dear Krystal...

I remember when we first met...

I was 11 and you were 10.

We were in your basement

drinking soda

jumping up and down

trying desperately to make ourselves belch.

I learned two things that day:

#1 You are the best belch-er in the world

{I've yet to meet someone who can match your skills}.

#2  You are a lifelong friend.  My bestie.

From that day forward, our lives would never be the same.

In ways we could never have dreamed.

And for both of us, that meant a whole lot of bad.

But as we have lived our lives, we look back and see that there were threads of good, weaved throughout, as well.

One of those good strands has been our friendship.

No matter the paths it has taken {rocky, smooth, separate, together....}

you have been a constant presence in my life.

What an adventure we've shared!

I now know I can count on you.

My life is what it is as a result of your influence.

My life continues to benefit, even today.

Your...

strength

bravery

diligence

fight

refusal to give up

faith in God

endurance
unending joy
perspective

heart

...inspire me.

I want to be a better person because of you.

You have overcome SO MUCH.

And with each new day, as the sun rises to meet your beautiful face,

your determination is fortified.

You will win.

And you'll do it with a smile on your face and a practical joke in your pocket.

I can't tell you enough how proud I am to know you.
And how lucky I am to be your friend.

I love you, Crazy.

I hope you have a wonderfully HAPPY 30th Birthday today!

I wish I could be there to help you paint the town

and get kicked out of a fine establishment with you!

Until we meet again, 

I will dream of us.

Belching.

Laughing.

Making fools of ourselves.

Matching outfits and all...

I'm Silly.
And you're just plain Crazy...

paci? what paci?

Annaleigh is a happier baby...
Annaleigh sleeps more soundly...
...now that she is "paci" free!

Not what I ever imagined.

Do I regret ever giving her a paci, since I was so recently zealous in wanting her to be rid of it?
Absolutely not.

She was a "sucker" from the womb (for lack of a better term).  When she would breastfeed, she would end up "hanging-out" after she was full.  Not that I was upset by that or anything, but I did have other things to accomplish in life rather than be a human-pacifier.

Enter the plastic pacifier.  As soon as the lactation consultants gave us the go-ahead, I was all over that like Annaleigh on me bees on honey!

I was able to soothe her without being the one to soothe her.

She forged a strong relationship with that thing.  My grandfather used to say, "You can't love anything that doesn't love you back."  But Annaleigh did.  And I'm pretty sure I could hear a small, unfamiliar, audible voice declaring its love to my baby girl.  They were inseparable.

Then the day came were they started to plot against me.  Using each other to gain my attention.  The paci would jump out of Annaleigh's mouth, during nap time, and land somewhere difficult to find and retrieve.  Under the crib, stuck between the bumper pad and the wall, the 'blind-spot' under the rocker, inside a book....


Annaleigh would proceed to scream, wail, and cry.  Clearly signifying the separation of the paci from her mouth.

I enter the room.  Both the paci and baby would grin from ear to ear.  You little stinker, I'd say in my head.

The frequency of this performance increased.  And then they took the show on the road:  the car rides.

Of all the reasons I thought Annaleigh and her paci should breakup (#1 she's a toddler.  #2  if I wait - she'll soon be a 3YO with it hanging out of her mouth with no chance of separation.  #3  she needs to learn the art of self-soothing sooner than later.  and the list goes on...) the greatest of reasons is:  manipulation.

I refuse to, aware-ly, be manipulated by a child.

On Monday, February 7th, she helped me throw away her pacis (all of them) into the trash.  She cried.  (A little piece of her heart seemed to leave her at that moment which made me cry in my heart, too.  A bittersweet day, for all of us.)  Soon she was off blissfully (and ignorantly) playing a few seconds later.

Nap-time came.  And the realization hit her.  Her pacis were gone!  Oh, the terror!  Oh, the injustice!  Oh, the horror!


Screaming and dry-heaving like never before.

Usually, a thing like that rocks me to my core.  I can't stand it.  It breaks my heart.  I go insane inside my head.  A strong urge to hurl my tense body out a window overwhelms me.  Thankfully, our landlord has either screwed a screen or plexiglass, permanently, to the outside of each of our windows.  


But this time I smiled.  Outright.  Confident I was doing the right thing for my baby girl.  (However, I was also secretly terrified I had willingly entered into a inescapable sort-of 'hell'.  What was I doing?  Am I crazy?  Will it be worth sacrificing my sanity over a pacifier??)  But I stood firm.  I never allowed the lure of that beautiful Greek siren to pull me towards demise.  I remained strong.

About 2-1/2 days later:  no screaming, no crying, no dry-heaving.

Our routine now is placing her in the crib, softly stroking her cheek as I tell her I love her, and walking away.  Simple as that.  No drama.

I no longer hear the paci's voice.  Yet, now, a new voice fills the room.  One of a baby girl, sweetly talking to her little "lamby" as she drifts off to sleep.  No paci could have ever made that happen.

