by Heather Plett | Mar 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
I’m ’round the corner from anything that’s real
I’m across the road from hope
I’m under a bridge in a rip tide
That’s taken everything I call my own
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
I’m on an island at a busy intersection
I can’t go forward. I can’t turn back
Can’t see the future
It’s getting away from me
I just watch the tail lights glowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
Knowing, knowing
I’m hanging out to dry
With my old clothes
Finger still red with the prick of an old rose
Well the heart that hurts
Is a heart that beats
Can you hear the drummer slowing?
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
To knowing, to knowing, to knowing
(Lyrics by Bono)
by Heather Plett | Mar 18, 2005 | Uncategorized
Scrolling down my blog, I realize once again that I SUCK at brevity.
So this is going to be my shortest post EVER! (I’m trying REALLY hard to resist another paragraph or three.)
by Heather Plett | Mar 18, 2005 | Uncategorized
My baby turns 3 today. Three years ago, this little bundle of personality entered our lives and we haven’t been the same since.
Maddie, you are beautiful. You’re our little superstar. You have so much energy and “joie de vivre” you keep us all entertained. You practically define the word “effervescent”. You have charmed a lot of people in your three years of life – not least of all your parents.
We felt so lucky when you were born – so blessed. We worried about you before you arrived, because we hoped and prayed you would see life. After we lost your brother Matthew, we weren’t as certain about your arrival as we’d been with your older sisters. But when you emerged, and you let out your first holler, our eyes filled with tears of joy and we knew that you would bring light into our lives.
And that’s just what you’ve been for three years – a shining light. People are drawn to you like moths to a flame. Everyone around you fell in love with you – your aunts and uncles, your grandparents, all of our church family, your sisters, your cousins, and even strangers on the street. When Daddy takes you out to a restaurant for breakfast sometimes, I can’t believe how many times waitresses give you things – stuffed toys, books, you name it. It just seems like people can’t resist you. You make us all happy.
You’re so lucky to have so much love, and I think because you’ve been surrounded by it since you were born, you have a unique confidence. You just assume people will love you, so why shouldn’t you just be yourself? You are courageous and bold, my little one. I’ve seen you climb onto the lap of a complete stranger, because you had little doubt that she would love you just like everyone else has always loved you.
Grandpa would have said you have “spunk”. I’m sorry he only knew you for a short while. He would have been crazy about you, my dear. He would have laughed and laughed at your zest for life. He would have hoisted you on his shoulders, and taken you all over his farm, visiting the chickens, riding the pony, feeding the pigs – you name it.
You’ve been a special blessing for your Grandma. I think she got especially attached to you after Grandpa died. You keep her young and you give her joy, even when she felt like life no longer had purpose. You’re so lucky to have her – how many other Grandmas would crawl under the table with you and pretend it’s your camper?
One of my favourite memories of when you were a baby was the summer we spent at the lake after you were born. You were SO happy to lie in your stroller at the beach. We called you our “beach bum baby” because that was where you were happiest – lying in the sun listening to all the other children playing around you. It suits your personality – you’ve always wanted to be where the fun is.
You’re growing into a unique and wonderful girl, my Maddie. You’re confident and brave. You’re strong and sure of yourself. You love people, but you don’t need them too much. Though you like having your parents around, you’re quite fine without us there. You love to laugh and sing. (I just love it when you sing U2 songs with your Daddy!) You’re imaginative and fun.
I’m so happy to be your Mom! I love watching you grow, my little one. I feel so blessed to be part of your life.
by Heather Plett | Mar 17, 2005 | Uncategorized
Julie doesn’t have to get another filling. That’s a relief. That poor girl has been cursed with more cavities and subsequent fillings in her short life than I’ve had in my much longer life. The dentist didn’t bother filling this one because it’s about to fall out anyway. I hope her “adult” teeth are a little stronger than her baby ones have been.
