rounding first

when i was a baby, i got my ears pierced. i don't remember the event. when i got older, however, i chose to get them pierced again. 2 minutes after the intense pain and suffering (!!!!!!), i found myself purposely sprawled out across the cold tile floor of the mall, doing everything in my power to not pass out. yes, i made a scene. shocking, i know. i simply couldn't fathom the fact that there were two foreign pieces of metal embedded in my skin, and they weren't coming out anytime soon. i absolutely loathe the thought of metal, or any foreign object, just hanging out in or under my skin. needles, for example, are a no-no.

fast forward to a few months ago --> WHAT? there's a small person inside of me?!?

i was strangely okay with it. i didn't have to find cold tile. i didn't have to throw my head between my knees, or lay down with my toes in the air. i didn't even need OJ or a Capri Sun. as a matter of fact, it all seemed extremely surreal. so i handled it like a big girl, because, heck, in a few short months, i'll be a mom, so i gosh-darn better grow up.

days ago we got to see this:

and yes, we are very much appreciative of his/her sense of humor already. really, baby j? pulling the "i'm trapped in a glass box of emotion" stunt already? love it, sweet one!!! gosh, you're cute! (i could see how your crazy face bones may freak a few people out, but we love you tons, regardless!)

i still haven't freaked out :-)

him/her. he/she. it's only twelve weeks, so don't spend your time trying to figure out if you can "see anything". that stuff won't show up for another month or so. and even then, we don't plan to find out, so don't bank on seeing any pics that may hint at it, because we don't even want them in our possession. and seriously, what fun would voting be if you got to find out the sex of the baby way in advance?! I KNOW! yes, the baby pool is still open for business, and will remain so until we arbitrarily decide to close it. because i said so. (HA! GOOD AT THAT ALREADY!)

disclaimer: this whole waiting-to-find-out-the-sex-of-the-baby thing was my idea, and josh isn't totally sold. YET. i mean, he's up for it, but i can't help thinking it's mostly because he feels bad for me and the cruddy morning sickness i've been experiencing, so he's happy to go along with anything that will lift my spirits and perhaps make me feel a bit better. i told him if he really couldn't wait, and just HAD to know, i'd be up for it. we'll all just have to see how this plays out... thanks for coming along for the ride.

bottom line, i coming to a close on trimester number 1. i'l be 13 weeks on sunday, and as much as i told myself i'd try not to count the weeks, its proven difficult, as i'm given some sort of reminder i'm pregnant just about 17 times a day. so for now, it's one day at a time.

for those of you wondering, no, i haven't found myself making kissy faces with the toilet. but morning sickness has most definitely made itself known. i've been nauseous for almost 6 full weeks now, and have finally figured out how to spell "nausea" on my own. bye-bye spellcheck. i got you now, word! (doesn't looking at the word make you just wanna spew?!)

i'm ALWAYS hungry, but rarely in the mood to eat. i never thought forcing food down would be so un-fun. i'm typically the last to turn down food, let alone sweets, restaurant food, or even fast food, but my limited pallet has me choosing cream of wheat and peanut butter toast these days. i'm turning into a total water drinker (it's about freaking time, gigi) and i do heart pickles :-) other than that, the occasional yogurtland finds itself on my mind during the closest thing i can consider a "craving".

i'm looking forward to the 2nd trimester, which is when Everyone And Their Mothers start to say you feel better. okay, i'm PRAYING i feel better. there's room on this bandwagon--jump on! i could use the extra prayers. thanks :-)

Dentists Suck - A dog's tale

For a while now we've known June has had a broken tooth. It never really seemed to bother her so we always forgot to do anything about it. Recently though we could tell that it was hurting her. She would eat her food in small portions over the course of the night and she was just all around lethargic, like something was bothering her. So today we took her to the doggie dentist. It was most definitely her tooth that was bothering her. Once the dentist cleaned off all the plaque he found a small hole in her tooth that was slowly bleeding. (Awful dog parents, aren't we?)

Anyway, we were presented with a few options. The first one was totally gangster. A root canal with a metal cap. It would be like she had a Terminator tooth. How cool is that?! The downside is that if she chews anything too hard (again) she could break off the WHOLE tooth! Then we would have no choice but to do a quick tooth extraction.

The second option was a complete tooth extraction. The downside to that is that it would be very painful for her and it would increase the risk of her chipping the tooth on the opposite side because she cant chew without a tooth on the other side. Ugh.

