For The Love of Elvis.

Stella and I had lunch with Judye today...Judye is a mentor to me, a co-worker to Tim, and our BFF.  She is basically the reason I got my job at Phillips Exeter; she was the Human Resources Director there for almost 25 years!  Before Exeter, Judye worked in the modeling industry.  Now she works at Bethany and keeps Tim entertained with her quick comments during staff meetings.  She has seen me through many a crisis and lots of good times, too.  I'm grateful for her friendship and her guidance.  Did I mention that Judye keeps a life-sized cut-out of Elvis Presley in her closet at work?

Awesome.

Satisfied.

Stella thinks I'm playing Peek-a-boo behind the camera.

Thanksgiving festivities are behind us - we look onward to the season of Christmas!  I'm so thankful for family and friends this year.  We got to spend a lot of quality time with many wonderful people over the past five days...many memories made and many more to come, I'm sure.  Stella has a fifth tooth now, she is officially crawling, and she is the delight of my life; what a gift I have been given!  With every milestone I say goodbye to a bit of her infancy...she's growing up so beautifully, so quickly.  I couldn't love my time with her any more than I do.  Thanksgiving truly had new, enriched meaning this year.

I'm thankful for old friends.

I'm thankful for my mom, Stella's mimi.

I'm thankful for our beautiful walk to the bay right - 0.8 miles from my mom's house.

I'm thankful for in-laws.

I'm thankful that Stella gives kisses by licking people.

I'm thankful for extended family.

I'm thankful for my little family.

Cold Shower.

I had a cold shower today.  

Lately Stella has been quite a handful as she's not nursing to sleep like she used to - this means she is up each time I leave her in her crib and it takes a while to soothe her to sleep.  This morning we woke up and Tim took Stella for a few hours so that I could catch some Zzzzzzz's...then I took her for a few hours so that he could do the same.  Due to a nasty spill, I had to clean the entire fridge this morning, which took TWO HOURS.  After this unexpected chore Tim and his mom decided to go out to do some shopping and I suggested they take the baby...thinking all the while about taking a very hot, very long shower.  As most moms can relate, a long shower is a hot commodity (no pun intended) after you become a parent.  Before Tim was out the door with Stella, I was in the shower...and shortly after they were out the door my shower was running cold.  My first reaction was frustration, my second blame, and my third submission.  It's a tough lesson to learn that everything happens for a reason, even the cold showers in life.  I came downstairs and sat in front of the computer and then the snow started falling.  If I had been doing what I wanted to do I would have missed the first snowfall of the season...which was a beautiful sight to see.  And I also would have missed the quiet of the house - I can't remember a time I've been alone in the house in months.  

So, tonight I'm thanking God for the simple things:  a quiet house, a clean fridge, and the cold shower that allowed me to be present for the first snowfall of the season.

I love my family!

Grandmom Carpenter is in town and Stella is happy to see her!

Stella and I took a trip to Portland Maine today to see my family on my father's side.  We had such a blast!  What I love most about my family is how much we LAUGH when we are together.  We are honest when things are hard, but we also know how to make a heavy load feel lighter by tossing in a bit of humor to almost every situation.

My parents divorced when I was in the second grade and my brother and I lived with my mom.  Inevitably we spent more time with her side of the family over the years, but I've always felt a special bond to my dad's side of the family, as well.  They are precious to me.  I love hearing them tell stories about my dad, "Robbie", when he was little.  "Robbie was mom's FAVORITE..." usually makes its way into the repertoire at least once!  Here are some classic moments from today:

Cousin Sanni, Uncle Dave, and Stella.

Napping Uncle Alan.

The gang.

My only cousins on my dad's side, Richard and Meredith - I love them SO much!

The whole family loves Stella's first baby doll!

My lovely aunts, Sally and Susan.

Guess who army-CRAWLED today for the first time?

Stella's First Thanksgiving

What a wonderful day filled with beautiful memories.  My mom is in her new home on Cape Cod and we spent the day there, surrounded by love, filled with great food, and blessed by each other's company.  Stella's first Thanksgiving was a blast.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

I LOVE Stella's face in this one...Tim was making us all laugh.

My mom sets a MEAN table.

We walked to the bay, only 0.8 mi from my mom's new house...not bad, eh?

Mom's hard work totally paid off, don't you think?

Thanksgiving Week: Feels Like Home.

Tonight was special for two reasons:  Chinese Thanksgiving with Billy and Amy Petty AND my 10th high school reunion.

Billy and Amy came over tonight to celebrate Thanksgiving, Asian-style, which will hopefully become an annual tradition!  I didn't get a picture of our Chinese Food Feast, but here is a picture of the happy, musical bunch taken right before I left for my ten year high school reunion at the Wolfeboro Inn:

And here is a picture of some of Kingswood's finest - Class of 2000, ten years later:

It can be weird going "home" to a place that is no longer my home - the house I grew up in on South Main Street has long since been sold, the house my mom moved to afterward was also sold just last year, my mom now lives on Cape Cod closer to her family, and I only keep in touch with a few friends from high school; however, I feel very much at home with my little family, and that feeling is in no way connected to the place we live.  I know it sounds cliche, and saying it sounds cliche sounds even more cliche, but my home is my precious family - my home is Tim, and Stella, and Griffin and Caroline...which makes it somehow easier to walk back into friendships and relationships from ten years ago.  I feel better in my own skin than I ever have in my entire life, and for that I'm very thankful this Thanksgiving.

