time with family

I spent the last few days with some precious families at Windy Gap, the Young Life camp in Asheville, NC. Josh has been on working with Young Life for the past 8 years in Shelby. And over those 8 years we've had hugs, laughs, tears, meals, vacations, prayer and teaching from some of the sweetest people on earth.

This past weekend was the good stuff...three solid days of watching families love each other. It just made me feel warm all over (not like a hot flash....more like getting into a warm car after a cold winter day. yum, love that feeling.)

But pictures are better than words....especially my words. So here are some things that I loved about this past weekend:

1) moms that went "all out"....mom's like my friend Elizabeth who took some serious spills during a round of dizzy bat. what a tough act to follow!

2) friends that love each other, their families and Jesus

3) high school friends that come to family camp.

4) watching families play together. especially when that "play" involves piggy-back rides and flour bombs

5) listening to little kids giggle. is there a sweeter sound?

6) kids cheering for their parents.

7) girl time. do i need to say more?

8) familes that come to family camp even when the kids go away to college or get married. loooove that Baird came from ECU and Cora came (with her husband Jim) from Jackson Hole!

already counting down the days until cleve co family camp 2011!!

american honey

life has been too busy; full of good things, but just too busy

josh and i have been running around the past few weeks and its starting to catch up with me. sleep and rest don't seem to be coming very easily and i've got the first signs of a springtime cold. my first thought was about how i needed to get some medicine to make sure that i would be able to get everything done on my 'to do' list for this week. the work and chores were piling up and it gave me a headache to think about falling behind. stopping by the drug store looked like a necessity.

and then i thought: no. medicine isn't want i need. what i need is rest. i need to take a break: i need freedom from activity and work. i need to re-prioritize.

this time of year is beautiful. the crisp of the morning and warmer afternoons. the smell of fresh cut grass and new flowers blooming. frogs croaking and the promise of warmer summer nights. and i'm about to miss it all because of my 'to do' list.

so i pulled in to work today and threw out my list. i'm sorry if i forget to show up at a meeting or return your phone call. you can find me sitting on my back porch sipping some coffee (i'll be happy to share a cup) or out for a run around town (i'm slow, but you can join me if you like.)

you can call it "un-winding" or "un-plugging' i'm not too picky. but, i do love the way hillary lindsey from Lady Antebellum puts it:

Get caught in the race

Of this crazy life

Tryin' to be everything can make you lose your mind

I just wanna go back in time

To American honey, yea

Lunch Diva drama

I love my husband. Really, I do. Quite a lot actually.
But the man can drive me crazy. Really, he does. Quite a lot actually.

It happens every weekday around 12:45pm. Josh walks in the door, announces his hunger level and then launches into how "we" never have anything in the house for him to eat for lunch. I love how guys use the married "we" when they really mean "you." You know, as in "we need to do some laundry" or "we need to reseed the lawn"

I think the problem started when Josh was single (I mean really, all guys' problems start before they get married. I sometimes think they got married so that their wife would solve all their woes.) When Josh was single, he ate out a ton. Nearly every meal. Seriously. And its strange, because he's actually quite a good cook. But alas, he was alone and didn't have anyone to tell him how absolutely frivolous it is to eat out for every meal.

But now he has me to tell him how frivolous he is. Aint love grand?

I've been doing our grocery shopping since we got married. I have to since Josh would chose to use all our money for eating out. I look for discounts and try to maximize our budget and shop at multiple grocery stores in search of the best deals and fresh produce. I make sure Josh has breakfast foods, drinks and snacks. I plan our dinners, so I get ingredients for those meals. But I never know what to get for Josh for lunch.....because he is a Lunch Diva. One day he might want a homemade pizza, the next day a Reuben, the next day a spinach salad, the next day jambalaya, and the list goes on. The grocery bill would be astronomical and 80% of the leftover ingredients wouldn't get eaten. (We actually got into a heated discussion about bread with some friends on Sunday night. Josh thinks its totally OK to buy a loaf of bread and only eat 2 slices.)

So fast forward to yesterday at 11:40am. Josh calls to tell me how hungry he is. The message is about an hour earlier than I was expecting....I think catching me off guard actually lead to some clear thinking.

