A June Wedding!

Brit's outrageously gorgeous sister got married on June 6th. Here she is with her husband Todd and her step-son, Kross. Kross is a bit more than a year older than Guthrie, and Guthrie talks about him constantly. They're a gorgeous family.

Lydia and Guthrie were in the wedding, as the procession, along with Kross, and Todd's nephew, Nate.

Guthrie made sure to kiss the bride. Several times.

Guthrie and Nate spent the entire afternoon playing together. So, not only did we get this great guy Todd in our family, and his amazing son Kross, but Todd is sharing his brother and sister in law, and their two kids with us, too! I love adding as many cousins as we can muster into the mix.

Oh, and I saw a peahen with two peaCHICKS on the grounds where they held the services. Baby peacocks - so cool!

When there's no good way to say it.....

Hi Friends. We're having a really good summer. Lydia finished school just this past Thursday, and we've already been kayaking on Lady Bird Lake and swimming in Barton Springs. Guthrie continues to crack me up. Oh, and two weeks ago, I found out I have Ductal Carcinoma in Situ. Breast Cancer. So here's the deal. I'm in Stage ZERO. I went in for my very first mammogram - my baseline - and they found some calcification in my left breast. (*chortle*- now I"m blogging about my BOOBS. Finally!).

So, my prognosis is beyond excellent. I'll have a lumpectomy (or as my doctor calls it - breast conservation surgery - so green sounding!) followed by several weeks of daily radiation treatments. In the meantime I'm avoiding animal fats and sugar (um, except dark chocolate, of course). I'm also swimming, kayaking, walking, and drinking lots of very fresh juice. My goal is to have the biopsy from the lumpectomy be cancer free, in which case, I might just try and talk my way out of the radiation.

In a nutshell: I am UNBELIEVABLY lucky, and I have the most mild case of cancer imaginable. And by the end of the summer, it will be completely over.

Weird, huh? Plus, now that I'm suddenly so health conscious I'm in the strange position of being healthier because I have a wee little bit o' the cancer. Ironic, right?

The awkward part? Wanting people to know, but not really wanting to tell anyone. So feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

The other really awkward part? Feeling so damn lucky. Early detection, non-invasive, relatively easy, standard, proven treatment. I have a handful of good friends who are really duking it out with this disease right now, where as I'm involved in some kind of thumb-wrestling match. I thank God every day. For my luck, and for the continued health and improvement for my friends.

So there you have it. Now it's out there. My boobs, always so cooperative and dare I say out-going and fun, have suddenly rebelled against me. And so soon after I finally invested in a really good Victoria's Secret collection of bras! C'est la vie. It was time I started caring more about a supportive sports bra anyway.

Besos!

Emily

Birthdays

I'm very behind in my blog, obviously. And today is Lydia's birthday, so you think I would write about that. You would think, right? And certainly Lydia is very much on my mind, as always, but I covered that pretty well, here. What I have been just dying to write about, what I have really wanted to share with you, is a fantastic trip we took in February, for my father-in-law's birthday.

My father-in-law is an amazing man. And very much a man's man, without being a macho stereotype. He played football for OU. He joined the Navy. He was a fighter pilot. He married his stewardess girlfriend, became a father, and now he is a lawyer. And an amazing grandfather.

Trips with my in-laws have always been unabashedly about the grandchildren. We've spent a weekend in Galveston and Kemah for Lydia's birthday. We spent Thanksgiving in Destin, with the kids on the beach. My in-laws are the most generous people I've ever know, and they love spoiling my sweet kids, and I get to ride shot gun. And Buddy? He picks up the tab. I've watched that poor man spend more money on ride tickets in 30 minutes than I used to make in a month. And the whole time, he's smiling and getting in line for the next ride.

Well, this year at Thanksgiving Brit happened to ask his dad, "So what ship were you stationed on anyway?" And Buddy told him. The USS Lexington.

