homecoming 2010 or my dad greeted my homecoming date with a shotgun in hand.

the big first dance/date could be described in two words: WIN/WIN.

katilyn was a vision of beauty. (and of course i'm not biased being her mother--how could i be when she looks like this?)

and, for the record? we are grateful to her father for giving her the genes for her good looks. (whew!)

jody came over and spent a few hours getting her hair and make-up done, and we were so grateful for this act of kindness that meant so much to kaitlyn:

we were also grateful for the advantages of comfort offered when wearing a long dress:

with kaitlyn being the oldest girl within our circle of friends/family, this was a big "first" for us all, and we had quite the party going on waiting for andrew to arrive. (poor guy!)

unfortunately, THIS was also waiting for andrew to arrive:

having served with andrew in the young men's association, russ thought it would be funny to bring out the 270 rifle for the evening.


kaitlyn thought it was on the "not so funny" side.



thank goodness andrew knew that russ was a big ole softie and didn't seem too concerned:

there were flowers exchanged:

and we were in TOTAL LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT with katilyn's beautiful wristlet corsage:

finally, poor andrew was allowed to leave the house with the father who carries a big freaking firearm and get to the rest of the evening with his date.



& we couldn't have been happier:

(these two are experiencing their 15 minutes of fame--they were mentioned on the bloomers blog.
check it out HERE)



(also, clickity HERE to see how andrew asked and kaitlyn replied~)

three reasons--katie

three reasons why i love you, my first-born child:









1. you have the most amazing smile. we LOVE seeing it!


2. you take pride in keeping our family traditions and hold "family time" sacred. we know that would be a trait that is rare in a teenager, and we are grateful for it.


3. you try hard in any task that you do, and it shows--you make excelling at something look EASY! thank you for giving your all~

costa rica calling.....i miss my parents.

{volcan arenal}

is it possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to?



i suspect it has a little something to do with the fact that i'm missing these two:










or perhaps it's because i've always wanted to visit a country that has ginormous cattle?

i wanna run thru the halls of my high school or mindi goes to a john mayer concert.

i think i will sum up the whole john-mayer-concert-thing with one word: SUCCESS.

(i also thought of going with SYNERGY. but i'm not sure exactly what it means. i just like saying it.)


we had a random little group of lovely people and couldn't have enjoyed ourselves more:




i would also like to state for the record that i've never had such great seats for a concert. really.

since she is jm's other-lovaahhh-that-he-doesn't-know-he-has-yet, tiburon outdid herself by scoring the sweetest seats in the second row, smack-dab under johnathan himself.

we were so close that i could nearly see his pores*:

*did that sound creepy?





the advantage to being in such close proximity to said artist on stage was the fact that we had lots and LOTS of "face time". i think it meant quite a bit to john--i could see it in his eyes.



somebody was stupid enough to spend $$$ on some ginormous, flava-flav-clock-size buttons. (who in the world?....)

but they were the best $$$ somebody (allegedly!) invested that night because they were totally and completely radical:









and, they served their purpose well: they got us some time on the jumbo-tron with the band:






being this close also enabled us to suck-up to the camera-man and get .5 seconds of fame. (you should have seen vanessa work her charms. it was magical.)


tiburon captured this moment when john was chit-chatting to elisabeth (tib's sister) about her poster, and then you can see him scan down the line of all of the beautiful people.

it's the first 10 seconds of this video, so i suggest you invest in some high-tech software so that you can slow it way down and really enjoy our moment:





that also may or may not have been tiburon giggling like a twelve-year old school girl.



we had some AWESOME people-watching in the row in front of us.


this dude here was especially fruitful in the "YIKES!" department--he was approx. 20-25 beers in at this point, which was a bit touch and go.


but it helped him be a MUCH BETTER DANCER:







tiburon was in the absolute throes of ecstacy during the concert.


i tried to throw her off at one point by sending this text:


"WHAT DOES THE JM STAND FOR ON HIS GUITAR STRAP?"







she didn't take the bait. :(



all in all, i think the night was perfect: beautiful weather, beautiful music, beautiful company.


our boy nick even scored one of jm's picks after the concert was over:







the posse: michele, jj, elisabeth, jentix, mindi's head, tiburon, vanessa, stacey, nick, jody, & jill






the evening ended on the highest note possible when vanessa decided to wear my "party hair"--

because there is nothing like a hand-full of synthetic hair to make all of your dreams come true:

i think it looks quite natural.

birdiebirdiebirdie

this is tia.


she is the mourning dove that has taken up permanent residency in megan & neal's back-porch fireplace thingy. (what's the technical term?)

i have been totally all about her being back there--she's usually sitting on her nest, and we can all be hanging out at the table right below her nest and she doesn't seem to mind. in fact, i think she rather enjoys surveying us from on high.


unfortunately, my extreme love for this bird has managed to bring me to one conclusion. (and one conclusion only.) i am OLD.


