merry christmas, coacher

Christmas came early Monday night....Coacher went and picked out a baby chocolate lab for Christmas. i was going to make it a surprise when we got back from SD, but my plans got foiled a little bit. oh well. he's a cute little thing...clumsy enough to run into chairs and fall down on wood floors, which i find completely hilarious. his name is shooter, so now we have shooter and banjo (could we sound like hillbillies any more than we do now??)


banjo doesn't know what to think. she has been guarding her 16-inch personal bubble pretty adamantly.





bonus pics: my family after the Christmas festivities have fizzled. Kiersten got a Nintendo DS and a game that allows her to choose a pet. she chose a choclate lab puppy and named him shooter. :o) Baby Addyson was a very happy, talkative girl the whole time, and she--quite obviously-- loves her MeMaw.

bold living

I've bolded the things I've done. i plan to do some of the rest, but some things on this list will NEVER happen. NEVER.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band- uhh, middle school!
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (i think)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - (one of the "NEVERS")
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea - no, but did see one over a canyon in wyoming. one of the most amazing things i've seen yet.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - will soon learn how to quill. can play about 2 notes on a guitar.
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (but i did go to the doctor)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language - lil' bit.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (only indoor. outdoor is on my list of things to do.)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke - i am so scared. but i think i will.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant - i'll do this, too.
44. Visited Africa - I WILL do this. someday...sigh.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain - during thunder storms? yes.
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching - one of the best days ever!
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone - almost certain i broke my pinkie in 7th grade. it is a whacky little thing now.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person - want to!
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve - never.
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - i leave those kind of things to bradlee.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - does the underwear guy in time's square count?
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one - lost 4 classmates my senior year of high school, so i figure i've hit the quota for a while.
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

lately

here's what i've/we've been doing lately:

1 - visiting santa at bass pro.

2 - cleaning up about three messes per day from the new addition to the fam. the latest mess: christmas tree tipped over.

3 - massages and ear wax candles. let me tell you, both experiences were very interesting for both of us.

4 - playing lotz of volleyball.

5 - finishing my grad class. (11 hours left!)

6 - Searching for Truth

7 - Christmas shopping and wrapping

8 - hanging out with cool people (some of whom are leaving us soon, just like several other cool people have already done...)

9 - ripping up the carpet in the living room and putting up trim

10 - counting down the days of school: 2 left for me.

things we are doing over the next week or so:

tonight: wedding rehearsal out of town
tomorrow: wedding
sunday: church. christmas with my dad's side in preston, mo. wrapping Christmas presents to earn money for the DCO at the battlefield mall. (come see us. we do good work. well, i do decent work, but the other girls are really good. and it's for a good cause.)
monday: meeting the girls to talk about playing more volleyball. possibly picking up our new puppy.
tuesday: Christmas with the fam. eating a lot.
wednesday: Christmas Eve service. annual Christmas Eve dinner.
thursday: Christmas. eating a lot.
friday: packing for South Dakota. probably shopping for some good deals.
saturday: Christmas with my mom's side. eating a lot. leaving for South Dakota. staying in kc with brad's funny friend.
sunday-saturday: south dakota, which will include: skiing/snowboarding, stopping at random places on the highway. visiting mount rushmore. visiting crazy horse. corn mansion. camping (yes, camping) in the dead of winter in the northern US. building fires in a cabin. possibly snowmobiling. visiting some of those cool friends who have moved away. custer state park. hiking.
saturday afternoon: guest book girl at cousin's wedding.
saturday night: sleep. a lot.

