Category Archives: 3 Celebrations & Festive Events

A record of our gala celebrations and convivial festivities!

Tristan is a Treasure!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think,

HAPPY-BIRTHDAY TO A SON-IN-LAW WE COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT!

 

I don’t need a whole lot of money

But I wouldn’t turn a lottery down…

All I want is a place to lay my head with the woman I love lyin’ in my bed  {editor’s note: we all want to know if, just for your birthday, at least, she let you try sleeping on the other side of the bed!!??  haha!}

Almost 9 years ago you married our multi-prismed, colorful, feisty, yet tender Stephanie.  What a gentle treasure she’d found.  What a trustworthy man, fit to hold her heart and walk along in life with her, covering her.  We were so pleased then and have not ever for one second had any regret or fear about whether or not she’d done the right thing…even though you forgot to ask permission first{we really do forgive you!  haha}.  And you became our son.  A new son – all grown up and finished (thank you Larry and Chyrl Kelley: GREAT job.  Truly!  If only we’d known we may have sent you a few others… ;p ). 

My dreams aren’t that complicated…

I wanna be the one

When all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

 

So, here you were: this new son from different parents, whisking our daughter off to “happily ever after” and being saddled with the burden of helping us become IN-LAWS!  What a load to have to carry – especially when we were such novices and have done it all wrong a  million or more times, I am sure.  Yet, you have always shown us honor and been a man of peace in this family.  You have thrown yourself into the life of our zaniness and odd traditions and trusted us with your babies, who, by the way, are tributes and testaments to the people you and Steph are.  They are the fruit of the life of creativity and love you have chosen to live.  They represent you well even when you are not around to hear it and see it.  The sum of  the three speaks volumes of you and Stephanie and your oneness.

On the day they lay me down

I want everyone to gather ‘round

And say he was a father, brother, neighbour and a friend

He was a good man!

Tristan is Cool

And 30!  THIRTY!  Thirty years old.  Omygoodness!  But you still look 23 with the wisdom of a man in his 70s…not sure what that means?  Haha.

 

We each had to draw one part of Tris (picked from a selection in a bowl) and see what the collective came up with.  Uh-huh.  Rocky accused me of drawing “big, old eyes staring at you!”

 

I used to dream of being a rock star

And seein’ the world in style

Used to dream of havin’ a fast car

And driving that miracle mile

But I’ve heard tales those streets aren’t paved in gold

They’re full of pot holes and empty soul who never learn

Love is something you gotta earn

 

Specialty root beers and cream sodas for the b-day boy.

LOVED celebrating your life the other night (read more about that here).  It WAS a very cool party for a very cool guy: all wood-grainy (I hope that doesn’t take my house-paint off) and red; all full of Tris-triv and drawing you the way we apparently see you.  And it was just such a perfect evening and such a blessing for me personally to sit under the stars by candlelight and just honor some one I truly love and admire so much.

Happy Birthday, kiddo

   

I wanna be the one

When all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

When I’m gone, I wanna leave a legacy

Of love and laughs and honesty behind me

Behind me…

You ARE a Rock Star, Tristan!

You ARE a great daddy and husband.  You love Steph well.  You are a wonderful brother to the rest of the kids and a blessing of a son to us.  You’re a reliable friend and resourceful helper.  You know everything I ever need to know about anything and I appreciate your willingness to teach me all of it.  Your music students love you.  Anyone with whom you have ever played drums or guitar live or in recordings know you are the BEST and as quiet and unassuming as you are, you have managed to amass fans all over the place.  I am so pleased you were born to be one of us.

 

I wanna be the one when all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

On the day they lay me down, want everyone to gather ‘round

And say he was a father, brother, neighbour and a friend

He was a good man…

You are a good man.  Happy Birthday, Tristan!…mom

LYRICS:  “A Good Man” by Emerson Drive…yea, it is kind of a cowboy country song (and you, Tris, are anything but country or cowboy!), but I liked it, anyway.

CHECK THIS OUT!

Tristan recently did an all-drum and the Word project with www.getthewordout.cc  Go to that site, click on downloads and look for the downloadable FREEDOM recording.  It was done LIVE all in one take.  It is Tristan playing drums under the anointing and Lewis Brown Sr. and Lewis Jr. (Proxy the Hip-Hop artist) reading scriptures on the topic of freedom!  So PROUD of you, Tris!  VERY POWERFUL!

Murder and Mayhem in the Magic Kingdom

3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

A one week vacation and I return to overgrown zinnia and the zucchini popping out offspring like there was no tomorrow.  Enough of this tom-foolery!

Yes.  I was blessed to retreat on Cozumel, isla de Mexico for a week.  I left Stormie in charge, a very good and responsible daughter, to water and gather the harvest in my absence.  Naturally, she was more than dependable and asked me if I’d found the garden to my liking.  To the naked eye I could see that things had grown a little too exuberantly lacking my firm direction, yet all seemed to be thriving.

