President's Day Visit

 

My girlfriend Rachel came up from Louisiana for a nice long visit over Presidents Day weekend.  Our friendship spans backward eight years, to a time when we worked our tails off to help ready Bloomingdale's to open it's cosmetic doors in Soho.  She was a newly wed, while I secretly, desperately wanted to become a mother.  I've talked about all this before in an earlier post about Ms Rachel.  Anyhoo, we had the joy of being pregnant together, sharing belly tips, shopping trips and food cravings!  Rachel also visited Hugo and I in the hospital shortly after he was born and witnessed my awkward first attempts at nursing my new beautiful son.  Soon after this meeting, both our lives changed a great deal.  Besides the fact that we both became mother's, I left the City for the quiet of our house upstate, while Rachel and her small family moved to Dallas, Texas.  Our friendship has continued to blossom and grow despite the long distance, but our children had never met till this long weekend holiday.  It was nice to hear them chatter back and forth and I'd like to say that I enjoyed seeing their play, but I barely saw them at all!  We hardly ever saw the two of them at all unless there was food on the table.  At first I worried that Hugo had locked her in his room, but no, Miss Leah happily played with her new friend Hugo.  Even Marlo and Sabine quickly learned her name and followed after her. 

A Full House

 

We had an unexpected full house this past weekend with Cesar's parents and my girlfriend Rachel all deciding to spend time with us at once.  I love, love a full house.  There is a lot of work involved and there is a ton of craziness about, but this is truly my most favorite time spent in our house.

Our house is not a finished house.  We are missing walls, ceilings, and the floors are questionable at best.  The stairs creak terribly, the entrances make no sense, but at the end of the day, it is our home.


The house was originally built for a man with a large, Italian family.  Descendants of Mr. Mayone's drop by every so often to catch a glimpse of their ancestral home and have hopes of taking a peek inside to view our progress and express their wishes of taking a MAYONE stamped brick home with them.  One fellow walked halfway up the main staircase to the third floor once, paused and remarked in a disinterested voice that it was simply "a dormitory up there".

Unlike this visitor, I liked that thought.  A dormitory.  I have wanted to fill the rooms with family ever since.

 I believe the house breathes in deep and puffs wide her chest when the family and our friends descend upon her.  The windows brighten and the rooms seem taller.  She holds in her heat and encourages us all to fill our bellies.  We run and play and clean all day as she prepares our nights for warmth and sleep.

At dinner tonight,  Hugo prayed that his Papa would earn money for our house and pay for everything else.  Amen to that.  Hugo is right.  We are so blessed with the love we have for one another in our family.  We are blessed to have the gospel in our lives and for Cesar's job during these uncertain times.


 I love our house, no walls and all, but most important, is that our family is together forever.