Still Alive Here!

Recently, an old high school friend of mine (who is a sweetheart) texted me to find out if I was OK, because she hadn’t seen a post here at the blog in such a long time. And at our age, she said, you just never know…

But rest assured, I’m still alive and well and about to celebrate my 67th birthday. My husband and I left Virginia a few weeks ago to come up north and manage our Oyster Haven rental property on Lake Champlain.  We had a little family party with our three Virginia sons and their 14 kids before we headed to New York, and this was the view in our kitchen with the grandkids that day, enjoying ice cream after a trip to our neighborhood pool...

Great view, to be sure.  ❤️

And this is the view out the back yard at my husband’s childhood home by the lake, where we’ve been staying since we got back up north.  

Not too shabby!

Today, our five boys and their gangs (23 grandchildren in all!) start arriving for our week-long Pearl-a-palooza at Oyster Haven, which we blocked off for our family’s use. We look forward to this gathering all year!  We’re in the process of moving in there now.

I’ll be sharing some pictures of the views from our lakeside paradise, if I can find breaks in the chaos to do so!  We'll have 35 people sleeping in a 4-bedroom, 2-and-1/2 bathroom house (with two extra basement "bedrooms" set up as well).  Six sleeping areas for 35 people.  It's always interesting!

Thanks for stopping by this deserted old ghost-town of a blog of mine, dear readers.  I’ll try to take better care of it moving forward!

Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog!

Well hey there, readers...all two or three of you who even bother to stop by here anymore!  How was your summer?

Are you surprised to see me here?  I know I am.  This is by far the longest I've been away from this blog since I opened up shop in 2011.  I believe it's been almost three months since I last posted anything.  Yikes, that beats my last AWOL stretch by about two months or so.

I've seriously been considering just closing my doors for good (but enough with the shop references already--sheesh!  Can you tell that I'm about as rusty as they come?!).  Just living life keeps me so busy these days that writing about it seems like a waste of time.

But then I stumble upon an old post in my archives, and I remember why I started this thing in the first place.  So many of my most precious memories--of my marriage, my motherhood, and now my grandmotherhood (if that's a word?  Spell check has underlined it in red for me, so perhaps not!)--are stored here on this site.  Like this oldie-but-goodie, for instance, about when my oldest son (now 40) was a new driver and started giving his younger brothers rides to school.  I read that sweet post again a few weeks ago, when my sister-in-law was talking about how her 16-year-old son was going to get his driver's license soon.  It brought back so many poignant memories!  And that post led me to this other post as well, one that tells about a treasured moment in time from my youngest son's wedding that I am so grateful to have captured.

(If you took the time to click those links and read the old posts, welcome back!)

Anyway, I'm happy for all the years I've spent adding to my online family scrapbook.  I am.  So maybe I should keep at it.  Maybe I'd miss it if I gave it up.  We shall see!

Today, I'm just feeling overwhelmed by how much has happened in the last three months that would be fun to blog about.  I don't know what to write about first. So I guess I'll just go ahead and jump in and see how it goes.

We just got back to VA a week ago, after spending most of July and August in upstate NY, staying at my husband's old childhood home by the lake while managing our Oyster Haven rental house just down the road.  Life was good up there, visiting with my 88-year-old mom and other relatives from both of our families and spending as much time as possible out on our pontoon boat.  But it's just so good to be home!

I don't know where to start, so I guess I'll just post a few pictures from our Pearl family vacation week at Oyster Haven in July (we had a professional photo shoot!  More about that later!); and then a few pictures from this past Sunday, when we had two of our boys and their families over to our house ("where we belong," as one of our precocious little granddaughters here in VA has told us) for a post-Mass brunch.  

How it was going in July (up at Oyster Haven):

Aren't those pictures fun? The photographer got many more clearer, more normal shots (some of which I will be sharing here soon, I hope!).  But these give you an idea of the awesome chaos of our week, with all 34 of us sharing a house that we advertise as "sleeps 13" on VRBO!  Like the photos illustrate, our time together passed in a blur, but it was just wonderful.

How it was going this past Sunday (back home in VA):

We're so happy that Papa and Grammy's basement playroom is open for business once again.  Things were hopping down there on Sunday afternoon, as you can see.  And we're also happy that sometimes, we can give our tired kids a chance to catch a cat-nap while we enjoy spending time with their energetic little ones!

Until next time (which will be much sooner than three months from now--at least that's the plan)...

The Girls of Summer (and Their Baby Brother!)

Our oldest son and his wife, four daughters, and baby son arrived at the Pearl homestead in Upstate NY exactly a week ago, and we have been having a marvelous time.  The girls are amazed that this is the place where their Papa grew up--that he got to look out at that lake in his back yard every day, to swim whenever he wanted.  "This is the life!" one of the twins (who are eight, and the oldest of our 14 grandchildren) exclaimed, not long after they'd arrived.

Yes, indeed; this is the life.  It's like being on the best vacation ever, without ever having to leave the property--unless we want to walk all of two doors down to play at the private neighborhood beach, a wonderland of sand and waves and shallow waters filled with quick-darting minnows.

Here is a photo dump from the past week.  These pictures will tell the story better than I ever could.

In order to respect our firstborn son and his wife's wishes to keep their children's precious faces off the Interwebs, I have become adept (if I do say so myself!) at snapping pictures of them from the side or back.  I've always been a fan of such shots anyway; I consider these rather artsy poses to be just the sort of subject matter an oil painter might use as inspiration.

