The First Video Game

I know that our children's generation is going to grow up with computers and video games as a way of life. It's just inevitable. However, I was trying to keep Anna from, at least the video game part, as long as I could. (She already asks to watch Elmo and Skype with Mimi and Pawpaw on the "puter").

Well, I missed Will and Anna the other night and this is where I found them...

Anna's first exposure to Mario Kart. Will was helping her drive "Baby Peach" and she was loving it. So much for my valiant efforts:).

It's OK, Mommy

The other afternoon, the back door onto the deck was open so that Miller could go through his doggy door. All of a sudden, I hear the screen door open (since Anna is now tall enough and wise enough to open doors). I fly to the door before she can escape outside and ask her, "What is the rule about going outside?" She looked at me with her why-did-you-have-to-find-me look, and said, "Have to ask Mommy and Daddy first." Then, she immediately said, "Go outside, please!" I laughed, but sat down on the floor beside her. I explained to her that if she doesn't ask first, then I won't know where she is and I will get worried. She looked at me, concerned, and asked, "Mommy, you would cry?" So sweet!! I told her that I would cry if I couldn't find her. She started patting me on the leg and said, "It's OK, Mommy. Anna is right here." Bless her heart, how did she get so sweet!?!

Lazy, Rainy Sunday

Will had it made today--watching football with his two kids!:)

Christmas in January

Since Anna and I were deathly ill the week before Christmas, we missed the annual Carolina Girls Christmas Get-Together. However, after seeing two of the girls last night, we came home with gifts for Anna from Michelle and Melissa. As soon as Anna woke up this morning, we let her open them. She loved her princess accessories!! She couldn't get her shoes on with her PJ's, so she had to take them off. She does love those shoes ("with heels like Mommy"). Notice that the heart jewel on the crown even lights up! Thank you, Michelle!

Lawson gave Anna a cute set of butterflies for the bathtub and a bug net to catch them. She couldn't wait to get in the bathtub tonight! Here she is with butterfly net and princess crown. Thank you, Lawson (and Melissa)!

Great Girlfriends...and Hubbies

My mom has always harped on the importance of good girlfriends. The older I get, the more I think I understand what she means. There are three girlfriends that I went to Carolina with that mean the world to me and the four of us have stayed in touch through the years really well. I'm really proud of us! We have been in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, and London and still managed to all keep in touch and get together whenever we were close.

My friend, Carrie, turns 31 on Thursday. This time a year ago, she was pregnant with her daughter, Emory, and was miserable because her body and pregnancy don't get along so well. She was sick the entire time and was admitted multiple times to the hospital for dehydration and failing kidneys. On top of that, she had a two year old running around! Needless to say, there was no big 30th birthday party. So, her sweet husband decided that this year was going to be a make-up year. He arranged for three of us to meet Carrie at a spa in Greensboro as a surprise for Carrie and then all of us went out to dinner. We had so much fun catching up and comparing kid stories. I love those girls to pieces!

The cake made by a friend of Carrie's.

Carrie and her sweet hubby, Corey

Me, Melissa, Carrie, and Jamie

(we missed you, Michelle!)

I only hope that we can remain close and that years from now we are doing family vacations together. How fun!

My Shopping Partner

The other day, Anna and I went to the mall to run some errands. I forgot to check if the stroller was in the back of the car...and it wasn't. So, when we got out of the car, I told Anna she was going to have to walk with Mommy in the mall like a big girl. No problem--she strutted around like she owned the place. We went to Gymboree to use the Gym Bucks I had earned. I was pulling stuff off the sale racks to look and then putting them back and looked down to see Anna doing the same thing. Except she wasn't as graceful about the "putting it back" part. How do you explain to a 2-year-old that you can pull whatever off the rack, but she shouldn't touch anything? I don't know. Life's just so unfair.

It didn't help that there were 3 kids in there going BANANAS! I mean screaming, running into the back where only the employees are supposed to go and slamming doors, pulling clothes off racks left and right, and running around like maniacs. Meanwhile, their mom was calmly shopping like nothing was going on. I can't believe the nerve of parents sometimes!

Anyway, the funny part of the story is that while Anna and I were shopping, she ran over to this lavender shirt and pulled it off the rack and said, "Oh Mommy, this is so cute! We need to take this to Anna's house!" I about couldn't compose myself. She has never responded like that while out shopping before. So, of course, I found her size in the lavender shirt...and in the leggings that matched. Call me a sucker...:)

Anna's First UNC Basketball Game

On Saturday, we took Anna to her very first Carolina basketball game. We have had a hard time finding a good game to take her to since most of them are at night, but Saturday at 2pm was perfect, even if it was in the middle of nap time. The Tar Heels were playing Georgia Tech so Will, Anna, Will's parents, and I loaded up and headed to Chapel Hill.

