schMORGANsborg

I LOVE Halloween!  It is by far my favorite holiday!  So I am super excited today…even though I’m old and don’t dress up anymore:)  Last year I had just moved into my house right before halloween and I had no furniture except for one lone chair sitting in my living room.  Didn’t matter I sat in that chair all night with candy in hand.  I was so pumped to hand out candy!  I know…I’m super cool.  This year is no different!  I loaded up on candy and I am ready to go! 

Growing up Tanaya (my bff) and I would go all out for halloween.  Her mom would sew our costumes and we would decorate the heck outta my house.  Her’s was out in the boon docks so no one would walk the mile down their drive way to go trick-or-treating.  She would come over to my house right before it got dark.  We’d suit up in our costumes (usually with the unwelcome addition of a lame turtle neck cause it was cold outside), grab our cute little bag (soon to be filled with candy), snap our glow stick and we were on our way!  It was SO much fun!  I’m sure that’s why I love it so much now. 

Here are a few treasures from yesteryear… 

This year Tanaya and I were angels…I couldn’t find a pic of both of us, but she had the same exact costume…minus the cool pink pants.

notice the precious bags for our candy:)  In spite of the massive carrying ability of pillow cases, the cuteness of this bag won out.

This was sometime in high school.  And just to show how old I’m getting…I am so embarrassed at what a wreck my room is…clearly teenaged Morgan didn’t care, but old lady Morgan does. "Good night child!  Pick up your room!"

I hope yall…and by yall I mean my 5 friends who read this…have a wonderful Halloween!  And remember calories don’t count today so eat up!    

I went to Rebecca’s church, The Vine, this Sunday.  It’s way the heck out in the Chateau Elan area and of course I got lost on the way there.  Somehow I had the insane notion that I could figure out a short-cut.  If you’ve ever ridden in a car with me then you know that I have the worst sense of direction EVER in the history of mankind…well except for maybe Katie who took us through South Carolina on our way to Alabama…that was a fun trip Katie:)

After a quick call to Mike…who has mad direction skills in addition to his mikeisms…I finally got there just in time for the actual message….which was SO good!  SO relevant to me!  (When I called to tell Rebecca I was going to be late she told me I couldn’t bail cause the message was for me!  She was right!)  The pastor, David Walters, was talking about hearing your calling from God and discovering what your strengths and gifts are and working with those as opposed to figuring out what your weaknesses are and trying to improve on those (not that you shouldn’t ever try to improve yourself).  Obviously he does a lot better job of talking about all that than I just did, but you get the picture.  At one point he said that "the two most important moments in a person’s life are the day they are born and the day they figure out why". 

I want nothing more than to know why!  I want that even more than I want a husband:)  Sometimes I think there’s some trick to figuring it out and I just haven’t found the trick yet.  I just haven’t read the right book or listened to the right speaker or prayed the right prayer.  And believe me I’ve heard TONS of advice and encouragement from people…and I appreciate it very much.  I think my mom gives me a daily pep talk…I guess that’s what mom’s are supposed to do:)  But I still haven’t found that trick yet.

I guess some people just know what they were meant for…like Tanaya…I think she’s wanted to do something in medicine for forever.  Except the brief period when she wanted to grow up to be a homeless person…I promise she always wanted to play like we were hobos…maybe she knew more than I realized:)  

I am not one of those people though…I always joke that I was in the bathroom when God was handing out purposes in life.  I really hope that’s not the case.  I feel like an annoying little kid tugging on God’s robe (because we all know God wears robes).  But I just want to know "why".

how do girls where shirts with their boobs hanging out?  I don’t mean that in a "you slut" kinda way…I mean it in a "really, how do you do that" way.  I have on a shirt today that is a little low cut and I am SO uncomfortable.  I even have another shirt on underneath it to reduce the lowcutedness (you like that word?).  Granted I’m not very well endowed in that area so really I’m more trying to keep my bra from showing than I am trying to keep my boobs from showing…but still.  I have a t-shirt in my car…maybe I’ll go change. 

