A mermaid and whale's love story

"With all due respect,that idea aint worth a velvet painting of a whale and a dolphin gettin' it on." ~Talladega Nights

Katey and I were in TJ Maxx on Thursday, and saw this beautiful painting. We both almost died because really, who paints a picture like this? There are so many things that come to your mind when you see a piece of art like this, such as...

* Who thinks of this?
* Was it love at first sight for the mermaid and the whale?
* Do the other fish feel awkward being present during this special moment?

What thoughts came to your mind when you saw this? Please post them as comments!

~If you need to enlarge it, to really grasp the beauty of this art, just click on the image.~

Some more pictures of Rae

Here are some more pictures of beautiful Kaiten Rae. It's been so special to be here with Matt and Katey, and share the experience with them. They are great parents, and I love watching them love on her. Baby, mom, and dad are adjusting really well to their new life. Sweet little hands
One of her first photos

Pretty little girl

My Horn Can Pierce The Sky

I should have posted this as soon as the episode aired, but I forgot. This is from The Office, season 5. If you're an Office fan, you'll love this link.

www.princessunicorndoll.com

Welcome Kaiten Rae

My best friend Katey had her baby yesterday. Kaiten Rae Toller was born at 1:49pm, 7 lbs. 4 oz. 20 inches long, and just perfect! Katey is such a tropper! By the time she got to the hospital, she had the baby in 25 minutes. Can you believe it?! Both ladies are doing great. Here's a picture of the pretty ladies.

Johnny and June

I heard a song on the radio today, and fell in love with it. Just hearing this one line, I had a smile ear to ear...'I wanna love like Johnny and June'. It's called Johnny and June, by Heidi Newfield.

There are so many things I love about this song, but mainly it's the desire for this woman to love like Johnny Cash, and June Carter Cash did. You don't have to have seen the movie Walk The Line to know that they were deeply in love. They had their struggles I'm sure, and maybe their relationship didn't start out ideally, but it was genuine.

I'm such a huge Johnny Cash fan, and have been for a while. John (my hubby) grew up listening to him, and introduced me to him when we started dating. I know I'm behind compared to him, but better late than never. let me know what you think of it...

And if you don't like it, well...I don't really care :)

Johnny and June

by Heidi Newfield

Oh there's something 'bout a man in black,
Makes me want to buy a cadillac,
Throw the top back,
And roll down to Jackson town,
I wanna be there on the stage with you,
You and I could be the next rage to,
Hear the crowd roar,
Make 'em one more,
I'll kick the footlights out,

I wanna love like Johnny and June,
Rings of fire burnin' with you,
I wanna walk the line,
Walk the line,
'Till the end of time,
I wanna love,
Love ya that much,
Cash it all in,
Give it all up,
When you're gone,
I wanna go too,
Like Johnny and June,

I wanna hold you baby right or wrong,
Build a world around a country song,
Pray a sweet prayer,
Follow you there,
Down in history,

I wanna love like Johnny and June,
Rings of fire burnin' with you,
I wanna walk the line,
Walk the line,
'Till the end of time,
I wanna love,
Love ya that much,
Cash it all in,
Give it all up,
When you're gone,
I wanna go too,
Like Johnny and June,

Like Johnny and June,
More than life itself,
No-one else,
This here is promise,
They don't make love like that anymore,
Is that too much to be askin' for,

I wanna love like Johnny and June,
Rings of fire burnin' with you,
I wanna walk the line,
Walk the line,
'Till the end of time,
I wanna love,
Love ya that much,
Cash it all in,
Give it all up,
When you're gone,
I wanna go too,
Like Johnny and June,

Like Johnny and June,
And when we're gone,
There'll be no tears to cry,
Only memories of our lives,
They'll remember, remember,
A love like that.

Nice homecoming...NOT!

We got home from VA Beach last night around 8:30ish. We brought all our things from the car into the house, and began to unpack. I walked past the downstairs bathroom and noticed there was about 2 inches of standing water in the floor, and the sink was running! I freaked out! The first thing I thought of was, 'Oh my gosh...what if this is my fault! John is going to kill me! Did I leave the water runnning??!!' I called John to the bathroom to show him our lovely flooded bathroom. We both came to the conclusion that neither of us let the water running, and that the pipes must have burst over the weekend while we gone. That wasn't a good thing, but at least neither of us were responsible. John went down to the basement to turn the water off, and part of the basement was flooded too! Thankfully nothing was ruined! Two of my teacher boxes full of files, and books got really wet, but I moved quickly, and was able to get everything out of the boxes.

We called our friends, Heidi and Colin, and Colin came over to help John. Colin's father-in-law came over too to help, which was so great!! They helped us get all the standing water off the floor, and fifure out the problem some more. Jay told us that his pipes had burst over the weekend too because it had gotten down to -21 degrees over the weekend!!

Anyway, now wer are without a toilet, and a shower. We'll be showering at the Y until we can get all of this figured out. What a way to come home from a great weekend.

