a long time gone, but back to writing

I haven't written in almost 2 years and, my, how things have changed yet stayed the same. My big girl is almost 5 and a big sister. Our newest love is almost 11 months old (Friday--holy buckets!) and with their birthdays being a week and a half apart (oops!) I have lots of planning to do. Luckily, I have already gotten a head start on Big's and Little's, though Big has gotten much more attention. I have Little's cake planned and family will be there. I think I've even found her birthday present from hubs and me, but I might wait a bit to see. As for Big, yes she's gotten the bulk of the attention recently. I'm going to blame this on the fact that she 1) will remember what happened and 2) has been able to give input. The theme this year is a "Paper Doll, Tea Party Birthday." Doesn't that sound like a mouthful? You betcha. I've got it all planned out, though, and I'm ahead of the game in terms of getting things together. The invitations are a labor of love (and probably a huge dollop of stupidity) as they are paper doll dresses on the cover with a hole for her face and inside another paper doll outfit, a bathing suit. Yes, I printed and cut these out. By. Hand.

Luckily, my brain kicked in (probably slept for 2 hours that night) and I was able to connect with a fabulous friend who shared her die-cutting machine and made about 4 dozen balloons, tea pots and party hats to include on the invitations. I must say, I am grateful for that friend. Those were done in an hour, maybe whereas each dress that I printed, colored (therapeutic though it was) and cut out, took at least that long. Oh, and there are a dozen of each style of dress and head (I cut my sweet love's head out of a picture that I printed). I'm definitely one crafty momma, but I'm a bit insane, too. That I'll also blame on sleep deprivation as Little has *yet* to sleep through the night. Trust me, I am working on every angle of sleep training I can short of putting her in the basement to sleep (I'm kidding! No need to report us!). I think part of the problem (okay, a lot of the problem) is my fault and a little Hub's. He can't stand to hear her cry and she sleeps so much better when she's beside me that we've created this monster and now we have to sleep (or not sleep) with it. Maybe she'll give me a great birthday present (from her) and sleep through the night soon. Ah, glorious sleep! How I've missed you, dear friend.

Still, my little family makes me happier than I thought I could be and I cherish them every moment.

Pay-it-forward birthday

As I wrote, yesterday was my 34th birthday. And, somehow the predictions from the year in an earlier post are coming true, though not intentionally on my part. I am becoming more introspective. I also hope that I am ramping up my generosity and general goodwill towards man (even after the Christmas season).

I decided this year was going to be a pay-it-forward birthday.
First:
All of my bday money will be donated to the pay-it-forward goal of a wonderful Mama. I started reading her blog some time last year, after she was featured on an AOL something-or-other and was instantly hooked. I now read her blog daily and she doesn't even write a new post every day. She is an inspiring woman, wife, mother, photographer and all around human being. In addition, my wonderful brother (yes, it's written down now. can't take it back) and his beautiful wife will be having a little one with "Designer Genes" in March. Jackson will be amazing. I have no doubt. And because, he and Nella will have this commonality, I get an even warmer and fuzzier feeling when I know that my money, money I have no need for, will provide them opportunities to do whatever they want in life. Yay for NDSS.
Second:
The only fun thing I did for myself was schedule a hairdo. It's gotten really long and I thought, "What better thing to do on my birthday than donate it to the Locks of Love." I was one inch too short. Ugh, bummer. I even looked for others and found one that would have given me 2 inches to spare...no permanent die. For real? So, alas, that donation will wait for another day, but it will happen and I will link it to this birthday.
Third:
I did visit the ultra nice, not-so-inexpensive yarn shop. I bought some really pretty yarns. I plan to give it ALL away once it has reached it finished product. Why? Why not?

I hope I can keep doing this all year, this year of my internal personal development. It feels good and I like feeling good. I've also thought about starting some sort of business with screen printing or making items that say "Designer Genes." Would it be fun to have a special munchkin, child, adolescent who could flaunt what makes them special? I would love to do this and then give proceeds to NDSS. Then I could partner with various therapies and have shirts that say things like, "Music Therapists love Designer Genes." :)
It's still a work in progress, but the ball is a-rolling...Watch out world!

My favorite Christmas present

This year was one of the best Christmases I've ever experience. My nephew, Beau (Bo-bo) arrived on the 23rd and Mom and I toasted his birth day with a shot of Sake (the only liquor I could find at 1:30 a.m.). We got to spend time with all of the parents/grandparents and relax without driving so many hours.

