When Blogs Collide...

I'm beginning to realize that I blog in spurts.  You can probably gauge how busy our life is at the present moment by how frequently or infrequently I post.  To be honest, this past weekend was the first weekend in a loooooonnnnnnnggggg time that we had nothing going on.  And that's only because our original plans got canceled as Josh's half IronMan was downgraded to an Olympic-distance due to the heat.  [Speaking of the heat... WHEN is it going to end??  This summer has been downright ridiculous!]  Most of our busy has been due to races actually and between marathons, half marathons, 10K's, and triathlons we seem to be traveling all over the surrounding area every other weekend.  It feels good to be back to our old racing selves, fully enjoying the season.

But along with our travels, we often find ourselves in a town where we have old friends... and sometimes even friends that we've never even met!  The first came on a trip to Nashville back in May when Josh ran the Nashville Marathon.  Even though we were just there for one night, we still managed to meet up with one of my favorite gals, Kristen, who I follow over at Add-and-Land.  I had seen her last August, but hadn't seen her daughter since she was just weeks old (and she's now six!) and had never seen her son in person.  Jake and Landon were like two peas in a pod... it could not have made me happier!

Coming along as well was my blog-only friend, Jessica from The Parsonage Family.  This was the first time I've ever met someone whom I only "know" from the blog-world, and it was so amazing to see her and feel like we were old friends.  Her husband and sweet kiddos were there, too, and although they are adorable in pictures, I definitely think all kids are cuter in person.  She did a better recap of the trip that you can find here and here's a picture of (most of) our crew.  Notice which child is missing... Jake had decided to run around like a maniac at this point, which was okay considering that he had spent four hours in the car AND gotten car sick on the way there!  He's such a trooper.  In this picture though, the back of Landon's head could pass for Jake!

Jess and I hit it off so well in fact that we recently met up again for lunch when she was up visiting her parents.  I never would have imagined that an online friendship would be something that I would ever have, or that it would translate into real life so well.  She and I have a ton in common as we're both married to pastors, so that helps, too.

THEN... on our way back from Georgia a few weekends ago, I asked Josh if we could possibly make a quick pit stop in Knoxville to visit Channa from My Boys.  Channa and I met late in college, but really reconnected (online of course) when we were both pregnant for the first time at the same time.  Her boy was due in February and Jake in March and we both used blogs to journal the experience and probably became each other's most avid readers at that time.  Then we both had kiddo #2 and have felt like we've known each other's kids all their lives.  I can't even explain it.  We've been trying to get together for YEARS and a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A finally worked out.  Seeing our kids play together was like a dream come true:

I know I've mentioned before that occasionally I toy with the idea of giving up the blog, but then I think about these friendship and how real and rich they are due to this little outlet.  It's so strange and I never would have expected this, but I absolutely love it!  I follow many others and read quite a few that I don't actually follow, too, and hope that this can happen more in the future.  And if you're ever passing through Eastern Kentucky and would like our blogs to collide, I'd love for that to happen, too!

On Moms...

