Announcing: Ryan & Aubrey Jones

So I have skipped over some major things over the past few months since I have been quite busy. But one of the major things was that Aubrey Brown was married on May 16th, 2009. She has been a friend of mine since about 9th grade. We have had a lot of memories over the years and I had the blessing of being a part of her wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and she had the most beautiful dress. Her and Ryan make a wonderful couple and it has been amazing to see how much they have grown in their relationship with the Lord during their engagement and now in their marriage. I love them both so much and can’t wait to see all that God does in their lives.

Father’s Day 2009

This Father’s Day was kind of low key. Relaxing, but enjoyable non the less. Dad had to work in the morning. But was able to go to church with mom when he got off. Ryan and I both go to different church’s so it was a bit strange not being at church with Dad on Father’s day. But we all met back at the house where we made a yummy late lunch of Cauliflower, Mashed Potatoes and Ribeye steaks. It was quite delicious. Then we were all exhausted so we all layed down and took a nap. Then we started  a game of settler’s (well we actually played quite a few games of settler’s) then headed down to nutmeg park to play some bocce ball. I always laugh when we play games such as bocce ball or minature golf because we start out following the rules, waiting for our turn etc… and by the end of the game mom has us all going at the same time because we all get impatient. We played bocce ball until about 8 then sat at the picnic tables where we were remembering some of our memories of each of us with dad from when we were younger.

 Some of my favorite memories were:

• Dad teaching me how to ride my “big girl” bike on christmas day when I was 5. I distinctly remember riding down our street, him letting me go and as I was riding next to one of the parked cars on the street having the side mirror of that car hit my handle bars. Needless to say, I crashed!

 

• I also remember planting many many gardens with dad.

 

• One that Dad remembered of us was that we used to take the long board skateboard down one of the small hills on our street. We used to ride double which was fun. Up until the point that we hit a bump, dad flew off (but in style of course) because when he went flying he literally did a flip over me! It was ridiculous, but lots of fun!

 

• I also remember making kites from butcher paper and dowels and taking them flying behind our house.

 

• Countless hours of trying to teach me how to read. I know that was a tough one. But look dad, I can read now :)

There are many memories that I can think of…But those are just a few of the highlighted ones. I love those memories and look forward to making new memories everyday with him in the years to come.

Dad- You have been a wonderful father to all of us. Just as mom has always said, we are blessed to have a dad who has never left us, and that is rare! You have been a wonderful example of what a godly man, Father and leader should look like. I can only hope that someday I will be able to find those qualities in a man. You have always been adventerous, fun, patient, kind and loving. And because of that we have had some of the best memories ever made! I thank God daily that He made you my dad and put you in my life. I love you!!!

Mother’s Day 2009

This year it ended up being beautiful weather for Mother’s Day and the only thing mom wanted to do was ride bikes. So we all went out and bought beach cruisers and went down to Coronado and rode around all through the neighborhoods (with the most adorable houses that cost WAY too much) and along the beach. Ate on the sidewalk at a little cafe and had some really tasty food! Rode around some more and then took a rest in the park and after all that, headed down to the beach where we had snacks of veggies and dip with chocolate chip cookies and fresh strawberries. Mom wanted a new pair of Birkenstock’s for Mother’s day and they have a little shop in Coronado where we went and ordered the shoes she wanted.  She will actually be getting them this week.  All in all it was a wonderful, enjoyable and relaxing day!

Mom~

You are an amazing woman and an even more wonderful example to me! You teach me so much, encourage me beyond what any friend ever could and push me to be a better, stronger, more beautiful woman of God! And that’s more than I could ever ask for. You have not only been a great mom but my best friend. I don’t know too many girls who could say that about their mom, but I proudly say it and thank God for you daily. I love you so much Pretty Lady… I hope that one day I can be as good of a mom as you have been to all of us kids. I look at Courtney and can already see the example that you set for her paying off with how she is mothering Caedmon.

 Courtney~

I am so happy that you have finally had your first Mother’s Day! I remember for so many years it was a hopeful day. Hopeful, that one day you might have a baby of your own and be able to celebrate this wonderful day. And God new the desires of your heart and blessed you with Caedmon. I know that you have been a wonderful mommy to that little booger and he is blessed to have a mom like you! I can’t wait to see that little one grow up under you and the amazing man of God that he can be! I’m Praying for the months and years ahead of you in Motherhood. And one day pray that I will be able to learn from you as well when I have a family of my own. Between you and mom I have incredible examples that God has blessed me with!

Run through the Vineyards-10k

On May 9th I ran with a few of the girls from church (Renee White, Tawney Schleiger, Hannah Sivilay & Tori Roan) in a 10k in Temecula. It was called run through the vineyards, which is pretty self explanitory. We literally ran through all the vineyards. It was one of the most beautiful runs I had ever done. But definitely one of the most challenging as well. I hadn’t been running too much, no more than about 3 miles And a 10k is 6.3 miles. I previosuly ran the boulder bolder 10k about 2 years ago. But this race was mostly hills. It took me an hour and twenty minutes which I was ok with since I hadn’t really been running much. Overall, it was fun, I was sore and I will probably never do that run again. But all the ladies did a wonderful job! Good work ladies, keep it up!

Here is a shot of where we ran.

