here's a phrase I NEVER imagined myself saying.....

it's official, I'm married to a 40 year old man.

I should have known he wasn't getting any younger when he kept receiving these letters in the mail:

What can I say?  It's been a crazy few days around the House of Bowling....let's recap, shall we:

• Elder Son became a FRESHMAN this week.  And if he had a facebook account it would read "in a relationship"
• Middle Child began High School this week. And was DRILLED by a senior football player last week at practice.
• On Sunday, we celebrated a whole DECADE of Baby Girl.  I haven't any children in single digits....how sad.

And now I have a husband who turns 40 today. 

Which means I'm married to a 40 year old man.  I keep saying it, but it still doesn't make it seem real.

Happy Birthday, T-5! Don't worry, age is just a number. Yours is a high one, but still, it's just a #. :)

15 on the 15th....however, I still don't think the temperature is as hot today as it was back then.

Today we celebrate our anniversary. Fifteen years. It's our special anniversary, that will only happen once, where the amount of years wed matches up with the date you were wed. 15 on the 15th. Wow. It's been an amazing adventure.  

So, let's take a stroll down memory lane, 15 years ago today:

I walked down the aisle, latched onto my father, to meet the man of my dreams.

We recited our vows as well as a selection from the book of Ruth....and I could not stop smiling.

We became a Mr. and Mrs. (oh my lands!-- we look so young)

Whoever said you couldn't have your cake and eat it to?

Yes, Cinderella, dreams really do come true.

To my beloved, thank you for the most wonderful 15 years a girl could ever hope to have. On this day, standing barefoot beside you wearing the big white dress and an enormous smile, I believed in my heart that I loved you with all that I had in me....but I was wrong, I loved you even more then and still more today. 

 I have but one thing left to say:

"Entreat me not to leave you,

or to turn back from following after you;

For wherever you go, I will go;

and wherever you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people shall be my people,

and your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die,

and there will I be buried.

The Lord do so to me, and more also,

if anything but death parts you and me."

~Ruth 1:16-17

Boy, am I glad this life on earth is but a vapor.

"These things I have spoken to you,
in ME you may have peace. 
In the world you will have tribulation;
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  ~John 16:33

Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying. Or at least I do.  And then sometimes I wind up crying anyway. But this verse always makes me smile.... when the stresses of life seem to be overtaking me, I just get a good giggle at the end when HE reminds us----"hey, don't sweat that stuff, I overcame the world and I'm still in control....so smile through it all, because you know the ending."

He only has his youth for one more year.....

Happy Birthday to the most amazing husband, father of my children, and best friend a gal could ask for....plus he has a baby face as an added bonus! :)

My little graffiti artist....

Certainly I have tried to teach the kids to take care of their things....their toys, their clothes, their rooms, their shoes, etc.etc.  They all took a turn in toddlerhood to scribble their own amateur art on our walls but this might be a first........

You can't really see it on the toe of her shoe very well, but you can see the heart she colored in with a black ballpoint pen....

It is hard to discipline this kind of graffiti art.

I love her Daddy too, even though I don't write it on the soles of my shoes.....but I just might start. :)

The 5K race

We were in T5's hometown last weekend for his father's retirement festivities.  His Dad has worked at an Air Force Base in Tennessee for over 35 years.  And for the last couple of decades, he and a few co-workers have always went for a run during their lunch.   Well, let me back up, A LOT of folks on the Air Force Base run....in the morning, at lunch, mid afternoon, etc.etc.etc.  So, in honor of Pappy's retirement, they decided to host a 5K race the morning before the ceremony. 

It was properly titled the "RUST AWAY RUN".  And our shirts for the occasion had a picture of Pappy standing in front of his old car he drove for over 30 years, and the saying "Old Bowlings never die, they just rust away".   The course was set up around the military base, with the start line and finish line set up at the front of the building which houses Pappy's office.  They had a shorter "walking course" set out for those not wanting to run, and then the main course for the 5K, with 100 people entering the race.

As I wrote in the post below this, I did in fact survive to finish the race, even though I'm not a runner....I'm not even a jogger.....I'm not even a speed walker. But I wanted to do this race.  So I tried my hardest to keep up with the pack, who quickly left me behind.  Did I mention yet there was one Colonel (who runs marathons) that finished the race in 20 minutes.  And they said that wasn't even his fastest time.  Folks, that's averaging less than 7 minutes a mile.  I knew I was out of my league, but trudged forward anyway. 

The kids all wanted to run the 5K as well, so they geared up in their toboggans and sweatshirts and lined up with the rest of us.  It was my job, since I was clearly in the back of the pack, to make sure the kids didn't get off course or get lost on the base.  I'd have to look over my shoulder at every turn checking to see if I saw little heads somewhere down the road, and a few times, I'd even walk backwards trying to keep moving, but wait to see if they made a corner turn.  With that being said, had I not been in charge of the kids (my two younger ones as well as their two cousins), I might could have finished the race just seconds behind that Colonel who ran in half my time. But, as a mother, you all understand where my priorities lie....always watching out for the kids. Sacrificing myself, and my Summer Olympic Track and Field dreams. :) HA!

