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EXTRA!

Several weeks ago, I got to spend some quality time with my college girlfriends (Peyton, Nicole, Tracey and Stephanie). This trip was a little different than past visits together and it was an incredibly special one. Tracey is about to bust with her FOURTH child and Stephanie is pregnant with her FIRST child! Tracey planned a Red Tent party to celebrate her last child instead of the traditional baby shower. Peyton and Nicole have thrown a red tent party every year for the last 5 years for their moms group in Chicago. I had no idea what to expect.

History of the Red Tent

In such ancient cultures as that of Native Americans, Africans, and Chinese, red is a symbolic color of strength or female power. The Red Tent is rooted in ancient Christian history as a gathering place for women. In biblical times, women were admitted to the Red Tent when giving birth or menstruating because the men in their communities feared contamination from these biological processes. In the book "The Spirit of Indian Women", the author states,

"When a woman is having her moon, her blood is flowing, and this blood is full of mysterious powers that are related to childbearing. At this time, she is particularly powerful...a woman's power and a man's are opposites, not in a necessarily bad way, but in a good way. Because of the power a woman has during this time, it is best that, out of respect for her men and for their medicinal trinkets and beliefs, she stay away from them. During this time, the men would often build a small lodge for the woman while other female relatives serve on her needs."

Thus, the Red Tent.

The Red Tent eventually became a sacred gathering area where women went to celebrate life as they learned from one another to strengthen themselves, their families, and their communities.

It took a lot of effort to pull this thing off! We helped Tracey set up for the party Friday and Saturday. It reminded me of days in the sorority house working along side these girls preparing for RUSH. It was a lot of fun. Peyton and Nicole actually made the beautiful red tent themselves!

Tracey's boys enjoyed having battle in the tent with their imaginary light sabers!

The party was touching and beautiful. There was a video of the guests with pictures of their pregnancy and birth streaming in the the background. There was a henna artist making beautiful designs on pregnant bellies! A lady taught us how to belly
dance.





Then, about 50 women gathered in the red tent to sit on pillows and share stories about motherhood, friendship and to honor family. We each introduced ourselves in a special way, "I am granddaughter to Dibbon, daughter to Lynda and mother to Chase and Calhan". Then, we read poems about motherhood and shared stories by candlelight. It was incredible touching and emotional. It made me so very thankful for the girlfriends in my life as well my incredible family!

Extra was there to get some footage of Shaun (Cassidy) for some upcoming projects he will be working on. He wanted to have them film the Red Tent party because not only is it a celebration of his beautiful wife who is about to have their fourth child, but also they were giving back to the community. Tracey asked all the guests to bring diapers instead of a gift. The diapers were to be donated to CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). CASA is an organization Tracey works with when she is not having babies!

So were were all included in the Extra segment!!!!! I aired yesterday, but might be on again today! Check it out!

I am back!!!

I have been thinking for a long time that I should get back to keeping up this blog. When I look at friends blogs, I get a little sad that I let mine go. Then, I went back a couple years to read my postings and realized that it really is an excellent way to document our lives. So many funny things I forgot about were right there to spark my memory. So here I am again...I am gonna try to keep it up....we will see.


La Fortuna, Costa Rica...a view from our room!


Dawson and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Cinco de Mayo. We treated ourselves to a special adventure packed vacation to Costa Rica. It has been on our bucket list for a long time. We stayed in the Arenal Volcano area so we could be closest to the activites we wanted to do. It was our first time white water rafting. The class 3-4 rapids were pretty intense for us amateurs, but no one fell out of our boat!!! I did have a close call though. At the mid point, we all had a break to eat some of the best pineapple I have ever eaten. Before Dawson and I could eat with the rest of the group, we repelled down a 120 ft waterfall!!!!!





We toured the active volcano and hiked through the rainforest. There were so many different bugs, spiders, frogs, birds and Dawson even saw a jaguar!




Genuine mud facial!

One of my favorite things was zip lining through the rainforest. We started with Superman! It was the highest and longest zipline (1/2 mile) of the 16 we did. It was an incredible feeling to be that high above the ground going at speeds up to 55 mph!



It was everything we wanted it to be and more. Costa Rica is a beautiful place with so many things to do. We were ready to return home (on Mother's Day) to see our boys. Chase got to spend the night at Max's house for 2 nights while we were away. This was his first sleepover and he did great! Thank you McLaughlins! Calhan stayed at Nina's (grandmothers) the whole time and had fun playing with Nina, Mammaw and Ashlyn.
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