Here Comes the Bride

I had planned on writing this post on Monday, but just didn't feel it appropriate. How can we celebrate and rejoice in another's happiness while the world mourns. I, myself, considered calling to work Tuesday just so I could work through my hurts and disappointment. I am of course talking about the devastating break up of.......







So do you think that Jon just couldn't take Kate's hairstyle any longer?

I had a friend in 7th grade once. She had a nasty cowlick right in the crown of her head. Of course, kids being kids, teased her mercilessly. So, she thought she could tame that nasty cowlick and took scissors to it. Cut it right off, even with her scalp. The end product was exactly what Kate Gosselin, or TLC, pays good money for. Of course, she (my friend, not Kate) only got teased even more. Poor Debbie Maybe, that was her name, she was just a few years before her time I guess.

But honestly. Did they really think that they could live their lives as television fodder and not suffer any consequence? I hate that the pursuit of fame, fortune and ego destroyed a marriage, but I am even more concerned about 8 little kids who know of no other life other than always being the center of media attention and living a "reality" life that is no where near reality. Let's just hope somebody takes a stand for them and soon.

Any way now that I have that off my chest.......

Saturday June 20, 2009, was a special day.

Lanita J Smith married Charles M Brown.

The ceremony.

The happy couple

Charlie and Lanita plus 14.
Sounds like a future reality show to me!

The best part of weddings.....CAKE!



And just for good measure, here is a picture of the cutest baby in the world!

Saturday in Chicago

Well this weekend has certainly been very different from last weekend! I was busy, busy, busy!!

Yesterday we drove into Chicago to take a tour of where my grandson will be born. He should be here within the next 17 days or so and we are very excited.

OK...I know this is selfish but even though I try not to be, I can be that way sometimes, but if you are the praying kind, could you please pray that Little Man will not make his appearance between May 14-17th. You see my youngest daughter is graduating on May 16th in Nashville. That is about an 8-9 hour drive from Chicago. I am so excited to see her graduate and want to enjoy every moment of my last child's graduation weekend. She has worked very hard and deserves a fantastic finale to her undergraduate years. I also do not want to miss one single moment of my first grandchild's birth. I am going to be needed there when my very queasy son comes face to face with the reality of birth. Somebody will need to be there to splash cold water on his face to keep him from fainting and his wife is going to be a little preoccupied, so it needs to be his mama!

Regardless of when he comes, my first prayer is for the health and safety of Little Man and Kelly. But I really, really want to be there.

Back to the tour....the hospital is amazing. It is a women's hospital so it is all about the whole process of labor and delivery and new born care. There are a few of the rooms that have the most amazing view of Lake Michigan. I don't know how much a woman in labor would be able to enjoy that, but they are there if she should get the chance. There are Bose stereo systems and large screen TVs in every room. You can choose to have a tub brought into your room where you can soak during labor and even opt to have a water birth. I tell you something for sure, birthin' babies sure has come a long way from the day when all you were given was a bullet to bite on!

After the hospital visit we made our way back to Chris and Kelly's which by the way included a long walk from the hospital to the train, a train ride, a long walk from the train to the car, a car ride and then back upstairs to the apartment. Oh and Kelly's mom, Grandma Kat as she will soon be known as, was with us too. I guess this was kind of like a mini-grandma training weekend!!

My Mom and Charlie met up with us and we all visited the Lincoln Park Zoo. We went to dinner...twice. What happened was my Mom had a gift card that Chris & Kel had given her a couple years ago for Christmas for a restaurant that was near the apartment that they were living in AT THE TIME. Well, there was a restaurant near the zoo by the same name and we thought we would just go there instead of driving all the way across town to go to the other one. All seven us walked in and sat down, drunk some water and determined that this was NOT the same restaurant. Called and made reservations at the Andersonville restaurant. We all got up...all seven of us, and left to go to the correct restaurant!! I am sure the waitress was more than a little confused. But we made it to the right Ranalli's and had a wonderful dinner. We of course needed a little bite of something sweet and stopped and got some ice cream before we had to leave and head back home in the most northern parts of Illinois!

So that was my Saturday. Today, I am tired and my feet are sore, but I had a great time yesterday. I didn't get any pictures from the hospital but here are a couple from us on Michigan Ave.

Isn't Kelly's belly cute?

I only got half of Grandma Kat in the first picture
so here is all of her with Kelly!