While that was wonderful, I got a present I couldn't have even fathomed to request, my grandmother's writing.
Back story: 
I never knew my Dad's mother, for whom I'm named. She died before my parents were married and not until last year did I even know what she looked like. I've never been able to find out too much information about her from anyone. I know she was an artist. They had her paintings hanging up in Grandpa's house and Dad pointed them out to me from time to time. She loved classical music: Grandpa showed me her collection of records, Rachmaninof, Tchaikovsky, Bach in a box in the shed too damaged by the weather to be salvaged. I know she lost a daughter, Susan, either at birth or shortly thereafter who would have been between my dad and uncle in age. I found that out from my "Grandma Jo" who really isn't my grandmother, our family just adopted her as such and that's the only title she's had.
I don't know her birthday, I don't know when or how she died. My information about her ended there...until this Christmas.

When I got to my dad's house for our Christmas dinner, I found a book and a card for me. Inside was a note from my cousin, Jasmine. It read:

Dear Cousin,

I hope you enjoy this book of our grandmother's poetry! 

Please have Uncle Bob explain.

Much love, 

Jasmine

I can't even begin to count how many times I've read this note. The first sentence echoing in my mind and my heart, "our grandmother's poetry." Wow. She wrote poetry. Not only that, but the book that went with the card contains scanned copies of her writing. I now know what her handwriting looks like. She had good penmanship.

Turns out, the gentleman that bought my grandfather's house found a box under the house on Mother's Day this year and brought it over to my uncle's house. Jasmine found it and, realizing the importance it would have to the rest of us, started scanning pages. There are 28 journals, approximately 1200 pages of her writing. Some of it is original poetry; some are poems she enjoyed. There are a few dated 1942 and addressed to "a child in Europe." Either way, it's a piece of her I would have never, ever had access to or even known existed without my fabulous cousin. 

It was equally as surprising to my dad, who I don't think knew of the journals' existence. Jas included one special poem in his collection, a poem my grandmother most likely wrote about him. It is about giving him a bath and makes it sound like he was a toddler when she wrote it. Watching his face as we talked about this amazing gift, I could see his sweet heart swell. Face sullen, looking down, he was more than humble; he was grateful. So Jas, if you read this, please know you gave me and my dad a gift that was more than priceless. You introduced me to another part of our grandmother and you gave my dad back his mom. Even if it's only her words, it's her words so many years after she left. 

That, my friends, was my favorite Christmas present and one I'll always treasure.

Thursday marked one week without an episode (or at least one we noticed). The GrandDs came to visit and spent lots of quality time with the munchkin, aside from the stomach bug that ran through our home every 4 days. We had a wonderful time relaxing and laughing and playing. It. Was. Wonderful.
So I am thankful for this:
And so much more!

Lovely day

Ahhh, Happy Easter! What a beautiful day. It started at 6:30, per usual, but felt earlier because of the post midnight bedtime. We hit mass right before 8:30 and ended up in the standing room only area. The golden part was that we were on top of the vent which caused the munchkin's dress to poof out in true princess fashion. That and a bag of Cheez-its made for a lovely service. We came home and got one of our neighbors to get a family picture, complete with Syd-dog bunny ears (borrowed from the munchkin).We had 2 cameras going to get a few good shots.

Post-church brunch was a cooking invention of my own device. It turned out well, but I immediately started figuring out ways to make it even better "next time." After that, munchkin took a nap and we started cleaning up the tornado-like livingroom strewn with toys, then set out our eggs for her solo hunt post-nap. She got really good at finding them and, when she realized they contained treats, the hunt was on. The rewards were equally enjoyable.
I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours. Happy Easter!

1 month to go...

Granted, as of today, it's the month of February (not on a leap year). I can't believe it's gone this quickly and, somewhat surprisingly, I'm in no hurry for it to end any time soon. Yes, I am excited to meet BabyD and learn about him/her but right now Matt is in California for a Brass Workshop--or I have been calling it: band camp. He has been gone since Monday night and will not return until next Sunday (for a total of 12 days), which has been a cause for a little anxiety for both of us. Of course, I do get tickled when he asks me how the baby's doing every time he calls. In my head I'm thinking, "wiggling around, right where you left him/her." I still enjoy knowing that my baby is tucked safely away and I really don't feel that greedy about keeping all that kicking, turning and wiggling to myself...at least not yet.

Sydne is doing better. Her knee is healing really well and the fur is starting to grow back, but the shaved leg is still quite obvious. We are still having to limit her activities, so she's been trapped in the "den" of our house, especially since she believes herself to be back to full capacity. As a result, Matt and I have been sleeping downstairs. In the past week, I have been alternating between the floor and the couch (depending on thunderstorms) so that she won't try to venture up the stairs and so she doesn't have to sleep in her crate.