Ultimately we decided to go with the root canal option minus the terminator like cap. The doc said she should be fine like that but we would have to watch what she chews on in the future. I think we can do that! So we went ahead with the procedure.... today.

I brought her home about an hour after all the drilling had stopped and she was still a bit groggy. It was pretty funny to watch her walk home like a drunk guy on the way home from the bar. Once we got inside the house I got to watch her lie down and try as hard as she could to stay awake. She would just lie there with her head up and then her eyes would slowly close and her head would slowly lower until it was just about on her bed and then BAM! she would open her eyes and sit up. Hilarious to watch!

I noticed, though, that her face was a bit swollen from the procedure and she couldn't keep her whole tongue in her mouth. While she was fighting sleep with everything she had, the tip of her tongue was peeking out. Soooo I did the only thing I could do, I took a picture!

This picture really epitomizes what she must have been feeling. And it makes me laugh out loud. I hope she feels better tomorrow.

We love you June!

hello again

WOW!! i am STOKED about the awesome response to/on our blog since the big announcement. ya'll are suckers for a new baby, sheesh...

i desperately need to take this time to post a big T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. to my baby's-daddy for keeping our little blogger world up to date with our big news and all that comes with it. he's been the only one posting new blogs in the past month, while i'm off somewhere "laying down/not feeling well/wussing out". four posts in 15 days?! daaaaannnng, babe!! you rock.

oh, and thank you for the little pea that's making me so sick. i love you.

when i first started this blog, i asked the man if he'd "partake". i knew my intent was to share our week to week engagement excitement/struggles, but i presumed his involvement would be... sparse. much to my surprise, his first blog was awesome! and they continue to be (you have the right to your own opinion). i mean, i know my husband is witty and funny, but his writing was clever and refreshing, and i loved it. as we continued to contribute to the new blog, i found one of us would write a blog then run and tell the other person, "read my blog, read my blog, babe! didja read it?! huh?? huh??? reeeeeeeeaaaaaad ittttttttt....!!!!" it was FUN. a lot of our posts were about marraige and relationships, and it was always interesting to read where the other's head was at that time.

well, here we are, 7 months away from adding a little one to this crazy little family of ours. recently, we've become beyond excited about our blog and enjoy looking back at all the time and energy we've spent making it an interactive public journal. we promise in advance that not all the future posts will be about the baby--but we can't deny it's a big part of of our lives. (okay, today it's the size of a green olive, so it's not THAT big a part yet, but you get my drift.) we can't wait to share with all you (5) devoted readers how this journey will continue. most of all, though, i can't wait to print our blog into a book or three (blog2print.com) and show baby johnson who his/her parents were before he/she came into the world.

oh my gosh. does this mean MY parents were around before I came??? oh, heck no way...

(oh, and for those of you looking for a picture of how happy the new dad was after he found out, say no more....!)

the shirt says, "i'm new here". hehe, chuckle chuckle.

No Diving Allowed

The funny thing about announcing that we are having a baby is that practically everyone seems to have a prediction about what the gender is. We have heard quite a few predictions for a girl and quite a few for a boy. Since those are the only two realistic options, I think the bases are pretty well covered. It seems, though, that most of the predictions seem to lean in a certain direction (we’re not telling which yet) so we decided to have a little fun with it and start a pool! Since most people seem to have a prediction, we thought it would be fun to see who is the most accurate!

To make it a bit more challenging than just predicting gender, we thought it would be fun to add a few more categories to see just exactly how good you really are. Just post a comment here and let us know your prediction for: gender, length, weight, and birth date.

Here is how it will work:

• Each category is worth up to 5 points
• Points are deducted for incorrect guesses as follows:
• Minus 5 points for incorrect gender
• Minus 1 point for each inch below or above actual length
• Minus 1 point for each ounce under or over actual weight
• Minus 1 point for each day before or after actual birth date
• The winner will get to change the first diaper something fun after the baby is born!

___________________________

Example:

Your guess = Boy, 20”, 7 lbs, & 3/22/11

Actual baby = Girl, 19”, 7lbs, & 3/24/11

Your score = 0 pts for gender, 4 pts for length, 5 pts for weight, & 3 pts for date

___________________________

The person with the most points at the end of the game is the winner! In the event of a tie, the point will go to the person who first made the correct prediction. Don’t be afraid to put your two cents in if we have never met. The game is open to anyone who reads our blog (and so is the prize!)

