new friends

I love meeting new friends, and being a full time stay at home mommy, meeting new friends is not a daily occurance for me. However, recently via facebook, I hooked up with one of my old friends I use to hang out with a lot in high school. They had briefly moved out of state, but last year had moved back, and he wanted to hook up again and introduce me to his wife and kids. So we invited them (along with our friends, Jeremy and Monica, who also know him) to our house for a BBQ and hung out. Since then, we have gone out on a triple date to BD's Mongolian BBQ and to Starbucks to chat. We had a great time. It's been fun catching up with an old friend, along with meeting a new one. Now Heather and I are in talks of planning a play date with our kiddos, and their family is planning on visiting our church on Sunday. Heather is super kind and sweet - she even has a blog on tips to save money - who doesn't need tips like that?! Check her out! http://www.pinchingpennieswithheather.com/

Time with Friends

I've been dealing with the issues of an extra cranky kid this week. Isaiah has the cough/croupe and it is making him extra miserable, which in turn, makes everyone in the house extra miserable! The old saying is true- When Mama aint Happy, aint no one happy!- but it could also be true with your toddler! (or anyone else in the house for that matter!)

I took Isaiah with me to the first day of my ladies bible study at my church on Tues morning. He woke up coughing and just not himself. The whole way to church I was going back and forth on whether to take him or not. I ended up going to my bible study (I hate missing the first one--- you get the introduction and all that....), and keeping Isaiah in there with me. I was afraid to put him in the nursery, in case he was contagious. So we only lasted about 30 min, before he started getting antsy and more noisy. So I took him out, and by that time, he started playing and acting like he felt tons better. He woke up this morning all smiles and acting just fine. Go figure.

Today was a different kind of day. After I put Lilly on the bus, Isaiah and I got ready and met Brandi and another friend, Christina, up at the park and we all had our double strollers, loaded with kids, and went walking. We walked around the trail twice, which equals 2 miles, which includes a killer hill. It was energizing and exhausting all at the same time. Then we let the kids play at the park for a little bit (as a "reward" for being good while we walked). Then Isaiah and I had to hurry home and I took a quick shower, and my friend Melissa came over about noon and had lunch with us. She is doing some training closer to my neck of the woods this week, and spent her lunch break with us. We had a good visit. After Melissa got out of training about 4:00, she came back over, and when Jeremy got home from work at 5, we all loaded up and went to eat at Applebees before church. (oh yea, Melissa is my Prims sponsor, and I am her co-sponsor, which is how we've become really good friends). I rode with Melissa over to Applebees, and after arriving, Jeremy noticed that Melissa had a very flat front tire. So after eating (which took foooooorrrrever! Service was extremely slow) Jer put on her donut tire for her, and she rode with me and the kids in Jeremy's truck to the church, and Jer followed us, driving Melissa's car. She was afraid to drive with the donut on there. We were only 7 minutes late to church. All worked out. Oh yea, and my BFF Brandi, she's such a sweetie, she surprised me, and baked me a cake for my birthday, (which is Monday, BTW), and had all the girls sing Happy Birthday to me tonight during class. (I help in Prims, and she co-sponsors in STARS, which is right next door). My class devoured all the cake but 3 pieces.....one for my hubby and one for each of my kiddos. All in all, a great day. =)

Long Distance Friends & OSFPoI

I missed blogging yesterday, because we had the honor of going out with a co-worker of Jeremy and his wife, who is from Michigan and has been here in KC working this week. I have met Jeremy's co-worker, Chris before, but this was my first time meeting his wife, Joy. They are a really sweet, fun couple, and we (Jer & I) can see ourselves having a close, (albeit long distance) friendship with them. We have discovered we have many things in common with this couple. Our faith being one of them. (they are baptist). Several years ago, they moved to the St Louis area for Chris' job. Their view and feelings towards MO is similar to Jer's and I's view of MI. Not that we have bad feelings for MI. It's just not home. Joy was pregnant with her first child when they moved to MO, and was pregnant with her second child when they moved away. (similar to our situation with Lilly....). Both sets of their parents are in MI....and that is "home" to them. Their ultimate goal was to move back to MI. Our ultimate goal was to move back to MO. I think we all know where we stand on that now..... :)

Another thing we have in common with Chris and Joy is that we all (used to be) avid "Friends" watchers. So last night, after a yummy mexican dinner, they came back to our house and we put the kids to bed and played a round of Friends Ultimate Trivia Game. I won! :) Then we played a few rounds of Phase 10 before they had to leave, they had an early flight this morning. It was fun to be able to sit around and just hang out and play a few games. Jer & I love doing that- but don't get to do it nearly as often as we'd like!

Other Special Family Points of Interest:

*my nephew, Matthew, lost his first tooth on Wednesday night! :)

*Lillian has 17 days until her first day of PreSchool!!! (uh-oh....here comes the happy dance again..... lol)

*Tomorrow, July 26th is my oldest nephew, Ben's, 7th Birthday! We will be celebrating with family tomorrow afternoon at his birthday swimming pool party! Happy Birthday, Benjamin!