holy cow!

This is Glinda. No joke. Chris found us to be extremely embarrassing but she walked right past us! We parked by the stage door by total coincidence :-) (I am my father's daughter. I've learned how to do these things)

This is me and my baby sister. Our "We're so excited we just saw Wicked and the hot leading man just walked right past us!"

in front of the theater. I'm wearing heels too. The girl is a giant.

me and my very good natured husband in front of the Orpheum.

p.s. ok. Guess the pictures can go at the top then. We went to Wicked. Oh boy. Was that ever one of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world!

Has it really been FIVE WEEKS since I've blogged? (this used to be the first line of this post until Blogger put my pictures up there. Ha. Sorry.)

Yikes. Excuse me, bloggy land friends. I have been busy losing my stinking marbles and trying to gather them all back up and shove them into my head again. That is a totally true statement.

My friend Bonnie got married. I do have a picture but not at this moment. (I'm very unorganized tonight) It was super fun! One of my old high school friends was in town and so we had a giant bonfire in his backyard, as we used to do. The whole old gang was there. Except now half of us have spouses. Super bizarre. But totally fun!

See, this is why I don't blog. Half of my pictures I wanted to post are unavailable! :-)

I went with Ingrid, Sage and Clare to a carnival here in town this week. We had lots of fun. They are like some of my favorite people ever. Ingrid is such a cool mom--and person in general. :-) And Sage and Clare are both chattering away which entertains me to no end. They do the funniest things!

My cousin Megan delivered a gigantic 9lb, 15oz, 22inches long baby boy, Ronan, on my dad's birthday June 9th. He is so adorable and sweet and perfect sized for snuggling. But seriously, isn't that huge???

Not much else is going on. We just hang out here, do school, go to work, watch movies, cook, and take the occasional jaunt to Council Bluffs for Christy Creme. I've spent alot of time with my parents the last few weeks, helping Mom with preschool and their preschool graduation, and now that school's out....mostly just hanging around. lol. Now that Dad's on vacation too, he likes to take little trips to fun coffee places or get special stuff for lunch. (My mom is saying more and more often lately that I am just like my dad. :-) I'm not gonna lie, I notice it so much too!) We like treats. :-)

Geez, what else can I tell you about the last five weeks? Seems like there's been alot in there, but I can't remember now. I was sick for a little while, but am slowly progressing and finally getting back to feeling like normal. For those of you that were around and aware, thanks for your prayers.

I started working in the nursery at our church and am trying to convince Chris to teach a VBS class with me. Did I mention my husband works really hard?? At school and at his job. We're looking at another promotion by January. (Hopefully.)

And we are very quickly coming up on a first year anniversary already!! Wow. It has gone so fast. :-)

I promise from now on, I will be a better blogger. :-)

love

Brynn

I really am being terrible at this blogging thing lately.

Which is funny because I really don't have that much to do. :-)

Besides help my mom at preschool three full days a week, work five days a week, exercise, clean kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and living rooms, load and unload dishwashers, buy wedding/birthday/Mother's day/graduation gifts, go to said wedding/birthday/Mother's Day/graduation celebrations, pay bills, mop floors, do homework and run errands.

But you know. Whatever.

We got approved for a small home loan this week and looked at a couple houses today. Chris decided we should buy the first one we saw. (Both houses were unacceptable lol.) He is a little jittery, jump into this, buy the first thing we see ever. Those of you who really know him know his love of impulse buying. It's a habit we're working on. :-) It is kind of exciting. But mostly stresses me out.

Nothing new is really going on over here. We do have ALOT of activities planned for the next few weeks--May and June are pretty booked up. But I love it! The weather today is gorgeous and after I drag myself off of the computer, I'm going outside! I can't wait til I can go swimmin!

Did I mention I made some apple crisp last week, looked at it the next day and thought, "Something doesn't look right here."

I forgot to peel the apples.

:-)

OH! And T minus 12 days til we get to see WICKED. :-) So awesome.

Seriously.

Seriously.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

I had a birthday. It was great!!! I was a little sick for quite a while, but I am progressively getting back to normal. I'm very impressed with myself everytime I overcome one of my little problems. Seriously. Like I think I should get a prize. (But then I remember, my prize is that I don't feel like I'm dying. Which I suppose is fair.)

My HSM starts Monday. Woohoo! Excitement and a little nervous.

Seriously,

My husband cleaned Tuesday. He had a half day of work and I said, "What are you doing tonight? Staying home til the boys come?"

And he said, "I'm going to take out the trash, change the lightbulbs, vacuum, pick up the living room and pick up all my clothes."

Seriously. I about fell over. He actually did it too!

Seriously, I lost at least five pounds while I was sick.

We got to watch our favorite group of kids last weekend (favorite parents, too!): Mackenzie, Bella, Joey, Kylah and sweet Deacon who takes up my entire torso when I hold him. He is the best. What is it with you Manthes and having awesome and adorable little children?!! :-)

School is school. I'll be glad to have a degree.

And seriously!

