The Ballad of the McKeons

What Does Netflix Say About You?

2012-01-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

For all of you that have Netflix - you know that they give suggestions based on your interests and preferences. I occasionally scroll through just to see what's there and lately the categories have been cracking me up. My brother Mike's been living with us for a few months and the combination of the three of us watching Netflix has been creating some random categories. So I thought I'd share, here's what Netflix says about me today:

British Period Pieces Based on Books
Mind-Bending Suspenseful Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Witty Dysfunctional-Family TV Shows
Emotional Foreign Documentaries
Violent Crime TV Shows
Girl-Power Children & Family Movies
Quirky TV Comedies
Feel-good Foreign Action & Adventure

And there you have it, this is my house in a nutshell. So now I want to know - what does Netflix say about you?

Candy, Iron, Wood or Amethyst?

2011-12-30T13:13:00.001-05:00

Six years ago today I got to marry my best friend and it was awesome. In fact, it still is awesome. According to my friend the Internet, on the 6th wedding anniversary you should give a gift of candy, iron, wood or amethyst. And guess what? I choose candy! Cause candy is always a good idea and obviously really represents the sweetness that has been the past six years. Dude! Sweet! (Oh yeah, I totally did throw a Dude Where's My Car Reference into my anniversary post.)

Our wedding day was a beautiful, fun, awesome, and memorable day. So I'm going to share a few of my favorite things about it, so you can see how fun and awesome it really was... All my stuff accidentally got locked in the bridal room and we couldn't get the rings, the flower girl's basket, or the ring pillow. So my Aunt Carmen broke in with a credit card. So talented. I learn something new about my family every day! My niece Isabelle (then 4) was our flower girl and she took her job very seriously. She was dropping flowers to cover every inch of the aisle and therefore ran out of flowers in less than a foot. She turned to me at the back and shrugging her shoulders said, "I'm outta flowers!" We all laughed and told her to keep going. My nephew Bobby (then 2) was our ring bearer and he was having so much fun playing with the pillow, that during the ceremony the rings came off and I could hear them bouncing across the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my sister-in-law Maria running around to get them. I had to remind myself to pay attention cause I was getting married here and Maria would take care of it. Mark was facing the other direction and so he could see people sneaking in late through the side door and told me later that he too had to remind himself to pay attention. But I think my favorite part of the whole day was right before the actual ceremony started, Mark was nervous so he snuck through the kitchen to where I was so he could see me. I was sitting there and suddenly I realized he was next to me and he gave me a quick kiss and said, "I just had to see you one more time before I walk out there." Isn't he adorable?

And so it went... We got hitched,

we ate delicious food,

we kissed (just a few times) and ate more food (cake!),

we danced,

we cheesed it for the camera,

and everyone was really excited to throw stuff at us - I mean look how excited they are!

Can't wait for six more years of fun and awesomeness.

My Calendar Journal

2011-12-20T14:55:00.001-05:00

A little while back my mom sent me an email with a link to a really clever DIY project: Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal. I think it's so great because every day you'll be able to read back over what you did on that day in years past. Obviously the first year will be somewhat less exciting - but then each year will get increasingly more fun. Plus you can use double sided index cards and have that many more years to write. All-in-all I love it. And then to my great surprise when my mom came for Thanksgiving, she gave me a set of index cards already cut and stamped! Fabulous. So all I had to do was get my vintage postcards and a box to put it in.

Last Saturday we ventured to the Flea Market and I was pleased to find a guy that had a whole box of vintage postcards for sale. Each one protected in a plastic sleeve. They ranged from $1 - $3 per card, but since I needed 12, he said he'd let me have them for $12. (Lucky me, cause I bought several $3 cards.) I had so much fun choosing them. I especially like my January and December postcards which are both from 1907 and say 'A Happy New Year' and 'Wishing You a Merry Christmas' respectively. Oh and my October card is of a painting called 'Moonlight Over Screamer Mountain' which is just too perfect for October, don't you think?

But my favorite part is that three of them are used. So I get to be all voyeuristic and read other people's mail. One of the notes is so cute- a woman writes that her husband is at Rotary and she didn't want to sit in the lobby of the hotel with all the people, so she is writing the postcard in the car. I think that is so adorable

I'm still looking for a box to use. In the tutorial she uses a fruit box, but she also cut the postcards down to the size of her cards. And I really don't want to cut my postcards. I also want a box that will stand up against things like accidental spills on the counter. So I'm on the hunt for a cool yet sturdy container. But in the mean time I've got this little red and white polka dot box that it doing the job nicely. It's a bit larger than what I want, though I do like that it can hold a pen.

And last but not least I must rant about Walmart and how they messed up our Christmas cards and weren't willing to reprint them without charging me more $$ and making me wait three days. But you're the ones who messed them up, and I already paid, and I need people to get them before Christmas, you know this year! Aargh. I need to remember that I hate Walmart before I make decisions like printing my Christmas cards there. So if you get our Christmas card and think 'that it the darkest photo, I can't believe they chose that.' We didn't. And this is what the photos were supposed to look like.

Next year I am printing my own photo cards. Take that Walmart. And Merry Christmas everyone!!

Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-09T14:40:00.003-05:00

We had a super fun and busy Thanksgiving with our families. All the Crenshaw cousin's were together except Bob's kids, so it was wild and crazy and loud and poor Uncle Mark was tickled to within and inch of his life. Just what family togetherness is all about.

I have also (of course) continued making my yarn wreaths. So I've finished Christmas (love that little gold bird)

and my winter wreath.

I think the winter one is my favorite to date (oh, except maybe for my Halloween one) - I think the argyle (which just makes me think of a cozy winter sweater) combined with the snow and the owl is too adorable. Even Mark and Mike both said they liked it the best. So it's boy approved. And that's saying something.

And now we're in the countdown to Christmas - or more aptly called the countdown to Doctor Who. I partly blame this on the fact that we have no kids yet - I'm sure if we had kids I would think of Christmas first and Doctor Who second. But as it is, as soon as Thanksgiving is over (or in this case as I'm shoveling turkey in my face) I immediately think "Doctor Who! Doctor Who! I can't wait for Doctor Who!" I asked Mark if he felt this way too, and he gave me a long, weird look and firmly said "No." So I guess it's just me. Though now that I think of it, a few months ago Mark was definitely this way about Skyrim. So I guess it just depends who and what you're talking about. The point is, I'm excited about this year's Christmas special. Especially once I heard the name of it: The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe.

And if you just watched that trailer you're a bit excited too - admit it.

Mr & Mrs Sicky Sickson of Sicktown

2011-11-08T08:38:00.006-05:00

By meerasapra | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

We have spent the last week sick here at the McKeon home. Both Mark and I are still fighting off whatever this current crud is. And therefore have spent a lot of time doing little else but sleeping and watching television. But I've learned a few things. Like when you rewatch half of the Harry Potter movies (5, 6, 7.1) it just makes you want to rewatch 7.2 and reread all the books. But then you realize that you don't own 1-3 only 4-7, because years ago before 4 came out someone loaned you 1-3 so now you must go buy them because when you reread them you want to start from the beginning. When your sister-in-law tells you about this show that's in the Netflix instant queue and how it's strangely addicting - believe her. Cause you will definitely spend the next two days watching nothing but Storage Wars, resulting in very weird drug induced storage-locker-swap-meet-horders-type dreams. Not to mention experiencing crazy-drug-induced-sick dreams in general. You decide that you now pretty much know what hot-flashes feel like because you have spent days switching from completely freezing to dripping in sweat in such rapid succession that you don't know how to dress anymore. You learn that you can survive on nothing but chicken ramen, chicken noodle soup, and chili for every meal (and when I say every meal, I mostly just mean one, cause let's face it you're not very hungry) - because for some reason that's all you want to eat. Oh and maybe a little chocolate ice cream when the 'hot-flashes' are really bad.

So that's what we've been learning here. What have you learned lately?

Spooky, Scary.

2011-10-29T21:06:00.022-04:00

Werewolf bar mitzvah - spooky, scary. Boys becoming men. Men becoming wolves. I have had that song stuck in my head for days! Which is basically ridiculous and a weird thing to wake up singing every morning for a week. But since it's almost Halloween - I suppose it's fitting. Speaking of... I've been keeping myself busy doing a few fun crafty Halloween things (when I'm not on Pinterest pinning more things I want to be making). A few weeks ago when my sister Laura and her girls were in town we had a slumber party and made headbands together. The girls were so creative with what they put together, Holly and Lucy both made some fun and adorable choices combining felt, feathers, multicolored pom-pom balls, leaves, and wiggly eyes. And Sophia in particular was very specific about what she wanted, so I made several Harry Potter themed headbands for her. All if which I completely forgot to take any photos of while they were still here. (Despite the fact that my camera was in my purse the entire time.) But since Lily was sick and couldn't sleep over with us, we made her a few headbands too, so I got at least the one photo.

I also made this Halloween yarn wreath for my front door. I got the bird and the glitter spiders (notice they are the same spiders as the headband) from the Dollar Store and I had everything else (in fact I inherited the convict orange yarn from someone and have been wondering for a long time when and how I would ever use it- success!) so once I bought the wreath, it only cost me $5 to make. Love it. And they are so easy and fun to make that I can not stop myself. As promised I am well on my way to making one for every season, Halloween, and Christmas. I've also decided that I need to make one for birthdays. I will show you them all as I finish them. I did make this Harry Potter one for my sister-in-law Amanda. She loves HP and after making headbands with Sophia, I had this idea to mix the two colors of each of the houses together to make the flowers. I had a little bit of HP fabric left over from her diaper bag which I used for a few flowers as well as the band to hang it with. And then instead of a welcome message on bunting (as I have often seen on theses wreaths), I made little banners also in the house colors with an iron-on HP font. It's kind of crazy, but I think I love it. (Did I mention that I'm a little bit addicted to these wreaths now?)

Craft Talk

2011-09-15T11:24:00.004-04:00

My friend Nancy invited me to a craft night to make yarn wreaths and since I already had plans and therefore can't go I decided to make my own. (Which I did and I love it.) Let me first say that when I heard the words yarn and wreath together I thought "this is not going to be good." But then I realized that Nancy was making them and since she is quite fashionable I thought I'd at least click on the link she sent with the invite. And let me tell you I am glad I did. I absolutely adore these wreaths! You see I have been without wreaths for years now (other than a Christmas one that I rather like but that my husband hates). And so over these wreathless years when I am at the craft store I will occasionally look through the wreaths but never find anything I really love (or if I did find something it was outrageously expensive). So I am extremely excited to realize that I can make custom wreaths, to my exact desires, for $8 or less. That is $8 if I needed to buy all the supplies. But since I already own a large pile of felt, a ton of ribbon, and a huge basket of yarn - I really only need to buy the wreaths, which are $2.99 and a few extra details to decorate with. How great is that? In fact I have already planned to make myself one for every season plus Halloween and Christmas. I am having the best time coming up with color schemes and decorations for each one. And since it is September I decided to make an autumnal one first - I finished it yesterday and really like how it turned out.

If you want to make one for yourself instructions and examples are here and here. I found it helpful to refer to both blogs, because they each have slightly different directions and examples of finished wreaths- so between the two I figured out more of what I wanted to do. Anyway that's my craft of the day- see you next time!

It's a Mad, Mad World

2011-09-11T01:10:00.010-04:00

So I've been watching a lot of Mad Men lately. For some reason or another I didn't watch it when it first aired, so I just never bothered to start watching it once I heard how great it was. (I'm the kind of girl that likes to watch her shows from the beginning.) So when I saw it in the Netflix instant queue I decided that I should find out what all the fuss was about. And I have to say that I love it. It is an amazing show - and I am especially in love with all the marvelous clothes. (Oh how I covet Joan's wardrobe!) Now that I have told you how much I love it, I must tell you how much I hate it! You see when you watch a single episode it is fantastic. Addicting, wonderful, a perfect period piece. But you see when you have Netflix, you get to watch one episode right after the other while you're folding laundry, cutting fabric, or just vegging out. As a weekly show, I absolutely believe that it does not get into your head and mess with your mind. But watching 3 (or sometimes even 4) episodes in a row, you realize that you are watching the most depressing show on television. It is not a show for marathon watching.

I must admit that before watching Mad Men I considered myself a bit old fashioned. But let me tell you, I am a radical feminist. All the men are complete misogynists and I can't handle it! I would have had a really hard time tolerating the way the men treated the women in the 1960s. Let alone the way most of the men treat their wives. And not only that they are also all self-centered, lying, cheating, bigots to boot. It is weird and kind of hard to believe that the majority of the people in this country were racist and chauvinistic only 50 years ago.

My parents were in town last week and I was telling my mom about it, because as a graphic designer I knew she would love the opening sequence. It is very cool. I told her she had to see the opening credits but that I was pretty sure she would despise the show. Since it is all about all the things she hated about the 60s. I told her a little about it and she was practically shivering with disgust. She agreed that she did not want to watch it because just talking about it was bringing back too many bad memories. Several of which she shared. Terrible is all I can say. It is so strange to think that the fictional plots in the show are more than likely coming from someone's actual experiences. Weird and sad. But good too, because it just shows what a long way we've come. And secretly I must admit that the men I previously thought were chauvinistic pigs are looking just a teensy bit better now. I mean I'm not going to throw them a parade or anything - but let me tell you, they've got nothing on the men from Mad Men.

But I also really wanted to comment on the JFK assassination episodes. I'd been anxiously awaiting these episodes since I first started watching, wondering how they would handle it. And I actually think they were some of my favorite episodes. I never thought I'd cry watching the news coverage about a President dying in 1963, I mean I had seen it before and never cried. But watching it through these characters' eyes, it was a different experience for me. Sitting there safely in my living room watching them wonder what is happening to their world teleported me straight back to where I was on 9/11/01. I think that's what these major events in history do - they make you think of the major events in your own history. They are the horrifying days in our lives that we always remember - I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing on 9/11/01. And I will never forget.

My Husband, Carmen Miranda

2011-08-18T10:04:00.004-04:00

Recently the members of the Crenshaw family that live locally (that would be us, Susy's fam, John's fam & Mike) have decided we should do a weekly (or at least bi-monthly) Sunday night dinner and game night. So we take turns hosting and all pitch in for dinner, then play games. Well we try to play games, but sometimes we are too tired and the kids are too crazy. But we're attempting for some family time, so that's what counts, right?

This past Sunday we were at Susy's house and after dinner we decided to play Zobmondo, which is basically a board game of 'would you rather.' As in would you rather have 2 peg legs or hooves for hands? You get the idea. Anyway when it's your turn you read the appropriate question and write down which one you think the rest of the group will choose - if you guess correctly you get to roll the dice and move forward on the board. So when it was Mark's turned he asked us the question: "Would you rather be a part of a religion that required you to wear fruit on your head everyday or dye a large section of your hair bright red?" We all pretty much immediately and unanimously said "dye our hair red!" To which many added that it would actually be kind of cool and we would like it. Mark was quiet and looked bummed, so we all asked "you got it wrong? You really picked fruit on your head?!" He said yes, to which we all died laughing and said, "why on earth would you think we would pick that!?" So he very calmly and seriously explained, "because then that way I could have fresh fruit whenever I wanted." Ridiculous.

