Happy Birthday Husband!

September 22nd is my husband's 24th birthday! Johnny is far far away in the land of Augusta, GA, so since we can't be together on his birthday, I wanted to devote a whole post to him and just how darn wonderful he is.

Look at that face! Who could resist it?



Here's Johnny with his mommy at our rehearsal dinner. One thing I love about Johnny is how much he loves his family. He would truly do anything for them.

Back in the old Wheaton ROTC days. At Wheaton, Johnny was always able to easily juggle crew, ROTC, school, and our relationship. And doesn't he just look too cute in that uniform? He wears it a lot more these days...with a real gun.

Johnny loving on his sister, Lauren. Lauren and Suzanne always joke that Johnny never played with them until they provoked him enough to punch them. He loves them so much, though, and always makes sure that he stays updated on what's going on with them.

Johnny and Aunt Gigi. Johnny loved growing up around Aunt Gigi and her kids. She, out of the goodness of her heart, made all of the bridesmaid dresses for our wedding. Oh yeah and then made us a quilt in her spare time. Johnny picks good aunts.

Johnny and I first got to know each other with Kristi, Lars, and Stephanie at HoneyRock Camp. We raided the fridge nightly. I think it says something about him that he first started to like me when I looked like this while eating this. Yes, he's a keeper.

Our first trip to Head of the Charles. Johnny was always such a classy rower. Notice the khaki pants.

Brothers! Johnny and Mitchell were each other's first brothers. Mitchell is planning to come visit us for the summer, and I know they're going to have a lot of fun playing together.

I got to visit him this last weekend. This was my very last trip for these four months apart. We are currently at 30 days until we see each other again and he gets to come home. I've been so impressed with how hard he's worked these last three months. Not only has he been doing all of his army stuff, but he's devoted hundreds of hours to studying for his actuarial exams, which he takes on October 2. He's been so supportive during my first few weeks of school and makes me feel so loved even when he isn't here.

So here's to you John Franklin. We love you!

First Day of School #19

I feel like singing that song from Peter Pan: I won't grow up. I won't grow up. I will never wear a tie. I will never wear a tie. In just a few hours, I will be embarking on my sixth year of high school. In some ways it's like I never left. I had summer reading. I've been planning my outfit for the last few days. I bought a new purse. I want people to like me. We've all been there...unless Mitchell is reading this because well, he hasn't.

In more ways, though, it's totally different. This is my plan book, filled to the brim with plans for the first month of school. For those of you who don't know, I will no longer be at Delaware Valley Charter this year. I have the joy of starting a new chapter at City Center Academy, a Christian school that's affiliated with our church, Tenth Presbyterian. I am teaching Sophomore English, Senior English, and Junior History. Yes, you heard me correctly. I am teaching American History. A little of Revolutionary War here, a little Dust Bowl there. I got this.

So besides making all of my students do either a major project or a paper or both during the first week of school, I'm starting my sophomores with a new book that I hadn't read until this summer that I highly recommend to all of you. As you can see, it is called Crispin: The Cross of Lead. It's this great book about a teenager during the middle ages. It introduces the topics of feudalism, peasants, knights, and land owners in a way that's really accessible for students. And who can resist Avi? I mean come on.

So for all of you who start school this week, or you crazy midwesterners who started weeks ago, good luck!

A Little A This, A Little A That

Even though I'm back from Kansas, I thought I'd finish up with one of our last activities. The girls and I decided to make a scrapbook of our trip to California. It turned out to be super adorable, and the girls did it almost all by themselves. Really good way to spend an afternoon.

So after a bittersweet goodbye to everyone in Kansas, I went on my merry way for my second trip to visit Johnny in Augusta. Johnny, at that point, was still living at the Comfort Inn...the army just gets more and more hardcore. As I was partying it up with the Real Housewives of Augusta, I decided to make Johnny some meals. The options were limited as he only had a minifridge, a microwave, and a bathroom sink. Along with peanut butter and jelly, carrots and humus, and take out Chinese, I managed to find this lovely Betty Crocker microwaveable brownie. It was actually decent, and I mean decent like my kids say decent not decent as in acceptable.

I loved spending time with Johnny, but Augusta's not my cup of tea, so I made my way back to our wonderful tiny apartment in Philadelphia. I decided today to make good use of our back patio. I walked to my favorite produce spot, Reading Terminal Market, and picked up some potting soil. Then I walked up to Trader Joe's and got two purple plants, two pink spotted plants, and one pink flour plant. I don't really remember what they are, but they look pretty.

