BB&S came to visit...

We were so excited to have family visiting that we cleaned the house and even put mints by the guest bed.  Brock,  Becky and Savannah came Friday night for dinner.  We had a BBQ, played games, talked, went to our favorite Chinese place 30 minutes away, and soaked up the family bonding rays.

The ceiling above our heads at Peking Chinese.  Authentic.

Friends...

Friends are a big deal.  In high school, the people you eat lunch with determined your social status and how many people signed your yearbook. You can't always choose is in your ward, on your team, or on your family tree.  You do choose your friends and I'm not just talking about the ego boosting red tag invites that involve a simple click of "confirm" when a friend request pops up much to your social delight.  I feel like true friends are one of life's greatest blessings.  I remember in Mrs. Glenn's third grade classroom she has a huge poster that said, "A friend is a gift you give yourself."  I remember learning long division and reading that and wondering what the heck it meant.  As I get older in my mortal probation, that 3rd grade poster has deeper meaning than ever before.  Friends, true friends, are gifts.  It doesn't matter where you go in the world because Heavenly Father seems to always have some gift wrapped presents in the form of friends waiting.  Sometimes they are not at all what I would envision for myself or imagine that they are what I need but they are always there.

I feel like I have come to know and love some of planet Earth's greatest crem de la crem human beings.  My deepest and truest friends are my family and being away has only validated that.  I remember getting best friend necklaces with my first best friend in 2nd grade. Her name was Lindsey Anderson.  It was nothing short of a ceremonial event of solemn commitment.  I remember one of the popular girls coming up to me in 5th grade with a piece of loose leaf paper from her hip trapper keeper and pronouncing, "Chelsey, you are my 18th best friend."  The funny part is I remember being so pleased that I was at least in the top 20. Friendship necklaces are now so out.  One of the way to prove that you are real friends with someone is to get a friendship tattoo:

Ha. Just kidding.  I do feel thankful though for friends, deep true friends who love you no matter what and no matter where.  1 of my friends here were not born in my same decade and if we were in high school I doubt we would have a single thing in common, we probably wouldn't have even signed each others yearbooks.  Her name is Elizabeth Zimmerman and she joined the church in April.  She is spitfire southern strong pillar of an outspoken woman with a heavy accent that demands I take off any "brain squeezers" (headbands) from Olivia's head when I bring her to church. She makes me laugh so hard.  I love her so much.

Besides Elizabeth, I also have a friend named April who has a husband in medical school and two children who are bonus items.  We decided to learn how to make eggs benedict one morning and she bought me the perfect egg frying pan.  More on frying eggs to come.  April can make the best friend eggs you've ever had.  Her dad used to make fried eggs at Dee's and passed on the secret of the perfect egg to her and she is now attempting to teach me:

We decided to do pedicures to perfect our summer toes.  We make plans at the beginning of the week and then carry them out; like discovering a giant ice cream shop that looks like what it sells in the middle of nothing. Move over coldstone.

 

 Then there is a woman named JoBeth Davis who is from the salt of the Earth club.  She would give Mother Teresa a run for her money.  If there's anything even close to service, she's on it.  I love her pure heart.  She lives honestly in the middle of nowhere.  I mean nowhere.  Like you in the middle of a random forest 40 miles away from me there is suddenly a house and that is where she lives.  We go walking in the park in the mornings with our strollers and talk about how we want to stop having bread dough for buns.  I love her.

We all need friends.  Otherwise who is going to live in our celestial culdesacs once this life is done? Doy. Think about it.  I love friends.  I miss these friends the most:

 

I love that not just our families, but ALL relationships go one forever according to D&C 130.  One of my favorite feature on the plan of salvation is that when you find the ultimate friend, the friend that is your everything, the friend that loves your love handles, all your weaknesses and makes you whole, that you can seal yourself to them.  Stronger than best friend necklaces, blood brothers, or friend tattoos, and much deeper than facebook confirmation is my friend that I really know is a gift straight from heaven, the best gift I could have ever had, far better and more inspiring and more handsome than I ever hoped for is mine forever.  I love him.

Romantic Dates....

