My Nana made me do it!

When Renata and Kalyn visited a couple of weeks ago, Renata brought out a gift for me and said, "I swear Nana made me buy this for you!"  My mum loved owls and had a small collection of ornaments of them.  She looked after Renata for the first 9 months of her life while G and I went back to uni.  We were lucky that my parents lived in Langley, and we were took the ferry from Victoria as often as we could to visit.  It was a hard time for us, not having Renata with us, but it was a good time for my mum, and she and Renata were very close. After we graduated, we moved up north for work, far away from my parents and G's parents.  Mum didn't see Renata nearly as often as she'd have liked, but when they were together, they were inseparable.  Unfortunately my mum died when Renata was 11.  I often feel sad that she didn't live to see Renata grow up to be the wonderful woman and mother that she is, and didn't see Krista and Kalyn, her great-granddaughters.  G's mum passed away just over three years ago and I'm happy that she did.  
So my mum "made" Renata buy this beautiful little stone owl for me.  It's for the garden, but like the Buddha that Renata gave me a few years ago, I suspect the owl will stay in the house.  We've named it Blinky.  Renata had a kitten named Blinky when she was little.  Blinky is now sitting on the kitchen counter, keeping an eye on me.  Another treasure holding memories of my mum and my daughter.  :)
An early morning blip.  We're off to the big island and I can't wait to see Renata, Kalyn, and the gaggle of girls on her volleyball team.