Alright folks, start guessing!!

*UPDATE*

To give everyone a starting point, the technical due-date is March 27, 2011.

I am geek. Hear me roar!

Geek. It’s not a word I liked when I was younger. As a kid it definitely had a negative connotation and didn’t put you in the cool crowd at school. Oh how times have changed since then! Nowadays geek is cool. Geek is something to be proud of. Lego’s, Mythbusters, and video games…OH MY!

When I met my wife I had to release my geeky-ness in small amounts. It started small with an insanely overgrown music collection. Then it moved on to animated movies, tons of pop-culture references, and my collection of old-school video game consoles I have kept since I was a kid. Over the years of knowing each other she has come to see exactly how much of a geek I can be am and has even slowly started becoming one herself (although she won’t readily admit it). She craves watching The Big Bang Theory (we sing along to the song every week!) and has come to appreciate my The Nightmare Before Christmas decorations.

When we discussed having kids before we were pregnant I would always tell her that our kids will grow up with a geek for a dad. Our kids will most definitely be schooled in the ways of the Atari 2600, classic cartoons, and knowing who The Goonies are. Now that we have a child on the way, she actually encourages my geek to shine. From her encouragement of me buying baby clothes with geeky sayings on them, to the creation of our announcement video she is embracing my geeky side and actually joining in on the fun. It’s pretty awesome. SHE is pretty awesome.

A while back I stumbled on a blog called GeekDad. It has become one of my favorite blogs to read and pull ideas from for when my kid(s) are ready to join the Geek Nation. (I just made that term up. I have no idea if it really exists.) They review, keep track of, and keep me in the loop of all things geeky that kids are sure to love (and learn from!). Yesterday we decided to send them a link to our announcement video to show them how geeky we can be. Much to our amazement they LOVED it! So much so they decided to feature it on their blog this morning! We officially have geek cred and I am wearing it like a badge of honor. Jump on over and check it out!

Thank you!

So apparently we should announce that we are pregnant more often! In the last few days we have had more traffic than ever on our blog. Thank you to the few people who have commented here. We were beginning to wonder if anyone was actually reading this thing! It’s one thing to get Facebook comments, text messages, and emails, but it feels really good to see people comment on our blog. We get all warm and fuzzy inside then we curl up on the floor with a blanket and fall asleep with a smile on our faces. True story.

Anyway, thank you all for your support and well wishes over the last couple of days. We are pretty dang excited about having a little one on the way! And we are really excited to be able to share the news with all of you in such a fun way too! The video was a lot of fun to make and see come to fruition (with a little a lot of help of our friend Justin!). It will be just a few quick months before March rolls around and we are looking forward to every minute of it.

preparing for anything

turn up the volume, folks. it's a VIDEO and it has SOUND.




a special thanks to justin jones aka The Digital J for his help in turning our idea into reality. (the idea of the VIDEO, not the OTHER idea... that credit belongs to josh and i--oh, what trouble we get into when left to our own devices! KIDDING. we couldn't be more blessed, thankful, and excited!)

a little daydreaming never hurt anyone

i'm aching for a roadtrip. all i want to do is pack a small bag, a big cooler, grab the dog's leash and a few cans of her food, follow the husband to the car, dog in tow, and hit the open road while it's still dark.

the first thing i'd do is fall asleep :-) what? it's still dark. and once the sun would come up i'd wake back up. no big deal. i'd take over for driver josh, who's probably dead tired by that time because 'morning's just aren't his thing'.

june would be zonked in the back for hours. as a matter of fact, she'd probably go a good 8 hours before needing ANYTHING. she'd just sleep--happy as a clam. a dog clam. she loves that gosh darn car.

we'd get hungry and start scavenging through the cooler for some yummy food, only to find that we didn't pack anything that sounded good. we'd pass a jack in the box and start our week of back-to-back-heart-attack-food-consumption with a breakfast jack or a sausage bisquit, probably wrapped in bacon--because everything tastes better wrapped in bacon. the food in our cooler would inevitibly go bad before we ever got near it. i mean, who really wants an apple when you're driving by a krispy kreme?

