Busy Weekend

It's been a busy couple of days around here. My Dad and Cricket flew in late Thursday night because we were having Heather's 21st Birthday Party this weekend! We had it last night. We had a lot of fun but the rain and snow kept some people away. We still had a good turnout and a good time. I'll post pictures later.

Everyone else is still sleeping so I thought I would log on for a minute or two. I've got plenty of cleanup to do today so I might as well get started before everyone else wakes up. I love parties but hate the aftermath. I really thought when I went to bed last night a little fairy would come and fix the house in the nighttime but no such luck. I better get on it.

Jessie

Old Chicago

Amanda, Mattie, and I loaded up today and headed to Wichita to see Heather. She couldn't come home this weekend and we were tired of missing her. So we decided if she wasn't coming to us we were going to her. We ended up meeting Heather and Kelci at Old Chicago for lunch. Oh my gosh the food was so good. I have eaten there before and it was good but it was really good today. I'm still full!

Amanda had never seen Heather and Kelci's place before so we took her over there to give her the tour and to hang out for awhile. Mattie thought Heather's was a pretty fun place to play. It was a fun afternoon. Mattie was enjoying the ride back home but Amanda and I had a great day. Now I've just got to get motivated and do some stuff around the house now that I'm back home. I have a lot to get done to get ready for the baby to come home. I'm trying not to do to many baby specific things just in case but I'd like to get some things in order that would relieve some stress if a little baby did show up sometime soon.

So I better get to it.

Jessie

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend! We had Mattie's first birthday party yesterday. Man I love that kid. She tore her cake up. It was pretty dang funny. She may not understand the present piece but she totally gets the cake smushing piece. Makes for great pictures.

After that we headed to our third and final Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family. We had a great time! Our aunts are so funny. They do so many things that remind me of my mom. Heather and I laughed a lot. They got us some wonderful gifts as usual. Those gals have us figured out.

This year Heather and I sorted through all of my mom's Christmas decorations. Keep in mind between my mom and I there are 2 trees, 13 rubbermaid containers, and 2 large garbage sacks of decorations. Yes that's a lot! So we went through everything and decided what Heather and I wanted, what we thought the aunts might like and what just needed to be retired due to wear and tear. We ended up with a good size tub for the aunts. So we took it yesterday for them to look through. They were pretty dang funny about it! It was hilarious watching them pick through, barter with one another, trade it up, make deals. Funny gals.

I love my family.

Jessie

Parker's Post

Parker has to be one of the most amazing young men I have ever met. And luckily he happens to be my relative! I'm a lucky girl. His birthday was on Thanksgiving this year and what is really strange is that ever year I get more and more thankful for him!

Last night Parker really wanted me to stay the night at his house. He wanted me to be his "guest"! He is absolutely the best host in the world. Parker informed me as soon as I got to his house that I could do anything I wanted and have anything I wanted. I think I'm going back to his house often. It's pretty rare when I get everything I want! So since I got to do anything I wanted I became addicted to his Nintendo Wii and played that for hours! I also got to have as many kool-aid jammers as I wanted. Needless to say I barely had one finished when Parker would bring my next one. I had a lot to drink!

Parker not only kept me fed and watered but he also provided hours of entertainment and he let me be a part of his movie making ventures. If he ever gets on the big screen I hope he remembers me and sends me some money or some kool-aid jammers.

I promised Parker that he would end up on the blog. So here is some video of his crazy robot dancing. I love you Parker boy!!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

GARTH GARTH GARTH

This week is Garth Fest in my little world. Went to the show on Wednesday night with Aunt Betty and we were so close to the stage! I've never been that close in my life. We were in the third row and could see EVERYTHING! I loved the concert. He played for 2 hours and 15 minutes and was amazing the entire time. I can't believe he can play that long and be so high energy but he pulls it off. We didn't sit down or stop screaming the entire show. My ears and throat still hurt and it's time to do it again tonight! I'm so psyched. Betty, Donna, Darby and I are going to tonights show. I have a feeling it will be just as good.

Jessie

Picture Fun

Since I didn't post for so long I feel a little bad about it. So to make up for it I thought I'd post some pictures from last weekend. So here is the proof that my crazy aunts are way fun and that Fall is fabulous!

