NASCAR

Dear Meredith, Rick, Shannon and Tracy,

Now: Right now NASCAR is on in the kitchen. It is probably on upstairs in the bedroom too. As you know your dad loves NASCAR and you all are the reason.

Then: Dad and I dated for six years before we got married and I don't remember him watching NASCAR even once. Then you all were born. We were home weekend after weekend, Sunday after Sunday. I was never much of a television watcher so Dad always chose the programs we were going to watch. Somehow, I must have been somewhere else, he started watching NASCAR. Well, where ever I was that Sunday I must have returned the following Sunday because he watched again. Before I knew what happened he was hooked. I remember four fussy crying babies and the constant hum of vroom, vroom in the background. Peaceful? No. Joyful? Yes.

Now: You all grew up, but Dad still watches NASCAR. That's okay. The sound of fussy crying babies has been replaced the wonderful sound of conversation and laughter, and the constant hum of vroom, vroom.
Peaceful? Yes, in a very Joyful way.

Love,
Mom

Your Dad is the Best!

Dear Meredith, Rick, Shannon and Tracy,

One of the things I want you to know is how much I love your dad. He is the best husband and dad in the world - in my opinion. I think he will be a pretty terrific father-in-law and grandfather some day too. I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a wonderful husband. 

Monday, August 29, 2011

Gary is cleaning out the pool after Hurricane Irene.

I spent the day setting up my classroom.

First, he came to help me at school. He is the best husband in the world!

The Cat Door

Now:

Not too long ago, a facebook friend posted a status about his cat and his cat door. He wrote about the cat bringing a rabbit into the house through the cat door. Thank you, Louis, for bringing back a very happy memory.

Then:

Gary and I were living in a converted log cabin lake home when the children were born. The home was small, but it was filled with love. In the back of the house was a screened three season porch.  After the children were born, the porch was used as a toy room. In the winter, the toys were dragged into the living room. Actually, most days they were dragged into the living room. In addition to four children, we also had two cats. The cats loved the screened in porch. It was their favorite space before the children were born, and Gary had installed a cat door so they could go in and out whenever they wished. Cat doors are a pretty decent size, and moving creatures other than cats can get through them. Yep, you guessed it, babies who can crawl are capable of crawling right through the cat door, and they did! It was adorable! Imagine the look on visitors' faces when they would, very unexpectedly, witness one, two, three, four babies crawl right through the cat door.

Rick coming through the door. 

Shannon - "Ready? Here I go!"

Meredith and Tracy having a kiss before they go through the door.

One Christmas, after spending all Christmas Eve wrapping gifts, we put the children's presents under the tree and the gifts for others on the porch. Our four thirteen month olds opened their presents and were playing happily when Gary and I went into the kitchen to make breakfast. "Uh-oh," I said, "it's awful quiet in there." I walked into the living room to find no babies. Yep, all four of them were on the porch opening every single gift out there. It does not take long for four babies to open a dozen or so gifts. Tracy was sitting on the porch floor with a Lenox candlestick, meant for my mother-in-law, in each hand. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but all the gifts did need to be re-wrapped. Never again did we store anything that we didn't want the children to touch on the porch.

Eventually, the children became too big to fit through the cat door. No one ever got stuck. I think it just became too uncomfortable for them, and the porch, once again, became a haven for the cats.

Nurturing A Marriage

Now:

Nurturing our marriage is important to us. About three years ago we started to "run away from home." We do this about twice a year, and one of those times is always for our anniversary.Wonderfully romantic! What we do is pack our bags, put them in the car, but don't say a word to the kids. We don't want them to have time to plan a party. Then we tell the kids that we are going out for the evening, however, around midnight we call home and tell them that we are not coming home. I think we really only fooled them the first and maybe the second time we went. Now, they ask us, "Are you coming home?" This year was different, the kids were all away so we stayed home ALONE. That rarely happens. We enjoy having time for just us and we have discovered that the whole family benefits.

Then:

Nurturing a marriage and quadruplets at the same time is not easy. The kids' pediatrician told us that parents of multiples have a high divorce rate. So, with my in-laws help we made plans to maintain and nurture our, so far, happy marriage. You really need support from relatives or friends to do this. We were blessed by Gary's parents. The first six months of the children's lives they took the kids one weekend a month and we took off. Usually, we slept through the whole weekend, but at least we were both able to sleep and be awake at the same time. After the first six months they then took the kids about two times a year. One of those times was always for our anniversary. That was wonderful! If you are raising kids you really need to make time to get away just as a couple. Your kids will be the ones who really benefit.

