so happy for school projects

ben has been working on a school project nearly all day.  and i couldn't be more excited about it.  he has to show a video of his family history.  do you know what that means?  LOTS of old family photos.  i could literally show you like 300 that are amazing & awesome [full of mustaches, large rim glasses & chubby cheeks] but i'll keep it to just a few...for now.

benny's parents.  look how pretty!

[bears, mustache, chunk...what's not to love?]

 

 heck yeah short shorts in the mountains

 

and last but not least, the reason i'm scared to give birth...ben's giant little brother

hip hip hooray

this past weekend we were able to have some family time and celebrate poppa steve's 60th birthday.  ow ow!  can you believe it?  my parents are growing up!  now they are grandparents and that is just strange.  i'm so glad that we were able to celebrate with them and i hope that pops felt well loved.  we watched an ugly game of uk basketball, stuffed our faces with mexican food & cake & of course just visited.  maybe we also got a little cheek squeezin' in with this little man.  our first ever nephew, cormac.  [all pics thanks to my sis-in-love, greta who is graciously sharing with me].

 [pop, cormac, sophie, paul]

 momma and dad

 greta & her babe

my brother & sissy

::grandma & jim::

and i just can't resist adding a few more baby shots.   you know i love the kiddos.  and we never get to see this one!  ben & i are trying to get the hang of snuggling with the little guy.

oh, and he can eat his whole hand.  and you thought your nephew had skills.

pop-

thank you for always being an excellent father and provider for our whole family.  i pray ephesians 3 for you and mom..."i kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. and i pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

love-
jen jen

business or pleasure?

when spending countless hours milling around an airport people often ask if your travel is for business or for pleasure?  ok so no one asked me that this time but if they had...well i'd have to say this was pretty much both. while i wouldn't be able to go on adventures if it weren't for work, it is the perfect opportunity to hangout & have fun halfway across the country too with my dear friend, jules.  since she lives about 3 hours away it isn't often that we get to see each other but since we're coworkers we do get to talk...a lot.

the past few days we've been out in colorado meeting with young life [the ministry we both love & lead] for work.  it was a blast and i think that things went well.  i think it is extra special fun because the women that we meet with have the same mission as us [in life] so even though we may be doing something silly, like selling clothes, being together is more special than that.

as i packed for this trip i was a little frantic, and last minute [as usual].  we had 400 loads of laundry to do and waited until the day before i left to do them, of course.  i had no clean clothes.  i'm not exaggerating.  so after 24 hours spent in the laundry room i started making my stacks and planning outfits.  i was actually quite proud of myself because i felt like for a super-fast-pack-up i had put together some pretty sweet fits.  on my flights in and out i thought of how i'd be the most comfy.  leggings.  duh...no brainer.  so i packed leggings for the ride in and out, a black long-sleeve tee for the way out and a black tank for the way back and long sweaters for both ways.  seemed pretty fool-proof to me.

that is until i get to security and they call my sweaters 'jackets' and make me strip down to my all black skin tight outfit that could easily be mistaken for a black unitard.  so i have to walk through security like that.  and the shoes...oh gosh the shoes. i wore my boots, tall socks and leg warmers.  i forgot i had to take off my shoes.  so there i am [twice] in my black unitard, socks and legwarmers hustling through security hoping that no one will see my rear end or bra straps.  i'd show you a picture of the madness but then there would just be more strangers out there witnessing my public indecency.  lets say, lesson learned.

and in case you were wondering..

some other eventful tid bits were that i am seriously allergic.  maybe to planes.  maybe to the person behind me with a cat secretly stashed up their shirt.  i have no idea.  but my nose was a faucet and i went through an entire pack on mini tissues from ky to dallas.  disgusting evidence below.  you can't just put something like this in the flight attendant's trash bag.  how embarrassing.

jules and i met up in dallas to finish the last leg of the trip to colorado springs together.  its always good to be with friends.  could you imagine wheeling all this through an airport alone?  i wish you could see how ridiculous we looked.  i'm sure a room full of security folks had a blast viewing our luggage struggle.

our rental car was super phatty, just like last year and even had one of those handy dandy reverse cameras so you don't run over things.  julie's response "forget everything you were ever taught about backing up!"

 we were really excited to make it to town, pumped about our meeting and hanging out, mountains & having multiple chins!

 view leaving the airport...

we organized, and practiced and ate.  a lot.  maybe we were silly.  and maybe we were drank too much pop.

here's jules and i on the big day.  its a big ol' presentation for us.  kind of like a first day of school pic.  if my mom was there we could have gone out on the back porch and put our backpacks on.

one last anecdote: in dallas i found cow mannequins wearing leather jackets...i thought "now that doesn't make a bit of sense, or does it?"

there was this one time...

when i looked up at the sky and thought "the clouds are moving really fast today for clouds." and then i thought "but my car is passing these clouds like whoa so maybe they aren't that fast afterall."  ben gently reminded me that sometimes my car can appear to pass airplanes too but that doesn't mean that my car is in fact faster than a plane.  which turns out is true.  clouds = mindfreak.

lesson learned.