Also as a side note my sister-in-law Meaghan just posted this photo on facebook, their amazing wedding is featured in this months Brides Magazine. So if you come across it, you'll have to check it out. And I, of course, am going to buy it - cause that means my sexy Bond-looking husband is in it too! (See how it's all about me?)

Dream On

2011-07-23T11:07:00.008-04:00

Mark age 4 - pre-broken nose

Last night as I lay in bed wide awake well after 3:00 am with an inexplicable case of insomnia, I found myself thinking about Mark as he lay snoring next to me off in dreamland. And I was mainly contemplating these two things - his snoring and his dreams and how over the past 5.5 years of marriage I have a developed a love/hate relationship with them both.

Let us begin with the snoring. First I must tell you that throughout his youth Mark broke his nose 5 times (and never while playing football incidentally). I can only imagine that having ones nose broken 5 times would cause large amounts of damage to the septum, which in turn leads to snoring. I understand that it really is not his fault and that I probably should not ~~kick him~~ gently tap him while I am trying to fall asleep. I understand all of this, but it doesn't change the fact that he snores so loudly that I can often hear him in the living room, over the TV, from the bedroom which is down the hall with the door closed. While we were in NYC for his brother's wedding, we stayed in a hotel room for a few days with his other brother Matt and girlfriend Beth. Down at breakfast after the first night Beth looked at me in amazement and asked "how can you sleep through that snoring?" With 5+ years of experience, Beth - that's how. (Am now considering adding this experience to my resume.) Apparently Matt and Beth were up incredibly late dying laughing, counting the number of different snores Mark has, naming them, and finally putting in their ipods so that they could fall asleep. So it turns out that Mark has 7 different and distinctive snores. This is great information - I always knew they were numerous but was too busy ~~pushing him~~ gently nudging him, I never bothered to count. Now I regret that through the course of the busy wedding weekend and because I was told the names they came up with for these 7 snores early in the morning down at breakfast where I was tired and had no paper, that I only remember 1 of them. (Note to self: text Matt and ask if he remembers the other names.) And the main reason I remember the 1 name is because I knew which snore it was the minute they said the name. The Volcano. You see the volcano is proceeded by deceptively quiet snoring that comes out at such a nice even tempo it is practically lulling you to sleep, then there is a brief silence followed by a sudden earth shattering, village destroying eruption that is The Volcano. And now you're wide awake again, heart pounding from the startling violent noise next to you. And the cycle starts over...

Mark age 15 - not breaking his nose

Now onto the dreams. Mark has an ability (in addition to the Volcano) that I find somewhat amazing - he can remember his dreams every night. I barely ever remember my dreams, when I first wake up occasionally a weird mixture of images and events play through my head - which I quickly forget and go on with my day. Mark however remembers all of his dreams, to the finest detail and even days later sometimes. And every day he tells me, "I had the craziest/weirdest/most interesting dream last night" and proceeds to tell it to me. Everyday for more than 5 years I have listened to his dreams. I will admit that I often nod and say uh-huhs and yeahs at pauses, while actually reading my book/cooking/sewing/writing my blog but for the most part I do try to pay attention. Hilariously Mark just called me from work to ask how I slept (didn't) and guess what? Tell me his dream. (I told you. Everyday.) So now I will share it with you. (Begin dream sequence) Mark and I were in the car driving around town. I was driving and it was the town we lived in, but only in the dream, not actually Morrisville. And I was apparently driving very fast and erratically. So Mark told me that I was driving crazy and he wished I would slow down and be more safe. To which I told him to be quiet and leave me alone and just let me drive (sounds about right). So he was mad and sat next to me in silence thinking "if you want me to be quiet, fine I'll be quiet. I won't speak another word." I continued to drive so crazy that we drove right off a cliff that had a raging river running below it (see not Morrisville). At which point he could hold his tongue no longer and began to yell at me as we flew through the air, "see I told you! You never listen to me! You were driving too fast and crazy and now we're going over a cliff!" etc... I of course yelled back that I knew what I was doing and he needed to be quiet. So then we hit bottom, but we hit the bank of the river and we are still going so fast that we bounce off, through a group of trees and right back onto the road. To which I said "I told you so." (End dream sequence.) Hilarious. And disturbing. If you were to interpret this you might think it means that Mark feels I am driving our lives through a wild crash course. But as you can plainly see, what it actually means is that he needs to just listen to me, cause I know what I'm talking about. (And possibly hold on tight.)

Does This Post Make Me Look Fat?

2011-07-20T16:21:00.008-04:00

So remember that time I said I would be better about posting? Yeah, me too. But you will be happy to know that I am alive and well. Been keeping myself busy reading and sewing and eating. And lately I've mostly been eating Creme de Methe Chocolate Cake!

You see we had a really fun Relief Society activity a few weeks ago that was a service auction. What is a service auction you ask? Well I will tell you. Everyone who comes writes down a service/talent they have that they can share - like taking photos, sewing a bag, making a cake, etc... And then they all answer questions about themselves and each question is worth points and points equals money to bid on services. Got it? I was lucky enough to be the auctioneer at this service auction, which gave me the ability to close any auction on something I really wanted and sell it to myself. (Bwahahahaha - I am drunk with power!) Which is how I won Erika Smith's oh-so-delicious 3 layer Creme de Methe Chocolate Cake. She brought it to us on Sunday evening and since then I have been eating it everyday for ~~breakfast~~ dessert.

It is amazing. And it worked out well because I auctioned off my babysitting talents - which she won, so it's a nice little trade we got going.

Friday Feature and BookSneeze

2011-06-17T08:38:00.004-04:00

So there's this blog called Hey Nonny and on this blog there are 4 girls who write Monday through Thursday about their random notings, and then they ask a guest to be the 'Friday Feature'. And this week it's me! I was excited to be asked to put my two cents in about nothing in particular. So check me out and find out who I've got a crush on.

Also my sister-in-law Meghan (Mark's sister, not to be confused with my sister-in-law Meaghan, John's wife, Mark's brother, not to be confused with my brother John - whew! Anyone else have this name problem?) told me about this website BookSneeze. They send you free books so that you will read them and review them. Um, yes please. So I made a separate blog so I can well, sneeze about books I suppose.

So there you have it- if you don't get enough of me here, I'm all over the place these days

A Wedding in NYC

2011-06-08T14:30:00.004-04:00

We just got back from New York City for Mark's brother John's wedding. It was a hectic long weekend - but we had a ton of fun with family and friends.

Before all the wedding hubbub started Mark and I got to do the 30 Rock/SNL tourist thing-

Friday night the rehearsal dinner was in Battery Park - so we got to eat delicious food with a recognizable view-

John & Meaghan's wedding was on Sunday afternoon and it was beautiful! They got married at the Church of Our Lady of Peace-

Then they took photos in Washington Square Park-

The reception was at the Bryant Park Grill - right next to the NYC Library - where Mark and his younger brother Matt practiced their co-best man speech, and lots of fun was had by all. (I can't remember the last time I danced to Outkast or heard a more amazing rendition of Purple Rain.)

Junk Food Junkies

2011-05-25T23:23:00.012-04:00

Oh Krispy Kreme doughnuts, why are you so delicious? You see they recently built a Krispy Kreme store in good old Fuquay Varina - which is forty minutes from my house (thankfully), but only about two minutes from my sister Susy's house (less thankfully). And you see because it's a new store, to promote business (and because they have a pact with the Devil) they keep the HOT NOW sign on all the time! Which is delicious. If not slightly dangerous. So naturally tonight as I drove by on my way home I was taken over (refer to pact above) and was forced to go through the drive-thru and get myself two piping hot, glaze-melting doughnuts. Which I promptly (if not savoringly) ate in the car on the way home. Licking sugar off my fingers at every red light. It was wonderful. But you see it is too easy to fall victim to this (Devil pact), most likely because I do not drive past it every day and have not therefore built up the proper immunity to the ever present HOT NOW sign. You see the dilemma I'm in? It's bad.

So let me back track a little, just in case you happen to live in some sad existence in which you have never had a HOT NOW Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut, allow me to explain the utter perfection: 1st I must say that I don't like glazed doughnuts, 2nd I must say the Krispy Kreme hot glazed doughnuts are my favorite doughnut of all time, and 3rd I must say that you must now imagine the most perfect glazed doughnut you can think of, then imagine it about 2 times better than that, than imagine it hot, and finally imagine that as you eat it, each bite melts in your mouth like unto cotton candy. Do I need to go on? I just ate two and I am drooling typing this. Now I will tell you the three things that I think of every time I eat a HOT NOW glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut. They are two movie quotes and one childhood memory.

Number 1 - So I Married an Axe Murderer - the Dad: "They put an addictive chemical in it that makes you crave for it nightly." (Now I must explain the this quote is in fact referring to KFC, but we can presume this is only because Mike Myers is from Canada and has sadly never eaten a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Had he had the opportunity, he would have changed the script.)

Number 2 - Mannequin - Hollywood: "They call to me in the night. Hollywood, come and eat me Hollywood." (In this quote he is actually referring to doughnuts. Do not question my knowledge of the film Mannequin.)

Number 3 - When I was young there were a few years where our church would spend a Saturday selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts door-to-door to raise money for Girl's Camp and Youth Conference. I am not completely sure about the exact age I was when the incident occurred, but I was somewhere around 12 to 14 years old. So the way it worked was really early on a Saturday morning we would go to a Krispy Kreme warehouse type location (now it might have just been the store in down town Raleigh, but I was young and so it seemed like a big warehouse type place) and picked up lots of boxes of a dozen glazed doughnuts to sell. My mom would load them up in the back seat and then we would drive around our neighborhood where my mom would park and I'd take a stack of boxes and go from door-to-door selling them to anyone who wanted them only returning to the car to get more boxes until we had sold them all. Basically just like Girl Scout cookies, only with instant gratification. At one particular house when I rang the bell I heard someone yell, "Come in." Not knowing them I naturally did not come in. I knew that they must think I'm someone else and so therefore I should ring the bell again to let them know that they do not know me. (Wasn't I so sensible?) So I rang again and of course they said, "Come in" again. So I did. When I walked in there was a group of very cool older high school kids - there were 3 girls and 6 guys - hanging out in the living room playing video games. Around them there were lots of pizza boxes, chip bags, empty 'soda' cans, etc. When I explained that I was selling doughnuts they said, "No way. So you like just came to our house on Saturday morning with doughnuts for us." I said "Yes." They said, "This is like the best thing that has ever happened to us. Do you do this every week?" I said "No." They asked, "Is that one box all you have left?" I explained to them that I had a lot more in the car and could get them as many boxes as they wanted. They pooled their cash and told me they had enough for six boxes. I was elated! That was more than half of the boxes I had left to sell. I was a master salesman. I ran to the car and excitedly told my mom that this house was having a slumber party (wasn't I so cute and naive) and so they wanted six boxes! She thought this was great and handed them out to me. So I proudly walked back up to the house and sold them the six boxes of doughnuts. Honestly I think my favorite part about this sweet story of selling prowess and childhood innocence, is that it was several years later before I thought back on my proud moment and realized that I had knocked on the door of a bunch of potheads with a major case of the munchies! So the moral of the story is - if you have to sell doughnuts (or really any food for that matter) door-to-door on a Saturday morning be sure to know where the junkies live.

(By the way I was not paid in any way by Krispy Kreme for this post, but will happily accept cash and/or HOT NOW glazed doughnuts. Also I have noticed that I have lately become a once-a-month blogger. I will try to do better, I promise.)

If It Weren't For These Allergies....

2011-04-24T17:32:00.011-04:00

So this Spring my allergies have been out of control! I don't know what's different but I am dying. I sit here today with almost no voice, coughing as I type, because of these blasted allergies. And because I can't breathe, I'm having a hard time sleeping. The other night I was laying in bed next to Mark, listening to him snore for over 2 hours, wide awake and frustrated before I finally just got up and watched TV, only better - because we have Netflix. Oh Netflix instant queue, you are the best friend of the insomniac. No more are the days of channel surfing through infomercials. Now are the days of reading a book by Portia de Rossi, thinking of Ally McBeal, adding it to my instant queue and voila - a sleepless night can be spent watching hours of good old 90s iconic television. I guess I have to thank you Netflix, for making me have a love-hate relationship with these allergies, instead of just a hate-hate one.

And in other news (and most importantly when I'm not having allergy attacks) I have been spending large amounts of my free time sewing. I made a cute little shirt and skirt for my niece Abby for her 2nd birthday. ( I am super in love with the little frogs in mason jars on the accent fabric!)

Matching bubble skirts for my nieces Lily and Claire, for Claire's 1st birthday.

And a retro apron for Catherine as a housewarming present (she bought her 1st house - congrats Cat!)

Partners in Crime

2011-04-05T13:50:00.016-04:00

So recently I have been spending my time rearranging and redecorating my house (I use redecorating loosely because I am doing it in the most affordable way possible - moving art from one room to another, repainting canvases, putting different photos in frames, etc...). Part of this process included asking my mom to send me old family photos - and when I say old, I mean old - I'm talking ancestors, baby. I decided it would be great to combine current family photos with old family photos all in black and white in my living room. I also went to the McKeon's and got some photos of Mark's family and scanned them in. And I am loving all the family mixed together.

Wedding photos of my parents, us, and Mark's parents

Here Mark and I are playing together in the backyard wading pool

My mom also sent me this photo of myself at age 6, which looks quite a bit like my niece Sophia (now age 6)

My Grandma Wade with her twins and my sister Laura with her twins

My mom as a toddler (with her twin brother Bill) and my niece Lily

My mom in college and my sister Laura

I think that was my favorite part about this whole experience - finding how much our old family looks like our new family...

Time for an Intervention?

2011-03-11T08:36:00.018-05:00

Hi my name is Heather and I am an alien-aholic. There I've taken the 1st step towards recovering. I am admitting my problem. You see there are you ladies out there with your vampires and werewolves... But I'll take an alien any day of the week. Growing up with my sci-fi fan of a dad - we watched a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars, etc.... The first movie I remember seeing in the theater is E.T. But really this little obsession for me, I think, all started with the tv show Starman. Oh how I loved that Starman! And then of course there were the great shows like X-Files and The Next Generation that kept aliens alive and well in my mind. Roswell made me fall in madly in love with Max Evans and wish that a beautiful, tortured alien with a healing touch would come and save me from my pathetic 23-year-old existence. But now - now I have found the end all and be all of my alien-addictedness. The Doctor.

Oh, Doctor Who where have you been all my life? What's that? You've been there in England since 1963 - even before I was born - just waiting for me! I'm sure my dad tried to introduce you to me, but I was such a silly little girl then that I did not listen. But, thanks to my brothers, I now finally have you in my life. In fact, Michael and John should really be given medals of honor for introducing me to the two loves of my life - Mark and The Doctor.

