the family you choose.

"Friends are the family you choose for yourself."

I'm still not sure what prompted me to do it.  But I asked them to dinner.

It was a bit out of my comfort zone, going up to complete strangers and asking them to come to our home, but it felt right at the moment.

I turned around in church that day because I heard a baby who sounded almost the same age as my own baby.  I noticed that her parents were visiting the church and were about our age.  Also, he had "the haircut".  They're probably Air Force, I whispered to my husband.  Let's go introduce ourselves.

And so after the service ended, we did.  They were Air Force (the haircut never lies, you see).  And their daughter was similar in age to Hadden.  They were new to the area.  And they were living in an empty house with only the supplies as they carried in their car as they waited for the movers to bring the rest of their things.

Come over for dinner!  I said, remembering when we visited a church and someone said the same to us.  We hurriedly exchanged phone numbers, scribbled on the back of the bulletin and I promised to contact them soon.

Later that week they came for dinner.  Their household goods still hadn't arrived so we urged them to come another time and use our washer and dryer rather than camping out at a laundromat.  One dinner lead into another which led into them inviting us over which began an unending cycle.

That was the beginning of a great friendship.

Today our children, now toddlers, greeted each other with with glee.  We get together often, sharing meals and taking turns babysitting.  Neither of us attend the church where we first met, so we kept each other updated as we visited churches and, eventually, each found the right fit for our family.  I know that I could call at any hour and they would be at our door to help if we needed it. 

There is much more I could say about our friendship, but I'll leave it at this: they are the family we have chosen.

Sometimes I think about what we would be missing if we hadn't gone up to them that day at church.  We would have missed out on true friends (the kind with whom you can be relaxed and comfortable), a ridiculous amount of laughter, our son's first friend, and the best Mexican food of my life.

The next time you meet someone new, take a step outside your comfort zone and invite them to dinner because it might just be the beginning of a lifelong friendship!

  

Our (very low-key) Superbowl Party!

Last night we had my favorite kind of party!  We wanted to watch the Superbowl at home and cheer on my husband's beloved Broncos (no further mention of the actual game from hereon out because you KNOW how that turned out - so disappointing!).  We invited our good friends over for the evening, which always works out well because our toddlers wear each other out and we can all sit around and talk.  The kiddos share each others food and drinks and toys and, for the most part, play nicely together.  It's a little bit chaotic in the best way possible - noisy and messy, but full of love and laughter.

Back to hosting:  I love finding the perfect recipes that I think our friends will enjoy.  I love an excuse to clean the house really thoroughly.  I love knowing that our friends don't really care if the house is clean or the recipes turn out just right.  I love creating an environment that will be relaxing to our guests.  I love having friends who are comfortable opening my fridge and grabbing a drink.  I love knowing that our friends don't really care if the house is clean or the recipes turn out just right.   I love the mess that results, too.  There's something nice about a house that has been lived in and filled with happy memories.  

Here are a few iPhone pictures I took throughout the night.  I'm including links to the recipes I used too!

Waiting for our guests to arrive, Hadden played his favorite game of shutting himself between the glass door and the front door.  I'm not sure why he loves this so, but he does!

We don't usually drink bottled water, but I needed these little bottles for a project so I was happy to have people over to help empty them!

These pictures don't do justice to the food so you might as well visit the links.  These bacon wrapped sausages were GONE.  I thought we would have leftovers, but nope.  The major downfall was that the brown sugar burned so the pan is going to be a headache to clean.

The caprese garlic bread was delicious - the fresh basil and tomatoes reminded me of summer!  We will definitely make this one again.  Not pictured are puppy chow and cream cheese sausage dip (I substituted a can of corn for one of the cans of Rotel).  The dip got high praise from our friends, so I'll probably make it the next time we have a party.

I took 12 different pictures of the toddlers playing and this was the BEST one I got!  Such busy little people!

It was a sad night in the Glorioso-Mays house, but we are still had such a good time with friends.  What did you do for the Superbowl?

videos that might just make you cry (consider this a warning)

Words.  I feel like I have written so many lately and yet few of them have made it to this blog!  I've been working on all sorts of things which meant my blog has been a tad neglected this week.

Anyway, in the past week I've seen two different videos on parenting that have brought tears to my eyes that I wanted to share.  Could I just be a super sappy mother?  Maybe.  Probably.  But maybe you'll end up liking them as much as I did.

Thanks to my friends Pita and Stephanie for passing these along!

2014 - The Year of Hard Conversations

Let's talk honestly about Air Force life, shall we?

Last week we had an information night for spouses that I helped organize.  Among many other speakers, we had someone come in and talk about surviver benefits.  So, with my husband sitting beside me, I learned what would happen if he died.  I learned how much money I would receive, I learned how long I could stay in base housing, I learned how long my son and I would have medical coverage.

It was weird.

I've dubbed 2014 "the year of hard conversations" for our family.  Being in the Air Force, they strongly encourage families to plan for difficult situations.  And we've actually talked about death and the future on many occasions.  But we've decided that this year we need to discuss it all in depth, record our decisions and make sure everything is in order from a legal perspective (will, power of attorney, etc).

