Nanie's 90th Birthday

We celebrated Nanie's (Helen King) 90th birthday on April 22, 2012.  We joined her for church at FPC...17 family members in attendance!  The choir sang a surprise Happy Birthday to her and she got to be the greeter that day.  Sylvie was a doll in church and went quite willingly to the nursery after the children's moment (which she did not participate in).  I had a coughing fit in the middle of service and didn't get to hear the sermon since you can't just can't trust the plague...once it starts, it often doesn't stop.  I meandered into the nursery during my choke-capade and saw Sylvie having a tea party with Mr. Mount, the retired shop teacher and luckily, grandfather of four.  He even took her to the potty.  I am so proud that my little girl is so sweet and trusting and willing to play with whomever happened to draw the short straw for nursery duty.

After church we headed to Nana & Papa's for lunch by the pool.  We had an amazing lunch, beautiful birdhouse birthday cake, presents and memories of our sweet Nanie.  The general consensus was that we all feel so blessed to have such a vibrant, healthy and happy Nanie even at 90 years of age.  We also determined that Vicks vapor rub is the secret to longevity, FYI.  Here's what I wrote in honor of Nanie:

My favorite thing about Nanie is that she took me in as her own from the very beginning.  I am not fortunate enough to have grandparents anymore, so I quickly snatched her up as my grandmother as soon as I knew she liked me.  Moving to Andalusia was a big change for me and at first, sometimes Nanie was one of my only friends.  But she made sure I had plans and met people…she’s the best “introducer” I know.  She also always kept me filled in on the gentle town gossip that helped me assimilate and understand who was related to who around here, where to shop, where not to eat, where to get different goodies and where to get things fixed, etc.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this woman cracks me up all the time.  I love her phone messages, her abrupt and concise phone calls, her southern idiosyncrasies and her genteel charm.  I can’t get over the fact that her mother’s name is Buena Vista.  I love that she knows her limits and respects her age.  I love that she has a valid opinion about everything that goes on around her and the fact that she can use email better than most half her age.  I love her traditions that she hasn’t renounced after all these years, like pulling out holiday decorations, going to the beach only during special days of the year, keeping detailed calendars, taking family pictures and planting different flowers on certain days of the year.  I love that when I have a domestic question, Parrish immediately says, “Call Nanie, she’ll know what to do.”

 I love how much she loves her family and her pride in us, no matter if we’ve let her down the week before.  She is so proud of us all the time.  I love that she knows the real meaning of family, even when most of the world has forgotten it.  I love her loyalty to her friends and how even though she’s watching them drift away one by one, she still has girl’s lunch and goes to the beauty shop like it’s her job.  I love that Margaret Proctor called her to “serve” at her holiday tea and Nanie actually did it…I mean, she actually hired Nanie instead of asking her to be a guest!  And you know Nanie just smiled and didn’t say a word and served every last one of the ladies, including me.  I love that she chaperones her 93-year-old friend on car trips because her friend’s family doesn’t want her driving alone.  I love her loyalty to her husband and I really hope I can live up to the love that Parrish knows exists from watching her.  I love that she invites you to tea and cookies in the afternoons and uses real china.

I love how much she loves my child and I love how much Sylvie worships her.  Sorry, but Nanie’s the favorite of all of us.  I love that she finds special things around her house and saves them for when Sylvie visits and that she makes a big deal out of Sylvie’s small accomplishments.  I love that she taught Sylvie how to properly apply lipstick.  I love that when I take Sylvie to her house to run errands or go to yoga, she says, “Take your time,” and she means it.

Most of all I love the fact that I get to love Nanie.  How many people get the chance to call their 90-year-old grandmother their friend?  To me, that’s the best thing about Nanie and I’m so happy to have her as my friend.

Vicki Popwell joined us as our own paparazzi and caught some great moments on film.  She is amazing.  She also had the great idea to put the family photo in the paper, so we'll all be famous come the Saturday edition of the Star News.