I have read so many great posts on motherhood over the past couple of days, and after this weekend, my heart is so incredibly full.  Sometimes in the midst of chaos, I think I can forget what a true blessing it is.  How lucky I am to have two sweet, healthy children.  How incredibly blessed I am to have a mom who is still around and lives nearby.  How wonderful it is to have married a man who has a great mom, too, as well as a grandmother that would probably let me move in if I wanted to.  I often take for granted the fact that I have two sisters whom I see often, who are not only awesome mothers, but such good aunties to my kids.  Then I have a sister-in-law who I miss dearly every single day, because she is my phone call when I need a good laugh... my niece (her daughter) does the cutest darn things.  I have some amazing aunties myself, and now being grown up and having nieces and nephews of my own, I so deeply appreciate them.  My husband works side-by-side with a woman who has such a great relationship with her two kids, both older than mine, and I look up to her tremendously.  One of my best friends has four (yes, FOUR!) and kept her sanity and did a great job with them even while her husband was deployed for a year.  Another new (but already incredibly close) friend here has FIVE... and will bend over backwards to do something for others.  I have friends from blogging, and even though I've never met their children, their pictures and stories make me feel like I just saw them yesterday, and I love "knowing" their kids and what kinds of moms they are.  I have moms in my life with one, two, three, four, and five kids.  I have moms with twins and moms with kids so close in age they might as well be!  I know moms who have lost a child and moms who have prayed fervently that their child would pull through sickness.  I have moms in my life who were not planning on being moms and some that went through great lengths to become one.  When I look back on my life, I have always been surrounded by some pretty phenomenal women, most of which were mothers to their own kids, but still showed so much love and kindness to me.  I think your heart expands in ways that cannot be explained when you become a mom.  Sure your belly grows, but it (somewhat) goes back to it's original size, but everyday I find that I have more love, more compassion, more care, more hurt, more empathy, and more to give of myself to others than ever before.  Motherhood is an amazing gift, not just because it gives us some pretty incredible kids to love on, but because of the ways it changes you.  I can't imagine my life right now without this gift, and I'm thankful for a weekend that allowed me to just stop for a minute, turn off the chaos, and just focus on how special it really is.  And to all of the special mamas in my life, I just want to thank you, too.  You have impacted me and help shape me as a mother everyday.  We're better together, and I'm blessed to be surrounded by some incredibly strong moms who make me want to become a better one.  Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Me and my Mama before my wedding

My mother-in-law snuggling with my Jake

My Nana... whom we miss dearly this year

MawMaw Brenda... kissing on her great grandson

Aunt B and Carol... aunties who love us like our own mothers.  Miss you, too, Aunt B!

Aunt Claudia - one of the strongest moms I know

Aunt Karen and her girls... one of my mama role-models for sure!

My sister Angie and her boys.

My other sister, Mindy, and sweet Adam

My sister-in-law, Ginny, and cutie-pie Baby Skye

Gretchen - our other pastor's wife and a rockstar mom

Cory and three of the five... how does she do it?

Kristen, who has been my friend since high school and our kids FINALLY got to meet a few weeks ago!

Abby: Mother of three (two of which are twins) and rock-star triathlete

My best blog-buddy... hoping to meet your kiddos this summer!

Chelsea loving on sweet Charley... the youngest of her four

There are SOOOO many others and I hope you know who you are, but finding and swiping Facebook and blog pictures took much longer than I thought!  :)  And I certainly hope you don't mind that I stole some sweet moments from you ladies!

And in other mom news... please check my sister's blog HERE for a little update from her.

Reflections - Friendship

"Because friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them..."

This song has been cycling through my head on repeat this week as I prepared for this post, and so I just had to annoy bless you with it, too.  I loved this song more than I can tell you back in middle school!

But anyhoo... this week's topic is- you guessed it- friends!  The topic comes from this blog post by Lisa TerKeurst, so you might want to check that out before you read on.  I easily get sucked into blogs and I have definitely added this one to my favorites list.  If you did not read it, the cliff's notes version of it is that during a conversation with her middle-school daughter, she was in awe of the child's wisdom when she said that all friends are a package deal and you just have to take the good with the bad.  So true, right?  So how does this apply to my life?

This topic is perfect this week, because we're going through a series called "Baggage" this week at TurningPoint Church.  This week's topic is emotional baggage, and quite frankly, most of the time it is people that become our emotional baggage.  Friends can either elevate us to become better people, but they can also drag us down with them.  And sometimes, when we get to a healthy place in our own lives, we end up dragging this friend behind us, like a heavy load of baggage, because we just can't sever ties.  And sometimes doing just that is necessary.

When I started this post, I really thought that I was going to end up focusing on the positive side of friendship, but as I reflected on my thoughts, it went the other way.  You see, I feel like there is a season for most friendships... not every friendship since several stand the test of time and will always be in your life (love those, don't you?), but others are there during a particular time in your life and come to an end.  They are there to teach you something (good or bad), celebrate something with you, or get you through something.  But then, as hard as it may be, that season ends and you move on.  Or they do.  Sometimes it's mutual and sometimes it's not, but it's a completely natural and healthy process.  In this day and age we generally do end up "keeping in touch" by peeking into one another's lives via Facebook or some other social media, but we don't have a relationship.  I can think back on my life and think of several of these instances, but one in particular reminds me of this:

