Mrs. Smith

I wish I could wait to write this blog, but I actually don't know when I'll have internet access again. Seeing as I am a nerd that does NOT have internet on my phone, this might be my best chance to honor the woman we are celebrating this weekend.

My Senior year of high school Melissa and I went to JBU for a scholarship weekend where we competed with other high schoolers for scholarships. The first morning we were there, I saw Melissa eating breakfast with another girl and went right up to them and started talking like I knew them. About 10 minutes later Leslye said, "OOOOHHH! you girls KNOW each other already! I was worried people wouldn't think I was friendly enough! I can't go up to people I don't know and talk like that!" (Although... I think she probably DOES do that now!) From that moment on, we were BFFs. She was tall... we were tall... she gave us the talk about how to pronounce her last night (Bour- as in a pig and -quin as in Michelle Quan) we convinced her to move into Mayfield instead of Walker (Even onto our hall!) And emailed each other all through the spring and summer until school started that August.

Here is a picture montage:

LOVE this one. Leslye was spitting banana smoothie onto me. Yes. We used to get smoothies every day. But mostly peanut buter-chocolate.

Mayfield + JAlvin mudfight = awesome.

weeeeeee were recruited to be wedding dress models in a fashion show. we were given THE MOST HORRENDOUS makeup and hair. it was awesome.


(Love the armpit hair)

We took MANY road trips during our years... Russellville, SB07 to Florida, Kansas, and of course to VIRGINIA! To the lovely Bourquin home. We ate healthy food, exercised, sat in the hot tub, and TALKED a LOT.

When my parents couldn't make it one parent weekend at JBU, Mrs. Bourquin and Leslye adopted me. I believe we are doing yoga. I think there are very few people as loved as Leslye is. But it's because she welcomes everyone into her life and family.


We were roomies for 2 of the 4 years. And. I have to say... we were perfect roomies as far as roomies go. My parents always told me I needed to marry the male equivalent of Leslye (is that weird?) But Charlie and Leslye actually have some rooming qualities in common... maybe such as being the only other person who thinks I'm funny? Such as our BRILLIANT Halloween idea? Abusive roomies? I don't think even one other person got it.

(love the awkward hand-pile) at Jr/Sr

Impromptu photo shoot with Melissa. We were born to be models as ALL tall girls are.

We were Passion leaders (small group bible-study) together for 2 years (of the best passion group ever) and then still involved in Passion our senior year. Leslye is one of the most relational people I know. I remember there would be a lot of times when we would be walking across campus or something together and she would see 100 people that she wanted to talk to. It's a small campus, so obviously you know a lot of people you pass by, but I would get so frustrated that we couldn't just be on our mission and wave at people and walk to where we were going. But that's Leslye. She will ALWAYS make relationship a priority. I learned a lot from her in that aspect. People are the most important thing.

I regret I do not still have Leslye around to do my eyebrows. Yeesh! She had me all fixed up for my wedding.


And here we are at my wedding. I'm thankful she was there for me on my big day, and I'm so excited I get to be there for her on her and Ben's!! I know she will be a great wife and that they will have such a happy marriage. I can't wait to meet Ben and celebrate!!!

I love you, Leslye! SEE YOU SOON!

(And again I apologize that I cannot name our first daughter after you! I know it's a tragical turn of events!)

To Bow-Wow

just kidding. i'm sure caleb will have a nice grandfather name nailed down for you by the time charlie and i have kids... so really, i don't even have a shot at bow-wow. not.even.fair.

HOWEVER! Someone else in the Loup family would like to wish you a Happy Father's Day!!

"Dear Papa Steve aka Bow-Wow,

Thank you for feeding me twice a day. I want to live in Arkansas with Poodle because you feed me twice a day. You are a superior Daddy because you feed us twice a day. I love you.

Love, Punkin"

Daddy

Happy Father's Day!!


do you remember (the first?) wedding you officiated? And you were slightly nervous so you decided to practice on us? I kind of regret having this picture, but I feel fairly certain that's what this picture is of (sans Susan). I am the man (with the mustache), Susan was the woman, and Stacy was their child. You let us be ridiculously silly while you officiated our wedding, but you played along with us, and we had a great family afternoon (even with all the terrible jokes about us needing to "dew-dew" during the Dew's wedding!)

That's the kind of daddy you are! The absolute PERFECT daddy for 3 girls.


I'm so thankful for you. I know so many other girls who have "daddy" issues for whatever reason... but you gave me such a great picture of a Father's love... you are (and were) endlessly patient, silly along with the rest of us, and wise. I feel like you have every answer to every question... ever. :)


You are also inspiring. I'm so proud of how you follow your dreams. I can't imagine balancing a family, a full-time job at the church, and a master's program all at once. But you did it, and did it well. I can't WAIT to celebrate your PhD!! I know the work you are doing is so important and will benefit the Church! It's a special thing to watch your parents make sacrifices in order to follow God.

Thanks for passing all of that along to us. I'm so thankful you encouraged me to follow my dreams and the calling God has placed on my life. I'm so excited you get to be there on Charlie and my first step toward our big move!


