Florida Vacation

We had not been on a real vacation for about 3 years--since Nate was 2 and Georgia didn't exist, so it was about time. My parents rented a beach house, and the four of us went with them, my brother, and my cousin Nicole and her son Cade.

The vacation itself was awesome, but the drive there and the drive back were not! It was like STRESS -> ahhh, vacation -> STRESS! We went to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, which took us about 14 hours with all the stops. On the way there we decided to head out on Friday night and drive most of the way and stop to sleep for a few hours before finishing the trip. We stopped around 3:30 am in Rome, Ga. This was a strategic stop. If we wake Nate up after 4 am, there's a possibility he will want to stay up! But before 4 is safe. Nate went right back to sleep, but Georgia kept me up for an hour being squirmy and then slept in while everyone else got up and ready!

Saturday's drive was going pretty well ... until we got to the Florida border. And it all fell apart! The kids started screaming, Blake started getting anxious, the movie wasn't working, the kids were fighting over a blanket ... oh my. We could not get to that beach house fast enough.

It was very cute, all the way there Nate kept saying, "I want to feel the sand between my toes!" And it's not like he has heard that saying before--he just really wanted to feel sand between his toes! So when we pulled in the driveway, we didn't even stop in the house--we went straight out to the beach. Nate was so excited to get his toes in the sand. He LOVED it. He immediately started throwing sand up in the air. Georgia helped him. So we did go inside and explore the house, which is right on the beach and is awesome, and I changed the kids into their swimsuits so they could play in the sand some more. They ran off like wild children and didn't want to come back inside.

The next morning, we headed back out to the beach first thing.

 

My Nate is a BEACH BOY! He just loved the sand and the waves. He was seriously happier than ever being at the beach. He would dig in the sand for hours, and he could have just stood in the waves up to his knees for hours on end if someone would have stayed with him.

Georgia ... not so much. There were a few times that she didn't want me to put her down because, unlike Nate, she did not like the feel of sand on her feet. I think her favorite part of the vacation was this little princess chair Granna and Pop brought her. :)

This beach had HUNDREDS of jellyfish. They were everywhere. The first night we were there, a neighbor told us that the clear ones wouldn't sting. Then after some wikipedia searches we discovered that all the ones washed up on the beach with no tentacles were safe to handle. So Cade began a collection of jellyfish. There was talk of bringing them home. He wanted everyone to touch them. I refused. He talked Nate into it.

I caught a rainbow--how pretty.

Jellyfish. Cade talked me into going out in the water with him once, and we were out about waist high. Something stung me, and at the time I thought it was a jellyfish, but someone mentioned it might have been a stingray--Ick!!!

We were hanging out on the deck and I looked over and saw Nate in this super tall chair ... How did he get up there?

My brother flew in (good choice) and the rental car place offered him a convertible. So we all took turns driving it. :)

Georgia gets right up in Cade's face, nose to nose, to talk to him.

Now don't you wish you could look this cute in a bikini? I do!

As the week went on, you can see we were all wearing more and more clothing! I was trying so hard to not get sunburnt. Of course Blake and Georgia just got tan, but Nate and I got burnt. Especially me. And I was wearing a lot of clothes out there, covering as much skin as possible to avoid it.

At first, Georgia thought the sand was icky. This picture is so funny. She was just disgusted with all this dirt.

But she warmed up to it pretty quickly!

She and Granna built sand castles. Nate decided to big a deep hole, and he kept telling everyone he was digging to China.

We sat at the edge of the waves, and Georgia was holding on for dear life. With every wave, she would say, "Here comes a nudder one!"

 

My assessment of New Smyrna Beach: Besides a couple of good restaurants, there really wasn't much to do. But staying in a house right on this beach was amazing. We are used to Myrtle, where you can barely find a place on the sand to put your things. But check out these pictures. There was just no one, maybe a couple of families during the day, for as far as you could see.

A stark contrast to Daytona, where we visited one day! We just walked down the boardwalk.

Stopped in the arcade for Nate's favorite, air hockey.

Got some ice cream to cool us down.

And then played some mini golf.

By the first hole I figured it out: My kids are too young to play putt putt. Georgia kept chasing the balls and then putting them in the holes for us.

There were baby alligators there.

That night we went to this cool little restaurant with fresh seafood where you sit out on their deck and can watch the dolphins swim in the bay. Remember the story of Georgia losing her paci to a dolphin (not really)? This was right afterwards, when she was still in shock.

