Thx Shout Out

In this season of gratitude, I am addicted to this web site.

I promise that if you spend 2 minutes reading this site, it will change your brain. These thank you notes are so contagious - just like haikus. You think you aren't thinking about them, then you realize you are tapping out 5:7:5 syllables on your steering wheel at a red light.

I have been collecting (and sometimes writing down) various 3-sentence expressions of gratitude lately. KB did it too over here. Y'all should totally try it. Your brain will say thx, thx, thx.

10 Years Ago

Ten years ago today, I ate a Whopper from Burger King. Right after I got my hair did up with pearls.

Somehow I knew that it would be my very last Whopper ever. I'm not sure if it was a Last Supper to my life as a bachelorette, or if I was figuratively and literally leaving one life behind me at that moment and moving towards a life of Better In Every Way.

Regardless, I'm glad I ate it, savored it, and left it.

Then I got married. At 3:30 pm on a warm December 8th in a beautiful church, surrounded by beautiful people.

My memory recalls that everything was A LOT that day: a lot of people, food, excitement, love, things, stuff, gifts, happiness, love, smiles, conversations, clothes, time, words, hope, love, fake snow for throwing as confetti, fatigue, planning, laughter music - did I mention love?

Thank you, most of all dearest Brian, but ALL of you who continue to surround us.

(I totally stole this picture from Brian's Facebook post...he took the picture with his phone this morning from our wedding album which we read over breakfast - awww so sentimental, yawl - and the kids were definitely not into it. So Brian read me Kimberly's homily out loud while I packed lunches and wrapped cakes and the message was better 10 years later...just like our marriage...and fine wine.)

Daisy Troop Takes the Christmas Parade!

Today was the day Svea got to march in the Christmas Parade with her Girl Scout troop (Cookies go on sale December 30th!!!!)

Svea and MM not looking at the camera:

Waiting for our turn to enter the parade:

Corinne waving to the parade...and loving her shadow:

Entertaining the Daisies, Brownies and Girl Scouts with her silly hat and groovy dance moves:

Handing out candy en route:

She marched so importantly...

And Corinne napped...during the WHOLE thing...

...as did the rest of us when we got home. Whew.

Henry's First Basketball Game This Season 2011

Tonight was Henry's first basketball game of the season.

He had a great time. I had a lot of issues.

I just wish I had understood basketball back in high school the way I understand it now. I wish so much of parenting wasn't working out "your own stuff."

(Notice the height differences)

I couldn't figure out why these 7-8 year old boys couldn't understand a basic 2:1:2 defense or the simple concept of TRAVELING or maybe just sometimes SHOOT THE BALL?

Am I going to be THAT MOM in the stands???

Yes, I think so.

I can't help it.

It's called LOVE in all its goofy, loud buzzers, irritated siblings, cameras, horrible basketball skills ways.

It's LOVE, y'all.

Snaggle-tooth Svea

Sweet Svea finally lost her first tooth (after the permanent tooth came in behind the baby tooth):

And here's the note she left the Tooth Fairy...since there was about 37 seconds between losing the tooth from her gums and losing the tooth from our possession.

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost my tooth this morning. It was so small. I am looking so different"

Dude, she still got a quarter from that fairy.

But she doesn't know it yet. It's been three days and she STILL hasn't checked the Tooth Fairy Pillow Pocket to see what she got.

Thassmahgurl.

Christmas Tree Farm 2011

We tried to have us a Rockwell Family Moment and go cut down a Christmas tree.

First we got lost. Then Corinne decided to take her opera up an octave. Then Henry and Svea got hungry. Then we found the farm. And we were the only ones there. Then we couldn't agree on a tree. And Svea is a magnet for ants. And Henry is a magnet for complaining. And Corinne squawked while Brian sawed and I pushed the new tree over.

Done.

But the lanes of trees were endless...

...and the clouds beautiful...

...and the shadows were long...

...and fun for hiding...

...and watching Daddy saw...

...and trying to "help."

In the end, we got a few ant bites, have a beautiful tree, supported a local farm, forced a family moment, and enjoyed dinner at Moe's. (Welcome to Moe's!)

On a side note, Svea asked me the other day WHY people put up Christmas decorations before THANKSGIVING?

The only thing I could think of to say was that maybe people were so excited about Christmas, they couldn't help themselves.

She said, "But Thanksgiving is about being THANKFUL and Christmas is about GIVING."

How can she have it all figured out at 6 years old?

I have so much to learn from this child. I'm thankful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am covered up with thanksgivings today.

