Memorial

For those who serve our country so I may live in peace; and in the memory of those brave men and women who gave their lives:

Thank you.

FOR ALL IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY

    O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defense, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR OUR ARMED FORCES

    Heavenly Father, we commend to thy gracious care and keeping all the men and women in our Armed Forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with thy heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils that beset them; and help them to know that none can pluck out of thy hand those who put their trust in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    O Eternal God, we commend to thy fatherly care all those who are enlisted in the Armed Forces. In time of preparation grant that discipline and training may fit them worthily to serve our country, and in the day of strife guide and sustain them in upholding the cause of justice and freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From The Book Of Common Prayer (Armed Forces Prayer Book)

Where I’m Comin’ From

Well.

Here’s the deal.  I am moving this weekend and my apartment currently looks like it is where boxes come to find eternal life.  Not to be confused with my mind, which is where thoughts go to die.  Clearly, I am navigating quite the obstacle course at the moment.

All this to say: I’m sorry.  I’m not much for witty blog posts at the moment.  Although, my friend Alison did tell me I should write an article called “My Life In Boxes” describing my current state in life.  When she told me that I had two thoughts:

1. How sweet is it that she thinks I could write an article?  That’s just precious.  If she only knew how scary a place the inside of my head is at the moment.

2. I am totally stealing that idea.

So, there’s something to look forward to.  Life really is put into perspective when you realize that you’ve just packed an entire box full of purses.

Until next time, here’s hoping I work up enough energy to actually get a picture of all the boxes…  Let’s not hold our breath on that one though, ok?

Man Cannot Live on Coupons Alone

I have an endless supply of hilarious stories from my college days.  Let’s face the facts, you get enough teenagers around one another and you are sure to find a plethora of funny stories due to the impaired judgment caused by youthful ignorance.  Case and point:

(Yes. That is my friend Sarah. 

And, yes. She is dressed like an Oompa Loompa.

And, yes.  She is a Doctor now.

And, yes.  Clearly I am a master photographer.)

Anyway, back to the story at hand.  At some point during our sophomore year there was some event that the university was sponsoring, and being the upstanding students that we were, Katy was left in charge of a HUGE stack of coupons to hand out to the events attendees.  The coupons were to our favorite Mexican restaurant- Don Pablo’s.

Don Pablo’s (or as we called it, Donny P’s) was our favorite for 3 very important reasons:

1. Location (it was absolutely the closest we could get to food that was not cafeteria food.  Very important… or as my friend Donny P would say “mui importante”)

2. The chips and queso.

3. The chips and salsa.

So, the stack of coupons Katy was supposed to hand out never seemed to make it into the hands of our fellow students.  All of the coupons were for FREE Chips, Queso and Salsa.  Imagine, if you will, a stack of over 200 coupons for free food.  Then imagine, you were a poor, hungry college student, with poor, hungry college student friends. 

Two words: Perfect Storm.

It would have been embarrassing, if we had any pride to begin with.  But did I mention the poor and hungry part?  We would often go to Don Pablo’s and use 2 or 3 coupons per meal.  But, our favorite thing was to call in an order of chips and queso then when we showed up we would hand over a trusty coupon and take our meal home with us.  When we got to our dorm, and people saw the Donny P’s bag being carried in, our room would turn into the college equivalent of a shark’s feeding frenzy.  People went crazy for the chips and queso.

We began to notice a problem when we realized that we were using our coupons 2 or 3 times a week.  It was getting more and more humiliating to order up some chips and queso that many times a week and never pay any money.  Not for a coke or for an enchilada or anything.

Eventually, the day came when our coupons were all used up and it was a sad, sad moment in time.  Like the end of an era…

(Also known as the beginning of being an adult and paying for stuff.)

So, Cleopatra and a Pirate Walk Into A Costume Party…

When you’ve been friends for as long as Chelsea and I have you tend to have some of the same conversations over and over again.  Of course, they never start the same, but we typically end up discussing about the same old subjects in almost verbatim conversations.  If you get us talking long enough we are sure to fall into a routine.  Whether talking about our favorite foods or sharing our opinions on the Real Housewives of New Jersey we just can’t seem to think of anything new to say, so we stick to what’s familiar.

There is one bizarre conversation that has been repeated so many times over the course of our friendship, and it is the oddest of all of our running diatribes.  Chels and I often talk about our need to clean out our closets, and our mutual fear of losing something important if we ever actually do clean out our closets. 

The conversation is always the same and ends with Chelsea saying “I mean, what if I get invited to a Halloween party and I want to be a pirate and I’ve already given away the perfect pirate shirt?”  And then I add, “I know, I mean what if I want to be Cleopatra and I’ve given away all the right clothes and accessories?”

Obviously the conversation always ends the same.  I mean, clearly, you never know when you will need to be dressed up as a pirate or Cleopatra so the only solution is to NEVER clean out your closet.  And, it goes without saying that, this Halloween Cleopatra and a pirate are coming to a costume party near you.

The Mother of All Holidays

So, I fully recognize that I am days behind on this post, but you’ll just have to grin and bear it (or maybe just click away from my blog). 