I leave you with another funny...Parrish has been biking pretty regularly and mostly goes with his friend, Daniel.  A friend of ours recently saw them together on their bikes and thought, "Well, there go some Mormon boys giving out Bibles again!"  Nope, just boyfriends in Spandex discussing carb counts and mileage.  Real life is so funny...who needs fiction?

God Bless,
Katie

April Days

What a busy and beautiful April we are having!  It is flying by.  I sort of mark time by big events and I've been anticipating our Three Notch Market for a year now and it's next weekend!  And we are so not ready.  I'm sure it will come together but I swear no matter how prepared I am I am never prepared enough.

This past weekend was an example of just that.  I had the 40th AU Singers reunion in Auburn.  Not my 40th, but the program's.  I'm not that old quite yet.  We had over 200 former Singers come back for a few days of singing, dancing and memories.  Guess who had bronchitis/whooping cough/the plague and couldn't sing?  I was the first person to register and pay my money (prepared) for goodness sakes!  And I cried the whole time I was there because I couldn't sing (unprepared) and was the first to leave (unprepared).  See a pattern here?  It was an emotional weekend for several reasons, not the least of which was hearing Dr. Smith effortlessly produce the most beautiful sound out of a room full of people, most of whom had never seen the piece of music put in front of them.  It's impossible to explain the power you feel when that happens.  I was blessed enough to get to experience it for three years while I was at Auburn.  I will never get that back, and that makes me sad.  I also miss my friends...these were the people who truly helped my break free and come out of my shell at a time when I was very concerned about what other folks thought about me.  My confidence was born in AU Singers and I'll always be grateful for that.  Parrish met me after I'd joined the group and I always say he never would've dated the Katie pre-Singers...she was just too meek and too much of a follower to attract a strong man like Captain Campus himself!  Or Perfect Parrish, as I like to call him now since we aren't on campus anymore, but he still is pretty much still a captain in his own mind.

 Kala, new mommy to 5-week-old Carter, Mer, best Singers friend, Katie, who uncharacteristically ordered hot tea at the bar.  Yes, I was really that sick.

 Molly, Mer, Katie, Kala and Whit.

 Mer, Kala, Whit, Philip, Molly, Ryan, Kevin, Will, Anna, Katie, Erika and Hillary.

Anyway, it was amazing and I will try to upload some of the vocals I recorded.  I thought they'd make a great way to expose the munchkin to real music.  Now, I know I'm being sentimental and that's boring.  So my best story from the weekend goes like this:  sweet Anne Marie approaches me and my friend Meredith and proceeds to tell Mer how much she thinks about her and how Mer helped changed Anne Marie's life.  Mer and I exchange glances, expecting her to talk about world peace or at least a minor life choice.  When prompted by our confused expressions, Anne Marie volunteers the "life change"...her boob job!  Inspired after Mer treated herself to the surgery our sophomore year.  How touching and simply wonderful...for me this was party fodder for the entire weekend.  I will never forget that moment and consider it the best of the trip, which is saying a lot since I laughed more in those two days than I have in a year.  Priceless.


The munchkin had a fine time at home with Daddy, attending Nanie's ladies birthday tea, going fishing and eating pork rinds, or chicharrones, as she likes to call them.  Who feeds their kid fried pork skin?  Shouldn't that be an adult decision?  Call me crazy but I consider that borderline child abuse.  Luckily I got back in time and got her back on her steady, healthy diet of Dora fruit snacks and Pediasure.  What?

