Who Hid Mom's Chocolate?

No escape from the Heartland of America this week, but that's not to say I'm no longer considering a permanent visit to San Diego, Portland and/or Cocoa Beach. Instead, celebrating our youngest peep's birthday ensued, complete with eating out at Famous Dave's (saucey amazingness!) and partying it up at home with friends (pizza, cake, ice cream, Wii games, Nerf darts & tackle football). Even I must admit that this year's birthday was most definitely a birthday to remember, at least until we outdo ourselves next year. Or try, anyway. Let's be optimistic here.

Behind the scenes of all this celebration madness, our oldest peep, the cellist, found herself in search of a full size cello to replace the ¾ cello she has outgrown, something that seems so odd when I can vividly remember when the ½ size one was taller than HER. Anyway, to do this, she recruited Mom (yes, me) to make a litany of phone calls in search of said replacement and to schedule actual cello viewings with her private cello teacher at local music stores. Who would've thought we'd be running all over tarnation in search of a simple cello replacement? Yeah well, unfortunately our search came up short, so that particular item remains on the 'To Do' list for yet another week, month, *insert random time frame here*.

Calendar check time - hey, cool! Another school day off for the peeps so that they might take some quality time to properly celebrate Martin Luther King Day by playing video games in their pajamas and building snow creatures outside for me to photograph from the window, mostly because I don't own long underwear or snow pants and would much rather stay inside where it's not FREEZING COLD. Makes total sense to me, but there I go digressing again.

Uh oh... wait, here's the not-so-cool thing on our calendar for the week: CCD Retreats. Will be getting back to you on that one. Lordy.

And now here's a birthday blooper just for fun:

Escape from Snow Mountain

So it's 2010 and we're just now returning back to life as we knew it before the Snowstorm of the Century smacked us into the new year. And yet lo and behold, several snow days and a holiday break later, here I sit back in my Orchestra Mom Chair on Principle Stand Audition Day. So what does that mean exactly? It means parents get reacquainted with one another and our electronics while string players interested in having a “star by their names on the program” try out for that TOP CHAIR in performances, also known as the famous Seat Closest to the Conductor. (As I send a thumbs up sign to cellist peep as she heads off to her audition – Break a leg, girlie!)

The week ahead... wow, flashback to 11 years ago when I was 41 weeks pregnant with our youngest who had absolutely NO intention of arriving on time. But then Dr. M induced labor on January 11^th and our feisty-spark-plug-of-a-son blessed us with his presence the very next day. That son of ours hit the ground running from the get-go and hasn't stopped since. So what to do? Throw a smashingly ginormous birthday party to celebrate the occasion, complete with Wii games, Nerf darts, air hockey, snow football, pizza, cake, ice cream, presents – all shared with a few of his favorite dude friends.

The party is so ON.
(more on that during my next blog installment)

In the meantime on a personal note (as if this blog isn't all about personal notes, right?), I am now accepting nominations for relocation ideas. After all of this cold/snow/BLIZZARD activity that we've been experiencing over the past couple of months, I've completely had it with this weather that is so not for me. It stifles my creativity and ices me over like some sort of human skating rink. I crawl into bed and never want to get out. It sucks the spunk right out of me, morphing me into this zombie-like creature that I don't even recognize. For these reasons, I need a new place to hang. If anything, a spot for daydreaming purposes to yank me out of this cold weather funk.

Although some potential winners already come to mind, I'd seriously consider any others in addition to these:

Portland, Oregon
Southern California - SAN DIEGO
New Bern, North Carolina
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Cocoa Beach, Florida
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Rome, Italy
Venice, Italy
French Riviera
Hawaii
Atlantis
... your nomination here.

In Memory

This week will go down in history as one that carried major milestones for me and the family with the biggest being my Grandmother's passing on Hubs' birthday. The unfortunate part of it all was the fact that Hubs' work sent him out of town, impacting plans for attending Grandma's funeral. But I didn't put funeral attendance out of my mind completely, especially with my parent's willingness to do whatever they could to make sure I made it there in one piece. Mostly, the issue I faced was the sheer lack of last-minute backup support for transporting the kids to/from school, etc. Ugh.

So I missed it. There. But guess what? My folk's Blackberry turned out to be the saving-est grace of all time, as they sent actual PHOTOS of Grandma to me in real-time as the viewing took place, then more images of her estate as family sorted through items that had no designated home. Not only that, but they also sent pictures of distant relatives whom I hadn't laid eyes on in years, making me feel like the fly-on-the-wall that I wanted to be. Technology saves the day, once again.

Yes, I'm forever disheartened about not attending Grandma's funeral. However, despite the physical distance between us over the years, I will always be proud to have actually been present for Grandma while she was alive by remembering her all year long with cards, family photos, clothing, holiday/birthday checks to help supplement her income, etc. The peeps and I visited, not as much as she would've liked, but we made the trip to her apartment in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and spent real-life time with her. So in a basic sense, we'll always be glad for keeping her in our thoughts & prayers, taking the time to remember her properly, making the extra effort before she was called to new life.

Grandma left behind a legacy; and when I focus on describing her as a person and the life she lived, a few words spring into my mind: faith-filled, dignified, gracious, lived a simple life and loved her family. Grandma is in Heaven now, reflecting on memories with Grandpa, enjoying time with Pudgie, the pet dog they owned many years ago, watching the fuss centered around her possessions, smiling and shaking her head at it all and patiently awaiting the day she reunites with the rest of us again.

I will miss Mary Patricia Green, my grandmother.

Grandma, Me, Mom (@1989 in Bradford, PA)