Category Archives: The Ins and Outs of Us

the end of a teenage era

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So Adam and I have been together forever. Well, since before we could drive which kind of gives you an idea of how long. For his 16th birthday I gave him two things (no, not naughty things~geesh!). I gave him a necklace and my class ring. That man has kept that necklace and ring around his neck since that very day, removing it only once to have it repaired when our nephew David accidentally grabbed it when rough-housing around and breaking it.

He’s been worried lately though that they are thinning. Not only are there several areas on the necklace that are thinning to the point that he is concerned could give way but on the inside of my ring where it hangs 24/7 is VERY VERY thin. You can see in the picture how thin it has gotten over the past 17 years (yikes~hated to type that number!).

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So he took it off for now. We are on the quest for a new necklace and I am going to see if a jeweler can beef up the inside of my ring a bit…hopefully fairly quickly as he says he feels naked without it. Plus, it stakes my claim to him!

Finally…my favorite state volleyball pics

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Things have been busy as usual so it has taken me awhile but here are my favorite pictures of Miss Becky at state volleyball. They took third. Uncle Adam got an even bigger lens for the camera for state this year. If he goes any bigger we’ll have to hire an assistant to help hold it up I think. He says our next addition will need to be a bigger flash. We’ll have a break from state volleyball for a few years anyways until Madison is in highschool. It was bittersweet as she will not be playing volleyball in college…basketball most likely but not volleyball.

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I really like this one because you cannot hardly tell she is behind the net!

I really like this one because you cannot hardly tell she is behind the net!

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I. Love. This. This is right after they won their final game!

I. Love. This. This is right after they won their final game!

….and last but not least, don’t we all love a big kiss from our mama?

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The bestest great Auntie

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I have her. Or I guess I shall say we have her. Our family, that is. We have the bestest great Auntie. Auntie Kay, that is. She is awesome. For as long as I can remember she will send boxes (sometimes at random times of the year) covered in the coolest stickers to you. The boxes are always stuffed to the brim. There is ALWAYS something she has knitted in the box and usually other random things such as calendars, pencils, you name it.

Her gifts are special and forever kept. For my high school graduation she sent me the cutest little paper mache heart box with a handkerchief and I had yet to meet my great Auntie Kay at this point in my life. As you can see, I still have these to this day. I think there was even a pencil or two with them and at the time I thought what the heck?!

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In the last several years though knitting has been her thing…I mean REALLY been her thing. Four Thanksgivings ago we got a huge box of hand knitted hats for our entire family and took a family photo of all of us with our hats on~it was hilarious. The problem is, see…we all have big heads. Ginormous, actually. And I think her head is average. Some of her hats fit, some are a little snug so when a box comes everyone goes a’ diggin’ looking for one that will fit them. It isn’t as much about which one matches your winter coat as it is about which one fits your gigantic head. Man alive I wish I could find that family picture but I can’t, darnit.

Fast forward to Nana’s beach bash~the family reunion in July, 2007. Great Auntie Kay came and brought a knitted hat for everyone…yep, all 70ish of us!!!! It was amazing. So so cool to look around at all of us big headed people (not in that way~well kind of sometimes I guess) wearing these great hats. Below is my Pepe and late Nana in theirs.

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Last week another Auntie Kay box arrived adorned in many stickers once again. A pocket calendar was in it as well. Four pair of booties were in it and 20 hand knitted hats. She hand wrote a note saying that she ran out of yarn and got tired so she was sorry if there wasn’t enough for everyone. The thing is, see….there was. Plenty. Everyone in our family got something from Auntie Kay. Seeing how I (puffing chest out proudly now) got to dig through the box first after my mom opened it I actually found a hat that fit AND matches my winter coat! Yes, it is pink and red but that is ok…it’s from Auntie Kay!!!!

Her latest shipment…

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Becoming friends with Ernie and his rubber duckies

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I am a worry wart…according to Adam. I stress easily. I worry about him when he is driving. What if he gets in an accident? What if he gets hurt? What if? What if? What if? I have always been this way but more so since he has had the hour long commute for his job. I call his car a sardine can but he “likes his car”. I worry he’ll hit a deer and his car is so little it’ll take him out! So last week it was recommended to me to try to differentiate better between things I can and things I cannot control (which is most things!).

rubber ducky in the bathroom

rubber ducky in the bathroom

The analogy goes like this: a duck just floats along and does not let things that it cannot control pull him down or cause him to sink. Rather he lets them roll right off his back/feathers and sink on their own and he goes on his merry way.

rubber ducky at the bedside

rubber ducky at the bedside

rubber ducky in my car

rubber ducky in my car

Fast forward one hour: I am at a store purchasing six rubber duckies and the lady casually asks me at the checkout, “whatcha doin’ with these” as she is chewing some gum. I honestly didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know what I said or if I even really said anything at all. I may have just paid and said, “look lady just give me my ducks and no one will be hurt” and left the store.

rubber ducky in the kitchen

rubber ducky in the kitchen

rubber ducky in our office

rubber ducky in our office

So, now I have these ducks everywhere…staring at me. And to goad me Adam relocates them sometimes. I guess when I see them I am supposed to keep thinking…control what I can, let go of what I cannot. Instead, I keep singing “rubber ducky, you’re the one…rubber ducky, you make bath time so much fun!”.

rubber ducky at work

rubber ducky at work