Day 9: Anna Karabensh

Today I got a text message from my dear friend Anna while she was shopping at one of my favorite malls in South Florida. That is where she and I used to do our marathon shopping. I miss her dearly (and the mall)!

Anna and I met through our husbands (then boyfriends). Drew and Greg were suite-mates during their freshman year of college. Anna came down from Vermont (before she enrolled in PBA) for Spring Formal and I got to meet her then. She seemed nice, and both of us liked each other, but sort of thought we had too little in common to be friends. Actually, we had just enough in common to be great friends and enough difference between us to keep it interesting.

Anna is a vegetarian. I am not. Anna is a hippy. I am not. Anna likes organic, natural, bohemian things. I like processed, plastic, pink sparkly things. She has super cute style in clothes, but it is completely different than mine. She is from a very small and cold town in Vermont (Yankee territory) and I am from Hot-lanta. She had a biased against people from the South, and I may have been a bit prejudiced about Northerners. Regardless, we are great friends.

She and Greg lived about 1 block south from Drew and I last year. That was so much fun! We would take walks together to the local market, carpool to our Zumba classes (which we obsessed over so much that we bought $70 worth of DVDs and have never used them), rearrange furniture until 2am, and of course, meet for tea, her awesome white chocolate cranberry cookies, and girl talk.

She is a wonderful listener. I always go to Anna when I have a crisis or need advice. She understands me and gives me Godly wisdom. I appreciate that so much!

She is incredibly talented. This girl is brilliant, plays the piano, the flute, makes beautiful jewelry, scrapbooks, can cook, and is fantastic at baking the aforementioned cookies! (Man I miss those!)

Drew and I were blessed to be able to be a part of Greg and Anna's wedding about a year and a half ago, and she and Greg were both attendants in our wedding party. She was such a help to me during the whole planning process.

We try to have a phone date every week or so and they are lovely. I need them! I love having a good girlfriend I can just chat with. Seriously, we will chat while grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, browsing the craft aisles at Michael's, and talk about everything and nothing all at the same time. We can just sort of live life together...on the phone. You really can't do that with many people! I am so grateful to have that kind of a relationship with her!

Anna, thank you for being a breath of fresh air in my life! I love how different we are and how close we are despite those differences. You are so kind and your heart is so gentle. I love being around you! Shopping with you at Sawgrass and picking out items for each other is one of my favorite memories with you! I respect you so much and look forward to our next conversation! Hopefully it will be in person, this week! Thank you for everything you are in my life: a friend, a sister, a teacher, a counselor, exercise partner, planner, and personal guru. You, my friend, are so dear to me!

Love,

Mary

This is a picture of us at my Bachelorette Party/Lingerie Shower: We were cooking. I like this picture because it is a good representation of Anna and me. We were having such a good time! 

 And of course...one from the wedding! (Get used to wedding pics, I got a lot of them!)

Day 8: Ali Darr

Tonight's subject, Ali, my sister-in-law is inspired by my excitement for getting to see the whole Darr clan in less than 48 hours! Drew and  I are so excited about going home for Thanksgiving. We just can't wait!

I met Ali about 4+ years ago when some friends and I came home with Drew for a Disney trip. She was an adorable bright eyed little 10 year old girl then. She was a dancer and had really long hair. She was kind enough to let us girls bunk in her room.

She and I grew closer over the years that Drew and I dated. We got to spend time together in Nebraska at Emily's wedding, on Disney trips, during her stays in West Palm Beach, and over Easter celebrations in Celebration. I grew up with a little brother, but never a little sister! I always had so much fun hanging out with Ali and getting to know her! Heck! She taught me to love High School Musical! (Which completely changed my life, thank you very much).

I was thinking tonight of all the fun things I want to do with Ali this week. I was like, "maybe she has some cool nail polish I can use on my nails", "maybe we can go shopping", "maybe she will want to watch a chick-flick with me". To sum it up, I miss this girl and I need to hang out with her. I don't like being so far away from family!

Ali is the best dancer I have ever seen. I am not being exaggerative, dramatic, or just saying that because I love her, it is true. She is a gifted and talented dancer. She makes me cry every single stinkin' time I watch her dance performances. I think it is amazing that the Lord can give people such fantastic talents. Ali uses her gifts to glorify God which is probably what makes them such emotional performances for people. You can completely tell that she is not dancing alone, but with God. It is incredibly beautiful.

