It Happens to Be

In the Blink of an Eye

From this.....

to this...

in the blink of an eye. Happy Birthday dear Stuart. Today I celebrate 16 years of motherhood. Thank you for making me a momma first. I love you son, you are a fine young man.  

With all my love,

~Momma

Where oh where...

...does the time go? Yes, I just lost an entire year (at least a year’s worth of blogging anyway). No, nothing was wrong with me. At least not any major sickness or catastrophes to deal with ~ just life happening.

Seems I am one of those people with great plans and ideas but somehow everyday life gets in my way. Now, I use to pride myself on my superb organizational skills, my efficiency and my resourcefulness. Well, as you can clearly see from my absence, those traits have begun to atrophy.

July is my month off from work and I’ve had some time to investigate where I am in life AND what is important to me. In the process I have come to some conclusions that spur me to embark on some new interests and revive some old interests. Many of them I hope to share here. 

Have you found yourself in the same lost time situation? It’s not easy to get back on track, interests change, life interferes and we put our interests aside to deal with the day to day happenings. Take a few moments (hours or days) to focus on YOU. We can’t truly be of value and inspiration to others if we are not happy and fulfilled ourselves.

I’m anxious to get started on my journey, but I will be back soon…very soon!

In the meantime, here is a peek at some of Life’s Happenings that have kept me busy over the past year.

Looking forward to my journey ~ Renee

Sugar Buns to Shoulders

I’m really not sure how we made it five years and two weeks without this incident but I venture that is probably longer than most parents.  It wasn’t immediately obvious since Anslie’s hair is really long and very curly but it only took one really close look and I KNEW!! Mischief was afoot.

 

The conversation went something like this...

 

Me:       Anslie, did you cut your hair?

Anslie:  No mommy (sweet, heart melting smile)

Me:       Are you sure? Were you playing with scissors at daycare?

Anslie:  No mommy. No, I didn’t. (HUGE, sweet, heart melting smile)

 

(This called for a closer inspection.)

Me:       Anslie!! Elizabeth!! Ollis!! Don’t tell mommy a lie. Did you cut your hair? Where is the hair? Where are the scissors? Did you hide it? Show me right this minute!

Anslie:  (Stepping down off the bathroom stool and heading down the hallway, with me in HOT pursuit – She turns to face me)

              “Wait here mommy”.

Me:       (Insert Exorcist Head Spin Here) Oh no I won’t! You will show me right now. (The nerve of my five year old to order me to wait here so I won’t see her hiding spot!)

 

As I round the corner of her bed and look down to see my scrapbook scissors amid piles of beautiful red curls, I can feel the tears.  I don’t know if I’m mad or sad.

 

 

Me:       Oh Anslie, why? Why did you cut your hair?

Anslie:  Silence – Goliath couldn’t drag an answer out of this mouth.

 

I gently scoop up the precious tendrils of her baby years and turn to leave; a wave of nausea sweeping over me. As I try to sort out this flood of emotions I hear the sweetest voice say “Wait mommy”! I turn around just in time to see her pull a second handful of curls from another hiding place. “Here’s the rest”.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!

I snatch the hair from her small hand and break into a run.  Russss…..ell, I scream. She DID cut her hair, Lots of it. Anslie and I arrive at my husband’s side at exactly the same time.  My face filled with horror and hers sporting, yes you guessed it – a sweet heart melting smile.

 

{Side Note: We see a good bit of these smiles when someone has been up to no good at our house.}

 

In a voice of indignance, Anslie proclaims “Look what mommy found under my bed”, as if she were being blackmailed or something.  At this point, I can’t even rationalize how this is getting turned around. 

 

How are we going to put it back with the rest mommy?

We can’t! You should have thought about that before you started cutting.

Remember when my hair was down to my sugar buns mommy?

Yes, now it’s up to your shoulders!!!

I don’t know about you, but if I were in Anslie’s shoes, I would be nervous – not her though.  She knows dad all too well. Pinky wrapped WELL! He is having a hard time discerning who to address, me or her. I can tell he is finding humor in her ability to own this conversation. In his sweetest dad voice – “Anslie Honey, why did you cut your hair?”

