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Who would have guessed I look Asian from this picture or that I look like Laura Bush - what a riot!

35 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is a very special day - my parents have 'survived' 35 years of marriage!

In the beginning:

Mom and Dad met years before I was born when Mom was eighteen on a hayride for achurch activity. The most memorable event of this first meeting was not the love felt by each party, nor was it the magnetic cause of attraction, instead the most memorable event from this first encounter was that Dad stole Mom’s shoelaces (good one Dad). Luckily for me, things looked up after that. Dad says that he really saw Mom earlier when he was a chaperone at youth conference and mom was eighteen. He says he danced with her at this youth conference and had seen her the night before sitting with some friends at testimony meeting. When Dad first moved up to Atlanta to go to school at Georgia State, Mom was sixteen and he had seen Mom casually at church.

Their first date was soon after the 'hayride incident' in a nice restaurant inside Davidson’s called Charlemont. At the beginning of the nice lunch, Dad made the mistake of asking for separate checks because he was used to going out with guys from the office. He quickly caught his mistake saving my future; they started dating from that point onward.

Mom left to go to school at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. My Dad was the one that took her to the bus station. At that time they were sort of committed, which was driving my Dad crazy. They spoke every Sunday and wrote letters and one night it came down to him giving Mom the ultimatum to marry him.

In a memorable trip across the country, my parents were married in the Ogden, Utah Temple on August 28, 1973.

I am so grateful they have made it to 35 years of marriage and have been able to weather the storms of life. I know they have such a great love and respect for one another. They have been an excellent example to me. As a child I loved seeing my parents hugging and kissing, it made me feel happy and secure - all five of us kids would use their embraces as an excellent opportunity for a makeshift game of London Bridge. Thank you Mom and Dad for making it to 35 years of wedded bliss and setting a great example for us to follow!

Stone Mountain ROCKS!

I love Stone Mountain - it was where we lived when I was first born, and my parents used to ride their bikes into the park. So basically I have been going to Stone Mountain ever since I was created. For those unprivileged souls who have no idea what I am talking about, please book a ticket to Atlanta and let me take you for a treat! You can walk about the "mountain" (really the largest piece of exposed granite), take the tram to the top, ride bikes/walk around the mountain, ride the paddle boats or take a ride on the train, so many more activities you can do there, but my FAVORITE thing to do at Stone Mountain is the Lasershow. It takes place on the lawn with the lasers projected on the mountain face every night in the summer. Years ago when my dad owned Oz Records and Tapes his store used to provide the music for the lasershow - I'm sure their technology has gotten much better! Besides the parking, it is free to get in and you can take a picnic on the lawn. I've already gone to the lasershow 3 times this year - Madeleine loves it too! She is entranced by the lasers and fireworks and loves to play on the lawn before the show starts. Favorite songs played during the laser show include "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", "Dixieland" (by Elvis), "Georgia On My Mind", and best ending ever used to be Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be and American" - and to whomever the powers that be - could you please put this one back in the show? For as long as I remember this was how the show ended and this year they also took our Charlie Daniel's "Devil Went Down to Georgia" and added some ridiculous version and the grand finale is a majorly drawn out version of the national anthem - and don't get me wrong, I LOVE the "Star Spangled Banner", but that version seems all wrong for the show. Well that's enough critiquing for the moment :)

The first time we went this summer we were meeting up with our friends, Joe & Vivian, John & Jenny, and Erik & Alicia because John was on a break in his military training. Andrew and I decided to head up a little earlier than the group so we could ride our bikes. Halfway into our ride we hit a nasty thunderstorm - I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life!!! We somehow made it to a bathroom that had a little overhang to wait out the storm. Andrew took this pic from his phone's camera - I love how Maddy is leaning in - so typical!

Once we were able to make it back, our friends had arrived, and we feasted on our picnic. I let down my dirt guard and actually let Madeleine play in the dirt - this was very difficult for me!

She even started eating it. I just had to keep thinking it was probably healthier than most other things and block it out. One of my favorite things was seeing Joe & Vivian's little boy, Eric, with Madeleine. He loved holding her hand and walking around with her, it was absolutely precious!

Madeleine also got to experience having her first laser - she was enthralled! We had so much fun! (By the way both of the above pictures were taken on the same day - thanks to the rain you should have seen her behind in that yellow dress - yikes! It was time for a wardrobe change.)

My second time was just with me and my fam - Andrew had to work late. This was a blast to because we got Madeleine another "laser" toy - she couldn't let it go and still today is crazy about her magic wand

The third time we went was just last week with our church youth group. What was crazy was that my brother-in-law, Scott, ended up going with his youth group as well and when

we were parking, Andrew thought he recognized my sister's car - sure enough! They were there celebrating her sister-in-law's birthday - how funny, we didn't even know we were all going to be there the same night!

We've been able to go so much this summer and I can't wait to go again!

Womble Pictures

Along with the whole photography vibe, my good friend Jelaire allowed me to take some pictures of her family and her new addition AAW (okay so those are just his initials). These are some of my favorites of their family.

Dylan's 1 Year Photo Shoot!

So I'm really digging the whole photography thing - and anyone with an "expert" eye would probably say, who do you think you are kidding - I am in no way claiming to be an expert, hmmmm, maybe someday. But, I'm learning!

My nephew, Dylan just happened to be one of my first "victims". He is absolutely adorable so I really think that no picture could really do him justice, but I did like a few of the ones I took, see below (and if you are really wanting to comment, please, be kind!).

Krista's Wedding

In my ultra lame-o attempt to catch up on my blogging, bear with me! I have a slew of things to post.

First up - Krista's wedding, which of course took place a month and a half ago (oops!).



My cousin Krista got married in a beautiful ampitheatre and had a fabulous reception that followed. Besides it being murdeously hot (is that even a word?) we had a fabulous time! Seriously, when the usher at first wanted to seat us in this spot in the bright sun, I took a look and said NO WAY! I found us a nice shady spot and even with the provided fans (heaven thank you for that Krista) we were still nice and toasty. From this picture of the fam below, well you can see, they got the sun spot :)


Seriously though - it was gorgeous and a fabulous day all around - and it is always such a special treat to have a good part of my large family all in one place, like a little piece of heaven on earth. I was soooo happy for Krista and Michael, and I was grateful that they had really yummy food at their reception - I'm still dreaming of that chicken pasta thingy.


Everything was beautiful, and everyone loved the RTD2 grooms cake (if that's even what you would call it), and the dancing was a blast as you can see from the "unknown" party guests boogeying down.


We love you Krista and Michael and are grateful that y'all are together!

Fathers Day

Our Fathers Day was pretty quiet, Andrew always makes present buying easy because he buys himself whatever he wants, but I wanted to start the tradition of Madeleine buying Daddy a new tie every year for Fathers Day. So he technically got a card from his li'l squirt and a new tie to proudly wear. After church we went to Anne and Shaun's house to celebrate with Andrew's family with a Cafe Rio feast - yum!!! The kids love playing together, and I love seeing them having so much fun. Later that night I made a rendezvous over to my parents to wish my own padre a Happy Fathers Day.