April 30

Oh how much life can change between blog posts. And in this case, not in a good way. I'm not talking about the move. Yes, since my last post, I packed up my life in DC, said some tough goodbyes, dealt with a challenging move, and started my new job in Columbia. I had a wonderful first week of work.

And then, I got some horrible, awful, life-changing news. Friday evening, my stepbrother was killed in a motorcycle accident just two hours before his brother's wife had their first baby, Bella. Life and Death in the same day.

I have struggled with figuring out exactly how to express my grief. Some dear and wonderful people have expressed the loss through beautiful music, words of wisdom, cooking up a storm, using their ministerial skills way beyond the call of duty, or just plain being there.

At first, there was the total disbelief of what was happening to my family. As my sister said when I first saw her after learning the bad news, "So, he's just....gone???"

My sister and I were the only ones in town as my parents had gone to TN for their granddaughter's birth. The accident happened in NC. There was a period of time where we had little information. We tried putting the pieces together while informing key people of what happened. My sister, her sweet husband, and our dad (yes, we are what you would call a well-blended family) took off to TN in the wee hours of Saturday morning to drive my mom, stepdad, stepdad's first wife and her husband back to our hometown as none of them were in any condition to drive. I stayed behind to take care of phone calls and get the house ready. We were able to have a support system waiting in the driveway when they arrived. And boy did we ever need it.

As I tried to process everything, a flood of emotions hit me. I thought of the last time I saw him. Just 6 days before, he dropped what he was doing on a rainy Saturday afternoon to help me move my belongings into a storage building . When we finished, he showed me how to lock up the new lock. I hugged him and thanked him. He told me he was glad to have me back in SC. We were both so excited to start new jobs. He supported me through the entire process, sent me text messages to wish me luck on my interview, and was one of the first to congratulate me. Somehow it just doesn't seem fair that he won't experience the joy that I did last week of starting the new job after a long-awaited process.

As most things in my life, the memories I shared with Randy were quiet ones. I remember one of our first awkward blended family holidays. It was Thanksgiving and he spent the entire day with me by the fireplace talking and put me at ease with our new situation. By the end of the day, I knew having him as a part of my new family was going to be a wonderful thing.

More recently on our family beach trip, I remember waking up the first morning and sharing breakfast with him on the screened in porch overlooking the ocean. We were quiet. But he was there.

We've been paired up a lot in the last few years, as we've held down the "single" title for the fam. When taking our last family photos, the photographer asked everyone to "pair" together with their significant other. Randy and I looked at each other, laughed it off, and took each other's arms jokingly. When we split up clean up duty during our beach week by couples, he was my partner. (And yes, to those of you that think Randy didn't know how to clean, he actually did help!) When our family went out to eat a few months ago the waiter went around the table asking how the check would be split. Again mainly by couple, Randy told the man that we’d be together. Now we're not.

I don't think the sadness will ever completely leave us. I don't think we'll ever get our answer to WHY??? But I do know we have been surrounded by layers upon layers of people who have enclosed us in a bubble of love. New friends, old friends, and friends we didn’t even know we had. They’ve been praying with us, hugging us, feeding us, crying with us, reminiscing with us, and hurting with us. And I do know that we have been blessed by a precious baby girl. And Randy would most definitely want us to celebrate that.

Big News!

I've been a little preoccupied over the last few months...hence the light blogging! Here's the story:


Six years ago, I was an excited college graduate ready to spread my wings and move to DC. It has been a journey that I could have never imagined. I've had experiences and opportunities that have greatly enriched my life. I first worked for a United States Senator and then found my way into the public health advocacy field during an historic time in our nation's capital.

For a while now, I've wanted to be closer to home. The last year has been difficult knowing that I wanted to be someplace else. Looking for a job from a distance in this little thing called a recession, was incredibly challenging. In the end, the most perfect opportunity opened up and couldn't have been more timely.


I'm so excited to share the news that I'm going to be moving back to SC later this week! I can't believe that things finally fell into place. There are obvious mixed emotions about leaving a life I've lived for the past six years. It's never easy to say goodbye. But while it is bittersweet, I feel at peace with the new direction I'm moving in.


I will never be able to thank all of the people that endured my endless stressing and worrying. I only hope they know how much I appreciate them and that I share this happiness with each of them!

Easter

Easter Morning is filled with so much beauty, hope, promise, and peace. This Easter morning, I got up at 5:45 to help my mom and her friend decorate the outside cross at church with flowers.









As we finished up, a fireman working at the fire station across the street walked over to compliment the work. He also had a special request on this Easter morning. His son, a marine serving in Afghanistan and his platoon were struck over the last few days by the Afghanistan army. Several people, including his son, were injured.

We all probably know someone serving in the military. But there was something about standing in front of a father as he asked us to keep his son's platoon in our thoughts and prayers, that made it that much more real. As we celebrate the promise of new life and remember the sacrifice that was given, say a prayer for healing and peace to those that need it.

Bon Appetit, Y'all!

I needed to do a lot of things after work today. But what did I do? Sat on the couch and watched Paula Deen! She made me hungry with her potato salad and other buttery goodness.


I’m on a mission of cleaning out my already bare pantry this week. I'm trying to use up what I have. Tonight, I used some sandwich thins, pizza sauce, cheese, and roasted red peppers to make these little pizzas. I was skeptical about the sandwich thins...they make a less than stellar grilled cheese. But worked out fine for my "clean out the pantry pizza!"

I think Paula would have been proud!

Golden Apple

Since I've sent this out on every other social networking site that I use, I thought I'd complete the cycle by posting here! I've tried to convey on here several times what an awesome teacher and children's advocate my sister is. She's only in her 3rd year of teaching, but as everyone who sees her with children will tell you, she's truly a natural.

