09/09/09 A Day I Will Definitely Remember

Today was a day just like any other day...until about 1pm. The phone rang, I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Did you get my message?"

"No" (I had no idea who I was talking to at this point.)

"Me, my boyfriend, and the kids are in your little town here.. we're over by Empire Mall."

It was my childhood friend Rachel! I was so excited to hear that she was in Sioux Falls, but sooo confused at the same time. Why in the world was she in Sioux Falls? She lives in CA and as far as I knew she wasn't going on any vacations.

Well, 5 minutes later they showed up at the house.

It's a long and very complicated story but after about 10 minutes of them being here... we ended up with 4 additional people living in this house for an indefinite period of time.

I've been thinking about ways we are actually going to do this. We barely get by with just the 3 of us since Gage works one part-time job. I am trusting the Lord though. The Lord always provides. It is a challenge I was not expecting when I woke up today, but I will praise the Lord through this. God has a plan for this whole situation.

There is so much more I am leaving out of this story. Just know that we are in desperate need of your prayers. This is not going to be easy by any means.

God brought them to our doorstep today. We intend to see them through this difficult period of life every step of the way.

(In the photo: JJ, AJ, and Zoe)

Ted and Katharine Oswald!

She looked so beautiful!! I found this picture on facebook posted by Katharine's friend Lindsay. Katharine is the 3rd out of my 6 bridesmaids to be married now. She has now husband Ted Oswald were wed yesterday in San Diego, CA. It's hard to think that she is no longer Katharine Daulton anymore! I feel so bad that I could not make it to their Wedding. I searched for affordable tickets for 2 months before the Wedding and I guess this is a bad time to buy plane tickets because there was never anything I could afford.

Katharine and I met in late Dec 2000 online. We were both huge Hanson fans. We met in person in January 2001 at my 16th birthday party in Temecula, CA and from then on we made many happy memories together by attending concerts, going to Hollywood for the first time, and hanging out at each others houses. She lived in Carlsbad and I lived in Escondido. What a huge blessing Ted is for Katharine. I am so glad the Lord has provided her with a husband who will love and cherish her all her life! I look forward to meeting him someday. They live in Phillidelphia, PA now so it may be a while before that happens.

I pray that the Lord blesses them and that they would keep the Lord the in center of their marriage.

Congratulations Katharine & Ted!

Kyera Hope - January 16th!

Congratulations to our friends Rachelle & Josh on their new baby girl Kyera Hope! She was born at 8:45 pm on January 16th (my birthday!). She was 8 lbs, 12 oz! I don't think Zoe weighed that much until she was a month old.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about baby Trey, he is the son of Rachelle's best friend Rachel. Here is Trey with his new friend Kyera and both of their Daddies.

Congrats again to both sets of new parents!! I'm so excited to get to know these babies in the future. :)

Baby Trey!

I want to say Congratulations to my friends Rachel and Rob on the birth of their first baby - a son named Trey Wayne! He was born on December 30, 2008 at 5:53pm, 7lbs, 15 oz. He came a few days early, he was due on the 3rd of January (Gage's birthday!). He's adorable and I can't wait to meet him!

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Happy Birthday Amanda!

You're 23! You've finally caught up to me. But now it's only about 6 more weeks until I'm 24 and you'll have to spend another year catching up again ;o)

I love you and miss you! Hope you can make it out here for Zoe's birthday in March!


(Amanda is one of my best friends ever. We've been friends since Nov 1991! That means...17 years! The photo on the right is Amanda and me at my bachelorette party in 2006.)

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Bake Night!

For the past few Wednesdays my friend Rachel has come over and we've been baking! We made the Peanut Butter Surprise cookies to begin with then the night before Thanksgiving we made 6 pies (the plan was originally for 4 pies but we ended up with enough to make 6 so we did).

We've decided to make it a weekly thing! I love to bake but I don't do it very often so it'll be fun to try baking new things each week. We haven't exactly worked out a schedule but I think from now on we're going to make dinner one time a month and a non-sweet snack or bread (so we don't overload on sweets). Tonight Rachel is not feeling well so we're not going to bake tonight. Next week we are going to make dinner or try making bagels, we haven't decided yet.

Christmas Eve we are going to bake cookies! Anyone have any suggestions for some good Christmas cookies?


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We're Home!

We spent the last week in San Diego, CA (our hometown) hanging out with friends and family. As you can tell from my previous post, we went there for a Wedding.

Tuesday - Got up at 5 am (after going to bed at about 12:30 am, hah!) My sister and friend Amanda picked us up, drove us to Gage's Grandpa's house. We hung out with some of Gage's family, went out to eat, then were dropped off at my Dad's house.

Wednesday - We went up to Riverside (an hour away, where I was born). Hung out with Kristie & Elliott for a while, then we all went out to eat and my cousin Adam, aunt Luanne, Grandma & Grandpa met up with us. Later we stopped by Alex's (the groom) surprise Birthday party :) Good times.