When Josh and I first met we went through a bit of a rough patch within our circle of friends.  I'm not going to delve the details, but it was a time of transition for both of us and a lot of circumstances in our lives were changing, completely beyond our control.  And during this time, it caused a bit of a divide amongst our friends and people basically picked sides.  Some people really proved their love for us by being willing to hear both sides of the story and even though they did not fully agree with one or the other, they stuck by us.  They were willing to tell us that seeing us through the situation was more important than fully understanding the whole story.  Others, well, didn't even give us the time of day.  I am the type of person who truly values relationships, hanging onto them for far too long sometimes (even to an unhealthy level) and I really struggled with this.  I so desperately like to be liked, which is a dangerous character trait sometimes, and any time a friendship ends I mourn the loss, even if it's better that I let it go.  In this case, we did lose a friend over this because we felt like he or she turned their back on us, and some of the group that stayed in tact urged us to make up.  What many people did not understand is while we had forgiven this person, we were not in a place to be in relationship anymore.  There was too much hurt and we ended up realizing that some of our values did not line up.  I'm not saying that my values are the end-all-be-all of what is right, but at that time, we felt like this person would end up being our baggage, and we had enough to deal with in this mess on our own.  The Bible teaches a lot on forgiveness, but nowhere in there will you hear "Forgive and Forget."  Nope, that's made up.  And quite frankly, it's impossible.  Only God can "Forgive and Forget."  Ask Him for forgiveness and we're washed white as snow.  But with people?  Yeah, we always remember, and in this case we decided as a couple that it was best to forgive and move on.  It does not make the fun times we had together any less fun now.  It does not make us appreciate that season of our friendship any less.  But there were things we felt that needed to change in that individual's life, and we were not in the place to help make that happen.  I think in this case, there was too much baggage on both sides, and we would have dragged each other down... it would have been unhealthy for both of us and that season came to an end.

Like I said, through it all, some of our friends stuck with us and our friendships even grew stronger (and still continue to grow) through it all.  They were willing to take our package deal- our good with our bad. And as we grew in relationship, we refined one another, always trying to make each other better.   Now that's true friendship, and a friend that I hope you have.  I hope you have someone who can look you in the face and tell you when they think you're screwing up.  It's not going to be fun to hear, but they're saying it because they love you.  And I hope that you can be that friend to someone else.  God made us to be messy... he did not make any of us perfect... but my hope is that you can discern which ones are truly worth keeping and which ones might be in your life for a season.

The Bible is chalk-full on wisdom about friendship (the good and the bad), and here are a few of my favorites worth knowing:

*****
"If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." -Matthew 18:6 (NIV)
Kim's Translation: Do not lead others astray or away from what is good and right in God's eyes.  On the flip side, do not allow others to lead you away from His teachings either.  


*****
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart". -Proverbs 3:3 (NIV)
Kim's Translation: Keep those you love and who love you close to you.  Surround yourself with a protective wall of people who will always support you.


*****
"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." -Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)
Kim's Translation: Be the iron for your friends.  Help one another "sharpen" each other, always making them better than how you found them.  True friends build each other up and grow together.


*****
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." -Matthew 7:6 (NIV)
Kim's Translation: Who we surround ourselves with is who we will slowly become.  Make sure your "tribe" is one worth being a part of.


*****

I hope this all made sense today... my brain is elsewhere (as you can read about in yesterday's post) this week and my thoughts are all a jumbled mess.  Regardless, my challenge to you is to evaluate the friendships in your lives and really come to understand who those lifelong package-deal friends are and how you can continue to refine each other.  If a friendship is in a rocky place, evaluate whether or not it's worth continuing or if that particular season is over.  But most importantly, love everyone, no matter what their story.  This is the greatest commandment.

