Long Lost Friend...FOUND!

I really hesitated joining Facebook a few months ago thinking it was really dumb and a complete waste of time. Well, today it paid off in a big way. I reconnected with my long lost friend Anne and over a pancake breakfast we caught up on approximately 15 years. Funny how time erases with good friendships. Anne and I lived next door to each other our freshman year at Mizzou and spent a ton of time together. We learned what college life was all about that year which included how to survive without our mothers, how to study, how to party, how to cook ramen noodles in a dorm room, how to keep up with our shows (most importantly Knot's Landing!) and how to form new friendships. We did pretty good with most of these things...maybe not the studying so much. :) Anne was such a HUGE part of my college life and such an incredibly sweet girl. When I think of Anne I think of Red Hot Riplets, Dr. Pepper and waking with NO alarm clock, ever. So we chatted today for hours about everything! Families, kids, husbands, old friends etc. Some happy, some sad. If you went to Mizzou, lived in North County, played soccer (especially at SLU) chances are we talked about you! Ha! I hope that our friendship continues to grow during this chapter of our lives because you don't find many people sweeter than Anne! Thank you for finding me! (This song was a hit in 1990 :) This picture was taken on my 20th birthday...Anne found me on my birthday this year so I thought this was an appropriate picture.

Singing Hens

Friday night the girls and I went to the Jive and Wail which is a new dueling piano bar. Even though the crowd was quite young we had a great time with all of the college kids. :) The pianists are very good and sing just about anything. Picture "Sexy Back" on the piano...amazingly good! The crowd was having a very good time, maybe too good since there were some girls on stage that would have been better off staying in their seats. But fun was had by all and now the birthday celebrations have concluded for another year. Thanks Chris and Carly for the incredible cupcake...YUM and thanks Shelly and Carrie for the drinks. And thanks to pianists that can make "Like a Virgin" sound good on a piano!

Romantic Dinner for 4

This past Saturday was Valentine's Day. Most people spend the evening professing their love for one another over a romantic dinner, well this year our romantic dinner was for 4. We spent Valentine's Day with our wonderful friends the Wheelers. Mandy and I usually celebrate our birthdays together since they are only 2 days apart (the 11th and the 13th) and so this was our birthday/valentine celebration (looks like the guys got off easy this year!) We went to BC's which is a new restaurant opened by Bill Cardwell of Cardwell's and it was delicious. Lance was a little under the weather but we managed to have some laughs even in his Benadryl stupor. Since both couples have 4 kids each, quiet dinners are rare! Valentine's Day was extra fun this year...it lasted for 3 whole days! Our family celebrated with many heart shaped food items: sandwiches, cookies, pancakes, etc. I made an extra special lunch for school on the 13th which completely embarrassed the twins but oh well it was fun. Olivia was home sick with the flu and missed her Valentine's party which was a bummer but she was able to open her classmates' valentines over the weekend. This was my favorite Valentine's Day ever. It is fun letting those special people in your life know how much you love them. :)

Lucky #38...

Today is my 38th birthday...wow! I can't believe I am that old. Of course Madison told everyone I was 40 today and I almost killed her. She doesn't understand that after the age of about 21 you don't add years, you subtract them! But all in all I had a great day. Aaron got the girls up for school and let me sleep in. This was probably my favorite gift especially since it was raining and I was all snuggly under the covers. I had breakfast in bed and got caught up on my tivo-ed shows. Heaven I tell you! Aaron and I had lunch and then I went shopping...another two of my favorite things. We then had dinner with the girls at PF Changs which was quite yummy. Rachel and Madison talked non-stop throughout the entire dinner. I felt like my eyes were watching a tennis match going back and forth between them. Exhausting! And so at the end we tore open our fortune cookies and my special word was "family" and my lucky number was "38". I think this is going to be a great year. Happy Birthday to Me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Today is my sweet mother's birthday and I just wanted to publicly acknowledge what an amazing person she is to the world ( or actually to the few of you that actually read my blog :).

If you would look up the word "MOTHER" in the dictionary you should see my mom's face. She is the perfect epitome of what it means to be a mother. She is selfless, affectionate, trustworthy, caring, generous, fiercely loyal and loving. She honest to God would do anything for her children (and grandchildren for that matter) and we all know it and admire that quality in her. She is the person who will come over and help me clean when she knows I am getting overwhelmed. She is the person that will take the girls to get something new to wear when I say no (my girls are smart!). She is the one who feels the pain of her children more than any other person I know (besides my grandma!) whether it be a sickness, friend problem or any other crisis and hurts right along with them. She is the one who calls for no reason but to hear how her children are doing and genuinely wants to stay greatly involved in their lives. She is the one who shows up to 8am soccer games in the freezing cold and cheers with the best of them. She is the one who yells if a player intentionally (or unintentionally for that matter!) hurts one of her granddaughters during a game and will let them know that she didn't like it one bit. She is the one who knows every doctor appointment I have and will call me (or the doctor :) to make sure everything is ok. She is the one who stayed by my side at the hospital after the twins were born when I wasn't doing very well, even before she set her eyes on her new granddaughters. She is the one who flew to Disneyworld and stayed for 24 hours just to surprise the girls and go on rides that make her sick. She is the one that is happiest when she is surrounded by her family. She is the one that God so graciously chose to be my mother and what a blessing I was given!!

