Tag life

Spooky Season has arrived

Theresa Rushlow Leave a comment

Fall, my favorite time of year. I have my yard decorated for the season and am gearing up for some wonderful fall times.

I have the yard all decorated for the season; it isn’t that elaborate, but I have fun putting everything out. I had several people drive by and tell me they love the decorations, so that makes it all worthwhile.

I was able to participate in an insanely large Trunk or Treat; I can’t even begin to explain how big this thing is, but I am talking thousands of eager young goblins with massive bags in hand needing to be filled by our very generous community of families and businesses. It was my first year doing this, and I was not prepared for the massive crowd or the wind that kept taking my display down. But I had so much fun, and I was happy I did it, at least once. For the event, I found this trick with marbles, so I was handing out my space marbles, and it seemed to be a huge success. Amazing what a marble, foil, and a glass jar will do.

I had a fabulous evening sampling delicious tea at a Gothic Tea Party. It was such a fun little event, and the tea was delicious. I had some interesting conversations with other participants, and my granddaughter was able to join me for all of the fun. She loved the tea, but the cucumber finger sandwiches were her favorite; now I have to find the recipe for those.

My grandson attended the Ohio State High School Honors Band weekend. The Ohio State Honors Jazz Band is a program for select high school students (grades 10-12) who are nominated by their jazz band directors. Students participate in a weekend of high-level music-making, including masterclasses and rehearsals led by OSU faculty, and culminating in public performances. This is not a permanent band, but a special annual or semi-annual event that allows advanced students to perform together. We were able to attend the concert at the end, and he had a solo; so proud of him.

We made our annual trek to a local corn maze and I tell you what is said, “get lost in the maze.” They always say that, but this time they were not joking; it seemed like an eternity, and we just kept going in circles. I think we were in there about an hour, and we found a total of 3 clues (there were 9). We finally claimed defeat and went and sat by the bonfire.

So what are your fall traditions? We typically enjoy driving around the local yard displays; we have some folks with very elaborate setups in the area, so they are always entertaining. Then we try an evening corn maze. We try to get to an orchard and pick apples for the season. Then right before trick-or-treat, we have our Halloween jack-o-lantern carving party. Just hanging out with family, enjoying the cool weather and, of course, ending it all with trick-or-treating. I love handing out candy to all the little ones.

Park-Er

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In 2020 we purchased an old church shuttle bus to convert to an RV, this is our retirement plan. We spent 3 years (we are slow) converting her and are just beginning our travel adventures. 
 

We might be crazy, 2 old people traveling with 2 large dogs and a cat but we think we have it all under control we will see. We plan on doing a lot of boondocking since we have built Park-Er to be totally self sufficient for at least 2 weeks at a time. She has 1200 watts of solar on the roof, a solar generator to power everything, toilet/shower, kitchen, living space and a bedroom. Our own retirement home on wheels.

 
Wish us luck and make sure you check the website, blog, youtube, facebook and instagram for all of our updates.
 
 

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Keep the Stories

Theresa Rushlow 2 Comments

 

Returning to the blog.
 
Wow it has been almost 2 years since I even looked at this. So, I
guess I’m going on 2 years as being an orphan as well. The Holidays have
passed, a bit easier than last year but still not the same. Especially
Thanksgiving, that is a tough one, Halloween, they loved to dress up and go to Halloween parties. The 4th of July, Mom loved the 4th –
Parades, Family, Fireworks what could be better.
 
When I stop to think about the last 4 years, it all seems so
overwhelming. The loss of a Parent is tough but to lose both in just 2 years
and find yourself suddenly orphaned is life altering. The entire family
dynamics change. In addition to my Parent’s our family has also lost Aunts and
Uncles, we only have 1 Uncle left.  What was once a plethora of Aunts and
Uncles now is limited to just 1. I do try to keep it in perspective, I am a
grown woman with a husband, a grown child and grandchildren. It is the natural
progression that you parents pass away and you become the elder of the family.
Elder, so weird, I don’t even adult well so me being the elder is
laughable.  I can’t even imagine how a younger person deals with this, my
parents both lost their parents when they were young. My Mother lost her Father
when she was a teen and her Mother when she was in her 30’s. My Dad was in his
early 20’s when he lost his Father and 30’s when he lost his Mother. I can’t
help but think that altered them somehow. Then of course I know people who have
lost both parents when they were children, so I do feel blessed that my parents
were around until I was in my 50’s. 
 
