I’m pretty sure I won the lottery of life. I get to share my days with the funniest, cutest, most sincere and enjoyable people I know. I get to love them and they love me back. Life is not always easy, but it is always good. I am one blessed, blessed little momma.
wanted dimples? Well, apparently, according to ask.metafilter.com and my daughter’s new little mark of beauty, you can give yourself one without a doctor or goofy cheek piercing.
While we were in Panama, Kyah and Big Daddy were playing with a pillow. A little something like this video, except on a slick hotel floor with a big wooden door. Incredibly, she didn’t even cry much.
So, after the cheek-sized bruise subsided, I began noticing this adorable dimple, quite large might I add, whenever she smiles, chews, or laughs. I began questioning my vision. How had I never noticed this before? I’ve taken 10,000 pictures of my baby, but never seen this? I looked through pics from a few weeks prior and it definitely was not there. While talking to my momma on the phone I mentioned this new dimple. My little nephew has the cutest dimples, but he’s had them since birth. Why did her’s just show up? So, my mom, in all her infinite wisdom and googling skills informed me that bruises, when deep enough, can in fact turn into a dimple. Something about damaging the cheek muscle which causes it to pucker.
It is reversible…with plastic surgery. I think we’ll just opt for the new addition to her sweet little face.
“You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”
So, let’s talk straight. I’m not really from the country. It’s all a big fat lie. Although, Big Daddy will tell you that the first time he drove up I35 and headed west on 96 towards H town he was thinking “where in the heck is she taking me?? His version is slightly different, but that’s essentially what he was thinking. For those of you who don’t know, when driving the stretch of highway from Wichita to Hutch you will encounter mostly wheat fields with a few glimpses of alfalfa and soy bean here and there, a lovely community of Amish driving their buggies and making chocolate peanut butter cream cheese pies that are “smack your grandma” good , multiple grain elevators (one of which is the largest grain elevator under one head house in the world….ha, dad!), some more fields and a very large tornado locator thingy. It’s pretty much an hour of sweetness.
I’m proud to be a midwest girl. I love the state of Kansas. After living in Costa Rica for a while amongst the gorgeous mountains and lush green scenery and then traveling home for Christmas I was reminded that “there’s no place like home”. We flew into Dallas and spent the week leading up to Christmas and Christmas day with Cody’s awesome parents and our beloved Chaos. Gosh I miss that boy. There is such a void in our home not having him with us. Then we headed up north to our home. It was on a long stretch between OKC and ICT that Big Daddy told me to look around at how beautiful the scenery was. All I could see were wheat fields and cattle. He told me that no matter where we go or what we experience, this view would always be the most beautiful to him. It made me smile. He always does.
Don’t you just love those first days/weeks/months/years of a new relationship? The butterflies. The never-ending supply of fresh flowers and fudge. Long good-night kisses. Trips to Sonic for a limeade and some cheddar bites just to sit in the car for two hours laughing and talking. Lucky for me my husband of 8 years still makes me giddy. He’s the perfect……………..ok, seriously? Why does every analogy I can think of at this moment have to do with food? I won’t even tell you what is going through my head because they all sound a little PG-13. Darn you Sonic! What I wouldn’t give for a chicken sandwich- sin lechuga- order of cheddar bites with ranch, large cheese tots, and a cherry limeade extra lime. That has to be at least a ten smack worth of food and I would order it all in a heartbeat. Guilt free. Have you ever ordered a ton of food and pretended it was for more than just you…only to drive to an undisclosed location (i.e. a park) and eat it slowly while listening to a little Sara Evans savoring every last bite? Oh, that’s not normal? I haven’t either.
Ok, back to the hottie I share a bed with. When we were married in 2003 we had no clue what we were doing. We were just kids, college kids really, who decided the married life sounded fun. We were in love, how tough could it be? Big Daddy proposed to me a week after Valentine’s Day in 2003 and we were married less than 3 months later. Scandalous. Rumors were flying higher than a Barry Bonds baseball. It took us about 2 days to decide that waiting was pointless. We’d made the commitment so let’s just do it. He was the ideal groom-to-be. He couldn’t have cared less what colors we used or what flowers we had. His only request was to play “our song” during the ceremony. Problem. Big problem. Our song wasn’t some sappy romance tune. Our song was the epitome of our relationship and an essential part of our big ceremony. Yes the ceremony, not the reception. Feel free to listen to it here.
All of this randomness really has no point, other than the realization of how lucky I am. My husband is my world and together we are able to live and serve in a way that makes us feel so unworthy. I wouldn’t choose to spend my every day with any other person. I love us and am thankful for 8 blissful years. Happy Anniversary lover. Life with the one you love is inevitably perfect.