Oh How I DON'T Miss Bowling

Last weekend when we weren't eating cake, we were eating out! Usually when the kids are home I try to cook at least once or twice but I just didn't have it in me this time. I did make Lynn Wades Amazing Cheese Soup for their Easter After Church Farewell Gotta Get On The Road Dinner and it was good and not nearly as time consuming as the typical ham, potatoes, deviled eggs, salad, two vegetable, dinner rolls and Paula Deen dessert kind of meal that I would have liked to prepare!

So it ended up that we were very International this visit.
Wednesday when Steph got here we had Fiesta Cancun. I tried the Tacos Carnita's and it is now my favorite thing there. You just can't go wrong with pork!
Thursday, Elizabeth and Rob didn't get in until later so we went to Chili's before they got here. Friday, after Chris and Kelly got in, we went to Thai Basil. I had the Shrimp and Asparagus and Mushroom Trio and I give it a big thumbs up.
Saturday, after the shower Chris wanted to try a Moroccan Bistro we have in town for his birthday dinner, but we heard some bad reviews so we opted for his second choice San Jose. I know Mexican two nights in one week, but you just can't go wrong with tacos, burritos and quesadillas. Because it was Chris' birthday he got a free dessert and of course he had to wear the obligatory sombrero and so did everyone else that sat at his booth. (We had to sit a different booths because they were so busy.)

Then after dinner, for entertainment we went bowling. Let me fill you in on the root cause of my deep seated hatred of bowling. When Dano and I started dating he was on two or three bowling leagues and either because of his deep love for me or his attempt to demonstrate his masculinity, he always wanted me there. So because I was young, in love, and wasn't old enough to drive yet, I went and sat through endless hours of strikes, spares, splits and pick-ups (bowling pins, not me!). So here I was back in the bowling gallery again. And let me just say that the bowling atmosphere has not changed one iota since the mid 1970's.

It was fun to see the kids trying out their bowling gene's that was passed on to them through their father's gene pool. So with these last pictures, we close the chapter on Easter Weekend '09. It was a fun filled weekend of Baby Showers, Birthday's, Bowling and Blessings!

Dano The Bowling Legend

Liz the Budding Bowler

Steph does the bowling dance.

Chris contemplates what color ball to use next.

Rob takes this next attempt at a spare very seriously.

This is what you do when you can't bowl, you don't have your own car, and you are in love.

We Are Family.....I Got All My Sisters and Me

It doesn't take much to pull all of the Cantwell women together for a party!! But throw in cake and gifts and not one of us would miss it for the world!! I will share more about the Baby Shower later in the week.

This picture is a picture of all the women from my husbands side of the family. When I see all of these smiling faces it just blows my mind at how fortunate we are. That's not to say that there hasn't been difficult circumstances in these lives because there has been. There have been some very devastating losses and some serious health concerns. There has been heartbreaks and heartaches. But in spite of the sad times, we have remained family. We have also shared an abundance of joyful times. We have celebrated graduations, marriages, births, new homes, new jobs even new landscaping! (Remember...it doesn't take more than a reason and cake for us to celebrate!)

I count it such a blessing to be included in this group of women. Their strength, courage, kindness and love has encouraged me as much as my own flesh and blood family has.

We don't see each other nearly as often as we should or would like to. But we are always in each others hearts and prayers and never more than a phone call away. I thank God for this group of Cantwell Women.

I love you girls!!

Mirror Mirror On The Wall......

......Who's the Fairest of them all? Amber is!!

I got the most precious gift today from my sweet niece, Amber. She just returned from her Spring Break trip to San Diego. OK....before I go on I just want to know.....Since when did we start getting spring breaks from preschool anyway? I seriously want to know this 'cause I honestly think I was denied several good trips back in my preschool days....wait I didn't go to preschool. That explains why I can't balance my checkbook....I was not educated to my fullest potential. That's just great. Here I sit working for the man while all my friends who got their preschool diplomas are CEO's, Bankers, and Presidential Advisers. Life just ain't fair.

But back to Princess Amber.....she brought me back this adorable princess picture frame with a picture of none other than Amber herself and the most royal princess you have ever seen.
While she was working the Preschoolers Gone Wild thing she got to have breakfast with the Princesses at Disney Land and had some great photo ops with the blue bloods there in the Land of Disney. Not bad for a 5 year old who can barely read and write! Who wouldn't want to have lifetime keepsakes of you and Ariel, Cinderella and Snow White. (I understand that Jasmine was AWOL...tsk tsk even a princess needs some "me" time I guess.)

