Remember

I can't think of a catchy title for it, but I am officially christening Tuesdays as a day for recording memories. I think one of my biggest fears in life is forgetting things. And maybe that's why I'm so in love with photography, one look at a picture and it brings back a thousand memories. It is true you know, a picture really is worth a thousand words. But anyways, I have so many amazing memories that I never ever ever want to forget. And there are some that I know for sure I won't have a problem remembering. But it's the little things, the small moments, the lessons learned, the laughter, the heartache...I just want to remember them all. There are hundreds of memories flooding my mind, begging to be remembered, but just one for tonight.

So when I was little, probably about three, my dad used to travel some for his job, and he would always bring me something back from his trip as a gift. So this particular time, he came home and had a little brown paper bag in his hand and told me he had a surprise for me. Of course, I was immediately thrilled and anticipating what my surprise might be, jumping up and down. My dad continued to set the paper bag on the floor and I could see a long bushy tail hanging out of the top. Before long, the bag started moving all over the place, and it wasn't long before I figured out there was something alive inside there. Like any three year old girl I was ecstatic: jumping around, squealing, chasing the "thing" in the bag around full of so much joy I nearly exploded...and then I finally caught it.

I grabbed it by the tail just a little too hard and the next thing I new the only thing in my hand was the tail. I was mortified as I watched the paper bag continue to jump around the floor, tailless. I had just ripped the tail off of my new pet!

And then I looked up to see mommy and daddy laughing. It was all a joke. The thing inside the bag was a little battery powered ball that jumped around when it was turned on. I still remember it, it was orage on one half and blue on the other, that evil little toy. I was devastated, heartbroken, furious, etc.

Who does that to a three year old?! Seriously, come on!

But, fortunately I got over it quickly and decided to make the most of it by tricking everyone else I knew. Which, at the age if three included my grandparents. Obviously, they weren't as shocked as I was to find that it wasn't, in fact, a pet squirrel.

Miscellaneous Monday

I realize that's not original.

And I know that some blogger woman out there has probably claimed it already and has a cute little button with copy rights and the whole bit. But, really. It's so unoriginal that I don't think anyone should be able to claim it. And since I need some structure to my blogging, I thought it would be helpful to have some sort of category for each day that would make it a little easier for me to get in a routine. I have yet to figure out the rest of the week. Maybe a photo post, an update day, and something that actually requires thought at least one day a week. We'll see how that goes. But today is all about random.

One. Two and Three

I miss basketball. Like really, seriously miss everything about it. And by basketball, I mean everything but my one year of college basketball (although I do miss the girls...shout out to LJ cool J). I miss getting ready for practice after school, and then sitting around forever afterward, too exhausted to get dressed and go home...quality time with KJ, slowest person EVER. I miss being in amazing shape, praying centercourt after every game, long bus rides full of singing and Alex reading cosmo, skipping practice when you couldn't find your jersey, rocking out before games to Lecrae, chanting GO GO BETTY, GO GO GO BETTY. Oh, the good old days. I miss all the girls and Coach Haas and T$. I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could...but only if I could still be married!

Four.

I love Chipotle. I could eat it every day, along with Jamba Juice.

Five.

Michael just wrote an 18 page paper, and I feel like a proud mother...or wife? Only a few weeks left until his semester is over and we move on to who knows what. That's not terrifying or anything. 

Six.

I think I've spent eight hours every day for the past 800 days searching and applying for jobs. How many ways can I spell AWESOME. 

Seven.

I want a house. With walls that I can paint whatever color my heart desires. With doors and door nobs and windows and maybe a fireplace. That will be the day.

Eight.

I've been wearing men's knee high socks lately, and I'm a big fan. So warm, and very fashionable. It's hard being this cool, really. 

Nine.

300 is such a great movie. Hello, Gerard Butler...you're almost as attractive as my husband. Almost.

Ten.

I love Christmas. I am praying my heart out that we get to go home. And if we do, I will enjoy my evenings by the fireplace mesmerized by the glow of the Christmas tree with a cup of apple cider, and if I'm really lucky there might even be snow. Heaven.

Eleven.

I miss my cat Cutie so much I could cry. 

