So wow. This Saturday was Mark's 40th B-day! As we eagerly wait (anywhere from 3 to 8 months now – yes the potential for it to take longer increases as we go along – still many matches are being made at around 6 months - which for us is Feb. – we’ll see) to get our referral great things keep happening here at home. I'm just going to ramble and save this as a little slice of Mom & Dad's world for our daughter to enjoy someday.
We had a great time at Picnic Pizza in Antioch Saturday. Amazingly many of our friends were able to come by and join us in celebrating his B-day. I say amazingly because, due to being sick and starting a new job, I rushed last minute to set something up (and changed it mid way!) to invite people. Mark truly was surprised and it was so great to see everyone that came!!!
Clark (Mark) & Andrea were there and Andrea was trying to help me with baby room color choices. She and I did a great job of diapering Elena, one of our youngest and most beautiful guests, together and she enjoyed holding Elena and walking around with her tremendously. Of course then there were some inquiries into when parenting might come into the picture for those two! They have time but boy she really has the baby loving thing down! Clark and Mark never run out of things to talk about and none of us gets to see each other as much as we'd like. They are going to be some of our daughter’s godparents and we couldn't be happier about that.
Our friend LeeAnn joined us - Mack is out of town performing. They're both musicians and fellow lovers of our once favorite pub Sherlock Holmes. In fact LeeAnn ran across Mark and me on our first official date at Sherlock Holmes and chatted with us for a little while. She's so funny when she talks about that night because, as she puts it, all of a sudden it dawned on her that we weren't just there as coworkers hanging out - it was a date - then she was like "Oh my" I should leave them alone! This, by the way, never occurred to either one of us because we were both enjoying her company, as we always do, and that in sync and open quality that we shared that night is one of the reasons we got married! (Thanks for giving us that insight LeeAnn!) She was THE BEST though and never breathed a word of it to anyone else as we were just starting to feel our way along. I really didn't want any pressure from the folks at the Mad Platter (where we worked together and met) who had all worked with Mark for a while before I started there and, even though he was no longer working there, were big fans of his.
We had some out of town guests - the band the Lost Patrol - that were coincidentally here the same weekend to perform at Cafe Coco, after Mark, the night before. They were here last year around this time but their new lead singer Molly is great and really rocked the show this time. They're friends of Dutch's whom Mark records progressive rock with on a regular basis. Friday night was a fun night too as Mark played Dutch’s original music with him and Lee (lead guitar) Sat. They both came and it was nice to have the music part of Mark's world included on his
b-day. He told me once early on that no matter that he wanted to change from being a musician full time that he was always going to keep playing and recording. I'm always really glad when he works with Dutch because he is really working hard with that music and it feeds him as a creative person. Not to mention that it's fun!
Lots of our friends have kids of varying ages and some of the younger ones that came that night were keeping us all entertained. That'll be us soon!
Henese & Chris & company are always a treat to see - they are usually having us over to their house so it was nice for us to get to invite them somewhere! Latte is now Henese's (teasing) unofficial son! Always one of the youngest at heart are this group! Their kids were little babies and toddlers just yesterday it seems. WOW they need to slow down - this growing up business is happening to fast for me to keep up! Junette is a PRE-TEEN!!! Kaliegh and Autumn are best buds and when Autumn gets off the bus from kindergarten she runs and hugs Kaliegh so hard - and Kaliegh loves it! Then, like out of a story book , they walk hand and hand together down the road towards home together. My brothers and I were always doing the stop touching me, you're on my side of the seat, thing. So different. Wow.
Adrienne and Dave came with Elena and Casey - who has decided that Mark is the best and whenever I see her, asks me questions about him. Saturday she wanted to know if where I lived and if I lived with him! Casey is always so quiet when you first see her but once she's settled she chatters and runs around with all of that energy that I am always so jealous of. She's NOT shy either! Evie was happy to see other kids and really liked sitting next to Elena and looking at her. Casey and she also sat next to each other and played - the agreement that Casey could play with her toy was reached and they were buds. Simple. Would that all things with new people were that easy. They got a flat on the way and Dave spent part of the night out in the cold fixing it. Yikes! Can't wait till Elena, who is soooo quite, reaches the talking age to see what goes on in her observant little head.
Gette and Mike's came with Evie and Luke - who we haven't seen since he was born almost a year ago and WOW the kids have both changed so much. Mark used to work with both of them at Dalts restaurant and they go back to the mid 90's together. I've worked at Martha's at the Plantation with Gette before too. It's funny though, even if it has been a while since we've seen them it always feels comfortable, like no time has passed! Evie really took to our waitress (who was jus the best with our group!) and loved watching the pizza guy making the pizza dough spin around. Luke was eager to switch scenery at one point and reached out for Mark to hold him. Mark always looks like a natural when he holds a little kiddo and I always see the calm and caring dad he'll be. I enjoyed holding Lukes hands and helping him walk around at one point too.
One thing that I have always been so appreciative with Mark is how observant he is and how he finds the little things that kids do noteworthy, endearing, and funny. Our daughter is going to be so glad he's her dad. Just think at his next birthday he'll be a new dad!
We'll have to bring our girl to Picnic Pizza for one (or more!) of her birthday's so that she can have pizza & cannolis ( the room and everybody smelled like cannolis after they were all eaten!), enjoy the great people that work there, and, most importantly, celebrate with people that she cares about.
