Life gets better and better

Wow its been awhile since I posted anything here, I've still been baking, sewing, painting etc but I guess the events of the winter months have kept me pretty busy or at least kept my mind too busy to spend too much time sitting here at the computer! First off my Husband has been home since early December which is awesome, we spend all our time together, playing games like backgammon and have now started playing a German game called carassonne its a lot of fun!
The most exciting thing that has happened this winter though is becoming a Grandmother!
I spent February 11th with my daughter Melissa, we went shopping , out to lunch and to her doctors appointments, she was so uncomfortable since her baby Isabel was getting so big and she had so much extra fluid I felt so badly for her.  That night though 10Pm we got a call from our son in law Kyle and he told us that Melissa's water had broken!  I was so excited but my Mom's instincts kicked in and I was just plain worried about my daughter so we hopped in the car and drove to the hospital. Copley hospital in Morrisville is wonderful, they welcomed us into the birthing center where we waited ( I paced) in the waiting room until Kyle came out to see us and ask if I wanted to see Melissa. OH YES! Seeing her assured me she was doing okay although must admit after all the things she had gone through in her pregnancy I was still doing the Mom worrying thing...we sat with her until they took her into surgery which I think helped her as we all were keeping things rather light for her as I knew she was worried too.  They took her in for her C-Section and then my pacing really started...!  About 20 minutes later the pediatrician came in and told us that we had a beautiful HEALTHY baby granddaughter and Melissa was doing good too.. Oh my gosh..yep...I lost it...LOL   I wish I had thought to take a picture of Kyle when I saw him through the windows ( I had positioned myself in the hallway so I could see both sets of doors he might come through)  He was walking in the hallway carrying Isabel wrapped in a blanket , it still brings tears to my eyes!  We went to their room while we waited for them to get Melissa taken care of and I got to hold my Granddaughter for the first time. Oh my goodness what an amazing feeling.  How can you love someone so much that soon??!!
We watched as they measured her and weighed her and Kyle so proudly holding his new daughter. It was wonderful and I'm so happy we were a part of it.
Around 1 AM they told us Melissa was now in recovery so Kyle could go see her,  She was going to be in there awhile so I begged the surgeon to just let me go see her to ease my mind that she was okay ( Yep that Mom thing again) and seeing as though it was a small hospital, he said okay but only for a few minutes.  :) Thats all I needed I went in, looked at her smiling , gave her a kiss and told her how beautiful her baby girl was and told her I'd see her tomorrow. ( course she doesn't remember that but I do!)  Course the next day we had a huge snow storm in Vermont so I had to wait till the next day to go back and hold that new baby but that we did. My life has just gotten better, can't wait till May when our Son and daughter in law have there little boy!  Oh my goodness!!

meanwhile since I'm making baby things I decided to Make baby things!

Mrs Captains Place

How does a Country Girl Meet a Sailor Guy?

     Well its Sunday July 11th its been 2 weeks since I kissed my Sailor Guy goodbye again and I swore that the next two months I would NOT complain that he isn't here with me.  Too many people around me, husbands gone to war, husbands passing away ...I know I am lucky I get to talk to him everyday, he spoils me mercilessly by calling me so often and sometimes more than once, if we have no cell service then we are so lucky the company has given the ships internet so we can chat on facebook, I don't get to here his comforting voice but at least I can smile from his humor. :)  So here I am not complaining but spending the day around the house vowing to be busy , my mistake I turn on my ITUNES and my favorite songs are songs that remind me of him and of course how much I miss him!

    So I think, how did this happen to me? Heck I was just an innocent Country Girl living in Chester Vermont minding my own business way back in the year 2000.  Yes, I was a recently divorced woman, my daughter still living at home so I kept our house and my business a Retail Store with a strong web based business attached to it. I sold horse equipment. Handy since we did indeed have horses and I spent the most wonderful times in my life in the barn with my daughter, going to horse shows or just riding the trails, even getting my son involved in the horseback riding too until the skateboard took over. :)  So since I did have a web based business I found it handy to have a chat program for customers to ask me questions about the products in the store or on my storefront web business.  It was here on ICQ that I innocently responded to a "Hi, How you doing"? from a message from someone called "BIG JOHN"  It was against my better judgement to respond but for some reason, I did.

     It was February 14, 2000 maybe I was feeling a bit out of sorts since I'm sure my daughter was out doing something valentiney ( is that a word?) My son away at college, my dearest friend at the time Rhonda was out at a gig with...egad Les??  ( another story in itself!)  So I responded to "BIG JOHN" only to find out really quickly that indeed he was NOT BIG JOHN but living at BIG JOHNS house so was using his ICQ account.  So I found out that this fellow was Anders...not Andre very quickly and when he said he was a Ship Captain I thought.......

