Relay Friday

Well, baby steps are better than no steps right?

We haven't made huge ground this week but we do have 6 people who have filled out paperwork to join our team! And one person from my work has asked for details on how to form a team. So hopefully he can get one going too!

This weekend the weather looks good so hopefully we can get lots of door hangars out in the community. I am trying to build up my confidence to go ask for corporate sponsorship too so wish me luck there. I have ideas of places to ask its just a matter of doing it!

I have decided to start a scratch off donation card- the fundraising tool I mentioned last week. So, if you aren't so inclined to donate online because you think to don't have enough money you can buy a scratch off spot! You can tell me a grid number or let me randomly pick, and I'll let you know the outcome! You could get a $1 spot , and the most you'd get is $25. Then you'd just have to agree to send me a check for that amount. I'll be carrying the card around with me here too and hopefully I can get it filled out.

Or, in case you just so happened to lose the link from previous posts but do want to make a donation the site is
www.relayforlife.org/seasideca

Happy Friday :)


- manda

Oh what to do

I struggled with writing a blog yesterday about my adorable, precious, genius child because all I could think about was the fire in Colorado springs. I thought all day about what I would write, but it just didn't have the usual spunk and excitement.

I would have loved to have written a great post but I just was too distracted. So, I'll try my best today!

We have been trying to find the right time to go to the aquarium since we moved here. We almost went on memorial day weekend but there were maybe 150 in line outside the doors, and we didn't know how long the line was inside the doors so we decided to avoid the crowd! We were told that was 'normal' and we'd just have to deal with it but I didn't want to believe that. We did decide to buy a membership though, since I am guessing William will want to go often, so I bought one online last week so we could just speed through check in.

It wasn't nearly as crowded Sunday as we had seen it, and I'm really glad! It was hard enough to see some of the tanks as it was. The most popular tank we fought our way to see was the one that had all of the fish from finding nemo. It made me wonder if the aquarium revamped this tank after that movie just for the popularity :)



We were right though - William LOVED the aquarium. He loved every part of it! Or I should say - he loved every part we saw. We didn't see half of it I don't think. There are lots of touch pools and we only saw two, there is a traveling exhibit which we didn't get to, and we barely dabbled in the kid interactive play area. We did find a tunnel there though so that was heavenly!









Here he's touching star fish and bat rays!



He was fascinated with the entire place and he was very disappointed when it was time to leave. We'll be back soon though - we were equally enthralled! I decided that membership was the best charitable donation ever :)



And - it came with 2 annual guest passes so if you have the urge to see sea otter fur for yourself, or if you too want to visit The Jelly Experience I'll take you for free! Just a $500 plane ticket :)

William has been eating a lot lately, and all the parents out there know what that means - growing time! So we had to go shopping this weekend for some new pants and jackets. Well, I would have liked to make it multiple but we just found one jacket. June isn't the best time to shop for jackets :) but it's chilly enough in the mornings or on cloudy days that he needs them. So here's his new one:



I thought by buying 3T we would be buying it 'big' with room to grow. Unfortunately it looks to fit much better than I'd hoped. He sure likes it!

And it wouldn't be a proper William post if I didn't tell at least ONE story of his brilliance! One of our favorite games to play in the car is William asks 'what's that sign say?' and I either pick a letter from the sign or I repeat the question for him and he picks a letter. Then, regardless who picked the letter, he repeats the letter and says the word we associate with it. N is for Nancy, L is for Layla, O is for oh gosh - you get it. Well, M has forever been for mommy but yesterday we had this conversation:
What's that sign say?
What does that sign say?
M....mmmmmmmotorcycle!

What what? Last week mental math this week phonics? Ahhhhhh this boy never stops amazing me! Daily I'm in awe.

Oh - and before I go - a quick funny story. Sunday morning we all had breakfast in mommy/Dada's room before church and after we ate William was going to go downstairs for something. Next thing we heard:
"are you KIDDING ME??? Ah, I got POOP on my sock!"

We just died laughing.

Are you KIDDING me???

Have a happy Timothy Thursday - an please say lots of prayers for Colorado. The state will forever house a piece of my heart, and still physically houses my brother, so a piece of my heart is very very hurt right now.

- manda

I knew, and I didn't even Know

I'm going to tread lightly on this blog post because the last thing I want to do is sound self righteous - that is not at all the place from which I'm writing. I just had an ah-ha moment in church on Sunday so I wanted to share.

