Paging Dr. Murphy

I often think I should have been a doctor. I am completely fascinated with how the body works, all of its systems, blood, diseases, how to fix diseases. For the most part I have a pretty strong stomach and it seems to take a lot to gross me out. (Except for vomit, then I'm done. But my kind of doctoring somehow wouldn't involve vomit.)

I saw some pictures yesterday and I just don't know what to think. My stomach flips and I can only look a little at a time. Here is what I saw...

WARNING THIS IS GROSS!!!

(I am even putting spaces here so you have to scroll down and want to see this.)

Hmmm, how did the get those marks?
That's not that gross Annie.

This is how.

Maybe I will be a PhD instead of an MD.

I can't believe its been 2 years...

The first day of first grade

I remember so few first days of school (although seventh and ninth grade are burned into my brain...that's another days story).
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I remember even fewer that I got to start out with my best friend. I am so glad for Griffin. He has a best friend he never wants to be apart from that he gets to live next door to, ride the bus with, have classrooms next door to each other, eat lunch together, play dodge ball on Wednesdays and have recess together, 2 of them.
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After the bus came home at 6:00 tonight, an hour and a half late, he came inside and the first thing he asked was, "Can I go play with Kendrick?"

I love this baby

Sigh...

8/7 birthday wishes #1

Ah my friend,

I wish we could be together today and celebrating the only right way.

I love you and miss you Mel.

8/7 birthday wishes #2

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday dear Katy and Liz

Happy Birthday to You

I love you!

"Doing Life"

We have another weekend of visitors...and I honestly don't know if Sean, Griffin or I am the most excited. I have butterflies as Friday nears, Sean is longing for the adult-no-interruptions-after-the-kids-go-to-bed-conversations and Griffins head is about to explode. I can't think of a better way to break up what has become the monotony of summer.

Flashback 4 years...

Friday - We moved to Pennsylvania today. I guess this is my time to learn how to spell Pennsylvania. Not sure how I feel yet but it is beautiful.
Sunday - We made it to church and seemed to like this one. What was super fun is we met a guy, Stacy, who is also our neighbor. He and his wife, I think her name is Kim, have 3 kids and live across the street. I hope she and I can be friends.

Back to today...

My goodness how true those words became. From pre-school, new babies and 112 steps door to door to more babies, less fingers and 438.4 miles door to door, these are friends. Life friends. Good, real deal friends. Great, wonderful, pick your superlative friends.

There is something to be said for spending time together. I love quality time but I LOVE quantity time. Relationship just comes out of being with someone and experiencing the day to dayness together. Things are learned through time, favorite colors, favorite foods, family stories, unmadeup faces. Not much is able to be hidden when the doors are unlocked. Reality of life meets projected image. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

BRING ON THE SUBLETTS!!!!!

Sarah's porch

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This is where my friend is and this is where I wish I was...(or is it were?)


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YAY for fun weekends with old friends

We have a big weekend coming up. Friends of ours are coming through Cincinnati and we get to see them. (He played baseball with Ken Griffey Jr.) (Actually against him.) (In high school). We thought we'd try to grab dinner and go to a park with all of our kids but instead, they are coming here for dinner and staying with us. So we are trying to figure out where to put everyone, what to eat that is kid friendly and easy and all I really want to think about is after the kids go to bed, what the adults will get to talk about.

This guy is a friend of Sean's from UC. He is a guy who I think highly of and who I am so grateful for. Had it not been for this guy and a handful of others, I wonder where Sean would be. They were a group of guys that loved Sean and cared about him without an agenda. Even though I don't know some of these guys well, they are so important to me because they are such a huge part of who Sean is today. So thanks Scott, Steve, Drew, Dave, Ted, Rick, Tyler, Erik, Kolia and so many others.

Did I mention Scott and Emanda have 6 kids?

This little person is home and it makes me so, so happy.

Axl

I am impatient. I do NOT like to wait. (Although compared to my grandpa-in-law, Sean and one of Sean's college roommates, I probably do better than I think.)

Waiting is so hard. For kids, little is harder than waiting for your birthday, for next Christmas, for summer vacation. For adults, the great job, meeting their spouse, or for some, summer vacation.

But I am realizing today that waiting for only a couple days stinks. Whether it is waiting for my oldest son to come home from Grandmas, for Sean to get home from work or whatever else grabs my mind and won't let go. So I must practice waiting today. When each phone call jolts me and seems to give life to the moment I will wait. When every few minutes seem impossibly slow, I guess I'll wait. When each hour that ticks feels like last week,

I am waiting...

I love this day!!!

Happy July 4th!!!!!!

To some this will be annoying...

Our June in pictures

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It's hard to believe there is an ear infection and upper respiratory infection under this smile.

I'm off!

I am headed away for a few days with lots to think about and process from the last couple of weeks.

But what I was afraid might happen, has. I desperately want to go and need to go and honestly, they probably need me to go too but I am having a hard time going out the door. My four favorite people live right here and I am leaving.

And of course there are little things that have popped up that make me feel like I have to stay here. Coughs and sniffles and sore throats make me uneasy. Like these four won't remember how to breathe after I leave.

I am not sure what these few days will do for me or the people staying in this house. But I am a mixed bag of emotion coming off of a week that left me a wet rag of emotion. I do know this, I am counting on the One who can renew and refill to come and sit with me and be with me and hold me and work with me and do what He has to do in me so I can come home and do what He needs me to do here.

My happy place

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The girls staying with us love The Office therefore we have marathons every night. I love it. It makes me tired but I love it.

We are in the middle of lots of busyness at our house. It is fun stuff but busy nonetheless. And as I age, I realize I am way more in need of being in control than I ever realized...and I hate it. Our lives have shifted a little this week and become way less about me than normal and that I'd like to admit. I get sent when the smallest of things don't go the way that I had anticipated. I do very well with schedules and time frames and routines and when something goes awry, honestly, I hardly know how to handle it. As much as I hate this I know this is where I need to be taken lately. I know that my order is chaos according to the One who has scheduled it all.

But I get to do just about my favorite thing today. Along with 800 other people, I get to hear the best speaker in all of everywhere inspire, encourage and make people laugh. When SMM talks about what he will be talking about today, he becomes passionate. There is little that he cares about more than this and it is incredibly obvious. I love getting to see the passion and how he connects to the people he is talking with and passes along that passion. He is just amazing and I am just partial to him.

And as he ran out the door this morning I felt sick. Luckily he forgot a drink so he came back and I was relieved. Because in the craziness of the first 45 minutes of our day, I didn't even get to (should read didn't remember) to wish my husband Happy Birthday.

I love you Sean Michael Murphy

Happy Fathers Day to the best dad in the history of dads...

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See what I did there???

And to the second greatest...we love you. Thank you for loving us, taking care of us and being more than we ever would have dreamed.

How lucky am I?
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