I am off on an adventure. I am going to fly to Portland to meet daughter Dawn and the beautiful Jade who calls me her Nana Maria. Our adventure begins with a trip to the Faerie Convention in Eugene. It has been so much fun planning all of this. Jade assures me she has wings and a wand for me and that all three of us will flit through this fun week-end together. We even have thought up our own faerie names. Mine is Platita which means the little silver one.

Dawn called last night and asked, “Are you excited yet?” and I could hear the enthusiasm in her voice. Such an overwhelming feeling of fun and adventure flows through both of us. As a semi- believer of reincarnation, I often wonder about the past lives we spent together. There had to be many as I feel closer to her than one lifetime can bring. Sometimes, I think we have the ability to read each others minds. Her little daughter Jade is her mother all over again and I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with this older and more mature Jade. She was five last time I saw her and we played school because she was getting ready for kindergarten. Now she is six and first grade is right around the corner and she can read.

We only get to play among the faeries until Sunday and then we will spend the next few days at their home. Dawn says the fair will be there so we will wander among the animals, ride some rides, and eat disgustingly unhealthy, but delicious food.

I won’t be posting for a week, but when I get back I promise lots of photos. I bet you can’t wait to see me in my wings and wreath. No bad comments or I will whack you with my wand. No one ever said I would be a good faerie. Here’s to creativity, imagination, and adventure at all ages of life.

Sunday evening, our wonderful friend Laura came over from Pahrump, NV. She works for Xerox and had three appointments on our Navy Base to explain and demonstrate some of the various aspects of the new machines that China Lake had purchased. Krisit came up from Lancaster and we all went to dinner together. It is always wonderful to have Laura visit and to have Kristi join us was frosting on the cake.

Our choices for dinner here in R/C are limited. ( very limited) Our families favorite Chinese Restaurant called China Gardens has changed hands and in our opinion, the quality of the food has gone down. So we headed off to try the new Thai Restaurant, but found it closed on Sundays. So we drove to the other Chinese Restaurant called Golden Dragon. Loyalty to our favorite Chinese restaurant had kept us from more than occasional visit to this one. It was delightfully good and Bob, in particular liked it. So looks like it may replace China Gardens as our favorite eating out spot..

You have to understand that this town is still so small that it took us less than 10 minutes to reach our final destination and five minutes to drive home after dinner. The house always seems so quiet after good friends leave.

I promised to continue posting these prenatal love messages to my soon-to-be grandbabies. Then I got busy with memory books and travels and didn’t post the next letter. So here is the third of my letters. If you would like to look at Little Fishis #1 or Little Fishies #2, they are linked here.
The twins have grown rapidly and Kristi is beginning to look very pregnant. They have names now. Danica for the baby girl and Eric for the baby boy.

My Little Fishies,

Technically you are no longer my little fishies ( although I believe you will always secretly in my heart be my little fishies,) but you are now officially two little embryos with visible little heart beats. Your Nana Maria is thrilled. I grin from ear to ear and I want to run to my front door and shout, “Twins, Twins, Do you hear world, my daughter is having two babies. She always has been a goal setter and an achiever of dreams.” And that is what you are my little embryos with budding legs and arms, the fulfillment of a maternal desire to love completely.

Someday, you too will be achievers of dreams. And my Little Fishies, those must be your dreams and not the dreams of your mothers or grandparents or friends. We are here of course to guide you, but that will be our only role. You will use your creativity and your intelligence to walk your path and you will stray from it like all of us, but I leave you with the comforting thought that you are loved. So sleep warmly in your little sacs, nourished by the cord that attaches you to your mother and well, it wouldn’t hurt to wait expectantly for the next letter from your Nana Maria.

Last night, I came across an e-mail that I found most interesting. It originated in the offices of Bob Hanson, Commissioner of the ND Dept of Veterans’ Affairs and is well-worth taking time to read.