Twelve.

I'm in need of a good read. 

Thirteen.

I'm in need of a good sleep.

Nighty night.

Turkey Day...In Pictures

I am thankful for...

My aunt, who in two days, gave me more cooking experience than I've had my entire life!

This happy baby.

Our successful pumpkin pie. 

My husband...who also loves Caleb. Who doesn't?

This table. The food on it, and the people around it.

 The people we couldn't be with. PTL for Skype!

This family.

And this guy, too.

I am blessed.

I Am Thankful

I've really enjoyed the month of November and the constant reminder that I have so much to be thankful for, not just the 25 days leading up to Thanksgiving, but everyday of the year. So I've been making it a habit to begin each day, from the moment I open my eyes, by being still and thanking God.

There is so much to be thankful for. But today, I could not be more thankful for my husband. For waking up each morning and stretching my legs, only to bump into his. For rolling over to the sleepy smile that never fails to welcome me each day. I am so thankful.

No matter how many things Michael may not be, I love him for all that he is. I know now that even the things that drive me nuts, are the things that make him him, and I wouldn't change a thing. Because to change one thing would be to trade another, and I'm just not willing to do that.

He loves me so well, and he makes me happier than I ever imagined was possible. He never stops making me laugh...or at least trying [For instance, he is currently singing a made up song while he writes his paper in the basement thinking no one else can hear him. And when I texted him that I just ordered some padded walls for him, he started singing even louder.]

But really, I am so thankful to have him in my life, by my side everyday, knowing he's not going anywhere. Knowing that he will never stop being the glue that holds me together when I feel like the next breath might shatter me into tiny misshaped pieces. He is my shoulder, my friend, my lover, and my constant reminder that life is only as wonderful as the people you share it with.

 

Catching Up

I think it's well past time for me to get caught up in Blogger world, and move on to what is actually happening in the present. That said, here's the rest of our infamous trip from oh, over a month ago (why does it feel like a year ago?) Anyway...

Here you see Sarah continuing on the Russell legacy of outrageous athleticism.

The day after "the surprise" kicked off fall break for Sarah and Christopher, so we spent some quality time enjoying the gorgeous Fall weather with some football and soaking up the sun on AU's campus.

Thanks to my sister for capturing this pretty picture of Michael 

and me thoroughly enjoying all things Indiana.

The whole gang. Sarah and Olivia make a cute couple, yes?

And here we transition to our adventures in TH. Which, sadly, meant we had to say goodbye to Sarah. But on the bright side, sunsets over freshly harvested corn fields are something I will never take for granted. Indiana will always be home to this girl.

Christopher, Alison, Michael and I spent the day wandering around the farm and setting up camp under this enormous tree.

Here we have our campsite and a super old tent more accurately described as "vintage" since that makes it infinitely more cool...which it was.

Before dinner we spent some time with the babies, and this is one of my favorite photos. What you can't see, is that another very curious calf was inches away from my face, literally breathing in my ear as I snapped this picture :) He just loved whoever had the camera and pretty much followed it around everywhere.

After a big tasty home cooked meal, we set out for our campsite where Chris whooped us all in Clue multiple times.

We got tired of losing pretty quickly so we moved on to more entertaining ventures like star-tripping and expressing our theories on evolution...Kidding! Good old Indiana had a fire ban and after all the fun wore off we decided it would be much more comfortable sleeping in a warm house with beds. So we did. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and then headed back to Cville so that Michael could catch a Wabash football game before we left for Indy to see some of our good friends get married!

 And they lived happily ever after...

while we went straight to bed before waking up early Sunday morning to make the drive back to CO.

As I've reflected on this trip over the past...month, I can hardly understand where the time has gone. It was such a jam packed week filled with so many faces and places and lessons along the way. I will never forget the looks on the faces of the people I love most when they realized who was standing in front of them. And I will forever be grateful that I always have them to come home to. But this trip was so much more than just ten days of fun and surprises; I learned more in those ten days than any other. The thirty hours spent driving across the country with my husband was a blessing straight from heaven in a time when we so needed to be united and closer to Jesus than ever before. The Lord totally used our impulsive decision to pick up and leave to reveal some things to us about ourselves that we otherwise may not have seen; to convict us of the things we were not doing well enough; to reveal to us things we never knew existed; to teach us humility and love; and to show Himself to us in grace and mercy. We came back to CO excited, exhausted, faithful and with a renewed sense of purpose and awareness about what God had called us to.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

THE END.

