Sweet Home Alabama

This weekend Diego and I took a road trip.  We drove the "mascota" (pet in Spanish, in reference to our Audi TT) down South, a 12 hour drive from Pittsburgh on Friday.  Since Diego went back to school, we had sold the car to my Dad.  It was a nice long drive, and due to an unscheduled detour (oops, the navigator fell asleep!), we got to take the Kentucky Bluegrass Parkway, see a lot of beautiful horse farms and back country corn fields and eat at Cracker Barrel.  Oh, those country corn muffins!  Bless my clogged arteries!

When we turned onto 565-W heading towards Huntsville, we were welcomed home with a rising harvest moon, enormous and rust colored, sitting just above the cotton field horizon with three stringy wisps of clouds floating past it. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it to post here.  I knew we were in the South again.

When we got home, we found my parents, my sister and her good friends Katrin, Dave and Ellie watching the Olympics in my parents' basement.  They may or may not have been approximately 2 sheets to the wind at this time, and yes, Ellie, there was definitely cheese.  It's always good to be home in Huntsville!

The real purpose of going home for the weekend was to attend a baby shower hosted in part by my sister, my mom and some very good friends from my parents' church.  The baby shower was Saturday afternoon, and it was so wonderful to see all my and my parents' church friends, my mom's birthday club group and even some of my old high school friends!  We played a couple of fun baby shower games, ate a delicious meal and opened what seemed like a million presents and cards, wishing us many years of happiness with our new baby.  We felt so fortunate to have such loving and generous friends and family to share our joy with us!  What a fun time we had!  Here are some baby shower pics (thanks Ellie for being paparazzi, Katrin for organizing the mountain of gifts and Kimmy for transcribing like a champ!)

Mrs. Provancha made many of the beautiful Noah's ark-themed decorations by hand.

The gift table (before anyone had even arrived yet!)

Mrs. Wick, Mrs. Mueller, Chrissy Provancha and Louise Provancha Brooks

Kathy Seidler Enberg, Mary Seidler, Karen Rodriguez, Katie Rodriguez Wardman, Ann Wardman, Lin Seidler

Cindy Aulds and Missy Aulds Grayson

Libbie and Elissa Hicks, Vickie Eversmeyer, Kim and Cathy Meeks, Kathy Ontiveros

Mrs. Palm, Mrs. Wingo, Mrs. Shergy, Mrs. Reynolds

Mrs. Reiger, Mrs. Jensen, Mrs. Fakes, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Dana, Mrs. Skrenes

Auntie Kimmy's going to take this one home to practice - she failed the nursery rhyme game!

A selection of some beautiful handmade things by talented members of our church.

Mom and me

That night after the baby shower, we headed back to the house to meet back up with the boys, and take stock of the generosity of all our friends and family.  Truly we have been blessed to be associated with such generous and talented people.  We are so fortunate.  Here are some pics of the time we spent together, including some of the lovely things we received at the shower.

Dave

Katrin, Ellie and Dad

Mom, me and Kimmy - I think at this point the conversation might have turned towards the benefits of epidural anesthesia during labor.

This is Katrin's impression of her shock at discovering this quilt was handmade!

Diego's favorite shower gift - the monkey with the devil scream.

Auntie Kimmy is going to be such a good influence on the little dragon!

Dave - looks like promising daddy material!

One of Dad's favorite places to be!  Mmmmm....mouthwatering teriyaki steak.

A ladybug decided he wanted to say Hi! to the dragon.  

The next day as we got ready to go, we took some family pics in my parents' driveway.  It's always sad to leave sweet home Alabama.

Have you ever seen two more excited first time grandparents-to-be???

I miss Huntsville.  The pace of life is slower there.  There are no car horns (you would think).  The people are gentle.  There is always an attempt made to be polite and pleasant.  People make you feel like you are part of their family.  Maybe we will get back there some day for good... but if not, I want to carry the spirit of Huntsville in my heart with me forever, the spirit of hospitality, of gathering people close over taco dip and chicken salad, of fanning yourself with a church bulletin while you sip sweet tea or lemonade over ice and talk about how all those teenage youth group boys you were so worried about have grown up into fine young men, and maybe we shouldn't have been so worried after all.  Huntsville reminds me to be gracious, patient, generous, loving, tolerant.  No matter where I go in this world, I want to take Huntsville with me and share it with all the poor lost souls out there.