This morning I woke up to Zoe asking how much longer til swimming lessons- her very first.
I said, "Three hours."
She asked, "How long is that?"
Oh yeah. I had forgotten.
"That's 6 Hannah Montana's"
(Don't know what that means? Click HERE)
And then every two minutes she asked how many more Hannah Montana's. It was so fun.
So the time finally came-
So we arrive, things don't seem right.... long story short....
It turns out that swim lessons are... hmm..... two Hannah Montana's in an hour, 24 hours in a day, so 48 Hannah Montana's in a day, seven days in a week..... 336?
So yeah, I was 336 Hannah Montana's too early.
(I wish I didn't make that mistake as often as I do)
I'm back from camp.
And I am beyond pooped!
So this post is going to be short.
This was our theme-
Thinkin' Life's a Cruise? Get Anchored!
There was so much to the week... there is no way I could share it all. It was amazing.
I can say though that I went with the funnest and funniest group of whippersnappers ever.
.....and now I really must go to bed.
But before I do, a special thanks to my Anitra. I thoroughly enjoyed coming back and reading my blog. :)
And guess what? Someone thinks I am funny! Check it out here.
But really....Nighty-night.
it's a good thing there are shows like "a baby story" on tlc, or else my only knowledge of seeing what childbirth is like would be limited to this. (click on the word "this", and it's a link to the video. it wouldn't let me embed.)
just a little peek inside my blog...
this is my post for today entitled "what was i thinking??"
this could have quite possibly been the first night that jud and i saw each other, because we were both there. good thing we didn't actually meet, cause he probably would have been so afraid of my hair that we never would have talked again.
right now, i don't have an actual full time job, but during the summer i am babysitting two girls. these girls are 8 and 9, and they honestly couldn't be anymore different. the 9 year old is a girly girl. she has super cute clothes, and cute stylish haircut, and would rather watch tv then go out and play soccer. the 8 year old on the other hand is a complete tom boy. she wears camo shorts and big jersey shirts, her hair is shoulder length and never brushed, and she wants to wrestle or play soccer or play her handheld game systems all day. it's hard to believe these two are even sisters.
but LoW and i on the other hand. well, there is just NO denying we are sisters. we have so many similarities it's spooky. so i thought i'd share some with you.
firstly, when we were little, we were both pretty darn cute.
we both had VERY unfortunate hair at atleast one point in our life, but quite frankly, it was many times in our life.
and speaking of hair, we both unfortunately have frizzy hair when we are in the south. which probably explains a lot of our unfortunate haircuts.
we both have enjoyed ourselves some loud pants on occasion.
next up on the similarity list is our love of posing in front of christmas trees.
and while we are on the subject of posing, we both love to pose for family pictures in the old style of family picture taking.
another thing we both love is beach weddings. i can guarantee that if you have a wedding, and it's at the beach, and you invite us, and you are our brother, we will SO be there!! the rest of our family will even be there too, if you want them to be.
also on the list is that we are both really good at looking interested in what you are saying if you are talking to us. it does not necessarily mean we are interested and that we ARE listening, but we will sure pretend to.
we also have this thing, where when we think no one is looking, we like to make goofy faces. unfortunately, as it turns out...not only are people looking, but they are also taking pictures to document it.
and last, but definitely not least on our list today, we both like to dance....get jiggy with it....shake our groove thang...bust a move....cut a rug....you get the idea.
and that concludes our list. but be assured...there are many, MANY more similarities between us. and no matter how much we may want to deny it, we are sisters through and through.
hello everyone! allow me to introduce myself. i am substitute blogger. aka anitra. aka shaniqua. aka LoW's wittle baby sister. not to be confused with the older boyfriend-stealer sister.
this here is my husband, jud. aka judson. aka jug. aka shad. (the word you are looking for is "HOOOT")
and this here is our wittle baby boy. aka wittle judson. aka bumble bee. aka the cutest wittle guy in the whole wide world. who is approximately 75 days away from being welcomed into this world.
although i've been blogging for over 5 years (holy cow!) i have to say i'm a little nervous about this assignment to blog here on LoW's blog. those are big shoes to fill. although, let's be honest, what material would LoW have to blog about if it wasn't for me? after all, she's almost always blogging saying things like "i was talking to my wittle baby sister about such and such." or "check out this cute picture my wittle baby sister drew when she was wittler." or "my wittle baby sister reminded me of this on her blog." so really, with me blogging, you'll just be able to get everything first hand.
i look forward to this...and hopefully i won't disappoint you all.