The next day we headed up to Orlando and were able to get together with some of my Spina Bifida mommy friends! I had already met Nicole at National Conference, but I only knew the other moms from online. It is so neat to know that practically anywhere I go, I have friends there. Thanks, Spina Bifida!

 

That afternoon we went to Sea World. That day was HOT.

 That morning my dad gave each of the kids a little money and told them to buy a souvenir at Sea World. So at one point during the evening we went in one of the shops and told them to pick one out. Nate found this seal/sea lion--we're still not sure which. He calls him "Seal the Sea Lion." This bothers Cade because it doesn't make any sense. Nate sleeps with Seal the Sea Lion every night, and asks to take him everywhere, like church.

 Georgia walked into the store and went immediately to the Barbie Shamu trainer, picked up the box, and carried it hugged to her chest all around the store.

At the end of the night we went to the Shamu Rock n Roll show. Nate was super excited. He loves concerts (on TV). Then the music started, and it was really loud. He started crying. Blake thought about taking him out of there. But I knew he would be sad later if he missed it. She he put his fingers in his ears and sat on my lap during the show. At one point I convinced him to take one finger out. :) He still talks about how awesome this was ... but that it was too loud.

Our last day, Friday, we just spent some more time on the beach ... Here's our bathing beauty getting her sunscreen.

 



Then that afternoon she fell asleep on me on the beach, and that's when my legs got really, really burned. Blake and I both tried to nap some in preparation for our long night, then he and I went out to dinner alone, which never happens here!

We left around 10pm, and Nate was zonked in no time, but Georgia fought sleep for hours. We averaged about one stop an hour for caffeine refills and bathroom breaks. At about our second stop, we looked up, and there were dozens of mosquitos on the ceiling of the van!!! Eek! We got to swatting as fast as we could. They must have gotten in the van when Blake was packing it. Nicole got eaten up by mosquitos, but nobody else seemed to.

So around 6:30 in the morning, we started getting really, really sleepy. We stopped and tried to nap a little in the van, but Blake couldn't sleep so he just downed some more caffeine and charged ahead. I couldn't keep my eyes open, but after about an hour of napping I was able to take over driving for awhile, and we made it home safely. The last couple of hours were pretty rough though, as everyone was waking up and cranky. Blake and I were wiped out for the next 24 hours, but Nicole and Cade went home and then went to the movies! :) They must have slept okay in the back seat. But we did have a day to recuperate and were ready to get back to work on Monday.

It really was a great time to get away from everything, spend time with the kids and our family, and have a lot of fun. But next time, we fly.

The birthday party!

Let's all pretend it hasn't been almost a month since it happened! Because Nate's birthday is on June 25, and Georgia's birthday is on July 31, the last two years we have had a big birthday party right in the middle of the two. This year, Georgia is really into Minnie Mouse, and I convinced Nate to have a Cars party instead of a Thomas party. (He tried to change his mind back to Thomas but it was too late.)

I got the kids ears when I went to Disneyland, and Georgia's were perfect for her Minnie party.

Nate was going to wear a shirt that said, "Does this shirt make me look 5?" but when it came in the mail it was huge.

It really doesn't matter how many times you tell them to stand close to each other and smile. They can only follow so many instructions at one time and can't do both.

I love watching Nate jump in a bouncy house! For a very long time, he would just crawl around while everyone else jumped and bounced him. But now he's strong and steady enough to do it himself.

So, yes, we rented a bouncy house for the party. And it turns out it's cheaper if you go and pick it up and set it up yourself! (Haha, this is so "us." Always trying to do something ourselves and save a few bucks. Like the laminate wood floors in our old house. I won't even go there.) I went to the place, and some strong boys hoisted a big bag in the back of my van. The next day, Blake drove the van into the backyard, and he said at the count of three let's pull it out. 1, 2, 3 pull! Then we both started laughing because it didn't even budge! It was so heavy. We finally got it out and unfolded, and this thing was enormous.

There was a roof flap that was stuck when we got it inflated, and when I went in there to unstick it, it was too high up for me to reach. The only thing to do was for me to stay in there and Blake unplugged the thing, and it started deflated with me in it! until I could reach the strap to undo, and I yelled for him to turn it back on before I got buried alive! But the bouncy house was a lot of fun for the kids.

Remember in my last post when I said Georgia gives dirty looks? Here's a mild version. 

