the past is not as far away as it seems

the last 2 days we have had the pleasure of visiting with some really special friends of ours that we used to hang out with a lot before they moved to california. cheryl, brian, phoenix, aubrey, and sol...what a beautiful family!! cheryl was the first real-woman real-friend of my adult/mommy life. we met through a playgroup she started with other moms who had homebirths in the area. this was back in 2001. it seems like so long ago, but really it has flown by. after we moved to charleston in 2004, we sort of lost touch. but recently, as if the stars had it planned this way all along, i found her on the myspace page of her uncle plez and contacted her. just in time to find out they were planning a trip to tennessee. how's that for fate?!

we got together at warrior's path park on wednesday and it felt so good and natural, as if no time had passed at all! silas and phoenix hit it off immediately, like two matching souls...although they did not remember each other at all. of course not, they were all so little. samuel has a few memories, but he's the only one. i got to meet some of cheryl's friends and i really liked them! i found out that her friend ashleigh had been reading my blog recently and that was really cool, i felt so read and famous...LOL!! we played at the playground for awhile until the kids were so hot that we headed for the swimming area. but not before checking out a very cool, very bright green, but very freaky spider!!the water felt great!! we swam for awhile and then brian and cheryl's dad took the kids on the boat (samuel and sadie didn't want to go so they hung out with us moms).they had so much fun!!! as we were leaving (to avoid getting stormed on) we made plans for a quick drop by at our house the next day.

i woke up on thursday excited about sharing some more time with our friends and showing them our new place. i got a wonderfully unexpected visit from my friend heather (who is a huge fan of cheryl's uncle and i forgot to tell her that when they met) and then cheryl's family got there and we put lots of food on the table while the kids all went in every direction to play. sadie, rowan, and aubrey hid out in sadie's room and played. silas and phoenix got busy with video games while samuel shared his artwork with cheryl. heather couldn't stay too long and so we said our goodbyes. brian pointed out that aubrey was talking to sadie, she normally doesn't talk much to other kids...that was sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. after lots of eating, we hung out on the porch and talked for awhile. it felt so good to just sit there in the quiet cool shade of my favorite part of the house and BE. they eventually had to leave, so many people to visit so little time. i did not want them to go. i know it will be a very long time before we see them again. but we are back in touch now and that feels really really wonderful. cheryl and her family feed my soul in a way that i had nearly forgotten. i love you guys!

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no belly button exam today

we had a really nice day yesterday. it was WARM out!!!! i took the kids to the pal's drive-thru and then we went across the street to the playground of the university school. it was so pretty, i wished i had my camera. then i remembered i had my phone!! i wasn't sure how i'd get them on the computer but samuel said you can email them to yourself. so i tried it. and it worked! anyway...

i was looking out at the view of the fast food places and the big hotel and the road between and i asked the kids what they thought it would be like when/if society breaks down from all our over-consumption. i said it was interesting to think about how our grandparents would talk about how they used to walk everywhere and didn't have all the modern conveniences. and how they would probably one day start lots of sentences to their grandkids like this "why i remember when we used to go about in vehicles that could take you from here to there in a flash!!" and their grandkids would be all amazed and wide-eyed imagining such a world. we talked about what would be different then. sadie said she wouldn't want to live "like old times" because there were always wars then. samuel said there are wars now!! i said that i thought once all the crime and violence settled down that people would have to get to the business of figuring out how to live (if they hadn't been smart enough to do it before). i said i thought people would form small communities again. we imagined what the area we were sitting in might look like. i thought people would gravitate towards areas where certain things already were close together, shelters (homes and other buildings) and parks and areas for gardening. people with horses would be able to live further out but i think most people will eventually gravitate towards one another instead of away.

i told samuel that i thought artists would learn to use their creativity differently. he thought about that for awhile and he thought he would probably like to make games like he does now. then he suddenly realized all the things that would still be available, things that are already here but won't be made again (skateboards and bicycles and board games). we talked about how it's easy to think about it being like it was for people a long time ago but that it would be quite different for us because we would have so many things to use from modern times. but these things would run out or get old and people would be learning how to fix stuff instead of being able to just throw out and buy new.

we played for awhile until bathroom breaks were needed and we headed home. when everyone was ready, we walked down to the pet store on the corner. it was a lot nicer than i was expecting. they had rabbits, lots of snakes and lizards of all sorts, birds, hamsters, mice, etc. all the usual pet store finds. but it was clean and well organized. silas has decided he wants a snake. he used to want an iguana, but after all the research he decided it was probably more than he could take care of. he said it seemed like most lizards move around too much. i think after playing with the lizards in charleston he got to realizing that a cage was not the best place for any kind of lizard. i think that about snakes too, but he wants to learn more about them and then decide. we stayed right up until closing time and then we walked home. i told the kids how there used to be a dairy queen right there across from the pet store and samuel just said oh that would be dangerous. meaning, to have a DQ within walking distance would be so tempting to go all the time. a good excuse for "going for a walk!" yep, dangerous.

it was a good day and i got a much needed dose of sunshine. i about talked scotty's ear off when he got home. i get like that, really hyper when i've gotten sun and exercise. yeah, it was a good day.

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