I love you all and I love YOUR stories.  Please share with us today... you can read Brittany's post here or link up below.  Next week's topic is below the link-up:

Risk... that's this week's topic (first Fearless and now Risk... what is God trying to tell me lately?  Sheesh!).  Let's read the story of Rahab together this week.  She might possibly be my favorite woman in the Bible and of all things, she was a prostitute!  Say what???  But her story is, well, amazing really.  God used her in BIG ways... a woman whom you'd least expect.  Her story is not elaborated as much as I would have liked, but can be found sprinkled throughout the first 6 chapters of Joshua in the Bible.  If you want to go one step further, I highly recommend downloading and reading Unashamed by Francine Rivers (although you don't have to... but it can be found here) or there is a pretty good free article that can be found here.  Her story is such a good one and shows that God can use anyone, regardless of their past or current situation, to do BIG things.  And then I want you to share what BIG things God is (or can) do through YOU!


And by the way, if you do have baggage you are dealing with, you should check out our current sermon series, which is posted online and can be found here.  It tackles addiction, depression, and all things that weigh us down.  My hubs has really been telling it like it is and blessing my socks off with this one, so I just wanted to share!

Prayers for a Friend...

I am a blog stalker.  I love to click on blog titles on the sidebar of my friends' blogs and see what their friends and acquaintances are up to and I feel like I'm not the only one.  So if any of you have ever stalked my blogs, you might have wondered why there are no posts on m + j = love after her last pregnancy update.  Surely you would have been expecting baby pictures and a birth story by now.  So in an effort to update you, I will let you know that her sweet baby boy, Tyson, was born on August 17th, but had breathing and heart problems shortly after.  For the past two months he has already undergone two heart surgeries and has been hooked to machines, one of which actually circulated his blood for him for awhile!  Meg and Justin have been spending as much time with him as possible at Vanderbilt's pediatric ICU and have been very close to losing him on more than one occasion.  The little sweet pea needs our prayers.

Motherhood really messes us women up, mostly in good ways, but in so many other ways, too.  Before having children, I probably would have read Meg's story and been very sad and concerned about it, but I doubt I would have checked Facebook multiple times everyday to see how he's doing (which, if you are interested, can be found at Help Tyson Fight on Facebook).  I probably would have said a prayer or two every once in awhile, but would not have found myself in tears when I pray for their little family, as well as the other families that are going through similar situations.  Before having children of my own, I would have been worried about Tyson's progress, but would have given little thought to how difficult this must be for Meg and her husband, Justin.  Meg has only held her son on a few occasions, and that thought alone makes my heart ache in big ways.  I honestly feel like their presence with him probably does just as much, if not more, than all of those doctors, machines, and procedures combined.

As for Meg and Justin, they are handling this with grace and courage, taking it one day at a time.  Their posts and updates remain as optimistic as possible, even though I know that this has to be the hardest thing they've ever experienced, and it's not like it was by choice.  I know that as parents, we'd all do the same, handling it the best way that we know how.  I know that when Jake just has a head cold, I feel absolutely helpless, so I cannot imagine how much harder their days must be, which is why I pray.  When a situation seems helpless, that is the time when prayer is needed the most, and I decided to share their story in order to have more people praying for them.  I want nothing more than to see them finally take Tyson home, and he has sure put up a fight thus far!  So please join me in praying, whether it be just once or everyday, for Meg, Justin, and baby Tyson.  And if you're reading this and have little ones (or big ones) of your own, make sure you thank your Heavenly Father for those precious gifts.  And hopefully one day soon you will click on my blog and notice that m + j = love has jumped to the top of my blog roll, filled with happy pictures and updates of a healthy baby Tyson.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  If you ask me, that's a prayer worth saying!

Thanks for reading... as a blogger I can get caught up with updates about my own life and family, but I am glad I can use it today to help a friend instead.

Surprise!

Before marriage, a family, and all the fun that comes with this season of life, many of my weekends were spent with my girlfriends.  In Florida, I was so fortunate to find a great group of gals so surround myself with, and about four times a year we'd pile in the car and head out of town.  Well actually, we always went to Disney, but we never got tired of it!  I miss those trips, and even though I had some new great girlfriends when we lived in Illinois, I was knee-deep in pregnancy and dirty diapers during those two years that a trip with them just never panned out (yet, right?  You know who you are!).  So I was ecstatic when an opportunity for one of those rare girls' trips came up two weeks ago... this time with an old friend who I haven't seen in awhile and my best friend since high school.

