The Great Eight(y)

Today my favorite lady turns 80!

Granny, you have this amazing ability to soak up the life around you and make the rest of us look like old fuddy-duddies.

I tried to make it clear how great I think you are with this post- Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due -but I thought I should add a few more things to the list:

She still finds absolutely nothing wrong with spending the night sleeping on a swing set in her backyard when the air is cool. I’m pretty sure that turning 80 isn’t going to put a stop to this behavior.

Spontaneity. Does your grandmother randomly send you emails that she has packed up and left the state without a hotel reservation or a plan on where she’s going or when she’ll be back? Mine does. And I hope to one day follow in her footsteps.

I love that she calls people “young man” or “young lady.” Some that are given these honorifics are four years old and some are fifty.

She’s sharp as a tack. I’ve never seen her play sudoku or complete logic puzzles to keep her wits about her, but she manages to do both long division and crossword puzzles without blinking.

She also happens to be pretty tech-savvy. My grandmother is on facebook (you can be her friend if you want to, and why wouldn’t you?) and she sends me emails with everything from articles about how to grow vanilla bean plants to photos she thinks I’d appreciate.

Talking with her is no different than talking to someone my own age. Conversations include new hair products she likes (apparently my curly/straight hair comes from her side of the genetics), which bands will be playing at different venues, and places she wants to visit (not that she’ll give me any advance notice when she actually goes on those trips!).

Happy Birthday Granny!!! We love you!!!

Snapshots

One More {Little} Number

Our little girl turned four today.

Four.

It hasn’t sunk in yet.

Yesterday she told me, “Before you can be a grownup, you have to be all the little numbers first.”

Today she marked one more little number off her list of things to do and be.

While there is this part of me that wants to tuck her into a ball and make her stay tiny forever, the rest of my heart is truly excited to watch her grow.

Matt and I woke her this morning (after we told her to go back to sleep when she asked at 5 am if the sun was up yet) with a blueberry muffin topped with a pink candle and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

She smiled and then immediately stood up to show us how much she has grown and asked, “Do I look four now?”

Yes, yes, she does.

She looks four and talks four and acts four.

(Except for those crazy times when she looks thirteen and talks thirteen and acts thirteen.)

Four years ago she was this tiny little thing and I didn’t know what to do with her.

Now she is tall and huge and I don’t know what I’d do without her.

29 and Counting

For a cold, rainy, weekday birthday, yesterday was pretty great.

It started with a plumber telling us we have a broken pipe underneath our house and it ended with me having to lecture for 3 hours, but everything in-between those two events were wonderful… beautiful flowers, new music I’ve been longing for, a homemade pecan pie, a trip to the bookstore, sprinkles cupcake deliciousness, and a photo of my child that made me laugh until I cried.

An undeniably great start to a new year.

Wishing We Lived in Richmond

A very special woman has a birthday today. While we aren’t physically there to celebrate with her and the rest of the family, our hearts definitely are.

GranAnn- we love you and miss you. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that this next year brings you nothing but joy and blessings.

GranAnn

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Officially Three.

Abby’s been counting down to today for months. I’ve been dreading it.

She’s 3. She’s now a garden planting, flower picking, cupcake licking, potty using, chef loving, three year old kid.

No longer a baby. Not even a toddler. She’s a kid.

A kid I happen to love even more now than 36 months ago.

30 Things. Two Years.

I know a few friends who have done this and I’m following suit. I’ve made a list of 30 things I’d like to accomplish before I’m 30. A bucket list for my 20s if you will.

And yes, I’m only 28. But since I’m a procrastinator, I thought I better give myself more than a year to accomplish them all!

1. Write a story. Short, long, fiction, nonfiction. Doesn’t matter. As long as I start and finish a piece of writing.

2. Submit photos to a photography contest.

3. Run a half marathon. Run, not walk.

4. Make a photobook full of pictures of Matt and me.

5. Go camping. Real, in a tent, no electricity camping. It has been a long time and I miss it.

6. Paint a picture. Who cares what the subject is, I want to paint something other than a wall.

7. Frame and hang photos. I’m horrible about framing photographs. No one who enters our house knows who lives there. Unless they look at the pics on the computer.