Mother Bybee

whenever my friends and i said "mom" way back in high school we would be met with about 10 different heads turning to give us their attention. this was because there were always right around 8-10 moms around at any given volleyball tourney, basketball game, track meet, school event, or a fun get-together, and "mom" sounds the same when coming out of any teenager's mouth. all of the moms were moms to all, but my own mom was (still is) unquestionably the best. for this reason, i began calling for "Mother Bybee" if i wanted to get my biological mom's attention.

anyway, i will keep this quick because Mother Bybee will probably be embarrassed to read about herself on the internet, but here are a few things you should know about her (even if you don't really know her):

1 - there is not one ounce of 'bad' in her body. she is wholly good.
2 - she is the best cookie-baker ever. (just ask her grandkids, who help her make cookies every time they go over to "MeMaw's" house. only problem is the dough never really makes it to the oven when they're there...or when i'm there.)
3 - she and my dad are the most giving people i have ever known. one example: we know this woman who has all sorts of health problems, money problems, etc. my parents occasionally drive her up to columbia for surgery, take her out to lunch, minister to her spiritual needs, and do countless other things for her. if coacher and i learn to be even half as giving as my parents are, we will have done something right.
4 - sometimes i think she stops breathing when she laughs really hard. it's so awesome...
5 - she is beautiful, inside and out. (also, i must say that coacher and i both noticed that she was absolutely glowing on our wedding day. i can think of two possible reasons for this: 1 - she was glad see me officially "leave and cleave," or 2 - she knew how divinely happy i was.)
6 - she is a really great shopper and an even better listener. i don't really trust many other people to go shopping with me (or to listen to me when i talk nonsense sometimes).
7 - the meaning of Ruthie is "friend, companion." There's so much in a name.

happy birthday, Mom/Mother Bybee/Ruthie/MeMaw. the world is brighter with you in it.

once upon a time...

...i lived in columbia with a few volleyball players. one of those volleyball players (shen danru) was from china, so when the coaches recruited another chinese volleyball player to come to MU they recruited us to give her a place to stay and teacher her english (she didn't speak a lick of it). the plan was for her to come over to america sometime in the summer so she could get her feet wet with the language before school started up, so i eagerly awaited her arrival and expected that our house would experience more burn-your-eyeballs-with-hot-peppers dinners and discussions about snakes as a delicacy (more on that later). i was in and out of town that summer, and my other two roommates had gone home for a while, so it was just shen and i waiting for her arrival.

one day about this time i came home to a very disturbing sight: a tan, naked 6'3" man in our kitchen with his back to me. (thoughts in my head at the time: shen does not have a boyfriend...this is my apartment, right? none of my friends are gutsy enough to pull this sort of prank...i have never seen anyone that large naked before...maybe i can sneak out without him knowing i was here...who the heck is this dude? naked in the kitchen of all the awkward places!)

now, i tried not to stare very much (but i am pretty sure i just stood there gawking with my mouth open and on the verge of tears for about 5.7 minutes, shaking my head and wondering if any words would come out of my mouth), but i was pretty sure this big dark dude was cleaning the kitchen or something. about 7 seconds into my gawknig this tall dude turned around...

and i figured out who she was. yes, she. it was the new chinese roommate. (but she wasn't your ordinary, petitue chinese girl. she really was about 6'3," with very short hair and broad shoulders.) still, it was rather an awkward to meet her for the first time like this. anyway, when she turned around she just started saying, "oh, sorry, sorry," (pronounced: "sooo-ray, soooray"), and i, still stunned, just looked down, pointed to my room, and started mumbling excuses to leave the room (which i'm sure she didn't understand).

shen was in her bedroom, so i went to her and told her about the naked new girl in the kitchen. shen just looked up at me and said, "really? (pronounced: rea-llay?) what was she doing naked?" (i was kind of thinking it was a cultural thing, but i guess not.) "i don't know, shen, but it looked like she was cleaning the kitchen." shen: "oh sheesh. i will have to tell her no more. it's like i am her mother or something." yes, please do.

since the time of our first meeting, the new girl learned english very well, and i have had several conversations with her, but i still can't work up the nerve to ask about the day i met her in her birthday suit (let alone WHY she was in her birthday suit in the kitchen). some things are better left unsaid.

(this was inspired by rider's blog about extraordianry happenings. if you haven't read it yet, get to it.)

you serious clark?

this place doesn't even sell chocolate in the vending machines. no hersheys, no m&ms, no chocolate milk...nothing.

no wonder kids today seem grumpier than they were in the past.