I like talking about them, looking at their pictures, remembering
the stories.  I am trying to find a way to keep them around in memory. I
don’t want my Grandchildren to forget them, they were to special. I need to
start writing down the stories, the stories that make our family our family.
You know not only who, what and where’s but the stories that show the
personalities. They were larger than life. I try and somehow the words just
don’t do them justice but I need to do it so they are recorded for future
generations. I obsess about remembering the stories, that is what I do, I guess
that is why Mom called me the keeper or the papers.  Somewhere is a past
life I must have been a story teller or maybe that is what I yearn to be. Those
that know me know I always have a story, and those that know me often wish I
would just shut up for once, seriously. I guess I know where my Granddaughter
Chloe gets it from, well I for one hope she never loses that. I try to share
the stories with Chloe, but for the moment, she really only cares about her own
stories. 
 
I have my Grandmother’s old postcards, and the ones I love the
most are not the ones she collected that are blank but the ones that were sent
either from her or to her because they capture the personality of the person in
about 5 lines. Wish you were here, we had the best beer at this restaurant.
Wish you were here, caught the biggest fish. I guess some would look at them
and say it is a postcard, but when I read them I imagine the person in my head
and those 5 lives give be a small glimpse of them. You can tell the ones that
were real cards, the ones that were way to serious, the ones that loved beer
and those that just loved the adventure. Even the card they sent tells about
them, the ones that loved off colored jokes always pick that type of post card
to send. See there I go, a story about postcards.
 




 
Well 2019 is just around the corner. I am going to really make an
effort to write down the stories. I am also going to work on making new
stories.
 
Happy New Year to all, make it the best year ever.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Mom's Battle

Theresa Rushlow Leave a comment

Where to begin ? My Mom she was an incredible person. Mom was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in May of 2015, she put up an amazing fight for over a year but in the end it was just to much to overcome and she passed away on June 16, 2016. I kept saying it was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we had a year with her and even though the possibilities were slim, there was a possibility that she would beat it. If anyone could do it Mom could. It was a curse because in the end, when we knew that the fight was over, we had to face the facts that this was the end and as hard as it was we quietly asked Mom to stop fighting, be at peace, and move on.


Good-Bye, it is time to go, those are very hard words to say. What you really want to scream is please stay I’m not ready to give you up yet.


I hope that in the end Mom realized how loved she was by so many. Mom drove a school bus for 30 years, her kids loved her. She retired 20 years ago and even after all that time there are kids that still remember her when she drove their bus, some of these kids are 50+ but they remember her and reached out at the end of her life to tell her they had fond memories of her. That is pretty special.


Mom, the life of the party, ready for an adventure. She was a very social person, if there was a group to belong too she belonged. We were asked by the Preacher for one word to describe Mom, well that is hard just one, there are so many to choose from. Funny, loving, social, memorable, where do you begin. One world “altruistic” for as long as I remember Mom was always doing something for somebody it may be a small thing or a big thing but she was always doing something. She belonged to many organizations, all of which did something for others. Even her camping club did something for others. As a kid it would drive me crazy but looking back it was just who she was, it is what made her happy.


I will end this on a final story, one that epitomizes my Mom’s nature. On my birthday this year we all went out to eat and I picked a restaurant that served chicken and dumplings, a dish I love. Well the chicken and dumplings were not all that fabulous, not bad, just not great. I was a little disappointed. So my Mom who really was not feeling well at all made me chicken and dumplings, it took her like a whole week to make them but she did it. So she calls me up to come eat dinner with her and she happily spoons the chicken an dumplings on my plate and in that one moment everything was good, we didn’t think about cancer or her feeling bad we just enjoyed the chicken and dumplings. It was a good day.

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LIFE !

Theresa Rushlow Leave a comment
I thought 2014 was a rough year.
 
2015 certainly threw us more curve balls, I had such good intentions last spring. Unfortunately, all of my good intentions were put on the back burner because just 6 months after my Father passed away my Mother was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Yikes, luckily almost 11 months later I can say she is kicking cancer’s butt and treatment is going well.



Well as they say the best laid plans, or, was that Murphy’s law “anything that can go wrong will at  the worst possible moment”.  So much for my Phoenix year, 2015 kind of crash and burned. Ok, shake it off and move along.



 

So hopefully 2016 has nothing but sunshine and good vibes for me.


This year:


1). Work on blog, try to update it more frequently. I’ve got a lot to say and dammit I’m going to say it.


2). Get more pictures so I can list more beautiful beads on ETSY.


3.) Make more Jewelry, well because jewelry and shoes you can never have enough.


4.) Embrace more family moments, no explanation needed.


5.) Go on more ghost hunts, more on this subject in my upcoming blog “dun!, dun!, duuuun!”, that was suspense music in case you missed it.




So stay tuned be back soon.


In the mean time I stumbled upon some interesting things to do right in my own backyard.




My goodness I do love “Ohio”!


Ohio “ghostly things” to do


Ohio Day Trip

“JUST KEEP SWIMMING”