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365--week 39

well hello there! i have had a great day just doing all sorts of things by myself! yep-- just me, myself and i. the boys are with jeremy's mom this weekend and i have been checking things off my never ending to do list, which is a wonderful thing by-the-way! jeremy's at the fire station so he'll be home with me tomorrow and we'll pick up the boys in the evening. but the best news of the weekend is....my sister and her family get here tomorrow night for thanksgiving vacation and my brother's family gets here in a couple days too! woo-hoo! i love the holidays! this should be a good one too--my dad bought a karaoke machine! the single fact that my dad bought a karaoke machine is hilarious in itself but oh boy, some good times are about to be had! fo shizzle-LOL!

okay my posts are totally going to be jumping all over the place as i am really trying to get caught up with my 365. so here's a look at week 39, which is september 24th through the 30th.

day 267
 
if jeremy and i could only have one date a year it would be going to the plaza art fair. there are a lot of reasons as to why but i won't get into those now. this year we actually got to go with one of my best friends and her husband, between their 6 kids and our 3 it's hard to coordinate schedules to get together sans kiddos but we did it and had a blast!! in this picture i'm either laughing at my friend trying to use my camera or at the fact that jeremy is crouching down for some reason. (he's 6'4" and i'm 5'2")

day 268
 
i don't know why they seem to think they can do everything better when they are on the table and not at the table?!

day 269
 
easton has become quite the chiefs fan for the first time this year and i can say for sure that it's due to his teacher. each week they learn about the team that the chiefs will be playing, where they're from, and all sorts of facts (i think it's part of their social studies curriculum). he raddles off all sorts of stuff and i'm like "wow"! he'll sit there and watch the whole game with jeremy and really get into it. i'm pretty sure his daddy likes that too! anyway, jeremy cut this arrow head out of wood and easton painted it. go chiefs!

day 270
this is one of cooper's sweet notes except this time he used pipe cleaners:) he made an "i love you" one for me too.

day 271
just an afternoon outside after school. i bet it won't be long until his feet will actually touch the ground:)

day 272
whoa--i'm not in kansas anymore! colorful colorado it is and did i mention i am all by myself? what a wonderful little vacation! i got there in the afternoon and was immediately playing chutes and laddersand all sorts of other games. these guys are sooo sweet! (my brother was actually there too at the same time for some medical classes. crazy--what are the chances? we had movie marathons every night! good times.)

day 273
 
 my beautiful and amazing sister! she's making us some mouth watering salads for lunch...such a great hostess! can't wait to see her tomorrow:)

hope everyone's having a great weekend. thanks for stopping by!
xo

 

 

1-4-1981

 

my dad found this the other day while cleaning out some of their files. on the back it says " 1-4-81, when mom was feeling sick". i was a 5 1/2 year old girl who loved her mommy.

as i was looking at this i couldn't help but think of my rough (to put it mildly) teenage years and wonder if my mom ever pulled out drawings like this that i made just to give her some hope. i know that ultimately her hope came from the Lord as she's told me she spent a lot of time on her knees but now as a mom myself, i think i'd be putting up the sweet innocent drawings from the past to remember that person is still in there somewhere deep down. (of course i'm praying that my boys aren't anything like me when they are teenagers! chances of that happening---slim!) in my case though, that girl eventually came back. thanks for the time you spent on your knees mom. i love you still and for always.

xo

 

365--week 42

in spite of the saying "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all"... i am posting anyway! i'd like to feel like i accomplished at least one thing this weekend even if it isn't in the time frame i had planned.

jeremy is at the fire station today and to give you an idea of what my day was like it goes something like this: wake up, fighting, fighting, crying because they don't like the breakfast choices, fits thrown over having to go to church, and my prayer at lunch after church was--" dear Jesus, thank you for this day and for these 3 wonderful boys who are driving me insane. please give me patience so that i don't beat them today. amen". then more fighting, whining, attitudes etc... and the night ended with this "i want to run away and have you not be my mom anymore!". i really tried hard to not say "please do! be my guest!" but i might have. sigh.

