The process of mourning...

From August 2009 until just recently, I rarely posted here.  The passing of my mother in law took the joy out of writing in this on-line journal.  There was a lot of (extended) family tension as her estate was settled over the course of a year and a half.  I wrote, as I've done since I was a child, but not here, not where others could read about the sad state of affairs.

In 2011, we began the year having gotten through the probate process and I thought I'd begin to write here again; but in March of that year, within three weeks of each other, we lost our two Black Labs, Murphy and Indie, and again, any joy I found in writing here was overshadowed by their loss.  I found that most of what I wrote was filled with the grief of their loss.  

Grieving is a process.  2012 was a slow year of emotional recovery.  

It was also the year I retired my ten year old Dell and switched to Mac.  Along with my new MacBook Pro, I got iMovie and iPhoto....and all that those programs would allow me to do.  I realized that I could finally get all the old family movies on unwatchable VHS tapes onto DVD's.  (The last of our VCR's had given up its life a few years ago.)

I went through all those VCR tapes and transferred them one by one onto my laptop and into iMovie; I scanned all the old photographs into iPhoto and my Genealogy software (Reunion). And I spent months editing those bits and pieces of footage into "movies".  Then I put them all onto DVD's and shared them with family.  

There was footage from my niece's 6th birthday party held in October 2004; a party where we all dressed as fantasy characters mostly from Disney Movies; there was limbo and apple bobbing and after the sun went down, family karaoke for hours!  What fun it was to relive that day and finally get the video not only to my niece but to all the family members that were there that wonderful day.

There was footage from a 1993 trip to Universal Studios with David's brother's family.  There was footage from a 2000 trip to Hawaii Nikki took with that same family.  There was footage of Dallas' year as Drum Major of his high school marching band; too many band and chorus concerts to count, soccer games for Hunter with Nikki as the referee and David as Coach of his team and footage of my performing days!  

There was a lot of footage of our Shanna, Murphy and Indie; that was the most difficult video to edit in the beginning, but as I worked on those old videos and put them into a "movie" I was able to let those beloved pets go and remember them with joy instead of sorrow.  The process allowed me to think about getting another puppy and to move toward the day when I was ready....

Meet our new baby....introducing our 13 week old Black Lab, Angus Demetrius!

6 weeks old - We first saw Angus on May 2nd - two days before the Tornado hit us.  This was taken on May 29th when we returned to pick him out of the three black males in his litter!

The day he came to home - 8 weeks old June 20th!

9 weeks old - Gazebo Time.  We try to spend the last hour of his day in the Gazebo training him in "quiet time".  Eventually we'll be able to actually get back in the hot tub and relax while he is out there with us...right now with all the new puppy energy?  Well, let's just say that we are in training!