This was only our second visit to a church in Monterey, and the first visit hadn't gone as well as I'd hoped. But it was due to special circumstances so we agreed to give it another shot. But, when I heard the pastor was on vacation and we'd be hearing from a staff member for the sermon I was slightly disappointed. His sermon wasn't as powerful or moving as pastors' tend to be, but the message was clear.

We could tell from the bulletin that the sermon would somehow revolve around tithing so I was worried it was going to be a day of their capital campaign or something. Now, I won't say there is no room for this in your spiritual life, but as a visitor it's the last Sunday you'd want to visit.

But the speaker went deeper than asking for our monies. He explained that our personal call is to give our time, talents, and treasures - all equally important and equally called for. He went on to talk about each and when he got to the part about our treasures he said something I didn't expect:
God doesn't need your money.

He doesn't? But isn't that what this is about? Giving Him our money...

No, he doesn't need your money. Your money is already His, and He made the choice and devised the plan to give that money to you. He doesn't need your
Money, but the question is - do you? How much of your money do you need and how much do you surrender back to Him for the building of His kingdom?

I've always believed in the power of tithing. There have been times when it physically hurt to tear the check from the checkbook. But then electricity came in low, or a mortgage escrow refund came in, or some other unexpected form of financial relief arrived. I've always believed this because I remember when I was a kid spying at my mom writing checks, week after week, wondering where the money was coming from. We didn't have much, how did we afford to give that? And then God carried us through, time and time again. So I have always trusted and given in faith and never been disappointed.

As of lately, giving hasn't been as painful. We have been very blessed and fortunate through the last few years and I have joyfully given in thanks.

But I've always felt like I should do more. A friend competed in the tough mudder for the Wounded Warrior Project- how could I not give? The Leukemia Lymphoma Society needed funds to support a move to a new office - how could I not buy a brick in my Dad's name? I've sometimes looked back at the end of the year and told myself I need to reign in my donations a bit and have more discipline and plans so that they don't get out of hand. I don't need to support every cause, I tell myself. I give enough already right?

But then there was always this tugging at my heart. And I could never put into words why I felt like I should do more.

It came to me during the sermon. God doesn't need my money. Charities don't need my money. But God has blessed us and through those blessings I have to decide how much I need, and how much I want to give back in thanksgiving.

This is in no way related to my recent drive to raise money for the Relay. Or maybe it is? Maybe God is encouraging my efforts and reminding me that my time an my money are His and should be used to glorify Him. Maybe he is reminding me that my blessings and good fortune have not been given to me so that I may keep them all for myself.

Whatever His purpose, he spoke to me. And once again, through an unexpected channel. I'm learning those are His favorites!


- manda

Relay Friday

Catchy name huh? Relay Friday - I like it.

And so I've coined my Friday blogs for the next 7 weeks!

I'll document our progress (or lack thereof) for the week and hopefully it will help me stay motivated and see how far we've come.

This week we had our first 'committee meeting'. Austin, William and I met with the representative from ACS...that was the meeting :) it was great though! We got more information on what we can do as volunteers, what needs to be done by August, and we got some fundraising tools.

Lindsey told us our site had not yet been approved but sitting across the restaurant was the fire chief and he had assured Lindsey he would push for it at their meeting Thursday. And I guess he did because Lindsey emailed us today saying we officially have a location! So she is working on getting posters and other marketing tools ready with the information so we can publicize the event.

She gave me some email addresses of people who had given their information and showed interest in helping so I have emailed them and hopefully we can get some more volunteers.

What we really need, though, are teams, sponsors, and funds. I have a list of local businesses that I am hoping we can go talk to over the coming weeks. Seaside isn't a very big area and there aren't many businesses but I'm hoping between car dealerships and a few local restaurants we can get some support. I know Target is a national sponsor and Lindsey said they generally are open to sponsoring a team from their local stores.

Lindsey also gave us some door hangars to take around neighborhoods, some luminaria bags to try to sell, and some scratch off lottery type games. They are cards with scratch off spots ranging from $1 to $25. The idea is to ask people to scratch off one or more circles and agree to pay whatever their circle reveals. Once one card is completed it will have raised $250! I think that's a good fundraising tool for someone who doesn't want to just come out and ask for money. I'm hoping they work well.

The luminaria bags are maybe my favorite part of the relay and I might buy quite a few! They generally sell for $10 each but anyone who has given a donation can decorate one in honor or memory of a loved one. They line the track all day then after sunset they are lit with either candles or glow sticks. I am very excited for this part!