My Aunts

My Aunts rock! They showed up this morning at 8:30 and just left a few minutes ago. We crammed a lot of crazy fun into one day. Heather and I met them for breakfast at a little diner in town and enjoyed some delicious biscuits and gravy! Goodbye diet today! Then we headed out to the cemetary to visit mom. They brought some sunflower stuff to decorate with and we got it all prettied up.

The wind was crazy today! My Aunt Shirley weighs about 12 pounds and I really thought she might blow away. We were so wind blown after going to the cemetary but we braved the pumpkin patch. It was a blast even though dust was flying everywhere most of the time we were there.

We went through the corn maze and I was really beginning to think that Heather, Donna, and Betty were lost in there. It took them a good 35 minutes to make it out! But while they were in the maze they ran into four little boys that Heather used to babysit for. It was so nice to see their family and share some fall fun with them.

My aunts even tried out the sling shots at the patch. You can fire gourds out of the sling shots and they fly pretty dang far. We had a nice gourd firing contest among us. Heather ended up breaking the sling and landing on the ground in the process of trying to beat us. But I think Aunt Adair ended up winning.

After all that fun I didn't think we could do much more. But we ended up going to the Oktoberfest where I won some awesome decorations. I got a couple adorable outside benches that I LOVE! I've been wanting some for awhile so it worked out great. Then we came home and played some Mexican Train dominos, ate more food we didn't need, and now they are on their way home.

Heather and I have now cleaned up the house, let Lena out of puppy prison and are thinking out heading to bed. Those crazy gals wore us out!!!!

Jessie

Favorite People

Tonight I got to hang out with my two favorite people. Miss Heather and Darby! Darby comes over on Thursday nights so we can watch Grey's together and chill out without children distracting us from the greatness of Grey's. And Heather got to come home tonight because of fall break. She will get to stay home until Sunday! I'm so excited. I get four days with her. We have a fun weekend planned so hopefully tomorrow work will be great and it will lead into a super weekend!

Jessie

Bro-Mother-In-Law

This is a crazy little genogram post so you may have to struggle to follow along. But let's all work together and see if I can walk you through it. My brother Shawn married Amanda. Amanda has a mom named Debbie. Debbie is my brother's mother-in-law so I call her my bro-mother-in-law. That's a confusing little conundrum isn't it.

Well anyways Debbie my bro-mother-in-law is a pretty cool gal. I first met her the week prior to Shawn and Amanda's wedding several years ago. Since they got married the weekend after Thanksgiving we got to enjoy the holiday and the wedding together. Debbie and my mom hit it off and had a great time together. Debbie thought my jokes about my fat foot not fitting in the bridesmaid shoes was funny and I thought she was a good cook. We partied like crazy after the wedding and had a great time! We all even cried when we had to leave after a week together. It was just one of those connections we all made quickly but strongly.

After the wedding we all continued to stay in touch. Debbie reads my blog religiously (Hi Debbie) and even joined my blogging biggest loser challenge. When my mom got cancer Debbie visited her caringbridge website daily and left so many encouraging messages for my mom.

After my mom died last year we knew the holidays would be hard. That's when Heather and I scheduled the Tour De Turkey Thanksgiving Travel Fest. We went to Shawn and Amanda's first and had dinner on Thanksgiving day with them and Debbie and the rest of their family. Debbie knew it would be a hard day for us and was ready to pass out mom hugs, share a cry, and feed us some awesome Thanksgiving food! We appreciated having a family meal with someone that knew and loved our mom and understood that the crying didn't mean the food was bad.

Well now Debbie needs my hugs and my prayers. And she needs your prayers too. That's why I'm posting. Debbie has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She will be meeting with a surgeon on Monday. Debbie is one feisty amazing gal and I have a feeling she is going to fight this with gusto. But she needs our prayers to help give her some additional strength. My prayer today is that Debbie find comfort and strength in God and that the surgeons be skilled and follow the will of God in treating this cancer! So my Debbie, my bro-mother-in-law, keep your head up, your hands folded, and remember your not alone. You've got God, you've got me, and you've got my mom as your special angel! Let the battle towards better begin!!!

Jessie

Wonderful Weekend

This has been such a wonderful weekend! I just don't want it to end. Heather came home yesterday and we had a good evening. We went to church and went to get our nails done. She got a manicure and I got a pedicure. RELAXING! Just what I needed after a horribly stressful week at work.

