How I Met My Honey

So I have decided to participate in my first carnival. Click on the link above if you want to join or want more information. Rebecca checked out my site and I've checked out her site - so here goes....

In April 1997, I got a phone call from my friend Shannon. I was living in Denton, TX at the time - going to TWU. She said that she knew a guy that wanted my phone number so he could ask me out but she wanted my permission first before she just gave him my number. See, he went to high school with us but he was a year ahead of me so I never really knew him. She had gone to lunch with a few friends from her class and she had a stack of pictures (this was back before you emailed pictures to all your friends or had blogs to post them to). He was looking through them and saw a picture of me. He asked, "Who's this girl? I think I know her." Shannon responded with, "well, that's Jen. Everyone knows Jen." So back to the phone call....I was so busy with the end of the semester. I was president of my music fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota, and I had finals coming up and well, I was just busy. She convinced me that I needed to meet him and just go out. So I told her she could give him my number - and I'm sure she called him immediately.

Well, Bryan did call either that day or the next day and said, "I guess you know why I'm calling you?" I liked how he did not try and fake where he got my number or drag out the inevitable question of asking me out. Yes, it was a bit awkard that he basically set himself up on a blind date and that I was okay with it. But I said, "sure, sounds like fun." So I "penciled" him into my busy calendar.

He drove from Arlington to Denton to pick me up for our date. I believe he arrived with tulips in hand. We drove to Dallas and ate at a Bennigan's and went to Dave and Busters. We, obviously, had a great time. I remember he kissed my hand when he dropped me off. That was a long night of driving for him. I remember us talking a lot on the phone and going out when I'd go home for the weekend. I remember him helping me and my sister move out of our apartment in May and have been together ever since.

I later found out that he was sort of dating someone else at the time - but he didn't really like her and neither did his friends. Speaking of friends....I met his gang of friends a few weeks later. In fact, I sort of met Kent and Karen before I met them. He was talking to me on one of our long phone conversations when the other line kept beeping in. His friends were waiting for him to show up because Kent was about to ask Karen to marry him and everyone was supposed to be there. Okay, so back to meeting his friends...he took me along to a friend's graduation party and after the party everyone decided to go bowling - yea, we're REAL party animals. Well, I had on a skirt (a long, ugly skirt) and no socks. Kent loaned me a pair of soccer socks from his car - and I trustingly wore them with my skirt and bowling shoes. The bowling alley had some tunes playing and when the Grease medley came on I instinctly started doing the Grease Lightening moves and singing all the words. Well, all the girls were thrilled - because they did the same. And they knew I was going to fit in to their group just fine.

Turns out that I've sort of known Bryan my whole Texas life. His family lived only streets away from my family, we went to the same church and even sat on the same side of church all through high school, and we shared a few friends in high school. I even went to prom with one of his best friends - long story how Bryan and I never met at that point. In high school, some silly club did a Valentine fundraiser - you fill out the questionnaire and pay $2 and the computer spits out 3 names of people that you'd be compatible with...turns out we each got each other's names. Our friend Chris Lynn introduced us in the parking lot of LHS that we should be dating - but we laughed it off. I mean, he was in band and I was in choir - the 2 shall never mix! Ha!

So on June 24, 2000 we were married - that's 3 years of dating. And we will have our 8th anniversary this June....okay, so a 2000 wedding makes it real easy to keep track of anniversaries.

So that's it - there you go - love at first site (of a picture). I wish I knew what picture it was. And I wish I could post the picture I have here of when we were dating. But my silly scanner isn't working.

Three in one day

Seriously, what is wrong with me and my posting like madness today. I just can't stop. Do you like the new pink??? The brown was starting to depress me a little so I changed templates. I'm not fancy enough to even know how to design my own or do anything "crazy" like that. I've been visiting some other blogs lately (thanks Elaine) and there are some real cute ones. I've noticed some new visitors to my little blog (thanks Elaine) and I'm starting to get embarassed about my plainness. I'll be sure to post some links to some of my new favorite blogs - when I figure out how to do that...just kidding, I do.

