All moved in!

We have gotten all moved in to our house and are loving it here! Now that I have internet all set up again, I figured it was a good time to update.

We are all moved in and getting settled. Our house has wallpaper up in the kitchen and bathrooms and so I am working on getting those areas textured and painted. It's actually pretty fun to texture, but I am not looking forward to painting. But, I am trying to use my summer time wisely and get some of it done now. Can't wait for the finished product!

Good news, I got a counseling job!! I will be a middle school counselor at Nocona Middle School in Nocona. It's about a 20 minute drive for me, but it is all highway...but not a busy highway, no traffic at all. It is a super easy drive. I've been to my new office and met with my principal now and am going to take my stuff up there and get my office ready next week. I am so excited, but I will admit that I am quite nervous about working with middle schoolers. Only because my focus has been elementary kids up until this point. But I am ready for the new opportunity. My principal seems fantastic and he seems like he is going to give me the freedom to create the role I want. He has not had a counselor in the past, the high school and elementary counselors have filled the role, so I really have freedom to start a brand new program. That is very exciting for me!

I will post pictures of our new house soon. As soon as I can find the cord to my camera so I can upload the pics!!

We're Moving!!

Courtney got a new head basketball coaching job in Muenster, TX (yes, like the cheese!). Muenster is a little German town near Gainesville and we have heard nothing but great things about it since he started checking into it when the position opened up.

This move is a hard move to make because of the friends we have made here. We've made some dear friends here...but these are people that I know I will stay in touch with no matter where we end up in life.

I must say, it is nice to not be selling a home this time! If you've been reading my blog since our move last year (and since before I deleted it accidentally), you will find that this one will be much less stressful as far as the house goes. I've grown to be okay with, and even really like, our home here in Queen City, but I do not have the attachment to it like I had to "our home" in Sachse. Gosh, it was so hard to leave that house!! I've come quite a long way in a year as far as my attachments to material things is concerned.

So, what about me? I am on the job search for counseling positions. You may also remember last year I said that I was going to trust God and I knew he WOULD PROVIDE a counseling position for me. Then I got anxious and took the very first teaching position that I found. Then many positions opened up in the area, but I was locked in to the teaching position. Well, this year I am going to be still and truly trust God. I'm not even applying for teaching positions. I am looking in Gainesville, Denton, and many, many smaller districts near Muenster. Prayers for my job would be greatly appreciated!

We are moving at the end of June. Our lease is up here July 1. My June is going to be crazy...I am going to Europe with my mom and a group of students from her school for 2 weeks at the beginning of June, then I get home and we leave for Mexico with my HS girlfriends and our husbands for 5 days, then we will MOVE! Whew. I guess I will relax in July!!

So, check back for all those adventures to come!

Worth sharing...

I love this excerpt below. First of all, let me say that I got it off the blog Bring the Rain, which you can get to (if you want) from my blog list. Secondly, I love to pass on inspirational things and this is more than inspirational. This is true love, the kind that we can only receive from Jesus Christ.

This is from a children's Bible that Angie was reading to her children. Yeah, I said 'Angie' like I know her, but I do not know her, have never met her, but feel like I know her heart from following her blog. She would want me to pass this on.

So, enjoy!

They nailed Jesus to the cross.

"Father, forgive them, " Jesus gasped. "They don't understand what they are doing."

"You say you have come to rescue us!" people shouted. "But you can't even rescue yourself!"

But they were wrong. Jesus could have rescued himself. A legion of angels would have flown to his side-if he'd called.

"If you were really the Son of God, you could just climb down off that cross!" they said.

And of course they were right. Jesus could have just climbed down. Actually, he could have just said a word and made it all stop. Like when he healed the little girl. And stilled the storm. And fed 5000 people.

But Jesus stayed.

You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there.

It was love.

We are so lucky to be loved like that.

Great Worship, Right Object

I went last night to the Rock & Worship Roadshow featuring MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and Hawk Nelson. Can I just tell you that it was completely awesome!!


