Dandelions and Daffodils

special giveaway for military families!!

2012-01-30T10:14:00.003-05:00

I always feel oh so professional when I say this, and here I am saying it again: I was contacted by a company about doing a giveaway with them. Unlike the last giveaways which have been for little things like bowls or gift certificates, this giveaway is from a company trying to make a difference in the lives of military families.

SuperTintin is a recording tool for online interviews, conferences, lessons, podcasts, or family VoIP calls. It records Skype phone calls, video chats and voice mails. They are generously donating 100 licenses to its Skype recording software so that deployed/stationed servicemen and women can connect with their families at home, and the at-home family can record the conversation (and all following conversations) to play back or share with other family and friends as much as they'd like. The conversations can also be embedded in blog posts, uploaded to YouTube or emailed. I will be giving away five SuperTinTin licenses to military families for Valentine’s Day.

To put it visually, instead of just talking on the phone (I’m sure we all still use rotary phones),

you’ll be able to see your loved one live and in person. (Please notice how I included three babies in the below picture. That’s because I would love to have triplets.) You can save these precious conversations to watch over and over again.

You’ll receive your SuperTintin license code in time for Valentine’s Day.

Please note that SuperTintin is not yet compatible with Macs. Just another reason to have a PC.

Rules of entry- Open to military families only. Service member need not be deployed.

1-Leave a comment sharing your Valentine’s Day plans. If you have no such plans, say one thing you’re looking forward to in February. If you have Valentines plans AND something exciting in February, feel free to share both! I’m always interested to know what other people are doing. (My husband says it’s nosey. I say it’s well-informed.)
My Valentine’s Day plans are very exciting. I am going with Christopher to his graduation formal! Everybody is going to be dressed up and look just lovely. I can't wait. (Do you think soldiers would appreciate being called "just lovely"?)

2- follow this blog and leave another comment

3- ~~do 85 push ups~~ Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave the link in another comment

Giveaway will end February 11^th.

*Information provided by the SuperTintin representative and website. I was provided with two additional codes which I gave to K and Shayla.

an evening in Africa

2012-01-28T22:42:00.000-05:00

Grandma has always wanted to go to Africa, so for her birthday we gave her a special Evening in Africa.

I decorated the table with little safari animals we played with when we were young.

This is the only safari where the rabbits are the same size as the elephants and lions.

Our friend Gladman was born and raised in Zimbabwe. He went to the same school as Daniel and we all became friends. When he graduated, his parents flew to the United States for the big occasion and we had them over for supper. His mother sent us this beautiful tablecloth and napkins as a thank you gift. Our Africa night was the perfect opportunity to use them.

On the menu we had South African green bean salad, chicken and peanut butter gravy, South African sweet potato fritters, and spicy nutty bananas for dessert.

Tony the giraffe made a celebrity appearance. He's a little flat and deflated, but a giraffe nonetheless.

Gladman's mother also gave us three genuine African shirts so we ladies wore them. Here's the birthday girl and her daughter.

We didn't have any African shirts for the men, so they just wore black shirts. (Aaron probably preferred that anyway!)

We ended our evening in African by watching The African Queen. Grandma had so much fun in Africa and I'm so glad we could be the ones to bring her! ;)

the owls of Flip Flap Lane

2012-01-26T18:38:00.000-05:00

After four weeks of intense cutting, pinning, stitching, and twirling around showing off ballet moves (that would be Anna), our sewing class finally finished our owls today.

They obligingly posed for us on the stairs.

(left to right) Anna named her owl Olivia, mine is Macy, and Jillian's green owl is Sarah. I never had one owl named after me, let alone TWO (Olivia is my middle name), so I was very honored.

We decided they all live together in trees on Flip Flap Lane. When I move again, we'll write letters to each other telling what our owls are doing. I have a feeling my owl is going to be the most widely traveled of the trio!

a house with a view

2012-01-23T23:05:00.001-05:00

My mother (the one with the irritatingly good sense of direction) and I (the one with the frustrate lack of any directional skills) took yesterday and today to search for an apartment in New York.

You know who does not have a natural talent for researching real estate? Me.

This morning I sent my dearly beloveded far-off husband the following message: "I'm going to find you a mansion with a cook, a car person, and a go to Blockbuster to pick up our desired movie person. Or just a house with a roof and a bed."

I did not get him a mansion or a car person (honestly, the car person would have been solely for my benefit), but I did get him a house with THREE beds and a view.

photo not taken this morning

In all fairness and honesty, I did not find this apartment. Christopher, the dearly beloveded far-off husband, found it last week after I, the one in charge of apartment plans, may have had a small emotional breakdown while on the phone with him. It was not one of my finer moments.

The land in the distance across the lake is Canada. I have been practicing my Canadian language skills in my head all day. I would hate if a Canadian rowed over to my new home and I didn't know the perfect thing to say. Unfortunately, one of the only phrases I could come up with was "cheerio!" While such a phrase might be appropriate to threw around when one dines with William and Kate (and don't we all do that on a regular basis?), I don't think it's quite appropriate here. I'd love to hear from any experts who may know.

Come to think of it, I'm French Canadian so that alone should get any new Canadian friendship off to a rip-roaring start.

greetings from the land of hugs and snow

2012-01-21T18:05:00.000-05:00

Two things of utmost importance must be noted from this weekend.

1) Today is National Hugging Day. Go grab someone you love and start hugging away! I rushed over to Aaron when he came home from track and as I threw my arms around him, I yelled, "It's National Hugging Day!!" He did not share my enthusiasm. "Sarah! That's even WEIRDER THAN USUAL!!"

2) It finally snowed!! I am just thrilled.

Friday afternoon I received a text message from a mysterious number that read, "Hey there love! Can i call you?" I stared at the numbers hoping they might magically turn into the senders name, but they did not. I almost responded with, "Hello, my darling! I await your call with anticipation and longing. Do contact me at your earliest convenience", then decided that might not be the best idea. After all, I didn't know who was texting me. Just that day I had written a text to Christopher saying I miss and love him and almost sent it to MY FRIENDS HUSBAND. That would have been awkward.

Turns out it was Hannah contacting me. She came over for a trip to Anthropology (the latest addition to my list of top five favorite stores), a marathon viewing of Downton Abbey, and a trip to the snowy outdoors.

As we shoveled, I was reminded of a snowstorm we had many years ago. Our friend Tom was over and we were experiencing a shovel shortage. Tom felt bad that he wasn't helping out, so he went into the kitchen and came out with a tablespoon. He proceed to shovel his corner of the driveway with said tablespoon. Needless to say, it took him SWEET FOREVER to get anything accomplished.

If you need me this weekend, just look for the person wearing bright red boots who is running around looking for people to hug.

Thomas Edison would have loved hanging out with us

2012-01-18T15:08:00.002-05:00

Two nights ago I video chatted for the first time.

Naturally I shared this moment with Katie.

Seeing how Katie and I invented video chatting, I'm surprised it took us this long to actually use it. Did you know we invented it? Well, we did. Way back when we were the tender age of ten, we decided somebody needed to invent a phone with a tv screen "or something" so we could see each other while we talked. We had a lot of new Lisa Frank paraphernalia and trying to describe it over the phone just wasn't working.

The internet may give you another version of how video chatting/Skype was invented, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily true. Obviously such a popular form of communication was developed by two young girls living on the east coast who liked to compare their sticker collections.

Did you know we also invented a little thing called CDR? CDR stands for Compact Disc Ring, a highly cutting-edge, fashion-forward device that looked like a ring but was in reality a teeny tiny cd player. The ring was about the size of a penny and the cd's the size of a dime. We founded a multi-million dollar operation through which we sold CDR's as well as a large selection of mini cd's. We even designed our own letterhead and sent letters to our most loyal customers (aka my aunt and uncle). It was all very entrepreneurial. We had very few sales, but that was most likely due to the fact that our prices were something like $542,580,126.02 per CDR. The cd's were priced at around $558,042.01 which we felt was A REAL BARGAIN.

We also invented a brand new design for toe-socks and sold them through another of our large corporations.

Obviously we kept the patent office HOPPING.

Monday musings

2012-01-16T17:01:00.001-05:00

* After two weeks of ~~stalking Facebook everyday~~ patiently waiting, this picture taken by one of Christopher's classmates at the branching ceremony has finally made an appearance.

I am a fan.

* I got to talk to Christopher for a whole hour over the weekend!

* I like this little design. Maybe I'll make it into a shirt. I'm ALL ABOUT rhinestones.

* Grandma's 84th birthday party yesterday was highly successful.

* The TIRE PRESSURE LOW came on in the car again today. A funky new light called the electro-mechanical power steering assist failure light came on too. I won't even pretend I know what exactly that means. I foresee another trip to the mechanic in our future

* Today I'm calling realtors about apartments for us to live in after Christopher graduates. When did I gain such responsibilities? It seems like just last month I was starting second grade. How time does fly.

* I'm challenging Aaron to a game of Burnout tonight. Two things are almost certain:

1) I will crash

2) I will lose

At least I won't be responsible for getting the car fixed after I crash it.

Happy birthday, Grandma!!

2012-01-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

We love you LOTS!!!!

♥

I don't think I have a future as a mechanic

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

Monday afternoon I took our car, Gretchen, to the car doctor. She had been suffering from tire air deficiency issues and I was tired of going to the gas station every single day to fill up the tire. So, I drove down to the car place praying all the way that the tire wouldn't go flat on me.

I had never taken a car to the mechanic own my own before, a fact which I hoped wouldn't be too obvious to the whole place. I hoped in vain. I explained to the guy what the issue was and sat down in the waiting room. He popped back into the room and the following conversation transpired:

Him: "Do you have a reela key?
Me: "A what key?"
Him: "A reela key."
Me: at a complete loss over what a reela key was but pretty certain I did not own one "Um, no. I don't think so."
Him: realizing he's dealing with a complete novice in the car world "That's ok. It's probably in your trunk."

