Sunday, February 25, 2007

Lena is 24!

Yesterday was my (sorta) cousin Lena's birthday. I say 'sorta' becuause we aren't acutally related at all... She is from Ukraine and she's here for her masters at KSU in education. She is living with my Aunt Jen and Uncle Stan and cousins Nathan and Sam. She's been here since Easter last April. I've SO enjoyed getting to know her and we always have fun when we hang out. You may have recognized her from our New York picutres. Yesterday we had a marathon hang out day and went shopping and out to lunch. She turned 24 on Feb. 24th and she was born at 2:40 in the afternoon... isn't that cool? (That was for you, Annie) Anyway, Tonight is her 'family' dinner, we're going to Sapporo's to eat way too much and feel sick afterwards. :)
Happy birthday Lena!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Gets me every time...

"You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same.
You are amazing God!"

You mean, he see's what's in my heart, and he loves me anyway? Why?!!!
He's amazing, that's why...

We sang that Tomlin song today in chapel. Cory came and spoke... he did a great job! He spoke on recieving God's joy. It was really good.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Ski Trip - Day 4

Home, sweet home.
It's good to be back... I'm not gonna lie, I'm excited to sleep in my own bed tonight. What a great trip though! So many laughs and fun memories. Mal and Ash made a video last night with short clips and a slideshow, really funny. Actually, we'll prob. be the only ones that will think so, but hey! We'll try and post it in the next few days for you (Annie).
Today we woke up and the snow had stopped. It was sunny and fresh powder laid like icing on everything outside. Beautiful. Not to mention it would have been the most P-E-R-F-E-C-T ski day EVER. But it was good for traveling, too. We'll that's a lie, but we tread down the mountain with our 4-wheel drive on at about 20 miles an hour. Kinda scary, but we made it! It turned out to be the perfect weekend for our trip. We couldn't have made it without the protection of our Heavenly Father. And the prayers of everyone back home. And the awesome 80's ski clothes and all the delicious food made and snacks helped too!
Anyway, I'm sure you'll hear all about it nonstop for the next month... but now I'm going to (not unpack like I should) watch Grey's Anatomy that I tivoed before we left. :)
Love!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Ski Trip - Day 3

We got a little more sleep in last night. Soreness and tiredness kicking in slowly... but it definitely didn't hold us back from having the best day ever. I can feel this post is going to get long, so just be warned.
I woke up at about 7:30 and stumbled into the kitchen to get breakfast and coffee started. Ash was second up. I was putting eggs in the waffle mix and dropped three on the floor. I tried to ignore them as if they would go away, but then others started to wake up and I figured I should clean it up. Egg is not easy to clean up... especially on a floor with lots of creases.
Anyway! We got out there around 9:30 and wasted no time owning the mountain. Emily ran into another kid snowboarding. Well.... a close call at least. We split up into three groups - greens, blues, and blacks. Marie, Ash, Mal, and I went to the blues. On the way up the lift Marie and I were next to this lady from up north somewhere. I don't know her name, but if I had to guess I would say it's Chatty Cathy. She told us everything about her and I don't think either of us said a one word. Poor thing, she had a lot of words inside! I tried to be polite and did the fake, 'oh, yeah' and 'uh-huh' and 'oh wow'... she kept going. I know her better than my mom now. All in the 10 minute lift ride to the top.
Then met back up for lunch at 1:30. It's significantly colder today. Wicked cold, even. And the snow is falling thicker and thicker. Stings your face when you're flying down the mountain fast. It's so sparkly though. We had a lazy afternoon in anticipation of a crazy evening of night skiing. Ryan and I went to the store to get stuff for dinner. Then we all watched Lady in the Water (my favorite-thanks guys!). We made frozen pizzas and mac & cheese for dinner. I turned on the stove to heat up the water for the noodles, I moved cute decorative stove toppers to the back burner and later smelled this aweful burning smell... well, I had turned on the wrong burner and the cute decorative stove covers were melting. Not good. Ryan tried to fix them, but they're ruined. So sad. I already emailed Creola (owner) and alerted her we broke one of her spatulas. Oh geez...
Well, we decided against night skiing and decided to try tubing again. This time we called ahead and reserved 9 tickets to avoid the sell-out problem of last night. Cam, Wes, and I took our rental stuff back and met the rest of the group at the tubing hill. We had SO much fun... if you've never been tubing before, well you should. After like the 5th run, I'm riding up the lift sitting on my tube sprawled out singing "She blinded me with science" with Marie who is one tube behind me. All of the sudden I have a horrible thought - "Did I ever take that last pizza out of the oven?!" CRAP (%*#*@*), NO! "Marie, did I turn the oven off before I left?" Marie - "Uh, I dunno". So I get off the lift and run back down the hill to look for Ryan cause he has my keys. The tubing hill safty man says, "Mam, is there something I can assist you with?" All that could come out of my mouth was, "Fire, pizza, Ryan, keys!" He was so confused, but I kept running. I grabbed them and Marie and we raced home to see. The worst possible thoughts were going through my head. The complex has burned down or at least our condo is in flames. I don't know how we didn't die on the way cause I was driving like an absolute maniac. Remember, it's a blizzard... I can't see more than 5 feet in front of me. We finally reach the complex and Marie and I jump out and unlock the door. No smoke or anything. It didn't even smell like anything was burning. I opened up the oven door and sitting there was a hard, black, hot pizza. Thank you Jesus. No fire, no smoke, not even a bad smell. Amazing.
Soon after, the rest of the crew stumbled in completely horrified at our crazy exit of the hill and wondering what in the heck is going on... glad to find us safe and sound and the hard black object that was to be our dinner sitting on top of the stove cooling off. So scary. But so relieved it's over. It's still not very funny to me... but it may be one day.
So we packed a little and cleaned a little. It's still a blizzard outside. I don't know how on earth we can leave in this weather tomorrow. It's supposed to stop snowing soon and be sunny tomorrow. I hope that's true. We'll have a lazy morning tomorrow and wait it out.
Oh, and today we ran out of toilet paper... or at least we can't find where Creola keeps the extra rolls. So we had to make a TP run as well. That was interesting.
Mal has some amazing video footage of our whole trip... she and Ash are making a video as I'm sitting by the fire (VERY cautiously - remember, not my day with fire) and I can tell it will be SO good. Especially when she led us down a steep blue and Ash, Marie, and I were going 90 miles an hour, screaming and peeing in our pants at how not-in-control we were of our legs.