From a VERY early age, she knew what she wanted to do. There was no question...from the time she learned to say the word "teacher" that was it. When we were little, I would get mad at her because she only wanted to play house or school. I would get bored with it and want to play something different, but she wouldn't have any of that. She would play with her dolls constantly. And she didn't just have one or two or even three dolls that she'd play with at one time. It was ALL of her dolls and sometimes ALL of mine. It was very normal for her to have twenty something dolls that she would be playing with at one time. She would "cook" for them, "feed" them, have play time with them, and of course, teach them. This would go on for hours and hours. Until she had to go to bed. Then she'd wake up and start all over again.

The kids we used to babysit ALWAYS liked her more than me. And I wasn't bad with kids, that's just how GOOD she was. I learned not take it personally. Children have always been and still are her passion. I mean...what 5 year old wouldn't love a teacher like this....

So it came as no real surprise to those who know her, that she was nominated and received a Golden Apple Award a few weeks ago!

Click HERE to see it!!!

Happy Thoughts

If you know me at all (or have ever read this blog), you know that I'm not a fan of winter. My dislike for the season has most definitely happened since moving to DC. I had no idea how lucky I was to get such a mild taste of winter growing up in the south. "Cold" to me used to be having to put on a light jacket for the months of January and February. Never did I need heavy coats, layers, winter boots, hats, gloves, and scarves.

The gray, cold, and insanely windy DC winter gives me a major case of Winter Blues. My blogging definitely suffers b/c I don't want to continuously blog about hating winter. We thankfully dodged a snow bullet this week as the storm decided to spare us.

But I'm here to share some happy thoughts that are getting me through this record-breaking winter. With the hopes of ending hibernation soon, Spring will be here soon!

1. Spring Training has begun! Even though I know the teams are in sunny Florida, the start of spring training means that opening day isn't too far. Just reading about my Braves and having them back together makes me happy. It's that time of year baseball fans can be excited in anticipation and all of our teams "have a chance!" I'm practicing my tomahawk chop!

2. I tried a brand new salad joint, Mixt Greens, that opened this week near my office. It's trendy to have the fresh, local, organic mantra right now. Mixt Greens calls it "eco-gormet." There are several similar restaurants around the city. But this week, I was sold on my Maui Mixt Green salad. It was absolutely delicious. And if I'm going to pay $10 for a salad, it better be. It was worth every penny. I went back the next day and tried the Dagwood salad, which was equally delicious.

3. Yummy discovery of popchips. Potato chips generally get a bad rep when trying to eat more healthy. And while the baked alternatives are getting better, they're still not great to me. Enter popchips. They're not fried or baked and they're all natural. I know, sounds gross. But let's just say that I found their website and entered my zip code to see where I can buy them! They even have a catchy advertising phrase: "Love. Without the handles." Only 3 points for any Weight Watchers.



4. Good TV (Life Unexpected, Big Love, The Good Wife, Glee) and Books (The Help, The Happiness Project, The Postmistress, and Paula Deen's memoir It Ain't All About the Cooking)
I recently picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly. I was very happy to see some of my recent TV, movie, and book picks are getting rave reviews!

Not that I'm any sort of entertainment expert. This is probably just a case of "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while." I couldn't have picked a better time than Winter 2010 to find these particular nuts.


5. Lent
Okay, so the season of Lent isn't typically a "joyful" time. But since I started observing it, it's always been one of my favorite spiritual seasons. The fact that we're given this time to reflect and prepare is one a lot of us need. And of course, with the coming of Lent, means my favorite holiday of Easter is soon to follow! I enjoy this daily Lent calendar on Busted HALO.

While I don't think I'll ever grow to like DC winters, I'm glad I have some happy distractions to keep me sane.

Sending Some Blog Love to South Africa!

My friend Shira has made several appearances on my blog. She told about her trip first trip to SC with me last year in this post and was the Silver Lining in this post.

She recently left to take advantage of a year-long opportunity in South Africa. I think I've been in denial about her leaving, it's just now really hitting me! I'm so excited for everything she'll be able to experience and I love getting updates and emails from her. I hope she doesn't mind if I share her blog with you! She wasn't sure if she'd have access to the internet and if so, how often. But she's been able to share several updates about her experience so far.

She's had to shoo away monkeys from her front porch and dodge humongous bugs. But this week, she's dodging an elephant! She puts some things in perspective, like appreciating rain, and keeps you laughing with a post about the language barrier.

Check out her South African adventure on Born on the Side of the Road!

Snowcation

snOMG, snomageddon, blizzaster, snobama, winter wallop, snowfecta, snoverkill, snopocolypse: the sequel.....whatever you want to call it, I've had enough!

Everyone knows by now that we (in the DC area) were SLAMMED last week by not one, but two huge snow storms. It started over the weekend and continued into last week. We couldn't get in to work for 4 days. If you count the weekend "snow days" that brings the snowed-in total to 6 1/2 days. A full week of preparing for the snow, thinking about snow, cleaning up from the snow, rinse and repeat.

Even my camera decided it had enough of snowy white pictures and decided to shut down. Thanks to my roommate for the snapshots from her camera! All of these were taken after the first big storm, before we were SO over it!

Seriously, it was above my knees....

Venturing out. All of that had to be shoveled....


Into piles taller than me....


I took advantage of a last minute flight to SC to get away from it all. And wouldn't you know, there was even snow in SC! The difference being that the SC snow was almost completely gone within 24 hours. Now THAT is how I prefer snow.

I flew back to DC this morning and there is still a LOT of snow on the ground. I think it will be with us until June. I'm coping with this record-breaking winter by dreaming of Spring. It can't get here fast enough!