For some reason I can’t explain, there are few things that make me feel more like a failure as a parent than a child’s visit to the dentist. ESPECIALLY when their teeth are rotting away. I know I’m being paranoid, but every time the dentist looks in her mouth and finds more cavities, I just feel so JUDGED. Surely I’m a horrible parent if I let them eat too much sugar and don’t teach them good dental hygiene. And when she sits there, trying so hard to be brave and fighting back the tears as the dentist gives her a needle in her little mouth, I want to cry too. Couldn’t I have done SOMETHING to help her avoid this pain?
Fortunately, this time Marcel took her to the dentist, and I didn’t have to suffer the humiliation. But yet again I vow to work on improving their dental hygiene – a vow that will probably last as long as it takes me to type this post.
by Heather Plett | Mar 16, 2005 | Uncategorized
I forget sometimes how lucky I am…
1. He cooks supper almost every night. I climb off the bus, walk down the street, walk in the door, and there he is, greeting me, with the smell of supper wafting from the stove behind him. There’s almost always a towel tossed nonchalantly over his shoulder. It’s kinda cute. When I walk in the door, he hollers into the basement “Girls! Supper’s ready and Mom’s home!” How much better does it get than THAT?
2. He likes to tell me how smart I am. REALLY, what woman wouldn’t like THAT?
3. After nearly 12 years of marriage, he’s FINALLY figuring out how to give decent back-rubs, ’cause he knows how much I love them. (He’s not stupid – he knows what I’m willing to do after a good back rub. Ya gotta forgive him, though, for having alterior motives 🙂
4. He’s so nice to my mom. Even nicer than I am. He fixes her car, shovels her parking spot, hangs things in her apartment for her, fixes her computer, you name it. He likes being nice to her. He even invites her over for supper now and then – entirely on his own initiative.
5. He forgives me when I go away for three weeks and leave him with ALL the responsibilities. And then when I get home, he keeps right on cooking and cleaning and doesn’t expect me to make up for lost time.
6. Even though some of my crazy ideas make him cringe, he’s developed enough patience over the years to sit back and let me run with them without stopping me in my tracks. He gives me funny looks when I tell him how I’m going to decorate and I try to describe what it’s going to look like. He never gets it, but he still says “go for it”.
7. He still makes me laugh, after all these years. He’s got a goofy, perverted sense of humour. Yes, sometimes I roll my eyes when him and his brother get going, but most of the time, I laugh out loud.
8. He’s so darn smart. And brave too. How many men would risk so much and quit work when they’re nearly 40 to go to University? And THEN, after 22 years away from school, pull off A’s and B’s? He’s my hero.
9. He’s a awesome dad. He’s so interested in his kids lives. He pays attention and he gets involved. He’s the one who books the dentist appointments, volunteers for hot lunch day at school, packs their lunches, coaches their soccer team, sings U2 with them, helps with their homework, you name it.
10. He knows how to please me, if you know what I mean. Enough said.
11. Even though a part of him is resistant to change, he lets himself be more and more open to new things. He’s followed me into alot of new adventures – some stuff he vowed he’d never do – because he loves me and wants me to be happy. And he’s learning to like change himself. He’s so much more adventurous than when we first met. I’m proud of him for that. Some people never grow that much.
12. I love to hear him sing. He does a great air-band with his kids.
13. He knows WAY more about politics than I do, but he lets me act like I’m smart, now and then.
14. He’s good at showing me when he’s proud of me. Hearing him brag about my writing or public speaking makes me feel invincible. I like having him in my corner.
15. When I show him this list, he won’t know how to react, ’cause he doesn’t know how to take compliments. He’ll probably make some kind of joke about sex – that’s usually his fall-back position when he’s a little uncomfortable with something. (But at least I’ll probably get a back-rub when I get home.) He’s so darn cute!
Sorry, he’s already taken. He’s MINE! You can just go find your own husband and hope he’s half as good as mine.