I remember our pastor at Fellowship Church in Plano (Ed Young) saying that he went to a secular concert and stood back and thought, "Great worship, wrong object." Well, last night there was GREAT worship and the object was completely right. It was so awesome to stand in that arena with thousands of people and see everyone singing out in complete worship of Jesus.

MercyMe ended the night by leading us in singing "I love you Lord" and it took me right back to Kanakuk camp. He had us sing it with no music, and then he stepped away from the mic and walked off stage. We all continued to sing, most everyone with eyes closed and arms raised. Hearing all those people singing together in one beautiful voice brought me to tears. It was a really cool moment of praise and worship. The best part is that most of the people there were high school teenagers brought there with their youth groups and friends. Seeing the worship from those kids absolutely moved me.

I love you, Lord

And I lift my voice

To worship You

Oh, my soul rejoice!

Take joy my King

In what You hear

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound

in Your ear

MercyMe's mission is to make this roadshow a free concert so they can reach more and more people through this ministry. What an amazing goal!

After the concert ended, we saw that Tenth Avenue North was signing autographs, so we got in line. We felt pretty old standing in line, waiting to talk to them, but we just had to! I have their song, "By Your Side" as my ringtone and have for a little while, so we couldn't resist...when we made it up to them, Kristy called me and we played their song for them. It was pretty funny.

We had a great time. It was such a fun night of praise and worship and it came at a time when I really needed it. Doesn't God work that way? Love it!

things I love

*a spring rain. not the kind that produces horrific storms and tornadoes, but the kind where it is starting to rain and the birds are still singing at the same time. aw, I like that. it's doing that right now outside.

*a pedicure. i am off to get one as soon as I publish this.

*good times with good friends. this weekend Courtney and I went to Oklahoma City for Natalie's 30th birthday party and we had such a great time. i love seeing my girls and laughing, laughing, laughing with them!

*and last, but certainly not least...something I love very much is a good report from the doctor. not for me, but for Brandon. God is good!!
here's the info from Phyllis.

We met with the doctor yesterday for a while...a long while. In the past two years, if you combined all the questions we had asked, it would have still been significantly less than the number that we asked yesterday. Poor April (our nurse), poor Rhianne (our PA), and poor Dr. Kopetz. They were troopers, though.
First the good news...ALL the tumors were significantly decreased in size. The biggest of the bunch (which by the way has been the biggest through this whole ordeal) had decreased from 1.5 cm to 0.6 cm...more than half ( Praise God!). We discussed a variety of options and Brandon decided to stay on a maitainence type chemotherapy. There will be no more oxalliplatin and the dose of the other drugs will be significantly reduced. Dr. Kopetz wants Brandon to be in frequent contact with them so that they can adjust the dose as necessary. The goal is to keep the cancer "under control" while allowing Brandon to live an active life. He told us several times that there are other options out there, but that Brandon's body has responded so well to the chemo he feels we should stick with it. He said we're in it for the long haul and he doesn't want to exhaust all our options this early. Apparently, many of the other options would also be much harder on Brandon's liver. All in all, we felt like this visit was very positive and much better received than last time.

NKOTB, Baby!!

I went to the New Kids on the Block concert on Tuesday night in Bossier City! Now, this was quite reminiscent for me because this is me 20 years ago...

I'm in the red with the stonewashed vest with patches all over it if you can't tell. We were sporting the signs! A big group of girls from my hometown all went together to see the New Kids in 1989 (maybe 1990) in Oklahoma City. Check out the clothes!

I have great memories of the New Kids. I loved them dearly as a child. I went to 2 different concerts at that time, this one pictured above in Oklahoma City and one in Dallas. We actually slept outside in line at the Myriad Convention Center in OKC for tickets with our moms for the tickets to the above pictured concert!! Our moms were sports, right? Gosh, it was so much fun!