Surprise Part Three

Wednesday afternoon when Olivia got out of school for Fall Break, Michael came back from Terre Haute to pick us up and head to Anderson. We were a little nervous about how this particular surprise would turn out because we had already been in Indiana for over four days, and since we all have a lot of the same friends, we knew there was a chance that someone might inadvertently spill the beans. Lucky for us, no one did and we also had some pretty sneaky people on our sides. Christopher's girlfriend, Alison, was our big in and kept us current on their schedules and helped get some of Sarah's friends involved to make everything run smoothly. We knew that Sarah would show up in the RA office that evening because she thought she had to work (but her friends covered for her...they are saints, seriously!) so we showed up in the office a few minutes before she got out of chapel and it went a little something like this...

"Why are all these people in here, and why is that person taking pictures of me?"

Realization: cue piercing scream

Fall to the ground crying, laughing, and still screaming still.

Peel Sarah off the ground.

Hugging and more crying and asking how we're there.

Sarah is still not functioning while Michael and I die laughing at her reaction.

Hugs for Olivia.

And more hugs for Michael.

I don't think the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words" has ever been more true. So now that you've had a visual, here is a little word from Sarah explaining her side of the story...

Every other Wednesday night I spend three hours in the RA office, simply being available to the residents in my hall in case they need anything.  Last week was my duty night, and to be honest I was not that excited about it. All that week I had anticipated being in the championship intramural football game that night instead of working, but my team had taken a brutal loss the night before. It was the day before Fall Break, which calls for an overabundance of fatigue and stress. Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to working. As I put the key in the door and slowly opened it, I became apprehensive as the light was already turned on. Even more suspicions came as two of my best friends were sitting there on the right as I lifted my head. "Hm, maybe they want to come hang out, cool! This won't be as bad as I thought!" And then I looked straight up. On the couch at the back of the room were 3 people I never thought would ever be sitting in that room, like ever. Smack dab in the middle, Michael Angelo Russell was smiling back at me. My heart skipped a beat. My mouth dropped. Next to him was a huge camera in front of a face, and as soon as my confused brain put two and two together, I realized that face belonged to Lexi. And on his other side of Michael was Olivia. When all of this actually registered, the shocked look turned into a loud, piercing, shriek. I fell, literally fell to my knees and just started crying. MY family? My DENVER family was sitting right in front of me? And no one had even told me?!  I didn't even consider the fact that I was in the middle of the hallway, on my knees, crying, all I could think about was Michael and Lexi were here. To see me. Lexi came over and hugged me, and I'm pretty sure I was too weak to hug her back. Now I know what you're thinking. This all sounds pretttty darn pathetic. But words cannot even begin to explain the joy that was in my heart. Just that day for my teacher interview I had a writing prompt about the person I admire the most, and I had written about my oldest brother, Michael. I never could have fathomed that at the very moment that my pen was expressing my love for him, he was driving hours upon hours to come see me. You might think I'm crazy for having such a dramatic reaction, but I think you're crazy for not realizing what an amazing family I have. I am so blessed. 

And there you have it. Obviously, it was a roller coaster of a reaction including just about every positive emotion known to man. But wipe your tears because it's time to move on to Christopher who after surprising Sarah was kind of a let down in the reaction category, but still just as fun. I'm kidding! His reaction was so him and it was great...

here we have Michael reading a newspaper as Chris walks in (as were the rest of us at the table, except for me, I hid behind the camera) 

and here we have Chris completely oblivious to the fact that there was anyone else in the room.

here he is assessing the situation.

still assessing.

and one last double take...

OOHHHHHH! WAIT, WHAAAAAT?

"I'm so happy I don't know what to do"

hugs all around.

and to top it all off, a lovely group shot...

In summary: SUCCESS 

more on the rest of our AU adventures to come! 

(no promises on when though...) 