Drew is really cute in how protective he is of Ali. He always talks about how he wants to be polishing a shotgun when she goes on her first date. I feel like I may need to intervene at that point, but he has every right to be protective. She is a stunningly beautiful young lady with a heart of gold and a spirit of innocence. Some day, some boy is going to be very blessed by her companionship. I pray that he is a godly man who will protect her and treat her like a princess. And knowing Ali she will accept nothing-less.

Ali is also very talented at making videos. She makes them all the time and they are adorable! She does anniversary videos, music videos, sentimental ones, funny ones, all in all this girl is pretty dang good at everything she does!

I will never forget when she spoke at our Rehearsal Dinner. She could barely speak she was crying so much. It was precious. She talked about how much she was going to miss Drew and what a great guy he was....the entire room was bawling. Seriously! There was not a dry eye in the house! It was really sweet and touching.

All that to say:

Ali I think you are an amazing girl! I am so proud of everything you do and all that you are! You are a woman of God and you have a gentle, kind spirit. You are so funny and so beautiful! I am blessed to have YOU as a sister. I look forward to growing even closer with you over the years! I think about what the future will look like for the Darr family often and I am excited for it! I love you and can't wait to see you this week!

Love,

Mary

     This is a picture from my bachelorette party before the wedding! Everybody put on funny costumes! 

     This is a flash from the past! This was taken before Emily's wedding a few years ago in Nebraska! 

And this of course was most recent, a picture from the wedding. 

Day 7: Gomperts

To quote Dr. Brauer during Brauer Hour "Gomperts? Gomperts?". Yes, Megan Gomperts, the one and only, is the subject of tonight's blog! I got some very good news from her recently! She and her great boyfriend Brett are headed out to Carbondale December 17th-19th for a weekend of fun, festivity, and yuletide traditions. Drew and I are SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about them coming!

Megan was Freshman year roommate #2! She and I became friends through mutual acquaintances and when things did not work out with either of our first roomies, we jumped at the chance to live together! I do not think either one of us would have survived that semester without each other! Even though Megan and I are completely different, we are very alike too. We both love planning weddings (specifically each others), the color pink, girly things, fashion, cheesy lifetime movies, and of course making home made music videos.

Megan and I will always be best of friends simply because we were family during our first semester. We were "home" to each other.

My favorite college memories with Megan:

1. The time she told me not to date "so-and-so" but to date Drew. She wanted me to marry Drew from day one. Seriously, she called it. She even told my mother I needed to date Drew. (Shows how well she knew me, seeing as how I did marry him!).

2. Making our music videos! Duh. Megan and I had no friends our first semester. Seriously. People in our hall were not fans of us. Probably because we were obnoxious and made lots of noise at 3 am. A typical night in Baxter 206 looked like this:

-I would come home from rehearsal around 9pm.
-I would ask Megan if she ate anything. Then I would make her easy-mac.
-Then we would pretend like we were going to clean our room only to take naps until about midnight.
-We would wake up, have a snack, and decide to make a music video or two.
-We would choose a random song, learn the words, put on character appropriate costumes, then hit record on her digital camera. No rehearsal, no discussion about plot, it just sorta happened. And it was magic. Seriously, if you have not seen these videos, you are missing out!

3. Our parties. We had a Friday the 13th party and an awesome Christmas party. Seriously, we had like 30 people in our tiny dorm room. It was off the hook. We even had a cream soda keg. It was so legit. :)

4. Um the time I saved her from shame and embarrassment in Dr. Brauer's class. I predicted that if she reached for her pencil that she dropped she was going to fall out of her chair. I dreamt this and then prevented it from happening all through AIM in class. $80,000 education folks, and I used AIM in class. Sad, but true. You're welcome though, for saving you from shame and embarrassment.

5. Leroy our ghost. Strange things happened in Baxter 206. Loud noises, cans flying out of our refrigerator, beds shaking, creepy shadow men showing up in film footage. Although he scared me sometimes, he was not dangerous. Just a spectator to our lives...and well who can blame him?!

6. I loved when we would come home and find Barb sitting in our room watching a movie eating popcorn. Still don't know how she got in there!

