Family Photos

We had Christmas card photos taken in late October when Mason was still 9 months old.  Mr. Kevin Lamb and his wife, Missy, took them at Maclay Gardens in Tallahassee.  We are giving the photos as gifts for the holidays, so I don’t want to post them all on here.  However, I absolutely love this one of Mike and Mason! They are both so handsome that I could not help but share.

On a different note, we had our 16-week check-up on Thursday and saw Dr. McAlpine for the first time.  He was so nice and compassionate. I absolutely loved his bedside manner.  Baby Bonfanti #2 had a healthy heart rate of 150 and everything looked fine with me.  We find out its sex on December 17, the week of my birthday!  I am quite excited.

Fun Little Treasures

My parents recently bought a house in Monticello and are still unpacking.  We went over this weekend to visit (it’s all of 2 minutes away), and my mom had a box of my old stuff waiting for me. One of the things she pulled out of it for me to look at immediately was a little basket that I received as an Alpha Delta Pi pledge.  It has pretty azure blue ribbon around it, and I am sure that someone spent a lot of time dressing it up.

I opened it to find an ADPi nametag, a few bobbles, and a letter dated August 2, 1993, which was the summer before my senior year in high school.  I was pretty meticulous about keeping up with my stuff, so I have no idea how this letter made its way into my college sorority basket, but my mom wanted to make sure that I saw it.

The letter was sent to me by Padraic Fennelly, who had attended the Florida Governor’s Summer College at Stetson University with me that summer.  The program was amazing, and I was one of only 50 upcoming seniors from across the state chosen to attend.  I wrote about two of my friends from the seminar, Alinda and Shaq, in an earlier post.  The program was designed so that we were grouped together with teachers/professors and asked to explore a variety of issues over the course of four weeks. It was a leadership conference PLUS, so to speak.

I had a bit of an inferiority issue at that point in my life, coming from a small school in a small town.  To make things worse, I was in an serious relationship with an older guy who was more than a bit controlling and emotionally abusive.  I should not have been in it but what is it that Taylor Swift says?–”When you’re 15 and someone tells you they love you, you’re going to believe them.”  For me, I knew I wanted to bigger and better things, but the way out seemed almost impossible.

It did me a world of good to spend a month with such high calibar people of my own age and to see their motivations and goals.  It rubbed off on me.  Padraic was one of those amazing people.  He and I spend a lot of time talking and getting to know one another.  To be perfectly honest, I had more than a bit of a crush on him.

So, I enjoyed reading my special letter, complete with two beautifully-written poems, and am hoping to reconnect with him online somehow.  Life is full of treasures, and great memories are among the most precious of those little gifts.

Woof! Woof!!

Halloween

Mason’s First Halloween

Yesterday proved to be a fun-filled day of football and food.  Our family came over to grill out steaks and watch the NC State/FSU game and the FL/GA game.  My mom and Steve are big Gators for some unknown reason.  No matter how many times we point out that their daughter and son-in-law actually graduated from FSU, they refuse to listen.  Some traditions never die, I guess.

I love Halloween in our little town.  People actually bring children in to Monticello from the outlying county on decorated trailors to trick-or-treat.  It is not uncommon for us to have well over a hundred children during the course of the night.  I was not so sure how it would go this year, however.  The other houses on our street did not participate as in years past, and it began storming at about 4 o’clock.  But, I had the front porch decorated and my bowl of candy ready just in case. 

The highlight of the day was, of course, getting Mason ready for his first go at trick-or-treating.  He cooperated quite nicely as we put him in his puppy dog costume.  Afterwards, Mom, Mike and I took him uptown, where all of the shop owners had tables set up for the kids.  We was actually quite fun, and Mason looks on in amazement the entire time!  We got back to the house about an hour later to find Mitch and Steve handing out candy to a line of kids.  That made me smile.

The great night was topped off by Mike making chocolate fondue for me  and Mom to enjoy while watching a scary ghost story on TV.  I could not have had a better day!

Halloween at Our House

Pumpkin Patch

Mike, Mason and I met the Rubins at the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday morning to enjoy the crisp Fall weather and let the kids explore.  Mason had a touch of a cold and was not feeling his normal self.  However, Mikey and Zoe were great fun, and we are very glad once again to have them nearby.

I love this picture!

Friends

Saturday Was Ridiculous

I was scheduled to take my certification exam on Saturday morning beginning at 8:30 at FSU.

I got up, felt suprisingly okay, and headed out the door in plenty of time to get to the campus, park, and get settled before the test.

Then, I arrived in Tallahassee.  I came down Thomasville Road, toward my office, only to quickly realize that roads were blocked off.  It took me getting to Tennessee Street to realize why.  FAMU’s Homecoming Parade was about to begin, and the City had both Monroe and Tennessee Streets blocked off.

As I made my way past the Capitol–which was too far down–I finally was able to turn around.  However, in the brief minutes before I made it back towards the intersection of Tennessee and Gadsden, I was cut-off in traffic no less than three times! And each time, the cars missed my own by a matter of inches.  Ridiculous. 

I stopped twice to ask assistance from police officers in order to find the best route across to FSU.  Finally, I had to drive up a back road to Tharpe, turn on Old Bainbridge, and take another side street up until I reach Woodward Avenue.

When I finally got to the FSU College of Education, where I assumed the test would be, the parking lot was empty.  I got out my admission ticket and saw that it was going to be held in the Classroom Building, which I presumed correctly to be a new structure near the College of Business where I used to work.  I made my way there, got out of the car, and ran until I found the appropriate entry.

By this time, it was 8:45 a.m. and I was crying. I have never been late for a test before.  As I got off the elevators, two ladies greeted me and directed me to the classroom, warning me at the same time that they doubted I would be able to get sit for the test.  Thank goodness, the assigned proctor was more kind and led me to my seat.  I was not the only one who was late because of the parade.  Two others came in after I did.

All in all, the test was not that difficult.  It consisted of 12o low-level multiple choice questions that were to be completed in 2.5 hours.  I finished in about 50 minutes.  I am not feeling very confident, however; the test covered a very broad range of material, and the questions were focused on strange, random factoids.   Plus, I was not in a great mindset to take a test anyway.  We will see.  The test results will be sent to me in about a month.

Baby B #2

Baby B #2 is forming quite nicely in mommy’s tummy! We had our first sonogram today which confirmed that we are 11.5 weeks pregnant.  Our due date is set at May 7.    Baby B looks perfectly normal and was wiggling around wonderfully during the sonogram.  Its (for lack of a better word) heartbeat measured 170, the same as Mason’s did during his first appearance.

Mason’s New Look

 

Before

During

After

Mason’s Exciting Day

Mason had his 9-month wellness check on Wednesday, followed by his first hair cut.  Everything went really well with both.  Mason weighs 24.4 lbs (90th-percentile) and is 30-inches long (75th-percentile).  He has met all of his milestones and is doing very well.  Yesterday, when we picked him up from day care, Mrs. Cherrie called him a “hawg” because, apparently, he is eating as much as the bigger boys closer to age two.

The very fun part was his hair cut, of course.  I wanted my friend/stylist, Miss Laurie Donovan, to trim him up around the ears. I knew that she would do a great job and that Mason would love her.  In spite being very tired, he sat  still in Mommy’s lap as Miss Laurie did her job.  Of course, he also smiled at Grammy and Daddy, who were busy snapping pictures.

I think Mason looks incredibly handsome. But I am, certainly, very biased!