I am writing this from a hotel room in Tennessee, while my aging mom sleeps (Parkinson’s disease slows her down) and in between visits to my mom’s cousin and his wife who are wasting away by millimeters in a marginal nursing home here in Tennessee. These are folks who never had kids, but who would have made great parents. Fred has Parkinson’s as well, and is intermittently “with it” and not. Irene has been bed-ridden for months, is losing her hearing, and is far less with it than she was when we last made this long trip.

I... more

When I wrote this blog, it was 3 AM this morning and I was tooling along Interstate 35 in Des Moines. Not to worry, I wasn’t driving while typing… my husband of 29 years was at the wheel. Twenty nine years today, as a matter of fact.

We left on Friday and drove 600+ miles to Gurnee, Illinois where we used to live. On Friday night we gathered at Olive Garden with a dozen other ATN parents. More on that later…

This was a “wedding weekend.” On Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of a high school friend of Kyle... more

I am writing this morning from St. Louis. My husband and I drove the four hours here on Friday afternoon in order to attend a Love and Respect marriage conference… courtesy of Kyle and Marie. Their first anniversary is coming up next month and they attended this conference a few months ago. They were so impressed with the message they asked us if we would like to attend, and ultimately this opportunity became our Christmas present from them. How cool is that?

There was a great deal of good information... more