My Mother

I'm pretty sure my mom thinks she made it under the blog radar but nope, I wanted to give her a few days so she'd think she was in the clear before I made this tragedy known to the entire universe. As you know, I just returned from visiting my friend Brooke in Cleveland. While I was out of town, my parents enthusiastically agreed to watch Kathryn. We've only left her over night before so this was a leep for us to leave her for three nights. Thankfully, we both have great parents and we totally trust them with our precious girl. When I was flying out of Cleveland on Sunday, I called mom to ask if she could bring Kathryn with her to the airport when she picked me up because I hadn't seen her in three days and just wanted to love on her as soon as I could. When Mom pulled up at the airport, I saw Kathryn in the backseat and she was all smiles and just looked as beautiful as ever. But she looked different. I told mom she looked all grown up and how could that be since I was only gone for three days? We start to drive and I keep looking back and patting Kathryn and trying to blow her kisses and I say again how she looks different. In hindsight, mom was clearly dodging my comments and finally the truth was made known. My mother had Kathryn's hair CUT while I was out of town. Kathryn has never had her haircut before and my dear mother took it upon herself to have the honor. Oh. I. Was. Livid. To. Say. The. Least. If you have kids, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from. If you don't have kids, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from. That's just something you do not do. Even if you are the Nonni. And to add fuel to my fire, when I asked my mother if she cut Kathryn's hair, she replied, "No, "I" did not cut her hair...." She only AGREED to have her friend cut it! So no, I was not at my daughter's first haircut. Lesson learned: Begin working on a master "DO NOT" list for future overnight visits with grandparents.

Cleveland Trip

My trip up to Cleveland was tons of fun!!! It was so great visiting with Brooke and Todd, we crammed in as much as we could in three days. I flew in Thursday evening and we headed straight to Harpo's to chow down on their delicious wings. Afterwards we headed to their house - which I finally got to see for the first time and they've been living there going on three years! Their house is 106 years old! It had beautiful maple floors and tall doors with gorgeous trim and moldings. Their dining room had the original built in china hutch with glass doors on the sides and a bench in the middle. I could probably type an entire post on their home but we'll save that for another day. As beautiful as their home was, there was one major, major fault.... they kept their thermostat at like 27 degrees! Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it was a bit on the chilly side. Although I will say, Brooke did warn me of how cold it is in Cleveland. When I called her the day before I was flying out to ask if I needed to pack long johns, she said "No, of course not!" I'm kind of thinking she should have probably said "Yes!" Note to self: Bring all the long johns you can find for the next visit to Brooke and Todd's...

Friday, we spent the day in Amish Country. Touring shops, antique stores, wineries, and eating so much food we could barely walk. We ate lunch at the Der Dutchman Restaurant. It's been almost a week since my trip and I'm still full from eating there! Delicious!! We seriously ate so much, Brooke was half tempted to ask one of the Amish for a ride to our car. The country side was beautiful. Rolling hills, lots of farm houses, and old barns. I think my favorite was seeing the Amish riding in their little buggies, especially when the kids were the ones driving!

Saturday was another great day. Brooke and Todd drove me all over Cleveland. We took our pictures in front of Lake Erie and got to see all of downtown Cleveland. We went to the West Side Market - more fresh food than you can imagine in one place. We got some clams, bread, veggies and herbs for dinner that night. I wish we had a place like that in Charlotte! We ate lunch at Panini's and ate their famous "overstuffed sandwich". Mine was piled high with turkey, swiss cheese, french fries and coleslaw. No joke. It sounds disgusting but it was really good! Again, still full from that meal. Saturday night we cooked our feast from the West Side Market. Or rather, Todd graciously cooked dinner for all of us. You may be wondering at this point, what did we do in the evenings during my visit to Cleveland? Two words for you: Guitar Hero. I had never played before until this trip. I am convinced we played over 20 hours while I was visiting. Brooke just emailed me her pictures from my visit...and the only pictures she had on her camera were of us playing Guitar Hero. Oh, yes of course, let me answer your question. I AM a rock star.

It was such a wonderful trip. Like always, we had a blast hanging out together. Brooke and I figured out that we've been best friends for sixteen years now and we've been through middle school, high school, college, roommates, and weddings together. Two minutes after that discovery, she spilt her drink all over my pants and my shirt and I didn't think once about punching her for it. We really are true friends.

Rabid Coon Showdown

Yes, you read the title correctly. There's never a dull moment when visiting my family in GA. Yesterday afternoon my sister and I were sitting outside my parent's house watching her boy Michael play in the yard when Dad comes flying up the driveway in his truck. He parks right in front of the house and yells "I'm getting my gun!" as he runs into the house. Two seconds later he runs back to his truck with his gun and tells us to stay where we are because he just passed a rabid racoon on the driveway near the road. He speeds down the driveway in his truck again looking for the coon. As soon as he drives away, Kirsten and I run after him (sort of, and obviously cautiously since he told us to stay where we were) to see where he was going because of course we wanted to see what was happening. Through the trees, we saw him drive up the road a little ways until he was out of sight. After a minute or two we saw his truck again and he stopped in front of our driveway and then Dad was out of the truck, hopped our neighbor's fence and was RUNNING up hill through our neighbor's pasture apparently chasing this coon. By this point we decided to call our neighbors (who are practically family to us) to let them know of the shenanigans about to take place on their property. We told Rodney what was going on and he said he'd grab his gun and meet Dad in the field. So now Kirsten and I are dying since we're not part of the action so we convince mom to drive us over to their house to see if we could see the showdown. We load up the car (Mom, Kirsten, her son Michael, my daughter Kathryn and I) and drove to the end of our driveway with the windows down so we could at least try to hear anything. A few moments later we heard the gunshot! Macho Dad comes walking over the hill towards us through the pasture and Rodney drives down in the gator to let us in the gate to their property. We follow them (children and all) to the other side of the pasture where the rabid coon lay. Dead of course. Check out the pictures below for the full effect. We were so proud of Dad! **And if this post offends anyone, please note: our children, pets, and our neighbor's children, horses and pets are all much safer now.