Blake's aunt Kathy and uncle Roger own a bakery called the Rolling Pin in Owensboro, Ky, and every year we get a special Rolling Pin cake! They taste so good, and they are always adorable. This year we got two!

Georgia was very confused when everyone was singing to her. When Nate was little, he would cry when people sang happy birthday, but this year he had the sweetest little grin. He loved it.

We had a pinata. In past years, the dang pinatas would not come open until Blake smashed them to pieces after all the kids had a go. So this year he prepped it a little. And the first kid broke it! So everybody else just made sure it was good and dead.

Then it was time for presents. Nate was very excited about this, and Georgia was excited to watch him open them.

Then she realized SHE got presents too! She got the hang of it very quickly.

Georgia got lots of her favorite thing--babies.

And Nate got lots of very cool Cars toys.

Georgia was so funny opening her presents. She would say, "Oooh! Wook at dat!"

Then she got a doll bed to put her babies in, and she was occupied for the rest of the day. She'd put one baby in and cover her up, and then switch babies, and make sure the covers were just right. It was very sweet.

 Nate was super excited about his cars, especially since we had seen Cars 2 on his birthday.

Thanks to everyone who came to the party and made it a special day. It was a lot of fun. Days like that make me want to have more kids. (And days like today make me NOT want to have more! lol)

After Nate's birthday, then the party, then Georgia's birthday, the kids now think their birthday is like every other day. Nate frequently asks me if today is his birthday and how old he is now. :)

Just Georgia



Daddy bought her 2 babies cause she's 2.



Yesterday was Georgia's 2nd birthday. Her birth two years ago is one of my happiest memories. It has been such a joy to watch this sweet girl grow. I have been amazed to see her learning to crawl and walk and jump and all these physical feats with no issues--and early at that! She has always been motivated to keep up with her brother.

Georgia is such the girly girl. She doesn't like to get her hands dirty. She likes everything princess and Barbie and Minnie Mouse. She likes dress up and dolls and hairbows.

From birth, Georgia has been my serious girl. You have to earn a smile. But she is also very pleasant and even-tempered and a pretty "easy" toddler ... most of the time ... so far. :) As she gets older, she's getting more and more silly and funny and playful, which is just pure joy to watch.

She can also be pretty spunky and sassy. She has learned the art of screaming from her brother. And Georgia has this look. If you say something she doesn't like--such as no--she will stare you down with the dirtiest look. For like 2 full minutes. It's hilarious.

She's also, in this mama's opinion, very quick and bright and clever. Here are just a few of the things she has said lately that have made me smile.

Me: What color is that dog?
Georgia: Five!

One day she was trying to get up in a chair and was struggling, so cousin Cade went over and helped her up. She said thank you, and Cade said you're welcome. Then she got really close to Cade's face, nose to nose, and whispered "You're welcome." Whispering is her favorite. :) We whisper every night at bedtime. I'll whisper good night, and she'll whisper it back. Then I'll whisper I love you, and she'll whisper it back. And then we both giggle.

When we were on vacation, Georgia was not her happy self. I think it was probably just different surroundings and being excessively tired, but I'm still not quite sure all the reasons. One night she was whining and crying, and she had this conversation with my mom:

Granna: Georgia, you're not happy?

Georgia: (whining) Noooo

Granna: What would make you happy?

Georgia: Um ... a hot dog!

Ha! Maybe she was just hungry. But then the next day somebody asked her her doll's name, and she quickly answered, "Hot dog!" :)

One night on vacation, I kept telling the kids it was time to go to bed, and no one was moving. So I just got up and started walking out of the room and said, "Good night, kids! I'm going to bed!" Georgia didn't even look up from Granna's iphone, where she was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, raised her hand in the air and said, "G'night, mama!" We laughed and laughed ... my bluff did not work.

Also while we were on vacation (I promise to post pics very soon), we went to eat at this restaurant where yo can sit on the deck and watch dolphins in the bay. We were sitting at a snack bar type thing that overlooked the water, and I was keeping a close eye on the kids because it wouldn't have been hard to fall in. Georgia was standing there talking to us and dropped her paci, which bounced off the deck and plunked right in the water. She just stood there stunned, and we all just stood there watching her for her reaction. She didn't even cry, she just couldn't believe it. Ever since, Nate has been talking about the dolphin that now has a pacifier in its mouth. :)

And time outs are a big topic of discussion around here. Of course Nate gets time outs pretty often, but Georgia has only gotten a couple. For the most part, if you tell Georgia no, she gets her feelings hurt and cries. But this afternoon she and I were teasing each other:

Georgia: Go time out!

