She Made Me a Mom

 Twenty-nine years ago today, I didn't know what being a mother was like. 

But one day changed all that, as Earl and I drove an hour in the dark early morning to the hospital, and Grace was born at 12:30 p.m. Our little bundle of joy was a whopping 8 pounds, 8 ounces (maybe I shouldn't have married a giant) and she turned us into parents.

She's a great first child, holding us to our promises, living up to our dreams. It's been a joy to watch her grow up and fly away. 

Even if growing up meant that she needed to step away and have a photoshoot with a wolf, we knew she had a lot of strength and good decision-making skills. 

Raising Grace has been a joy from the moment that we overdressed her in a onesie on that sweltering January day in Florida, to watching her leave us behind in France while she moved to Dublin. 

Happy birthday, my sweet girl. 

I hope 29 is another magical year for you. 

A Pause

During this busy holiday weekend, just a pause to tell you that things are better. 

If Spencer and his girlfriend start their morning with Echinacea tea, I feel like everything will eventually fall into place. 

Had a lovely, if loud,  Thanksgiving with my family. My parents from Florida, my brother from Texas, and my nephew from Virginia with his 4 children, including these two little guys. 

Now you see why it was loud. Plus their sisters, 3-year-old Lydia and 2-year-old Lorelei. 

Today, back to my brother’s to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday.

Saturday Snapshot -- New Year Celebration

Join West Metro Mommy for this weekly meme of photos people have taken and share on their blogs.

Isn't it funny, all the separate holidays that we have based on religion or culture, but New Year's Eve is one that we all can celebrate around the world, of course, at different times depending on our time zone. And yes, I know that some cultures have separate calendars so different new years, like the Chinese, but really, all around the world we celebrate on Dec. 31 as a new year begins.
I like being united with everyone.
We had a terrific party at my friend Sheila's house. She throws the best parties whether New Years or Fourth of July.
Here are a couple of pictures of us celebrating.
Tracie brought cut outs attached to sticks so that we could do silly pictures.

That's Tracie in the middle. She's a librarian and comes up with all kinds of clever ideas. Janine on the right is one of the women who hiked the Appalachian Trail with me. 

Laura on the left has a son close to Spencer's age. They were best friends for a while, united in their love for basketball. 

Here's a group picture, a groupie, of a bunch of us just after midnight. Sheila's 16-year-old is photobombing us in the very back.

And after the clock struck midnight, we decided we needed to dance. I love the expression on Pam's face, on the right. She looks so sassy. We were waving our fingers at Dan who was taking pictures. All except for Sheila in the back who didn't realize we were posing.

I hope everyone else had a fun-filled New Year's Eve and I hope the coming year is just as filled with laughter and dancing for all of  you as I had at Sheila's party.

Post Christmas Wrap Up

The cats enjoyed Christmas, even if the gifts weren't for them.

Unlike many of you who are counting books you've read and challenges you've reached this year, I'm counting my lucky stars that we survived -- enjoyed -- a lovely Christmas.
I got most of my shopping done by the end of last week, or so I thought.
On Christmas Eve, we drove an hour and a half to my brother's house in Dayton for lunch. That was the first time we got to see my nephew's baby Lydia. She's a month old and all of her dark hair makes her look like a doll baby. Her mother paints her nails and keeps a bow in her hair. Our nieces who have daughters try to keep them from being too girly, so this is definitely a different style of parenting!

Cousins. My kids are on the left side. Michael, Lydia's dad, was holding
the bottleand stuck it between his legs for the photo. Goofball

On the drive to my brother's I reminded Spencer that he didn't really have much on his Christmas list, so people had to do their best to guess what he wanted.
"I know," he said. "The only thing on my list was NBA 2K14 for Xbox."
"What?" I shrieked from behind the steering wheel. "That wasn't on you list. You said you wanted a speaker and Boss Cologne."

I got a new cap and scarf on Christmas morning.

Suddenly, the only thing my middle child wanted wasn't under the tree.
We got back to Columbus around 4:30 and I zipped over to Target where I found the game he wanted. I'd planned to schedule a massage for him, so the game replaced the future massage. I'm still not sure he played it.
Midnight mass was on our schedule. By 10 p.m. Tucker and Spencer were both asleep and I was nodding off. I'm just not a late night person.
After opening our presents Christmas morning, we went to my husband's sisters for a casual meal and the chance to see all of her daughters and their children.

Regan, one and a half, was not about to sit still for photos.

In between these events, I snatched moments of reading. I can recommend Kathleen Tessaro's Flirt. What a fun idea.
Hope you all had joyful holidays and look forward to New Year celebrations.

Grant turned 1 just before Christmas. 

Christmas Complete

I'm not good at preparing -- preparing for parties, preparing for Christmas. I'm always stressed about it. Once a party or Christmas starts, I'm fine, but the prep makes me grumpy.
This year, between traveling to pick up kids in college and trying to throw a 75th birthday party for my mother, I was extra harried. Well, the party was cancelled due to a stomach virus that passed through my parents and brother's family, but we still got to celebrate Christmas.
I think this pic of the cat amidst the debris of Christmas summed it all up pretty well.

And the kids looked pretty satiated afterward too.

After we celebrated at home Christmas morning, we were headed to Earl's sister's house and there we would see little Caroline. I had planned to sew a princess dress for her, and Christmas morning it wasn't finished. Grace helped me put elastic in the puffy sleeves and I ironed, pinned and hemmed the dress as I watched the clock tick past the time we were to arrive. Earl and the boys went on without us as I continued to work on the dress. Finally, we finished and, although it's far from perfect, Caroline loved it.

Hope your Christmas was magical and created many fond memories, like mine did.

Happy Father's Day

To my husband, who is home alone on Father's Day.
We celebrated pseudo father's day last week and I gave Earl a new laptop computer for Father's day and our anniversary, which is this week. He probably doesn't enjoy being home alone as much as I would, but Spencer will be back from basketball camp later today. I'm sure he'll remember to wish Earl a happy father's day.
And, happy father's day to my dad, who is currently floating in the pool on a blue raft.
Grace, Tucker and I sped down to Florida on Friday. We have to be home on Wednesday, but we got to be here on Father's Day.
My brother Kevin and his family are here too. We both got my dad a box of yellow Bridgestone golf balls as a gift. He'll use them all eventually.
We made a big breakfast this morning, harkening back to Mom and Dad's southern roots. Sausage and bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits and milk gravy. Good thing I went for a run and a swim this morning before breakfast.
But the best gift is getting to be all together -- well, that and getting to hang out at the pool and do nothing.