I remember when I was little getting my last name tossed about and morphed into slang, such as, Sloopy, Slop, Sloopster, my favorite: Sloop Doggy Dog and the all too common Slooooooop! I never knew whether people were making fun of me or congratulating me for having such a fun last name. I remember being excited to trade in the “Sloop” for “Kelty” on my wedding day, but held onto Sloop as a middle name simply because my sister did it and it always seemed safe to follow her lead. Let me say, I have never been prouder to be Kate “Sloop” Kelty, with my head held high and my heart swollen with joy. I am a lucky girl to have been born into this family and to bear this great surname. If you are reading this and you are a Sloop, you are most definitely nodding your head in agreement and with teriffic pride.

Every couple of years Sloop blooded souls from all over the globe gather to reunite and to do “our thing.” This reunion was a three year gap from the last and so we were all very ready to be together, to reminisce and to reconnect. This year’s reunion was held right here in our very own Harrionburg, Virginia, where mama cooked and cleaned for weeks in preparation for our 30 guests to hub at her house and to nest at mine and Kristen’s as well. I adore my aunts and uncles and cousins so much and their children too. Actually, all of my little second cousins call me Aunt Kate, and so the added bonus is getting to have extra neices and nephews!!!

Our Virginia weather was a perfect description of the heart of our gathering. There were moments of teriffic sunshine and breeze with a light and refreshing gust of joy and then there were the moments of rain, of clouds, the presence of a sadness the couldn’t be denied. There were Sloops missing that made our reunion incomplete. Lisa and Werner and their kids Sara and Ben are missionaries in Austria and came home in December and couldn’t make it back again. Keira, my cousin in law and her eldest son Jamie were in Canada with a trip they had planned before the reunion. The greatest absence and the one that carried the heaviest cloud over our fest was the absence of Uncle Steve. Steve went unexpectedly to join Jesus 2 years ago on February 14 and his vitality, humor, affection and laughter are irreplacable. For weeks leading up to the reunion my heart was heavy knowing that our gathering would carry the pain for my Aunt Betty and cousins, Anne, Scott and Ross, of being all together but not all together.

Grief has an awful way of rearing its ugly head in the very moments you don’t want it to and making moments that are traditionally happy not so happy. I pray for each of the Steve Sloop’s, that the teriffic grief of loss was met with the joy of remembering their beloved and that they left Harrisonburg feeling refreshed and blessed that their husband, daddy and Vovo (Portuguese for Grandaddy) forever made them Sloops!!!

As I ponder Uncle Steve’s absence like the storm clouds that drifted in for the reunion, I can’t help but think of the scripture in Hebrews that talks about our loved ones who have gone before us as the “Great Cloud of witnesses” applauding their earth bound family on towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It is so easy for me to envision and to even faintly hear the sounds of our Great family hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness” being sung from the balconies of heaven, and to hear a little girl joyously singing along too, smiling at the impressive blend of harmonies we Sloops signaturely provide. Anna girl, I am sure you too are holding your head high for the Sloopness that is in and around you!

The highlights of our reunion were getting to celebrate sweet Rachel’s 2nd birthday, introducing Melissa to the clan, mom’s great cooking, lots of good desserts, getting to meet new cousins and new spouses and seeing Uncle Jody (my eldest cousin) who I hadn’t seen in ten years. Of course the favorite moment, if I might speak on behalf of everyone, was the traditional Sloop family sing-a-long with the familiar and beloved hyms and Portuguese tunes that I sing along to even though I don’t have a clue what I am saying. This was the most profound moment of missing Uncle Steve. He had such a beautiful tenor voice and his absence in the sibling quartet kept me asking, “Why does this not sound as good as it used to?” (Sorry Daddy, Sandy and Helen…you have beautiful voices too!)

There was a new song introduced to our sing-a-long which will undoubtedly be a new fixture in the song repetoire. “Mr. Rabbit”, written by my brother-in-law Mike Ramsey, is a silly, simple song about different animals and their homes. It was a big hit with everyone but especially with John John. His intense enthusiasm had us all rolling.

Thank you Sloops from Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and even Lisbon, Portugal, for heading to the Valley for a wonderful, fabulous, meaningful celebration. The memories will carry me until 2010 where there could possibly even be one more Mrs. Sloop and a few new babies:)

Chris and I are planning on seeing Uncle Sandy and Aunt Annie sooner than that. Lisbon here we come!!! We are already googling Portugal for our kid free 2nd (or should I say 1st) honeymoon next July. My whole life I have wanted to see Lisbon with my own eyes, and to stand in front of the windmill photo that hangs in our house and I can’t believe it’s gonna happen. Sandy and Annie have always made a geneous offer to their neices and nephews to help get them overseas. I believe I am the only neice that hasn’t made it yet. Along with their offer, the Steve Sloop family made a time share offer to us after we lost Anna that we were never able to fulfill…until now. So let’s pray I’ll be able to loosen my grip on my children and keep from being “with child” for the fourth year in a row so Chris and I can jump across the world for some much needed “us” time. I am also jealous of the concentrated time that my other cousins and siblings have gotten with Sandy and Annie in their little pocket of the world. I can’t wait to know and love them more.

