Beautiful Memory.

Bella Memoria

I have a beautiful memory of a redheaded, freckle-faced Nanny. She took care of me, she nurtured me. She taught me and loved me. I helped her, nurtured her, hugged and kissed her. I got angry with her, laughed with her, read with her and cried with her. My beautiful memory is of her voice, her smell, her hair, her hands. It is of her life; good and bad, painful and sometimes ugly...yet refined, strong and passionate. My beautiful memory is of her faith. Her rosary. Her love for people. Her compassion and her grace. My beautiful memory is of her giving. It is of phone calls and laundry days, ice cream and hamburgers. It is of tic-tacs and chocolate milk. It is of a life that I shared with her so intimately and closely that it can never be taken from my thoughts. It is ingrained so deep within me that my life is forever changed and solid because of her.

My beautiful memory.

Bella Memoria will be the words that Jeni & I have decided to tattoo on our feet in memory of Nanny. We have wanted to do something special for awhile and we have been patiently waiting until we found something that felt special enough and unique enough to suit the feelings we have for our Nanny. This feels beyond perfect and we are soooo excited to get them done! They will be on the inside of our foot (on the arch) in a deep purple color. Small, delicate, can be covered: exactly the opposite of how we feel about our love and memories of Nan. They are not small, delicate, unimportant or can be covered. Our memories, however, are ours. They are personal, private and important. This decision is the same for us and I am excited to share this with my sister who has shared in this journey of grief with me since the day Nan went to Heaven. We are trying to talk mom into getting the same thing. But we shall see about that...

Moving on...

Things are good here! We had a great weekend. Yesterday we missed church because we decided to take Daniel's only day off to visit grandma in the hospital. She seemed well and was glad to see the kids! Last night her blood pressure soared through the roof at 210 over 140. It came down slowly so we are still praying that God would control those numbers in a powerful way! We went to lunch with Will, Courtney and their beautiful little guy, Aiden. Nora got to hold him and told me, "You have another baby mom!" She's so smart but I think we'll hold out on that for awhile. Daniel held him and I couldnt help but notice how graceful he is with a baby in his arms. After all, he has had some practice. Braden kissed him so many times and was super gentle, which I didnt expect at all. haha.

We came home and the kids laid down, allowing me to go on a much deserved walk alone. It was awesome! Daniel and I napped for awhile and had a relaxing night here at home. Today has been less than relaxing as Nora still is not asleep in her crib, rather singing at the top of her lungs making me crazy. She has had a bad day and I wish more than anything she'd just sleep. Rest, baby. Back to the grind with class tonight!

I looked online for swimsuits yesterday. I want to order one soon so we can start going to family swim Friday nights at the Y. I also would LOVE to get the kids in swim lessons soon. I picked out a few swimsuits that I liked and now I want your opinions! Obviously they are modest because I'm a mom...but I picked some that I thought were also really young and cute too! They are all the same price, so what do you think? I had to enlarge the second pictures to make them viewable so that you can have an idea of what the backs look like and I have no idea why they are on the side like this. Oh well...

My favorite one

Jeni's Favorite...

Kinda cute...Love the blue!

Still, love it!