When G and I were engaged so very long ago (a measly 16 months) I remember getting so stressed about looking my best. I remember doing crunches before bed lest a love handle creep in and suction to my side and my fiancee become repulsed and all dreams of becoming Chelsey Seibold be dashed eternally.  Not wearing mascara was not an option and I kept a little bottle of perfume, lip gloss and gum in my car and would have a 20 second pep up so I would look extra fresh for our romantic dates that we would elaborately plan and carry out.  It usually involved a bolus of creativity, visiting somewhere exciting and eating something extravagant. I mean the photo below is clearly how G and I look every day as we sweat in the humidity...not.   

Well, G and I wanted to go on a little date Tuesday night so we looked up this fun ice cream shop in the next town and found a fun little historic place one of the natives had told us about.  Well this was an occasion and called for me putting on my best (meaning replacing sweat pants with normal pants and brushing my teeth).  We got in the car and Liv started doing what she does best:

Then we looked at realized that we were almost out of gas and needed to fill up.  By the time we got to the gas station, we realized that there wasn't enough time for Gar to study, plus the shrieking child who has an incredible stamina had not lost her fervor so we settled for going to DQ which is 2.2 miles from our front door and going home.  Nothing like a romantic getaway to the shell gas station and a dilly bar to bring a scandalous spark to an ordinary Tuesday night.  G and I are now proud members of the blizzard club which gives us buy one get one free coupons and we recommend it.

Lemonade Lovin in the future culdesac...

Today I went to Kroger. Kroger is the eastern equivalent of Harmons or Smiths. Kind of like Mr. Krogers Christmas but a grocery store. It's the place Liv and I go most frequently on our field trips out of the house.  When I was outside in the humid heat there was a lemonade stand which would be cute except there were no little kids selling, just adults wearing official "Bluefield Lemonade Committee" t shirts. Real professional printed T shirts. Not puff paints.  (There are few things as ugly as puff paints, it's about in the same category as people who spray paint their cars or shoulder pads on prom dresses that should have never been born).  I was fascinated that these adults were having a lemonade stand. I knew the economy was bad in bluefield and the mean income is $25,000 but adult lemonade stands...this was a new extreme.

The lady handed me a cup as I walked in the store and I didn't really know what to do because I would feel really dumb giving a grown adult a quarter.  Then I read the sign and learned that in Bluefield West Virginia it is known as "America's natural air conditioned city" and any time the temp is over 90, the entire city gets free lemonade.  Free. Cup included. What a place. I don't understand why I get free lemonade for something I have no control over but I like the concept.  I think there should be a little more of the Bluefield spirit in the rest of the country.

I just finished throwing away an entire pan of marshmellow brownies. I was trying to make the image you see above. What I made doesn't deserve a picture.  They burned. Bad. How can you tell if brownies are burning because they are already brown to begin with? Dumb. I don't even like brownies. But I do like Liv so I am posting a pic in her honor because she took her longest nap of her whole existence today.  That is a miracle.  Liv does not like naps. I love Liv. I love naps. I especially love when Liv naps so today was a great breakthrough.  Hopefully a tradition we can turn into a habit.

She's so cute even though she has balding old man hair with culdesacs.  I love culdesacs and I used to be jealous as a girl of Lauren McEuen because she lived in a culdesac and we didn't.  You know how the scriptures teach that their will be a mansion prepared in heaven for the righteous?  Well, I don't care how cool the mansion is, what I'm interested in more is celestial culdesacs.  I always plan who I want Gar and I to live by for the rest of eternity.  A mansion would be boring if there were no fun people to share it with.  I think Abraham Lincoln would be a good neighbor, he would definitely return anything he borrowed (except I hope he gets a new wife because Mary Todd seems a little much), I also think Amelia Earhart would be a fun neighbor, Douglas Whitney, Kay, my third grade teacher Mrs. Glenn, in addition to family, and old friends that I haven't seen in awhile but would never want lose, they belong in the dream team culdesac as well.

Just picture it.  Heaven wouldn't be heaven if you just end up living on a sweet mansion swimming in your pool on an isolated cloud of real estate with just the two of you.  The celestial culdesacs are going to be the best city planning of all eternity.  The ultimate neighbors all the time.  Imagine having a trunk or treat with the best of the best, Einstein, your favorite friend from 1st grade, Mother Teresa, Michael Jordan, everyone.  There will definitely need to be good golf green for Nick, Garrett and the bros that is close by, maybe shared by the entire culdesac.  I can't wait. I love having neighbors.  They're not only good for borrowing things, but its a great relationship- a step above facebook, less obligatory than friends, and save on gas if you do think they're cool.  Our neighbors here are a garden variety.  The family two doors down belongs on Jerry Springer.  Next door is man named Bryce with a beard that would not keep his face warm in the cold, it's actually more like an extended soul patch, who works on the railroad and has a dog that he walks almost as often as Liv and I go for walks.  Next to them is Steve and Angie who pick blackberries and make us a dessert that we don't like but we act like we do.  They also have a dog.  I think everyone around here has a little dog.  It's basically the same thing as a baby because everyone is always feeding it, bathing it and taking it on walks.  That's pretty much what Liv and I do all day. I suppose we could have bought a little dog awhile ago.  I'm so glad we have her instead.

