Happy Birthday to My Favorite Beach - Meguna

To Meguna

Happy Birthday! My dear dear friend! I have been thinking about you a lot lately and felt the need to make you smile (hopefully) on your birthday:

1. Lighter and Brighter
2. Speed Lemoooooon!!!
3. Sugar Water High
4. Pringles – Once you Pop You just can’t stop (Special thanks to another friend for that one)
5. Pixie – How you learn sniffing Pixie sticks does NOT feel good (Special thanks to another friend for that one)

6. Figure it out Cheer/Flag Routine
7. Pocohauntus – Just Around the River Bend Routine
8. ::clears throat and begins singing:: I’ve been complimented by an idiot today, hip hip hooray, I’ve been complimented by an idiot today, hip hip hooray-yay, and when your complimented by an idiot its ok for you to say….
9. Painting Pink dorms – Pepto Bismo pink…how I hate you
10. Perfect Harmonies for Holy, Holy, Holy…Lord God Almighty
11. Big Big House – Cheer – Camp (Special Thanks to all our “Cabin” friends at camp)

12. Creepy Furbies
13. The Bermuda Triangle (shout out to Ali!)
14. Green GU
15. You taught me how to dive – back when you lived at the house with the pool
16. We created a recipe book…but I only remember the insanely chocolatey brownies…or maybe it was cake
17. Buying Eggs and Bracelets in Mexico
18. Going to NASCAR races…I actually never remember watching the race (sorry Joe! I always watched the last few laps!)
19. Saying Good-bye to Mia – Well that might be the only non-funny moment on here, but its memorable to me
20. Trying to put a penny on the railroad track (Shhh don’t tell mom)
21. Countless sleepovers and games and dressing up, and giggling, and everything else.
22. All Stars - Trent - Sexy Sexy Man
23. Joe the Drummer - Sexy Sexy Man
24. SERFS! Gretchen - How I miss thee

25. Pink Ball Josh - PBJ

All that to say – You had a huge role in who I am today. I appreciate the time we spent together as kids and teenagers and am blessed to have had a friend like you in my life during those times.

I hope you have a blessed and amazing birthday!



I love you Meguna Beach!

My First 30 Minutes

A sample of my Morning

::My alarm goes off::
Taylor: SURPRISE!! Good morning mom (she says inches from my face…she was waiting for my alarm!)

::Made breakfast and sat down::
Jordan: ::picks up a an orange slice and takes a bite:: Mom! There’s apple juice in my oranges!! (apparently any sort of juice from a fruit is apple)

::Taylor finishes her breakfast::
Taylor: Mom can I have more oatmeal
Me: No – go get a yogurt out of the fridge
Taylor: ::after a moment of thought:: can I have pudding?
Me: No – you can have yogurt
Taylor: I’ll ask dad
Me: No – I said you have pudding
Taylor: Ok, I’ll have yogurt and then pudding
Me: Fine

::As I leave::
Jordan: Mom you going to make money?
Me: Yes
Jordan: then you gonna give it to Taylor?

::Walking down our steps to leave::
Me: see you later alligator
Taylor: after awhile crocodile
Jordan: ::simultaneously:: see you later crocodile!

My life would be far less interesting without kids.

I Married a Nerd

There is a game. A Nerdy game. That is played by my husband and Tawni's husband.

It has now spread to involve some more Nerds (Matt and Sam that is).

Although I'm super excited the boys had a chance to play a game, relax, and just be the nerds we all know they are - this was not my favorite part of our Saturday.

Saturday was actually VERY busy. From the birth of a dear friend's first baby that morning! To some severe house cleaning and shopping. We ended our day with an evening of friends.

The Websters and the Newmyers joined us so I had some girl time with Kim and Tawni. The kids entertained each other very well that night so I really really did get to have girl time. If you haven't experienced a night with a house full of kids then you can't fully understand what kind of accomplishment this is.

A night with kids (and by kids we usually have 5-7 kids running around) usually involves something like this:

A mom: So this week I ::loud scream and all women pause::

Another mom: That was mine ::walks off to check on screaming child::

A mom: What was I saying?

::Another mom returns::

A mom: Oh yeah, this week was awesome! I ::loud crash::

A dad: I'll check on them ::leaves room:: Hey, I need some help in here

Well, something like that. And don't worry, no children were harmed in the making of that scenario, but I'm pretty sure it actually happened at some point.

With our children shockingly well behaved and no major injuries we had the chance to actually talk. It was fabulous!

We also got to start planning a camping trip. I think this most excites me. I loved camping as a kid and I hope my kids do to. REAL camping - I'm talking tents people! The good stuff!

I look forward to some more fun family time with my rapidly growing group of family friends that I cherish more and more every day...well maybe ever other week since I don't actually see them daily :)

I May Be a Blog Stalker

I became one of those blog stalkers… I knew them – Sort of.

Rachel – I was in UCO with her for 2 years – we never talked – I wish we had
Tawni – I’m not sure if I actually met her – maybe in passing she married my husband’s Roomate (my boyfriend at the time)
Shanda – She may not know this but I admired her when I did know her in College. She had this fire I was drawn to and an amazing heart I strived to be more like.

