Jesus was a chick?

Had a crazy day at work, then drove down for Taylor's baccalaureate service tonight. They had some students pray, and the girl doing the invocation said, "... most of all, we're thankful for Your Son, who was born as a woman... I mean, born from a woman..." Hahahaha! Is it irreverent to laugh out loud during a prayer?

Tomorrow I'm going to hang out with Alisa, Shauna and Amy for a bit at ATU, then head to NLR for a meeting. Hope the tornadoes stay far, far away from my hotel room tonight.

Oh, and a disclaimer about my blog: it's purely for entertainment. Most of it is accurate, but I have been known to embellish the truth a bit for both humor and story flow. So please stop taking me so seriously, k? I am my mother's daughter. If a true story is funny, adding details that didn't happen might make it funnier.

Rest of the pics from tonight are here.

Groovy

I've been scanning in hundreds of photos for a project, and I came across some great pics of my time working at my alma mater. Those were some awesome times. I miss the people. Don't miss the poverty.

That's my former coworkers (and still good friends) Amy and Alisa on each side of me. Harold, our former boss, is in the back... and yes, his pants are split. We won $100 for this!

Russ-vegas

Today was a great day in many ways because I got to see three of my favorite people in the whole wide world: Alisa, Amy and Shauna. We enjoyed lunch at our favorite place, Italian Gardens, and we ordered the same things we always do. We talked for two hours (we did do some work, in case you were wondering), and our waitress quickly crossed the line from attentive to annoying.

It was the first time I've seen them in months, so we had a lot of catching up to do. About work. About family. About LB.

Shauna and Alisa have recommended that I profess my like for the boy by sticking my tongue in his ear Saturday night. Yeah, I don't see that happening, but I am gearing up for an opportunity this weekend, and I hope I'll have the courage to take it.

So here's your task for the day... I'm soliciting advice about what to say, how to say it, and where. Post some comments, please. I'm totally serious. Obviously I can't be trusted.

Mountain party

Yesterday Scott and Alisa hosted a party on Nebo for Mike and Shauna, Thomas and Amy, and me (plus everyones' kids). Scooter made some fantastic gumbo and we sat out by the fire and talked. It was so much fun!

Isn't Madison precious?!?



Scott and Alisa



Preston, Madison and Joe

Meet Madison

As reported earlier, I met my friend Amy's little girl, Madison, for the first time last night. This beautiful child is the result of many answered prayers. And she's precious! Only God could make a child so perfectly precocious and adorable that you just want to squeeze her. What can I say... I'm a sucker for sugar and spice and everything nice.

Perfect weather, perfect friends

It's been a very long day and I'm tired, so I don't have much to say tonight. I do want to report, however, that my weekend at Nebo was about as perfect as it could have been. I don't get to see my Tech friends as much as I'd like, but it's great to know that I've been gone for over eight years and we still hang out and visit and have a great time, no matter how much time has passed.

Scott and Alisa put out quite the spread all weekend, making homemade sushi for dinner on Saturday night, and hosting a shrimp boil for my birthday last night. Thomas and Amy and Mike and Shauna were able to join us with their families, and we had a fabulous time. The weather was perfect, the food amazing, and the company was flawless.

Everyone's kids are growing way too fast, and this is the first time I've ever seen Madison, who is one of the cutest little girls ever. I'll write more tomorrow about the weekend, but for now, please watch the video of the party.

Thanks for a great time!

Happy birthday!

Birthday wishes go out to my pal, Amy, in the big city of Russ-vegas, and my friend Karla here in the NWA.

Have a great one!

Where everybody knows your name

God has truly blessed me with amazing friends. And you know you have good friends when months or even years can go by without seeing them and when you finally sit down, it's as if nothing ever changed.

I was lucky enough to have the greatest job of my life right out of college. Granted, I wasn't making a fortune, but I got to travel all the time and work with three fabulous women. Shauna, my boss at the time, was only a couple of years older than me, but I learned so much from her about having high standards and holding people accountable.

Amy, Alisa and I used to travel together, laugh together, and sing Jimmy Buffett songs to the top of our lungs in the car on the way to eating lunch together nearly every day. In the three years that the three of us worked together, we formed a lasting friendship.

It's been eight years since I worked with those three, and although there are three new children since then (none of whom belong to me), so much is the same. I still talk to Alisa three or four times a week, but I don't talk to Shauna that often, and I haven't seen Amy in over two years.

Today we ate lunch at Italian Gardens, one of our old favorite lunch places. We all ordered exactly the same thing as we did eight years ago, and we talked about mostly the same stuff.

Sometimes you do want to go where everybody knows your name. Or at least the people who matter. Those who knew you when, loved you then, and love you now.

Girls... thanks for the fantastic day!

{There you go, Amy... your first shout-out on the 'Drivel.' If we hung out more often, I could talk about you more!}