I went back to reading about winter fashions (for less than $600 per outfit! What a bargain!) all the while wondering what a reela lock key was. Maybe he meant rear lock key. In that case, I could have informed him that the key on the car remote unlocks ALL the doors in the car. I don't know what was going on; it was all very confusing.

Just as I started reading where Angelina Jolie wants to send her children for high school, Mr. Main Mechanic came to the doorway and asked me to step into the garage. I'm pretty sure everyone working there knew they were in for some form of entertainment courtesy of the girl who didn't know about cars, because all four people crowded around to see what would happen. That's when this conversation happened:

Mr. Main Mechanic: "Did you run over a pothole?"
Me: thinking back over our driving during the last 8 months "Nooo, I don't think so. But maybe. I'm not sure."
Mr. Main Mechanic: "Well, I can't find any leak here. It seems pretty full."
Me: trying to say something helpful and intelligent "Would that be because I just put air in it today? I've put air in it every single day and the screen in the car says it's still low. My husband said to put air in it until that little air tire thing (I demonstrated by moving my pointer finger up and down very energetically) says it has 35 whatevers in it."

I didn't dare look at any of the other mechanics crowded around after that statement. I don't think I could have said anything more unintelligent sounding than "that little air tire thing" and "35 whatevers". On the bright side, I'm sure they appreciated my demonstration of what the little air tire thing does.

After that, Mr. Main Mechanic showed me two tires- the current one with absolutely no grip left and a newer one. He also showed me how the rim was bent which was making the air hiss out. Even I understood that's NOT supposed to happen.

Eventually Gretchen and I were back on the road with a new tire and a true appreciation for those who do the technical care of the car so I don't have to. When I was telling Mom about the trip, she asked if they mentioned anything about "the tube". Thank goodness they did not. Who knows what would have come out of my mouth!

I do enjoy at good military event

2012-01-09T23:21:00.002-05:00

I felt very grown up this past weekend.

I flew by myself to two Georgia airports, found myself a taxi, waltzed (or more accurately, dragged my tired self) into the hotel, and ordered Chinese food up to my room. I started off by saying “I would like…” as I ordered my large amount of Chinese food, but I quickly changed to saying “we would like…” because I didn’t want them to think, “Wow. That girl can really eat.” Not that that would be a wrong assumption or anything.

The next morning after breakfast, Christopher’s father and I drove onto post to scope out the area and make sure we knew where to go for Christopher’s event. We spent some time exploring the area and watching people fly down zip lines. We briefly wondered if they’d let us try it out, but quickly decided the answer would be a resounding NO as they escorted us off the premises.

After a quick lunch we arrived at the location of the first event. We left early so we’d beat the crowds, but the crowd was so small it can’t really be called “a crowd”. It was more like a sprinkling. Christopher kept telling me this portion of the ceremony would be boring, boring, and possibly a little more boring. He underestimates my appreciation of people in uniform. His father and I thought the whole thing was very interesting. We looked at and discussed everything.

We were kept very busy with trying to figure out where Christopher was in the midst of the ninety soldiers once his event started. I came up with the brilliant idea to take a photo of a person we thought might be him, and then zoom in to see if it really was. I’m sure that’s exactly what Civil War wives did when they attended their husband’s events. We thought we found him twice, but a quick look at the camera screen caused us to say, “Nope, that’s not him. That guy doesn’t look NEARLY grumpy enough.” (Christopher’s serious face looks grumpy. Just look at his license picture for proof.) We found him just before the event finished and he came over to visit.

At the second event we found out what type of school/job Christopher will go to when he graduates this one. The whole ceremony was exciting (and very loud) but oh my word, it was also a little stressful. We were finding out the future direction of our lives so it was kind of a BIG DEAL. I met and sat with a very nice girl named Kim whose boyfriend is Christopher’s roommate. We kept looking at the screen that said what jobs were available, then looking at each to reassure the other we’d be fine with whatever happened. The only thing missing was suspenseful music in the background. In the end, we were all pleased with the outcome and are preparing ourselves for our next move.

That night we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings with Kim and her boyfriend. I believe fried pickles are a wonderfully tasty way to end the day.

I certainly do travel a lot these days

2012-01-05T15:00:00.001-05:00

I am currently sitting at gate D30 in the Atlanta airport waiting for the flight that will take me to Christopher. By the time I get to the hotel tonight, I will have been in SIX airports within four days. That makes me feel like a business woman, except I don’t travel in heels or have a genuine leather suitcase. I’m more of a sneaker-wearing, gum-chewing kind of traveler.

I’ll only see Christopher for two days, but for those two days I won’t have to worry that my phone might be dead when he calls and we won’t be able to talk. I’ll just look over and there he will be. On my way home from Phoenix on Monday I had a two hour layover in Cleveland. (You know what goes on at the Cleveland airport? Absolutely nothing.) As I dragged my tired self (have I mentioned that I got up at 2:55 that morning?) along to the other side of the airport, I looked in a little restaurant and saw a soldier who was the same exact size as Christopher, had the same exact hair color as him, and was using the same exact phone he has. I stood there and stared at him for at least 25 seconds trying to understand why Christopher was sitting there when I thought he was on his way to Georgia. Then I realized that I knew it wasn’t him, I just wanted it to be. Every time I see a person wearing a uniform, I think for a split second that it’s him.

That’s the problem with the United States Army- they all wear the same clothes! One of the biggest events we attended while we were dating was the Cavalry Ball. Christopher dropped me off at the door and when I walked in the door I came face to face with 100 men all wear the SAME EXACT THING as Christopher. It was like Where’s Waldo Army Version. I had been so busy planning my own outfit it never occurred to me that they would ALL be wearing blue pants, black jackets, white shirts, and black hats. Thank goodness Christopher’s jacket had his name on it so I didn’t lose him! ;-)

We forget to add "hard-working and loving" to our list

2012-01-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

Barely twenty-four hours after arriving home from my Phoenix trip, Katie appeared on my doorstep.

Unlike times of yore, she was not alone. She arrived with A BOY.

I think I need a moment of silence and stillness to take that in.

As soon as Katie walked in the door I was faced with a huge dilemma- would Katie sit near me or Zac during supper? In the 20 years of our friendship I have NEVER had to consider that. It has always been understood that we sit together. I did the gracious hostess thing and told Katie to sit between us. After all, Katie and Zac were visiting together and I didn't want to split them up.

Katie and I long ago established at set of criteria we'd look for in our future husbands:

* They could not wear HUGE glasses

* They could not wear baggy sweatpants with elastic ankles. (The only thing that could possibly make this worse would be having a tshirt tucked in when said pants are pulled up almost to their chin.)

* Must have a nice nose

* Not be named Ron, Rick, or Tony

* The final criteria stated that our husbands must go on a camping trip with us at a destination of our choice. We have been planning this camping trip for YEARS.

Obviously we focused on the really important things.

After an evening of much intense scrutiny and interrogation on my part, and much holding hands and giggling on the part of Katie and Zac, I decided that Zac will be a good addition to our camping group.

Should it be said twenty-twelve or two thousand and twelve?

2012-01-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

New Year’s Eve found us hanging out with these cute people,their parents and Oma.

Stephanie moved their clock so that seven o’clock miraculously became twelve o’clock. Logan was so excited to stay up to ring in the New Year! After supper we played charades. I’m highly creative so I was a cactus. Basically I just stood there with my arms in the air.

Stephanie and Christopher did more active things like parachuting and ski jumping. They did much more than just stand there with their arms in the air.

After all the festivities (including more games and throwing poppers) were over, Christopher and I went to the movies to see New Year’s Eve. We were nothing if not completely appropriate in our movie choices. Did you know Christopher had no idea who Zac Efron was? I had to remind myself that he has not spent the same number of hours watching High School Musical and the Disney channel as I have. Working in Babysitterville can be quite educational at times.

In keeping with the spirit of what I do all year long, I was eating crackers and pepperoni at 11:56 pm. Why stop doing something that has worked so well all year? Eating is a tradition I intend of continuing into this new year.

The new year started off beautifully with a few (very small) fireworks courtesy of some neighbors. The best part was that Christopher and I were able to begin the new year together.

You all have a lovely year. (May you have many happy eating opportunities.)

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

2011

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

as far as I know, we didn't come across any aliens

2011-12-30T18:57:00.001-05:00

Christopher and I just returned from a little vacation-in-a-vacation.

We didn't actually go to Los Angeles, I just find it fascinating to see a sign that says LOS ANGELES ---->. It's not something I see everyday. I don't see this sign everyday either:

Our first stop before hitting the road was Barnes & Noble, where we stocked up on coffee and maps. At one point in our trip, Christopher looked over and asked me to get the map and find out what exit to get off. I wondered why he would assume that I, the person who frequently gets lost in her own state, was up to the task, but I opened up the large map book and tried to look like I knew what was going on.

I did not.

I may have silently stared at the page for a grand total of 3.5 minutes before realizing that all the numbers and letters were not making ONE BIT of sense to me. I also may have looked at the cover to reassure myself that I was indeed looking at a map of Arizona and not a map of Nova Scotia. In the end, I told him the correct numbers and we arrived at our destination- Sedona.

It was just lovely.

After Sedona we drove south (or was it north? I certainly don't know) to spend the night. It seemed that everyone and their brother, aunt, uncle, and fifth cousin also decided to spend the night there, so we had to stop at six hotels before we found a room. (There was no room for us at the inn which is pretty fitting considering we're still in the Christmas season.) The hotel we stayed at had this sign out front:

It's not everyday I stay at a hotel that also welcomes vacationers from Mars.

Up, Up and Away

2011-12-29T05:18:00.001-05:00

Monday morning we woke up at dark o'thirty and went on a hot air balloon ride over Phoenix!

It was fascinating to watch the men set up the balloon.

Stephanie and her cute little family.

Sadie Bug hung out with Oma while we were flying through the sky.

Back in my youth I was a member of the Balloon Federation of America. I am not sure how I became a member since the only time I had ever set foot in a hot air balloon it was tied to a truck and didn't go higher than ten feet off the ground, but a member I was. (Hello, run-on sentence.) They apparently never got that message, so they continually stuffed my mailbox with papers, pins, pamphlets, and paraphernalia. I think the people at BFA would be proud to know that a former member went thousands of feet up in the air after a decade hiatus.