It took a couple months, but Brit looked the ship up. It's stationed in Corpus Christie. It's been decommissioned and is a museum. It's amazing. This was a little more than a week before Buddy's birthday, and a plan was quickly hatched. Hotel reservations were made. And Buddy and Susan (Brit's parents) met us in Corpus Christie for what proved to be one of the most enjoyable weekends in recent memory.

We stayed right on the beach. We ate seafood at every meal. (I even had crab cake benedict for breakfast). We saw jelly fish on the beach, and I even snuck in a little run in the morning, by the ocean, alone.

Of course, the very best part was the ship itself. Buddy earned his pilot's wings on this ship, and he clearly loved showing us around. Guides recognized the mark of the Navy Man about him, and said so.

When Lydia was asked about her favorite part of the trip, she said it was "wearing Grump's wings." Guthrie got a flight jacket. Brit got to know his father better.

We all got quite a work out on all those damn stairs. (Buddy and I took turns carrying Guthrie up and down all those narrow ladders....)

We saw where the officers and enlisted men slept, got their hair cut, their teeth fixed, and ate meals. We learned about the history of the "Lex" and the brave members of the US Navy who served her. The Lex made her name in WWII, as "The Blue Ghost" because every time the Japanese were sure they'd sunk her, she'd show up again, guns blazing.

It was an awesome, living lesson in history, touring the ship, and viewing the planes on the flight deck.

Right. The planes.

That was by far the best part. Standing on the flight deck with Buddy, talking about which types of planes he'd flown, and the sheer insanity of taking off and landing on that speck of a deck in the wide, wide ocean.

There was a great cartoon painting of the mechanics of taking off and landing, in one of the lower decks.

The very best part? For once, it was all about Buddy. It was his trip. His story. His ride. And it was amazing.

Happy Birthday Jackson Pollock

Brit and I have a pretty good thing going on. We get each other. And, we both really like checking out art. In fact, we have a lot of overlapping likes in the area of contemporary art. Of course, we have our differences too, but how boring would it be otherwise?
One of our shared favorites is Jackson Pollock. Thanks to the cool way Google customizes their headers for special occasions, I happened to realize that Jackson Pollock's birthday was this past week.
We've been dragging Lydia to art museums for years, so she's familiar with this particular artist. In fact, one of the things I like about him is that his style is really accessible to young artists. I suspect that's one of the things Lydia digs about him. So, we decided to celebrate his birthday in style, with our own custom creation.
In honor of one of our families favorite artists, we made this brownie, and splattered it with various types of chocolate. (The yellow is just white chocolate with food coloring).
I'm very pleased with our wacky dessert. And to cap off our celebration, we read "Action Jackson". It's been a good night!
To make this crazy brownie cake, we just mixed up our favorite batch of brownies, and baked them in an 11x17 pan. While they were baking, we melted white chocolate, mild chocolate, and 60% dark chocolate. We divided the white in half, and added yellow food coloring to half of it. When the brownies were out of the oven, we used spoons to splatter the various shades of chocolate all over the cake. Mmmm. Edible art. Happy Birthday Jack!

Dear 2008 - See ya!

Things that went down in 2008:

My sister was (finally!) ordained as an Episcopal priest and Lydia and I were there to see it.

We have two fully functional and perfectly lovely bathrooms in our house for the FIRST TIME EVER after living here for 10 years....

Lydia read all the Harry Potter books.

I went to my first (and so far only, okay?) yoga class.

Brit changed hip doctors and is facing more surgery in 2009. But at least this doctor believes him when he says his hips hurt.

We lost Darby to cancer. In March. And writing it out still makes me cry.

We did NOT lose my dad to cancer. He kicked cancer's ass, in fact.

We adopted two new dogs - Strummer and Townes. They are both amazing

Lucy accepted the two new dogs. She's a good girl

I was laid off and had a job offer within two weeks.

We spent our last of many New Year's day at the lake house in Spicewood. The house was sold. On to new traditions!

We spent the second of no doubt many 4th of Julys at my folk's Moss Lake house.

Guthrie has spent cumulitive HOURS throwing rocks into various bodies of water.

