A Letter to Joycie - #1

Joycelen,

Each month I write you letters that detail how much you have grown and changed in the previous four weeks. And each month, I print those letters out and tuck them away in your baby book, in the hopes that years from now, we can read them together. And when I am no longer with you, you can read those letters and feel the love that I have for you.

I enjoy writing those letters. But lately I have been feeling as though I should write more letters. Letters that speak to you about more than just how you are growing up (way too fast for my liking) – letters than impart some of the wisdom that I have gained in the 28 years on this earth.

I also want to have these letters to refer back to – so when I encountered a parenting situation in the future, I can remember how I wanted to handle it, what I wanted to say, what I wanted to do.

So today, on Thursday, September 30, 2010, I am going to impart my first bit of wisdom to you.

“Don’t envy others!”

Joycie, it’s a simple fact of life that someone is always going to have somthing you want. The popular girl at school will date the boy you are secretly crushing on, a coworker will get the promotion you wanted, a friend will buy a new vehicle while you drive your old car.

You’ll first reaction will likely be envy. It would be easy to give into this emotion. You will list the reasons that the boy should like you better (Side note: Any boy who thinks you are anything less than amazing should be ignored, but that’s another lesson for another day), why you worked harder to earn the promotion, or why it is makes no sense for your friend to buy a new vechicle in her current financial situation.

You will probably find yourself wishing that you had what the other person has…don’t. I promise that there are things going on that you do not know about, problems that you can not see, worries/fears/questions that are plaguing the other person.

Envy is a waste of time and energy. Instead, of envying, you should be happy for the other person. And then focus on all the good that is in your own life. Sit down and list out all the things that you have been blessed with and I promise, you will soon forget about the boy, the promotion, or the car.

Okay, I would write more, but you are sitting in my lap and keep banging the keys, so I will close this letter.

I love you, pook!

~Mama

Write Pink ! Blog for Your Breasts Day

We each have moments in our lives that change. Moments that so dramatically shift our worlds, that we can describe in vivid detail where we were, what we wore, when the moment happened. For me one of those moments was April 4th, 2004.

I was lying on my beige floral couch in my one bedroom apartment in Smyrna, GA. I was wrapping up the final weeks of my senior year at Georgia Tech. Per Sunday afternoon tradition, I had called home to give my parents the weekly update. Towards the end of the conversation, my Mama said “Honey, we need to tell you something.”

My heart leapt into my throat. I wondered if the news would be about my grandmother. Over the early part of the spring, she had been ill – I wondered if it was the news that the end was near. It was not. Instead, the news my mother shared was even more shocking, even scarier. With tears clogging her voice, she spoke “Tammi has breast cancer.”

Tammi was my oldest cousin on my father’s side. 14 years older than me, she had been more of a big sister to me than a cousin. I had always admired her style, her zest for life, and though I had never told her – I secretly wanted to be like her when I grew up.

That night and in the coming weeks, I wondered how this could be happening. My cousin was still so young – didn’t breast cancer happen to older woman. I was scared of what would happen to my cousin, but during a long conversation with her she assured me “I will win.”

And she did! She beat breast cancer, not once, but TWICE. Unfortunately, many woman do not win their battles. So today, in honor of my cousin’s victory, and in memory of the other soldiers, I am participating in Write Pink: from the Head, Heart and Feet.

Please join me and Bigger Picture Blogs today as we kick off Write Pink! from the Head, Heart and Feet by teaming up with Army of Women and bloggers everywhere to Blog for our Breasts.

The Army of Women campaign is an online initiative, where women (and men) can sign up at http://www.armyofwomen.org/. The members are then contacted via E-blast to participate in groundbreaking, breast cancer prevention research studies. They can either sign-up for the studies online, or if they do not qualify, they are encouraged to forward the information to a friend or family member. Every woman ( or man) over 18 is welcome to participate, whether a breast cancer survivor or someone never affected. Do you want to join the fight against breast cancer? Then sign up! Want to recruit friends and family to join the army? Encourage them to sign up by using the Invite a Friend Link.



Breast cancer has taken the lives of too many mothers, daugthers, sisters and friends. Join this Army and let's battle to win the war with breast cancer.

A Single Curl

Bigger Picture Moments: Following the Plan

Welcome to Bigger Picture Moments, a weekly writing meme where we breathe in the moments that paint a picture of the grander scheme. All moments are welcome in this space -- small or large, as community is just as important as the grander awareness brought on by searching for a bigger picture every week.

I have always wanted to be a runner. There seems to be a freedom in running – the breeze blowing around you, the repetitive sounds of your feet hitting the pavement – running seemingly provides a momentary escape from the pressure of the world around you.

Two years ago, I was in the middle of transforming myself into a runner. I was nearing the end of Couch to 5K training plan and was a mere two weeks away from my first 5K run. And then I got injured.

Two X-ray, 1 MRI, and a few cortisone shots later, I was able to finish the race. But my knee was extremely inflamed, and my doctor advised me to take a few months off from my new found hobby.

Those few months became years. Recently, I have once again felt the urge to run. To lace up my shoes, pick a route, and just run. But my body is two years older, and has undergone changes sense then – namely given birth to a child. So once again I am following the Couch to 5K training plan.

