Spring time = Shelli's depressed about her size time

What a beautiful time of year this is...trees are blooming, flowers are poking out of the ground and saying HELLO and little birdies are chirping and singing Gods praises all the time. THIS truly is a miraculous time of year.

Unfortunately, this is the time of year that Satan ATTACKS me more than ever. Everyone is starting to wear shorts, little flirty skirts and sleeveless tops. Which is all fine and dandy for the average woman...but, not me.

See...I LOVE my winter wardrobe. I love the turtle necks, I love the coats, jeans, long sleeve fluffy sweaters...and scarfs! Can't forget about the scarfs!!!

...but...

I think that I tend to use the winter wardrobe to hide away or as a crutch for my low self esteem / body image. I think that the more layers I wear, the more people are blind to the buldge beneath.

Summer is, for many large women, a horrible pain staking tormentuous time of year. Going to the lake / ocean and laying out is an anxiety attack waiting to happen. When other girls are going to J Crew to find their swimsuit for this season, we're avoiding or hiding out in Dillards or Lane Bryant trying to find one that doesn't look TOO "grandma" or too much like those Hippo's in TuTu's from Disneys Fantasia.

Who the "bleep" ever thought "if we just put a ruffle around the bottom of this swimsuit it will hide or mask EVERYTHING". Yah Right! GAG!!!

I really appreciate stores like "Lane Bryant" for at least TRYING to make the plus size swimsuit fashionable. The picture above is from JcPenny. YUCK! They fail in comparison.

Hip Hip Hooray for Spring time and Summer. NOT!

Happy Anniversary J!!!!

Justin,
I fell in love with you while we were still in Highschool...God took his time with us, but and I'm so proud to call you my husband now!

Happy Anniversary! I love you so much...

Here's a little "Then and Now" for the daily reader:















3 years and counting...I love you! I guess since we're celebrating 3 years, this actually means that we're starting our 4th year. Whoa doggies...that's a lot of nights that you've had to look at my sleep apnea mask.

MR. BANGKOK, 2007!!!

I would attempt to do a “Lafe’s Index” on this story…but, THIS is something that is too bizarre for one sentence sum ups.

Ok, I’m gonna try to do a “play by play” on this story so that I don’t miss ANY of the details:

Stuart, Martha (Stu’s mom), Whitney, Erin, and Maria were at one table, Gennie, Brian, Meredith and I were at another next to it enjoying dinner at Bangkok Thai restaurant last night, when the MOST BIZARRE evening began to unfold.

Our waiter was, what we believe to be, on drugs. Not sure what kind…but SOMETHING was in his system other than some great Gang Gha Ree Curry.

Our first clue was his constant swaying / ticks and the need to talk Talk TALK the entire time he was at our table. He would NOT stop talking. He was talking about nasty bars, the people in them, rats, his boss not being in a good mood, how the temperature was too hot in the room and he didn’t want to change it so he asked GENNIE to do it??, and lots of more random things.

(Hirsh-bombs response was something along the lines of “What the H#$%” and my response to that was “No, Brian…its worthy of a ‘What the Fudge’”…only, I didn’t say Fudge…actually, I said “fuhhhh”. Momma didn’t raise no fool!)

Anyway…waiter dude had sat us about 5 feet from the kitchen. Needless to say, we heard all kinds of chatter and back talk happening to his bosses.

Ok, I’m not exactly sure WHAT got us to this point in the story, but all things started unraveling…wait for it…here:

We started hearing him YELLING (literally) at the cooks who we found out (by ways of eaves dropping) were the bosses. They were yelling back at him, we heard numerous swear words, and lots of “DON’T TELL ME TO ‘FUDGEN’ SHUT UP”...only, he REALLY didn’t say “fudge”. (ok, remember…this is happening about 5 feet from our table).

We were starting to be a little frightened, mainly over the fact that we hadn’t got our food yet. Well, he came through and brought our food to us, and acted nice and calm as if nothing had happened at all, asked if “everything looked ok” then turned around and walked about 2 feet and started yelling again.

WEIRDNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the course of all the yelling, the little Asian cook and his wife FIRED the waiter. We were like “uh…ok? Do we get our food for free”. Not so much! He came to our table with our tickets and said, now with a bit more flux and drama, “I’m sorry you had to listen to that…but I’m not gonna work for some “fudgen” tyrants”. WEIRDNESS!!!

Well, we decided that, unfortunately, we would not be leaving much of a tip for this gentleman and quickly made our way OUT of Bangkok.

Meredith and I decided that we wanted to hang out and drink some coffee / eat an EXTREMELY fattening piece of peanut butter pie a la mode. YUM! Well, while we’re at “The Common Grounds” coffee spot…WEIRD DUDE COMES IN!!!!!!!!! We immediately freak! We did NOT want this guy to see us…I mean…we DID just leave without tip. So, Meredith and I hid…YEP…hid from this guy until he left. Actually we just turned our chairs around and faced the wall. I’m sure everyone was wondering in their own minds: “What the ‘fudge’ are these girls doing”…and yep…they probably didn’t say fudge.

So, “HERE’S TO YOU MR. BANGKOK 2007”…thanks for making our night an interesting and enjoyable one to say the least.

I hope you are all now singing “One night in Bangkok”.

Hawks bill crag...

These pictures are from the womens retreat with my church this weekend. We women of The Grove don’t settle for plush lifestyles and manicures…no no…give us a rustic cabin and some fresh air! Although…I must say…a plush lifestyle and a manicure sounds awfully nice right now.

This picture (taken by and belonging to Evelyn Stillwell) is out at “hawks bill crag” near the Buffalo River area in Arkansas. More pictures can be found at this website: http://www.grove-women.net/

...ps...I'm the little bitty purple spec in the middle of the group. If you want to learn more about "hawksbill crag" go to this website: ttp://theozarkmountains.com/hiking_trails.htm

Many of the girls on the trip went to an area called "Lost Valley" (which is also mentioned in the link above). I hear that it has a camping site too. I'm excited to explore MORE of my states natural wonders. One thing I can proudly say about Arkansas...ITS BEAUTIFUL. I couldn't say that about my original home state of Oklahoma....well...most of it anyway.

For Lafe...

You’ll be happy to know that I did some research and feel confident in my geometrical…erg…I mean geographical knowledge of the Philippines.

"One give One Dollar...who'll make it Two..."

…do you remember that song?

“One give me one dollar, who’ll make it two…two dollars…who’ll make it three? Three dollars twice, now that’s a good price, now who’s got a deal for me?” It was called “Touch of the Master’s hand” by (I think) Ray Boltz? Same guy who sang “Thank You…for giving to the Lord…I am a life, that was changed.”

Well, no, I’m not going to write a cheesy blog about an EXTREMELY cheesy “Contemporary Christian” song from the 80’s…but, I DID go to an auction this weekend…and that’s what got me onto the song.

My Grandpa Ogburn was an auctioneer for YEARS! This weekend, he and my Grandma auctioned off EVERYTHING and are going to start fresh. And by everything…I mean the furniture, the house and land too. They’ve lived in Arkansas long enough and they’re ready to go back home to Tulsa. I’m excited for them. They’ve been saying this for about 5 years now, and they’re FINALLY doing it. Grandma wants some new furniture and her and Grandpa didn’t feel like hauling all their old stuff over, so…they’re buying new stuff and having it delivered. AWESOME HUH? She’s also using this opportunity to go to different auctions and buy some “new to them” antiques.

My family’s great…but let me tell you…when we all get together, we’re ALWAYS bound to fight. I think it’s the Scottish in us. My mom did some geneology work on the family a couple of years ago and found our Scottish heritage. We’re part of a branch from the McDonald clan that mixed with some “Black Dutch”…and I don’t know if they were fighters…but we DEFINITELY are. But…we’ll fight for each other…to the death. We would have made fighting clansmen during the time of Willam Wallace. FREEDOM!!!!!

Anyway…some of the really pretty pieces of furniture that have been in the family a long time were bid on by some of my cousins…and they won. I’m glad that they’re staying in the family.