Me: No you go to time out!

Georgia: No I girl. Nate big boy.

Me: Do girls go to time out?

Georgia: No.

I guess it does look that way in this house so far! Then later she told me, "I be right back. I go time out." Okay!

Nate and Georgia are opposites sometimes. Nate is very emotional and moody--either crazy happy or throwing a fit mad. Georgia is pleasant and even tempered but serious. Nate grew up more slowly, stayed a baby longer, and taught us all kinds of life lessons. Georgia has become a big girl very fast, but I have been able to appreciate what I am watching because of the previous experience.

I look forward to watching her grow up and to see who she becomes, and to be friends with her when she's a grown up. :) Blake and I thank God for our gorgeous Georgia-girl!

Summer Fun

So much to blog about, so little time! :) This is my attempt to catch up on blogging a little. Coming soon: Birthday party and vacation!


This was just a random Friday at OT. I like watching Nate do the monkey bars.

This is a balancing board.

This was from the last day the kids spent at their previous sitter Bekah's house. Georgia will be going back to Bekah's when Nate starts school. They both love it there. This summer we have been fortunate enough to have my cousin Nicole as our nanny here at the house.

This isn't a great picture of Nate but I thought it was cool with the blurred trees out the window, and you can see Georgia's cute pigtails. :)

One day we went to Holiday World with the families from our Bible Study. This was really Nate's first time on kiddie rides, and he loved them.

Nate and Evan checking out each other's swim shoes.

Then we hit up the awesome water park. Nate is such a little fish--he loves the water. He found a kid slide that didn't go too fast or slow, and he could go down it himself and eventually didn't need anyone at the bottom to "catch" him, and he could make his way to the steps by himself, and up the steps and back down. We were so proud of him for being independent like the other kids his age, and we could just sit by the pool and watch him play. He went down that slide at least 100 times. Georgia took some time getting used to the water, but she eventually liked the splash pad. In the afternoon, there came a MONSOON. You'd think since we were already at a water park that we wouldn't mind getting wet, but we were soaked and cold and miserable. We had a great day overall though.

This was on Nate's actual birthday, June 25. I wanted to make it a special day for him. The kids made it difficult. :)

We went to see Cars 2 in the theater. This is only the third time they've been to the movies, and the first time since Georgia was an infant. We made it about 2/3 of the way through the movie before they were running up and down the steps and being loud and disruptive and we just left.

Then there was this huge commotion on the way home--something about Nate losing one of his cars in the theater. We decided to nap and try again later. I took the kids to Dairy Queen for an ice cream.

Then that turned into a huge mess and meltdown. Then I took them to church by myself ... that was fun. Ah, I tried. :) It's funny how we parents see these big days and try to make them special, and to the kids it's just another day to throw a fit.

Nate the Great

This year Team Nate the Great will once again participate in SBAK's awareness walk, this year called the SBAK 2011 Walk-N-Roll for Spina Bifida.

Last year we raised almost $1,200! So this year we are raising the bar with a goal of $2,500. If anyone has some fundraising ideas for our team or wants to help out with a fundraiser for Team Nate the Great, let me know. I'm going to need all the help I can get!

The walk is on October 1, and at SBAK we are hard at work to make this the biggest and best year yet. I'm very excited about it.

And of course if you would like to make a donation to our team, I would really appreciate it. For everyone who makes a donation of any amount, I will send you a Spina Bifida awareness wristband!

Thanks for your support!

My email saga

A few weeks ago, someone/something took over my personal email account and started sending innappropriate emails to everyone in my contact list! So I tried to change my password, and hotmail makes it very difficult to do that! I had to prove that this was my account, and they were asking me all these hard questions, and I failed the test. :( On my own email account. I have begged and pleaded, but I can't get back in. By the way, I have had that email address since about 1998. And I had the coolest email address: ecolleen@hotmail.com. Great, right? Sigh. After weeks of trying to recover my account, I've finally accepted that it's gone. So my new email address (please make note) is:

ecolleenpayne@gmail.com

Not bad. Email me.

SBA National Conference

Last week I flew to Anaheim, California, for my second Spina Bifida Association National Conference. The week was so amazing, that I've spent the last few days wondering how I could even put it into words. I loved every minute of it.


