Double Date . . . or our "other couple friends" . . . JARED!

So, I always thought that I would be one of those people who made sure (even after I had kids) to regularly go on dates with my husband. I am a marriage and family therapist after all and recommend this often to my clients. However, I am not one of those people. It's something to work on. But, here was our glorious exception. We went on a double date with our wonderful friends, Jared and Charla. We went to paint yourself silly, a place downtown lincoln where you choose a piece of pottery to paint. Then we went out to eat at a fun Italian restaurant in the Lincoln haymarket. It was a wonderful night.

Charla and I are choosing our pieces, colors, and designs. It was a good thing we started early, as it took all four of us an hour just to decide what we wanted to make. It was fun because we were all procrastinators at making our final decision so we felt no pressure to hurry up and get started!

The next two pictures are of us working hard. Well, some of us. Jared was more interested in making funny picture poses.

Notice me ignoring him and continuing to work diligently.

Yeah! The finished products. Jared made a cookie jar painted to look like the world; Charla made his and her mugs; Bryan made an artist's palette; and I made a cup and saucer set. Seriously, this is the most fun we have had in a long time. It was a relaxing atmosphere, inspired creativity, and a shared time with some of the dearest people on the planet to us. Bryan and I definitely need to get out as just a couple more often.

Below is Jared and I posing. Just to let you know a little about this guy--he is super hilarious and constantly doing pranks. One time he made me hold his hand walking into a restaurant to see Bryan's reaction. Bryan didn't even react. It was super disappointing. Next time I'll make Bryan hold Jared's hand. 

The four of us:

All in all, we had a great time. Unfortunately we didn't remember to take the camera to the restaurant, so all the funny things that happened there are only recorded in our minds. I will say that the waitress told us she couldn't split our check up because "we don't usually do that here." Seriously? That one had us laughing for a long time. "I'm sorry, we don't normally seat people with their friends here." Or "I'm sorry, we don't normally bring refills here. We just can't do that." These were some of the lines being said at our table after we were refused splitting the check up. 

It was super refreshing to be around "young love" as Jared and Charla have been dating for four months and it made Bryan and I reminisce about our own first months of hopeless romance :-). 

Thanks Jared and Charla. We love you guys!!!

Why I love my sister . . . .

Reason # 1:

She gets me. Like no one else. A cup of tea (or phone conversation) while our kids are napping and a heart to heart and I feel like someone has read my soul, understood it, and soothed me all at once. We truly have pieces of each other knit into our own hearts and minds---a bio connection enhanced by a real and intentional friendship!

Reason #2:

She is FABULOUS with children. She is my unending source of parenting advice, ideas, strategies, or just a good ear to hear me reflect what I am learning about or struggling with as a mother. Plus, she ALWAYS thinks my Corban stories are hilarious and has positive feedback to share whenever I feel like I'm not doing a great job. Not to mention, she is such a superb aunt she PLANS ACTIVITIES to do with Corban when we visit (even after she had her own baby!) Like in the picture below, she brought dough and cookie cutters and sprinkles to our last family Christmas then spent a couple hours just one on one with him baking cookies. That is so awesome!

Reason #3: Like I said, she gets me. Who else would stay up at all hours wrapping stocking stuffers . . . . tons of them. She loves Christmas just like I do. I think we would have a year round family Christmas if we could . . . . . 

By the way--we definitely didn't get this from our dad. He gives up after wrapping one gift and puts the rest in plastic bags. Or just hides them in the tree somewhere. Real classy.

Reason #4: The laughter. The laughter. The laughter.

Reason #5: Seriously, are there two cuter cousins? I just LOVE being moms together. This has meant so much to me to grow in our relationship as mothers. Sharing the vulnerable parts of ourselves (like when we lose it with our kids) and helping problem solve issues, validate one another's experiences, and just plain love each other's children.

And so many more reasons . . . .the way she is such a gentle person. The way she strives to follow God's leading in her life. Her extraordinary patience. The way she is so intentional about how she lives her life---whether it's deciding what kind of food to buy and prepare, how to provide art opportunities for her daughter, developing curriculum for her preschool, or her spiritual walk----she does the trivial and monumental things in life with purpose and intention (and usually a good dose of research just for extra fun!) 

Thank you Rebekah for being such an intentional person, for enriching my life with your love and friendship, and for sharing so much of yourself with me. I love you!

About Me . .

So my friend, Katie, "tagged" me in her blog (which I didn't even know you could do) to write a blog about myself. Specifically, a "five things you may not know." So I am obliging. Here are my five, on various levels of vulnerability and you probably wish you didn't know. :-)

1. I love layers. In the winter I am typically wearing three layers. Like, two long sleeve shirts and a sweater. Or, a long sleeve shirt under a short sleeved shirt under a vest. The new short sleeve baby doll sweaters--totally up my ally. I admit, I bought three (ack!) this winter. This corresponds with the fact that I HATE being cold. I have learned that layers are this African girl's answer to the Nebraska winter. The only drawback--layering can be expensive.

2. I love Christmas season. Everything about it. The lights, the music, the cookies, the Christmas tree, the nostalgia. In my family on Christmas eve we tried to make it feel like Christmas by stoking up a huge fire in the middle of the African summer time. We often had the windows and doors open to compensate for the unnecessary warmth. Then we made homemade doughnuts, hot chocolate, and egg nog. We ate till we almost popped and got to open one gift. I want to continue this tradition in my own family. We will be doing it for the first time this Christmas. I am a little nervous about the making doughnuts part. Krispy Kremes anyone? No, I will try for real. 

3. My current weight loss plan is to sit on my duff watching hours of old 24 seasons (my first time to watch them and I am totally hooked) while eating cookies from the cookie dough tubes you can buy at the grocery store. I totally need to get a new plan :-). On the weight topic, I lost 35 pounds of water weight the first week after Corban was born, due to the fact I had preeclampsyia. Yikes--if only I could repeat that!! 

4. I have two most valuable spiritual life lessons to date. One is to really internalize that God's grace reaches me. To understand that I am spiritually free----not to live under an obligatory/check list style of Christianity. The second is one that I have to continually work on and work on and work on. This is understanding that my approval and worth comes from God---the fact that I am made in his image and his child. I don't need the approval of others but can rest in the fact that I am designed to live out the Christ in me and nothing more. I have a huge tendency to seek approval and try to be really good at whatever I do (parenting, decorating, teaching, counseling, whatever . . . ). I am learning to rest in the love of my creator and not care about my status or the way I am perceived in the world.

5. If I could make on wish come true it would be that I could live by my sister. And by my mom. Without giving up living by my Heartland's family. And this location would be on a beach. But it would have winters with snow for Bryan. I guess I can't wait for my heavenly home when all the pieces of me can finally come together in one place and I can feel whole. 

That's all. These were totally random and just came to me as I was typing. 

Ha Ha--One more thing (reminds me of the John Mayer song . . .)

6. About the pic: I had a hard time finding one of just me (I thought that would make the most sense). Corban is in ALL our pictures from the last two years. This one was taken for an event that we did called "Displace Me" where we camped out in a park with thousands of other people in homemade cardboard shacks to emulate a refugee/displacement camp. It was one of the more social activist type things I've done. My brother James got us into it. We were pretty much the only people there with a baby (Corban was eight months or so) and it was a great experience---put on by invisible children.

OK---I'm supposed to tag some others. So, I tag Julie, Rebekah, Robin, and Jared to do the same.