Clearly Fresh Bags

Ms. Meet Virginia is at it again!

Another give away is upon the blogging world through Laura's blog.

This time, she tried out and is giving away Clearly Fresh Bags. They are revolutionary Ziploc-type bags that keep your fruits and veggies fresh for longer...that way you're not throwing away money!

Hop on over to her blog to check it out for yourself!

Reader Report: Two Kisses for Maddy

I read all the time. And I am not joking when I say allllll the time.

Working at Barnes & Noble does not slow this down. If anything, it helps me out find the new must-read.

That being said, after a recommendation by a customer, I picked up a newly released book called "Two Kisses for Maddy." Written by a guy named Matt Logelin, it chronicles the birth of his daughter, Maddy, and then 27 hours later, the death of his wife, Liz. The book shares how the couple met and then how he moves on with Maddy after that tragedy struck their new little family.

(via)

I could not put it down. I say this with the most sincere authenticity: I could not put it down.

I was afraid that it was going to hurt to read this book. I was afraid that I was going to mourn and feel pain because of Matt's writing and the loss that he was writing about. I have suffered a similar unwanted loss, and I was afraid that this piece of literature was going to put me in some black hole of emotion that would take time and processing to crawl out of. It addresses two of my biggest fears: losing my soulmate, and leaving behind a child. I just didn't know if I could handle reading a book that contains two very harsh nightmares.

However, one review got me to pick it up (unfortunately I couldn't find the real one on the web, so I'm paraphrasing):

"You hurt for him, but you cheer for him from beginning to end. Such sorrow and sweetness have never met. This is what true love looks like."

So, I decided to check it out and have a go at it.

I read it in two days.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Matt's language is very...um, flowery. Very colorful. Very...well, he uses the f word a lot. So, let me warn you about that. But other than that, I have no complaints about it.

At the end of the book I kept thinking: But I need to know that Maddy is ok! I need to know that their life goes on after the pages of this book!

You love Matt, Liz, and Madeline just like you do your own family by the end of this book. Thanks to modern technology, I do get to watch Madeline grow up from afar and see that she and Matt are still thriving and happy through Matt's blog. It's now been added to my list of daily reads and I have loved scouring through it for the past few days. It's amazing to me how much Maddy looks like Liz (I can tell thanks to the pictures from the book as well on Matt's blog). Matt even comments on "how much she looks, and acts just like Liz even though Liz never got to hold her." 1

I give it five out of five stars for sincerity, honesty, genuine love, and just a good read.

Fellow readers: Keep the tissues near and the pages turning. Just when you think your heart is going to break for Matt, the story does go on.

Just like life.

It's funny how things work out.

1. It's almost midnight, and I am cooking.

2. I love bow tie pasta. I think it's sassy. Just when I thought it couldn't get any sassier, I found colored veggie pasta. Hello sass-to-the-max.

3. This is my puppy. I love her.

4. I watched this movie last night. I don't think I stopped laughing during the whole entire thing. I would recommend it, on one condition: you don't have a problem with cursing. They're a Southern family who praise Jesus in one syllable and in the next they're using a four letter word.

5. I found an old cross-stitching pattern in my closet and I'm working on it currently. I hope to hang it in my apartment next year.

6. I decorated my graduation cap. Those are my initials in the middle and around it I have the following written: Sullivan Girls Bible Study, Clearwater Beach Summer Project 2008, Lebanon Dream Team 2010, and then three of my favorite Bible verses.

7. This is my niece. She's not allowed to date until she's married. And I will be setting her up with an arranged marriage.

8. These are my parents when they were my age. They were high school sweethearts. It's gross and incredibly cute at the same time.

9. These are the most uncomfortable shoes in the world. I'm currently wearing them almost every day as I head out to job interviews and meeting principals for a hopeful job next year.

10. I don't like uneven lists but I couldn't find another picture to share a sentence about. So I'm just writing jibber-jabber.

Happy Tuesday...well, now it's Wednesday.

Gorman Wedding Weekend!

This past Friday, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to shower, finish packing, and hit the road to Lexington, Kentucky to see my sweet CBSP sister, Julia, marry the love of her life, David.

I've gotten a few inquiries as to what "CBSP" means. It stands for Clearwater Beach Summer Project, which was a wonderful mission trip that I was blessed to partake in during the summer of 2008. In the circles of people that know what this means, it is often shortened to "Project" and that is where I get my "Project families" or in this case, "Project sister."

When I first arrived to Kentucky, I stopped at in Richmond, where I would be staying with my CBSP family for the weekend after Julia got hitched. We lounged around in the afternoon and then headed up to Lexington to see Miss becomes Mrs!

I may have had balcony seats...but my new camera has a lovely zoom...see?

After the "I Dos" were said and and we sent the bride and groom off in a shower of bubbles, the party moved to The Carrick House for the reception. We danced the night away and had a good, good night!

The newest member of the CBSP family!

CBSP represent!

Mrs. Gorman! Finally!

We all crashed after the reception. However, it seemed as though the sun was sitting just outside of the house and after an ungodly 7:30am wake-up call, we made pancakes and then headed to the pool to beat the heat.

After some of us got absolutely fried, we headed out for some Mexican food (note: the first restaurant that a group of CBSPers went to in Clearwater was a Mexican restaurant) and then went to a local bowling alley.