[via]

birthdays

my family had my dad's side of the fam over for some super yummy food and presents.  we were semi-celebrating my old bday and of course celebrating my little sisters 21st birthday!  holy moly!  how is she so old?  lucky for me her requested meal is one of my absoulte faves so i ate my weight in roast & mashed potatoes and enjoyed the company of my wonderful family.

chels, i'm so proud of the lovely woman that you've become and couldn't be more thankful for the work that the Lord has done in & through your life.  i pray that your heart would be His all the your days.  i'm so glad you're my sister!

benny & i took a few pics of the day...i think we still need some serious help with our lighting and composition skills :)  someday...someday.

ben refusing to smile normally at me for a picture.

and nick played us a concert.  treat!

today i'm thankful for full life and people to celebrate it with.

christening our kitchenaid

we did it!  for the first time ever we used our glorious, oh so very pretty, kitchenaid mixer.  my way way way too generous great uncle bought us this for our wedding and i suppose that well, 1. i never really cook [yet] and 2. its so pretty i never wanted to dirty it up.  but it's there for the using so we better get to it.

the last time we were up in nky ben saw his childhood cookbook sitting out which just so happens to contain the recipe for some of the "best in the world," crazy delicious, chocolate chip cookies.  we brought it back to town with us & ben was all hyped about getting the ingredients together and whipping these up.  it may have literally been the first thing he said in the morning when he woke up before 8am on saturday.  well, that and that he wanted to take me to winchell's [our new weekend tradition] & that he wanted a new uk crewneck because he shrank his.  mmmm cookies!

he wanted to triple the recipe but in the end we thought better of it and made just 60.  yes JUST 60.  i know...how will we ever survive with just 60 cookies?

there she is :) 

i'm sure there was a far superior angle for picture taking but it was hard to get in there with all the mixing going on and ben being a baker.  i'll work on that for next time.  [yes there will be a next time]

he won't like that i'm telling you this but he was being real particular [or persnickety as my papal would say] about how to make these treats.  eventually i just had to leave the kitchen and lend my moral support from then den.  god forbid i don't stir something right.

::in the making::

60 cookies taste pretty great!  i'd share with you but i'm pretty sure they're gone.

what else would you suggest for us to try  in there?  remember that there's just two of us normally. 

what do you mix up in your home!?

is this a trick?

obviously i'm a few weeks behind but i couldn't keep these to myself - i had to share some halloweeny pics.

this is my little brother, snookie [aka snickie].  yes he is dressed as a trashy jersey shore girl.  it was absolutely hysterical to watch him walk down the street.  little jon jon had no idea it was nick under there.

little leah was a kitty cat, full of meows.

and jon jon was buzz lightyear, the vampire with a light up costume, wings and fangs for teeth!

i had to skip out on the family time, chili & grilled cheeses.  it was a monday night and of course we had club.  woot woot!  my camera had died so i stole these from ang & her phone.  that's me...the ghost.  and look how awesome some of the girls are!

my blurry little team.  micah is ben, kaitlin is ang, ben is ben, angie is kaitlin, dylan is dylan and me and em are ghosts.  ghosts with hightops. duh. 

my life [seemingly a weekly series]

i really want to post but posting without pictures is no fun.  especially when i have the pics i want to post & have just failed to get them out of the camera and on to my computer.  [ #whitegirlproblems ].  i suppose all i can do is this...and then just feel satisified that on nov. 8th i posted something. 

good for me.

so last week was eventful and full.  instead of telling you anything of importantance i'll leave you with this.  my luck.  errr my misfortune.  i forgot both my pin number and my cell phone number both in one week.

i've easily had the same pin for oh...more than 3 years and my cell phone?  yep, over 10.  i feel like i have all the right numbers but maybe they're scrabbled.  i'm not sure.  who just starts randomly forgetting things - never to be remembered again.  after someone told me my phone number it did sound familar [duh!] but my pin!?  no one knows but me.  who will tell it to me?  oh my, i'm in trouble.  when i called the number on the back of my card guess what they said, "enter your pin"  it's like the bank is mocking me.  next thing you know i'll forget where i live or how to get to work.  i basically need a caregiver.

happy tuesday!

does anyone want to talk about this?

me & rachel in high school.  seriously?

cory sent this little gem through cyberspace and well, it totally made my day.