Ry tryin to scrape the black stuff off the stove covers... not working.










My close call to burning down the house.
This was really not my day with fire.













The hallway outside our door...










The tahoe's - laiden with snow.






















Some awesome action shots from today.










The tubing hill...

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Ski Trip - Day 2

Oh, day two. Where to begin?!
Maybe with breakfast... we made waffles on Moma B's waffle iron. The slopes opened at 9am and we hit them not long after. We had a few first-timers with us (Emily, Sasha and Cam-sorta) so we started off with the greens. Mal took some hilarious video footage of some awesome wipe-outs. Cam couldn't keep from going like 90 miles an hour and the only thing that could stop him was a tree. Emily, on the other hand liked to use small children to break her fall. Sasha had the most grace in her attempts at stopping but her getting on the ski lift was humorous. It started snowing about 11 and hasn't stopped yet. Ryan, Mal and Wes took off to be crazy on the black diamonds. When the slopes closed at four we all joined back at the lodge and thawed out. We heated up the chilie Nance made us and listened to James Taylor (i love him) and shared funny stories from our day. I just love being here with these kids. I truly adore each and every one of them TO DEATH. They're each so different and awesome and FUNNY. After dinner we headed over to Silver Creek to go tubing (thanks Laura!) but by the time we stood in line, and then realized it was the wrong line and got in the right one, all the tickets were sold out. But we made the best of it and had a snow fight, no - more like snow massacre, on the side of the tubing hill for about an hour. SO fun. We decided when we got back home that it would be a good idea to go to find a hot tub and get warm again, but it cost like $6 a person and we're feeling cheap so came back home and watched a movie. We're looking forward to tomorrow and all the hundreds of more memories we will make. But right now the boys are trying to sleep in the living room and I'm being annoying at the kitchen bar typing. The girls are giggling in the back. I'm gonna go see what they're up to... So, until tomorrow!










The view from our back balcony.













Oh HECK yes.
The awesome 80's ski clothes I promised...










THE girls










Beautiful Ryan










Marie and Ashley










Us - NOT tubing










Wesley Cole













Us - still not tubing, but rather making snow angels and snowball fighting.
Marie and Mal on the left and Emily 'snow angel' on the right.










We love Jesus.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Ski Trip - Day 1


We made it! Safe and sound...
A huge snowstorm passed through the north east early this week and it scared us, as far as traveling to West Virginia goes... but it's cleared up and left us a thick layer of fresh snow on Snowshoe Mountain. We arrived around 5:30 this early evening and settled in our condo. Then went and stood in line to rent our skis and snowboard. Then we came back and heated up two of the three deep-dish pizza's that Kibbie made us (delicious!) and now we're just sitting around the living room visiting and listening to some weird french rapper on Marie's iPod she has introduced us to. (weird)
The place we're staying is nice. Very homey. The stars are so bright. And it's WICKED cold. I think 4 degrees right now, to be exact. We brought 5 sleds that look like garbage can tops and Wes and Cam went to try them out earlier and broke one completely in half when it hit a rock. Crazy kids. Not to mention all the 80's ski clothes we borrowed from family and friends. (thanks Beth and Jimmy) :) We'll take a bunch of pictures tomorrow to show you how awesome.
Anyways, ya'll keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we play on the slopes all day tomorrow and Sunday. And for our trip home Monday. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, which would be SO fun...
WE LOVE SNOW!
Blessings,
Katie B.
(and Mallory, Ashley, Marie Claire, Emily, Sasha, Wes, Ryan & Cam)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Mmmmmmm... bed.