alrighty then, let's look at some pictures.

day 288

the last post ended with the boys having a sleepover. i let them have a shaving cream fight in the morning before i took everyone home. they loved it and had so much fun. i however don't know what i was thinking past the thought of "oh what fun pictures that will be"! it was a bit too cold to hose them off since it was still morning so i just got their feet and then made them walk carefully inside so they could shower, one by one waiting outside until their turn. the yard and house were trashed but thankfully my amazing mother came after i took everyone home and picked up my boys to let me have the afternoon to clean up. that was such a huge help! thanks mama! 

day 289

this was the first time jeremy went for a run with all 3 of the boys on bikes. i was all ready to get some good starting off shots and they did not wait for me to get my camera ready--those little turds! anyway they were back in 5 minutes dropping porter off since he couldn't keep up. we had a family movie night afterwards and jeremy actually took a picture of me laying with easton wrapped in our blankets but i look so nasty in it that i just couldn't choose it. even knowing i posted that yucky picture of me in my pink headband post--hence the far away picture of the boys on bikes.

day 290

this was really neat, at church they had all the different kids choirs, special needs choir, etc.. sing together. "we are, we are, we are, we are the children of God---na na na na na". it was great, the choir loft and platform were packed. of course cooper was on one end and easton was way on the opposite end. i needed a church pic in my 365 project:)

day 291

when i picked easton up from school he was so excited holding this card in his hand and exclaiming "i got it! i got what i wanted!". let me explain, the 4th graders are going on a field trip to a place called earthworks here in kansas city. from their website, "earthworks is a labratory that comes to life when young people take on the role of scientists who work to determine the health of a habitat. scientific teams collaborate to determine whether a habitat can continue to sustain life." now i'm sure i've mentioned at some point that easton loves science and animals etc... so he is beyond thrilled about this field trip. i guess they had to rank a few of the jobs they were interested in and then the teachers decide somehow who gets what. he was so happy to have gotten his first choice. scatology is the scientific study of excrement, esp in medicine for diagnostic purposes, and in palaentology of fossilized excrement. so yeah, his first choice was to study poop! go easton!

day 292
 
this is boys playing creatively with a sled and a skateboard. this occupied them for a long time. i love it!

day 293
 
i recently bought this fun little game to play at dinner time and we have had a lot of fun with it. it's called the "gather 'round dinner game", you can check it out here. i think eating dinner together as a family at the table is so important and anything that can help make it more fun or spark conversation is a great thing in my book.

day 294
 
i know i posted a picture last week of jeremy and a stache but this actually had nothing to do with those mustaches i bought. cooper went to a b-day party recently that was a mario bros. theme and he got this mario mustache in his goody bag. well, porter was just hanging out in his spiderman costume and this stache and it cracked me up...as he usually does.

it's late and i need to try and get some "beauty" sleep since we are having our family pictures taken tomorrow by the lovely and talented jessica peterson. (she grew up 2 houses down from me) we've had to reschedule before due to yucky weather so i'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow actually works out. of course it comes at a time where i am pms-ing and am bloated and have a couple awesome zits on my face and i'm totally second guessing my outfit choice! oh well right...i will surely tell her to feel free to use photoshop all over me-LOL! we haven't had our family pictures professionally taken since porter was 6 months old and even then it was at a place in the mall, so it is past time for a good family photo! i am so excited to actually be in some pics with my guys! i will be sure to share whenever we get them.

good night friends. thanks for letting me vent:)
xo

365--week 41

seriously, who am i kidding? i'm sure you all know by now not to count on me posting regularly. ideally i'd like to post on fridays but i'm not promising anything. i just can't ever seem to catch up with this life of mine! i appreciate those of you who are hanging in there with me though, love you guys!

so i got 2 steps ahead posting while i was in colorado and i get back home and now i'm 2 steps behind...and them some. this post is from last week (october 8-14th) and from here on out i'll just continue to play catch up.

here ya go:)

day 281
 
coop going for the touch down at his football game! woo-hoo! (i liked this picture despite the blurriness.)