Peanut

About 2 weeks ago we had to put our family dog to sleep… She was 18 years old (something like 105 in people years apparently) And we had her for about 16 of those 18 years. She was the sweetest dog! I remember when we first got her she refused to sleep in the house so all of us kids slept on the dining room floor with the sliding glass door open just in case that would make her come in. Eventually she started coming in the house… She went on Vacations, Road Trips and the like with us. Over the past 2 years she started getting really old. She couldn’t hear, or see for that matter. Which was sometimes more entertaining then it should have been. She would literally walk into the corner of the room and not know what to do and just stand with her nose in the corner until someone went over and moved her. She would rest her head on the couch thinking that someone was there when nobody was. We had some good laughs from that. She also had an extreme sweet tooth (not so good for dogs) Sure she liked scraps from the table, but if you were eating any sort of sweets she could smell it from a mile away. And wouldn’t leave you alone until you shared with her. Gotta love her! I also distinctly remember when she had puppies she went through the puppy stage with them and started chewing things. I’ll never forget coming home and seeing peanuts white fur covered in a red dye. She had chewed the cover of a red cloth book and gave us this look like “wasn’t me!” Another great moment with her.  Peanut was a wonderful dog who will be missed greatly by our family!

Easter 2009

This Easter was pretty low key and relaxed. Courtney, Ryan and Caedmon were able to come out and visit. We just went to church in the morning then took some family photos out at Harveston….went home and played some games. Then went for a walk out at this beautiful place in Old Town Murrieta.

 

 

It was a wonderful time to spend with family and enjoy the absolutely beautiful weather!

Mystery Night 2009

The youth group at my church does an event for all the Jr. High and Highschoolers every year called Mystery Night. There are groups of leaders and people from church scattered all around the city and all the students are given a paper with “hints” of where they might be. This year I was able to help along with  2 of my girlfriends. We ended up being the Jonas Brothers. We were in the parking lot of the Hollywood Video in Murrieta. It was a blast. Each group of kids that came had 3 minutes to create a 30 second choreographed dance routine to perform to a list of 5 Jonas Brothers songs (playlist) that we had for them. It was quite entertaining and ejnjoyable. We even had a little girl and her mom stop because they saw us from the street and the little girl actually thought we were the Jonas Brothers and wanted to take a picture with us! Here is a few pictures from the night….

Jury Duty

I know I haven’t posted in a VERY long time. So in an attempt to catch up on my life I’m going to just start posting things that have happened in the past few months. First off… I had jury duty at the beginning of March. I love going to jury duty. There’s just something about that excites me. Anyways, I had to go down to the court in Riverside instead of Temecula. But I loved it. The old court house building was beautiful! So I arrive and stand in line for about 30 minutes as I’m about to go through the security check point at the door I realize the sign says that no aresol cans are allowed in the building. I quickly remember that I just bought a new can of hairspray that I now must throw away. Well, there went $4.00 into the trash can. I get into the room where they hold all of us and then my name gets called for a case. After a few hours of waiting for them to actually take us we finally got into the court room. The majority of the jurors had already been selected and they were just there to get 2 alternate jurors. Now, in the past I have only got to the point of just sitting in the court room, never actually interviewed by the judge. Next person they called was me! I was kind of excited. Anyways, the case was a man being accused of some not so great things done to kids and  needless to say I wasn’t thrilled about it at that point. When they started asking me questions they wanted to know where I lived, where I worked how old I was etc… When I told them that I worked at a school and that I was an intern with my church for Children’s ministry I was pretty much not going to be selected for that case since they figured I would be bias toward the child and not the man being accused. Which was fine with me.

As I’m leaving I go to the parking garage and guess who gets in the elevator with me?! The man that was in the courtroom being accused of those awful things…. I immediatly got off the elevator and took the stairs. It totally freaked me out.

All in all it was a great day and I’m glad that I got summoned for jury duty. I look forward to doing it again someday…..

R&R

I know you might think that R&R stands for Rest and Relaxation, funny thing. That’s what I thought up until a few nights ago when I was having a conversation with my brother while watching the news. No Longer does R&R stand for rest and relaxation. It now stands for Ryan and Riots. Through this conversation I come to find out that my brother has has this secret desire to always be in a riot. Not only would he like to be in one, but he proceeds to tell me that he thinks he would be good at a riot. Explain this to me, how exactly is someone “good” at riots? He then proceeded to tell me that he has always wanted to throw one of those explosives made from liquor in a bottle with a rag that when thrown they explode. At first I was a bit worried, then I came to realize, that’s just boys. They never really grow up. But watch out if your in a riot, Ryan’s good at them.

 

On a rather fun side note, Ryan was recently on the Almanac radio show with Amanda Mae. If you would like to listen to it, check it out here

Oh how I love the things kids say!

This is Mason. He’s in my Preschool class for Sunday School. I saw him this Sunday in class and he says to me ” Teacher, you know what? I had a dream about you and the other teacher one night.” I say “really what was it about?” He proceeds to tell me that the other teacher and I were big giant scary elephants and we were chasing him and Parker (another little boy in my class) I ask him if we ever caught them and he tells me ” No because we run WAY faster than you!”

Wow! I didn’t know that I seemed like a big scary elephant to some of the kids. And I’m not sure if I should take offense to that story.

Another story for you: I was helping one of the boys in my class build a bigger tower out of duplos then all the other boys. Well, he was going to go on a hunt to find more duplos so we could build it bigger. Before he gets up to start the hunt, he looks at me and says. “watch these blocks you can’t trust these dudes over here.” Ha I love it.

I also heard one of the 1st graders coming around the corner to go into class say ” I’m a big thug.” I looked at him and said ” Do you even know what a thug is?” He smiles and looks at me and very proudly says “Of course I do. It’s a punk!”

I really enjoyed these few stories from this past week, They come up with some great ones! It gives me a good laugh every once in a while.