The South Florida crew... and Pluto

Aside from living near family now, I have also quickly found that it's equally as lovely to be near some old friends.  As a graduate of the University of Tennessee (go Vols!... that statement could get me killed around here, but it's a risk I'm willing to take) we are now about two and a half hours away from Knoxville.  Even though most of us grads did not stay in K-town after graduation, all of my closest friends from those years seem to be within three hours of the place.  Once I graduated I spent five years in south Florida and the next two in Small Town, Illinois, so needless to say, I have not lived within driving distance for quite awhile.

About three weeks ago, my best friend's boyfriend sent out a mass email with plans for my best friend's big 30th birthday bash.  We had literally just moved into the house, but I knew immediately that I wanted to be there.  Elizabeth is probably winning in the who visits who more tally, and she even surprised me to be there for my bridal shower a couple of years back.  Yep, she's the best.  The party would be in downtown Atlanta, about six hours away, and Josh and I knew that we just couldn't get away for an entire weekend.  I was bummed because I knew that I didn't want to go all that way by myself, especially at 33 weeks pregnant!

Not long after that, my friend Kristen and I started emailing each other to see if the other was going.  Kristen was Elizabeth's college roommate (as was I in different years) and is honestly one of the nicest people in the universe.  If someone doesn't like Kristen, then they have serious problems... but I digress.  Up until this point, it had been a little over five years since we had seen one another, even though we keep up with one another on Facebook and in the blog world.  She mentioned that she was trying to work it out so that she could go, but would probably have to go alone so that her kiddos could stay home with their daddy.  And so from there, a plan was born!

Last weekend, I drove about four and a half hours to Chattanooga and met Kristen at a random hospital that we found on Google maps.  It was close to the Interstate, and a hospital was the safest place we could think of to leave a car overnight.  I'm not sure if I was more excited to surprise Elizabeth, or to see Kristen!  Because of some traffic snafus, we estimated that we would be at the restaurant about an hour late, so we texted Dara and let him know.  Kristen thought that Elizabeth might have had an inkling that she was coming, since she mentioned that she was trying to figure out a way to be there the last time they chatted, but we figured that if we were late, she would lose all hope... not part of the original plan, but sneaky sneaky on our part!  The drive to Atlanta went much faster than the rest of it had since we had such a great time catching up and we were downtown in no time!  We realized that we both needed to changes and scoped out the surrounding area for someplace that we could run in and use their restroom.  Feeling a bit awkward about that, we ended up in a non-crowded area of the mall parking garage and changed in the car!  I have to say, what sounded like an easy task proved to be quite a bit more difficult than usual with this belly of mine, but I managed.  We both put on some make-up and headed to the restaurant, arriving exactly an hour late.  Perfect.

The actual surprise itself could not have worked out more perfectly.  As we wandered through the restaurant looking for a big party, we saw two long tables flanked by balloons and figured that it must be them.  I spotted Dara right away and  noticed that Elizabeth was sitting right next to him, with her back turned to us.  Convenient!  We walked right up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.  When she turned around, she let out the loudest squeal, right in the middle of the restaurant!  We also  got hugs and a few happy tears, which was awesome and made the drive totally worth our while.  We were told later that some of her friends at the other end of the table thought that she had seen a mouse or something based on her unexpected scream!  BEST. REACTION. EVER.  She was absolutely giddy with excitement as she introduced us to everyone and her friends were kind enough to scoot down a bit so we could sit next to the guest of honor.  Again, our timing could not have been better considering that the waitress came around to take everyone's order about five minutes after our arrival.

Elizabeth, Kristen, and Me... back together again!

Dinner was delicious (sushi, which I rarely get... yum!  And don't worry, mine were cooked to keep the little one safe and healthy) and then we headed over to an upscale Irish pub nearby.  The place was really nice and not too crowded, which I appreciated, and we found a table and sat right away.  As the others in the group mingled with one another, Kristen and I just sat and caught up some more, even though we found that being blogging buddies over the years has made it feel like we had chatted last week!  It's funny how I feel closer to some of my blogging buddies than I do to some of my close friends that live far away.... just another great reason to not be so lazy and continue with mine I guess!  By quarter 'til one, the two of us were probably visibly tired and just trying not to show it and so we were happy when Elizabeth came over and said that she was ready to call it a night.  By the time we got back to her place it was already after 1:30am and I must say, I was quite proud of myself for hanging in there because this mama likes her sleep!  It was worth it to celebrate with my best friend though!