8. Visit Dallas museums. I’ve never been to the JFK museum or any of the other Dallas museums and I’ve lived here a long time.

9. Volunteer with a local charity. I want to get involved with something that is not directly tied to the church.

10. Make a new quilt. It has been a while since I’ve quilted. I need a new quilt and I have more than enough fabric to get the job done.

11. Experience more live music. I listen to music all the time but I rarely go to shows anymore. I want to get back into the habit of going to coffee shops, bars, venues, wherever and hear some live music that hasn’t been digitally enhanced.

12. Start journaling. I have lots of empty journals. Beautiful journals with nothing inside. I want to put pen to paper but I think fear gets in my way. I’m afraid of ruining those beautiful journals with meaningless words.

13. Read a book of the Bible for each novel I read. I read a lot of books. And I think I should be putting as much God-ordained information into my head as worldly works. So after I read a novel, I’m going to try and read a book of the Bible. It seems like it might work better for me than any “reading plan” ever will.

14. Eat at a fancy restaurant where I don’t understand the menu. I’d like to go somewhere and eat some of the stuff that I watch being made on Top Chef.

15. Visit a new beach. I love beaches. I want to see as many as I can.

16. Explore a new state. I’ve covered a lot of the south, mid, and west USA but with the exception of Virginia I haven’t seen any of the east coast and I’m certain I’m missing out.

17. Throw more parties. I don’t care what the reason is: birthdays, holidays, first Saturday of the month… doesn’t matter. Just get our friends together more often.

18. Make more gifts. For me gifts are just so much more personal and intentional when they’re made.

19. Do more holiday and seasonal crafts with Abby. Matt’s so much better at the arts than I am, but surely I can do finger paintings, right?

20. Quit worrying what other people think of me. I swear, in my head, it’s like I’m still in junior high.

21. Stop hiding from the camera. I realize that if I don’t find a way to actually be in a photograph instead of only taking them, there will be no proof that I was ever young… well, youngish.

22. Spend more time outdoors. It is very easy to get trapped inside for the majority of the day and I just need to make it a point to open the door and get out there.

23. Use coupons. They’re there and they save money, but I don’t use them enough.

24. Be intentional about having date nights with Matt. We let life get in the way and then we feel like we haven’t seen each other in months.

25. Eat healthier. Not salad, just healthier.

26. Go to the doctor for a checkup and a physical. I don’t think I’ve ever had a physical. I’d like to know how I’m doing before I get sick.

27. Patience. I need more.

28. Read the newspaper on a regular basis. I don’t want to watch any more tv than I already do, but I want to know what is going on in the world.

29. See a tv show being filmed. Preferably Letterman but I’m willing to negotiate.

30. Take a class for fun. I don’t know what type of class- pottery, photography, dance- just something I’d enjoy without worrying about what grade I get.

My Big Brother

just got a little bit older. Too bad… 35 seemed to suit him well.
I love you Bub.

The good news on the following video is Abby isn’t singing out of the side of her mouth.
The bad news is she still shows no signs of tune or rhythm.

Happy Birthday Uncle Deek!

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For Matt…

from your little girl.

Happy Birthday Daddy

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Box of Love

Tomorrow will be Matt’s 32nd birthday. We don’t have a whole lot of birthday traditions around here… every year’s celebration is different from the one before… but there is one thing I love. Matt’s first birthday after we were married- his 26th- I decided to write what I loved about him on a piece of paper. I wrote 1 reason I loved him for each of his 26 years, and then I stuffed them all into this little red box. Well, we still have the box, and as of tonight it now holds 32 things that I love about Matt.

To tell the truth, Matt probably thinks much less of this tradition than I do, but I take comfort in knowing that I’ve put into words how I feel about him. I love that each year I get to sit down and write out one new thing that makes my heart grow fonder. And I’ve got to tell you- any time I’m mad at him all it takes is a glance in the box to remember the good stuff.

I hope to continue this tradition every year for the rest of our lives… I hope I have to find a bigger box one day. Each year I pull all of the notes out and reread them… some are eternal things, some are more specific to that year of our lives, but all of them are examples of what a great man Matt is.

So if you’re in the market for a new tradition then consider creating a box of love for someone else.