Conrad Honors Patriot Guard Riders

Senator Recognizes Group for Supporting Families of Fallen Soldiers

Washington - Senator Kent Conrad introduced a Senate resolution today honoring the Patriot Guard Riders, a national organization whose members attend the funeral services of fallen American soldiers to protect grieving families from protesters.
““America’’s fallen soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. They deserve our utmost honor and respect as they are laid to rest,”” Senator Conrad said. ““We should honor those who guard our fallen soldiers, the Patriot Guard Riders.”” Senator Kent Conrad introduced a Senate resolution on July 18th honoring the Patriot Guard Riders, a national organization whose members attend the funeral services of fallen American soldiers to protect grieving families from protesters.
““America’’s fallen soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. They deserve our utmost honor and respect as they are laid to rest,”” Senator Conrad said. ““We should honor those who guard our fallen soldiers, the Patriot Guard Riders.””

Since being formed in 2005, the Patriot Guard Riders have attended military funerals across the nation. Many in the group of more than 45,000 are also military veterans.
Members of the radical Westboro Baptist Church are known to picket military funerals to reflect their belief that the deaths of U.S. soldiers are God’’s punishment for the United States’’ tolerance of homosexuality.
Patriot Guard members attend funerals after being invited by the family of a fallen soldier. At funerals they form a human wall to shield the grieving family from protesters. The Patriot Guard Riders hold up large American flags to cover picket signs and rev the engines of their motorcycles to drown out the chanting of protesters.
Last month, Senator Conrad attended funeral services in Fargo for Michael Hermanson, a North Dakota soldier killed in Iraq. Protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church tried to disrupt the funeral but more than 150 members of the Patriot Guard were on hand to protect the sanctity of the services. ““I was appalled by the behavior of protesters who used the funeral to convey their hatred for our soldiers and their families,”” Senator Conrad said.
Earlier this month, Senator Conrad attended the funeral of Paul Beyer in Jamestown where the Patriot Guard again provided a buffer between those grieving the loss of the young soldier and the out-of-state groups who shouted at the funeral goers and held up signs with extraordinarily vicious messages.
Upon returning to Washington, Senator Conrad began work on the Senate Resolution honoring the Patriot Guard Riders. He also supported an amendment to prohibit demonstrations at the funerals of all deceased members of the Armed Forces, not only at national cemeteries, but also at private cemeteries, funeral homes and houses of worship.

“”All across the nation, and right here in North Dakota, Patriot Guard Riders are protecting mourning families from further hurt. For that, they deserve our sincere gratitude,”” Senator Conrad said.

Oh yes, prejudice is out there and I am trying to be understanding, but my tolerance ends when evil people act in malicious and hurtful ways. This radical group called the Westboro Baptists are the same ones who show up with their hateful signs and chants at the funerals of people who died from the Aids virus.

I tossed and turned last night. First, I prayed that this is well deserved resolution recognizing a tremendously patriotic, caring group of individuals would pass and that the bravery of the Patriot Guard Riders would be recognized.and then I asked God to reduce my personal anger. I do not think my second prayer was answered. What came to my mind instead, were the words from the wall of a WWII Concentration Camp. On that wall from hell someone had written, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” and in a different handwriting was a one word answer “Never”

I am not proud of it, but as the sun comes up this morning, I am still at the “Never” stage.

A week or two ago, I wrote about The Memory Book Challenge. Yesterday, I finished editing the Twins Memory Books to make them ” Two Mommies” friendly. I have worked on this project nearly non-stop for four days. This is not a complaint just a way of justifying my lack of posting on my blog.

First I had to find the right font and the right color which took about four hours of diligent hunting. Frankly, I never knew there were so many different yet similar fonts. As to color, that was impossible and I got close enough for non-technical work.

Making new titles was a fun challenge to my creativity. Printing them out and pasting over the sentences in the book was tedious, time-consuming, and difficult especially when the font size was as small as 12 in many cases. The photos show a little of what I did on about fifty pages and of course in two books which left me thinking that twins really are twice the work of a single baby.

I was happy to do this for Kristi and Linda and it made me wonder what other Gay families have done to revise the more traditional baby books. All I know is that the message of love, uniqueness, and acceptance flowed from my heart to these pages. I hope the twins will have long hours of looking fondly at these Memory Books and knowing how much they are loved.