Remembering Cindy

Today was a sweet day of remembering. My next door neighbor Cindy passed in February and today would have been her birthday. My neighbor Merideth and I went to find her gravestone and took the kids there to celebrate and remember her. That may sound weird to take kids to a cemetary but this is a beautiful place that has headstones dating back to 1837. It was a gorgeous day and the kids loved running around, playing on the stones, and I know Cindy would have been happy that they were happy there. Death is not something we should fear as Christians. Cindy came to know the Lord right before she died and so we celebrate the woman she was here and that she has new life in heaven.

Cindy had such spunk and zest for life. She was devastated when she found out she had esophageal cancer. I remember being with her in her doctors office when she found out she was dying. I was there,8 months pregnant with Cole, and we both thought she was just going into to have a chemo treatment. But she came out crying that the doctor told her they couldn't do anything more. We left there and drove to the ABC store because that is where she wanted to go and when someone finds out they are dying, you take them ANYWHERE they want to go.

The cancer progressed slower then any of us expected. I popped in often to visit her with the boys and bring her brownies or a drink from Sonic. The boys LOVED her and loved to visit. Even though she became like a skeleton, Fin never knew she was sick until she had passed. I never told him b/c I didn't want him to view her differently.

When Cindy's friend Mike moved in to take care of her, I went over less to give them space, but I always thought of her and couldn't imagine going through what she was going through.

The last time I saw Cindy, she was a shell of a person. NO ONE should have to die the way she did. There was no dignity in the death that she experienced. She was sweet and attempted cheerfulness but that cancer was just evil. I couldn't imagine it could be like that.

She is finally at peace now and I'm so glad for her. Today remembering her was a sweet day. I'm glad she is in heaven and I think she would have loved to see all the kids jumping off of gravestones, climbing dirt hills nearby, and having races in the grass.

Happy Birthday Cindy. You were loved.

Sunday Summer Evening

I love Sunday evenings in the summertime. We usually have a really chill afternoon after church and naps and it's just sweet family time. This Sunday night we met Pat's sister Kerry and her family at a new Mexican restaurant to try out. I would have pictures of us all eating our chips and salsa except Cole lasted about 10 minutes in there (that's being generous) before I had to take him outside and walk around in a random field while everyone else ate.

Stinker

Why do I ALWAYS get the highchair that has a broken buckle so that he can't be contained. Lesson learned, we will not be taking homeboy to a restaurant again for a long time. It's not that it's awful, it's just that we don't eat out a lot so for us to spend money out, I want to be able to enjoy it. If he's going to be nutso, I'd rather just stay at home, save money, and eat a peanut butter and banana sandwhich. We went through this same stage with Fin at this age and now he's a dream to eat with so this too shall pass.

Right when we pulled into the driveway at home an icecream truck pulled into our street so Fin ran inside to get one of his dollars and bought a spiderman icecream. Perfection to a three year old.

He is always so sweet to share with his brother.

You're not eating it right unless you're covered head to toe in a sticky mess and need a bath afterwards.

He takes his icecream eating skills seriously.

End the night with the boys tucked in bed, Sarah coming over to watch 'Sister Wives', Pat running out to get us icecream, and I'm a happy camper.

To Market, To Market

While I don't enjoy grocery shopping for the most part, I do enjoy the ritual the boys and I have created on our grocery shopping day.
Every Thursday morning we impatiently wait for the store to open at 7am (oy). At about 5 till, I load the boys up in the stroller, jammies on and all. We grab our cloth bags and head out. I love walking early morning b/c it's slightly cool, the birds are crazy that time of day, and we usually see some baby bunnies on our route. We stop to get our cash out for our grocery and gas budget for the week at a local Cashpoint and then we head into Food Lion. We're usually the only ones in the store at that time of day (shocker) and all the employees know the boys and I by now.

Once we get to the store, Fin's allowed to get out and walk beside me and I use his seat and the big basket under to load up on groceries. I would have taken pictures in the store but I usually shop at a sprint, pushing the double stroller, while trying to keep a running total in my head of how much everything costs so I don't go over budget.

Fin loves getting to walk home alongside me. It's only about a half mile and he usually has his teddy in one hand and a random object in another. In this case it's a bandana.

Check out his shadow. We decided it was longer then daddy was tall.

Cole and the groceries. Notice diapers resting on top and Milk resting on the step on the bottom. We max out our space. There may have been a time or two that Cole has had a paper towel roll on his lap, I can't rightly say.

My view.

Fin uses his "super boy power" to climb this big grassy hill and walk alongside me.

My "sunflower" Fin picked for me. He ALWAYS finds me flowers and brings them to me anytime we are outside. I love his sweet heart.

We always treat ourselves to some sort of $2 breakfast from the grocery store on our grocery mornings. This morning it was powdered mini doughnuts. We find that we (I) operate best on the reward system.

While it can be a little stressful juggling both in the store, I actually look forward to our Thursday mornings. Probably because it means I'll have more in my pantry then a box of rice and half a banana :o)

Fathers Day Bonanza 2012

We celebrated Fathers day all weekend long. And what a blessing to have such great men in our lives to have a reason to celebrate!

Friday night we hung out at Pat's parents apartment pool. Pat got his workout pulling the kids around on a giant raft while he ran through the water. Resistance training. What a great dad.

Cole doesn't put his toe in water that is not bath water temperature, thankyouverymuch. So he spent his evening hovering at the edge and pushing a raft in the pool.

Fathers day morning we patiently (hmm) waited to wake daddy up. Fin and I and Cole made a card tracing handprints and Fin listed his favorite things about dad. Then Fin wanted to give Pat an old Skynyrd cd that actually was coincidentally Pat's cd that he gave Fin. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

After we made Pat breakfast of coffee, sausage, omelet and mini muffins, we headed to Hemlock Bluffs to go hiking and running. Pat ran one way on the trail, I hiked the other way with the boys and then he met up with us halfway through. It was a beautiful cool morning.