So it is with great excitement that I present to you my one and only Doctor Who Bathroom (or Doctor Who Loo - if you like the rhyming and the British-ness of it all):

The photos are a little dark (it is the bathroom after all), so to clarify the rug and soap dispenser are TARDIS blue and the towels are blue and black.

The TARDIS in Starry Night - love it! Especially after the Van Gogh episode...

This picture is really where the idea for the bathroom all started. So thanks to The Gorgonist on etsy for creating the most amazingly adorable and hilarious piece of art! Heather Winters and I decided it was me and her. And Mark unknowingly said he thinks the Dalek girl is the cutest one - so basically even in the sort-of cartoon version of myself he thinks I'm hot! (Now Heather you will have to test Greg and see if he passes.)

A little collage of some of my favorite Doctor Who moments and monsters.

And of course a TARDIS on the back of the toilet tank...

Filled with potpourri, naturally.

Went To Ohio And It Was Pretty Cool

2011-02-22T17:45:00.012-05:00

My parents with 10 of the 11 grandchildren. (Oh how we missed Abby! And John and Amanda too, of course)

We went to Ohio for Alice & Penny's baby blessings and had a fab time. We told lots of jokes, watched silly stuff online, went to Amish country, only got a little bit sick (a nice 24 hour stomach flu made it's way through the family), and learned a lot.

Sophia taught us about getting a man:

Sophia (talking to me while I put my make-up on before church): Girls love to wear make-up. Especially on Sundays.
Me: True we do like to look nice on Sundays.
Sophia: Yes, on Sundays girls put on their prettiest dresses and their make-up and go to church in the Singles Ward so they can meet boys. My mom told me.
Me: Oh really?!
Sophia: Oh yes, my mom told me that girls love to go to the Singles Ward and when they see a handsome boy they flip their hair like this (she flips her hair) and say "Well hello there." That's what they do.

Holly and Lucy taught us some jokes:

Holly: knock, knock
Laura: who's there?
Holly: banana
Laura: banana who?
Holly: knock, knock
Laura: who's there?
Holly: banana
Laura: banana who?
Holly: knock, knock
Laura: who's there?
Holly: banana
Laura: banana who?
Holly: knock, knock
Laura: who's there?
Holly: orange
Laura: orange who?
Holly: I said banana too many times!

Lucy: (this joke is told entirely by Lucy all in one go, really fast - she made it up herself, can you tell?) knock, knock. who dere? tato. tato who? tato in my eyes! (at the last line, she always covers her eyes and dies laughing)

I made some bubble skirts for Laura's girls and they had a great time modeling them for us - what a bunch of divas!

And the twins, of course. Seeing a new baby is always cute, but seeing twins is sooo much more adorable! I can't get over it. And just so you know which is which, Alice has darker hair and Penny has lighter hair.

Laura introduced us to hashtags on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Hilarious! We especially enjoyed the worst pickup lines and worst dates... (kiss it, with a midnight voice)

And lucky for Laura we introduced her to the Miley Cyrus show on SNL - the show with the most epic theme song that gets stuck in you head, but only forever. It's pretty cool!

Previously On...

2011-01-28T16:51:00.018-05:00

If you haven't been hanging out with us for the past 3ish months (so I've been a little slack at the blogging lately- so sue me) here's what you've missed:

Redecorated our bedroom (thanks to a little help from my mom for supplying the comforter and 4 sexy throw pillows)

Made a diaper bag for Heather Winters

Had some new nieces - Alice and Penny Chabo were born 11/30/10 - come on! how adorable right?!

Had some snow

Had some Christmas

Had some more snow, so we had a white Christmas (in NC who woulda thought) and watched some Doctor Who

Made a hip bag (aka cooler way of saying fanny pack) for my sister Susy to use when she runs - she ran her 1st marathan at Disney earlier this month

Had our 5th anniversary (which I incidentally have no pictures of) and a Happy New Year!

Now we're looking forward to going to Ohio to visit my sister Laura and her family next week. Can't wait to meet those twin babies! (And see the rest of my family too of course.)

Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday...

2010-11-01T17:55:00.004-04:00

So I have discovered that I am absolutely in love with Blackberry Jam (you will note that I love it so much it must be capitalized like a name). I don't think I ever paid too much attention to Blackberry Jam before - always going for Strawberry or Grape and occasionally Orange Marmalade or Apple Butter. But when my parents were out here getting their house ready to sell my mom bought some groceries and then left them with us when they went back to VA. And one of the things my mom left me was a jar of Blackberry Jam! And I've been eating it on toast and biscuits and homemade Belgian waffles ever since - delish! (I highly recommend - it is totally better than syrup. A little butter and Blackberry Jam on top of your waffle and you are set.) In fact I even had a completely random moment that is the closest to sleep eating I've ever experienced - one night I woke up at 1:30am and I was STARVING! I'm talking stomach growling, couldn't go back to sleep hungry. And so naturally I thought, "this is weird, I must just be really thirsty" so I drank a glass of water and nothing, still starving. I kept telling myself "you are ridiculous, just go to sleep" but my stomach kept saying "go eat toast with Blackberry Jam right now!" So I did. At 1:30 in the morning I got out of bed and made myself some toast with Blackberry Jam. It made me laugh so hard at myself and I kept feeling like Liz Lemon with her night eating.

And in other fun Blackberry Jam anecdotes- my sister Laura and her family came to visit a few weeks ago and on Friday night her 3 girls Sophia, Holly and Lucy spent the night with us. So I made toast for breakfast (I was feeling lazy- don't judge - I'd done a whole big Taco Party with rainbow cupcakes the night before, even the best Aunt deserves to make toast occasionally). I asked them what they wanted on it butter or jam and what kind of jam. Sophia chose just butter, Holly chose Blackberry Jam (what a genius!), and we decided to give Lucy one with just butter and one with Blackberry Jam and see what she liked the best. Naturally Lucy licked all the jam off her toast, then ate the bread and didn't even touch her plain butter piece. So I got up to put jam on her second piece and Sophia asked if she could have jam on her second piece too. Of course you can, Sophia! And while I was jamming the toast she explained why she had asked for butter but now wanted jam, "My Daddy always buys sugar free jam in Amish country, and I don't like it at all. But I could tell by the way they were eating it that it was not sugar free!" What an astute observation - the logic of a 5 year old is nothing short of genius.

The Epicness

2010-09-27T17:48:00.007-04:00

So Mark decided he wanted to learn how to make chainmaille. So we ordered him a bunch of steel jump rings and by using my jewelry making tools - voila - he has made a chainmaille dice bag. That's right, a dice bag - to hold ones dice while playing Dungeons and Dragons. (And you thought chainmaille was going to be the dorkiest part of this post.)

So he started with this:

And ended up with this:

I helped him sew in the lining and he finished it off with a leather cord to pull it closed. I actually think it's pretty great and am super proud of his geekery. He gave this one to my brother Mike for his birthday and is now making plans to make one for himself. (Now that he practiced on this one, he can make his even better. You know how you do.)

Luck of the Irish

2010-09-15T10:40:00.008-04:00

My punishment for laughing at Heather's post is this

and these

Well at least I'd shaved my legs. Naturally the first thing I did after falling in my front yard is hop inside and put on some shorts. Cause in case I needed a cast - they were not cutting my pants! But it is not broken, just a severe sprain and fracture, so that's nice. Don't be too jealous of the last two weeks of my life - and I didn't even mention the ticket for expired registration cause that would just be rubbing it in.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2010-09-02T06:52:00.007-04:00

So Tuesday was a bad day. I wouldn't call it Tuesday, it was more like Lose-day or Bruise-day or Wish-I-Drank-Booze-Day... Although apparently Tuesday is named after the god of war - so yeah that feels about right. It all started off normal enough, alarm, shower, dress, read book while eating breakfast. And then about 3 miles down the road my tire exploded. So I pull over and start changing my tire. I am a modern woman and know how to change a tire. But I could not for the life of me get the spare out of the trunk! The bolt-thingy (I said I know how to change a tire - I never claimed to be a car person that knows the names of things. You should just be happy I'm calling it a tire and not a wheel) that holds the spare in place was rusted shut or something because it would not budge. I was whacking it with the crowbar and getting nothing. I finally decide to go ahead and jack the car up and take the blown tire off and then come back to to spare and see what I can do. But once I'm done with all that, I still can't get the thing to move. So I decide I just have to call someone. I go to my purse and what do you know? I forgot my phone. I left it plugged, charging on Mark's dresser - just where I need it. Naturally I burst in to tears. I quit being a woman who knows how to change a tire and turned in to a girl crying on the curb. But then two men come around the corner riding bicycles and I look up at them with hope shining in my tear filled eyes and they promptly look away and keep riding. Apparently work out is more important than crying girl on side of road. Naturally I cried a little harder. And started praying that the Lord would please send someone to help me- someone that was strong and not more involved in their stupid workout cause those guys looked weak and skinny and probably couldn't have helped me anyway. And that's when a big moving company truck comes around the corner with two huge black guys in it, leaning out the window asking if I need help. I sniffle and nod, because at this point that's about all I can do. So Fred and Frank come to my rescue. (Those are actually their names I didn't just randomly make them up.) It takes them - remember these are two huge guys that work for a moving company - 20 minutes and a hammer to break the bolt-thingy off (because we gave up on trying to unscrew it) and get the spare out. I never could have done this on my own. And to be honest I don't think those guys on bikes would've been much help either. They put my spare on my car for me and I thank them profusely. They both say that it's no problem, when they saw me sitting there all they could think was that they would hope someone would stop and help if it was their mama or sister or auntie. Fred and Frank you are the best.

Now I am officially running very late for work and still have no phone to call and tell anybody what's going on. And when I'm only about 30 minutes late and 3 minutes from work, the guy in front of me slams on his brakes. I am far enough behind to come to a stop without hitting him - thank goodness. And just as I'm yelling at him, to myself in my closed car of course, about what is he doing?! I see that geese are getting ready to cross the road. Not already crossing the road, or even on the road in any way. But just on the side of the road as if waiting to cross. You do not need to stop for this. The geese can wait - some of us have to get to work. But the cars on the other side stop too and the geese look both ways (I'm not kidding they really do - these are some seriously pedestrian geese) and begin crossing the street. And it's not just a few geese, it's an entire flock. They were half behind trees so you couldn't tell how many of them there were at first. But there were 43, trust me I counted. And they crossed the street at a leisurely goose-pace in a single file line. Thank you geese. You may think that this would be a grand sight to behold and isn't cute, etc... But though I can sort of chuckle about it now - I was not impressed. I was just really late.

By the time I get to work I am 40 minutes late and rush in apologizing and explaining my crazy morning. I didn't even bother telling anyone about the geese, cause it's just another ridiculous thing. I rush around trying to catch up on the morning and when I finally settle down, I realize I've started bleeding. I was four days late and had 3 positive pregnancy tests, so we were just starting to get excited. Restrained, because of our history, but excited. I didn't have much left in me after the morning I'd had - so as you can imagine I completely break down. I pull myself together enough to tell my boss what's going on, she gives me a huge, wonderful hug and sends me home. And so I leave work and drive home to get my phone and then straight to the tire place, clearly I was in shock and did not want to deal with the bigger issue yet. I explain to Andre - my third huge black man of the day - that I am on a budget and that I can't really afford 4 new tires, but I'll do what he recommends. He inspects my tires and comes back and tells me that the other 3 all look great and he wouldn't replace them yet. I only need one, which will cost $70. Andre you are the best. Mark meets me there and takes me out for burgers and ice cream. And we chat. About nothing important. Mark you are the best.

After going to the doctor and getting blood work done, etc... the nurse calls me once I'm home and tells me that my numbers are so low that it was probably just a 'chemical pregnancy'. Oh, a chemical pregnancy. Thank you, I feel much better now. So it's not like this is my 5th miscarriage. It's more like 4.1 cause if we hadn't been counting days and trying we never would've even known. It's a bummer too because I really thought I wouldn't have any more miscarriages. I really thought the next time I got pregnant would be it. Oh well - it's not to be. I know this is a depressing post for all you, but don't worry you're not alone. It's depressing for me too. I just didn't want to make a bunch of phone calls, or hear a million suggestions about how to get pregnant and keep it. I've heard them all, I promise. I just needed to vent a little. And at this point it's starting to feel like old hat - 5 for 5.

But I also wanted to say a big thank you to those 4 men who saved the day for me on Tuesday - Fred, Frank, Andre and Mark. Couldn't have gotten through the day without your help. Also want to say a huge thanks to all those who are praying for us. And if you're praying that we get pregnant, let's start getting more specific and pray that we have a baby, or children, or a whole heap of children. I don't care how you phrase it - let's just get on this and make it happen. Cause I know we can. Thanks for all your love and support. I couldn't do it without you.

Big, Angry Beastie

2010-08-24T17:38:00.009-04:00

Well another month has gone by with barely any news from me and I'll tell you why. Because I have been a big, angry Beastie! I didn't want to push all my mean-nasty on you, so instead I have been having daily ice cream anti-socials. (Or cake, or brownies, or chips, or cheese, or Mexican food... Mmm Mexican food that sounds delicious. I need to eat dinner.) But today while I was reading over my lunch hour, I realized that I have been a big, angry Beastie and need to get over it! Basically I have been saying "woe is me" for over a month now and I'm sick of myself. To give you an idea of my inner monologue, here's a sample: "Where are my babies? Where's my rich husband? Where's my big, beautiful house? Why am I still working? Why aren't I a stay-at-home mom with lots of children? Where's my new car with working AC? etc, etc..." You see how annoying I've been?

So I decided to be happy with what I got. I don't have everything I ever dreamed of, but in some ways I have more... I have a loving husband who tells me I'm hot everyday. He's my best friend and cracks me up! (Plus I always loved John Lennon and he's a little John Lennon-looking. Or as I now think, John Lennon is a little Mark-looking.) I have a good job and I make good money - in fact I just got a raise today. And I'm using that job to help my husband pay his way through school - this lady is bringing home the bacon. (Mmm bacon. Really need to eat dinner.) I don't have any babies yet and sometimes it's dang hard not to stress out thinking about how these eggs have an expiration date and wanting to slap every pregnant lady I see. (No offense to all my pregnant girls. Love ya, mean it! Happy for you, sad for me - you know how it is...) But I know that I will have some babies - in the words of George Michael I just gotta have faith - because the Lord is smarter than me. And thanks to modern conveniences, I have a DVR, Netflix, and a library card so I can escape at the snap of a finger. We just moved in to a super cute apartment that we love. And we don't have roommates anymore! (Can I get an Amen?!) Although I have a 12 year old car with no working AC - I have no car payment. And my friend's husband just put a CD player in it - no more tape deck for me baby, welcome to the 21st century - so I have been enjoying rocking out to my CDs on my way to and from work each day.

So you see life aint too shabby. I mean just look at that dorky expression on his face - how could I not love that guy and be happy?!

Now I am going to go eat dinner, cause I am starving. In case you didn't already guess.

