The anticipation of the visit

There is one upside to living hundreds of miles away from most of my family... the anticipation of their visits!  My parents arrive here on Friday and Nora and Len will arrive on Saturday.  These trips were booked months ago and now it's just days away.  It has been a very long time since they were both here at the same time which makes it even more special.

I have friends who live blocks away from their parents and I have heard the challenges they face - juggling holiday requests to spend with one family vs. the other, the drop-bys, the weekend dinners.  I am jealous of those (well, not the drop-bys - I am not a fan of the drop-by)! I'm jealous that their parents get to go to their children's soccer games and ballet recitals.  But there is also something very special about having your parents stay with you for a weekend, or longer.

When my parents were here for Grace's birthday in January, I had a horrible cold.  For weeks, I had looked forward to the visit and then I felt sick the whole time they were here.  We still managed to have a great time but it was not the visit I had hoped for.  I have been santizing hands and door knobs for days now in hopes that none of us will be sick for this visit!

Speaking of sanitizing, another plus to having company visit is the cleaning that occurs before each visit.  This weekend, I did some major cleaning and organizing.  My parents really don't care if my house is clean or not, but we care and so it is a good motivation to get things in shape.  Grace and Bruno were getting sick of me staring at the freshly cleaned pantry (the one where we hadn't seen the floor in months).  It felt good to get things organized.

So now we countdown the days.  Grace has been waking up every morning this week and walking into our room in the morning holding up her fingers showing how many days until we see Jamma and Poppy.  She loves the anticipation as well!

Only 3 more days!

Here's to Tara

You may think this is a post in honor of my mom, Tara.  But today, I want to honor a woman I met just a few months ago whose name is also Tara.  Her daughter is in Grace's class at school and she also works at the school.  I met her in the fall and saw her at back-to-school events, plays and birthday parties.  She was so nice and kind to me, friendly and outgoing. 

And then, in late fall (I don't remember exactly when, I know she does), I got an e-mail from one of the other parents.  The e-mail said that Tara had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I was heartbroken for her and her family.  But they had caught it early so she had surgery and was hoping that would take care of it.  Then in early January, at her daughter's birthday party, she told me that she would soon learn if she needed chemo and/or radiation.  A few days later, she learned that she would indeed need both.

The school community responded and we recieved more e-mails over the course of several weeks.  Here's to Lisa for coordinating all of the meals and outreach for Tara.  Lisa made sure that Tara's family had dinner every night and that it wasn't all just pasta dinners.  I'm sure it has been such a relief for Tara and her family to not have to worry about the daily "what's for dinner?" question. 

When I first met Tara, she had the most gorgeous, long, blond hair - she had a contagious smile and a warm, caring way about her.  Before her chemo, she cut her hair into a short bob - it looked adorable.  She told me that as long as she was going to lose her hair, she would have fun getting some new, short hair styles.  She has such an amazing attitude!

I saw her the other day.  She had a wig on.  And she looked adorable - she looked gorgeous.  She still has her contagious, beautiful smile and her warm, caring way.  I asked her how the chemo was going and she said she was blessed that it had not been too bad.  She said she was exhausted but had not been too sick.  It simply amazes me that someone going through chemo can say it's not too bad.  Her positive attitude and outlook on life have to be such a tremendous help to her during this time. 

She has one more round of chemo and then on to 6 weeks of radiation.  She is already planning on walking in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in June and I know she will be there on race day wearing her "I beat cancer" t-shirt.  She is an amazing woman with a sparkling attitude who will fight this evil disease.  Here's to Tara!

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Here's to Mimi

My maternal grandparents were born in Ireland so this is a very special day in our family.  My grandmother, Mimi, was born in County Cork and my grandfather was born in County Kerry.  I didn't have the pleasure of meeting my grandfather because he died before I was born.  But I was blessed with knowing my Mimi for 16 years.  Mimi embraced every single solitary bit of her Irish heritage.  She loved making soda bread.  She loved Irish music more than any other kind and we loved to sing songs with her.  Some of her favorites were the Black Velvet Band and Hello Patsy Fagan (here is a link to Grace's rendetion of it). My mom told me that Mimi's mom would send shamrock's from Ireland for St. Patrick's day.  She loved being Irish!

