Little Ditty, 'Bout me and Suzanne

Ha! First, I hope you all picked up on the play on words from the totally classic John Cougar Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane." Second, coming from the English teacher, I know it isn't grammatically correct, but it's the only way it would rhyme, so I went with it!

So, those of you who frequent my blog have probably made your way to Steece's Pieces. Suz is an AMAZING woman, wife, daughter, and mother of quads! Yes, that's four babies at one time! And she is still smiling, beautifully I might add!

I digress...

Long before Suz and Joe found out they were having quads, I stumbled upon her blog from another's (this weekend she said she told her mom I was a "before the quads" blog friend, or something along those lines...I thought that was cute). Those of you in the blogging world know this happens all of the time and crazy, amazing connections are made all the time through the blog. So, there is a post on Suzanne's blog mentioning Bracket and I comment asking if she is talking about Brackettville, Texas. Anyway, we finally figured out that she was indeed talking about Brackettville, where my father worked for 15 years...it is 40 miles from Uvalde, where I grew up. When I mentioned Uvalde she told me her grandparents lived there. So, I asked my parents about them and my mother said, "You're not going to believe this. Grandma and Grandpa bought the house I (my mom) grew up in (which happens to be the house that I (Charla) grew up in, too) from Suzanne's grandparents! " So, essentially, Suzanne's dad lived in the house my mother, and then I grew up in!!! And we only figured that out because we blog!

So, I mentioned the other day on my blog about going to Uvalde and Suzanne then commented saying they would be there as part of their Texas Traveling weekend. So, through email we planned on meeting and after texting Sunday morning after church and coordinating, mom and I went over to Suz's grandparents and met both she and Joe, the babies, her parents, her aunt and uncle and her grandparents. I was so excited and had such a great time meeting them!

What I loved most about it was I felt like I already knew Suz and she is EXACTLY in person as she is on her blog...gorgeous, happy, light-hearted, welcoming and just a person you want to be around. I hope a great friendship will form from this meeting...oh, and did I mention she has the most precious babies EVER??? I can say that because I don't have one of my own yet, right? Oh, but they were to-die-for cuddly and I just couldn't resist some lovin' on them!

So, here are some pics mom snapped before we had to leave...Suz said, "yeah, let's get all four of 'em in a picture together and try to get them to smile and be happy and look the way you want them to...then you'll get a little taste of my day to day life" and she said it with the most genuine smile on her face. She meant it like, "you'll get a little taste of this amazing life I have with these gifts from God."

Mom snapped a shot of me holding Savannah and Ethan (okay, so I THINK it's E, but not sure)

And here's the crew...Sav, me, Ethan (I think), Ben, Suz, and Drew (again, I think)

I can't for the life of me remember what cracked us up, but I LOVE this picture!! I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. I told my mom when we were in the car on the way home that meeting Suz and the babies made my entire weekend!

So, we're already thinking of the next time we can all get together and I must confess I can't wait! Part of the reason I feel a connection to Suzanne is I know she has gone through the same fertility things I am going through right now...that kind of kindred-ness creates a bond of sorts.

Suz, thanks for letting me barge in on your family weekend for a few minutes! It was a true pleasure and joy!

So, we didn't leave Uvalde until 7:45 Sunday night...yes, that's right, for a seven hour trip! We are crazy, I know. It's just really hard...oh, and Richard was invited Saturday night to play in a 4-man scramble memorial golf tournament on Sunday afternoon and couldn't pass it up. So, he played, I napped and packed and we finally got home at 2:30 Monday morning. It was a sad time when I had to set my alarm for 6:30, knowing that 6 minus 2 was 4...meaning, 4 hours of sleep. Sheesh...and THEN, this afternoon....well, see the next post down!