Five Year Anniversary!

Tony's is our favorite Athens bar.

Stan asked me to marry him in this very booth in August of 2002. We were married five years ago this weekend!

What a weekend! First, we went to Columbus and visited our family. We had a great lunch with Henry and then spent some time reading a really cool children's book about the human body -- complete with x-ray like pictures of the heart and the lungs and the skull!

Then, we went to the Franz's annual Fourth of July Bash where we met little Ila for the first time! She is a totally awesome baby. She was so good and so happy. We really got a kick out of her.

On Saturday, we drove to Zanesville to pick up Jenny and then we all drove to Athens for the day. This weekend marks our fifth wedding anniversary, and Athens is where we met and also where Stan proposed, so we thought it would be a great time to visit the town. We miss Athens so much!! It's too much to explain in a post, but we love Athens very deeply. And not just because of the party atmosphere. Athens is so much more than that! There is just something very special about that little town tucked away in the hills of Southeastern Ohio. It's a magic place.

We walked around the uptown area and College Green. Then we stopped by The Pub for an aquarium (a fish-bowl-sized draft beer for only $2.50!) and then to Tony's for a $5 pitcher of Killian's. After that, we met up with our friends Jen and Carrie and ate dinner at Casa Nueva. Then it was back to Jen's house to CRASH after a very fun, hot, and excessive day!

I just thought this was funny.

Jenny is striking a pose.

American Woman statue behind the library.

Athens is quiet in the summer.

I miss everything about Athens -- even the ground!

I miss Athens rain, too!

Jenny ate a big pickle.



Our friends Jen & Carrie live in Athens. We are so envious!

Happy Birthday, Jenny!

This is a picture of Jen getting her hair done for my wedding. We all just looked so cute that day! Jen's birthday was on Sunday. What can I tell you about Jen? She's one of the funnest people I know. She makes a killer margarita, and she has a heart as big as the moon.

We were in the same preschool together, but I don't remember her so much from that year. I do remember the next year (Kindergarten) when she barfed Hamburger Helper all over her desk. That's my earliest memory of Jen.

My second memory was also from Kindergarten. Jen, Penny Watson and I had a lunch date! We met at Jen's house and ate some kind of lunch (it was not, to my relief, Hamburger Helper).

I don't remember anything else about it except that sometime either before or after this, I asked my mom/dad if they would call Penny Watson's mom/dad for something (I don't remember what) and they said I COULD CALL PENNY MYSELF! I specifically remember calling her from the rotary phone in our wallpapered kitchen on Scotland Boulevard and thinking I had hit the big time now -- calling people MYSELF. It was a milestone.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!! We love ya!!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Alison!

Happy Belated Birthday to another BFF from the way back when! Alison, Jen, and I are notoriously belated when it comes to birthday wishes. It’s our norm, so it’s ok. My birthday is in November and I typically receive a present from Jen in December or February (depending on whether we get together for Christmas, New Years, or Valentine’s Day). This year, Jen bought me these witch’s feet. (It's a planter/vase.)

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about Alison. One of the best things about Al is that we laugh at the same things in movies, often when no one else sees the humor. When we were younger, we used to go to the movie theater and this laughing at the “wrong” moment would cause one of us to say, “Why isn’t anyone else laughing? What is wrong with these people?” It’s worse now that we are grown up. If Stan and I go to a movie and this phenomenon occurs, I’m the ONLY one laughing. It is at these times that I always think of Alison.

If you’ve noticed a big slow down over at Aliblog, all you have to do is call Alison and you’ll know why. The children have outnumbered the parents. It is quite a lovely situation. Last week, our phone call conversation lasted about 5 minutes. She had to go when someone kicked someone in the head. Oh, the joys of motherhood!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful mom of three, an inspirational blogger, and a genuine friend!

Jillyboop

photos by Jenny
jillyboop on flickr.com

Jillyboop all the way home. Please join me for an evening of jillybooping. A jillyboop time was had by all. Won't you be my jillyboop? It's a jillyboop world in the winter, through the ives of the evergreen tree. It's one part jillyboop to three parts tequila.

Jillyboop is the name of Jen's site on flickr.com. Jen is one of my BFFs from the way back when. Jen is one of a kind. She's searching for her lost shaker of salt, if you know what I mean. And she's a great photographer. I want to steal her awesome camera.

Jilly is her chocolate lab. She's a peach. Jen's hubby travels a lot for his job, so Jen and Jilly are inseperable buddies.

Click here to check out more of more of Jen's photos on flickr.com.

Zanna Doo!