I am pretty pragmatic about all of this and, thankfully, so is my husband.  We both recognize that at any time either of us could be injured or killed so we want to make sure things are taken care of.  Perhaps this is part of my natural tendency to over-plan everything, but if something were to happen to my husband, I would want a list.  I would want to go to a notebook and remember that we discussed and know exactly what my next steps should be.  Where he should be buried, what he would like at the funeral, where I should move with our son, how I should invest the money.  And I want him to have the same for me.  It just seems too great a burden to bear to have to make those decisions alone in moments of unfathomable grief and mourning.

It's hard, too, to think of the future.  If we were unable to raise our son, who would we trust to do it for us?  If we were to remarry and that person wanted to adopt our son, would we want his last name to change?

I truly hope that I'll never need these contingency plans, but I feel safety in knowing that I could honor my husband by following the decisions that we had made together.

Have you had these conversations with your spouse?  Or do you want to?  I have friends who swear they could never talk about this with their husbands because they can't possibly imagine him dying, but my husband and I both think it's important and we are able to have these discussions fairly calmly, which I appreciate.

Show Us Your Singles Link Up - Meet Megan!

Although I write about a wide range of topics on here, I am absolutely sure this is the FIRST time I've posted anything like this!  I'm linking up with Kelly today for a Show Us Your Singles post because it just so happens that I have an amazing friend who is single.

I'm not usually the matchmaking type, but when I heard about Show Us Your Singles, I immediately thought of Megan.  I texted her a link to the blog and asked if she'd consider letting me post about her.  Megan is super fun and is usually up for an adventure so she said yes!  And I'm glad she did because it's fun to share about a best friend.


Megan and I met in a freshman nursing class, but, within a week of each other, we both ended up switching our majors to psychology.  We spent the next three years in the same classes, spent two years living in the same dorm and spent a year working together as RAs.  After graduation, Megan moved to Colorado to begin her graduate studies in clinical health psychology and since then we've kept in touch through emails, texts, phone calls, and she even came to visit when Haddy was a newborn (I think I was still in the zombie stages of new motherhood then!).


What I've always appreciated about Megan is her thoughtfulness - we always have the best discussions.  In college we had several lunches each week scheduled together and would spend the whole time talking.  Megan is full of wisdom and asks really good questions, so I like getting her advice.  Megan is thoughtful, too, in how she integrates Christianity into the rest of life and this was a subject we talked about a lot in college.  Megan is such a positive person, but I've see how she chooses to have a positive outlook even when life isn't perfect.  She's an example to me in perseverance and joy.

    

Megan loves music and actually plays piano in her church's worship team.  She likes nature and enjoys walking/running on trails around Denver.  Megan also likes interesting food, whether it be trying a new recipe or a new restaurant.  In college (after we got tired of the usual cafeteria food) we created a special grilled cheese sandwich that makes me hungry just thinking about it - we had to go to all different corners of the cafeteria to collect the ingredients, but it was worth it!  Megan also likes game nights with friends and traveling (the picture below is from a trip to Ireland).  And although she'd never say this about herself, I can say that Megan is a great mix of intelligent and hard working.  I mentioned how we had classes together through college and she set a high bar in terms of grades and projects!

 

Like I said, Megan is a super fun, amazing woman!  I'm so glad that we became friends and thankful for her wisdom in my life.

I do have one warning though: Megan doesn't eat chocolate (she says she's allergic, but I think that's impossible;)  So if you are trying to impress her, don't send chocolate!


**If you think you know someone who might be a good fit for Megan, leave a comment here or send me an email directly and I can pass the information along to her!

"no-reply commenters" - check your settings!

Ever commented on a blog and wonder why the blogger didn't respond?  It might be because of your settings!

When you leave a comment here, I get an email from the address associated with that Google account.  However, many people unknowingly have their email address set as private since that is the default setting in Blogger.  So when your comment comes to me, it comes from a no-reply email address.  Instead of being able to write back to you directly, I can only leave a comment on the post and hope you check back.  I've heard other bloggers make similar remarks about trying to track down a commenter with whom they are trying to connect.

Here's a quick guide to checking your "noreply" settings!  Start at your Blogger dashboard:

If you have your blog linked to your Google+ profile, the box below might look different.  Then you'd want to select "Revert to Blogger profile" before going on to the next step.

Right above the Blogger Profile, I've blacked out my personal email address

This step is simple enough.

See where the underlined portion?  That will tell you which email address the bloggers will see.  I have a email address just for the blog, so that's what I use for my comments as well.  It's a nice way to keep things separate from my personal email.  If you'd like to keep your personal email private, but still comment on blogs, I recommend getting a separate email address under which you can comment!  

Make sure you click save (at the bottom of the page) when you're done and then you'll be all set!

the happily-ever-afters they don't mention in the fairy tales

A highlight from this weekend:

The baby was finally down for a nap.  My husband and I were collapsed on the bed in the throes of food poisoning.

"There's no one else I'd rather have food poisoning with."

"Me neither."