From big Thanksgiving lunches and birthday cards for Pops (that illustrate his favorite tea party poem):

To Brian getting to watch football while Henry and Corinne work out on the Pilates machine:

I think Corinne's aura is white.

And unfortunate pictures from a VERY fortunate dinner at the in-laws:

And, of course, eating enough to earn a Savage's turkey cookie:

Just makes the day.

We are so very blessed, most of all to have each other. The food is just an added bonus. Thank you family and friends for Thanksgiving 2011.

Beth and Tucker Moon's Wedding

I am taking a hiatus from the photo challenge to post about Aunt Beth's wedding.

Which was last weekend.

It was truly an event, I tell you.

Some pictures are up on Facebook already (friend me and you'll see) and there are many more photos to come.

Svea was a flower girl and got her hair "did" the morning of.

She is, indeed, a Princess in Training (thank you, Beth, for the footage):

Andrew was her stylist at Adorn and he was fabulous. I can't really understand every single thing she is telling him, but I did hear them talking about animals, monkeys, lemurs, Netflix, Power Rangers, computers, remote controls, and princesses. He deserves a Great. Big. Tip.

Before we left for the wedding, we were doing some Christmas shopping and Svea picked out these glasses for KB and Brad:

Corinne eventually pulled the eyeballs off the glasses Svea is wearing in the photo...but luckily we know where to get more.

Beth was an exquisite bride:

And Henry, Svea and new cousin Kamdyn were excellent attendants:

More to come, as it was, like I said, an EVENT.

Veteran's Day 2011

On the way to Elmwood Cemetery yesterday, I asked Svea if she knew what a cemetery was. She said No.

So I pointed out of the window at the cemetery and she said OH YEAH I know what that is.

She and Henry used to call cemeteries "die on earth" places.

I explained we were going to visit Papa J's grave, that there would be a marker there that Uncle Johnnie made marking where he was buried.

She said WHY?

So I said sometimes people want a place to go to remember someone even though that person won't be there.

She asked, logically, so are we going to dig up Papa J?

It was windy (curvy roads and air blowing on you) but Mama J finally led us to Block 30 (she told Scott that it was around some trees...and that there were a lot more graves out here than there used to be...two lines that she will never live down since she said them to Scott Matthews).

Lydia and Corinne checked out some head stones...

Corinne stood at her great-great-grandfather's marker.

Dad called him Pie (maybe from playing Pee-Pie - that is, Peek-a-Boo, as a child?) but he was Mama J's dad and a dentist named Loran Lane.

Mama J looked and looked and told us stories.

It was hard to get a cousin picture with the sun in our eyes and the wind and leg warmers and Corinne can walk so why should she sit?

But we tried...

Here's Papa J's marker that John Stewart made. I had never seen it.

We did two rubbings of it...one for Lydia and Miriam to take home and one for us.

Another treasure for our family, a story-starter on many levels.

This is a shifting iron name plate that connects us through family alive and dead, offers the images of a sun rising or setting and the Methodist flame and cross - two images that never stay, cast in iron that will never fade. The irony is not lost.

Nor is my experience with my own Henry and his idiosyncrasies that remind me of Papa J.

Thank you, Veterans Day, for making me take the time to connect what is important in our growing family.

Day 30: With Flaws

I had a project due for my drawing class.

And Somebody wanted to contribute.

So I turned in a drawing...with flaws.

It is SO worth it.

Day 29: Style

Svea's sticker press-on fingernails...that I keep finding all over the house...and the washing machine.

Day 28: Air

Day 27: Pain

There is so much pain in this world. Too much.

That is why I am going to stay "on the surface" here and touch on the "mild to moderate discomfort" that comes before pain.

It almost hurts me that the dictionary is upside down on the book shelf.

There is so much in this life we have no control over, and much of that involves pain. But I can control how the books on my shelf are arranged. And that, in itself, brings comfort.

That dictionary was also the first birthday present Brian gave me when we were dating (that whole 20 minutes before we got engaged) and if you know me, it was the most romantic gift he could have given.

You go, hubby.

Now flip that big honking dictionary over, already...

Day 26: A Color

Practicing walking in these shoes...and loving the color on my toes...though I'm thinking a burnt orange for the upcoming wedding...

Day 25: Shadows

Working with charcoal pencils on Mi-Tientes gray paper...thinking about shadows.

Day 24: Studying

I SO want to be one of those Couponing Queens...so I study...

Day 23: Big vs. Tiny

My new kicks for the wedding this weekend...and the tiny blue Polly Pocket shoe I keep digging out of Corinne's mouth...