But upon closer inspection, as I visited with rain-water sprinkler-wand in hand, I saw that true crime had been committed right in my own backyard: devious, wretched space-stealing, food-gobbling and in at least one instance: murder.  My investigation will continue this week.

The Squatter Sunflower

For one thing, that big-headed squatter of a sunflower (of whom I have already spoken of HERE, exposing his deliberately bold and bullyish ways) is not only haughtily looking down on my garden from the space he just decided to plop into {where, you’ll remember, he lured an innocent and dainty lemon cucumber plant to jump from her own area straight up his stalk},  but he has now become best buddies with my Burpee Big Boy Tomato, as well.  He is certainly taking liberties that only the garden’s Queen (me) should be allowed to exercise.  Preliminary attempts to reign him in are going unheeded.  I may have to get very tough.

  

See the yellow cucumber flowers?  Up, up, up they go.  And now the tomato is leaning on this brazen sunflower as well!  Sunflower is about 8 feet tall now.  *sigh…

Discovery Investigation: My garden gets hit.

Further around the garden I saw my  Spicy Banana Pepper had been feasted upon by some devouring insect or another.  Every leaf:  gone.  A lone pepper remaining and the stalk green as ever, but stripped naked of her green garments.  Quite disheartening to say the least.  I suspect that foul band of tobacco-chewing grasshoppers in this assault.

And can you believe that powdery mildew descended upon my most ornamental spaghetti squash while I was gone as well?   She went gray overnight – the stress of my absence likely the cause.  Just as well.  That particular spaghetti squash and the zucchini sharing her bale had actually been plotting against me to take over the entire south yard.  This will give them some humility!  They are flowering and fruiting quite feverishly, to cover their shame, no doubt.  Yet I, full of mercy, tended gently to them anyway this morning.

Unsolved Mysteries

But the real mystery was my Sea-Breeze Erigeron, a sort of vining daisy in the big pot near my back door.  I noticed the purple sweet potato looking pretty self-satisfied, quite ornamented and very rosy.  Little pink flowers were popping out and she seemed dressed to the nines in deep colored foliage.  I almost didn’t notice…but then I stopped.  I parted the sweet potato vines and there she was:  my erigeron.  Fully dead.  Fully overcome.  I checked for signs of life but rigor-mortise had already set in and she was completely brown and crunchy.  Sweet potato claims no knowledge and the pot wasn’t dried out.  The mystery remains…

Meanwhile…

Wrestling baby zucchini from the King in the Back Forty (feet) square this morning I once again look like I was attacked in a back alley, having had a brief reprive from unscathed arms during my time on the isla….

But o, backyard garden, I did miss you so.  Thank you for all the love {and deliciousness} upon my return….

And thank-you Stormie {sweet, gentle, phlegmatic daughter…remember, sweet-pea ~ we do have dominion in the garden!} for tending to my wild kingdom!

How many old TV shows did I reference?

Isn’t Sawyer Lovely?

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think

The Honor

I got to hang with Wrex and Stef the past couple of days as they brought their baby girl in to the world.  Omygoodness, Stef was a champ.  She had to do the entire labor in the hospital, start to finish, plus a few hours of deciding what to do and how to do it.  And that girl worked it!  She is stronger than she knew.  And Wrex, who has birthed thousands of farm animals, but with very different technique, obviously, was amazing as he coached Stef, and encouraged her and helped her and looked in to her eyes and breathed with her until a baby came to them.

This was a silly posed picture.  Stef wasn’t even in active labor yet.  We just posed as Wrex and I watching over her really laboring and Tredessa and Tara being silly.  Actually it was all Chick-Fil-A and Mountain during this time!  Sawyer-Party!

What an honor for me to get to be there, to get to pray for them and witness their love made flesh.  I am so proud of Stef and Wrex and how they worked so hard, together, committed to make the baby’s birth a wonderous and glorious event.  And I am humbled.  The favor of God shines on this family.  He must surely be smiling at what they did.  I know I am.

Sawyer Joell Phipps – isn’t she lovely?

Isn’t she lovely
Isn’t she wonderful
Isn’t she precious
Less than one minute old

Sawyer at less than 10 minutes old.  Daddy wore pink to welcome her.  He’s man enough!

7:14:21 on 8:19:10 at 9:27

At 9:27 pm, 22 1/2 hours after the very first labor contraction, Sawyer arrived to cheers and tears and joy and family.  7 pounds, 14 ounces, 21 inches long.  She has her mommy’s fabulous long legs and slender feet and pouty lips.  And she has her daddy’s heart…already!  Sawyer, blessed more than she realizes, is already loved and adored.