I remember the day I sent this message to Rachel and Tawni:

o Birthday Party
Hi guys! It may be odd, but I read both your blogs constantly and would love if you our kids could meet and mingle

I also make it a point to make myself available to friends with kids to offer to watch them if needed. I know finding a sitter can be hard, especially with last minute things and since you are close I would be happy to help if needed.

All this to say Taylor is having her 4th birthday party on Jan 22 (2-4) and you are both welcome! I sent this to both of you because I wasn't sure if you would want to come w/o each other since you wouldn't know many people there aside from Justin or Sam Welbaum.

Have great day!!

P.S. Your boys are ADORABLE!!! I hope my little Elijah is as cute

I even hesitated to send it out of fear of freaking them out – a blog stalker. At least they knew of me even if they didn’t know me.

I don’t do well with new people. I really want to, but I get nervous and clam up. With these girls (and husbands and kids) I feel welcome and accepted. It’s a new door opened in the Davis’ lives and it has been a real blessing to get to know these families better and build stories together. I appreciate them – so I wanted to tell them.

Thank you for letting us in! My kids look forward to playing with your and Justin and I look forward to the chaotic-semi grown up time we get to spend with you all.

Well that didn’t include Shanda, but don’t worry she is not forgotten.

She just got “home” – reading her blog make me feel the need to tell you “home” is very relative – being in the US is probably still more like a vacation for her while she remembers/misses “home” in China (my words not her words – I could be wrong).

Justin always raved about his “sister” – I remember how excited he was when he found out I would get to be her roommate for a night while we were on choir tour. The few hours of bonding we had stuck with me (as mentioned before her spirit is addicting!) We got to see her recently and I prayed for her – as often as I saw her. I felt for her. She has been thrown into a new world with expectations that she knows and understands what it is like to be here (in the US) when to her, this is a little new. I pray her re-entry is smooth and without “turbulence”. She is an amazing person with an amazing God-Honoring heart – she deserves to be blessed and I hope this transition is part of her amazing blessing.

All that to say it was really good to see her – the small relationship we have doesn’t hinder my love for my “sister-in-law”. (Pic stolen from her blog)

So that is my story – my story of blog stalking.

To Have Only One

Every year we head down to La Jolla to spend time with some friends. These are some very special kind of friends. Friends I have probably spent more time with then some of "close" (as in distance not relationship) friends.

I met most of these people around 5 years ago and spent a lot of time with them - some seasons of my life I spent 2-3 hours a day with them, talking, playing, laughing, and relaxing. That's all I'll say about that to avoid the pure nerdiness of our relationships though, but if you know me and you know KORT then you understand!

There is an annual BBQ in La Jolla with the KORT crew and we usually leave the kiddos with family while we go. It is a lot easier to enjoy the company of adults with kids around. This year, however, we took Taylor along. We figured 4 was/is old enough to entertain herself without us having to be overly paranoid about her walking away too far and getting lost or eating some random object on the ground.

My camera battery died after taking a couple of pictures and so I didn't get any of the KORT crew, super bummed! I did however get one of my new favorite pictures of Taylor.

Taylor called the "weekend" our adventure. She enjoyed some time at the beach and then headed to the hotel. For a "nice" hotel we had a horrible experience! The paperwork for the reservation said the room would be ready at 3, we got there at 5 and the lady at the desk said it actually isn't ready until 4 (but it was 5) and our rooms were still not ready. We had dinner reservations at 7 and needed to shower (get the sand and salt off) before dinner - they were telling us our room wouldn't be ready until after 6!

I was insanely frustrated and they would not let us cancel the reservation!! Lame - I know!

When we finally got to our room Taylor called it her "New Home" - all part of her adventure.

We headed to dinner and got to spend more time with the KORT crew at Dave & Busters - Taylor had a blast! She won a surprising number of tickets for randomly hitting buttons. Apparently the method to hit jackpots and bonuses is to not even look at what you are doing and slam buttons.

She picked out 2 toys for herself and 1 toy for Jordan and Elijah.

When we got back to the hotel she insisted I sleep with her - I indulged.

Did I mention I forgot sunblock (on me) ... again?! 2nd degree burns on my knees and shoulders and sleeping with a 4 year old that moves all night made for a very long night, but still a great time.

As we arrived back home Taylor told us she was sad her adventure was over and so I told her we will go on a new one soon.

Adventures in Facial "Hair"

I'm a big fan of grilled onions. I know, an odd sentence to start a blog about facial "hair", but I promise it will make sense shortly... well as much sense as the logic of a 2 year old that is.

I usually make a ton of grilled onions with our burgers, because lets be honest, grilled onions not only improve a burger but also are a snack on their own.

After dinner was done and we were cleaning up the table we heard Jordan saying "I have a mustache!" We turn around to see her using slices of grilled onion to top off her upper lip. And Justin being the guy he is felt this was the opportune time to take pictures of many different variety'o'staches:

The Goatee

The Snot-stache

The Handlebars

The Hitler (Stupid Justin)

The standard stache

Justin calls this the the "Perve-stache"