“More than you love kettle corn?” he asked.

“Of course!” she responded.

“More than you love garlic stuff olives?” he asked.

“That’s a close one,” she said… after a long pause.

“I love you too,” he said.

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Especially my dearly beloved mother.

Let me set the scene up for you. My boyfriend and I live together. I’m Irish Catholic. Put two and two together…

So now that you get the situation, let me tell you about the funniest joke EVER.

Over July Fourth weekend, both Matt and my families were at our house celebrating together. Matt was cooking up a storm, my mom had brought some of my favorite snacks and Matt’s seven-month-old niece was entertaining us all with her newly learned laugh.

My mom and I were sitting together at the bar munching on some queso when she said, “I love spending time with our in-laws.”

My chip came to a screeching halt halfway to its intended destination and I replied, “Mom. I don’t have a ring. They aren’t in-laws yet!”

“You know what I mean!!” she replied.

We sat quietly for a few seconds and  then… the best joke EVER hit me.

With an evil grin plastered to my face, I enjoyed my chip and said (with perfect comedic timing, I might add), “Well… I guess you could call them our Living-In-Sin-Laws if you really wanted to be accurate.”

My dear lovely mother looked at me a moment and then deadpan said “Yes. I actually prayed about that in church this morning. Thank you for reminding me,” before smiling sweetly and walking off to play with the baby some more.

Mom 1, Margaret 0

Speaking of hilarious MommyMac related things… We are totally scaling a sheer cliff together in this photo. Can you tell?

One moment, you are one person… And a moment later, you are someone completely different. And because it is always during the mundane that things truly fall apart, you are probably doing something so ordinary that what happens next is even more shattering. You may be standing in a grocery store picking out the best grapefruit, sitting on the couch flipping through channels…

For me, that moment came when I was 16 and coming home from hostessing at the local pasta place. One moment, I was an ordinary little girl. I fell out of bed every morning joyful in the fact that it was a new day and that I was living it. I was doing well in school, I had crushes on boys, I reveled in the drama that defined being a teenager… Only because I didn’t know what real drama looked like. Until my dad committed suicide.

And the next moment, the moment my world fell apart and I believed nothing was ever again going to appear as it had before, I knew what it was to shatter. I knew what loss and real rage felt like and what people meant when they said their heart was broken. And I never knew if I would trust again or if my world would ever right itself. Nothing would ever be the same and the pieces all looked too small to ever pick up.

I have been thinking about that moment a lot in recent months. I love the life that I have and contradictory to what I believed at 16, the world began turning again… but sometimes I can’t help but peer through the looking glass and wonder what my life would look like if it had continued on unbroken. And lately I have been mourning what I left behind on the other side.

But while I mourn those things that were lost, I have also come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t have my life any other way. What makes us human and vulnerable is the fact that we live our lives constantly balanced on the edge of a razor blade. When we fall off, when we shatter… it is the moment that we find ourselves on our knees, picking up the pieces, that is the most important. Because when the pieces are all put back together, light shines through them in a different way than it ever has and what is left is more interesting and special than anything that came before.

And that is truly what makes all that is life so beautiful.

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- Jane Green

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Since she is in school out of town, I’m missing her a ton today and wishing I could wrap my arms around her on her birthday. Since I can’t do that… I thought I would compile a quick list of all of the reasons why she is the raddest little sister on the block.

1. No one makes me laugh like Alice
2. When I’m upset, she is the voice that calms me
3. And when I inadvertently color my hair pink, she helps make it right
4. Her heart is as big as the universe
5. And people who know her are lucky to have her in their lives
6. She once put a pacemaker in a ferret
7. And I would trust her to amputate a limb
8. In matters of the heart, her expertise is unrivaled
9. And her capacity to help others knows no bounds
10. Like I said… Alice is amazing.

Happy 24th little girl. You are the best little sister a girl could have.

1. Usually yellow is my favorite color, but I’m loving the bright green paint we bought for the front room
2. The super artsy event I’m planning with PODS Houston right now (announcement soon!)
3. Jodi Picoult’s Sing Them Home
4. This new mango smoothie recipe I made up
5. DIVISI STRINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. The way your eyelashes look when you pop open a fresh tub of mascara
7. The new bike trails the guy and I found behind the Cypress Creek YMCA
8. And last but not least… The fact that the Shell Houston Open is FINALLY here!!

And yes. I realize I’ve skipped the past two weeks… but I really like to think that I’m getting better at this whole “blogging with regularity” thing.

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My little sister and I threw a surprise birthday party for MommyMac and it was AMAZING. So many close friends of my mom came over for the surprise and when she walked in the door, her expression was priceless. Being able to give a night like that to the woman who has given me so much was probably one of the absolute best moments of my life.