7. Do you remember our code words for visitors?

8. 2 Words: Canada and the Abyss.

9. The best surprise ever was when you flew down from Boston for the bridal shower with Anna in Orlando at Disney World. That was such a blast and made my year. What great friendships!

10. Our Christmas decorating at midnight on Nov. 1st. (Also, sleeping through Halloween).

Megan I love our friendship. I am beyond thankful for you. You were my first friend at PBA and I was so sad when you left. But I am so glad that our friendship did not cease when you left! You have been there for me through everything. You were an amazing help during the whole wedding season! Thank you for everything. I will never be able to thank you enough! You kept me sane. I love how low-key our friendship is. There is no drama. That is a blessing! We always have so much fun together just being ridiculous and goofing around. I am so happy for you and your new found happiness! I can't wait to meet Brett! I am so excited about seeing you next month! I cannot wait! I miss you tons and look forward to chatting soon!

As Mickey Says....

"See ya' real soon! Ha ha!"

Day 6: Roommate Love-Sarah Shick

Oh Shick-a-roni. 

I called Shick tonight and we had a great conversation. I love talking with that girl! She brightens my day and makes me feel homesick all at the same time. 

Allow me to introduce you to The Shickster:

This picture right here sums up her entire personality. 

You see, long story short Shick was my 3rd roommate my freshman year of college. (#1 was a drunk but #2 was a great friend who will be on here shortly!) Shick was randomly assigned to be my roommate. I was on Christmas break when she moved into our dorm, but when I came back to school I quickly discovered that my room had been taken over by pigs. Shick loves pigs. She and I did not think that we were going to get along, let alone become great friends. You see, she was a Yankee, I a Southerner. She loved pigs, I loved anything with pink feathers and glitter. I am not even sure when it was that we officially bonded, but somehow we did. 

Shick was my college roommate from that point on. Normally we lived with a few other girls but she and I always shared an actual room. We had amazing times together. 

Here are some of those fantastic memories:

1. Shick and I threw each other a surprise party on the same day. (with help from friends of course)

2. We had some great times putting on ridiculous outfits from our famed dress up box. Often a special performance of Shick singing Celine Dion's All By Myself followed.

3. Our final test prep. with techno dance breaks every 15 minutes.

4. The house rule that whenever one hears the song Tootsie Roll, one must stop whatever they are doing and dance until the song is over.

5. Christmas Decorating in 401, Towers 210, and The Crystal Palace (aka 324 1/2 N. L St.) Don't forget the LBJ. 

6. The great Bachelorette/Lingerie Party she and my friends threw for me. We stayed up till like 6am just talking on the beach. It was such a blast.

7. Taking naps together on the futon

8. Watching and reciting P.S. I Love You while crying our eyes out

9. Sometimes we would have crazy roommate moments in which we would say the exact same thing. One time we even got dressed at completely different times without seeing each other and were both wearing the exact same outfit. (Hey, sometimes we bought double so the other one could enjoy a good deal too!)

10. I loved the time Shick, Meg, and I stayed up literally till like 7am because Meg was moving the next morning. We stayed up all night talking, crying, and laughing mostly. 

11. I really enjoyed the time we picked Meg up at the airport after her grandfather passed away. We dressed up like insane people with neon colored windsuits and wigs complete with 1983 glasses. We got a really ugly response from Mr. Businessman in the elevator. It was great. 

12. I love that you are named Sarah Beth and I am named Mary Beth. Fate???

13. I love the time we went to Muvico and ate chicken fingers from common ground. 

Shick, I miss you so much. You are truly like a sister to me. I never knew I wanted a friend like you, but God knew I NEEDED a friend like you. You have taught me so much. You have taught me to always love others, even if you don't agree with them. You taught me what it means to be "green". You taught me to love pigs even. I have had amazing memories with you and can't wait to make even more. I think your outward beauty is only surpassed by the beauty of your soul. I am so proud of you. Thank you for always being there for me. I cherish our friendship. I love you and look forward to a time soon when we can reunite!

Love,

Roomie

Day 5: Jessica Newton Bowles

I started my day off today with a surprise phone call from none other than Jessica. Jessica is my fabulous cousin in case you were wondering. We usually chat more than once a week for long periods of time, but we have both been really busy (and phone bills were high) lately so this was a quick phone call! Short and sweet! But, a great beginning to my day none-the-less!