Photo Recap

2010-07-28T10:17:00.018-04:00

I've been quite busy recently with the new job, birthdays, getting ready to move, and the zombie invasion... So I thought I'd give you a little photo recap to catch you up, before I'm off to behead a few more unsightlies.

Laura's hubby Travis came down to visit with Sophia and Holly so we had a lot of fun with them. (If you didn't already know my sister Laura is preggers with twins and has been on bed rest.) Two of my favorite moments are as follows. We went to the pool and while walking home Holly said, "this is a long short cut." I gave the girls a bath and was too lazy to get the kids soap and shampoo, so I just used some of mine. They really loved using a bar of soap and sudsing it up in their hands. I explained to them that the soap was lemon-verbena to which Sophia said, "it's pretty funny we're making our bums smell like lemon!" I agree Sophia, I agree.

Grace and her best friend Mark had a birthday party. Grace turned 2, Mark turned 2 + 23.

Lily had her 2nd birthday party. We played games and went out for ice cream. I made her and Claire pillowcase dresses and decided to make Susy a matching apron too. (PS- Lily loves to be naked. As soon as we came back from Sunni Sky's she said "diaper off.")

(that's her daddy's pinching hand)

And then obviously the zombie invasion.

Yes, this is an actual photo Mark took, it's just a few blocks up the road from us, it all started 4th of July weekend... It's been quite a nightmare, as you can imagine.

What You Said?

2010-05-18T18:36:00.003-04:00

Here are a few of my favorite conversations over the last month and a half...

Mike: I miss Win Ben Stein's Money.
Mark: Oh I hate that show! You can only win if you pee!
Mike: What?! Oh, no you're thinking of Distraction.

On Easter Mark and I explained to Sophia that the Easter Bunny poops chocolate candy and that's how we get all the yummy Easter candy, and this is what she had to say about it.
Sophia(laughing): Wow! You sure know a lot about the Easter Bunny!

Holly really wants to be a part of every conversation, so here's an example of how she joins in.
Me: We should all go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday.
Holly: What you said, Aunt Header?
Me: I said we should go to the Farmer's Market.
Holly: Oh, I just love the Farmer's Market!
(You see, you can say pretty much anything and Holly will "just love" it.)

Abby: Roar, roar, roar

While driving home from Sunni Sky's (best ice cream ever, by the way!) the girls asked me to tell a story, so I suggested that we all tell the story together. So I'd have the girls fill in at certain points, you know what I mean...
Me: Once upon a time Sophia and Holly opened a french fry stand. And it became really popular and everyone really loved their famous french fry sauce. Which was made of?
Sophia: Cherry juice and coconut juice.
Me: Mmmmm, sounds delicious. And then Lily opened up a hot dog stand next door. And everyone loved to get french fries from Sophia and Holly and then go next door and get hot dogs from Lily. So Lily what kind of hot dogs did you sell?
Lily: Mickey Mouse!
Holly: What Lily said, Aunt Header?
Me: She said she sells Mickey Mouse hot dogs.
Holly: Oh, I just love Mickey Mouse hot dogs!
Me: Yes, everyone loved Lily's hot dogs made out of Mickey Mouse meat. I mean who doesn't love Mickey Mouse meat hot dogs?!
Sophia (laughing): Oh man, that is cracking me up and making me laugh so hard!
(Have you noticed that Sophia loves gross things? Yes, it makes hilarious story telling very easy.)

John: How was your day today?
Me: Fine. I turned in my two weeks notice at work and then I came home and ate whip cream for dinner.
John: Sounds like a pretty good day.

April Fools!

2010-04-01T08:14:00.003-04:00

Since my boss Dr. Jason's birthday is today (April 1), I decided if there was ever a time to make cupcakes that look like something else it was now. I've always wanted to do this, so I was pretty excited with how well they turned out.

Anyone care for fried chicken drumstick, mashed potatoes and gravy, and peas and carrots?

Butterfly in the Sky

2010-03-31T12:26:00.006-04:00

My sister Laura and her family are in town, so on Saturday we all went to the NC Museum of Life and Science. We took Lily with us so Susy and Todd could relax at home with Claire. And since both Mark and John had to work it ended up being Travis and a bunch of girls! (Poor Travis...) But we had a great time and the girls especially loved the Butterfly House.

A New 'Crenshaw' Baby!

2010-03-25T21:57:00.005-04:00

Susy had her baby! Claire Elizabeth Estes was born Tuesday, March 23 at 8:43 pm, 6lbs 14oz. She's completely adorable (and I'm not just a proud aunt talking - she really is a cute little peanut) and mom and baby are both doing great- in fact they went home today.

Oh, The Beach

2010-03-19T09:57:00.014-04:00

So remember when I said we were going to go visit Laura and her family in Ohio? Well never mind about that - because of sick people and bad weather - we went to the beach instead!

And we went to the Fort Fisher Aquarium

The little turtle stranded on top kills me...

We also saw these really cool crooked trees while we were in Fort Fisher.

And when we were in Wilmington we discovered this excellent little bakery, Hot Pink Cake Stand. They had the best coconut cupcake I've ever eaten! So good, in fact, that it was devoured before the camera even had time to come out and take a picture of it...

Let Them Eat Cake

2010-03-05T10:34:00.006-05:00

So Abby turned 1 this week - and let me tell you she loved eating her cake! I think she was the most voracious cake eater I've ever seen at a 1st birthday party... Amanda's mom made her a little individual 'smash' cake and she devoured the entire thing, and rather quickly I might add. (That's a girl after my own heart!)

In this picture I believe she is saying, "Oh my is this another cake for me? Yes, please."

Switcheroo

2010-03-01T12:06:00.005-05:00

So remember that time I said that Mark and I were moving on March 13 to an adorable cottage in New Hill? Well never mind. We'll be staying where we are until August, cause apparently the Lord has other plans for us. It is a weird thing that we've gone through the last few weeks. We had been feeling like we were supposed to move, we found a great house, prayed about it and got "yes, you'll be very happy here." Then less than two weeks later we get, "Although you'd be very happy in that house, it's not My will. You're supposed to stay where you are until August." Mark and I have been very prayerful about it and we went to the temple Friday night and feel that this is what the Lord wants for us right now. And when it comes down to choosing between my personal selfish choice vs the Lord's choice - it's pretty much a no brainer! Through it all I've gained an even stronger testimony of faith and trusting that the Lord knows more about what's going on than we do. Even though it can sometimes be frustrating and scary to do what He says. So we'll see what happens over the next five months - and maybe we'll never know why we're supposed to stay and that's OK too.

In the mean time, since we already requested off vacation days for the move we decided to go on a mini vacation and visit my sister Laura and her family in Ohio. So you see we don't even have to wait five months for some of the payoff. Amish Butter here we come... Hurrah!

Feeling Neglected?

2010-02-17T17:06:00.009-05:00

How have I neglected thee? Let me count the ways... Well just so you know I have not intentionally been neglecting you. I have written many-a-blog in my head while drifting off to sleep or driving in the car. Just seem to have a hard time getting in front of the computer with it all. But be assured the last month has been an adventurous one filled with Mark's healing eye, snow days and house/apartment hunting...

I am happy to report that Mark's eye is fully healed. Two beautiful green ones that I can gaze lovingly into for all eternity. (Too much? Perhaps...) And randomly through it all I found myself singing that girl's camp song "He's got one black, two black, eyes like a shoe black. Sweetheart to the bone..." (Ha! Now it's stuck in your head.)

We've had uncharacteristically wintery weather in NC. And as a result have had numerous snow days. Abby loved the snow! She shoved handful after handful into her mouth. She's definitely a snow-baby.

And in other news... as you know we've been renting my parents house for the last year but now they're ready to put it on the market. (And we're ready to be on our own again.) So despite the weather Mark and I have spent the last few weekends apartment/house hunting. Since we're not quite ready to buy a house, we wanted to find a place that we could happily live until we are ready to buy a house. We found ourselves looking in unexpected places like Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Apex. But most unexpected of all is that we chose a place in New Hill. It's an adorable little two bedroom cottage nestled in the country. I plan to go take some photos this week, so I'll post those soon. We'll only be 2 miles from Jordan Lake - so if you're looking for us in the summer, you'll know where to find us. We're moving March 13, so the next few weeks will be spent packing... But we're really excited!

To See or Not to See

2010-01-19T10:47:00.010-05:00

So last Thursday while I am out to lunch with my sister Susy I get a very distressed phone call from my poor husband. I barely get out a "hello" before Mark starts ranting about getting something in his eye at work and how he's ticked off and can't see and doesn't even know how he's driving right now, etc, etc. I (being the super loving and concerned wife that I am) calmly tell him that if he can't see, then he definitely doesn't need to be on the phone while driving - he needs to go home, flush his eye out with water and call me later (when I'm done having lunch with Susy) if it's not better. He agrees with my sage advice and goes home and flushes his eye out, but he's still in so much pain that he just takes pain meds and falls asleep.

He wakes up around 4pm and feels even worse. So he calls me again and tells me the steps he's taken to no avail, so I tell him he needs to go to the eye doctor. Now perhaps I should have begun this tale by explaining the deathly terror that Mark experiences with anything going near his eyes. He doesn't touch his eye, he doesn't use eye drops, he faints at the sight of contact lenses. (You get the idea.) So naturally he does not want to go to the doctor. I tell him that I'm calling right now to make an appointment and remember how much you liked Dr Uwe Canting when we went last year and you'll be fine and John will drive you and that you're going, the end. (You see how sometimes just having a husband makes you feel like you have kids?) The doctor's office says they can work him in if he comes asap, so John takes my 6'6" baby boy to the doctor.

While I'm closing up at work around 5:30 I get another call from him and he tells me (unusually calmly, I might add) that it turns out he has metal on his iris and it is rusting in his eye and that they have to get the ophthalmologist to come and surgically remove it or it could cause permanent damage and possible blindness. What?! How did this happen? I am a terrible and flippant wife. Although I did convince him to go to the doctor, so maybe I'm not so bad. The doctor told me that if he hadn't gone in that night he probably would've lost his eye completely. And though an eye-patched pirate husband would have been kind of sexy, I am happy that he still has both of those big, beautiful green eyes of his. So after 4 Valium, a blessing, and lots of hand holding the metal was removed, eye drops were administered, and a contact lens band-aid was applied. (I can hardly believe that he survived it all.)

His vision is still pretty blurry in his right eye and the doctor said that it may be 2-4 weeks before his vision goes back to normal. We go back this afternoon for another follow-up appointment and they are hoping that he will be healed enough to remove the contact lens. But I have a feeling that it will take another 4 Valium, a blessing, and lots of hand holding to get that contact lens out!

Holy Trinity?

2010-01-06T17:01:00.007-05:00

Another random conversation that I just had to share. This one took place last night while cooking dinner.

Mike: This is almost a mirepoix, we just need celery.

Mark: My family never called it a mirepoix, we always called it the trinity.

Me: Actually I think the trinity is different than a mirepoix. The trinity has green peppers instead of carrots.

Mark: No I think they are the same. Onions, celery, carrots.

Mike: Yeah I think the one with green peppers has a different name and that mirepoix and trinity are the same.

Me: Well if it does I can't think of the other name...

Mike: So Mark if this was The Trinity who would they be?

Mark: Well I think that the Holy Ghost would be onions cause they get all see-through when you cook them.

Mike: OK well what about the other two?

Mark: I guess Jesus would be carrots, cause God is definitely celery.

(Incidentally in case you're wondering I was right - a mirepoix = onions, celery, carrots and the trinity = onions, celery, green peppers.)

I Heart David Tennant

2009-12-28T12:52:00.011-05:00

So I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. Specifically David Tennant as the Doctor. And I'm pretty much in love with him. (Sorry Mark, it has to be said.) Doctor Who has been on since 1963, but I started with Season 1 from 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. I've always really liked Christopher Eccleston. In fact secretly I always pictured him as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and have to admit that I was quite annoyed with who they actually cast. And while we're on the subject of Harry Potter many of you may recognize David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But that's another story.

So if you don't know anything about Doctor Who let me quickly explain that the Doctor is a Time Lord (alien) that travels through time and space in his TARDIS (a spaceship disguised as an old British Police Call Box). Being a Time Lord he is pretty hard to kill. Things that would kill a human, like getting shot in the heart for example, don't kill the Doctor (because incidentally he has two hearts). If something happens that could kill him he is able to regenerate. The only thing is when he regenerates, though he keeps all his memories and is still the Doctor, he looks completely different and has a different personality. (Pretty convenient for recasting and keeping a show airing from the 60s.) Anyway Christopher Eccleston was a great way to start off Doctor Who for me and I was really getting sad the closer I got to the end of his episodes. Even though my brothers kept telling me how amazing David Tennant was, I was certain that I would miss my first Doctor and that no one could ever compare.... But then there was David Tennant! And oh how he won our hearts! (And I do not say "our hearts" lightly - I promise that he has won many a heart as the Doctor- just look him up.)

But I am saddened once again (even more so this time) because alas David Tennant is done and a new Doctor is coming in the next episode. It airs this Saturday on BBC America and I am excited and distressed all at once. So the countdown to Saturday has begun... (As a side note is it completely terrible that we just had Christmas and this week is New Years and my 4th Anniversary and all I can think about is Doctor Who?? What does this say about me...?)

Mormon Christmas Song

2009-12-18T08:37:00.003-05:00

A little Christmas Carol from Conan & Max

Do You See What I See?

2009-12-10T15:41:00.006-05:00

While Michael is living with us he's been sharing a bedroom with Abby and this is what he wakes up to every morning.

There's a Fungus Among Us...

2009-12-08T16:14:00.018-05:00

...Well maybe not a fungus, but definitely an allergic reaction to something! You see I cut my thumb on a broken plate a week ago Saturday. It was just a sliver of a cute - really nothing more than a glorified paper cut. I was very good and immediately washed it and put neosporin and a band-aid on it. (Mom taught me well.) But by Sunday it was itching, by Monday it was swollen, and by Tuesday night it hurt like crazy, itched, was covered in tiny blisters, and turning purplish-black. Throughout all this I was fastidious about washing it with anti-bacterial soap and regularly changing my band-aid with fresh dousings of nesporin, but to no avail. So Wednesday morning I went to the doctor. He said that it was a severe allergic reaction. And based on the level of reaction he believed that I was have a triple allergic reaction to: something on the broken plate, and that's right, you guessed it - the neosporin and the band-aid! All that time I thought I was doing good, but in fact I was making it worse. His instructions were to take copious amounts of benadryl, wash it with cool water and no soap (see even the soap was bad!), apply a prescription of steroid cream 3 times a day and keep it covered. (But naturally not with a band-aid). About three years ago I learned that I'm allergic to latex - but it's a new enough allergy that I always forget. And I've been using band-aids my whole life with no reaction. But apparently this time there were enough allergens going on that the amount of latex in the band-aid only added to my problems. So in the future only latex-free band-aids and no more neosporin, only bacitracin. Go figure...

The first two pictures were taken last Thursday. And if you can believe this, the pictures actually don't do it justice. It looks much worse in person. You can ask anyone.