ANYWAY, I just started reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claibore…thank you Kel.  KICKING MY BUTT!  and I just started!  I knew it was going to rip me a new one, but man.  It doesn’t feel good to have a new one ripped:) 

Most people who know what I think and believe would probably call me a fundamentalist Christian…I guess I would have called myself that…except for the fact that I don’t ever use that word.  Because I take the Bible literally I guess that makes me fundamental….but do I take the Bible literally?

Luke 12:32-34  What if Jesus was being for real?  What if he actually meant what he said right here?

Sometimes…scratch that…most of the time I really suck at being a reflection.  

…and my mad shoe modeling skills.

purple or grey laces?  which do you think?

canyon pics!

All ready to go!

hiking out to the frying pan/place to "relax" & see the river.

the group on rock…notice my wet slicked back hair…courtesy of the ranger.

I’m having a little trouble with them…so I had to delete the Grand Canyon pics…sad I know.  Hopefully, I can figure this out shortly.

ok…if you really want to hear the story then I will tell you.  Once upon a time in a far away place called Athens some crazy college kids got the wonderful idea to visit the Grand Canyon. 

Actually Kelly and Bobby came up with the idea I think…and they did most of the planning…keep that in mind as the story unfolds:)  Things seemed like they were going well.  We even had a couple of planning meetings to talk about how we were going to do things.  The game plan was to leave after our last final.  We rented a van and were going to take turns driving all the way out there.  We would camp on the rim that first night and then start our decent into what I now refer to as the bowels of hell.  After we reached the river we would camp there a few days and then hike back out.  sounds good right? 

Well as the time to leave grew closer we realized that our back country passes had not arrived.  You see you have to have a pass to hike all the way down to the river and to camp.  "No problem" said Kel and Bob…they saw on the internet that tons of people hike down without them (if it’s on the internet then it’s true-no arguments!) and besides the passes were probably just waiting for us there. 

The day of our adventure finally came and with all of us officially done with school till the next fall we loaded up the van and headed out.  Well actually we had to take the back row of seats out to fit all of our packs in the van.  So the 12 person van just got a whole lot smaller and THEN we loaded up.  No worries…we are young and carefree…across the country we go!  Apparently we all met up at the QT in larryville cause that’s were Katie’s pic is and apparently Morgan decided that wearing her pajama’s for the trip across country was a good idea.  Nice move.  We had a slight detour in TN or somewhere like that to pick up one more person…he will remain nameless…but for now let’s just say that he did not love me. 

So once we finally got on our way things were good.  You had to be 21 in order to drive the van so instead of all of us taking turns driving it was more like 4 people taking turns.  Again, no worries…nothing could stop us.  We did a lot of sleeping…a lot of eating fast food…chris did a lot of showering at truck stops (he likes to be clean…can’t hate on him for that). 

Trying to find a comfortable spot proved to be a little more difficult than I first thought it would be.  I mean we had a 12 person van and only 10 people, but I think when they said "person" they meant "abnormally small person".  I usually ended up stretched out on the floor (clearly I don’t like to be as clean as chris).  This worked pretty good except for the constant rubbing of the floor against my hip bone which I later discovered left some beautiful scabs.  Little did I know that would be the least of my injuries. 

You know it’s a very interesting thing to be sitting in a van and think to yourself "24 hours ago I was sitting in this same exact position".  We started to get a little testy…and when I say we I mean me.  The unnamed person was really getting on my nerves and I was making no attempt to hide it anymore.  When we finally reached the canyon that is grand it was the middle of the night.  We were lost as last year’s easter egg trying to find our campsite and I had just punched the unnamed man in the face…jk…I didn’t really punch him:)

We found our campsite!  We split up into boys and girls tents and enjoyed the task of setting up tents in the dark.  We got some sleep so we would be ready to go bright and earli the next morning. 

