the curse of the cornett spawn

When I was pregnant with Sophie, I started to get gray hair. "Don't worry," Roy's step-mom said, "it will fall out when Sophie is born."

20 months later and not only has it not fallen out, it has increased. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty content with getting older and I think gray hair is regal and stunning. But I'm 28. I could've waiting another, oh, 5 years before studying the top of my head in the mirror.

I think I have come to understand what is causing my gray hair.

For 9 months, I carried a Cornett child in my womb.

Roy's dad, and all of his uncles, are silver topped and Roy himself cannot remember a time when his father's hair held pigment. Roy started going gray in high school but during college it miraculously ceased. Even so, at 30, I am convinced that Roy will be totally gray - or at least salt and peppered - by 32.

So instead of blaming my age, I'm blaming my husband for my gray hair. I am sure I won't be the first.

Black Magic Sophie

This weekend, Roy recorded Sophie and Wendy dog while I played guitar hero (poorly).

Enjoy.

Another reason I love YouTube

So Roy's been giving me a hard time for not having posted a blog lately. "I just haven't been inspired" I told him. If this isn't inspiration, I'm not sure what is. (though fair warning: if you're not a Battlestar Galactica Fan, this might not have the same resonance.)

Welcome

It's taught 2 now grown boys to play and accompanied hours of sing along's and around-the-room dances.

Its bench is worn from humid Florida air and sweaty behinds.

It was bought and cared for 26 years ago with deep love and hard work.

and boy oh boy is it heavy.

Two strong men were barely enough and I am grateful to our new, strapping, young neighbor Eric for being home, slipping on shoes, and helping us in the task.

After testing out a few scales, I wondered what to play first.

I opened my old blue hymnal, and turned to page 77, "The Stars Were Silent", written by my Grandpa Bixel. My fingers are out of shape and the piano needs a tune up, but boy... as the chords my grandpa penned echoed through the house, I suddenly felt at home and enveloped by my history and hopeful for our future.

Welcome, dear piano, to your second home. I hope you are ready for more lessons, more sing along's and around-the-room dances and yes, more sweaty behinds to leave prints on your well-worn bench.

why do I blog?

So on one of my last trips home, my dad and I were discussing blogging. He said, "I see Karin is on your blog... how did that happen?" I had to laugh. This was not a slight at either Karin nor I, but we didn't really hang out much when we lived in the same town, and we were a few years apart in school. I would, in fact, say that Karin had a closer relationship to my parents than to me.. So the question was valid. "We just found each other".

This sparked a long discussion about how the sense of community has changed. My blogging community, many of them with public blogs listed to the right, are an amazing coming together of friends, family, and friends of friends who I have grown to regard as friends of my own. Many of these people I haven't seen in 10 years. Yet, through this seemingly self-obsessed act of talking about ourselves and having people read our musings, we have reconnected in an extremely meaningful way.

So I'm a sap. I romanticize nearly everything in my life and inherited the Polyanna spirit of my father. I get excited about the littlest things and when I do, my hands go up into the air and I kind of dance around in a silly little jig. My heart does that when I think about you, my friends, my community. And I thank you.

Call for help!

Okay, I'm far enough into the James Dobson book to know that I'm going to need some serious detox. This is a call to you mom's and dad's out there - send me your parenting book suggestions! What do you guys find helpful and inspiring?

what we've been up to

oh are we thankful for spring - fluctuating temperatures and all!

Home.

I feel as though I have finally caught up on sleep from my trip. I like to have a day off after vacation to recover, clean up the house, do laundry. Nothing stresses me out like a messy house. But after getting home on Sunday - completely exhausted - I went right back to work Monday. I feel like I went through the week in a bit of a daze, but today, and after a mad cleaning on Thursday, today I feel like myself again.

This trip home was one of the best I had in a long, long time. It was unhurried, unstressful, and Sophie was a peach. After a difficult Christmas, this trip was what we needed. The only thing that would've made it better was if Roy came with us, but the cost of flights was just too prohibitive.

We've been video chatting on Skype with my family for about a month now and as soon as we got off the plane and mom did the freaky thing she does with her mouth EVERY TIME we video chat, Sophie smiled and knew exactly who she was.

I swear, I was filled with warm fuzzies all weekend long.

There was lots of piano playing.


and I got this outfit for $2.25 at the Etc. Shoppe. Man, I miss that place!


Mom, Ella, and Sophie played and played and played. And Sophie and Ella shared very well except for the singing monkey and the basketball. Those were highly popular toys!


Leftovers from Easter. Sophie loved wearing these ears.


and I love the expressions on the girls faces here. So representative of their personalities. Ella is happy and giddy, Sophie questioning and curious.


The window on the landing of stairs was a popular, popular place.


I don't know when we'll head up north again, and that makes me sad, but the warmth of this weekend (despite the, "that wind is in a hurry!" wind) will last quite a while.

(as an aside, I can't recommend Skype highly enough. This free video service is the perfect way to stay in touch with the people you love when they are far away.)

Conversation

Riley: (Looking at my copy of "The Year of Living Biblically) Oh, so those are the 20 Commandments?

Roy: 10 Commandments. There were only 10.

Riley: No, there were 20 Commandments, then he dropped one of the tablets and there were only 10... oh wait... that was Monty Python.

Roy and AnnaMarie: (laughing)

Riley: What? I made a mistake. I thought Noah dropped one of the tablets and confused it with Monty Python.

Roy: It wasn't Noah.

Riley: What?

Roy: It wasn't Noah, it was Moses.

Riley: Oh right, Moses.

Roy: (to me) And we're the heathens.

God's Grace is Sufficient

I get my home church bulletin emailed to me every week. It makes me feel connected to my church and, well, keeps me up on the gossip.

This morning, I opened it and was casually reading when I saw this:

JANELLE AND JOANN will share about the tragedy which affected their lives for Mennonite Women, April 10, at 1:30 p.m. The theme will be “God’s Grace is Sufficient.” Special guests will be included for a fellowship following the program. All are welcome.

It was like I had been struck.

Without going into the details of what happened (for that is not the purpose of this post), my freshman year of high school, my class of 13 was tragically taken to 12 when an accidental shooting took the life of a kind and talented 14 year old. This shook my community, and my class, to its very core.

Nearly 15 years have passed since Matt died and I will never forget that day, and the days of grace and compassion that followed. As I look back now, I realize how much the response of my community, and of Matt’s family – Joann is his mother - shaped who I am today.

Both mothers were faced with tragedy in their own way and I’ll never forget Joann’s immediate forgiveness, her understanding that this accident was just that – an accident. She and her husband embraced Janelle’s family and Janelle’s embraced her. This could’ve turned into a court battle, harsh words could’ve been shared, and grudges could’ve been kept. But the grieving was a collective grieving.

Looking back, I wish I had done more for Janelle’s family and for my classmate who carries this heavy burden. I realize now that their actions shaped me more than I ever realized. I suppose the best I can do is carry that message of forgiveness into my daily life. The things that happen to us that we get all worked up over are nothing in comparison.

“God’s Grace is Sufficient”. Those words are so hard to comprehend. Yet if Joann and Janelle can speak about this, if they can believe that (which I know that they do), I can believe too.

(and now, for something more light hearted, go watch the video of Roy and Sophie on his blog.)