William left a week ago, today, for his exchange program to Germany.  We dropped him off at school, he loaded a charter bus with fellow students - and they drove down to Boston.  Half the students boarded a flight to Madrid, the other half to Frankfurt.   I pulled up his flight, and tracked it - while it crossed the Atlantic and flew across Europe.   Only when he had safely landed and I reminded him to turn his phone to "Airplane Mode" (so we wouldn't get a $1500 roaming phone bill) until we could get him on an international calling plan the next day, did I peacefully go ..read more

It wasn't very long ago, I could not imagine our children ever leaving the nest and going out in to the world on their own.  And I couldn't imagine that I would ever want them to leave.  The mere thought of it was traumatizing to my mama's heart.  But nature has an amazingly beautiful way of surprising us.  Our little babies are growing up, becoming a lot more independent as they capably (and confidently) figure their way out in the world. In parallel, Charlie and I are becoming more accepting of their eventual nest departure.  In some cases, we're ..read more

Every year, we send out ~120 Christmas cards.  The format consists of a family photo, usually a couple shots of the kids - and then some action shots of experiences we've enjoyed over the past year.  It also contains a poem that the family will pitch in to write, usually encompassing the entire year in 12 sentences or less.  The annual poem is one of our most notable traditions, dating back to 1994: our first year of marriage.   Because we didn't take any grand family vacations over the summer - in mid November, we donned our plaid shirts and went to the field ac ..read more

We recently sent out our annual Christmas cards, and for the first time in a few years, I added our blog address as a means of communication.  I haven't been great about updating the blog, but as I was writing our annual card, I thought that maybe by sharing the address, I'd feel inspired to log on and provide more frequent updates (at least for the next couple of weeks, ha!).  With more updates, we'll generate more archives of memories - and Charlie is better able to turn those memories in to volumes of books that he likes to give me each year at Christmas as a present. (Although, h ..read more

Today, I got a phone call from an old colleague of mine from ExxonMobil.  Bruce and I worked together for several years, and I always enjoyed bantering with him, and the business trips we took together.  He was a Project Manager, and I was his Technical Advisor - providing support by reviewing various reports and consultant recommendations, and formulating strategies to negotiate with the regulatory agencies.  Bruce is an absolute hoot.  He retired in December of 2020 and I wrote him a poem in honor of the occasion, which I delivered over a farewell Zoom party that our enti ..read more

Today it's the first day of school in Vermont.   This was intended to simply be a photo post, but while I'm here, I may as well give an update! The summer here was epic and for the first time in a very, very long time - we didn't feel the desire to go ANYWHERE.  Between the lake, the mountains, the gardens, the bike path, the incredible weather - we just wanted to soak it all up, so we stayed right where we are and it was divine. The girls, however, took a three week trip in late June through the middle of July. Their destination was Texas - where they rendezvoused with our old ..read more

Everyday, so many amazing things happen in life and I'm always taking a mental inventory, "I must blog about that!" But life just continues to go at such a warp speed, I feel like all I can do is just hang on and enjoy the ride ... while trying not to fall off the ride altogether.   (Have I written that before? Probably. Not much has changed!!)  Just a few minutes ago, I found myself outside, as I do at nearly every waking moment, working in the massive, hugely overgrown (albeit gorgeous) gardens at our new house and it struck me.   "It's just a mirage, this idea that we can e ..read more

Charlie set up a simple system to capture the snowfall total with the most recent winter storm, Landon.  Unlike other areas where we've lived and would always feel like we have been ROBBED by snow, Vermont has thus far, happily failed to disappoint with the amount of beautiful, glorious snow we actually receive.   Forecast will project 1-3" and we'll have 6". Forecast will project 6" and we'll have 12". With this storm, we were expecting 12" ... but we've received 21" already, and expect that we'll receive several inches more before this storm passes through, later tonight. &nb ..read more

It has been six months, today, that our family was on the camping trip in Burlington, Vermont when I had what I thought would be a non-eventful call with my prior manager, Kurt, and new manager, Jeff.   The title of the meeting that they had set up the prior week, was benignly dubbed "Assessment Results."  I had no idea what exactly that meant ... but after 20 years with the company, I had participated in and led many assessments, so naively figured this Monday morning call would be no different.    When I logged on to the 10:00 Zoom call from Quarantinny, everyon ..read more

As I was scrolling through my email yesterday, looking for an old photograph, I stumbled upon this letter that Carolyn wrote to me last January.  One year ago.  The date stamp is on the email.  At the time, I'd forwarded the note to my mother, with the comment, "Ha! Well, it looks like Gracie wants to move ... the last time she wrote a letter to me this compelling, we bought her a puppy!"  Perhaps, this may just be more proof that it is no coincidence we were in Vermont when I received the phone call and our family, unanimously, made the decision to take a new road.  W ..read more