Ball Games, Beauty & the Beast, Best Friends, & Bronchitis

Well, it's been a while since I've updated. I'd been hoping to get around to it earlier, but just didn't get around to it. So let's see....

A couple weekends ago, we had a Superbowl party over with at Travis & Lindsay Myers house, along with the Bond family and Josh Hoenshell. Awesome time. Couldn't tell you who won the game... obviously, I wasn't paying attention too closely. I could, however, tell you about a few commercials. Somehow, I don't think they (the commercials) were as catchy as they've been in years past, but there were still some good ones. Lindsay continued to out-do herself in the kitchen with an awesome array of Superbowl Staples- two kinds of chili, hamburger soup, summer sausage, cheeses, crackers, and strawberry jello cake. Our friends Mark & Rachel's kids, Ruthy & Moriah, were too cute for words... and I think they took as much interest in the game as I did, so we spent much of the time spinning in circles, running around the house, playing with each others hair. Little girls can be so much fun. It cracks me up how literally they take you at times. Their 2-year-old, Moriah, had an infatuation with cheese that particular night (she went from string cheese to shredded cheese to cheese sticks). Towards the end of the night (as she was still reaching for more cheese!) I teased her that if she ate any more, she might turn into a giant piece of cheese. She looked at me pretty seriously, dropped the cheese back into the bowl and ran out of kitchen. My brother, Michael, came with Nick and I and enjoyed playing with the kids, too. Michael helped for years in the 2's & 3's class at church back in St. Joe (at the time, Ruthy was in there). Mark & Josh brought a Sony Wii & a projector over from the church and the guys spent most of the afternoon between playing on it and watching the game. I think Nick and Michael both have a new favorite game console now.

Lindsay let me go through her book collection while we were at their house. One of the perks of working for a publishing company is that she has developed an amazing personal collection of books. She lent me some good ones. I just finished The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne and am almost finished with Revolution by George Barna. Both are great books, hitting from different angles but addressing some similar topics with reaching outside of the church for growth and serving where its needed most (for Shane Claiborne, it's where there is poverty). Good reads. I recommend them both.

Last weekend, we took a 24-hr trip up to St. Joe. My sister, McKenzie, auditioned for Beauty & the Beast last month and made it into the chorus. It's one of the first conjuctive efforts between the college theatre dept. and RRT (Robidoux Resident Theater). Since RRT is an adult theatre group, most of the cast was college age and up (with a few exceptions- her and Tyler Davison being among some of the youngest in the cast). This was a big jump for Kenz since she has been performing in children's theater for years. The show was such a huge success, it was sold out all three nights. However, some mistake was made and they actually oversold tickets, so we ended up getting to the theatre an hour & a half in advance hoping to get seats with the tickets we had. Luckily, we got a great spots and the show was good. My friend Jenny Myers (maid of honor in my wedding) was there to support her brother Tyler and it was nice to catch up with her after the show. With our hectic lives and with moving, we've only seen each other one other time since our weddings.

On Saturday, Nick also got an opportunity to get together with a friend he hadn't seen in a long time- his best friend, Josh Greenlee (same last name, surprisingly no relation). Josh & Nick lived in the same neighborhood in middle school and went to school together through high school and then dormed together in college at MoWest. Josh transferred to Northwest when Nick transferred to Ozark. This past year he studied abroad in Austria. Both Nick and him haven't been in contact since our wedding (Josh was Nick's best man). They both got together at 54th Street in St. Joe and caught up on things for several hours. Nick came back excited. They have one of those friendships where they're able to connect well even when they haven't seen each other in a long time.

That morning, my mom and I drove to Kansas City to take a card-making class at Archivers (one of my favorite creative places in the whole wide world). The tables held four people each. We happened to have two characters sit with us (both best friends that loved to talk to each other over every one else). They decided the class was boring and that they'd make the cards in the order they felt like. Since I couldn't really hear the instructor, I tended to copy what my neighbors were doing, only to later realize they were working on different cards than the rest of the class, so my cards kind of took on a combo look! I still had a blast, learned how to use a lot of fun crafting tools, and we topped our girly time off with a lunch at Boston Market. Nick, Michael, & I ended up headed back down to Joplin later that evening.

We probably wouldn't have done much for Valentines Day, but this week didn't provide much opprotunity. On Wednesday, the company mail courier's wife had her baby. I'd agreed to do his job so he could take three days off. However, I got hit card with a bug at the start of the week which made it hard to carry through since I had to go in an hour earlier and work out in the cold, hauling mail inside. I had a 101 degree fever for two days of the week. On Wednesday, I felt miserable and was sent home from work. I slept until six that night but my temperature was 102 and I could barely breathe. Nick took me to Urgent Care where they diagnosed me with bronichitis & the flu and prescriped four medications, an anti-biotic, and an inhaler. I was on bedrest the rest of the week. I'm just now able to start walking around the house again. Neither one of us has been to a point where we've been dog-sick in our marriage- that point where you can't do anything and you're dependent on the other one to do things around the house in order for you to function. This was kind of a first for us, and I'm sorry that it had to be me being the sick one. However, it has made me appreciate Nick so much more. He rushed home between his hectic class schedule to give me medications, de-boned a chicken and made homemade chicken noodle soup, brought books on tape home for me to listen to in bed, tidied up around the house, etc. He has such a servant spirit but it was ever present this week. And it is by far the best Valentines present I've ever had.

Hope you all enjoyed yours (Valentines Day, that is).