To Kristin and Sarah,

my two faithful, demanding, nagging, beautiful readers, this is dedicated to you!

I've learned my lesson, and that's the last time I put a teaser at the end of a post.

Alternate Title: Surprise Part Two

So.

Picking up where we left off...

Michael and I hit the couch around 5:30 am IN time, right after I snuck back to mom and dad's room and gave Mom a hug (dad was on a church retreat until Sunday night). The next morning, Michael and I waited for Olivia to finally roll out of bed around 10:30. We pretended to be asleep when we heard her walking down the hallway and then come to an abrupt stop, followed by twenty seconds of silence, followed by running back down the hallways, followed by running back in the living room and "waking" us up. It turns out, she walked in in her underwear (don't worry, Michael had his eyes closed!) and once she realized who was on the couch, which apparently took a good while, she sprinted to her room to put some shorts on before coming back out to this...

and this...

and the next day we (by we I me an Olivia and I) did this...

 and found nifty things like this...

and after that, we went to Curt and Jeannie's and met Bailey...

and after that we went to my Grama and Grampa's to surprise them...

Which went something like this: Olivia rang the doorbell and peaked through the window while Michael and I stood pressed against the door. As soon as the doorbell rang I heard my Grampa (who sits in a chair watching tv two steps away from the door) say, "Lana! You gonna get that?" who responded, "Bill, I'm cleaning the kitchen floor!" Soon enough Grampa was out of his chair and caught a glimpse of Olivia before opening the door and announced to Grama that Olivia was there. He opened the door to see Michael and I and stood their shocked with a precious grin on his face before wrapping me in a bear hug as I heard Grama yell, "Hi, Olivia!" from the kitchen. Moments later Grama hurried around the corner absolutely clueless before stopping dead in her tracks and proclaiming the most hilarious response I've ever heard from my sweet, mild mannered, five foot nothing grama. Eyes wide, arms crossed she said, "you little shits! I just talked to you on the phone!" And so the night begun. Later we went to my house for pizza and conversation mostly centered on Grama's reaction and wise words from my Grampa on the origins of the "S" word. According to him, it stands for Store High In Transit, an acronym used in the good old days when ships hauled manure across the Atlantic. Don't you feel better knowing that? Me too.

Moving on to surprise number three. Dad.
Dad had been on a church retreat the past four days and got home Sunday night just after reading letters that all of us had written him as a part of the retreat. Needless to say, it was an emotional weekend for him. And if you know my dad, you know that he still cries every time I leave the house and is, in general, an emotional basket-case when it comes to anything involving his girls (mom, Olivia and me). Anyways, back to the surprise. He rode home with one of his best friends, Kevin Parker, who had been updating us on how far away they were, and when they pulled in the driveway all of us were out there playing basketball. Dad was crying before he even got out of the car...

Chalk that up as another successful surprise! We ended the night with a good old fashioned game of horse, or maybe it was more like thirty games, followed by family time in the living room and fun stuff like four-person-push-ups...

The next day, Michael went to Terre Haute to see his parents and help his dad with harvest while I stayed at home and caught up with good friends and surprised one last very special lady, my dad's mom Grama Gerry.

Grama Gerry is a stubborn, no-nonsense, straight shooting woman who's all bark and absolutely no bite. She's my kind of woman. She is in her late 80's and while she's mentally sharp as a tack (minus a tiny bit of forgetfulness) she isn't very mobile, so she sits in that chair all day watching t.v. So this time I thought I'd bring a movie to watch with her even though she always insists that she "doesn't like movies." Someone tell me how the lady who watches t.v. all day won't watch a movie? I still don't know, but at least I tried. Like I said, she's stubborn. So I gave in and watched t.v. as we ate our BK value meals that I brought for lunch and she stole my french fries. She also always mutes the commercials. Why? Again, I don't know because half the time she sits there wondering what the commercial might be about. And I'm all like, "you know you could just leave the volume on!" But no. Instead we made a game of guessing what each commercial was for before the other. I creamed her. If it's starting to sound like I'm dissing on my grama, I am, but it's ok that's how our relationship is, we have an understanding. And she knows I love her!

That about covers all the Crawfordsville surprises! Next...Anderson!