First Day of School for Nora

Today Nora is 19 months old and headed to her first day of preschool at Aldersgate United Methodist Church. It's her first time away from the core four: Mom, Dad, Mamaw and Pop Pop. Until now she has always been with at least one of us - always. I am praying for her hard as I expect this to be a difficult morning for my sweet baby. I pray that she is overcome with a peace that passes all understanding - something we would never expect without the touch of God. I pray she'll have strength to be by herself in a room full of strangers. I pray she'll have the courage to meet new friends and trust that the teachers will take care of her. And I pray that she'll have faith that Mamaw will pick her up, that she will be reunited with her family after just a few short hours at school. Jesus watch over her and protect her, give her comfort. Help her grow from this experience. Amen.

Nora is 17 months and talking

We've hit the stage of a new word or two or three a day!! It's so fun communicating with our sweet red-headed toddler. My greatest surprise is just how proud and rewarding it is to watch Kathleen as big sister in action: teaching, reading, and protecting.

Comprehensible words include:
Mom, momma
Daddy
Hi - Bye
No
🌃 Night night
Hat
Ball
Up
Down
Mine
What's that
Yay!!
Eyes
Nose
Mouth
Ear
Teeth
Head or Hair
Toes
Apple
Animal
🦉 Owl - hoo hoo
🐕 Dog
🐢 Turtle
Ice
Hungry
Eat
Bubble
Ouch
Hit
Bite
Choo-choo

Also, Nora loves to eat bananas. We call her our little monkey and if you ask her what sound a monkey makes it's the cutest little "eeek eek" sound you've ever heard.

Love our girls.

"I am the sum of all my stories"

After two and a half years of not blogging I'm committed to writing down our stories here again. It brings me joy - the exact theme of this blog - and it is a service to my family to preserve our memories.

What's new for us in the past 31 months you might ask?

We moved from Henderson back to Durham for Calvin to work at McMannen UMC in December 2014. Calvin left McMannen and his work as a pastor in the United Methodist Church in January 2017. He is now working to start our family business Three Bean Properties.

We had a miscarriage in February 2014, ectopic pregnancy in September 2014, and unplanned successful pregnancy in 2015 which brought us dear sweet Nora Jane on January 29, 2016.

I left working at The Duke Chronicle in August 2014 and when we moved back to Durham I began looking for work again. I joined The Daily Tar Heel February 16, 2015 as the Advertising Director. It has been hard work the past two years with lots of changes. I am hopeful for the school year ahead and eternally grateful for the most recent investment in a Southwestern Sales Coach/Consultant for me and our team.

Kathleen graduated Kindergarten at Holt Elementary Language Academy. She had the best teacher, Mrs Scott, with 29 years experience teaching Kindergarten. Kathleen enjoys learning and made straight A's in the last quarter of school. I'm so proud of that because I know she worked hard for it. She loves learning Chinese and we love the year round school schedule. Kathleen's currently in gymnastics as her Friday extra circular activity. She wants to go to the Olympics. She absolutely adores horses and she just finished her first full day summer camp experience at Camp Chestnut Ridge. Kathleen loves camp which makes us happy because we do too. In May celebrated her 6 yr old birthday there with the horses!!

From August 2016 - May 2017 we had a dear friend Cici Du living with our family. Cici is from China and graduated from UNC in 2016. She landed an amazing job at Participate in Chapel Hill and got her work visa in April. She's still in Durham and we're so happy to still have our family friend close by.

My mom and dad moved to Durham in October 2015 and just purchased a house 10 minutes down the road from us in May 2017. They have been absolutely amazing full time caretakers for Nora. We love having them so close. Living life with my parents is so good. I have no idea how we used to manage with them an hour and a half away. Pop Pop's Cafe is always open upon request and Mamaw will make dessert!!

Fall Pictures

Gail Smith never let's us down. Here are three new Dickenson Family photos courtesy of Images by Lucy.

The last picture posted of Kathleen by herself was posed by Kathleen and taken by Daddy! She sat down on one of Gail's props and said, "Daddy, take my picture!" I know that beautiful smile combined with the red boots, yellow mums, and pumpkins will be one of our favorite photos for years to come.

Happily Ever After...