regardless of where we were going, we'd find ourselves in nature sometime around noon. whether it's a stumbled-upon national park or a spontaneous walk on the beach, the car's a/c would eventually get to us, and we'd need a fresh air break. and whether she knew it or not, june would need some exercise by now. josh would be scared to let her off a leash, so i'd cleverly pull out her 25 footer so she could run and play and still be "nearby". are we overprotective? maybe. but do you know how badly i'd feel if we LOST her 7 hours from home? no chances.

what's that, in-n-out? you want us to swing by since we're still in california and may not be for much longer? ohhhh. okay, sure. why not? (another step closer to a heart-attack, but honestly, not much different than a typical sunday...)

we'd be back on the road with full bellies, ready to laugh and play and joke with each other as we make our way to that evening's destination. by this time, josh would have picked an album to listen to, i would have picked four of them, and it'd finally be his turn to pick again. good thing he's so easy-going on the music scale when it comes to long road trips. on these trips, he's good to go with "anything, babe" :-)

after a few moving-car landscape photoshoots and 20 minutes of jittery, nonsense video camera footage, i'd go back to sleep. what? it's been a long day!

we'd probably find our first hotel sometime around 7, just in time to unload the car, rile up the dog, and go get dinner. i know--we've barely had anything to eat ALL DAY, so we're obviously starved.

get some rest, because tomorrow we're doing it all over again.

Good Friends, Good Music, Good Times

This weekend was a good one. We were able to catch up with friends, see one of our favorite bands preform and eat ourselves silly at the Orange County Fair; yeah, it was pretty awesome!

On Saturday night we put June in the car, drove down to the Irvine Spectrum and met up with our friends Jim, Kevin, and Gigi's sister Kat to listen to one of our favorite bands, PawnShop Kings, perform. As always they put on a great show and since it was Kevin's first show, they found themselves a new fan.

and we got ice cream too....

On Sunday we went to the early church service and then met up with our friends Brian and Jana and their son Hunter to go to the fair. None of us are really all that excited about the rides so we just walked around, looked at the exhibits, ate ourselves silly, went to the pig races, played with Hunter, and just all around had a good time.

Jana braved the newest fair food - the Crispy Cream Chicken Sandwich

and Brian had to have the giant turkey leg.

Hunter wasn't totally sure at first.

But he quickly warmed up to the idea.

Gigi got caught up in the excitement and had to have some meat on a stick.

Then it was off to the pig races!

Rounding out the day with good times, carnival games and good friends

And now for obligatory "cute kid in hat that's too big" pictures...

Thank you everyone for such a great weekend! Let's do it again soon!!!

oh my gosh, are you okay?

we bought a small portion of a cow at costco last week. last night was going to be THE NIGHT we threw that sucker on the grill, however, i was well aware we'd likely cook it, eat a tiny peice of it, refrigerate it, and find it again, covered in not-cow-but-rather-fungus-of-some-sort about 3 weeks later.

no, that has never happened before.

i called my mom and sister to see if they wanted to help us put a bigger dent in it. granted, it was 6:15 and dinner would be ready by 7, but i thought i'd throw it out there. mom picked up the phone and told me she was about to start a mentor class at church, and couldn't make it. bummer, but fully expected. all good. mom asks me how things are going, then immediately tunes out as i start to respond, only to say to the woman in the background, "oh, we're starting?--baby, i gotta go. okay? okay. bye. bye. bye." -click- "um, okay. bye, mom."

instead of cow, we cooked chicken (in corona and lime) and macaroni and cheese (homemade, whaaaaaat!). it was DE-LICOUS.

mom calls me back at 9. "sweetie? hi. are, are, are you okay?" i answer that i'm fine, and ask her why. "i was just wondering if you'd eaten." BLESS HER HEART. um, yes, i'd eaten. i know i'm only a few years out of the house, and i know i call her now more often that i ever did in college, but she seemingly thought i might have panicked SO MUCH when she hung up on me that i just COULD NOT POSSIBLY EAT DINNER THAT NIGHT, and that she should check on me. :-) uhm, no, not the case, in fact, i married a man that has made me well aware he needs to eat. often. and not even being hung up on by my mom would stop us from dinner.

she always tells me i'll forever be her baby girl. she reminds me by caring so much. even when its so funny that it's cute. (love you, momma. xoxo)

self image

josh often talks (in a girl voice, mind you) FOR june. i especially like it because i feel like i really have another girl in the house that understands me. because there are days that josh obviously doesn't. i won't go there, though. that type of day hasn't happened since, well, yesterday.

josh: you got a little scared trying to squeeze between the chair and the fake plant, didn't ya, june?

june: yeah, dad, i thought i was too faaaaat.

josh: you're not fat, june, you're just big boned.

seriously, honey, you're gonna give her a complex. sheesh.