On a side note--to my Becky--I missed you so much last night. I wish we lived closer and could have gone to this together. It was not the same without you. I mean, we went the the first two concerts together and loved them together and made signs for them together and slept outside for them together. Uh! I missed you!

So, without question, this concert brought back so many memories for me. I went with KB and we enjoyed ourselves so much!

KB and me, eating (and having drinks) before
Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were thrilled to find it packed with tables full of other women (yes, women) going to the concert. We were the most excited thirty-somethings around, all of us! As you can see, the people were decked out! I was sad we didn't think of the whole matching shirt thing... ;)




After much anticipation, the concert began!


{click on any pictures to make larger--you really must, it's the only way to get the full effect!! :) }

You've never heard so much screaming...and what was hilarious is that it was coming from women! Not little girls, like 20 years ago, WOMEN! And I will admit, every now and then I was one of them. So was KB!!

Joe, singing Please Don't Go Girl!

My favorite part of the night!!

More shots of Joe singing I must admit, I had moments where the memories were so strong, I was overwhelmed by it all. They put on quite a show. As dumb as it sounds, right when they started, I got all teary-eyed over it all. Not because I'm a stupid 30-year-old that still loves them (well, maybe a little!) but because all the memories of being that 10-year-old starry eyed girl would come flooding back to me.

I thought this was too good a shot to pass up. Unfortunately, this poor boy was not as starry eyed over them as I once was. The sitter must have canceled on his mama. She drug him out with her. Notice his earplugs. Good call, mom. He needed them. I needed them.

Isn't that a great shot of Jordan and Donnie?

We had GREAT seats. My camera doesn't even do it justice.

So, I was always a Joe McIntyre fan...but last night Jordan was much nicer looking than I remember!! He has aged well! This is a scene I remember straight out of the first concert I went to.

They did almost all old stuff. They did throw in some of their new stuff, which I actually really enjoyed and have already downloaded and put on my ipod!! They sang non-stop for over 2 hours! It was so entertaining! Many wardrobe changes, fun videos, lighting effects, stage changes...so much FUN!

they moved to a stage in the middle of the arena

(see them in the background?)

Old videos behind Joe as he sang.

All dressed in white

I spent the whole night trying to get a good close shot of Joe. He didn't seem to spend much time on the platform over by us. At the very end, after singing Hangin Tough and sending green and white confetti out over the crowd, he graced us with his presence. And wouldn't you know it, my camera card was full and my camera kept dying on me. I barely caught this shot of him. I didn't center very well so I barely got him at all! Even if you didn't/don't like the New Kids, they put on a fantastic show that anyone could have enjoyed! So glad I got to go!

Psst...by the way...my next post has videos, in case you missed it! :) I know, I know...you're welcome. You would not want to miss seeing videos of it all! HA!

It's like you were there!

I am so excited! I got the videos to download! What an accomplishment.

So the concert started with the boys (ahem, men) singing The Right Stuff. What a way to start!

The we have Joe singing Please Don't Go, Girl. A personal favorite of mine...

And they ended the night with Hangin Tough.

Of course, they sang so much more, but I had the smallest stinking card for my camera, so the videos had to be short. They're not the best quality, but you get the idea.

Doesn't it just take you right back to 1989?? It sure did for me!!

Mardi Gras!

This weekend there was a big Mardi Gras celebration in Jefferson, TX. Jefferson is an adorable, quaint little town here in East Texas. It's one of those places where you can walk the town for hours shopping at all the little shops and boutiques. I know because we have.

But this weekend we went for the Mardi Gras parade and for the yummy food. We ate at this great restaurant where all the sandwiches are made on cornbread. Yummo! We'd eaten there before and just had to go back. You know I love some food and eating at this place alone makes a trip to Jefferson all worth it to me. The boys said they thought grabbing beads at the parade was the best part of the day...I said eating at Kitt's was the best part of the day. Then again, eating is usually the best part of any of my days. :)

So, here's Phyllis, me, and KB after the parade. The weather was rainy at first, but turned out to just be chilly and nice after all.

