“If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children, you hurt me, you hurt the planet,” Pressfield writes. “You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite God Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter further along its path back to God.”
-excerpt from 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield

A sad farewell

Ine left today. She had to go to Athens, where she would meet up with the other foreign exchange students. From there they went to Houston, then caught their flights home. We stood outside the hotel there in Athens for awhile talking, avoiding the subject of what stood before us. Of course we knew that I'd be leaving soon from there, but I think we wanted to pretend for just a few minutes that I wasn't...like she was just going on a trip, soon to return. When it was time for me to really leave, we hugged and said goodbye. Ine said, "Ok, you have to leave because I'm about to cry." I started to tear up, but I've always been really good at holding back tears in front of people. We hugged once more then I turned and headed to my car. We told each other to keep in touch and of course I will. As soon as I got in the car, I began to cry. It felt as if I had just lost a sister. Ine moved in with us in August, so she really did feel like a sister to me. Some people don't even have one sister, so I feel really special to have 2 great sisters now. I still don't know that it has really sunk in that she is gone. I still half expect to see her when I walk in the house.
If you knew our other 2 foreign exchange students, you know those experiences were much different. Not that they were completely bad, but they just didn't compare to Ine at all. She was best we could have asked for and more. So Ine, thanks for all the memories. I know we'll see each other again someday and until then, we have the magic of the internet.

Here are some pictures from our last days with Ine:

Ine, me, Jenni, and Lindsey being silly in the pool


Me, Ine, and Lindsey (don't we look like we could all be sisters?)


Jenni and Ine chilling in the pool


The family (minus Cory): Dad, Me, Mom, Lindsey, and Ine

Kids just want to be heard...

Tonight I brought Logan, Caden, & Ethan to Chick-fil-a. (Dylan spent the night with a friend.) Of course Chick-fil-a was my idea, but I made them think they thought it up all on their own. When we got there, Logan told me what he wanted, and then all the boys headed to play while I ordered their food. After I had the table set up with their food all set out, I went in the room-o-fun and told them to all come eat.

All the boys sat down, and started eating. Logan was looking at the ketchup on the table and said, "hey, I wanted barbecue sauce." I told him that he didn't tell me that, but he could go get some at the front. He agreed and headed to the counter to make his request. At this point, I was trying to convince Ethan to sit down and eat instead of run around the restaurant which is not an easy thing for a 3 year old to understand. After a few minutes, I realized Logan wasn't back at the table yet, but I glanced up at the front and saw he was still waiting up there. It wasn't very busy up there, but I figured he must be making some outrageous request or something. After he had been up there about 7 or 8 minutes, I told Caden and Ethan to keep eating and I was going to check on Logan. Ethan, of course got up and chased after me. I told him to go sit back down, but I was mostly focusing on Logan. I had almost made my way to him, when I saw he was talking to the guy at the counter, so I turned around and headed back to the table. I didn't want him to think that I was checking on him, because he's very independent and I know he can handle getting barbecue sauce alone.

He finally made it back to the table and blurts out, "Why do adults not help kids?" I asked him why he thought that was true and he proceeded to tell me why he had been at the counter so long. He said he had gotten up there and there was one person in front of him. While he was waiting patiently behind them, a few others got in line behind him. When it was his turn at the counter, the person behind him spoke up and said, "Hey, I just need a refill please." After this, the person behind that person said, "Oh, me too." So, the guy at the counter ignored Logan and got the 2 refills. The next person in line had moved up close to Logan at this point, and then they just started ordering. Logan just stood there, of course annoyed, but patiently waiting for his barbecue sauce. After that person had ordered, the guy at the counter finally asked Logan what he needed. Logan replied, "I just need 3 barbecue sauces please." He was handed his sauce, and sent on his way. This is when he came back to the table and asked the question, "Why don't adults help kids?"

It made me realize that he's probably right. I didn't really know how to answer him at that point. I could have said, "Well, why are you mean to your brothers?" or "Why are you so bossy?", but I figured this wasn't the time to reprimand him. I told him that I didn't know why the guy didn't help him since he was next in line, but maybe the guy didn't see him. Logan said, "Oh no-he saw me. He was just helping other people instead of me, just because I'm a kid." The sad part is that he's probably right. I wish I had a better answer for him, but I just told him that he should remember this moment, and when he's older and a kid needs help, he will help him, because he'll have stored this trip to Chick-fil-a in his memory bank. He'll remember what it was like to be ignored as a kid, and he'll help kids when he's older because of it.

Logan asked me several times throughout the evening why the guy didn't help him. I never gave him the answer he wanted I guess.

On another note, I saw Dr. Gunter there, who is the doctor at the school. He was with his wife and 3 kids. When I was getting the boys from the playground, she said to me, "So you have 3 boys?" At this point I was thinking, "man, do I really look like I could have 3 kids? or a 9 year old??" Instead I said, "Oh no, they aren't my boys. I'm just watching them while their parents are out of town." Now I realize I am old enough to have a 9 year old, and 3 kids-or more-but, I just don't think of myself as a mother yet.

