My friend Jenni just got ENGAGED!!!!!!! WOO HOO JENNI AND BRANT!!!!

Everyone has GOT to be happy for a girl who’s name will be Jennifer Szambecki-Benninga!!! Doesn’t get any better than that! I am pretty sure they’ll never be able to move to a foriegn country because no one will be able to pronounce her name.

She has the benefit of planing a wedding at the age of 30, when she knows better than to go into debt for it.

Here’s her blog on how she’s doing it.

A Truly Affordable Wedding

Oh, and on a side note, whoever invented these:

I want to give a bear hug!

(yes, on facebook, I wanted to kiss them. I’ve decided I am not as excited about the hooks as I am Jenni’s wedding so I didn’t want to cause the post to get off balance)

Y E S ! ! !

To those of you not in Atlanta this post may be a little wierd. For those of you who are in Atlanta, better yet, who WERE in Atlanta. . . you’ll TOTALLY understand!

CHICK-FIL-A is now in TWO parts of Kansas City!!! NOW there’s a restaurant up north around my parents!!! Oh why this didn’t happen 1 year ago while I was 7 months pregnant and living with my parents, I don’t know. But, I’ll take it now!!!

Sweet Lord, you do orchestrate every detail of our lives and bring us good things!!! Now my children do not have to grow up without the original chicken sandwich or waffle fries!

AMEN!!!

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, I have to completely come out of the closet here. . . . . I was a huge New Kids on the Block fan between 6th and 8th grade. I mean HUGE! I had 2 shirts from 2 concerts and I would wear them Monday, Wednesday and Friday. One day in between each wear so I could wash them and not look like a crazy fan. (seriously) I obviously was not the coolest kid in middle school. But hey, at least I didn’t look crazy!

A few months ago my wonderful neighbors in Atlanta (who I miss so so so so much) and I found out we had something fun in common. We were all three not the coolest girls in middle school and were all pretty big NKOTB fans! We were SO excited that the New Kids were taking a “reunion” tour that we bought tickets to the concert in Atlanta. (it was INGENIOUS of the “boys” to decide to make a comeback when we are all 30 year old mothers who would LOVE to feel like giggly pre-teens for a couple hours at a weeknight concert)

Just for the record, I am not in any way defending their musical abilities or their legitamacy as a credible “band”. But, my neighbors and I were so excited to have a fun girly night reciting all the words we learned while surrounded by their posters and BIG buttons while playing their TAPES over and over again!! I mean, who wouldn’t?

You probably know that this story is not going to end well.

I moved. (sniffle)

Josh sold my tickets on ebay. (sob)

Last night I spent trying to distract myself so I didn’t get too sad. (sniffle sob sniffle sob)

But tonight it got worse. I checked my e-mail and found this picture:

MY NEIGHBOR IS IN THE RED SHIRT!!!

The one with JOEY’S arm around her!!!! (btw, if you were a New Kids fan, you’d understand that every girl had to choose one of the five guys to have a crush on. joey was my crush. I think in some weird way Josh’s blue eyes fulfill my 7th grade draw to joey’s blue eyes. . . just kidding, I think)

My neighbor ended up somehow getting passes to the sound check. AND – GOT – A – PICTURE !

Can you believe it!?!?!?

Please sympathize with me!

Can you believe it?!?!?

Who thinks God would punish me for my 7th grade idolization????

Or maybe God was just being gracious to our husbands so we couldn’t dress up our boys as The New Kids for Halloween?!?! REALLY, what would have been the harm in that?!?!

(on a closing note, New Kids are coming to KC on Nov 11th. The problem is, the people who I went to middle school with actually live here and they may make fun of me still wearing the t-shirt. And then they still wouldn’t believe that I DID wash it! )

This post is for all my WSU fans out there!!

Jenni and Amanda have encouraged me to show that Jadon is NOT just an OU fan.

!!!!!!GO SHOCKERS!!!!!!

Thanks Amanda, Chris, Maria, Lulu and Anya for Jadon’s WU shirt! Amanda, maybe we’ll see our shared grandchild in this shirt one day!

If you know what a WU Shock is, let me hear ya!!!