I attended last year's conference in Cincinnati, where I was blown away by what I learned, and I got to meet a few of my Spina Bifida mommy friends. So I was REALLY looking forward to going to California, meeting many more of my mommy friends, and seeing what I would learn this year. Blake and I decided that I would go by myself this year, because it would have been really expensive to fly all of us to California and for registration for all of us, and of course we would go to Disneyland, etc. We weren't even willing to think about flying a long distance with both kids. Plus, in addition to adding to my personal knowledge, I was going for work and would be attending Leadership Institute (for SBA chapter leaders) sessions this year, so I was able to focus more on the conference without the distraction of those pesky kids. :) (They're not really pesky. Okay, sometimes they are.)

One of SBAK's board members, Michele, traveled with me, and I was so glad to have the company. The first night we arrived (Sunday), there was an opening reception. I immediately started recognizing my friends!

Okay, stop here because that is a wierd sentence--I immediately started recognizing my friends. Except for one, I had never met any of them in person before, but they are among my dearest friends. We know each other, each other's kids, each other's problems and successes and abilities and character. Sometimes I think when people talk about meeting people online, it seems dangerous or sketchy or just superficial. Sometimes I think even we might underestimate the "realness" of these friendships. In California, I saw it--this is real. Tears were flowing as we met each other, and left each other. And the conversations started in the middle of conversations, if you know what I mean. There was no awkwardness or getting to know each other. We had never met, but we were reunited. And as I said in the Parent Chat session, I had never been to California before, but in that room full of moms I have been talking to for years, I felt like I was home.

I had to leave early from that reception to attend a reception for executive directors (I'm currently serving as the interim executive director at SBAK). This little party was in the Mickey Mouse Penthouse! It was an awesome suite, and they had great food there, and I had the chance to meet with other ED's as well as the National Office staff.

On Monday morning, I gathered all the people attending from Kentucky--about 15 people--to meet each other. For some of them, this was their first conference, or first time meeting other people with Spina Bifida! To say the least, they were overwhelmed, and it helped to meet people from home so they would see someone they "knew" in the sessions.

About being overwhelmed--that is a very common feeling at this conference. About 850 people attend. I don't know of too many places where you would see more wheelchairs. For some that is very comforting, and for others it's overwhelming. You talk about SB all day long for 3 days. It can be a little much. I think it's especially hard for parent's of young children (you still don't know exactly what issues your child will have, so you try to learn about everything) or people who have never been around a lot of others who have SB. Because I work with SB every single day, at work and in my free time, I felt pretty okay.

Monday morning was spent in the plenary session, which focused on the biggest SB research news this year--or maybe this decade. The MOMS study. For obvious reasons, I was on the edge of my seat--it was fascinating. The doctor who led the trial talked about the results, and then another doctor kind of balanced that out by presenting some limitations of the research.

At lunch I looked around for people I knew to sit with. Oh, here they all are sitting on the floor because there were no tables big enough for the group.

By the way, yes, we did plan that, to all wear our Redefining Spina Bifida shirts on the same day. We had SO MANY people ask us where we got the shirts, what was the story behind them, and where they could get their own! It was a great opportunity to tell people about our friendship and some of the amazing things we've accomplished together.
That afternoon I attended an important Leadership Institute session about some upcoming changes for SBA and it's chapters ... but I had to sneak out an hour early because there was no way I was going to miss the Parent Chat. Parent Chat is what I DO! :) Through playgroups, the message board, etc--I am all about the power of getting some parents together to solve the world's problems. As I have a tendency to do, I kind of took over moderating the chat. Oops. (eh, that nurse wasn't very helpful, lol). As I discovered last year, there is a huge difference in the parents who have the support of playgroups like at SBAK or online support such as the Spina Bifida Kids message board, facebook, and blogs. For us, this was just an extension of that daily conversation. For others in that group, this was the first time they had ever met other parents of SB kids. They felt isolated and confused. We hooked them up with some good resources.
That night was the time we had been waiting for for weeks! A group of us babycenter, blogger, facebook families decided to meet up at another hotel's lobby. It was awesome! It reminded me of my wedding, actually (lol)--for my wedding, my wish was to gather all of my friends and family from all the different states I'd lived in, in the same room. Here, so many of my good friends from across the country were finally gathered in the same room, and many of them had their babies with them! The group pictures were quite an undertaking.