And this was taken today. It still looks pretty crazy, but surprisingly feels much better and is also less swollen... So that's nice.

Adventures of a New Couch

2009-11-18T22:09:00.003-05:00

Not long after John and family moved in, our couch broke. It was on it's way out and so having 3-4 people regularly sitting on it at a time officially killed it. So I found a new one on Craigs List and it was just what I wanted. Plus it was only $30! I mean I've seen couches in terrible shape for $100 on Craigs List so you can imagine my joy when this lovely plumness was only $30.

And you may think, "but Heather you have a blue recliner and a red lumpy sack, why would you buy a plum couch?" And my answer is, because it's awesome. Besides if the recliner and the lumpy sack had a baby it would totally be the color of the couch, so you see it's a furniture family I've got here.

Anyway the point is the lovely plumness came from a cat home. And sadly John and myself are incredibly allergic to cats. So we put it in the garage and Mark vacuumed the crazy out of it before bringing it into the house. But that wasn't quite enough. Because before long there was sneezing and itchy, watery eyes, etc. We ended up renting a rug doctor and now it is perfect. But before the rug doctor did her magic, when John was dying a particular allergy death, I suggested he do a neti pot. The only problem being that we don't own a neti pot and it was Sunday so we couldn't go buy one. So Michael and I helped him make a homemade version out of a salad dressing carafe (a clean one, of course). We ground up kosher salt in the spice grinder until it was a powder and shook it up in the carafe with warm water. The water was a bit too hot when John started, so he popped the top off and added some ice cubes, then resumed the neti pot. It worked great - but I am sad to say that I have no photos, so you will just have to use your imagination. Watching him put that carafe up his nose, with ice cubes tinkling against the glass will forever be emblazoned on my mind, and most definitely prevent me from ever using that carafe for italian dressing again.

Shave and a Haircut - Two Bits!

2009-11-16T11:48:00.012-05:00

Well actually a shave would have been too much to ask, but we did get my brother Michael to cut his hair. You see two years ago Michael thought to himself, "Hmmm I've never had long hair before. I wonder what it would be like to have hair long enough to sport a ponytail and be creepy, bearded ponytail guy." Or something like that anyway. And let me tell you he was successful. But luckily for Locks of Love they will now be receiving 12 inches of some thick, beautiful hair. And the best part is we learned that when you cut someones pigtails off you get an awesome mullet! (I didn't actually leave it in a mullet - but I guess normal haircuts are boring, because I have no photos of that.)

Full House

2009-11-06T10:07:00.006-05:00

Living with John, Amanda and Abby over the past few months (and come to think of it, Mike for the past few weeks) has led to a lot of randomness and laughs. So in honor of this I have decided that I will periodically blog my favorite conversation of the week from the McKeon/Crenshaw home for your enjoyment. Because, you see, you get to share all these anecdotes about your children and the fabulous/hilarious/adorable things they say and so now I will be sharing anecdotes about my children - oh, I mean my husband and brother.

John: How many pancakes do you want?
Mark: Chocolate chip!

Playing Catch Up

2009-10-26T16:30:00.015-04:00

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a month... Time flies as they say. Well lots of changes have been keeping me busy. Two doctors, Dr JC Zegarra & Dr Jason Graczyk (thankfully they both go by their first names), bought Triangle Chiropractic, so as of 10/9 I have new bosses. It's kind of weird not working with Dr Jenny anymore after nearly 3 years, but I really like both Dr JC and Dr Jason and they are bringing some really positive changes to the practice. So it's been busy and hectic, but exciting too.

My sister Susy and I threw a baby shower for Dr Jenny on 10/10 with a few other people and it was lovely if I do say so myself. We got a cake from Cake Dreams and it was super delicious. Kim Bloomfield made it and she did a wonderful job!! Everyone at the shower kept saying it was the best cake they had ever eaten and asking who made it. So naturally I was more than happy to advertise for them. And I hope that Sally and Kim get a ton of business out of it! I was also happy to finally give Jenny the diaper bag I had made for her - she loved it and I think I may have drummed up some business for myself too. Happy coincidence. Who knew one little shower could be so lucrative for two local businesses??

Last week Mark and John left for Illinois to help our brother Mike move back home. They did a lot of driving and very little sleeping so they returned a bit worse for wear, but it's fun to have Mike back in NC. He's staying with us for about a week until he can get things settled at an apartment - so until then we have quite a full house! While they were gone I got to babysit Abby a lot and it was a ton of fun! She is just too adorable and I think we did a little extra bonding. Wed morning I went over to the Winters' to trim Heather's hair and we ended up joining them at the Museum of Life and Science for the morning. It was really fun and even though Abby is way too young to have enjoyed much of anything - Parker and Meadow both really enjoyed her. I mean how could they not she is just too adorable!

And finally I am happy to announce that my dad got a job! Hurrah! They are moving to Ashburn, VA this week and he starts next Monday. Though it's a bummer they have to move out of state, especially now that more than 1/2 of us are here, we are really excited for them. In fact we're a little excited for ourselves too cause now we have a place to stay in the DC area. Mark's never been to the DC temple - so we will definitely be making a few trips up to visit them... You can't get rid of us that easily Mom & Dad.

Craft Talk

2009-09-22T11:23:00.003-04:00

Did I Mention I've Been Busy?

2009-09-18T09:15:00.005-04:00

Well life has been pretty hectic lately. Busy at work, busy at home... John, Amanda and Abby moved in with us on Saturday and it was super fun to finally meet Abby! She's such a cutie and is already in love with her Uncle Mark - the girls all love some Uncle Mark. So we've all been getting used to having roomies and spending way too many nights staying up late and talking like we all think we're teenagers at a slumber party. (And it kind of feels like that too. Oh, except for when I wake up in the morning after only 3 hours of sleep and my body is screaming at me "you are 33 what do you think you're doing to me?!")

Work has also been crazy lately. Mainly because Dr Jenny was out of town a few weeks ago and we had the worst cover doctor ever! He was a mess. So we've been spending the last few weeks fixing the damage. Basically he made everyone hurt worse when they left then when they came in! Terrible. After he adjusted me I had a migraine for a week! Plus he was super sweaty and clammy. Without asking he cranked our AC down to 67 and was still sweating like a beast! I was freezing and wondering why I was so dang cold when I realized what he had done. You don't work here - don't touch our stuff. But he was clearly very self conscious about the sweaty clamminess cause he would excuse himself several times during an adjustment to go and wash his hands, leaving patients alone lying on the table. Weird. If you have glandular issues maybe you shouldn't choose a profession that requires you to touch people all day. I'm just saying. But my favorite thing of all were the crazy things he said to patients. According to several patients he said, "Hmm I couldn't get your neck to move at all. What does Dr Jenny do?" My personal favorite response to this was, "I don't know, I'm a teachers assistant, you're the doctor!" It was out of control, but at least we got some hilarious stories out of it. And all the patients have been understanding and so though we've been busy, we've also been busy laughing.

I've also been busy sewing and crafting and am super excited that I've already had a few sales on etsy! Hurrah! It makes me feel all successful and stuff... In fact my first sale was to someone in the UK - so I'm like an international sensation or something. Anyway my plan is to spend a good portion of this weekend making more stuff to fill in what has been sold and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Shameless Self Promotion

2009-09-02T12:50:00.008-04:00

As you know I've been doing a little sewing lately, and have gotten pretty obsessed actually. I have discovered a whole new world of shopping possibilities: fabric! I even had a dream the other night that I was up in an attic that was filled with my grandma's stuff and I found piles and piles of vintage fabrics. It was the best dream ever! Like I said obsessed. Clue that you are becoming obsessed: dreaming about finding tons of free, fabulous fabrics. Anyway after making a few bags as gifts for friends and family, I was at my nieces birthday party and everyone who saw the bag I'd made for my sister Laura asked if I was selling on etsy... So I decided that maybe I should do just that.

In preparing to 'go live' on etsy I decided that in addition to having regular photos of my bags, it would be cool to have some with people too. So last week I did a little photo session with Heather Winters at her house and it was so much fun! For anyone who knows Heather, you know how adorable she is - not to mention super photogenic. We took all the photos in her front yard and it was really hilarious doing the wardrobe changes in her entryway. Plus I swear whenever she was doing a particularly odd pose someone would drive by. Needless to say we laughed a lot.

Anyway without further ado may I present polka dot elephant - now available on etsy and my new blog - would love to see you there! (Hey, I warned you that it was a shameless self promotion.)

M.I.A.

2009-08-06T08:29:00.008-04:00

Well I feel like I haven't posted in forever... and that's pretty much because I haven't! So in case you've been wondering why I've been missing in action- it's because I've been sewing like a demon. (If there was a sewing demon, that is.) Making those diaper bags started it off and then I went on to making lots more bags for other people. And most recently I decided I needed some new stuff for my living room. So I rearranged the furniture, sewed some pillows and curtains, hung a bunch of fun family photos, put new tchotchke pieces on the mantel, and repainted these 3 canvases I have. (I got and painted them about ten years ago - and they looked dated - so I've been thinking about repainting them for a while now. And don't think that this means that I'm an artist or anything - I just kind of slap paint on the canvas and hope it comes out.) Anyway the point is - my new living room looks pretty great, if I do say so myself. Plus much less expensive then if I had gone around and bought everything - so bonus. And if you know me - then you know I LOVE red. If it's red, I pretty much want it. So my previous living room was mainly reds, including the aforementioned 3 canvases. But this time I decided that I needed to control my red craving and embrace more colors. It's not like I'm prejudice to other colors or anything, but you know how it is with your favorites. But now I've got greens, purples, blues, and yellows along with my red. And I love it - it's one big rainbow of a living room. (Well, you know what I mean.)

the pillows

the curtains

the paintings

Man Bags

2009-07-07T11:06:00.018-04:00

Sometime last year, after finding out that my brother John and his wife were expecting their first baby, I realized that the retail industry was lacking in baby things fit for a man to use/carry. I have seen far too many men at church carrying their babies and the lacy pink toile diaper bag that apparently came with them. Recently I've been trying to sew more and do more homemade gifts to save money, etc... so this year at Christmas when I made burp clothes and matching paci clips for all the babies in the family - naturally I made a skull and crossbones burp cloth for John. Then I decided I should make John a 'man' diaper bag as well. But Abby came early and I've been busy so I just now got around to getting it done. Anyway I found a pattern that I liked and thought could easily be adjusted for a man's bag, but I wanted to make it following the pattern first so that I could be sure how I should alter it to fit a guy.

So I made one for my boss, since she's due in November.

The bag called for a flower appliqué on the flap, but I thought that was a little boring and generic, so since Dr Jenny is a dog lover I made a puppy with a butterfly on it's nose instead and I think it turned out pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself!

And in general I just really like the combo of three random fabrics combining to make a pretty nifty little diaper bag.

***Spoiler alert - John if you don't want to see your bag before I give it to you look away now!***

So I added two inches to the length, one inch to the depth, 20 inches to the strap (since John wears bags across his chest) and side pockets to the outside of the bag.

Sometime last year, after finding out that my brother John and his wife were expecting their first baby, I realized that the retail industry was lacking in baby things fit for a man to use/carry around. I have seen far too many men at church carrying their babies and the pink toile lacy diaper bag that apparently came with them. Since recently I've been trying to sew more and do more homemade gift to save money, etc... this year at Christmas when I made burp clothes and paci clips for all the babies in the family - so I made a skull and crossbones burp cloth for John. Cause since he's my brother I felt the present should be something he could happily use. Anyway after Abby was born I decided to make John a 'man' diaper bag as well. But she was early and I've been busy so I just now got around to getting it done. Anyway I found a pattern that I liked and thought could easily be adjusted for a man's bag, but I wanted to make it first so that I could be sure how I should alter it to fit a guy. So I made one for my boss, since she's due in November. The bag calls for a flower applique on the flap, but I thought that was a little boring and generic, so since Dr Jenny is a dog lover I made a puppy instead and I think it turned out pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself! And in general I just really like the combo of three random fabrics combining to make a pretty nifty bag. ***Spoiler alert - John if you don't want to see your bag before I give it to you look away now!*** So I added two inches to the length, one inch to the depth and 20 inches to the strap. (Since John said he wears bags across his chest.) I had an especially fun time choosing the lining fabric and think it's about the coolest thing I've ever seen. Plus (please excuse the totally nerdy comment I'm about to make) since it's the universe inside it's like a bag of holding! Which is so cool! (OK, there I said it, I promise only normal comments from now on.) Anyway I think I may just have to make a little side business of man diaper bags - so let me know when your husbands need one.

And, yes you are seeing that correctly, it's a Star Trek diaper bag. (Don't be jealous!) I actually put some thought into this bag - you see I made it like the engineering Star Trek uniform. Red and black with the engineering logo. I had an especially fun time choosing the lining fabric and think it's about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Plus (and please excuse the totally nerdy comment I'm about to make here) since it's the universe inside it makes it a bag of holding! Which is just too cool. (OK, there I said it, I promise only normal comments from now on.)

Anyway I think I may just have to make a little side business of man diaper bags - so let me know when your husbands need one. Oh and in case you're wondering if John will like this diaper bag, here is all I have to say:

Lost in a Good Book

2009-06-30T16:22:00.007-04:00

As you know I love, love, love to read. I'm pretty much always reading something and often times more than one something. I usually have one book in my purse and one by my bed at all times. But now I've hit a point where I don't know what to read next. In fact I've been reading Life of Pi a little on the slow side so that I don't run out of things to read. (Which is just ridiculous - the slow reading, not the book. The book is excellent.) So that's where you come in - I want suggestions. I'll read pretty much anything, so any genre is OK with me. I especially like a good series so I can read the whole set in a row... So let me know your favorite books and what you just couldn't put down to the point of neglecting spouses, children, jobs and homes.

To quote Abraham Lincoln, "The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.” So you see if you suggest a good book you'll be my best friend. Isn't that great incentive?? I thought so.

Chez Crenshaw Grand Opening

2009-06-10T16:22:00.006-04:00

Well as many of you may know I love to cook. As do many of my brothers and sisters in fact. So I decided that we needed to start a cooking blog to share recipes. (And also I love the Lee families recipe blog and therefore had to copy them. And to the Lee family all I have to say about this is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So there.)

So if you ever want to see what the Crenshaws are cooking - come join us at Chez Crenshaw. Bon Appetite!

To Run or Not to Run... That is the Question

2009-06-04T17:03:00.014-04:00

I must begin this post with a few quick stories about my brothers: Several years ago when Mike and John were in high school and naturally still living at home with the parents they were spending a particularly lovely day inside playing video games. On her way out the door my mom sees them and tells them about said lovely day and mentions they should go outside and enjoy it. After running her errands she comes home to find that Mike and John had taken her advice and were indeed playing outside- they had set up the TV on the back deck and were playing their video games there.

Then one summer day about 3 years ago while Mark and I are driving home from church my brother John calls me up. He's telling me a story (that I now don't remember) and at some point says, "yesterday me and Mike were playing tennis..." Now even if you don't know my brothers but have read the story above I'm sure you will find this comment quite as shocking as I did. I was struck dumb and after a few moments of him talking without me hearing a word, I interrupted by saying, "What? I thought you just said that you and Mike were playing tennis?!" To which he laughs and says, "Oh yeah, I should have specified that were were playing tennis on the PlayStation."

