day 30: celebrate good times...

i have the greatest friends! we've known each other a long time. almost 10 years. it hasn't been a quiet 10 years either. a lot has happened... husbands, babies, other countries, other schools, moving, accidents, and lubbock.


i had no idea what i was getting into when i left the hub city to head to abilene to be a freshman at acu. i didn't have friends from the metroplex. i still wore vests, overalls, and sketchers because i thought they were cool. (yes, i cringe about the overalls and sketchers, but i really loved that vest. it was hot pink. AND it had a matching skirt that i might sill have...i'll never tell.)



kristen lived two doors down from me in the dorm. we were instant friends. i think we recognized the social anxiety and awkwardness in each other and hung on for dear life. allison, on the other hand, was a cool third floorer. she had a stop sign in her painted dorm room...she was the ultimate rebel. she helped me with a speech i had to make, ironically on fashion faux pas, and we've been friends ever since.



this year kristen and allison made me a sentence for my birthday. the words in the sentence were clues for the days activities. my sentence was "if you're feeling old with a darker shade of the blues, go home and engage in some cake by the pool." you can read more about it here. it was a fantastic day. i loved every minute of it. i'm so blessed, they are the truest of friends. i love being a part of their lives.


thank you guys for a fantastic birthday!

day 29: 27

i woke up this morning and got ready like usual, and then i realized it was my birthday. i can't believe it's already the end of june. i'm not really a birthday person. most of the time i can't remember exactly how old i am. i've been rounding up for so long, and now i'm tempted to round down.

i'm lucky to have people around me who love birthdays. it's contagious.

momma lou had this sweet cake waiting for me today...

and tonight when kristen and allison came over for the bachelorette they brought this fantastic tiered tie-dyed cake...

and an ominous note about tomorrow's celebration...

what ever could it mean??? i can't wait to find out!

day 28: bought a house

so, i bought a house today. it's pretty much the biggest purchase i've ever made. i could throw up at any moment, and it's making me have hot flashes...in a good way...i think.


ever since my poppa moe passed away last summer i have been living with my momma lou. it's been great. i'm going to miss living with her. we've gotten to be the best of friends.



this is brooke. she's my new roommate. she might as well be one of my sisters. she's always around. brooke is calli's best friend. they've been best friends their whole lives, and so we've seen a lot of her.

i'm super excited about the fun that is to come...

day 27: the life of a locksmith

allison, carly, and i loaded up to head to abilene. we were headed down for baby j's wedding, an event that we have been really excited about for the last six weeks. we had our dresses picked out, we'd practiced our dancing, and had talked through every possible situation that could arise.

that bad news is that we forgot lipstick. luckily we had hot tamales in the car...

who knew they'd give such a natural burst of color...

about an hour outside of abilene, carly realized that the keys to her house that we were supposed to be staying in were still in lubbock. since she and her roommates don't have a spare she was forced to call the abilene area locksmith who said he'd meet us at the house.

we couldn't have anticipated what was to come. his name was mr. gary.


mr. gary is a locksmith completely devoted to his craft. he started locksmithing by making his own tools. however, if you don't know how to go about making a pick for a lock you could google it or get the tools you need on ebay...according to mr. gary.

that didn't brighten carly's day though. she was bummed about the $40 she just threw away...

allison and i, on the other hand, found it pretty entertaining. he wanted to show us his van which, i'll have you know, conveniently doubles as an office.


we learned all about the life of a locksmith. "in this drawer i have some keys, and in this drawer i have some keys, and right here i keep some pens so i can write stuff down..."

bless his heart. carly just sat and soaked it all in, confident in the fact that if nothing else, she too could be a locksmith someday.

after mr. gary told us about his last two marriages and his current girlfriend who he calls wife... he finally left and we got ready.

jessica's wedding was beautiful and super fun. i don't think any of us were ready for the heat. it was a good thing we had on black. it's a good sweat hider.

we danced the night away...

especially carly.

she's still young and cool so we lived vicariously through her. allison was her personal paparazzi. calli and i just watched .