I scream when I see bugs.
It's not so much that I am afraid of bugs exaclty..... but they always startle me. I wish they would announce themselves, "I am entering the room now LoW.... coming through the door and then turning to the right" or "Just flying by, now need to panic, I've no time to stop".
Usually I just let out my one quick scream, then accept the bug is where it is, then I am good.
With the exception of a new found serious fear of wasps. Ohmygosh! Every year we have issues with them and then we get rid of them, such is life. But this year when we had issues I thought I'd look them up and see if there was something to them I needed to know to help get rid of them more effectively. The more I read about them the more scared I got of them. And then my husband swatted at one with a badminton Battledore raquet and sliced it in half and the head side continued walking around and I got all the more freaked out about them.
Oh, and guess what? Oh, it get's better- I leave in 4 hours to go camping. This is my third year going with about 100 girls ages 12-17 and I love it! And I hate it!
I love the daytime, I love the girls, I love the skills learned and the spiritual aspect of camp. Ohmyword, do I ever love it!!
But I hate the showering with 100 bugs and I hate attempting sleep knowing that things will crawl on my while I sleep.
Thankfully love kicks hate's butt and it will be a great.
Except at night.
But it will be GREAT!!
Last year before I went I left my two youngest girls, Naomi and Zoe, with an art pad to draw me pictures while I was gone. And they did, but so did Nolan.
Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
But I have good news!!
You can still visit my blog while I am gone!! There will be a substitute blogger filling in for me. I'll let her introduce herself whenever she decides to post. But let's just say that when I asked her to, I said, "Just please don't tell any secrets about me or make me look bad" and she almost backed out.
Speaking of Kissin'
Since posting about the frenchdude and his very romatic ooh-la-la letter I have felt the desire to post a romantic somesin'-somesin' from my Gary.
But let's go back to the kissin'. Remember how I said that the French exchange student asked to kiss me and I was pretending I didn't understand him because his English wasn't good enough? And did you all read the comment from my mom where she mentioned that once a guy asked her if it was 'a kiss or a handshake' after a date? And remember when I said I would have to post about that?
Well here goes- Only two guys have ever asked to kiss me, Gael- the Frenchman and Gary- my now husband. Both of which I pretended I didn't understand their English.
Just kidding. That would only work on the one.
Gary actually.... well technically, the first time he tried to kiss me was when a group of us were at our church building playing some b-ball when something happened and I took the basketball and ran, Gary running after me, I remember running outside and him tackling me to the ground. I was laughing hysterically when he pinned me and he went in for the first kiss and....
kissed me teeth.
But teeth kissin' doesn't really count now, does it?
The next time was months (if not a year) later. (our 'dating' only took place when he was back from school and by 'dating' I mean, we still haven't decided if we ever really did 'date') He and I walked to a park and spent the evening alone talking and that was when he asked me.
Oh, I did not like that. And I told him so. I said, "You can't tell whether or not you should kiss a girl?" And I refused to let him know. He had to figure it out himself.
And then he came up with some excuse about how girls in Utah were (where he was going to school) and I let him know I wasn't from Utah, I was a Carolina girl and I couldn't care less how they did things.
Anyways, so on the way home from the park, in the dark, in the middle of the street, was our very first official (without the teeth) kiss.
Exactly what everyone has been dying to hear about, I am sure. ;-)
But I tell you this so that you could see that I got romance in the form of mail by my Gary too. He sent me the most lovely card after our first kiss. And here's proof-
See?!?! Romance..... ha!
Actually, I just read the letter from Gary from back in the day where he poured out his heart to me about loving me (for the first time) and how he came to realize it. SO romantic. But I think I'll keep that one between he and I.
Besides, I don't think ya'll could handle it. :-)
Okay, new subject tomorrow.
Today I was on the phone with my wittle baby sister (who shouldn't be confused with my older boyfriend-stealer sister) and I was telling her about my Rae who met the 'cutest boy e-var' at a church dance last weekend and has since been texting him.... a lot. And we discussed 'church dance boyfriends' and how sad it is that kids these days don't write letters. They text or leave myspace messages but like... how are they going to save those to look back on when like....
They are 38....
Married with 5 kids....
And looking for something in their closet and instead finding a love letter from a Frenchman Frenchdude that she met at Youth Conference back in the summer of '86 at the most totally awesome like ohmygosh! Youth Conference because it was held on the beach?