HGTV Ruined My Life

My wife is addicted to ALL of the shows on HGTV; every single one of them. After getting married, my DVR went from being filled with shows like Rescue Me, LOST, Fringe, and the occasional sports documentary or History Channel special I found interesting, to being filled with shows like House Hunters, Color Splash, My First Place, and the latest, Design Star. Each of the HGTV shows is a variation of either buying a new house or condo, or renovating a current space. Luckily, my wife is extremely settled in our place and never wants to move or change a thing about the way our house looks. (Insert THICK sarcasm here.)

Probably at least once a week I hear about how we need to paint the walls, rearrange furniture, or tear down a wall in our two bedroom condo to open the kitchen to the living room. Most of the time we go for a long walk with June and talk about all the reason we should or shouldn’t do any of these things and by the time we are back home (plus or minus an evening of me pushing the sofa to various areas of our 15 foot living room) we realize that we have things pretty well figured out and changes aren’t necessary right now. We should probably just wait until we purchase our next home and then we can do all the things we’ve wanted to do to a house.

Yesterday we hung out with my folks for the afternoon. We went with them to their new house and gave them our input on some of the decisions they are making in their new house. Then Gigi and I walked through a few of the model homes and talked about what we want in our next place and then we went to Room and Board in Costa Mesa to look at a few of the furniture pieces they were planning on putting in their house. It’s official; my life has turned into every show on HGTV.

After we got home last night we kept looking at the Room and Board catalog dreaming of stuff we could do to our house. Then we watched not one, but two episodes of Design Star. The final words my wife said to me before she turned over and went to sleep were, “I think we should use the Rothko painting in the dining room as inspiration for the rest of that space.” I am pretty sure that I had dreams of designing houses last night. This morning I can’t stop thinking of different ideas that we can do to our living room/dining room areas. Crap, I’m getting into this. Luckily there will probably be a few new tools involved.

It’s a good thing we both like DIY projects and enjoy spending time together, otherwise this could get ugly. Thank you HGTV for making me constantly insecure about the way my house looks and giving me a man-crush on David Bromstad, you have officially ruined my life.

Freedom: A Short Story

It’s dark out. Without even opening my eyes I can tell that much. Any other day the darkness would be unwelcome. Not today. Today it means freedom. I slowly crawl from the dark and narrow space I’ve been confined to for the last 8 or so hours and begin preparing myself for what lies ahead. I know today won’t be easy. I managed to sleep most of the night despite the cold air and the lack of proper sleeping arrangements. I rub my eyes and try to take in my surroundings. As far as I can see, in all directions: dirt, cacti, mountains and a seemingly endless sky. The thought runs through my mind briefly, “I wonder if anyone could hear me scream right now?” I tell myself not to think about such things and begin to prepare for the day. The sun will be up shortly; I need to get going. I clean up my temporary home and begin walking. “Keep moving,” I tell myself. “It won’t be long now. Just keep walking.”

This is my third day out here and I’m tired. For the first two days it was pretty easy to keep going. Now, after two cooler than normal nights and warmer than normal days, my body is bruised, my hands and feet hurt, I long for shower and an indoor place to sleep and am getting wicked hungry. I keep telling myself I can endure another day of this; another week if I had to. I was quick to leave where I came from and didn’t bring much with me. I knew I would meet up with someone in a day or two. I was sure of it. I was able to grab a few things before I left. My inventory consists of an extra pair of shoes that are too small (but have been a Godsend many times), a large piece of covered foam I’ve been able to wear as a backpack while I walk and sleep on at night, a small bag with a drawstring that carries a toothbrush, a bottle of water, a few strips of beef jerky, a light jacket to protect me from the wind during the day and to use as a small blanket to keep me covered at night. I knew when I left I would need to travel lightly or I would never make it.

The sun starts spilling over the mountain to my left. As desolate as this place is, and as tired as I am, I can’t help but notice its beauty. I have never seen such colors before. The light dances across the desert and all at once this barren field comes alive with beauty. Each of the last two mornings has amazed me with the spectacular spectacle of the sunrise. Its beauty has made this trek a little more bearable. I stop and stare at the ever changing landscape as the morning light hits my face. The warmth is welcomed for the moment. It won’t be long before I will want to escape from it.