Communication....

90% of communication is non verbal they say (whoever "they" is).  I have never understood this except for perhaps in regards to the animal kingdom.  Bees to communicate navigational information do a complicated dance to their hive mates.

Squid communicate by flashing messages in colorful spots. Don't act like that wouldn't be cool if humans could do that. 

Mosquitos that are male are drawn to the sound of the female's wing beat, a sound which is picked up by their antennae.  Maybe singles wards would go much better if the males had an antennae and could discern the interest of the females before asking them out and wasting their money at dinner and 4 hours of mortal probation.

Cuttlefish to communicate adopt special swimming postures along with gesticulations of their tentacles
Humans are a little more difficult in what they communicate.  They don't do a bee dance, have cool tentacles or anntenae, or flash colorful spots.  Every single person wants to be understood, appreciated and validated, especially by the people they love most (ie the one they sealed themselves to for the rest of existence).  To communicate love homo sapiens often suck on each other's lips:

 

But the truth of the matter is that there is far too much to do in a day to spend all day in a drooling lip suction so there must be other ways invented to communicate.  For example, in the above photo there is a magical photo shopping that makes me look far better than I am.  I had been tanning, working out, makeup on, and looking my best for awhile in order to scam the jackpot of all husbands into sealing himself to me forever.  I spend approximately .00002% of my life on Earth looking like that kissing in a park while the sun sets.  More realistically would be a moment like the one below:

 

No photo shop here folks, this is not my finest hour. This is hour 23 of labor and the blue bag seen on the bed is the equivalent of the barf bags on planes.  The reason it is empty is because my husband threw the one full of revolting pregnancy puke away, gave me a drink, removed the throw up from my hair and didn't leave me for a milisecond all night.  No fancy sunset in this pic, no lip suction, no romantic cards or tender movie like embracing, just real life.  Love is also communicated when you know you can go to the person when you are your very worst, your very saddest, your very ugliest, and when you love handles are the very plumpest and they will still hold you and love everything about you in your weak suckling pig like state.  

 Yesterday G came home from the grocery store and did a bee dance. No, what did do was randomly buy me 2.1 lbs of my very favorite summer fruit.  It's not my birthday, not even my half birthday, Christmas, or Yom Kimpur.  It was just a Wednesday night and brought them home and he communicated quite clear because he knows A. I love cherries B. I love surprises C. The cherries were a surprise.  The near kilogram of love is gone now and all that remains are the pits in the bottom of the trash but I loved his communication.  I love how he communicates love when he writes me nice cards on valentines day, I love even more how he communicates love by getting Liv so I can sleep in or unloading the dishwasher even though he has a jillion things to study.  I'm so glad I'm not a cuttlefish or that he is a mosquito and we are limited to tentacle gesticulations or wing beats.    People always say to live the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." But even better is the extra 24 carat golden rule of "Do unto others what they would have done unto them."  Or learn to love people not how YOU receive communication of love but how they do.  Otherwise that's like a bee doing a dance for a squid.  It doesn't mean anything.  I love surprises and words.  G doesn't really need either but he does things like buy me cherries because he knows it is how I feel loved and understand love.  If we really love someone, then we crack the code and figure out how they receive it, even if it is different than what we want.  I still think it would be cool to see Garrett do a bee dance though.

My volleyball named Liv....

 I have never seen the movie castaway.  I don't think my mosquito sized attention span would permit it.  However, I did have a companion named Lydia Jones who told me all about it one P day in the jungles of Ecuador which was probably better than seeing it.  I guess the main character has this volleyball that he talks to and becomes his friend because he is alone.  Obviously, volleyballs don't talk back but neither do babies.  However, I have come to love my talks with Liv who is much better than a volleyball, even though she does not talk back either.