My little Kyah Jenise turned 4 last month. I’ve been preparing myself for a different kind of birthday party over the last year. I usually go big when it comes to my little Princess. I love birthdays. Let me rephrase that…I LOVE birthdays. I even like celebrating 1/2 birthdays. We start celebrating weeks in advance and several days after. It’s just how I roll. So, knowing that this birthday was going to be a little different had me on an emotional roller coaster. Luckily, my amazing mother decided to fly down and celebrate the special day with us. She came bearing gifts from friends and family. We celebrated in school, at the beach, and in the casa. Chocolate cake and orange raw sushi were the birthday girl’s requests. We had a great time celebrating another year of her beautiful life.
Here are a few pictures of the celebrations.
Princess cupcakes at school with her friends
Free dress day to boot!
Then off to pick up Gigi at the airport! She had to wear her yellow shoes "because they're Gigi's favorite color". Details, details...
Big Daddy taught her how to boogie board and she loves it, so naturally we had to go for her birthday.
Swimming with Gigi!
Princess skateboard! She's such a sporty little girl. =)
Thanks, Owen!
Sushi for the birthday girl!
The big present was a big girl bike which is a story in and of itself. It goes something like this….Big Daddy bought the bike and hid it in our closet…Little Bit finds the bike in the closet and is heard ringing the bell from downstairs…I ask Little Bit if she found something, not wanting to be obvious and say what it was, and she said no….Big Daddy brings the bike down and she laughs uncontrollably…for a long time… then informs us that she already touched it upstairs and it’s her “favorite bike ever”. Gosh I love her!
This is her "trying not to look at the bike I already played with" face. Such a stinker!
She's off, but not for long. Training wheels in Costa Rica are made out of pop cans and fold up if you lean too far to one side. So frustrating for a little one! Luckily, Aunt KK came down only a few days later and brought us some super strong USA training wheels...that were probably made in China. =)
Her first homemade birthday cake...as if we had a choice! We each enjoyed a few pieces completely guilt free.
Do you feel like you were here? I have more pics if you haven’t had your fill.
Love and Hugs from Costa Rica!
A brick= a rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln
A prick = an insulting term of address for people who are stupid, irritating or ridiculous
A brick. Let’s start there.
So, Big Daddy and a bunch of other cool people (who didn’t bother inviting me) went to the Switchfoot concert in San Jose a few weeks ago. I was jealous, not going to lie, but someone has to the be the responsible parent around here, so I decided to saddle up. I thought I would wait up for my man and see how the festivities were, but I fell asleep, as usual at 8:30. After a mere 9 hours of sleep (I seriously require that much) I was informed that some prick had thrown a brick through our car window. I said shut up 28.2 times and then went to check out the damage myself. Let’s just say that wasn’t a very pleasant morning.
……FAST FORWARD (past our 90 day mandatory exit)……….
We returned to Costa rejuvenated and ready to roll. Our buddy Dave-O had taken our car to Diego and had the window fixed for us. I immediately checked out the new window only to find out that someone had won the battle of Door Vs. Screwdriver. This all went down in our gated neighborhood where the guards walk around carrying guns and shoot at anyone that isn’t wearing pink and walking to the beat of the catholic church bell. You don’t know how bad this Jesus-loving missionary momma wanted to deck somebody in the face. Are you serious? Again. All I could think of was how much our car just depreciated in value.
It wasn’t really as big of deal as I let it seem in my head. I mean, I do live in a crack ghetto where people are robbed on a daily basis. There are prostitutes waiting outside our gate hoping someone will slip them a 10 dollar bill and take them for a ride. Hundreds of people are sleeping on the sidewalks. The chicken store sells more alcohol for 600 colones (about a buck 15) then they do chicken. Should I be this offended? Why do I feel so violated?
It’s easy to get wrapped up in stuff. My family was there not that long ago. Purging ALMOST everything you’ve ever worked for is tough. Condensing your life into a mere eight totes is a crazy thought. You do it? Look around your house and ask yourself what is really important. It’s easy to say, “Oh, my family is all that matters. I don’t care about anything else as long as I have them…blah, blah, freakin’ blah.” Yup! I’ve been there. And then it all starts to disappear and you start saying “What the heck am I doing?!” You start to question, doubt and then hyperventilate.
It was while driving in my car with the rain in my face, literally (our air conditioning doesn’t work and foggy windows are dangerous), that I was reminded of true value. This song came on…
Giver of every breath I breathe
Author of all eternity
Giver of every perfect thing
To You be the glory
Maker of Heaven and of Earth
No one can comprehend Your worth
King over all the universe
To You be the glory
I began talking to myself. Don’t act like you don’t do it sometimes. It’s what all the cool people are doing. The convo went a little something like this…”Bring it on you big fat jerks! Bust up my car. Steal my crap. You aren’t going to steal my joy. My car might not be worth much, but the value of my salvation is incomprehensible”. It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. It made me snap out of my little self-centered universe.