Today I am having a surprise wedding shower for two of our friends who are getting married in Hawaii. Casey, Matt's buddy, and I are collaborating on it. He's in charge of the grill and I'm doing everything else, which is perfectly fine with me. Of course, I'm not currently on schedule because I only did the grocery shopping yesterday and didn't clean anything in the house that I wanted to. Instead, I spent several hours trying to convince myself that I wanted to cook, clean, shop, etc. And, of course, now I'm writing rather than doing any of those things. Still, I have about 4-5 hours, so I should be fine. The house isn't a complete mess and the things I have to do won't take that long.

IC is slowly coming back following the flood. The clean-up is obvious everywhere but no one is sure which businesses will be coming back and which have been close indefinitely. The School of Music is closed for the year, the Art Museum is going to move to a new location, and the entire arts campus will be spread across the whole of the city: arts studios at the old Menards, music classes in every church in the city, and lessons in professors' homes. It will definitely be an interesting year.

oh my, to catch up...

So many things have happened and I have so much to share...
I am now up to week 33, which is pretty darn good and, yes, I'm getting big. As the floating baby (which totally freaks Megs out--teehee) shows, I have less than 50 days to go until the kiddo gets here and I keep getting bigger. This is probably one of the few times in my life in which I won't complain about an expanding waistline.

Two weeks ago, IC was hit with horrible, horrible rain and flooding. As a result, I spent that Monday moving musical instruments from the MT "closet" to the offices of Drs. A & G. The ironic part of it is that we were told it would most likely not be necessary to do only to be notified 3 days later that everything in the music building needed to be moved due to fear of 4.5 feet of water on the first floor, 4.5 FEET! So it was another time in my life that I'm glad I didn't listen to someone who was in charge because they would have been very wrong and it would have been a very expensive "learning experience" (as Dr A calls them). So we moved almost every single musical instrument out of that closet (except a few plastic things that would not be affected by water and could be cleaned with clorox) on a giant percussion cart, in about 5 loads via the freight elevator. We did sacrifice one guitar to the River Gods, but only because it was really broken and needed lots of work.

Thursday of that week I trekked down to Charleston, SC for a girls' weekend we had planned for months. The timing was just amazing. I left Thursday (they closed the interstate on Friday) and got to spend some great quality time with Bev and Amy. Friday we slept late, ate at IHOP, got massages and facials (oh, the happy memory), went on a Ghost Tour of the Charleston jail on Friday, the 13th mind you and ate yummy, yummy food. Saturday we went to see Sex and the City: The Movie. Though I never watched the show, I did enjoy the movie. Of course, it could have partly been the hormones, but I kinda wept through the second half of the movie. This is where the plans changed...

Instead of coming back to IC on Sunday and spending Saturday afternoon at the beach, I was stuck in the South for a bit longer. (Now, that's not such a bad thing and AirTran was super-fantastic about helping me get my tickets rearranged.) Because of the flooding, the interstate from the airport to IC was closed, which meant that I could either fly home on Sunday at my designated time and spend who knows how many days in a hotel until the road was opened or change my ticket. So after explaining the situation to the airline associate and stating I'd have to charter a boat to get home from the airport the same day as my arrival, my flight was changed to the following Saturday and I had to figure out what to do for the next 6 or so days. Luckily, Amy still lives in our hometown so after the movie, and a bit of shopping, we hopped in the car and headed to her in-laws home in Holden Beach to meet up with her cutie-patootie husband and little boy. We headed out of Holden at 3 a.m. for the drive home and 5 hours later rolled into town with a very unhappy 13-month old (he was ready to be out of the car). From there on, it was a week of quality time with Mom, Dad & Jo, Marc, Challen and Maddox, and other friends from home I have missed dearly.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, the flooding continuously got worse. My beloved IC and C'ville strip became a river, destroying many businesses that may not come back and university buildings that will needs months to be repaired. The pictures I was able to find online paled in comparison to the reality my friends back here were experiencing. I know that I will never truly understand how completely horrific it was because I was in NC and only had the "virtual" experience. In addition, my sweet, sweet Sydne tore her doggie ACL and had to have surgery to repair the damage, which sent pangs of guilt through my heart because I was so far away and unable, once again, to do anything.

