Thursday, February 25, 2010

no words

Please look at these pictures, watch the video and read the story about the Engels family.


Also, Stephanie talked about them here.

Join us in prayer for the Engels. We know God can heal Christi and we are praying with expectant hearts.

"Heal me, Oh Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise."
Jeremiah 17:14

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"What's your name?" "Mary Shelton" "Happy Birthday, Rachel!"

We spent the weekend in one of our favorite places- Birmingham- with some of our favorite people- Ashley & the Bryants!

Friday night was Step Sing. Though I am pretty obsessed with the whole thing, this year's performance was quite a disappointment. Independant Ladies were particularly ... bad, which was sad for me.
HayHay spent Friday night with us, and we love having her as our baby sis for family events like this.

The results were...
3rd Place- Phi Mu
2nd place- Pi Kappa Phi
(an awesome show!)
SWEEPSTAKES- Dudes-A-Plenty!
YAY for Independants rocking the Step Sing Sweepstakes (2005- DAP, 2006- IL, 2007- DAP, 2008- not really sure?, 2009- DAP got 2nd, 2010- DAP)!



In case you haven't watched this one yet, check out the best Step Sing show of all time:


And... while I'm posting random things about Step Sing, I thought I'd share this gem I found:

It's me and my friend, Lanie Beth at Step Sing... '06 maybe? We definitely haven't kept in touch, but I recently started reading her fabulous blog! She is just wonderful.

So, back to the weekend...Ashley has a new baby! Kensie Jo (Kensington= the part of London they lived in, Joyce= Jenn's mom who found her) is Harley's new best friend. They had so much fun together. Harley loves everyone, but the feeling isn't always mutual... This time, it was! He is still catching up on his rest from the hours of play time they had together.

I lost the picture of me and Kristen, Jamie and  Kara, but that's ok because I look like a whale in it. But man, it was so good to catch up with these friends. There is something irreplaceable about friends who know you so well. I am so looking forward to our next reunion weekend in April for Abby's wedding!

Saturday night we celebrated Mary Shelton's 20th birthday at the Cheesecake Factory (our favorite place)!
We had so much fun with all of the Bryants + friends.


...the beautiful birthday girl!!
The two hour wait made for a late night on the road Saturday, but it was totally worth it to spend the beautiful weekend in the 'ham.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Saint Valentine

I've never been one to get really into Valentine's Day. It's not because I am a debbie downer, it just has never been a big deal to me. Maybe it's because I didn't date anyone until David, and then we spent every Valentine's Day (until last year) multiple states apart.

We didn't do anything particularly exciting this year (we did see this cute movie and David made an amazing meal like this one), but I did want to celebrate the fun-loving holiday with some goodie packages for some of our far-away loved ones.

Garland


Candy cane hearts
...that ended up broken in thousands of pieces upon arrival...
Rice crispy treats
We used white chocolate (with a dab of red food coloring to make it pink) for the frosting. Oh my, these were good!

Red velvet heart snacks

However, I was waiting on my flat rate boxes to arrive, so these didn't quite make it in time for Vday... And, I realized the boxes weren't going to be an efficient way to ship this, so they got mailed in regular envelopes (hence the candy cane breakage). Oh well! What's wrong with elongating the most lovely holiday we have?!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I said "yes"!

This is random, but as I mentioned here, the purpose of this blog is for my own memory keeping, and this is one memory I want to have recorded forever!

January 17, 2008 was a pretty average day. I was bummed when my friend Laine had to cancel our running date for that afternoon (we were training for the Mercedes Half Marathon), but I headed home looking forward to a pretty low-key evening. Little did I know, that was not the evening ahead of me.

As soon as I got to my front door, I knew something was going on. I looked in the window and saw roses and candles everywhere.

I ran in the house... looking around at everything... looking around for someone! No one in sight. I went back to my bedroom and noticed... David's chapstick on my bed. ??? Random, I know, but he had this funky little chapstick that was unmistakeably his. However, still no David. As I started to head upstairs, the doorbell rang. Doorbell? Who could it be now?? I flung the door wide open to find none other than my David, on one knee, ring in hand. The poor guy was shaking and tearing up, nervous as can be, proposing to me. He said all kinds of sweet, wonderful things (none of which either of us can remember), and asked me to marry him. I was freaking out and of course, said yes!

The next fun surprise was when he pointed out his bff, Andy hidden behind a trashcan taking pictures! I was initially shocked just because Andy lived in Kentucky and I could hardly believe that he was there!

Then, I turned around and found my sister snapping away with the pictures from behind!

Our best man and maid of honor were in on it from the beginning (which was really very special).

 After we went inside and calmed down, David told me we had dinner reservations at my favorite place, Firebirds. I was pretty pumped about that.

I felt kind of bad because Ashley and Andy had to awkwardly kill time together, but they played it off like they didn't really mind. So, we left for the restaurant, but had to make some stops along the way (buying time). As we rounded the corner to our table, I (once again) freaked out

because my whole family (+Andy) were there!! I was so, so excited to see them! We got to tell them the whole story and share in the excitement with the people who were most excited for me (minus David's family, of course).

Whew. I was so overwhelmed with love and support, and I had no idea the night was still young! As we pulled onto my street, I (yet again) freaked out. There were cars everywhere- cars I recognized! We were having a surprise engagement party (props to my sister for inviting people and arranging things)! Courtney & Ms. Pam even drove over from Columbus just for the evening! Yet again I was so blown away, overwhelmed and completely loved. We told the story, ate cake, drank champange and celebrated.


I cannot believe that was 2 years, 1 month and 1 day ago. Wow! Time sure does fly when you're having as much fun as we are. Love you, D. Thanks for proposing to me.


Friday, February 12, 2010

deKaters

Kate's TOP 5 favorite things to do (at our house):

#5 eat cheese
#4 follow and pet Harley
#3 read books (Hayden picked out a new book for her from the $1 bin at Target!)
#2 play peek-a-book
#1 wear Hayden's shoes!



We love this baby so much! Come back soon, Kate!

post script- David's favorite nickname for Kate is "deKaters"...