why God wisely pairs up over-protective moms with less-than-over-protective dads!

If this had been a mother-son weekend outing, I am fairly confident there would be no photo of Mac on a horse, alone, on a trail ride. It's a whole different story on a father-son weekend outing. At least there was protective headgear involved!

Follow-up to "Interesting Chapel Mom" posting

My best friend Caroline has taken great exception to my reference to being middle-aged (because that means she is too!). While 37 might not literally be middle-aged (or I hope it's not anyway), when compared to a 22 year-old supermodel, it feels remarkably like middle-aged or beyond. My apologies, Caroline!

a pearl of wisdom

Conversation tonight during Mac's bath:

Mac (holding a bar of Dove soap): Don't you know you should always use Dove soap?

Mom: Why do you say that?

Mac: Because when you use it, it gives you an invisible force field of protection.

Mom: Where'd you learn that?

Mac: From TV.

And they say there's no educational content in American television anymore...

Interesting Chapel Mom

So today I was at the Halloween party at school and saw this kid with a very cool Incredible Hulk costume. He was sort of lurking and slinking around like he was completely in character and getting ready to attack someone. I commented on him and another mother asked if I knew who his mother is. He's in another kindergarten class and I didn't even know who the child was, so I said no. Turns out she's a 22 year-old supermodel named Isabela Fontana who now lives in NYC while the child lives here with his grandmother. I've just googled her and can we just thank the good Lord that the 22 year-old supermodel didn't show up at the Halloween party to make the rest of us middle-aged ladies in our cheap Target Halloween t-shirts feel even frumpier and more middle-aged!?!?!?

Bumblebee is in the house

For those of you who are not Transformer buffs like we are at Casa Story, Bumblebee is a "good" Transformer. That's about the extent of my knowledge, but I'm sure Mac could tell you more. In lieu of that, I'll just share a few Halloween photos of Mac, aka BumbleBee.

a mother's heartbreak begins...

This afternoon, Jimmy and I took Mac to Jimmy's mom's house while we shopped and ran errands. Jimmy was driving his mom's car, and Mac and I followed behind. When we got to Bubby's house, Jimmy pulled in the garage and I pulled up behind him. Mac unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, looked over his shoulder and said "thanks for the ride, bye" as if I were nothing more than a friend's mom, dropping him off at his house after soccer practice. Where did the little boy go who had to be buckled in and unbuckled out, who couldn't reach the door handle and who certainly couldn't jump down from a big truck all by himself????

A sad day at the corn maze

If you've ever visited our corn maze website, the first thing you see is an aerial photo of the maze. That photo is what hooks people on the idea of walking through a corn field because the picture is always so cool. Since our beginning in 2005, our photos have been taken by Randy Bales, a quiet, hard-working guy who loves to fly airplanes and ride motorcycles.

Yesterday morning, Randy was riding his motorcycle and was struck by a driver who ran a red light. Randy died of blunt force trauma. He is survived by his wife and 7year-old son. The other driver had several traffic violations already, was an unlicensed driver and is now free on bail even though he killed a good family man whose son only got 7 short years with his Daddy and whose wife is now faced with the seemingly impossible task of trying to live without her mate.

Randy came into our lives in a manner that so typical of small-town life. About 9 months before we opened the first corn maze, I was having my teeth cleaned at our local dentist's office in Moncks Corner. My dental hygienist Cindy mentioned in passing that her husband had a small plane and loved to take it up. I asked if he could take a photo for us on one of his flights, he agreed, and the rest is history. This is one of a million reasons why I love small-town life. And we loved Randy Bales for his warm and unassuming personality, his good work ethic, and his great multi-tasking abilities (he could fly the plane AND take photos at the same time). We loved Randy because he brought their son on a school field trip to the corn maze when there weren't a lot of other dads taking time off to do that. We loved Randy because he always came out to the corn maze with his family on a weekend afternoon when he probably had a million other things he'd rather be doing. Our hearts are heavy today.

To check out all of Randy's photos, cut and paste the following link: http://www.westfarmcornmaze.com/west_farm_corn_maze_015.htm.

The next Tiger Woods? I think not.

Mac and his friend Andre playing at the driving range

We had the great privilege of spending yesterday at our friends' country house. Mac is in class with Andre, and so through Andre we've met his parents, Claudia and Fernando, and his brother, Guilhermo. They invited us to their weekend place for a lovely, relaxing day. Their home is simply perfect- they've recreated this Tuscan villa in a beautiful neighborhood about 1.5 hours from Sao Paulo.

Their house is on a golf course and so Fernando and Jimmy took the boys to the driving range after lunch. I'm fairly confident we're not raising Tiger Woods v.2. Maybe baseball or basketball will pan out better?

A pirate must never abandon his sword!

Our tired, little pirate in mismatched too-small pajamas, holding on to his sword to the end!