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David and Tyler learned to kayak on their own this weekend. They did so great!

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The makings of a great holiday weekend!

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Woohoo! Vacation!

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This week, I've been studying Henri Matisse with my students. We learned about how, later in his career, he shifted from pencils and paints as his medium to cut paper. My students then created their own Matisse-inspired collages. I couldn't help but get into the fun.

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What's your favorite movie? Taking a family poll tonight. I like to do this with my students and see how their tastes evolve. I'm sure to see the same changes with our family :)

Me: The Natural & 50 First Dates
Davy: Remember the Titans & Facing the Giants
David: Space Buddies
Tyler: Scooby Doo & Monster Madness

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Tonight's 365 photo is a snapshot of a mallard that I was able to take the other day. It's funny whenever I see these beautiful animals because I immediately think back to the wooden, carved ducks that my dad collected and how they lined up across the mantle behind the woodstove in our family home in Eastwinds. I remember checking out different ducks at wildlife shows, flea markets and art exhibits. While considered an "outdoorsy art", meeting the carvers and artisans who create these pieces at various venues, I came to quickly appreciate them as a true labor of love and fine, detailed art. Those silly ducks from my youth certainly hold a fond memory. It's funny what triggers them, huh?

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I took the boys out for our first family geocaching adventure today! We found 1 of 2 - not too shabby!

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Deena, Lee and I had a perfect day at the beach! I've never seen Emerald Isle more beautiful.

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David and Tyler found these flowers growing on a vine at Backwater Jacks tonight. I have never seen anything like them! There are a few centimeters separating each of the flower's three layers. Fascinating, really!

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It's amazing to me how many different ways you can look at the same subject matter and see totally different images each time, especially through the lens of a camera. When I was at Ocracoke recently, we had a beautiful afternoon and I got great pictures of the lighthouse against a clear blue sky. Even across the course of a day, the lighthouse looks so different based on the light and conditions surrounding it and the angle from which you approach it. The more that I see things around me through the camera lens and even the editing view of my computer, the more I look for different nuances in everything around me.

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Today the boys and I made one of our frequent trips to the Brown Library. The flowers were blooming in such a way that you could tell they were just thanking God for all the rain we've had. The smell was so fragrant and lovely, I wish that I could have captured that too.

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It's testing week. No new photo for me today. I decided to borrow one from Flickr that is appropriate. Enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frield/ / CC BY 2.0

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Yeah, I've been a slacker this weekend. I'm adding three photos today as a retrospective photo of the day on the last few days :)

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So, I cheated and pulled this one out of the photo vault; but I have to admit that the days I don't use a "new" photo, I have the best time going through our older family photos. As a kid, I could flip through albums of photos for hours. This is the 21st equivalent, I guess :) This photo was taken at the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC on a day trip that we took as a family to the Outer Banks. We made it to the top of the memorial and just enjoyed the breathtaking view of the island and water. David, apparently excited about all the talk about airplanes, took off on his own flight. I have always loved this photo and the sense of wonder and possibility that it invokes for me.

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I'm doing lots of thinking lately, which can be dangerous and scary. I can't pinpoint anything that's led to this pontificating mood, but I do think of a few dad-isms that I can't help but to recall.
1) Don't let the rabbits get to you or the elephants will kill you. There have been lots of times when I've asked myself which category my dilemma would fall into, and there have been times that my "rabbits" reminded me of those in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
2) Personal best is what matters most. John Wooden has always been one of my dad's heroes, and as I get older, I find that I turn to his words more and more. If you haven't read anything by Coach Wooden, I recommend that you put your hands on anything of his right away.
3) Ice cream make everything better. Tonight it was a single scoop of Muddy Sneakers from Scoops and some time on the waterfront benches with my boys. Luckily, that was all it took!
There are many more, including true stories and true stories that he made up, and I am positive that you will be privileged to hear more someday soon!

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Finding my happy place...

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Today is Mother's Day. I can't think of a more challenging, rewarding or daunting role that I could ever play in my life. I am thankful to have a wonderful mother for a role model and guide. I am also blessed to have 2 amazing grandmothers and numerous aunts, friends and family members who have shown me countless ways to love, cherish and live life as a mommy to the fullest. I am blessed that God picked me to be David & Tyler's mom!

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So, today I'm thinking of a bit more somber period of the boys' first weeks. They were born on a Tuesday morning, and by Friday morning they had held Tyler and I for about as long as they could. It was time for us to go home. But, David was still in the NICU. Those 7 days between us leaving the hospital and David joining us at home were excruciating. We were back and forth between home and the hospital, and because children weren't allowed in the NICU, we couldn't be together as a whole family. If I was at the hospital with David, I felt bad for leaving Tyler with my mom. If I was at home with Tyler, I agonized over the fact that I wasn't with David. Our first Mothers Day was spent going back and forth between home and the hospital. Visiting the NICU was a painful process for me. It was terrible having to watch David, not being able to hold him because he was hooked up to so many monitors and IVs. It was also very emotional to see other moms and dads keeping vigil over their sweet pre-mature babies who were only one and two pounds. I struggled with a lot of emotions that week, one of which was guilt because David was ok. He was there are a pre-caution, while other babies were fighting for their lives. It was definitely bittersweet for us. We are thankful to the NICU staff of New Hanover Regional Medical, and we always will be. We are so truly blessed!

