Four Days Away

Once per quarter, I leave the boundaries of what's offered in Dayton Ohio (!) to seek out the latest-and-greatest trends and color forecasts. The Art Directors go, and we shop and scout and have meetings to determine what's the right direction for our product lines. While our destination is usually New York, this time we opted for Los Angeles.

It was one thing for me to travel on business when we had Ella...and quite another with a second baby. I packed 6 different bags. I made calendars for Derek's mom and my mom since they would be helping, and typed up a schedule to help them decipher Carson's coos and howls. I bought gel packs, ice, a nursing shawl, small coolers, aluminum foil, bubble wrap and fedex supplies to ship Carson's frozen milk back to him from the sunny west coast before it melted. Let me tell you, it's hard to be a good mom from thousands of miles away.

After all that preparation (and once I had made it through security with what certainly looked like the makings of a meth lab in my suitcase) I finally took my seat on the plane headed west. The agenda was packed and the days were long, but the payoff was huge. Mollee, Renee and I left with a very good idea of what our 2010/2011 lines could offer.




But if I'm being honest, I think the biggest payoff of my first time away is this: I got to step away for awhile and be the girl in the big city. I got to be creatively inspired and surrounded by beauty. I got to stretch out on a big fluffy bed in a beautiful hotel, and wake up with a great cup of coffee on the penthouse sundeck.

Then I got to come home to a family who tripped over each other with stories to share, who snuggled close to tell me they love me, who mentioned again and again how much I was missed. I am thankful that we have such wonderful mothers who made my departure easier on Derek...and I am grateful for a short respite from spit-up and diapers, to remind me of how good and sweet this time is after all. Sometimes the beauty of what we have is more clearly revealed upon stepping away from it for a moment. What a view.

Trick or Treat

I've never been a fan of Halloween, maybe because I've never had a love for masks or for candy. Show me a neighborhood where people give out Coldstone Creamery door-to-door and everyone promises NOT to wear strange plastic faces, and you'd have a deal. However...since our little crumb-crunchers entered the scene, the holiday is a whole lot more fun.


Ella decided on a butterfly fairy costume this year, and what a lovely little pink lady she was.We joined the Painters for a celebration at their place, with Willa and Zoe in tow.

Carson didn't object to the pumpkin suit that his sister wore a few years before. He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing and found Pam completely hilarious!