Fiona and her cub by Marisa

If you haven't been introduced to the newest member of the Bolen family, head on over to Aliblog and take a peek. Suzanna (but they call her Zanna) is the cutest thing I've ever seen! Congratulations!!!

Our Trip to Georgia

SAVANNAH -- Have you ever been to Savannah? If not, you should put it on your to-do list. It is beautiful. And fun. And historical. And there is a lot of good food -- my favorites being she-crab soup and pecan pralines.

ALISON -- Alison told me to go to Savannah. She's also the one who told me to start a blog. And to go with her to OU. I guess you could say she's a good influence! Last week, she posted about Many Moons Wait on her blog, Aliblog (see blogs I like), and said some really nice things about me. Alison and I have known each other since elementary school. We were brownies together, and then we walked over this bridge and they said we were Girl Scouts. What was that all about? I think they gave us wings, too, or something like that. As it turns out, Savannah is the home of the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low.

SARAH -- Another Girl Scout we all know and love is Sarah. She has a blog too, called Sarah and the Good Squad (see blogs I like). Sarah's mom, Alison's mom, and my mom were all Girl Scout leaders or co-leaders at one point or another. We were not your typical Girl Scout troop. And our moms were not your typical troop leaders. The most Girl-Scoutish thing I remember doing is having a talent show at the Girl Scout camp and my group sang, "In the Groovie," a lovely song about knowing what you want and getting it:

I want a cheese

I want a cheeseburger

Not too cheesy

Not too burgery

But in the groovie, in the groovie

I want some French

I want some French fries

Not too Frenchie

Not too fryie

But in the groovie, in the groovie

I want a milk

I want a milk shake

Not to milky

Not too shaky

But in the groovie, in the groovie

If you don't like it

You can kiss my butt

Not on the left

Not on the right

But in the groovie, in the groovie

Did I mention how classy and polite people are in the south? But I digress.

AMBIVABLOG -- After Alison published her very flattering post about me, her friend Annie (a.k.a. Amba) came over to Many Moons Wait and was so impressed with my ultrasound that she went back to her blog (Ambivablog -- see blogs I like) and wrote about it. I have to admit to everyone that I did not create that myself. I saw it somewhere else and -- um -- borrowed it. I seriously doubt that whomever I stole it from made it up herself, because I've seen it on many adoption blogs. But, I feel obligated now to write something really good someday because Annie is reading. She is a "real" writer (as are Alison and Sarah), and has a blog of her own called Ambivablog. I like her because she is a true cat lover. I know that she loves cats deeply because of the way she describes their eyelashes and eyeliner.

THE CHRONICLER -- Myers also read Alison's post, and he left a comment on her blog about how I used to be called the Chronicler. I had forgotten all about this name, bequeathed to me by Dave (or Dah-veed as his Spanish friend calls him, as in, "Dah-veed, this vulture it stinks like sheeeeet.") Dave named me the Chronicler because for one quarter at OU, I took a little notebook everywhere I went and logged the events of the season. It had to be done. Someone had to do it. Strange and wondrous things seemed to happen at all times of the day and night. Things that no one would ever believe. Truth is stranger than fiction, and all that shit. Myers went to elementary school with Stan and also to OU with Stan. He is sort of Stan's Alison.

SCOTT -- So, the reason we went to Savannah was because we were invited to a wedding in Atlanta. Our OU friend, Scott, finally found the girl of his dreams (Jennette) and they became husband and wife this past Saturday, 67 years to the day that Scott's grandfather and grandmother (Frank & Rita) were married. Strangely enough, Frank & Rita were chronicled by the Chronicler in "the book" because a group of us OU kids happened to visit them in their Newton, New Jersey home on the morning of New Year's Eve 1995. Frank offered us bourbon, and Rita tried to tell him that nice girls like us didn't drink, but Frank knew better than that. There were boys in the room, too, but Frank was only interested in Scott's female friends. Frank immigrated to the U.S. from Italy and accidentally took the train to Newton. He was trying to get to Booton, but the Italian accent caused him to be pointed in the wrong direction.

So, to conclude this monstrous post, allow me to chronical a few of the things from our trip to Georgia:

We met the self-proclaimed blackest white-bread girl to ever belong to Alpha Kappa Smelta (or something like that).

Stan drank a mixture of Call a Cab and Attitude Adjustment at Wet Willie's on the river. It totally adjusted his attitude, but we didn't have to call a cab.

The all-male, father-son dance was not going well. "We looked like a bunch of sausages out there," said Dave. So, naturally, he started a Congo line.

After eating at Paula Dean's restaurant, Stan went to bed and dreamed of fried chicken all night long.

Champagne Duane leaves the Holiday Inn Express, but he ALWAYS comes back.