Thanks for the great gift Amber! Can't wait to see what kind of trips are planned for Spring Break Elementary Style!! South Padre Island or Bust!! Wooo Hooo!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations are in order for my mom and her fiance', Charlie!! Charlie and Mom announced today that they are making plans and preparations to be married later this year.

I am happy for her because I know it has been a long, lonely road for her since my dad passed almost 5 years ago. Charlie is also a widower and experienced a similar difficult passing of his wife about 4 years ago. Neither my Mom or Charlie ever expected to find happiness again with another mate, but God is good and saw fit that they should find one another and begin to share their lives together.

As God would have it, they both bought condos in the same complex and met as they were out and about in the neighborhood. As cordial hellos grew to friendly chats over coffee then on to dinners and movies, their relationship grew. They both fill a need in the other for love and companionship. And the rest is not so much history as it is the future.

I wish them both much joy and happiness in the years to come. I love you Mom!

Paint, Bellies, Museums and Football...

We had so much fun on Sunday. We drove into Chicago and went to church with Chris and Kelly. Then went to brunch at Kitsch'n. It was a very cute place but the food was only OK. Chris was far more intrigued with the hand dryer in the men's room than he was with the food.

After brunch, we went to get the paint for Little Man Cantwell's room. Now, you have no idea how important the choice of color is for a baby's room. We poured over the 136 paint chips that they had at the apartment earlier in the morning, and after lunch we browsed the rest of the 1013 shades of tan and green Menards had to offer. After much discussion and deliberation, we weighed the pros and cons of the Spanish Olive/Barley Wheat combo against the Sassafras/Almond Beige duo settling on the Sassafras/Almond Beige feeling it offered the woodsy feel we were going for while making the room as bright as possible in the absence of good natural light. After such a draining decision we all felt we should nap, but there was no time. Back to the apartment we went with paint, stir sticks and drop cloths in hand.

Grandpa Dano and Daddy Chris donned their painting apparel and dove right in. Grandpa Dano with a roller and Daddy Chris with a brush knocked out the three Almond Beige walls in no time.

To pass the time while this phase of the project dried, we took a little day trip to the South Side of Chicago. Our first stop was at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. (I will be sharing more on this trip in a future post.) We then traveled over to Lake Michigan where Kelly wanted to get her 24.5 week Baby Belly picture. It is a darling picture, but I hope she doesn't end up sick due to her coatless pose in the frigid weather.

There was no more time for frivolity. Back to work ASAP. Grandpa Dano and Daddy Chris went straight to work on the Sassafras wall. In case you are curious, Sassafras is green. It took two coats of paint, but not much time at all to get it done. While the paint crew was busy doing their thing, Kelly whipped up a pot of chili. Thankfully she took the heat level down a notch or two just for us lightweights. Thanks Kel!

All the painting was done just in time for the kick-off of the Superbowl. We ate chili, chips, guacamole and choco chip cookies while watching the football game that was on between the commercials.

Then it was time for the tired grandparents to head home. It was a good day. I love days like that. Probably the thing I will remember the most about this day was seeing Chris on the ladder and thinking "My little boy is painting his little boy's bedroom. How is that possible?" Time has gone by so fast and I feel like I missed so many things about him. I have tons of good memories and some not so good. That all goes with being a parent. But I feel like there is so much more that I can't remember.

I have enjoyed beyond words watching all of my children grow and become amazing young adults. And even though seeing Chris step into his new role of being a parent is yet another reminder to me that my days of being the center of their world is gone, it is fulfilling. It is a blessing beyond belief to see him ready to take on the joys and challenges that the rest of life will bring him in raising his children. I pray that his joy and pride will be as abundant as mine has been. God has been so good to us and we know that it is only by His grace and mercy that we are blessed with these wonderful children of ours. I give only God thanks and all the glory for all he has done.

Grandma Dee got these for the 2nd generation Cornellian.

My little Boy.

No Dad, just paint, we don't save plastic containers.

Mama is craving COOKIES!!

Don't they look so happy?
I think it is because the Sassafras worked out so well.

Soon there will be a baby in our pictures!!