Here are a couple more pictures of Jadon meeting Anya (one of his choices for future brides) and my friend Amanda when they stopped in Atlanta for a layover and a dinner with us!

Gosh I have good friends who love my child well!!

First, bad parenting. . . .

(my sister sent me that. horrible. let’s just pretend that the little ducklings were saved by a nice city worker under the grate)

Second, my friend Jami is starting something on her blog called “Tuesday’s Blend” where people come there and post a link to their blog that gives a post that has to do with the topic of the day. Today’s topic is organization. So, here’s my tip:

My house may not stay neat and organized, but my closets usually do. This started when I was a “Tawashie” (or housekeeping) boss at a Young Life Camp one summer, where “excellence honors God and attracts people.” There I realized how easy it is to keep a clean closet if the items are folded and aligned instead of lumped and flung. The biggest tip I’d give is to fold items such as towels and t-shirts with the corners aligned, which is an easy habit to get into because it takes the same amount of time, just practice. Then put it in the closet where the rounded part of the fold (vs the part with the edges hanging out) facing out in the closet. It makes a world of difference. Then, when your house is a mess like mine, you’ll go to get dressed or get a towel out, it’s a breath of fresh air, instead of a rush of toppling, confusing items. You won’t feel like you must clean your house, then organize what’s underneath all the time.

I’m crazy, I know.

At least I am not the duck above.

Well. . . . I shouldn’t say that. Yesterday Jadon made it up 5 stairs of our 14 step stair case before I knew it. After that, he spent 30 minutes with mommy learning how to go down on his tummy. He didn’t like that as much as going up in secret. AHHHHH!!!!

Q: Since when does taking a shower belong on a To Do List?

A: Since Motherhood

Jadon’s been tagged by Eli and he needs to blog 10 things about himself. So here’s Jadon’s first personal post:

10 things about Me

1. I don’t think I’ll cut my hair for a long time. I like it BIG!

2. I love to speed crawl. So much so that I am not interested in learning how to walk too much. When Dada comes home I scream “DADA” and speed crawl to him. Mommy likes to hear the pitter-pat of my hands as I crawl across the floor.

3. I teased Mama with saying her name a few weeks ago. I don’t think I want to say it again for a while, because really? why do I need to, she’s always there anyway!?

4. Mama knows when I am doing something naughty with the dog when she hears me giggle in the other room. It usually means I am done with my cheerios and I am throwing them off of the highchair and getting Sierra to jump at them.

5. Music class is fun. I love music, but I don’t want the other people in my class to know, so I just sit and watch all of the other mommies act silly with mine.

6. Dada built me a REALLY cool swing off of a big limb in our back yard this week. I can’t wait to do dangerous things off of it in a few years.

7. I can occupy myself in a room for a long time with no toys, as long as Mama is in the same room with me. Like yesterday when she was mudding the room that is getting painted, I kept myself busy with 2 small pieces of cardboard, the door that opened and shut and with the sound my fingers made on the ladder step.

8. I am doing well at my sign language. Well, I am using the sign for “more” when I mean “yes.” But yesterday I did the sign for “eat” and it got me food VERY quickly! Actually, how I really like to communicate is by shaking my head “no.” I do it all the time, to everything. It really throws them off.

9. People think I am cute. One of my teachers at Waumba Land is a really good photographer and she chased my mommy down the hall to ask he if she can take some pictures of me. I am considering whether to cry, scream or smile when we go to the photo shoot next week. Gotta keep ‘em guessing.

10. My Mama and Dada fall in love with me more and more everyday. They knew they’d love me, but are overwhelmed with how much everyday they love me more!

Okay, here are my friends I want to tag:

Hudson

Eliana

Kaden

Sorry guys, I know mama noticed that one of you tagged me a few weeks ago, but she forgot who. I don’t like letting her spend too much time on the computer. Please forgive her.

Don’t forget to check out my birthday party Mama posted yesterday!!

Peace Out,

The super cool “Jado Potato!”

Josh and I are addicted to this game:

How well do you know your world?

After 2 days we can get to level 8.

How far can you get?

(Jessica made it to level 11 on Friday!!)  Beat that Josh!!