day 282
 
porter waiting nicely for his brothers to finish with their haircuts. i love this because it's so typical of porter these last 2 years. he loves dressing up! when he was 3 i think he wore a costume everywhere we went all the time but now it's just occasionally. of course he took his mask off right before i snapped this!  he's so funny, he acts like he doesn't even have a costume on, it's just not a big deal:) i will definitely be sad when wearing costumes gets old.

day 283 
 
on 10.10.10 i took a sunday afternoon nap after i dropped cooper off at a birthday party. jeremy picked him up so i could continue napping--that was nice! what is it about sunday afternoon naps? they are incredible! ah who am i kidding...a nap any day, whenever i can get one is amazing!

day 284
 
i couldn't resist. i ordered an assortment of mustaches that i thought would be fun to use in our upcoming family pictures we are having done. i won't let the boys touch them until after our pictures and then i'm pretty sure they'll be showing up here and there as they are quite funny. (i thought the stach made him look a lot older and like tom selleck--ha ha)

day 285
 
these temporary tattoos (or stamptoos as porter calls them) from mcdonalds have been on his arm going on 3 weeks now! temporary shmemporary i say! LOL

day 286
 
just the start of finding pretty leaves. i love fall!

day 287
 
it's a sleep-over kind of night. no school on thursday or friday of this week so it was the perfect time. these guys have been buds since they were babies:)

thanks again friends for stopping by, until next time...
xo

365--weeks 27 & 28

yes, you read that right...i am back tracking today. since i am currently in colorado i figured this would be a good time to post a couple of the weeks i missed in the summer.

week 27 (july 2-8)

day 183

a fun evening swim at our friends' neighborhood pool. 

day 184

this is our 4th of july tradition that my mom passed on to my sister and i....making watermelon cookies. of course i had planned on a separate post for this, oh well--maybe next year! 

day 185

we took the boys to a fire work tent off the highway to let them buy some for their very first time. as a kid i used to ride my bike to the firework tent that was always by my house with my money that i scrounged up. every kid has to experience that at least once!

day 186

i was in the kitchen and looked out back to notice easton just chillin' laying on the court. i don't remember where his brothers were but he was out there by himself just having a moment i guess:)

day 187

oh boy, this was the start of the 'club penguin' phase this summer! our little neighbor boy brought over these cards and they would sit at the table under the swing set for hours playing this game. this led to playing 'club penguin' online and to collecting 'puffles' which will show up in future pictures. documenting another phase...

day 188

sweet cooper lovin' on sinbad. 

day 189

my favorite summer salad, i ate this salad everyday for a week and a half (no kidding) and brought it whenever we were invited to a friend's house. 

 

week 28 (july 9-15)

day 190

porter got to spend the whole day with my mom. since we were going to be traveling on his birthday she wanted to have a special day with him and that it was for sure! he got to pick out his presents (one being the knight costume he's wearing) and eat at mcdonalds and lots of other fun stuff. now the other 2 boys are anxiously awaiting their special birthday day with grandma. i believe a tradition has been started, thanks mom:)

day 191

summer evening family walk. 

day 192

sunday lunch at my parent's house after church, the boys went outside after they ate while we continued to sit and visit with my parents. we eventually got up to see what they were doing and found them all sliding in the standing water that was in the yard from the rain we had...in their church clothes mind you! all i could do is get my camera. a photo collage definitely needs to be made from this silliness!

day 193

as of this summer i have a front seat rider...sigh. i think adjusting the seat,rolling the window up and down and messing with the radio are finally starting to get old, or it could be that i threatened if he couldn't stop pressing buttons his short lived front seat days were over:) there were a few things that happened this summer that really opened my eyes to the fact that he is growing up and this was one of them.

day 194

gladiolas transplanted from my parent's yard a few years ago. so pretty! we always seem to be going out of town right when they are getting ready to bloom though:(

day 195

this picture is documenting my husband's space...the garage. this is the one area of our house that i have absolutely no control over and i have learned to be okay with that. (i was also short on ideas today! ha) 

day 196

july 15th, porter's 5th b-day and a repeat picture since i did a separate post about this day.

