Wicked Awesome

Today, we wake up (yet again) in a world that doesn't make sense. A world where some cowardly insane person (or group) decided to hurt many innocent individuals by detonating two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Bombs that killed eight-year-old Richard, twenty-nine year old Krystle, and a graduate student from Boston University whose name is yet to be released. Hundreds of people were treated in local hospitals with many still in critical condition.

Since I went to Boston College, and lived in the city for a year after graduation, I can assure you that Patriot Day/Marathon Monday is one of the best celebrations in the USA. Patriots Day is officially April 19th and it's a holiday only honored in Boston. It's officially celebrated on the third Monday in April. The Boston Marathon has been ceremoniously held on that day since 1969. And the Boston Red Sox have a home game at Fenway on Patriots Day.

To say it's a fun day to be in Beantown is an understatement. Businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Almost every place that doesn't serve food and drink is closed in honor of a day where visitors and locals come together to celebrate the human spirit.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon. Considering our nubile country is just a mere 237 years old, that's a pretty amazing statistic. 

Boston College is located at miles 20-21 of the 26.2 mile course. It's lovingly and brutally referred to as "Heartbreak Hill" due to its slow steady incline and that it’s located at one of the hardest segments of any marathon when runners tend to hit that proverbial wall. This may be why I have such fond memories of going out to “Comm Ave” to cheer on the tens of thousands of runners as they crippled by. B.C. students felt some semblance of responsibility to instill in these inspirational runners the need to keep going, to fight through the pain, to make it to that finish line.

I remember the runners who would put their name on their shirt. Genius! We would scream their name as loud as we could. Go Ben! You can do it, Ben! Let's go, Kathy! You're DOING it, Kathy! Keep it up! Congratulations, Sarah! Look at YOU GO! You're awesome, Jack!

Then there were those who ran with a group, or with a school, or put their favorite sports team on their shirt. Let's go, Diamondbacks! Yea, Boston College Eagles! Oh, too bad you are a Steelers fan but you're still doing a good job! It didn’t matter where you were from, what your name was, or which team you rooted for. The masses were united on Marathon Monday.

Marathon Monday is such a fun, beautiful celebration that made me proud to be a Bostonian, even if it was only for a few short years. I left my heart there in 1996 when I had to move home for many reasons beyond the scope of this blog post. I always planned to move back, but alas, life took me in a very different direction which is par for the course.

I'll never be able to root for the Red Sox or the Patriots (what is WITH those teams anyway?!?!?) as they continue to plague my beloved Orioles and Ravens. But my heart bleeds for Boston today. I'm heartbroken to know that Marathon Monday and Patriots Day is forever tainted in history. We'll never be able to find beautiful pictures of Marathon Monday online again because of the thousands of photos and videos of this particular day. The 117th Annual Boston Marathon is forever stamped in our minds as one of those lifetime events that everyone will remember where they were when they heard the horrific news.

My memories will serve as peace as I remember crisp Spring afternoons with blue skies, good friends, food and frosty beverages, and tens of thousands inspirational people from across the globe who were running for their lives...in a good way.

Boston, you are wicked awesome. God bless you. And God please help the many families directly affected by this senseless act.

Oriole Magic

We took Isabelle to her first Spring Training Orioles game today. Even Uncle Don has never been to a Spring Training game before. Ed & I saw the O's play at the Yankees facility many years ago but this was our first trip to the Orioles facility which is actually a new stadium in Sarasota called the Ed Smith Stadium.

It's a really small venue (most of the Spring Training facilities are) so there isn't a bad seat in the house. Unless you get the sunny side of the stadium on a cloudless day. Then you might be a bit uncomfortable. The concessions leave a little to be desired but everything else was just fantastic. The crew were awesome, bathrooms clean, whole stadium was clean, plenty of cool table seating and patio areas to hang out if you can't sit in your seat baking in the sun for hours.

If you ever end up going, be sure to bring a glove and you really must pay attention to the game. Every seat is prone to having a foul ball tipped it's direction so you have to be careful.

A women near us got hit by a foul ball in the 3rd inning today. The guy behind us looked up to see how bad it was. He sighed, turned back in his seat and said, "Eh, she's a Yankees fan. Totally deserved that.". Now I would NEVER say such a thing, Isabelle. But I did have to chuckle. She wasn't hurt THAT bad. And I think she really was over dramatizing the situation.

Anyway, we had a great day at the park. We're hoping to take Grandpa there next month when he comes to visit if Mother Nature plays nice.

Falling Asleep

Isabelle started crying suddenly in the car the other day. It was an urgent REAL cry, the kind a mom knows is fo'real. So I pulled the car over ready for action. I got out of the car and opened her door pleading her to explain the problem. Through tears and wide eyed fear, she said her leg felt funny. A few more questions asking her to show me where it hurt, she said her leg had dots all over it. LOL. I knew then we had a little leg that fell asleep. Probably for life now, the Silers will say they have dots instead of having body parts fall asleep.

Overheard in the WWOI

"You are allowed to say the word dam as long as you're talking about beavers." (we were running through some flashcards)

Toothless in Tampa

Iz came home from school on Monday, January 14th and non-chalantly told me she had a loose tooth. I didn't believe her and thought she was making up another one of her stories. Surely, some OTHER kid in her class had a loose tooth so she was imagining hers was too by way of envy.

A short while after we got home, I noticed her with her hands in her mouth. I asked her what she was doing...playing with my loose tooth, of course! So I checked it out myself. And son of a gun if she wasn't being serious! One of those cutie patootie teeth in the front bottom of her smile was hanging by a thread!!! She JUST turned five, so I told her it was way too early!

