Spring Wedding

Nick's cousin Valerie married her sweetie Austin this weekend...in Austin! It was a gorgeous spring day for an outdoor event. Valerie looked simply stunning. I couldn't help but remember her from when I first came around to this family. If that was in 1995, Valerie must have been (quick, work those numbers...)...really...eight? Nathan is 8. Geez. And there she was, walking down the aisle as a sophisticated woman. It's hard to believe. Congratulations, Valerie and Austin! Your wedding was beautiful, and we look forward to seeing you experience life together as a couple!

The Best Day of the Best 30 Days of the Year

I'm lucky. I have an excuse to celebrate an entire month for my birthday. I've given myself that pleasure for years. Today did not disappoint. My mom and Nathan pulled off a surprise party for me--long distance, via a helpful FedEx guy--and I'm ecstatic that they put so much work into it! Nathan has been "hush hush" talking with my mom for a week or more and has just been beside himself keeping the secrets from me. This afternoon, he banished me to my room. Michael, his sidekick--his Sancho Panza--was in charge of holding me hostage and playing multiple games of card battle with me. Meanwhile, Nathan bustled about in the kitchen.
Nick got home, and my guys whisked me off to a nice surprise birthday dinner. We came home to the big reveal! Nathan had draped the kitchen in birthday decorations, and Nick had gotten an ice cream cake and smuggled it in somehow. Yum! Tablecloth, plates, streamers, blow horns, banner: it was really nice birthday flare! All choreographed by my sweet mom and my sweet son. Boy, I feel special. Thank you for all of the effort and planning. You can see Nathan was so excited that he was just bouncing up and down before we walked in.

Birthdays are great. Each one is a gift. The people I am surrounded by, each one of them is a gift. I'm such a lucky gal.

I love the picture of Michael watching me blow out my birthday candles. His eyes are filled with the excitement of what birthdays are all about. Through a child's eyes, he wonders what my wish was. My wish? It might have something to do with sharing many more moments like this with my family, but I'll never tell! His little mouth is shaped, ready to blow the candles out--in case there's a candle malfunction or something. Sweet Michael. Sweet Nathan. Sweet mom. My mom. Thank you for inspiring, coordinating, and remotely executing these birthday plans. Nice job! I feel very loved!

Mom & Dad's Remodel Before and After

Thinking about School

It has nearly been a year since I accepted an early retirement incentive from HISD, thus making my exit as a teacher inevitable. A whole year. I swear I've only blinked once or twice since then. Still, that exit is the perfect mix of bitter sweetness. Bitter because I miss being part of the school community. I had friendly, supportive, empathetic, and inspiring co-workers. The school families were great. The kids were great. I miss the friends I made along the way. But I DO NOT miss the mess. Messy people, messy politics, and messy policies. I remember early March being a turning point for me being an unhappy employee to being excited about what was yet to come. The sad part was packing up (and throwing away--that part was liberating) my classroom. Ten years of work. I hope I can always close my eyes and picture how inviting, colorful, and educationally stimulating it was. I love thinking about it. I worked hard on that room and I loved it. What I love also, bittersweetly, is being away from it.

Construction Projects Before & After

We welcome some new additions to the Cobb household! One sparkling, updated master bath, and a monster size cabinet! Construction is complete and everything is beautiful. The photos below are a bit out of order, but hopefully you can figure out the dingy and empty befores and shiny, pretty, updated afters.

My blog blinked, and nearly 3 months have passed!

I see that I blogged in November. Well, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and--tomorrow--Happy Valentine's Day! Sheesh!
One thing is good: we haven't moved anywhere! HA!
Many things are good, actually. Practice is chugging along steadily--and growing! 27 new patients just in January! The boys are well. Remodeling--phase 1--is nearly completed and we love how everything is turning out. I am a mama to a new mama-van. She's beautiful. Black, shiny (not today because it rained again), spacious, cozy, and rides so smoothly. I love driving it, hence the nearly 1100 miles so far. We've only had it a couple of weeks.
We've been busy enough for me not to sit down and blog, but not TOO busy that we haven't been having fun. It's a nice balance, the balance that I wished for so many times last year.

Whitney

I was never extremely starstruck as a child. I didn't plaster my walls with heart throbs or anything. I did appreciate (and try to imitate) some great, famous people. This weekend, another of my "greats" died. No more Princess Diana, no more Michael Jackson, and now no more Whitney. It's another blow to my preteen gut, and a great loss for the world.

I'm sure my parents wanted to shut me up when I belted out Whitney Houston songs in the car...on my Walkman tape player...many times. I shudder to think of the reality of that singing compared to my perception of how it played out in my head. There wasn't much quiet, subdued singing in Whitney's songs.

From what I remember, Whitney was always a one-woman show. Lights dimmed, except for the spotlight on her...not much fancy choreography with an army of dancers like now...no exorcisms in her performances (what was that about last night?): it was mostly just Whitney. Her beautiful physique, her glamorous gowns, her incredible gift of a voice. She sang of falling in love, falling out of love, and being cheated by love.

Watching her life become a train wreck was tough to watch. It was like watching a flower wilt over the course of nearly two decades. I hated to hear about her addictions, bad marriage, failure as a parent, abuse, etc. She was Whitney. How could a life path so beautiful, and full of potential just take a plummeting turn downward?

I heard Whitney's daughter sing a rendition of Adele's Someone Like You a few months ago. While it wasn't quite Whitney, it renewed my hopes that she might emerge as a star. Her pipes were powerful, yet tender--a lot like her mom. She must be very sad.