Now, I have to admit, that I have a personal issue with cheerleaders. I want to apologize in advance to all of you who were cheerleaders, many of whom are my friends. I guess it's because I played softball, basketball, soccer, and volleyball growing up. I did take dance for a short period when I was younger, but I liked playing the sports that the cheerleaders cheered for. Plus, the little I was exposed to the cliques and psycho-cheerleader-Mom types, I got a bad taste in my mouth. However, since having a little girl of my own, I have given in (slightly) and got Anna a Carolina cheerleading outfit. It is SO cute! And yes, I even had her picture taken with the UNC cheerleaders. Consider me (almost) cured.

We got to Chapel Hill early enough to eat lunch on Franklin Street. As we were walking around, we tried to explain to Anna that this is where Mommy and Daddy went to school. Will loved her response: "I LOVE this school!" After lunch, we rode down to the Dean Dome and Will dropped us off so that his dad wouldn't have to walk so far with his "new" knee.

Anna was completely overwhelmed when we got to our seats and just sat and took in all the action. Her eyes were a little glazed-over for a while since it was supposed to be nap time, but she soon got her second wind and perked up. She knew where Rameses was every second!

The first half of the game left much to be desired. I never thought we would catch up in the second half. Anna climbed over us into Nannie's lap about the time we caught up to the Yellow Jackets and fell fast asleep. Good thing, too, because we were all on our feet screaming! I was too busy cheering on the Heels to remember to take any more pictures ;(.

Anna slept through multiple transfers and most of the walk back to the car. When she finally woke up, she asked, "The game is over?". Good thing she didn't have to witness the Heels throw that game out the window after a 20 point come-back. But then again, who can be down by 20 points and expect to win?

Oh, well. It was still fun to take our little cheerleader to Chapel Hill for the game.

Our Big Trip to California

Sorry, folks, but this is going to be a long one. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Will's second grandfather was a HUGE Texas alum. I like to refer to Abe as Will's second grandfather because step-grandfather hugely underscores the relationship he had with the Hege family. During football season, Abe and Nana would fly from Winston-Salem to Austin for every home game and to Dallas for the Red River Shootout. He was dedicated. The last Texas football game he ever saw was in Pasadena when they won the 2005 national championship...he was on cloud nine! After Abe died in May of 2006, Nana has held on to the season tickets and the family has shared them. Will and I were able to go out to Dallas to the Texas/OU game in October. When Texas reached the national championship game again this year, Nana's Christmas gift was to send Will and Erin (and significant others) to Pasadena to see the game. Awesome!

We decided that since we were already going to be out there, we might as well see the sights. So, we built some time around the game to see LA/Hollywood, drive the Pacific Coast Highway up through San Francisco, and spend a couple of days in Napa Valley. It was unbelievable!

We flew in on Tuesday and after cramming all of our luggage in the back of our suave white Ford Escape, we decided to take the scenic route through LA to our hotel. Thanks to Will's stellar use of the Garmin and Aaron's awesome big-city driving skills (he can and has driven in NYC multiple times), we were passing through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Just so you know, Erin and I were sticking our heads out of the sunroof to take pictures. Classy, I know!

The greatest part is that after sight-seeing on Wednesday, we had a couple of hours to spare and the guys graciously brought us back to Rodeo Drive to actually shop!! Erin and I are both now proud owners of dresses from the BCBG on Rodeo Drive!

Our hotel was in Universal City, right next to Universal Studios Hollywood. Much to the boys' dismay, we opted to sightsee rather than spend a day in an amusement park. Sorry boys. The great part about it was that there was City Walk right beside our hotel with shops and restaurants and bars--perfect! This pic is of us outside Universal Studios while we were exploring the City Walk the first night.

On Wednesday morning we headed for Hollywood Boulevard to see the "stars". Here is Will posing next to John Wayne's footprints outside the Chinese Theatre. Will was born on the day John Wayne died (interesting, I know).

After checking out the sights, we took an amazing tour of the Kodak Theatre. For those who aren't aware, this is where the Oscars are held every year and where the American Idol finale has been in the past. The tour was awesome, but unfortunately, they wouldn't let you take pictures. They had posters of celebrities sitting in some of the seats to explain how things work on Oscar night and I did get to sit beside Tom Cruise, sort of.:)

After the tour, we went to the Galleria area beside the Kodak and found this amazing site with the Hollywood sign in the background. Just so you know, the high was 75 that day...in January! Hence, the tank top. Gotta love it.

