Welcome to Atlanta

Last Friday afternoon, I took a partial day at work so Mom and I could go to Atlanta for our annual Mom-Daughter time.

We went here...

...to see this...

...which was unbelievably amazing.

Afterwards, we had dessert here, where Mom left her souvenir program book underneath the seat and we're positive somebody kept it.

Then, on Saturday, we went here. I bought a frying pan and cinnamon rolls, and found the bookcase for Baby P's nursery, that Ben and I will go back and get some other Saturday. Big box.

Then we went here, to Atlantic Station. We did some fun shopping and saw the new Sarah Jessica Parker movie...

...and ate at Rosa Mexicano, which has the best guacamole in the world. Made tableside. And I don't even like guacamole.
On Sunday, we headed back to Birmingham. We stopped at The Shops of Grand River in Leeds (shameless plug: my company owns this) to look for Baby P some things...
to which she/he got some simple white onesies, some gender neutral sleepers, and a sweet little t-shirt that says "I love my daddy." Don't worry, it can work for a boy or a girl!

Mom and I had a wonderful time in Atlanta! We can't wait til next year when we will have a new little traveler with us!

Tough

DAY 6 OF THIRTY DAYS OF TRUTH:

Something you hope you never have to do.

This is a no brainer for me.

I hope I never have to go through what my mother did.

My mother is the most awesome person in the world. Not only did she work a full time job as a teacher my whole life, but she worked full time as a mother to two not so easy to handle kids, and was a full time pastor's wife. Did you count that? Three full time jobs.

Yes, being a pastor's wife is a full time job. Especially in a small church. She played the piano, organized Vacation Bible School, taught Sunday School, entertained church members in our home, and lived in the proverbial glass house. Trust me. Full time job.

And then it happened.

The Big C. Cancer.

Not to her, but to my dad.

Add another full time job - Cancer Patient Caregiver.

If you have never lived in a home that cancer has immediately touched, it is really hard to understand exactly what it entails. It's still so vivid and heartwrenching, but I will try to convey to you exactly what we lived through.

Dad's cancer was vicious. It began as malignant melanoma, but by the time it was caught, it was in his lymph system. Basically, there was no stopping it. He was never fully in "remission." Once a month, my parents would leave my brother and me with a family in our church (to whom we are forever grateful) and drive to Birmingham (3 1/2 hours away) for dad to receive chemotherapy treatments and countless surgeries. They would treat the bouts, but the cancer always came back.

Mom was constantly moving. I really don't think she rested for the five years that our family fought this battle. Her precious friends at work donated sick days for her to stay with my dad. When he had his "bad days," she was his nurse. On his "good days," she encouraged him to get up and go. Our house was always clean, our meals were always cooked (when we didn't have a generous outpouring of food from church members - we were seriously in an awesome church family), and Mom made sure life went on. We still played sports and did our homework and went to church. She made sure that the Big C was just a bump in the road of our family's life.

Mom was sort of the glue that held us all together, especially in the last year of Dad's life. Dad couldn't care for himself at all and was quickly fading. We all knew the end was near. My brother and I were never in the dark about Dad's illness. We always knew every detail.

When it came time to decide if we were going to stop treatment for Dad, Mom included Wes and me in the decision. When he died, she mourned, of course, but encouraged us that life would get better and God is always in control.

Sounds amazing, huh?

I never want to do that.

I never want to watch my husband deteriorate like I watched my Dad deteriorate. I never want to tell my kids that the doctors are not sure if their father is going to live to their graduation or not. I never want to hold my husband's hand as he passes to the Lord at 43 years old. I never want to mourn my husband's death at such a young age.

I have no clue how she did it. I cannot imagine the unbelievable pressure that she lived under every day for five years. She was the one fully capable person in our house. She did everything. My father helped when he could, but he often wasn't strong enough.

People say to my mother still, to this day, "You are so strong." Mom and I talk about this often. She's really not. I've seen her breakdown from stress and pressure and sadness. I've seen her absolutely distraught. But our family motto sort of became "one day at a time" through all of this. That's what she does. She takes each day one day at a time.

I know that every morning she wakes up wishing she could see my Dad's face. I know that she would give anything to turn back time for one more day with him. But she learned along the way that if she just put one foot in front of the other, each day she got a little bit stronger.

She had to. She had Wes and me. She had to keep pushing. If she gave up, our family would crumble. She is driven, motivated, honest, poised, confident, and yes, Mom, you are strong.

And that, I hope to be.

Random Point of Information: I love you, Mom.

Mamma Mia

TA-DA!!!!

It has taken me three days to write this post, by the way.