Living in Vermont I really didn't have much experience with Ships, sure I grew up vacationing on weekends, holidays etc at my parents camp or on our own cabin Cruiser on Lake Champlain. That was a big lake and had big boats ....right?  He did his best to explain.  I found I was drawn to the computer and walked by it frequently to see if "Big Johns" name was on my "online" list of buddies. ( and it was like "Hey, You've got mail, in so many ways)  He told me that he'd be going back to work in April , I thought..what he isn't working now??  Who doesn't work for 3 months??  Then he asked me for my address so that he could write me while he was away. I thought ...what are you crazy?? No way I'm giving a complete stranger my address..no no no!  But yet I still caught myself looking for him online.  We laughed and talked for hours and a week or so later I said " So, you still want my address? " Nope , I didn't want to loose track of this man , who made me laugh so hard I'd cry and gave me goose bumps sometimes too and just from his words.  I think it was a few days later that he asked for my phone number. Oh yeah a BIG HUGE knot formed in my stomach.  How can I do this? I was scared, I was excited, my heart was pounding out of my chest when I typed the numbers and waited for what seemed like hours to push the send button...... then RING.....do I answer it??? YIKES....its ringing, he is typing.. "Answer the phone!"  So I pick up the phone, its a hand held job and my hand must of been sweaty because I dropped it, and when it fell on the floor the battery broke out...HA!  So yep it disconnected and as I"m explaining online, I get it back in and it starts ringing again.  This time its in my hand already and I pressed..."TALK" and oh man did we ever!  He had the most amazing voice, deep and smooth, with an accent that I had never heard in Vermont!  We laughed oh did we laugh!  We were on the phone for 5 hours maybe more and this continued for a couple weeks.  He had a birthday coming in March and I don't remember how that all came about but he surprised me by saying he was coming out to see me on his birthday!  

Now most people would say, How could you let a Man you don't even know come to your home after only talking to him online or on the phone for a month?  I don't know how I knew, but I knew , and on March 14, 2000 Anders Rasmussen arrived at my door and my life has never been the same since. :o)  

We were married on August 11, 2001 with me making crazy trips out to visit him on his ship ( anther story itself that can be found here on my website : www.mrscaptainsplace.com . Funny I started the site as a joke since I had a business , I had a website so I did some art work on a photo of his Ship and wrote the "COOLBEANS" on the hull . Little did I know what I started.... :o) 

We moved to Canada in 2004 finding a wonderful home on Lake Erie right down the road from the plant in Nanticoke where his ship docks quite frequently.  It was a wonderful experience living there and I made so many wonderful friends but I did miss my "Vermont" its mountains and most of all my children. So when I asked "Honey, do you think when you retire we could move back to Vermont?"  My wonderful husband didn't even bat an eyelash he just said "why wait?" and thats what we did....I'm so lucky...I'm so blessed...I'm so in Love...

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Reflections in Ontario

I wrote this back while I was living on the shores of Lake Erie a moment I'ld like to share with you, I'm looking forward to many more moments like this now living in the Green Mountains of Vermont again!

March 2005,
The day was going by very quickly when I realized I hadn't got my daily walk in after lunch. Right after dinner I decided it was time I went. My walks usually take place in the mid afternoon when the sun is high and shinning bright but today I waited and I'm so very glad I did. I got Bandit and McKenzie's collars and leashes on and headed down the road. We started out at our usual pace of about 3 miles an hour, my big Rottweiler and German Shepard having to trot along to keep up. We were heading west along our quiet little lakeside road. As I rushed the dogs along I barely looked at the seagulls and ducks fishing in the lake, and I had to pull the boys along as they stopped frequently to explore interesting smells they were finding. By the time we got to the spot where we turn around to go home the sun was just starting to set in front of us. As we turned and I looked at the field of wheat beside me the rows and rows showed golden as the sun cast shadows on them. I stopped to look, and as I did, I couldn't help but hear all the sounds around me. Birds of every sort were singing their songs, each one wanting to be heard above the others. Robins, Grackles, Redwing blackbirds, Chickadees, and more singing as if to say listen to me! As we started to walk back I took my time to listen and look at the wonderful place I was in. All of a sudden everything was in my ears, the sound of the birds, the loud flapping of wings as a flock of white swans took flight right as we went by, the ducks and seagulls arguing over their fishing spots. I could hear the water flapping against the shore, with the occasional clunk as some lingering ice chucks bounced about in the currents. Streams of water coming from the fields into the lake, gurgling and splashing. The wind was blowing gently against my face as we continued on our way back home the sun now casting a pink hue on everything it touched. The dogs even realizing that I just wanted to walk slowly along my way weren't pulling to smell everything they could but walking quietly at my side. I couldn't help but think how lucky I am. I sometimes wipe away tears thinking I am all alone, but at that point I realized how very wrong I am. I have been blessed and I feel Gods love around me everyday, but at that moment in time it was like he was saying. “Stop, look, enjoy the beauty of this place.” There is no camera that can capture a moment of this sort, the sounds, the smells, and the enormous world around me. I thank God for everything he has given me, my two beautiful children, my wonderful husband, and the life I can now life in this beautiful place

Thoughts byDonna Mae Rasmussen