So The goal between now and the next Friday update Is to have distributed marketing tools and hopefully talked with at least one potential sponsor. Keep us in your prayers!

And, just in case I've motivated you to want to join our cause, here's the site again. Sorry for shoving it down your throats, but I'll likely plug it every week. Only one way to raise money and that's to ask!
www.relayforlife.org/seasideca



- manda

Organizing a Home

Organizing an entire home is a lot more challenging than I thought it'd be! It's one thing to say 'my hall closet needs a revamp' where the contents are already known and the location is set. But taking an empty house and 250 boxes of stuff is a different story. Apparently there's no 'poof' and done. It's been a much longer process than I would have hoped.

Our house has been unpacked and somewhat in place for almost a month now (I think, right? I'm losing track) but every day I find myself moving things, rearranging things, and finding new systems. But - I finally see light at the end of the tunnel! And I can almost share pictures of our new home.

I didn't expect to need to buy as much new furniture as we have but I'm enjoying it, and I'm very happy that it's almost all bought :) I'm not a big fan of spending money so I'm glad it's almost behind me. I also didn't think I would have such a hard time deciding where wall hangings and other decor will go. The last time I moved into a house we hardly had anything, so we bought decorations over the course of the time we lived there and things were usually bought with a purpose in mind. This time, though, we have a stack of items that don't fit in the same places they did before. It's a challenge! But it's a fun one.

I made a list of all of my outstanding ideas (outstanding as in - need to be done, not outstanding as in fabulous) and have goals as to when we will complete them all. Austin thinks its a bit aggressive of a schedule,but I suppose he doesn't have the same prize at the end.

What's my prize?

My craft closet!!! We have a closet downstairs that is meant to be a storage closet. But we have created storage in the garage and have designated the closet for my crafts. I'm so excited! I love the idea of it being a little hideaway with slanted ceilings and private quarters. It's the perfect size, and when I am in the middle of a project I won't have to pack it all up each time I work on it - it won't be an eye sore because it'll be behind a closed door.

Sure, I'll likely only have time for crafts once a week or so, but when time is that limited maximizing time is crucial - so eliminating the 'pack/unpack' phase is awesome. (I know fellow crafters agree)

So now I just want to hurry up on the rest of the house so I can start scouring pinterest and the web for ideas on how to make my perfect craft closet.

Gotta hurry, wouldn't want to finish it just in time to move again!


- manda

Oh no!

I wrote an awesome William Wednesday post yesterday that once again got lost in la-la land. How does that happen??? Irritating!

In any case, I'll try to repeat it. I'm disappointed though because it was a good one and we all know Michelangelo couldn't repeat...oh what did he paint??? Jk :)

If my memory serves me correctly I started out boasting about how smart William is. It's a safe bet, anyway, since that seems to be all I talk about! Monday night we had a five star meal consisting of chicken nuggets and macaroni - William's favorite meal! I cut up his nuggets, as I have for a year, but when he saw Dada's he said 'I want a big one'. And I guess that's how bite size cutting dies! We gave him 2 unaltered Dino nuggets and he was pretty enthralled. He bit the tail and feet off one of them and declared, 'I ate three! One tail and two feet!'

Did my son just do mental math????

GENIUS!

We had a very fun weekend. The radio station told us on Friday that fathers day is the most uncelebrated of all of the 'official'
Holidays, so we vowed to make sure that wasn't the case in our house. Saturday we went to the green man store (a hardware store that is - you guessed it - green) to get a desk and Dada got some fun new gadgets. To be honest I don't even know what he got, but he was excited and William was beyond pleased to tote the items around the man store. He LOVES the man store.

After the man store we spent the afternoon playing on the beach. We intended to grill burgers there too but William had an upset stomach and we ended up running out of diapers just as the charcoal was ready. Oh well!

He loved the beach though. We discovered that there is beach access just through the dunes in our neighborhood so we were on the beach about 10 minutes after we walked out of our front door (had to drive part of the way then walk through the dunes, but still - 10 minutes!) William spend the day sliding down into big holes that dada dug and burying his trucks then frantically joking, 'where did my trucks go???'















