I asked her to Giddy Up and she Giddied. (Is that a word?)

Life is complicated when you have special needs kiddos....and if you plan a cross-country move and a graduation trip simultaneously, well the complicated just gets doubled (or tripled really!)!

Last summer we were celebrating the triplets' high school graduation at Walt Disney World when we received a phone call that threatened to put a snare in my ability to relax in our happy place. The transport service I had secured to get our wheelchair-accessible van from Phoenix, Arizona to Tupelo, MS so that my Mom could meet us with it at the airport in Birmingham, Alabama (I warned y'all it was complicated) could NOT in fact find a way to get the van to Tupelo. My stomach turned upside down. I had no way to get Benjamin from the airport to our new home in Mississippi without my van. My head was thinking through options: 1) I could call the little accessible-van rental company and see if they perchance had a van AND could arrange to pick us up at the airport in Birmingham. But then I would have to get my family to Mississippi and turn around and return the van to Alabama and then how would I get back to Mississippi. That was more complication than even I could manage.

2) I could go to the hotel, let my family play in the parks and scour transport companies in Phoenix myself.

3) I could call on a friend in Birmingham who I had possibly only been in the same place at the same time with three times since college graduation -- and one of those was just simply that we were BOTH at Davis Wade Stadium at Mississippi State simultaneously NOT actually together.

Now, y'all, I hate to inconvenience anyone. I would rather stand on my head running around town transporting everyone myself and raising my own blood pressure than to put anyone out in the least. But I was trying to save the celebration. And I knew that there were four million and two boxes waiting to be unpacked once we did make it to Mississippi. If ever there was a time to call on my friends, this was it.

So I dialed the number. And after I explained this convoluted story my friend didn't even need to know all the minute details of how stranded I felt, or how desperate I was or that our transportation from the airport would be reliant on her saying yes, she just simply said yes. Of course.

Today, that friend has a book about to be released on FRIENDSHIP! Now y'all, I have been selected to pre-read her book. My copy of "Giddy Up, Eunice" is in the mail but either my postman has stolen it for himself, or a neighbor intercepted it because it is not yet here. But it will be and I will give y'all the scoop. But today, I am telling you that if this woman has written about friendship, you better go HERE and grab yourself a copy! Because Sophie Hudson knows a thing or 500 about being a good friend!

The van was delivered. The weather went crazy and our flight was delayed by hours leaving Orlando and then was forced to make a weather-related landing in Atlanta where we were again delayed. Sophie and her family had been set to meet us at 6pm in Birmingham. We didn't in fact land until after 11. She and her dear husband and son were there to greet us and help us find a hotel and get us food because sitting on a plane since early afternoon with no food left us famished!

And I won't even tell you how hard sweet Sophie and dear David had to work to get me, four kids, two wheelchairs and all the luggage on the planet (we had to pack everything the moving van had "forgotten") into our accessible van. It was far after midnight by the time they left us and yet, you can ask any of my children, they left us so much better than they found us. We felt loved, and hugged, and fed physically yes, but also emotionally. They just wrapped us up and I will be forever grateful.

Did I mention that Sophie Hudson lives out friendship? LIVES IT OUT. Hurry y'all, click this and you can not only pre-order your own copy of "Giddy Up, Eunice" but you'll also get one FREE to give to your bestie!!! I can assure you that you don't want to miss it!

Now I can't stop....

Oh, now I am just having fun...the whole Franklin thing has me remembering fun books, favorite books and searching the boxes to find them to share with my four-year-old.

One of her current favorites is this one:Except our copy looked nothing like this pristine copy shown here (thanks to Amazon)...because my copy was the original from 1971...when I was three. By just opening the pages, I can hear my own Mother reading, "These are my dollies, Annabelle, Betsy and Bonny."

But the final pages were torn (I completely blame my younger brothers who obviously didn't value "Little Mommy" the way I did!) and so Cate and I could never finish the story. That is...until we were at Barnes & Noble last night and Cate came running to me..."Mommy, look what I found! And it isn't torn!"

So today, I have just tucked her in for her nap with a reading of a NEW copy of our favorite Sharon Kane Little Golden Book.

"My old book was torn."

"Did you know that one was my book when I was a baby?"

"NO, Mommy, it was mine when I was a baby."

"Well, yes, but it was mine first."

Lips shaped in a wide "O"...."Wow, Mommy!"

Cause sometimes the best blessings are the oldest...

Oh No!

May I begin by saying that I am a "Goodnight Moon" parent? I love that sweet little book. Since my trio were born 11 years ago, I have been a fan. All four of my kids and I have taken great pleasure in searching for the cute little mouse who hides his way through the entire book. Bedtime memories for me will forever be woven with memories of this sweet story.

However, Margaret Wise Brown's companion book to "Goodnight Moon" makes me cry. Have you read "The Runaway Bunny"? The little boy bunny wants to run away from home. His dear mother is steadfast and assures him that anywhere he runs, she will go...if he becomes a fish, she will become a fisherman; if he becomes a flower, she will become a gardener, etc...and the story of mother-love is not lost on me. But I can't help but always feel so sad that he wanted to run away in the first place. And yet, because I love the illustrations (Thank you Clement Hurd.), and yes, the Mother's persistence, we read it anyway.

A few minutes ago, Cate picked "The Runaway Bunny" for her nap time routine...and today, the story was not lost on her. Every time I turned the page and read "If you run after me, then I...", my beautiful two and a half-year-old would put her hands to her mouth and gasp, "Oh no!" in obvious discomfort that the boy is running away. And so today, we had a rite of passage...my little girl went from simply reading the story to processing the story -- and was as horrified as her Mommy that the bunny would want to leave!!

So yes, one day, she'll need to have wings to fly away from home. But today, I'm counting my blessings that she is at least appropriately dismayed by any such thought of leaving her Mommy!

Goodnight stars. Goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.