Doctor visit report: Yes, I was right. A sinus infection. Maybe I should have been a doctor. Oh wait, that would have required years of school and studying and actually applying myself - and I was never real good at putting forth the "extra" effort. Just ask Dr. Yeomans my college piano professor. He had great dreams for me....sorry Dr. Yeomans. Or could it be that I've had about 216 sinus infections in my adult lifetime. Anyways, I'm on ANOTHER antibiotic!!! And some ultra-cool cough suppressant that has codeine in it! Let's review: since March I've been on a steriod shot, z-pac, 10 day antiviral, 20 day steroid, Ceftin and now Levaquin. Okay, seriously - what is the deal? The doctor mentioned the whole " you should do allergy shots again" but then I whined about insurance not covering all that, how would I have time to go 2x a week for shots with 2 little kids, blah, blah, He agreed with me when I finished that speech.

Tire report: Bryan took the van in for the second time this week - see post below. The flat tire had 2 nails and 2 holes. So there was no patching that baby. So another $100 something dollars later the van has 2 new tires. What in the world did I drive through that would have done that to 1 tire?

So then, sinus infection diagnosis later....I took the boys to the strawberry farm to do some pickin'. Sorry Mom - I know you're not happy with me and this decision to spend some time in the great outdoors with the dirt and wind and POLLEN. But fresh strawberries and fluff (cream cheese and marshmallow creme) was on my brain and I couldn't shake it. The weather was too nice and I just had to follow through with my plan for the week. The boys had fun and even Evan was into hunting for those berries.

I think I'm done blogging for one day. Sleep tight my friends.

Happenings

1. Okay, so I'm so sick of being sick. It seems like every two weeks there is something new going on with me. You'd think I was a first year teacher or something. I haven't worked in 3 days - I believe I have a sinus infection - so we'll see if my diagnosis is correct after I see my friendly doctor at 2pm. I was just in there 2 weeks ago for strep throat. I mean seriously!!!! Enough already.

2. I have been cleaning a few things out while I've been home. There is random crap in the laundry room (or closet) that just needs to go. In fact, there is a bunch of stuff in this house that needs to go.

3. Bryan lovingly took my van with him to work on Tuesday so he could get the front left tire replaced. I was a little freaked out that it was going to blow any minute. So he got a new tire and all the other tires rotated. Wonderful. Well, Wednesday before this week's "storm of the century" blew in - I parked my van in the garage. If you've seen our garage you know this is no easy task. The next day I went out to go to a rehearsal - and the front left tire was flat. Is that some weird karma or what?

4. On Wednesday, I stayed home with Evan boo. He had a horrible cough and well, I wasn't feeling too hot myself. We hung out in my bedroom so I could just lay there while he jibberjabbered. We both eventually fell back asleep. I awoke to that little sweet boy kissing me on my face. I could have squeezed the poop right out of him, it was too cute.

5. Swimsuits are evil.

6. I'm loving my tv shows this week.
American Idol - Carly got ripped off. That Jason kid should have been axed...he was backstage yawning!!!! And singing "Memory" - even Andrew Lloyd Webber thought he was an idiot.
Lost - what in the world!??!?!?! I give up on trying to follow the story line now. And that evil Ben - how could he let his "daughter" get killed. ewww.
Top Chef - I don't think Jen should have packed her knives and gone. I think that bad attitude Lisa should be out of there. I, mean, refusing to cook the ingredient you were given???? She has a potty mouth too.
Grey's Anatomy - for some reason I like this show. I don't know why because they are all egotistical, sex-crazed idiots. But I enjoy the hour it is on. Maybe it is the soft lighting of Patrick Dempsey's face. It's certainly not that Meredith Grey. She's annoying.
Jon & Kate plus 8 - this show makes me look like I have it under control and then I feel better about myself. And Brennan likes to watch "the show with 8 kids" with me.
Hell's Kitchen - my new discovery. That guys is such an a__hole and it is just awful how he talks to those people. But at the same time it's pretty funny.

7. The ticket system we have begun for our 4 1/2 year old has changed our lives - at least, this week.

Okay, my head is really pounding. I must lay down to rest it.

The Great Wolf Lodge

Bryan's parents were wonderful enough to give us a gift card to stay a night at the Great Wolf Lodge. They just opened one in Grapevine in December. So we booked our stay last Sunday night. The boys had a BLAST!!!! We had some good friends that also booked a stay so we could all hang out together. Our room was super cute - called the Wolf Den and you can see where the boys slept from the video below.