“Just keep walking. It can’t be much farther.” I have to keep motivated or I’ll never make it. I just need to reach that large rock on the horizon and I can rest for a while. It seems like a million miles away. I take a sip of the water I have left. It feels like silk against my dry lips. I’ve rationed what I have left to get me as far as I can go. It would be deadly to drink it all now. I’ll save what’s left of the jerky until I can rest. I tuck the water between my foam pad backpack and my neck. It’s still cold from last night and acts as a great cooling system for my body. I daydream of sitting on the beach with an ice cold beer for a moment. I can almost taste it. “The rock is getting closer, don’t lose your pace now.” I come back to reality and concentrate on my walking. The rock that seemed so large from so far away is becoming more monstrous the closer I get. It looks as if God was playing Jenga and didn’t clean up after it toppled. The rocks seemed precariously perched, yet incredibly stable. I’ve seen others like it on my two day trek, but this one seems particularly terrific. There is a large middle section that is perfectly stacked; one on top of the other. All around are piles of rocks that lean against and support this enormous tower. I hope I can find a small place to sit and rest for a while.

The sun has been up for an hour or so now; the warmth I once welcomed, I now wish would go away. The rock I’ve been admiring is now about 100 steps away. I can’t wait to find a nice cold rock to lie on and get out of this sun for a bit. I walk around the base of the tower and find a small alcove where the sun hasn’t yet touched. As I crawl down into it I find an empty beer bottle. “At least someone else has been here before.” Yesterday I found a Wheat Thins box; it has been a great motivator. I lay as far down into the alcove as I can and lay the foam pad along the ledge above me to keep the sun out as it moves across the sky. “I’ve made it.” I take a bite of the jerky and take another sip of water and close my eyes to rest.

I awake sometime later to the sound of footsteps on the loose gravel outside. I don’t want to make a noise. They sound like they are getting closer, or maybe it’s just my imagination. I see a shadow from around the edges of the pad, but the sun is still pretty low and I can’t make out what it is, but it IS getting closer. Two days across this desert without seeing anything else alive so I am just hoping it’s friendly… and scared to death it’s not. The footsteps stop right on the other side of my foam shield. Then… a knock, and a voice, “Dude, are you in there?” I throw the pad to the side and crawl out. “Holy shit, dude! You scared the crap outta me! Thank God you made it. I was worried I was going to be out here forever on my own!” My climbing partner showed up right on time. We arranged to meet here three days ago but without a watch I didn’t know what time to expect him. We walk together to his truck and I suck down what feels like a gallon of water. He had been there for a while already. “I saw you sleeping about 30 minutes ago and by the dirt on your face I could tell you needed a good nap, so I let you sleep. I’ve got the ropes and gear ready to go. Drink up and grab a donut on the front seat. Just let me know when you are ready to climb this beast.” He knows exactly what I want after two days hiking through the desert. I devour the donut and drink a ton of water he brought for me and I feel like a hundred bucks all over again. He tosses me a hat and a pair of sunglasses; I give him a brief nod, slip on my climbing shoes and my chalk bag and let him know I’m ready. We walk together to the base of the large rock that had been my destination during my trip, rope connected between us and protective gear strewn about. I watch as he starts climbing up this amazing rock formation and can’t help but smile and think to myself, “There is no place I would rather be than right here, in the middle of nowhere.”

camouflaged.

last october, josh and i took a week off and drove to colorado to visit our friends, kristy and jj, and their lovely kids, braylon and jaxten. since then, the two of them have been blessed with another little one--a precious girl this time--taytum faith. how old are they, you ask? well, 5 months, 19 months, and 3 years. yes, three kids under three. all at once.

i've known kristy since our early days of high school. she was that total hot surfer girl that all the boys went crazy over. don't get me wrong, she's not the girl other girls often despise--she didn't MAKE the boys go crazy--they just did. it was natural! as a matter of fact, you couldn't help but love how much she DIDN'T care that her hair was knotty and full of sand and that she hadn't showered in a day or 3, because it was funny and light hearted, and so is she. but messy hair or not, this girl is drop dead gorgeous.