The man piloting (steering? driving?) the balloon gave us little foam airplanes and parachutes to drop out off the basket. They went swirling and twirling through the air. I am extremely proud of the below picture. Maybe the Balloon Federation of America will consider using it for an advertisement.

If you look very closely, you can see the Red Sox symbol on the bottom of this pool. Even on the other side of the Mississippi people are members of Red Sox nation.

After we landed in a parking lot, Dwayne the pilot/steerer/driver let Logan take off his shoes and run on the balloon to get out the air. Look how tiny he is compared to the balloon!

Before we left, Dwayne taught us The Balloonist Prayer:

The winds have welcomed you with softness,

The sun has greeted you with it's warm hands,

You have flown so high and so well,
That God has joined you in laughter,
And set you back gently into
The loving arms of Mother Earth.

First Christmas

2011-12-27T20:45:00.000-05:00

A cute ornament from Christopher's mom!

We got so many nice ornaments for our tree!

Sadie Bug and I on her first Christmas Eve.

She celebrated the occasion by wearing a big blue bow.

Logan had no shortage of toys or smiles on Christmas morning!

Christopher and I in front of our first Christmas on our first Christmas together.

♥

Joy

2011-12-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

The first official Sarah & Christopher Christmas card

our very first Christmas tree

2011-12-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

Visit to the North Pole

2011-12-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

Thursday afternoon we hit the road and headed for the Polar Express and the North Pole.

Apparently this is what the ride to the North Pole looks like.

To make the experience more memorable, we all wore matching pajamas.

Logan got VERY excited as the North Pole got closer and closer.

And this, my friends, is the North Pole.

I promise it's not as blurry a place as this picture makes it seem.

Look who left his post behind his sled to visit the children on the train!

"This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas - as am I. Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart."

Out in the (not so) wild West

2011-12-22T22:16:00.001-05:00

Monday night I flew out to Arizona to spend Christmas with Christopher and his family.

I like to title this picture "View from the Plane". Obviously it's a very creative title.

The next morning we went to a park and rode around it in a little train. Logan spent most of the time looking like this:

Sadie spent most of the time looking like this:

The train park featured a train museum so we spent some time exploring the world of extraordinarily small model trains.

I spent most of that time wondering why there was a train coming out of the wall.

That night Christopher and I decorated his parents tree. Decorating Christmas trees ranks among my Top 5 Christmas Activities so I was more than happy to help out.

Wednesday morning we went out to ride bikes. I held Sadie most of the time because when given the choice between a bike and a baby, I will ALWAYS choose the baby.

Christmas shoe boxes

2011-12-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago I started talking to Zacharoo and Molly McButter about Operation Christmas Child and how they could pack a whole box of Christmas presents for children who otherwise may not get any. After Molly wrapped her head around the fact that not every child has 33 items on their Christmas list, and after Zachary finished looking at the Guinness Book of World Records for 2010, they both agreed they wanted to fill a box.

The first half of the drive to the store was wonderful. We sang Christmas songs, had a contest to see how could sing Jingle Bells in the most outlandish fashion (I hate to boast, but I may have won), and discussed what they would buy for their Christmas box.

Then the GPS started acting up and things rapidly went downhill.

First of all, Judy the GPS told us to take a right off the exit which would have sent us directly into a concrete barrier. For obvious reasons I choose to take a left. This meant we were in an area Judy did not recognize so we had to pull over to the side of the road while she “recalculated”. I hate when she says that. (I have to interrupt myself to ask a burning question: what on earth does it mean when a GPS says, “Keep left, keep left, exit right.” Does it want me to be in the left lane or the right lane? I never know so I usually go straight which brings me back to “recalculating”. It’s a never ending cycle.) Molly, who never misses a chance to speak her mind, decided this would be a good time to pipe up from the backseat with, “Sarah, why do we always get lost every time you drive us somewhere?” She must have heard me sigh because she followed that statement with, “It’s ok. It’s probably just Judy’s fault.” Sometimes she can be very sympathetic.

We eventually straightened ourselves out and continued on our way only to hit traffic. It was through many trials and tribulations that we traveled to Family Dollar. My two passengers really had no patience left so things started to get a little rowdy in the backseat. Somehow the seatbelt between their car seats ended up in Molly’s hand, and somehow she started twirling it around energetically, and somehow it managed to travel across the car and hit Zachary. Well, the boy was NOT pleased with the turn of events and yelled out, “This is THE LAST TIME IN MY CAREER that I want to deal with this!!!” Unaware that he had any career more extensive than reading the Guinness Book of World Records for 2010 or eating cheese sticks, I asked what career he was talking about. “Seating in the backseat FIGHTING WITH MOLLY!!” I personally am more than happy to see that career end.

Once we arrived at the store, all gps difficulties, traffic, and careers were forgotten.

(Zachary is getting to the age where he has started protesting having his picture taken in public. I plan on doing it for as long as humanly possible.)

I was very proud of the thought and effort they put into collecting things for their children!

family Christmas

2011-12-18T23:14:00.001-05:00

I'm leaving tomorrow to spend Christmas in Phoenix with Christopher & Co. so we had our family Christmas today.

The baby came and she was passed around like a plate of brownies.

Dad gave her a private tour of the Christmas tree.

We gave Ariela a penguin because we thought it looked like her.

After some careful investigation,

she decided to stuff the penguin's face in her mouth.

Oh, look! There were other people besides Ariela at this Christmas party!

Christmas in my imaginary house

2011-12-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

I always assumed that once I got married I’d have a cute little house to decorate at Christmas time. This year Christopher is at school and I’m here so we don’t have a house of our own, but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about how I would decorate if I could.

I think these three trees are just lovely. There is a slight problem with the first two, however- they have no star on top! During one of our brief phone calls I asked Christopher if he would prefer a star or an angel atop our tree. Thank goodness he said star. I felt so much better after that conversation because I believe it is a very important topic.

We are off to a very good start in the ornament department. Judging by all the boxes I packed when we were moving in October, I'd say we have nearly 30. That makes me so happy because I love Christmas ornaments! Here are just a few of them.

1. from our honeymoon at the Trapp Family Lodge

2. a stetson from Christopher's mother

3. the star I bought in Kennebunkport

4. a button ornament made for me by Anna and Jillian

5. the cowboy boot I bought in Phoenix last Christmas

6. the dove Christopher gave me for my birthday (I love this bird so much that it's out for all seasons)

7. I bought this ornament last Christmas because I DO love my soldier.

8. Our newest ornament! I got it in an ornament swap from Mrs. Smith. It's so cute.

I can't wait to pick out our very first Christmas tree together!

Elizabeth and Signs

2011-12-15T12:03:00.001-05:00

The parentals and I are driving up to get Elizabeth from school today! I haven't seen her since August so I'm very excited. With both my sister and my husband being away at school, I'm been without two of my very important people!

I saw this sign a few months away and decided I'd try to recreate it to go with Elizabeth's Christmas gift. She loves signs and I love crafts so it was a match made in the aisles of Joann's.

link

It's not quite as beautiful as the sign above, but I was very happy with how it came out. I hope she likes it!

Little Women

2011-12-13T09:36:00.002-05:00

Last week Grandma brought Mom and I to see a play of Little Women!

The last show the three us of attended together was a ballet of Sleeping Beauty when I was around the tender age of 8.

I loved the ballet but the intermission was slightly uncomfortable. I was wearing a dress Mom made for me and the little girl in front of us REFUSED to believe it wasn't bought. She wouldn't leave me in peace until I showed her that there was no tag in the back.

I'm happy to say no one questioned my clothing at Little Women. =)

the anniversary of the 'yes'

2011-12-10T23:00:00.000-05:00

One year ago today Christopher and I got engaged!

Because I never miss an opportunity to look at my wedding pictures, and because I look at pictures when I miss Christopher, here are a few more snapshots from our day.

This picture always makes me laugh because it shows their personalities so well. Molly is doing her wild and crazy thing, and Anna is just standing there sweet as a buttercup.

This picture just cracks me up. I especially love Elizabeth and Joanna's expressions. Elizabeth looks completely shocked that a boy! Is kissing! Her sister! And she's kissing him back! Joanna's eyes are practically popping out of her head. I love it.

It reminds me of the time I told my fine friend Willie that, "there just might be a minimal amount of kissing at this wedding." He looked at me with a completely serious face and said, "I will do my best to control myself."

photos by Keri McCarthy

the problem with a first impression is that you can never redo it

2011-12-07T21:00:00.002-05:00

Well folks, the Busy Bus have made its appearance and it’s traveling down the high-speed lane at approximately 93 miles per hour.

Somewhere between babysitting, Christmas preparations, teaching a sewing class, and school it decided to stop at Katie’s for a visit. That’s how I found myself hanging out with these people.

They’re a crazy crew.

Katie had to teach music classes at three different daycares on Tuesday morning, but I was able to go with her to help out. My favorite part all morning was when she tried to act like a squirrel and one little girl though she was trying to be a zebra. It was obviously a high point in Katie’s acting career.

Work conveniently ended right when lunch time was starting so we drove in the general direction of food establishments. We couldn’t decide which restaurant to eat at, so we walked into three different places, took their menus, and had a major menu comparing session in the car. Apparently we are people who like to give ourselves lots of options then hem and haw when it comes to actually choosing anything. We finally choose the Thai restaurant where Katie experienced fried calamari for the first time. I’m always glad to be with her for such big moments in her life.

Speaking of big moments, have I mentioned that Katie has a new boyfriend? Zac hails from the far-off state of Colorado so I haven’t met him yet, but he called on Tuesday night and I spoke to him for the first time. He happened to call when we were in a particularly ridiculous mood which was hardly conducive to me making a dignified first impression. I tried explaining to him that normally I am a very serious person who never engages in any sort of nonsense or silliness, and you know what he said? “I saw a picture on of you on Facebook jumping over a stool SO I DON’T BELIEVE THAT AT ALL.”