Now fast forward to about 2 weeks ago to a conversation between my sister-in-law Maria and my brother Bob.
Maria: The Crenshaws are planning on running a marathon.
Bob: What Crenshaws?

And I have to admit that that's exactly what I've been thinking ever since Susy and Laura told us that they want the Crenshaw family to run a marathon together in 2011. What Crenshaws?

But here I am just a few weeks later with a book The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On with Your Training (because you know I'm a nerd like that and so naturally my first thought when considering running a marathon is "I better get a book about that.") which is so hilarious that I might end up running this marathon after all:

Marathon training isn't something to jump into on a whim. If you do, you're likely to crawl out of it on your hands and knees. Before you begin, be sure to get as much information as you can about what it entails. Well, actually, let me save you some time and give you my Cliff's Notes guide to marathon training: "Ouch," run ten miles; "I can't breath," run fifteen miles; "My sports bra is slicing my body in half," collapse on a bag of ice at a race-day water station. The end. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Adventures in Ohio

2009-06-01T13:25:00.015-04:00

Sadly vacation is over and so it's back to the grind... But we had a great time and got to see all the amazing sites of Coshocton, Ohio (which are many, as you I'm sure you can imagine), visited Amish country (and bought all the delicious butter and cheese which we naturally forgot in Laura's freezer when we left), went to the pool (which is quite possibly the best pool I have ever seen! It has all these water slides and a play area in the middle of the pool for the kids - it's awesome!) and basically just had a good ol' time. We spent most of our time hanging out with Laura and her girls Sophia, Holly and Lucy - and some time with Travis when he wasn't working. Sophia and Holly were very excited to have us there (I'm sure that Lucy was too, but she's only 6 months old so she's slightly less vocal about it) and they spent the whole week calling our names and jumping on us. One day they even ate their snacks while sitting on Mark's chest. Because, as you know from previous posts, they love some Uncle Mark and I can't really blame them for that.

Now to help you fully understand the great time that was had by all, I will share a bedtime story with you as told by Laura on Sunday night.

Laura: Once upon a time there was a princess...

Sophia: No, Mommy! I don't want a story about a princess! I want a story about a bee!

Laura: OK. As I was saying- once upon a time there was a princess who was a bee.

Sophia: Good. A story about a bee.

Laura: Yes. She was the daughter of the Queen Bee and she had three daughters who were also bees. She was, of course, married to a bee prince since she had three bee daughters. And their daughter's names were Disobedient 1, Disobedient 2 and Disobedient 3.

Heather: What? How can you have Disobedient 3? She's only 6 months old, that doesn't seem very fair.

Laura: OK then just Disobedient 1 and Disobedient 2. And they had great friends come for a special visit and their names were Heeder and Mork (notice Laura's creativity on these unique names). And they came to visit and play with Disobedient 1 and Disobedient 2.

Heather: And Mork liked to say 'na-noo, na-noo'.

Laura: Yes. And the Princess Bee and Prince Bee told Disobedient 1 and Disobedient 2 that if they were very good and obeyed their parents then they could all go to the pool with Heeder and Mork. But Disobedient 1 and Disobedient 2 were not good and they did not obey so no one got to go to the pool and they had to go to bed early and have no fun. And Heeder and Mark were disappointed and left early. The End.

Mark: What? That's terrible. You have to at least give the story a happy ending.

Laura: Fine. So then the next day they were very good and very obedient and so they got to go to the pool. The End.

Vacation Here We Come!

2009-05-19T08:17:00.008-04:00

Can I just say that I am super excited to be leaving for a week long vacation tomorrow!! Oh how I have been counting down the days. I mean I basically enjoy my job - but who doesn't need a vacation now and again? Anyway Mark and I head off to the exciting state of Ohio tomorrow to spend a week with my sister Laura and her family - hurrah! Those girls are pretty much a crack up and just look at how cute they are! (I might be a little bit biased, but I don't think so!) Plus they live in such a cute little house in the country that it's just going to be a relaxing fun time. And since Mark wasn't able to go up there for Thanksgiving it will be perfect this time. But the best part of all is we are going to Amish country!! Where we will stock up on the most delicious butter in all the world. The end.

Musings of a Barren Woman

2009-05-02T10:54:00.008-04:00

March of last year I had my second miscarriage. Which is hard enough to go through on it's own, but about two weeks after my miscarriage my unmarried boss came to me and told me that she was pregnant. Since we work together our cycles are linked up and so we had gotten pregnant at the same time. Which meant that I went to work every day watching 'my pregnancy' grow before my very eyes. Mourning your loss and going through the hormonal upheavals is hard enough - but watching an unwanted pregnancy as well makes it a lot harder! The struggles with my first miscarriage were almost forgotten in light of the second and all that accompanied it. When I had virtually reached my breaking point and was literally crying on my way to work telling the Lord that I could not take this for another minute - that he needed to help me find a new job like yesterday or take care of this somehow - my boss informed me that they didn't find a heartbeat and so she too had a miscarriage. Adding the guilt of feeling somehow responsible for her loss (I mean I had basically prayed for it!! And though I knew, of course, it was not my fault reason is not a hormonal woman's best friend!) to the depression I was already experiencing was more than I thought I could bear. But we grew closer and mourned together and laughed together and cursed the women who were lucky enough to be pregnant together....

The healing process can be a slow one and life can be crazy, so it's only been the last few months that Mark and I have been officially 'trying' to get pregnant again. And yesterday (in the middle of my cycle - going through the sorrow of still not being pregnant yet) she told me that she was 11 weeks pregnant. So far this pregnancy is very healthy and they are really excited, etc... She was, of course, on birth control pills and is still unmarried. And when I asked she told me that they haven't even talked about getting married yet. So I find myself thrown into the sorrows and struggles of last year all over again!

It is hard not to feel forsaken, alone, and questioning the unfairness of it all. How can the Lord bless all these unwed women with children? Why are 12 and 14 year old girls getting pregnant and choosing to keep the babies when there are so many couples who want to adopt? In a lot of ways we are lucky - we've only been married a few years and we can conceive, I just need to carry the baby full-term. I know so many couples who have been married longer and trying longer. Couples who have had multiple miscarriages and still-born babies. Couples who have finally made the decision to adopt and then having to go through the long and incredibly invasive process only to have to wait for years more.

When I was younger I would have honestly told you that I only wanted to get married so I could have children. I have always loved children and felt that one of my main purposes in life was to be a mother. But I have been very blessed in meeting and marrying a man that I love more than I ever thought I could love a person. And through all of this we have grown closer as best friends and husband and wife. And I have learned that motherhood does not mean giving birth to a baby. I am a mother to my nieces and nephew, and to the girls I teach at church. And I have faith that I will be a mother to my own children one day. Mark and I have both received revelation that we will be parents. And so at this time I have to be 'Infertile in Faith' and remember the power of the Savior's atonement and sacrifice for us all. I have to remind myself that the Lord only gives us challenges that he knows we can handle - and though I sometimes wish he didn't think I could handle so much - I can be strong and faithful. And I can have joy in my life on the way to reaching our goals. True happiness won't suddenly be there when I am handed a newborn baby. I can have happiness now!

Thank You Easter Bunny, Bawk Bawk!

2009-04-14T10:22:00.014-04:00

This year we followed an old Crenshaw family tradition and celebrated Easter on Saturday. When we were kids my mom used to do the Easter baskets, presents and candy on Saturday instead of Sunday. I figure this was for two reasons: 1- so that we would separate the Easter Bunny from the true celebration of Christ's atonement and resurrection, and 2- so that we weren't crazed-sugared-up fiends at church. Since we are now adults (relatively speaking) and don't have to worry too much about being crazed-sugared-up fiends at church, we had Easter on Saturday so that we could all do Easter on Sunday with the in-laws. (Also Sat was Susy's free day on her new diet, so there's that too.)

I wanted to try something different so I cooked this turkey, gravy and stuffing recipe I had seen on Food Network back at Thanksgiving that I thought looked amazing. And the turkey and gravy were delicious!! Although I did make a few changes on the gravy - I left out the Marsala, and I also decided that 7 cups of chicken stock sounded like a whole lot of gravy! So I just used 3 cups. The stuffing was really good too, but in a weird way. I didn't completely follow the recipe on that one either, cause I am anti stuffing the turkey, so I just cooked it in a casserole dish. But I will definitely make more changes next time cause it was pretty much like eating a pepperoni pizza casserole. I think I'll leave out the ground sausage and double the bread and then it will be perfect - that is if you're in the mood for pepperoni pizza stuffing.

We also made a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in the center and dark chocolate frosting on the outside. My mom used to make these bunny cakes when we were kids so we tried to do that again. But by the time we had it all cut and put together like she thought, she realized that she used to make 2 smaller cakes - so our cake was too big for a bunny and just kind of looked like a split log. But it was yummy so that's all that really matters, right? And the moral of this story is that I need to remember I have a blog and take more photos. But in the mean time (and since the cake is all eaten) you can use your imaginations to see the split log cake... Doesn't that look funny yet delicious? You see it turns out I'm doing you a favor and making you use those brains of yours. Your welcome.

But Our Mommies and Dads Love Us

2009-04-06T11:15:00.018-04:00

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot

We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me
We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack

Maraud and embezzle and even high-jack

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me
We kindle and char, inflame and ignite

We burn up the city, we're really a fright

We're rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves

We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me
We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads

Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads

Drink up me hearties, yo ho

On Saturday we went with the Winters to the Pirate exhibit at the NC Museum of History in downtown Raleigh. It was pretty fun - I think it's a little more aimed at families with kids cause there's a pirate ship for kids to play on and other pirate games - but we had a good time. There were some artifacts recovered from the Queen Anne's Revenge - Black Beard's ship - and some general pirate history. So it was pretty interesting. The biggest bummer was that all the really interesting stuff we wanted to take pictures of - like the purported skull of Edward Teach aka Black Beard - you weren't allowed to take pictures of them. (Can I just say that it really cracks me up that it was the "purported" skull - because they know his head was cut off, but they can't be sure they had the right one. Silly pirates.) So the point is - I guess you'll just have to go yourself if you want to see Black Beard's (maybe, kinda) skull.

Reunion, Schmeunion

2009-03-24T10:28:00.009-04:00

A few days ago I got a message from my high school class president about a tentative date for our 15 year reunion this fall. Naturally my first thought was that she was up a tree because there was no way it had been 15 years! I am so young! I mean they just had the 10 year reunion last year or something. (Which I did not attend of course because 10 years is too soon for that garbage.) But then I realized that I had still been single and hanging out with the "summer boys" from the singles ward when I got the 10 year reunion invite. And now I'm married and have been for just over 3 years. And I did graduate in 1994 and now it is 2009- so maybe, possibly it really has been 15 years! But how can that be? Because as I previously mentioned I am so young. Wait, no, that's not me that's so young, that would be my husband. He's the one who's young. I keep forgetting that. But surely I am therefore young by association. I mean if you average our ages together I'm only 27! And that's pretty young. Anyway age is relative. I mean I've met some 27 year olds who might as well be 75 for all their curmudgeon-ness and vice versa. Therefore I'm sticking with I'm young. So take that 15 year reunion! (Although I probably will go.)

(This post is dedicated to the blog stalker. A little something for you to read today. And don't pretend - you know who you are!)

Night of Rock

2009-03-18T14:27:00.017-04:00

Saturday, March 14, 2009 is a night that will go down in infamy. It will forever be known as the Night of Rock. And oh how we rocked. We rocked on a technicolor cloud of maple smoke thinking of nothing but the fans and the music. We were golden gods!

So basically the Hendersons invited a bunch of us over for a Rock Band party and Rich and Erika really went the extra mile with decorations, stage lights and a fog machine - which incidentally pumped out maple syrup scented fog (random and hilarious). We all dressed up as rockers - some were rockers in general and others were specific rockers. Mark and I went as John and Yoko. (I realize that you may have thought that was actually a photo of John and Yoko, but don't be fooled, it's just us.) It was a hilarious and fabulous night and if I have anything to say about it (and you know I do), it will definitely become a regular event!

In fact Mark is already planning his next costume, he's thinking something like this (don't be jealous):

A New Member of the Crenshaw Clan

2009-03-03T09:53:00.010-05:00

As many of you may know John and Amanda were expecting their first baby, due May 8, but she was in a hurry to get here cause Amanda went into labor very early this morning at 30 weeks. And at 6:58am (MST) Abigail Marie Crenshaw was born! She is a wee 3 lbs 5 oz, and is currently in the NICU at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg, ID. She's breathing on her own and is only on a 'breathing tube' to help her lungs continue to develop, but seems very healthy and strong. So John and Amanda are both very optimistic that everything is going to be OK. Amanda is doing well too despite having her first baby without even going to birthing class - they were scheduled to start the class tomorrow night! (So they can just cancel that and save the $50...) So keep baby Abby in your prayers.

Moving On Up

2009-02-24T08:59:00.004-05:00

Well we moved this past weekend. My parents had not yet sold their townhouse here in Cary; and I kept thinking that when John (my brother) and Amanda (his wife) move back to NC, we should all move in together and rent the parents house. But I knew that was craziness cause John and Amanda were going to move to Charlotte so he could go to Culinary school. (You might think that's craziness who would want to move in with their brother - but hey call me crazy I think it's going to be super fun! We'll have the best parties and also it is so much easier to cook for 4 than 2...) But then lo and behold I'm chatting with John on the phone a few weeks ago and he tells me that they've decided that they want to come back to the Raleigh area for a year or so and then move to Charlotte for school... So I told him what I'd been thinking, we talked to the parents, prayed about the decision, and ta-da here we are! And since, as I previously mentioned my parents have a washer and dryer in their house - we now have a W/D again. Hurrah! (So you see I didn't sell my W/D for nothing. I'm a genius. Though sadly not the Queen of the Laundromat any more - I had to relinquish my crown...)

So now we are unpacking and setting up the house. Which is really the best part of moving - getting settled in. And since John and Amanda are expecting a baby girl in May, it's been super fun setting up a baby's room since we haven't had any of our own yet. But I was laughing after all the men in the Ward helped us move, cause we have a cradle and a crib, so I'm sure they all went home telling their wives that I'm preggers! (So if you hear the rumors - be assured I'm not, but you'll be the first to know when I am.)

My parents are returning to the states on Thursday, so we are really excited to see them again. And Laura and her family are coming in to town this weekend as well - so I'm extra excited cause 1/2 the family will back in NC (at least for a moment). Since my parent's furniture has to ship from Australia and they are probably going to be moving to Virginia (or possibly another state), they will be staying with Susy until they know where they'll end up. And since we now have more space than a 2 bedroom apartment, we will be happily housing Laura's family this weekend. (Which is extra motivation to get the house all set up in a timely manner.) So this weekend is going to be tons of fun hanging out with the family. Hurrah! (And just to clarify - that last bit was not sarcasm. I know with me it can be hard to tell...)