This morning in play time before school Kathleen rolled out my yoga mat and said, “It’s an aisle! Let’s play wedding!” Then the fun began…

First Kathleen got a blanket to walk behind like she saw Jessica Nelson do that at her outdoor wedding (so no one could see the bride before she walks down the aisle). Then Daddy was asked if he would be the groom which put Mommy in the position of official wedding director/pastor. We rehearsed the basic ceremony before school and when I picked Kathleen up at the end of the day the details of the plan came together on our ride home. Kathleen had the best time thinking about and discussing which dress she would wear, how she wanted to set up her stuffed animals as guests, and last but not least we could not forget to pour the sand!

Once we got home, Kathleen and Mommy spent a full hour getting ready: preparing dinner, the room, and most importantly the bride for her big night. When Daddy walked in the door at 6:30 p.m. the game was on. In fact, I believe Daddy was greeted at the door with a sweet Kathleen running up to him in her wedding dress yelling, “Daddy, Daddy, we’re ready for the wedding ceremony!”

First, we ate Kathleen’s favorite dinner to celebrate the occasion (Yellow rice, Black Beans, Veggie Fajitas, and Guacamole). After dinner, Daddy put on his suit jacket and walked his little girl down the aisle behind a blanket. At the end of the aisle he tossed the blanket aside to reveal the stunning beauty of his bride. While holding hands, Kathleen then promised to love Daddy forever and ever. Daddy likewise promised to love Kathleen forever and ever. Kathleen gave Daddy his wedding ring and promised to love Daddy no matter how old or sick he became. Daddy then gave Kathleen her wedding ring and promised to love Kathleen no matter how smart or beautiful she became. Then they walked over to a special table to pour colored sand into a glass bottle. This sand was a symbol of how their two hearts, joined by love, could never be separated - just as the beautiful colors mixed together in the sand also cannot be separated. Coming back to the center of the aisle, Mommy then pronounced the happy couple married and Daddy kissed the bride! They danced back down the aisle and celebrated among all their stuffed animal friends. Kathleen baked a pretend cake for all the guests and the couple’s first dance was to “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego movie. It was truly a dance of celebration and did not disappoint!

As a child, I don’t remember ever asking to marry my daddy, but tonight was a night of dreams come true in the land of parenthood. Kathleen had such a great time preparing for and walking through her wedding ceremony. Thank you Jessica Nelson, for allowing us to attend your beautiful wedding and therefore causing Kathleen to want to be just like you!

p.s. No filter was applied to these photos, and our house is not full of smoke! I was just a horrible photographer in the midst of directing and officiating. Emotions were high, what can I say. 

The memory of the night however remains perfect. 

Happy 33 Daddy!

Daddy turned 33 and we celebrated with basketball birthday cake & lego birthday candles! The most amazing thing of all is that Kathleen helped decorate after her bath and managed to keep her pajamas clean! We then ate cake all standing together by the counter for three nights in a row. Yum!
(After the first night of experiencing Kathleen's sugar rushed silliness we had to make sure cake was served before 7 p.m. While fun, that was not a girl who wanted to go to bed on time.)

Proud of her decorating skills

Love you Daddy with all our hearts. We are so thankful to have you leading our family as a father and husband worthy of praise. We pray it is a good year to come.

Fall Pictures

Taken By Gail Smith at Spring Valley UMC on October 20th. 

She looks just like her Daddy if you ask me. 

Thank you Uncle Jason for my John Deere overalls. 

What!?! There's a whole song and dance about popcorn!

Blue Sparkly Shoes

Kathleen and I went to spend the night with Pop Pop and Mamaw this past Friday. On the way back to Henderson we stopped at the Mebane outlet mall to stretch or legs. When we walked into Oshkosh to see what deals were available, Kathleen went straight for trying on the shoes. She decided we couldn't leave the store without these blue sparkly shoes on her feet. She was so excited she even slept with them on the way home.

Bubble Blitz

I love the Durham Museum of Life and Science. We have a good time every single time we go. This past weekend they had a exhibition called Bubble Blitz. As soon as I heard about it we put it on the calendar as a date we couldn't miss. Below are some pictures of our day of fun playing with bubbles of all shapes and sizes. There were: big bubbles, little bubbles, edible bubbles, bubbles with dry ice fog inside, and our favorite of all.... bubbles that you could light into a ball of fire with propane inside.