So much for my dignified first impression.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-04T23:49:00.000-05:00

We put up our Christmas tree tonight!

Things didn't look too hopeful at first,

but after a little branch-sticking-on

and light arranging,

it looked quite lovely indeed.

Thanksgiving, version 2011

2011-11-29T15:52:00.000-05:00

~I think the turkey on the right has seen better days.~

~We filled out thankful leaves to send to Elizabeth. This leaf is Aaron's.~

~My favorite part of Thanksgiving was being able to spend the whole day with Christopher.~

it was just a lovely day

2011-11-28T16:46:00.001-05:00

What did you do yesterday?

I dropped Christopher off at the airport (OH THE SADNESS), and got in an accident.

It won't really go down in history as one of my Top Five days.

As Mom and I were driving to church, we got rear-ended while sitting at a red light. We hit the car in front of us which in turn hit the car in front of it. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but the lady in front of us left in an ambulance because her chest was hurting.

Mom and I were very sore and after a few hours started having tingling in our arms so we went to the hospital. We expected it to be a relatively quick visit because we assumed we were just having muscle pain and not experiencing anything serious. Did you know that if you go to the hospital when a football game is on that the place is almost deserted? Apparently no one chooses to be at the hospital when they could be on their couch eating Doritos. I'll have to remember that and schedule all my future emergency room visits around the NFL schedule.

I was in and out within thirty minutes, but unfortunately for Mom, her visit was anything but quick. After she had a CAT Scan, the doctors decided she needed to be put in a neck brace, strapped to a stretcher, and taken by ambulance to another hospital for an MRI.

So that's how I came to be standing next to my mother's bedside at 12:54am in the middle of Urgent Care Room 6A.

Under normal circumstances I would have tried to keep her spirits up by serenading her, but my sore self protested that idea. Instead, I played the people guessing game with her and Aaron asked questions that could be filed under "party ice-breaker questions". I'm not sure where he got the idea that we were HAVING A PARTY.

We're both at home now. The doctors think Mom already had something wrong with her neck but the accident accentuated it. (Side note- I AM so impressed with myself for using the word accentuated properly.) We're currently on the couch discussing what movie we should watch tonight and looking forward to spaghetti with meatballs from Grandma. I don't think our appetites were damaged too much. :-)

count your blessings, one by one

2011-11-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

#1. My dear sister Elizabeth, whom I affectionately call Squiddzen. She's away at school right now so I haven't seen her since August, but I think about her ALL THE TIME. Did I ever mention that on nights when I couldn't sleep, she would tell me her version of The Great Gatsby? It worked like a charm and put me to sleep every single time. It was like my own personal sleeping pill.

#2. I can now successfully drive a standard. I have always been a praying person, but I never really prayed for safe travels every time I got into the car. Now I pray that I won't crash, screech, stall, or squeal every single time. So far God has answered my prayers because I haven't crashed once. (But there are still some days when I screech and stall like it's GOING OUT OF STYLE.)

#3. The friends I have made through blogging. I'm especially thankful for the one I can text about how many dresses Carrie wore during the CMA Award's, or how much we should tip the people who clean our car. She understands how important these things are. ;-)

#4. My beautiful wedding. I love that I was able to have the real butterflies like I always dreamed.

#5. All the weeks I watched Allison.

#6. That Aaron asks me to play xbox with him.

#7. My nieces and nephews. At this time last year I had nary a one, now I have three. According to my calculations, that's 300% increase. At this rate, I'll have 30 nieces and nephews in 10 years.

#8. Single Ladies Club. When I moved back from New York, we started our meetings up again just as if we had never stopped. It was wonderful.

#9. Babies. I'm always thankful for babies.

#10. My most wonderful Christopher. I always said I wanted to marry a soldier, a cowboy, or an astronaut, and here I am, married to a soldier. The downside of marrying a soldier rather than an astronaut is that my chance of ever visiting the moon is now extremely slim.

Of course, this is only a VERY SMALL portion of my blessings. I'd never have enough room to write them all.

in keeping with our Fall tradition...

2011-11-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

...we'd like to introduce Mr. Hugo T. Squash.

Occupation: butler

Relative: Lil' Dude the wanna-gansta pumpkin

Guess who's coming for Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

a visit with Ariela

2011-11-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

sew sew sew

2011-11-18T23:52:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the first meeting of our new sewing club. Anna and Jillian's mother asked if I would pass on my sewing knowledge and, after assessing the piles of unfinished sewing projects around my house, I agreed. What's one more project when I already have so many going?

As the teacher, I am ashed to admit that the first class started late. I got lost getting to their house. Raise your hand if that doesn't surprise you in the least.

For our first project, we sewed little sachets filled with potpourri.

We're now preparing for our next project- a stuffed owl!

link

I'm also preparing proper directions to their house.

---
Kelsey redid my blog this week! She did a wonderful job!! :-)

Thanksgiving loveliness

2011-11-17T07:58:00.000-05:00

Source: simplifiedbee.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ourbestbites.com via Sarah on Pinterest

there's a new baby on the block!

2011-11-15T20:34:00.000-05:00

My sweet sister-in-law had her little daughter today!!

I am so happy for them and can't wait to meet Sadie Capri at Christmas!! ♥

the award for dear people

2011-11-14T23:26:00.002-05:00

Hello folks!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Unless you count doing laundry as highly eventful, which I don't, mine was about as uneventful as it gets. I did sing my signature chorus, "I can be your hero, babyyyyyyyyyy" to Aaron, but I don't think he was overly impressed. I just can't imagine why not.

A few weeks ago Linda (hi, Linda!) very kindly give me a blogging award. An award with a GERMAN name, no less. I am always impressed by foreign languages.

LIEBSTER IS A GERMAN WORD MEANING DEAR, SWEET, KIND, NICE, GOOD, BELOVED, LOVELY, KINDLY, PLEASANT, VALUED, CUTE, ENDEARING AND WELCOME

The purpose of this award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.

The official rules for this award are as follows:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

* Emily at Our Wonderfully Blessed Life

* Maggie at A Pair of Parsleys

* Cassie at A Princess and Her Soldier

* Melissa at Just the 3 of Us

* Asha at Asha's Aspects

Day O' Fun

2011-11-11T23:23:00.001-05:00

This morning I awoke at the crack of dawn to prepare for my Day O' Fun with Katie. Due to a series of unfortunate wardrobe malfunctions, I left the house later than intended. To be specific, I was having some belt issues. In an attempt to expedite my dressing process, I pulled pants out of the drawer that already had a belt attached (looped?) so I wouldn't have to go through ALL THE WORK of putting on a belt. I quickly realized the belt did not match my shirt, so I went in search of another.The first belt I took of my sophisticated ~~coat~~ belt hanger didn't match either, so I pulled off a goes-with-everything brown belt. However. This belt was apparently made for someone half my size and, while it made it around my waist, would not buckle in the front. WHY on earth to I own a belt that is too small? Maybe my waist really is size 52.

I'm sure you're glad to know I eventually solved my belt issues and was able to move on with my life.

I arrived at Katie's house where two of my favorite children were waiting for me.

After visiting with the family and eating a second breakfast, Katie and I went to the mall for her birthday pedicure. I couldn't possibly let her enjoy a pedicure alone so I joined her. I do realize what a selfless friend I am. ;-)

Once our toes looked all cute, we headed over to Forever 21 to try on clothes we will never buy. I believe Katie should buy this dress because a) she looked lovely in it, and b) she now has a boyfriend. Obviously a + b = buy a lovely dress to wear for the boyfriend. (I will discuss her new boyfriend more once I have recovered from the fact that he is 31. 31! Thirty-one!!)

Our Day O' Fun was far from over after Forever 21. Our next stop was....a nursing home! I don't think I'd schedule a nursing home stop into a normal day out with the girls, but apparently the fact that we are responsible grown ups now means that Katie has to show up at work. Watching Katie dance around while singing with the residents once again proved that she is not the wall-flower in our friendship.

Before poetry hour, Katie introduced me to everyone by giving them a rather extensive overview of my life. It went something along the lines of, "This is my very best friend Sarah. We meet when we were two years old and have been best friends ever since! She got married in April- or was in May?- and I was her Maid of Honor. Then she moved way up to the very tippidy top of New York where her husband in stationed at Fort Drum. Her husband is a soldier. Now he's at school so she came back here where her family is and today she's visiting me! We did all kinds of fun things this morning, and now here we are! We had a tea party one time where we all recited a poem we had memorized. We were very proper and everything because it was a tea party! But...then we went sledding because it was the winter so that was the end of that tea party."

I believe the only thing she left out of the introduction was that I was born in May of 1989.

Katie is truly is a wonderful friend to me: she gave me two of my favorite Lindt truffles for the ride home. That's just one of the many reasons I'll keep her around for the next 68 years or so.

'round and 'round and 'round

2011-11-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

motorcycles and other matters

2011-11-05T11:05:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I sent Aaron a text message that read, "yo yo! I just rode on the motorcycle!!!"

(For whatever reason, "yo yo!" is my standard greeting when texting my siblings. I don't know why. It's just one of the many mysteries surrounding my life.)

He responded with "O.O! did u die?"

Oh course I didn't die.

That would be a legitmate question had I actually been in charge of driving the motorcycle, but no one in their right mind would put me in such a position. I sat on the back and did my best to hold on and not fall off.

Today is Christopher's birthday and I've been saving these pictures of us riding his motorcycle together until today. (Confession- it works out well that his birthday is today because I just plain FORGOT to put them up before.)

Every single time I hear this song it reminds me of him and how well he takes care of me.

Happy birthday, Christopher!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!

I love you more than I love listening to Brad Paisley and Josh Groban, more than I love eating oreos, and more than I love looking at the stars.

I love you even more than I love baby shoes.

That's saying a lot because you know how much I LOVE baby shoes.

