My Angel

              Last night, Tonio and I sat on our back porch until well after 10, enjoying the light rain falling.  Listening to the rumble of the distant thunder and marveling over the bolts of lightning, momentarily illuminating the dark skies.  I felt like sleeping out back.

           The bambini made it to school on time...3 days in a row.  I'm so proud of them.  They have both been ready 5 minutes early, and, aside from me making them breakfast, they do it all themselves!  As we made our way through the little gate between the playground and the 6th grade classes (I tell the kids, it's the scariest time of my day.  It is a small gate, in width.  There are a zillion kids, full of energy and excited for their school day to begin. If you happen to be passing through, when the bell rings, it is absolute mayhem!  I cling to the bambini's hands, in fear they will be trampled in the ensuing stampede.  But I digress...).  Mrs. Maguire, a 3rd grade teacher at Cottonwood, greeted us there and asked if I slept outside last night...for one moment, I couldn't remember, but had memories, flashes of times Kim and I had slept outside...

                            This tree, was lovingly and beautifully decorated with hundreds of angels - some glass, some metal, some silver, some gold - an incredible, stunning array!  We never actively removed these angels, they meant so much to us, each one special, with an inspirational message attached from the person who hung them there...but when the wind would knock one to the ground, we would collect them and have them saved in a big box that we will treasure forever.

                           Two lone angels grace this tree (incidentally, when we moved in, there was a Mesquite tree planted here by Lennar, the builder.  The first thing Kimmy had me do, was, tear it out and replace it with this beautiful olive tree).

                            Here is one of the angels, from Patti (with an 'i'), who worked at Cottonwood and defected to go to Empire High School this year...

And this pretty one from Jen Lofgren, kindergarten teacher at Cottonwood who defected and went to Desert Willow this year...Ahhh, we still love them and miss them and it is nice that their angels are still in Kimmy's olive tree...Our 'Angel Tree'.

Those of you who placed an angle there, thank you.  You must know, that there were many days, where the bambini and I would spend hours beneath the tree, reading and re-reading the loving, caring, supportive messages that each angel had attached to it.  This tree brought us such comfort in our time of need.  We plan on rehanging the angels around December 13th and will leave them up for the Christmas season...to celebrate my angel, Kimmy.

How about our monsoon?  Nice one tonight!  Kimmy loved this time of year - the rains, the smells, the stunning lightning strikes...the one that hit us around 7:00 p.m., left an impression upon us - the skies to the east were dark and wicked, bringing the rain and lightning strikes that had multiple off shoots.  But, to the west, it was perfectly clear as the sun set...creating a rainbow, stretching from north to south along the Rincon mountains...

And now, the night air is cool and fragrant...

Maybe I'll sleep out back tonight...

Love,

 Dave