After I got to hold babies, and hear "Where's Nate?" 50 times :) (I missed him!), and hug on each other some more, a few of us went out for dessert. MAN, it was nice hanging out with these girls.

Okay, see that head floating directly to the left of mine? That's Stephanie, and she and I go way back to nearly the beginning of this journey. Her son, Jack, and Nate were both due in August 06 (Nate came in June, Jack came in September) and we were among the first, like, 6 moms on the babycenter Spina Bifida Kids board! Jennifer, far right, came along soon after that. I love all these ladies!

Tuesday was nonstop sessions from 9:15-5:15. You don't even get a break for lunch--they give you a boxed lunch in your session! I spent most of the day in Leadership Institute, but there was on session time that I could attend a regular session. I started in "Ask the Urologist", where I asked them to tell me the name of the test that would tell us whether Nate is able to potty train. These guys said the same thing our urologist said--there's no test that will tell us that, and we have to wait on our stubborn 5 year old to decide he's going to try it. Hmph. I skipped out and hit up the "Ask the Neurosurgeon" session, where I asked about tethered cord syndrome in the fetal surgery patient, and I got a lot of this guy's opinion against fetal surgery, lol. Anyway, both were good. I tried to hit up the Ask the Ortho session too but got there just as it was ending. I love this kind of stuff. I'm a major student-at-heart, and I was just drinking in as much as I could learn. Every now and then I'd look over at the person next to me and say, "This is fascinating, right?"

By that afternoon, my brain was mush. I expected to feel like that, and remember feeling that way last year. So much information. At that point, I was so tired that I started doing what I always do when I'm tired--lose stuff. Somehow between the conference building and my hotel building--which was like a one minute walk--I lost a bottle of diet coke. Had no recollection of laying it down anywhere. I just wanted a nap. But my friends talked me into going to Disneyland. :) And I'm sooooo glad I did. First thing we did was ride Space Mountain, and THAT woke me up.

We were running around the park like little kids. I have to admit, I felt pretty guilty at Disneyland having fun, without my kids and husband! But I know I'll never forget the awesome time we had that night.

At one point, about half the group headed back to the hotel. But Stephanie wanted to ride Space Mountain just one more time! We were out of fast passes, so we waited in line for at least an hour, and screamed our heads off, and got off the ride at exactly midnight. We missed the monorail, so we walked back to the hotel. I was so tired--it was like 3:30am eastern time!--and fell in bed and couldn't move. But it was worth it. :)

Wednesday morning I went to another Leadership Session, then got to go to a session about Bowel Management, something we're very interested in getting started with Nate (if he'll get with the program). I learned a lot and came away with a plan. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to lunch.

Met some famous people...

Then attended one last AWESOME session about learning challenges in children with SB--I have a game plan with that one. And then it was time to say goodbye ...

Again, there were tears and gushing and promises of meeting up next year and hugs. Picture us blubbering saying, "You guys really understand!!!" lol

The last thing of the day was a Town Hall meeting, where people could give feedback about the conference and issues in the SB community. I was so excited that I got to speak with Cindy Brownstein, the CEO of SBA, about my Delivering the Diagnosis project, and she encouraged me to send it to the national office to have them look it over. Yay!
Michele and I went to the airport that evening and met up one last time with Stephanie, whose flight was delayed. We flew out at 9:30pm (12:30am EST) and landed in Atlanta at 4:30am. That was a miserable flight, and neither of us slept. We tried sleeping in the ATL on our FOUR HOUR layover, but that wasn't very successful either. So I flew home, with basically no sleep, and had several appointments and errands to run. I still have not gotten back on a regular schedule. That's why I'm blogging at 1am. But the kids were SO happy to see me! I got a 2 minute hug from Nate, who kept saying, "I missed you so much!"

To all the people who came up to me to give me a hug, tell me how I encouraged you when you were pregnant, or thank me for posting videos of Nate that give you hope--I can't tell you how gratifying it is to hear that, and I appreciate those words so much.

To all my mommy friends who couldn't make it this year--I know you're probably tired of hearing about this, and we did miss everyone who wasn't there. It's expensive, but if there's any way to make it next year, be there. Have a car wash or a spaghetti dinner, or ask your chapter for a scholarship, or ask for funds for your christmas, birthday, and anniversary gift to save up for next year in Indianapolis.

Next year, I'm taking the family. :)