Thursday - I went to Disneyland all day with my friends (for the Bachelorette Party!), Gage went to the Bachelor Party, and Zoe stayed with my "other Mom" for the day :) Sounds like she had a blast! I had SO much fun at Disneyland. I hadn't been there in 3 years! That is a long time for me haha.


Friday - Gage, Zoe, and I went to the beach for a bit, Zoe played in the sand for a while. We walked on the pier at my favorite beach (Oceanside!) and Zoe waved at all the Seagulls. hehe. Later that evening we went to the Wedding Rehearsal.

Saturday - The Wedding!! It was beautiful. I cried many times, haha. My little Shellybean is a married woman now. Amazing!

Sunday - Went to my old church, got to see my Dad lead worship and hear my little sister Gabby's AMAZING voice. I love the music they do at their church! After worship we had to leave. It was sad saying bye to my Dad, sister, and my brother at church. I'm always especially sad when I have to say bye to my brother because he's autistic and so until I see him again I have no way to be in contact with him since he can't talk on the phone or e-mail. Leaving church early was also something I was hoping we wouldn't have to do. I wish we could have stayed to hear Pastor Dave's message (He's the pastor that married Gage and me). We had to head to the airport though. We flew to Omaha, NE and drove home from there. Got home at around 1:30 AM. Yup.


The trip was way too short. Usually we go there for over a week, last time it was almost two weeks that we were in San Diego, then we spent another week in Northern Cali. Hopefully next year we'll get to stay longer. We plan our trips around Weddings and Graduations haha. I wonder who will be getting married next.... *cough*Gabby*cough*. Her boyfriend caught the garter, she caught *part* of the bouquet haha.



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Goin' to the Chapel!

I'm going to be in a Wedding today! I'm a bridesmaid (well, brides matron technically since I'm married). One of my best friends in the world is getting married today! I'm so excited for her! I am going to cry my eyes out the moment she walks down the isle.

We're off to find a dress for Zoe. I managed to forget to bring a dress for her to wear to the Wedding...haha. Can you believe it?? Me of all people. Oh well, it's an excuse to buy her a really cute dress ;o)

Two days ago we went to Disneyland to celebrate her Bachelorette Party. Yesterday was the Rehearsal, that went very well :) Zoe is doing good on this trip. She played in the sand at the beach for the first time yesterday - she loved it!

Ok gotta go!

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Hanson

October 19, 2001
My 1st Time Meeting Hanson (at a Lifehouse/Michelle Branch concert)

Left to Right: Kelly, Isaac, Me, Katharine, Taylor, Zac, and Angela

I have many fond memories of all of these people. :)


If you knew me when I was young, you'd know that I was a HUGE fan of Hanson for 7 years, and then just a fan for the past 4 years haha. I have been a fan of Hanson for 11 years and we are going to see them on Friday night! I'm so excited!

I was such a BIG fan... I mean this was over-the-top! I practically lived on their website, Hanson.net. I won signed prizes for how much time I spent on that site. I was a Hanson.net Community Leader. I was the Editor of The Hanson.net Gazette on their website. I met them 4 times, saw them in concert 8 times, saw them at other people's concerts 3 times. I've EVEN been to the house they grew up in - in Tulsa, OK. I had every last bit of Hanson paraphernalia, and I knew all there was to know about each of the Hanson brothers and their family. When my friends and I were together, all we would talk about was Hanson.























Little did I know at the time that I was actually worshiping Hanson. They were my idols. Though I would never admit it to myself, they were more important to me than my relationship with Christ. When I was about 18 I finally realized it and I actually think that is when I truly got saved. I became a true follower of Christ (a Christian) and ever since then my life has been totally different. I still enjoy Hanson's music though, I think they have been blessed with a lot of talent. I'm totally looking forward to seeing them in concert again! It's been 3 years since I last saw them.

Some people have even pointed out to me that Hanson's youngest sister's name is Zoe and I named my daugher Zoe.... I can assure you though, it had nothing to do with that! haha. If there is anyone to blame for me liking the name Zoe, it is the Christian pop group ZOEgirl.

If you're wondering what these guys are up to these days. They are still making music, they have their own record label, and Isaac, Taylor, and Zac are all married now and all have children of their own. Taylor has 2 boys (Ezra and River) and a girl (Penelope). Isaac has a son named Everett, born last year. Zac has a son named Shepherd, who was born in May of this year.

Photo above: Zac Hanson and Me. Taken October 20, 2001 at a Phantom Planet concert

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Rachelle and Josh

A few days ago I decided that I wanted to write about all of my friends individually and how I met each of them. I plan to do this over time though, not all at once.

