Miss Katie

Kailey and Katie at the neighborhood Xmas dinner.

When we first moved to Rochester, Nick had to go back to California for three weeks. We'd driven like maniacs to get here in time to sign the papers on the house and I put him on a plane the next morning to go back. Believe it or not I was OK with this. Yeah, it sucked, but I could hold my own. I actually had the house unpacked in two days! Anyways....

One day I was walking around the block with Libs. Let me tell you, the whole block is a dog block. People don't know the people that live in the house, it's "the house with the bulldog, the house with the boxer, Mika's house etc etc." I came walking down the street and there was a boxer hanging out. He was getting pretty excited to see Libs. His owner was outside and I believe she said he was nice and asked if Libs was. I told her yes and let them play for a while. Turns out Katie liked to talk as much as I did so we had a lot to talk about. I'm not sure if it was the first time I met her or maybe a few times after that when I was walking Libs on a day I was feeling not so hot. Moving so far away was making me realize just how much "stuff" I hadn't dealt with. Past hurts, traumas, those kinds of things. And to top it off Nick was still in California. Rylie and Katie were outside so I stopped off to let Libs run around and again Katie and I started talking. Those of you who know me know I wear my heart on my sleeve. I just started letting it all out, and even cried a little bit. Katie asked me if I liked cheese and sent me home with a nice (and by nice I mean pretty good sized) block of Vermont Cheddar (the kind in the wax) and a box of crackers. Oh my goodness was that cheese amazing! Ever since that day we have been the best of friends. I was so excited for Nick to meet her. When he came home they hit it off too.

Miss Katie is the first friend Nick and I made as a couple.She's probably one of the most selfless people on this planet, not even joking. She knew we were far from our family our first holiday season and asked us to join her family. We even fit in with all of them. In fact some of her sisters consider me like their sister. Every holiday season since we've lived in Rochester, we've spent with her family (now our family, the automatically count us in on the tally of how many will be coming). Christmas tree hunting has probably been one of the funnest things we've done together (aside from strawberry picking).

Katie, Rylie and Kailey

The first Mother's Day I was officially a mother (pregnant) I was with Katie. Unfortunately it was a sort of somber time as we were moving stuff from her father's house after he'd passed away. The man who was going to buy the house was talking to Katie when I arrived. He automatically thought I was Katie's daughter. Now it's an inside joke and she tells me all the time I shouldn't talk to my mother like that! Haha. That was the day I asked Katie if we could use her middle name for our baby if it was a girl....and a girl we had. So Kailey's middle name is Jean just like her Auntie Katie. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll always remember Katie meeting Kailey for the first time. I'm sad Kailey won't be around to have crazy shenanigans with Katie and learn how to sass people properly....wink wink, I know you're probably reading this Katie....you know you'd be helping develop her sense of humor and sense of adventure.

Nick and I will always be grateful for every ounce of energy, love and thought Katie has given us and I can only hope we've been as kind and loving to her. If I could pack her, Rylie and Cody and take them with me I would in a heartbeat. It's nice to know there are people out there who love strangers as deeply as their own blood.  Katie, you are living proof. Rochester would not have been anything without you.

Surprise!!!!!

Our mischievous neighbor, Miss Katie, always has something up her sleeves (in a good way of course, she likes to keep us on our toes). She knew I'd love to learn how to make pedaheh (pirogi, but in Ukraine they are called pedaheh) so she planned a day we could go over to Aunt Helen's house so she could show me how to make the dough (Aunt Helen is a 92 year old woman who's got all her marbles and is a riot to be around!). Nick and I got up early Saturday morning and left the house by 9. We went to Aunt Helen's house and made the dough and chit chatted for a while before heading to the Y for shrimp kipper lessons with Sweets. During lessons I'd asked Glen if he and Meredith wanted to come over to have pedaheh for dinner. Of course, I'd forgotten I'd already asked Mer and she told me they had a birthday party to go to that evening.

The beautiful Miss Hanna

After lessons were done we went home and vegged out. Suddenly it dawned on us, we had some stuff to do before Katie and Margaret (Katie's sister) came over to fill the dough and make pedaheh for dinner. Nick called Katie to find out what we needed. She said she would get the potatoes on to boil and we could pick up anything else we wanted to go inside like cheese, bacon, meat etc, or to go as a side. When Nick got off the phone he turned to me and said, "It sounded like she thought we were going to get all that stuff ready." I was a bit confused because she hadn't told me what to get to go inside the pedaheh, or told me to get potatoes boiling, and wasn't she supposed to be teaching me how to do this? Why hadn't she told me what to do....chitta....I was overthinking it and worrying too much. In the mean time, there was stuff around the house I needed to do before Katie, Lori, and Margaret came over. Off to the store Nick went, and into the chores I went.