Here are the boys with all their beads. People love to throw some beads at the kiddos. Who ever knew there were so many assortments of beads??

Some of my favorite floats. Look at those cute bug legs on the VW bug. Fun!

KB and her family went home and Phyllis and the boys and I stayed to walk around and we made it over to the carnival portion of the festivities. We went to ride this giant slide and ended up buying tickets and riding some good ole carnival rides.

While there, I convinced Jake to ride this spinning contraption of a ride with me. He agreed, maybe a little bit hesitantly, but he got on with me. We got on and the ride took us up a little ways and stopped for other people to get on and our car thing stopped going around but it continued to spin in place. I looked at Jake and he looked all pale and I asked him if he felt sick and he said that he wasn't sick, just scared. That is about when I knew this was a very bad idea. Then it started up again and we were off. That sucker was spinning so fast as it went around and Jake looked at me and said with wide eyes, "I want off!" Then as we kept going faster and faster he said a bit louder this time, "I WANT OFF!" and then he started saying, "IwantoffIwantoffIwantoff....!" So I started yelling at the carney guy that we need off, but the problem was that when we went by him we were spinning so fast that he couldn't hear me. So, I started screaming at Phyllis, who was below us taking pictures and smiling and waving. No clue that her son was now saying, "mommymommymommy" over and over in a soft voice, which alarmed me almost more than the screaming. I started telling him that we are okay and there is absolutely no way we can get hurt on this thing and that I am trying to get them to stop the ride. Then I said a quick prayer that God would not make a liar out of me and that he would keep this squeaky carnival ride in one piece until I can get this boy back on the ground. Finally I get the canival man's attention and let him know that WE NEED OFF and he stopped the ride and let us off. Whew. Crisis mostly averted.

I felt so bad for Jake! The good news is that he was laughing by the time we finally left and made it to the car. Now Jake and I have this special memory together of the horrible, awful octopus ride at the Mardi Gras festival.

Here we are on the ride. You can't see Jake, probably because he is crouched down in the seat, praying for his life. And I look like I am having a great time, but if it weren't so fuzzy, you could see that I am pleading for dear life for someone to stop the stupid ride!!

It was such a fun day...even with the little hiccup of a carnival ride gone bad. Good food, good friends, good times!

And 30 just got even better....

Have you ever been so surprised by something that it brought tears to your eyes instantly? I have. A few times actually since this year started...

One of those times was my birthday weekend when I opened my front door to find some of my dearest friends awaiting my arrival, arms wide open, yelling "Surprise!" at me as I walked through the front door.

SURPRISE!

I was so shocked to see Trisha's face (since I haven't seen her in a while and knowing that meant there were more of my friends inside) that I backed right back out of the door!!

See? Instant tears.
Still shocked that everyone was here!

Let me back up though to where it all started...where the tangled lies began...

My mom was coming to town last weekend to celebrate my birthday with me. Keysha told me she was going to try to make it for the weekend, then told me she couldn't because Michael had a work conference and couldn't keep the kids. So, KB, Phyllis, Mom, and I were going to get pedicures on Saturday. That was the plan. Well, KB said she had to work and so she was out. Saturday morning comes and Phyllis bails on me too saying that one of the kids was sick. So, Mom and I decide to go see a movie and get pedicures and eat lunch. A nice leisurely day. Courtney (supposedly) had gone with my dad to Arkansas and was golfing and hanging out with him for the weekend.

I had talked to KB quite a few times during the day to try to arrange for her to meet mom and I after she got off work. She had quite a few convincing phone calls with me about driving to another bank to get more money, going home early to cook Lute dinner because he got back in town early, and the lies went on and on. Although she was quite convincing so I never thought another thing about it.

Then there was Phyllis who actually said she was calling me from the doctor's office and at one point said, "Oh hey, I gotta go, the doctor just came back in..." so we got off the phone.