Even though both are round, I just am so thankful that I have Liv.  She goes with me everywhere.  We meet so many people all day long and she never complains (besides the fact that she still screams like she's being stabbed every time we walk into Walmart).  I don't have time to list the characters that we have given rides to, friends we have made, and porch sitters we have chatted with on our walks.  I love her.

I love my life. A lot.

 

Have you ever just been breathing on a normal day and all of a sudden you just realize that your life is so dang good and you don't even know how you got where you are and wonder if there was a malfunction in heaven and all of a sudden your hogging all the blessings and there is an overwhelming sense of peace that you just seem to breathe in and it feels so good?  Well that is my life right now.  I love it. All of it.  I think this pic best describes how I feel.  This was yesterday morning. Normal. Too hot for Liv to wear clothes. Too early to be feeling guilty for not doing anything besides just sitting in a chair and holding her.  I asked her what she wanted to do:

 

Yep. So happy.  How can I not feel happy and so good when I'm married to the best man alive and then I hang out with her all day?  I mean give me a break.  For family night G was on lesson and I had bought our activity (Rack-o, a game with sentimental value which comes from endless summer hours of playing with mom growing up) at the flea market for 1 George Washington and then we ate cold watermelon balls for dessert.  So simple. So happy. I can't explain how good our life is.

I love my faithful partner all day who doesn't say anything or do anything but have gas but makes me squeal and kiss her cheeks excessively.

I love my main squeeze who does all the responsible things like paying bills, changing oil, figuring out insurance, and organizing on a superhuman level that makes Franklin Covey look like peanuts.  Liv and I go on our nightly walk to see the fireflies while G studies and the sight below is one of my favorites because as soon as we walk in the door from our night walk he gets out of his chair and then its fun G in the house and we are together until its time to shut our eyes and start over the next morning when his alarm on his phone rings at 5 and then my human alarm called Liv goes off around 5:30 and there's no snooze....:)

Anyway, in case you haven't caught the theme of this post, I love my life. Like crazy.  We made a huge summer list of things to do which we will post later.  Life is so good in West Virginia. Come see us and taste the magic.  We promise a good firefly show, muggy air that will make you sweat and guaranteed cheap laughs when you come to town.  We love you.

Ode to Familia....

 Let me tell you something I have rererealized, I tripled the "re" because I have realized this before several times but once again had the epiphany this week.  Family is everything.  I mean when I was rocking the headgear and at the peak of my jr. high coolness, I thought friends were everything. Then I got older, traded in my headgear for a sweet retainer, got a drivers license and thought that boys were everything.  Wrong-o. The plan of happiness, the plan of salvation, call it whatever the heck you want because when it comes right down to it, it's just the plan of families. Period.  It's the way that you can keep hanging out with the people you love on Earth on a better side of the veil.  I don't really know how that will all work, are we going to have family barbeques on clouds?  Will it just be an eternal family home evening without refreshments or do we all just fly around and read the ensign together and try out for the heavenly choir?  All I know is that even though families are forever, today is part of forever and cross stitching that on a pillow doesn't do me an ounce of good if I don't love being with them now.  Having offspring has only further validated the fact that this better be forever because it is what my life has become.   My whole life I have been worried about the big moment of when I meet Heavenly Father again.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will exceed all my expectations and I will set my alarm so I'm not late when the time comes, however when its all said and done, He does have quite the family tree, or should I say forest and after that meeting, He's going to tell me to go back with my family because that is my forever.  Families not only ARE forever, they are what forever is.  Not hopping around on clouds and creating new species of sea horses and algae, but our relationships that we have formed here, in this life. Today, this very nanosecond. We are creating our eternity and our forever with every interaction.  As preach my gospel says, "Heaven is a continuation of the ideal home."   Family doesn't have yearbook day and say superficial things they don't mean.  When they say, "call me," they mean it. You don't have to wear makeup or worry about your love handles in front of family because they love you anyway.  Family can bug you and can make you feel like you want to give everyone a wedgie and make you cry when they don't make good choices, but its only because you love them so much.  I love family because it's a fan club that will never go away, a reality check at all times, and the people that you worry about, pray for, love, laugh with, annoy, and want to succeed more than anything.  Their success feels like your own as well as their disappointments and failures.  Family is deeper than facebook friends, stronger than life.  I miss family.  I love my family. I love my roots and grandparents, all the branches, the leaves, my own baby and husband twig that we have started, I love the whole tree. Family is everything.