Sunday morning William put on his new 'Harley David shirt' that we bought at the 'Harley David store' and woke dada up with a clue to start a scavenger hunt. He followed dada to the microwave, where the first clue lead him, and they found gummy bears. I intended for William to go along the rest of the hunt to and help dada find the rest of his surprises, but apparently There was a flaw in my plan as the gummies should have been the final prize. Oops :)

Quite possibly the highlight of Williams week (in a mommy opinion) was when he blew me away at his school book fair. I told him we could buy a new book for him, one for baby Kelli, and one for baby Reagan (not kitty cat Reagan who is still MIA but his new cousin Reagan). At the fair I noticed shelves where teachers put 'wish list books' and parents could select books for their kids' classrooms. I found the angelfish shelf and William instantly grabbed the ambulance book. No surprise there, but then he pulled the piece of paper out that said which teacher the book should go to and he said, 'it says miss rebecca' - and it did!!! How did he know that??? We bought the book and as he went back into his room to give it to her I told her the story. She said, 'he's so bright! He can identify all of his friend's names written on paper'.

Need I say it again......genius?!?!

And, the part that tugs the strongest at my heart is how sweet his nature is on top of all else.



I could not be more proud :)

- manda

As an Aggie

Your reputation precedes you. I found out yesterday that when my firm was discussing whether or not to hire me I was given big kudos from someone I hadn't met. She urged the partners to hire me, saying 'aggies are always the best employees'

Cool :)


- manda

Relay Update

I was so excited to blog about relay that I forgot to give information about how you can donate!

The web page is
Www.relayforlife.org/seasideca

If you click on that (or copy it into your web browser if a link didn't pop up) it'll take you to the Seaside relay page. From there you can search under teams for TEAM WTB. Don't worry, as of now we are the only team so 'searching' won't be hard!!! Then you can donate to our team if you'd like.

We appreciate any support you may want to offer, and we are so very excited to be a part of this event.

Thanks for your help and encouragement...I'm sure I'll keep you updated with nerves and status along the way!

- manda

Cat Speak

I wish I had brushed up on my cat speak. I woke up at 3am and found myself eaves dropping on the conversation between Reagan and nancy through the bedroom window. To my best knowledge, this is how it went:

R: um, nancy, come out here. This place is awesome!

N: I don't THINK so fat cat. Do you know how good we have it in here?

R: oh please! There are mice and bugs and other rodents to chase around and plenty of brush to hide in during the days.

N: yeah but in here I have my own BED. A real bed! I mean sure, I have to share it with the people at night but that's ok. I get back at them by nearly suffocating them with my fur and sticking my claws in their backs as they sleep.

R: have it your way. But I'm staying, this is the life. Catch ya later nancy.

If you haven't read, Reagan has decided he has had enough of our domestic life. I wasn't sure (and I'm still not) at what point I should count him gone but I think over a week is pretty safe. Especially because I have now heard him 3 times in the middle of the night and he's never chosen to show his face in daylight. He is around, he definitely knows this is our house, but he has no interest in reconciling.

Nancy is especially clingy (read: obnoxious) and William thinks Reagan is at work which breaks my heart. But, I guess this is what I get for taking a wild cat with more personality than any other 10 cats combined and expect him to live in a box.

Here's to hoping he runs off the mouse population and comes crawling home, skinny and apologetic.


- manda

Sunk Dunk Dinner

William is SILLY! Oh my goodness he just cracks us up non stop.

He still LOVES to see the boats in the bay and excitedly screams 'what are those boats doing out of the waaaateerrrrr?' when we drive past boats that aren't in TW bay. He loves to tell us all about the scenery and name all the items he knows. But the funny stuff is just what he randomly comes up with.

Like when I asked him if the sail boats went to work and he said 'nooooo, sail boat doesn't have arms!' How could I argue?

Or when He turned upside down on his bed last week and said 'I'm an upside down spiderman!!' - I don't even know when or where he learned about spiderman!

I'm having stage fright right now because I know there are tons of examples over the last few weeks. Austin and I just look at each other baffled and cracking up every time he opens his mouth.

He has developed 2 of his own words now too. I know it's normal...I know my brother called airplanes 'bee bee owms' and he had some goofy word for motorcycles. But William hasnt had his own random words ever since he really learned to pronounce things. A few weeks ago we noticed he kept saying 'deed' though and finally realized deed means hurt. Deed on the arm or head or elbow...deed means he needs a kiss to make it all better.

The word that I DON'T know how to translate, the one that drives me nuts, is sunk dunk. It seems to be an answer to a multitude of questions and my best translation is 'leave me alone mom I'm in a silly mood and don't want to answer your questions'

What do you want for dinner William? SUNK DUNK!