As I said before, I was horribly sick last week and still kind of am.  Sylvie came down with her first ear infection (at two and a half I think that's pretty good), a result of her swimming lessons.  I swear I can't win for losing.  She can rescue herself if she falls in a pool but she'll get sick while trying.  Sheesh.  Anyway, we all have shared a lovely virus, including Parrish who never gets sick.  His staff was begging me to make him go home, but all he'd agree to was a flu swab at the pediatrician's office next door.  He was negative and stayed work, albeit with no voice and a light sheen of sweat all over his feverish body.  I've never seen a bigger baby in my life.  And PS, he was sneaking antibiotics and 600 mg ibuprofen because "he needed to get well quickly."  Since I do have time to be sick, by the way.  I have never met a stingier doctor in all my life.   I think it's borderline spousal abuse not to share the good stuff.  I think I'm seeing another pattern here.  Hmmmm...


Two funny poop stories, because who doesn't like a good poop story?  Sylvie has potty trained quite well and I'm so pleased at how relatively easy it was.  She announces when she has to go, gets a good book and takes her seat on the princess potty.  She then announces when she's actually going with a loud, "I'm POOOOPIN'!!" followed by a, "Yaaaaayyy!"  Awesome.  The other day she was asking about Parrish while on the potty and actually said, no lie, "Where's poo poo?  I mean, where's Daddy?"  I sometimes feel like the former is pretty fitting.  Only on the same days that he doles out pork rinds and won't share his drugs.  Other than that he's pretty perfect and not poo poo at all.


My last funny story for tonight:  at bedtime tonight I quietly asked Parrish to have a sippy cup ready with water because I knew the munchkin would ask for it as soon as she laid down.  I just did sign language for drinking because I didn't want to give her any ideas.  When she inevitably asked for water, I went into the kitchen and found a sippy cup next to a cold beer.  I administered the water, exited the nursery and promptly asked who the beer was for.  Parrish said, "I thought you meant water for Sylvie, but I also thought you might have needed a beer, so I got both ready, just in case."  This man knows me FAR too well. 


Good night and God Bless,
Katie

Easter 2012

First things first.

Yay, I'm potty trained!

That said, what a wonderful spring we are having! Mid-70s, sunny and gorgeous every day. Minus the sinus-attacking pollen, of course. That really puts a damper on play time-let's go inside, Sylvie, before Mommy's nose drips all over the freshly planted zinnias.

We had a lovely Easter weekend. We are at that great stage where Sylvie understands what's going on and gets super excited and can participate in all the fun activities Easter brings. We've been hunting eggs for weeks and singing "Here Comes Peter Cottontail." I really love this season. We've also been reading the Easter story and learning to say new things like, "resurrection" and "I'm alive!" My favorite quote...when asked why the Easter Bunny brought her a surprise on Easter morning, the munchkin replied, "Cause I sleep a long time!" Duh. Man, I'd rack up with the bunny if that were the case. I'm a natural-born sleeping champion when I'm allowed that luxury.

New garden. Here's hoping for another year of abundant organic tomatoes and peppers. Salsa, anyone?

We spent Sunday afternoon at Nana & Papa's house, enjoying a yummy lunch, a jumpy house and an adult egg hunt. That's right...this year we got in on the fun and had a great time hunting money eggs! Not gonna brag...ok, yes I am. I found the most eggs (a LOT more than Parrish) and treated myself to a new spring purse. Yippee!

I love this one!

So sweet.

Pretty in pink Nanie & Papa.

Loves her daddy.

Egg hunt!

Family picture (and yes, I am aware how big my head looks, Carey. I'm trying to grow out my cute pixie cut and am struggling through a severe,
Tom Petty-rivaling awkward stage.
So can it.)

Beautiful handmade dress by Nana shared by cousin Caroline.

Sweet girly cousins. Sylvie LOVES these girls.

We had a wonderful Easter egg hunt and parade at our church on Saturday. We had about 20 kids and all their parents...I consider it a huge success for a growing church.

Easter parade!

Get em, girl.

I think one of the best things that happened over Easter weekend was getting the good news that our pastor, Brother Tim, was reappointed to our church for his ninth year. This made me so happy (I absolutely love him)...I got choked up before we had to sing our cantata! Not good for a soprano.

Easter bonnets with Nanie.

God Bless,
Katie