Autumn

It's hard to say what I love most about the fall.  Watching the changing colors of the leaves is definitely at the top of the list - burnt oranges, burgundies, greens, all kinds of yellows . . . This weekend at our weekly celebration church service, we talked about the concept of a beautiful death.  True - the leaves are dying, but they're never more beautiful than when they're transforming.

There's definitely something special about pumpkins to me, especially the little ones.  Yesterday I discovered that another plus to fall is that it gives the kids an easy way to take on more responsibility around the house.  They both enjoyed sweeping all of the pine cones out of the driveway.

I'm really into scents, and all of the pumpkin spice and apple cider candles make the house feel so cozy.  We don't have a fireplace, but the candles feel like the next best thing.

We took the kids apple picking on Saturday.  We went to a different place than last year, and it was cool because this farm had animals (including a lama), a hay maze, and a massive hay hill (which Serena fell down several times :).  I'm really into coupons, so it helped that this farm was giving away free apple pencils if you presented the ad from the Metro newspaper.  Although picking the apples is fun, I especially like the hot apple cider donuts at the end, and seeing that, even though our kids are getting older, long car rides still put them to sleep :).

It's also pretty interesting to drag the boxes out of the crawl space so we can put away the kids' summer clothes, and take out the fall clothes from the previous year.  Each time we do this, we end up with at least four bags of clothes to give away - the summer clothes that we know they won't fit next summer, and last year's fall clothes that we hoped would still fit this fall, but didn't quite make it.

I took the kids shopping on Sunday for their picture day clothes (picture day is on October 1st), and although I usually don't enjoy shopping, I liked watching them pick out their outfits, and seeing how their personal styles are developing. Serena picked out a very cute outfit, which was no surprise for our little fashionista.  I was hoping for one outfit that would work both for picture day and an upcoming wedding, but interestingly enough, she ended up with a picture day outfit, and a party dress that wasn't quite what she wanted for picture day, but was perfect for the wedding.  Go figure ;).  I had a new experience this year.  Cairo has decided that he wants to dress up more, so we bought his dress shirt, a tie, a reversible belt, dress socks, and dress pants.  We ordered his shoes from Zappos, because the selection for dress shoes his size at Kohl's is very limited.  Thankfully, his outfit will work for picture day and the wedding :).  I can't wait to share their school pictures on the blog.

Coming attractions:

• Dishon's birthday
• Serena turns 11!
• Thanksgiving at home
• A romantic getaway to the Settler's Inn in early December
• Cairo turns 10!
• Christmas in Charlotte, NC

Enjoy the fall, everyone! :)

Settler's Inn in the Poconos.  Can't wait!!!

September 11, 2001

Disclaimer: I did not lose a loved one that day, nor am I personally affiliated with any of the first responders, (FDNY, NYPD, etc.).  The loss I've written about here is different from that of someone who lost someone that day.  It's about that day for me as someone who grew up in New York City, and spent that day wondering if my loved ones were all safe.

I was seven months pregnant.  I had just recently finished my first year of teaching in Framingham, MA, and because I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom for a while, I resigned from my teaching position to keep another teacher from being cut.  That gave me a somewhat carefree summer, enjoying my first pregnancy, which ended up requiring quite a few trips to the doctor for regular monitoring.  Serena was small, and my doctor was afraid that there might be something wrong. There wasn't.  She's just the right size.  Always has been - but the doctors didn't know that yet.

My regular morning routine was to wake up with Dishon, have breakfast with him, see him off to work, and go back to sleep.  I was in the middle of my morning nap when Dishon called, and told me to turn on the television.  I was in disbelief for a long time.  By that time, the second plane had just hit, and I just stared at the screen.  Dishon and I didn't say much to one another - I tried to describe to him what I was seeing, since I don't think he was near a television, and then I got off to call my family in New York City to make sure that everyone was okay.

My dad and sister worked (still work - my dad, just until the 28th, when he will retire) downtown

Manhattan, not very far from the World Trade Center (update: my sister passed away suddenly on January 26, 2019).  I was able to get my mom on the phone, who, at the time, was working at Brooklyn Criminal Court downtown Brooklyn.  My sister watched from the street as people jumped from the towers, and she repeatedly heard distress calls of "officer down" from a nearby radio.  I told my mom that the south tower didn't look right to me.  It looked slanted, and I was worried that it might fall, and what that might mean for my dad and sister.  Sadly, right as we were talking, the first tower collapsed.  My dad and sister were not able to get back to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge.  They stopped letting people cross, because so many people were going over the bridge that it began to sway.  My dad and sister both walked back to Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge.

I still can't believe it.  Eleven years later, and my heart still feels heavy.  I think the memorial is beautiful, and yet, I still have a problem accepting the new skyline.  I worked in 6 World Trade for two summers during my college breaks - the first summer for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the following summer for the EEO of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).  That second summer, the EEO was gone most of the time, and didn't leave much for me to do, so I'd entertain myself by riding the elevator in the Twin Towers up and down . . . I also spent a good deal of time in the underground mall area, and walking through to the World Financial Center to check out the shops, and have lunch by the water sometimes.  My favorite thing was to sit out on the WTC plaza and enjoy the weekly summer jazz festivals after buying lunch from the lunch trucks nearby.  The following summer, I worked a few blocks away, but would still come to the plaza.  I loved the World Trade Center area - walking down to South Street Seaport sometimes, and then returning to work in 6 World Trade . . . shopping in Century 21.  I vividly remember a second grade field trip to the observation deck and how terrified I was to look down.  It was so scary to be up that high.  Dishon and I got married on the roof of my parents' apartment building in 1997. It was right next to the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Twin Towers grace the backdrop of our wedding video.  I remember Dishon and I enjoying a romantic evening sitting together on the promenade in off of Montague Street in Brooklyn.  I loved that skyline.  I'm having a hard time embracing another.

On that beautiful September morning, that area of the city became something else - dark and horrific, but I also think about all the heroism that was displayed on that day, and it makes the memory of it a little easier to bear.  I am thankful that I didn't lose anyone that day, but so many other people did, and it hurts to think about it.  It hurts so much.  Most of the time when I go down to visit my family on my own, I take Amtrak, and my parents pick me up from Penn Station.  To get to where they now live in/on Staten Island, we drive down the West Side highway.  When we pass by where it all happened, I ache inside.  I don't think that will ever go away, really :(.  

Transitions

This was quite an amazing summer.  We started out with a trip Paris while the kids enjoyed two weeks with my family in New York City.  We returned to the start of my new job with Discovering Justice, the kids having fun in gymnastics camp, and then Serena spending almost two weeks in Western Canada.  When she returned, more gymnastics camp, and then the kids spent the week at New Heights Camp in Connecticut, as Dishon became the director of that camp. Now that Labor Day has passed, and fall is quickly approaching, I am mourning the departure of the carefree days of summer - late sunsets, trips to Dairy Barn for ice cream treats, and the kids getting to stay up a little later.  I know they miss that too, and are not thrilled with the return of back to school bedtimes.

I do look forward to the fall, though.  I love watching the leaves turn, apple and pumpkin picking, Dishon's birthday, Halloween, Serena's birthday, Thanksgiving, my Dad's birthday, Cairo's birthday, and Christmas, all pretty much falling back to back.  Fall is a festive time in our family, and although I'll miss summer days, and I'm not looking forward to early sunsets (though I will appreciate getting that hour back . . .), bring on the celebrations!