Category Archives: friends

Blogging friends meet at last

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Woke up on Monday morning with nothing to do. Considering the Monday a week before was, shall we say, eventful?? I was happy but a little disappointed because I don’t like feeling unproductive.

I was checking my facebook aka my lifeline 😉 and I had a message from someone very special. It was from my friend Sharon and she and her family were coming to visit! I really love entertaining so naturally I was thrilled but what was even cooler is that this would be the first time I would be meeting this person I call my friend!

Sharon and I met through my blog. A year ago, the West Point Alumni Association placed a link to my blog of their online newsletter. My post was about the fateful day when Nathan began his journey at West Point. The day they posted my blog, I got 1,000 hits on my blog which blew my ever-lovin‘ mind, y’all!

So that’s how we met. We have kept in touch since that time and it’s been neat finding out we had a lot in common.

Mom, me too!
Wife, me too!
She blogs, I blog!
She loves Jesus, so do I!
I went to El Salvador and Peru on mission trips; she and her family are moving to Papua, New Guinea to serve the Lord!
I have an OS at West Point; her husband is a grad!

We both used to work with teenagers and teach them healthy life skills! Jazz hands!
And the list goes on and on…

This year I have met several new friends and it’s kismet when I meet someone and there is this connection as if we have known each other for a long time.

Suddenly the day went from nothing to do, to having something very special to do! I rushed to the farmer’s market and put the OS to work straightening up the house. 
I am such a housewifey kind of girl, I set the table pretty which is seriously one of my fave things to do in life. My serotonin levels soar when I am decorating, especially when I am putting special touches around my dining room table, you have no idea. 

With my OS’s help, (I am determined to raise three sons who know how to cook!), I prepared shepherd’s pie, a fresh salad of ruffly, purple lettuce, ripe orange cherry tomatoes and fresh beets and then a bowl of freshly sliced peaches and blueberries. We enjoyed pleasant conversation throughout the night and Nate and Paul discussed WP things. I observed they used acronyms a lot more than non-Army people. 😉 If they weren’t moving to PNG, I’d want Sharon as a neighbor and close friend. Why, we could do girly things together, she could teach me about letter boxing and geo-caching. I have no idea what I could offer her except a few laughs, but it would have been fun.

After dinner, we treated the Bowers to Goodberry’s which is home to the world’s most delicious frozen custard. 

If you are ever in the area, come over to my house and we’ll take you to Goodberry’s as well!


In this great big world we live in, as vast and busy as it is, we carved out time to connect face to face with some wonderful people. We got to know each other via the internet but had some precious time together in person. Check out her blog and you’ll see why I’m glad to have this new lady in my life and heart! 

Things Always Take A Lot Longer Than You Realize

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So if you have been with me so far you know that Spirit Week is a big deal in our family. The resourcefulness, creativity and fun my OS and I put into the week makes my little mama’s heart soar. I feel as if I am in the TMZ, the Total Mama Zone, like I am racking up some serious AMP, Amazing Mama Points. 

But that nearly came to a screeching halt the Sunday before Spirit Week began. Michele and I decided to get together after church and make three pair of pajama pants and corresponding appliques. 

My bff prepared some tasty chicken cabbage soup and fresh pineapple and afterward I realized that I had brought the wrong pajama pants patterns to her house. We rushed back to my house, grabbed the patterns and scurried up to her craft room. At this point, we were slightly behind our imaginary schedule but not too concerned.

The mood was lively and jovial as we cut the material and set to the task of cranking those pj pants out in record time. Our machines were purring like kittens and I was especially excited to be using a stitch on my machine I had never used. It’s funny the things people, (ok, not everybody, but some people, like me) can get excited about…maybe it’s like a guy using a new kind of nail or a fancy hammer, I don’t know.

Ike took pictures to document the day. Surely we will be done with these before dinner, Michele and I mused. Yeah, right. Michele spoke these ominous words repeatedly, “things always take a lot longer than you realize,” and that became a foreboding truism as the day grew longer and longer and longer. 

I believe this picture is Michele’s “things always take a lot longer than you realize” face.  

When the two boys tried on the pj pants, we made some changes and started more custom sewing. Scott is small and his pants were gi–normous. Then Ike felt like his pants were pretty huge too. I guess sixth grade guys don’t like their pants poofy. We plodded on.


And then there was me. Michele wanted to make simple elastic
 waistbands but I lobbied for them to have elastic waistbands and matching draw strings. I assured her it wouldn’t take too much longer since both of our machines can make buttonholes. We could whip those out in no time at all. She complied and we still remained optimistic. We could doey it! 

