Ode To Fall: East Coast Style

Friends, Countrymen....lend me your ears.

That intro sounds very important, but I can assure you this post is not. It's not at all related to military chaplains, or my family, or anything remotely worthy of this blog. It's about a season we all know and love. A season full of leaves, crisp mornings, pumpkin spice latte's, and football (your welcome Josh, I only added that for you) after all, this is your blog (wink). We are well aware of the fact that my attention span is too short to watch an entire game...unless it's USC, and they are playing well).

Annie, why are you writing about fall? Well, I am done with summer. Sorry summer, we just broke up....do you want your lotion and glasses back? Summer, I love you and I always will...what, with your gorgeous sunrises, fun water activities, and grilling goodness. But, here's the deal, you're way too humid. You make my eye balls sweat and not in a good way. Is there a good way for eye balls to sweat? I hate sweaty balls. So, I'm over you (for now) and I'm moving on to a bigger and better season...fall.

Ode to fall:

1. Not a big deal, but this is the Blue Ridge Parkway in VA, pretty sure I drove down this road a hundred times while in college. For you west coasters, this is what a real fall looks like:)

2. Riding Boots
Is it weird that I don't ride horses but like riding boots? Friends, boots = fall. In fact I'll bust these puppies out as soon as it gets in the 60's. Since boys read this blog (I'm sorry for this girlie post), I must put a caution out....boys should NEVER wear riding boots ok? It looks weird...see below.

When I put on my boots, you might see me perched on some random stairs like this closing my eyes and pretending to smell something awesome. What is this woman doing here? She really loves her right leg too? I guess that's what happens when you wear boots? Then there's this guy below....He looks like he's confused about what he's wearing. He has a murse (man-purse), AND he's wearing boots, any man would be confused. Oh wait, I just noticed the leggings...and the turtle neck....poor thing.


Even Bella loves fall fashion...

3. Pumpkin Spice Lattes
Need I even describe the goodness of such liquid?

4. College Football (like I said, this one's for Josh) :) Speaking of fall, for Halloween, Bella was a USC cheerleader. Her daddy was deployed and we thought this would help remind of his favorite team (and his favorite girl, Bella).

There you have it, it's official...I've put the word out so I'm hoping fall will come knocking quite soon:)

Ta-ta for now.

Up Hill Battle

Friends,

I want to be frank with you. Autism is hard. There it's out.

The amount of tantruming and just full blown scream sessions that I've experienced in the last week are too numerous and tiring to recall. I've got bruises on my body from trying to restrain my sweet child from harming herself while head banging in frustration. Yes, she's experienced a minor regression as a result of removing her pacifier (combined with our recent trip to NY).

Regression. I hate that word with a passion. Parents of children with autism are well aware of the implications of such a word. It happens with our children often and it's not something we can control. I can only slightly compare it to cancer...and the way it comes back after remission sometimes (obviously autism is not deadly but you get what I mean). Bella experiences regression when we travel, or when one of us leaves, or if we change something drastically (pacifier)...the list goes on. I wish I could protect her from it but I can't. Life changes. In a perfect world I could keep her in a bubble...like the movie Groundhog Day....then it would be easier;) **She has kept almost all of her words, it's mostly regression in behavior.

These are just words though. It is our life and it is challenging some days to the point of tears and bruises.

Some days I look at Bella and wish she could see how much I love her and desire for her to succeed. I really do love her so much that I could explode. Her eye contact with me is getting longer and more meaningful... and for that I am thankful. The other day I squeezed her face and said, "Do you know how much Mommy loves you?"---I felt like she understood. Then I kissed her face...her precious face. God knows how much I love her and I believe Bella does too!

I saw a mom in Target the other day with a 16 year old boy who had some type of disability. He was moaning, had a helmet on to protect his head, and his mom had him tied to her arm by his shirt because he was roaming around aimlessly. I immediately was struck with equal amounts of respect and pitty, frustration and love, mercy and grace. That mom is a hero to me and all she had to do was smile. To maintain positivity despite a life that is a constant up hill battle. She loves her son more than any gawking bystander could fathom. When I looked into her eyes I felt her struggles to the core of my being. I wanted to run and hug her and tell her she is amazing and it will be ok.... but she had enough to worry about... adding some blonde crazy into the mix would, I'm sure, not help:)

God is stretching Josh and I. He is teaching us reliance on him. I have been praying for God to work in Bella's mind and her heart....I always pray this and I ask you to do the same if you have a moment. Pray for progress--not regression friends. I BELIEVE Bella has the potential to break through the bounds of autism. I BELIEVE God is sufficient and good and full of mercy. I believe He loves her more than I ever could. And I love her endlessly.

This song below is at the end of one of Bella's favorite movies.... When she hears it, she stops and walks to the screen and stands motionless for the entire song...smiling. The words are so ridiculously true...God made her so beautiful. He is proud of her and so am I!

