Happy Halloween!

Today Little Philip had two Halloween parties, one at school and then again at BSC for the annual Halloween on the Hilltop. As the day wore one, he became more comfortable with his costume, even letting out a few scary lion roars. The insane amount of candy he ate today probably had something to do with it.
Philip with "Daphne" from Scooby Doo

The Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to Old Baker Farm in Harpersville, AL, to visit the pumpkin patch. Little Philip pet the baby goats, climbed the hay mountain, found his way through the hay maze, and took a hayride to the pumpkin patch where he picked out just the right pumpkin. We ended our visit by sitting on all of the antique tractors that were there on display. I can't remember how to load a video but if you are so inclined, here is a clip of Philip on his quest for the perfect pumpkin.

Prayers and Deep Breathing

These past few weeks have been extremely stressful and full of anxiety in the Moss house. Our little niece, Delie, was with us for a brief time along with her family as they continue to work with doctors to seek healing after Delie's accident. We were so happy to see her in Brownsville on our way back from my college reunion, with her sweet smile and even sweeter spirit. She's going to be just fine, thank God!



My mother received a back MRI result just prior to us leaving for my college reunion. The doctor ordered her to go straight to an oncologist. Words like "lesion" and "metastatic disease" associated with her spine did not sound good at all. Googling the exact phrases from the MRI results showed a bleak outcome for my mother. And so, we prayed, with no answers, we simply prayed, and asked God to give us wisdom, and peace with whatever His will held in store for us. We were incredibly relieved this past week when she met with the oncologist, Dr. Luigi Bertoli at Brookwood Medical Center. In his opinion, this latest MRI did not show any new growth from the previous MRI in 2005. In other words, "lesion" and "metastatic disease" had nothing to do with cancer and everything to do with other issues like arthritis. While still not good, this is treatable and comes as a great relief to all of us.



Little Philip is especially relieved, although in his sweet little world he is oblivious to such anxiety. He is quite the chatterbox and when he passes white cars, he points and says "NeeNee' and Poppy's car..."I ride with NeeNee." As we read our bedtime book and said our prayers last night, he asked to call NeeNee and Poppy to say goodnight. This is such a sweet age.



And so, we are breathing deeply, with big sighs of relief and giving thanks to God for a good medical report on NeeNee, and continue to pray for Delie's healing.



Baby report this week. At 16 weeks, baby Moss is the size of an avocado. Ultrasound is scheduled for November 6th to determine whether we are having a boy or a girl.

Fruit analogies again

One of my students at BSC said she enjoys checking the blog to see how big baby Moss is in relation to fruit and vegetables. I'm happy to report that at 15 weeks, baby Moss is now about four inches long, about the size of a big lemon or a small apple. He or she weighs about 2. 5 ounces now. I am feeling much better, but keep forgetting that my energy level is not what is would be before pregnancy, and have overdone it several days this past week. The result is a very restless night's sleep and a very painful back and tummy. My fault, I know.

A friend at work let me borrow a baby doll from her five year old daughter, to help Little Philip begin to recognize that another baby is on the way. I carefully swaddled the baby doll and let Little Philip hold the baby. This particular baby doll has blinking eyes that shut when baby is horizontal and open with baby is vertical. This was too much fun for Little Philip, who promptly began clawing the the baby's eyes to force them open and shut. Not a good sign. We then rocked the baby to sleep and put baby on Philip's bed. At first, he was not pleased with sharing the bed but then gently began to pat the baby's back, even offering his "lovies" Blue and Brown Dog, insisting of covering the baby with both the white cover (white silky) and blue covers (knit blanket). I decided to end on this good moment rather than dwell on my son potentially clawing the real baby's eyes to make them open and shut.

We've Come a Long Way!

This past weekend we went to Nashville for my ten year college reunion. I was so thankful to be there and had a wonderful time catching up with so many friends I talk to on the phone or over email weekly and really catching up with friends I had not seen in quite some time, even as far back as freshman year in 1993! It made me pull out the scrapbook when I arrived home late this evening. And so, forgive me while I take a stroll down memory lane...

Sorority parties, back in the day when denim vests and denim shirts with silver beads were the in thing.

Suite 401, Towers III, just a typical weekend night before heading out the door for a night on the town in 1995. That ugly couch in the background folded out into a sleeper bed. We paid $30 for it at Salvation Army and paid someone another $30 to deliver it. It was the site of many a slumber party, watching Tommyboy for the umpteenth time with a big bowl of popcorn.