♥

single ladies night: birthday edition

2011-11-04T18:17:00.001-04:00

The Single Ladies* reunited after many long months!

the birthday truffle

The birthday girls celebrating another year of life and the ability to eat birthday truffle.

Joanna's birthday was back in July but we weren't able to celebrate until now. Autumn's birthday was Wednesday.

* Just because I'm married now doesn't mean we're going to change the name of our club. It is entirely too much work to say that we belong to The Two Single Ladies and One Married Lady Club. Not to mention that such a name change would force us to look for a new theme song!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-11-02T09:34:00.002-04:00

I am loving that today is Autumn's 21st birthday and that we'll be able to celebrate her tomorrow!

I am loving the fun signs I've found recently.

link

Joanna and I have decided this sign will describe us when we're old.

I am loving this baby in a pumpkin picture.

I am loving this pretty blue dress.

Most of all, I am loving the flowers and puppy (his name is Marcus) that Christopher sent me yesterday!!

facts

2011-10-31T23:01:00.002-04:00

These are the facts:

Fact: Our dryer is broken. All clothes that come out of the washing machine are hung up on the clothesline, in the bathroom, in the cellar, and anywhere else we can think of. It's like we're living on the frontier. Laura Ingalls would feel right at home.

Fact: Sticking a funky hat on your head does not suddenly change your every day clothes into a legitimate halloween costume.

Fact: I was not at all delicate at Zumba tonight. I believe an appropriate descriptive would be "bull in a china shop."

Fact: Due to lack of players and sickness among the family, our traditional halloween night game of hide and go seek in the dark was postponed. I have made it my personal goal to ensure that we really do play the game another night. I'm not one to let things stand in the way of my holiday traditions, even if those traditions are on a holiday I do not celebrate.

Fact: My new favorite quote is "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape."

there were way too many numbers involved in this shopping trip

2011-10-28T23:42:00.001-04:00

I bought skinny jeans today.

When they first became popular I swore I was not a skinny jeans girl. I believe it all goes back to a pair of pants I had when I was young that were such a terrible version of skinny jeans that I've had a bad opinion of them since. This week during one of my late night thinking sessions I decided that since I am in need of winter clothes and I saw skinny jeans at Forever 21 for only $10.50, I'd bite the skinny jean bullet.

That is how I found myself standing in front of the jean section of Forever 21 at half past twelve this afternoon. To fully prepare myself for the life-changing event I was undertaking, I had made sure to wear my cute flats to the store so I could get the full effect of the outfit in the dressing room mirror.

I immediately ran into a problem while searching for my size- I had no idea what all their size numbers meant. I had been size 2 forever but recently I had to buy a pair of size 4 pants. (I got married and suddenly my waistline decided to expanded unnecessarily. True story.) Forever 21 only had pants that came in double digit numbers like 26 and 38. I KNEW that there was no way I had gone all the way from size 4 to size 38 in a matter of weeks, so I was very befuddled. I finally found a pair of size 28 jeans that, when held up to my unnecessarily expanded waistline, looked like they might fit. At this point I got up the courage to ask a girl about 6 years my junior to tell me what number a size 4 wearer should try on. She looked at me as if I had lost my fashion mind and said, "are you SURE you wear size 4??" in a voice that clearly meant she thought I was aiming too low.

Was she really questioning on the size of customers waist?

"Well," I said, trying to defend my waist, "sometimes I wear size 2. It all depends on the brand."

She told me what size to try on but failed to educate me on why someone who wears a size 4 (or sometimes 2!) should buy a size 27. A lady at Gap once told me that the numbers on their new jeans are a direct correlation to the number of inches around ones waist. I certainly don't carry a tape measure tucked in my pocketbook for such a time as this because WHAT NORMAL GIRL DOES THAT?

For better or for worse, for size 2 or size 52, I now own a pair of dark blue skinny jeans.

But I do hope I'm not size 52.

I'm sure my mother appreciated the clean floor

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Last winter I decided to start exercising again. Since running marathons and lifting weights was slightly outside my range of expertise (or, quite frankly, my desire at the moment) and I am not a member of any gym, I chose to go the exercise video route.

To be honest, I have traveled that route many times always with the same result- I end up arguing with the woman teaching the class and become completely disgusted with the whole thing by the time 30 minutes is up. How she can expect me to keep up with all her jumping, flipping, and squatting when I've never seen the video before is beyond me. It doesn't help that I tend to get my right and left mixed up when watching said videos. The only way to fix this problem is for me to turn around so we're facing the same way, but that presents yet another problem- I CAN'T SEE THE TV. (I have found one video that I sort of like. It probably comes as no big surprise that I picked it because the words, "fun, fast, and dance" are in the title.)

Halfway through one video the instructor told us all, with a huge smile on her face, to "get out our weighted exercise bar because it was time to work those biceps!!" I certainly did not have any sort of weighted exercise bar hanging around my house, so I improvised and used this instead.

I don't think my biceps got too much of a workout. On the bright side, the floor was clean by the time the video was over.

Since returning home, I have started Zumba class again. I'm happy to report that Zumba is much better for both the health of my body and my mental health. Sure, we have the moments when I bang into the wall or am swinging to the right when most other people are swinging to the left, but overall it's a huge improvement.

The only downside is that the floor doesn't get cleaned.

Franklin and I believe in correct writing tools

2011-10-24T23:29:00.001-04:00

When we began making plans for the move that sent Christopher off to school and me back to my family, we asked my mom if she would take the train up so that I wouldn't have to drive back to my homeland alone. We thought it would be fun to make the next few days into a mother/daughter trip!

After I dropped Christopher off at the airport Thursday morning (it was very sad event), Mom and I went to the Syracuse science museum.

The next morning we drove to the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

This is the view from their house. I would have no objections to seeing this landscape every morning.

It always amuses me to see the every day objects in these museums. Seen below, one of Franklin's pens.

I decided to recreate the above exhibit with one of my own pens. Who knows, sixty years from now people may be willing to pay fourteen American dollars to see something I wrote with.

The sign next to the pen will read:

Be sure to check the gift shop if you're interested in purchasing an authentic Sarah Olivia replica pen of your own.

she has a point...

2011-10-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

I saw two of my favorite little girls at church today!

Anna just cracks me up with the things that come out of her mouth. For example, the following conversation transpired between her and our friend Phil.

Phil: How are your Greek classes, Anna?
Anna: I don't take Greek classes. How are your common sense classes?

Phil: I don't take common sense classes.

Anna: Well then, MAYBE YOU SHOULD SIGN UP FOR SOME.

belated birthday wishes to important people

2011-10-21T09:58:00.003-04:00

Due to the hubbub, topsy-turvyness, and general mayhem of my life lately, I forgot to wish two important people a public happy birthday. Perhaps this is why I have not been sleeping well at night. The OCD in me has made it very clear that this situation must be rectified pronto.

Important person #1- Daniel the Big Brother, winner of the Cutest Couple Ever award for the past three years

Andrew sent me a text the morning of Daniel's birthday (the 17th) that read, "Is 27 a geezer? Cuz I think dans 27." I was about to disagree wholeheartedly because Christopher will be 29 next month and if 27 is a geezer then that would mean (horror of horrors) I'm married to a geezer, but I let it go. There are some things that cannot be fully expressed in 160 characters.

Important person #2- Katie the best friend and recently twitterpated one due to the arrival of A Boyfriend

This year marks the 20th anniversary of our friendship!

Happy birthday to one and all!!!!!

Here's hoping I'll sleep better tonight.

moving on

2011-10-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

Well.

Two weeks, forty-seven cardboard boxes, five rolls of tape, one big round of bubblewrap, four Sharpies, two packs of packing paper, and an unknown number of plastic bins, bags, and packages later, we have officially moved out of our very first apartment.

I think now would be the perfect opportunity to take a VERY LONG NAP.

A nap, however, is not in the cards for my immediate future. Christopher and I are traveling down to the Big City this afternoon where we will go on our last date before he leaves for school in the morning. Our date plans revolve around food (obviously), the shoe store, and possibly the movie theater. I love dates with Christopher. He's my very favorite husband/roommate/person to play games with.

In very unrelated news, did you hear that a THIRD couple got engaged through Kelly's blog? It makes me so happy that other people are finding their one true love! (For those just tuning in, Christopher and I met through her blog last year.) I think that Christopher and I should get together with the other couples for Kelly's Korner Kouples get together. :)

I think any kind of Food Officer job would be nice

2011-10-14T14:40:00.002-04:00

1. Christopher's parentals are up for a visit/to help us pack and move.
1a. Christopher's father is a FAST packer.
1b. I was not given any fast packer genes, something that became quite evident after he packed the entire kitchen in half the time it took me to pack one closet.
1c. I choose to believe this is because I like to bubble wrap and tape everything within an inch of its life, and not because I am an inexperienced packer.
2. For the last month or so Christopher has been taken a special class at work. After seeing the graduation ceremony for my friend Kayla's husband, I prepared myself for all sorts of ceremony wonderfulness for my husband. (I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I do enjoy a good Army ceremony.) There was not a chance in the world I would forget about it, but I wrote GRADUATION in very big letters on my calendar just so I could see it. I pondered my graduation ceremony attire. I ensured the camera battery was charged.

Then the powers that be decided they didn't want "guests" at the graduation.

I was less than enthusiastic about their decision.

When Christopher told me I might not be able to attend, I offered to go as a Refreshments Officer. I was informed that my plan, while incredibly impressive (my words, not his), would not work at this event. I was slightly baffled at that because I have this theory that putting 'officer' in front of anything instantly puts one HIGH ON THE CHAIN OF COMMAND.

Apparently not.

3. Christopher got the Smarty Pants Award* for being the smartest his the class. Katie having the highest gpa of her graduating class and Christopher earning the Smarty Pants Award at his school can mean only one thing- I like to hang out with smart people.

*For those aspiring to military greatness, let me tell you something. If you ask your recruiter how to earn the Smarty Pants Award, you probably won't get anywhere because chances are he won't have heard of it. I, using the creativity given me by the Lord, came up with the name myself since I don't know the real name of the award. (While you're there, why not consider becoming a Refreshments Officer?)

