Last Year - July 2008

The Fourth of July has been my favorite holiday for awhile now. I think mainly because of the fun traditions my family has made and the wonderful memories we have shared together and with friends.

I remember the year in high school where we were almost flooded out of Chicago afraid that lightning was going to strike the post near us. Or the year of hiding under trees.

Every year, we would get as many people as we could to drive to Chicago and set up camp. We'd eat and eat and eat. And it was marvelous.

Now my folks are in Seattle celebrating with newly acquired neighbors, Dru's in Seattle with her friends, Margie and Bob are in Pawleys, KC's in Canada, Julie and Justin are in Chicago (probably not at the Taste), Melissa and Kyle in San Diego with their family, and Darin and I with our (my new) family.

We are all celebrating separately.

And that's perfectly fine. We will make some new traditions. Have our own good times.

But I will always remember last year and the fantastic day we had. It will probably be one of the last Taste of Chicago's we go to (but not the last if I can help it.)

Also, I'll remember the trip we made down to St. Louis to meet some relatives and show Darin the city.

Though I'd share some fun pictures from last year:

Sears Tower, obviously



Enjoying my favorite food: chocolate covered banana
Del, Justin, Julie, and Sarah



The group! Notice we were cold.

In St. Louis:

At Amighettis.
Mom, Maggie, Uncle Jinx, Dad, and Darin



With Grandma at our Engagement Party #1
(She died a couple of months ago)



At the Anheiser Busch Plant.



At Aunt Betty's 80th Birthday Celebration
(She died this past Christmas)



Enjoying some Ted Drewes:
Carrie, Mom, Darin, Dad, Uncle Jinx, Meghan, Molly, Maggie, Max, Amos, and me



With Uncle Paul
(He died at Thanksgiving time)

Hope to make just as many memories this year as the previous.

And it all makes me wonder, where will we be next year?

Pssssh

It Happens.

I don't normally just go off and blog about nothing in particular, but I'm in a nothing in particular mood.

I love when you're driving down the road heading off to work and a great song comes on the radio and puts you in a good mood.

This happened to me this morning - and the song was "It Happens" by Sugarland.

Love. It.

My favorite lyrics:

Ain't no rhyme or reason
No complicated meaning
Ain't no need to over think it
Let go laughing
Life don't go quite like you planned it
We try so hard to understand
Irrefutable, indisputable
The fact is
Psssh
It happens

Ahh, happy days!

It Happens Sugarland Escape Together World Tour 2009

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To be generous

My friend Maria decided to celebrate her birthday by donating to a charity as well as blogging about being generous. As a chance for her to donate to my 'charity' - the Ronald McDonald House - I have to in turn write a post about what giving means to me.

So what does giving mean to me?

I think for me giving and being generous makes your soul shine. Whether you believe in God or not, you can be generous to those around you, making you a better person. You can be kind to others in need - whether you are in a good mood or grumpy. You can smile at a stranger and listen to someone who needs to vent. You can do a lot by doing little.

I decided to start volunteering for a purely selfish cause. I admit it. I needed something to do to take my mind away from the job I didn't enjoy and the fulfillment I wasn't getting. It was plain and simple. Little did I know that my life would change because of the wonderful people I met, and the smiles and sincere thanks for just being myself. I came to realize that I was getting so much more from volunteering than I ever imagined. I would say the people (managers, guests, other volunteers) at the RMH were generous to me; allowing me to be generous in turn. And teaching me to give a part of myself each week.

So week after week, month after month, and year after year I have become more generous because of the RMH. I have shared this experience with Darin, my family, and even my coworkers. I will always be in awe of this amazing organization and hope to have the RMH be a large part of my future (hopefully we'll move to a big city so I can latch on to another house outside of Orlando). I have learned to put my troubles aside and to try to be happy in my situation.

And that, my friends, was what giving means to me.

Lazy lazy summer dayz

What do we do on our weekends?

Other than:

- cutting the annoying grass that seems to grow and grow and grow inches every single day

- hedging, edging, blowing off, weed-wacking, etc. the grass

- cleaning the house/doing laundry

- playing with Jake

- watching movies (we are movie fanatics)

- eating out (bad us)

- etc.

We:

- are lazy.

(As seen from the pictures that follow - and even though Darin is the only one in them, do not be fooled. I am just as lazy. As is Jake.)

This last picture was taken while I was washing the couch cushions after Jake puked on two of them (let me say fantastic). Thankfully they were very easy to wash...

Jake though preferred them without their coverings... he made a little Jakey nest.

At least he's got personality.