Too Late to Begin a Life of Crime

      Bloomington is still magical.  I just love being in Bloomington.  I toured around my old haunts and while things have changed, ofcoursetheyhave, in the last 30 years since I actually lived there full time, they are pretty much still the same.  It is so beautiful there...the scenery, the campus, the memories, the whole package.   It will be fun when Matt and Alex go there in four years...they really have no choice...this is an IU family after all.  (Just kidding...they both think IU would be a great place to go.  Caveat:  Matt is still thinking of maybe going to CIA in NYC, so we will see...that is so far away.)  The students weren't back yet at IU, so I had the place to myself and didn't have to think "Wow, they are sending babies to college these days!" (At least that is what they all look like in my advanced stage of age here.)   While we all stayed at The Farm I did manage to get to eat here, and that was very nice indeed. 

      As a JOKE, at MNO, we have a running bit that we moms, all very conservative and known for neverdoinganythingoutoftheordinaryorsteppingoveranysortoflines, have been laughing about "breaking out of our shells" and doing something really out of character.  Of course, this is just good fun and nothing serious, but I jokingly said, "You know, I think we should smoke some marjuana since none of us have ever done that before."  Gasp...and we all laughed and said, "Oh, sure, we can just see the headlines now, Catholic moms all arrested for..." not to mention, there wasn't a single one of us who actually knows how to get such a substance had we really been even remotely serious.  Like I said, it was just being goofy and funny to think any of us would ever do anything that would cause an eyebrow to raise even slightly.  When Katie and Bridget made the arrangements for the weekend, staying at the Farm and just holding our own little retreat there, I wrote back, "Well, sounds great, but I am afraid Mary Jane will not be able to attend any sort of gathering at the Farm."  We laughed.  When we gathered on Friday, Katie said, "I brought you all a little gift" and handed me a package to open...in it were Mary Jane and her friends (some of them in the photo here)...silly goofy humor, I know, but cute and fun and I laughed.  This Mary Jane is now residing in my day planner as a sort of reminder that that is as far as I can see me breaking out of my shell...ever.  If, however, you see us all in the news when we are in our 80's getting busted, you will all have had an inkling that it was a long time coming!  (Thank you Sarah, Meredith, and Rebecca for the lovely paper dolls...we all thought they were very cute and fun!)

      The last photo is Pippin guarding his dog treat...which he loves to do to tease Vash.  He will sit there for hours after Vash has devoured his teasing him that he, Pippin, still has a treat left and is not sharing.  They are a lot like children, aren't they?   I have known my two boys to act this way on occasion...something about establishing territorial rights, I believe.  I wasn't going to get attached to these dogs, you know...I carefully researched life spans when we selected the breed we wanted and my idea was that dogs and children would be exiting our premises about the same time, one for higher education, and the other for "higher grounds," as it were.  They have a way of working into your heart very quickly and easily however.  I'm hooked.  I guess if you are hooked on something, it might as well be these little guys.