Bath Buddies

 Lauryn and Devyn being bath buddies!

Monday, Mondays....I started working one or two days a week back at Dr. Taylor's office about a month ago. I started with Dr. Taylor, who is a pediatric dentist who also does orthodontics, when Justin and I first moved to Georgia back in 2000. When Maryn was born in 2003, as much as I loved everyone there, I quit to stay at home with her. Now nine years and three more babies later I am back! It's been a nice, little outlet for me and keeps my brain cells firing. But waking up at 5:00 a.m. and not getting home until about 6:45 p.m. on Mondays makes for a long day.

So I was grateful to be able to come home and give my Littles their bath before bed tonight and watch them play. It's so strange, it doesn't seem like that long ago that it was Maryn and Brynna singing and playing in the tub. Now they can run their long-legged selves to the shower and do their own thing. But my Littles, they still love a good hair-washing from Momma and relished giggling as they saw how ticked off they could get me with their splashing. I am ready to freeze these two. Because if the passage of time with their sisters has taught me anything, it's that these little, squeezable years fly by way too quickly.

Fall Is In The Air

     The air that has hung over Georgia as a result of Hurricane Isaac has been warm and thick. Clouds loomed from horizon to horizon like a playground bully loving to see it's victims squirm and sweat under their oppression. But this morning some force of nature pushed Isaac and his unwelcome presence out and we were greeted with a crisp 58 degree morning with an endless view of blue sky. I cooked up a big pot of oatmeal with apples I picked myself from a North Georgia orchard this week, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and butter.

     The girls cozied up to their warm bowls of goodness as they exclaimed "Mom! This tastes just like Fall!" They then started in, going back and forth, about their favorite things that were inspired by cooler weather. Pumpkin patches, Halloween, warm wassail laced with cinnamon, orange and cloves. They drooled at the thought of chocolate chip pumpkin bread and eating breakfast wrapped in a blanket. The turning of leaves and the hope that winter would bring snow. All things I love so much myself.

     I've often wondered what it is about Fall that captures my heart. Spring has blooms and new life. Summer, warmth and carefree days. Winter, the anticipation of the holidays and all the wonder that goes with it. But Fall....there is something about it that I love so much. Maybe it's that with the turning of the seasons, as leaves change from who they were, we see that there is beauty in that transformation. And maybe I like the idea that that change can be reflected in our own lives. That time may change us and challenge us, but it doesn't have to diminish us. That our beauty, inside and out, can become more vibrant than ever with each turning season of our life.

Oh the Memories...

Justin was working on his computer in the Dining Room and this song came up on rotation. Talk about a total flashback! This song was like the anthem to my Freshman year in high school.
Random memories...

*Playing this song over and over until my friends were like "Uh, are you okay?!" It was just that good!

*My first "boyfriend" Ricky, the Asian dude who didn't floss. His gums were inflamed...I was a dental nerd before I was even a dental nerd. (I am going to say not a real boyfriend though in retrospect, even though we were 'going out.' We did not even kiss, we got sweaty palms just holding hands!)

* My friend Desiree and I thinking we could have our own girl band with our friend Renee named "Sarenidee" (as in our names fused together....I don't even sing people. What we were thinking? I don't know, the Spice Girls had taken over the world!)

*I remember being threatened to being arrested for shoplifting because I ate ONE of those sugar-covered, jelly orange slice things out of the bulk container at Cub Foods.

*I remember auditioning for the school play for the part of the maid...I freaked out and lost my Irish accent mid-audition and didn't get the part and then promptly swore I was never putting myself out there ever again.

*I remember the trombone players behind me in band class (my parents made me do it, don't judge) asked me if I wanted to "smoke a bowl" with them. I had no idea what they were talking about and thought it was one of those mean, freshman hazing things upperclassmen do. (No I didn't do it!)

*I remember one of my friends was dating the guy I had had a secret crush on in the 7th Grade and she was telling me about how they had 'done it' on her parent's bed. I was sitting in History class completely traumatized that my middle school crush; sweet, geeky Garth Gehlen was 'doing it' and on my friend's parent's bed. Sick!

*I remember having a total crush on my friend Annie's older brother Will and would love it when he would drive me home from school in his yellow, VW Bug playing "Low Rider" on the radio. I thought we were so cool.

*I remember asking a cowboy in Horticulture class if it was true that Wranglers (they wore them SO tight!) could lower your sperm count because the "boys" were snuggled up too close and got overheated. He freaked out and chewed me out in front of the whole class. I was like "What?! I am not trying to be mean! It's an honest question!"

*I remember being a Teacher's Assistant in the Attendance Office third period and sitting at the window humming "Better Than Ezra" songs to myself thinking it would be really cool to have a lot of t-shirts from different concerts...

*I remember the lunch room had this chicken sandwich thing that you could slather with Thousand Island dressing and it was pretty much the nectar of the gods. I could have eaten two or three every day! (But I didn't, but I could have!)

Alright enough memory lane, because this could go on all night. But its crazy what one little song sparked in my little, ol' brain tonight!

Flashback

Maryn went to a birthday party for her friend, Jennsen, this afternoon at a roller skating rink down in Woodstock. I had total flashbacks walking in of me and my friend, Tina, at Sparkles Roller Rink when we were Maryn's same age. Roller rinks don't change much through the generations. Music blaring, loud carpet, sweaty kids whizzing by left and right, the concessions chocked full of sugary, nutritionally-devoid treats which are a complete must-have to participate in an authentic roller rink experience. There was even the prerequisite adult male there by himself skating alone. (My mom said there was always "that guy" even when she was a kid.) It made me laugh. Maryn had a great time and told me to calm down after I gave her the buddy-system, what's-the-secret-password, don't-talk-to-strangers talk before going out to the car to read while she had fun with her friends. I know it will be a blink of an eye before Maryn makes the trek to the roller rink with her own kidlets and will remember days like today fondly. I know I sure do!