I never thought through love we’d be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn’t she lovely made from love.*

*LYRICS:  “Isn’t She Lovely?” by Stevie Wonder

‘Bout Birthin’ Babies

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I will soon go a doula-ing (doula is Greek and means “a woman who serves”) for Stef and Wrex when Sawyer Joell is born.  I’m not really a doula, I just get to play one with people I adore (Carol Ann is soon to do the same thing with Emma of Gospel Journey fame!).

“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett…”

Actually, I do.  I got to attend birthing class with the Phipps a few weeks back and recently checked out a few birthing books from the library.  It is bringing back the memories, omygoodness!  Because, you know, I had a few babies back in the day.  And I was really good at it, if I do say so myself.  Now-how will I be in this role?  I am hoping not to faint or require constant fanning or smelling salts.  I hope I don’t get too empathetic with Stef and start crying out to God for mercy in a loud voice.  I just don’t think that will help.

The book.

Meanwhile I have been studying and researching and brushing up on my birthing knowledge.  I have enlisted prayer support and continue to madly write in the litle journal I will leave with Stef and Wrex for Sawyer to enjoy someday.  In it is advice on labor and delivery and some sound wisdom on raising kids.  I have included lists of things I want to remember while at the hospital and signs to look for as labor progresses.  There are make-you-sniffle baby quotes and prayers for Sawyer.  I have given baby girl the inside scoop on who her parents really are and shared favorite scripture passages.

 

In short, I am hand-writing an entire book just for the occasion of the birth of Sawyer Joell Phipps.

It is good stuff!  And yes…none of it is original, but I have collected it over the years and I am writing it in the book, so it is mine!

 

O Sawyer?  Where are youoooo?

Now, truth to tell, we had actually sort of cleared our calendars for today seeing 8.9.10 as a wondrous day for a birth.  But we know God has this thing all planned out and are just anxious for Him to let us in on His perfect plan.  He seems to have us on a need-to-know basis for the moment.  But we are ready, I tell ya!

 

Thoughts on the threat of C-Section during Labor

I do come across some very thought-provoking information these days.  For instance, an article about the negative hormonal effect on a woman when she is laboring and is told “If you don’t start progressing/dilating/efacing (or whatever her shortcoming) soon, we’re going to have to do a C-Section” and how that actually is detrimental to her labor and begins to inhibit the process was explained thus:

If a man was told that he had to get an erection and ejaculate within a certain time or he’d be castrated, do you think it would be easy? To make it easier, perhaps he could have an IV put into his arm, be kept in one position, have straps placed around his penis, and be told not to move. He could be checked every few minutes; the sheet could be lifted to see if any “progress” had been made.

– Nancy Wainer Cohen & Lois J. Estner, Silent Knife, Bergin & Garvey, 1983

Hahhahahahha!

Certainly gives you something to think about. ;p

PREVIOUSLY…click here.

These are the Days

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

THESE ARE THE DAYS I’LL REMEMBER

These are days you’ll remember

Never before and never since, I promise

will the whole world be warm as this

 

Guini’s birthday celebration was delayed by the Heaven Fest craziness.  So how could I refuse when she asked for a really big cake, purple and yellow, chocolate with buttercream icing and lots and lots of color and flowers…plus sparklers on the top.  Presents first, dinner and swimming, then cake and ice cream.  A lovely way to spend a summer Sunday evening.

And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true

that you are blessed and lucky

It’s true, that you are touched by Something

that will grow and bloom in you

  

Left:  Amelie Belle is 4 and a half months now and she is good buddies her Aunt Stephanie.  Center: Guini the birthday girl loves her baby cousin.  Right:  Aunt Tara is always popular with nieces Averi and Gemma May.  

 My amazing and insightful sister-in-law, Dawn recently commented that these family times together, the little cousins playing tug-of-war over some toy or the other and whatever mischieviousness they can all find to get into will be memories they will cherish as they grow up.  I hope they’ll know that they ARE “blessed and lucky” and that the love of these days will grow and bloom in their lives, too.

These are days you’ll remember

when May is rushing over you with desire

to be part of the miracles you see in every hour

 

Here we are, Dave and I and our 6, very longsuffering grandbebes.  They pose for us, they smile and coo and endure photo ops.  They act silly and one day, when they are old enough, they will really wonder about us!  Perhaps they already do.

You’ll know it’s true, that you are blessed and lucky

It’s true, that you are touched by Something

that will grow and bloom in you

 

It was Guinivere’s birthday celebration.  She just turned 5.  Hunter is 5 and a half.  Gavin who is holding baby Amelie Belle, is 7 and baby girl is 4 1/2 months now.  Best friends and cousins Gemma May and Averi are 3 and 2  1/2 respectively.  These are the grandbebes on a summer’s evening in August.