Great weekend in VA Beach

We had a great time visiting friends over the weekend in VA Beach! The plan was for just me to go this weekend, but then John came along too, which was great! We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen since we moved the beginning of November. John and some guys went surfing Saturday morning, and Sunday night. He caught some waves, which was cool. I got to hang out with Katey a lot, and some other girlfriends. Katey is due in about two weeks, so it was great to see her before baby Kaiten Rae came. Here are some pictures of the guys surfing Saturday morning. Brrrrrr....it was cold!!

The guys surfing Saturday morning. It was about 35 degrees out...brrr!

Yup, that's ice on the beach!

My little surfer boy

Getting ready to tackle the cold!

LOST and HEROES

John and I decided to save some money in our monthly budget budget by downgrading from extended cable to basic cable. There's like a $30 difference from extended to basic cable, so that's a good amount of money we could save. Basic cable is pretty horrible here, nothing like the basic cable we had in VA! We don't even get TBS...so sad! So, we decided that we'd try Net Flix for a month or so, and see if we like it instead of the extended cable. This way, we can watch movies, and television series, without it being as expensive. With all of that said, we decided to get the first season on both LOST and HEROES, and oh my goodness...we love them! I know we're a little behind the times on both of those series. I just can't wait for more DVDs to come in the mail so we can watch more seasons of both shows. Net Flix is a good price too. I'm sure a lot of people already do Net Flix, but in case you don't, you should try it!

Beachy thoughts

With all this snow, and cold weather, I sometimes bring myself back to when I lived near the beach in VA. We'd go often by ourselves, or with friends. John and I went last spring with two other couples, and their dogs. Kaya is so funny on the beach, she gets really exciting about the water and the sand. Here are some pics of warm, sunny days!

John is 'special'...

So, we all know what it means when we say someone is 'special'. There is something different about them. Well, if you know John...you know he's 'special', but that is why I LOVE him! There are a lot of times when John gets distracted with a task, but this is probably the best one yet!

We woke up this morning with plenty of time for us to both get ready, and eat breakfast before going to church. I showered first, b/c I take longer to get ready. With about a half hour before we had to leave, I told John he had to get ready. He didn't say anything, so I said it again. He yelled from the kitchen that he was busy. I thought maybe he was reading an article or something. With 20 minutes left to get ready, I nicely reminded him that he had to get ready. He yelled up that he was busy...still. With only 5 minutes until we had to leave, I gently reminded him to get his butt in the shower, and bust a move. I asked what he was so busy with, and he said in a weird voice, 'I'm picking the green peppercorn out of the jar.' I thought he was kidding. Nope...totally serious! I come downstairs to the kitchen and John has peppercorns all over the counter top and an extremely frazzled face. He had just spent the last 30 minutes picking out the green peppercorns out of the jar, b/c he said they taste bad. We both laughed about how 'in the zone' he was over silly peppercorns, but really...this is how John is wound!! I finally convinced him that getting ready, and heading out for church was more important. As soon as he walked in the door after returning from church, what do you think he did? You got it! He spent another 20 minutes picking the green ones out of the jar. So, lets do the math. My husband, the physicist, spend a total of 50 minutes picking green peppercorns out of a glass jar. John Jacob Dorr, I love you!

More pictures of our adventure

A broken down car, with a tree growing through it.

John and I looking over Canaan Valley

Heidi and Leah

Colin and Heidi

John offering to help me over the snowy ledge!

Wild & Wonderful Adventures

Our friends Heidi and Colin gave us the grand tour of Wild and Wonderful WV today! Well, not the whole state, but surrounding towns and ski resorts. We live in such a beautiful state! Every direction I looked today, there were huge mountains around me. It was a beautiful day...sunny blue skies, and not too chilly either!

We first went to a fire tower, similar to a lighthouse in height, but this is where people would look our for forest fires during summer months. We climbed it, and took some great pictures of the mountains. After the fire tower climb, we stopped on the side of the road to see some windmills. Our friend told us that the tips of the windmills go 180 mph! We then drove to Canaan Valley, a ski town, and hiked a small mountain to a beautiful overlook of the valley. We hiked about 2 miles, and then took a detour off the trail into bushes and brush to get to the overlook. I'm not much into hiking, especially when you're not on a trail, and you're fighting bushes, but it was totally worth it!We got to see the beautiful mountains that surround Canaan Valley...it was incredible! After the hike, we grabbed lunch out at a local place. We then drove around the mountain side, and took pictures of some of the beautiful nature around.

It was really neat to see God's incredible creation! It definitely gave me a better appreciation for the state we live in!

Canaan Valley

Our hike.

Christmas in NY

John and I just got back from a great vacation in NY! We were able to see a lot of friends and family...it was great! I actually went up almost a week ahead of him, because he had to work. I stayed in NY for two weeks, and John was there for one week. It was really good to hang out with friends we've had since high school; people we always love to laugh with! I love going 'home' to NY and running into random people when I'm out, but I especially love seeing certain people, and spending time with them! John and I are so blessed to have a great circle of friends, and super cool family to hang out with. Although we loved every second we were in NY, it is so good to be home! I can't believe how much I missed my own bed, pillow, couch, and everything in between. When John and I got home last night, we both took a huge sigh like, 'Ahhhh, we're home!'

Here are some pictures that I took while we were up visiting. There are way more than this, but here is a random selection. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!