The next day we got all our stuff together and headed over to the park office to get our back country passes that were waiting on us.  CRAP!  Turns out they were not waiting on us…punks!  We had just driven for days straight across the country there was NO way were not going down into that hole!  So we threw caution to the wind and started our hike.  Going down wasn’t too bad.  Because I am such an avid outdoorsman and my friends are so cool I got to carry the girl tent and stove….that will be important later.  One other detail that you might want to keep in mind…the whole way down into that hole we kept seeing signs posted that read "do not attempt to hike in and out of the hell hole…I mean canyon…in one day"…what idiot would try to do that?!

Eventually we reached the point of no return…I think it’s about half way down.  Up until this point you didn’t need a pass, but beyond…you were required to have one.  There was a nice camping area that we later learned was all booked up.  We took our packs off and relaxed for a bit.  Ate a little and had some water.  The unnamed man was being very chatty with some other hikers…whatever…if they’re talking to him then I don’t have to…I am SO sweet:)

Time to go…can’t rest too long.  We had been hiking on the forbidden path for about an hour when we heard someone yelling behind us.  Ignore him!  Hike faster!  When the yeller finally caught up to us we realized that it was a ranger and guess what he wanted to see…yep, our passes.  Ummm…we have to have passes?  He wasn’t buying it.  Turns out 10 people are very conspicuous and chatty cathy had told the other hikers what we were doing when we stopped earlier.  Wonderful.  So Ranger Lucifer told us to turn around and follow him back to the mid-point.  At this point I started to feel a little sick.  I fell to the back of the line and was holding onto Katie and trying not to throw-up all over her.  When the Ranger saw me he walked over and said that I was dehydrated and needed to drink more water and pour my water bottle over my head.  So I stopped and sipped some water.  "Pour it over your head!"  ok, I will…relax.  I guess I wasn’t moving fast enough for him cause he proceeded to grab my water bottle out of my hand and pour it over my head for me…this made me love him even more than I already did. 

When we got back to the half way point he asked us all for our licenses…why we had those on us I don’t know, but we gave them to him.  After he took down all our information he told us that we could either hike back out of the canyon today (remember the signs?) or get fined some ridiculous amount of money per person.  Ummm…I’m a poor college kid…I choose hiking.  Ranger boy told us to rest up before we started out.  In his infinite kindness he also told us how to hike out to a place where we could look down and see the river.  How sweet of him to think of that for us!  We hiked for freaking ever to some flat frying pan of a rock and cooked like a bunch of eggs in the searing heat.  Thanks Ranger…this really got me ready for that hike out.

When we got back from the frying pan and seeing the river…which ps looks like every other river I have ever seen…night had fallen.  The Ranger sent us on our way.  "Be careful, have fun and don’t forget if you’re not out tonight you’re all getting fined!"

I think I had taken all of about 5 steps before I realized…I am NOT going to be able to do this.  My pack was heavy as crap and my body was worn slap out from the day’s shenanigans.  Chris was hiking behind me and he would help lift up my pack every time I took a step up…well this isn’t going to work for very long.  Let me just sum up by saying that some other guy ended up switching packs with me (I was carrying the tent and stove yall!  I promise I’m not that much of a wuss) and Chris was carrying his and Katie’s pack most of the way up:)  Half the girls hiked out in flip flops cause they had blisters so bad and Katie and I brought up the rear moving at the rapid pace of about an inch an hour.  We considered throwing the unnamed man off the side of a switchback after he tried to find a "short-cut".  At least that way they would have to send a helicopter for him after he broke his leg and we could hitch a ride out.  I was fully expecting to see an angel for the first time in my life because I knew the only way I was getting out of that pit of despair was if the Lord himself came and lifted me out! 

We finally made it to the top…no angels, but the hand of God for sure.  I think we hiked for something like 20 hours straight.  Someone brought up camping…those of us with a brain said screw that we’re getting a hotel room!  We got one and crashed!

