the sound of family.

the sound of family.

There's nothing quite like it. The voices you've grown up hearing, the voices you've grown to know and the voices you will never forget.

After high school I left Wilmington and didn't come back for 7.5 years. I lived in Raleigh, Durham and Winston-Salem and never thought I'd live in Wilmington again. And frankly - I was OK with that. Sure my parents, my sissy and her hubby and her 2 kids lived there - but I just "knew" I'd always have to visit them. I mean, my husband and I had made a life together in Winston-Salem - bought a house (a month before finding out we were moving - more on that later), made friends and were about to join the country club. Shoot - we were planning on raising our bambinos in Winston! All that changed when we went to Wilmington in June 2011 for a wedding. It happened. We were presented with the opportunity we never thought we'd have - the chance for Matt to work in Wilmington. In his words "I never realized how much my wife wanted to move home until it became a possibility." And honestly babe - I didn't either!

But it happened and we moved. It was messy and annoying and we still own a house in Winston and we lived with my parents for 6 months - but it happened and it's wonderful. I'm reminded how blessed I am every day and today, that reminder came in 2 forms -

that of screaming and yelling and that of Chick-Fil-A.

The screaming and yelling was aimed at the TV of course. It was the sound of my hubby and my brother-in-law, Russ, howling passionately at the Wolfpack while they were robbed of making it to the finals in the ACC tournament. And yes I said, ROBBED - Carolina did NOT deserve to win.

The Chik-Fil-A madness I will describe happened right before. We met my mom and dad, who are babysitting my sister's little boys for the day, for lunch just up the road. It was Matt, Linda, George and I in the midst of little kid CHAOS. Wade - my 3 year old nephew - couldn’t quite part with the indoor jungle gym to eat his lunch, and Chase - my 10 year old nephew - wanted to talk about the "pranks" he had done at school the previous week all the while justifying his behavior because "he has good grades." Chase, you're in 4th grade - you better have good grades!

Now our apartment is quite and I'm left grateful. Grateful that we are so close to our family - literally and figuratively. Grateful that despite the crazies - we all love each other so much. Grateful that we are all so different yet accept each other while laughing. And grateful that the sound of family will forever fill up my soul. Because in the end I can't chose your family but it is their voices that I will be hearing for the next 75 years. And I'm so lucky . . .

speaking of family, let me introduce you to mine. . .

my parents, Linda and George

my 2nd parents, margaret and tony



my sissy and her fam, Veronica, Charlie and Chase

matt and i with his two brothers and their wives (why yes, matt does have an IDENTICAL twin brother - how did you guess?)



the two muchkins i mentioned above.  chase and wade.  utter chaos.





easton lopatka - showing the world who's the real superman



our child - Sevilla Lopatka