You all have a lovely weekend.

Welcome to Packing Central

2011-10-13T18:46:00.001-04:00

In former days we called it our living room.

of apples and buffalo

2011-10-11T15:20:00.001-04:00

To keep in the spirit of Fall activities, we went apple picking yesterday.

We had a special guest with us. (Please note how Baby's head is still attached.)

When we got to the orchard, we were presented with a myriad of activities. We did the corn maze first. It took all of 45 seconds.

Immediately after the below picture, Allison and I climbed up a small wooden tower in order to reach the yellow slide at the top. The slide was not made for people of my size, something I discovered when I got stuck immediately after entering.

Near the slide was a long tunnel that ended next to a twisty green slide. I convinced Allison it would be fun to crawl through and go down another slide. Once again I did not judge the size properly and only managed not to get stuck while crawling by wearing my sunglasses instead of having them atop my head. Half way through our long journey, a herd of wild buffalo entered the tunnel behind us. I turned around and saw four very loud little boys not three inches away from my face. They obviously had some place to be, but Allison was pondering each movement she made so I knew there was no chance we'd be out of there anytime time soon. The buffalo were getting antsy to get by us so I did the only thing I could think of- I started extolling the wonders of the yellow slide. I told them it was SO FUN! And VERY twisty! Even I went down it! After a brief conference among themselves, the herd of boys decided that if a "big kid" went down the slide, they could too.

After going to slides and riding duckie carousels, we went on a tractor ride to the spot where we could pick apples. (It almost seemed like Allison didn't want to be in this picture with us because she REFUSED to look up.)

This picture makes me so happy. I think I'll stick Allison in my pocket and keep her forever.*

(* Do you think her parents would mind?)

leaf peepers and birthday partiers

2011-10-09T23:30:00.002-04:00

This weekend I introduced Christopher to leaf peeping. He had never heard of it before, so I proceded to educate him. I told him leaf peeping is the term used by authentic New Englanders when they go out to view the fall foliage. He remained skeptical and insisted that it sounded like we were about to do something sketchy. After driving 'round the countryside for upwards of four hours, he finally realized that it is indeed a innocent sport. You'd think in those four hours we'd have seen some real POPPING OFF THE TREES color, but no, we mostly saw a mixture of green and brown leaves, as well as a good number of naked trees. We did see some lovely views.

As we discovered at the end of our leaf peeping adventure, all the pretty colors were basically right outside our front door.

Leaf peeping was hardly the only activity for the day. Because Christopher will be at school on his birthday next month, I had a birthday party for him!

Do you this it was slightly unnecessary for me to use 'me' and 'you' place cards when the only people attending the party were the two of us? Feel free to call me Queen of the Obvious.

We had a lovely meal of pot roast, cornbread, and fried okra. Mr. Almost Birthday Boy was very insistent that he did not want cake, ice cream, or dessert of any kind. I was very insistent that I absolutely would not host a birthday party without candles of some kind, because what's a birthday party without candle?? I refused to lose the candle battle, so I made us cupcakes out of cotton batting and felt with candles stuck in the top. They were very low calorie desserts. ;)

My friend Katie from church took my picture for me so I could make Christopher a photo album to bring with him to school.

After cupcakes with candles and gifts, we played Ping Pong. I let Christopher win both games because it was his party.

The morals of today's post are thus: if you need someone to explain leaf peeping to you, I'm your girl. If you'd like a low-calorie birthday dessert made, just see me. If you'd like pointers at winning ping pong, look elsewhere.

the tragedy at Babysitterville

2011-10-04T14:37:00.000-04:00

The scene of the crime: the playground

The victim: Baby (how terrible does that sound??)

Eyewitness: Allison

Suspect: Sarah aka babysitter aka Mayor of Babysitterville aka me

Testimony: Around 11:04 on Monday, October 3rd 2011, Sarah and Allison were playing at the playground. More specifically, Sarah was pushing Allison on the swing. Sarah discovered that Allison thought it highly entertaining if she (Sarah) throw Baby up in the air and caught her as she came down. She repeated this process for at least ten (10) minutes. This brings us to 11:14. Sarah thought it would be brilliant to capture Allison's glee on film (or more accurately, on memory card) so once again she threw the baby up into the air. Unfortunately she failed to catch Baby.
Resulting actions: Sarah, by now the perpetrator of a terrible crime, scoped up both pieces of Baby and put them in the stroller in a way that made it seem as if everything was JUST DANDY, took Allison out of the swing, and walked home while feeling very guilty indeed. Sarah then proceeded to glue Baby's head back to her neck, as well as put a few stitches in the the back to give Baby a little more durability. All the while Allison looked at her beloved Baby who had, according to the criminal, "gotten a boo-boo but would be better VERY SOON". She kept looking at her headless Baby as if something was wrong but she couldn't quite figure out what. Meanwhile, Sarah discovered that the glue she was using was removing the nail polish off her fingernails giving Baby some lovely spots of burgandy All Nighter on her neck. Poor Baby was having a rough day.
End result: Baby has returned to her normal healthy state (although with slightly less mobility in her neck area), and Allison is happy and has barely noticed anything went wrong. Sarah has learned her lesson from the tragedy at the Babysitterville playground- for Pete's sake, don't throw a baby if you're not going to catch it!

October the 1st

2011-10-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

I don't know if you looked at the calendar today, but it's

I personally am not overly excited about the date and even had a meeting wherein I asked September to please go on for a few more weeks, but I was not successful. The beginning of October means it's only a few weeks before Christopher goes off to a three month school and I go back home. It might be slightly sad. I might even cry. (see also: I am a girl so it's almost guaranteed there will be crying involved.)

In other news, today is Miss Ariela's two month birthday. I plan on spending a lot of quality time with her in the next three months.

I had this centerpiece on the kitchen table for the last few weeks.

I made the pumpkin out of a paper book. Christopher gave me two books he no longer wanted and since they were both the same size and I knew one had language in it, I chose the other.I didn't want a a profane pumpkin, something I think is completely understandable.

When I told Christopher my book-picking logic, he said, "Well, the book you picked has unfaithfulness and adultery in it."

My poor pumpkin.

the spring chickens have finally hatched

2011-09-30T19:56:00.001-04:00

I recently wrote about Elizabeth asking me to sew her a stuffed animal.
Having never sewn a stuffed animal before I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

It is with a small bit of pride that I present to you...Spring Chicken.

To give the chicken a little extra wow factor, I attached the above eyes with velcro so Elizabeth can change the eyes whenever she feels the mood is right.
Just try to image a time when you've seen a chicken with so much sass.

I had fabric left over, so I made Spring Chicken Jr.

I almost faint over the cuteness of this teeny tiny chicken.

Mama Spring Chicken and her little Spring Chicken Jr. go everywhere together.

You know what they say- birds of a feather flock together.

made with Sew mama Sew pattern

wordless wednesday: wedding edition

2011-09-28T15:32:00.001-04:00

All photos by Keri McCarthy

we have very steady Sunday traditions

2011-09-26T14:28:00.000-04:00

1. We go to church.

Our church essentials- Bible, Sunday school workbook, gum.

2. We visit the puppies at the pet store.

3. We stop at Master Cuts so Christopher can get his hair cut in the style dictated by the United States military.

4. We take our picture together.
This is a very new tradition- as in it was started yesterday- so it remains to be seen how long it will last.

oh, the things I teach them

2011-09-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

As a babysitter, I take my job very seriously.

I realize that I am caring for the future leaders of this country, those who will power the technology of tomorrow, those who will attempt to improve upon the Oreo.

But right now, they're just small and adorable little people like Allison, who models headbands for me.

I teach about picking the red tomatoes, not the green.

I introduce the webcam. (Look at her cheeks!)

I unintentionally taught Allison to go around the house waving her arms and saying, "HEY, FLIES!!" because apparently that's what she's sees me do every time she's over.

But perhaps the greatest of my teaching accomplishments is seen below.

I successfully taught a child how to talk into a fan so that her voice changes.
I have reached a new pinnacle in my babysitting career.

rich mouse, poor mouse~ a guest post

2011-09-20T11:31:00.000-04:00

The following short story was recently submitted for publication. After a careful overview of her work, the management here at Dandelions and Daffodils, Inc. are pleased to introduce you to the work of ~~Elizabeth~~ Fantasia Stricknine. We welcome her as our first ever guest blogger.

Mom is determined to be a millionaire. (Don’t ask her, because she’ll deny this fact, but, trust me, it’s true.) If only for the reason that she MAY be able to buy an oven whose door is not falling off , I’d say that’s a pretty worthy aspiration. Especially considering the skyrocketing prices of lettuce...*looks pointedly* It would be nice to be a millionaire and have access to, as I like to put it in an Italian accent( the accent is crucial.) “Lettoochay en bulkque!” =)

I digress ;) Mom wants to be a millionaire.

With this goal in mind, Mom, The Twin, and I attended a free Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar at a suave country club. We did not belong. That Monday morning, Mommy had given Twin and I specific instructions to dress appropriately for the occasion. We were to give, for the night at least, the appearance of those desperate for higher learning and to “channel our desire for wealth into actual money-making investment opportunities...”, even if it was propaganda. Well. For twin, at least, it was propaganda. I just want lettuce. With all of this in mind, mom dressed quite nicely in her professional, blue-flowered shirt and stretchy black pants. I dressed in, well, let’s just say I wore clothes too restricting to be mentioned here. Twin, unfortunately, wore his track clothes.

After accidentally, and uninvited, we went into the wrong room and experienced three seconds of a stiletto and bow tied “Tom Wright-Democrat For Congress” rally in the next room, we finally found the Rich Dad seminar, which went pretty well. *nods* So well, in fact, that the Mom convinced Andrew to go AGAIN with her to the next one. This one, was at *drum roll* The Hilton Hotel.

A sign at the parking garage said: SECURE ALL VALUEABLES. Well, that left me with nothing to do. But once Mom and I arrived at our second Rich Dad seminar, I occupied myself with wondering why on earth we hadn’t brought our dad…it should have been a requirement. Or at least “Bring a dad, get a seat.” Oh well. Some things are past finding out.

