Cupcakes...

I don't know exactly HOW I got so lucky to have so many truly wonderful friends.  Honestly...I don't.

My last blog was about female drama and in it, I told you that my friends just don't "do" drama and that is 100% true.

Every one of my besties is special for individual reasons...today I'm going to tell you about one of them and what she did tonight.

Her name is Jenn.

And she is AAAAA-MAZING!!!

She is extremely intelligent and beautiful. Like model beautiful on the outside.  BUT her real beauty is something that comes from the inside!

She is a fashionista. She ALWAYS has the most adorable outfits on. She is one of those people who could wear a potato sack and make it look good as she accessorized it with an adorable belt, self-made beautiful jewelry...and heels.

And oh my GOODNESS does this woman have the most amazing shoes!! I have little shoe love affair and I'm telling you that her shoes are the CUTEST.

AND...she wears them to water her garden.

Not kidding! :)

When you see Jenn, your initial impression is that she is so gorgeous that she knocks your socks off. You are left with your jaw dropping open because she is ripped, is dressed to the nines, has beautiful golden locks, and a smile that would stop traffic for miles and miles!

When I first saw Jenn, I thought there would be no way that someone so gorgeous would ever want to hang out with this redneck neighbor of hers. LOL!

I was SOO wrong!! She is HILARIOUS and SOOO smart!!  She absolutely cracks me up with her wisdom and wordplay. She's down to Earth and real and we became the best of friends very quickly!

She just rocks!  And we live across the street from one another so we see each other quite a bit. We always talked and giggled but...

one night...we had wine.

A LOT of wine!!

While sitting in her kitchen.

And since that night, after she walked me home...the whole 50 steps... :)  she has been one of my closest, bestest friends in the entire world.

I admire her SO much!!

Her heart is as big as Texas...no...bigger...the universe...that's almost big enough.  She would do anything to help anyone!!  She is as loyal as a friend could be and is always there no matter what.

Jenn is one of those people who would drop EVERYTHING to do ANYTHING to help a friend!  No questions asked other than, "what else can I do?" at a moment's notice.  Selflessness is one of her best traits.

She took me to the Mac Makeup counter (I didn't even know Mac made makeup in addition to computers...LOL) and helped me purchase my first set of "enhanced" eyelashes for Art Bra! :)  And we had a BLAST doing it!

Girl drama and gossip?? She would have NOTHING to do with stuff like that!  I LOVE that about her!

Her sense of humor keeps me laughing every time I'm around her. Most of the time, I come home with a tummy ache from laughing so hard!!  And she's one of those people who finds the silver lining in any cloud.  I LOVE that!

She reads me like a book and all it takes is for one "Hello" to be even the slightest bit off for her to call or text to find out what is wrong.  She is so intuitive.

And just tonight, was one of those nights. It was her littlest one's birthday and they invited us over for cupcakes. We couldn't go and when she found out that we weren't going to be able to make it over, she appeared at our door with cupcakes for everyone! :)

Seriously!!!

Come on now...who even thinks of that!!?  WOW!!!

I have a lot of friends who do things like that for so many people!!  It's just incredible!! I wish I was that good of a friend...I don't even think of that stuff until the opportunity is long over! :)

Sadly... :(

But the real inspiration in this is not that she delivered a cupcake.

It was never about the cupcakes.  She brought cupcakes over to have a reason to check on us and make sure we were okay.

Okay...the cupcake was pretty yummy! ;)

THAT is the kind of person she is and that is what what true friendship is about.

I wish everyone had a Jenn in their lives. And I'm lucky and I have THE Jenn in mine!! Everyone should have friends that are always there for you, allow you to be there for them, love you unconditionally, lift you up, call you our when you are wrong while holding your hand to support you...

and...who will bring you cupcakes!

And somehow, I have an entire group of friends like this...I'm one lucky girl!!!

If you don't have a Jenn...re-evaluate your friendships. I've learned to move forward from friendships that weren't on this level and have found so many ladies out there who are awesome and inspiring that I want to be just like when I grow up.

If I grow up...that's still in question.

I love each of my friends and am grateful beyond words to them for blessing me with their lives, lessons, patience, grace, wisdom, and love!

This is what friendship is all about!!

Love you girls!! And Jenn...you ROCK!!!

I'll probably be blogging about more of my friends along the way. Did you feel that slight movement of the Earth's surface...that was the axis readjusting after they all gasped at the same time and said, "noooo!" ;)

Girl Meets Boy...

This crazy kitty has reduced my 200 pound, "manly man" husband into

a baby-talking marshmallow!

It's adorable!!  He will frown at me for saying that, but it is.

This morning, Braden was eating his chicken (yes, chicken nuggets for breakfast...it's a protein and calories...you do what you can do when your child has autism AND is taking chemo).

(yes, he's officially showing no evidence of disease on his scans, and yes he is still doing chemo...I'll explain that one another day.)

He was watching a movie on a portable DVD player and the kitty smelled the chicken.

Indy thought it smelled pretty good so he went over to stick his nose in it and get a whiff, hoping to snag a piece I'm sure!

Braden started giggling and said, "No kitty, dat's MY chicken!"

to which Brian whined, "No kitty, that's MYYYY pot piiiiie!"

If you get that, I know what "cartoon" you've been watching!! ;)

I cracked up.

But, I laughed harder yesterday morning when I wrote "vet" on a "to-do note" so I would remember to schedule Indy's first vet appointment (with our former next door neighbor Dr. Pelfrey at Stanley Vet Clinic...he's AWESOME and no, that wasn't a paid advertisement, just the truth!!).