We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (touristy, I realize, but it was really good) and then headed to Culver City to tour the Sony Studios (which use to be MGM). My sister, Sarah, has a good friend from college who is in LA trying to make it as a screenwriter and is doing tours on the side. So, we got to go and see Patrick! Since we were kind of last-minute with our planning, we didn't get to have him as a tour guide (boo), but it was great to see him. The highlight of that tour was seeing the offices of Happy Madison Productions and Adam Sandler's Hummer golf cart and the studio for Wheel of Fortune. We also got to see the recording studio named after Barbara Streisand. All the music from the big movies from that studio were recorded there. The sound is so perfect in that room that it is nearly unchanged since it was built in the 1950's (I think), and you can tell!

Here are the four of us later that night at the piano bar, Howl at the Moon, at City Walk. We thought we were at the average piano bar, but no. This is Hollywood, baby! In walks Gretchen Bonaduce (yes, the ex-wife of famous Danny), who agrees to sing. Then they introduce the lead singer of Foreigner, who does an amazing version of Sweet Child of Mine. Awesome! Needless to say, we were all glad we could walk back to the hotel:).

Thursday was game day! Hook 'em Horns!

We spent several hours before the gates opened at the ESPN tailgate. The entertainment for the afternoon was a performance by the GooGoo Dolls!

The infamous Rose Bowl. This picture makes me think of a similar one with Abe and Nana standing in front of the sign. We miss you, Abe!

I love this picture. Between the field and the sky and the fans, you can almost feel the beauty of the moment. Soon after this, paratroopers landed in midfield and then Josh Groban sang the national anthem. Awesome!

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the game we expected. I still feel so bad for McCoy. And Gilbert played his little freshman heart out. At least it turned out to be a good game in spite of McCoy being out. I still say that Nick Saban is an unclassy jerk! The best part is that we managed to get out of the stadium with 94,000+ other people, into our car, and back to our hotel in 45 minutes. Now don't tell me the stars didn't align for that to happen!

Friday morning, we checked out of our hotel, loaded the car, and headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway. It was GORGEOUS!! I still am not over the whole mountains by the ocean thing. Incredible! One of our stops was to see the elephant seals. We were lucky to hit them during the one time all year that males, females, and babies are visible on the beach at the same time. There were hundreds of them.

We stopped for lunch at the Whale Watchers Cafe in Gorda, CA. Don't blink or you might miss it!

Erin and I enjoyed our mimosas and our great view.

A breathtaking sunset over the Pacific near Carmel.

Another view from Carmel

We took our time on the PCH and even took the long way through San Francisco so we could go over the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course it was dark and foggy, so we didn't see much. We finally reached our Embassy Suites in Napa at 9 pm that night. I was pretty proud of the four of us for being in the car that long together and not killing each other. Thank goodness for potty breaks and the iPod car converter!

Saturday was Napa day! Aaron's friend from the restaurant business is a wine distributor and hooked us up with a couple of appointments that morning. Here we are in our own personal wine tasting at Beringer. I got really excited when I found out that part of the movie A Walk in the Clouds was filmed there.

The Beringer brothers were one of the first to build wine caves back into the mountains that naturally stay at 58 degrees year-round. When these famous caves were reinforced, a hidden family wine vault was discovered with wines dating back into the 1800s.

We also stopped at St. Clement and Merryvale Wineries that morning.

After lunch, we found the newly-named Frank Coppola winery, Rubicon. The Oscar for The Godfather calls this winery home. I tasted the best wine I have ever had here--Rubicon Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. Unfortunately, it's $145 a bottle.

The four of us at the Robert Mondavi tasting room.

After wining it all day, the boys dropped Erin and me off at the outlets to do a little shopping and went back to the hotel for some free drinks (beer for Will) and football. That night for dinner, we went to Mustards Grill. I really don't think I've ever had a meal that delicious. I had steak and mac and cheese and broccolini. It says a lot when the broccolini was the best part and the worst was amazing! And I got to taste Rubicon 2005 one last time!

We had a fantastic 6 days! It really was the trip of a lifetime. We got to see an area of the country we had never seen, an amazing football game, and had a blast with Erin and Aaron. A huge thanks goes to Nana for making the trip possible and to Cathe for helping us get free hotel rooms with Hilton points! Anna stayed at home with my sister and my mom while we were away and had a great time (thank you to both of you!), but Will and I were ready to get home to our little munchkin. I don't know if I care to go back to LA now that I've seen it. But I could definitely do Napa again...