This past Saturday, I finally got home. It has been surreal to see all the various businesses closed and muddied, to try to traverse the roads to work, to get everything else caught up, and take care of my husband and puppy. Syd-dog is slowly getting better. She has more energy, which means we have to encourage her to lay down and stay calm. Ice cream has been a good incentive. Dad and Jo are coming in for a baby shower this weekend so they'll get to see some of the remnants first-hand. It should be a good time especially when they haven't been here since 2006.

We also started our MT sessions with the kiddos at the Speech and Hearing Center today, which was fantastic! I love working with them and seeing all the progress they make over the course of 6 weeks working with us and the SLP students. It's a busy, busy time and I'm loving every minute.

When Momma C comes to visit...

Things get done! In a hurry!

Mom came to visit last Thursday, our first visit since she game in Dec '06. It was the first time she got the see the house and first time she'd seen us since Christmas. Needless to say, there were some slight changes in my figure and other fun things.
Mom got here Thursday night when we joined miss Molly on her 25th birthday. We had an excellent dinner of yummy Japanese food followed by chill time for Mom and me and then some emptying of the nursery, which more closely resembled a room struck by a tornado. Friday, the three of us (or four, if you count BabyD) went for my doctor's visit and then went out to lunch. When we got home, our changing table had arrived (woohoo!) and then a trip to Lowe's to pick out paint and all the necessities. When we got home from Lowe's, the crib and mattress had arrived, making it a wonderful present day. That created even more urgency for me to have the nursery set up. The taping and painting began, which resulted in my prompt removal from the room. At the end of day one (Friday), it looked like this:

Saturday morning, we went to the Oto baby shower. Mom got to meet the great ladies I work with, which was a wonderful time for both of us. I got wonderful gifts from my coworkers and friends. Mom displayed yet another talent and excitement about the new BabyD with another display of her knitting prowess. It was too cute.

After the shower, it was back to work. I grabbed a blade and started taking the extra paint off the baseboards; Mom grabbed a paint brush. After dinner, it was crib assembly time, then off to bed.

Sunday we took Mom out for breakfast and then came home to give the room it's finishing touches. By Sunday afternoon, the nursery was finished, at least as much as we have right now.

As Matt put it when talking to one of our friends, she "cracked the whip." I love it when she does that. :-)

Can't believe there's only 80 days (or so) to go until BabyD gets here! I feel like I have so much more to write, but the cold I caught has decreased my verbal skills, at least for now.

peace, love, happiness!

Life is good

Catching up on the remainder of the Christmas gatherings...

It is safe to say a good time was had by all. While we didn't have the family "Guesstures" tournament of years past, we still managed to have a very good time. Because this was the first Christmas for Laura and Chris as married folk, we had to rearrange how things were done. Matt and I kept up the same routine we've done, but had to adapt to the new family schedules. I thought we handled it pretty well, for the most part. Marc and Challen came down to the KM family gathering and brought Mad-dog (my dad's nickname for Maddox). We had a delicious lunch and our family Gift Game where more presents were worth fighting over than in years gone by. My dad actually brought a belly-dancing book/CD as his contribution and almost ended up taking it home. After 3 hours of KM fun (2 hours longer than normal), we went to Marc and Challen's house to share their presents since they weren't up for trips all around NC. After the giftage, we to Dad and Jo's for further indulgences. Once there we got to meet up with Laura and Chris for more family fun. Each couple got their Yellowstone picture and, of course, Dad really wants a copy of Marc and Challen's so I'll have to look and see what size looks best (he, of course, wants a HUGE copy).

Catching up

I am so woefully behind in blogging, but most likely because so much has been going on. (the excitement of the holidays).
Matt and I added yet another nephew to our mix on December 11. Of course, both families are completely ga-ga over their respective new members. Who could really blame them, right?
Our Christmas "vacation" began on the 21st with a 10 1/2 hour drive to Tennessee to see Matt's Grandma. The best part was the drive occurred sans music/radio.
Back story: I have a Theftlock system on my car, which means if anyone should choose to steal my radio and put it into another vehicle, it wouldn't work without the unlock code. This tool also goes into action in the event the battery is disconnected and/or dies. Well, my car had to have a new multi-sensor put in, which resulted in the battery being disconnected from the radio and, being that I programmed the code into the car 4+ years ago, I didn't remember the code. Thus, the radio, CD player or anything hooked up to the speakers in my car would not work.
The drive to TN wasn't so bad for me, mostly because I slept most of it and because we got pretty punchy at times and made up songs about the towns we were in. My favorite was for Paducah, but I couldn't tell you what it is now. Saturday we headed to TN to see the Fam-in-laws; 5 hours later, we arrived (still no music)--again I slept. (I love the relief of vacation, even in a car.) We spent two great days with Matt's family and sang Jingle Bells about 400 times for Callie and got pee-ed on by Bryce (a true sign of love).













