Catching Up

I woke up this morning with a start (and a sick kid!) and realized that I haven't posted anything to my poor, pitiful blog in almost a week! And what a busy week it has been. Sad too, but I will get to that in a minute. In the last week...

* We have gone on a road trip. We decided to let Cole miss the last day of school and we took off on a little road trip to the Ozarks. We went up to Branson, Missouri -- the blue hair capital of America! -- and we honestly had a really fun time. We spent a day at Silver Dollar City, which is without a doubt the cleanest amusement park I've ever been to, and that includes Disneyworld. We played miniature golf and rode Go-karts and ate ice cream and more junk food than should be legal. But we had a good time together as a family and that is really what it's all about, right?

* As previously mentioned Cole finished school. My baby (!?!) is a FOURTH grader. Holy cow how did that happen? He had a terrific final report card -- all 4's, which is A's for those of you who don't use the number grading system. He got a perfect score on both of his TAKS tests, reading and math. He was voted fastest runner in 3rd grade. And let me tell you, he was more proud of that award than any of his good grades!

* After getting back from our road trip north, we headed down on a mini-road trip south to my inlaws lake house to pick up Zoey. She was supposed to go on vacation with us, but after her sudden surgery a couple of weeks ago we decided that she would be more comfortable living the easy life with Nana & Peepaw at the lake. And live it up she did! I'm not entirely sure that she was happy to come back home with us but we are happy to have her back nonetheless!

And now for the sad part. I want to preface this by saying that I am aware that none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow, but the past few days have really reinforced that to me...

Last Wednesday morning when she got up to get ready for school, just like every other weekday, Cole's wonderful teacher Ms. Hernandez found her 37 year-old husband dead in the bed beside her. She went to bed the night before with her seemingly healthy husband beside her and woke up the next morning a widow, left to raise her 14 and 9 year old children alone. 37 year old men are not supposed to die, so how do you explain this to a 9 year old? Cole is good friends with Ms. Hernandez's son. He has spent the night at their house and he knew Mr. Marcus, so this wasn't just a faceless name for him. It was his beloved teacher's husband. It was his friend's Dad. And it has been so difficult to help him understand how Mom & Dad are healthy and he doesn't need to be worried about us dying like Alex's dad did when we don't understand it ourselves.

Then yesterday morning we found out that the director of the preschool that Cole attended for almost 4 years was killed on Sunday morning. She was a triathlete and was on a bicycle training ride with one of her training partners and they were hit by a drunk driver and killed instantly. At 8:30 on a Sunday morning! 3 young boys are without their mom today and another young girl is without her father because of a 25 year old punk who was just stupid. Too stupid to see how his dumb choices could affect more people than just himself. And of course he bonded out of jail with a measly $5000 and is at home with his family today while Meredith's friends and family prepare to bury her. She was one of the kindest, most genuine people you would ever want to meet. She loved the children at her Primrose and she spoke to us as parents, never customers. She knew how precious our children were to us and anyone whose child went to her school would tell you that they never had a moment's hesitation closing the door behind them every day because we just knew that Meredith cherished our children as much as we did. She truly was one in a million and it's a darker world without her in it.

So if you are reading this take time to tell your friends and family today how much they mean to you and how much you love them, because tomorrow may or may not happen. And if you pray, include Marcus and Meredith's families in them tonight. Even though you may not know them, I can promise you they were great people and their families are missing them today.