Thankful ABC's

A- Aaron, Andrew, apples(apple pie/crisp, etc.), my Alphabet Twins

B- babies,butter(I really am thankful for it!), Barney Fife, books, baseball, blogs and the blog friends I've made, brothers

C- church, cousins, children, the children I call mine, craft stores, colors, cd's to listen to on long car rides, Christmas lights, clothes,coffee

D- Daniel, Dad, Dr Suess stories, daisies

E- Erika, Elizabeth, Emma(the new movie)

F- faith, family, friends, forever and always faithful friends, fun, always having food, fabric, fuzzy socks, flowers

G- grandparents, game nights with Autumn and Joanna, Gerber daisies

H- Mr and Mrs H. and Grandma H.(Erika's parents and grandmother), hugs, hot chocolate on snowy days, my home, happy days, hearing

I- cookie dough ice cream, Ibuprofen

J- jewelry, Josh Groban(more specifically,his music), jelly

K- Katie~who becomes more special every day, Kashman(yes,that's his real name), Kim~who makes me laugh every Thursday

L- laughter,love, the gift of life, Lindt chocolate truffles

M- Mom, music, memories, the moments that take our breath away and make our lives beautiful, midnight chats, Molly, Morning Glorys

N- New England, nature, the Navy

O- the ocean, oranges, ostrich feathers,Oreos, outer space, the O's~ Katie's family that I can never get enough of

P- photography, the piano, pansies, pretty papers, surprise packages in the mail

Q- Quaint and Quirky(I am especially thankful that I thought of something that begins with Q!)

R- reading, rivers, rabbits

S- sisters, sunflowers, sunsets, sleep(oh, how I love you), Skittles, Spring and Summer, school(even though I sometimes feel overwhelmed and unmotivated), scrapbooking, sewing, Spellchecker, sight

T- tiaras, tea, the troops who defend us, Thursday night card games with Grandma

U- United States of America

V- volunteering at the preschool and childrens hospital, vacations

W- Wesley~our "step brother in law" extraordinaire, waltzing, fresh water everyday, the beyond beautiful wedding, wise councilors, waterfalls

X- the X-ray that showed Elizabeth did not have internal bleeding after her fall off the roof(Whats that? I didn't tell you that story?)

Y- teams that a beat the Yankees

Z- Zachary, the zoo(because I still like to go there)

A Ribbon Rose by Another Other Name

Fair warning: My camera and I have experienced a joyful reunion after a very long three week seperation. I am now able to talk about the wedding even more then before, only this time with pictures. Be still your hearts.

***

Every bride needs that special bouquet to carry during her wedding rehearsal. When said bride chooses to have a gift card shower instead of a "regular" shower, the number of bows and ribbons available to make the rehearsal bouquet can be slim to none. Enter the three brilliant bridesmaids that made this shower possible and they will ask each shower guest to bring a yard of pretty ribbon specifically for this purpose. Two of the bridesmaids will designate one of their own to do the actual creating...

If I had had any presence of mind while making this, I would have taken pictures of each step so I'd have start-to-finish documentation of the process. Unfortunately, I didn't have any such presence so we only have finished-finished documentation. Unlike most artistic and creative projects that I do, I was actually almost perfectly pleased with the outcome. Being a perfectionist is not always a good thing! The stem of the bouquet was the besequined and beautified toilet plunger Dani decorated as a Erika's scepter during the shower.*

That last sentence shows just how classy we are. But back to the flowers.

It was fun to be surprised by each different ribbon turning into its own type of flower. I almost don't want to say this because I don't want to sound like I'm boasting, but I was extremely proud that some flowers even ended up resembling real flowers like I wanted them to! The only flower I didn't make was Dani's contribution: the white rose in the bottom left of the second picture. It matched the rosettes on our dresses which tied the rehearsal and wedding together perfectly.

What I learned from this project:

1. do not be finishing such a high-importance project the night before the rehearsal
2. see #1

*Why is the whole paragraph comprised of completely different thoughts instead of one continual thought?! The only excuse I have is that its late. and I'm a collage student. I think we all know what that means: sleep is lacking.

