THE BIRTHDAY BOY.

So there is this boy, that I am apparently "desperately" in LOVE with... And I have to agree. 

We met almost four years ago, I yelled at him, he eventually asked me out, we fell in love. 

                                                             (John and I Easter 2012)

We've celebrated many things together, but this birthday is a big one. He is turning TWENTY ONE. 

I am so blessed to have this wonderful, smart, talented and loving man in my life... I don't know what I would do without him by my side!!

In honor of his 21st birthday, here are 21 things that I desperately love about him... In no particular order!

1. He is handsome, do you see that face up there?! 

2. He is giving, he seems to have this way of saying just the right thing, just when I need it the most. 

3. He is sarcastic (which I love most of the time) and he teases me all the time!

4. He has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen!

5. He makes me laugh, not just a regular laugh, but a full-on belly laugh with tears!

6. He demands respect, but in a loving and Godly way. 

7. He believes in God and fully lives it out. 

8. He is so thoughtful and reminds me daily why I love him.

9. He has such an awesome tender side.

10. He respects me and my decisions and our decisions.

11. He has a way with computers, he just gets them! And fixes them for me whenever I break stuff (which happens to be a lot!)

12. He is incredibly smart. 

13. He wears his facial hair longer cause I like it like that. 

14. He is honest. 

15. He has a way of keeping me sane and calming me down, I don't know how he does it, but he does!

16. He lets me drink coffee even though he HATES it. 

17. He knows the best time to just wrap his arms around me and kissing my forehead.

18. He lets me call him the silly names that I come up with, and some are really silly!

19. He makes me feel safe and cherished. 

20. He lets me give directions and doesn't get mad when we get lost and I get a bit yelly. 

21. BECAUSE HE LOVES ME.

Seriously, John is the best thing that has happened in my life and I can't wait to spend many more birthdays with him, celebrating the best person I know!

                                                    (John and I on our first date almost four years ago!)

John, I love you and I can't wait to spend your wonderful birthday with you my love!!

"You know I'd fall apart without you, I don't know how you do what you do... cause everything that don't make sense about me, makes sense when I'm with you...

p.s. I know that you love to brag about being one month and fourteen days older than me, but I secretly love that you are, because you will turn thirty before me!! Bahahahaha, love you boo!!

xoxo, Jess

WORK IT OUT RACERBACK SHIRTS.

So I'm doing this thing called the Couch to 5K (post coming soonish)... This involves working out and that involves getting sweaty, really sweaty! I hate wearing regular t-shirts when I work out because I get hot and the t-shirts don't let me breathe and I feel cramped and I suffer from claustrophobia (It may be imagined, but I feel it!!) I also hate how shorts ride up when you run, it happens to everyone, but honestly can't Nike create shorts that don't ride up?!


So... I was looking at Pinterest for workout clothes and ideas and this lovely thing showed up!


http://pinterest.com/pin/109493834660668690/

(source)

I decided to try it out on an old t-shirt and after some little adjustments on my end, I am really happy with how it turned out!! Of course my back does not look that toned, but whatever. :)


This allows me to not feel so hot and stuck in my t-shirts and it's cute!! Which, trust me, anything can help me look better when I run because I look like this. 

(source)

Except, less cute. 

So hopefully these workout raceback shirts will help me feel better about how I look and be yet another reminder to get out there and train! I've got to go to GoodWill or something and stock up on some old t-shirts... after I raid the boyfriends and his brothers old shirts of course!!

p.s. I'm calling it "training" cause it sounds way better than "finally-doing-something-that-has-taken-me-three-ish-years-to-get-the-guts-to-do"... plus it's shorter too.

XOXO Jess

CHEERS.

<3 HR

Frozen Yogurt

Sometimes I will admit that I am addicted to things... Like maybe I am ADDICTED to Frozen Yogurt... maybe.
And maybe Extreme Friends are for encouraging your addiction, sometimes more than once a week.  :)
XOXO, Jess

BILLY GILMAN. 12 years later.