I looked at the note a little later in the morning (almost shocked to see it lying on the counter...I had forgotten all about it five minutes after I wrote it),

btw, this is why I write myself notes. 

I'm the same person who used to have to take a sticky note with my destination written on it with me in the hall at school when I was a Principal because I would get stopped so many times, I would forget where I was going and have to come back to the office with my head hanging and ask the secretaries where I was headed!

I digress...

that'll happen a lot in this blog! :)

SO I looked at the note, and noticed Brian had added letters to it.

Now it said, "Corvette".

I busted out laughing.

This is why I love him so much...he's funny and witty and clever!!

I'm one lucky girl...

Most days!

So how in the world did we meet??

It's simple...all I had to do is buy a house!

I had won a teaching award that came with a $25,000 check...AWESOME!

And I had just moved to Kansas City from a small town in Central Kansas called Hays...LOVE that town!!

I had just been hired to be the Assistant Principal at a middle school (I was only there for a year and then accepted a job as Principal at an elementary school after that).  I loved the middle school kids---they are hilarious!! And I loved the elementary school kids--they are sweet!!!

I had a down payment and I wanted to buy a house that would be my very own!!  I had been divorced for a little over a year and was ready to independently nest! 

Oh...and I had SWORN OFF MEN!!!

I'd dated...the pool was shallow...and frankly, I was over the experience!!

(insert eye roll and sigh...two sighs...and another eye roll)

A very dear friend and I drove all over Kansas City with a realtor looking at houses and I could never find "the one". 

We looked at MANY houses.

After we looked at another one, we pulled to the end of the cul-de-sac to turn around and saw an unfinished house with a for sale sign that looked promising from the outside. 

Unplanned, unforseen....spur of the moment decision....we stopped and went inside.

and I LOVED the floorplan but it was just at a drywall stage.

We called the builder, Larry Lochner, and he told us there was a finished version across the street so we could see what it looked like when it had paint and finished floors.

So, we met the homeowner the next day and walked through his house.  I LOVED the house even more....

And...I noticed the owner...cute guy, and I was guessing he was single by the stereo on boxes that made up his stereo cabinet and vacuum cleaner in the middle of the living room.

And when we walked out of the house, I told my realtor, "Cute neighbor guy...buy that house!!"

And I did.

The cute neighbor guy was Brian and the builder was one of his best friends, Larry. 

I met the rest of the neighbors immediately and loved them...they were all awesome!!

Brian knocked on my door a day after I moved in to say hello (I had said hello to him outside SEVERAL times) and asked if he could do anything to help.

I had already hauled the boxes to the basement, the pictures were on the wall, everything was set up and looking great...nesting had occured...

but I needed to think of SOMETHING so he would come in and I could talk to him some more....okay, the possibility of flirting had crossed my mind!

SO,  I thought quickly...

It was the end of June in Kansas...

I told him that the upstairs of the house was too warm and I needed to adjust the damper on my AC, but I didn't know where it was...and that was true.  I knew that was what needed to be done, but I didn't have a CLUE how to do it.

He helped me fix it and we got to chat a little...and he got to see my obsessive need for organization and neatness from the very first moments. 

He was shocked and surprised my house was decorated already!

No stereo on boxes for this girl!!!

Well, we saw each other across the cul-de-sac and waved hello several times when FINALLY, five days after I moved in, I went out to run (I was running a LOT at that time in my life) and ALL of the neighbors were sitting at the end of someone's driveway drinking beer.

AWESOME!!! 

I KNEW this was THE neighborhood!!

So I went for my run and when I got home, they were still there so I did the only neighborly, logical thing...

I stopped and drank beer!

It got late...so we moved inside one of the neighbor's houses...

It got later, and the homeowners wanted to go to sleep (unplanned, party lightweights) so the remaining bunch of us did the only logical thing...

Moved to another neighbor's house.

And we danced and laughed and had a couple beers (okay, okay...three beers... give or take a few cases...) until it was...

6:00 AM.

THIS NEIGHBORHOOD ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At that point, we all went home and a little later, Brian called me and asked if I wanted to go to lunch.

Of course I said yes, and this time I KNEW I wanted to flirt. :)

We had lunch at a bar and grill and he explained what he did for a living using the sugars, salt, and pepper.

Seriously! 

I got a good giggle and I've been laughing since then...

Well, most days. ;)

It's our very own version of a fairytale...once upon a time, I bought a house....

and got a baby-talking, marshamallow husband!

Luckiest girl in the world...

In fact, Brian and I wrote our own wedding vows to each other and I turned this story into a "FairyTale" format.  I had my step-mom bring me a book I had scrapbooked, and I threw open the first page and read, "Once Upon A Time..."

Brian in his smart ass way, rolls up his tux sleeve and looks at his watch like "how long is THIS going to take..."

And I said, "Relax, You've got time!!!"

Even the Preacher laughed...

but no one laughed harder than when I finished.

Brian took a hanky out of his tux pocket and wiped his brow, paused and said....

"When we talked about these vows.....I remember asking you REPEATEDLY...how long were yours?"

The church (and the poor Preacher) ERUPTED into fits of laughter.

And so it began...

We just thought "happily ever after" would have less "crapfest" mixed into it....

And this story is just another reason this blog has the title it has...

you can't make this stuff UP!!

Seriously, this is my life!!!