Next, we headed out to Hickory. We got to Mom's on Christmas Eve around 4, but still needed to run a few errands so Matt and I headed out to Target. Once there, we wrapped up our last-minute needs, hopped in the car, turned the key--nothing happened. From there I realized that I both love the South more than I dislike it. Afterall, we had almost a dozen people offer to jump my car (didn't work), one lady even gave us a card for a tow truck, and only one person gave me an ugly look for my car taking up two spaces. You see, we had to push my car out of the space to try to jump it because my cables were too short to stretch from my battery to the car next to me (opposite sides). Once we pushed it back in, I ended up straddling two parking spaces, prime spots for the Target entrance at 5 pm on Christmas Eve. Excellent. So step-daddy came to the rescue. We emptied everything from the Grand Prix into the truck after he affirmed that my battery was infact completely dead. (Good thing I didn't unlock the radio, huh?) Off we ran to get a new battery at 5:45 on Christmas Eve. We ran into our second auto parts store at 5:53 (they closed at 6) and bought the battery. Then off to Mom's for dinner because it was too dark to put the battery in now. After dinner, we had presents. The highlight of every year is Abby's Christmas present. Every year it's a ball and every year my mom gives great play-by-play. Followed by dessert...mmmm...chocolate.



Darnell, McRee, Brake Christmas update still to go...

Souping it up

Grandma's big Nine-Oh went off without a hitch. We had a great time and she enjoyed the surprises, despite her initial protest. I got to Baltimore and met up with 2bit and Chris. Boomer was also with them and very excited to meet me (and smell Sydne). We made it to Gma-Hoof's by 3 the next day and called her from the driveway. She didn't realize we were there until we were standing right in front of her window and had to tell her she could hang up the phone. :)

Friday night we went out to dinner at my uncle's favorite restaurant where I remembered the joys of fresh crab meat and scallops. Saturday was Gma-Hoof's surprise party, which worked out well because we managed to get her out of the house and set up the table so that when she got home, it was ready to go. She came in and saw me with the camera before she saw the table with the cake, punch, and other treats and immediately started fussing at mom because she "didn't want a big reception." Needless to say, once friends and family arrived she was the perfect social butterfly and loved every minute of it. Now, I figured dinner out and a party would take care of the birthday surprise, but no, there was more. Mom remembered that Gma-Hoof loved lobster and, once the party crowd cleared out, dinner preparations began with lobster tails for all. Once again, she was pleasantly surprised and asked whether she should expect any more surprises. We assured her that was the end and, when I talked to her on Wednesday, she was still "recuperating" from her parties and talking about how we managed to surprise her so many times. This past week was, well, cold. The weather has turned much colder; snow and ice have fallen with more expected today and tomorrow. As a result, I turned to soup and am trying my hand at winging it on vegetable soup. I figure if you put water, and vegetables in a pot for long enough, it has to be good. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Catchin' up

In the last few weeks, I've been up to a million things and loving them all.


After Momma D was discharged we got to spend a few more days together before they flew home and I headed to the AMTA national conference in Louisville.
Time there was fun, but I worked harder than I have in a long time. Each day was 6 a.m.-ish until well after midnight. The University was well-represented with alums and current students. Still, despite the work, Meganne and I found ways to have fun and coffee, with our last night spent in an embroiled
battle of scrabble.


Plus, while I was in Lu-ih-vul my prediction came true. My beautiful nephew arrived...dimples and all (though I haven't seen the dimples yet). Welcome, Maddox Joseph!

The drive home was uneventful, that is until I got to town and encountered not one, but three, accidents within a mile of each other at my exit to get home.


Thursday brought fun in the form of friends and lots of food, but with the price of a damn early start (and a white Thanksgiving). Matt wanted to smoke the turkey using his fancy-shmancy grill. That required a 5:30 a.m. start; a start on which I was not planning as the thought of sleeping until 9 was firmly cemented in my head. Instead, I woke up and helped him make the brine, wash the bird and get the grill going.
At 6:30, the bird was on the grill and, being filled with coffee, I could no longer return to bed. Instead, I made the rest of the food I hadn't prepped the day before. The result of all the cooking and food from friends equalled one hell of a spread.

This was followed by a good nap, playing with a beautiful baby, and a heated game of Cranium, which we won. Then we sent home left-overs for all to enjoy. We did, however, end up with all of the desserts. Wonder how that happened...