dress-up – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

March 24, 2023

Dress Up Meet And Impromptu Visit

My kids are a little strange (don’t we all think that at one point or another?). Sometimes, even my 19-year-old likes to dress up. Today’s story has my competitive gymnasts dressing up for their final meet before states!

The final meet before states was the Charity Cup Challenge. One of the longest drives, but the girls got to dress up in cute tutus and thought that was fun. Kimberly’s team of teenagers even started dancing in them – that was cute! Louis took Jillian down for Friday. I didn’t get to see their antics, but I can imagine from the pictures…

*WGVG Silver Team at the 2023 Charity Challenge in Wesley Chapel, FL*

Jillian came home saying the “entire place” smelled like fish nets. I couldn’t stop laughing at that!

Kimberly, Jillian, Thea, and I drove down in the wee hours of Sunday morning for Kimberly’s meet. Most of the time they slept and I listened to “My List to Joy” (a youtube mix I created ages ago).

We passed a sign that said “50 miles to this city” (where a sister lives now) early in the morning and I wondered if texting this early was a good idea. Nahhh… I’ll wait until normal nightowls have had coffee.

At the meet, Jillian found Ellie (another Silver Team member whose sister is also Platinum) and Thea got into the gym-sister encourager mode. Girls weren’t even doing anything but dressing up and Thea was like, “Marie’s got this!” and “Go Ellie!” (this made Jillian and a random team mom or grandma from another group laugh) Thea didn’t see how funny it was being a sideline cheerleader while the Platinum Team was wiggling around in their tutus.

We watched the girls do their amazing thing! Honestly, as my youngsters move up in skill and level, the competitions get more and more interesting to watch. Thea keeps going, “wow! I want to do that!” I had to grab this wanna-be-future-gymnast from hurting her neck as she was showing off on the awards floor trying to push up in her bridge again – she sang as she did: cartwheel, cartwheel, handstand, bridge! (but bridge arms were not straight!) It’s the mom clash between, I let my kids do stuff and I am not watching you break your neck, toddler! I pulled a protesting Thea into my lap with, “careful, your arms have to be straight first.” My just-4-going-on-teenager-attitude goes, “I know mom, I know,” with crossed arms. I heard quite a few chuckles from other random experienced moms on the benches behind me! Thea is definitely part of the entertainment wherever she goes.

On the ride home, we stopped to visit Aunt Becca and Anastasia!

I love visits when we can. It’s so easy to think things like: it would be bothering her, she’s not expecting a visit, maybe she’s not in, maybe they have plans… etc. Every one of those and many more popped into my head trying to prevent me from considering the visit – and we were literally passing by!

NO! Don’t think that way!

Text, call, or just drop by! It’s the human connection part of us that loves that!

(Yes, I did use my car’s voice-text to have almost an hour texting conversation with her letting my sister know we were coming – which was funny because my Platinum in the back seat was so engrossed in her texting with friends and totally ignoring my Silver in the front and our conversation that as we stopped she went, “wait, this isn’t a gas station, why are we stopping?”) And this is why in the wee hours when my moody teen snapped, “I don’t want you to come” to Jillian, I responded with, “well I do; she’ll talk with me instead of disappear into her phone.” I always try to stop and see family if we travel close to their home (close to me is like within an hour – more if we’re traveling far).

We chatted, Jillian ended up staying over with Anastasia (next day started Spring Break and Anastasia was coming to stay with us anyway), Kimberly, Becca, and I played a nice game of Upwords, we snacked on stuff (my sister being a chef, even her “thrown together” snacks taste amazing), and enjoyed each other’s company. I got to see the grand tour of the lovely oasis my sweet sister and niece call home. The girls played basketball – of course, as they are our children, it got competitive very quickly!

I love just being together! I love car trips because usually, the people trapped within play word games (i.e. I’m going on a trip, Famous People First-and-Last, Alphabet or Numbers game) or talk to each other. I love visits where we just “hang out” – nothing planned, nothing crazy, just board games or talking over food or watching the kids play. Becca said it was a “God-timed visit.” I love it when God lines everything up to fill our spirits with reminders of His provision. I needed the dollop of Becca time too – God knew it. We needed each other’s encouragement and smiles. The cool part was that I didn’t realize I was missing her so badly until we got to connect for those few hours, but God knew.

Sadly, a bad thunderstorm cell was coming our way and Louis warned us to “please not get stuck in that driving” so we said goodbye and Kimberly, Thea, and I headed home less one passenger. At least now, Kimberly was in a very chatty mode and we were able to talk about all kinds of stuff all the way home!

Go visit! Find or make a break in your schedule to pay a visit to someone you have been missing. There is so much work and schedule and life that sometimes we miss the part of our soul that whispers slow down and sometimes that close connection is just what we need to help us reset. It gives us a recharge to jump back into the craziness of life and makes a happy memory we cherish – and it can be so simple as a quick lunch, a brief hello, or even a phone call when visiting isn’t practical.