Then she got scared. Why is it too early? What's going to happen to me?

I laughed, and then cried a little. I assured her, she was going to be JUST fine. It wasn't too early for Isabelle to loose a tooth. It was just too early for her Mommy to handle it. I thought I had another year or so.

So when Daddy came home from work, he checked it out and asked if she wanted it out. She was SO EXCITED that Daddy could make that happen. So he grabbed a towel and did just a few wiggly-twists and out it came. She was a little freaked when she saw the blood but was quickly too overjoyed at the little tiny tooth sitting in his hand that she forgot about the red stuff.

I wasn't expecting her to be so excited about it. She was the first kid in her class to lose a tooth, so maybe that was it? Then a few minutes later she asked, in totally serious mode...."so this means I get to go to Kindergarten tomorrow, right?".

She had been asking about losing her teeth a lot lately, wondering when it was going to start happening. I told her probably around Kindergarten. So she figured since she lost one so early, this was her golden ticket to the big K. I felt bad seeing the deflated look on her face when I explained that wasn't how it worked and she still had to wait until next year.

She got over it pretty quick after finally being able to check out her new toothless smile in the mirror after the red stuff subsided.

Just two days later, she lost her second front bottom tooth. AND she has her new adult horse tooth already halfway in. I guess this catapults us into "the awkward years".

PS: Out of laziness, I'm not going back to proofread and make sure I got all my "loose" and "lose" usages correct. I know the difference, but I have more posts to make and little time LOL.

Miss Manners

We're trying to raise Isabelle with manners (Lord, give me strength!). Thankfully, we do often get compliments on her politeness (pat my own back here).

When me and the brothers were raised, we learned very strict and proper table manners. Our mother had been brought up even stricter (down to the appropriate attire one wore to Supper). We didn't have a dress code in our house but we did learn table manners. Some of the top ones, in no specific order:

1. Chew with your mouth closed.
2. No talking with food in your mouth (which seemed redundant based on rule #1).
3. Napkins in laps.
4. No elbows on the table.
5. Never reach for an item, ask for it to be passed...PLEASE!
6. When using a knife, cut one bite at a time. Rest your knife and put your fork back into your dominant hand to take a proper bite. Repeat.
7. How to set a proper table and how to rest your utensils.
8. Asking to be excused (and usually being denied until the family was done).
9. Push your chair in when you leave a table.
10. No singing at the table.

Most nights, we can barely get all 3 of us seated at a table at the same time. But we do really attempt the family dinner concept at least 3-4 nights per week. Ed and Isabelle both had a two-week winter break (while I worked through both holidays, but I digress). So we've had a lot of table time lately. This week, Ed and I broke out the "no singing at the table" rule.

Isabelle asked why?

I had no idea what to tell her, I just told her that was one of the rules that my Mom and Dad taught me. But she didn't buy it, so she said since Ed & I couldn't give her an answer, she would ask God. Right there in the car, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands in prayer, and tilted her head up to the sky to ask God a very serious question -- God, why am I not allowed to sing at the table?

After a few seconds of silence, she very righteously said -- God said he doesn't know WHO made that rule and that we can sing at the table if we want.

So, of course, when Isabelle turns to God, I turn to Google. It seems to be a rule that goes along with any and all mouth noises being frowned upon (burping, slurping, bubbling, singing, squealing, humming, etc.) because it interrupts polite conversation. But if God says we can sing at the table, I trust him more than Miss Manners any day. Sorry, Mom.

2013 Howdy

Reflecting on 2012, it was quite a busy year for the Silers.

January - Had high hopes yet another year watching the Ravens in the playoffs. Alas, it wasn't meant to be and we were eliminated after a particularly horrible kick by Billy Cundiff.

February - We sold our house (while we were visiting Florida, ironically enough).

March - Pack, pack, pack! Finally met Megan M. Egan!


April - Said many tearful goodbyes and hopped the Auto Train on the 23rd.

May - Lived with Mom-Mom SuSu & PopPop Bill while house hunting and exploring our new town.

June - Continued house hunting, exploring, beaching.

July - Found the house! Moved in July 20th, the same day we had to say goodbye to Great Mom-Mom Isabelle.

August - Unpacking and turning the new house into our new home.

September - Had our first visitors when Jeff, Jaime, Utaw, and Kora cook came to Florida. Then we traveled home to Maryland for a long visit, saw lots of people but didn't get to see everyone. Isabelle started her first Ballet/Tap combo class and loves it! She is signed up for the Spring session already which starts next week.

October - Fun Fall Festivals around town. Jen took a boot camp. Izzi got to wear four different Halloween costumes because of all the festivities (cowgirl, superwoman, punk rocker, snow white).

November - Izzi turned FIVE! And we had our regularly scheduled Puerto Rico vacation. This year we got to go for a hike in El Yunque Rainforest and we also went zip lining! Izzi was too young this time but in a few years!

December - We bought a ridiculously HUGE tree (11 feet!!!) just because we could. We've always had such a small house with low ceilings so we had to stick with small trees all these years. This year we went BIG and BOLD and it was beautfiul. We had a very Merry and relaxed Christmas this year, despite the horrific news in Newtown, Connecticut. It made us hyper-aware of our abundant blessings.

We had a very blessed 2012 with many good fortunes and happy memories. One can only hope for the same in 2013 -- Health, happiness, and hope to all for a very happy new year.