So sad...yet, hilarious

On a side note, I know there are some of you who read this because well, you tell me you do. I need you guys to help me out here. I need some comments. It will really help my self esteem. I mean, geez, it isn't that hard. You don't even need a blogger account to post comments. So come on...make me feel good about myself. My self worth is completely wrapped up in how many comments I get. (not really-I'm not that lame...yet...but it would be nice to hear what you've got to say) So yeah, that's it for now. I'll tell you all about how the zoo is a rip off later.

Dinner Party

On June 10th, Michelle and I had our dinner party...finally! We had been putting it off waiting for a good date, but we just decided to go for it. Since I was house sitting for my aunt & uncle that week, we decided to have it at their house.

The Menu:
Pan Seared Salmon with Citrus Vinegar Glaze
Green Beans
Orange and Almond Salad
Mango Sorbet with Amaretto and Crystallized Ginger

(Thank you Rachael Ray for the recipes!)

The food was great. Everyone was impressed-and I was too. I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Here are a few pictures from dinner: (thanks Ine for taking pictures)

Preparing the meal:


Everyone eating dinner:




Serving dessert:


Dessert: (fancy, huh?)


After dinner we played Scene it where Ine, Michelle, and I kicked Jon's butt. Yes, other people were playing, but we just wanted to make sure and beat Jon. (Maybe I'm a bit too competitive at times...)

Grant and Jon have promised us dinner in return, but I think it's going to be Totino's pizza. I suppose that's pretty good for guys. Heck, I like Totino's pizza...

Final Score

Putt-putt results:
Aubrey: 42
Jenn: 39

That's right...I beat the golf king. He didn't let me win either. He's not that nice. I only managed to get one hole in one, while he had 2, but what lost it for him was the hole he got a 5 on. I haven't played putt putt in awhile, so it was fun. I'm still not ready for the golf course though. Maybe in a year...
I hope they have driving ranges in Japan.

We played soccer on Sunday and as usual, it was a blast. My only complaint-George, please don't step on my foot with your cleats. I have a bruise on top of my foot now, but Aubrey says getting hurt is part of the game. Umm, yeah...We played for almost 3 hours and it was great. I'm really going to miss playing when I leave in a month. Yes, that's right...I'm leaving in roughly a month. I'll write more about that later though because I've got to get out of here. I'll put up a few pictures from the awesome dinner party later too.

My bad...

Thursday morning I was asleep in dream land. I was dreaming that I woke up late for work. I looked at my cell phone (in the dream) to see the time and it was 7:58 am. I was like, "crap!" and I started to call Zelda to let her know I'd be late. About this time in the dream, my phone really rang. I jumped up and answered the phone and it was Zelda asking if I was ok. I asked, "What time is it??" and she said, "8:40 am". So yeah, I was dreaming that I overslept for work, and I really did.

Last night Michelle and I were shopping for our dinner party last night. We had the menu set so we headed off to Brookshire's to get the food. We had everything on our list except Mango Sorbet. We went to the frozen section and looked for it. We found the sorbet, but unfortunately there was only Strawberry and Lemon. We didn't know what to do. We just stood there for a good 5 minutes deliberating. When we had almost given up, Michelle noticed that there was a place for Mango Sorbet, they were just out of it. We were so excited! A manager walked by and we asked him to check in the back to see if there was more. He came back empty handed, but we didn't lose hope. We decided to check at another Brookshire's since we knew they carried the product now. First we brought our groceries to the house, then went to my parent's house to look for dishes we could use. After we finished there, we headed to another Brookshire's. Alas, they were out of Mango Sorbet too. We decided to try one last Brookshire's before trying a different store. At this point, it was 10:45 pm and they were closing at 11:00 pm so we had to hurry. We go in the store and head down the ice cream aisle. Michelle spotted it from afar. "There it is!" she proclaimed. There was a guy stocking things nearby and he looked at us. We explained to him that we had been to 3 Brookshire's looking for Mango Sorbet, so we were a little excited. We got our sorbet and headed back to the house. Now we were ready. Tonight we're having a few people over for our much anticipated dinner party. I'll let you know how it goes later, but for now, we need to focus on not screwing the food up! Oh, and I need to say a major thanks to my mom because without her help, we wouldn't of had table cloths, matching dishes, or an appetizer.

p.s. I heart Tiff Taff!

Komen Race

Well, I never posted about this, mainly because I've been a horrible blogger as of late. On May 7th, Michelle, Ine, Mom, and I embarked on a 5K in the Race for the Cure. Granted, I didn't tell Ine and Mom that I signed them up for the 5K until that morning. They didn't seem too worried, so I was glad they didn't want to beat me up (at least not until it was over). Michelle and I decided to split up from the other 2 since my mom has a bad knee. Afterall, we were going to run the whole 3.1 miles, right? Anyway, we had a good time. No, we didn't run the entire time, but we ran a majority of the time, and considering I haven't made time to run lately, I think I did pretty well. Of course Michelle was being nice because she could have run much more than me, but she graciously ran my pace. Here are some after race pictures:

Warning...un-original post below

I thought this was funny, so I'm sharing it. I'll write something with more substance later.

An old man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his potato
garden but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His
only son Fred, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man
wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.
Dear Fred,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to
plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be
digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles
would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love, Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
For heaven's sake, don't dig up that garden! That's where I buried
the BODIES.

Love. Fred

At 4 am the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and
dug up the entire area without finding any. They apologized
to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another
letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love, Fred