the best part of the night was when they played the hoedown throwdown. the kids in attendance went crazy. turns out that we were the only people over 12 to get excited about miley cyrus. yes, we know it. it took 2 days to learn. i wish life was a choreographed dance that started boom, clap, boom de clap de clap...


we had such a great time...

and saw people we hadn't seen in a while. kelci and emily were there...


even alyssa was there. an interesting fact about this girl is that she was lucky enough to have allison and me as big sises in club. i know she counts her lucky stars every day...

i just love weddings. i can't wait for the next one.

day 26: birds of a feather

we all got together for a cookout tonight out at my aunt debby's house. i love to be at debby and mike's house because it's nice to get away from everything and just enjoy each other. we spend a lot of time just talking and laughing...

papa is always the life of the party, and he loves to tell a good story...

it's especially fun spending time with the little kids. the princess took a break from her royal spinning to grace us with her presence...

papa was determined to get a hat onto miles despite his protests...

he eventually ditched the hat but continued to hang onto the truck for dear life...


then there was harrison who took some time out to do some posing....

lubbock is so much more fun with family...

even if they are over accessorized...

day 25: sad thigs come in threes

we lost three greats today...


farrah



michael



and pepper.


pepper marie louise turner was the most precious outside dog you have ever met. she looked a little ragged, but she was tough. she thought her job in life was to keep us safe. she barked when someone new was in the alley, she killed the crazy birds that came into her territory, and she loved us no matter what haircut we gave her.

we got pepper when i was in the sixth grade. she was in our family for 15 years...which is 105 in dog years. she had breast cancer and in the last few days she took a turn for the worse. unfortunately, we had to put her down today. my cousin, caleb, is a vet and was in town for the weekend so he was able to come to the house. carly stayed with her the whole time. i couldn't stand it, so i took off and we regathered at my aunt debby's house for the funeral.

it was one of the saddest days we have had around here in a long time, and it's going to be very different without her.

day 24: just updating the list...

i realized that i needed to do some updating to my list....


#19 - sing karaoke...DONE. unfortunately i have pictures to prove it.

i challenge anyone to sing karaoke and not have accompanying hand motions. i personally think it's impossible. if you can do it, you're singing the wrong song.



#37 - live outside the u.s... DONE. it can be crossed off the list. in 2005, i moved to pago pago, american samoa for a school year, and what a year it was. i met some great friends (and some not so great ones) and we snorkeled, hiked, and danced our lives away. we also had culture shock. if you'd like, you can read about it here.

i don't think i could ever forget it...even if i tried.

day 23: happy birthday connar joy!

we went to copper caboose tonight to celebrate connar's 17th birthday. she really didn't want us to tell the waiter it was her birthday because she is 17 and still gets embarrassed easily. the sad thing for her is that she was born into a family where you have to have tough skin. we're always embarrassing each other and it wouldn't be fair to leave her out.

to be kind, we didn't tell anyone directly that it was her birthday, but we sure did talk about it every time they were around.

our quick on our feet waiter caught on and hooped and hollerd to everyone in the restuarant that it was her birthday. she was mortified...


but i think she secretly loved it.

calli made her a cookie cake... with a phone on it. it's the top cake request with all the coolest kids this year.
the fun didn't stop there. we took some pictures outside...

before carly and dad decided to do a little cheer...

"when i say happy, you say birthday...
happy...birthday...happy...birthday!!!"

day 22: dancin feet

the turner house was full of dancing feet tonight. we have a wedding to go to this weekend, so we thought we'd practice so that we would look cool at the reception. we are faithful dancing with the stars watchers so we were thinking it couldn't be that hard to pull out some of their moves... well... that is just false. it's definitely harder than you think.

calli and jordan went first. they started with a little swing dancing.

the first try wasn't so smooth. calli ended up landing on her head, but being the born dancer that she is she didn't forget to point her toes.

the second try was a little better.

and by the third try she was smiling...

then carly and calli tried some cool new moves. calli's face is priceless.

she thought picking carly up would be a breeze. she didn't realize she isn't very strong.

but luckily carly is. she was able to pick herself off the ground.

i thought that i'd show calli how it was done. only i didn't account for carly landing on my sunburn...
or stella...

she just loves to be a part of the party.