some 3 years after high school, this wacky, life-loving friend of mine, kristy, stumbled upon a 6'7" basketball player. now, when i say basketball player, i mean, basketball player. yes, he walked and talked like kobe. yes, he wore gym clothes and carried a basketball under his arm all the time. and yes, he loved every minute of simply being a "basketball player". rightfully so--he was good--really good. and in the midst of his international career, he invited his girlfriend, kristy, to join him for a few weeks in italy. kristy, the biggest home-body i've ever met and the first one to get homesick on our weekend getaways to vegas, nervously accepted. a few months later, she accepted an offer to join him for a few months in mexico. the homesick issue dissipated quickly--she thought the world of this stud, and nothing else mattered.

the phone rang one day while kristy was in mexico. "UHM, HI GEEG, SO...JJ AND I JUST GOT MARRIED!!!" "oh my crapness, kristy, i talked to you 3 days ago and didn't even know you guys were engaged!!!" "yeah, i just found out last night, myself. isn't it amazing?" "why, yes, of course. wow. i mean, WOWWW. that's...great. yes, that's GREAT!!!..." i called our other close friends immediately after hanging up. "guys, this is great, right? shoot. i'm not sure. that was....FAST. hmmm. okay, we're all okay with this. he's a good guy... we can support this, for sure." when jj and kristy returned, we welcomed them, excited about their new venture, but already praying hard that she'd/they'd made a smart decision.

then they got pregnant. and sure enough, 9 months later, a baby came. imagine that!!

then they got pregnant. again. and sure enough, as if it were natural, 9 months later, another baby came... i'm seeing a trend here.

with 2 kids under 2, and a 3 year old marriage, and two young adults that were still learning new things about themselves and each other on a daily basis, kristy and jj pressed on. an international basketball career ended sometime during that time, and jj, at a fork-in-the-road-moment of his life, decided to join the army.

i don't know anyone in the army. i know i drive past camp pendelton every so often hopeful i won't accidentally get run over by a rogue humvee, but that's about as close as i've come to armed forces in my life. oh yeah, i went to an airshow at edwards air force base once. i was 10. so, i hear the news, and of course, i call up my close friends. "guys, is this okay? i mean, i'm scared for them. jj's going to have to wear green and brown camo EVERYDAY. like, is he gonna be okay with that? and you know, what if he gets deployed? can jj and kristy handle this? and the kids???" i couldn't tell kristy how nervous i was. she was in the midst of mentally preparing herself for these next few years of uncertainty, and spiritually preparing herself to support her husband in his every need as they decided to take their family down this unexplored path. but jj had made this decision with a clear head. he needed to support his family, and he wanted to do so in the most honorable way he could think of.

last july, jj and kristy moved to fountain, colorado, just outside fort carson, where jj had been stationed. 5 months ago, baby taytum turned the sola family into a five-some, and 3 months ago jj, dressed in his finest camo and boots that were bigger than his smallest child, waved goodbye to his family as he left for a 13 month deployment to iraq. can you imagine? thankfully, a beautiful little invention called skype allows jj to see his kids grow up on the other side of the computer, but it's obviously not the same. 13 months. the sola's just take it one day at a time. and time will pass. and they'll be together again soon.

i now know someone in the army. i know someone brave. i know someone selfless. i know someone honorable, someone strong. and i know someone who is and continues to grow into a strong man of God. i am beyond words when i try to describe how much he and his sacrifices impress me.

i'm equally impressed by my crazy, funny, loving, sweet friend kristy, as she gives her three kids all her love and attention day after day, and as she remains the strong and loyal rock that jj yearns to come home to.

kristy spent the early part of summer here in orange county, and just this week, started the same trek josh and i did last october to return home to colorado with her three kids. they get to see jj for 2 weeks in another 3 or 4 months, as he takes his leave.

this family has been on my mind and in my prayers for weeks now, as my heart is humbled by their story, their hard times, their good times, their strengthand faith found in the Lord, and their beautiful attitudes of gratitude. may they know we love and admire them. and when i say we, i mean more than just josh and i.

jj, thank you for your service and your sacrifice. kristy, thank you for your friendship. bray, jaxy, and tater tot, thank you for the simply joys you bring to all of us. go solafamfam!!

and how's this for old school?

problem solving

a: do you have a funny taste in your mouth today? from the juice or the pizza last night?

j: no

a: oh. yeah, me neither......

j: what kind of taste?

a: i can't tell. not iron, like when i eat cinnamon toast crunch. more like... aluminum... i think...

j: weird. did you eat a tin can?

a: oh crap, i totally did

j: well there's your problem

a: thanks