The weather is GORGEOUS here right now. I love it. I can almost TASTE summer. And summer= lots of pool time and LOTS of Christy Creme.

Seriously!

I love it.

Guess whose birthday is tomorrow??????????????????????



this girl's! :-)

Stellan

There is a blog I frequently follow (Chris says stalk) about a fabulously super cool Mama and her small brood of young children. I found her blog somehow, this last fall because I somehow got wind of the miracle God was working in their lives. With three small children at home, MckMama (as she is known in blogland) was pregnant with her fourth baby and he was diagnosed with a heart condition called SupraVentricular Tachycardia. Don't ask me exactly what this means because I don't know :-) It's bad, though, that I do know. She and her husband were told that the sweet baby growing in her womb would never make it to his birth, and even if he did, he would not make it far after that.

Sweet Stellan was born a completely healed and healthy baby because followers of MckMama's blog turned from hundreds to thousands and this body of Christian believers began to pray fervently for their healing of their son. The story amazed me. Completely and totally amazed me. People all over the world, most of them who don't personally know this family, got on their knees for this little boy. And let me tell you, if you'd like to see a stinkin' adorable kid, you need to go to MckMama's blog and get a look at Stellan. He's one handsome little guy.

Last week Stellan went back to the hospital because his heart has gone back into SVT. It's been about five months since he was born, I think. The poor baby has been there all week and he is pretty sick.

But you guys, let me tell you what. The prayer movement for this kid is indescribable. And the great thing about MckMama is the example she is setting; she isn't happy about this, she is honest and blunt about the fact that she is not okay. But she has given it up to the Lord so completely--you guys have got to read her blog. If you're a believer especially, this story will blow you away. It is such a huge testimony, and MckMama has given this whole thing so completely to God--she wants her son, home and healthy, but she knows that if God takes Stellan, that the glory is His.

I feel compelled tonight after reading the blog with his prayer vigil on it (and since learning MckMama has a very old connection to my immediate family) to just encourage you guys to be thinking about this family. If you read her blog, it will change you. I guarantee it. This baby is gonna have such an amazing story, you guys. When he is a man, he is going to have piles of pictures of his name EVERYWHERE. God is using this sweet, sweet baby for something huge and it is so cool.

Seriously, you guys. The power of prayer, I'll tell ya what--this is an amazing story.

www.mycharmingkids.net

Monday is my parent's 25th Anniversary. Crazy, huh? My dad called me yesterday morning and had a coupon for a buy one/get one free coffee (we love coffee, especially free coffee) and wantd me to meet him at Borders during his plan period. I'd had a rough night the night before and so I figured he was going to want to talk to me about it, but I ran out there to see him. I always forget their anniversary is coming, but he bought my mom a necklace that he wanted me to see and they went up to the Lied Lodge to stay the night. (ew). :-)

Anyway, so my daddy bought me a coffee and a lemon dougnut and we walked around Borders for a few minutes and then he told me that he thought I was beautiful and that no one could be luckier than Chris.

:-) My Daddy has turned out to be quite the man lol. Our relationship was always a little tense because we have the exact same personalities, but as soon as I moved out he always was calling me just to tell me he missed me or that I could come over for dinner. The more I think about the whole me getting married at 19 thing, the more I appreciate my parents for their support and willingness to let me do it. It hasn't been easy all the time, and I can imagine it wasn't super easy for them to let me get married, but they did. I love them very much and I especially appreciated my dad's words yesterday.

love you guys. Happy Anniversary, Momma and Daddy!

Ketchup

So, today is a very big day at our house: St. Patrick's Day!! We always have a big dinner and watch "The Quiet Man" and my dad does strange things like talk in an Irish brogue and play only Celtic music (and who knows what he is like at school all day). And Mom cooks the best dinner ever: corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, soda bread, frosted sugar cookies, and probably all sorts of other things I can't remember right now. So today will be great. Right now I am listening to four sleeping kids upstairs and enjoying the quiet until they wake up and we can go outside in the 75 degree weather! Who hates Nebraska????

Really, things have been just routine. Nothing interesting to report at all. We've just been working and going to school. Chris' birthday wish was Chick-Fil-A and the closest one is about 200 miles away, so yesterday we took the day and drove out to the mall and had chicken sandwiches, as requested. I cleaned all morning today, changed sheets and did other things I basically neglected all weekend :-)

Did I mention we got Blackberry's? Also Chris' request. Him and his toys! Oh well. I hated mine at first, but I like it okay now. I still think a phone is a phone and all it needs to do is call or text. Yeesh. (But it is nice to get my email and internet...don't tell Chris lol)

So that is your ketchup for you. OH! Well, how could I forget this? Ha. I auditioned to be in a local theater's production of High School Musical and got a part, so I am pretty excited. All the leads were already cast except for two of the smaller female ones, and they offered me one of those. It took me a while to decide because I will have to give up a few things, but for now I have decided to do it and I am excited. I love musical theater and it's been sooo long since I've done a show and I loooovvveee High School Musical, so it's a win win win. :-)

Happy Birthday to Chris on Friday!!!