Our first girls reunion in Destin, FL, 1998, one year post graduation. Is that the same denim shirt I had on in 1995?

Liz's wedding, 2000, well, at least the bachelorette party the night before. Don't get excited, those are candy cigarettes, a consolation prize for the "bad girls" who lost a shower game. Liz's wedding is also where I polled my girlfriends to see if I should accept Philip's invitation to join him at the beach with his family, remember, first date.

Erin's wedding, 2000, Philip's first introduction to my girls. As soon as we arrived, I got a phone call that asked me to come up to one of the hotel rooms. I entered to find the jury announcing their approval of Philip. I think I made Philip take this picture which ended with him taking about twenty pictures with twenty other cameras.

Claire's wedding, 2000. By then, Philip was becoming more comfortable being our resident photographer. Heather married in 1998, Marva married in 1999 and Claire's wedding was the third wedding of 2000. No pressure, Philip...

Insert picture of Allison's wedding here. Not sure why I can't seem to find even one picture but the nice way of saying how the night went was that I had a really, really, really, good time. I danced so hard that the strap fell off the bridesmaid dress followed by one side of the sewn in bra. That's what I'm admitting, anyone else want to confess?

Our wedding, 2001, celebrating with Nicole and Erin.

In late August of 1993, I remember my parents kissing me goodbye on freshmen move-in day. I put on a brave face but as soon as their backs were turned, the fear and anxiety took over. I didn't know one person at Vanderbilt. Had I made a mistake? How in the world I was ever going to make friends? Erin, Amy, and Marva were on that hall with me. By the end of the year, we were becoming good friends.

Sophomore year, I roomed with Marva. There are too many stories to tell there but suffice it to say, Marva was a hoot. I found myself joining Kappa Delta sorority as an upperclassman that fall, which meant more new friends in Claire, Meredith, Allison, Nicole, Heather, and others.

My absolute favorite memories were in my junior and senior year, living in Suite 401 in Towers III. Liz became our "mom", making us tortellini soup when the weather turned colder. Marva would stay up all night studying, with a chair in front of the oven, feet wrapped in a blanket and stuck inside the oven on a toasty 200 degrees. Meredith kept us in line, as our moral compass. Erin and I had our difference on occasion, sometimes ending in a pickle juice fight. Amy kept us on time to sorority meetings and inspired us by her strict early morning exercise routine. Allison taught us to dance, swaying to anything Dave Matthews, two fingers in the air, waving her signature peace sign for all to see. Claire lost her Commodore card at least seven times and all senior year, we waited to see if she would find her American Express card that was lodged under the answering machine in the common room. She did, on graduation day, when we all moved out. We had boyfriends, breakups, and bad first and last dates. There were always listening ears, plenty of tissues, or laughter when that seemed to be the answer.

I hated to graduate, wondering if my good friends would fade away after graduation. Despite the distances, relationship, career and family choices we've each made along the way, we're all still great friends we can call on anytime. I thank God for this past weekend, which made me realize what a blessing my friends are in my life. I love you all!

Ten year reunion, Vanderbilt Class of 1997.

Practicing for Senior Portraits

Somehow, this picture perfectly captures the sweet spirit of our little boy. It is also the kind of picture a mother looks at and can barely comprehend how quickly time flies.

Balloons

Please Daddy, come home and blow up my balloons! Mommy isn't strong enough to blow up the balloons you bought for me and I am very frustrated, having tried to blow each and every one all by myself.

That Other Moss Family

Yay! We finally have our cousins blogging! George and Beverly, along with their children, are online. The blog was created to help family and friends continue to be updated on and pray for their daughter Delie, who was kicked by a horse a few weeks ago. Thankfully, she did not suffer any serious head or spinal injury but the accident did severely damage her eye. She is in the process of seeing multiple doctors to repair both the bone structure around her eye and well as to determine what can be done to restore as much sight as possible to her eye. Each night Little Philip thanks God for all of his cousins, naming each by name. "ZeeZee" is now pronounced correctly as "Delie" by Little Philip, thanks to recent extra bedtime prayers for our sweet cousin. And so, the other Moss Family can be found at http://mossfarm.blogspot.com/. We encourage family and friends to continue to pray for Delie's ongoing recovery.