However, as slow as I am and as uneventful as my time was in finishing the race, I have a great story to report of my dear husband and Elder Son. Since January, every weekend we were home, I would trek outside and announce, "hey, I'm gonna take a little (meaning 5 minute) run, want to join me?", and T5 would always reply, "no thanks, I'm gonna work in my shop."  I'd think (often outloud) okay, but you're gonna wish you had at least walked a mile before that 5K race begins in a few weeks.  So, he trained a total of 0 (that would be zero) minutes.  In fact, it had been weeks since a pair of tennis shoes had even touched his feet until the morning of the race.  I seriously thought he wouldn't be able to run the whole event, although I knew he'd finish, I knew he'd beat me, but I thought for certain he couldn't run the entire time.  Elder Son, is only 12, and he started out pacing himself with the big pack that morning, alongside his Dad. 

And they finished the race, side by side, running the entire way.  In less than 30 minutes.  I'm not sure of their exact time, although I think it was 29 minutes 53 seconds. They were proud. I was proud. I couldn't believe it.  It's wonderful that T5 completed it, without training, in under 30 minutes, but my boy, my firstborn, my baby.....he ran the whole race in under 30 minutes as well!  And he was wearing his father's football sweatshirt from the late 80's.

I can't tell you how excited I was for them, both of them. 

Fast runners, good looking guys, and they both belong to me.  

What's in a name???

Often times during church service, Baby Girl breaks out her inner artist.  We bring out a bucket of crayons or markers from Sunday School and she gets carried away.  She doodles and draws. Usually everyone in the family has a creative "name" design by noon on Sunday.  And our church pew is filled with paper giblets.

A few weeks back, she made me this sweet picture.  With my name.  I smiled sweetly at her and silently mouthed... thank you.  She smiled sweetly and silently mouthed back to me....flip it over....except she wasn't quite as silent and she used some boisterous hand gestures to assimilate the action.  So I quickly did as she asked just to get her settled back down.  And this is what I found on the back:

Am I ever so glad I followed her hand signals...and turned it over.   What's in a name?  A lot.  Especially when your Baby Girl describes you as a pretty faced, very special, Queen.  A name can mean so much....you can evoke lots of memories just with a name.

I love the name Kimberly, my given name.   And I love that if you have met me after the year 1993, late fall to be exact, you know me as Kimberly, because that is what my main squeeze calls me.  My Valentine.  He met me during that time period of fall '93 and of course there's a nice story behind it.  Stop yourself now if you don't want to hear the beginnings of a sappy love story. 

I won't bore you with all the details during the very early stages of our courtship, but I will share with you why he doesn't call me "Kim"....especially when so many others in my life do. 

I take you back to October of '93....we were at college in Auburn, and believe it or not, we were at a party.  I know, I know.  A party?  In college?  Really?  I bet you thought college was all about getting an education and such.....and yes, it is.  And for the most part, I was always busy doing the educational sections of college.....the classes, the tests, the papers, the projects, etc...  but on a rare occasion, like say, maybe Wednesday-Saturday you could find me/us/all other college undergrads, at a sporting event, party, karaoke night, or a gathering of some sort...that pretty much didn't involve any educational qualities.  Unless of course you were majoring in Quantum Physics....those folks rarely made an apperance outside the labratory.  But for the rest of us....fun times, great memories.  And just FYI---I graduated with a 3.4 I believe, even with only buckling down Sunday-Tuesday.

I assume, and according to my father, had I applied myself the rest of every week I could have majored and graduated with a 4.0 in Quantum Physics....but show me the fun in that???  Exactly my point. But back to the story at hand....

On this one occasion, I walked into a party where I really knew only a handful of the several dozen folks in attendance.  The party was celebrating a BIG birthday of a great friend of mine....who was in a sorority.  I wasn't a sorority girl.  I came to Auburn late in the game, junior year.  Besides that fact, I also couldn't have dared ask for more money than my parents were already shelling out just to join a sorority.  And thirdly I was at AU...it didn't matter...everyone is family on the plains....sorority or not.  Alas, it was still hard for me to go to it, I was nervous, anxious and all of that....but free beverages were involved, plus I loved my friend and wanted to celebrate her birthday with her, so I faced my fears and busted on in.   I was thrilled to see a familiar face in the crowd.  Leaning against the living room wall was that boy I had met a couple of weeks earlier in Section 19 at the football game.  He was so captivatingly charming that I had been hoping to run into him again, but had dismissed those thoughts when I realized I didn't even know his last name.  