Pat was stretching beforehand and Fin decided he needed to too.

Leaves...they never get old to boys.

Me and the boys. Love that Cole still loves the backpack. I kept hearing "Hi mama" softly in my ear the whole time.

The next 2 were taken by Fin. He gave Pat a stick and said, "pretend it's a sword".

He gave me a stick and I had to pretend it was a toothbrush.

Cole walking the path less chosen. Ha!

So we had a great day as our little family and then in the evening met up with my family at a park to celebrate my dad.

Fin played with this faucet non-stop.

Pops and Fin

A little froggy friend joined us on our ventures.

God has blessed us with great fathers and blessed me especially with an amazing father to my children. Couldn't ask for more.

Humbling

In the spirit of recording the good, the bad, and the ugly....shooooeeeey tonight.

We went to Saturday night church so that tomorrow Pat could sleep in for Fathers day and we could have a relaxing day. Church went fine, with reports that Fin loves Sunday School and Cole snaked his way up on stage during kids worship time and was dancing with the band. Typical.
Since we met up with Nicole, Rob and Sarah, we seized the opportunity to have dinner with them afterwards. Although Pat and I both had those little voices in our heads saying, "It's nearing bedtime...you don't usually eat out at places that don't serve FAST food", we pushed through it. Poor choice.
While I loved being able to hang out with my sisters, it was chaos city. The boys were on rare form. Finley ate at a snails pace and we basically had to force feed him so we didn't hear a 1/2 hour later that he was starving. Cole was climbing everywhere and he wiggles out of the seat belt of the highchair so that can't even contain him. He was under the table, elbow deep in Sarah's cup, running into the kitchen...I've probably blocked out the rest.
Humbling night because Pat and I felt like stellar parents of course, AND it was in front of my family, AND it never really turned itself around. We had a family meeting afterwards where we talked about behavior and expectations (Cole totally got it I'm sure), said prayers to ask for forgiveness, and it was early bedtimes for both.
Thank goodness His mercies are new every morning. Because I could use some new mercies, and probably a fuzzy navel too if we're being honest.

My Happy List

My sister Nicole sometimes makes a happy list and I was inspired by her in my honeymoon of summertime. Here are some things that make me happy:

1) The Farmers Market

The boys and I have been going weekly to the Raleigh Farmers Market to stock up on fresh fruit, veggies, flowers and bread. I looooooove it. The boys and I gorge ourselves on free samples of peaches and blueberries while we peruse and point out every sparrow that's mooching off of the crumbs on the ground. This week I met up with Sarah and Kier and we all split a lemonade cookie. Please note Cole chillin in his stroller.

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Blue eyed baby boy

Every week Fin wears his superman cape to the Farmers Market so now all the farmers ooo and ahhh over him. He truly believes he can run supernaturally fast when wearing it. Old ladies and strollers, step aside.

Cole flirting with birdies

Fin getting a little boost into his tree climbing venture.

2) My boys always make me happy. Duh.

3) Sweet baby Noah

He's seriously the sweetest. And boyfriend's leaving me for two weeks to go to the beach. I expect him to bring me back saltwater taffy for putting me through all that heart ache. At least absence makes the heart grow fonder.

4) My re-done fireplace. It's not super clear in the picture but our fireplace had dark green granite which went with nothing and looked very...eighties to me. I've always hated it. Sarah kindly surrpised me by buying the supplies to transform it from this...

To this....

I LOOOVE that it's all white now. It freshens up the room and no longer clashes with anything.

I also love the summery print I got off of Etsy for the mantle. So cheerful.

These are just some of my happy things but I like to pause now and then and be grateful for the littles.

Living the Dream

Before I start this post I'd like to say that my iphone camera lens has fractured. And I'm SO so sad about it. It still takes a picture but it is so fuzzy and I have to run it through a filter and lighten it up to get it to be somewhat decent. And this is my only source of digital camera to record things so I'm doubly sad. Have I mentioned I'm sad? Moving on...

Fin spent the night at Aunt Sarahs last night and basically went to Disney World for the night. They took Nanny flowers as a surprise, Ate at her house, then drove out to get icecream with Aunt nicole. Can you get a cooler Aunt than that?

Pat and I wanted to use the oppourtinity to love on Cole since he rarely (ever?) gets one on one attention from both of us at the same time. He's not deprived or anything, but we wanted to make him feel special. After the gym, Pat met Cole and I at a mexican restaurant. There was much sugar packet shuffling, honking of noses, and dipping entire hands in sour cream.

Can you tell he ate up the attention? (Blurry picture get out of my life).

After dinner we went to the dollar tree and let Cole pick out a new ball. I also needed a need bathroom trashcan. BEST.2.dollars.ever.spent. Enter Cole putting a ball in a trashcan for the rest of the night and the entire next morning. It never got old.

After we put Cole down, we Facetimed with Fin. When he popped up on the screen I laughed out loud. Sarah had dressed him wrapped in a scarf and he was drinking juice out of a wine glass. SO so funny. He looked like he was hosting Masterpiece theater. He was giddy excited to tell us about his night. Also, his face is even cuter on Facetime.

Cole with his ball, trashcan and marbles. A boys best friend. He kept popping into Fin's room saying, "Minley??" which I thought was so sweet. The boys were happy to be reunited and I got my Fin boy back.

It was a blessed time for both my boys and OMG is it quiet with just one around the house. Not good quiet though. I'm used to having a running dialogue of everything we are or will be doing. The silence was deafening.