My Roommates!

These two picts of me and my roommates are actually hanging on my wall in my craft/photography closet....I see them looking out at me nearly every day when I go in to get something or another.

Since I just mentioned my roommate Abbi (far left here) and having read a blog post from another friend, Abby (notice different spellings, different people) I wanted to mention one of the greatest times in my life. I think these roommates were so special for several different reasons....1) I had just transfered from Ricks College, now BYU-I to BYU and was excited to live close to my older brother who just returned from a church mission to Brazil. He was living in a kinda co-ed apartment complex, Canyon Terrace (oh my goodness, CT has a website)! There was just one opening mid year in apartment #39...he didn't know the girls, but he said they seemed nice. 2) These are the ladies that endured the ups and downs with me to my courtship with my sweet husband, Michael. They know him, they knew us before each other and after. His apartment (#20) and our apartment were good friends and had some various dating swapping going on. Michael and I were the only ones to marry, and solidify the 2039 forever--trudat!

Okay that was an inside joke....but here we have: Amy (red head), Hali (shorter but older sister), & Abbi. Hali & Abbi are sisters from a town called Sandwich...you think that is odd, well get to know them! Amy & Hali had been roommates for several years before Abbi or I ever entered the equation. Abbi & I were the same age and shared a room with Hali & Amy just 2 years older--but who ever counted years back then? They were very patient with my messy ways and me not realizing it. We had some good times. The last time I saw them was 4 years ago at Hali's wedding...except for Amy I think it was 5 years ago at her wedding. I was unfortunately not able to go to Abbi's wedding b/c I was 7 months pregnant and across the country as a student at the time:(

I keep telling them we need to have a roommate reunion and it will happen one of these days! We are spread out in Cali, Washington, Iowa, & Texas and having babies like crazy...so hard to find a good time. Here is the quote from my other friend Abby that really made me tear up to think of these girls:

"We were thrown together by the luck of the draw. We realized before long that we simply adored one another. I lived with these girls for just less than 2 years, and somehow it's an entire tiny lifetime in and of itself. How do you sum up what people like this mean to you? They were family during such an impressionable time in my life. They were just there. We learned all about who we had been in high school, and then we all embarked on who we would become. It's amazing who we all became, so different--just as we always were--but forever bound together by the familiarity that became "us" so long ago."

I love you girls!

I think I changed the comment option....

It's always bugged me that only those who have a blog can comment, so I think I just checked a box that allows anyone to comment...I do love comments, so let me know what you think!

Nicknames

My roommate Abbi, where are you? I think she is the one that came up with this particular nickname for me that titles my blog. My middle name is Joy and I've had many names...kj, kjoy, kaje, kris, kristen joy, krissybears, kittles, but my roommate abbi used to call me, "kristen joyous occasion...." And I always really liked that. My middle name Joy, I think always encouraged me to see the brighter side in life (thanks mom and dad). I'm usually fairly optimistic, and if I see a "non joyous occasion" I like to try to turn it into a Joyous Occasion! Don't get me wrong, I can be grumpy like the rest of them....Linda says I wear my emotions on my sleeve, no matter what they are....it's true, I'm not an actress, I can't hide very well my joy or distain for a situation. So when I thought about what I wanted my blog to be titled, I wanted it to represent how I see life, and for me, it is made up of many joyous occasions....

Spring Soccer

jumping jacks....so funny!