Keysha sent me text after text telling me about how she was on her way to get food and rent a chick flick since Michael was out of town...then I called her house and Michael answered!!

I later find out all these phone calls were made from my living room!!

So, Mom and I walked in from being out all day and there was a huge group of friends waiting for me for my surprise party!! My husband, with the help of Keysha, with the help of KB and Phyllis set up a Fiesta party just for me! I was greeted by Keysha and some of best friends from high school-Trisha, Kari, April, Destiny, and Natalie-who had all driven in from quite long distances to celebrate with me as well as Phillip and Amy, KB and Lute, Phyllis and Brandon, and Brett. My mom brought tons of pictures of me from being a baby all the way through graduating high school. Courtney had gotten a karaoke machine and so the fun began. It was such a great night!

We ate great Mexican food, sang karaoke, had a LOT of laughs, and made many, many memories. One of the best moments was when Brandon and Phyllis were getting ready to leave and Brandon said, "Just one more song, Phyllis..." and he raced back to the karaoke machine to sing. He started the night out saying that singing karaoke was one of the worst things he's ever had to do in his whole life and ended up stealing the show with his karaoke skills! It was hilarious! We all pretty much made fools of ourselves!

the girls

my hs crew

I am so grateful to have such amazing friends who would come from so far to celebrate with me and such selfless friends who would work so hard to make this day special for me and for such a sweet husband who would make sure this happened.

I love you girls--all of you!!

At one point in the evening, I just sat back and looked around and thought about how lucky I am to have the people in my life that I do. Not just because they would throw me a surprise party, but because they are all such fantastic people who will see me through anything I have going on in my life. Anything. I am so blessed to have them in my life.


PS--Girls, I did not have my camera (not sure why since we were at my house) but once you all get pics uploaded, send them my way!! Thanks for these Nat!

30's not so bad...

Today is my 30th birthday and I had a fabulous day.

Started off at 7:15 with a sweet phone call from the Warren boys...nothing like hearing Happy Birthday sung to you by an 8 yr old, 5 yr old, and a 2 yr old. Except Phyllis told me later that Cade (the 2 yr old) just sat there smiling as the older boys sang to me. So sweet! Then more early morning birthday phone calls made my day! At lunch, my team had mexican food for me for lunch. That was a fantastic treat! Courtney sent me flowers, which was a nice surprise. My students were so excited about my birthday. You know that a birthday is the biggest thing ever to nine year olds, so they made it extra special for me. I wrapped up the evening with friends and Courtney at Olive Garden, my favorite place ever, and so it was just a really nice day.

Turning 30 really didn't bother me at all.

One of my co-workers brought up that I am no longer in the under 30 bracket anymore, but that's okay with me...

My kids played a guessing game for my age today. One of my girls really wanted to do this so she cut up little slips of paper and the kids all wrote down how old they thought I was. Then she drew it out of a bag and if they had the right age, she is bringing them a prize tomorrow. Too funny! The point of that story is that one of the kids said I was 36, which offened me much more than the kids who wrote that I was 86...niiiice.

And for an even funnier story...one of my kids sent me an e-card last night, so when I logged on this morning, it was waiting for me.
The card opens and there is a big ole hot dog standing there wearing a crown and it says, "Birthdays are a lot like wieners." (!)
And then it goes to the next screen and it says, "Well, not really, but there aren't nearly enough cards that say wiener."
Then on the next screen the crown wearing hot dog starts to dance with all these pelvic thrusts and repeats over and over, "Wiener, wiener, wiener."
Now that is pretty funny, but the best part is that I opened it with all my students around (I figured it was from a student, it's got to be appropriate) and so now all my students are cracking up and dancing the pelvic thrust dance around the room. It was so wrong!!

I could just see the dad of that student saying to his son last night, "Yes, son, send her that one...that's a funny one." wink wink.

Calm my anxious heart.

Please pray for our dear friends, Brandon and Phyllis Warren.

