It is true

F-ing-book, ugh!!

Just got back from a weekend trip and found out that while I was gone Facebook disabled my account. Awesome.

I must've had a virus b/c last week my account randomly sent 'Check this out: w/a link' to about 50 different people. I assumed it was just one of those things that goes around... until today when I go to get on fbook and CAN'T. Even my dad can't find me on there. :( Are all of my photo albums gone forever?! Will I have to make new friends and start all over?

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Happy Bday to you, Suzizzle! I hope you had a great day with Pat, family & friends!

(Sorry I'm a day late, but you're celebrating all weekend, right?)

Check it out

In my (lots of) spare time, I have happened upon a couple of blogs that have me fascinated. If you'd like, check them out:

Matt, Liz & Madeline
Is a blog about a man whose wife went into labor and delivered their precious little girl only to die 27 hours later. He writes about his grief and also parenting Madeline. Get your tissues, seriously.

SouleMama
Wow, I spent probably an hour reading this blog written by a family in Maine who pretty much live a simple lifestyle. They sew, make, bake, create and so much more. I am very impressed. Mom of the year, right here.

Thoughts on the longest day of the year

I have to say that when the Summer Solstice comes around it is always so bittersweet for me. I'm always sad that the days start getting darker. It really is something my internal clock thinks about. But not this year, I think everyone in this house is READY for the end of summer. We don't want to wish these days away, but for at least mom & me, our life is put on hold for chemo. We often say 'another day is over!' or 'it's almost July!' things like that to keep her motivated to face one more chemo or one more crappy day.

I'm living in the present and enjoying the days, but it will be oh so good to resume to normal life in the fall! And I know someone else who is always ready for fall: LA! :)

1352.2

Is the number of miles I drove this weekend. Friday afternoon I drove to Maryland to help Al w/ moving. We left early Sat am to drive to Charlotte for Sara's shower. Al left for Atlanta and I went to my college roomie's wedding. Then I drove that night to Atlanta. Stayed w/ Al in their new apt! Got up this am and drove home. What a fun weekend!

Way to go Tam!

Today my friend Tammy got to ring the closing bell at the NYSE! Yay, so proud of you!

(She's second from right)

Favorite quotes of the week

Allison: "When I move in with Brian, it will be the first time since I was 5 years old that I haven't lived with or in the same town as a Clement!"

Fre: Hi Carrie, my favorite person of all. Do not forget that you are one of my favorite sisters I have and I love you so much. (Love you too, Frebers!)

Petals: "Ruff" (which really means, I love you and thanks for sneaking me half of the yummy chicken Lucy made on the grill. Or it could also be: I promise I won't wake you up in the morning by jumping on your bed w/ muddy paws after I've been playing in the creek. )

ZuZu: "Meow" (which really means, thanks for cleaning out my litter box practically every day because I eat and drink all.the.time.)

Time marches on

Today I drove by my grandmother's old neighborhood and saw where they demolished her house (2 years ago) to make apartments or something awful like that. It was a 100 year old house that's been in our family for that many years, at least. I think it's so sad to return and see that nothing has happened to the lot. Oh well, store up for yourself treasures in heaven!

Then:

Now:

o henry

Last night I went to the wedding of Haley Parrish & Jon Allen. Congratulations, y'all!

Afterward I had the complete privilege to watch sweet baby Henry as Erin & Dave took pictures. Oh he is precious! I can't believe I'm just now meeting him. He's definitely one of my favorite babies ever.

JKP8 & Blogs

I wasn't planning on blogging about this, but I would just like to say a few things in response to the whole Jon & Kate hype and a current blog I follow on my sidebar that's dealing w/ an upsetting issue. Yes, I used to watch JKP8 but refuse to watch now because I feel they are taking it too far w/ this new season. Um, it looks like your family is falling apart. Or at least that's what every US Weekly & People seem to think. Please stop, resume your normal life & work on it. There's a whole new group of viewers and they're just tuned in to see something big happen. Drama. They want drama; I do not and I bet your kids don't either.

Also, I follow a couple blogs that are very popular within the Christian blogging community. I have been so touched by their stories and really feel like I know these women and their family. But that's what's a little scary, I think: I "know" them but they don't know me or their other readers at all. Where do you draw the line between telling your story but maintaining your family's privacy?

I am not married. I do not have kids. Sure, I understand that most of these tv shows are helping pay the way for these families that might not have had the financial opportunity otherwise. But I can safely say that when it comes to my kids, they won't be televised or have their pictures on blogs that get a million hits. I'm not saying it's wrong to do these things, but I think it's important to keep your family's story, info & pics in safe hands.

And for this blog, I've opted to keep it open because it's just me and from what I can tell there aren't a ton of people following it. If you're new and would like to say "hello" and let me know you're following this, I'd love to hear from you. Also, if you would like for me to take the link to your blog off of my blog list to the right, please let me know.

Ok, that's all I had to say on that. :)

Face your fears

Ever since I had dinner at my cousin Betsey's house a couple weeks ago I have been on a cookbook craze. She made this chicken recipe and it was quite delicious. After dinner the boys, Lucy & I went to play 4 square outside (Lucy loves 4 square). Right as we were leaving, I guess another family member asked about the recipe and Betts had the cookbook on the counter flipped to the page w/ the chicken recipe. I then learned it was my aunt Awah's old cookbook and one of her favorite recipes. I was immediately drawn to the conversation because a) I love Awah and she passed away 10 years ago from breast cancer (!). I know at the time I wasn't interested in writing down impressive recipes and learning cullinary skills from her (so I'm trying to do it now) and b) let's just face it, I read cookbooks like they're, well, books.

