Weekend Travels

What a weekend our family had! It was a great chance to be with my family and relax quite a bit. While my parents were down here for Christmas, they mentioned that if we would like their piano, all we had to do was come up and get it. I cannot tell you how exciting this made me. I took piano lessons when I was in elementary school (I think starting in 3rd grade) and I wasn't very enthused by it. However, it laid such a wonderful music foundation for me to build on through band, youth choir and handbells. Over the past couple of years, I have really wanted to have a piano in our home, both for my own playing enjoyment and to teach our children how to play and read music.

So, that was the basis for the trip - to get the piano. But we also got to spend some special time with my sister and brother-in-law, Ashley and Jeff. We all have crazy, busy schedules, so the time we get with them is so precious. Craig and I got the chance to visit my grandmother. Unfortnately, she wasn't feeling well so she couldn't spend the day with the kids, but we got over there to say hi. Another plus is that I'm not too familiar with Nashville (I grew up in Orlando and my parents moved back to Nashville about 6 years ago), so we're not too able to go out gallivanting without a bit of help. So, we get some good down time while we're Nashville.

The kids got to enjoy a few flakes of snow. Okay, very few. It began snowing the morning we were leaving to head back home. We were blessed that it didn't prove to be a continued problem on the way home. I actually really enjoyed watching the dusting of snow wave back and forth on the highway. It was pretty mesmerizing to me.

In addition to the piano, we also got to bring back a dining room buffet and a dresser for my dad's cousin (I'm not up on my family relations, so I'm not sure what she is to me). It was from my great grandmother - my parents has been holding on to it for a while as they tried to arrange schedules for her to come pick it up. However, since she lives just outside Atlanta, we were willing to bring it back to our house for her. Then, she got to pick it up Monday afternoon when we got home. In addition to the buffet, the dresser and the piano, we also had about 7 boxes of my childhood, high school and college memorabilia. We looked as though we were moving. Craig and I spend a number of evenings looking through all kinds of stuff. Some bits were harder to go through than others. However, thanks to some of the reminders and the amazing technology that is the internet (especially Facebook), I've been able to rekindle some friendships that I had let fall by the waste side. It was a good thing to be reminded of the dear friends I had in my earlier years.

Another interesting thing was to see how many awards and "success stories" I had in my younger years. I'm not saying this to brag at all. I'm simply saying that as my life gets crazy with kids, activities and general happenings, it was good to be reminded that at one point in my life, I did know what was going on. Nowadays, that feeling is a bit distant and few between. It was fun to see things from my birth - letters, cards, baby bracelet and pieces of paper where people could predict information about me (i.e. girl/boy, weight, name, birth date) at my baby shower.

All that from the initial goal to retrieve a piano. A piano which is now sitting in our front room, awaiting to be tuned. However, the slightly out-of-tune notes don't seem to be a hindrance to the six little hands which are starting to enjoy tickling the ivories with their individual tunes and melodies and serenading anyone in the house (and probably within a 1 mile radius of our house). It's a sound that I'm beginning to enjoy.