Team Gray!

Thanks Fara, for sending these great pictures! I’m a little taken back to see how big I look already, but, maybe I glow? Anyway, pictures!

Joy and Esteban get out to pick up some essential toys and accessories

Imani is getting her goggles just right–before a race?

Esteban is getting the hang of the water with his innertube.

Now he’s ready to get out.

Thursday, the kids and I enjoyed our last day of swimming at Fara’s for the season. It was a hot, humid day, and the cool water felt marvelous.

We had gotten out of the pool, and I was desperately trying to corral my kittens to the car, when Fara’s husband Bob came and told us of a storm coming from Chicago. It promised to have 100 mile winds, and he urged us to watch the weather channel when we got home.

We got home, and I was rushing to finish dinner before 5:45, when I planned to pick Curtis up. He called and told me to come get him NOW, because the storm would be here in half and hour.

I got in the car, and slowly trudged through unusually thick traffic to pick Curtis up. He drove home, noting that at 80mph, he was driving with the flow of traffic on the clogged highway.

We were 2 blocks from home when the storm hit. A sheet of blinding rain pelted the car as we raced home. We got there and pressed the garage door opener several times. Nothing. Curtis said, “Come on door, you can open any time.” I said, “Unless the power is out.”

I raced in the front door, greeted by a chorus of children, Curtis right on my tail.

There followed a mad dash for flashlights and batteries. The one flashlight we found had no batteries. I fumbled in the dark to put the big dead batteries in it, cursing myself for my irrational distaste for buying batteries! Finally, I got a very dim light that quickly faded out. One battery worked!

We pulled out the big lantern/radio thing Florine had given us. It had been such a wonderful tool during the last power outage in the winter. Dead. It’s supposed to be charged. Curtis went in the dark garage and miraculously got the door manually opened.

I started pulling out candles. Yanni had to go to the garage to find the matches; despite the pitch blackness, she came back successful. Thankfully, dinner had been prepared before our electric kitchen shut down, so we sat down to a candlelight dinner.

The little kids were so excited.

After dinner, we lit more candles and sat in the family room together. It was too dark for me to read, so I dozed. Xay sat at the table with the candles and his huge Transformer’s book. The babies pulled out paper and crayons and drew in the candlelight. Yanni stacked the dishes before she joined us.

Curtis gathered the babies around him and read first from one of the tiny New Testament Bibles that Joy had presented him to read. Then he read a Hans Christian Anderson story, The Candles.

Curtis placed glo sticks along the floor and up the stairs and in the hall to light a path in the dark. The children get so excited about glo sticks. He handed each child two to sleep with, and we tucked everyone in.

*********************************************************

The power company predicted we’d be without power until 11:59 P.M. on Sunday. Friday, we went to Walmart and bought ice and evaporated milk. I threw out leftovers and put other refrigerator items in the deep freezer along with 29 pounds of ice. I bagged up the ice in the refrigerator freezer. I took the clothes out of the washer and laid them over chairs and banisters in the house.

We had a cold lunch–definitely a hardship in this house. After a walk, I lay on the couch reading in the dark, hot, hoping to catch some kind of breeze. Then the fan came on! And lights! I could hardly believe it! Yanni had been in her room, kind of blue about the electricity, kind of hot, when her fan came on!

We went to see my father, who still had no power. His phones are all electricity dependent, so we couldn’t even call him. I found some beautiful purple beeswax candles on his porch. I asked if I could have them. He said he had plenty of Kwanzaa candles, so help yourself.

I took the candles home, and when Curtis saw them, he told Yanni to bring the candlesticks. He lit them, and put them on the coffee table in the family room, for old times sake.

The babies went to bed with glo sticks again that night. They called me, and I saw Joy in the dark hall with yellow on her chin and shirt. The magic of that electricity free night was gone.

Last year, at the Leadership conference at church, I met this tall, professional looking woman named Pamela. She is the wife of Ralph, owner and chef of our favorite restaurant, R. Stanley’s. At the time, I found her intimidating, as she obviously looked like she belonged at a leadership conference, and I felt like an impostor. Mind you, I desperately need leadership skills, and Curtis had been working on me for a year to convince me to attend. I was 8 months pregnant, and pretty self-conscious at the time.

The next time I saw Pamela, it was after the baby was born, and she just hugged me, and was so warm. At this point, I took to her, and thought, ‘she reminds me of some of my closest friends.’ It was more than the hug; she now had that sistah voice that I hadn’t noticed the first time around. She invited me out for a girls’ only type day.

I put it off, put it off, as Yasha and her care consumed me. I actually looked forward to getting together with Pamela, but I was terrified of leaving the baby to do it.

Then, Pamela caught me at church one Sunday and told me that she’d read my blog, and she understood that I needed to be with my family at this time, and we’d get to the spa when we could.

She came by the house on the Monday after Yasha passed, bringing this fabulous squash casserole her husband had made. Four of us sat at the table swapping stories of our lives. Even though I was sad about the baby, and decided to go bitter about my past, Pamela hung in there at the table and was completely gracious.

We continued to try to get together throughout this summer. Pamela called me in June, when she had some free time carved out, and I had lost her number! Curtis and I went to R. Stanley’s for our anniversary, and we asked Ralph for her number. When I called her, I found out that she wasn’t’ free until August.

We finally got out visit to the Center for the Healing Arts on Monday. What a revelation that trip was! It was my first full massage. My sister in law Candace had given me a wonderful back massage after Imani was born. But this was one of those deals where you select the mood music, strip down as far as you feel comfortable, and then someone rubs oil all over your body.

I had wanted to experience the whole body massage, but we did find the areas that bother me the most. Then I asked my masseuse how I can treat those areas at home. The solarium at the center was so restful and beautiful.

Then Pamela and I went to lunch. I had been wanting to pick her brain for a year about how she is able to help her husband in business. She is involved wherever needed in the running of the restaurant. I think this is fascinating, since her husband is the chef. She doesn’t feel all put out that it’s his vision. She has captured it, and is doing everything in her power to see it come to pass.

She quoted Pastor Brooks, (and I’m paraphrasing here): “There may not be just one mate out there for you, but there is something for you to accomplish with one spouse. You may spend your whole lives together in pursuit of that thing.”

This resonated with me. I thought of all the dreams and goals Curtis and I have, and then I thought about the means to accomplish them. And how I have not helped.

I want to turn that around. This is my season of changing my mind. I appreciate knowing Pamela and other wonderful supportive women. It is inspiring.