So, when I got home I ordered The Silver Palate cookbooks from Amazon. Yay! Then this week I went to Greensboro's finest (that I know of ) used bookstore: Edward McKay and found a classic Moosewood cookbook.

A couple weeks ago I was waiting at the cancer center w/ Mom reading allll of the outdated magazines they have. Seriously, they have mags in there from the '90's! Anyways, it was probably Redbook or Town & Country, something mom-ish like that. I was just perusing through a cooking article and came across this: 'hot water kills yeast'. Insert: angel's voices while the clouds parted for the sun to shine through! Aaahh, that's what I've been doing wrong! Not that I bake w/ yeast all the time, because I can't tell you the last time I did, but I do know I've made some flat hockey puck biscuits that N&A probably played w/ in the backyard.

Anyways, I was on a mission. I found a recipe in my new Moosewood cookbook for challah bread. I got the ingredients and began facing my fear of failed yeast attempts. It took forever, as breads usually do, but it was worth it! Yummy, yummy challah bread! So face those fears of yeast, I know I sure did, and remember to make sure the water is lukewarm!















P.S. I have poison ivy on my face!! Are you sitting there wondering how I got it on my face?! Yeah, I was too cause it's not like I go rolling around in it. But wait. Who usually rolls around anyways? Um, that would be Petalicious. And I do like to give Petals kisses. Darn. But who can resist this sweetness?!

Happy One!

Future thoughts

It's Tuesday, and thankfully it's been a wonderful day for Mom. The beginning of the week is usually when she gets hit the hardest w/ the effects of chemo from Friday and is in the valley both physically & emotionally. But this week has been a little better! My whole outlook has been very positive. I have no doubt that this will all be over and we can move on. I so very much appreciate those who also share this view.

I am still weighing the option of North Carolina and New York. It's funny cause every time I talk w/ Ginna she asks, "Is it NC or NYC today?" :) I LOVE being home, I LOVE my family and spending a ton of time w/ them but I don't necessarily feel connected to NC. I often find myself thinking about New York and my friends there. The grass is always greener, so they say, but I don't feel convinced that my time is up, up there. I think one thing that's been impressed upon my heart is serving the City. I don't think I did a good job of that in the past few years, which is one thing I felt called to do in the very beginning (more on that later). So there's the vision of going back w/ a servant's heart and getting more involved in different ministries and community projects.

I do feel torn, though. I made a life up there but I love my family so dearly and have enjoyed spending so much time with them. It really is very special to hang out, eat dinner & do every day activities together. I'm going to continue to pray & think about next steps. But I will close this blurb by saying that this morning I was washing dishes and it dawned on me how I really, really, really want to have the 3rd annual Thanksgiving dinner at my apt w/ friends. I know, it's crazy to already start to think about that in June!, but it really is one of my favorite things. Plus I love to maintain traditions.

Speaking of family, today I went to my godson's second grade promotion. Brooks is my cousins son, and he is 100% boy. I love this picture of us because you can tell he is just too cool for his fairy godmother. I am proud of you, Brooksie!

Weekend fun

I guess this is becoming more of a photo album than an actual blog. Maybe soon I'll write more, but for now I'll leave you w/ recent pics.

Hamilton Lake Girls

Well guess what I found: old pics & a scanner! It's my new favorite thing to scan pictures of yore, so be prepared. I love these pics, though. We had some good times!

On our way to 1st grade? Al, Alison, me & Becca.














Al & I before we left for Jamaica, where she would meet Brian!














The CA gang hangin out!













Just one of our many sleepovers!













Who knows...













Thanksgiving in the Meadow













My freshman year at App













Al graduates!

7 years ago

I graduated from Caldwell Academy w/ some of my favorite people in the world! We were the first graduating class and I love & miss you guys!

For Perralove

(Perr, I was talking to my Dad and then happened to look over at his bookshelf only to see all of these owls looking back at me! I immediately thought of you! Hoo, hoo!)

I made a quilt!

Here it is! My GP Reject quilt!

The story behind the quilt: my roomie was an interior designer for a famous celebrity w/ the initials GP. I'll let you figure that out. Anyway, after roomie showed GP all of the fabric samples for drapes, curtains, etc, she had these unwanted & rejected samples and gave them to me. I then started to hand sew the first few patches earlier in the year and would pick it up every now & then. And since I've been home & have so much free time, my Mom & I have been working on it.

Making a quilt is hard, time consuming & requires much patience. I don't usually have that much patience as I like quick projects where you can see your work immediately. When I was frazzled, up to my elbows in pins, needles & batting, my Mom quickly reminded me how one goes about eating an elephant.

The quilt is not quite done yet- I might want to add a few buttons on the corners where my impatience is visibly noticeable and also to help bind the whole thing together. Thanks roomie, GP & Mom!

Gigi love

Happy Bday, Sorem

I'm not sure if you read this blog, Brendan, but since I feel awful I didn't call you today, I'll post a blog shout out just for you!
Happy Birthday! I'm sure you were on a yacht somewhere, or at least dreaming of it.

Missing out!

Well if I wasn't sad enough to have missed Prince Harry & the Obamas in NYC, I now have to miss one of my favorite Summer events: drinks on the roof of the Met! So fun! Last year had some of Jeff Koons' work, including this, which I love:

A few of the girls:

And this year's exhibition by Roxy Paine: