Up & Coming Weekly

STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Tabitha Kidd tabitha@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com ––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a “Quality of Life” publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what’s happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE PUBLISHER’S PEN by JANICE BURTON Over the past few weeks, I’ve been jokingly asking my son what he was going to buy me for Mother’s Day. His answers vary from fl owers to lunch, and most recently it became “I won’t bug you the whole day.” In short, I think his answer was I’ll give you a moment to rest. That’s something that mothers don’t get often, if I go by my own schedule. Mornings are hectic. Trying to get one child up and out of the door with everything they need is chaotic enough. I don’t know how mothers with three, four or more children do it. I certainly don’t know how my own mother, who had fi ve children, did it. As a child, it seemed like she had no problems getting it done. I hope my child sees it the same way. But I doubt it. Evenings are fi lled with sports practices, homework and the inevitable, “But Mom, I’m not tired.” And weekends, well, those are fi lled with lawn work, house cleaning and birthday parties. Endless birthday parties. Somewhere in the midst of that, many of us fi t in church activities, physical activities of our own, that don’t include lugging laundry baskets, work and some sort of adult social life. The modern mother should probably wear an S on her chest for Super Woman — or maybe a G for glutton for punishment. But at the end of the day, the very long day, we still look back at what we’ve accomplished, and in my opinion, the biggest accomplishment is the fact that our children are sleeping safely in their beds in good health and happy. I’m fortunate in the fact that I have many examples of good mothers all around me. They are in my family, and they are in the community of people I choose to surround myself with. They teach me lessons that I know in the long run will make me a better parent. While these amazing women are really too numerous to mention (and I count myself fortunate to have so many good and Godly examples), I would like to mention three women who have made a big impact on me over the past year. One, I’ve know quite a while. One I’ve been getting to know over the past year, and one I just met. Each of these women is independent, beautiful and full of grace. Each also lost a spouse in Afghanistan. The fi rst woman, I’ve watched move through the past year of loss and have marveled time and again over her ability to put her Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Thursday May 6 Friday May 7 Saturday May 8 Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sponsored by High 89° Low 65° Mostly Sunny 4 UCW MAY 5-11, 2010 High 91° Low 66° Mostly Sunny High 81° Low 53° Scattered Thunderstorms Regional Airport www.fl yfay.com Fayetteville High 78° Low 55° Mostly Sunny High 75º Low 58º Partly Cloudy High 82º Low 59º Scattered Thunderstorms WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast grief aside and simply do. She’s active in our church, volunteers at school and is always there for her friends, but more importantly for her children. Her inner strength is amazing, and I only pray that I have one half of it. I doubt she sees herself that way right now, but one day, she will. She is truly an amazing person. The second lady, I met at football practice last fall. She is a quiet woman — a school teacher. We spent quite a while talking one night and she told me her story. For the past four years she has raised her children on her own. They are beautiful, creative, smart children. In short, they are a lot like their mother. She doesn’t say a lot, but when she does, it’s usually an encouragement to someone else. She has taught me lessons in grace this past year, even though she didn’t know she was teaching them. The last lady I met only a month or so ago. She came to work with my division at Fort Bragg as an intern. She is outgoing. She is bubbly. You can tell she has a goal and she wants to achieve it. When I fi rst met her, I thought that goal was fi nishing her degree, and that is a goal, but it’s not her primary goal. She, too, lost her husband four years ago. And from that day, her goal has been to raise her children as normally as possible. She wants them to know about and love their father, but more importantly she doesn’t want their lives to revolve around that loss. While the enemy took her love, they didn’t take her life. That’s a lesson she has taught and continues to teach her daughters. It’s a lesson she passed on to me during a recent conversation. These women are strong. They are resilient. They are both mother and father to their children, and they live right here among us. They remind me that harried mornings and long days are more than a job. They are what being a good mother is all about. And for these women, and the countless others who teach me by their examples, I am truly grateful. Happy Mother’s Day! Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 18 Concert Connection ........................ 24 TV ..................................................... 26 Movie Review ..................................28 Movie Schedule ............................... 29 Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 30 News of the Weird ........................... 31 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 31 Classifieds ........................................ 32 Games .............................................. 34 Dining Guide .................................... 35 Super Moms and What They Teach Us JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Sunday May 9 Monday May 10 Tuesday May 11 24 24 / 7

• Cover