On Monday, I was in the middle of the first day of the 4th week of the program. My training plan called for a 5 minute warm up walk, followed by a 3 minute run, a 90 second walk, then a 5 minute run, followed by a 2.5 minute walk – all of which is repeated a second time. The first set was hard – I struggled to maintain my pace, and my legs felt heavy. Three minutes into my 2nd 3 minute run, I was feeling great. I was experiencing the elusive “runners high”, so I though – I think I’ll just keep running. So I ran for another minute and then another.

My training partner looked me and said “Aren’t you suppose to walk now?”

“Nah, I am feeling good – and besides the walking segments are boring. I am just going to run the rest of the time.”

And my plan worked for a moment. And then my lungs began to feel as they were on fire. I couldn’t breathe properly. My lack of breathe lead to a cramp in my side that finally forced me to stop my workout.

Later that night as I lay on my living room floor attempting to stretch out my sore muscles, I though about my run. I realized that I had gotten so focused on the end result – RUNNING – that I had desired to abandon my training plan.

It’s something that happens to me in other areas of my life. I become so consumed with the end result, that I often miss the small steps that I need to take -- and often wind up costing myself more time.

So in the coming week, I am going to follow my training plan to the letter. And in the other areas of my life, I am going to focus on the completing the small steps that will get me to my end result.

M's Birthday Scavenger Hunt

If you read my blog yesterday, you saw a post that contained a clue for M to decipher so that he could continue of his birthday scavenger hunt. I promised that would post a recap once he was done….and here it is.

M’s birthday hunt was suppose to begin with a letter that I had placed over the visor in his work truck. It contained a poem about breakfast that I had composed and a clue that read:

Look in the place that was named by Dorothy Levitt, it is also known as a jockey box.

The answer was the glove compartment, in which there was money for M to treat himself to a breakfast out.

Unfortunately, M had to switch work trucks, so while he found the letter, he did not figure out the clue until AFTER the switch. He is going to treat himself to breakfast today.

M’s truck swap further thru my plans out of whack. As the 2nd clue was set to be delivered by scheduled email at 10:30. The clue was simply an anagram of the word toolbox. Inside his toolbox, I had hidden 2 cd’s that he had requested. I had to just tell him about that gift.

The third clue was this:

    

    

    

    

    


If you take the text, paste it into word and change the font, it looks like this:

W T N E C

W K D Y O

W I M D M

D M I O -

O A K T -

Reading down each column you get the following:

www dot kim and mikey dot com.

This clue took him to a blog post that instructed him to e-mail me at the e-mail address that we use for private matters. This was my personal e-mail address. Once I received his message, I responded with

Sehen Sie unter der Stelle, wo Staub Hasen verstecken

M figured out that it was a phrase in German. So he googled an online translator and received the phrase “Look under the place where dust bunnies hide.”

This clue took him quite a bit of time to figure out. He was looking under our bed, the crib, chairs, tables, etc. He finally found the next clue under the corner of our couch. I should not that I laughed at him crawling around on our floors. Joycelen was watching him with an expression that said “Daddy has lost it.”

The clue under the couch was simply 2-9-5. I told him to look in anything that would contain numbers. He thought about phone books, various books in our house, and finally found the clue in an old hymnal we had in the living room.

The clue in the hymnal read “I can feed you but I am not food, I can quench your thirst but I am not water.” M quickly realized that this was referring to the Bible. He located the correct Bible (we have 4 in our home) in which was a humrous birthday card that contained the final clue “Look where your memories were stored.”

The final clue guided him to a wooden chest that he stores items in. He lifted up the lid and found the box containing the wireless mouse that I purchased him.

M stated that he enjoyed the scavenger hunt and wants another one for his next birthday. And being the good wife that I am, I am going to oblige him. But I think he is nervous because I have a whole year to plan clues, while this year’s search was planned in just a week.

Oh, this is going to be fun….

Mikey's Next Clue

**Readers, today is M's 31st birthday. Since his birthdy fell on a work day and a Monday no less, I decided to create a scavenger hunt for him. He has been receiving clues on morning. Some clues lead directly to a gift and others to another clue. I promise to post tomorrow with a complete recap. But for now, I need to give M his next clue.**

You previous clue was quite difficult, so I will make this one a bit simpler. Send me a message to the address we use when we wish to discuss private matters.

6 Months

 

Dear Joycelen,

You are 6 months old. Hard as it is to believe half of your first year of life is over.  Here are the important milestones for this month:

• You are 15 pound, 15 ounces.
• You measure 27 inches in length.
• You are wearing 3-6 months clothing, although a few of the 6-9 month onesies do fit you.
• Due to your long limbs, you have a tiny waist, so you are still in size 2 diapers.
• You are still sleeping thru the night. You take a nap around 6:30 or 7:00 that last for about an hour. Then you wake up for an hour of playtime and one last bottle, and then sleep for 10 hours.
• You have become a pro at eating solid foods. You have 1 jar of baby food along with a 4 ounce bottle for breakfast, a 6 ounce bottle at 11, a jar of baby food at lunch, another 6 ounce bottle at 3, 6, and a 4 ounce bottle before bed.
• Your verbal skills continue to grow. You are making the “b” and “m” sounds….over and over again. Nana says that she has heard you say Mama and Daddy first, but if that’s true you are not letting us hear them.

• You are also becoming quite accomplished at sitting up.
• Still no crawling, you prefer to scoot on your back or army crawl.
• Recently, you have become enthralled with remotes, cell phones, and paper.

Your Daddy and I are constantly amazed by you, and you always have us laughing with your smiles, giggles, and big wet kisses.

Love,

Mama & Daddy