Jessica is not really a cousin though. She is pretty much my sister. Yes, we have different parents, but other than that, we are sisters. We look alike, act alike, and she even lived with my family for a while after she graduated college. That was one of the highlights of my youth! I was about 14 or 15 years old and very emotional, so it was nice to have a big "sister" around to cope with my irrational emotions. Ha! If you knew me at that age you can understand the martyrdom that Jessica deserves.

Here are some of my favorite memories together:

1. Closet Talks- What is a closet talk you may ask? You see, when Jessica lived with us we were both going through emotional times. She was fresh out of college deciding what to do with her life and like I said, I was a bratty teenager. Whenever one of us was upset we would both go into my walk in closet, close the door, and sit on the floor among the shoes and cry until we got it all out! We had amazing talks in that closet. Most of the time, after all the tears had dried, laughter occurred and then more tears fell! Those were some great times though. If that closet could talk!

2. Dinner time with Jessica- Yet again another memory from her time in Georgia with us! We always ate dinner together as a family. Isn't that cute? But that is not the point. Jess, Hank, and I all have very hilarious, albeit, quirky senses of humor, and when they combined the end result was always someone spitting out their food in hysteria. Normally, that was me. We would laugh, choke, cry, it was gruesome and it definitely offended my ettiquette diva mother, but even she could not resist the laughter.

3. One time Jess, Ba, and I were all going shopping together. I think I was around 13 and Jess was around 21 or so. We were all in the car listening to Jessica Simpson's newest cd. She covered the song "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and made it a very pop-gospel version. We were all 3 singing and dancing along like fools! Even my grandmother who kept saying "not the bluebird but the sparrow!". We laughed and laughed. That is one of my absolute favorite memories of both of them!

4. And of course, I love the memory of the times our mom's dressed us alike. Mind you, Jess and I are 8 years apart, but that did not stop our mom's (who are sisters) from buying us matching dresses and big @$$ bows for our hair. No sir. It looked semi-normal on me because I was like 8. But Jessica was 16 and matching her little 8 year old cousin. The pictures are PRICELESS.

5. And this one I can't even BEGIN to explain to all of you out there in blog land! Two words: SISTA NANCY.

There are SOOOO many more memories. Some are precious, some are hysterical. They all live though in both of our hearts.

Jess you are so special to me. I am so incredibly thankful that God blessed me with a cousin/sister (hey we are from Arkansas...it could be so much worse). You have always been there for me and I cannot thank you enough for that. You are one of the most beautiful women on the earth, inside and out. Seriously! You are so beautiful. You are so kind and an amazing mother to Reagan. You and Scott have a wonderful marriage and one that Drew and I model ours after. I am so proud to know you. I can't wait until we can reunite and have some more closet talks. I look up to you in every way.

Love you bunches.

MB (aka...sista Nancy)

This was us then......

and this is us now....

Day 4: Johnnie Omega Hanks "Ba"

Today's post is dedicated to my wonderful grandmother Ba. (Ba is pronounced like Bat---minus the "t, not Ba as in sheep).

I was listening to Christmas music today and I started reminiscing about my childhood Christmases. These were always spent at Ba's house. Let me start at the beginning of the season:

Shortly after Halloween she and my grandpa Papa would begin the decorating process. It was amazing. They owned a 100 year old victorian style home with a big front porch and an open floor plan. The porch was wrapped in garland, wreaths, lights, and bows. There were bright colorful lights in the bushes, trees, and outlining the roof. On the roof top was a huge sleigh with a big Santa driving it! In the back of the sleigh was a gigantic bag of toys. There were big toys also in the sleigh such as a large doll made by Ba, a toy train, a larger than life inflatable snoopy, and wrapped packages. It was so magical. I loved it.

When you walked in the front door you were greeted by a large evergreen Christmas tree with bright colorful lights. The tree was covered in array of ornaments ranging from cut-out hearts made by grandchildren to antique spinning ornaments, and even fancy ornaments from the white house. It was incredibly eclectic, but each ornament was a great conversation starter. There were always a million presents under the tree on the homemade tree skirt. Behind the tree was an antique record player which was built into a large wooden stereo. Bing Crosby and Elvis Christmas records were family favorites. On top of the wooden stereo was a Christmas Village collection all lit up.

