Eddie wanted to introduce you....

To his best buddy!! Noo...You're MY best buddy!

Aren't we the cutest?

And we just crack eachother up!

Ethan and Eddie, best buddies. I'll miss Ethan when he moves to Germany, but my mommy and daddy and I are thankful that he'll get to be with his daddy when they move. Until then, I think we should start Friday night play dates again...Ethan is one cool guy!

-Eddie

(Ethan's awesome Daddy, Jesse is in the Army. They are being stationed in Germany this October and we're going to miss them terribly. Jesse is working super hard for his family and we can't wait to have him back in the neighborhood for a bit before he ships out! - maggie)

Thank you.

(before I write my original post of the day, I wanted to address my below post. When I signed on to write a thank you to the various family and friends that have contacted me over the last couple of days, the last thing that I expected to find was a large, full color and animated ad for condoms. If I ever see that again, the ads will be removed. NOT OKAY AT ALL.)

Anyway.....
I wanted to send a quick thank you to all of the family and friends who have emailed/texted/called/messaged me about the accident and Jen. What I have been experiencing for the last couple of days in nothing short of an emotional roller coaster. Friday night, I had so much....something....energy? adrenaline? shock?....that I stayed up until 1:00am. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat and I just walked around in circles. Around and around and around my house. I didn't think that Jen was going to die. I thought she would have some serious injuries, but I thought that she would LIVE. I went to sleep and dreamt about her, except that there were different people I knew lying in the road, not Jen. Saturday I pulled up the newspaper article, read the comments and commented myself. Our newspaper never did a follow up story, so I was depending on the comments for an update....and then I got it. One of Jen's uncles went on and thanked me for being with Jen in her last moments. I was shocked. I bawled my eyes out, threw up and cried some more. I didn't understand. She was wearing a helmet. She shouldn't have died. In the days that followed, I began receiving emails from friends and relatives of Jen. Each would include a thank you for being with her, a note about how shocking this all was and a story about Jen. She just got back from Japan. She lost a sister to Leukemia and her dad recently died from cancer. She was a vegetarian. Each story would rip open the wound again, and I would picture her laying in the road. Her eyes - the only thing that I saw of her face since her helmet covered the rest. One family member sent me a picture and I recognized her immediately. Its funny, Friday night I went home imagining taking my dogs to the vet for their check up and running into her. I would tell her who I was and give her a hug, just happy to know that she was safe and sound. But she's not.

Life is a precious and fragile thing. It can be taken from you or you can be taken from it, in an instance. This has been engraved into my every thought every hour, minute and second. As much as my family and friends have been there to listen to me recount every minute, every email, every dream, my husband has been there holding me while I do so. This man that I married is the most amazing person that I know. Saturday, as I sat bawling on the bathroom floor he brought me water. He hugged me, brought me tissues and was in disbelief as well. Then suddenly, it hit me that life was precious. I needed to be thankful. I was half watching the Nanny and half spacing out when there was the funniest scene on the Nanny in the whole world. It was right before Mr. Schefield and Fran hook up, and there is all of the sexual tension and they play ping pong - and all of the sudden they are moaning and groaning and thrusting against the ball and the table and Frank and I are just sitting there, in awe that this is actually happening. And then the ball hits Fran in the chest and she collapses out of breath and sweating. And Frank and I are all "WHAAAAA? THE NANNY??? WHO KNEW!" and that helped to get me laughing. And for the rest of the night we would just look at each other, laugh and go "THE NANNY?? REALLY???" because it was just that funny. Then we played baseball in the house, because we could, and it was the most fun I've had in a long time. I cried myself to sleep that night, with Frank holding me tight, and dreamt of Jen lying in the road, of her eyes, and how scared she was.

I'm trying to shake it. I'm trying my best and although I cry off and on when I read an email or tell the story again, I'm getting there. Sometimes I feel a little silly that I'm crying over someone I knew for only a couple of minutes....but in the couple of minutes that I knew Jen, and the stories that I hear about her now, I feel for her. I feel for this family, and I feel for anyone that is going through the heartache of her death. I wasn't going to post anymore about Jen or the accident, but then I realized that this is MY BLOG. I can write about what I want....and while I am going to post later about our awesome trip on Sunday and my plans on continuing to make the most of my life (and my family's), I need to get this out. The last couple days have changed my outlook on life tremendously, and that will be reflected in this blog. It is now reflective of everything that I do and everything that I am. My next post will be a happy one, I promise. Until then, THANK YOU to everyone that has been there for me.

-maggie

DEAR GOOGLE

WHY IS THERE A GIANT "TROJAN" CONDOM AD ON MY SITE???? FULL COLOR? WITH A GIANT DILDO LOOKING THING COVERED IN A SILK SHEET?????? WHAT IN THE WORLD????????????????????

Shock.

The girl I wrote about last night, Jen, died. I have no idea what happened. I am in total shock that I sat with someone in their last moments. She was 23. I found out from the comments on our local paper's article on the accident. Someone that knew her family thanked me for being with her....I stupidly gave my email address on a public board (the email that is also listed here) for their family to contact me. I feel that I should talk to them, so I just typed it out and hit send. Stupid, yes.....impuslive, yes. Am I regretting it, yes. But I can't delete the comment so I'm just hoping that the spam keeps to a minimum and I can at least talk to her family. If I can do that, it will be worth it.

I am totally struggling with this and trying not to throw up. I am in such shock.

Prayers.

Tonight started out as a great night. One that you remember because it was just so cute - everything worked out perfectly and you go home happier than you left. Going home was where we hit our hiccup.

