True Friend

These past couple of months I’ve really been looking at MY life, MY relationships, MY goals, MY focuses and all the other MY’s =) yeah I really just wrote all that…haha  But none of these compare to my sister=)

What’s a true friend? I know all the normal things someone will rattle off in response to this question. Ummmm a true friend is always there. A true friend makes you laugh. A true friend will answer the phone as early or as late when you call. (and I could go on and on)

But seriously is that a true friend. This is my definition of a true friend? Someone who isn’t afraid to tell you when they think (know) your wrong. Someone you don’t have to say a word too and you’ve both spoken volumes. This is the kind of friend I have in my sister.

She turns 23 today!!! She’s as beautiful inside as she is on the outside.

Dear Christina,
In childhood we did not understand the gift wrapped up in a greater plan. Time has taught us about the bond of love, and through that love we have chosen friendship. We have learned together, sharing the good times and the bad, and no matter what, there has always been love. You are my sister always, my friend forever.
Love you to the moon and back=)
Your sis <3

Isaac's first dunk=)

Excuse me as I brag on my brother for a moment....

He's in his junior in high school and his parents couldn't be more proud 

He's a fabulous basketball player note the video of his first dunk on JV

He's so dedicated spent long hours working out these muscles to actually be able to dunk at his height

He's so considerate...and this is when I decided he will make a fabulous husband one day. He woke Christina up last Sunday evening to ask if she wanted to go to church with him and the parents. She did and he looks at her face and says. "Good your makeup didn't smear, hurry touch it up and change..."

He's thoughtful and kind haha he will even cover me up at night sometimes when I have just painted my nails. Also this kid will watch any chic flick with Christina and me=) 

Someone please tell me if any other guy who knows these sort of things (girl makeup will smear if they sleep with it on, even for a few hours) I HAVE to meet him=) haha

And seriously he's genuinely a good kid...most youngest are spoiled but not this kid. He's parents do love him, but all of this attention is well deserved. Can't wait to see where life takes him. and hopefully he'll never loose his sweetness=)

besides all that he's so dang cute=)

Hope your week is going great!!!! =) 

chocoholic frolic

Christina did it!!!!!! She ran a 5K with me. It took us around 31 minutes to run =) I wrote about it here and finally got around to posting the pictures from it.

It was awesome running with my best friend…I talked the entire time. Poor Christina she was just, well…so focused.

I got the feeling about at mile two that she wasn’t going to make it. The only encouragement I could come up with was “Don’t stop, ever! No matter how slow you have run, just make sure your running. I’ll stay with you no matter what.” =) Yeah it was a lot slower run for me and at times I felt my legs just wanting to take off. Being able to experience this with Christina was something I will never forgot. She an amazing sister and when she sets her mind on something, watch out – she’s doing it.

I’ll stop bragging on my sister and let you enjoy the pictures=)

Below are the professional pictures taken by the event photographer…

Crossing the finish line…yeah she was almost crying

I love you Christina and I had an awesome time with you=)

Memorial day with Christina

Christina and I enjoyed Memorial Day, just the two of us, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Memorial day was a little different this year, my brothers and dad went up to Michigan to fish and Victoria and my mom weren't feeling 100% so that left the rest of us to enjoy the day off work for ourselves.  I took so many pictures and after going through them late last night I thought I might try sharing them like this.

The elephants feet were my favorite part. Also the birds were beautiful! AND THE MONKEYS...yeah I'll stop here...I could have stayed and watched them all day=) 

We both budget - with the best of them - so we pack our lunches instead of paying an outrageous price for one at the zoo. It's definitely more fun to buy the food there, but we are health nuts and prefer to know what's in the food we are eating.

We had several spontaneous photo shoots of Christina...she's so much fun to be with=) And that day she was in an exceptionally good mood making the day extra fun! She hung out with me walking that zoo all day and then went and worked all night at the nursing home...talk about dedication.

Just let me know what you think.

The zoo is fun even if you are an adult=)

Bahamas Cruise (part 5)…what we saw=)

So this is the fifth and final post on/about my Bahamas Cruise…this is about all the site seeing we did in the cities we ported at. I wish we could have done more this was while there.

A few cool facts about life on this island. They don’t have mail boxes, at all. Only a few post offices per island. And all the government personals have a different color of license plate.

 

In Miami the driving was completely crazy, These people honk at each other, you, and everything else. Insane…literally! Just walking down the street to the drug store and I was honked out like four times. And once when I was crossing the road…I had the ride-away…and still this guy wanted to go and honked at me (I was in the middle of the road) I stopped and he few by. He could have hit me! Lessoned learned I won’t ever go back to Miami=)

The Bahamians paint everything such bright, happy colors!

For sale in the local market, I would love to have my Christmas tree decorated with these, wouldn’t you?!?!

Some kind of festival was going on and our guide pushed us into doing this. You can tell we were very uncomfortable and embarrassed…I don’t know why who was looking? haha

A memorial to all the soldiers, from the Bahamas, that died in WWII

This is one of the first buildings built on Nassau, and it was originally a bakery.

Fort Fincastle (located also on Nassau) read more about it (here)

The Queen’s Staircase. This was by far the coolest thing we saw. Here's so more on this cool site

See the lady in the pink pants sitting in the corner? She was a nurse and on her lunch break. She had brought this paralyzed child with her. We couldn’t help but over hear her phone conversation…while standing there. She was telling the person on the other end, how she sometimes brings this girl out with her on her breaks because she was just so much calmer out there. She told how she would just cry sometimes and she went on to explain that she had been abandoned on their steps (I’m not sure if it was an orphanage or not) as a baby. Christina sat there with tears in her eyes (she’s a CNA) listening as she began to sing a hymn to this beautiful child.

These glass sculptures were hand blown (located in the largest Casino in the Bahamas) worth about 1 million dollars a piece. This Casino was located on Paradise island. 

Christina in the famous “king and queen’s chair”.

This was the bathroom, I don’t believe I have ever been in this nice of a bathroom before. The sign on the door indicating what gender’s room it was, was of a mermaid…and yes I took pictures of it.

The coolest light in the entire world=)

The Casino and all that beautiful stuff was in this pink building. Now I would go back to Paradise Island in a heart beat.

Fort Montagu…it was closed so we couldn’t go in, but we got our picture=)

Bahamian police officers…gotta love the skirt.

Look at all this color…what if we painted our streets in America like this=)

Classic telephone booth photo

There are probably three questions still remaining after you’ve seen all five of my post on this cruise

1. Would I ever go on a cruise again?

2. Would I ever visit the Bahamas again?

3. Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas?

Ummm…would I ever go on a cruise again?????…well I will never say never but would I go again in the near future? Probably not. It was a fantastic experience and I will even venture to say that I would do it over knowing what I know now in a heart beat. I learned so much. But I’m definitely a country girl and am most comfortable in a small town=)

Would I ever visit again????? Probably not. I’ve seen it and that’s checked off my list of places to see in my life time and I will probably never go back. The main reason because there are so many places to see in this world and life is too short to only revisit the same places over and over again.

And lastly “Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas”? And that would be a huge YES!!! but only if you were cruising=) It was very different than I expected, but worth the time…and the cruise ships are SO much fun!

So that wraps up my vacation…hope you enjoyed the pictures <3