The next morning I woke up to excruciating pain.  My whole body felt like it was going to fall apart.  Kel passed out at one point…she does that a lot though:)  We were all in pretty rough shape. 

We wasted the few days we had left in AZ and then started our journey back home.  I’ll spare you the details of the ride back since this is already a mile long, but it was just as sweet as the ride out there.

We made it home in one piece and the only lasting injury was that some of my toenails fell off…pedis have never been the same.

Bob says it’s all about the memories…well we made quite a few on that trip.  If you’ve made it this far then allow me to share one lesson that I learned…that hole in the ground looks just as cool from the top as it does from the bottom.  Trust me!  There is no need to hike down into it! 

One of my co-workers went to school for his kid’s book fair today and that got me thinking…I flippin’ LOVED the book fair when I was in elementary school!  Not really because I was a big reader, but more because I loved buying new books.  The book fair was only topped by Santa’s workshop where you would buy your friends and family some of the lamest/coolest presents ever! 

Reminiscing is one of my most fav things to do.  So here are a few jewels from my book fair days.   

I also used to love going to the library when I was in school…I think mainly because I was getting out of class, but there was just something great about walking into the library and putting the beautifully adorned paint stirrer into the shelf where you removed your book (so you could remember where to put the book back…librarians are so cleaver).  I distinctly remember how I would go about picking a book.  First, I would browse the aisles looking for the smallest book I could find.  Not length wise…height wise…for some wonderfully logical reason in my 9 year old brain I really liked checking out the small books….they were just so cute!  Then I would make sure to get a book without a dust jacket on it…those are just ugly…and if you actually end up reading the book they make a lot of noise.  And there you have my ingenious method of checking out books in elementary school…wow…I was an "interesting" kid.  No comments on the fact that I’m still a little "interesting"!     

A fellow co-worker and I are apart of an endangered species….the single, christian, over 25 species (holy crap I’m over 25).  And we are dealing with some very similar frustrations in our lives.  As we recapped our weekends with each other we laughed about the common reactions of others to our status.  Let me explain…as a single woman of any age, but especially when you’re a little "older", you will undoubtedly get asked one lovely question over and over…"why aren’t you married yet?"  I know most people just don’t know what else to say…after all what else could a single person possibly have to talk about other than the dream of one day getting married.  As the afore mentioned species you are forced to come up with some kind of polite response that will answer their question and change the subject all at once…don’t be fooled…it’s an art.  My go to answer is the ever popular "Just haven’t found the right guy yet…so how ’bout them Braves?" that takes care of that!  But really…what do you expect me to say to that?  "you know I just thought it would be great fun to watch everyone else get married and have kids"  or how about this one "why am I not married?  can’t you see the third arm growing out of my head? Oh I guess only available men can see that".  Of course if I actually ever threw something like that out there the questioner would respond with a sympathetic laugh and say "it’ll happen when you least expect it sweetie".  Really?  If that’s the case then I’m screwed.  Cause at this point I could walk into an old folks home and be on the look out for a man!  Then there is the motherly advice of "this is just a stepping stone"…well this stepping stone feels more like I stepped into a big steaming pile of cow manure. 

I know what you’re thinking…and chris before you say "bitter, party of one!" let me defend myself.  I’m not bitter…well not today anyway.  Most days I’m cool with being single…it honestly doesn’t bother me at all.  But I’m not going to lie…there are other days that being single really sucks.  But like I said, today is not one of those days.  

Today I’m laughing at my status as an endangered species…Ill save the tears for another day:)       

Can I just say that I have the best friends in the world?  I really do thank God all the time for my friends…they mean SO much to me!  And two of those awesome friends that I am blessed with came over on friday to help me around my house.  Kelly helped me paint my kitchen table and chairs while Bobby put together some chairs that go on my front porch.  It’s hard to get things done around the house when you don’t have a handy husband to boss around:)  So I just borrow all my friend’s husbands…and they have some good ones.  I must admit that when the marrying spree began I was a little worried.  What if I didn’t like their husbands, what if everything changed once they got married, what if I never saw my friends anymore after their mean husbands took them far away?!  Well thankfully that is not how it went down.  I can honestly say that I love my friend’s husbands just as much as I love my friends.  They help me and take such good care of me.  So thanks to all the husbands!  Here are some pics of us working on friday. 