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This week has been a fun time to record some of our memories of the boys' first days. But David hasn't always been as relaxed as he is shown in today's picture.

As I've said, the boys were 6 1/2 weeks early. While most of a baby's development is complete around that time, the lungs are the last to fully develop. The doctors were concerned about the boys' lung capacity and functioning, so they gave me a steroid shot while the boys were still inside, hoping that would help boost their last bit of development. Apparently, Tyler (who was stretched out with his head below my pelvis and feet under my heart) got it all. David (curled up in a bowling ball by Tyler's feet) didn't get the boost he needed. After 30 minutes in the delivery room with at least 15 members of hospital personnel, the boys were on their way to the nursery with feeding tubes in place. Tyler was having none of that, and at a feisty 4 lb 12 oz, had pulled his out within an hour. David, at 5 lb 4 oz, was doing fine, but the doctors decided to send him up to the NICU for a bit to see if they could get his lungs functioning at 100%. Yeah, he didn't really like all that poking and prodding. Within 24 hours, he had pulled out his IVs and tubes so many times that they had him in a tshirt that was pinned down to the mattress and on a morphine drip to keep him calm. It didn't take long for all the NICU doctors and nurses to learn his name! We were afraid of what might be to come!

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So, the boys are officially seven now, and they couldn't be happier about it. They are feeling like this is a "big" birthday. It's been such a joy to watch them grow up a lot this year.

So, at this time every year, I can't help but laugh at the events of the actual day of their birth. One of the strongest feelings that I remember is, well, HUNGER. Like I said yesterday, I was at an afternoon doctor's appointment when my water broke. By the time I got to the hospital, I was ready for some supper. The doctors wouldn't let me eat because of the medication that they were using to try and stop my labor. Ice chips were not cutting it. Well, at about 2:30 AM they decided that my labor wasn't a force to be stopped, I was relieved. I was going to eat! Oops, oh no, I couldn't eat. I was in active labor. Sigh. So finally, the boys were born at 8:48 and 8:59 AM. I guess I got back to my room around 10:30. The nurses asked me what I needed, and I just wanted to eat. I was starving by that time. They ordered me up an early lunch. Fried chicken. I just couldn't wait for it to get there. In comes the nurse, and she leaves the covered plate by my bed. When I finally sat up and get situated, I lift the cover and I have never been so frustrated in my life. I was overpowered with the odor of collard greens. If there's anything that everyone should know about me, it's that I HATE collard greens. I can't walk near the school cafeteria on days they are being served. So, when I opened that highly anticipated lunch plate and found everything in it to be tainted with the overpowering stench, I lost it. Thank goodness there was a great little Greek place across the street from the hospital, or else I may have totally flipped my lid. We laugh now, but at that moment, it was anything but funny!

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Seven years ago today, I was home from school on bed-rest thinking that I had a month to rest before our little bundles of joy came along. About 3:30 that afternoon, I went to the doctor for a check-up. Well, there was no more waiting. As I stood on the scales (not looking at how much I weighed), my water broke. Convenient location, yes. Convenient time, not so much. That set a hilarious chain of events into motion that we still laugh about today. Since the boys' birthday is tomorrow, we spent time at dinner tonight telling them about stories from their first few weeks. They were hilarious (then and now). In honor of their birthday, I'm hoping to spend a few days recording some of that history here.

The Water Breaks...
So, like I said, I'm standing at the doctor when my water breaks and the OB/GYN sends me straight to the hospital. It's baseball season, so of course I'm trying to get up with Davy on his cellphone. Little did I know, but it was sitting on the kitchen counter. Super. So, for plan B, I call his assistant coach and our good friend Kyle. Kyle, as it turns out, is not at practice that day. He's at home. Before I can tell him "thanks" and hang up, he puts down his phone on the table and I hear him rummaging around saying "Where are my keys? I need to find my keys. Gotta get to school." He wasn't even on the phone any more but was in a panic. I hung up. To this day, I have no idea how long he looked for his keys. Then I called the school where Davy and I worked. Our school secretary, Mrs. McClammy, answered and I tried to get her to get Davy for me without raising too much concern. You see, McClammy was a bit, ummm, excitable. Well, I finally had to tell her that I was in labor and headed to the hospital. Later I found out that she, a rather robust woman, went bounding out of the building and onto the baseball field, screaming, "Hines! Hines! Get your @$$ in here. You're having those babies!" That's a mental picture that still cracks me up. Another coach (thanks Ed) finished up practice for Davy, and he was finally able to meet me at the hospital by about 5:00 pm. At this point, the doctors are telling me that they are going to try and hold off my labor, since I was 6 1/2 weeks early. They even mentioned staying on bed rest in the hospital. Yeah, it didn't quite work out that way.

More to come... Oh, and this picture was the first taken of all four of us at home. It was about 11 days after the boys day of birth before everyone was home together.

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The wild pony pen at Ocracoke.

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Spiral Staircase at NCCAT in Ocracoke