Our new little seating area with the chairs that my mom found on the side of the road. I think I'll have a barbeque out here soon...next project, learn how to barbeque.

Silly Bandz!!!

So this last Saturday, I believe, my mom received an invitation via email from Borders. This invitation was for an international Silly Bandz exchange at Borders across the United States. My brother and sister are what you might call Silly Bandz connoisseurs, and they decided to go to this exchange; I tagged along with camera in tow.

We didn't know what to expect. I was half thinking that there would be lines of kids out the door with their circulation being cut off because of all the Silly Bandz on their arms. But, as this pictures shows, when we got there...we were the only ones there. Mitchell and Jessie started to look really creepy, sizing kids up and checking them out to see if they had anything on their arms.

Eventually a few kids showed up, all under the age of probably 11, and the "swapping," as one of the moms kept calling it, ensued. One girl was there with probably thirty Silly Bandz on a necklace instead of on her wrist. She explained that the animal shaped rubber bands cut off her circulation. Her mom chimed in, "Well, she inherited my wide bones!" Right. The wide bones.

Borders was very nice to us and brought over some samples of Seattle's Best drinks and treats. But when the lady brought them over she explained that they were having a competition between all the Borders to see if they could serve samples to anyone who had been born in a state that started with an "A." Sadly enough, the Overland Park Borders wasn't winning that competition any time soon.

Here are just a few of Mitchell's Silly Bandz. Some of them are not so easy to figure out. The green one at the top of the picture is, we think, a sea lion, but we have all decided that it looks more like the Loch Ness Monster.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Kansas City. On Friday it's down to Georgia to spend a week with Johnny Cakes and then back to Philly for a teacher retreat. It's been a fast and fun summer. Exactly what we needed.

California! Part 2

Disney Land? Yes please! Day number 3 was spent at Disney's California Adventure.



They're getting so old! Ironically this picture was taken while their dad was getting a stroller for the two girls. I told them that I refused to push it...I might ride in it, but I refused to push it.

Oddly, there weren't a lot of characters around. The only character that we got a picture with was Minnie Mouse. She's Syd's fav, though, of course, so that was good. I still can't help but think about the person inside of the costume. For those of you who don't know, Johnny's dad, Big Johnny, worked at Disney World when he was in high school and was some of the taller characters for awhile, so because of that I just want to know what the people inside look like! At least the Disney characters are much more high quality that some other characters around. Has anyone been to Time Square and seen Hello Kitty and Elmo? Super creepy. My children will never hug them.

Later that afternoon there was a really fun parade. Each float was based on a Disney Pixar movie and had some kind of water gun thing connected to it. This Toy Story float had cool gymnasts. You can see the one doing flips on the bar that's in the T-Rex's mouth.

My divas. Looking amazing in those 3-D glasses. The muppets were doing it long before Avatar and Step Up 3D.

So to end the night in Disney Land, there was this huge black light dance party with all these crazy professional dancers up high on platforms. Please notice Meriahna's Goofy hat that she purchased. She loves Goofy and loves being goofy, so it was a good fit. Please also notice that Sydney is holding a giant corn on the cob up in the air. Seriously. Only Sydney would find corn on the cob in Disney Land and then dance with it.

After the beach, the pool, and Disney, we were all a little sunned out. We decided on day four to go to this really big mall and do some back to school shopping. I took Meriahna to Gap Kids while everyone else went to find Austin some shoes. Mers and I had so much fun. It's like dressing a real live Barbie doll. We got some skinny jeans, which in a kid's size 8 look like they could actually fit a Barbie, and a whole bunch of fun skirts, dresses, and tops. While in the dressing room she kept saying, "I just love this. I just love trying on clothes!" We've created a monster.

And would it really be a vacation without a trip to the Rain Forest Cafe? I think not. This amazing balloon man/boy was going around the restaurant and making animals for all the kids. Meriahna asked for, yes, a fishing rod with a fish on it. I think it turned out pretty well.

Sydney asked for a monkey up in a tree and specifically asked for the colors yellow and blue. The whole balloon thing lasted about thirty minutes before she twisted it too much and popped it on the escalator. Definitely cool while it lasted.