Luckiest Mom in the World

I promised Anna that I would go in and give her a kiss goodnight when I got home from my church meeting, even if she was already asleep, because she wasn't very excited about me leaving. She has been understandably clingy since Will and I got home from our 6 day escapade (I know, the blog update is coming). I was hoping I could sneak in and not wake her up, but up she popped the second I opened the door. "Mommy, let's rock for a minute." OK, so I pick her up and hold her like a baby and rock back and forth standing beside her bed while she sucks her thumb holding Bobo. I'm looking down at her precious face and she reaches up and puts her hand on my cheek and says, "I love you, Mommy". Could the world get any better than that?

Thinking Back

I just can't believe it's 2010! As a 1979 baby, it means that this is the 5th decade that I've been a part of! Wow, does that make me feel old. I mean, just thinking back 10 years and all that has happened in that "short" amount of time is amazing. Ten years ago right now, I had just broken up with my boyfriend of 3 years and was heading back to Chapel Hill a new woman. For the first time, I was ready to experience and enjoy Carolina the way it was supposed to be, instead of dashing up to Boone after class was over every Friday (my boyfriend was at ASU). I was getting ready to start my final semester of prerequisites for nursing school, which I would start in May. And in a few weeks, I would meet Will Hege for the first time...and the rest is history.

It's just crazy to think that all of that would lead to... 2 and 1/2 unbelievable years as a true Tar Heel with some really amazing friends...leaving everything I know to follow a pretty awesome guy to Dallas, Texas, for a "wonderful career opportunity"...starting my first real job in a 52-bed PICU with 30 other new grads...meeting the first "Sarah soul-sister"...getting engaged to that pretty awesome guy...moving back to Winston-Salem and buying our home...starting in a new PICU at Brenner Children's Hospital while Will went to work at HFG with his parents...getting married in Wilmington...building a life together with family and old friends while making new ones...having the most precious little girl in the world join our family. It's just so humbling to look back at all these blessings and to see God's hand in all of them. I feel so lucky to have experienced all of these things and to be right where I am today.

Even looking back over the past year and all that we have done makes me feel so blessed. January was shower time before my sister, Sarah, and Jason got married in February. I was invited to be part of a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) group at the first of the year that has meant so much to me over the course of the year. March was training time for my very first race. My one resolution for 2009 was to run in the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K on April 4th, just prior to my 30th birthday. My second "Sarah soul-sister" and I trained and ran it with her sister and friend. Not only did I finish, but I did it without stopping! It felt so awesome to cross that finish line! May was my 30th birthday and a surprise party for Will and me (since his 30th was in June) thrown by both our sisters. We were shocked! We also took Anna to see her first show--Elmo Live! June, July, and August were travel months, with multiple trips to the beach, lake, mountains, and Chapel Hill for various get-aways, showers, birthdays, and weddings (yay! Tyler and Jenn). August was also when we found out that I had miscarried at 10+ weeks. This was a hard time with lots of tears and unanswered questions. In September, Anna turned 2 and UNC football began. We all flew out to Texas in October to visit friends and to go to the Texas/OU game at the Cotton Bowl. November was shower month and Thanksgiving before my brother, Greg, and Michelle got married in December. Whew! It's hard to believe we fit so much in to one year!

As I pack up my 2009 planner and prepare my 2010 one, I feel so thankful. There are so many blessings in our lives that we take for granted. I hope I can remember to be thankful for the small and constant things as this new year starts. I pray that I can let go and let God lead, since I learned the hard way that the future cannot be planned. And I hope that a year from now I feel just as thankful and blessed as I do today. Happy New Year!

The First of Many

Over the Christmas holiday, while my parents were staying with us, Anna figured out how to open her bedroom door. She has been so good about staying in her bed until we come and get her, usually talking or singing to let us know that she's awake. She can easily get up and down from her bed, but has been so sweet to wait for us...until now. Well, after her nap one day, she opened the door and came traipsing out, "Hey, I'm awake!". Priceless. Anna and Mommy then had a long chat about when we get up and when we need to stay in the bed. Ground rules were layed.

A couple of mornings later, I hear her and go up to get her. When I open the door, she is standing beside her bed and immediately says, "No, Mommy!! Close the door!". Guess I beat her to it. Then she comes strolling out like Miss Priss with a grin on her face.

Will and I knew the day would eventually come when she would come downstairs and wake us up. (Yes, I know that means that a 2-year-old is coming down stairs by herself, but she is quite good at it and we require her to hold on to the railing. Just a little info to ease the worry of some of you out there.) Well, that morning was this morning!! I hear a noise from my deep slumber and roll over to her little face peeking over my side of the bed. "Wake up, Mommy! I opened the door all by myself!" We hadn't heard a peep from her monitor, so she must have been extra quiet. Sneaky little thing!! I roll over and look at the clock. It's 8:20 am!!! As long as she sleeps that late, she can wake us up any day!