We would have loved to stay longer, but we had to head out pretty early the next morning as we both had things that we needed to get back home for.  On our way though we did spend about two hours at another friends' baby shower in Chattanooga (another one I hadn't seen for years) and there were some other familiar faces there, too.  It was just amazing to see some folks that I hadn't seen in a long time, hear about the great places their lives have taken them, and learn about their families.  It filled my heart with so much joy.

Needless to say, when I finally arrived home Saturday afternoon, I was pretty exhausted.  I managed to catch a little nap before we headed back out for the evening and actually felt pretty good for the remainder of the weekend!  I also realized later that this was officially Lilly's first girls' trip, too, and it makes me very excited to think about the trip that we will take together someday.  I used to get a little bit sad thinking about Jake going off with Daddy for a weekend of fishing or camping, but I know that this will be a big, special part of his life someday.  He is my little man and I know that I'll miss him like crazy and wish that I could be there, too.  But now I realize that on those weekends, I will have some girl-time with my little one where we can go have our fun, too!

Our Vacation Home

At the beginning of the month, we finally found some time to have a weekend getaway at our friends Bud and Abby's home.  Bud and Abby are great friends of ours from when we were in Florida and were both in our wedding.  Oddly enough, they moved to the Midwest (well, technically back to the Midwest since they both grew up out here) about a year after we did and we've been trying to get down to see them ever since.  They live in a tiny (yes, much smaller than Small Town, IL... 'small town' is a relative term I guess) little town in central Illinois in a great house on a lake.  I. WAS. IN. HEAVEN.  Their house is now referred to as our vacation home whether they like it or not!  I think we're going to have to make time from here on out to get over there and see them more often.  Needless to say, most of our time was spent outside in the water... this is truly what summer is all about.


These guys were really excited to see "Mr. Josh" again!  Funny story: the boys have always called us "Mr. Josh and Miss Kim," and one of the twins referred to Jake as "Baby Jake," which is fairly common.  The other twin, however, called him "Mr. Baby" which cracked us all up!  There is nothing funnier than hearing a child yell, "Mom!  Mr. Baby spilled the Goldfish all over the floor!"

Speaking of "Mr. Baby," he is quite the little water bug!  Having a lake out the back door was lovely, except that he never wanted to get out!  The house has a little beach down to the water, so it was perfect for him to sit down and play.

This face?   Absolutely priceless!   He pretty much had this expression on his face all day, everyday.  Well, until we made him get out and come inside anyway!

I even got in on the action.  Thankfully my husband was kind enough to take a photo of me standing in the water, rather than one of me floating on the raft.  Or even better, photos of the struggle to get on the raft!  The funny thing was that one of the twins was so concerned about me (at least we think it was concern... we're still not sure) that he would swim out and get me if I floated too far out.  Eventually he made me hang onto the dock and stay in one place.

What's better than having a beach in your backyard?  How about having parents that live across the lake and have a boat!  Poor Jake was so wiped by this point that he really did not enjoy the ride much, partly due to the life-vest.  He and I cut our ride short and while he napped, I sat in an Adirondack chair and read.  Ahhhh.... sweet bliss! 

Apparently the boat ride was a success!  The weird thing is that I think I've only seen one or two other pictures of my husband with a fish, and he makes this face in every single one.  And now he has a follower.  Nice.

This will probably be our only "vacation" this summer, or this year for that matter, but I honestly could not have asked for two better days.  It was a great time with great friends in a great place... what more could we possibly ask for?  We're already searching our calendar for a time when we can visit again... thanks to Bud, Abby, and the boys for such a wonderful getaway!  We love you guys!

Oh yeah, and the highlight of the trip?  This would get Jake's vote:

The Rest of America Should Take Notes

You might remember my good friend, Chelsea, from my post back in January.  Yesterday, after a twelve month tour of duty in Afghanistan, her husband Joe returned home.  And what a return it was!

