Double Digits

Labor Day weekend 2005 went down in history as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans and unleashed it’s wrath.   The nation sat glued to the t.v. watching the ever worsening news reports.

Far away from the devastation of Katrina, I was giving birth to Lindsey.   Like Hurricane Katrina, she came into the world packing a punch and forever changing things, but for the better.

When I first arrived at the hospital, my contractions were less than 2 minutes apart.   The labor & delivery nurse assured me that I was not in labor because “women in labor aren’t smiling and happy like you are.”  I assured her that I was truly in labor, and that if need be I could quickly change into her worst nightmare to prove my point.     Once she hooked me up to a contraction monitor and saw the contractions maxing out, she exclaimed “Oh my God, you ARE in labor!”    Really??  Who knew (besides me, ahem).

My midwife arrived within minutes, and less than an hour later our 8lb. 11oz spitfire made her grand appearance…without an epidural or even a Tylenol. 

With a head full of black curly hair and a dark complexion, this butterball stole our hearts. She was a quiet baby…then at 12 months she started speaking in complete sentences and quite frankly, she hasn’t shut up since.

I’ll never forget Olivia’s reaction to her sister.   For the first day, including all the way home she kept pointing at her asking “What’s that?”   I responded with “That is your first life altering experience.”  Truer words were never spoken.

Today, Lindsey turned ten.   TEN.  Where did those ten years go?   That black haired, dark complexioned butterball has morphed into this light complexioned, skinny little girl with a  incredibly high I.Q., an amazing sense of humor and a heart of gold.   Sometimes we still catch ourselves looking at her and saying “what’s that?” as she comes up with some new invention, or does something bizarre.

This is the one that will take the world by storm.   Unlike Katrina, she will leave a swath of greatness in her path, and carry others on to victory instead of destruction.

Happy birthday Lou-Lou-Who!

Christmas Traditions

Our first Christmas as a married couple, I stumbled across a recipe for eggnog French toast, with warm cherry pie filling on top.   I’ve made it every Christmas morning since, and added bacon because we all know everything tastes better with bacon.  It was the first of many traditions we’ve started.

Each year we look for service opportunities as a family.   We always ring the bell for the Salvation Army.  This year we added Santa to our bell ringing.  (Ok, it’s my brother….but he makes a grand Santa, no?)

Countless hours are spent baking and decorating cookies and candy.   Then we pack it up and deliver it to friends, family, neighbors and the local drug dealer.  (True story.  We’re loving him whether he likes it or not.)

We buy the girls a new ornament each year.  It either represents something special that happened during the year, or their role in the Nutcracker.   By the time they are grown and on their own, they’ll have an eclectic set of ornaments that remind them of their childhood.

Those are a just few of our family traditions.   What traditions do you have that make the holiday’s unique to your family?

Another Scrap Frenzy Complete

I’m a chronological scrapbooker, it must be the OCD.  All of my kids albums are done in order.   I spent an entire day working on covering the last years worth of photos.  I call this a scrap frenzy.  In a days time, I completed 19 12X12 layouts and one 8X8.

The 8X8 layouts are always a single photo that strikes me.  Most are of family members.   I have my own little scrapbook just for me that I keep these layouts in.

Today’s 8X8 was a layout of my Mom.  My brother has the original, color photo, but I scanned it and had it printed in black and white.   Mom’s pants, in real life were pink & white checks, she wore them a lot, they matched her pink cotton candy lipstick that she loved to wear back in the day.

Since the photo was in black and white I thought it needed some bright color.   The colors in the photo aren’t “true”.  There’s some fuchsia and red in there with the oranges.

I think it turned out lovely, so I thought I’d share it with my faithful readers.

Making Memories

The old cliché that time flies, is, by far the truest.  This week we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary, and this weekend our oldest child turns 11.  That’s a lot of years, but it feels like a few weeks, days or even hours.   One thing is for sure, you can’t get that time back, but you can invest that time into building memories.   It’ll be those memories that carry us forward when the kids are grown and out on their own.   It’s those memories that’ll keep us in our kids hearts, when we’ve passed on.

Look back with me, at the last few days, and just a few of the memories we’ve made.

Bowling:  Yes, bowling.  We all enjoy this activity, and although none of us are superstars, we have fun.   We participate in the Kids Bowl Free program, so it’s a great, inexpensive outing for us.

Egg Coloring/Egg Hunts:  Yes, we KNOW that eggs have nothing to do with Resurrection Sunday.  However, we do color eggs with the kids, just like we put up a tree at Christmas.  (No ugly emails or comments please.)

The Playground/Park:  Getting outdoors is always a welcome in springtime.  The air is clean, the humidity hasn’t set in and bugs are at a minimum.   Pollen is a nightmare, but that’s what allergy meds are for!

Field Trips:   We’re still working on our Civil War study, and were able to cover several local battlefields, museums and cemeteries.

Eating in a Dive: Every now and then you stumble across a quirky little restaurant that you just have to try out.  The incredible amount of pig paraphernalia in this eatery was just too funny.   The little pig sign on the door below says “Dining Room Entrance”.

These are the days that we’ll all look back on fondly and say “remember when….”