I'm hesitating to get into bed because I know I won't get out of it. The hardest thing I do every day is get out of bed in the morning.
Is anybody with me? Sleeping in is the greatest!
But on days that I have the opportunity to sleep in (I LOVE THURSDAYS) I always make plans to get up early and walk with Marie or go to the Mart or Target with friends.
Why is that? When I'm forced to walk up at a certain time, it's almost impossible to; when it's my choice, I can do it no problem. It's cause I'm so unbestinkinlievably stubborn - that's why.
It's one thing that I HATE about myself. When it's someone else's idea, it's ok, then later - the same idea is mine... it's great! (That was mostly directed to/about my dad - He's always right... and I hate it. But I love it too. But I hate it.) Human nature = sucky. Glad we weren't made for this world.
Alright, to bed... and I WILL be on time to work tomorrow.
(crossing fingers)
:)

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Thursday are SO GOOD.

So today is Wednesday and tomorrow is Thursday. Thursdays are my off days so right now equals stay up as late as I want... I think I'll watch a movie. Which one? So many choices. Or maybe something I tivoed a month ago I forgot about. Those are the best.
I've really grown to love Thursdays. I'm full time at Dominion, but I asked for one day a week off cause I jumped in too quickly to the 'full time' thing, and I now find myself with no 'me' time. I know you're reading this and saying 'none of us have me time' but my 'me time' is SO important and I would (am) taking a signifigant pay cut just to have this one day a week. It refreshes me for a week until my next one. I just love Thursdays. Sleeping in. Being lazy. Getting things done I can't do on the weekends. It's too good to be true. Tomorrow I'm going shopping with my good friend Beth and her baby girl Addie. Then Bekah and Isaiah Grace are coming over to play. Things I wouldn't get to do if I had a 'real' job.
Blog topic soon to come - "Why my job is the best job on planet earth" ...it's true.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Kindergarten Day


So it's "Spirit Week" here at good ole Dominion...
Today's theme is 'Kindergarden Day'. So cute right? Original and colorful. Lots of pigtales and polka-dots. Shorts and tube socks. What I had no idea about when I woke up this morning and put on the big yellow hairbow, was that I'd actually be putting on an attitude like a 4 year old. Seriously, the copier jammed this morning - and I threw an actual temper tantrum. It's all gone downhill since then. I should take the bow off but then I would have no excuse for the attitude problem.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

St. Simons!!!

I really love cruise control. What a great invention! Many thanks to the one who made it up. I used it about 35% of the time on the way to St. Simons and about 75% on the way home. I'm addicted, as Emily would say :)

So Wednesday after school/work Emily and I hopped in the car and went to see the Fritchies for the long weekend. It was tons of fun. I don't know about her or them, but it was JUST EXACTLY what I needed. Four full days of laughter and fun. And well, they live at the beach... on an island to be exact. Friday it was even warm enough to slip into shorts and take the boys to play in the sand. I plan on spending every single free second I have there this summer.

Among the happenings of the weekend were: guitar hero, dying Amy's hair blonde, dinner parties, guitar hero tournament, playing in the sand, naked time (strictly for the boys - see mom's blog "all little boys love to be naked' - it's true), creating Amy a blog, funny quotes from the boys (see amy's quote of the day), more guitar hero (Emily played 'fat lip' about eleventy-hundred times with Asa, who's highest score was 75%!!! ummm... he's five), dying Amy's hair EVEN BLONDER, movie night - the illusionist (good pick, Josh!), more guitar hero, bathingsuit shopping (yikes... need a tan, and excercise), seeing Sea Island mansions, seeing Laura Kirkland and Zoe at Gnat's, and eating at Sweet Mamas - so good!

One of my favorite things Asa said was Friday night - we were playing outside and he picked up a stick and Eli yelled, "no, don't break that stick!" (as if he had some emotional attatchment) and Asa looked him in the eyes and snapped it in half and said "it's not your stick anyway, Eli... it's GODS!" Ha! I love them boys... they're so fun. Even when they fight.

Five hours is a small price to pay for the fun that is had when I see those faces.
Can't wait to go back!














My heroes...













So fun...













Beach boys.










Eli wrote his name in the sand...










Cutest in the WORLD!