First Gift

The first Christmas gift of the year has official been given in our family.

Andrew, Elizabeth and I(we apparently like group gifts)all pitched in for Aaron to see the Tran-Siberian Orchestra with Andrew* last night. I have yet to receive a review complete with all the important details of the event such as what they wore, but judging by Aaron's glazed over,star struck , "Will I ever be that good?" , look I think he enjoyed it. I just asked him what his favorite part of the show was, and he answered that it was "the music". Its good to know that the musical group is living up to their motto by playing, you know, music! : )

I would love to see them someday,but I'm so happy that Aaron could after wanting to see them for so long. Once again, giving feels much better then receiving!

* Lest there be any question as to whether or not it was a hardship for Andrew to accompany Aaron, I 'd like to set the record straight--it wasn't. At all.

Edit-Aaron just told me that one lady was playing a pink violin. I'll be sure to let you know every time he tells me something new that is of utmost interest and importance so that you'll be able to feel like you were are the concert too. Minus the music; I can't provide that.

Dear Comcast

Dear Comcast,

I know your time is limited so I'll make this as short and to the point as possible: I have a problem with your remote. Technically I suppose I have a problem with your cable/remote/internet/whoknowswhat, but the issue today is your remote(see Exhibit A). Out of the five families I regularly babysit for, all five have this remote and none-zero-nada actually turn on/off or operate the tv in the same manner. Translation: I need to learn a new tv operation method for each family. Further translation: alloted tv viewing time usually turns into a hassle because I invariably use method 1 to turn on the tv of family 3 and method 2 to turn on the tv of family 4. In case any further translation is needed: every single time I use the wrong method the tv gets messed up. Very messed up. Makes me play the "wait 'til your dad gets home and he'll fix it" card messed up.

Exhibit A

And so I have just one simple request- can you find it somewhere in your tech-savvy hearts to re-make one of those remotes that turns every tv on and off with just one push of one button?

Sincerely,
Sarah

P.S. If you could also make it dog, spill, dirt, and stomp proof you just might be my friend(at atlest cable/remote/internet/whoknowswhat provider)for life.

Better then Imagined

For that last 20 years, I haven't had a big sister. For the last 15 years since the arrival of Aaron and Elizabeth, I have been THE big sister. The one who wanted to be the second mother to the family. The one who felt, and sometimes still feels, the need to take care of everyone, even if I really am Daniel and Andrew little sister. The one who won't let anyone even think about getting in the way and trying to take care of my family. That's my job. Occasionally through out the years I've wondered what it would be like to have an older sister. How would my life growing up been different? Would I still have the love for taking care of others that I have? Would I even like having a big sister? Adopting Katie's two older sisters as my own gave me a little slice of the Big Sister Pie and as much as I loved it, I was, and am, so proud to say that I have two older brothers. Two big brothers.

Now I have Erika.


Sweet, beautiful, happy Erika. And you know what? I do love having a big sister. I love it more then I could possibly have ever imagined.

Happy birthday Erika!

♥

Balloons are What Memories are Made Of

Saturday morning marked the first post-wedding meeting of the bridesmaids. We parked in our Official Parking Lot and meet at our Official Meeting Place-outside the Dunkin' Donuts on the campus of the school Rudy, Daniel and Erika all attend(ed). After having so many shower/wedding planning meetings there this summer, Dani, Rudy and I feel as if we sort of own the place. I'm sure no one has forgotten the sight of us lugging three plastic tubs of scrapbooking supplies from Dani's car and taking over half the patio for three hours. Technical schools don't generally smile upon such an obvious show of creativity.

Anyway(and I know you're thinking "good heavens, is she ever going to stop talking and just say something?"), just because Rudy was sick and couldn't be with us didn't mean she couldn't join in on the fun of the morning. So what did we do? Simply pull out the bag of balloons Dani just so happened to have in her car and set to work making Rudy a balloon basket of flowers. I use the word "we" loosely as Dani did all the work of blowing and twisting the balloons while all I did was hold them and give occasional comments about which colors to use.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the completed balloon bouquet.