Small Town, Illinois, you did it again!  I brag on you a lot... noting how charming and easy-going the folks here can be.  Everyone's willingness to do anything for anyone never ceases to amaze me, and the rest of the country should take notes.  Here, if you need to borrow a lawn mower, someone will more than likely go the extra step and do it for you.  Or if your on bed rest, a parade of folks will be in and out of your home the whole time to cook and clean.  I would know... I've experienced both.  And when one of our own returns home from deployment, people line the streets in 95+ degree heat to give a hero's welcome.

Yesterday I was in awe (once again) of how a community can come together.  Chelsea had made a few phone calls to a few folks just a couple of days before to see what we could do to really give Joe a deserved welcome.  From there the whole thing snowballed and by the time they rolled into town, it was perched on top of a convertible behind a fire engine with its sirens blaring, about 50 motorcycles, and followed by several decorated vehicles that had jumped into their convoy on the way back from Clinton, Iowa.  It had been announced in the local paper that they would be cruising down Main Street around 3 PM and the residents here were encouraged to make signs and line the streets to honor the family.  Sure enough, the streets were lined with people, many waving flags, and when we heard those sirens and saw the family we all cheered, shouted words of thanks, and in my case (and many others) teared up at the sight.  It's easy to forget that we have thousands of men and women overseas everyday risking their lives to protect our country.  It's easy to forget that these men and women have spouses at home that do all that they can to make that void feel small for their children.  It's easy to forget that these men and women have children who change so much in a year and are totally different kids when they return.  And even though we can't make it up to them, I hope that yesterday helped show one family how appreciative we are of that sacrifice.  I cannot imagine being away from my husband for an entire year and being home by myself with the kids, but here in Small Town, Illinois, I know that I would be taken good care of, just as Chelsea was.  America should take notes.

I won't do a good enough job trying to describe the fanfare, so I won't try.  Chelsea wrote a great recap on Facebook, but I'm not sure that you could access it, so I'll leave that for her friends and family to enjoy... it's her story to tell anyway.  But if you'd like to see more pictures and read more about the festivities, you can check out these articles and photos here and here.

Today was the first time in a very long time that my heart really swelled with pride for America.  I grew up as an Army kid, so my patriotism runs deep, but we take it for granted all too often.  Even more than that, I'm truly proud that I can call this family my friends.  And most importantly, I'm really happy that this daddy is back where he belongs- at home with all five of his girls.  Welcome home, Joe!  You were truly missed!

Three More...

I figured that I wouldn't have time to post on Sunday with my travel plans, but I ended up staying so busy yesterday, too, that I am now two days behind! So today you get three things I'm thankful for...

4 - My job. I have to admit that I complain about my job sometimes. Everyone does, right? But at the end of the day I am so very lucky to have a great, steady job that I can do from home... especially in this economy. A huge part of that is probably due to my boss to be honest, as she is a mother of three and very family oriented. And Marriott as an overall company is family-based and really does all it can to help make their employees' quality of life better. I know I won't do it forever, but for now it allows our family to give extra money away to those in need, buy fun stuff for Jake (and occassionally for us), do home improvement projects, and travel when we find the time. We will enjoy the dual income while it lasts, but do all that we can to really live off of one.


3 - My girlfriends. Growing up I moved around a lot, but always seemed to have a best girlfriend no matter where I went. Many of them I am still in touch with, grab random lunches and dinners with when we're in the same place at the same time, and a few I try to see at least once a year. When I moved to Small Town, USA I met so many people, but it did not take long to find a few great gals that have become my family. And the first thing I did when I got off the plane on my current business trip to Miami? Got together with my old "Bachelor" gals for a good ol' fashioned gab-fest (although I have to admit that I really miss the quarterly trips to Disney with this bunch). There is nothing like a girlfriend to tell you that you look cute when you feel lousy, pick you up when you're feeling blue, laugh with til your tummy hurts, or confide in when you need a true friend. And the best part is that there is always room for more!


2 - How could I go seven days without mentioning this guy? Oh Jake, you melt my heart. That's all I have to say about that.


Only one more to go and then it's TURKEY TIME... or National Pie Day as I like to call it. That is truly the most important part of the meal if you ask me!

