One Big Happy Family

I had a wonderful holiday. It was filled with family and friends. I love being with my family. They are all nuts. Seriously. When we all get together it is pandemoniam. Everyone has a quick wit and the laughter never stops. There is always tons of food (appetizers, main course, dessert, repeat), everyone talks at the same time, and someone always brings a date who gets apologized to by every member of my huge family. My grandma misses every joke, my uncle James gets embarressed everytime my mother opens her mouth, and my aunt Glynda never stops shoveling food onto our plates. Its a blast. When I am old, I want to have a family like this.
-ABliss

Tony Romo

So, I recently have become a football fan. Nothing hardcore, but I do enjoy watching the Dallas Cowboys win. As I have followed the games this season, I have tried to learn the names of the best players, follow the teams and what they rank, find out what these silly terms mean, yada yada ya. Well, last Tuesday I had the opportunity to hear Tony Romo speak. I was counting people at a "Get Motivated Seminar" at Reunion Arena and they happened to invite Romo to speak. Here he was, one of the best football players in the league (currently), speaking to over 30,000 business leaders, and what do you think he wore? An oversized white T-shirt and jeans. I am for real. He was not a very good speaker and he had trouble relating to his audience. Needless to say, although I didn't have great expectations for him, I left less than impressed. I could have given a better motivational speech. So I passed him off for your "average Pro-football player". Until today. Adam and I watched the Cowboys play the St Louis Rams (my other fav, regardless of their current record for the season). We watched them play, praising them along the way, when it happened. 3rd and 3, bad snap over Romo's head. The ball rolled 10 or 12 yards back, he kicked the ball in an attempt to pick up the ball, it continued to roll. 2nd attempt, Tony Romo scooped up the ball rushing forward. He ran, evaded 3 or more tackles, and ran some more...Romo rushed the ball for 34 yards for the first down! (if you don't know what I just said...it was a great play) The announcers praised that this play would be recorded for years to come. It was then that I felt foolish. I had expected too much of Tony Romo. He is a great quarterback and that is what he gets paid to do - he doesn't make his living off of public speaking(if he did he probably would be broke). Anyway, it was a great reminder that we all have areas of expertise, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be judges of who and what. I'm glad I'm not a football player, but I'm glad he is. He's fun to watch and Rick doesn't like him.
I'm a homo for Romo.
-ABliss

Ode to Alvin

Well, we sold my car today. Alvin (so eliquently named by my good friend Sarah, so many years ago), was in pretty bad shape. It was a 1994 Mazda Protege', Green, Rebuilt before I got it. It was my first car, I got it two weeks before my 16th birthday, more than 8 years ago. I remember the day I got my driver's lisence. I drove home from the DMV, dropped my mom off and cruised to my Meme's house. All of my window's rolled down, The wind blowing in my hair, I had never felt so free! Little did I know that my mother must have secretly written TAXI on the side of my car right before she got out. From that day on I drove my brother and his friends and MY friends EVERYWHERE. Of course when it was my friends I loved it, when it was his friends I hated it. My mom would make my brother go to church with me on Wednesday nights, so in order to prove how mad he was about this, he would invite ALL of his friends. I loved bringing new people to church, but this was strictly out of spite! Sometimes I would have to leave 1 1/2 hours early to pick up all of his friends! And we lived in a small town! I remember one night after a 5th quarter, Phil came up to me and said, "I told a couple friends you would give them a ride home." It was already almost 1a.m., so I was like no big deal. It turns out, he told 11 friends! So I took them ALL home, in one trip. For anyone reading this who knows how small my car was, you can only imagine eleven 14year-olds in my car (not to mention some of them by name, Barry, David, Joe, Shannon...). I remember one late night ride when all of the windows were down on my car, suddenly we were attacked by a giant june bug and Barry(sitting shotgun) began screaming his lungs out and literally climbing out my car window! Does anyone remember the drive by light pole? Or the solid year I had a carseat in my backseat as if I was a teen mother, because I toted Keely everywhere I went? Phil's unsuccessful paper route...weren't you supposed to ride a bike or something? So many people took a trip in Alvin one time or another that, in a sermon illustration, our youth pastor asked everyone who had ever ridden in my car to stand up...I was shocked at the response. In a youth group of roughly 75, two-thirds stood up. I won't even metion the time Kara and I raced each other to Joplin. Alvin went much faster than we thought he would. My car took me to Dallas where we both experienced the abuse of 2 stolen CD players, a minor wreck at Dallas Metro, a hit and run at Target, and many different drivers. Luckily, Alvin met Adam...Adam took very good care of my car!
Overall this is an Ode to Alvin, because it was a great car. I had that car for over 8 years, many friends, a marriage, a major move and lots of laughter and tears. Its always hard to get rid of something you've had for a long time, so this is a tough day, but the truth of the matter is...I don't think that car would make it on one more trip to Missouri. So, thank you Alvin for your wonderful years of service to me, my family and my friends.