These are the days

that you might fill with laughter

until you break

  

Left:  Jovan is such a good mommy to her girls.  My son married well.  Middle:  These are the men of the family – Dave and Tristan, 2 sons-in-law who could not be more wonderful if they tried, my husband and lover of 29 years (and a very flirtacious friend for almost 3 years before that), Dave and Rocker-Bo, the kid probably most like me in the world…only waaaaay better.  Right:  And my beautiful firstborn, Tara with her beautiful firstborn, The Little Prince.

These days you might feel a shaft of light

make its way across your face

 

Dave’s hair looks really  gray in these pictures, but not in real, up-close-and-personal life (except for the salt and pepper facial hair and a little in the temples).  Hmmm…wonder what is up with that?  I KNEW that camera was trying to make me look old against my will.  This is proof!  The little girlie-grandbebes rely on Poppa to keep them safe from the splashing boys in the water.

And when you do

you’ll know how it was meant to be

  

Left:  Averi following the grandbebe swimming ritual, which is, you get out and dry off so you can go right back in again.  Middle:  Steph loves her cake.  Right, Gemma and Averi are always in deep discussion and generally some disagreement about some topic or another.  But they are besties.

See the signs and know their meaning, it’s true

You’ll know how it was meant to be

  

The grandbebe painted, wooden stools…crazy-looking-maybe-I-should-have-planned-before-baking-but-the-brithday-girl-loves-it-anyway cakes…a zinnia that both Amelie Belle and I took a fancy to last night on our way around the yard (where new bikes for Stormie and Rocky, no less, were being assembled, a game of catch was going on, kiddies were splashing in a pool and sweet conversation floated on the summer air).  These are the signs…

Hear the signs and

know they’re speaking to you, to you*

NOTE TO SELF:  To get over myself {for the love!} and get over my ridiculous heartbreaks…See the signs, hear the signs…it’s true.  These are the days…

* LYRICS:  “These are the Days” by Natalie Merchant

Such devoted sisters~

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

“I do not believe that…birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless…And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”

–Maya Angelou

S I S T E R S ~ A song I adore!  Dedicated to Tamara Dawn Moslander Ayento!

BTW – I am definitely the Rosemary Clooney (blue eyes/Bing Crosby) of this scenario, and Tami is Vera Ellen (brown eyes/Danny Kaye). ;p

The Preacher’s Wife

My little sister (both little at barely 5 feet AND younger by 6 years), Tami Ayento, is a preacher’s wife.  They recently took a pastorate in the heart of Chicago, so the neighborhood reminds you of the movie by the same name starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington (The Preacher’s Wife, 1996).  I think it is cruel and unusual punishment that I got her when I was almost 6 and we shared a room for many years and then suddenly, we both marry and move thousands of miles apart.  She knows my faults, my secrets, the worst of me.  And has yet to disown me.  She is and will always be the sister of my family heritage, and the sister of my heart.

tamis wedding 8-1-87

The Moslander crew at Tami and Gerron’s 1987 wedding. I had already provided 5 of the 7 grandchildren and nieces and nephews for this family. Come on, people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SQUAMPI-DOODLES {a.k.a. Tami Ayento}

Also – she just had an anniversary on the first. :)

tamis wedding august 1987

Guinivere ~ You’re 5 now!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

Happy Birthday to my first-ever granddaughter!

We tour the yard together, watering cans in hand and Guinivere asks me, “What is this flower, Nonna?”  “What is that flower?”  I tell her the names and she commits them to heart.  Gavin loves the veggies, but Guini says, “I love the flowers!”

A little project Guini and I did for her birthday ~ because ~ I LOVE my little flower girl!

Dear Guini~  Sorry your birthday kinda got rolled over by the Heaven Fest train, but we are still just gonna celebrate you and love you like crazy.  Party coming up!  Love you, Guini-Poo!  xxxooo ~ Nonna

Dear Sawyer Joell~

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think

I get to do labor and delivery with Wrex and Stef when Sawyer is born.  Stefane gave me a little note-taking book for the Birthing Class we took a few Saturdays back.  I didn’t take many notes (I did have 5 babies myself, you know), but there are some.  And I have decided to use the rest of the pages to write advice and parenting encouragement to Stef and Wrex or little notes to Sawyer for reading someday when she is grown.  Plus there are prayers and blessings and silliness, along with little doodles and baby quotes.  Somedays I write quite neatly and others (like this one), not so much.  I consider it the secret code to a treasure…Sawyer Joell will apply herself to learning about her beginnings someday and will have to decipher my code.  And I hope she will discover how much she was loved and highly anticipated before she was born, by 2 incredible parents-to-be.

PS To Sawyer:  And I feel certain I shall break into song, as well, with great joy at your impending  birth.  I’m like that.