grandma Jeanette

This past 2 weeks has been very emotional for me..first I learned a favorite cousin past away while we were on vacation....then grandkids graduating from 8th grade and high school...Time moving much too fast.

A memory of a high school graduation past came as I watch grandson #2 ( #1 graduates next Sunday)...walk across the stage and accept the diploma cover..you all remember no diploma inside...as his under class friends hooted out and he signed "love you"...my mother-in-law came to mind. She would have been so proud of all her great-grandkids..She only managed one grandchild graduation before cancer took her..

This woman stepped in when my mother died suddenly..I was only 24 and had 3 babies...she was my rock when it came to..well everything...
Her name was Jeanette and she was a fairy-tale grandmother..she made sock puppets, played games with my boys, let them help her with things...whether they wanted to or not...read to them and above all let them be themselves...

When she was very sick and in pain she sat at the stadium watching her oldest grandchild accept his diploma cover...she died a year later...That grandson wrote the following in his Phd thesis acknowledgments...
"My decision to begin a career in science was prompted by two people who I can only thank on these pages. My late grandmother Jeanette Julian first encouraged me to pursue a science degree, as 'the only thing that makes any sense.' She would have expected nothing less that my finishing this degree......." Miss you Jeanette....

Merlin

This blog is about our Pearson 442...a 42' sailboat..
To decide to live on a sailboat is not a decision made lightly...In 1995 we sold up and moved on to a 30' S10 center cockpit sailboat. We had the boat in a marina on KY lake..a bit of a river ride from the salt water...
At a point in the spring of 2001 we decided to enlarge our living space...So boat shopping began in earnest....
We bought Merlin, a Pearson 442, in Regatta Point FL in June of 2001...we were in Ft. Meyers FL at the city marina for 9/11..
The trip to the Keys was beautiful and uneventful..time to dodge lobster pots and find enough water to navigate the west coast of Florida..
Finally made it to Boot Key harbor for a final check of boat systems, grocery shop and start watching for a weather window to make the jump to the Bahamas....more later on the Gulf stream crossing

The photo is Merlin at the fuel dock on the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean

New banner on Artfire

I have a new look and I have to thank soy sentual.artfire.com for all her hard work....


VaL included a firefly from one of the first drafts..
and I named the firefly Lady Frances after a favorite cousin that past away recently....
now Francie's spirit is dancing around me for awhile.....

welcome

This is my first posting...
I want to tell everyone about an artistI just found
His name is David Joaquin..
dkjart.etsy.com