The other day at work we were chatting about music and somehow the topic of a singer from when I was younger, a country singer who was a cutie that I used to love, came up! One of my co-workers remembered the name of the singer (that I had since then forgot because I "lost" my cassette of his music after a few months of having it, still convinced to this day that my Mama took a part in me losing it). I immediately looked the name up and was brought back to 2000 and third grade. 


In 2000, when I was in third grade, I was obsessed with this singer, I had his cassette and a walk-man and literally walked around listening and re-listening to his songs over and over and over again and belting them out in my 7 year old confidence. I was AWESOME, in case you were wondering. 


Billy Gilman, circa 2000. 


                                                                        One Voice

One Voice, the one song that I listened to and belted out the most!! I was a swooning third grader!

                                                                           Elisabeth

           (I wanted to be a teacher like the girl in this song! Haha )

Billy Gilman, all grown up. His website.

                                                                         The Choice

I am more than impressed with him still (and it doesn't hurt that he is still super cute!!). This kid star is making such a difference. I may or may not have downloaded his music from Itunes, don't judge me! :)


I am more than glad to know that I can still support him in his music career and that someone who started out as just some sweet little country singer (who I was over heels in love with at the age of 7 or 8) is out there making a difference and helping people who NEED people to help them. 


I'm also incredibly proud to be a country music fan because this video is full of amazing artists who took time and made this song beautiful!


Oh Billy Gilman, you are still adorable. My third grader self is still swooning. :)


xoxo Jess

I’VE NEVER ACTUALLY SEEN THE GHOSTBUSTERS MOVIE—Misadventures during Shakespeare in the Park

To Clarify: This post is written by Heather Rae.

One of the most awesome things about living in St. Louis is that there is a ton of fun and free activities to do, especially in the summertime. Of these, Shakespeare in the Park is a top favorite of mine. Every year since we graduated from high school, a group of friends gets together and sets out for lunch and good times in Forest Park while enjoying some classic Shakespeare. This year the play was Othello. I rode to the park with one of my best buddies, Matt.

Heather Rae @ Shakespeare in the Park, 2012

Matt drove, which is a good thing, because if I had been driving we would have gotten even more lost than we did anyway. As it was, we somehow pulled into the richest neighborhood I have ever been through in my entire life.

ME: shouldn’t this community be gated?

MATT: Here’s the gate coming up…we took the back way in.

ME: WHY IS THERE EVEN A BACK WAY INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD LIKE THIS?!?!?

MATT: I don’t know, but hide the Subway cup… we don’t want to stand out. Hey look at that house! I bet it was airlifted here from Tuscany or something…

Eventually Matt maneuvered our way out of the super nice neighborhood, which is good since we were driving a Bonneville, so it didn’t really matter if the Subway cup was showing or not anyway. We were the first part of the group to arrive at the park, so we picked a good spot and hung out until the rest of the gang got there. Othello was put on wonderfully by the team this year, and if you are at all familiar with Shakespeare you can appreciate the amount of humor and innuendos that were carefully placed throughout his tragedy. For any who don’t know, here’s a quick synopsis of Othello in my own words:

Othello is an outstanding guy who marries an important woman without her father’s permission. They actually get away with it, and Othello is appointed to be in charge in Cyprus during some kind of conflict (the version we saw took place in 1912). Everything is fine and dandy with the new couple until the token jerk villain (Lago) gets all bothered about life and decides to mess up Othello’s happiness by convincing him that his wife is having an affair. Othello kills his wife first and asks questions later, and after asking questions (and discovering his mistake) kills himself as well. Lago lives (although he is now a captive), and Cassio (the alleged lover of Othello’s wife) is appointed in Othello’s place. Cassio is the clear winner here.

Sidebar: Othello has much more of a plot and meaning than what I’ve mentioned here. Shakespeare was brilliant and I would encourage you to study more into it if you have the patience. I’m writing to be funny, not to earn an award. Please don’t be offended that my synopsis has GREATLY short changed this play.