Remember how you used to take me on dates? And you'd open the car door for me and open the doors at the restaurant (even if it was McDonald's) and then you'd give me a talk about the type of man I should marry... how he should be kind and love God and that I shouldn't settle for anything else? Thank you for your talks :)

Look what those talks got you!!!! :D A Loup-y man who fits great into our family! The son you never had! haha (Besides Al, of course!)

I love you, Daddy.



So very, very much!

friday

*yaaaaaawn*

i'm so very glad today was friday. it was a weird friday, but a friday nonetheless.

today i went to walmart to buy some whiteout. the cashier said, "i'll need to see some i.d."

"for WHITEOUT?"

"yes, you have to be 18."

"but i'm 24! what can you even DO with whiteout besides white things out?" (as i fumbled through my wallet for my license while she laughs at me)

"whudda know. you ARE 24! and they can do ANYTHING with whiteout"

"i know i'm 24!"

"i wouldn't have pinned you a day over 17"

"ummm... thanks" (as i grabbed my bag a ran.)

tarnadas and galbos

All the Galbos together in Arkansas for the first time in... over a year!

Caleb has a slight obsession with glasses....

Nana feeding Caleb
He was full. :)
Caleb loves playing with Papa... he also was OBSESSED with waving at Stacy, but I didn't get a picture of it :(
Happy Baby... we just stared at him all day.


he's so cuuuuute



the damage to my windshield from the tornado :(
and the damage to our trailer skirting... hopefully it will be fixed soon!
the last of the crawfish
and the beautiful birds getting ready to migrate north for the summer!

faith

ugh! i haven't posted in a long time. longlong time. and a lot has happened... like a fantastic trip up to arkansas to visit my family. aaaaand a TORNADO that swept through our neighborhood and busted out my back windshield. and tore up the skirting on our trailer. aaaaand house hunting and job hunting... and a visit to the ER to see charlie's dear mawmaw who had a stroke :( and we have a new PT in new roads... aaaaand it's basically like all of us (who have been there between 1 and 8 years) got new jobs.

so good and bad things have happened. fortunately, mawmaw is doing MUCH better, and it doesn't appear that there's going to be permanent damage. Thanks to God.

and also (all thanks to God) our trailer wasn't hit by the tornado... i'll take a power outage and new back windshield any day! (although i looked INCREDIBLY ghetto driving to arkansas with a clear plastic shower curtain taped to the back of my car!!) (i was NOT about to miss one minute of time with my nephew after not seeing him for 6 months!) (and of course my sister and the rest of my family, too!)

when God opens doors and causes miracles for you, it really causes a surge of faith in you... it always gives me the confidence that the next thing is going to work out alright, too... even if it doesn't look that way, yet.

hopefully i'll post pictures soon... it's so sad. when i was posting every day for the ides of march challenge i had so many visits to my website... but now there's nothing to read and no reason to visit! hopefully i'll be able to update more regularly for the rest of the summer!

picturepost

soooo i had the great honor last weekend of fox-sitting with aunt risa. we had the greatest time. we read TONS of books, visited the neighbors' puppydogs, went to the park, had a nice supper... and i even got to bathe him and put him to sleep! fox was an ANGEL!

he really wanted me to read (every book he owns) to him... he wandered around the living room saying, "stephie" and grinning at me. he also laughed hysterically at the word "zoo". that boy sure knows how to melt a heart! i'm really going to miss him when we move :(

soooo not the greatest picture quality (and charlie may be mad at me) but look at how HUGE this zucchini is!! charlie says it means he's a bad farmer, but i don't buy into that. i pitted out the seeds, and we're going to make puree to put into soups and things.

pernky was NOT cooperative.

my pretty zinnias... see the purple ring?

and this one! pink on the bottom, and red on the top!

sunflowers and zinnias and tomatoes.

birds! they always flock to the ponds when they drain them to feast on crawfish.


i believe there are some roseate spoonbills in there!



i'm going to miss this place, too.
this is punkin eating sweet corn... she LOVED it! moomoo ate it like a person... but pernky just liked chewing on it. so cute pernkypigg!

the search is on

yesterday i did a lot of searching for a home in minnesota... craig's list seems to be one of the best options.. you can narrow it down to results with key words like "yard" or "house"... because we'd like a house with a yard!

i found the PERFECT one yesterday... it was a little outside of town (for farmer charles)... a redone house with granite counters and a gas stove and wood floors and a fireplace.... and it also had a garage next to it with HEATING and an extra living room. which the dogs could live in... and a yard... and then friskey could still come with us. but when we called today, the man laughed and said that someone's already committed to renting it. figures. so the search continues.

it's kind of fun to look... and also kind of stressful and frightening. who in their right mind is going to rent to an 18-year-old-looking-couple (by that i mean we each look 18, not that our relationship looks 18 :\) with 3 dogs and a cat from cajun country? WHO?

and how in the world are we supposed to know what area to look in? orrrrr how i'm supposed to commute to campus every day? or how we're supposed to know rules about when to move our cars for snowplows to clear things up? or even how to drive in snow? or where charlie's going to be working or should even look for work?

i'm excited.

i'm scaredtodeath.

let's go.