Macho Dad and the fence and hill he conquered.

On our way to see the showdown scene...

Me, Kathryn, Kirsten and Michael

Macho Rodney after the showdown

"Room Time"

A few weeks ago, a new friend of mine told me about "Room Time". I had also heard of it from a parenting book I had read but had completely forgotten about the idea until my friend brought it up. In an ideal world (obviously major emphasis on IDEAL), "Room Time" is where you put the little baby gate up and let your little one play in their room for 30 minutes or so and while they're happily playing on their own and their sweet music is playing in the background, you have that bit of freedom to finish a load of laundry, clean the house, start dinner, etc, etc. And of course the idea is to help them learn independent play and to teach them that they cannot be catered to 100% of the time and that they have boundaries when they play. After my friend told me of her experience and explained how it had impacted their family, I thought, "That sure sounds like a wonderful idea. Let's give it a go!" So the following Monday, I decided to test this new little theory out. I told Kathryn all about "Room Time" and how much fun she was going to have (and how much I was going to get accomplished) and I put our little baby gate up and turned her soft music on and went about my list of things 'To Do'. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday went by and every single day for those 20 minutes of "Room Time", Kathryn stood at the baby gate crying and begging me to let her out. I know if she could actually say these words, she was saying "I H-AAA-T-E room time! Room Time isn't fun mama!! Get me out of here!!" But since parenting is all about consistency, I wasn't giving up. At least not that easily... So Friday rolls around and I put her extra favorite toys in her room and encourage her again with how much FUN it's going to be. YIPPY!!! And so I leave the room and (like every other day) stand a little ways away from the door where she can't see me, to see if she's actually going to play...I mean, TOUCH any of her toys. After about five minutes she STOPS crying! I couldn't believe my consistent parenting skills had already worked! I started doing the little "Who's the Super Mom? I'm the Super Mom!" Dance.. And so I waited a few more minutes before I did my "peek" to see what she was actually playing with and this is what my sweet girl was up to...

Yep, my sweet girl was sound asleep on the floor. That would only happen to my child. She probably figured, "I'll show mama what I think about her 'Room Time'...and her tacky "Super Mom" dance!" Our sweet little girl. She totally has my heart.

Is there such a thing as coincidence?

Hello again. It's been a while since I've posted... I'm not in the 'routine' yet of being a true blogger I suppose. I wanted to share a little story that happened to me today. Actually, to start the story off, you'll need a little background information. In July 2008, my family and I lost a dear friend of many years who was killed in Afghanistan while fighting for Operation Enduring Freedom. His name was Matt Phillips and he was 27 years old. Many people took his loss to heart and desperately tried (and continue to try) to come to terms with his passing. As a believer, I can now confidently say that I know he is in heaven with our Lord and Savior but there are still days that I am brought to my knees in confusion and sadness. After his funeral, my sister and I had a little bumper sticker made that said "Cpl Matthew B. Phillips - Matthew 5:8 - Will Not Be Forgotten", as a reminder of him and of his favorite verse. We wanted him to be remembered and we wanted to be reminded to pray for he and his family every time we saw the sticker on our cars. So now, fast forward to March 2009...just a few days ago, I had the fantastic pleasure of having an old friend come to visit for the night and we were able to catch up and talk for hours on end about life, boys, work, and anything and everything two girls could think to gab about. Late in the night while we were talking, our conversation turned to christianity. My friend and I have discussed this topic before over the years, and while she is still searching for her Truth, we had some great breakthroughs in our discussion. At one point, our conversation took the turn of her questioning, "If God is good, why would he allow someone such a horrible death" - referring to a friend of hers. And of course, I instantly thought of my friend Matt so I brought his story to light. I didn't have the answer to her question, other than knowing that all things work to God's glory and He controls every single thing that happens. Although, I think unless you are grounded in the word, those blanket statements my not make sense to all. And even to me, I still have many questions I would like to know answers to. But regardless, our conversation was fantastic and we cried and put our hearts on our sleeves. She left the next day as planned and for the next two days, I'm sure because I brought him up in conversation, Matt Phillips was on my mind more than usual. Last night before I fell asleep, I said my prayers and literally ended with tears to God saying, "and please tell Matt I said hello". Today, my husband and I were driving to the store in the rain and stopped at a red light. As we started to move forward, the car beside us honked and had us roll down our windows. It was a father and he had a car full of kids. He said to us, "Our bibles are in the trunk, but what is Matthew 5:8?" And I stared at him stunned and then smiled and said, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God." He and the kids all said thank you and drove away smiling and waving at us through the rain. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I was overcome with emotion. I couldn't stop crying. That was the first time anyone had ever asked me about the sticker. To have Matt's favorite verse passed on to car full of complete strangers and to have God recognized, is a feeling more than I can type into words. And the most amazing part of it all, I know God was saying "hello back".