Brandon was diagnosed with colon cancer that spread to his liver about 18 months ago. During their last visit to Houston (MD Anderson) 6 weeks ago, the doctors told them that they might need to explore the possibility that the spots still left on his liver are just scar tissue since there had been no new growth and he hadn't been on chemo for 16 weeks. Obviously this was just the very best news. Unfortuantely they went back to Houston this last week, and got the news that they found new growth on his liver and a new spot on his lungs. He started chemo again today. After having such a good report the last time, this has completely blindsided all of us. We just knew it was gone. We just knew it...or at least really hoped for it.

Since we've been here, Brandon has not been on chemo. For all of us, Brandon has had cancer and we have been praying like crazy for him, but we haven't seen any physical side effects of it. He has the most positive attitiude of anyone I have ever met. Now it is becoming quite real to us and I will be quite honest, it has shaken me to my core.

Let me tell you though, God is moving and working through this (as you will see in her post below).

Phyllis and Brandon and their three precious children are a truly amazing family and have become people who Courtney and I are lucky to call our friends.

Lucky.

Please commit to pray for them with me. They are so precious to so many people. And by the way, their three adorable kiddos are the ones playing in the cabinets in this post.

Below is Phyllis' post on their caringbridge page. I thought I could not say any of this any better than her, so I will let her do just that.

Okay guys...I'm going to try this, but let me warn you...the last week has been pretty emotional.

On Tuesday, Brandon spent the day at MD Anderson having all the usual tests. On Wednesday, we met with the doctor. I can honestly say that I had absolutely no anxiety about the report this time...maybe that should have been a warning. Anyway, the doctor went through the usual questions...How have you been feeling? How's your appetite? Any pain, fatigue, nausea? He really seemed to be stalling and I think that is when I first had that uneasy feeling about what was to come. Then he told us that there had been some growth. Several spots on the liver were larger and there was also a new spot on the lung. He said that they were not certain that the spot on the lung was cancer, but he called it a nodule. Last time there was a question about a spot on the lung, he called it a cloudy spot. I think I prefer cloudy spot. His recommendation was to go back on the full force chemo for a 4 treatment cycle and then come back to reevaluate. So...Brandon went in this morning for his first treatment in Cancer: Act II.

That’s the nuts and bolts of the whole scenario. Now I’m going to attempt to address the emotions. I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach...full force...no warning. I honestly thought I would throw up. I think for Brandon it was more of a feeling of fury. He just seemed so angry that he would have to do this all over again.

That was then, though and this is now. The thing that keeps running through my head right now is how blessed we are. Our community, friends, family, church, and STUDENTS are amazing. Within hours of our doctor’s appointment, there were text messages and phone calls literally “flying” around Queen City. Friends and family prayed and called each other to find out what they could do. Students gathered at each other’s houses to hold prayer meetings and make signs of encouragement to greet Brandon at school on Thursday morning. Friends organized dinner for us on Thursday night. The Lord made sure that there were people (angels) in place to take care of us. I have turned this all over in my head a thousand times since last week. Of course I’ve asked why, why, why. I even tried some heavy duty bargaining on the way home from Houston, and I’m pretty sure I could not have kept up my end of some of those promises I was making. I just cannot wrap my brain around the whole situation. Then…just when I least expected it…that song I wrote about a while back (Count Your Many Blessings) came rushing back. Cancer stinks, but WE ARE BLESSED.

Brandon and I had this conversation a few weeks back about how well our basketball team was doing, how hard the kids were working, and what a great job Coach Christenson was doing. Brandon made a comment about how it’s easy to be positive when you ‘re winning, and that he hoped our kids would be able to stand together and continue their hard work even through the tough times. Everybody loses a game here and there. Does that mean that suddenly the coach isn’t any good or that all the players are just a bunch of lazy kids with no work ethic or desire to be successful. It made me think…Just two short weeks ago, Brandon and I (and most of the rest of Queen City) were singing God’s praises. More than a few times I have heard people refer to Brandon as a walking miracle. It was easy to be positive when we were winning, but what about now. Is God any different today than last Tuesday when we didn’t yet know that the cancer was back? Is he any less faithful or good? What if all this is a test for us? Can we sing God’s praises through the good times AND the bad? God is God. He is good and faithful ALL THE TIME, and I thank him for that. I thank him for you all, for 6 months with no chemo, for the doctors who hopefully caught this early enough to treat it successfully, and for a community who is not afraid to say “We are praying for you!” Praise God …we are surrounded by a community of Christians.