Finders Should Not Be Keepers

Now:

I am amazed by the number of coins I find on the road when I go running. I wonder if these coins just fall out of pockets or do people drop them intentionally. Most often these coins are pennies. If the penny lands heads up I always pick it up for good luck. If it is tails up, I flip it over for the next person to pick up the good luck. If Shannon is running with me she likes to pick up the pennies after I have flipped them over. She says that I am passing the good luck on to her. Dimes, nickels, quarters, heads or tails, I pick them up. I have a special jar that I put these coins into and they don't add up to much, but they make me think about the people who dropped them and the people who will pick up the pennies I left behind. I say a little prayer for them that God will protect them when they are walking or running on the road.

Then:

When my children were little, but old enough to know what money was, if we were in a store and they found a coin on the floor, I would always make them take it to the owner or manager. They didn't like that. I told them that the store belonged to the owner, therefore the coin did also. I explained that if they had a friend over and their friend found a coin on the floor of their bedroom, they would not expect their friend to keep it. They would expect their friend to give it back to them. Reluctantly, they would take the coin to the owner and explain that they found it on the floor. Most of the time they were rewarded for their honesty by the owner as he or she would thank them for being honest and then allow them to keep the money. However, this did not always happen, and those I think were the best lessons. My goal was to teach my children to do the right thing whether it came with a reward or not. I wanted them to learn that the best reward was in knowing that they had made a good choice. Judging by the terrific adults they have become, I think they learned that lesson. Hmmm, who would the coins on the road belong to?

The Snake Charmer

Now:

The other day as I went for my morning run I spotted this snake, okay it's a stick, in the field. Let me tell you, it stopped my heart for just a second. I really did think that it was a snake. I could see the mouth and the eyes, then the logical part of my brain kicked in and told me that it was a stick - a big stick, but just a stick. Yet, everyday for a couple of days, that stick stopped my heart.

Then:

Halloween 1996 - first grade - Rick, who never liked Halloween, picked out a snake charmer costume from a magazine. No, this wasn't a catalog, this was a magazine, you know the ones with the wonderful "homemade" costume ideas. So, I show it to Gary and he says that he thinks we can make this one together - with Ricky too, of course ... So Gary gets the tubing and I get the felt and the three of us spend a couple of evenings putting the snake together. An afternoon of shopping finds the cargo shorts - which weren't popular at the time - and the other gear. Halloween day I go to the school for the Halloween Parade. The girls come out of the school in the parade one by one - - - no Ricky. I start asking around, "Where's Ricky?" Finally, one of the teachers tells me that she thinks he is in the nurse's office. I go into the school and lo and behold he is sitting in the nurse's office crying. The school nurse tells me that as soon as the Halloween Parade music started he froze like a deer in headlights, then he started crying. He wanted no part of Halloween - nothing had changed since he was three. (Remember Lili?) So, I took him home where he had great fun handing out candy to the very few kids who traveled up our driveway to trick-or-treat. The snake, however, became a decoration in Rick's room, as it sat draped over his dresser for several years. He never liked Halloween and he still doesn't. His sisters, for years to come, would go trick-or-treating and then share their candy with him. Sometimes they even took an extra pillow case and collected candy for him too. Sounds like a good deal to me. Smart kid, huh?

Charlotte's Web

Now:

The other day Gary, Rick, and I were on the deck watching this spider. It had built a web from the door jamb to the side of the house. A fly had been caught in it's web, and we all watched as the spider came down the web, paralyzed it, rapidly wrapped it up, then carried it up the web and tucked it away behind the frame of the door to enjoy later. Rick is an avid photographer and he quickly grabbed his camera and started taking shots. It really was an amazing sight! I asked Rick, "Do you remember the part in Charlotte's Web when Charlotte tells Wilbur what she does when she catches a spider, and Wilbur gets upset?" He said, "Yea ma, I remember it," in a "how could I possibly not" tone of voice. That is because ...

Then:

I absolutely love the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White! It is my all time favorite book. When I taught second grade, before my children were born, I read it to my class every year. I also love the movie, because it is absolutely true to the book. My kids heard the book and watched the movie so many times that it came to, "Mom, no more Charlotte's Web!" They absolutely refused to let me pull out either the book or the movie.

If you want to teach children about loving someone unconditionally, especially when they are so very different from you, read them this book - and most definitely watch the movie. Talk about it too. This book is full of life lessons - love, friendship, faithfulness, trust ... I could go on and on.

You know what? I know my kids got it because they are loving, caring, trustful, faithful friends. I would be honored to have any one of them for my friend.

I hope some day they read the book to their children. No, on second thought, that will be my job ...