A rainy day Lemonade Stand

I was pleased to do a fall-themed Alex's Lemonade Stand at Supercuts in Boonton yesterday.  Thanks so much to my helpers:  Claire, Peter A, Carmen, Alec, Mallory and special thanks to Sara who helped so much with publicity activities as well as setting up the stand.  It was a rainy day (raining all over the Northeast) but we still raised a nice sum and got to chat with a number of old as well as new friends who stopped by.

A fall-themed Alex's Lemonade Stand

I think Laura would have liked the paper  this flyer is printed on.  The paper is called "Acorn Alley" and I think it has that little touch of whimsy so like what Laura incorporated into her drawings.  (If you haven't gotten here from the caringbridge site, please also see http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/laurastiles and our online page for the stand at http://www.alexslemonade.org/stands/19402)
Local residents, you can see the flyer in places like the Plaza Restaurant in Del's Village; A&P; Metro Pet- and more (when I get there...)

If you would like to have a closer view of the flyer, just click on it.

National Park reprise

I don't know if anyone caught any of  the 6-segment Ken Burns National Park special that ran on public television this past week (Ch 13 here in NY metro area).  To be honest, you would probably have to be a pretty die-hard  fan of the National Park system as I am to want to delve into this much of the politics and history of the Parks.  But with its scenes (among others) of Bryce, Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest, the show brought such a flood of memories of our family visit to these western National Parks  in Aug/Sept 2001 when Laura was almost 7.  Emotions too: happy that she got to see and experience much of America's "Empire of Grandeur" in her short life but sadness that there would be no more trips there for her.  Mixed in, the thought that the lives of many children with cancer are cut so very short that they never have any chance at all to see such wonder.  After the show one night, I summoned up the courage to sit at Laura's desk among her  figurines, books and treasured belongings, still arranged as she had so neatly placed them, and opened up her National Park passport book.  Her gentle life force still seems to hum about the desk. In that strong field of emotion, I can only stay a while.
But I did look at the dated stamps of each park in her book like "Capitol Reef Nat'l Park Sept 2, 2001" and "Bryce Canyon Sept 3, 2001" etc and travel back in time, and for short while, we were together again, walking and skipping along pine-scented paths, pushing open doors into visitor centers, delighting in flipping the switch to the gas fireplace in our charming newly renovated cabin in Zion, driving through miles of ever unfolding splendid scenery, walking under arches and marvelling at vistas...

Still in the window

We have two cats, Pepper and Daisy, just as we did when Laura was alive.  But there is another cat in the house, a cat that Laura left us, drawn on a window in Susan's room.  It's been there at least 3 years now.  Laura's cat has got a vantage point with a view around the front and up the road.  It's weathered well and we hope it will remain for many years to come.

Blue Mist shrub

A sure sign of September days, a blue mist shrub in bloom on Pepperidge Road

September 11, 2009

In Laura's hometown of Boonton Township, this morning on the eighth anniversary of Sept 11, a solitary fireman stood at attention, keeping a vigil outside the firehouse.

Settling in

Susan has been at BU two weeks now. We drove her up to Boston with a small mountain of belongings and helped her get situated in her dorm room. The first week she joined the 20th annual "Freshman Year Student Outreach Program (or FYSOP) and did a bunch of interesting things like working in a food pantry, helping at the Red Cross, and visiting city facilities on one of the Boston Harbor islands. Classes started Aug 31 and Susan reports by email and "in person" on Skype how interesting her courses are and how much she likes it at BU!

Photos: These bins made moving in a lot easier! The world map is a tip-off to the interest in a possible major in International Relations.