New York City!

Eight years goes by in a flash, in an instant. Eight years ago I married the love of my life and started the lifelong intertwining of our paths. God is so good to us in that he created us uniquely different yet, crafted little similarities to incline us closer to one another. He understood our desires, our hopes, and our dreams and was faithful in his unfailing patience with us while we struggled through life up to the point when our eyes first met. I am thankful for my husband.

Josh has never liked big cities so when he surprised me with an anniversary trip to NY to see Wicked on Broadway my heart was abounding with love for him. When I say surprised, I mean I begged him daily to tell me what was up his sleeve! I pulled out all of my resources to persuade him into sharing his secret and I conquered him. It's my power as a wife. These poor men have no chance when we beg like little girls;)

Here's a glimpse of the precariously silly and blissfully romantic fun we had;)

DAY 1-
We packed up our car, kissed our precious child Bella goodbye (leaving her in amazing hands with Nanny & Poppa Earls...we can never thank you enough) and headed north. The drive was gorgeous and we were excited. We arrived in NY and checked into our hotel that was literally one block from Times Square (nice job Mr. Earls)! The very first thing we did was get pizza. I was salivating like a dog at the vision of the large slices of thin crusted goodness... I should have been embarrassed as I downed the pizza before Josh had a few bites of his... I wasn't and I'd do it again, cheese and all. We grabbed Starbucks and headed to central park. This park was bigger and more beautiful than any movie could do it justice. It was stirring with children, roller bladers, models in bikini's (which made me look short and frumpy), homeless men, and business people....just a busy blend of culture and beauty. I was in love. We took a bunch of pictures and saw all sorts of familiar spots we'd seen in movies. We exited the park in front of The Plaza Hotel (as seen in Home Alone 2)...and yes, I did yell KEVIN! to Josh's embarrassment. We headed into FAO Schwarz to see the impressive toy collection. Of course, the first thing we found was the Harry Potter section and just had to put on various Hogwarts sorting hats ...like any two 14 year old tweens would do. Straight up nerds. Then it was off to shop. So many stores, so little time....so little money. Some of the names like Chanel, Tiffany's, Prada.... were right in front of me. I cannot believe people have the money to buy things from these stores....I'm pretty sure when I walked in they didn't acknowledge me (due to the Forever21 shirt I was wearing and my home done pedicure with flip-flops). It was dinner time so we searched for Serendipity, the restaurant seen in the movie Serendipity. It was small and really funky inside and located in a quaint part of town . The food was scrumptious and eclectic. The frozen hot chocolate was to DIE FOR! I'm glad we went out of our way to go there...

We were on our way back to the hotel when we actually experienced a bit of our own serendipity... We were on a random block crossing the street when Josh looked over and saw a familiar set of dreads. Yep, one of his college buddies (who was in our wedding) was walking on the other side of the street with his wife. Josh chased him down and we ended up hanging out with them the rest of the evening. They are a lovely couple and we cannot believe out of the millions of people in the state of NY, we were on the same street at the same time. :) Ok, it was time for bed.... for reals, my feet were bleeding, I actually HAD to by new shoes from Urban Outfitters due to the blood :)

DAY 2
We slept in (which was hilarious because we still were up before 8am--old farts). We grabbed some Starbucks (yes I have a problem) and headed to the place I've wanted to go for 10 years....ground zero. I'm going to write a post dedicated to seeing this because it was so moving inside my heart. In a nutshell, it is life changing seeing the spot. It makes you ache inside and wish time could be reversed for the souls lost on Sept. 11th. I will never forget my time there and the feelings I felt at that moment. After visiting ground zero, we grabbed lunch at a cafe and headed to SoHo. What a funky and fun place it was...tons of shopping and cute cafe's. I went to see the store DASH (the Kardashian's store) and had to wait in line to get in.... silly reality TV fans (oh wait, that's me....deep sigh of embarrassment). Josh gave me the BIGGEST eye roll of all time when I waited in line for that store. After SoHo we headed back to get cleaned up for our big night:) We had dinner at One if by Land, Two if by Sea (check it out). It was one of our favorite dinners EVER! It was not cheap but, well worth it for the experience and the four course meal of literal bliss. It was also terribly romatical;) We hitched cab and headed to the theater to see Wicked. I've seen a ton of Broadway and this was BY FAR my favorite. If you ever get the chance, please do yourself a favor and see it! This day was packed full so we were pooped. Off to bed.

DAY 3
We really only had a few hours to do stuff because we needed to get home in time for Josh's parents to make the trek back to CA. We grabbed breakfast with Josh's friend Ethan and his sweet wife and saw their cute studio apartment. Wow, places in NY are not large but they serve their purpose well....city life is worth the lack of space I think:)

Some of my favorite pics...