Mark-isms

2009-02-10T09:54:00.014-05:00

Mark and I have basically spent the last week being sick. (Don't be jealous!) So since I have nothing exciting and fun to report on, I thought I would share a few Mark-isms with you. My husband says some pretty hilarious things sometimes (or at least I think so). He kind of has his own language... probably everyone has their own language in a way, but anyway here are a few of Mark's.

"Ya me say?" (something he and his younger brother said when they were kids meaning 'know what I mean' or 'do you agree')

"I have to take a tinkle." (he's probably going to kill me for this one - but it really cracks me up that such a big guy says something that only little girls should say)

"Huggle" (a combo of hug and cuddle- pretty cute, but it always makes me think of The Labrynth)

"Purple wet sweet" (this is actually something that my parents said to describe some generic Kool-aid they drank in Germany and Mark thinks it's hilarious so he now uses it whenever possible)

"Liar, liar pants on pumpkin!" (my personal favorite - this is something one of his high school friends shouted out at lunch when accusing someone of lying - only to be made fun of having clearly gotten his nursery rhymes mixed up)

"Is this real life?" (Mark's favorite quote from the youtube video David After Dentist which he's been roaming around the house and saying ever since seeing it)

After enlightenment, the laundry. (Zen proverb)

2009-01-27T14:24:00.008-05:00

For some reason a few weeks ago I really felt strongly that we needed to sell our washer and dryer. Don't ask me why. And whenever I get such strong feelings, I act on them. So on MLK day I put our W/D on Craigslist and they sold within a matter of hours. Now the weird thing about all of this is that we do not have a new W/D coming our way. We are planning on moving when our lease is up, so it's very possible that our new place will come with a W/D - but that's not until May. It is now January. Despite what some boys I know did when poor college students, we will not be going 5 months without washing our clothes. And it turns out that my parents never sold their W/D when they moved to Australia so I thought maybe we could just have theirs. But the day I was going to ask for them/pick them up, I found out that my parents are probably moving back to NC within a month. Craziness. So since our complex has a laundry facility (which will be referred to as 'laundromat' from this point forward cause I think it's cooler) I figured I'd just use that and then see what I feel strongly about next.

Saturday evening I grabbed my book, our laundry and detergent and hiked over to the laundromat. And can I just say that I was feeling very cool and city-like. I could see myself laughing with Rachel from Friends as we washed our clothes and were strong and independent women of the city. And the best part is that you can wash/dry all your laundry at the same time because there are multiple washers and dryers. So I 'vegged' out and read my book (the only seating provided was a bar table and two metal bar stool chairs - apartment complex should use very high rent charged and invest in couch or possibly anything with cushions) still feeling very chic if not slightly uncomfortable. So an hour and a half and $5 later all our laundry and my book were done. What success. So every week as you do your laundry from the comforts of your home watching your reality TV, you just think of me - Queen of the Laundromat. (Even if it is only the apartment laundry facility and not actually cool city laundromat of movies and dreams.)

Snow Day!

2009-01-20T22:00:00.002-05:00

It was a lovely day for huggling on the couch in front of the fire, watching movies, and drinking hot chocolate... So that's just what we did! (Oh except Mark doesn't like hot chocolate, so he drank milk.)

Shoe Reincarnation

2009-01-13T12:24:00.004-05:00

So I'm sure most of you know of my shoe obsession... Just when I think I've got it under control I find myself wandering to the shoe section in every store, dreaming of a pair of shoes I saw in passing and drooling over Zappos.com. "Hi my name is Heather and I'm a shoe-aholic." So right now I'm reading Watermelon by Marian Keyes (wicked British humor-type book) and I believe I just read a quote that explains it all perfectly. Brace yourself you are about to enter the twisted mind of a shoe-aholic:

Besides, I'd seen a really nice pair of shoes yesterday in the mall and I wanted them for my own.
I can't describe the feeling of immediate familiarity that rushed between us. The moment I clapped eyes on them I felt like I already owned them. I could only suppose that we were together in a former life. That they were my shoes when I was a serving maid in medieval Britain or when I was a princess in ancient Egypt. Or perhaps they were the princess and I was the shoes. Who's to know? Either way I knew that we were meant to be together.

Christmas, Anniversary, and Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T14:26:00.002-05:00

So I'm finally blogging about Christmas etc... and all I have to say is it's better late than never! New Years Resolution: Always put off till tomorrow what you could do today! (No, that's not really my new years resolution, but maybe it should be...) So one of the Crenshaw family traditions at Christmas is to do a buffet of appetizers and desserts and then act out the nativity on Christmas Eve. And although our parents are in Australia and none of the boys could be here, Laura and her family came in town and we all met up at Susy's house to celebrate. We had a delicious spread and ate way too much! (which is exactly what the holidays are all about!) Then we talked to our parents on Skype. My mom was able to go home from the hospital on Christmas Eve (which was actually the 23rd for us) and so it was great to see her at home instead of in the hospital like on Thanksgiving. We had Sophia choose the parts for the Nativity, so that was pretty cute. She was Mary and Lucy was baby Jesus, and she chose Mark to be Joseph. Susy explained to her that she could pick any boy she wanted to play Joseph and that he would be her husband, to which she said, "oh I want Mark." (Good choice Sophia!) Me and Holly were the Wisemen (hence my hat), Travis was a shepherd (you can see my mom on the computer in the background of the shepherd photo), Todd was the Angel and Susy was the heavenly hosts... and Laura was the cameraman (so she's only in the background of the photo below). My dad read Luke 2 while we acted it out. I think it's pretty cool that we could do a skit together in NC and Australia - technology makes the world so much smaller... I made homemade Christmas this year, so it was pretty fun to see every one's reaction to all my "hard work". (I spent several weekends hunched over my sewing machine and craft table.) Mark and I spent Christmas morning with his family and had their family tradition of waffles for breakfast. Yummy. Then we pretty much spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with all the kids. Holly and Sophia are so funny that it's always hilarious to play with them. And Lily and Lucy are both so adorable- Lily is so sweet and smiley and Lucy is such a cute little turtle!

Then on the 30th we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary. It feels both longer and shorter at the same time. Weird how time can do that. Since our anniversary is so close to Christmas we don't usually get each other presents - just do dinner and a movie. So this year we went to Red Robin and to see The Tale of Despereaux - which was OK but now I want to read the book, cause I'm sure it's much better. We're pretty simple like that and I love Red Robin - so sue me if I'm a cheap date. I just think people are funny when they expect all kinds of diamonds and jewelry for every anniversary- I just think that spending time together is enough. (But who knows maybe once we're loaded I'll be singing a different tune... haha)

For New Years we got Chinese take-out and watched part of the first season of Arrested Development and tried really hard to stay awake until midnight. But we had both worked that morning and we'd been up since 6am, so sadly we are very lame and fell asleep at 11:30! How sad is it that we couldn't make it 30 more minutes?! Oh well - I guess we're just one of those boring old married couples. What's extra funny is that on New Years day I went over to Heather Winters house to hang out and we were reminiscing and ended up chatting until 1:00am! So there's still a young silly girl hidden in there, she just came out a day too late. Oh well... Happy New Year!

Battery, battery. Anyone, anyone...

2008-12-09T14:06:00.006-05:00

When I was in Ohio for Thanksgiving I discovered that my watch battery had died. So while I was at Wal-Mart there I tried to get it fixed, but they refused since they don't carry Fossil watches. And I've been busy and my watch has been at the bottom of my purse ever since. So today Dr Jenny and I went out to lunch together by Southpoint and ended up going into the mall afterwards. While we were in Belk I figured I'd ask them if they did watch batteries since I bought my watch there. And they said that they do watch batteries, but they don't do Fossil watches. Random. So then I remember that there is a Fossil store in Southpoint, and I'm thinking that surely they do Fossil watches - since they are Fossil. So we head off to the Fossil store, but on the way there I realize that I don't have my Debit card with me, but figure I'll check anyway and then come back later to get it done. So I ask if they do watch batteries and they say yes - Hurrah! So I say thanks and explain that I'll come back later when I have money. To which Dr Jenny says that's ridiculous and it's only $10 so she'll get it for me as part of my Christmas present. Excellent. So I thank her and hand off my watch to the sales girl. Once it's done she hands it back to me and says we're all set so Dr Jenny takes out her wallet to pay and she says, "No, no, it's on me. Merry Christmas!" Super Excellent. Let's all give a little shout out to the Fossil sales girl. So now I've decided that I will have to tell all stores I have no money and see what happens. Cause I could really use a new car or airline tickets to Australia...

Reminiscing

2008-12-05T11:07:00.006-05:00

This morning I woke up with a funny little memory in my head. Rewind to an early spring Sunday morning back when I was in high school. This particular Sunday as we headed off to Church, it ended up being the 3 girls with my mom in one car and the 3 boys with my dad in the other. As my mom backed the car out of the driveway she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh! My jonquils are popping!" To which my sisters and I all said "Gross! We don't want to hear about your woman problems!" Clearly none of us knew what jonquils were, but we were sure that it was not something we wanted to hear about. My mom was not impressed with our minds - but we all laughed pretty hard on the way to church that day... Aww the memories...

Jonquils (aka flowers, not woman problems)

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

2008-12-01T10:25:00.025-05:00

This year, since we are without parents, we Crenshaw kids decided to get together and celebrate Thanksgiving. And since Laura just had baby Lucy and Ohio us 1/2 way between NC and IL we all went to her house. Everyone was able to come except Michael and John - so that was pretty great. I mean 4 outta 6 ain't bad. Very sadly Mark had to work black Friday (the curse of retail) so he could not come - but there was no way I was going to miss seeing all my nieces and nephew! (Oh yeah, and my brothers and sisters - I like them too.) So naturally I ditched my hubby for the week and drove up to Ohio with Susy, Todd and Lily. We go there Tuesday night - and since I was sans husband I set up camp on the couch while everyone else was upstairs in bedrooms and offices. Wednesday was spent baking pies and planning for turkey day. It was a lot of fun having Holly and Sophia help bake with us. Sophia very proudly told everyone which pies she made whenever she had the chance. And Holly was adorable coming into the kitchen all weekend asking "what cookin?" And randomly when I asked her what she was cooking, she always replied "juice."

Thursday we spent the day cooking and eating! We cooked a ton of food, we barely put a dent in it, so we had tons of left overs which was great. Travis and Todd fried the turkey outside, while we girls cooked the side dishes in the nice warm kitchen. None of us had done a fried turkey before - and let me tell you if you haven't, you should - delicious! Then we hung out and played Clue. Sophia was on my "team" and we were Ms Scarlet, but she never could decide which lady she liked the best so she kept putting Ms Scarlet, Ms Peacock and Ms White in the same room and having them talk to each other - which I thought was pretty hilarious, but was pretty confusing for playing the game and remembering who was where.

Friday we went to Amish country - I love Amish country! Last year I visited a friend of mine in Ohio and fell in love with Amish country, so needless to say I was very excited to visit again. And Mark was very jealous. The best butter I have ever eaten! We brought a cooler so we could bring back homemade Amish butter, cheese and jams. Delicious. The girls loved it too and were shouting out "buggy" and "horsey" every time we passed them. Very cute. And when we were walking around outside Holly would point out all the "horsey poo-poo" too me which was very nice of her. We went to an Amish restaurant for lunch called Grandma's Country Kitchen (or something like that) and while we were walking to our table Holly was Miss America turning and waving to everyone as we passed their tables. Once we were seated, near our table there was a random chair by itself in the corner which Sophia found very intriguing because she went and sat in it and said that she was in time out. We also went to this one big Amish store called Walnut Creek that was a grocery/ deli/gift/kitchen store. It was very cool and had all kinds of random things in it. Including Uncle Mike's Smoked Meats (see photo). So Uncle Mike was with us after all!

Bob and his family were planning on driving up Friday night (cause they had Thanksgiving with Maria's mom and Bob had to work on Friday) - and so we were expecting them to get there around 11pm or midnight. But then Bob said that they would probably leave their house at 11pm and if they got tired they'd stop at a hotel and so they'd be there anytime between 5am and noon. Since I was the one sleeping downstairs on the couch I asked Laura what I was supposed to do when they showed up at 5 or 6am and she just laughed at me and said they weren't coming that soon. Well naturally you can imagine how annoyed I was at her when I awoke to someone knocking on the door at 5:30am!! Beast! I told her they were coming that early!! So I got up and let Bob and family in and they set up camp on the living room floor by me. Since Bob and Maria drove and did not sleep they fell asleep pretty quickly, but then Ryan, Isabelle and Bobby were all whispering to me that they couldn't sleep, that they were hungry and wanted to watch TV. So at 6:45 I gave up and got up and we all ate donuts and told stories and laughed around the kitchen table. Then we crowded together on the couch and watched the Disney channel until everyone else woke up. We spent the day Saturday just hanging out and socializing. And we talked to our parents on Skype at 4:30 (they got all of us webcams for Christmas). It was pretty surreal talking to my mom from her hospital bed. But it was great to finally see her - we'd only been able to talk to my dad since her accident. She's gradually getting better and they're hoping that she'll be out of the hospital by Christmas. Which is a crazy long time, but at least she's getting good care. In fact one of the ladies from her Ward brought her some chocolate chip cookies from an "American recipe" she found. After the call the boys made a bon-fire and we roasted marshmallows and made smores - it was really fun. And the sunset was beautiful. Once the kids went to bed we played this game called telephone pictionary - it was hilarious. We were all crying with laughter. Basically you have a stack of paper and on the first sheet you write a sentence then pass it and the next person reads it and puts it to the back then on the next sheet they draw a picture based on your sentence and pass it, then the next person has to write a new sentence based on what the picture looks like, etc... So we had some pretty hysterical results. For example: "The lion loves to eat raspberry tootsie roll pops at the drive-in movie" turned into a drawing of a duck in the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile thinking about candy. Craziness.

Sunday was Lucy's baby blessing - so we all went to church together for that. It was very sweet, she's a sweet little baby. After sacrament meeting we had a little photo session in the hall. (Which I'm sure the classroom we were next to really appreciated.) Then Todd and I drove back home to NC. (Susy bought herself a one-way ticket home, so she and Lily are staying an extra week - I am so jealous.) The traffic was pretty gross, so the 8 hour drive turned into a 10.5 hour drive. Fortunately I had brought books on CD so we listened to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so that was a good distraction and made sitting in traffic for hours on end much more bearable. All in all it was a great time and it was wonderful to see everyone. Mark and I are already talking about when we can go up to Ohio together so that he can see everyone - so hopefully we'll be going soon and won't put too much time between visits....

More About Mom

2008-11-19T11:14:00.005-05:00

My mom is now out of ICU. She's in 7A South, Bed 18, which is in an orthopedic ward. There are 4 beds in each group. But my dad said that she has a window next to her, so that's nice.

They plan to make a cast of her back tomorrow to make a back brace for her. When it's ready that will allow her to sit up, begin physio (as they call physical therapy), and get around a bit. We have no idea yet how long she'll be in the hospital.

