Ramblings of a Crowded Mind & Full Heart: 33 Memories for 33 Years: Part 2

I know you have been on pins & needles waiting for "the sequel" ;-), if you missed the first set click here, or ya know just glance to your right & click the link ;-). I'll be honest, some of these will be multi-memories together because the more I write, the more I love to remember. I actually think I will be doing a "regular" post with random memories, and by "regular" I mean when I think about them and have the time, not every Monday is "Monday Memories" :). As much as I hope to blog regularly I also know that I get busy with living and don't always remember to. So anyhoo....enjoy....

21.) When David surprised me in his kitchen with a ring and a proposal :). I knew he was planning on asking me but I was not prepared when he did. Best yes I ever uttered :)

22.) The crazy week of my wedding. We had so many friends and family piled into by parent's 2000 ft2 ranch that us "young-ins'" were in the back in tents, separated by boys & girls. That's right I spent my wedding eve in a tent, and had a blast!! It was a fun, busy, stressful and awesome week! The northern lights even came out (in August- nuts!) the night before we got married, it was pretty cool. My wedding day was great, although I admit all I really cared about was getting married to the long haired, guitar playing, tender hearted, funny, sweet, Jesus loving man standing at the front waiting for me. A lot of things went awry on our wedding day; my hair took 2.5 hours to fix (yeah, I know) making me late, my little flower girls/ring bearer didn't want to walk (cut them slack they were little:), the church being out of communion supplies so we had communion with Dr. Pepper & croutons (I was not aware of this before it actually happened, I was quite surprised to find DP instead of grape juice and crunched that crouton LOUD hahaha). My favorite mishap memory of the day is my grandma getting lost on the way to the reception, which was near her house, so she drove home to get her cordless phone to drive around with in case someone called looking for her. She did eventually find the place, thank goodness, and the memory of her antics with the phone still make me smile (and are classic Bebe, to read more about her click here).

23.) The Door...so many great memories being a part of the worship team for The Door (a non-denominational service geared toward younger folks when I was in college). Man, you guys were so awesome. Here's a few memories off the top of my head, Tim starting "Lord You're Beautiful" fast and when he realized his mistake he just laid down on the drum set, Jeff's guitar strap coming loose mid-song and the neck of it hitting him in the face, me totally missing the last step and falling off the stage flat onto my face after a set, I crawled to my seat hahahaha. I loved singing with you (you know who you are) talented ladies, worshiping the Lord together, trips to Hermiston, hours in the basement (a recording studio where we made a cd, not a torture chamber haha)...Man I miss those days sometimes!!

24.) Playing Cranium with friends and the day Narm acted our Michael Jackson...oh man, think I almost peed myself!

25.) Girls nights, pumpkin carving, gingerbread house making, watching scary movies (remember "Jeepers Creepers" Megan? And Steph sitting up saying "sure it's all super creepy until the bad guy sprouts a wing!". Julia & my (not on the same day!) bachelorette parties should be included here, however late in the time line they may or may not be. So.much.fun.

26.) Graduating from college, I was one of the first in my family. I got to make a trip to my grandmother's before the big day with my parents, sis and nieces and later my cousin and aunt showed up to support me too. It was a good week!

27.)Saying goodbye to Oregon, it was so so hard to leave and yet we knew God was leading us somewhere else. I remember David dismantling the giant desk he had built for me and loading it up for Kristen to take home. We had the first yard sale I'd ever done myself and it was so hard to let go of some things, but in the end it was only stuff. As much as I miss Oregon (& my friends/family there!) I still know, 8 years later almost (wow!) that here is where we are meant to be. I love Alaska, David has grown to love it and thankfully we have many friends and family (& a great church!) here to soften the longing for our distant family and friends.

28.) Finding out I was finally pregnant with my first born! It had taken nearly a year to get pregnant and testing was in our near future. Eight months later my handsome, sweet Isaiah was born. Life has never been the same and we are both SO thankful for that.

29.) The birth of our second son, Joshua. He was such a strong big guy from the start, and so beautiful (just like his brother). He has been a blessing, and I love having two little men in the house. I always wanted two boys, I love to watch them interact as brothers (ok, most of the time, lets keep it real, peeling them off each other in the middle of a grocery store is not so awesome HA!). Both my boys are so sweet and loving, I am such a blessed momma!

30.) Family camping trips! Oh, and the girls camping trips. Both are an annual tradition, although the last few years it seems like at least one of them as not happened, much to my sadness. They make up some of my favorite camping memories...Family Trips: David accidentally shooting my sister in the butt with a pellet gun, a fierce thunderstorm one night while we tried to set up, getting flooded out of one spot and being forced to camp in our friend's yard (while they were away) because it was Memorial Day weekend and no one had vacancies... Girl's Trips: hanging out late into the night laughing till our faces hurt, watching the 4th of July parade in Homer with some very excited candy nabbing kids, watching eagles from up close & catching a glimpse of a local legend the Time Bandit...

31.) Turning 30, having two of my best friends from college here (Karey & Julia) to celebrate and being totally surprised by a party full of friends and family at a local bouncy house!! It was mostly all adults and IT.WAS.FUN. That whole week was pretty awesome having Karey & Julia (& Jack, Karey's second youngest boy) here, we had such a wonderful time together.

32.) Our first trip to Hawaii last spring. We had SUCH a wonderful time snorkeling, playing on the beach, playing cards with David's mom & dad. Our kids loved it and so did we.

33.) Lastly (for now:), the joint birthday slumber party (with Sarah of course:) with some of my favorite girls. We had such a great night, laughing so much my face started to hurt. I am so blessed to know so many incredible women! To make it all even cooler, Karey showed up as a TOTAL surprise and was here for a whole week with her newest little man. I was SO SO happy to have her here, time with her is always well spent:). My actual birthday too was pretty great, spent the day with some of my best friends, drinking coffee (free for my bday!), having lunch. I probably mentioned all that in my first post but since I can't remember and don't want to close out and check, let's just pretend I didn't :).