Another Reminder

Once again I'm reminded that life is too short. Cindy, a friend from college with 3 young children, died last week from a brain tumor. It's got me down and I went home today and plundered through old pictures looking for pictures of her and of all of my great friends from way back.
Life is busy. We know that without a doubt. But what is it that makes it so? A couple of weeks ago just this summer a few of us got together, with our children, and visited and it was fantastic. It's something that I wish we could manage to do more of with more of the group.
The pictures above were taken on a spring break trip with a few of my buddies and then at college when we went to ECU to help move some friends in. Cindy is in the top picture, far left.
My hope is that I continue to reconnect with friends. Life is busy. Life is too short. But friends make the journey, however long we're given, all worth it!

Too Much To Take

I'm not one to follow the parenting books precisely. I generally read up on all the "advice" just so I'll know what to expect and then seek help from family and friends if I have questions. One of the things that I had wanted to do this summer was transition Braxton from his crib to his big boy bed. He had never attempted to climb out and other than the first year (ha ha) of his life loved his bed. We could put him down and he'd go to sleep on his own. Even this summer when we'd be away he'd say, "I miss my baby bed". The boy loved his bed.
However, he did turn 3 this summer and he is getting really tall and besides all of that it needed to be done before I went back to work. With the way summer has worked out it didn't get done when I had planned and I had actually told Brandon at the beach that I was going to buy the bed rails this week and start it this weekend. Yesterday, out of nowhere, Braxton proclaimed he was going to sleep in his big boy bed last night! So we went out bought the rails and while I was at a meeting at church the boys built "the ship" (as Braxton called the bed). He was so excited when I came home. I pulled out a car/truck nightlight that I had bought a while back and showed him what it was and what it did and everything was all good.......until bed time. He became a little apprehensive and told me he didn't like that room etc. etc. I had to lay down with him. He told me to close my eyes.(It took me back to my own childhood) After about 5 minutes, he could see that the nightlight DID work, I kissed him good night and left the room.
As I walked out I stopped by his old room and just stood there. Dark, quiet, and now empty. My mind went back to 3 years earlier, when it was empty the first time and we were anxiously waiting for him to arrive,and I couldn't believe that the years had gone so quickly and he was was sleeping in a BIG bed. This summer has obviously been full of changes. Sometimes we're not always ready for them. And they aren't always good. Whatever the change they bring just that, change.
I guess it's a way for our hearts to make room for new memories.

Cake Boss

Tonight after dinner I asked Brax if he wanted to help me make a cake. He was so excited and I pulled out several boxes (I know my dad is SO disappointed) and let him pick the kind he wanted. He chose a yellow cake and chocolate frosting.

He loved pouring the ingredients in the bowl and mixing and I'm sure you can tell that he loved even more tasting the batter before we poured it into the pans.

It's important that you remember that I just wanted to make a cake. There really was no reason behind it. The sweet part of this story is while I was icing it Braxton started singing Happy Birthday. I asked who he was singing to and he said "my birthday is over". He started singing again and so I asked again and he said "G.G" He looked at me and said "We sing Happy Birthday to G.G and I eat her cake?" I got the candles out and let him put the candles in it (21 of them) and we sang Happy Birthday to G.G. Then he asked me about her presents!

The weird thing that Braxton doesn't know is her birthday is coming up on July 29! We just celebrated a little early.

The Sign Says It All

Thursday was the service for my beautiful grandmother. This is the sign going into the church parking lot. It says how we all feel.

The other is a picture of Braxton having a tea-party with his Grandaddy and his G.G the night before she had her stroke while we were in the mountains.

Life is too short

It's weird the way life works out. My dad just retired after 36 years and couldn't wait to begin spending some time with his mom. We took her with us to the mountains two weeks ago. Braxton had tea parties with his G.G. We went and got ice cream. We took her shopping. And we took naps. The last morning we were there we couldn't get her awake and had to call the paramedics. So for the past week we've been at the hospital everyday praying and hoping that she'd wake up. After being told on Friday that she'd had a major stroke, we called my brother home and after he made it we all gathered around her bed and prayed for her to make the journey to a better place.

She went to Heaven Monday.

We took a picture of this lilly from our yard. We received it one Easter and it's never bloomed before. It reminded me of my Grandmother. Beautiful.

Can he really be 3?

Geez, where has the time gone? My little baby is 3 years old now! This birthday was tough. (Don't laugh, I know he's still little) I just think there is a huge difference between a 2 year old and a 3 year old and what really gets me is when I stop and think that next year he'll be 4!! Everyday is amazing with him. We took him to the doctor on Wednesday for his well visit and we had to do the 3 year questionaire to make sure he was doing ALL the things he should be. Some of things require you to ask him questions and write down his response or ask him to do things and write down what he does. We had some ladies in the waiting room rolling. He's just so funny. You never know what he's going to say. Which is another reason we all have learned to watch what we say around him!

Friday was his birthday party. I had it here and invited a few of his friends over. I prayed for no rain and God obliged and along with no rain gave us a little heat! Actually, it was a lot of heat. The kids had a ball complete with Giga Ball and a bounce house. We had a few of Braxton's favorites from Chick Fil A and partied into the night!

So Long, Farewell.....

.....After 36 years the best Nuclear Medicine Technician hung his coat up for the last time.....finally! My dad, finally, did I say finally, retired!! His last official working day was May 28 but Chris and Allyson and I (with much help from Ali, Brandon and Braxton) had a heck of a party on June 5. I just got the pictures and I'm so excited about them.

The theme was wonderful. We had pictures at every table that coordinated with a movie. The table names were movie titles that had some meaning to dad's life. It took 9 months but after a lot of planning,lots of thinking, and coordinating we pulled it off. Over 100 people came out for the event. Some as far away as California (Uncle Steve) and as far back in his life as kindergarten.