 

yay--2 weeks down out of the 10 that i'm behind! a little progress but progress none-the-less:)

i have a big day tomorrow here in colorado. for starters we are getting up early and heading to the horseshoe craft and flea market. i can't wait to see what that is like and all the treasures that i might find! then in the evening i am taking my cousin's bridal portraits. that is the real reason i am here. my sweet cousin flew me out here to take her and her husband's pictures. i was/am very nervous because i have never done that before. thankfully i have very encouraging family members and friends so i'm gonna give it a good try. i also have comfort in the fact that one of my photographer friends that lives here is going to shoot with me. needless to say, tomorrow is going to be a very busy and interesting day!

i'm starting to feel like i say the same things over and over but i'm so happy that you've taken the time to stop by. thank you, thank you. have an amazing weekend!
xo  

365--week 38

sshh...i know i'm late at posting this but i'm dating it like i wasn't--hee hee. i guess i can do that huh?!

this will probably be my quickest 365 post as of yet. i'm getting ready to go out of town to colorado all by myself! more details later as i am in my usual before-any-trip-stress-freak-out-mode. i need to travel more to get over that!

enjoy the week.

day 260
 
friday evening on our way to arkansas. no picture of the day yet, hmmm what can i do? oh yeah, i'll stick my head out the window while we're driving down the highway! (good thing a bug didn't fly in my big ole mouth!) of course this reminded the boys of the last time we went to my brother's house and i was yelling out the window so they insisted i do it again for them. what a good excuse to stick your head out of the window and scream and yell like a crazy woman---an inconspicuous stress reliever while thoroughly entertaining my boys!

day 261
 
this is my youngest niece, madelyn. ughh, she is so sweet and petite! very girly but yet likes to play with frogs and is a bit ornery too, definitely my brother's daughter!

day 262
 
out of the blue coop decided he wanted to make a basketball book so we printed some pictures of famous basketball players that he chose from the internet. he put together a sweet little book and then went outside to shoot some hoops with dad. some of the things he wrote go like this "basketball is my favorite sport", " i hope i can dunk on my dad some day", "i hope some day that i can beat michael jordan", "basketball is really fun, you should play some day".

day 263
 
jeremy was able to have some extra time at home while the older boys were in school which meant some good one-on-one time with porter. hulk smash--arghh!!

day 264
 
the only reason these two are sitting with me watching cooper's football practice is because i brought chips!

day 265
 
after school reading time. easton passed down the wimpy kid series to cooper and he's just about done:) ...the cheese touch--ewww!

day 266
 
happy 1st day of fall! the best smelling candle called 'leaves' from bath and body works and the easiest pumpkin bundt cake ever! my friend, candi, gave me the recipe a couple years ago and it quickly became a favorite. it only has 3 ingredients! easy peasy. (1 box betty crocker spice cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1 bag nestle cinnamon chips--oh yes, there is such a thing..mmm! mix together, pour into greased bundt pan, bake @ 350 for 40 minutes. that's it. seriously.)

that's all folks! thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. colorado here i come!
xo

365--week 37

hello there friends. i'm finding myself at a loss for words so i'm just going to start with the pictures for this week. i'm sure i will find more to say as i get going!

it amazes me at how fast a week can go by...

day 253
one of my favorite little dudes along with one of my favorite stores! we had just come from the doctor's office where he got his 5 year old shots so i said he could pick out a little something for being so brave:)

day 254
the boys and i were at a birthday party that was close to jeremy's fire station so we stopped by afterwords to say hi. i was so touched to see the counter in their kitchen full with all kinds of yummy baked goods from the kind people of the community. of course at first i felt like a schmuck that i came empty handed but then i felt so proud of my husband and all of the fire fighters, as i always do, but when it is so much a part of your everyday life you tend to forget. we were even there to witness a couple of moms and their kids stop by the station and drop off the above note. i was really glad the boys got to witness these people thanking their daddy for what he does and it was a reminder for me to not forget. my heart goes out to all the families who lost a loved one on that terrible day.

