Movie Date

Today came and went in a fairly uneventful manner: Ava went to school, the girls played, and I spent much of my day unburying our house from the carnage of coming home yesterday. Kids went to sleep peacefully, and I was looking forward to a nice quiet hour or two sitting on the couch playing solitaire on the tablet while some television show played in the background. No sooner had I come downstairs, however, than my dad asked if I was interested in watching The Blind Side with him. I had mentioned last week that we have a copy of it but I had never taken the time to sit down and watch it. I knew that watching a movie with my dad would not be doing something else while vaguely paying attention. When my dad watches a movie he really likes, nothing else goes on while watching that movie.

So we sat and watched The Blind Side. A terrific movie to be sure, and inspiring to say the least. But for me, the memory for the night doesn't come from the movie itself. More than once I sat back and took in the scene of me on the couch and Dad on his air mattress watching this movie, and I was transported back to my childhood. My dad does not naturally go out of his way to do things with others that THEY enjoy, but he is more than willing to share in things HE is passionate about. So I learned at an early age that if I wanted to spend quality time with my dad it should be on his terms, so to speak. We would play outside with the baseball, football, or soccer ball for hours in the nasty-humid Florida heat. I would sit through baseball games on the TV and do all I could to act interested. And I would watch his favorite movies with him - Pride of the Yankees, the Babe Ruth Story, any Muppet movie, and It's a Wonderful Life, just to name a few. Many of these movies I knew by heart solely from watching them with my dad. And while all of them are good movies, I didn't watch them unless it was with my dad. It was one of our things, and watching another classic with him tonight brought back many of those wonderful memories. I am so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to spend another evening with my dad, enjoying a great movie and even greater company.

A New Family

Today we had to leave our fun weekend in Missouri and return home. On the plane ride home, I was thinking about the incredible time we had this whole weekend. More than anything, I am amazed at how our little family was embraced by both the Stagnis and Tilleys. Confession: when Ben and I got married, Ben's two nieces were our flower girls. I love them dearly and was glad they could be a part of our wedding, but I was not super understanding or flexible about having kids in the wedding. As a kid I had been in a wedding where the ring bearer flipped out and caused major distraction and stress for all involved. I had told Ben if either of his nieces started to lose it, they wouldn't walk down the aisle, period. They did fine and we had no problems, but in the two occasions that my daughters have been flower girls I've expected a similar outlook. After all, the day belongs to the bride and groom, not my unpredictable kids.

Fortunately for us, the families this weekend are much nicer than I was. We were included in all the family activities. My family was made a priority along with everyone else in the bride's and groom's families. I would not have been insulted or hurt at all if we had been left to our own devices as these families focused on their bride and groom. Never once was I made to feel a burden or inconvenience. To give some examples, here are a few of the events from the weekend:

- My children received goodies no less than THREE times throughout the weekend
- We painted nails with Laura in her hotel room on Saturday morning
- Ava, Jocelyn, and I rode to the ceremony with the groom's family so Molly (and Ben) could stay at the hotel and nap
- When Jocelyn got tired at the end of the night, numerous people took turns holding her, saving Ben and I from breaking our backs
- Rob and Laura came to our room at 7:45am the morning AFTER their wedding just to spend a little more time with us before we had to leave

I am doing a terrible job at expressing just how welcoming these people were, and how truly honored and blessed I felt to be part of this incredible group of people. We really did expand our family this weekend, and I hope we get to see lots more of the Tilleys and Stagnis in the future.

The Crew: Jocie, Keith, Theresa, me, Laura, Ava, Ben, Rob, and Molly

Wedding Day

Today Rob Stagni and Laura Tilley committed themselves to each other in marriage in front of some of their closest family and friends. The day was perfect - pretty low key, personal, and FUN for everyone. I had not met Laura before this weekend, and it has been so great to get to know her and see the love she and Rob share. Rob has been my friend for over 10 years now (which is RIDICULOUS). I'm not sure when we got so close, to be honest. But he is Jocelyn's godfather, and family to us all. I feel truly honored to have been able to share in their special day, and cannot wait to see where their lives take them.

my little flower girls

Molly sat through the entire ceremony... just her and her Teddy Grahams ;)

the BEAUTIFUL ceremony

family pic

Sewards and Stagnis (as best as we could)

hot but happy

Molly LOVED her some cake

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Ava getting her groove on

one tired Jocelyn

Spoiled Rotten

Today was a crazy long travel day. We left our house just after 8am, flew 2 1/2 hours, drove another 2, not to mention all the wait time in between... needless to say, we were all wearing on each other's nerves by the time we arrived here in Columbia, MO. And yet, every second of the long journey was totally worth it. Today was the dress rehearsal for Rob and Laura's wedding, which Ava and Jocie are going to be flower girls for. And for as much as my daughters were driving Ben and I bonkers, they charmed the pants off everyone else there. They were polite and relatively calm. They have already been completely spoiled, getting no less than THREE presents. It never gets old seeing my daughters bring to others a fraction of the joy they bring to me everyday. I cannot promise they will be the perfect flower girls tomorrow, but they will be themselves, and I couldn't wish for any more than that.

... with a Capital "T"

I have been racing back and forth all day between the girls and packing up for our trip this weekend. After lunch I was gathering clothes, and came downstairs to grab Molly and put her down for her nap. Came to find this:

The satisfied grin on her face says it all. We are going to have our hands full with this one! 

Life Savers

Today was rough. It started off with me locking my keys inside the house. It took an hour to get a hold of Ben, and almost another hour for him to get back to the house with his set of keys. Fortunately, one of my neighbors had already dropped her kids off at school and welcomed us in to hang out for those two hours. She had planned on spending the morning cleaning, but didn't hesitate for a second when my daughters and I arrived on her front step. Later in the day I discovered Ben would pretty much not be home or able to help with the kids at all tonight, and without hesitation my friend Sharon invited us over for a few hours in the evening to eat dinner and prevent my children from driving each other (and probably me) crazy. These two women were truly my knights in shining armor today - I cannot imagine how I would have survived my day without them.

Goldfish and Thank Yous

This morning, as often happens on mornings when both Ava and Jocelyn go to school, Molly and I spent our time out and about running errands. I admit, while there are things I really have to go out and do, sometimes it's just nice to go into a store with only one kid. I enjoy these less stressful store trips. Anyway, we finished up a little early, and so were back at the preschool about 20 minutes before dismissal. I had half a single-serving box of Goldfish sitting in the cup holder, so I got Molly out of her car seat, sat her in my driver's seat, and set the box of Goldfish down in front of her. A few minutes into eating, she handed me a Goldfish to eat - well, by "handed" I really mean she tried to shove the fish into my mouth. But I ate it, and said and signed "thank you" to her afterwards. For whatever reason she found this very funny, and we then spent the next ten minutes as follows: I would sign and ask for "more fish," she would grab two or three Goldfish and shove them in my mouth, I would say and sign "thank you," and then she would blow me a kiss. (In case you don't know, the sign for "thank you" looks a lot like blowing a kiss.) It was a cute, quiet little game that passed the time. I greatly enjoyed my little teaching moment with Molly, and even getting some love from her as a bonus.