How it all started...

This post was actually just going to be a bunch of pictures, but I decided to just do one for now and then post some other fun ones tomorrow. For some reason i'm feeling sentimental. Oh, I know why.....any time I spent time with my family, I'm reminded of how much I miss them and how lucky I am to have them.

As I said in my last post, my cousin Mike got married in NYC this past weekend. People said to me "did you live with your cousin growing up?" "why are you flying across the country for your cousin?" I understand to a lot of people that "cousins" are just that, cousins, related by blood, people you don't see very often. But, in my family, I grew up seeing my cousins every holiday and times in between, so for me, flying across the country didn't strike me as odd. We wouldn't have missed it for the world. And of course my boss couldn't figure out why Dave was flying to my cousin's wedding as well....she couldn't understand why he would take time off from work for someone un-related to him. Anyway, I guess you just have to know my family =0. Dave looks forward to these "Leporati" weddings same as I do! Or any gathering in my family for that matter!

Lately there have been people on blogs talking about marriage and/or relationships and as time goes on how easy it is to get caught up in the day-to-day things in life. Sometimes it takes something major or something big to affect us to the point where we have to re-evaluate what is important in life.

My parents: (see above) I owe many things in life to them: my ability to "play" well with others, finishing what I start, motivation, my ability to be a "good listener," and yeah, some not so good stuff too like: being stubborn, quick to "snap," and my impatience. The foundation is there for me to grow as a person, and now that i've been married for almost five years, I look at my parents and i'm just amazed. 41 years and going strong. My cousins' husband was talking about "a happy childhood," and I found myself asking, "Did I have a happy childhood?"

My answer: heck YEAH! I got to go skiing in Vermont every Christmas, Santa was always generous, I had a mom who had cookies ready for me when I got off the bus, a dad who took me to McDonald's for ice cream when I did well in school, sisters who tortured/yet loved me (mostly Trinette) =0, and a golden retriever! Easy answer! My parents have managed to make marriage look relatively easy---I don't know how, and I know they have their moments, it hasn't been all amazing moments, but they're together and yeah.....I think they're happy =0.

I wanted to do a post about my parents because I owe them quite a lot and they gave up some of their own "wants," so that my sisters and I could have "a happy childhood," and I still call them daily for questions ranging from "these turkey meatballs have been in my fridge for a week, can I still use them," to "does the glass for my windshield have to be Volvo glass?" to "how do I negotiate a raise?"

Turns out that parents don't expire...and for that....i'm grateful...