Pictures from Atlanta! Mom and I had the best time just having "girl time." Since Mom lives so far away, we love getting to squeeze as much time as possible out of each other when we're together. She's my best friend!

And I have a super awesome, amazing, sweet, caring, kind, loving, and generous husband who lets me spend 4 whole days away from home so that I can spend time with my Mom. Thanks, Boosef. I owe you one. :)

We stayed at the Loews-Atlanta Hotel in Midtown. Piggy had been talking for weeks about getting a free robe at the hotel. As soon as we walked in the door of the room, he somehow ended up with it on and he was lounging on the bed. What a slob.

I get a really sweet discount on this fabulous hotel because my company owns and manages the building. So we get to stay 5-Star while paying 3-Star. And you know how much I love a bargain!

We decided to go for sushi for dinner. I got Mom to try sushi when we went to the beach together over the summer. She LOVED it! So, we walked across the street from the hotel and went to Ra, for delicious and yummy sushi! The one in the front is the Viva Las Vegas roll - crab and spicy something. YUMO! The one in the back was an eel roll. It was soooooooo good. :)

The next morning, Mom and I went to the Georgia Aquarium where we saw all sorts of amazing creatures. It was an awesome aquarium. I love to go to things like this.

I always wonder HOW people don't believe in a Divine Creator when they witness things like this octopus. There is no way that something so intricate, so beautiful, so perfect could have been made by a big bang. It had to have been made at the hands of God.

After the aquarium and a quick cookie snack, Mom and I headed over to the World of Coca-Cola across the park from the Aquarium. I had already been here once with Ben, but it is loads of fun and I was happy to go back with Mom.

The World of Coke is full of Coke memorabilia, artifacts, and super cool Coke stuff. Plus you get to taste Coke products from all over the world at the end. It is lots of fun!

They have a whole section of pop-art centered around Coke. This was my favorite.

When we finished with the Coke factory (and I had bought a Coke tshirt), we wanted to enjoy the beautiful day a little more, so we walked over to Centennial Park. When the Olympics were in Atlanta in 1996, all the impressive ceremonial stuff was in this park area. It's a central location right smack in downtown. The Olympic rings above are water fountains that shoot synchronized water up. We sat here for quite a while watching kids (and a few adults) play in the water.

We didn't take a picture of our dinner hilarity that night, but it was quite the adventure. We decided we wanted Italian food. I had looked up restaurant reviews before we left and had read about a restaurant called Baraonda just a few blocks away from the hotel. I figured we could walk there, so we got dressed and set out. After we walked about 4 blocks, we realized we had walked 4 blocks in the wrong direction, turned around, and then walked 4 back, and then an additional 5.

Dinner was DELICIOUS, but we took a cab back. :) Really though. Dinner was delicious. Mom had mushroom ravioli and I had homemade lasagna. They had an amazing wine list, and we split a warm apple tart with gelato for dessert. YUM.

The next morning, we went to the Margaret Mitchell House. For those of you who don't know, Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With The Wind. It is one of my all time favorite, love it, got to have it books, and movies, as well. Mom and I have shared all things Gone With The Wind my whole life, so it only made sense to go to the home where she wrote the book.

We were not allowed to take photos in the actual apartment, but we were able to stand in the corner where she kept her desk and wrote the massive novel that she only began as a hobby because she had broken her ankle and needed something to do. So she sat in a corner by a window and wrote one of the greatest love stories (or non-love stories, however you decide to look at it) of American fiction. She wasn't even going to publish it.

They had a little museum to the side with a few movie relics in it. The photo above is me standing by the actual portrait of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara that hung in Scarlett's bedroom in the movie. It was quite stunning in person.

We left the Margaret Mitchell House and walked to the High Museum of Art, where they were having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's late works. Dali is my brother's favorite artist, so we knew we had to go. I totally got caught and yelled at for trying to sneak a cell phone picture to send to Wes. Oops.

And, then there were no more pictures. But we did go to Atlantic Station that evening for dinner at Rosa Mexicano, where they make fresh guacamole tableside (and I don't even like guacamole, but this was GOOD) and a little shopping.

We had a blast.

Mom, you are my best friend and I love you more than you know. Thanks for such a great week. I can't wait to conquer another city with you!

Random Gone With The Wind Fact: The famous "burning of Atlanta" scene is not General Sherman and the Yankees burning Atlanta as commonly thought. It's actually set a few weeks before when the Confederates burned their own arsenals so Sherman couldn't get to them. Kind of a "if we can't have it, nobody can" thing.

Oh, and look closely. Vivien Leigh had not been cast yet when that scene was filmed. In the carriage with Rhett, it's either a dummy being used or a stand-in, depending on the shot.