Two years ago we were anxious parents and wanted to get Tyler enrolled in soccer...he was 3, turning 4 during the season. Michael was the coach and it was exhausting. We waited 2 years to play again. This time, Tyler wanted to play T-ball and Matthew wanted to play soccer. So when I went to sign them out, I found out that T-ball here is a summer sport. When we discussed this with Tyler, we tried to encourage him to play soccer, but he said he'd rather just watch Matthew play b/c he already played soccer before. I found out I could get them on the same team (move Matthew up one year) and I was so excited...how fun would that be? Tyler still said he didn't want to play. We knew he'd have fun, so we had to make the executive parental decision so we signed him up anyway. I got all the gear ready and one day said, "Okay, it's time to go to soccer practice, won't it be fun to both be on the same team?" Tyler still wasn't excited. Uh-oh I thought...I hope I didn't waste our money. Michael intentionally opted out of coaching b/c we knew our boys would respond better to someone else "telling them what to do." From the second he stepped on the field, all smiles! Yay! Success! It's so funny, even after having fun at the practice and games, at home he says he doesn't like it, but we see lots of smiles on the field, so we see the real truth. Tyler actually had an incident at the first game with being Goalie and getting the ball kicked hard in his face....it shook him and he sat out for a few, but he was nudged to go out and finish, which he did.

Alright people, get a BLOG!

If I don't have you listed at the side here and you have a blog, please tell me about it! I LOVE reading the blogs of my friends and family (if you are listed and don't want to be, let me know--I keep it here so I can easily access your blogs)! I miss seeing and hearing about your lives....If you don't have a blog, then GET ONE! You can make it private so only those you invite can view it....but add me to the list b/c I wanna know what is going on! It is so hard for me to have friends and family all over the country and not know what is going on in their lives....I email a lot, but I love pictures and stories! Everyone should have a blog! Did you know that there are companies out there now that will print and bind your blog so you can have it as a hard copy journal? That is so cool! For those that know me well, I am the journal queen! I believe it is so important to have our lives documented...for ourselves and our posterity to know us. We learn more about ourselves as we write down our thoughts. (To my older brother who doesn't want to "follow the trend" just do it)! Come on people, lets get blogging!

Spring Break to Florida

Okay so I'll have to write about this bit by bit....we planned a trip to drive to Florida to see our dear friends who used to live in Austin, but moved last summer. What is great about this family is there is someone for each of us....we used to do double dates with them....babysitting swap with them...they took Tyler for us in the middle of the night when Matthew was born (just 10 days after we met them)...Tyler and their oldest were best friends, and Matthew just jumped right in. Then they had twins just before Alyssa was born...just seems so perfect! And of course the glue to each family friendship depends on the friendship of the women....and she became one of my closest friends pretty much from the first time I met her. We both look back to the time we met and realize we were an answer to each others prayer...coming into each others life when we each truly needed someone. Okay, I'm getting sappy now, but she is like a sister to me. As a stay at home mom, I like to mix a lot of socializing into my days....Linda was a willing participant. Our ideals are very similar. We think alike. We are lax in similar areas and firm in others just the same. Where we are different, we council each other that it isn't so bad to be the way we are and we leave feeling good about ourselves again. She is ultra organized/clean to the point where she often gets migrains...me....not so much. She taught me many a cleaning tips, and I'd like think I taught her to not stress so many things. She is a well of information, as if she's read the encyclapedia's and memorized them. She knows just how much Tylenol I should give my child depending on the age/weight. We both got obsessed with Star Wars Galactic Heroes (for our boys, of course) and would call each other when we found new ones we thought the other wouldn't have.

This is us last May just before she moved....one friend told me it looked like I cloned myself, we could be sisters, right? This is an intro to my trip. (this is a pict taken of our 6 kids about a year ago).

first stop--New Orleans!

This was the perfect "half way point" on our drive to Florida so we planned ahead of time to spend half a day here to get all of our wiggles out and ease the strain of a 14 hr. drive to our final destination.

I spent 10 years of my life growing up in a suburb of the Crescent City and people give this place a lot of undeserved flack. Yes, Bourban Street is famous for people getting drunk, but don't people go out and get drunk in every city across the nation? We went to Mardi Gras with the rest of them and many don't realize it is mostly a family affair. Don't listen to what you read about in the papers. Hey, it is based on a religious holiday...the day before Lent! I have been wanting to introduce the city to Michael b/c of it's French influence (he served his mission in France), but we never made it a point to go through there. My parents had been a few times since Katrina and our old homes are still standing amidst other nearby homes that didn't have such luck.