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

December 28, 2019

The Story of Sheba

Once there was a little girl who loved dogs and prayed for a little black dog. Her mom had already agreed to take the least wanted puppy from a litter about to happen. Her mom prayed the puppy was black.

A few weeks later, Mom got a call – the mommy dog had shoved one baby puppy away and it needed special care. Mom said, “we’ll take it” and the tiny “runt of the litter” fluffy puppy came to her furever home. That was February 25, 2008, almost 12 years ago. And yes, other than a white spot on her tummy that grew to cover her belly and some brownish tan on her paws, the puppy was black!

Sheba with (L-to-R) Kimberly (Sheba loved snuggling on the couch), Jaquline (Sheba would sleep on the walker to keep Kimberly and Becky from “racing” the baby around!), and Thea.

Sheba became the Tart family’s perfect dog. She loved the three little humans who grew up with her. Kimberly was only five months older than Sheba! Sheba ran around, grew up, played, made doggie friends, herded chickens, mothered lost dogs who wandered in, loved on chickens when the Tarts lived on their farm, snuggled with baby chicks, guinea pigs, the two rabbits, and Christina’s baby puppy, Prim.

Sheba had a wonderful doggie life.

L-to-R: Sheba with Jaquline (Jaquline insisted Sheba loved “Snow Dogs”), Kimberly had “dressed” Sheba in a beaded necklace she made, Sheba’s favorite sleeping position on any couch.

L-to-R: Sheba in the playroom, Sheba loved the tile floor in that house!, Mom said “no more movies” and the girls couldn’t find the remote… (Sheba had it!) Sheba loved to sleep on that table for some odd reason.

(top) Sheba with puppy Primrose, (bottom) Sheba with Lady (one of our doggie friends), (right) Thea climbed up on the couch to snuggle Sheba, who was sleeping in her new, weird, favorite position.

L-to-R: Baby Lucas, Jillian, and Sheba at the end of the bed (right next to the crib), Sheba’s favorite spot in that garage (next to the food bag!), Thea rubbing Sheba (she loved her soft fur and had just learned “dog!”)

Last year she started to slow down a bit. In December of this year, she started feeling sick some days. The vet said her stomach was failing. Vitamins and special food helped a little. She wasn’t able to digest all her food and she would get skinny and we had decided once she was in pain, we would put her to sleep. None of us wanted to lose our Sheba. She loved being outside when it was cool because she was bushy furry (we teased she was an a/c dog because she slept on one of the air conditioning vents in summer and almost refused to go outside in summer daylight!). On cooler days, she would play on our run while we were outside. Christmas Day it was gorgeous. Sheba said hi to both Grandmas when they visited and ran outside almost the whole day in gentle cool breezes. We were petting and snuggling with her by turns. She sleeps a lot since she’s been over 10 so when she curls down to sleep we usually let her rest. We were enjoying a Christmas campfire and telling stories. Louis went inside to get some water. I knew Sheba was fully asleep when Louis stopped by her longer than just to stroke her and turned his flashlight on. I handed Thea to Mom and we verified that she was fully gone. I stroked her soft, fluffy coat one last time before I wrapped her in her blanket.

The older girls came out to help. We buried her and said goodbye to our best furry friend. Sheba had spent more time with me than any other dog. She was our first family dog. My mom said, “Sheba probably found Boompa and Aunt Mary in heaven.” Christina laughed, “oh, yes, she instantly found Aunt Mary!” Because every time Mary would stay with us, Sheba would seek her bed out and snuggle with her – I’d be like, “no dogs in the bed, Mary,” and she’d giggle, wrap Sheba in a bear hug and say, “but she’s a big, fluffy stuffed animal!” and Sheba would give us the sweet sad eyes so she’d get to sleep with Mary. Sheba always snuggled up with anyone who wasn’t feeling well – she always seemed to know before we did.

Kimberly said she had prayed that Sheba would get to run loose outside, thinking of us having a fenced yard at our new house, but Sheba had been running loose anytime she was outside lately and stayed near the house because she didn’t feel good.

Louis set candles out on her grave for the night. We’ve planted flowers now. Each pet we’ve lost, we’ve buried and planted a tree over it as a reminder. Louis called Sheba our perfect dog. That she was.

Flower Bed for Sheba — The Garden Bed we planted for Sheba

Thea’s first Christmas was Sheba’s last. Our furry family treasure went to heaven, “raced over the rainbow bridge” as Jillian said, after spending a full Christmas Day with her family and “Grandmas.” It had been Sheba’s favorite outside day, gentle cool breezes with a mild, wintery temperature where she’d stand, face in the wind and wag that super fluffy “duster” tail. I’m going to miss my Sheba. Two months shy of 12 full years from her February 25^th birthday – rather long for a dog. Goodbye, my sweet, lovable, playful furry baby; I love you Sheba, run free and fast with no leash and no borders! Your human family will miss you!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Tag: dress-up

Dress Up Meet And Impromptu Visit

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The Story of Sheba

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