Oh, yes I did.
February 6, 2010 | Filed Under Life Stuff, Perspective, Photos | 18 Comments
And you thought I was crazy when I was feeding my family dessert for dinner…
I’ve reached new heights of the crazy.
We had dessert for breakfast.
For a few days time I had promised the kids I would make them the ice cream of their dreams. The kind that makes them drool when the memory comes flooding back in twenty-five years.
(It was a bucket of homemade peach ice cream on a hot heavy-aired New York night for me…)
Anyway, as I was whipping up this future drool worthy memory, I had a moment of brilliance and added in a couple of teaspoons instant coffee. Because I wanted coffee ice cream. But wait! Who in their right mind feeds their children coffee ice cream right before bed? Not this chickie.
I think children sleeping at night is a good thing. You?
Well, I had also promised Eve I would make her oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. I even remembered to buy the raisins at the Commissary. Miracles still happen!
But then I forgot to make the cookies.
Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.
I don’t know about you, but to me it’s obvious, once you add all of these variables together, I had to feed my children dessert for breakfast.
I know some of you are cringing at the thought that there were no eggs on our breakfast table. No whole wheat toast. Where’s the fruit? The milk? The cereal?
Oh, but they were all there.
Eight eggs in the ice cream. Fresh store bought whole wheat flour in the cookies. Yummy, plump raisins studded the cookies. Great for growing bodies, coconut milk mixed with sinfully delicious heavy cream. Heavy rolled oats embodied the cookies.
As for the gobs of sugar usually in these desserts … it was agave syrup, my friends. I made the creamiest, most delicious coffee ice cream using agave syrup. Used it for the cookies too. Who knew! Not my kids.
They just thought I was the dreamiest, most beautiful, brilliant mommy that has ever walked the earth. Ice cream and cookies for breakfast? Who does that?
This chickie.
Because I think making memories is better than eating scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast every morning.
Dear Grandma,
January 11, 2010 | Filed Under Lond distance good-byes, Military Life, Perspective | 40 Comments
I’ve always counted myself as blessed. Very, very blessed. For part of my life I had two Great Grandmas and one Great Granddaddy, all of my Grandmas and all of my Grandpas. Over the course of the last probably twenty years, I have lost only one of my Great Grandmas.
Shortly after Eve was born we had a picture taken of my Granddaddy, Grandma, mom, myself, and Eve. Five generations… we were in the paper for goodness sake! I’ve always felt that having this much of my heritage still alive was a really big deal. One that I have been very grateful for.
Thursday around noon my Grandma passed away. Betty was her name; she was my Dad’s mom… But she was my Grandma. Daniel and I were in the middle of driving through Mississippi when my Dad called me with the news. There had been no warning, no sickness, no nothing. Grandma had a heart attack and died in my Grandfather’s arms in an instant.
You just never know it’s your last time to hug someone’s neck until it’s too late.
The funeral is today and I can’t go. We pulled into New Mexico late in the afternoon yesterday and l have been dealing with some sort of very painful issue with my lungs for the last six days that I need to take care of. Flying to New York just couldn’t happen. This is most certainly a part of military life that, though I had read about, I had never experienced. Oh, it hurts to not be able to be with the rest of my family. To be the only one not flying in.
I wrote a letter to my Grandma for my brother to read at her funeral. I didn’t know what else to do. How else to say good-bye. I sure am going to miss that tiny beautiful woman…
Dear Grandma,
I am so sorry that I couldn’t be there in person. I agonized over the decision of whether to come or not. For two days I went back and forth; on Friday I reserved a ticket to fly up but as I sat in the cab of our truck watching Alabama roll by I heard your high pitched beautiful voice voice in my head, “Andrea Leigh, don’t be ridiculous! I am just fine, you stay right where you are.” And so I am.
Oh Gram, this is so tough. I just saw you the other day! I gave you Calla Lilies in a pot and you remarked on how they were the same flowers you carried in your bouquet when you married Grandpa. You were suppose to work your green thumb magic on them and when I visited I was suppose to be blown away by how marvelous they looked.
Grandmas aren’t suppose to die. They are meant to always be around spoiling their only granddaughter, like you did for me.
