For Mom on Mother's Day

My mother enjoys reading our blogs. With Tilly and I being in Washington, DC, the blog has become an nice outlet to our family and friends at home. With tomorrow being Mother's Day, I thought I'd write a random post that only a mother could enjoy.

Tilly is at a Girl's Night Out with some friends tonight, so I thought I'd let you read what a typical night at home for a nearly five-year old married man nearing 30 (November) looks like? It consists of what our nights typically look like when Tilly is home. I thought about making this is a video journal or picture parade (I made the latter term up), but decided I'll just let your imagination go with the written word.

As most of you know, my first inclination is to eat. Tilly would do the same for herself in my absence. With age, I've gone from frozen pizzas to homemade pizzas with store bought dough. Trader Joe's has great pizza dough that I'm fond of, so I pounded out the dough to try my first thin crust pizza on our new pizza stone. New you ask? Yes, our original stone cooked its final pizza last month. It served us well, but was simply no match for the hot burner that was accidentally left on beneath it. Tonight's inaugural pizza is thin crust, extra sauce, less cheese, and pepperoni galore. I remembered the pineapple only minutes too late.

As the pizza cooked, I pulled out the laptop to get ready for my nightly work. Yes, I must keep up with the goings-on in Major League Baseball so tonight my, I mean, the Atlanta Braves are in Pittsburgh. They, okay I'll drop the gimmick, we had a six game winning streak as we swept our six game homestand. The fun ended last night as the Pirates defeated us on the road. We now have the best home and the worst road record in baseball.

Pizza is in my hands to eat as the first pitch is thrown. I am obviously not typing this in real time, so in the sixth inning we're down 5-2. I'll just say it, "How do we lose to the Pirates?" I mean the Washington Nationals owned us in April, but the Braves are always slow in April. Oh, you say its May? Yikes!

As the game starts, I leave the windows open to hear the traffic of the city and feel the nice breeze of the 58 degree evening. The dogs are at my feet. Our dog, Maddie, and Tilly's parents' puppy, Bella. We're halfway through our six weeks of keeping her. At present, Bella is deciding whether to bite my foot, but a quick gaze let's her know whose... Ow, there went a toe. Okay, so Bella is back in the box and Maddie is comfortably next to my feet.

I've left out some crucial details about the atmosphere. The television is off and the iPod is connected to the surround sound playing my favorite new album Raise the Dead by Phantom Planet. With my new found passion for music, there is rarely a moment that an album is not playing somewhere near me. Music post coming soon to this blog. Seriously, I promise. Maybe even tonight. During my commute, I have my iPod and ear buds in and it seems I've got a soundtrack to my life playing. Depends on the song of course, but there's nothing better than cruising around the corner for work with a great tune that gets the day started right with a view of the city and smile on my face.

Tilly will be home soon and we'll take the dogs out for their nightly walk before ending up sitting somewhere reading and listening to tunes. Unless of course, Tilly brought home another season of Gilmore Girls on DVD, which means the Atlanta Braves, music, and finishing Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. By the way, Tilly will wonder what I was thinking with this post. As I mentioned in the beginning, this random post is for my mother's enjoyment. She enjoys reading what I would be saying on the phone or in person if we were talking. Yes, I do talk as I write with more information than you could ever listen to. This post is for you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day. Be sure to ask her about the t.v. dinner Mother's Day card. Okay, scratch that.

My Favorite Christmas Picture

Since Tilly took care of the Christmas blog, I want to take this opportunity to share my favorite picture of the holidays. I am sure Lisa's husband Matt will return the favor to me at our next holiday venture, but there's just something to be said about giving a great reaction to a not-so-public gift:

Life Happened

So you may be wondering what happened to the Gambill Family Blog. You could even guess that this was yet another attempt of ours to be "up" on technology and then lose interest after a month or two. That could be part of the delay, but the fact is life is happening outside our blogosphere and we've been unable to devote the needed time to update our family and friends on things happening in the D.C. area. However, I'm working diligently tonight to remedy this neglect.

Thanksgiving was excellent- my parents came and stayed with us. We did the Turkey Trot in downtown Del Ray (5 mile) and then had a beautiful Thanksgiving meal. But alas, we follow in the Carter tradition and have no pictures to prove it. So we'll move on to the next momentous occasion- Christmas.

UPDATE: Brent has unearthed the long lost post-Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving lunch, Dallas Cowboys game skipping, and shopping nap. It also another way to see how many pictures of Maddie we can get in one post.

Thanks to Lisa, we do have pictures and would like to share a few. This year we spent Christmas at Brent's parents and had a lovely time in their new home in Searcy, AR. Aunt Kathy, Uncle John, Lisa and Matt all came to Searcy and celebrated Christmas with us on Sunday and then we had another family Christmas on the 25th followed by Christmas with Brent's aunt and uncles in Paragould.

Maddie could not have been happier being a mere three steps from the beautiful outdoors. She went out every hour to just make sure she wasn't dreaming. In another edition of "Brent will record anything the dog does with the camcorder on his mobile" you can view Maddie in all her Christmas glory wearing herself out on her holiday gift of rawhide a bone:

But wait, Christmas continued as we drove down to Arkadelphia and spent the night with my family and saw Da, Nanny and Poppy. We played cards and board games all week and I don't think we've ever eaten so much! It was a fabulous Christmas vacation and definitely made the marathon drive worth it.

Christine Clark (1915-2007)

Christine Clark, known as Aunt Tenee to our family, passed away on Thursday. She battled Alzheimers for many years and spent her final years under care in Dallas, Texas. As a child, I remember her coming to Paragould in her large Lincoln Town car or Cadillac. She was always immaculately dressed with beautiful jewelry. She wore many rings and necklaces. At Christmas and other holidays, her Christmas card was one of the favorite items to open.

Throughout my four years at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, I was able to stop and visit Aunt Tenee in Texarkana. One of the last times, we were together was at my graduation from OBU. This was before she moved to Dallas for greater care. She was a cherished member of our family and will be greatly missed. Below is her obituary:

Lillian Christine Clark, 92, formerly of Texarkana, Ark., died Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007, in a Dallas hospital after a lengthy illness.

Mrs. Clark was born Sep. 19, 1915, in Walcott, Ark. She was the owner of Christine’s Beauty Salon and Merle Norman Studio in Paragould, Ark., an instructor of cosmetology, president of the Arkansas State Board of Cosmetology and member of Elks Auxiliary and First United Methodist Church. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack V. Clark.

Survivors include her sister, Katie Early of Searcy, Ark; and two nieces, Christa Gambill of Searcy and Kathy Goodman of Dallas.

Like my grandfather, we lost her to Alzheimers too soon. The disease has impacted our family as this is the third member of my mother's side to be afflicted with it. You can make a difference. Become an Alzheimer's Champion and learn what you can do to support efforts to find a cure.