Beauty in the Ashes

     Do you ever fight about the fight?  That is a phrase Matt and I learned in a book we bought before we were married.  For instance, you and your significant other have a simple disagreement about dinner when the disagreement ignites a knock-down, drag-out, guns-a'blazing battle.  Ever been there?  Matt and I never have, of course...(ahem)...      Alright, it might have happened once.  On the night in question, I might have thrown a shoe.  Alright, I threw a shoe. If you do not get the reference, please visit the following link immediately!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D5oKEVqQJg            It was not a fun night, but it was the first time I came to the monumental realization that my place of security had moved right out from under me, and worse, I had done the moving.  There I was, furious, ready to storm away--I grabbed my keys and the shoe I didn't throw, and I made my...

           One of my favorite parts of my early elementary school days involved shopping (no surprise there).  Every year, around Christmas, "Santa's Workshop" would come to town.  It set up shop in our Gymnacafetorium, and we bought wonderful goods for our families and friends.  Over the years, I found a quality friendship necklace for Audie Horrall, a crocheted snowflake for my mom, and some other fabulous gifts for lucky recipients.  The best year by far was the year of the award ribbons.  They looked like grand prize ribbons from the county fair, but they were attached to safety pins.  Wearable art, pals.  That year, Santa's Workshop made one of the best Christmas memories because my cousin Matthew and I (an hour away from each other in our respective schools) had each purchased a ribbon for our grandparents.  I got "Classy Lady" for Grammy; he got "The Boss" for Grampy.  They still have those ribbons. ...

     Today Matt and I will celebrate our second anniversary.  We have been together for six years...plus the five big months of my freshman year of high school (which was ten years ago!). Christmas Dance 2001 youth group party at my house-December 2001       I started keeping journals from the time I was about eight, and it is fascinating to me to see what I wrote about the boy with the perfect smile who smelled SO good that I would actually haul the couch cushion he'd leaned against upstairs to my waterbed so that I could smell his Candies cologne as I drifted off to sleep.  Even if I had a friend spending the night, the cushion stayed.  A bit neurotic, I concede, but I just loved that smell.  They don't even make that scent anymore!  It's hard to believe that was over a decade ago.  I had braces!   I was fourteen !  Yet, some part of my heart just knew.   I always tell him, "There was only ever you ...

     Papaw and Me somewhere in Florida (our favorite place to be!) -1987      Call it destiny.  Call it fate.  Call it the effect of the first grandchild.  Call it the joy of torturing Granny.  Whatever you call it, Papaw and I have always had it--an instant connection that bonded us for the ages.  I love to hear my mama tell of the day I (as a sweet, precious, and perfect baby) would not, for anything or anyone , stop SCREAMING.  My parents, probably completely exhausted, finally called Papaw.  Mom says that when he held me, I miraculously stopped crying.  Just like that.  That was the beginning of a life spent in Papaw's arms.   This picture makes me feel safe!      As I have written before, I spent an enormous amount of my childhood growing up in the funeral home/ambulance service world of my grandparents.  How either of them found time to teach me anything while running two b...