I'm a new mom. I just had my oldest daughter and she was only a month or so old.
This child of mine decided that she would not fall asleep any sooner than usually 2 a.m.
Which mean I was sitting in the living room, trying to soothe her, or feed her, or whatever, to try and get her to go to sleep.
In the meantime, I would watch TV.
Usually videos.
Then this one video showed up, and it showed up frequently.
It was this video.....
I'm watching this and thinking, "Hey, that looks like the drummer from Nirvana". (And I was always a big Nirvana fan, from the very beginning. I even have a couple of friends that were in their first video "Smells Like Teen Spirit")
Well, yes, it's Dave Grohl. And his new band, The Foo Fighters. And I'm thinking, "Cool, I'm glad to see Dave Grohl moving on since the death of Kurt Cobain)
I watched this video over and over every night.
It was the beginning of my love for Foo Fighters.
Fast Forward to 2011.......
I knew the Foo Fighters were coming to San Diego. And I wanted to see them so bad. Their music is AMAZING.
The past two albums I have received as either birthday presents or Mother's Day presents.
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. music....
Before I became a mom, I vowed to always keep up on the current music, because I firmly believe that music is an integral part of a teenager's life. I remember being a teenager. I remember how important music was to me back then.
And I have kept up.
And luckily, I have a daughter who loves music too.
And not only does she love current music, she loves "vintage" music as well. She even likes The Beatles! That's my girl!
And yes, she likes the Foo Fighters.
So a few days before the concert, I decided that I would get tickets.
And take my daughter to the concert.
And so I did.
And we had FUN!
And I enjoyed watching her at her first real rock concert.
And she love it.
And I'm happy that we have that relationship where she would want to go to a rock concert with me, her mom.
And here we are, at the concert.
So thanks to her staying up so late as a baby, I loved the Foo Fighters from the very beginning. :)
Today is a day where I celebrate my mom's birthday.
Growing up, on our birthdays we always got to pick whatever we wanted for our birthday dinner and my mom would make that for us. We usually would have the celebration over at my grandma and grandpa's house.
Every year I asked for spaghetti.
The last year she was alive, I asked for something different. I asked for tacos. You know the kind, where the tortillas are cooked in oil.
Yum....my mouth is watering just thinking about them.
And since she died, every year on her birthday I now make tacos like that. In honor, a celebration of her life. A day to laugh and remember all the wonderful things about my mom.
And every year, my sisters also make tacos on her birthday. Even though the 3 of us don't live in the same town or state, it's something we do together. It's a memory that we all share together, those tacos. Each one of us have our own memories of her and in our own way. Yes, they intertwine in many, many ways as well, but each of us have our favorite.
Take her tacos for example. Both my sisters remember her taco sauce that she made. I can't even tell you all that's in it because I never had it. I know it has tomato sauce, onions and oregano?
For me, my memory of her tacos was the cheese. Back when we were growing up, we didn't have much, but my mom would make do with what she had. I don't think we even had a cheese grater at first, so I always remember my mom basically dicing the cheese into small little squares for the tacos.
I can't wait to have them tonight.
I will write another post about her at another time.
For this time, it's a time to celebrate her birthday.
My mom was an amazing woman, mom and grammie (here she is with both my girls when they were wee ones)
This one picture I captured of the two of them is one of my all-time favorites. Just sitting on the back patio against the wall talking and enjoying each other.
The other night on Facebook a conversation was going on in which I was involved with. In that conversation, I was reminded of one particular day........
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One day this last summer I drove up to L.A. to pick up my youngest daughter from the airport, as she went on vacation with my sister.
Because of the traffic up in L.A., and the fact that it was a good excuse to take time off from work, I made extra time to go visit a dear friend before picking up my daughter.
He was working in downtown L.A. that day, by MacArthur park.
We got to chat and have a nice visit. We discussed so many things, in depth talks. We were sitting on a ledge/half wall in the park. During that time, we noticed performers preparing to begin their show. He nodded for me to come watch.
Wow....I was blown away.
I can't even tell you the name of the group, but the energy they provided as they performed made me feel alive.
I stood there, entranced by the music. The show. I danced along. I stayed there as long as I could, as I truly did not want to leave that moment, that event.
