I remember.

There are so many stories from September 11, 2001. People who were spared. Thousands of others who were not. There were loads of memories of that day that flooded me yesterday as I remembered... No, I haven't forgotten. Nor will I. I was supposed to be in NYC that day at a client. We'd moved into our first house that summer and the dryer vent was loused up. The builder FINALLY (after some 'persuasion') agreed to fix it... that morning... so I was delayed in leaving. The man who came to fix it, and I, sat on the sofa watching the horror unfold all the while I was on and off the phone with Stephen .... He was at our office in Tinton Falls, NJ. A mere 40 miles from the attacks. There were so many in our little town of Easton, PA that were affected. We lived in a 'suburb' for a lot of people that worked in 'The City'. It took Stephen a long long time to get home that day/night. But he did get home. At the time, Stephen and I both traveled for a living... Always on airplanes. Most of the time leaving out of Newark. Flying in the weeks after the attacks was a totally different ball game. I remember leaving on my first trip after 9/11 and just crying at the airport. I didn't want to get on a plane. I didn't want to be in that airport. I didn't want to go. At the time I was on anywhere between 6-8 flights a week. It was what I did. I traveled. A lot! And then... I.was.done! I didn't want to travel anymore. I didn't want Stephen to get back on a plane. Yes, I let the fear get to me. I let them win. For a bit. But even through my feelings of please don't make me get back on a plane... I saw the good. I saw the kindness of strangers. The love that exists for others. The pilots and flight attendants who you always knew were pretty incredible at their jobs... but who I now looked at with a whole new respect and admiration. I received hugs the in airport as fellow business travelers saw my look of angst. I gave the hugs to those that I saw mirroring my thoughts and feelings. We talked about 'where we were' when we heard the news. We talked about those we knew affected by the terror attacks. We talked about the 'near misses' of that day. We prayed together. We talked.... We shared.... We prayed... We loved one another. 2,977 people died that day. At least a thousand more have died since then of health related issues that occurred from the work done at Ground Zero. Today in a time when our country seems to be so divided... We need to be ever more mindful to talk. Love. Share. Pray. I will never forget.

Birthday Coats!

If you've heard me talk about birthdays of my youth you know that my sister and I celebrated our birthdays together, every year.  Her birthday is July 13 and mine July 31.  So... with birthdays being weeks apart my Mom would split the difference and have one party.  One cake. Two kids. It made good fiscal sense. Given it was summer our parties consisted of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and maybe a neighbor or two. I don't recall ever having a school friend at a party. That's likely because we were in center of summer break and things like Evites, e-mail and texting didn't exist.  (Avoiding a summer birthday for our child was something S & I planned for so (she) could have birthday parties with friends... Yeah. Planner in all things. Judge if you must. ;) HA!) 

One of the traditions of our birthday parties was our gifts. I don't remember  a year where our birthday gifts weren't winter coats. Big, heavy winter coats. In July. That we modeled. Did I mention the IN JULY part? I distinctly remember that my coats were always pink. Hot pink. Light pink. Hot & Light pink combined. (No joke, one year my whole wardrobe was pink. One color. That's ALL I WORE!!!) Because of this I gained a nickname of 'Cupcake' by some of the older kids on the school bus. I still don't know if it was a term of endearment or they were teasing me... Either way... I was Cupcake all through elementary school. 

Now 30+ years later... approaching the big four oh and I look back and know the necessity of those gifts. Back then, we just thought that's what everyone got. Say what? You didn't get a winter coat for your birthday? I'm sorry! My sister and I would model them, twirls and all, with those hoods on and tied, in the dead of summer. Oh, I'm sure there were groans, mostly because of how hot it was, but we'd do it. Because, well... It was a new winter coat!!! Woohoo!!!  For years I've wondered... how in the world did they find a winter coat in July?  I couldn't tell you who gave us the coats... whether it was my grandparents, my mom, my aunt and uncle... I don't know. I just know we got them!  

Yesterday I was shopping at Costco and I came across these cute ... wait for it... WINTER COATS!!! What did I do? Yes ma'am, I bought one!! I didn't think about it until I got home and then laughed at myself. HAHAHA - I bought myself a winter coat. In July. About the same weekend we had our birthday party every year.  I felt like my Mom was getting a good chuckle out of this up in heaven. 

Yes Mom... A winter coat... but this time in blue.  See that? I'm branching out! ;)  (Oh. And they didn't have pink. Or green.) 

xo 

One Epic Swing Set

About 18 months ago K asked if she could have a swing set in the backyard.  Innocent question. I mean she was 6 at the time.  Seemed like a reasonable ask, right?  But for us... It was a much much larger conversation than a swing set. Stephen and I talked about getting one and redesigning the backyard on Serendipity to accommodate a swing set. And then we started talking about what I perceived as the commitment of installing a swing set. To me, it meant that we weren't moving anytime soon. It meant that church would continue to be 30-40 minutes away on a Sunday. 90 minutes on a weekday. It meant that Stephen's ambition to attend Theology School would very likely be later, if it ever happened.

And so... Because of the conversation of a swing set... We decided to move. We spent the next 15 months searching for a house, finding a house, contracting for the new house, staging our house, putting our house on the market, having over 18 offers on the house that either fell through or were crap, having major delays on the new house, Stephen STARTING THEOLOGY SCHOOL!!!!, Stephen having a middle of the night ER visit that turned into surgery and a 3 day hospital stay, closing on the Serendipity house the week between Christmas and New Years, moving to an apartment, K starting a new school, both of our companies being sold/acquired, to finally moving from the apartment into the new house.

It's been a crazy CRAZY ride the last 18 months.  Stephen is wrapping up his second semester at St. Stephens this month.  It's been a challenging year for him. With all of the things changing at work, home and new demands of school... He's had his hands full and continues to care for K and I as if we're the only thing that matters.  K's adapted to a new school. A school with the same name, in theory the same rules and yet... just slightly different enough that she's had a good amount of acclimating to do.  We've been in our house 108 days.  We have less than 10 boxes, total including the basement, that haven't been unpacked.  And as I look at this swing set, and we have nights like tonight where the neighbors came over to 'test it out' and play, giggle, sing and dance in the back yard, I see it all coming together.  I'm SO incredibly thankful for all the support, shoulders and love we have received over the last 18 months.  Friends who have helped with K while we did the 'grown-up stuff' that needed to be done. Friends who've checked in and asked what's up, how things were going and offered shoulders when I needed them. My sisters who gave Stephen and I a chance to have a break and go out for dinner, or picked K up from school so I could go get my hair cut... The neighbors who have remained close at heart and dear friends... who came to bring us breakfast for the morning of moving day, who we spent the 4th of July with on the beach...

I love you and from the bottom of my heart I thank you!!

This swing set wouldn't have happened without you.