We started the night going to one of my favorite restaurants - Stir Crazy. We brought along our neighbor (I knew she loved SC as much as I do) and her son Ethan. The babies behaved well during dinner - Eddie ate all of his broccoli and brown rice. Ethan consumed more puffs than I knew possible....I mean, seriously, this kid can puff-eat you under the table. After dinner, we went and surprised one of my most favorite people in the world, Julie, at work. I bought a cute new shirt. As we drove home, Eddie was HYSTERICAL in his car seat, but eventually calmed down and went to sleep. (let me say here that Eddie is safe and sound - nothing happened to my sweet boy)
Frank was writing 'I love you' on my leg. We were driving to Dairy Queen and talking about just how delicious their butterscotch was. We debated on hard vs. their creamy butterscotch and if there are any candies out there that could replicate this. I was reading Perez Hilton on my phone. Then, suddenly, Frank slammed on the breaks.

I look up and see a deer lying in the road, still twitching but obviously dying. A couple feet away, there is a scooter. On the other side of the road, laying on their side, is a person. I jump out (against Frank's wishes as the dear was trying to get up) and run to the girl. Her boyfriend has just gotten on the phone with 911. I know I need to do 2 things: keep her conscious and keep her still. THANK GOD she had on a full helmet with visor, a full jacket, corduroy pants and closed toe shoes. That helmet probably saved her life. In the course of about 10 minutes, I knew as much as I could ask about this girl. Her name (Jen). Her address. Phone number. Favorite color (blue). Dog's name. Birthday. Age (23). Where she worked (local animal hospital). She wore a small ring on her left ring finger - a small blue stone with small diamonds on either side. She was so scared. She had trouble remembering her birthday and what day it was. She didn't remember anything about her day. She didn't know where she was or why she was there. Her boyfriend (fiance?) finally sat down and was still on the phone with 911. His hand was probably broken and bloody, but he was far more stable than Jen, so I let him be and just worried about her. She was having back, neck and head pain. She lost one shoe and Frank said her ankle didn't look good. She was trying to heave into her helmet. It felt like forever for the ambulance to get there....she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. The ambulance finally got there and they got her onto a back board. She passed out. They took her helmet off to prep her to intibate and then they rolled her away and into the ambulance.
As they were getting Jen set, I started talking to the fiance - Dan. His adrenaline started to wear off and he was having hip pain, starting to feel the pain in his hand and fingers and was seeing stars from his left eye. He filled in the details - they hit the deer going 45, head on. He thought he skidded on his back, she landed on her head (the damage on her helmet showed impact and skidding on it). They were going to Rochelle, to Jen's favorite restaurant. She was having a bad day, he was trying to cheer her up.

The police praised me for helping. They said I was a good Samaritan. That was when I looked around - Frank gave me a wave from the service road. No one else was stopped. Anyone that came up to check that we had the situation under control....they left. And all I could think was how could anyone leave this girl laying in the road? HOW COULD YOU LEAVE? Her name is Jen. She has a house, a dog, a fiance, a good job and she is LYING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. And for some people, that wasn't enough to stop, and that makes me sick to my stomach.

I pray to the grace of God that she is okay. She is all I can think about. If you've read this far, thank you. When we got home, I just needed to write. I needed to get this out...and I appreciate if you've read my thoughts. I hope that getting this out will allow me to sleep tonight, but right now all I want to know is that she is okay.
-maggie

Lashes

One story that I have yet to share is from the Young Family Reunion we attended a couple weeks ago. We were eating when one of my mom's cousins came over and said 'This must be Eddie! Oh my God - his eye lashes are even better in person!'

Everyone comments on Eddie's lashes....seriously, everyone. They seem to keep getting longer and thicker - you can even tell which side Eddie has slept on because his lashes on that side will be curled so beautifully that any woman would be mad with jealousy. I have even had someone ask if I've wanted to put clear mascara on them! What?!??!!?! This isn't that crazy toddler pageant show you lunatic!

{April}

{July}

And I've only wanted to put mascara on them once............maybe twice.

-maggie

SURPRISE!!!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


just kidding. Sorry mom, dad and Frank for the heart attacks. My baby itch was sufficiently scratched yesterday when we went to a party and I got to hold little 3 week old Makayla. I needed to prove to myself how difficult 2 under 2 would be, and I got my answer when I went in for a kiss from Eddie while holding Makayla and he promptly pushed me away. He says 'NO MOMMA. NO BABIES!'. So I'll listen. For now :)

{Eddie isn't amused at the baby jokes. Sorry, bud!}

The real surprise was that we went to a wedding yesterday! We expected to go to Frankie's Uncle's Fiance's (follow that?) 50th birthday party, and we were all surprised when there was a little wedding arch set up! The groomsmen were handed tuxedo t-shirts, the bridesmaids their bouquets and off they went. It was an adorable, funny and sweet ceremony that matched Pete and Vicki perfectly. People cheered, laughed out loud and even heckled a little - they have been together for 12 years (!!!!) and engaged for 10, (I think) so Pete deserved all the heckling he got!

{the bride and groom} {classic Pete} {at one point the judge passed the mike around looking for people to say something during the 'objection'. Ha!} {YAY!!} {Shelby was very happy with her Flower Girl job!} {Weird picture? Yes. But for real, this calamari was as big AS YOUR HAND.} {Cheers!} {Rings} {down hill from here....why, you ask?} {yup. newlyweds....what crazy folks} {mmmmhmmm. ((shakes head)) there is just nothing to say}

Thankfully, the babies stayed at bay from the craziness going on inside. They were quite content playing bags. Gotta start 'em early!

What a great day! It was also my Chris and Pat's 4 year wedding anniversary (my SIL and BIL) so we all had some fun things to celebrate. Now, I'm feeling sappy, so forgive this next sentence, but I hope your weekend was as filled with love and celebration as ours was!

awwwww!!!!

-maggie

ps- Vicki, I'll be mailing you a CD of all of the pictures I took.