The Princess Tea

I am so proud of what we did this day.

Check it out at Princess Tea.

craziness "lane/thomas" style

so today robert and i went with grandma and grandpa to my sister's Kindergarten class for a little party to celebrate the end of the year. while the reporter from a local news show read to the kids robert and i created our own fun with his mother's camera.....

my two giants

and here are my baby nephews towering over me......

aw, come on...give me a kiss

my lovely niece annoyed by her lovely aunt who just wants a kiss and who doesn't seem to appreciate the joy i bring to the party

but of course she loves me...and i her....what's there not to love, right?

gopher girl and beaver boy

this next post is dedicated to scott...i give you gopher girl and beaver boy... the tradition continues

today was an awesome day!

This is my nephew Robert Michael Dale Thomas. Today he graduated from high school.

He is an AWESOME young man. Intelligent. He graduated Cum Laude. Talented. He taught himself how to play the guitar and he played a song he wrote today. His friends love him; you can tell how much they respect and enjoy him. He's got a good head on his shoulders - knows what he wants and how to get it. And he can hold his own in a debate/arguement with me on politics, race, religion, movies..you name it.

And here he is in a tree. Why? Because it was there. Why not?

Here is the three "munchkins" as their Aunt Pestica has always called them.

Serious mode:

Normal mode:

home

this week i traveled from moline to atlanta to greensboro, north carolina. north carolina is not my home. most of my life has been spent within forty-five minutes of the mighty Mississippi River. a bird's eye view from the plane reminds me of what i love about the Midwest. the patchwork of colors (tans, dirty reds, soft greens, and hungry browns). jagged edges and straight lines. rivers and creeks flowing in and out. corn for miles and miles and miles. soybeans and hay. having never really been attached to any one place it's an odd feeling to feel connected to the land in some way. you lose that predictability of land mass and assortment of colors as you move toward the east. other forms of beauty appear, but there's something secure and taming in the place i grew up.

so it's really odd to find myself in a city i've been at four times and feel like i've come home. it's nothing to do with the city or the people here, the native north carolina folks and everything to do with one family - one piece of iowa/illinois - transplanted here.

within an hour of being here i felt so at home. felt like i had been traveling the world, tired, clothes dirty, and body wearing and had finally arrived back at my starting point. it's the most secure feeling i've known all year.

i haven't quite figured out what makes it this way. what it is my family possesses that when we are all together i feel like i've come home. but thursday night watching and listening to us all i realize how much i miss the noise of laughter and debate and silliness. i miss the sarcasm, the quick wit. it's like gun fire. i miss the joy that seems to feel the room, so tangible i can almost reach out and touch it.

and i know that in a few days i'll go back "home" to the Midwest and it will feel the loneliest of activities. it'll feel like traveling to some far off land. but it's land i know. land that's tangible, predictable, and permanent. which reminds me of my family.