Pressley and I had a big day yesterday. We left the house at 9 a.m. and drove to Rome, GA: home of my alma mater. We met some of my very best college girlfriends (and thier kids) at the Dwarf House in Rome for brunch and then headed over to the campus for Mountain Day. Mountain Day is hard to explain to someone who has never experienced it. It is a homecoming of sorts. To celebrate Martha Berry's birthday. (Yesterday, the Berry choir even sang happy birthday to Martha, which is a new tradition and kinda cheesy.) The big event of Mountain Day is the Mt.Day march. This is when all of the students stand at the top of this big hill and start to proceed down two by two. Boys on one side, girls on the other, for as long as the boys last -- which is not long. You were much more likely to get paired up with another girl for the march since boys are outnumbered at Berry something like 10 to 1. Anyhow, the procession starts out two by two, then you climb back up the hill and meet up with another pair. Then your foursome, tromps back up the hill and joins another foursome, and so on, until everyone is coming down the hill in these huge lines. I think it is supposed to symbolize unity or some such thing. I always called it Berry College Fitness 101 because climbing up and down that hill over and over is hard work. Oh, yeah - and the underclass girls wear pink (used to be dresses - apparently now it is just any old pink thing you have in your closet) and the seniors wear blue. I think underclass boys wear blue and seniors wear white. I know - you are thinking "And you think singing happy birthday to Martha is cheesy??" It is a fun and unique tradition and you know you are jealous that you didn't do it at your college!!
The Berry girls and their daughters. (The husbands and sons had already left when we broke out the camera.) [Back row: Me, April, Pressley, Amy F.; Front row: Addie Lee and Catherine (Amy F.'s daughters), Jolynn and Ajae (April's daughter); Not pictured: Jan, Kelly and Allison]
So after making Pressley sit through a 2 hour brunch and dragging her to the Mountain Day march in the October sun, I then dragged her to a friends house to see her new twins. My best friend, April, has a little sister named Nicki who became almost like a little sister to me during college and beyond. I love that girl. Anyway, she is now married and has three beautiful daughters. The youngest, her 6 month old twins, have had me praying without ceasing since last March. Nicki had to go on hospitalized bedrest at 20 weeks and spent the next month of her life in a bed, inverted at a 30 degree angle, trying to keep from delivering the twins. The twins were ultimately born at 25 weeks and the family embarked on the roller coaster that follows when babies are born that prematurely. I was able to keep up with the girls' progress through Nicki and Steve's precious CaringBridge site and I have felt like I've known the twins since their early April birthday. But yesterday, I got to meet them for the first time. They are home and doing pretty well, but both have severe reflux and some other issues that keep Nicki and Steve, and the whole extended family, on their toes. They are a strong, Christ-centered family, and I admire them so much for the grace with which they have handled the struggles they've faced, and I count it such a privilege that I got to visit with the twins yesterday.
Callie would not take her hand out of her mouth for me.
Sarah Kate and her Aunt April.
Finally, after we left Nicki's house, it was time to head back to Atlanta for Marie's first birthday party. Marie is the daughter of my dear friend Shay, who has been one of my closest friends since we met as summer associates at Powell Goldstein. Marie was a perfect hostess, and her mommy threw a great party. She even had a baby pool full of blue balloons that the kids got to jump in to to dive for treasure. They had a ball, and once Pressley finally got her oft-demanded cupcake, she was happy and exhausted and ready to go home.
Pressley enjoys diving for treasure.
It was a busy day, but we had a good time and Pressley was about as good as a two year old could be expected to be on a day like that. I did have to relax my expectations a bit by the time we got to Marie's party, but I figured the kid deserved to be cut some slack. There are more stories to tell about some funny things Pressley said and did during the day, but you are tired of reading and I am tired of typing. I'll try to tell those stories another day.
BTW - Evan also had a good day. He stayed home with Daddy to play in his soccer game and go to his friend Jake's birthday party. I don't know nearly as many details about his day, but didn't want to neglect reporting on him altogether....
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