Lydia moved up a level in piano lessons.

Brit got back to the work of writing his novel.

We went to Big Bend for Guthrie's 3rd birthday and the whole family is IN LOVE with the place.

I bought a hybrid after my car was totaled on I-35.

Lydia changed schools and is now being given Greek and Latin words in spelling to keep her occupied.

Lydia and I discovered Letterboxing (Google it!) thanks to her new school.

I attended my 20 year high school reunion.

I woke up every morning and said a prayer of gratitude for my beautiful children, and prayed for their continued health and safety.

I got my groove back.

Some of my favorite people got married, and some had babies, and some faced horrible loss and survived. And everyone amazed the hell out of me.

Things I am hoping for 2009:

Teaching Lydia to ride a bike

Getting better about "must do's" that aren't fun, like housework and home maintenance. Ugh.

Good health for EVERY ONE

A more active lifestyle for my cute little family

Camping

A comfortable spot in a church community

Cuddles and giggles and laughter and snuggles

Blessing for us all.

Halloween 2008

Guthrie LOVES Halloween

The Love Bug and The Robot

I Choose Hope

I'm voting today. I have to decide if I want my children growing up in a society that makes decisions from a place of fear, or a place of optimism. Every day I remind myself that I make healthier, more rational decisions when I operate from a place of hope, and not fear. I'm counting on my country to make that same decision.

Breathtaking Spirit

For reasons I can't articulate, I spent a large part of my recent weekend in Arizona meditating on my daughter. I found the place inside where I worry about the ways in which we're alike, and I let it go. I released it. I filled that spot instead with love and gratitude for the person she is. Herself. Lydia.

I walked around my home town and wished thousands of times over for her to be with me, to share the view. This was particularly true at the Dessert Botanical Gardens - Lydia collects succulant plants - when I wished she was there to see the butterflies, the cacti, the tortoise. At lunch later with my dad, I wished Lydia was there to join the conversation. She's a marvel, and she would have amazed my father to tears, I am certain.

None the less, it was a good weekend alone and a lovely time to recharge.

When my flight landed in Austin I turned my phone back on and discovered a message from a school we had applied to and been wait-listed at this summer. A spot had opened up, for Lydia. It literally felt like an answer to a prayer, like the universe responding to 3 days of meditation on the object of my affection.

And so, Lydia started her new school this past Monday. We picked out her outfit the night before. I packed her a special lunch. I said prayers and laid out socks and made sure she had a full water bottle. Dropping her off that morning was like reliving the first day of kindergarten all over again, right down to the tears. Her classroom is equipped with windows all around, including the hallways, so I was able to walk past and see my brave girl sitting in her new desk, looking so young, and so intrepid and so small. She was being so brave. As a mother, asking your child to be brave is hard. And I felt the water well in my eyes and I walked out to my car and thought about Lydia again. I thought about how lucky I am to have such an engaging, intelligent, joyful child.

At dinner that night she announced that she loved her new school.

This Friday is the Dia de Los Muertes parade, and we'll take picture. On November 5th I'll be one of the driver/chaparones for the first field trip of the year, and there will be more pictures. And on each ocassion I will remind myself how lucky I am as a mother and how lucky we are as a family and I will say prayers of gratitude for my precious, precious girl. I will live in the moment and I will stay open to the imperfections of the day and I will just be with her, and not worry, and just be.

The Valley of the Daughter

My dad and I spent Sunday morning taking photos together at the Dessert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. There was a monarch butterfly exhibit while we were there, which was incredible. I had a wonderful time. I also, however, kept wishing Lydia were with me. She would have just loved the gardens.

My father just completed treatment for throat cancer and is 100% cancer free. He also looks fantastic.
I took lots of photos of the dessert flora and surrounding landscape. I miss the dessert, and the mountains and the natural beauty of Arizona. I don't miss Phoenix, though. Although this visit did remind me of her many charms....