Sweets, playing with the basket.

We were supposed to be at Katie's house for a group picture at 4. I'd text Meredith earlier and asked if 4 would work for her and Glen because I knew they had to be at their party by 4:30 and I didn't want them to have to be scurrying around trying not to be late. Meredith said it was a perfect time and she'd see me then. Since Margaret was in town she would be able to get all the neighbors in a picture together (we'd been unsuccessfully trying to do this for a couple months). By the time we were done with the chores it was 3:35. I told Nick to set an alarm on his clock and we all laid on the couch for a snooze.

A short snooze later we got Sweets packed up in the stroller and off we went, down to Katie's house. As we were walking down I saw a circle of chairs in the Runion's front yard (another family on the block). All I could think was how a circle was an odd way to set the scene for a group picture. But wait! There were more people there than neighbors! Katie's nieces and nephews were there too. SURPRISE!!!!! They all got together and planned a going away gathering for us. Katie, you sly, sly devil!

Here's the real kicker. I wanted to to a pig roast with the neighbors before we moved. I shot out an email to everyone asking what weekend worked for them. NO one was answering. Little did I know, Katie had already started making plans for this surprise and was trying to accommodate both, or decide to tell us we couldn't throw our own party. Because they didn't want to spoil their surprise, all the neighbors decided to go along with the pig roast AND have the surprise. One weekend right after the other.

Nicholas and I have truly been blessed with the best friends we could possibly ask for. Moving to Rochester has been a growing experience for the both of us. Being so far away from family,only having each other to depend on was the way to go right after getting married. We made friends as a couple that will stay in our hearts no matter where we live. 

Walking

A couple months ago I had all intentions of writing about a walk Sweets and I took when there were a few days of really great weather. However, life has been crazy, and now it's time to get going on updating a bit more.

 I've found my walks with Kailey are refreshing, invigorating and "light me up" so to speak. Sometimes I put the carrier on and go because she's fussy, doesn't want to be put down and I'm getting frustrated. Almost like I'm getting a re-do if we walk it off. But most times, I really want to be outside enjoying Rochester, the block we live on, and of course my time with Kailey. She's started humming right before she's about to fall asleep on our walks. It's pretty funny. When I was in my prenatal yoga class the teacher talked about how she om'd her son when he was upset in the backseat because she couldn't get to him while she was driving, and it helped to calm him down. I did some om'ing when I was pregnant with Kailey in the yoga classes I went to, so I thought I'd give it a try when I was in the shower one day....it worked. Maybe that's where she's getting the humming from, maybe she's just learning about her little voice (which I never get tired of). This particular day she was humming away and looking around (maybe the humming and then falling asleep is a more recent thing). I took my iPhone out at near the
beginning of the walk and put The Civil Wars on, shoved it in the sling so we could both listen and enjoy the walk. About five minutes in I realized I wasn't getting the benefits of being outside if I had music on. I turned it off. After the tunes stopped I realized all the things I'd been missing out on by having it on: Kailey's humming, the birds singing along with her, the sound of the breeze, the feel of the sunshine on my skin, and my still
 mind. What really stood out in my mind was the birds songs. I wouldn't have heard them with the iPhone playing. I wouldn't have been able to enjoy that blessing. I also started to notice other things. Kailey for one was looking off to our left the whole time. I was trying so hard to figure out what she could be looking at that was staying with us the whole time. About half way home I realized she'd been watching our shadows. What a clever little girl. Then a couple yards ahead of us were some fresh sidewalk drawings by the children who live in the house we were walking by. There were some in their driveway too. I thought about how fun it's going to be to draw on sidewalks with Kailey someday. I already draw on the driveways with the three kids down the street. They like to have me lay down so they can outline my body and then add my clothes and all that when I get up. They did a great Mr. Nick one day, only they made sure to add his mustache (I think they think that thing is funny, but I love when he has one!). 

I'm so glad I stopped, took a moment to think about what was going on and turned off the music. Sometimes the small things are huge when it comes down to it.