How?
Isn't it the saddest?
Of course, they still take pictures just like we used too. No, I take that back, they take pictures way more than we ever did. So that's good. But still....
Oh, speaking of pictures, here I am with my Youth Conference French exchange student.
Oooh la la.... eh? Eh? Come on now, admit it!
Of course, not so much for me. My hair.... geez louise...always the hair. You think that's bad, look at this Youth Conference picture from the year before -
I had this mullet thing going, yet this long bangs to hang over an eye thing going. Oy. I didn't cut the long bangs 'til I broke up with the dude that loved them-
(you know, the one below, with the Miami Vice duds)
I don't know what hurt him more, having my bangs go or me go.
But I digress!
Back to the French exchange student (ooh lala)... We developed some very deep 16 year old (and him 17) feelings for each other at our 3 day Youth Conference.
And I remember he wanted to kiss me and he asked me if he could and I pretended his English wasn't good enough for me to understand what he was saying.
So then he had his leader translate. And encourage.
I can't believe she encouraged such things!
But I was feeling very conservative with whom I let kiss me at the time, so I declined.
I still can't believe I refused! What say you Ma, did I miss out on an opportunity? (no really, tell me here and now... I am wondering if you will say what I think I remember you saying at the time)
:-)
So very shortly after I get home from the Youth Conference, I receive my first letter from Gael.
Okay- so let's discuss.
Aren't his L's like, the cutest ever?
And wasn't he quite the charmer?
Sadly, my hate for the post office didn't just begin yesterday, and because I couldn't use a regular ole' stamp to send him a letter... and because I knew I'd never be able to meet him in Paris... he sent several more letters and they all went unanswered.
But seriously now- how fun is it to go back and read such things???
What are the youth of today going to have to look back on?
And did I miss the chance of a lifetime there?
Never mind, don't answer... I hate should have's.
*For Your Information- Gary is well aware of this post.
** Gary says I did the right thing by not kissing the frenchdude. :-D
The other day I was fixin' to make a dessert to take to a family get together. Naomi wanted to help but instead did it for me.
No complaints here.
So Naomi, with my prompting, is going to share with y'all her Key Lime Pie recipe.
Me- Hey Nomers!! You did a good job on that pie! Did you have fun making it?
Naomi- It was fantabulous!
Me- Let's start out telling everyone what is in the pie.
Naomi- Um, Well, you need Key Limes, the crust, whipped cream, and I have no idea what that stuff is.
Me- Sweetened Condensed Milk.
Naomi- *giggle* What she said.
Me- And you squeezed the key limes first, right?
Naomi- Exactly
Me- How long did it take you to squeeze all those key limes?
Naomi- About an hour.
Me- AN HOUR?!?!
Naomi- Yes, a whole hour.
Me- That's a lot of work for a pie.
Naomi- But it's worth it.
Me- Let's show everyone what your fingers looked like when you were done....
Me- Okay, after you juice the key limes, what's next?
Naomi- Put the juice in a bowl through a strainer to get out the seeds.
Me- And the juice should come to 1/2 cup, right?
Naomi- You are catching up.
Me- What's next?
Naomi- Put in the milk and stir it well
Me- And then?
Naomi- Add whipped cream
Me- Do you remember how I taught you to add the whipped cream? What's it called?
Naomi- Folding.
Me- Very good! Fold in the whipped cream.
Me- And then....
Naomi- Put it in to the crust.
Me- Mmmmm, that's looking good.
Naomi- It sure is.
Me- Do you remember the nice thing you said to me while working on the pie?
Naomi- I want to be a good cooker just like you.
Me- Ahhhh, can you say that one more time?
Naomi- I WANT TO BE A GOOD COOKER JUST LIKE YOU!
Me- That's so sweet. So Naomi, everyone loved your pie.
Naomi- (silence)
Me- They all thought I made it.
Naomi- But I did.
Me- I know, and I told them, they were very impressed. Good for you sweetie!
Naomi- I liked the pie too.
Me- Hey, guess what I bought at the store today?
Naomi- What?
Me- KEY LIMES!!!
Naomi- Oh no!
Way Too Easy Key Lime Cream Pie
Graham Cracker Crust
1 can cSweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 C fresh squeezed key limes
1 to 1 1/2 C Whipped topping.
Follow Naomi's directions and enjoy.