My sweet roomie from Clearwater, Kim. You can see the post that her sweet Facebook post inspired me to write.

CBSP believes in giving nicknames to one another. We each have at least three. I'm Reba, Bekah, Bekah Boo, Bex, and Mom. I understand it, it's just one of thsoe things that we do.



Again, we crashed with no excuses afterwards and had another ungodly wake-up time again. Stupid sun. However, the sun was in contrast with our mood as we all bid farewell to one another once again. In the perfect world, my CBSP family would live together and all my children would be able to call them "Aunt" and "Uncle" and all would be right in the world. However, this is reality and we live eight hours away and I miss them every day of my life.

But, my suitcases were packed and my gas tank was wishing to be filled. I had one more stop to make in Lexington before I headed back to Wendell.

My Uncle Walt, Aunt Ann, and their generations of offspring live in the surrounding areas of Lexington and I decided to give them a call and see if we could meet up for a mini-family reunion. We ended up having lunch and it was a hoot-and-a-half! They were telling stories on my dad and his siblings and even my grandpa and his brothers (Uncle Walt is my father's father's brother). 

My third cousin, Reagan, was also there and there is only one word that can sum up Reagan: firecracker. Wow! She's only seven and she walked right up to me and said "Hi! I'm Reagan and you're Rebekah. We've never met but I'm your cousin and I'm going to hug you now."

And hug me she did. She then told me about her soccer games and her favorite color is pink and anything that sparkles and how she likes math and science but not English and how she wants to go to UK when she grows up, but she doesn't look good in blue so maybe that isn't the best decision.

Yeah. Firecracker.

It was the perfect ending to a fabulous weekend.

The Golden Rule.

I'm sure you all have heard it.

"Do unto others as you would have them do to you."

It's something that I live by.

People often ask me "Why do you do everything that you do?" i.e. cook dinner for 15 people every week, love your girls as hard as you do, drop by unannounced with cookies, drop by unannounced with just a hug, etc.

The answer is simple: I do what I would want someone else to do for me.

I love getting snail mail, so I try to write at least one letter to someone every month. I love cookies, so I bake them and just drop them off at people's houses. I wish someone would make me dinner, so I do it for others.

I want someone to take care of me, so I take care of others.

Some people call it karma...I call it The Golden Rule.

Yesterday, I was blessed by a big stroke of The Golden Rule.

Let me take a few steps back: One of my good friends, Kimberly (who is also one of the four I'll be living with next year), stopped by my place Tuesday night with some exciting news: she got in to the grad school program that she wanted to, as well as the summer internship that she wanted. We squealed a bit, jumped up and down a bit, hugged a bit, you know, general girl merriment festivities.

After we had settled down, she looked me square in the eye and said, "You look exhausted."

Folks, I was exhausted. I've been working between 40 and 50 hours the past few weeks plus other various activities. I could have easily curled up in bed at that moment and not woken up for at least a day.

Kimberly gave me a hug and some encouragement, but then showed herself out the door so that I could go upstairs to (finally) go to sleep.

Yesterday, I went to work. To say the least, it was a bad day. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and just couldn't snap out of the mood. After my shift ended, I got back in the car and drove home, grouchy and moody the whole way home. I was having 15 people over for dinner and I hadn't started cooking yet. The whole time home I was just thinking...I wish someone would cook dinner for me. Why doesn't anyone ever do anything nice for me?

Seriously...I was groooooouuchy.

I got home and plopped in front of the television for an hour before I decided to start cooking.

I headed upstairs...and near 'bout had a stroke.

My room was clean.

My entire room was clean. Straighted, vacuummed, dusted...genuinely cleaned!

I certainly hadn't done it.

The last time I checked my room looked like this:

Yeah, I know it's bad. I take care of others, but I really don't take care of myself. Feel free to judge.

But I feel like you should know exactly what this little cleaning fairy was getting herself into.

She may hate me for ratting her out, but the world needs to know just how good she really is.

Kimberly had talked with my roommate and come over and cleaned up my room while I was at work.

The ironic part about all of this is about 5 minutes before I headed upstairs I hit rock bottom in my selfish, grouchy mood and decided to share it with the universe on Twitter.

"The only thing I really want in my life is for someone to take care of me."

Oh Rebekah, if only you knew...

Well, give yourself about 38 seconds and you did.

I also would like to point out that Kimberly left a note for me explaining where she put everything. I love that the first line expresses how well she knows me.

Kimberly literally gave me the gift of time. I was able to take a nap yesterday, and I was able to enjoy being with the people that I had over for dinner because I wasn't thinking about the thousands of other things I needed to be doing at that moment. I got to go to sleep last night and not lie away worrying about when my to-do list was going to get done. I was able to pack for my adventure this weekend and not stress. I love coming home to clean house, but I knew it wasn't going to get done this time, and it really bothered me. She gave me peace of mind, time, sleep, and so much joy!

Kimberly, you are straight up, the best friend a girl could ask for. I love that I can come to you with anything and you accept me, love me, listen to me, rebuke me, advise me, and still at the end of it all, cherish me and our friendship. I am so excited to live with you next year so that I can serve you and beside you. I have loved getting to know you and becoming friends with you and watching you grow in the Lord and just as a person these past few years.

 

Words will never express how appreciative I am of our friendship. Not just for this extreme act of kindness, but also because you truly make me a better person. I love, love, love you.