But whether with faces exposed or faces hidden, images of children digging in the sand at the beach or playing in the surf are pure artistic gold.  Here are some works by two of my favorite artists--Jesse Willcox Smith and Mary Cassatt--that illustrate my point perfectly.

The faces these talented artists created are as cute as can be, for sure; but they are not nearly as cute as those of my darling grandkids.  You're just going to have to trust me on this!

The Summer of Us! (A Photo Dump)

My husband and I have been in our old hometown in Upstate NY since the beginning of July, managing our Oyster Haven VRBO rental home, visiting with family and friends still living in the area...and having a grand old time, enjoying what we have dubbed "The Summer of Us" (and if you ever were a fan of the series Seinfeld, you might know where we got the inspiration for that title).

Fulfilling a lifelong dream of his, my hubby had splurged on his first real expensive "toy" in the spring: a 20-foot pontoon boat.  So life has been good here on Lake Champlain, dear readers; it has been very good indeed.   We miss our kids and grandkids down in VA, but we really, really like each other--so we are surviving.  Actually, we're thriving, and this has been a very special summer for us.

My better half was on vacation for the month of July, so it was almost hedonistically relaxing and rejuvenating for us.  (There was a big, wild-and-crazy Pearl family reunion over the 4th, and I never got around to blogging about that extravaganza.  But I put up a few posts about it over on Instagram.)

We went out on the boat every day that the weather permitted (which turned out to be just about every day); we had cocktail hour cruises routinely; we recited our daily Rosary and novena prayers while floating in the quiet waters on the shores of the nearby islands; and we even got up before the crack of dawn one day to watch the sun rise over the lake.

One day, we drove the boat about 45 minutes to my baby sister's lakeside home, and we picked her up along with her husband and my mom, then headed out on the water to enjoy a mini dinner cruise.

It has definitely been a summer to remember!  

I adore my all my boys and their wives, and don't even get me started on my grandchildren!  But this guy has always been and will always be my #1.  

The Summer of Us.  I will never forget it!

August brought us back to the real world a bit: my guy has already had to fly two trips this month--but luckily, his airline job allows him to commute from anywhere (within reason), and although I don't have the guts to take the big boat out by myself, I've kept the home fires burning here at the Pearl homestead.  I've even managed to get out for a couple of kayak rides.

Heaven, isn't it?

And now we're sharing it with some of our brood: as of almost a week ago, it is no longer just us.  Our oldest son, his wife, and his five children are here for about a two-week visit, staying with us in my husband's childhood home (because our Oyster Haven house is being rented right now).  Our boys' four girls, aged 4 through 8, are playing every day at the neighborhood beach two doors down where my husband and his siblings used to play.  It has been a joy to see them falling in love with this lake.  (One of the twins exclaimed one day, "This is the life!")

I want to share scenes of the goings-on here lately, but I've posted enough pictures for one day; so I'll be back with pictures from "The Summer of Us and Them."

Family Reunion Photo Dump (#lakesidepearls)

As you might know, about a month ago we had our whole gang stay with us for a week at our Oyster Haven VRBO house on Lake Champlain.  All 18 of our family members were together: my husband and I; our 5 sons and 4 daughters-in-law; our 5 granddaughters and 2 grandsons.  (We have decided that for the rest of the year, the house will be open to other folks for vacation rentals; but for one glorious week each summer, it will be all ours!!)

I've already shared some of the professional pictures we had taken during that week.  (If you didn't see that post and are interested, you can go here and check them out.)

But I also had my iPhone and digital camera at the ready to capture as much of the magic as I could.  So here are a few of the photos I took, to give you an idea of how great the week was (and how much I'm already looking forward to the planned 2017 #lakesidepearls reunion!).

Papa and his newest granddaughter, Princesa.

Son #4 and wife Braveheart.

Son #4 and Braveheart.

Let the Wiffle Ball games begin!

Cousin love!

Son #3 and his boy, G-Man.

Ginger and her son, Junior.

Imagine a bunch of heart emjois!!!

My bookends, #1 and #5, with two of son #1's girls.

My baby and my granddaughter, Cutie Pie (one of the twins).

Son #3 and his little Princesa.

Preciosa and her G-Man.

Junior.

Cutie Pie and Junior.

My boys!!  <3

Son #2 with his family, Ginger and Junior.

This little guy is a water baby!

Son #3, Preciosa, and G-Man.

Fun on the lake.

Two of our girls, Braveheart and Preciosa.

Son #1's wife Regina and their youngest, City Girl.

#5 and a couple of his nieces.

Little Gal got very attached to her uncle, #5.

My bookend boys with Little Gal in the middle.

When Junior wasn't in the lake with his parents,

he was in the pool with his cousins.

G-Man be like, "Hey, what's going on here?  What am I missing?"

I could gaze at this view all day.

Son #2 and Junior.  Heart-melting.

Son #3 and Princesa.  Also heart-melting.

Dads on duty.

Visiting our horse neighbor, Buddy.

The twins and Little Gal all got to ride him.

"See you next summer, Buddy."

I have so many more good shots, but I'm sure you've had enough by now--if you're even still here.

But if you don't mind...I'll think I'll scroll through these pictures a few more times, and soak up all the sweet memories we made in our house by the lake this summer.