Saturday, June 7, 2014

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken on August 4, 2003. We took Mattie to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the first time. He was one year old (16 months old), and toddling. Not walking yet! We rented a house right on the Atlantic and the funny part about this photo to me was.... look what intrigued Mattie?!!!! Not going onto the beach or looking at the water but playing with the garden hose and hosing down the deck. We tried taking Mattie to the beach that summer, but the sand and ocean truly bothered and scared him. I have to admit that upset me at first, but I moved passed that, and made the best out of it, and did what Mattie wanted to do. Eventually over time, Mattie grew to love the sand and being by the ocean, but it wasn't in the summer of 2003. With Mattie, things happened on his time, not on anyone else's!


Quote of the day: We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something. ~  Mother Teresa


It took Peter and I about seven hours for us to drive from Washington, DC to Nags Head, NC. This is longer than usual because we hit incredible traffic. At one point, we were stuck in a traffic jam in which we moved about two miles in 90 miles. It was very frustrating since we are both under the weather, but there was no where to go and patience was necessary. Well let me restate that, I guess for some people there were options! For the car in front of us, she decided to pull over to the break down lane and literally she drove her car backward for miles until she got to an exit ramp. Besides this being highly dangerous to negotiate her car in reverse, we can add this is also illegal! 

While in the car and stuck in traffic, I happened to look down at my wrist. Something caught my eye. I noticed an angel charm glimmering at me on my charm bracelet. At first, I thought.... what a pretty charm! Then the second thought was..... where did this charm come from? I knew it looked familiar! Then it hit me! Margaret gave me this charm at Christmas time because she wanted me to know I was her angel! A comment that will always stick with me. In fact, Margaret is the person who gave me my Pandora charm bracelet soon after Mattie died. As many people know, I wear this bracelet EVERY day, it comes with me everywhere, because it is my Mattie memory bracelet. Every charm on it reminds me or symbolizes my connection to Mattie. It is eerie in a way that this angel that now dangles from it reminds me of the two angels that watch over me, Mattie and Margaret. When this dawned on me in the car, this brought great sadness upon me and of course tears. Naturally Peter had no idea why on earth I just burst out into tears while surrounded by walls of traffic! The beauty of grief, as he knows all too well. 

Along our journey into North Carolina, we passed many wonderful farms! Filled with corn! I love the adorable tractor too! This one is just begging you to come on in and shop at their farm stand!

When we used to visit the Outer Banks a decade ago, we always stopped at a family farm stand owned by Morris Farm. They were known for their red tractor out front. In fact, we have several photos of Mattie sitting on their red tractor YEARS ago! Today we stopped by Morris Farm and we couldn't get over the stand. The stand is NOT a stand any more. More like a STORE!

This is now Morris Farm Market! A totally amazing experience! All I could do was walk around in it and say.... WOW! I did not recognize where I was. Except for the fact that I love the freshness of all their products. Vegetables and fruits just picked and beautiful! Samples every where and people who take pride in their work and their products. 

Morris Farm in my mind is known for their North Carolina peaches. You can see them in bags in this photo. I have never tasted peaches like this. They even make peach salsa that is incredible! I wish the market was closer to the condo we are staying at because I would be visiting often. We came back with fruits and vegetables for the week. To me farm fresh things are a real treat! 

Typically when we stayed in the Outer Banks years ago, we would stay at the Northern end of the Barrier Island. A decade later, we have returned to stay in a new condo development on the opposite end of the Island. This is our view from our balcony. I personally loved the life guard's orange umbrella! Seemed very Mattie Miracle to me!

Today was a glorious sunny day! They are saying that the next several days will be filled with rain and clouds. I can only hope they are wrong. We really do not need anything else to further depress us and Peter needs sun and heat to get rid of his horrific cough. A cough that is debilitating to have for such a prolonged period of time.