new Campus President haven't been the smoothest, as she makes radical changes to schedules and responsibilities, so I guess that's why it still stung.

Next, and I know this isn't huge, my Aunt's birthday rolled around for the first time without her.  (And thanks Blackberry for reminding me first thing that morning on my calendar.)  She was so much of a mother/grandmother to me and understood me in ways that my mom doesn't.

But what saddened me the most was having to make one of the hardest decision of my life: to put our beloved Blue Tick Coon Hound down last week.  Lila Bird came to live with us in January 2004, after she had been nursed back to health by a dear woman who found her.  It was a big adjustment to having her and all her emotional problems in the first few years.  But the love and patience that we poured into her was given back to us and to MG tenfold.  She was a new, very kind and gentle lady dog.  She became our anchor and alpha to the other two dogs, who watched her decline so steadily in the past 6 months.  The arthritis, and now what we know to be cancer became too much to bear - and bless her heart, she just couldn't tell us how much pain she was in.

On the evening we made the appointment with the vet, we all just sat around loving on Lila and the other dogs, hugging and crying with one another.  Those brief 20 minutes we had together will forever be in my memory to treasure, as she looked at me lovingly and flapped that big tail of hers, as if to tell me, "Mama, it's okay.  You can tell me goodbye."  Oh I miss her so much!  So I sat with MG at home, while Sean too her in to let her fall into that last long sleep in his arms.

And somehow, there's this new little one that's come into our lives to try and heal the hurt.  Meet Sparky Schultz Root, the newest edition to the family!  Although I think it's too soon to bring a new dog into the situation, here he is teeth, puppy breath, housetraining to work on, and all! 

:: sigh ::  What will the next month become!?

Books I'm Reading Lately

Nothing says Summer like a good book to read.  People even write articles about it.  Blogs too.  Guess I'm just next in a long line of suckers!

Currently on the Bookshelf:

1. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater.  MG & I are taking turns reading this out loud to each other.  (Little does she know, it's good for her!)  It's fun to hear her sound out the antiquated words & read all of the penguin sounds, "Orrrrk!"
2. The Road to Grace by Richard Paul Evans.  This is the 3rd book in The Walk Series about a man who's lost everything, and decides to walk from his Portland, Oregon, home to the farthest walkable point on the map: Key West, Florida.  He's only in South Dakota now, so I wonder how many more books it will take to drag this story out.
3. Ceremony in Death by J. D. Robb.  Book 5 in the In Death series with Eve Dallas.  My Kindle loan expired from the library, so I've got to get back into this series with the paperback.  A pure comfort read when you already know most of the characters. 

What I Just Finished:

1. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris.   Brain-candy for the paranormal in me.  I think we're up to book 12 in this series - and even though this one was a bit better than the last, I'm still thinking it's time to end the series.  Plus, as the years go on, it's getting harder to not confuse the plots with what I watch on TrueBlood!
2. Rapture in Death by J. D. Robb.  Book 4 in the In Death series with Eve Dallas.  I listened to most of this when I didn't have the paperback in hand.

Still Waiting for Me to Pick Up & Read:

1. Calico Joe by John Grisham.  A short one by Grisham about baseball.  Can't be too bad, can it?  (Yes, it could be terrible.... like his other ventures into non-legal fiction.)
2.  Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  After watching the miniseries for Books I, II & III of North & South with Hubby recently, I thought it was about time I knocked this book off my bucket list.  (I have no idea if I'll enjoy it or not - I just know that it's over 1,000 pages if it's only mediocre!

Do you like to read?  Wanna swap stories of the best and worst out there?  Follow me on Goodreads.com   - I love that website! :)

Let's Talk About Snow

Wait - Did you say snow?  You betcha, Baby.  It may be 104 in the shade outside today, but I wanna talk about that bright, beautiful, white stuff.
The most snow that I ever experienced in one storm, was the record 13" that fell in one 24-hour period on March 12-13, 1993, in Birmingham, Alabama.  Yes, I just said Alabama.  At the time they called it "Winter Storm 93."  Poor Garrison Keillor got stuck in town once the airports closed, and brought his Prairie Home Companion to the historic Alabama Theater - to those who were within walking distance! 

I was almost done with my junior year of high school that year - and I even remember wanting to wear shorts to school earlier in the week.  But once those big clumps of white stuff started falling from the sky, they changed their mind about keeping us in school.

Later that night, there was a weird sight to behold:  Thundersnow!  Who knew such a thing existed!? (Okay, what southern girl knew it existed...)  The sky was almost greenish that night.  Creepy creepy.

Yes, that's me...  March 13, 1993

We awoke to almost 18" in our front yard - and with the wind that the thundersnow storm brought, drifts on the side of the house that were almost 3 feet deep!  The power had finally given way in the night, and what followed were several days without power, with lows in the single digits. 

The next few days were spent checking on elderly neighbors, taking things out of the freezer and putting them in the snow banks so they wouldn't spoil, and one tumultuous drive to the ER after my dad slipped, fell, and broke his foot going to help a neighbor.  Let me just tell you that this 16-year old driver was very cautious on roads that could not be cleared - because the city didn't own a snowplow.  Not one!  At least it had been a few days for things to thaw, be driven on, and moved around somehow.