This beautiful song pretty much sums it all up for me...one of my favorites of all time.  The video from The Notebook is unrelated, but it was the only way I could get the whole song!
Feels Like Home, Chantal Kreviasuk

Thanksgiving Week - The Many Faces of Stella Grace

Tonight I'm thankful for my daughter's expressive personality.  Here are some of her many faces (photos taken over a two minute span while she ate her yogurt):

"That yogurt is cold, mom!!"

"...and tart, too!"

Just chillin'

Bla, bla, bla!!  She's a talker, just like her mommy.

Stella the trickster.

Stella the negotiator, "How about some more of that yogurt??"

"Oooh, forgot how tart it is."

"I LOVE to eat!"

"I take eating very seriously."

Stella the thinker.

The End!

P.S.  Tooth number four can be seen in these photos...two on the bottom and two on the top!

Thanksgiving Week

I am working on changing my perspective to one of gratitude...it's not always easy.  As I was thinking about a few, small tasks ahead of me tonight I wasn't feeling very thankful, but oftentimes gratitude is a choice.  I have chores to do tonight - folding laundry, doing dishes, cleaning up around the house.  Instead of complaining about my chores (which was my first instinct), I'm choosing thankfulness.  Four loads of laundry waiting to be folded makes me feel thankful for more than enough clothing for me and my little family.  Dishes in the sink are only there because we had food to eat for dinner tonight, for that I'm grateful.  I'm thankful for a place to live and a warm bed in which to sleep tonight - I wouldn't have to clean up if I didn't have a house, so I'm grateful for my home.

And I'm thankful for the little house elf who, earlier tonight, sat atop my MOUND of laundry (...still working on teaching her to fold it...someday...).

Date Night

The two loves of my life.

Tim and I have tried to maintain the tradition of "date night" since the early days of our relationship.  It's so easy to forget to be intentional - we find that our weekly date nights help us to reconnect, to talk, and to have fun!  Since Stella arrived, we don't really go out much anymore, both because it's expensive and because our nighttime routine looks quite different than that of our pre-baby days.  Most often, in fact, our date nights are now date mornings.  Tonight, however, our date consists of pizza and a movie.  It's a blessing that a night at home is now WAY more satisfying to me than a night out on the town.  I have all I could possibly want or need in this world: the love of my life sitting next to me, the other love of my life upstairs in her crib, our puppies sleeping peacefully in the livingroom, and good food on the table.  Thank you, God.

New fall-themed windowboxes...

My Thanksgiving windowboxes...fun, huh?

Soon these pumpkins will be replaced by berries and evergreen (and SNOW!).

Amy Petty, she's kind of a big deal.

Tim and I had a date night tonight (shout out to Grammy Susan who watched Stella for us).  We went to see our friend, Amy Petty, perform at her second CD Release Party at Boynton's Tap Room in Manchester...very fun!  Amy is an incredibly talented singer; she's kind of a big deal, if you know what I mean.  Tim and Billy, Amy's husband, are best buds at church...they have lots of laughs together while also getting some work done - Billy is the Worship Leader and Tim is the Family Ministries Director at Bethany Church.  I could only get one fuzzy picture of Amy on stage, but I did get a really good picture of Billy and Tim, hamming it up, as usual:

Billy and Amy are singing together at CARNEGIE HALL on December 2...

They asked me to join them, but I said, "Don't make me sing..."

Then they asked me to dance, but I said, "Don't make me dance..."

Like I said before, she's kind of a big deal.

But don't just take my word for it - judge for yourself!

www.amypetty.com

I hate shopping!

Stella and I went to Kohl's today.  I hate shopping.  I can't think of many things I "hate", but shopping is one of them.  I don't like the atmosphere of most stores, I don't like the gimics used to get people to spend money, I don't like being told that I "must have" or that I "need" things when neither is true, and I don't like trying on clothes.

Stella hanging out in the dressing room.

What I DO like about shopping these days is taking Stella with me - that is, pending that I don't lock her in the car like I did a few weeks back.  It's nice to have a buddy in the store, she gets a lot of attention because of her budding sense of humor, and it's a great excuse to get in and get out in no time.  We had a gift card I'd been carrying in my purse for the last seven months, as well as some money from Stella's grand-mom to spend on baby clothes.  I knew it was time to get out of the store when my baby almost started crawling on the dressing room floor...none of her milestones will be had in a department store if I have anything to do with it!  Plus, I got my first new pair of non-maternity jeans in several years, and Stella got some new digs, as well; all in a hard day's work.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Apparently, Stella has Tim's genes when it comes to spending time deep in thought about life's most pressing questions...today's question to ponder:  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

"mmmmm...chicken..."

Deep in thought.

Enough with the arguments on causality, mom...I want to play in the recycling bin again!!!!

What's the next problem Stella will solve, you ask?  Healthcare...

Stella, browsing through a few catalogs from Elliot Hospital.