This weekend I headed home for Mother’s Day and enjoyed some quality time with the best Mama in the whole wide world:

Judy

On Saturday, Mom and I headed out to shop a little (bearing in mind that by “little” I mean “ton”).  We had a great time and I bought some shorts.  Officially becoming the first time I’ve bought shorts I plan on wearing out of the house in about 5 years (What can I say? My pasty white legs and I have issues).  After the shopping we dropped by the church so Mom and Dad could get their church directory photo taken then headed home to cook out.

Late Saturday night my brother came home and so, on Sunday morning I cooked breakfast then we all headed to church.  It was really fun to all be together, something that hasn’t happened too often lately since Colin has been working so hard at his new job.

Colin and I.

It’s a MIRACLE that I managed to get a picture of him without his hand over his face, so please understand that his weird almost-smile is a huge success in the grand scheme of things.  So much so, that this picture will probably surpass any of my Mom’s other gifts as her favorite part of this whole Mother’s Day.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I were cropped out of this photo sometime soon since my Mom is always saying she just wishes she had a recent picture of Colin.  Granted, that would require my Mom to know how to crop someone out of a picture- or to at least know what cropping is.

On a serious note: My brother is four years older than me and during those four years my Mom suffered some painful miscarriages.  I am eternally grateful that my Mom refused to quit trying for another baby and held out hope for me.  She seemed to know I would come along (in my own time- as usual).  Beyond the gift of life, one of the  greatest gifts my Mom gave to me was love, and she gave it to me long before she even knew me.  I’ve always known that my parents wanted and loved me before they met me, and I have always been a cherished daughter.  It breaks my heart to think of children who never know what it is to feel a parents love.

Beyond all these things Mom has taught me to be kind, to stand up for myself and to laugh at myself.  Most of all she’s shown me what unswerving devotion to Christ looks like and has been a solid rock of faith all my life.  The point is: I love you, Mom!

I’m done bragging now, I promise.  At least until tomorrow.

The Miracle Worker

Last night, my friend Meredith took matters into her own hands and made something beautiful happen.  She (once again) fixed my blog.  It amazes that Meredith always knows exactly what my blog needs even when I don’t.  It’s a good thing Mere did the redesign for me, because anytime I try to design a new blog header, I end up cursing the day computers were invented and taking my anger to Twitter to bore anyone there who’ll listen.  And quite frankly, I don’t need all the drama in my life (especially when said drama is coming from an inanimate object).  Anyway, thanks Meredith! I love it.

Back to the Internet Land of the Living

I’m alive.  I promise.

It’s been an extra crazy week this week, so the crib has kind of fallen by the wayside.  I’m sure you were all waiting on baited breath for an update, but what can I say?  Sometimes life’s tough and you have to sacrifice things- like getting to daily read a blog filled with mediocrity.

So, I can’t really advertise what’s coming up, because I don’t really know what’s coming up.  I’m living life one day at a time.  But stick around, because that’s the beauty of this whole blog thing- you just never know what might be coming.

And, just to tide you over: as many of you know, I am a voice teacher and I mainly work with middle schoolers.  Apparently, the hottest current trend in middle school fashion are these rubber band bracelets called “Silly Bandz” (I don’t know if that’s ‘bandz’ spelled with a ‘z’ or not, but it just feels right, so I’m goin’ with it).  Silly Bandz come in a ton of different colors and when you take them off your arm they form shapes.  Last week I was talking to one of my students who was wearing about a hundred of the bracelets, and I shared about how, back when I was in school- aka “The Land Before Time”, we all were gaga over Slap Bracelets, and I told her how they were the coolest things ever back in the day.  My student said she knew what those were (I think she might have seen one in a museum, or even worse, I’m old enough that the trend has already come around a second time).  Anyway, this week, at the end of her lesson, my sweet student said “here, this is for you” and handed me a neon yellow Silly Band from her own collection.  I was so touched!  Then she told me “It’s in the shape of a singing dragon.”

A singing dragon…

A singing DRAGON…

I sing… and… ouch.

Am I reading too much into this or did I just get slammed by a 12 year old and her neon bracelet?  If only I had a slap bracelet handy, I could show her who’s the boss.

Weekend of Weird

On Saturday morning I agreed to attend a party for the students who I teach voice lessons too.  At Main Event.  Just for clarification that’s yours truly, Main Event (bowling, video games, laser tag and glow in the dark putt-putt), and 25 seventh and eighth grade boys and girls.  And I had to be there at 8:45.  And I volunteered to do it.  Let’s let that all sink in for a moment of silence.

I’m gonna need two moments.

Done.

At some point, between getting slaughtered at bowling by a 14 year old girl and chasing a 13 year old around a pillar carrying a laser gun while in a dark room filled with fog I realized that this wasn’t my typical Saturday morning.  I mean, the dark room filled with fog is normal, but the rest is definitely unusual.

Let’s just say, that after a morning of being terrorized by teenagers I was exhausted.  So, I left around noon, made a few phone calls and decided to take a little Saturday afternoon nap.  It was perfect napping weather, overcast and gloomy, so I settled in and ended up sleeping for 4 and a half hours.  I don’t think I’ve taken a nap that long since college or maybe even high school.  When I woke up at 6:30 I felt a more than a little out of it.  And if I hadn’t needed to sleep so badly then I would have felt like the day was ruined, but I choose to look on the bright side and think about all the sleep I’d caught up on.

So, after the weirdest Saturday on record at casa de Crystal, I am kind of ready for the work week to begin.  And that is going to be the first and last time you’ll ever hear me say that.

Happy Monday!