Loose Leaf Notes

Wordless Wednesday

At our annual Christmas Eve kahlua and cookie neighborhood open house, we swapped and talked, sipped and dipped and made merry.   Joe got a cell phone soap on a rope and there was a talking toy parrot that used the f-word alot. I knew that my grandson Bryce (pictured behind his sister Kaylee) would [...]

A wild thing. She should have been called Aslan the protector, after the lion in Narnia. She was an outside, uncombed, dreadlocked chow that wouldn’t come inside on the coldest nights but hated the heat. And thunder. She did her thing and I did mine. But our paths crossed, everyday when I walked to the [...]

The 39th and final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery is currently in outer space and has an extended family member on board, my sister Trish’s brother-in-law astronaut Stephen Bowen, pictured here floating through the shuttle. All I can think about when I look at these pictures, sent by Stephen to his wife, is Peter Pan, [...]

Liam Patrick was born on October 8th, 2010.  Mother and father (Alexis and Dylan),  big sister Kaylee, big brother Bryce, and Liam are all doing fine. Video clip HERE.

If you ever go to Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Festival in Christiansburg make sure you bring a two year old.  According to my grandson Bryce, the farm is a kid’s play paradise where you can run through mazes, play king of the hay mountain, pet a baby goat, or play grocery store with the pumpkins. On [...]

1. The Audience 2. The Peanut Gallery 3. The Judges Post notes: Just another Sunday afternoon at my mom’s house in Hull, Massachusetts. Pick your favorite American I’dHull performance HERE.

The love you take is equal to the love you make ~ The Beatles Not long after my second son, Dylan (left), was born in 1982, I was proudly walking him in the baby carriage with his two year old brother Josh (right) by my side. I remember feeling like I had struck it rich. [...]

I had a reason to want to watch the space shuttle take-off from the Kennedy Space Center on Youtube last night. One of the astronauts on board, Stephen Bowen, is my youngest sister Trish’s brother-in-law. Stephen was my wedding party escort at Trish’s wedding in 1991. Back then, we joked about my being a Peace [...]

I don’t know what it means to be a grandmother. It’s probably a role you grow into. When my son and his wife went to a wedding this weekend, Joe and I had some bonding time with three week old Bryce. I introduced myself to him. “I’m your daddy’s mama,” I said, wanting him to [...]

We hung the hammock. The end. Post notes: We actually eventually got out of the hammock to visit with a neighbor who was home from college and had dropped by. Later, we talked insurance with a salesman at the porch picnic table and picked greens from the garden for lunch. Joe shoveled manure and made [...]

1. I now have a folder on my desktop titled “Bryce Gabriel.” 2. He was born May 14, 2008 at 2:45 a.m. weighing a whopping nine pounds and a couple of ounces, just like his dad, Dylan, did when he was born in 1982. 3. I used up all the memory space on my camera [...]

Friend: Colleen, has the baby come yet? Me: No, but they’re coming up to Floyd today, so I’ll get to see the belly. My son Dylan, his wife Alexis, and her daughter Kaylee treated me to lunch for Mother’s Day. After lunch, we had tea and coffee at the Blackwater Loft (pictured above), followed by [...]

Gonna take a sentimental journey … Gonna set my heart at ease … Gonna make a sentimental journey … To renew old memories … ~ lyrics from Sentimental Journey, made famous by Doris Day in 1944 He was whistling along to the 1940’s music playing on the car tape player. I was sitting next to [...]

I drove all the way to Christiansburg yesterday without seeing one pink plastic lawn flamingo, which was disappointing since it was part of the reason I went. I had to go to town in the morning to drop the March Museletter off to the printer. After that, I debated if I should head on to [...]

Watching Joe get ready to leave the house: “You’re getting ready to go into the phone booth and change into your Super Hero suit, aren’t you?” I said to my husband who volunteer teaches teen meditation retreats, headed up parking at Floyd Fest this year, helped to start a local oral history program for teens, [...]