Sweet Alyssa moment

Today while we were at Adam's parents for Christmas, Alyssa came up to me and kept asking where "shell" was. She has a really bad cold, so for the past couple days her voice has been so hoarse that bits and pieces of her words won't come out, which makes it hard to understand what she's saying sometimes. I kept asking her to repeat herself and was racking my brain trying to figure out what present "shell" was or what "shell" was short for. Then I realized that she was talking about her future Aunt Rachelle (as of 3 days ago another daughter-in-law is officially in her way to the family ~ hooray!) who was spending the holiday with her parents. My brother-in-law (her finance) realized about the same time as I did that she was asking for Rachelle and we both looked at each other and got a little teary ... thought it was pretty darn sweet.

Lost Loves

Adam bought me an iPod a couple years ago (I was a green eyed monster after seeing Eric and Angie's new iPods and I wouldn't shut up about wanting one, so he finally took pity on me). It bit the dust a few months ago. I put a new one on my Christmas list; not expecting in any way to get it, but SURPRISE my inlaws bought me one for Christmas! Its beautiful and blue and cute and adorable and cool. I plugged it in tonight and realized that I had forgotten how much I loved my iPod. And I finally was able to download some songs that I had purchases through iTunes ~ I had also forgotten how much I love Bon Jovi. ;)

Wednesday

This blog entry will be made up of several of my thoughts since yesterday's horrific shooting at the mall, but I couldn't come up with a title, so it will simply be titled "Wednesday". Wednesdays used to mean dollar margaritas at Julio's with "the crew" ... but yesterday certainly wasn't anything like those Wednesdays.

I'm touched and surprised at how many people contacted us yesterday to make sure that everyone in our family was okay. It seemed so surreal that people from North Carolina, Indiana, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania knew about everything that was going on. I was surprised that Adam's younger brother called to make sure we were all safe and was relieved when I told him that I had talked to his mom after the shooting took place. People have compared it to the shooting at Columbine several years ago. Even though that was a horrible tragedy on some level it seemed like a movie or a story that someone told me. Even yesterday's incident and watching our local news teams cover the story, it still didn't/doesn't seem real. I can't wrap my head around the fact that it happened at the mall where I take my kids for playdates with my good friend, Staci. Where I had so many of Alyssa's baby pictures taken. In the very store that I bought my maid of honor dress for my best friend from college's wedding. In the mall where Adam and I shopped for wedding rings.

I was reading some of the bystanders "stories" today and my heart was tugged when I read about a mom who was shopping with her pregnant daughter in Von Maur. One was on the 2nd floor and one was on the 3rd when the shooting happened, so they were text messaging each other that they were okay. I started thinking about parents who leave their older child in one department to look around while they go to another. How horrific to have something like this happen and know that one of the people you love most in the world is so close, yet untouchable and possible in grave danger. I was talking to my mom about that this morning and she reminded me of when we went shopping a few weeks ago when she and her friend Mary took the kids to a couple store while I went to another store to try on clothes. I tried imagine what it would be like to be in a situation like people were in yesterday knowing that friends and loved ones were there and not being able to hold them and protect them and know that they were okay.

And I don't understand how someone can be so angry at the world that they want to hurt innocent people before they end their own life. The guy's suicide note said that "now he would be famous" and he wanted to go "out with a bang". What's the point? What does it matter if everyone knows your name when you're gone? Is it better to be remembered as a horrible person than to only be remembered by a handful of people that cared?

More

For those of you who don't know, this:



is what the sign "more" looks like according to ASL (American Sign Language)

Here's my kids' take on it ~

Alyssa first signed "more" by holding one hand out so the palm was flat and using the pointer finger of her other hand to point to the middle of her palm repeatedly in a "put it right here" kind of way. She first did this when we were in Target as my mom was pushing her past the toys. That's my girl.

Joel looks at me like I've gone completely crazy or I'm the funniest person on the earth when I'll ask him if he wants more and show him the sign for it. But I have noticed lately that when I say "more" he'll start pounding on the tray of his high chair in a "Damn it, Mom, quit goofing around and give me my cheese puffs!" kind of way.