With the upcoming Lifelight festival this weekend I figured it is fitting to make my first friends post about Rachelle and Josh Brewer. A wonderful Christian couple that we know here in Sioux Falls. They were our first friends here! This story begins with a radio commercial.

I had never heard about LifeLight until 2006, a few months before I moved to Sioux Falls. I was sitting in my car in San Diego and I heard a radio commercial for this LifeLight music festival in SIOUX FALLS, SD of all places. I was amazed! I had never even heard of Sioux Falls before 2006 and then all of the sudden I was going to be moving there (well, here...) and then I heard about it on the radio in San Diego! We did not attend Lifelight that year though because we didn't arrive in Sioux Falls until September 30, a few weeks after the festival.

Right after we moved here I was browsing on MySpace and I saw one girl in a Wedding dress who lived in Sioux Falls. I saw her profile and I found out that she had just gotten married 6 days after we did! Her name was Rachelle. I sent her a friendly message introducing myself and saying congrats on her new marriage. We became MySpace friends and within a month, after a Bebo Norman concert, she invited us to come to Perkins to hang out with her, her husband, and her friends. As we are sitting at the table, she asked if we had ever heard of Lifelight. I then remembered the radio commercial I had heard a few months before and so I said, yes! I had heard of it. Well, it turns out that her parents are the founders of Lifelight - The Greenes. They then tried to describe to me how big and amazing and fun the festival is and I got very excited. I had always wanted to go to a big Christian music festival but never could afford it!
So all year I very much looked forward to Lifelight. It finally came and it was exactly as I had pictured it :) It was so much fun. However, I was pregnant and not feeling well and my back hurt VERY bad that weekend so that did put a damper on things.

We hung out with Rachelle and Josh quite a bit when we first met - we went to a Bible study at the Greene's for a few months but the study ended because they got so busy with Lifelight. Rachelle & Josh got involved in missions and so we didn't really see them much this past year unfortunately. However...Rachelle is expecting a baby now! So this means they will be in town for at least 9 months, haha. I'm so excited for them! I hope they have a girl. Zoe needs more girlfriends! Rachelle's best friend Rachel is also pregnant and expecting a little boy! I think they are due the same month. I'm so excited about all these babies due next year!

Both Rachelle and Josh share a strong desire for reaching the lost. In the past year they have been in missionary boot camp, they went to Mexico, and to Haiti. They are currently running the Lifelight Missions, and Josh is starting a street team this year that will be going around Lifelight sharing the gospel to whoever needs to hear it. (Gage was going to be part of that group but unfortunately Gage has to work on Sat and Sun.)


Rachelle will be performing at this year's Lifelight in the Coffee House on Sunday at 6pm I believe. Josh is speaking on the Souled Out stage (I think) on Saturday.

The Butterfly House

Zoe and I went to the Butterfly House a couple of weeks ago with some new friends. It was my first time being there. For the past few years I've kind of disliked butterflies because I looked at one too closely one time and realized just how scary looking they really are (the bug itself, not the pretty wings) haha. I got over my "fear" though and really enjoyed the Butterfly House here in Sioux Falls! A couple even landed on Zoe :)

She really seemed to enjoy herself! She looked around at all the butterflies and tried to grab them.

We went there with my new friend Anna and some of her friends. I met Anna at the New Baby & Me class that I attend nearly every week at the hospital where Zoe was born. She has a daughter, Kj, who was born 10 days after Zoe. When I arrived at the Butterfly House she introduced me to a couple women from her church home group and their kids. Tracy - who has 3 children, and Breanna who also had 3 children.

There were SO many butterflies! I didn't even know there were blue and black butterflies, pink and black butterflies, neon GREEN butterflies!
After the Butterfly House we went over to the park and had a picnic lunch.

Every week during the summer they get together and go to a park or do some fun event with the kids. This past Wednesday we went to Brea's house for the day. We just hung out, talked, played a fun game, and ate M onkey Munch! I haven't had that since I was a kid!
You know, the chex cereal with chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Yummmmm! I should try making it later this year sometime.

Friends

God has blessed me with so many wonderfully unique friends in the past year! I am so thankful for them. For a long time was struggling because when I moved here I wanted instant best friends and I knew that wouldn't happen. Over the past two years I have met many people and developed friendships with many of them (mostly in the past year) and it is interesting because 95% of them are all at least 3 years older than me, some much older, but surprisingly I very rarely feel like a little kid around them, whereas before I would have probably never have made friends with someone older than me because I always felt intimidated. Maybe that is a sign that I am in fact growing up....*sigh*
It's a good thing! Really, it is. Haha.

Mel & Tim, Marie & Steve, Rachel (and Evan!), Rachelle & Josh, Rick & Amber, Greg & Beth, Cara & Eric, Kristin & Nate, and Anna - I am blessed to know you all. I look forward to getting to know you more as the years go by.

-Shaina