I found this quote and it sums up my mom PERFECTLY!!

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. - Elizabeth Stone

Happy Birthday Mom....I love you so much!!

First Dance!

Rachel and Madison had their first dance this past Friday and dropping them off was much harder than I thought it was going to be. They all wore the infamous colored, skinny jeans that they all bought at the mall a few weeks ago (which I personally think are absolutely hideous but then again I am not 12!). The moms and girls all had dinner out before the dance and then they all piled into the Yukon and off we went. I pulled up to school and was ready to park when I heard a blood curdling "WHAT are you doing Mom?" I told them I was going to park so I could get a picture with all of the girls in their jeans (in the picture there are quite a few missing). Well, needless to say they were having NO part of me getting out the car and taking pictures. I think they would have prefered me not even coming to a complete stop and simply jumping out as I rolled by. And so my lonely self drove away with a huge knot in my throat knowing that this was the beginning of the end. I consoled myself by getting a fabulous mani and pedi and made some pity phone calls to my mom and Angie who reminded me of all of our CYC dances that we went to and all of our matching outfits. The girls busted through the doors about 10:30 and were talking a mile a minute about how much fun they had and who they danced with. I love that these kids danced the entire night...boys AND girls which is so much fun. It is usually just the girls because the boys are too cool at this age. And so another chapter begins in the life of the Crowell Twins...boo hoo!!

Attack of the killer purple finch!

A few months ago I wrote about the mouse in the fridge and the sheer panic that it caused. Well, tonight we had another incident proving once again that the Crowell women aren't really into nature or wildlife. Aaron went outside to play with Sonny and when he opened the door a bird flew in (he didn't even realize that the bird came in..not real sure how that happened!). I am assuming that the bird was in my wreath that is on my front door. Most people comment on the size of the wreath and many complain that it attacks them on the way in but evidently the birds like it. Aaron said it was a female, purple finch but I will need Papa Crowell to confirm that. They all look the same to me! And so the chase began. The bird immediately flew upstairs and down the hall. We aren't sure if he went down the back stairs or what but then he ended up in my office on my bookshelf and then back to the hallway again...all this time with 4 girls screaming, me being one of them! Madison had locked herself into the bathroom and wasn't about to come out. Finally we decided to turn the lights off except for the chandelier in the entry and gently coax him out. He made it to the ledge above the front door and kept pecking at the glass (stupid, gross bird!). Aaron then got a rake and tried several times to pull him from the ledge but he kept getting through the rake. Then Jordan made the mistake of saying "Dad broke off one of his wings" (which he didn't) and Livi, my animal lover, completely lost it and was sobbing! We eventually got the gross thing out of the house and then focused on consoling Liv. We told her that he was happy to get back to his Mommy and then she was fine.

Most people love birds well I hate them. I think they are gross and full of diseases. They poop on your car and make nests on your house and leave their dead babies who are too stupid to fly and splatter on your driveway. This happened every single year at our old house. I think it was the same stupid bird who would make a nest a the highest peak of our house and then leave her babies who would plunge to their deaths on our driveway. Yuck!

My disdain for birds started when I was a little girl. I was with my family at Six Flags and we were waiting to meet with everyone for lunch (for all of you St. Louisans it was near the front entrance by the ice cream parlor). I was sitting on a bench under a tree when suddenly a bird fell down the back of my shirt and was pecking the crap out of me. My Aunt Irmi, in her thick German accent, asked me what the hell was wrong with me. I think she thought I was having a seizure. I was finally able to jump up and untuck my shirt (My red camp shirt...remember those?) and the bird fell to the ground and was DEAD!! How disgusting is that? And ever since then they scare me to death with their fluttery wings and sharp beaks.

And so now I realize that maybe we moved a little too far into the wilderness. Anyone want to trade houses. :)

Twin Towers!!

Rachel and Madi have ventured into new territory and are now playing basketball. This past weekend they had a tournament and here are a few of the pics. Aaron and I laughed so hard during the games because they looked like giants! During one game there was a girl guarding Madi and she came just under her arm pit. Rachel is the center and went 3 for 3 on the tip offs...not that it was very hard for her. :) Look at the picture of the tip off...Rachel's arm is still bent and the other girl is fully extended. Funny! I have a hard time containing myself while watching them on defense because they are so aggressive. They were all over these girls! It was so funny to watch. The funniest part is that they sub in for each other and I am not sure if the girls they were guarding realized there were 2 of them or if it was just one really energetic girl. Ha! And so the tournament ended with Madi getting the ball in the last seconds of the game when they were tied, holding it in her hand for a second not really sure what to do with it and then deciding to shoot which went IN right at the buzzer! I don't have a picture of that shot because I was out of my seat!