That being said, we did learn a few very important lessons in the planning of said party… the biggest lesson being that you don’t send a pair of hungry McDonald girls to H.E.B. to buy party groceries.

We walked into the store with a list and $222.37 cents later, we walked out of the store with the contents of our list + enough random food to feed an army. But we had a blast shopping, so I wanted to share our oh-so-random list.

Recipe for a surprise party:
1 case of Coke
1 case of Diet Coke (aka elixir of the gods)
2 giant things of ketchup
1 case of Diet 7-Up
20 sweet potatoes (27.72 pounds, to be exact)
4 sticks of butter
1 roll of parchment paper
1 bottle of carrot juice (because it looked good)
1 16 ounce jug of egg beaters
1 bag of pre-cut green beans
1 box of classic yellow cake
1 bok of chocolate fudge cake
2 16 ounce jugs of frosting
1 thingy of lemon juice
2 cans of Rotel (1 hot, 1 regular)
26 ounces of salt
1 roll of parchment paper
Roughly 100 asparagus spears
4 packages of football-shaped plates
1 bag of Baked pita chips
2 bags of “Hint of Lime” Tostitos
2 things of 2% milk Velveeta cheese
SPRINKLES!!!! FOUR DIFFERENT KINDS!!!!
1 bag of pre-cut broccoli
1 bag of baby carrots
1 bag of Spicy Nancho Doritos
1 bag of BAKED Sea Salt Kettle Cooked potato chips (because Alice was hungry)
2 bags of “alle olive” Larzaroni Bruschettes (because I was hungry)
1 jug of garlic marinated olives from the HEB olive bar (because why not?)
2 bags of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 bags of Nestle semi-sweet white chocolate morsels
7 boxes of Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice (sans any chicken product)
1 bag of pecan pieces
50 Solo Cups (because I was concerned we might run out… for a 20 person party)
150 Napkins
1 Dry Roasted Peanuts
1 22 ounce thing of garlic powder
1 22 ounce thing of black pepper

and… 1 bottle of Vintage Ink cabernet (to drink while unloading aforementioned groceries)

The good news is that we saved $5.67 by shopping at H.E.B. The bad news is that we were having SO MUCH FUN last night we took ZERO pictures.

Happy birthday Mom!

Yes… we live together.
Yes… we see each other all the time.
Yes… we frequently (x 50) say the word’s “I love you” out loud.

But finding these little slips of paper often makes my day.

While one of my favorite things about our tradition is the simplicity, I visited Papyrus in Rice Village to purchase a birthday card recently and found some more unusual ways to say “I love you” that I absolutely adore.

Hello?! Adorable!!

So now I think I’m going to up the “love note” ante a bit and I would love your help. What are your favorite places to buy cards? Etsy? A shop down the street? Because I’m on the hunt for the cheesiest card in the west.

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Last Monday I instituted a plan to turn my intense dislike for Mondays around. Every Monday, my plan is to think back on the last 7 days and highlight a few of my favorite things. These things are on no way related to anything important… except the fact that they make me smile. So here is this Monday’s list!

1. Clay Walker at RodeoHouston with my best girlfriends
2. Evening spin class at the Tellepsen Family YMCA
3. The view from my office
4. The fun Houston Arts Alliance I’m working on with MMI client, PODS Houston
5. Researching all things raw: Lesson one… peel before freezing
6. Pre-SXSW and Girl+Guy Party excitement

Now… to get back to snacking on raspberries.

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Bills are always due on Mondays. I’m supposed to remember to enter my time at work on Mondays. I always run out of cream at the house on Mondays. Traffic is always terrible… and to top it all off? I can never find that shirt I wanted to wear that looked really great with those pants on Mondays. In a nutshell, Mondays are my arch nemesis.

So I am going to start channeling that hate into a blog post.

If you know me, you know I fall into love with random things (books, people, this cool new bowl from IKEA) hard and fast. So, every Monday, I’m going to compile a list of the random and wacky things I’ve discovered, or rediscovered, in the past week. That way… I’ll start the day off dreaming instead of cursing the alarm.

So without further ado…

1. My Mom’s vegetable beef soup.
2. “Shine the Light” by Sugarland
3. TINY BLACK CARS!
4. Zicam, I love you. You are my hero.
5. This blog post.
6. Speaking of things I cannot stop eating… Strawberries.
7. Anne Hathaway. Always.
8. Living with my best friend.

So that’s all. And let’s be honest… I probably won’t remember to post every Monday, but a girl can try.

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