Cindy & Saylor Photographers

I read every night before I go to sleep.  If I don’t have a book, I feel a little panicky because I know I won’t be able to sleep well that night.  Reading shuts my mind off.  I stop thinking about all the worries of the day as I get immersed in someone ELSE’S worries and drama.

I’ve always been an avid reader.  In high school I read on the bus to and from school.  I spent most of our family vacations reading.  I was ALWAYS reading.  In college, I majored in what else….English.  It was somewhere around this time that I began to get tired of reading.  After all, when you are assigned to read 7 novels in the course of a semester for just ONE of 3 literature courses it does tend to get old.  I never really caught the reading bug again until about two years ago.  Now, it’s every night before I go to sleep, unless it’s a really juicy novel, then just TRY and rip it out of my hands.  My whole life will fall apart until that book is finished.

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My absolute favorites in the past year have been: The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End both by Ken Follett, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and (ashamed to admit) The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

Mia’s birth was induced.  We went in EARLY that morning.  4:30am.  She was stubborn (surprised?) and I ended up having to have a C-section.  She was born at 4:52pm.  When I think back to when Mia was born  what I really remember most was the night before.  Saylor and I had just moved back to Plano and while we were trying to find a house we stayed with his parents in their guest room.  We had our bed, our t.v. and our clothes.  Everything else was in storage.  While I love my in-laws and they have a nice house, it was not where I had dreamed of bringing Mia home to.  I wanted to bring her to our own home and put her in her own little room.  Anyway, so I was feeling a little sad the night before she was born and Saylor did what he does best, he cheered me up.  We laid on our bed in our tiny little room and watched our huge t.v. (way to big for the room) and we laughed.  I can’t remember what show we watched, but I remember feeling like that moment might possibly be the happiest I had ever been in my life, because I knew by that same time the next day we would be a family.  It was the last moment that it was just the two of us.  It was one of those big life moments you never forget.

Last Monday was another one of those moments.  Mia started Kindergarten.  My baby, who it seems was just born yesterday, started Kindergarten!  How is this possible?  How did this happen so fast?  I will always remember the smile of excitement on her face as I left her classroom, but what I will remember the most is the lump in my throat as I walked down the hall and left her there.  The mixture of happiness and sadness that we had made it to another one of those big life moments and it had happened in the blink of an eye.

P I N this to pinterestAs I was growing up my Dad had a tradition that he would always sing “School Days, School Days” to me on the first day of school.  I HATED IT!  Like, seriously hated it.  When I went to college, he called me on the first day of classes and sang it to me. Every year!  Last Monday,  Dad called me and he and my mom sang THE song to Mia.  I don’t hate that song anymore.

The thing Mia was more excited about than anything else was her locker!  She can’t stop mentioning it. Like “Oh, I left it at school in my locker.”  So cute.

P I N this to pinterestHere she is in front of the school about to go in on the first day and sitting on the carpet ready for school to start.  She didn’t even look back when I left.  5 years has flown by, she will be graduating before I know it.