Good riddens, you little stinker.

memories and peanuts pressed into the bottom of the diaper bag

Last week, we spent our time in Chicago, IL. Our purpose there was a business trip for Mike (and I got to tag-a-long! hooray!). His main focus was to promote BBS at Moody Bible Institute during their "Founders Week" (Happy 125th Birthday, MBI!).

Let me tell you what a spiritual-kick-in-the-pants that was! A-mazing. One full week of the the best speakers from all over the country (and a few beyond that). Bless-ing. If you want to get a taste of what we got to experience live, click here.  One of my favorite speakers was James Ford.  He said something that I will never forget (in reference to Jesus walking on the stormy waters), "He needed to show [the disciples] that what was over their heads was under His feet..."  Po-wer-ful.

We not only were challenged by the sessions, but by the snow! Chicago was hit with record-high snowfall (as did the rest of the country!). But if you think the snow was bad, try adding 60 mph winds...whoosh! brrr! They don't call it the 'windy' city for nothing --well, maybe also for their politics...but we won't get into that right now--.

What an exhausting fun-filled week it was! Eating Chicago's best deep-dish pizza (and fries). Walking up and down the "Magnificent Mile". Having maids make up your king-size bed everyday. Visiting Navy Pier. Seeing Lake Michigan in all it's frozen beauty. Meeting new people. Chasing Annaleigh around and trying to convince her that food is good to eat. Throwing dirty towels on the floor...wait, um, I think we do that already...never mind... I was even able to catch up on my reading!

But at the end of the day, it's good to finally be home with all those memories (and airplane peanuts)...

new news is good news!

A picture is worth a thousand words....

We are expecting our 2nd little bundle of joy in August 2011.

How thrilled we are to receive such a blessing from the Lord!

Congrats to us!

I told you I had a lot more to share with you.

Aren't you glad you stuck around?

it was the best of times. it was the worst of times.

Most would believe that a vacation should be filled with adventures and have its own fair share of challenges (which we all know turn into those 'laugh-until-your-stomach-hurts' types of stories).

But simply getting here to Tennessee was wild enough.

Not even 24 hours into our trip and this is what happened:

We were 'parked' on highway 81 for more than 1 hour.

We saw people 'taking walks' along the dotted line.

Others relieving themselves by the orange-reflector barrels.

People were sifting through their back seat in search of sustinance (a.k.a. granola bars).

And even some were grabbing cans of beer from the case they had stored in their trunk.

Mike was severely thirsty. (Not for the beer.)

I offered him the water which was reserved for the baby's bottles.

He drank so little I didn't think he could have possibly quenched his thirst.

When I questioned him, his response was,

"Not sure how long we'll be stuck here.

We probably should ration our supplies."

Annaleigh held her bottle for the first time.

So what if it was for 5 seconds?

It was amazing.

`

We were caught in two seperate downpours of rain.

Both accompanied by some pretty serious lightening and thunder.

The drops were individual-sized buckets.

Nevermind out your windshield.

You couldn't see the actual windshield.

Road? What road?

We had to stop under the under-pass and wait for it to pass.

One of the times we were joined by a sorry guy on a motorcycle.

I'm pretty sure he was sorry. He didn't choose the best vehicle that day.

`

Annaleigh had a rare melt-down.

We arrived at the hotel around 12 am.

She started around 12:30 am.

Non-stop s-c-r-e-a-m-i-n-g.

Until 2 am.

Lovely.

`

We ate the best baby-back ribs on the planet.

In our hotel room.

Along with a tasty baked sweet potato.

We got it to-go from the restaurant across the street.

The Chop House.

De-lish.

`

But this was next event was the icing on the cake.

Nothing could top this.

Not even your most expensive bride/groom cake-topper.

So far, so good.
I think.

Out with the Old and In with the New

Goodbye 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse!

Hello 2010 Chevy Equinox!

No, your eyes are not deceived. We have been blessed with a NEW car!
We traded in the Eclipse and drove away with this Equinox.
It was so surreal that we felt like we were car stealing!
* * *
Praise be to God!
As Michael prayed that night he said,
"Lord, may we use this new car for Your glory."
My heart feels the same.
We have been blessed so we can bless others.
May my heart and eyes be sensitive to this
and may I be unselfish and quick to fulfill the needs of others.
We are truly undeserving...
...but grateful just the same!



**P.S. Thank you to my Daddy.
You are truly and completely loved by me
simply for who you are:
my Daddy.

Cool, Calm, and Collected....

The annual Clarks Summit Ice Festival was upon us last week. Two ice sculptors spend their time over the course of that week carving amazing images out of a block of ice. To be able to envision such masterpieces from ice amazes me. When I see a block of ice, the only creative thing I can think of is "Yaye, enough ice for my Coke!" The theme this year was "Under the Big top".

We braved the 'icy' weather and headed into town to witness these chilly creations. What you see here is only a small fraction of the collection. The total number was well over 50. They were all sprinkled throughout town stationed in front of local businesses and establishments.

And if you're lucky (or if you just check the schedule) you can witness one of these works of art being chiseled and torched right before your very eyes.... ooooo.....aaahhhhh.....

Very cool.

Coke anyone?