A new table and thoughts on death (interesting combo, no?)

I wanted to show you our awesome table that my grandpa made for us. It's definitely going to be something we keep forever and will be such an amazing heirloom to have, made with love by my 80-something Pepaw:)

I have always wanted a piece of furniture made by him, but never really knew what to request. I was worried about transporting a nice wooden piece all the way up to Wisconsin from southern Missouri, so I just didn't ask for anything at all. Then my younger cousin got married and asked Pepaw to make them a dining room table as a wedding gift. Genius! It turned out SO well and I figured that if he could make her one, then he'd probably make us one, too.

I already had the six wooden chairs I scored on Craigslist for a mere $100, and I wanted a table that would be big enough to seat at least 10 people. I sent Pepaw a few pictures of the chairs asking if he could model the table around their style, and also found a cool table on Crate and Barrel that was similar to what I wanted. And then he took off, working away on this beautiful one-of-a-kind table for us. He was in Wisconsin for a visit this summer and took a look at the chairs in person, and had the idea of taking a chair into a local paint store, asking them to match the chair with a stain for the table. He took that custom stain back to Missouri and stained the bad boy, topping it with many coats of polyurethane.

The end result is awesome, if I do say so myself. I am in love with it. I've always been a table cloth girl, and although Memaw sewed two gorgeous table cloths for us, we are just using runners she made to dress the table. Can't hide the prettiness of it under cloth!

Our new dining room table:















And also, my mom brought up the window treatment she made for our stairway window. It's a 'faux' Roman shade this time since we never actually lower the blind in that window. Love how it finishes off the stairway for us.





And on a completely unrelated subject, I feel the need to mention this on my blog today: a coworker of mine died suddenly in her sleep last weekend. She was probably no more than 55 years old, completely healthy and was such a kind, thoughtful person in our small therapy department. When I got the urgent message Monday morning I was in complete shock and my mind immediately started spinning.

When was the last time I talked to her on the phone? Friday, it was Friday and she was helping me with scheduling some new patients. Was I kind to her? Was I stressed and hurried, not taking the time to thank her for her assistance?

And then the deeper questions rose to the surface: Would she have done anything differently last week, if she had known it was her last? Did she get to see her beloved grandkids recently enough? Is her family going to be okay without their anchor? I can't believe she is gone. She just didn't wake up one day and they are going to do an autopsy to figure out why. She was so young and healthy. How can this be?

Death is an intense thing. It makes people push aside the insignificant details of life while grasping onto priorities. Sure, I'm tired and busy and there are never enough hours in the day to knock out my ever-important To Do list. But who cares? Life is amazing and good and such a gift. Nothing is guaranteed. Something could happen to me, or Nate, or our parents at ANY time. I absolutely hate thinking about it that way but when someone dies, it automatically makes me refocus. It makes me pray to God, thanking him for this precious day. It makes me pray for protection over my friends and family. And it makes me want to hold my babies and never let them go, kiss Nate goodbye like it could be our last, and call my parents just to say 'I love you.'

In addition to my co-worker passing away, my Dad's oldest sister also died a week ago. This death was not quite as shocking and sudden, as my aunt had dementia and was no longer eating. But it was still a sad loss for our family as she was like a second mother to my Dad, 15 years his elder. My heart hurts for my uncle and their family. It's just so sad.

I know this new-found focus about life will fade and I will be stressed in no time. It's impossible to ALWAYS be in the moment and grateful and looking at the bigger picture. But if nothing else, I was able to snap out of the mundane day-to-day routine, the feeling like we are just barely getting through each day and not really living life. We are living it, no matter how crazy it is. And we are so blessed.

New favorite pictures alert:







and my teenager who is too busy on his iPod to look at the camera