Once again we listened with rapt attention to the same speaker, same speech, same dialogue… “Speaker: Let me make this reeeeeally clear. [insert complex real estate investment monologue here.] “Does that make sense?” Audience, vehemently nodding heads: “Yeeeeeeeeeeeess.” Me: Nooooooooo!” Apparently I missed the memo to take Claritin Clear before attending the seminar…because it did NOT make sense. Speaking of drugs, there was, for REAL, a lady sitting next to me whose name tag said Benadryl. No joke. It said, “Hi, my name is Benadryl-I invest in my future.” Her mother must have been on as many medicines while pregnant as Sarah’s been on lately and just picked one.

Close to the end of the ninety minute session, I got up and went to sit against the silver, embossed wall. I figured that was cooler. Just as I focused my mind back on learning how to RUN my own real estate business, and mouse RAN by me. Yes, a MOUSE. In The Hilton Hotel. Surprises never cease to exist. ;) I considered telling management, but decided they would probably not believe me. So I’m telling you, hoping you will.

All in all, it was a good experience.

And just one question: What do you think the future is in investing in mouse real estate?

maybe next time she'll ask me to make a can of corn

2011-09-17T18:19:00.002-04:00

Last night Christopher and I went shopping for a spring chicken.

To be more specific, we went shopping for materials to make a spring chicken out of, but it's much more fun (also the WHAT?? factor is a little higher) to say we went in search of the chicken itself.

I should probably provide a back-story.

Elizabeth contacted me requesting that I make a stuffed animal she can take with her when she goes to school next month. She wants to hold it and think of me. How sweet. I must say I was slightly surprised she came to me for comfort because the last time she was upset and I tried to cheer her up, I offered her a can of corn. The exact words that came out of my mouth were, "DON'T CRY!!! DON'T CRY!!! I'll get you something to make you happy again! Do you want to can of corn?" I have absolutely no reasonable explanation for offering her a canned vegetable other than it was the very first thing that popped into my head. It didn't occur to me until later that she's allergic to corn. Maybe next time I'll go with a can of peas.

While I do pride myself in being able to create an egg family and turn paper bowls into ipod-holding turtles named Rocky, stuffed animals are slightly outside of my expertise. After being told that Build a Bear was not acceptable, I did a not so quick Google search for 'easy to make stuffed animals'. After weeding through many sites and viewing many unpleasant-looking monster stuffed animals with googly eyes, I narrowed it down to a donkey, a penguin, or an odd looking dog with a cute collar. And then, my friends, then I discovered the Spring Chicken. He has big feet and floppy wings and is just so charming. He's also unique; I doubt anyone else at school will have their very own spring chicken stuffed animal.

So that's how we came to be perusing the aisles of Joann's last night around half past six. (It doesn't hurt that I had no less than six Joann's coupons with my name on them burning a hole in my wallet. I am powerless to resist when I see "40% off any item in the store".) I tried introducing Christopher to the beauty of the fabric section but he was very distracted by dancing to the song on the radio. Not being one who likes causing or being anywhere near a scene, I pretended I didn't know him. ;-) Actually, he was very helpful and found the yellow and white fabric I'll be using for the body. Once we decided on the appropriate fabrics, we headed to the button department to find some eyes for the chicken. Because we're people who enjoy adding a little spice to life, this chicken is not going to have any ordinary eyes. Oh, no! He is going to feature eyes that are, without giving too much away, NOT ROUND.

We're people who believe in going all out when it comes to spring chicken making.

Sarah & Allison courtesy of YouCam

2011-09-15T08:36:00.002-04:00

golf date

2011-09-13T13:34:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday night the Great Plague of 2011 had eased up a little and I was feeling well enough to venture out of the house for while. We decided to go miniature golfing to make up for the golf date we missed earlier in the week. Thanks to our rousing game of apartment golf, we were well prepared for 18 holes of miniature goodness.

I like to think I'm an expert at golf because I took golf lessons one summer and I own a set of golf clubs, but in reality my golf skills are nothing to write home about. Whether due to a small amount of golfing skill or just pure luck, no one was more surprised than I when my purple ball rolled into hole 16 after one hit. I was just so proud of myself. In case you're wondering, Christopher did not score a hole-in-one. In case you are further wondering, my final score was better than his. But I certainly not boasting.

I was slightly distracted at certain points in the game because one of the medications I'm on makes me slightly wobbly and I really had no desire to fall into any of the little ponds throughout the course. (I think that's an understandable desire.) I would have hated to return to the hospital for the third time in two weeks all because I fell into a pond and received a head wound. Thankfully we finished the course and evaded any injuries.

I told Christopher to look victorious and this is what he did.

It's not exactly how I would portray victory, but it is cute. ;)

compared to Jonah, I'm doing ok

2011-09-10T21:15:00.000-04:00

My Big Adventure for this weekend was canceled.

Not only was I not well enough to travel, but Julie the automated Amtrak teller called to inform me that the train I was scheduled to travel on has been canceled. So my pretty blue party dress will stay in the closet, the personalized chopsticks I bought for Joy and Colin will have to be mailed, and I won't get to hug my friends at the wedding.

We had a discussion about why I'm still sick after two weeks even though I keep praying to get better, and why God wanted me to miss the wedding of someone who's like a sister to me. We never came to any real conclusion except that it's just what God decided.

After a (not so) small emotional moment, I decided to think of things I have to be happy about and thankful for.

* By December I'll have two nieces!

* Unlike many people in other countries, I have medications to help me get better. (You know what's pathetic? I'll tell you. When you put your three new prescriptions down on the nightstand next to your current prescriptions and briefly consider holding a meeting wherein you introduce all the medications to each other and ask them to please get along.)
* I saw two rainbows when I left church.

* Even though Christopher and I had to cancel our miniature golf date night, we were able to play Apartment Golf instead. We turned a bat into a golf club and hit our imaginary balls (mine was purple and his was green) around chairs and beds and into imaginary holes. I won but only because Christopher let me.
* Unlike Jonah, I have not been sitting in the belly of a whale for the last three days.

I am especially thankful for that last one.

patriotic crafts

2011-09-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

Over the last year I'm made quite a collection of patriotic crafts.

Here are three of my favorites.

1. tissue paper heart

I found this craft when looking a something patriotic to make with Zachary and Molly, but I ended up being the only one to complete the craft. For some reason they thought the pool was more exciting than tissue paper. I just can't see why. ;-)

2. voting book

I LOVE voting. Voting was the #1 reason I looked forward to turning 18! I always take the 'I voted' stickers they hand out and instead of them just laying around collecting dust, I made a voting book to put them in. I think it will be so cool to look back at this book in a few years and see who I voted for!

3. red,white, and blue cake

I made this cake last July. I was going to make a rainbow cake but didn't have enough pans, so I did red, white, and blue instead. Seeing how it was the 4th of July, those colors were more appropriate than rainbow colors! I used little green Army men and a flag to create Iwo Jima on the top.

a true matchmaker doesn't get (too) disturbed by bumps in the romantic road

2011-09-08T10:08:00.005-04:00

The Big Adventure of this weekend is traveling back to my homeland for the wedding of Katie's sister, Joy.

Colin will be there too. He's marrying Joy but as I haven't met him yet (he's from a far-off state known on as Mississippi), he doesn't usually make it into my many comments about the upcoming Big Adventure. Nevertheless, here's a picture of the soon-to-be-in-wedded-bliss couple.

It came out during a late night conversation at Katie's four or five years ago that Joy didn't like me too much when I was younger. That honestly didn't bother me much because frankly, I didn't like her too much either. Neither of us is quite sure WHY we didn't like the other one, but we seem to have formed an unspoken pact of dislike that ended only when we became responsible people with drivers licences and old enough that we could laugh about the days of our youth.

That dislike never stopped me from planning out Joy's romantic future.

The gentleman handpicked for Joy was none other than my dearly loved but slightly crazy brother Andrew. For a while there (meaning when they were under the age of 13), it looked as if my plan was going to work BEAUTIFULLY. I heard from Joy's very own mouth that she purchased a cheap ring from one of those machines at the store, placed it on the left right finger, and told Andrew a sob story about how she was engaged to Abraham Lincoln but their marriage never came about as he died immediately before the wedding.

She was trying to make him jealous.

In fact, I had a master plan in which not only did Andrew and Joy tie the knot, Daniel and Marylynn (Katie's oldest sister) got married as well making Katie and I almost related. It was our goal to have all the same nieces and nephews and attend all the same birthday parties. We could imagine nothing better than our four older siblings getting married. As seems to happen, the plans I make for the love lives of others rarely turn out as imagined. Andrew married Debbie, Daniel married Erika, Joy is marrying Colin, Marylynn has a boyfriend named Ben, and I married Christopher. (That last part has nothing to do with anything, I just felt like letting the world know who I married.)

In short (or to be honest, after many words), I am SO very excited about this wedding even though Joy is not marrying Andrew. I have been completely prepared for this event for the last month. I have my new blue party dress hanging in the closet, the camera is ready, I am constantly making lists in my head of who I'll see and hug, and I have their gift all ready. I do hate to boast, but I bought them personalized chopsticks which is one of the most highly creative and ultra-unique gift ideas I have ever come up with.

One more thing before I close- Aaron and Katie's sister Jenny would be perfect together.

Just sayin'.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T10:00:00.002-04:00

August 26th, 2011

a message about many medical maladies

2011-09-05T14:20:00.001-04:00

Well.

The past ten days have not exactly been a time I will look back on with great excitement and joy.

To be precise, I am recovering from an infection, allergic reactions to medications given for said infection, e.coli, and a heart rate of 137 which resulted in an eight hour visit to the hospital. It's been a grand-slam of medical maladies.

I would like to introduce six of my new best friends.

Try not to be jealous.

