Don't Drink The Water opens Friday night!

Friday Feb 20th @ 8pm

Saturday Feb 21st @ 8 pm

That's right, it's finally here. Brad is into tech rehearsals and tells me that his actors are finally ALL outfitted. Hurray! He's excited about the show and really looking forward to seeing his kids achieve what they have been working so hard at. I'll be going to the show Saturday night, so if anyone would like to tag along, your more then welcome.

Grama shopping spree

Brad and I have been having a pretty low key couple of weeks other then youth group stuff. We had a chili cooking day with the HS kids for them to sell as a fundraiser before the Superbowl. They are raising funds to go to the National Cathedral in D.C. Brad is very excited to go because he has never been to the capitol. I'm excited for him to get to go also. I've been multiple times as my aunt and uncle live very close.

On to the headline topic. We've been running all around to get my 99 year old grama things that will better her life. She has to spend some money on herself or turn it over to the government. It's part of going on public assistance. So in the last few days she has gotten a new Lazy Boy lift chair, $650 worth of new clothes, a new floor lamp, and a Temprapedic pillow. She has other things ordered that have not come yet, such as a new 40 inch TV and stand for it to sit on, and a new wheelchair. I think that if she lives to figure out how to work all of her new things, they really will improve her quality of life. She gets so confused by new things though that right now the new things to make her life better are making it worse because she is confused and a little bit scared by/of them.

I don't want to live to be 100 years old. I don't think God made our bodies to last that long. Everyone who you grew up with is dead or in the same position that you are. Your family can't make you a priority and so you spend a lot of time alone unless you actively make friends in the building you live in. Your body falls apart and you can tell your mind isn't quite as sharp. And the importance you once gave to things like sex switch over to your daily BM. Who wants to focus that much on poop?

I know that she has experienced and been a part of soooooo many things. She's seen phones and TVs and cars become. First as a luxury and then as a necessity. She's seen radio's go from one person on the block having one to most people having one for every room. She remembers when wages were so low we couldn't even buy groceries for what they were paid. But then, in her life she's also seen refrigerators come into peoples homes so that they even can keep perishables in their houses. The things she has experienced in her life are amazing and humbling, but to feel the way she does now and to fret and worry and dispare..... I don't want that.

Ah, to leave on such a positive note. :)

Beautiful?

What is beautiful to you? How would you explain beautiful to someone that doesn't know or understand the concept? To me something isn't truly beautiful unless it moves you. But how to explain that to someone who doesn't know. Beauty is so individual. Pretty is fairly universal or cultural but beauty...... it varies so much. And something can be beautiful when your in one frame of mind or mood and just pretty when your mood is different. I think the term is over used. It should be reserved for things that are very much more then pretty.

Thanks Andy, for making me take the time to think about it. It's nice to ponder the positive things.

The veiw from our windows.

So I just wanted to show people who don't yet know, the view from our apartment windows. I think we have the best view in the complex.

Lazy Weekend

Other then hosting a Spaghetti lunch at church with the Youth Group, we've had a nice laid back weekend. So I'll talk about something that happened a couple weeks ago.

On the 1st, we were both off so we went with Dad to lunch and to a couple of parks that we wanted to check out for some pictures that we want to take in the spring. We went to the Columbus Topiary Gardens and to Gregory's Mansion. It was a lot of fun and cool to hang out just Dad, Brad and I, even though it was a bit cold. Anyhow, here are some pictures of our adventure.

Me snuggling with my new Topiary Man. Just cool!

Brad looking all GQ in his hat and jacket.

The calm

So Christmas is over and we are settling back into the swing of life after "the season". We are getting a better handle on Youth Group and have had decent attendance at the last event, bowling with the middle schoolers. It will be fun to watch these middle school kids grow up with the youth group.Brad has just started rehearsals for the show he is directing at Hilliard Davidson HS. The show is Don't Drink the Water and will go up February 20th and 21st. He thinks it's going to be a good show and the kids he's working with seem to be good kids.

I am am in two weddings in the next 15 months and am Matron (WHAT?!?!) of Honor for both. It's going to be a fun time with all the planning and party having and such. I'm excited for both girls and have had a blast watching them try on different options for gowns and reveling in their brand new engagements. However watching them and helping them makes me glad that mine is over and that I have a wonderful husband to be with. Those dresses are beautiful though.

Our first married Christmas

It was wonderful. Christmas eve Brad and I went with my family and all significant others to my Dad and brothers church for midnight service. All our presents were wrapped so we didn't have to stay up after church to wrap. I think this is the first year in as many as I can remember that I haven't stayed up even later to wrap presents. We woke up Christmas morning around 8:30 and had cinnamon rolls and opened 1 gift each. Around noon we packed up what was under our tree and headed to my parents. JJ had spent the morning with his biological dad so he had just gotten back when we got there. I helped Devin and Dad wrap gifts that weren't finished and we waited for Mom to get home. We started opening gifts around 4 and finished around 6.

We were surprised because my cousin Courtney was in town and came to spend a few hours with us and went to visit with Grama too. Grama decided not to come to our house this year for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. She has decided that at 99 she shouldn't have to leave her apartment unless she wants to..... and she doesn't want to.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas. Very relaxing and great for our first Christmas as a married couple. I hope that next year we can afford to travel to see Brad's family and experience all the "exciting" things that go along with traveling during the holiday season.

Now for some pictures. :) This would be Brad choking Neala during our family picture.

And of course, the "kids" on Christmas after they got feathers everywhere from the toys in their stockings. :)Gaius showing off some of the feather mess.