Christmas Wishes....

I took this pic a few years ago at a local church...

(This is circulating via email....thought I'd share.)



To All My Democrat Friends ~


Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the Winter Solstice Holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.


Not to imply that America is necessarily Greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference, gender assignment, of the wishes.


To My Republican and Independent Friends ~


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!




Cass

Through The Eyes of A Child

So, Jakey drew some pictures of me doing what I always do....you know....nothin' much.

This is me sitting on my front porch swing  (notice the Christmas light garland over the door!) looking at the tree in the yard that I have yet to get Christmas lights on. The life of a mother is Sooooooooooo relaxing. :)

After I get weary of sitting on my porch swing thinking of all the things I would like to do....I go take a bath. I splash, splash, splash....and just have a great time. No worries here!!

Then- once I get out of the tub...I check my Facebook or blog!! :)

Yep, that's about all I do.....hopefully your life as a mom is just a cushy as mine! And if it is....then it should be no problem to SHINE ALL YOUR LIGHT! :)

-Cass

The Griffin Girls..and Jakey

So, the kids and I are in Powell Ohio, celebrating Thanksgiving. I have finally had the long awaited meeting with my nephew- Caiden. Caiden is now two and is the "Big Cheese" of the family. :) He's the "big cheese" because #1 he's the star of the show. #2 he's the cutest little star ever #3 No-one has even been a more enthusiastic sayer of "cheese" for pictures!!! :) "Cheeeeeeeeeesssse!" is what he'd say and then he'd inhale real deep and start over! Just a cute, cute, cute little guy!! Loved him to pieces.

My neice Rachel has become a phenomenal dancer- and I so enjoyed seeing her perform her recital solo for us during a sneak peek at the studio the other night.

Today we ventured out into the quaint town of Powell.  

The girls and Jake outside of one of the several little boutique's we went into.

Snow flurries flew today!!! Rebekah photoshopped this picture for me- it wasn't snowing when this pic was taken. The girls and Aunt Marshy crossing the street.....

Little man has been floating around in a house of five females....Today he spotted a bag of Star Wars Silly Bands...how could we possibly say no? :) He's saved a few aside for a special friend.

Kiddles wanted this headband in one of the boutiques. It was $34- of course I said, "You can have it baby!!! I'd love to see it on you!!! You have money!" Suddenly she didn't want it as badly.

Caiden and Jakey.

Renaissance Festival: A Huzzah-tical Day!

My day spent at the Renaissance Festival was huzzah-tical! (<----that's my own word meaning totally off the charts- GREAT!) Do you know how you can tell that I had such a great day?? Because my pictures are less than great. :( I was really disappointed in the pictures once I got them off the card. Oh well. That just means I was more involved in the overall experiences around me than the technical aspects of taking a picture. And all in all- that's a good thing.

I owe a huge amount of gratitude to my mother for making me my renaissance costume. I regret that we never did slow down enough to get Mark to take my picture. It's totally my fault. However, I will get a picture of me in character taken and posted as a very grateful THANK YOU to my mother. ;)

The first shoppe we really slowed down and paid attention to was the glass shop. I was amazed at the detail and exquisite medieval designs the man was making. It was phenomenal to watch.

I saw this guy several times throughout the day. He was like a "Go-Go Gadget" from the middle ages.

I thoroughly enjoyed the patrons as much as I enjoyed the scheduled shows. This lady and her husband were dressed as fairies with their animatronic shoulder friends.

It's hard to tell whats going on here- but this man had a dragon "hat" on his head. The sticks in his hands made the wings of the dragon appear to be "flying". He's ducking down to say hello to this little girl- who understandably was a little skittish to be nodded at by a flying dragon!

Speaking of dragons...this mans costume was incredible! He and his wife had matching leather dragon costumes....complete with tails, feet and painted faces.

This act is called "Barely Balanced" they were awesome. You're looking at three people balancing at each other and the guy on the top is juggling knives. Notice the girl has a bare foot and one blue boot? That's because she's got a broken foot and had undergone surgery on WEDNESDAY. We saw this act on Saturday morning. Talk about dedicated.

The Queens chocolate shop. Oh my. Chocolate fit for royalty....to be sure. A friend and I split a chocolate and caramel cracker with marshmallows and nuts in it. Oh my. About a million HUZZAH's worth of praise for the concoction...adn I dont even like marshmallows or nuts! LOL!

I shot a bow and arrow for the first time. The first four arrows never left my little booth. LOL. I wasn't "getting it" and then.....Wah-lah....lookey there! I shot this guy right in the face! It was fun!!!

The "royal family" attending the jousting match.

The faeries of the realm come out to play during the Renaissance festival. The faeries are beautiful. This faerie named, Twig doesn't speak. But she dances, plays a flute and happily poses for pictures.....

Twigg had just shared some pixie dust with an elderly, disabled man and he was blowing her kisses and they rolled him away.

As we left this mime was entertaining small children.

He wasn't as impressive as the mime my family and I had encountered in San Francisco, but he was quite entertaining to the little children. ;)

I have many more pictures to share- just not the time to post them....