With all this excitement we still found time to stop and watch the demonstration of dropping Mentos in Diet Coke to make a rocket explosion! I had never seen this before. Very cool.

Hill Ridge Farm

I was so excited to go this year, we went the first day they opened! Really, looking at our schedule this fall, there was only one other day that may have worked and with the weather as beautiful as it was this past Saturday we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to seize the day.

Kathleen so enjoyed the bounce house, sand pit, pony ride, big slide, train ride, hay ride, pumpkin patch, and kid mazes. We took a picnic lunch for the back of the car before we went in and spent the afternoon playing and playing and playing.

A moment to cherish

This Sunday morning a member of Spring Valley UMC, Sherry, took over the pulpit and delivered a message worth remembering at both churches. How to pay attention and be aware of God in daily living. This particular Sunday I covered nursery at Gillburg and listened to the sermon via speakers. Then when we got to Spring Valley, Kathleen was pretty tired and cried wanting me to stay with her in the fellowship hall. I was happy to do so since most of my Mommy time with Kathleen is on the weekends and it's silly to have her cry missing me just so I can sit in worship.

Kathleen and I were on the floor quietly cuddling, coloring, and playing with stickers when all of a sudden Kathleen looked up at me and out of no where and said, "You're the best Mommy I've ever seen." I said, "Thank you baby," fought back the tears, and squeezed my sweet little girl a little tighter. Then I asked her to tell Mommy what she just said again... and she did. :) Got to take it where you can get it. I'll hold that snapshot of us there together in my head as long as I can. The way we were sitting together was very similar to the picnic picture at the top of the blog.

Happy 35th Birthday Uncle Jason

Kathleen will see you Sunday to celebrate with chocolate cupcakes!

Camping for July 4th

For a little getaway in the middle of a very busy June/July schedule for Calvin - I decided to book a three day, three night camping trip for our family over the July 4th holiday. This was part of a week long vacation for me and it seemed like the only time we would get to go camping this year if we wanted to take Kathleen for her first trip in the great outdoors. 

The camp site was located on a smaller part of the lake set apart by a bridge that kept the water calm and the scenery peaceful compared to the larger part of Kerr Lake. We set up camp between rain showers on Wednesday night and put the boat in the water. Our site allowed us to tie the boat up right outside the tent so we could come a go as we pleased. We had the area all to ourselves except for the second night when a nice family of three with an 9 month old camped at the site next door for the evening out with their little one. Being on the smaller part of the lake didn't seem as exciting at first, but it proved to be a good thing when boating and swimming with our two year old. In the end, we were thankful for the "privacy" away from the crowds. 

Kathleen slept very well in the tent at night. On Thursday morning she woke up announcing, "My boat, My boat, I can see my boat out the window!" Most of our three days at the lake was filled with boat riding and swimming in the lake. Kathleen enjoyed jumping off the boat into the water, and she and Daddy even swam to a "far away island" to find buried treasure on one afternoon adventure. 

I did all of the food packing, but Calvin cooked all of the meals while we were there. Grits, eggs and pre-made biscuits for breakfast, gnocchi for one meal, mexican for another, pasta with tomato sauce and green beans, veggie burgers, corn on the cob and hummus round out the menu for the 9 meals packed for the trip. 

No proper camping site would be complete without a campfire and roasted marshmallows at night. Kathleen only wanted one surprisingly enough. (Mommy had several) And to entertain by the campfire, Daddy told Kathleen camping stories of when he was a boy with his family. Kathleen then decided to tell Daddy a few of her own stories...and all of them ended with "and then I ran away" for some reason! 

It wasn't perfect timing for our family to go camping with all that was packed onto the calendar, but I am so thankful for the time away, the beauty of nature that surrounded us, and the refocusing on spending time just the 4 us of (counting Rascal too). 

Sleeping Quarters

A current Favorite - corn on the cob

Rascal likes to swim too

Daddy teaching Kathleen to throw rocks into the lake overhanded. 

Splash!

A little happy dance.

U pick

This morning Kathleen and I went to Vollmer Farms for pick your own Strawberries and Blueberries. Swings, a tractor moo cow train ride, and picnic completed the incredibly relaxing outdoor morning.