There was so much to do and see that we were never bored. They had a neat interactive game called MagiQuest. You buy a magic wand and then pay to play - so $27.00 buckaroos later we were off on our Quest. You can interact with pictures on the wall, treasure chests in the hall, statues, etc. And it is throughout the hotel on every floor. You have to "log in" at a tree with a tv screen in it and you sign up for any number of quests for runes. Once you get all the runes you are protected enough and have the right powers to defeat the dragon. Well, we never actually got all the runes - although we did try. But it was exhausting!!! They have you go from floor to floor and you are supposed to use the stairs. AND we had little Evan with us - who couldn't keep up walking so it was our job to carry that 24 pounder up and down the stairs. Anyways, we did our best and I think Brennan had fun with what we did accomplish. The wand is good forever so if we ever come across another MagiQuest game we can play! Yippee!

The waterpark inside was awesome. The boys had fun and Bryan and I even got to ride some of the bigger slides that Brennan couldn't go on. Evan was a little pooped the second day and didn't really want to get in - but he toughed it out. Brennan loved these slides as you can see from the video below.

And on our way to the Great Wolf Lodge - we stopped for lunch and Evan was sitting in his car seat with his cup of lemonade that was left over. He somehow managed to bust the styrofoam cup completely in half and spilled his lemonade all over his crotch. So this was how he rode the rest of the way to the hotel. I'm sure he was a bit cold!

Little Moments - part 2

Are any of you feeling sorry for me yet???

No....probably not...you've all been there. Brennan, Evan and I were playing with puzzles in Brennan's room. I guess Evan felt a little snubbed so he wandered off until I start smelling baby powder in the air. I found him doing this....

He has been a royal toot lately. Getting into stuff - as I've explained and then pretty much crying from 6:00pm on. We've tried putting him to bed earlier - but he's still crying. He wants you to hold him and then doesn't want you to hold him. He's just beside himself and we are both too on edge to handle it. He likes being in the bath so that's where he ends up. I'm thinking it's just a Toddler transition period and things will be on the up and up again soon.

On another note: I have such an ingenius husband. This is what he constructed with the "debris" from our gazebo that bit the dust last week.

This is the view out of our kitchen window. We've always wanted some sort of trellis or covering to cover up the view of the hideous air conditioning unit that is placed there. I thought this was a very clever and earth friendly idea of his.

Little Moments

That little stinker....I took 30 minutes to watch Maria Shriver on Oprah and this happened.

Almost the whole roll of paper strewn around the kitchen.

Can you picture me pulling my hair out and then laughing???

Wrath of Spring

Last night a pretty heavy duty storm blew across North Texas. I woke up around 3:00am because of all the wind blowing. Bryan wasn't in bed so I decided to get up and check things out.

He was standing in the kitchen watching the weathermen on Channel 8 discussing who should take cover and he kept looking out the kitchen window. This is what we saw:

Except it was dark. I guess he got up because of all the wind and thought he should take the cover off of our gazebo thing. By the time he got out there the material was all ripped and blowing around and then he watched as the wind just lifted the whole metal thing up and over and crash into our deck. I didn't even hear a thing. Each corner was bolted into the deck - but as you can see below - it didn't matter to Mother Nature.

It was our 3rd season with that gazebo - and we knew it didn't have long to live. Oh well....I guess Bryan will be making a trip to the dump this weekend.

Where has the time gone

It seems like this is a consistent theme with my blog. I'm always wondering "where the time has gone" and then I try and play catch up.

I last left off at the end of our Spring Break. The Easter Bunny came and went - it was insane how early Easter was this year. I just didn't seem to have the Easter spirit. And it falling on the end of Spring Break was just weird. We had a great Easter morning with the boys. The egg hunt at church was fast and furious and dinner at Colleen's was yummy!!!

I was then gone Wed-Sat for a MT conference in El Paso. It was exciting to present a five hour course for those that signed up. It was a great conference with some really good sessions. But it always leave me exhausted when I come home and takes a few days to catch up. Leading into...

Bryan's birthday. April 1st was the big day. Brennan and I made a cake inbetween coming home from work/school and swim lessons and Bryan's softball game at 8:30. It was an insane day but it worked out.

Yesterday we celebrated Gramps and Bryan's birthdays at their house. Another yummy meal and good family time.

Gramps and his boys! Aren't they cute!

I leave you with a shot of the boys in their new bath towels they got for Easter. I didn't realize these would be such a big hit. And they are insanely cute.