Kelly had to talk me into actually painting the table…I’ve been planning on doing it for about a year and just never have.  I finally got to the point where I just wanted to pay someone to do it…but Kel motivated me to do it myself…thanks Kel!  After all, Mike always said the only job that starts at the top is digging a ditch.  Ok, that’s not really all that applicable…but there’s a Mikeism to start out your week:)  

I went to wally world last night on my way home so I could grab a couple things real quick.  I went to the self check-out since I only had like 3 things.  I picked a line where there was someone finishing checking-out and then one more guy behind them.  He didn’t have much either so I thought this line would go the fastest.  The person checking-out finished up and I stared at the magazines reading the covers while I waited.  In the middle of reading that Oprah and Fidel Castro has a secret love child I heard someone in front of me say "excuse me ma’am?" I turned and saw the guy who was in line in front of me.  I said "yeah" and he said "you can go in front of me".  Now, I didn’t really understand what he said cause he had a pretty thick accent.  Not the usual Monroe accent that I’m used to…the ain’t from around here accent.  So I said "what?  you don’t need to check out?"  and he said "ladies first".  Ummm…ok.  So I walked up to the thing and started scanning my items.  I must admit that I was a little creeped out by it.  Why in the world did this guy just let me go in front of him?  Are people really that nice where he’s from?  Is he going to grab my wallet and run away with it when I go to pay?  I was perplexed.  As I finished up he said "you be sure and have a good night".  I said "you too.  and thanks for letting me go in front of you."  He just smiled and looked away.  So I grabbed my bags and left…still thinking the whole way out to the car.  I’m sure I had an eat crap look on face the whole time.  I didn’t mean to, but my mom says that I wear my thoughts quite clearly on my face.  My cell phone rang and it was my brother.  I told him the story and said "Morgan, that’s called flirting"…really?  If so my boy skills are even less than I thought they were cause I totally didn’t pick up on that.  I think the guy was just being nice.  

I ran several other errands last night too and the more I thought about it on the way home I realized that I had encountered incredibly nice people all night.  The lady at Target was so nice…and I was returning something!  They usually aren’t too stoked on you when you’re bringing something back.  The people at the make-up place…so nice!  Granted they were trying to sell me one of everything in the store, but still…very nice.  And then the wal-mart guy.  And to top it all off when I came in this morning one of my co-workers had put a chick-fil-a biscuit on my desk!  If you know me at all you know that the chick is the way to my heart.  Man!  Why are people being so nice to me? 

I think the Lord is going to give me some joy whether I like it or not:)  I guess He works in mysterious chicken biscuit and weird wal-mart guy ways. 

I went to 722 last night and it rocked my face off!  It was the first one since they moved it to Buckhead Church…very nice.  Made me want to move to Atlanta…I think I might:)

So for no apparent reason when I finally got in the bed last night and was trying desperately to fall asleep all I could think about was The Princess Bride.  Random…I know.  About a year ago I finally broke down and bought the DVD.  Up until that point I had always watched it on my bootleg HBO version.  We did that a lot when I was little:)  For a long time I thought that all videos were supposed to have the little HBO deal in front of the movie…you know what I’m talking about?  Where the lasers spin around the inside of the O from the HBO?  I think they had one for the H too, but I can’t remember what that one looked like.  The B got no love.  And there was a little ditty while the lasers shot through the O…dun nu nu nu nu…ok, that doesn’t really give you a good idea of how it went, but if you were cool enough to have HBO back in the day then you know what I’m talking about. 