I’ve had lots of time to think as Daniel drove our family across the country towards New Mexico; and I have remembered so much of you. I remembered how every time you kissed me your one lone whisker would poke me in the cheek. And we would always laugh together about it. I remember how you would tell me that you had to go “Tinkle” when you would use the bathroom. And how you called yourself a fish because you loved being in the water so very much. I loved how as a little girl you always let me go through your make up and play. I would come out of the bathroom and show you my creation and you never laughed at me. Thanks for that. I remembered eating your store bought oatmeal cookies and thinking they were the best thing ever. And the way you made poached eggs was simply amazing.Truly one of my favorite breakfast foods.
Grandma, I loved you so much. You were a fireball underneath a soft layer of love. I still laugh over the time, one summer when David and I were staying at your house, you were driving us into town and you were mad as a hornet. I don’t remember why but you were; and you yelled out “Damnation!” Not “damn” or damn it” but the full and entire word, “Damnation!” And me, never having heard that word before asked, “Grandma, what is “damnation?’ Oh, you were so red and embarrassed. You back peddled yourself into a theological discussion that I still remember and laugh about today.
I have so many memories with you, Gram. Way too many to write about here, and you know what… I couldn’t be more grateful. Simply because it means that you were around for 29 years of my life. And you invested in me; you played with me, you fed me, you bought me presents, you swam with me, you took many summer night walks with me, you laughed with me; the years rolled by and you spent time with my children, laughing over and loving on them too.
Grandma, you loved me so well. And I loved you. I wish more than anything that I wasn’t writing this letter to you. That this was all just a silly made-up story and that I could hear your tinkling bell of a laugh and know that I could stop by your house and everything would be just how it has always been for all my life.
But, it can’t be. And that makes me cry. I can tell you that I am very much looking forward to seeing you in Heaven, with your fiery red hair and your sweet smile. I hope that God lets you keep your one lone whisker ’cause it’s part of what makes you, you… to me anyways.
I love you Gram. I’ll miss you always.
Love your Andie Pandie.
Daniel and the kids re-unite video…
January 7, 2010 | Filed Under Andrea, Daniel, Deployment, Eliza Dove, Eve, Judah, Military Life, Perspective, Video | 44 Comments
I thought you all might like to share in our joy.
I video-ed on my mighty little Flip video camera when Daniel and the kids first saw each other at my parents house.
Just try not to cry.
Untitled from andrea hub on Vimeo.
This video is after a few minutes had passed and Eliza was in the process of warming up. Thank the Lord for Skype! Daniel and I directly attribute Eliza seeing him and talking to him via Skype to her recognizing and quickly being comfortable with him.
Eliza warms up from andrea hub on Vimeo.
The “reintegration” process has been absolutely seamless. The kids have fallen right back into rhythm with Daddy; the only issue I can see is that they have to learn to trust Daniel again. Trust that’s he’s here to stay… they tend to get a little frantic, asking for him when he leaves the room or to run out to the truck. Especially Eliza.
Right now I am laying on a couch on Columbus AFB in Mississippi watching the Texas/Alabama game with Daniel. We are well on our way back to New Mexico and it has been a wonderful trip thus far. I will write a detailed blog about our trip once it’s over but truly, it has been an amazing time as a family. I am thankful for every minute I sit next to Daniel in our truck. The kids have been complete angels and we have made some great memories.
This is the first time I have been on my computer since Sunday (I KNOW!) so to say blogging has had to take the back seat would be an understatement but this family time minus any distractions has been a blessing. But I am very much looking forward to getting back into a rhythm. I am so much happier and peaceful now… as my brother David said today, I am a “totally different girl!”
And I really am. Daniel does that to me. I’m so thankful for my magnificent husband!
The Conversation.
November 17, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Deployment Blog, Military Life, Perspective | Comments Off
**Differing opinions are starting to trickle into the comment section…
The conversation… the comments are really where it’s at.
I continued the conversation today.
And I thought I was having a bad hair day…
September 8, 2009 | Filed Under Perspective, Photos | 5 Comments
But, I guess perspective is everything.