He recognized me as well and smiled brightly when I came inside. Score. He remembers me...and he's still smiling.  We hit it off that night, I immediately felt at ease, even amidst all the sorority gals.  Later in the night, another good friend who had driven me to the party left early, so that left me to find a ride with someone else. 

That sweet, charming, cute guy with the sparkling eyes that remembered me, seemed like a good idea.  However, I'm from Smalltown, USA....where they always tell you to be real careful out in the "big world" because there are bad people out there.  And we were no longer in Mayberry, anymore.  Or Kansas, Dorothy.  I had no red shoes to click together to get me back to my apartment.  I was left to his mercy to drive me home and all I could do was pray he wasn't a psycho.

I knew in my heart this guy wasn't one of those "bad people".....but just to play it safe, when he asked me my name, I decided to change it up a bit.  Instead of just saying "Kim"....which is what almost everyone had referred to me as for the first 20 years of my life, everyone except my PawPaw anyway....I told him my name was "Kimberly".  Which it is, that part wasn't a lie.  However, when he asked my last name, to throw him off, just in case he was a serial killer on a college campus....I told him it was "Abracadabra".  

That's right.  Meet me....Kimberly Abracadabra.  Sister to Charlie Houdini, Sally Alakazam, and little Johnny Hocus Pocus.

I realized almost immediately it wasn't a good cover name. Duh. Now who sounds like the psycho??  He didn't buy it.  Not for one presto chango/open sesame second. I don't know what came over me.....why didn't I just chunk myself in a common last name category, like Smith or Jones?  Or why not go big and drop a name like Rockefeller, Washington or Einstein?   Oh, yeah, now I remember why...it may have had something to do with those free beverages.  So I blurted out Abracadabra...with a flashy smile on the side. Ta Da!

Abracadabra.  Honest, that's what I said.  Ask him.  He'll tell you the story just the same.  We both remember that night.  The night I tried to fake myself out about what I was really feeling for a guy I had only laid eyes on twice in my entire life.  The night we had our first kiss.  The night I smiled so big after that kiss I thought my cheeks would explode.  The night my heart was taken, but I didn't know it yet, because my mind would not stand for such nonsense reasoning.  

It was the night he said my name....Kimberly.  Just Kimberly.  

I love to hear him say it.  Even this many years later.  I don't mind being called Kim....I'll answer to either.  But from him, he only calls me Kimberly....and I would have it no other way. 

Yep. Enough with the mushy mushy whatever from the early 90's.  That was way back in the day. 

Now, flash forward back to present day.  In light of this clever name explanation, complete with picture, that Baby Girl created for me during Sunday worship, I think I'll ask the husband if he'll just start calling me Queen for short.

Or maybe even this:

Queen Abracadabra---now that has a nice ring to it. Don't you think?  ;)

I could be losing my mind....if I had one to begin with.

So, a few weeks ago, I wrote this POST, concerning the painted room surprise that awaited my dear husband.

Who, by the way, had no knowledge of the painting, until AFTER it had been done. And then, because I am no good with ladders and such, I left the high spots for him to touch up. I love it when a plan comes together. Hey, that'll teach him to say he doesn't like all the khaki walls, now won't it?

But I completely forgot to post any photos. Forgive me. I know many of you have seen the new paint job, but to appease those who haven't, here's a few shots. Now realize, this is the laundry room. I wasn't a huge risk taker, I started out with a small job, but it's leading to bigger ones, just you wait and see!! Our house may look like Rainbow Brite threw up all over it before long. :)

• The Before...

• The After....

Don't you just love the color??? I do. It reminds me of the beach. I love the beach. I try to remember how much I love the beach while I'm doing the laundry. Because I do not love to do laundry.

T-5 was happy with the color choice, really was happy with the fact that I had painted. I didn't get in any trouble at all. Surprise, surprise. He finished all the trim work, hard to reach over the cabinet spaces, and even hung some art, shelving and a new mirror.

Now, I have to include this little tidbit, because I think it's pretty neat. Do you see that yellow wooden piece of art hanging above the mirror which is above the laundry sink area?

Well, my dear husband's folks brought that to us a few months ago, along with a plethora of other items of interest from their attic/closets. Stuff of his from his childhood, high school and college years. Much of it we kept, others, we did not. Hey, if his mama doesn't want it, why would I?

Anyway, the point is this: That piece of art is from his early college days at AUBURN. He had a class in the School of Architecture where they had to take a simple object and make a piece of art in a wood carving.

Can you guess what it is? Before looking at the photo below? I'll give you a hint, there's a reason why I hung it in the laundry room......



Keep thinking hard.........






How about that? Who knew, way back when, we'd have a little place to hang a wood carving of a Tide bottle?? And while yellow is not my favorite color, I just love that piece. It helps make even a boring laundry room feel like home.