I proceeded to tell Josh that I would give him a dollar for every lunch item he could give me to buy him from the grocery store. The catch was that he had to actually eat all the items this week. He quickly spouted out seven items, grabbed the $5 bill out of my hand and ran out the door. To Chick-Fil-A.

I just paid my husband to make a grocery list. What is the world coming to?
And does anyone have any other ideas besides bribing Josh?

everyone wants to be a princess

Well, if I may say so, Your Majesty, I did try to warn you; but you, Sire, are incurably romantic. No doubt you saw the whole pretty picture in detail. The young prince bowing to the assembly. Suddenly he stops. He looks up. For, lo, there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care for his heart tells him that here, here is the maid predestined to be his bride.

Chelsea and I went to see the NC Dance Theater's performance of Cinderella on Saturday night. The ballet was beautiful, funny and so much more than I expected! I loved the dancing, costumes and the sweet little girls in the audience (I totally melted when I heard this little voice cry out, "there's the pwince mommy!")

The last performance was this past Sunday, so I know that I'm basically telling you that you really missed out....but I can't help myself----you totally missed out! The younger dancers, several of which we recognized from The Nutcracker, did such a good job! I feel like such a failure for quiting dance class. The Stepmother and two Ugly Stepsisters totally stole the show....their faces and choreography had the entire theater gut-laughing, and how often does that happen at the ballet?!?

How adorable are these little girls?! I love their crowns, tutus and magic wands. They couldn't be any sweeter!!!

And then you have me and Chelsea....we couldn't not dress up when all the accessories were right there in front of us.

I also couldn't resist taking pictures in front of this giant shiny statue. I'm glad that I can talk Chelsea into taking pictures with me!

spring is coming!!

I'm loving the spring weather we've been having! Warmer days, sunshine, driving with the windows down....it makes me ready to open the windows and start eating out on the back porch!

But then we have a few rainy days, and it feels like summer is never coming. And on those dreary days (like today) I have to remind myself that the rainy days bring beauty too:

sweet little crocus....how i hated planting you last fall
but you are so sweet now!

we're kind of famous

Remember how I said that Chelsea took me to the Lore Emelio fashion show? Well, the paparrazi were crazy that night.....look who ended up in the paper:

ta da!

I went to a wedding shower for my friend Hef this past weekend. I was supposed to bring a gift associated with the letter "X." I thought about a Xerox machine or a xylophone, but couldn't find either. I ended up settling on using "X" for "XOXO." And then I made this:

Typography is supposed to be really in right now....and since Hef was looking for some fun home decor items, I thought she'd appreciate a little craftiness!

How did I make such an awesome item?! Well, since you asked.......

I bought a really cheap, but ugly, piece of framed art at Salvation Army. This baby set me back $0.50. What an investment!

Then, I took the ugly "art" to Lowe's and had my friend Carl take it apart and cut a piece of glass for me. Cost: $2.32.

I spray painted the frame with a metalic black paint (it also has little flecks of copper in it---so pretty in the sunlight!)

Total cost: $2.82. Wanna make your own? Here's my print (I can send you a PDF it you need one!):

plus one

i love my friend chelsea. know what i love more? being her 'plus one' when she gets exclusive invites to fabulous events like this one:

a little craftiness

A friend of mine has a little craftiness heading her way. I want to leave it a surprise....but I can tell you that it involves the Salvation Army and my friend Carl from Lowes. Get excited friend!!!

chickolay

Oh Chick-Fil-A (or "chickolay" as it known around our house....its a long, slightly incriminating, story that we'll get into later) you've really outdone yourself this time.

Josh and I went hiking over the weekend. As usually, we had to make 23987234 stops before we actually left town. One of the stops was to grab Josh some breakfast. Sometimes I think he waits to be hungry until we've actually left our house in an attempt to score some restaurant food.

We swung into Chick-Fil-A and I almost ordered Josh some chicken-minis, when he leaned over and placed an order for a yogurt parfait. Yogurt? Parfait? At Chick-fil-a? My husband? While waiting for his parfait I contemplated how Josh could've lost his mind....mercury poisoning, head injury? And then they handed me his order and we were off.

It was almost to yummy-looking for this vegan girl to handle.

**I should note that Josh is neither a willing nor happy participant in this photo montage.
I am in fact his personal paparazzi nemesis.