Surviving Twice

Did I say in my last post that I liked high school? Maybe the first time around...
Actually, I had a really good time at the reunion, thanks to some very dear friends. And I had some surprisingly wonderful conversations with several people from back in the day. I'm glad I went, because of people I love, like those to the right.
But certainly there were moments when I was back in that John Hughes place wishing that stupid rich snob would just shut up and move on..... And she did. And so should I.
It was a really fun party. And we all look f'in fantastic. All of us. Right on.

Benefit for Zay

If you are in Austin, please come. We love this little girl.

A Weekend for Me

My 20th high school reunion is this weekend. Tomorrow night. I don't really think of myself as a reunion person, but I am nostalgic, so it works. There were close to 1000 people in my graduating class, so I don't have great expectations for the reunion itself. However, I am going with one of my favorite women, so if I spend the whole night with her, it will be worth it. We both have enough of Dorothy Parker in us that regardless of what happens, it won't be boring.

I'll also be visiting family in Phoenix, which makes me wish I was bringing at least one of my children with me. But at the end of the day, a weekend alone, to do whatever I want, is a luxury I haven't experienced in years and years, and I'm looking forward to it.

Here's what I'll be leaving behind:

A family that I absolutely adore, and to which I am devoted, and for whom I am required to provide 3 meals a day, plus clean clothes, and some clear direction on how weekend time should be spent. I'm the Julie McCoy (Love Boat), Alice (The Brady Bunch) and Ward Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver) of our family, and I love it. But the idea of making decisions for no one but me for 2 whole days is delicious. Bring it.

I'm also leaving behind a job that I love. I'm taking Monday off. I'm not logging in at all while I'm gone. I work with the most amazing group of people and every day brings new opportunities and new challenges, both of which require full engagement. It's common for me to be on line late into the evening "collaborating". I don't intend to collaborate at all for the next 3 days. Unless it's with a bartender, on the best tequila for a top shelf margarita.

I know it's not cool, but I liked high school. I loved my friends. I was active in our theater group, honors classes, and a cool little group of mod hipsters. I hope I see folks from all of those areas on Saturday night. But if I don't, it's okay. I'll still get to see a couple of Arizona sunsets.

By the way, here are the shoes that are working for me today. So far, so good.

The Froggie Hat

Guthrie is at that magical age - exactly two - that seems so often to embody childhood to me. Early this summer we found a frog hat, during a time he was obsessed with frogs, in the dollar section at Target. No brainer. While reviewing photos from the summer, I noticed that Guthrie's yellow frog hat was showing up in so many of them. (I especially like the leprachaun like pose as he jumps on the bed at Mandy and Todd's house.) The thing is, the hat itself just looks like summer, when you're two, and could be any year at all. It's a classic, like the age itself. As we prepare for fall, and look forward to cooler temperatures and all the joys of the holidays, I'm looking at these pictures and realizing that the summer Guthrie was two is over. It was a good summer, and Guthrie did two with style.

In a month my little boy will be three. Those of you with babies - I'm going to need a fix once in a while. Don't be surprised when I stop by just to smell their little heads.

What should we do for dinner?

I used to cook, constantly. In college I would start a pot of soup or pan of spaghetti sauce before my afternoon classes, and we'd all eat for days afterwards. I still try to make a healthy dinner every night for my family, but lately, I'm just not feeling it. Take today for instance. I did manage to make a really yummy breakfast - we had puffed apple pancake made with whole grain flower. But now, hours later, we need dinner. And the only reason I'm considering cooking is I don't feel like getting dressed. (That's right, we're ALL still in our pajamas. Yesterday's yard sale wiped us all out.)
I'd run out for take out in a heartbeat if it didn't mean putting on clothes.
I guess I'll go and see what's in the freezer. I can always make something with pasta, or rice, and whatever frozen green and protein we have on hand.

What would Molly do?

Like a lot of people, I'm really missing Molly Ivins during this election cycle. Man, just imagining what she would have to say about Palin....
This is worth watching.

Guthrie Cooks! Lydia Films!

Summer in Austin

 


Here are some photos we've taken this week.