Uncle Sandy and Aunt Annie

Uncle Jody, Sara & Uncle Joe and Rachel and Anne

Dave being Dave with Missy & Cousin Sara & me

Finally David is not in the middle by himself!!!

Scott, Ross & Dave and Hanging out on the porch

Sweet Katie and Fun Sandy

The 2nd Cousins

Daddy and Annie & Uncle Sandy and me!

Happy Birthday Rach!

Aunt Betty, Mama and Annie

So in closing…. Sloopster’s, Slop’s and Sloopy’s, thanks for making me so proud to belong to each of you. I can’t wait for the next time! It can’t come soon enough! All My Love~Katie

John’s smile says it all…SUMMER! I don’t have a lot of time to write because I need to clean my house for the Sloop family reunion that is taking place this weekend in Harrisonburg. but i wanted to post some pictures of our eventful weeek!!!

John loves to play in the sprinkler in our backyard. He got cold running around in just his diaper so he decided to run around in his bathrobe. He had so much fun!

He is just now starting to look at the camera for pictures and I am loving it! I have snapped a lot of great shots of him this week.

Father’s Day with Great Grandfather Pop!
A first brother’s bath time photo.

They both had so much fun splashing together.
This is John being cool and relaxing at Auntie Laura’s pool!

It’s been a crazy week! Chris has had camp all week so I have been trying to pack our days full of summertime fun. Today 30 of our Sloop family members from all over the country and /globe will be coming in for a reunion. John doesn’t quite understand that he has many cousins he has never met before. He is in for a good time! I am sure I will have a lot to blog about on Monday.

I love celebrating people. I think parties and presents and hugs are the best and good food makes it even better. Since becoming a parent I’ve realized I really get what feels like 2 birthdays a year, 2 days where it’s all about you! So today felt like Chris’s birthday! As a matter of fact, John kept singing “Happy Birth-Daddy’s Day”. He seems to be thinking like his mama. As I was getting Chris’s gifts ready today, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude to get to be parenting with him. I’ll never forget when I worked at the Pregnancy Center and I came in one day to find Chris snuggling one of the babies we were placing for adoption and he was feeding her a bottle. I remember thinking “I can’t wait to watch him be a father to our own children.” Let me say, it is a treat everyday to witness him loving and nurturing our boys with patience, wisdom and joy. What a lucky girl I am!

Chris spent the greater part of the day at the baseball field working high school camp, but when he came home he was greeted with hugs and singing. We had Chinese for dinner and proceeded to gift opening. I intended to get Chris a gift card so he could go and buy several new CD’s. When I got to the store I had a wild hair and decided to buy him some music myself. For those of you that really know me you can go ahead and laugh. As much as I love to sing, I never buy music and I really don’t have a clue when it comes to pop culture. But I did my best. 2 of the CD’s I did pretty good on. I got the “Juno” sound track and the “Once” soundtrack. He may actually keep those. He will definitely be returning the third. I thought I was purchasing a Ryan Adams CD, when in fact I purchased a Bryan Adams CD. In my defense however, the BR was covered up on the front cover and all I saw was.. YAN ADAMS. We got a good laugh!

We also gave Chris a 42 slot enormous picture frame with pictures of him and the boys. I used each picture to illustrate what came together as a letter from John and Ben to their dad. I was excited about the gift and even more excited that it touched Chris so much.

Of course I captured these precious moments to document our fun for all to see.

John’s beautiful artwork

The pictures/letter from the boys
John really likes putting boxes on his head! I think his smile in his picture is so sweet. I think I will zoom in and cut out the box!
on the stairs!

Thanks Chris for loving my sons so well. And thanks to my daddy and to my father in law for having such a great influence in our lives and the lives of their grandchildren. We certainly count ourselves blessed! Happy Father’s Day Daddy’s!

“When will I learn my lesson?” Have you ever asked yourself this question? I ask myself this question repeatedly and especially today. As I am thinking about my next sentence, I am watching a sticky pink cheerio slowly make it’s way down the kitchen wall. Hmmm, how should I explain this to you…

Well it started yesterday when my son John John, who is currently nuzzling my arm like a cat, yelled “Mommy,clean it up, clean it up” in a frantic, shrill, deserpate cry for help. John is a kid that wants everything in it’s place and literally has a child sized panic attack when his routine or structure is thwarted. Whe he goes to sleep at night if somthing in his room needs to be elsewhere,he will let me know. If I come back in his room to stroke his blond locks, or to whisper an extra I love you in his ear, His response is “Mommy go and close the door, needs to be dark in here.” Everything is supposed to be just as his mind sees it. I try to comply hoping I am adding to his sense of safety and security and not feeding a monster of OCD that will end up in therapy one day pleading with his shrink “why didn’t my mother help to stop the madness.” I am typing with hand while crossing my fingers with the other. So, when John cried for help I ran into the living room expecting to see a letter or a number out of place or maybe one of his rebel figurines breaking form from the daily line up he orders them into. Never did I think I would be walking into our den to find diarrhea smeared all over our burber carpet seaping into the tiny fibers that consequently I just shampooed last week.

