Happy Halloween!

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Congratulations...

...to Dr. Hartin, Board Certified General Surgeon!  Way to go, honey!  We are all very proud.



October 2008 - Chip diligently reading his surgery textbook while Abby and Tucker "help."



Sick and Tired

Literally, we all are sick and tired.  Ab has a sinus infection.  William has an ear infection.  Chip is getting over pneumonia.  And I have sinus issues.  I woke up last night about 2 in utter pain; I thought my face was going to explode it hurt so bad.  So, needless to say we are all sick and tired.

Work is going well.  I've used the "F" word a lot.  My boss said very few people say the "F" word; I'm one of the few who thinks their job is FUN, I guess! 

Chip is on a plane headin' back from Salt Lake City.  He should arrive tonight, but he has a feeling he'll get stuck in Chicago tonight. 

Not too much else going on.  Glad tomorrow is Wednesday!  Here's hoping to gettin' some sleep tonight...

Beautiful Fall Day

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Now that I have you singing Mr. Rogers' theme song, let me take this opportunity to talk to you about neighbors.  Now I don't know how things were in the "old" days, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that neighbor-to-neighbor relationships have changed over the last, oh, forty years or so.  I would imagine there was a time when neighbors would greet each other as they went outside to get the morning paper.  I bet there were times when neighbors would chat over the fence and catch up on such things as little Johnny's baseball game and little Emma's loose tooth.  There was probably even a time when a neighbor might knock on a door to ask to borrow an egg.  I'm sure these things still happen, right? 

On to my point...one of our neighbors was expecting their second child.  I couldn't remember when the baby was due, but when I saw that they were gone last weekend, I highly suspected the baby had come.  Two nights ago my family and I were sitting around our dining room table, and I noticed a car pull up at our neighbors' house.  A woman got out carrying a sack.  "Aha!" I thought.  "I bet she's bringing a baby gift." 

Being the nosy neighbor that I am, I darted over to the window to watch.  Sure enough, I saw my neighbor walking through the living room carrying a baby.  Chip responded, "Well, they could have at least told us they had their baby."  I replied, "Well, we didn't tell them when William was born."   

Chip and I agreed it would be thoughtful to buy a gift for our neighbors.  "Maybe they have a registry," Chip suggested.  That was a great idea.  I rushed upstairs to get our computer, and I immediately pulled up two store websites in hopes of finding a registry.  I stared at the registry look-up form.  "Last name?"  I quickly figured out that it is virtually impossible to pull up a registry without knowing the recipient's last name.

Okay, so we didn't know our neighbors' last name.  In the old days one might have just gone across the street and asked, "What is your last name?" or "Congratulations on your baby!  Is there anything I can do for you?"  But no.  In this electronic age we live in, talking to people face-to-face or asking them for "personal" information, such as last names, feels a bit too intrusive and awkward. 

How did we solve the mystery?  The Internet, of course.  Did you know you could look up the names of all the people who live on your street?  We found out our neighbors' last name.  Isn't it weird that you can find that out?  It's funny to me; not in a ha-ha kind of way, but in a sad state-of-our society kind of way.  We know less and less about the people around us, don't we?

Wanna give it a try?  Wanna "virtually meet" your neighbors?  Go to the link below, and type in your address and let the neighborhood party begin.

     http://www.411.com/find_neighbors

Max-imally Awesome

Awesome, awesome, awesome. 

Chip and I went to see Max Weinberg's Big Band last night.  Wow.  I don't think I stopped smiling during the entire one and a half hour show.  It was incredible!  Perhaps the best part about the show was our seats - we were five rows back and right in the center.  The seats were on an incline, and would you believe that my seat was directly in front of Max?!?  Our eyes were at the same level!  Hard to believe I was only 35 feet from him.  Too, too cool.

The music was great.  The musicians were awesome.  Truly a night we will remember for a long time.  Thanks, baby! 

Lunchroom Drama

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.  After I paid for my lunch yesterday, I quickly scanned the cafeteria in search of a seat.  Lo and behold I saw another girl, about my age, sitting by herself.  I jumped at the opportunity to befriend this lone eater.

I approached her table.  "Are you all alone?" I asked.  No reply.  Then I said, "Well, I'm just going to plop myself down here with you." 

I am not kidding.  She gobbled up the rest of her food so fast it created a vacuum - I thought she was going to suck up my napkins.  I'm exaggerating of course, but she did cram her food down in about 90 seconds. 

Without ever speaking a word to me, or even acknowledging me, this girl got up and left.

I just laughed.  What gives?  I am totally NOT offended my lack of lunchtime companionship, but seriously, am I that weird? 

I will keep you posted on my quest to find a tablemate.

Falling for Fall

There is a particularly beautiful tree on the corner of the street that I pass nearly every day.  As I drove past one day, I happened to see that the leaves had changed color, almost as if overnight.  Just yesterday I drove past the tree again and noticed that about half of the gorgeous orange leaves had fallen.  They lay scattered on the street below, still a vibrant hue, still gorgeous.

Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  There seems to be a stillness in the air during the fall. I remember, even at a young age, sitting on the bench in our front lawn and just listening. That's it, just listening. Things sound different in the fall. It is hard to describe, but there is a definite sound to autumn. 

Many childhood memories are triggered during the fall.  I think about the smell of our leaf pile burning and the sound of the leaves popping in the fire.  I think about the grass and how brown and crunchy it got.  I think about all the fun my family had decorating the yard for Halloween.  Whether it was ghosts hanging from the trees, tombstones in the yard, scarecrows stuffed with pine straw, or a pumpkin bag full of leaves, we always had something.  I think about traipsing through the woods across the street in search of the perfect leaf.  And then there were the pine straw rides my daddy would take my sister and I on.  He would load his trailer full of straw, hook it to his lawn mower, and drive us around the neighborhood. 

Perhaps the thing I think about most during the fall is my mama.  Fall is her favorite season, too.  I don't remember how it started, but we came up with our very own tradition.  Each fall, without fail, we would make a trip up to the movie store and rent "Lady in White."  I eventually bought her a copy of the movie.  And you better believe I will be watching it again this year.   

Western New York falls are beautiful.  But they are not "my" fall.  I miss my fall. 

I do, however, look forward to creating fall memories with my children. 

Maaaaaaaaaax!

Chip surprised me with tickets to see the Max Weinberg Big Band perform tomorrow night!  I CAN'T WAIT!