I am going to try to add a new picture to the website. It is a picture of one of the signs the kids hung at the High School on Thursday. It covers the whole front window, and you cannot miss it as you walk up to the school. I want you to notice the scriptures written all over the sign. High school aged kids gathered together with their Bibles and looked up scripture that they felt would be meaningful and appropriate to Brandon. I thank God that we are blessed by the students we teach and coach and that during this difficult time, they chose to go to the Word of God for support and answers and comfort. On Thursday morning, one of our students prayed over the intercom at school and during activity period a large group of students gathered at the flag pole to pray again. During this age of “Political Correctness”, does it simply amaze anyone else the way God is working through this?

I know that this is long and that I am rambling, but I want you to know that we serve an AWESOME GOD, and he is working in our lives every day. We want your prayers, appreciate them, and consider them one of our greatest blessings.

Count your blessings, name them one by one…That is what we will continue to do here in Queen City.

I promise I will update again this week and let everyone know how the first round went. Thanks for your prayers and keep ‘em coming.

Phyllis

Totally Awesome 80's Party

Courtney turned 30 on Saturday! I decided a few months ago to throw him a surprise 80's themed party. Through this process I have learned two very valuable things about myself. 1) It is tough for me to keep secrets from Courtney, and 2) I am a terrible party-planner.

There is no way I could have gotten this party together successfully without the help of many friends here. I was such a spaz about everything and had trouble getting anything ready or planned. Thanks Phyllis for helping me make many to-do lists and grocery lists. Oh, and for the tiny little part of making ALL the food! And then there is KB, who made the cakes for the party. I am glad that you enjoy making cakes and they turned out so FANTASTIC! Thanks Kristy for letting KB work for so long in your kitchen and for helping with the cakes. Will and Philip made sure Courtney didn't come home too soon...stall, stall, stall! So many friends came out to make this night so special for Courtney. It was a great time! Chrystel and Chris and Tommy and Anthony made the long drive from Dallas to hang out with Courtney. So special.

Courtney knew nothing about it. I cannot believe I was able to keep it a secret. He really had no idea though!

Decorations: We splatter painted black sheets with neon paint for tablecloths. I cut neon posterboard out into geometric shapes and put 80's phrases on them (Totally, Where's the Beef?, Gag me with a spoon) and hung them, I hung posters of 80's icons (Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Wham!, Alf, ET, etc).

Entertainment: We played 80's songs all night long and I played 80's movies on mute on tv. KB let me borrow their Atari (pong is awesome!) and we played 80's Trivial Pursuit.

Outfits: People came decked out in 80's prom dresses, jeans tight-rolled, stone-washed denim, leg warmers, scrunchies in hair, big neon earrings and bracelets, stirrup pants, jellies...it was 80's horrible fashion in all it's glory.

on the mirror in the guest bathroom

Cake #1

Didn't we all love Pac-Man?

the food table
We should so bring splatter-painted items back!

Cake #2
The Rubiks Cube
(do you love the cassette tapes on the table?)

Cheap decorations -posterboard and streamers

The big moment - SURPRISE!!!

the outfits
I had his ready for him to put on

the girls
Atari and one OLD tv

the boys had Atari wars
The Warrens thought Courtney needed some camo...I mean, we do live in East Texas. So, they bought him his first camo piece of clothing. Looks good with the acid washed jeans, huh?

Happy 30th Courtney!

You're one year farther away from the 80's!!