day 255
easton and cooper went to the creek and came back with a huge sunflower stalk that they had picked for me but it was taller than them! so they cut some fo the flowers off and found a cup to put them in all by themselves. so sweet!

day 256
this is what a trip to the creek usually looks like...not always...but usually. i wasn't thrilled about it this time and they were itching (literally) to get hosed off but i told them they had to let me take their picture since they got muddy--hee hee!

day 257
this was the only picture i took this day. kind of boring but such a huge part of my week...the pick-up line at preschool! (actually the pick-up lines at easton and cooper's schools are worse but they don't have the name signs)

day 258
i never really figured out what they were playing, i think cooper was making it up as he was going along:)

day 259
i know i've posted a similar picture before just with a different view point but this is such a common sight in my backyard. like an almost everyday sight! they found a huge crawdad at the ...you guessed it--the creek! easton wants to take it to his science teacher at school so we'll see. they are such boys and i love it! 

i read a great article this week on a favorite site of mine, the creative mama, it was about gratitude and one photographer's 365/gratitude project. i love the idea, however i think i need to stick to one project at a time! although, i like to think my 365 project reflects the things i'm grateful for in my everyday life too. after reading the article i did stop and make a quick little list of the things that immediately came to my head that i was thankful for so i thought i'd share that with you along with some extra pictures from this week that i loved.

thankful that my kids are able to participate in extra-curricular activities. and could he be any cuter?!
  

today thankful for: (i made this list on wednesday)
*my husband who let me sleep in, got the boys up, fed and ready for school and then dropped them off. he even drove porter to preschool.
*for the kind of friend you can pour your heart out to.
*for the rainy day today and the fact that my garage is finally fixed (thanks to my man) so that i can park in it.
*olive garden left-overs for lunch.
*along with my mom's incredibly addicting cheese-ball she sent home with me this week. (i might not be so thankful for the extra pounds i'm sure it's giving me though!)
*for my surprise-last-minute upcoming colorado trip. (going by myself people!!)
*for the free sample of strawberry muscle milk at the gym...yumm.
*for the huge long smooches right smack dab on the lips that porter's been giving me very frequently lately--love.
*the fact that there is no place we have to be tonight and that jeremy will be home:)

that was my list that literally took me a couple minutes to come up with. i could of gone on and on and i could make a completely different list today. if we all just took a few minutes each day to think of the things we are grateful for i'm sure it would become a habit. let's start noticing and acknowledging the little things that make up our wonderfully blessed lives. it's so much easier sometimes to dwell on the negative and i am 100% guilty of that, but i'd rather go around counting my blessings:)

 
thankful for time i got to spend reading my cloth-paper-scissors magazine. you think i liked it? seems i should've just folded down the pages i wasn't interested in!

thankful for my $7 and $12 target ninja costume finds and for a neighbor boy who loves to play ninja's too!

thankful for a sweet boy who knows my favorite blanket is the white one and bribes me to come cuddle with him by saying that he got it out for me....how can you pass that up?!

well, i told you i would probably find more to talk about as i got going, now i need to stop! we decided last minute to go to my brother's for the weekend in arkansas for an end of the season trip to the lake. so to end, i'm thankful my hubby has this weekend off so we are able to do said weekend trip! what are you thankful for?

xo xo

365--week 36

holy crap! i had no idea i was 10 weeks behind in my 365 project! what in the world--that was not a good idea to let that slide this summer! now i'm determined to get caught up. this really is week 36 but my last 365 post was week 26--sheesh! i thought i would do the current week along with week 27 where i left off but after i got on here i realized i had some serious picture organizing to do! i've already spent way too much time trying to straighten out the mess instead of working on this post so now i'm just gonna give you this current week. i'm just happy to actually get a friday post up!

day 246
on our way to kentucky with my parents as i mentioned in my last post. i sat in the back with the boys and had flash-backs of the excitement and anticipation i had as a kid as we traveled in our old van to my grandparent's house. i loved seeing that excitement shine through in them as we crossed many bridges, saw the st. louis arch and traveled through state after state as we made it to our final destination.