The infamous Mike and Darlene Collins have officially read this blog now.  They emailed me this morning to let me know and Mike reminded me of his most often used Mikeism.  "You’re a winner".  Yep, that’s what I heard on pretty much a daily basis.  It’s amazing that I’m not an out of control megalomaniac:)  

That has been my prayer for the past…well a while now.  As some of my close friends have heard me say I’ve been having a little trouble in this area.  Last night I had some good quality time in the Word…which sadly has not been common place as of late.  I read out of John Piper’s book The Dangerous Duty of Delight (JP, as he will be referred to from here on out, is my all time fav).  Ok, so here’s a little of what I read and what I was thinking about it.

"This is what loves does: it pursues its own joy in the joy of the beloved."  JP-page 62

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body."  Paul-ephesians 5:25-30

Marriage, I think, is one of the most precious blessings that God gives to us.  Not just because you get to be married…which I’m sure is swell…but it is SUCH a beautiful picture of Christ’s love for his Body.  What an awesome privilege that we…well hopefully one day me:)…but yall get to be a picture of that sacred relationship! 

The text from ephesians obviously has very practical implications about the relationship between a husband and a wife, but even more than that it tells us how our Savior loves us.  You see I think that has been and still is the key to my struggle for joy…I keep forgetting how He loves me.  This is a prime example of what a genius I am, but that’s beside the point. 

What more could a bride want than to be presented as holy and pure to her bridegroom?  And why did Christ give himself up for his body?  To sanctify them.  And why did he sanctify them?  So that he might present them in all their glory…having no spot or wrinkle…a perfect bride standing before her perfect bridegroom.  Beautiful.  Christ’s joy was in the joy of the beloved.  My joy is in being sanctified so that I may be presented holy and pure before him and his joy is in making me that way.  I’m not sure I’m articulating this very well…but this truth blew me away last night as I read!  JP does a way better job of explaining this than me…obviously!  

So often I get caught up in the lie that God is sitting up in heaven looking down on me and shaking his head in disgust.  So much of the time I am frozen in fear of doing the wrong thing…moving to the wrong place…saying the wrong thing…doing anything that is "outside of his will".  Most of the time I don’t know what to do so I just do nothing.  This is a heavy, joy-stealing burden that I have put on myself.  It is a lie that I have believed over and over.  Just like a husband and wife become one flesh, so Christ says that we are members of his body.  And just as man nourishes and cherishes his body, so Christ nourishes and cherishes us.  That is very good news.  Christ is good…he is love…he is joy.  And though I am utterly unworthy of it I long to live in that love and joy. 

In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  psalm 16:11

I believe it Lord.  Make it so in me!         

Is that the cute fall version of spring has sprung?  Never the less…fall is here…for now.  But lets keep in mind what my dad always says, "If you don’t like the weather in Georgia just wait a minute…it’ll change".  Mike is so wise!

Today is the first day since last winter that I have worn my tennis shoes for the whole day.  Exciting I know…and definitely blog worthy right? 

I had forgotten how comfy my ol sauconys are.  I love these shoes!  I started wearing sauconys in college.  I begin my cool but casual college look in the classic newbies but soon learned that sauconys are just as cute, way more comfortable and way cheaper than the newbs.  So I crossed over…and I never looked back.  I need a new pair though…I’ve had the grey and pink ones for a while now….but I think I have found my new pair! 

Grey and purple…that’s right I’m switchin’ it up.  I’m wild and crazy like that.  Feel free to copy me…you know you want to…cause like Darlene always said "imitation is the highest form of flattery"…ok, I don’t think she made that one up, but she did used to tell me that all the time (apparently I had a problem with people copying me when I was little?) and just for the record I don’t think Mike made up most of his Mikeisms either…but hopefully you can all understand why I am the way I am after I have shared the wealth of wisdom that was poured into me as a youngster.  Fill free to copy those as well…you new parents will want to take notes.    

ok focus Morgan…I’m trying to process everything that happened this weekend.  Not that I did anything all that exciting…but I did meet Bella Reese for the first time and that kid is AMAZING!  Isn’t she so cute?! 