For our last night, Mers and Syd and I had a sleep over. We watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid and bonded over Trader Joe's cheetos. I consider myself so blessed to be able to spend time with these kids. Getting to watch them grow up and be a part of that has been something so amazing that I will never be able to describe it. I hope with all my heart that my children are half as wonderful and beautiful both inside and out as these kiddos, and it's breaking my heart to leave them again.

love love love.

California! Part One

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Huntington Beach, CA with the Adams family. We had soo much fun and took tons of pics.



The first night I was there, we rented out two of the bike mobile things and got pulled up and down the beach.

The beach.

Meriahna and Sydney loved it and made friends with the bike riders. The two biker dudes raced each other, and Sydney created two teams. Our team was "The Winners," and the other team was "The Hutsons." hmmm.

That night brought a flood of s'mores. The kids' hotel had fire pits all over the place, and you could buy s'mores sets. The kids did a really good job with it until Meriahna wasn't paying attention to where her burning stick was headed. Don't worry, I survived.

The next day was, can you tell?, the American Girl Place! Sydney and Meriahna got a few outfits, some books, and a really cool campfire set.

Poor Josephina finally got her hair done. There was a two hour wait in the beauty salon, no joke. Definitely worth the $20 if you had seen Josephina's hair before.

I wanted to take a picture of the girls with their spoils of war. I thought it was fitting that Meriahna held up the receipt that's about as long as she is. I think I had as much fun as they did at the store. It brought back fond memories of the American Girl Fashion Show and saving up my money for different American Girl clothes. Johnny is praying that we have all boys.

The next day was spent at the really cool pool area at the kids' hotel. There were water slides and a huge hot tub. Sydney, of course, made friends with everyone. And the girls spent a large amount of time timing how long they could hold their breath under water. We all got a little bit of sun this day, but it was totally worth it.

That night we went to dinner at the Crab Cooker. I love this picture because I have one just like it from three years ago.

Too presh for words.

So this dinner actually needs more of an explanation than I have given. We got to the restaurant, took the photo, and then put our names on the list. It turned out that the wait was going to be about 45 minutes, so Austin asked if we could go back to hotel that was seven minutes away and get his book. I said I would take him, so Sydney, Austin, and I get in the car and leave the restaurant. We have directions that I start following. The key word there is "start." Somehow along the way we get terribly lost. Like no ocean in site kind of lost.

The only thing Austin and I are thinking is if we can get back to the ocean, we'll be able to take the Pacific Coast Highway back to the restaurant. Only problem, the sun is quickly setting, and once the sun is gone, I have no way of knowing where my North, South, East, and West are.

So we use our Girl Scouting skills and driving toward the setting sun.

Sydney did her best to help with the directions. All of a sudden, we turned a corner, the trees parted, and there was the ocean! We followed the water back to the restaurant, arriving very soon after Scott and Meriahna had been seated. We never got the book.

Now during the meal, Sydney decided that she did not want anything to do with seafood but instead, wanted pizza. There was a pizza place across the street, and Scott took her there after we ate, leaving us to get the bill and finish up. Austin very politely pulls the waitress aside and says, "When you get a minute, would you mind bringing us the check?" She says sure, and we wait a minute or too. We see her walking toward us. She puts a carton of Vitamin D milk on the table and walks away. We all look at each other, and I'm pretty sure one of us says, "Maybe the check is in the milk?" The check was not in the milk, and another waitress brought us the bill a few minutes later. The milk was not on the bill, and we still have no idea why the original waitress brought us milk.

Stay tuned for the next installment, Disney Land!

Krista's Wedding!

Went to a BEAUTIFUL wedding last night. Krista Kurz, a friend of mine since preschool, got married to a wonderful man named Jeremy. They got married at Colonial and had the reception at Californo's in Westport. It was really fun to see old friends from high school and from church.

The parents. Lookin' good.

Krista was such a beautiful bride. Her dress was covered in what I think is called "dotted swiss." The dress had such a cute sweetheart neckline and a big bow with a long train. It was perfect for her. Her colors were yellow and blue, making it such a happy looking wedding.



We sat at a table with the Dalbeys and enjoyed really great food and drinks. It was fun catching up with Megan and her new husband, who's not so new anymore. Congrats to them on one year! It was great to also see Rachael and Jim Neihart, another newly wed couple.

So congratulations to Krista and Jeremy! Many many years of blessings on you both!