Since the preliminary news, my vigilance of experiences with people and places has heightened. This is good! I think I've been somewhat lolly gaggin' around, taking things for granted. I'm thankful for this opportunity to wake up :)
It's taken a good two years for me to take a liking to Northern Virginia. I met some amazing people within my first 6 months of being here, and since then have fostered what I know will be life-long friendships. Even with those initial bonds though, I didn't feel quite at home. It hit me while I was driving down a road I've driven daily: hey, I really like this place. It's beautiful and it's starting to feel like home. Fate would have it that shortly after that "a-ha moment", we'd be set on a path to move somewhere else.
So, I'm accounting for these precious experiences in our last few days in NoVa. Perhaps this is a lesson that each day, each moment should be treated with such care and gratitude.
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Anthony and I spent the evening at April and Nick's. They prepared German food for dinner, and we ate heartily (as I imagine German people do, seeing as how the food is very, well, hearty). After dinner, April, once again, graciously invited me to help her put the kids** to bed. This ritual is so precious to me as I've been part of it off and on since Henry and Regan were infants. And here they are, 2.5yrs. old, getting almost too big to hold and sleeping in toddler beds vs. cribs. This is undeniably one of the things I will miss most about my time in Virginia. April's loving kindness as a mother, her tenderness in the most trying times, is something I love dearly about her. ::sniff::
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| If you want to know what the crap P. Swayze is doing here, you'll have to watch the movie. |
The top 3 lessons I have learned from Roadhouse:
1. "Be nice." (until Dalton tells you it is time to not be nice)
2. "Take the biggest guy in the world, shatter his knee and he'll drop like a stone."
3. Carry your medical records around with you; it saves time.
Pooped. In short: German food is hearty, I miss April already, and Roadhouse.is.amazing.
**April and Nick have beautiful twins: a girl, Regan, and a boy, Henry. I've known them since they were infants. I've been to their 1yr. and 2yr. birthday parties. Without any kids of my own, April taught me a lot...well everything I currently know...about caring for little ones. Being the youngest in my family, I never had younger siblings to care for, so this was all new to me. One of our favorite memories of my child-care skills with H&R involves me putting a diaper on Henry backwards...and it staying in place. I have to take a few seconds and think twice before ever putting a child in a diaper :)