In New Orleans, they love their food--and SO DO I! Mmmm I had a shrimp Po-boy and red beans n rice with sausage, and my favorite--beignets (pronounced ben-yays) at Cafe de Monde. Like scones with powdered sugar, OH SO YUMMY! We got that messy powdered sugar caked all over us!

Tyler was very excited to see the Mississippi River and let us know that the River ends in Louisiana--another great fact learned through the public school system. An interesting image on the side of this city worker car of the hurricane. This guy was

motionless on his ladder and had his bucket out for those who were impressed to donate. This is just around the corner from Bourbon Street, people, and look how normal it looks during the day.

And finally we caught the street car (not to be confused with a trolley--thanks dad) and the boys thought that was a lot of fun.

Oh and on our way out of the city, we drove past my old house in Slidell (I lived here from 2nd-8th grade). My bedroom was upstairs just above the roof on the right....I used to go out on the roof with my friends, even slept out there once. It didn't used to be pink....I think they lost a lot of grass in the hurricane...

hangin' in Florida

Vacation is all about relaxing and hanging with the family. I like this pict of Michael with the kids lounging on him.

Here are the twins who just turned 2...Michael always thought it would be fun to have twins, our friends showed us the reality of it all....they handle it VERY well!

They played in the yard and captured a tree frog, then we went on a swamp tour lookin' for them Florida Gators....of course the kids loved it...and so did the adults!

I love the turtles all in a row on this one....and we got a few close gator shots!

Linda might not appreciate this pict b/c she doesn't like picts of herself, but isn't this great--a fully pregnant lady wrangling her 2 year old twins in the water--I just love this one!

And Alyssa was leary to get in the water as it was chilly so Michael was slowly lowering her down but she still pulled her feet up.

Our last day there, Linda and I got the day to hang out and do a little shopping...in the morning we took the girls thinking it would be fun for a girls outing with our daughters....well they were not as fun as we had hoped...not quite into the shopping things....fortunately we had their drinks on hand and they liked the balls in Old Navy, but we had to retreive them way too many times....Michael held down the fort with all 6 kids while we went out to lunch and ate the largest pizza slices one has ever seen....oh so yummy...unfortunately, I don't have a problem packing it all in....then that night we were supposed to go to a movie, but it was all a hoax and Linda's friends had a surprise baby shower for her that I had been in on....I was so grateful they planned it when I was there....a lot of fun to be there and meet her friends.

Destin, Florida

On our drive out of Florida, we went to Destin...I found a cool restaurant online that had a gator farm below it...we saw them swimming and then actually got to hold the gator (notice his mouth is taped shut). He was very docile and barely moved. I was a bit nervous to touch it at first, but Alyssa had no reservations...the boys thought it was pretty fun. I hesitated to pay for the photo, but then again I charge people to take picts, so I had to talk myself into the $10 5x7. I'm so glad we did it b/c this is a fun memory! How many people can say they've held an alligator?

The Beach

One of Michael's favorite places to be is in the sand/ocean. Unfortunately it was a bit rainy that day and overcast....but that didn't stop us. Alyssa was a bit concerned to put her feet in the sand and was VERY tired at that point in the day, but she was a trooper....I like this of her hanging on my leg....

I'll admit, the beach isn't my favorite place to be....I've been dragged (Colie rah rah) but when I think of the beach I think of stickiness and sunburns....it is beautiful, don't get me wrong. I know how much Michael loves it so I try to have genuine fun....it wasn't so bad even driving for 6 hours after with no shower. The kids think it is great, so I will continue to have a smile on my face...I do enjoy the shreaks of joy...I"ll see if I can upload a video.

Matthew was chilly so I was cuddling him to keep him warm.

The boys were too chilly to help Michael finish the sand castle...so they watched huddled in a towel....don't ya just love my toes?




They got warm enough just in time to destroy the castle he built....