What cars are you goin to take in the bath today? SUNK DUNK!

Do you want to call dada? SUNK DUNK!

I think he is very aware that it gets under my skin, and I think he loves it. One day I thought we were getting somewhere. I asked what he wanted for dinner and he replied 'astronaut food'. Ok...do astronauts eat chicken nuggets? No, he replied. Well what do they eat?

SUNK DUNK!

Of course they do.

I'm afraid he is fully in the 'I'm 2 and I'm testing my boundaries and I'm gonna get away with everything' stage of life. How long does this stage last? Cause I'm over it already. We are trying our best to remain calm and patient and be consistent but...well that boy can throw temper tantrums with the best of them. It's like his body is taken over by aliens for 10 minutes sometimes. Unreal! It's like he says 'oh, I can't stay in the bathtub after I've stood up an peed in it? Ok, I'll show you! I'll pull every book off my bookshelf and I'll throw all my buddies on the floor and I was rip - literally rip - this diaper off my bottom.' and so on! I wonder where he got the ability to throw these fits...

He missed Austin a lot while he was gone and towards the end he got mad at me when I told him we had to call him on the phone to talk to him. Luckily he's home now and we can finally get settled into our new life.

A few pictures from Our week...



Climbing a rope ladder and sliding down the slide on the other side



Magna tiles at relay for life!



Worn out after relay






First boat ride



His new cereal bowl from yaya and papa. He looooooves slurping the milk through the straw

- manda

So excited!

I'm so excited about my blog topic today that I don't even know where I'll start.

I'll start with the flyer we had on our door the first week we lived here. It was in our temporary new house, not even our current house. The flyer was inviting us to an open house to find out more about the first annual Relay for Life in Seaside. They were looking for volunteers, teams, and other areas of involvement and would be at a pizzeria for 2 hours on May 29. Austin had picked it up off the door and he showed me later, saying 'This could be fun to do'.

We didn't talk about it for a few more weeks, then when he found out he had to go to south Carolina he said 'I'm bummed cause I won't be able to go to that open house thing'. I had no clue what he was talking about! Since the day we found the flyer I had started my job, where the Salinas Relay for Life is a huge event. My firm is very involved in the relay, so I think I just had mentally decided I'd piggy back on my firm. But Austin wanted us to be involved in the one in our town, so I agreed to go to the open house.

I went. I was the only person there. Literally - not even the Relay representative was there! I emailed her later saying I must have missed her but that we are interested.

She happens to be the cousin of the HR person here at work, and she happens to work 10 minutes from me. So we met for lunch later that week to talk about how we could get involved.

If you aren't familiar (because I wasn't) Relay for life is a 24 hour event put on in local communities by the American Cancer Society to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. Teams agree to have a team member on the track at all times for 24 hours, signifying that cancer never sleeps and neither will we. There are Relays all over the world, and it is a very successful event all over California.

Fast forward to this past Saturday. William and I went to the Salinas Relay with my coworkers. We had signed up to walk from 12-1 so we went at 10:30 when it opened, had lunch, walked, enjoyed the festivities and left around 3. Turns out Salinas has one of the largest relays in the world, so seeing it as an example for what a relay can become was pretty cool. The event is kicked off by a 'survivor lap' where they invite all survivors to wear their purple shirts and take a victory lap. I had no idea how touching it would be. Children on their parents shoulders. Teenagers with their high school sweethearts. Elderly men dragging oxygen tanks. Cancer survivors of all types; it was incredible. The track is lined with team tents, where teams have fundraisers (like games of bra pong, or bake sales) donning pictures of loved ones lost and lives saved. It was an awesome day. During the opening remarks the event coordinator announced that in 2011 cancer related deaths were on the decline. Amen!!!

Monday morning I had an email from Lindsey, the representative in charge of getting the Seaside relay started, letting me know our first volunteer Meeting is next Tuesday.

We are volunteers! And if that isn't scary enough, we are THE volunteers. As of now it's us. I am the event coordinator and Austin is the team captain coordinator. Our titles don't really matter, Lindsey just had to list us as something. But it's us- that's it.

It is exciting for me to close my eyes and fast forward 3 years from now. We could be on the brink of kicking off the 4th annual Seaside relay. We could be on the brink of our last relay here, and we could have started a great thing. We could have helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for cancer research! We could have started with nothing and built a large community went!

Or it could be a bust. We could crumble. We could be 3 people alone on a track for 24 hours (well, that's not true - my mom and stepdad are on our team so it'll be at least 5!) we could have no community support or interest. It could fail.