Admittedly though we were getting a tired and a little punchy. Michele also said she never sews at night…too many mistakes. Daylight was slipping away and although we were making progress but it was apparent she would be working into the night. 

I averted a horrible accident and a nice little trip to the ER when I narrowly missed digging/shoving/implanting a pin into my right knee. I guess I needed to cut something and with one fell swoop, my knee/pajama pants all hit the carpet simultaneously. It was only then that I felt a little pin in the material breeze past my bent knee. Oh, how I praised Jesus that that unsanitary pin didn’t get rammed up there! All I could think about was some medical show I watched recently about a woman with a needle in her knee and wow, it was really, really gross! 


We weren’t lazy and we talked while we sewed but there were no coffee or cigarette breaks (HA!) Why was it past six o’clock and these pants were still not done! Ike tried on his pajama pants and got fitted more times when he probably will when he gets a tux for his wedding! 

And the buttonholes were a mess. Maybe the machines were getting as tired as the seamstresses behind them. But we plugged along and bless her heart, when we realized that I hadn’t made enough drawstrings, Michele forged ahead and completed the job. 

It was past 7pm and the end was near, at least for this project. Though my shoulders and neck were screaming, I think the satisfaction of spending time with my friend and doing something for my son and his buds made it all worthwhile. That is until Ike started to have second thoughts on the way home and panicked about what people were going to say. I tried my best to remain calm which was a feat in itself. 

I made dinner with the help of my family and immediately after shoveling in the last bit of chicken manicotti, I whipped out my trusty sewing machine and worked on Aaron’s Thomas the Tank Engine pj pants.

Why did we do this? I’ll tell you why. Love. Pure, unadulterated, mushy mama love, that’s why. Love for my children, love for his friends, love of my friend, a chance to bless. I don’t regret a minute of it even though I was exhausted. 

And check these out! First, check out Ike’s face as he got ready to walk into his class with Orange Train emboldened on his chest! Aren’t they adorable! Here are the guys workin‘ it with their matching pajama pants and appliqued t-shirts. They were a big hit at the middle school and I’m already thinking about next year’s design. Yes, I’m insane. 

And Aaron’s Thomas the Tank Engine pajama pants, just when I thought I had nothing left in me, well, those pajama pants were about to rock my world…I’ll blog about that next.

Habla Espanol?

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If you saw my on the road today, you saw me practicing Spanish. If you saw me at the chiropractor, you saw me whispering Spanish in the waiting room. If you were in my house, you heard me trying to recall all my limited Spanish vocabulary or reading a Chick-Fil-A book First 500 Words Spanish. I’ve got espanol on el cerebro! (that’s Spanish on the brain!)


Ola!
Como usta usted?
Donde esta la mesa (table)? La silla (chair)? Su cabesa (your head)? (that last one is a little joke!) Also, I don’t know how to put the upside down grammar in my blog, forgive me!


With my trip to El Salvador six weeks away, I really want to be able to say a few things in Spanish. I have a French major so there are some similarities in these romance languages. It’s funny though because I was practicing and noticed that I put a French lilt on Spanish words. I sound like an American person who speaks French trying to sound like a latina and that, mi amigos, is quite a stretch. I certainly hope the folks in El Salvador appreciate my efforts and that I don’t completely make a fool of myself. 

If I could do things over again, I’d be a linguistics major. Languages and words fascinate me. If only my brain were smarter! I used to be able to dream in French and fondly recall the time while I lived in France for a year in college. 

I lived in Caen, Normandy, France and for Spring Break, I went to Italy and inadvertently ended up traveling by myself for two weeks (long story but one that still blows my mind). I was a junior in college, walking around Florence, Italy all alone trying to find the hostel where I was going to stay. All I had was a German map. My brain was all twirled around as I translated the German words into the Italian street signs, then translated those words into French and synthesized it all into my anglophone head. It was an empowering moment for me!

Now I find myself with another mentally challenging opportunity. My friend, Beth Anne and I will be speaking at the Evangelical University in the country’s capital in and my heart’s desire is to address our audience in Spanish, however brief. As I understand it, we will be speaking to maybe 300 upper class El Salvadorian college students about purity. I will not be able to do an entire presentation in Spanish but I would love to honor the students in this small way. My ultimate intention, however, is to honor muy Salvador, (Spanish for My Savior and Rescuer) in any language and in every way.

Pray for me as I expand my brain! Muchas gracias!Â