This is all reminding me of Toby from The Office - right after getting to Costa Rico he gets in an accident and is stuck in the hospital. So here she is a little more than a month in Australia and stuck in the hospital, well at least she doesn't have to watch Entourage in Spanish... Is that bad that I am comparing my mom's life to a sitcom?

Another Update

2008-11-17T15:51:00.005-05:00

My mom continues to improve each day. She was actually joking about having to "one-up" Laura giving birth on the kitchen floor by getting in a motorcycle accident on her 60th birthday. So her humor is back and that's a good thing. She is still in ICU but is now using only a breathing tube (off the respirator). So there is a good chance she will get out of ICU tomorrow. But my dad just found out she also has 3 broken ribs. I don't know why that wasn't mentioned before! But like the other bones they will heal on their own.

If anyone wants to send a card (no flowers in ICU) here's the address:

Royal Brisbane Hospital
Herston Rd
Herston QLD 4006
Australia

Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers.

Latest on Betty

2008-11-15T08:54:00.003-05:00

Here are the details of my mom's accident: She said she was going about 70 kph (45 mph) and leaned the wrong way. She hit a guard rail but stayed with the bike. No other vehicles were involved. They called the police who called my dad, while paramedics treated her at the scene. Then she went to the ER, OR and ICU... Now the latest on her injuries: it turns out that she has fractures in both her hip sockets and her pelvic bone, plus she has one fractured vertebrae (T10) . Her spinal cord is fine and the bone is in place but they are keeping her on her back to stabilize it. The fractures are such that they need to heal on their own. So they are saying she will be in the hospital for a while and then on her back once she's at home. She had some fluid in her lungs so she's currently in ICU, but her breathing is improving so she'll probably be in a regular room by Sunday. It seems that this may be a long ordeal, so just keep her in your prayers! I have to say it's pretty weird not being able to just hop over to the hospital. But I know that she's already met some really great women from church and that they will take good care of her. But it's still hard being on the other side of the world...

It's Always Something With those Crenshaws...

2008-11-14T09:18:00.009-05:00

So last Friday 11/7 my sister Laura gave birth to her 3rd daughter at 3:15am on the kitchen floor! I know, craziness! I mean it's one of those things that happens in tv shows, movies and books - but not actually to your sister. I was trying to wait until Laura blogged and then just put a link to her blog, cause she tells the story so fabulously. But I should have realized that being a new mom with 2 toddlers would make it nearly impossible to post in a timely manner. So I will add the link whenever she posts. But in the mean time here's the gist: Laura had the baby on the kitchen floor waiting for the babysitter to get there. She called her at 2:30am and asked her to come over cause she was in labor, but the sitter lives 20 minutes away and Laura's labor has been cutting in 1/2 with each baby. 3 hours with Sophia, 2 hours with Holly and surprise, surprise 1 hour with Lucy! So I'm assuming that since it was 2:30am the sitter had to wake herself up before driving 20 minutes, so she took a shower or something, cause she showed up about 10 minutes after Lucy was born. Anyway of course since Travis is a nurse, he went into emergency medical mode and delivered the baby - he even had medical clamps for the umbilical cord. (Apparently you can use chip clips or shoe laces if you ever have an emergency home birth - good to know, right?!) He didn't even call 911 until after she was born! That part really cracks me up - Mark would have been on the phone with 911 the second I said "set me up on the kitchen floor cause the baby is coming right now" - which is what Laura said to Travis about 5 minutes before she was born. Anyway the ambulance came and whisked them off to the hospital and all were healthy and happy, though I'm sure Laura would have been happier if she's been at the hospital all along. So Lucy Ellen Chabo was born at 3:15am 11/7 she was 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. But what I'm really wondering about is what's going to happen with the next labor - 30minutes?!! She's just going to have to plan to be induced. Most of the Crenshaw kids will be going to Ohio for Thanksgiving - so I'm really looking forward to that. Can't wait to see all my nieces and my nephew and give them a squeeze! Plus I'll have some good photos to share...

OK, for those who don't know my parents moved to Brisbane, Australia in September with my dad's job and will probably be there for the next 3 years. In moving my mom decided she wanted to get a Vespa or similar type scooter to tool around town in and has been taking motorcycle lessons so she can get a full speed one, instead of the little 35 mph max ones. Anyway she had another lesson the morning of 11/14 (really the night of 11/13 for us - 15 hours time difference) which also happens to be her 60th birthday. (Isn't my mom cool?! Motorcycle lessons on her 60th birthday!) Well she got in an accident. My dad says that she is doing relatively OK, but has been in a lot of pain. She has a long cut across her upper right leg going out from near the pelvic area. The X-rays show a fracture in the cup of one hip bone and a fracture in one pelvic bone. They had an Orthopedist check her and plan to take her to OR for surgery to clean out the wound and decide what to do about the fractures. He gave her a blessing before going to the OR, but she will probably be in the hospital for a couple of nights (Royal Brisbane & Womans Hospital). Man, what a birthday she's having!

So that's the latest new with my family - craziness! I'll keep everyone posted on my mom's progress, but I know she would appreciate your prayers.

Last Week in a Nutshell

2008-10-27T16:49:00.013-04:00

So even though it's only been a week, I feel like it's been forever since I last posted. Plus lots of stuff has happened the last week and I kept thinking, "man I gotta blog this..." but I didn't, so now it's time for a combined post of all events.

Sunday: A lady shows up at our door around dinner with brochures about some local politician (I don't remember who) and asks us to vote for him, to which Mark says, "He makes you work on Sundays? I don't think I'll be voting for him." Then he takes the brochures and closes the door. That made me laugh.

Monday: Dr Jenny was on vacation all week (for those who don't know I work for a Chiropractor) and so we had 2 doctors scheduled to cover while she was gone. I will not mention any names, but there was a guy and a girl. The lady was scheduled to work Mon and the guy was scheduled for Tues and Thurs. We had never met either of them, cause our regular cover doctor just moved to California. So the guy was great - he was very professional and a great chiropractor. But the lady was CRAZY!!! She was supposed to be at our office by 8:00am and she called at 8:10 telling us she'd hit a deer and that she'd get here as soon as she could. Which I understand that you can't help it if you hit a deer - but that's not the crazy part. So she shows up at 9:30am and looks like a wild woman! Her hair is disheveled and she's wearing one of those puffy cardigan sweaters with a feather boa around the neck and cuffs (What?! Cruella Deville, what kind of Dr are you?) But I decide that I must be nice and not judge her based solely on her crazy hair and attire. But then she interrupts everything we say and tells us that she "does not do things that way" when I am explaining our procedures to her. I wanted to say "look lady, I'm the office manager, and so I am in charge here when the Dr is gone. So shut it and do what I say." but instead I decided to take the high road. By 10:30 every patient that had come in since 9:30 was still in the office and they were all complaining about her. Not to mention that she was argumentative and well crazy. So I had to fire her. It was pretty interesting firing a doctor - she was not very cooperative with me. But it had to be done, cause she was a crazy person. And once she was gone I realized that she had only been there for an hour and a half! It was the longest hour and a half of my life... (Did I mention that she was a crazy person?)

Tuesday: went by pretty uneventfully, but the guy doctor was very normal and professional - so that was a relief. I ordered an excellent pair of shoes that I had been coveting for a while (see photo below). And all of the new clothes that I ordered for Mark arrived. This t-shirt is my personal favorite:

Wednesday: I finished making my Halloween costume. Which is basically just a modified $5 Halloween t-shirt from Target. But I sewed on new sleeves, cut the sides and threaded it with green ribbon for a corset type look and put some glitter on the spiders to make them show up better... I think it looks pretty great in a Gloom Cookie Girl sort of way. (That's what my brothers call Gothic girls and I think it's pretty hilarious.) Anyway we're all wearing Halloween tees at work with whatever else we want, so you know I had to spruce mine up a bit...

Thursday: my shoes arrived! And we went to the fair. I forgot to take my camera, so I don't have any photos. But we pretty much just ate a lot a fabulous fried foods (completely gross and delicious!) and looked at all the 4-H stuff. And we were home in time to watch The Office. Perfect night.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: nothing super exciting happened on the weekend. But we did watch about a million scary movies on TV and freaked ourselves out. So that was fun. We also watched this show that was technically not a horror show, but it really freaked me out! It was My Fake Baby on BBC America. It's Freaky! Plus I was in a cooking mood on Sunday, so I made homemade mac n cheese and grilled a yummy marinated london broil. Delish!

I was Tagged....

2008-10-15T10:04:00.006-04:00

Well my sister Susy tagged me, and since I'm new to this blogger world this tagging business it new to me too! But here goes: The rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Also let the person that tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

10 years ago I was:
1. A nanny for the cutest little boy, Ben (who had a Beast for a mom)
2. Hanging out with the Raleigh University Ward singles
3. Living with Tina Henriksen (Narula)
4. Watching my brother Bob get marrried
5. Travelling around the US with Nanny job: NY City, Chicago, Martha's Vineyard, Aspen, Figure Eight Island, Boston....

5 things on today's to do list:
1. Check my email and my blog (check)
2. Fold laundry
3. Go to the library
4. Go to work at 1:30 (love those half day Wednesdays)
5. Watch Pushing Daisies

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Chocolate
2. Cookies
3. Peanut Butter
4. Mixed nuts
5. Life Cereal

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Pay off all our debt
2. Buy a house
3. Quit work and have some babies
4. Finish my degree and become a librarian
5. Travel the world - first stop Australia...

5 places I have lived:
1. Poughkeepsie, NY
2. Austin, TX
3. Greencastle, IN
4. Cary, NC
5. Morrisville, NC (current)

5 jobs I have had:
1. D'Nardys - made sandwiches and washed dishes
2. Nanny (see note above)
3. Office Manager- Fred Astaire Dance Studio
4. Administrative Assistant to a Dean at Meredith College
5. Office Manager - Triangle Chiropractic (current)

So now who should I tag? Five people seems like a lot, so let me think.... Tag you're it: Heather Winters, Eva Hahn, Catherine Ratledge, Lisa Page, and Karissa Trussell

Should I have named our blog 'Ballad of the Shoes'?

2008-10-14T15:27:00.016-04:00

So on Saturday I was at the mall shopping for some pants for Mark, which as you know can be a difficult task. (Refer to post below: too big and too small.) But while looking for the men's department in Belk (which happens to be a separate store completely in Crabtree - what is the point of that?!) I was wildly distracted by a fabulous pair of Nine West shoes. So I, naturally, picked them up to check the price and they were 25% off. But as I was admiring the modern yet retro loveliness in my hand I started thinking (and I'm sure anyone who has seen my closet is also thinking) 'I really don't need another pair of shoes'... and at that very moment a women (whom we will refer to as Shoe Satan) handed me a 20% off coupon and said she was leaving so I could have it. Fantastic! Now the shoes will be 45% off - it is definitely a sign that I must buy them, right?! Right! So I pick that baby up and walk up to the very busy shoe counter to ask for my size. (Have you ever been in the Belk shoe department on a Saturday? Craziness!) So the salesman brings me The Shoes and is even nice enough to bring it in 2 sizes, just in case. I flip open the box with anticipation and.... it's the wrong shoes! So I quickly grab the other box - same wrong shoes but now one size too big. So I wait again for a sales person to be free, and I finally grab a girl as she walks to the back and thrust my shoe into her hand explaining that I got the wrong ones and need this one in a size 9. She assures me she can get it and I wait again, anticipation building - so when I open the box and guess what - right shoes, wrong color- I am beside myself. My original salesman comes up to me and I inform him of all the blunders, to which he profusely apologizes and promises that he will take care of it, and he rushes off to get me my shoes. So when he comes back and actually gets down on his knees to help me put the shoes on I just didn't have the heart to tell him that he has the right shoes but wrong color (again - aarrgh!). How a person can think that pewter can be the same as brown I have no idea - he actually held them right next to each other and said "see it's the right shoe!" Clearly colorblind. So I waited until he walked away to yank those puppies off my feet and get out of that store as fast as I could. Apparently I was not meant to get those shoes. And you know the funniest part - is when I looked for images to put on this post, I was able to find pictures of all the wrong shoes, but not the ones I wanted. So it is definitely not meant to be... you will just have to imagine the fabulousness of them... (Insert fab photo and awe-inspiring music here.)

All the wrong ones:

Jolly Green Giant

2008-10-07T20:29:00.010-04:00

Long before we got married, when Mark was only the friend of my brother Michael, my family always knew that Mark was over because giant flip flops would be filling the entryway of my parent's home. (Also all the milk would be gone - but that's another story for another day.) So upon marrying Mark I had to learn a thing or two about sizing. I mean I had no training in shopping for a near giant - this isn't the kind of thing they teach you in Young Women. For example, did you know that socks come in king size? Me neither. So I'm sure you're thinking, "Heather, it's no big deal - just go shop in the Big n Tall section." Well that's what I thought too. But what if your man is too thin for the Big part of Big n Tall?? And then what if he is also too big for the regular section? How can a person possibly be both too big and too small at the same time? It puzzles me still. But sadly that is right where Mark is - too big and yet too small all wrapped into one. But happily, as the shoe crazed person that I am, shoes I can always find. Not in the store of course. Size 16s are never sitting on the rack smiling up at me in all their glory. No, no. That is why God created the internet (or was that Al Gore, I never can remember) so that I can easily purchase shoes for my husband. (And probably future large footed children, come to think of it.) Naturally these online size 16s are often hideous of the Frankenstein variety and always expensive. Even "on sale" most of Mark's shoes cost well over $80 after paying for shipping... So you can imagine my delight when I found a pair of fabulously retro green New Balances for only $59.99 with free shipping! How marvelous. I must admit that I did briefly worry that solid green size 16s would look a bit clownish - but it was a risk I was willing to take. Naturally I ordered them. (Plus Mark really did need a new pair of shoes.) Cause they could be fabulous. Well they came yesterday - and, of course, they are fabulous. Or at least I think so. And according to Mark, he got a lot of compliments on them at work today: "Wow those are green shoes" and other splendid compliments were made by both employees and customers alike. So I knew that I had to share them and all their glory with you....

Mr Green - Size 16

A size comparison with my green shoes (womens size 9)

Peer pressure, I'm sensitive to it...

2008-09-30T10:03:00.001-04:00

Well it seems that everyone's doing it, so why not me? So alas here I am - a blogger. I resisted the peer pressure for as long as I could, but now here I sit broken down, typing away. I kept thinking that I'd just wait until we had kids to start a blog - I mean who wants to read about the McKeons sans children? It sounds pretty boring to me. But then I remembered how exciting our life is and thought it would truly be a shame to deny all of you the privilege of sharing (if only vicariously) in the fabulousness. So buckle up, cause you're in for the ride of your life! (Depending on how often I post that is. I mean I broke down to the peer pressure, but that doesn't mean I'll get sucked into your world. I have some integrity after all, you may have lured me here but that doesn't mean you're going to get anything else from me. So don't get any big ideas.)