Even now, 3 months later, when I think back to that day, I can FEEL the energy, the sense of truly feeling ALIVE. Feeling like anything is possible. Wanting to bring my girls to a concert like this. A feeling of just being free.
And as corny as this sounds, watching that performance, and the static energy all around, I felt like I could get some sense of how it was back in the 60's. Just feeling FREE.
This is a feeling I want to hold on to. The feeling that anything is possible. The feeling that I CAN do this. The feeling that I want to live life to the fullest. Fulfill my dreams. Take chances. Make my way through life dancing, living, smiling, laughing, even crying, and appreciate everyone in my life around me.
I read about doing a 100-step Photo Walk from my dear friend over at Bella Wish. The purpose of this is to challenge you to take a closer look at what's around you. To take a photo every at every 100 step.
This evening my youngest daughter and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. This is what I saw in our walk:
I have a post I'm working on, it's just semi-difficult to get into the right words. It's a post that I need to post, for me. But in the meantime, I'm reposting a post I did a few years ago on my old blog...........
This post is about the women before me. My ancestors. And a necklace....
In my possession, I own a cameo necklace. It's a family necklace. Here it is:
And here is a closeup of the cameo portion:
This is the only picture of I have of my great-great-great grandmother, Anna:
She came over from Switzerland with her husband Caspar in the early to mid 1800's. That is about the only information I have of her. I know that she and Caspar had their children here in America, and that this picture was probably taken here in America. I don't know if she was the original owner of the necklace or not, but I do know that my great-great grandma Lydia had it, as you can see she is wearing it in this picture:
Here is her daughter, my great-great Grandmother, Lydia:
This picture was probably taken circa 1900 or so. I do know it was passed on to her daughter, Lillian, however she was not the "eldest" daughter, so I don't know why it was given to her (not that being the eldest daughter automatically means you get it or anything like that, at least not back then, I'm just curious as to why she possessed it).
Here is my great-grandmother, Lillian:
This picture was probably taken circa 1920. I know I have a picture of her somewhere where she is wearing the necklace as well. My Grandma Lillian died far too early in her life. Throughout many years the family thought that she had died some mysterious "woman" disease. It wasn't until a family reunion in 2000 where we found out that she had died from an abortion gone wrong. This was in 1934. And it was in South Dakota, which makes me even more upset about South Dakota trying to pass a law against abortion. I have no idea why she had an abortion back then, but I can only guess that maybe it was because it was during the Depression era, and possibly they barely had enough food for her, her husband, and 3 children. Maybe it was a medical reason why she had to have one. We'll never know. I do know that the necklace was passed down to my grandma, who was the eldest daughter:
My grandma never had a picture taken of her with the necklace. I do remember getting to look at it now and then when I would visit her. My grandma didn't have the easiest life either. She was 12 when her mom died and her and her sister had to go live with an aunt and uncle (because back then it wasn't proper for a father to raise girls by himself) and thus she was separated from her brother and her father. She got to see them during the summers however. Then her aunt and uncle were in the military and were being stationed in Puerto Rico and another aunt, Aunt Edie, thought it was far too improper to have children being raised in Puerto Rico, so she took over care of my grandma and my aunt. While I'm sure Aunt Edie loved them, she was much more strict on my grandma and my grandma ended up eloping with my grandpa John when she was 19 because she knew Aunt Edie would have forbidden the marriage. After my grandma passed away in 1993, the ownership of the necklace went to my mom, the eldest daughter:
This picture was taken during the mid 1960's. My mother also never had a picture taken with her wearing the necklace. When my mom passed away in 2004, the necklace then came into my possession, the eldest daughter. I knew far, far in advance that the necklace would one day be mine. My mom always told me that. Even though my mom's death was sudden, she did state her intentions with certain family items, and the cameo necklace was one of them. So now it is in my possession, stored securly in the safe. My great aunt Joan (my grandma's sister) told me that I should wear black when wearing the necklace, it highlights the necklace more. So one day soon, I will take a picture with me wearing the necklace. And one day I would like to take it to get it appraised to see if they can even determine where the necklace had originated from, when it was possibly made. The value of the necklace is priceless to me.