Christopher has been taking wonderful care of me. He is in charge of dispensing all medications, as well as delivering applesauce, yogurt, juice, and any other get-well necessities. Last night he even took me for a drive at sunset because I was getting a little stir crazy after being inside so long. I think I'll keep him around to take care of me forever and ever.

Now I must go. I do believe it's Maalox time again.

A Royal Comparison

2011-09-01T21:30:00.003-04:00

After all the discussion about our wedding being held on the same day as William and Kate's (perhaps you've heard of them), I thought it would be interesting to compare the similarities between Kate and I on our wedding day.

Similarity #1

We each had six little people walk down the aisle before us- four flower girls and two ring bearers.

Image: Hugo Burnand/Clarence House

Similarity #2

We each married a soldier

Similarity #3

We each have one sister who served as our Maid of Honor.

Of course, things AFTER the wedding are not so similar. After all, only one of us is married to the future king of England and it's not me.

Then again, my name means princess so I'm royal in my own way.

hodge-podge post

2011-08-30T13:25:00.000-04:00

1. Last week on a trek to the mailbox, I came upon a cucumber on the sidewalk. It was wrapped in plastic, just lying there in the sun. Having never come across a cucumber on a sidewalk before, I was unsure of any cucumber rescuing procedures. So I just left it there. After all, somebody might go in search of their missing cucumber and who was I to stand in there way? It reminded me of the time Katie was over and, on the same sidewalk, we found a lobster.

New York is weird.

2. We have two computers in our little family. Christopher has a laptop and I have a computer that doubles as the tv because we're real fancy-schmancy over here. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, the computer part (not to be confused with the tv part) of my computer no longer works. The store where we purchased it provided exactly ZERO assistance, so we gave it to someone Christopher worked with in hopes that he might work some sort of computer magic. After many weeks my computer was returned to us and by some miracle, IT WORKED! For all of a week and a half. In that week and a half our personal computer fixer left the Army. We are now faced with a terrible, terrible problem. The computer went into early retirement/crashed/ showed the blue screen of death immediately after I put 998 pictures on it and deleted them off my memory card and before I put them on cd's.

There is great mourning amongst the photographers here at Dandelions and Daffodils, Inc.

3. They say once you get married you will learn all sorts of new things about your significant other. Happy things, weird things, disturbing things, you name it. I have discovered my dearly beloved's GLARING LIFE MISTAKE.

He doesn't not know how to properly butter bread.

It came as a great shock to discover I married someone who puts butter in the middle of bread, moves it around a little, and calls it BUTTERED. I am extremely meticulous about my buttering. The butter has to reach each and every edge or I won't be able to eat my bread in peace. His method of buttering doesn't bother him in the least, but it makes me very nervous. I have taken it upon myself to be the designated garlic bread maker of the family. It's the only way I can be sure of getting my correct butter intake.

4. Someone found my blog by googling 'yellow children in Africa'. I have no idea how or why.

5. When I picked up my new prescription today, I asked the pharmacist what the potential side effects are. She pointed to a pile of papers she was putting in my bag and said, "all the side-effects are listed here. Of course, the worst side-effect is that YOU'LL DIE."

How reassuring.

the first ever Fort A.W.W.A.S. tour

2011-08-25T13:19:00.001-04:00

Look who came to visit me this weekend!

It's my favorite lives-in-the-north Grandma (not to be confused with my favorite lives-in-the-south Grandma), my mother, and my sister!

They arrived around three o'clock and promptly spent the next three hours looking at and discussing Allison's cuteness. Really, who can blame them? Just look at the child! She is extreme cuteness personified.

After supper I took them all on a tour of Fort at Which We are Stationed, here on out known as Fort A.W.W. A.S.

Right off the bat they made fun of me because my driving was slightly jerky. They were not sympathetic at all that I have only SUCCESSFULLY been driving a standard for the last week or so, and never with such energetic people as my passengers. Christopher's not exactly what you'd call a boucing off the wall passenger.

As soon as we pulled up to the gates of Fort A.W.W.A.S., I began conducting my very informative and in-depth tour. I will admit there were times when I wasn't quite sure what I was talking about. "And here is where, wait a minute, I think this is where the guys who do the...oh never mind, it's not...", but I should be given some slack because it was my first time conducting a tour with Sarah's Touring Enterprise.

I think they learned a lot from me. "And if we turn left here, we just might see the...oh, look to your right, everyone! Look to your right! Do you know what that is? It's a humvee, but not just any humvee! This one actually has soldiers in it and is rolling down the road! That's is not something you see in your neighborhood every day is it, folks? You may read about about them in your local paper, but you have never seen one at Fort A.W.W.A.S. Oh, look! I see something else approaching! It's a...it's a...never mind. It's just a regular ol' car. We are now approaching where Christopher works. Folks! I see some soldiers! No, I don't know what they're doing but if I were to guess, I would say walking down the road. After all, they are walking down the road. We will now cross over a road called, um, I can't pronounce that name but we're going to cross it anyway. We really don't have a choice now since we're already half way through the intersection."

They also learned from an expert how to decipher many of the initials on various Army signs. "Over in front of that building you will see a sign that says '1SQ, A BT, HHC 101 CAV'." I would then proceed to tell them exactly what that meant. (Side note: In case anyone with real military experience --hello, husband!-- reads this, I know that's not exactly proper army lingo. I just don't remember anything else.)

Here I am showing Grandma office buildings. She was very interested in those for some unexplainable reason.

I drove them to the park on Fort A.W.W.A.S. so they could see the woods, the pond, and the river.

The purple flowers that I'm holding were a souvenir gift from the tour guide to her tourists.

If you would like your own purple flowers from Fort A.W.W.A.S., just let me know. After all, I know the tour guide quite well.

our wedding~ the ceremony

2011-08-24T11:50:00.001-04:00

It occurred to me recently that for someone so intent on documenting every aspect of my wedding, there has been a major time-lapse since I last put up photos. In fact, I had a dream wherein you all thought that we never actually got to the ceremony part of the day because there weren't any pictures to prove it.

In an attempt to prevent any future nightmares, I now present photos of the ceremony (of which there are many).

~Order of Ceremony~

Processional

Welcome and brief invocation

Statement of Solemnity

Giving away of the bride

Congregational Hymn- How Great Thou Art

(first verse solo by Erika)

Reading- Jeremiah 29:11-13

When You Say You Love Me

(sung by Aaron, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Willie)

Charge to the Bride and Groom- Ruth 1:16-17

But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you.For wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me."

Vows

Exchange of Rings

Prayer of Dedication

Pronouncement of Marriage

Recessional

Marissa and Daniel ~ Hannah and Aaron

Joanna and Josh ~ Autumn and Andrew

Elizabeth and Willie

Katie

The flower girls before beginning their highly-anticipated duties.

Zachary taking his job very seriously.

Logan was carried down the aisle by his mother so we don't have any pictures of him performing his ring bearer duties in the usual fashion. What we do have is a picture of him looking all cool in his stocking feet at the reception that we'll use here instead.

Stephanie in her lovely dress. I believe I've stated before the I was a big fan of the ruffly/flowery top.

The groom waiting for, well, you-know-who.

I probably don't need to elaborate on this picture. I think it speaks for itself.

I loved the way my blue sash looked over the white dress!

And there we have it-proof that we actually did became MR. and MRS!

(photography by Keri McCarthy)

365

2011-08-23T10:04:00.002-04:00

One year ago today, almost exactly to the hour, Christopher and I meet in person for the first time.

A LOT has happened in that one year.

But it's been a WONDERFUL year!!

nosy vs. well informed

2011-08-20T22:42:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite things about Allison is that she likes to look out the window and watch the neighborhood goings-on as much as I do.

Christopher says it's "nosy" to know who lives where, what car they drive, which children and dogs belong where, and who spends the most time at houses not their own.

I prefer the term, "very well informed".

Laura Darling

2011-08-18T08:38:00.017-04:00

August 18th-

Events

293 BC – The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded

1909 – Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.

Births

1774 – Meriwether Lewis, American explorer

1952 – Patrick Swayze, American actor

1988- Laura Darling, America blogger

Today is the 23rd birthday of a very favorite blogging friend, Laura Darling.

We have a lot in common- we both like Brad Paisley, have a knack for getting lost while out and about, talk about Kelly like she's our BFF, dislike having to climb over people if we happen to be late to church, appreciate a good lipgloss, enjoy thinking up great sayings, and, certainly not least, we like to eat, laugh, and talk excessive amounts. We have a history of sending each other very long emails, and we've recently started communicating through text messages. We like to keep up with the times, Laura and I do.

The only problem with our relationship is that we have yet to meet in person. The lack of photos together is the reason for this little collage. It will have to hold us over until we can take a real picture together.

(Dear Matt, I apologize for cropping you out of the picture with Laura. I promise it's nothing personal. Sincerely, Your Girlfriend's Internet Friend)

We have made big plans for the day when we do meet. Our list includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:

Brad Paisley concert

IKEA
eating

Walmart

Sonic
Grey's Anatomy (We greatly enjoy Dr. Shepard.)

RV and boat show (so we can push all the buttons)

Skittles (I just added that without asking her first, but I'm sure she'd agree.)

Pictures

Probably get lost at some point

Happy birthday, Laura! I hope the phrase, "Sweet Nellie Bly!", is spoken 'round the world in your honor!

the view from the porch

2011-08-17T21:19:00.000-04:00

I have always wanted a front porch.

I'm constanly telling Christopher what my front porch will look like someday.

It will look like this.

It will be bright and cheerful (preferably white) with lots of plants and rocking chairs to make it look happy.

source

I'll put up a flag or two,

source
and plant lots and lots of flowers all around it.
There will be hydrangeas,

source

and wildflowers.

source

I'll make sure the porch faces the west so we can all sit together on the porch swing and look at the sunset.

source

If, for some reason, the porch doesn't face west, I'll just get somebody to turn the house around for me.My theory is that if men can walk on the moon, somebody can turn my house around.

go big or go home

2011-08-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

Last night Christopher went out to buy us a little ice cream for dessert.

This is what he came home with.

I think we're pretty well stocked in the after-supper treat department.