October in (mostly) Pictures

If you're wondering why I was pretty much MIA for most of October, it was because I feel like I blinked and it was gone! We ran non-stop all month at full speed and I don't think November is going to be much different. October might just be my favorite time of year here in the Midwest though with our crisp sunny days and vibrant leaves. And now that we have Jake we certainly take much more advantage of some fall fun. So without further ado... here is our month in review...

At the start of the month, Jake and I hit the road to head to Georgetown, Kentucky to visit the Vans. On the way we made a pit stop (with perfect timing... Jake was really antsy to get out of his car seat by this point) and spent about an hour with my friend Lara and her family. Lara and I went to high school together and have stayed in touch throughout the years. I felt like nothing had changed after so much time even though we both are married with kiddos now! Now that I know that she's right on the way, I see many more pit stops and visits on future trips!

We finally made it to our destination and guess who was there to surprise us??? Baby Adam! And his mommy of course as well as my mommy! :)

Auntie Angie was over the moon to have both of the boys at her house!

Kevin and Kyle were so good with the little ones. Kevin carried them around pretty much wherever they went and Kyle spent a lot of time playing on the floor with them. They even told their friends that they couldn't come out and play because their cousins were in town.


The two definitely made up for lost time and we felt like they were almost always up to something

They wreaked havoc on the Van household

But they looked so cute doing it! We had them race a couple of times, but since I don't have a copy of the video, you'd have to check out my sister's post about the trip here

We just couldn't get enough of the two of them together!

The best part of our trip was a visit to Bi-Water Farms, a local pumpkin patch

This place had everything! First we measured to see how tall we were in October 2010

Then we checked out the playground(s)... there were several for adults and kids!

Then we did a little trike racing! I would love to show all of these pictures, but I fear that someone might hunt me down for a couple in particular

Jake got plenty of attention from his aunties

And from Gramma, too, of course!

She was so excited to have all four of her grandbabies in one place at the same time... this was a first for our family!

And here is the whole gang sans Josh Van who was nice enough to be the photographer! All of the Elder ladies and their boys!

Next we hopped back in the car and headed north to Ohio. On the way we stopped in Cincinnati to see another Laura... this one is a friend from college! We hadn't seen each other since my wedding and a lot has changed since then! The picture isn't the greatest since we snapped it with a Blackberry, but it gets the job done. For now this is the only picture I have from my Ohio leg of the trip because I am still waiting on the others from my cousins. Hmmm... maybe I should send a reminder! Another point to note was that I got some sort of flu virus while on my trip and I think Jake had a touch of it, too. Three days later Laura informed me that she had caught our bug, but let us know that it was worth it to see us. What a great friend!

Once we were back safely in Illinois, we spent a lot of time outdoors. Jake thought it was hilarious when Josh would throw leaves in the air

We didn't go in the corn maze this year, but we did skirt the perimeter to get our annual family pictures with the corn... so far we have no good ones of all three of us in the corn. Oh well... maybe next year

We had to check out the local pumpkin patch here in town, too! Although it was tiny in comparison, Jake was quite festive in his little orange and black outfit. Josh found a great apple orchard while we were away that we wanted to visit, but the month got away from us. It's another thing on our to-do list for next fall.

Thankfully he is finally starting to smile for the camera! It makes the pictures so much cuter!

And that brings us to the end of the month. We went over to the Tucker's house to help eat hand out candy on Halloween. Brody was a little monkey and Jake dressed up as a spider!

This is the closest we could get to a smile... he was not thrilled with the idea of wearing a hat!


We also carved pumpkins again this year, but this time we used a pattern for the first time ever. I think it turned out great! Sure, I still think it's "cheating" but the end result is so much better!

I wish I had video of him crawling in this costume... it was too funny!

So that about wraps it up. In Jake news, he started crawling just before our trip to Kentucky and hasn't slowed down since. He also cut his first tooth while we were there and got a second one last week! But my favorite thing? His incessant rambling of Mamamamamama... granted, I think Mama is his word of choice for just about everything, but I'll take it!

Now that October has come and gone the countdown for the holidays begins! Yahooooo! Looks like you'll be seeing more of Adam and his parents on the blog soon! I hope you're enjoying the last bit (or first bit for you Floridians) of your autumn season as much as we are. Now bring on the snow!