I was even filmed that day by a local news station that was in the area filming.  I had the task of uncovering our car in all that snow, so that we could take Dad to the ER that evening.  I don't remember what they asked me about, or what I even said.  Didn't matter, I suppose - because there was no way of watching the news for at least a week (without power).

Perhaps, because I was an innocent youth, I still look back on this cold, exhausting time with wonder and excitement.  (All those years in girl scouts and teaching wilderness survival skills came in handy!)  And I can laugh at dropping the poor, small dog into another snow drift so he could find somewhere to pee.

I can't help but wonder what it would be like if we experienced something similar, here in Nashville (where it's more likely, and we actually own multiple snow plows).  What would MG think?  Would I have enough supplies on hand to be trapped at home for the week?  Would she laugh, take pictures, and help out neighbors like I did?  I'd like to think so.  She's such a great kid.

Too Hot for the Shade!

Yes, it's for real.  Record high temperatures are headed our way for the next week - and are almost too hard to believe.

This is a screen shot from the Weather Channel just a few minutes ago.  Yesterday, they were only predicting 104 for Friday!  Can it be too hot to go swimming?  Possibly so!

So what will Independence Day look like?  Only a mere 99 degrees... which should seem like a break from these temperatures!

Meanwhile, Colorado burns with out of control forest fires, and the remains of Tropical Storm Debby flood Florida & the Gulf Coast.  Maybe there is something to this whole Global Warming thing...

No More Camera Envy!

Yes, I know it's a sin.  "Thou shalt not covet another mother's camera!"  And for the first time in 8 years, I realized at the Christmas Pageant last year that what I had wasn't even second-best, but third rate.  I never said anything to my dear Hubby.  Never even looked at ads for the latest zooming-filming-bigger-than-a-bread-box camera.  But somehow he knew, and started looking.

We had the opportunity to make a little money at the end of May, and decided to blow it all on ourselves.  What did Hubby have in mind?  A NIKON.  A real, brand-new, honest to goodness, top of the line Nikon Camera.  WOW.  And he saved a bundle off the original price - enough to buy a 55-200mm zoom lens to go with it!

He says he bought it for me, because the last time he found a great camera deal, he gave it to his mom.  I got over that eventually because she gave us her camera, which was a definite upgrade.  But then MG dropped it on the pavement on Easter and scratched the lens.  I think that's when he really started looking, because I was so disappointed.

Bumblebee on Lavender - June 2012, Larissa Root

So with my growing knowledge of photography, a little help from Picasa (love this free software, go get it!) - I'm producing great photos like the one above.  I love being a Shutterbug!

Play It Again, Sam...

Like an old familiar tune, I was drawn to write today.  And in this world of Web 2.0, I still have a this blog floating out in the World Wide Web somewhere.

"One of these days I'm going to blog," I've said for years.  One of these days begins again today.

So what's changed in the past six years?  In some ways, tons.... in other ways, none.  But I'm not going to spend time trying to play catch up.  That never works out and puts pressure on the writer.  And since the writer is always under constant pressure, why burden her further? :)

Little Blankie Girls

So when I said I wasn't going to blog anymore - I may have been lying to myself.  I love to share stories:  there are just some that don't need to be shared with the whole world!

I found myself called to write to a good friend of mine earlier today about her concern for her two daughters and their blankies.  Sure they're getting older, but they're still little girls!  Here's what I had to say:



"I still have my blankies - and they did go to college with me! It was a comfort thing - to be able to have something with you when you travel that smells like home. My blankie even helped me learn how God can help us when we pray! When I was little and had lost my blankie, and could not go to bed. I was able to calm down, pray, find my blanket and thank God for helping me to find it!

As I grew older, they became more useful as something to cover eyes when the roommate had the lights on studying late, or to cover my head when it was cold or I had a headache. But I still kept them around.

I think I used my blankies more when I was single in grad school as that thing I could grab onto from my childhood that, like God, could comfort me enough to fall asleep in a strange new town, where I knew no one and had no idea what I was doing, except following God's plan for me.

Champ guarding Maggie Grace, 10/13/04

Did they go on my honeymoon? I don't remember, but Sean says he thinks one did. Must be another thing about them smelling like home!

But in the past 7 years, I'd say they've mostly stayed folded in the back of my pajama drawer, or fallen behind the bed. Talking about them makes me want to find one and snuggle up and take a nap, b/c I can't tell you the last time I snuggled with one.

So us little blankie girls do grow up - and find new ways to cope. And meet the men we are supposed to marry, and make families. We learn to wrap our children in them, and make special blankies for them to carry everywhere and for always.

Just look at my pictures of Maggie Grace. You'll see several Snoopy blankets with satin blanket binding - just like mine. (She called them "slickies.") I made them for her and even at 6 - she can't start the day or end the day without one in her grasp! MG also knows about my special, worn & tattered blankies - and even asks if she can borrow one occasionally when she's feeling sick, sad, or frightened.

So don't worry about your sweet girls and their blankies. There’s a lot of love stored up in that old piece of cloth last them all their days!

Love you!

-Larissa"



Not sure what I want to put on this page anymore.... so I guess it will have to stay blank a little longer. Because if I put out here what's really on my mind/heart lately - I think I'd be too vulnerable to flames & just too many people knowing my business. ::sigh:: damn web 2.0