many blessings

I am continually blown away by the blessings in my life. I've been wanting to sing the hymn "Count Your Many Blessings" for the last several days. It's hit me again how I am so undeserving of these crazy awesome blessings!!!

1. My job is unbelievable. I actually get paid to share God's love with people. I am allowed to be creative & have very few limitations on what I can do.
2. My coworkers are so fun. Today in staff meeting I was thankful for the talented, caring, creative people I get to work with.
3. My roommates are throwing me a birthday party this weekend. Their evite was hilarious! I have two Godly, thoughtful, fun ladies for roomies...and it's incredible!
4. My boyfriend's family is amazing. Saturday night we had dinner with his parents & brothers. Yesterday we went to a cook out at his uncle's. I was able to hang out with an entire side of his family. They are Godly, funny, and just remarkable people.
   
5. Chris is the most wonderful guy I've ever met....simple as it is.

That's just a HANDFUL of blessings God has decided to rain on me. :-) I could keep going but I need to do laundry before my karaoke night with Linds....yep, you can put that on the list too.

birthday

my birthday is in eight days. if only i had been born eight days earlier i could have been a labor day baby. i love the irony of being born on labor day...for the last twenty years or so i've wanted to be a labor day kid.

i love having a birthday in september. i love it! by the time it rolled around to my birthday in school, i'd made friends & they would all be able to come to the first birthday party of the year. the best part was people were really still trying to find a good present rather than just pick something up--after all, it was the first birthday party of the year & of course, the kids in my class wanted to make a good impression. if the other kids saw that old brian didn't give a good gift, he may not be invited to one of the october birthday parties. no kid wants to miss out on an october birthday party as they usually afforded another opportunity to wear the halloween costume again.

usually my parties were either at the pizza place or skating rink in town. a couple of times i had a party at my house but it just wasn't the same. next year i think i'm going to have my party at a skating rink--i'll be 27 & my birthday will be 9/9/9. i've got to pull out all of the stops for that birthday. this year's party will be low key--ice cream cake, games, and of course, karaoke at my house. nothing elaborate...just an opportunity for giggles & a batman cake.

baseball

This is apparently my "I love baseball" face. It's nice, huh? Last night we had the opportunity to celebrate Kenneth's birthday. I worked for Kenneth for six months when I started at church. He is one of my absolute favorites. He's an incredible man & I'm so thankful to have him in my life. He's also one of Chris' favorites so that's really convenient.

Before the game began Chris asked if I knew the rules of baseball. Last summer I nannied for one of the Rangers & I did play softball as a child so you would think I would... After asking one simple question it became obvious I had no idea what I was talking about when it came to baseball. whoops...

The Indians won by two runs last night...but the game was a lot of fun. It was very reminiscent of me attending the Stars game. I observed, made mental notes, and then towards the end started to awkwardly cheer. I thought my deep love for basketball would naturally transfer to other sports but it did not.

I'm looking forward to learning more about sports--Chris loves them & I have a feeling I will soon be a huge sports fan. :-) Or at least a girl who does know the mechanics of sports & can cheer at events.

success!

Highlights from our trip:







It was a success! Not only did we have a fun time on the 200 mile car ride & take silly pictures, but my family loved him--even the dog! AND he loved my family! :-) It was a wonderful day!!

boyfriend

It's official: I have a boyfriend. :-) This is very exciting news! I haven't been able to say I have a boyfriend since I was sixteen....sure I've dated guys since then but this is the only one who's made it through to the boyfriend stage.

Sounds a bit like a game show, huh? Maybe a little like the dating game meets ninja warrior. hehehe

Tomorrow I take him to my hometown to meet the immediate fam & see the glories of small town Oklahoma. I've explained to him in detail about my childhood, adolescence, and what to expect about the town as a whole. I can't wait to see his reaction to all of it. I wonder if he'll LOVE Roseanna's the way I do...after all, it is my favorite restaurant in the entire world. I wonder what he'll think about some of my favorite places in town & what he'll think about my family. It's going to be so much fun to see him experience it.

I am planning out our music for the three hour drive. I've planned out what to do while in town. I have all of these fantastic ideas for him & my hometown. I think it's going to be the perfect opportunity to take silly pictures too. He hasn't quite realized my deep love of silly pictures....or of small town Oklahoma.

We're going to have a wonderful day & my family is going to be blown away by him. Thursday is going to be an excellent day! :-D

It's raining, I have the day off, Now & Then is on tv, and the summer season is officially finished at work. This, my friends, has the potential of an awesome day.

Some of you may be curious as to what all I've been up to the last couple of months. Let's see...fc kids took the summer (and me) to places I never imagined.

Highlights include:

• Teaching 'special effects' to second and third graders for two weekends...translation: mentos + diet coke = a messy/good time
• Dressing up as a spy
• zipline
• headfirst backwards down the slides

Good stuff all around...so many stories! As I have a fantastic afternoon awaiting me, I will only share one little for now (i know--i'm such a tease).

1. Last week sweet Bonnie held the swim center open for us on staff. Steven masterminded a FIFTEEN person chain for the slides...hahahaha. I was person number two on the chain--right behind Big Jim. Big Jim is probably 6'5" and weighs about 265 lbs. We went fast & furious down the slide. It was fantastic! How we didn't break the slide, I'll never know.

It has been an amazing summer & I am looking forward to catching you guys up very soon.

returning soon

Tomorrow I head out for the last week of children's camp at Allaso Ranch. This will mark the end of the summer and my return to the blogging world. :-)

I can't wait to blog again...actual posts. My thoughts, feelings, silly songs, all of the good things I love to type will soon be back.