Until I get more time- Shine all your light and have a Huzzah-tical day! :)

Cass

May The Force Be WIth You

Sometimes, as a mom I have fantasies delusions. We assume that we mean as much to our children as they mean to us; however, this has been proven blatantly 'not so' to me. Not at all. Not that my children don't love me- or need me- not that we don't have a wonderful bond- but something happened last week that really brought the jolting reality home to me that we're on totally different emotional, fuzzy-wuzzy feeling levels.

The lucky thing for us moms is that our kids have a great way of bringing us back to earth. Sometimes with a jolting thunk.

My little guy, Jake had been gone out of town with his dad from Thursday until Tuesday. I was sooooo excited to see all the kids again and was sooooo happy for them to be home. Jake flew up the sidewalk towards me....it warmed my heart- I bent down to scoop him into my arms- but he kept his break neck speed run.... zooming right past me....yelling out a hasty "hey mom!"....storming into the house and down the hallway he's hollering- "where is my light saber?? I missed it soooooooooooo much."

I closed my eyes. And grinned. Let's be real here. At least I know where I stand. Ha! After he found not one but two of his light sabers he slowed down and talked to me...and he did inform he that he loves me MORE than Obi Wan Kenobi. Boy. Do I feel special. I am more loved than the dude in a brown robe that has the ability to channel an imaginary force. Gee.

Okay, I admit, I felt like channelling a little bit of force upside his blonde little head (only for a sec though) but the only thing I forced was a kiss and a welcome home hug.

The other kids have done similiar things in the past...all kids do. It's just that I was here by myself for several very quiet days on end....and they were with their dad, out of state, having loads of fun- so of course he didn't greet me at the door with the same enthusiasm. Of course.


After all the kids being gone like they were- I wish I had "the force". The kiddos brought back about 5 days worth of laundry from their dads....and I stood in the hallway surrounded by open suitcases full of dirty clothes- some of them wet. (don't know why) and I said, "Beam me up, Scotty!" And Jake-looking quite confused said "What's a Scotty?"

I said- the guy from Star Wars, one of Obi Wan's friends. Jake shook his head. He was positive I was wrong. Well, it turns out I had the wrong nerdy, galactic show in mind- Scotty is from Star Trek- not Star Wars.
Oh well. It's not like I would have been picky about WHICH galactic nerd beamed me up from the laundry pile.

Shine all your light! And, may the force be with you.


Cass

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In other news- I've been on plenty of adventures of the last month or so- with several more in store! :)

My friends Robin and Dale and I went to VA to ride the Creeper Trail- here are some pictures from the adventure...sometimes in early October.

If God had wanted to be a big secret, He would not have created babbling brooks and whispering pines.  ~Robert Brault

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.  A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.  Even a bicycle goes too fast.  ~Paul Scott Mowrer, The House of Europe

Zippity-ZOO-Daw...Zippity Day!

Saturday morning came zipping up on us pretty quick. I was up with my boss and his technician friend working on the phone system in my house until 2 AM. The phone system still isn't fixed- but that's a whole OTHER story...Today- I'm going to share with you about our zoo visit on Saturday.

Gabe was skippity-doo-dawing all day Friday in anticipation of his girlyfriend Catherine (Cate) spending the day with us at the zoo. The whole zoo thing came to pass when Sam asked me if I would take him to the zoo....and one thing leads to another- and soon we have a date picked out and a whole van load of kids   (which isn't hard to do when you have 4 of your own!) and we were headed south to the NC state zoo.

We started in Africa- because as Jakey said, "Oh!? Africa??!!? I've never been to Africa before!" and with that realization....our safari began. I'm still not so sure that Jake really understood that we had not time warped to another location...because he kept making statements such as, "The wind is kinda chilly in Africa!" (grin) and "they have Sprite in Africa?? WOW!"  It became to tedious to explain...so I didn't.

Elephant. For those of you who missed the National Geographics latest documentary, "Horton Hears A Hoo" :)

The giraffes were fun. We wanted to do the feeding deck- but the giraffes were on their own safari...and missed their lunch feeding. Oh well.

Monkey holding acorns

Through the glass (hence the reflection). He's pretty serious.

I must tell you, "Africa" has some beautiful flowers! Our zoo has wonderful landscaping, exotic plants and flowers and they showcase them so beautifully. I really enjoyed the plants as much as the animals.

What an egg!

Mork & Mindy...I mean, Gabe and Cate

Russian Sage and bee. One of my favorite plants.

Sculture of an African vulture along the elephant loop

Gabe & Catherine....

Catherine is teaching Gabe to "stop and smell the roses" He's so going to kill me for posting this picture!

After our stint in Africa- we took the tram to North America. (which really confused Jake, cuz he thought Africa was FAR, FAR away!) North America was (to be honest) a dud- the polar bear was asleep, the eagles were put up, the foxes were in the den and the bears were sleeping too!

The harbor seals were quite active

I love watching the seals swim and play....very peaceful.

Taking break front to back: Jake, Gabe, Cate, Sarah, Sam & Rebekah

My four

Catherine and Gabe on their way to the tram

The sun started to go down behind the trees as we were leaving the zoo.

We had a long, wonderful day with plenty of sunshine, laughs and fun. I so enjoyed getting to know Cate better and obliging Sam's request to visit the zoo.

Shine all your light!

Cass