Sophie's Story

     C and I were going for a walk after a celebratory lunch at Café Latte.  We passed by a store that had a cute dress in the window. That store must have a very talented person doing their displays because many times when we pass that store I see cute things in the window.     We walked by and continued our walk.     On the way back to our car I asked C if he minded going into the store to look at the dress. He said it was all right so we went inside. I went to the rack of dresses in the corner. Of course they didn't have the dress in the window in my size. (Although they had it in every other size including extra large.) There were other dresses that were the same style but in different colours. Actually they were different patterns as these dresses were in various floral patterns. I chose one in a size that I thought would fit and tried it on. It fit tighter than I like so I put it back.    C had spotted on in a rainbow like pattern. It was kind of cute. They didn't have th

     C and I decided to get up early and go for a short bike ride Monday morning before it got too hot. We decided to bike on the Big Rivers Regional Trail which is not too far away from where we live. It's a nice trail along the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers and passes by the confluence. The trail goes through Mendota village. One of the stops on the trail is Big River park.     Half of the trail had been closed for much of last summer. We had not been on it in about a year. We parked in Lilydale, got our bikes off the rack and began to ride. I had forgotten how much I liked riding the trail. It was wide enough so other riders and walkers could pass easily. The direction we had chosen to go was a small incline, but easily manageable. The trees on one side of the trail were lush and green. The river below us was brown and moving sluggishly in its bank. Birds were chirping, singing and flying around the trail and over the river.    We kept riding along the river until the path cr

     I hate shopping for clothes, but when I discovered that I only had two or three pair of causal pants for summer and the skirts I had were not dressy enough to go out in, it was time to shop. Reluctantly C and I went to a department store where I hoped to find a few things at a reasonable price.    You might think it strange that I  like to take C with me, but he has really good taste. He finds things that I don't think I'd like and when I try them on I like how they look. I know that he will be honest with me. He also won't give up until we find what I need.    C dropped me off at the door and told me to start looking. He was going to park the car  and then would come in. To my dismay the choices were rather thin. I guess if you want summer clothes you have to buy them in February. Most of the things that I liked were not available in my size or were in colours that didn't match what I already had. I found a few things I thought would work and took them into a dres

     C and I "celebrated" an anniversary of sorts last week. Nineteen years ago last week, he asked me to marry him.    It's not a milestone that we usually celebrate, like an anniversary or birthday, but this year we took a little time to reflect on it.     For a few months before the proposal, we had been talking about marriage. I called it the "M" word. C and I were older and he had been married before. It was important for us to have discussions on our expectations and what being married would look like to us.     Although I'd never planned on being married or even expected to be married, I had given some thought to it. I told C that I don't believe in divorce. If he and I were to marry then we would have to commit to working on any challenge that arose in our marriage together. If it meant going to a counselor then we would go. Divorce was not going to be an option.      We discussed several subjects: finances, religion, and household chores. Lookin

     I was thinking of posting a conversation with Scamp on my Facebook page. I thought about how much Helen would get a kick out of it and would probably have some sort of response.    Then it hit me. Helen won't see my post. She passed away late last December.      I miss her. I miss her in ways that I didn't think I would. I miss the emails she sent with pictures of cats that she would find in the paper. I miss the comments she would make when she would read this column. I miss the newsletter that she would send out at Christmas with all the things she and her family did that year. I miss the way she took pictures with somebody holding a sign with the date on it and all the stories of how an Iowa farmgirl goes to nursing school and then off to New York to find a job.   I miss the way she would get so involved in what people were saying that she would forget to time them or count their filler words at Toastmasters. I miss the announcements about the Farmer's market and th