It amazes me that Mimi came to the United States as a young woman and left behind everything she knew for the opportunities in the United States.  I just posted earlier this week about moving to DC and leaving behind my family and friends.  It was so different than what Mimi had to endure.  I could call my family and friends basically anytime I wanted and visited them frequently.  I remember Mimi telling the story about going back to Ireland after many, many years.  She planned the trip as a surprise for her mom.  I remember Mimi telling me that her mom was sitting on the steps peeling potatoes and then she looked up, saw Mimi and ran down the steps to embrace her.  How amazing that hug must have been! 

Aside from a couple of visits back to Ireland, Mimi could only write letters to her mother and her family as it was too expensive to call.  In fact, I don't even know if my great-grandma had a phone! Mimi saved all of those letters, along with the heart-wrenching telegram that said "Mother died this morning. Stop."  (Are you crying yet... what can I say? It's an Irish story... there has to be tears and eventually laughter and then tears while you are laughing...)

After Mimi died, I typed up many of the letters for my aunts so that they could read the beautiful exchanges between my grandma and her mom.  The paper was almost transulcent and fragile it was so old.  The black ink pen was hard to read and had bled through the paper.  But what an absolute treasure those letters are.  And the amazing part was when I came across one that my great-grandma sent to my Mimi.  I wish I had it here so I could use her words.  Even without much, if any, schooling at all, my great-grandma was an absolutely beautiful writer.  The letter said something to the effect of, "My dearest Nora - Two years ago today you came home to suprise me.  I was sitting on the front steps when I looked up and there you were.  My beautiful daughter had come home."  The part that was amazing is that the story was almost verbatim from what Mimi had told me for so many years.

And now today, my entire family celebrates this day and we celebrate Mimi and her love of all things Irish!  We make soda bread, we play Irish music, we dance and we celebrate our heritage because that's what Mimi would have done.

We had a party this weekend and didn't serve much Irish food (not sure Mimi would have approved).  But here are some pictures.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

There is just something about a Costco cake - with cheesecake filling - yum!

Chocolate cake balls inspired by Bakerella.

Living in DC

First of all, a quick side note - Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad!  Forty-two years of marriage - yipee!  What wonderful role models they have been to me and Bruno on how to have a great and lasting marriage.  Enjoy your day, mom and dad!

Now on to living in DC...Thirteen years ago I made a life-changing decision.  I decided to move to DC.  I had been working for a member of Congress in his district office in Michigan and had planned to move to DC after he was re-elected.  Problem was that he wasn't reelected!  But I decided to move to DC anyway. I didn't have a job when I made the decision so I came out here for a week in November and had a couple of interviews and was very fortunate to land a job.  I started in mid-December 1996. 

My plan was to stay for a year or two so that I could say later in life say that I had lived in DC once.  Little did I know I would meet wonderful friends, fall in love, get married, buy a house (and then another), and have two children.  Both Bruno and I love living in DC (ok, we live in Arlington which is 5 miles away - close enough for us)!  It is a very different place from where we grew up in Michigan and Massachusetts. 

Sometimes the differences make me laugh and sometimes they make me miss the niceness of the midwest:

• "What do you do?" and "where do you work?" are usually the first questions asked when someone meets you.  So much for, "Hi, my name is ___, what is your name?"
• People go to "balls" instead of "parties". 
• It's a regular occurrence to see a motorcade of varying lengths (the longer the motorcade, the more important the person) zoom by you.
• The national news that most people watch on CNN is our local news.
• People will drive over an hour to go 5 miles - as I did on Friday morning.
• Because the traffic is so bad, informal car pools form at parking lots. A car pulls up and two random people get in the car. The people who ride in these car pools are called "slugs".  It seems so bizarre to me that people would ride with strangers but it seems to work.
• Bars have CNN and MSNBC on their TVs.
• I love being able to drive by the US Capitol at any time of day and seeing its grandeur.  At night, it is lit up so beautifully.  I thought I might get used to seeing the Capitol after living here for 13 years, but I always love seeing that building.
• I love being able to take the kids to a Smithsonian or a monument on a random Saturday.