day 247

this incredibly amazing woman, my grandmother, was the main reason for our visit. one of the strongest women i know, she's a fighter i tell you. she has been through so much over the last couple of years. she is struggling with cancer yet again and is currently undergoing chemo treatments. i believe i've mentioned her before in a post months ago. this woman has taught me so much. i love you grandma.

day 248
it was very hard to choose a picture from this day. too much i want to say, too many stories. i really hope i can make myself sit down and write about loosing my other grandma this summer and my thoughts about these two wonderful people and all of the feelings and emotions i've had the last 2 months. the love that these two have for each other and how my grandpa takes care of her is the sweetest thing ever. (i have to stop there...no time for tears now)

day 249
these 2 had a special little thing going on this weekend. grandpa teasing porter and porter teasing grandpa...so funny, made my heart happy. i think my grandpa has a soft spot for porter being the 3rd boy because he was the 5th boy in his family (2 more followed him as well--yikes!) and he knows what it's like. i have a feeling he kind of relates to porter's mischievous nature too--lol!

day 250
porter's first day of preschool...his last first day of preschool.

day 251
love it when they get out old toys that they haven't played with in forever! i'll never get rid of our wooden blocks, such a timeless toy. the remote control tank was near by, i'm sure you can guess what happened next!

day 252
what a lovely picture to end with! sorry about that but i couldn't help myself. i have found him doing his business like this time after time so i finally had to capture it. silly boy.

thank you to all my friends and family who stop by my little blog to see what i've been up to. i'm sorry i'm not consistent and don't really know what i'm doing but i love that you still check on me. you can count on my fridays to be back and hopefully all the things in my head will eventually find their way out. hope everyone has enjoyed this shorter work week and have fun times planned for the weekend. love you all.

xo xo

colorado vacay...day one

i understand this was about a month and a half ago but if you haven't realized yet, i kind of blog to my own beat so to speak. things eventually get posted:)

today the boys and i are traveling to KY, where my grandparents live, for the labor day weekend. so i thought it fitting to post the day we traveled to CO in july since we are basically doing the same thing today. the only difference is jeremy isn't with us due to work but my parents are! this could be quite a day...prayers are appreciated--ha ha!

we left for CO on porter's birthday, july 15th. the morning started out right with presents!
 
i decorated the van the night before so it would be a surprise when he walked outside. i wanted to do something special since he was having to spend his b-day in the car. too bad i didn't get his reaction on video, it was so funny!
 
i have no idea!? LOL!
 
yes, that is a trash can strapped to the top of our van! we drove to CO with painted windows and a trash can on top...classy! it's no secret that i am an over-packer, i admit it. but we were gonna be gone a long time plus we were gonna camp and you have to pack winter type stuff for camping in the mountains. i had this big trash bag of camping stuff and it just didn't fit. we looked online to price those bullet luggage carriers to see if we could just go pick one up on our way out of town. holy moley--we had no idea how expensive those things are! so this was jeremy's genius idea and it worked pretty dang good if i do say so myself despite all the silly stares we got. who cares if we looked like cousin eddie from the movie 'vacation' cruisin' into my sister's lovely denver neighborhood!
 
oh yeah, that's how we roll baby!
 
 
and we're off..
 
of course he had to bring some of his new presents with us!
 
 
killin' time with my camera.
 
 
then it started to rain and i was the one that was upset that the paint was getting washed off our windows!
 
thanks to dvd players and ipods the long drive is bearable.
 