As I started the consoling,scrubbing process, John ran to each new spot crying “clean up my poopy mommy”, as if it was invisible to me. “Sweetie, don’t worry it’s okay mommy will clean it up. I can only get to one spot at a time.” I ushered him into the bathroom where I suggested we try to finish on the potty. As I lifted the lid it reaked of urine (I must have forgoteen to empty it yesterday…okay this week). I proceeded to encourage John to sit, push his little button down (sorry daddy) and aim for the bottum of the bowl. Nothing came out to which he responded, “Sound good…not working now.” He hopped off gleefully, singing as he went, the sesame street theme song as it was coming on PBS. He was over it and now I was in it! As John and Elmo sang their “LaLa’s” and I continued srubbing poop and gagging, I thought back over the morning to figure out how this could have possibly happened. And then it came to me… it was an “Ah-Ha” moment for sure. A lighting bolt of intellect, an epihpany! I had taken off John’s clothes and diaper trusting his unpotty-trained self alone in the living room while I drank my coffee and read the paper in the kitchen (okay so I was facebooking). Oh yeah, did I mention that he currently has hand/foot and mouth disease? This means he is drinking gallons of apple juice to keep from dehydrating (his beverage of choice) and A.J. gives him diarrhea! So, there you have it…I solved the riddle. What a smart little cookie I am. nakedness + sickness + apple juice + left alone= diarrhea on carpet. You would think one would learn from this experience.

Again this morning I was drinking my coffee, reading the paper (blogging) and I hear that familiar, shrill call for rescue coming from the living room. Hmmm, Am I having dejavu? “Cheerios overboard” the captain cried as what seemed like hundreds of tiny multi colored spheres drenched the still damp carpet of the living room floor. As I picked up these mushy reminders of my stupidity I headed back into the kitchen to toss them into the disposal as one missed and landed on the kitchen wall. I thought to myself “WHATEVER” and turned to go back to my life. And then another thought came to me, “What in the heck am I doing?” and “what will my husband say when he comes home to find a pink cheerio stuck to the wall.” As I stood up to go and remove the cereal, it started slowly making it’s descent, one sicky inch at a time and I started laughing…. hard! And so the question formed in my mind, “When will I learn my lesson?” Maybe tomorrow I will take the laptop into the living room and be a present mother as my coffee kicks in and kicks the benedryl hang over out. Or maybe I will be posting another blog called “Burber Bananas Anyone? This is a tired mama who has at least learned the value of laughing at her repetitive maternal mistakes. Anyone relate? Well I’m off… there are a couple of armpits that need to be tickled and a heart that needs to be loved in hope’s that his future shrink will hear about a few good things his mama did as well!

God Bless America is what the cake said that mom bought from Cosco to feed the five thousand. We only ate 1/20 of the cake. It has been packed up and put in the freezer for a 4th of July Party. John’s version of “God Bless America” doesn’t sound like it should. Come to think of it, it sounds an awful lot like “Happy Birthday.” Anyone who would like to come for cake on 7/4/08 you are all invited! In these first pictures John’s “Nellie” is trying to teach him to salute. He was more interested in putting his fingers into the cake than by his head.

Our men were hard at work yesterday! Dad grilled steaks while Mike built a custom sandbox for Mom’s backyard and Chris was working with the James Madison University Baseball Team, the newly crowned Colonial Athletic Association Champions! Go Dukes! They will be traveling on Wednesday to Raleigh for the NCAA Tournament! I am so delighted that Chris will be able to travel with the team.

The kids had a blast yesterday. John got 2 really fun sprinkler’s from Montica and Raegan for his birthday. We busted them out and the kids had so much fun running down mom’s hill into the wiggly sprays of water. Here are some fun pics…

One of my very favorite places to be is on Mom and dad’s back porch. There always seems to be the most perfect breeze no matter how hot it is ouside. She has a great porch swing that the kids love. We put Ben’s exersaucer on the back porch and he loves the breeze blowing through his new “fluffy” hair as John calls it.

We had a great day yesterday. We just wish we could’ve been with all of you too! We hope your day was filled with fun and laughter as you each celebrated this great country we live in and the brave people that fought and are fighting so hard for our freedom!