During intermission, I had to use the bathroom. Forest park usually has a squadron of about twenty to thirty port-a-potties lined up at the back of the natural amphitheatre, and they are usually surprisingly clean. However, I would advise you, that when you’re waiting in a line of many people, don’t go the ONE port-a-potty that is suspiciously marked as OPEN. There’s probably a random dude in there peeing. If you do it anyway because it seemed like a great idea at the time, just say “excuse me” and walk away LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED. At least that’s what I did. I was laughing so hard by the time I got back to the blanket that I couldn’t even stop long enough to tell one of my friends what had happened.

FRIEND: Did you find a condom in the bathroom or something?

ME: Nope, just a man…

Besides finding a man in the bathroom, with the help of my friend Crystal, we realized that Shakespeare really has nothing positive to teach us about love and relationships. Fall in love, someone will lie, and one or both of you will probably end up dead. I feel like he gave us a series of strict warnings not to believe everything we hear, because if we do, we’ll mess up something good that we had and everyone else will watch it happen. Nicholas Sparks tried to key into this I guess. Same tragedies different era…but that’s a rant for another time.

On the way home, Matt and I passed some old hotel. The top floor was completely glass and all blue and glow-y.

MATT: From the other side of the park, all you can see is that top floor and it looks just like Dana Barrett’s apartment.

ME: Who?

MATT: Dana Barrett. From Ghostbusters.

ME: Oh. Yeah, I’ve never actually seen the Ghostbusters movies.

MATT: Heather Rae, that’s almost as bad as Jess not seeing the Indiana Jones movies. Almost. 

I EAT SPAGHETTI NOODLES THROUGH MY NOSE.

Jess: Purple
Heather: Green
^Jess, that's rude.
^^ It's funny, Heather Rae.


Okay, we're going to stop lamenting about the fact that the title of this post is in all caps...Well, I am anyway. Jess doesn't care. Oh. Right. Jess :) She's only been my friend for over ten years. As a team we decided that a friendship that long term deserves a title other than best. 


So we went with EXTREME. It seemed reasonable.


Abbreviated EF for short. Now you know. 


Fifth grade, inebriation, a (ferocious, evil) betta fish... that pretty much sums it up folks. 




                                                              Introductions




                                                                     Heather Rae

(Heather Rae's 20th birthday at Blueberry Hill)

This is Heather Rae, not Heather, not Rae, but Heather Rae. And she will most likely knife you if you don't call her that. She likes it. She has decided to go to East Jesus Nowhere, Oklahoma. That is too far away if you ask me, but whatever, go and further your education... I love this girl. Seriously, she has been through some crazy crap with me and stuck by, which is in itself a feat. She is smart, funny, slightly controlling (in a good way) and she does not take things slow. She likes ninjas and sarcastic people. I'm neither of those, but she loves me nonetheless (seriously, I fall over myself, I'd suck as a ninja). Anyways, I will cut you if you hurt her.  Extreme love. 






                                                                        Jess

(Jess, Twin Falls, ID, October 2011)

Jess, which is short for if-you-call-her-Jessica-she-will-punch-you-in-your-ovary-even-if-you-are-a-man, is kind of like the friendship love of my life. She's kind of particular about her name...actually she's kind of particular about a lot of things. Some people call that OCD, but I just call it "Jess." Jess is madly (what some would call sickeningly) in love with her long-term boyfriend, and aspires to stay in her hometown and get a teaching degree at a local college. She eventually (okay, desperately) wants to get married to said boyfriend and start a family. I think she wants like 23 children. Or something like that. She has an unhealthy love for owls, but just in general, you don't stay friends with someone for over ten years if they aren't a completely amazing person.

Which brings us to where we are. Jess is a smart, organized, home-oriented, local girl. Heather Rae is a silly, passionate, sarcastic, random freak whom I love. In the fall, I'll be making the long trek to EAST JESUS NOWHERE, OK to pursue my five-year-long Architecture degree, and Jess will stay close to home to complete her Elementary Education degree. With a dynamic friendship like ours, it's time we started something. 

So enjoy this adventure with us, the fun times, the sad times and the times where we have NO idea what we are doing (those are more frequent than we like to admit).

Love, us. 

(Choir trip, senior year, 2010, Branson, MO)

P.S. This could potentially be the only co-blog we do on our co-blog because it took us upwards of an hour and twenty minutes to write! Oy.Vey.