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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Buckaroo # 2

Introducing:

My newest and equally favoritest nephew:

Robert Sawyer Carmack IV

Feb. 23, 8lbs., 20 3/4'' long


He's just absolutely darling, with his Cary Grant chin and his little cheek dimple (like his dad).

He looks JUST like my little sister, though!!


I mean really....

Look at that nose.

The adorableness is just too much for me.

Since I'm in Baltimore and have only gotten to see him through pictures,

I have stolen all of these from random family members, so that I could share the joy with you.

We're a proud family.

Look at all the handsome little boys.

I'm already planning my cowboy posse ;)




















Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My little sister...

...is having a baby.


Right now.

As I write this.

I can't tell you how crazy that is.
It's so exciting!
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!
But I also can't tell you just how
sad I am to be missing it.


Growing up is hard.

News and (hopefully) pictures coming soon!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Snow, birds, and babies.


Mes Chères Amies,

Since quite a lot has transpired in the last several weeks, I shall write you a friendly, newsy letter to fill you all in on my goings-on. Picking up from my last blog post...


After a week of pathetically making it through classes while being deathly ill (just a bit dramatic..), I was so excited to hear that Maryland was expecting snow. And not just any snow, no. A b l i z z a r d.

It was to come on Friday, and even though many schools closed for the day and the governor declared a state-wide emergency, I was still skeptical: by 4:30 pm, the snow was barely sticking to the ground, not at all to the streets, and hey, I'm from Texas where almost no one (my particularly stellar and auto-smart family excepting, of course;) knows how to handle any bad weather. They cancel life when we're expecting bad rain....

Needless to say, I was delighted to find that by 11 pm, the world was wonderfully white, and big, white, fluffy flakes were falling fast. From a friend's house, I walked home in the middle of the thickly covered streets, snowball fights randomly breaking out all around me. I ran into a friend taking snowy photos, and we joined up with a few strangers for a snowball fight and to create my first snowman taller than 18 inches( that didn't have bits of dirt and grass and sticks in him, owing to the fact that to make any snowman in Texas snow, one has to completely scrape an entire yard to make an 18''x 1' snowman). He even had a tie. Handsome. By the time I made it inside, around midnight, the snow was falling horizontally with the wind. I was very excited. And very glad that, after two months, my appy heater was finally fixed.

Saturday morning, I had friends over for a pancake breakfast before we headed out into the white world for a play day. Our initial group consisted of 1 Texan, 1 Irishman, 1 German, and 1 Floridian, and we were eventually met up by 1 Marylander, and another Floridian. I'm sure the Marylander just had to laugh at the rest of us for being ridiculously excited. Baltimore was like a ghost town- like the end of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" where all the people come out of shelter and walk around the abandoned, snow covered cities. Just like that.And everyone was smiling and happy and chatty. Loving a day off from real life. We walked all the way down to Federal Hill (1-2 miles)to go sledding, but my friends Christian and Rachael and I decided to dig a snow cave in the side of the hill. Christian started at one side and I started at the other, and Rachael helped clear out all the snow from inside that we were shoveling out to her. In the end, the thing was about 10'x 7' across, and 2.5' high. It was actually quite warm in there, too. So we took a little breather inside, and when Christian decided to try and dig out a little higher on the 'ceiling' I began a speech on how me should all agree to use super human strength to make sure and dig each other out, should it collapse. "How do we get that?," Christian says. "We pray for it" I begin, and then:

THWUMP!

It caved in on us. 1 second of complete disorientation, followed by immediate laughter. We were only covered by about 2 feet of snow, so it was easy enough to get out of. Rachael and I, being from the south, however, didn't have good gloves, and our poor little hands were completely frozen. I can tell you that my hands have never been that cold. Ever. The guys tried to give us their gloves, but our hands were too cold to even put them on. Well, I was not about to lose my hands to frostbite in the middle of Baltimore, Maryland of all places, so I did what any self-respecting, classy, southern-belle would have done. Unzipped the coat and stuck 'em in the armpits. In about 5 minutes, they were back to normal, if somewhat pink. I'll leave the frostbite to a future Arctic adventure.

We ended the day by going back to the guy's house, called "The Rusty Saw" for dinner, and the rest of the weekend, and much of the next week was spent over there or at other friends' houses, talking, having church and fellowship and prayer, and just chilling out. School was completely cancelled the whole week, and I honestly didn't quite know what to do with myself! But I will be honest and own up to my nerdiness and tell you that, despite enjoying time off, I was hoping to have classes that week. I know. Geekola. School was also cancelled this past week, due to incoming student's auditions and entrance placement exams. (Can it really be a whole year ago that I did that?!)

So really, almost nothing in the past two weeks has turned out like it ought to have done. I scheduled my trip home around my church's location move. That didn't happen. They delayed the move 2 weeks... School was entirely cancelled, which set me back 2 coaching and 2 lessons, and since school was closed, the music library was also closed, meaning I couldn't check out the materials for the 3 projects and 1 exam I have this coming week, which means I'll be cramming- something I haven't done at all this school year. (It's a habit I've happily broken)I came home to be here for my little sister's first baby delivery. There have been days of contractions, but no baby. I'm scheduled to leave tomorrow at 2. I'm trying to talk myself out of being incredibly disappointed at missing out on it- It seemed too providential that she should be due the one week that I could come home. And my brother and his wife and son were going to try and get here to see me, too, but they won't end up getting in until Sunday. But my big bro's a filmmaker, and he's been shooting a film in Minnesota for 3 weeks, which is totally cool, and I suppose it can be more important than seeing me for a half of a day. :)

I have been learning so much the last few weeks about God and His goodness towards me, though. It's amazing what a little downtime will do. I'm part of a neat church with a great desire for community, and that's something I haven't been a part of in over 6 years. My thirsty soul has been quite refreshed and enlightened. The theme of last week was "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." I think it's a beautiful hymn. God speaks to me a lot through Nature, and last week's theme was birds. They seemed to show themselves all over- in songs, on walks, during prayers. I even painted a picture on my appy wall about it, and it makes my heart happy to look at it and remember why I painted it.

All in all, a crazy, random, very unstructured few weeks.... I think maybe I'm supposed to be learning something... do you?


I wish you all the most wonderful Winter's weekend, filled with happiness and delight. Thanks for reading.


Tout d'Amour,

Annie

(P.S. Pictures of snow adventures coming soon ;)

Monday, February 1, 2010