 

Shoulder Shrug

I absolutely MUST remove myself from this conversation before I cave into a heap of tears and laughter. I am in awe at her ability to make light of something I perceive as nothing short of life altering trauma.  In the end, Anslie gets a spanking (administered by dad) for telling a lie and I have to get an appointment for 911 Hair Repair. Thank goodness my salon not only has wonderful stylists but WONDERFUL friends.

Anslie now sports shoulder length hair that she is perfectly happy with.  She is oblivious to her mother’s pain of losing those precious locks of spiraling, bouncing curls.

If I were 13

No parents, no chores, the beach, lots of friends girls – wouldn’t that be the life for three whole weeks if you were a 13 year old guy. Sounds like the perfect way to while away your summer before heading off to high school if you ask me. Stuart thought so too – and for three weeks this summer he studied Coastal Ecology at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC through the Duke TIP Program.

Although his parents weren’t there, he was under the excellent watch of some fabulous teachers, assistants, RC’s and staff at the Marine Lab. Despite the picture I have painted, this trip was not all play – it was equivalent to a semester course in college. (No, really- I'm serious, one semester of college crammed into 3 weeks!)

That meant no sleeping late, lots of studying, lots of hands on lab work and even doing your own laundry.  (ummm, that was a nice break for me J). Class six days a week and evening activities kept them busy. Needless to say, between the hectic schedule, mud fights and a broken cell phone (scowl) we didn’t hear from him too often.

Fortunately for me, Dr. Phil

did an excellent job of documenting the adventure by means of digital photography – and I THANK him!! This year we actually get to put faces with all the names of this new group of friends. What a wonderful "life experience" to have.

I'm totally awed by, and jealous of the whole experience - I wanted to go too, let me show you why.........

Aren't they amazing? They are the wild horses of Shackleford Banks. They are from spanish descent from around 400 years ago. And if that's not enough, look at what they had for lunch one day - HA! Only kidding! Neat though, huh?

For details (since I only got bits & pieces myself - Stuart is 13 afterall) you will have to email him directly at stuartrhea (at) bellsouth (dot) net. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photographs.  You can see more of them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ithappens2b/ 

New Adventure

Origin…beginning…inception…introduction…

Whatever word you choose, they all mean the same – the start of something new.  This blog is the beginning of a new adventure for me.  Not that I’m the real adventurous type but I definitely consider this an adventure.  Sure, I had heard of blogs but in my mind they were some type of resource for techies – boy, was I wrong! Let me tell you of my unexpected discovery of what blogs really are.  In mid February my dear husband and I snuck off in the middle of the week for a “date night”.  We were really missing each others company so we went to our favorite little Italian restaurant. You know the kind – dim lights, warm, inviting tuscan-esque décor, a portrait of Da Vinci (hence the restaurants name) and Pavarotti mesmerizing me with ‘O Sole Mio in the background. Romantic! Yes, but also perfect for conversation.  As we savored the deliciousness of the food and the quiet we engaged in some much needed adult conversation. Conversation about - get this, the children we had left at home.  Curious how we had needed an escape but once there, we found ourselves laughing and talking about the thing we were escaping.  The din of constant noise that hangs over our home, the dirty piles of laundry, the tears of stubbed toes and the reverberating sound of “mama, mama, mama”.  As the hours slipped on and we sipped our coffee our patient server had captured bits and pieces of our conversation and asked how we happened to get a night away. He said he didn’t have children but had nieces and nephews and knew it was hard for his sister to get a night out.  You know, he said, “You should take a look at my sister’s blog www.justpurelovely.typepad.com sometime, I really think you would like it”.  As we paid our check and polished off the last swirls of coffee, I promised him I would take a look at her blog.

Wow, everything DOES happen for a reason!!  It was several days before I got around to looking at the blog but when I did…there was an instant lure.  This was the life of someone very much like you and me being shared with the world: to learn from, to be inspired by or simply for pleasure.  I was totally amazed, what I thought blogs were – dull, boring, technical was so WRONG!  A blog could be anything you wanted it to be – limited only by your time, patience and imagination. To Lori Seaborg and the rest of the blogging world, thank you for your inspiration to embark on a new adventure. So, here goes………..the origin, beginning, inception, introduction of “It Happens to Be”.  Welcome to my world and my adventure. (And, as with most adventures that are filled with surprises and unknowns, be patient with me as I find my niche. There will be plenty of surprises so please visit often and feel free to share your comments, ideas and thoughts!)

~ Renee