This morning we got up and headed to Kansas City. We went to the Renissance Festival and it was a blast. It was a beautiful day to go. Not to hot and not to cold and the rain stayed away until we were on our way home. We watched some funny shows, Heather ate a huge turkey leg and we got our palms read.

We were standing in line to get our palms read and Heather said "why are we doing this, it's such bull shit." We laughed about it and decided it would just be fun. Well the lady blew us away! She was so on target with both of us! She said that I would make a great social worker and an advocate for children's rights. She went on and on about that giving examples of things I could do in the social work field and things that I would advocate for and it's what I'm already doing. She did say that I would end up traveling and giving speeches on the topic which makes sense to me. I could see myself doing that.

She also said that I have too many parents. That cracked me up! I am adopted and I've often felt that way. Between being adopted and having divorced parents it means there are a lot of parents involved! It was just crazy that she was so on target. I don't know how she knew that stuff. Amazing. Heather's was so great too. We left pretty shocked and impressed. So fun!

It's just been such a relaxing weekend. I am dreading heading back to the office tomorrow. The craziness will begin again in no time. I'm just glad I got a little break before it starts again.

Jessie

TGIF

Wow this has been a very long week! The traveling and all the excitement has worn me out. And the huge pile of work on my desk when I got to the office didn't help. Taking time off is wonderful it's the going back to work that kills ya! And next week I will be in Mexico so I just can't imagine how much of a backlog I will return to. Honestly it scares me a little bit. But Mexico will sure be nice.

Tonight we went to a play at summer theatre at the University. It was called Plaza Suite and it was really good. I laughed a lot. We go to quite a few plays at the school and I'm always impressed. For being a smaller university they really have a great theatre department. I always enjoy myself. Very talented folks. This is probably the last play I will get to for awhile. Taking a baby to a theatre isn't the best plan. So I enjoyed it tremendously.

Tommorow is my birthday and my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary party! Isn't that amazing. 60 years of marriage. Pretty inspiring. I'm excited for their big day. It should be fun. I know they are excited about the party. Off to finish up my to do list so I can head to bed.

Good night all!

Jessie

Happy Birthday

Have to send a Happy Birthday shout out to my Aunt Donna! Today she turns the big 30!!! It's hard to believe isn't it. I know she is very excited about it. Instead of having a huge birthday celebration she is spending the evening at baseball games for her grandsons. Maybe they will give her the game ball! Happy Day Donna!!!

I love you!



Jessie

Back and Better

Well I'm feeling quite a bit better! Still having some allergy stuff which is no big deal. My cough is gone and I'm feeling human again. Exciting stuff! I love being able to breathe without pain. Funny how that seems like a luxury sometimes.

Since I was sick I forgot to tell you all some important things... Heather found an awesome little car. She got a 2006 Pontiac G6 and it's a rocking car. It's very similar to my Grand Am but involves more chrome and a fresh car scent. She loves it and I'm happy that she has it. Now she won't be borrowing my car for long road trips!!!

Cricket took Heather and I shopping on Saturday. She wanted to get Heather some new clothes for Greece. Heather got some really cute stuff. And Cricket made that deal with me that for every pound I lost she would buy me one piece of clothing. So fourteen pounds later I came home with fourteen very cute items. I'm pleased! As we were checking out Cricket said she was really glad I didn't starve myself. So I guess it's a good thing I didn't hit the 20 pound mark like I was hoping for.

I now have only 2 weeks of classes left!

Jessie

Home Improvement

Well since my Dad is here to visit it means that home improvements are occurring. He can't sit still for a minute so he is always working on something. Today he installed cabinets in my garage! They are wonderful. I have so much more storage now. What a blessing! He is one crafty guy. Tomorrow I think he is going to help me do some landscaping in my newly fenced backyard.

Heather is coming home tomorrow so that will be great. She and Dad are going car shopping for her. She drives a big truck now that costs her a fortune in gas. She is really wanting something more reasonable. Hopefully they will find her a great little program car. She should have fun looking anyways and at least it will give her a better idea of what she wants.

I'm taking tomorrow off work to just hang out and do what I want. I will have to do some homework but I'm hoping to be able to work in the yard some and relax some. That would be nice.

Jessie