If you are seriously reading this and made it this far, you now know what a complete nerd I am.
-ABliss

One Year!

As of this Sunday, Adam and I will be married for a whole year. I feel great. I have learned so much this year. I used to have so many fears. I was scared of divorce because my parents are divorced, I was nervous about finances bc everyone said "you'll never have money again", I thought we would kill each other bc people told me that our first year of marriage would be the most challenging (others said the worst comes AFTER the first year)! Goodness gracious, if I've learned anything it is that marriage is like everything else - marriage is what you make it. Sure, its tough, but so is being single!
We've had so much fun this year. We've each survived holiday's with the in-laws, Tax-season, 2 kitchen fires, Adam's terrible case of food poisoning, and 2 and a half weeks at Travis' house with Rick, Ritter, Izzy, David, and Lance (If I could do that, I could do anything). We've had some really great times too. There was all of the ice-storms this winter where we sat in front of the fireplace drinking hot chocolate, Our first 2 weeks of summer where we laid on an air mattress in the middle of our living room watching episode after episode of LOST, and of course our canoe trip in the pouring rain. I am so happy with Adam. He is easy going, smart, loving, gracious, a hard worker, a gourmet chef, and above all, a Godly husband. Everything I ever wanted and more. The longer I am with him, the more I respect him, the more I trust him, and the more I miss him when he's not around. We have had a wonderful year together. One year down, many more to go!
-ABliss

The Best Medicine

I have learned so much this summer. Its been good; restful for my body, trying for my mind, rejuvinating for my soul.
Last week Adam and I went to Neosho to visit my family and friends. We only had a few days, Adam had to preach on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, but we needed to get away for a little while and this was just the ticket. On Tuesday morning we didn't have any preliminary plans, so we decided to go canoeing. We hadn't been in a long time and because of the rain, the water was said to be very high. It was. We went on a 3-mile canoe trip and it was wonderful! The water was higher than I have ever seen it and because of that, we barely had to paddle. So here we were floating down Elk river. No one was out there but us, some beautiful birds, a few turtles, and a bunch of fish. It was just what we needed- peace, quiet, each other's company...until the rain came. I don't mean rain drops...I mean it started pouring! And it was cold! Here we are sitting in the middle of the water, nowhere to go for shelter or relief. We looked at each other and we started laughing, and it started raining even harder, and we laughed harder. Whoever said laughter is the best medicine was right. We laughed all of the way back to the campsite (which took us a wile since we didn't want to paddle because we were cold and since our armpits were still dry we wanted to keep them that way). It was a blast! It was also a great reminder. Why get upset over things that are out of my control? Its easy to get frustrated or angry when things don't work out the way I plan, but if I do, I am really missing out on some other great adventure. Easier said than done, but I'll tell you what, canoeing in the freezing cold rain was the most fun I've had all summer.
-ABliss

Earth Day

So today is Earth Day. I have celebrated this day by watching "Planet Earth" on the discovery channel. They were having a special today, airing all of their episodes up until now. I have really enjoyed them. I know that is kind of nerdy, but I have learned so much. I have also decided a few random things: next time somebody asks me what kind of animal I would be if I could be an animal, I would either be a humpback whale or an elephant. Definately not a Chimpanzee though, they eat other Chimpanzees. Also, I already had a great desire to go to Indonesia, but NOW I really want to go there. They said that Indonesia has the best coral systems on the planet, the most beautiful. Better than the Great Barrierl Reef. Bangladesh, New Guinnea, and Marion were added to my list of "must sees". Tonight they are doing an episode on caves...I'm super excited about that.

I've had a couple lazy days this weekend, its been nice. We have been pretty busy, and we are about to be pretty busy from this point through the rest of the year, so it was nice to have a little time to rest before next week...
-ABliss

There is no reason to be awake.

This has been a long week. I'm glad to be home so that I can get some rest. I guess that this is where the irony comes in, why am I still awake? Logically, I keep telling myself that its because I went to work out to late and now my body is tired but my mind is wheeling. So if I have SO much brain power right now, why am I looking at myspace clipart? 100% meaningless. It has to be much worse that chasing the wind. I think that I am just enjoying a little time to myself. Isn't it funny that when you get really tired, you start feeling like aristotle? You decide that now is the time to start solving life's greatest problems. Why do I have allergies here, but not back in Missouri where everything blooms? Will Adam and I really wait 5 years to have kids? Why is Pamela allergic to green #5? Whoah, why is my TV turned up so loud?! Hmm. Silly to think about things now. Adam and I try to never fight when we are tired. Neither of us are rational and so we end up fighting late into the night with a lack of apologies (a key ingredient to the success of our relationship) and no good sleep. Terrible. Well enough rambling, I guess I better go to bed before I decide to solve the world's polution problem...
-ABliss