It's easy to jump on board a ship that's already afloat. It's easy to join a team with your firm who has been involved for 10 years with a Relay that is 25 years old. It's not easy to build a ship from scratch. Especially when you know nothing of ships!!!

I don't know how to solicit donations or recruit volunteers or encourage people and businesses to build teams. I don't know how to gear people up to get excited to fight cancer. I don't know how to lead this.

But I am. We are. Austin and I are starting a Seaside Relay for Life. While our team (Austin is hoping to build a team in his platoon) name is Team WTB in honor of my dad, we are joining the cause for so many reasons. For his aunt who passed away from breast cancer. For my aunt who has survived. For all the people in the purple shirts I saw last weekend, and in hopes that the purple shirts multiply each year.

We are very excited, but very nervous. Please help us - by your prayer, encouragement, and/or financial support. Please help us make this a success!


- manda

So how do you like it?

I have been asked a lot how I'm liking California, so after a month of being here I thought I'd write a little bit about it.

How do I like it? Well, every morning on my way to William's school I drive right along the coast. I see blue/green water, beautiful white capped waves, and pretty tan sands. Our route curves along the bay and we drive past the fisherman's wharf which is surprisingly intriguing to this non-fish eater. It's a gorgeous drive! Then after I drop him off I head northeast through the foothills(not sure if that terminology is used here or is reserved for Denver, maybe I'll try it out and see what response I get). Regardless, I drive towards the mountains and see their beautiful green grasses and lush trees.

I spend my workday working on small business and individual taxes. I never would have guessed I'd get any more satisfaction from this than I did from corporate tax (which, as I've said before, wasn't a whole lot) but I do! I feel like I'm helping the small farmer to make an honest living rather than making sure I get as many pennies in the CEO's pocket as possible. I know that's a cynical way to look at corporate tax, but the whole scene wore on me after awhile and I lost the sense of value. But here, I really feel like I'm offering a great service to people who really need it.

Then on my way home, whether I pick William up or go straight home, I'm staring into those blue waters again. I drive through strawberry fields and spinach fields and pass the farmers picking their crop. And I love it.

On the weekends we spend a lot of time trolling along the waters edge. We walk on trails, drive through the small towns, and just enjoy the scenery. It's a different world and I am enjoying taking it all in. It's so beautiful!

But, it isn't home.

When does it feel like home?

I love it here. I love the farmers markets and their amazing produce. I am already grieving my loss of the peaches and strawberries and that loss is years away - that's how much I love it! I love that William will be able to enjoy the park year round. I think the mountains and beach in one city is like the best parts of my former homes colliding. I love so many things about Monterey.

So why isn't it home?

I was prepared for a long job-search, which turned out to be much shorter and more blessed than planned. I was prepared for unpacking to take weeks when in fact it took one. I was prepared for so many aspects to be more grueling than they have been but I was not prepared for this odd feeling that I'm just not at home.

The good news is that if it never feels like home, at least it's a really awesome 3 year vacation. And maybe it's just one of those things I can't force. Maybe I'm trying too hard to make it home when I really just need to sit back, live life and then wait for the day when I wake up and say, 'wow, when did this become home?'

Until that day, I'll just enjoy the fact that I'm being paid to vacation in one of the most visited places in our country. Doesn't get much better than that.


- manda

A lot of me

There are one thousand stories about Brian from growing up. Brian on Mimi's stairs, Brian with the bean in his nose, Brian with the fuddruckers fork in his diaper, Brian hitting me with a wooden bat, Brian throwing a harmonica at Brandon's eye...

Brian's life has had more of those odd little moments that make good stories later. I only have a few stories that circulate around over and over, and one of them is a story of me talking endlessly.

I was riding in the backseat of Marty and Jan's car before they had kids. I was 5 when Maizeanne was born so it was sometime before that. I was chatting away, as I often did, without a care of whether or not anyone was listening. Marty turned to Jan at some point and said, 'if we have a daughter is she going to talk as much as her?' referring back to me.

What can I say? I had a lot to talk about! And do you know who follows my lead? William! Oh my goodness there is no such thing as silence when he's around. He talks and talks and talks. Boats, motorcycles, American flags, man store, target, clouds, school buses...he sees it all and he comments on it ALL.

All of it. Every time.

He's a talker! And I'm pretty sure that is not a trait he got from his dad :)


- manda