One down, one to go

One year ago, before dropping him of at the Missionary
Training Center in Provo, UT

Happy one year to my little bro, Kendall!  He's been serving a mission in Sapporo, Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since August 2011. I miss him. Mostly picking on him and yelling at him when he eats ALL my Nutty Bars and any kind of sugary, unhealthy, delicious treat that I'm saving for ME.  And I miss laughing with him, or as my mom would say, "going into mania" with him.

We had fun together growing up. Playing with our beanie baby collections, running around Grandma Stratford's property pretending to be Robin Hood and Little John (he always made me be Little John because I was "bigger"), making movies, chasing him around in his whitie tighties (that one ended bad, story for another time), and covering the bathroom floor in water and soap during our bath time so we could surf.

I liked controlling him through force. It worked until
 he got bigger than me.

One of my favorite memories: One fine Texas day, Leighton and Tyler left for school. Kendall and I were still at home, too young to be in school yet, and I had been eyeing Tyler's newly purchased pack of Zebra gum for awhile. As soon as that door shut, I grabbed my partner in crime, snatched the Zebra gum from Tyler's dresser, and we crawled under Tyler's bed and chewed every last piece of gum. Still not sure if Tyler has forgiven us for that.

I'm proud of Kendall and the example he sets for our family. While stubborn at times, he is also extremely diligent and hard-working. I've never seen someone prepare for a mission as much as he did.  I know that he loves the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that he is loving and serving the people in Japan with his whole heart.  Can't wait to see him next August!

We are Virginia voters

People have been outside the metro stop pretty much every day this summer trying to get us to register to vote. I kept telling them I'd do it online, I didn't have time right now, etc. Even though they assured me it would "only take 60 seconds, AND we'll send it in for you."  I finally succumbed to this cute old man.  He seemed surprised when I told him I hadn't registered yet and I'd actually like to fill out the paper right now.  He asked me if I was 18. I said yes, I voted in the last presidential election. And then when I told Tom to come over and register, too, the same cute old man asked Tom if he was an American citizen. I'm not sure what nationality Tom might look like..? But I guess not American.  It took us a little more than 60 seconds to fill out the papers, but not much.  Now we're registered to vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where I'm hoping my vote might make a difference.

Moral of my post: If you haven't registered to vote yet, go get 'er done because the clock's ticking!!

Celebrations

Tom and I both have birthdays in July, and then one week after my birthday is our anniversary. Which is tomorrow, one year and going strong! It's a lot of partying to cram into one month, but we manage.

We went to Ohio to celebrate Tom's birthday and stayed with Addie and Jamey in Columbus. Addie was such a good hostess all weekend long! (Chocolate cake from Costco, need I say more?) We drove to Cinicinnati for the Bunbury Music Festival and watched the Imagine Dragons and Weezer. Tom knew the Imagine Dragons from when he lived in Vegas, and they were really cool even though it rained on us the whole time. At the Weezer concert it was all fun and games until My Name is Jonas and then everyone went nuts! I'm pretty sure I would have been knocked out by crowd surfers and trampled if Tom wasn't there to protect me. But we had a blast! 

It was fun to pretend we had a new car for a few days

So for my birthday, Tom asked me what I wanted to do and I knew right away - the zoo! We saw the new cute little cheetah cubs who are going to be named after the fastest American woman and man at the Olympics this year. We saw some pandas who were just reclining in their little bamboo cages chewing on bamboo all day long. I decided if Tom was an animal, he'd be a panda. I also got to see my favorite animal of all, the otters! They are sooo funny and playful and I want one. After the zoo we ate at Roti and had cupcakes from Georgetown cupcake. Annnnd, as if that wasn't enough, we ate at Cheesecake Factory on Monday.  They must have known it was my birthday, because it was also get cheesecake half-off day :)

Tom got me popcorn popper!! You have know idea how excited I was.