A Year in the Life

The happiest days are the days when babies come!    ~Melanie from Gone With the Wind Today is a happy day...well it really started yesterday.  Yesterday my parent's 7th grandchild was born.  My younger brother, Cotton, had his third child.  He's now in the big time.  It's interesting when you go from man on man to zone coverage.  You parents of 3+ kids know.  If there is silence, something bad is going down.  But I know that the happiest of days are the ones when babies are born. I was scrolling through my sister-in-laws pictures and loved seeing all of the ones of their older two with the new baby.  It made me think back to when all of my chicks were little.  I was fine until I saw one picture.  It is a picture that broke my heart.  I'm going to admit my selfishness upfront, right now.  It was a pic of her mom with the new baby.  I realized that it is a picture my mom and dad will never have.  An...

Every time & I mean every time we go visit my brother in Tampa we engage in high risk behaviors.  He for sure wants us to step out of our comfort zone.  I'm boring and safe.  If you don't believe me, just ask my children.  But, when I'm with my brother, risks abound.  :) In the past, we have: Canoed with alligators.  I was scared to death especially when one swam under our canoe & bumped the boat.  I may or may not have squealed like a little girl.  It was scary.  Um, have you seen me?  I would be a tasty snack.  I think of a juicy steak that is marbleized in all the right places.  :/    Had trapeze lessons.  Swinging on a trapeze is a lot harder than it looks.  Arms and core are used a bunch.  The trapeze artists (and they are artists) make it look so easy.  They are incredibly strong, very nice and have to wear incredibly tight belts.  I mean, they squeeze the air out of you, b...

Celebrating Fighters everywhere I hate very few things, but what I do hate, I hate with a passion.  There is one hatred that I want to talk about because it's something I've dealt with way too much.  It's the "C" word...cancer. Cancer is a horrible thing.  I think it was invented by the devil.  I'm not saying this glibly, I know what cancer does; I've seen it with my own eyes.  Cancer is something that steals, that kills, that destroys.  (sounds like a familiar bible verse doesn't it:  John 10:10 .)  In June, we went to visit my brother, sister-in-law & my sweet nephew.  Yes, he's mine.  :)  While there we went to Busch Gardens, and while there I met a very nice lady, Lori, who Cotton sends all the monogramming business to from his company.  Lori is married with two children, 15 & 3, and she was just diagnosed with cancer.  As of today, Lori has ma...

Oh...My...Goodness, I can't wait for dinner tonight.  It's going to make me so happy.  Now, I'm not going to lie, it wasn't a hard dinner to make, but it was time consuming.  I love to cook for the fam, especially when it's something healthy and different from the normal fare.  It's so worth all the work you put into this dish.  It's light, it's summery, and it's happiness on a plate.  It's a great meal to share with family during the summer. Sunday night, my brother's neighbor, Diana, came over and made a form of Ceviche called Picarro .  (or at least I think that's how you spell it)  She is so precious.  She's American-Colombian and is a great cook.  She wanted to cook for all of us, but we talked her into cooking with us so we could get the recipe.  :)  I'm so glad she was willing to share it!  We added chicken that I baked, rice, and served it over a bed of lettuce with the picarro.  No salad dressin...

Did my brother say rainy season?  Rainy season, were am I. Tampa or the Amazon?  Apparently there is not much difference. Pirates 4D..aren't we sexy with our 3D glasses? Today we did Busch Gardens...for an hour and a half.  An hour and a half into our visit we are hit by a monsoon.  Cotton said it's rainy season.  There was lightening popping and thunder booming all around us... ...A side note.  I was having a great hair day.  It was coiffed and shellacked so it wouldn't move.  I was very happy.  Then I stepped outside.  Humid doesn't even begin to describe the heaviness of the air.  Do you know what humidity does to naturally curly hair that's been straightened?  It makes it extremely curly no matter how much hairspray you use on it.  Couple that with the rain & it was a hair disaster.  Oh well, nothing to be done about, so I'll just pull it back out of my face & go on with life.  I'm ...

Chimney Rock, Lake Martin Today is the last day of school for my little people.  The big people were done with exams Tuesday.  WooHoo!!!  IT'S SUMMERTIME!!! We love summer.  We love summer.  Did I mention we love summer?  Well we do.  It's been a hard year.  Everyone was stretched academically, athletically, and personally.  Now it's a time to take a big deep big breath.  (and it couldn't have come soon enough)  Right now there are 15 teenagers at the lake for a few days.  It's going to be lots of laughter, and lots of memories made.  Wow I wish I was 17 again.  I wish I could be 17 and know what I know now.  I know those kids look at me and see a 40 year old, but I don't feel that old.  I feel like I just finished high school.  I feel like I could conquer the world.  (as long as I can stay awake to do it)  I think that's why I love teenagers so much.  Their possibilities ar...

I love to tell my children their birth stories.  I want them to know I loved them before they breathed their first breath, and that being their mom is one of the greatest joys of my life. But before I had my own children's birth stories, I had my brother's.  In honor of the arrival of Henry Cotton Lowe IV , I want to share the birth story of his daddy & my brother, Henry Cotton Lowe III. left to right:  PawPaw, MeMaw, Me, my Mom, Cotton and our great grandmother, Little Gran I was 7 and Amy was 5.  I couldn't wait for my new baby sister to be born.  Yes, I said baby sister.  After having 2 girls, my mom was certain she would have another.  (these are the days before ultrasound)  Everything was pink.  Pink dresses, bows, socks.  Eyelet bed linens with little lambs.  Very feminine and dainty.   The day Cotton was born, my mom made a big deal about checking us out of school, and announcing to the o...