Seeing people with their children completely changes how you look at them.  I mean seeing Katie and Chris interact with Bella is so crazy!  I guess I’ve just never seen them in that way before…obviously…this is their first kid.  Anyway, it’s good stuff…I’ll let you refer to her parents for further bragging.

So I went to lunch with one of my good friends Rebecca last week and we were chatting it up when she pulled out the “so what’s going with you” question.  This is a very common question to which I would like to respond “oh I’m good” or “just fine.  how bout yourself?” or with a classic mikeism “another day in paradise”.  But alas, as most of my friends are aware, I am incapable of BS.  So I told her exactly what has been going on with me.  I’m sure she got way more than she wanted to know.  After all, here in the South, “how are you” isn’t really a question…it’s just what you say to someone (I guess it could be like that in the North too…who knows).  I mean I do that all time.  I’ll pass people walking in the store and say “hey, how’s it going?”  I don’t actually want to know how it’s going with that person.  I guess I just want something else to say besides hey.  I know Rebecca really wanted to know…cause she’s my friend and she loves me.  But I think I’ll work on not asking people how they’re doing unless I really want to know.  Why should I force people to give me a BS answer when I myself can’t return the favor?  I was reading this guy’s blog the other day…I don’t know this guy from Adam’s house cat…I think he’s Chris’ boss at Buckhead Church….but he made a really good point.  He made a top 10 list of why being authentic sucks.  Numero Uno on that list?  1. It forces you to respond to chipper people who ask you, “Hey Man!!! How’s it going?!!!” with a joy lynching, “Things actually really suck today. But thanks for asking”.
So true!  I love this authentic statement about authenticity    and I’m having way to much fun with all the different smiley faces on this thing.  Anyway, the point…and yes I think I have one…is that I’m not going to feel bad for telling people how I really am anymore.  And I’m going to stop thoughtlessly asking people how they are and start genuinely caring and asking people what’s going on in their life.  So let this serve as your warning…most days you can just call me Debbie Downer.  Don’t ask unless you really want to know…I’ll try to do the same.   

I am really tired today.  Katie and Chris text me about 2:30 this morning (which I asked them to do) to let me know that they were headed to the hospital.  I couldn’t really go back to sleep after that.  So last I heard Katie is still in labor…no Bella yet.  She’s taking her sweet time getting here just like her mom.  If you’ve ever gone shopping with Katie then you know the meaning of slow:)  Love you KT!

A lot of my friends have had kids at this point, but it never stops being weird to me.  I mean I feel like we’re all still 16 years old!  My mom says that never changes….good to know…I’ll be changing my own diaper in a nursing home and still thinking I just got my license.

But I’m excited about all the new editions!  And as a testimony to my immense self-centeredness I can’t stop thinking about how much these babies change my life.  They’re aren’t even my kids and they are changing my world!  But like my dad always says…the only that doesn’t change is the fact that everything changes. 

That’s all I got for now.  ps…I’ll try to give you a daily dose of Mike (my dad) each morning for your growth and enjoyment:)

One of my best friends is possibly in labor right now!  Bella Reese is on her way! 

I never claimed to be much of a leader.  My dad used to always tell me when I was growing up that I better lead, follow or get outta the way…sweet isn’t it.  Well I guess I’m officially jumping on the bandwagon today and creating a blog.  I’ve contemplated it a few times, but always concluded that, all in all, I really don’t have anything interesting to say.  I still don’t have anything especially interesting to say, but I caved anyway.  A ton of my friends have these things and most of them are an on-line baby book for their kids.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not cutting on that….I think it’s a great idea and I love looking at all the little babies.  But as most of you know I don’t have a kid…..no kid=nothing to say on a blog.  However, in spite of my barrenness, I thought I would give this a try…so here it goes….