As you continued into the house the smells of cinnamon potpouri, turkey and dressing, homemade pies, and Jesus' birthday cake filled the air. In the living room there was a large white brick fireplace with 10+ homemade embroidered stockings hanging from the mantle. Under the mantle on the tile area in front of the fireplace lived a collection of antique Christmas toys that Papa collected. They were so cool! There was a little monkey that played a drum, magnetic whales that jumped and did flips, penguins that slid down a snow slide, a helicopter that flew in circles, and a battery operated red car. There was also a long strand of fishing wire tightly wound across the room with a little clown that rode back and forth on it. My mom has this toy in her house now. These toys were a favorite memory for the grandchildren. We used to take turns playing with them.

In the dining room there would be a magnificient spread of homemade goodness! A big turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole with toasted marshmallows on top, corn, peas, cranberry sauce, a relish tray, green beans, ham, chocolate pie, pecan pie, lemon ice box pie, and of course sweet tea. I think it goes without saying that the selections were all homemade and took several days to make! We would all pile around the huge table and pray together then enjoy my grandmother's feast. There was nothing better than this, family, Christmas, and good southern cookin'! Sidenote: this was not just a Christmas occurrence, my grandmother would make a spread like this nearly every Sunday afternoon.

Over the french-door frame in the dining room hung many little stockings. These were where Santa left Christmas money when he dropped grandchildren presents off at Ba and Papa's house. There was an old fashioned organ in the living room that I loved to play Christmas music on. This was one of my favorite "toys".

The local newspaper even wrote an article about Ba's house at Christmas, complete with color pictures. My mom has it framed in her office.

These memories are why I love Christmas as much as I do. My grandmother made this season so incredibly magical for me. She lives in a nursing home now, so her house is no longer the central point for Christmas, but it will always be where my mind goes to on Christmas.

I love Ba so very much. She is 89 years old and gets more beautiful each year. She has the kindest and most gentle heart. She is a grace-filled woman with a great sense of humor. She taught me so much about Jesus and family. Every time I talk to her she tells me to treasure each and every moment because live is so wonderful and it fades by so quickly. She and my grandfather had a glamourous 1940s romance. I want to be just like her when I am a grandma. I cannot wait for my home to be the Christmas gathering place.

This is the most recent picture of us. She was not able to come to my wedding so I tried on my dress for her when I visited her in July.

Day 3: Hank Shaw

Hank Shaw: My "Broseph"

If you do not know my brother you are seriously missing out. He is the funniest person alive. I swear. He is so much funnier than any movie star or comedian. This kid will make you crack. Some of my favorite memories of him include:

1. His traps. Growing up Hank would constantly set "traps" for me. He would hide ropes under my bed so that when I walked near my bed he could pull a rope and tie up my feet. This phases lasted a long time, but it always made me laugh.

2. When we were about 11 and 6 years old we were obsessed with the tv show All That. So we made our own version. I will never forget the sketch where Hank dressed up as Detective Dan. He was adorable and very funny. I am telling you, this kid has amazing comedic timing.

3. I loved sharing our summers together growing up. Even though we did not always get along, when we did it was such a blast. We would play legos for days from sunrise to bedtime.

4. I loved and still love jumping on the trampoline in the summer with a bottle of dishwashing soap and a water hose. Dangerous? Yes. But so much fun. You can barely even stand up!

5. My absolute favorite vacation was when we went to Disney World a few years ago. I think I was around 20 and he was about 16. We stayed for extra magic hours which meant we could stay in the parks until about 3 am. He and I rode Splash Mountain, in the rain, with ponchos on, 8 times in a row. Does not get any better than that folks.

6. My brother does some CrAzY magic tricks.

On a serious note though, Hank is an amazing guy. He has a heart of gold and the faith of a warrior. He truly knows what it means to be a disciple of Christ. I am so proud of everything he has accomplished and who he is. I cannot wait to see what becomes of him as the years continue. He will be a remarkable husband and amazing father someday. He is an inspiration to me and I love him so much.

Hank I am so proud of you. You are a man of noble character.

Love,

Sis