Almost everyone I know is not "from" DC but from places all over the country.  We are so blessed to have Kerri and Mark live near us (they actually do live in DC).  But they are our only family who lives here.  And most our friends are in the same boat.  So I realized very quickly after moving here that our friends are our family. 

• It's our friends who watch our kids when school is cancelled and we can't get out of our meetings at work. 
• It's our friends who we borrow milk and eggs from when we don't want to run to the store.
• It's our friends who we list as our emergency contacts on the school forms.
• It's our friends who come over for dinner on Sunday afternoons. 
• It's our friends who we invite to our children's birthday parties. 
• It's our friends who hold us up when we are stressed out trying to juggle working and raising two little ones. 
• It's our friends who keep us centered in this town full of politics and who-knows-who. 
• It's our friends who keep us here. 
• It's our friends who are our family. 

Here's to my DC friends - thank you!  We couldn't do this city without you!  We treasure your friendship, your support and your love.

Losing a tooth

A couple of weeks ago, Grace realized she had a loose tooth.  I was so excited for her - she has been waiting over a year for this moment.  It was one of her two front teeth.

Then a few days later, she realized that her other front tooth was loose.

Shortly after that, she started wiggling her bottom front tooth. 

And then a few days after that, her second bottom front tooth was loose!

Oh boy!  If you are keeping track, that is FOUR loose teeth at the same time! 

She happened to have a dentist appointment on Thursday and he thought she would lose one of the top teeth first.  She went back to school after her appointment and was snacking on an apple when the bottom one became very loose.

So, the next day she went off to school and when I picked her up, she had lost her tooth!  Of course I wanted to know every detail.  She told me that she bit into her pizza at lunch and her tooth really got loose and so the gym teacher (who monitors the lunch) grabbed a napkin and pulled it out!  (Both Bruno and I are kind of creeped out about the whole pulling teeth thing so we are thrilled that the gym teacher pulled it out!)

The tooth fairy graced us with her presence on Friday night and brought Grace a $1 coin and a $1 bill. 

Now we wait for the other three to come out - hopefully not too soon!  I told Grace she might have to switch to milkshakes for a few months is she loses all 4 teeth at once!

How did you fall asleep last night?

In my opinion, one of the greatest inventions for parents with babies is the video monitor.  They are expensive and certainly not a necessity but oh such a luxury.  We had a sound monitor with Grace but I always wondered if she was really asleep when I didn't hear any noise and I was curious what she was doing when I heard things rattling around.  So we decided to splurge when Abigail was born and bought a video monitor!  I can lay in bed and watch her sleep.   We love watching Abigail "on tv"!

I think I have mentioned before that Abigail goes to bed so easily (knock on wood).  We read her a couple of books, put her down with her paci and her puppy (Spunky) and she eventually dozes off without crying.  Last night, I happen to be in our bedroom when I saw her on the monitor.  She was sitting up with her back against the slats of the crib.  I couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed.  Every few minutes I would see her play with her puppy.   She was very quiet though and just sat there.  Eventually, her head started nodding.  We all know that feeling of falling asleep while you are sitting up and your head starts to bob.  That is exactly what happened to her.  A couple of times she laid down for a second but then popped back up to sitting.  I brought the monitor downstairs so Grace and Bruno could watch.  It was so funny to watch and we were all laughing! 

Eventually, Bruno felt bad for her as it became apparent that she wasn't going to lay down on her own.  So he went in and laid her down.  But now I wonder, does she do this frequently!?  I don't usually watch her fall asleep but now it may have to become our evening entertainment!