 
 
still a long way to go so i get to enjoy a movie to myself:)
 
oh yeah, a little twilight saga. hmmm, team edward or team jacob? edward? jacob? LOL!
 
there was a glare on my ipod and i couldn't be havin' that! i didn't know jeremy took this until i went through my pics later.
 
this kid cracks me up! can you see the marker all over his leg? he just can't help himself!

of course we can't have a trip without a fake throwing up incident...thank the Lord it was fake!
 
kind of an odd picture to end the day and this post with but this was right before we got there and after 9 or so hours we were all just ready to get out, stretch, relax and eat! my brother was already there and some college friends of ours came over to see us, we had fun visiting with them. my sister was at dinner with all the bridesmaids from my cousins upcoming wedding so she didn't get home until late. she was sweet enough though to think of porter and made him some cupcakes so he could blow out a candle on his b-day. she's so great! so that's how we ended our day, eating porter's birthday cupcakes. i was too pooped to get my camera...sorry buddy.

this was really a great day of travel, no problems. minimal fighting. overall the boys did really well. now i can only hope that this is the case right now as we are traveling again, kentucky bound!

thanks for stopping by as always. hoping to get back on track with my friday 365 posts next week.

have a great labor day weekend everyone!
xo xo

best.sister.ever

she might be the only sister i have but she's the best!
today as i kept getting distracted by things needing to be done at the house instead of getting out of the house to run errands as i had planned, i got a call from my sis. i continued to talk to her as i cleaned out the cupboard by the computer. it was my turn to vent today so i proceeded to tell her how awful my morning was. i told her how i didn't realize that jeremy accidentally took my keys until we were all strapped in the van and ready to leave for school, luckily i quickly found the one spare key. i told her how when porter and i got back home the garage door wouldn't open and that since jeremy had my keys i didn't have a house key, hence no way to get in. i told her how i had practically just rolled out of bed, porter and i were both in our pj's, no hair combed, no teeth brushed, no shoes, and no bra...no bra!! oh yeah and no purse or cell phone either and porter wanted breakfast. i told her how i had to drive to mom and dad's (20 minutes away) because there was no way i'd be caught dead anywhere else! i told her how mom thankfully remembered i had given her a spare key---good thing cuz i didn't even remember i had done that! i told her how porter and i had finally made it home and within 5 minutes i realized that porter had left the gate open and sinbad was gone. i told her how we had to get right back in the van and drive around the neighborhood in the rain searching for the dog! i told her how unhappy i was that my day was totally out of wack now. i don't remember if i told her that i kind of made a nasty phone call to jeremy and then apologized later but know that i could've been more sincere. my van is currently in the driveway, the garage door sits waiting for my handy man to get home from the fire station so it can be fixed. anyway, my sweet sister listened which is all i needed and then i told her i loved her just as we end every phone call.

now get this, remember i was cleaning out a cupboard when i was talking to her? well, i kid you not, within 10 minutes of us hanging up i found a pad of paper and i stopped to flip through a couple pages for some reason and to my surprise, i came across this....
 
it was a letter from my sister to me dated from march 22 of this year. apparently she wrote it when she was here for spring break and i just found it today. talk about perfect timing!

hello jules,
don't know when you'll get this, but whenever it is...just wanted to let you know how much i love you and how glad i am that you're my sister. i'm the luckiest girl in the world and i thank God for you. you truly are a blessing to everyone you know or who knows you. you are probably one of the most generous people i know. seriously--you are and God will bless you more b/c of that. thank you for being such an awesome sister and always being there for me no matter what. i don't know what i'd do if i couldn't talk to you on the phone once or twice a day :) and i still dream that one day you and your family will be able to be close to us in CO! we would LOVE that! if God wants it in His plan, then it will work out. also, my kids love being spoiled by "aunt juli"! i'm a meanie compared to you! oh well, i just wanted to say thanks for always dropping everything to be with us when we come visit. we sure love that you do that. you're right, just being together as a family is the best! have a wonderful week--whenever this is you are reading this and know I LOVE YOU SISSY!
love,
jenna

okay, i think i have to disagree...i believe i'm the luckiest girl in the world!! with tears in my eyes, i called her right back. it's truly a blessing to have a sister and a best friend all wrapped up in one wonderful person! thanks for brightening my day sis, i love you to the moon and back!

ps...makes me want to write sweet encouraging notes to some special (or random) people and hide them only to be found who knows when. hmmm...that's an idea:)