OLD PEOPLE do things like watch birds in nests outside people's houses and talk about them constantly and call their sister (allegedly.) to see what said birdie is doing. & then bring their cameras over to take thirty (allegedly.) photos.







i was THRILLED when megan called to inform me a few weeks ago that tia was "expecting". two tiny little eggs--

she then implied that tia gets around, since she was fairly certain that there had been a few baby birdies not too long before that.

megan also may or may not have also referred to her as the "michelle duggar of the dove world":





***TEN DAYS LATER***



BABIES!!!

rock on.

as a mother who likes to rock it out, i must say that i couldn't be any prouder of my first-born.



why, you inquire?


because of this photo taken from the stage by a member of runner runner at their concert last wednesday night:



and once more, with the lights on......:

teach them while they're young, i say.



when i read that secondhand serenade (you will recognize THIS song. & THIS ONE is my favorite.) was coming to town with several other bands, i encouraged kaitlyn and her posse to attend.

the fact that it was on a school night was promptly overlooked--how often do you get to see a pretty great band in your own backyard on the cheap?



but the band that the girls fell for, hard & HANDS-DOWN was runner runner--




loved this photo of the lead singer working his magic on the crowd:

i might have become a big fan when i heard katie's favorite song which was made even cooler by this TOTALLY RELEVANT music video:

(watch. really. you will enjoy.)

you can become a fan of theirs on facebook as well--

i must say: i'm a little in love.

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:




**THIS sight that i beheld in all of it's glory yesterday.

i started to do this job myself, but she insisted on finishing it. herself.


isn't child labor a beautiful thing? especially when they look so dang cute while doing it.)

**this dirty-ron's tutorial for foreign menu items that i can't WAIT to try.


i'll be trying costa rica's gallo pinto next year.






**this totally awesome gwen stefani dreamcatcher



have i mentioned my (non) love for all things dreamcatcher? if i haven't, i SHOULD.




feast your eyes on this INVESTMENT IN YOUR HAPPINESS:








**this handsome dude.


who wears this t shirt. and makes it look so good.

turtleturtleturtle

(note to reader: this is a pet turtle. it is in no way/shape/form related to the infamous 'desert tortise'. no turtles have been harmed in the making of this post.)


BANNER DAY!

kaitlyn found this little feller--we found out that he's named jermaine, which naturally makes me love him more--on our porch the other night.


he had this note attached to him:

she then unscrambled the letters left with jermaine, and found out that this boy had asked her to her FIRST DANCE (!):

needless to say, the appearance of jermaine caused much excitement in this house--including, but not limited to: squealing, screaming, lots of "awwwwwhhhh, he's so cute!", and "mom, can we keep the turtle?"

the mother may or may not have commented that anybody named after michael jackson's brother would most certainly always have a home with them. allegedly.

kaitlyn couldn't be more thrilled--this andrew is a heck of a dude. (but her parents are even a bit happier.)

to see katie's oh-so-clever answer she gave to her date, click HERE--

(& we hope we don't break our arms patting ourselves on the back....)



**anything including this picture is a winner in our book:

three reasons--chandler

three reasons why i love you, my chandler/chandi/chanandlerbong:

1. you enjoy feline-themed merchandise almost as much as your mother. and your soft-spot for those two kitty-kats rivals your mother's as well. thank you for carrying on the love for catties tradition that was passed down to you from your great grandma montrue!

2. you can devour a book in a matter of hours--and i enjoy that you have developed such a passion for reading.

good thing mockingjay comes out today......i don't know if we could have handled your high level of anticipation for much longer. (smiley face!)

3. you have the cutest little smattering of freckles across your nose. and an "angel-kiss" (translation: birth mark) on your neck that i'm afraid no boy will be able to resist.

**but they BETTER--or else they will have your father to answer to. (translation: SCARY)

LUNCHBOX

for some reason this year, mia didn't compute that going to kindergarten meant eating lunch at home.

she also obviously was painfully unaware of her mean mother's strict "eat school lunch" policy. which was passed down to her from her mother (we also had the "old school" option to come home, since school was 2 blocks away.) and faithfully followed as well as strictly-adhered to in this home.

but that didn't stop her from needing, nay REQUIRING a lunch box.


so, when i found this cutest retro box at old navy, i gave in:






it brought such sheer joy, that i knew we'd hit the jackpot.





the other jackpot i hit? finding my OWN LUNCHBOX:







if you know my husband, than you know that this couldn't have been more custom-made for me.


i love it.

facebook for cats

{note to reader: generally i've tried not to post our last name on the internet. but now that i've gone ahead and done this--allegedly--please do not cut us up into tiny little pieces and stuff us into the drywall. thank you.}




opportunity of a lifetime: BE FRIENDS WITH OUR FELINES ON FACEBOOK.



i had NO IDEA that dave & martin were internet-savvy. OR that they could type with their tiny little cattie-paws.

but, as i suspected, my kitties are of above-average i.q. and are highly intelligent. nothing, and i mean NOTHING will get in the way of their social-ladder-climbing agenda.

they are currently accepting any and all facebook friend requests--don't delay! this exclusive offer/opportunity will not last forever. do it in the next 60 minutes and become a PREFERRED FRIEND.



dave's interests:

marty's profile:

marty's interests:

have a WONDERFUL weekend~