The fun only increased after we delivered Rudy her flowers. We(again, in a very loose sense)took balloon twisting to new heights and Balloon Rudy was born. We took "Rudy" around campus with us all the while taking pictures so the real Rudy feel included in our day. We had a ball with Balloon Rudy but the best part was that Rudy had no idea we were doing this for her until we put the pictures on Facebook. She just sent an email saying she had had a tough week and we really brightened her day. : )

Dani waltzing with the lovely(and very short)Rudy

Discussing Rudy's week.

I tell you, it was a very interesting week she had; just looking at the way her right hand is flying all around.

We missed you Rudy!!

ps. I just want to add that the resemblance between Balloon Rudy and real Rudy was stunning. Just scroll back up to the picture of Rudy with her flowers then look again at Balloon Rudy. We were very impressed with ourselves.

I Couldn't Agree More

My Brilliance is Just Plain Staggering

It really doesn't bother me that I don't own a car yet. I don't mind using either our family van or car and just paying for insurance and gas. Actually, I don't at all like paying for insurance or gas but you know what I mean. Apparently though, not always having and using one specific car is playing with my brain because as I walked out of Pier I Imports today, I was looking at my van thinking 'really? Did I park over there? And the sunlight is making it look really purplish instead of red.' By the time I reached the parking lot I decided that that wasn't my van after all and when I looked to the right to check for oncoming cars, I saw another red car and realized that I hadn't even been driving the van after all. I was driving the CAR.

It is at times like these that I just feel oh, so brilliant.

Wordless Wednesday

21

In honor of her 21st on October 19th, I present

21 Reasons to Love Katie

1. She willingly plays gets dressed-up in {occasionally outlandish} costumes under the guise of "entertaining the kids" or "to take pictures" , but really its because dress-up is such good, clean fun and she doesn't care that some may say she's too old for such things.


2. Never in the history of friends or candy has there been a better person to share a bag of Skittles with. She likes the red and purple best, I like the yellow and orange best, and we split the green.


3. She is a friend to all kinds. Neither the ladylike Olivia nor that dude, Ernie, are passed over.


4. If you just so happen to say to her "D.F.I.G.", or "M.S.P.", she will understand exactly what you're saying.


5. She thinks nothing of dashing up and down the hallway with you in imitation of Laurie and Jo's dance from Little Women. At 5 o'clock in the morning.


6. Her hair is a work of great beauty. Whoever said that you should not to pick your friends based on their appearance obviously never met her hair.

7. She is fabulous at spelling, her brain makes the Wizard of Oz jealous, and her handwriting is enviable.

8. A day spent with Katie is 98% pure laughter. The other 2% of the time is used as a breath-catching time so the laughter can start again.


9. If laughter really does extended your life, Katie is going to live to be a very,very,very old lady.


10. She includes me in all her big moments.

11. She loves my grandparents as her very own.

12. When Grandpa died, she was able to comfort my in a special way because of that and because she lost her own grandfather 5 months ealier.


13. She always remembers our plan that we will be so polite as to inform the other if we were going to be rude.

14. In all her years of sleeping over, never once has she forget to join me in asking Daniel{the "prince"}if he was in a good mood that morning.


15. Because we both "love eggs AND hate eggs".


16. She will send you an oatmeal soap recipe when your eczema is acting up.


17. While visiting London for the first time she won't forget to send you a postcard and 3 page letter within that one week.


18. Because no one could possibly even think to ask for a better bestest friend to have the last 18 years.


19. Knowing that you love hearing about all the babies at her church, she will provide periodical cuteness updates.


20. She is an amazing sister to each of her 6 sisters and 4 brothers. She is so loved by my family, her "adopted family", that she was given a seat of honor during Daniel's wedding ceremony: in the front row along with the rest of our family.


21. Just look at this picture. Who wouldn't want to be friends with someone so cool?!