Chapman

At one point in my life, I referred to Chapman as my version of hell (and now that I think about it, I have referred to many things in my life as my versions of hell: girl scout camp, girl scouts, state track...). After last night, I feel that I should take 'ol Chapman out of that category.

The small town west of Junction City was hit hard last night be a tornado that ripped it in two. Chapman is the size of Sedan, but is a 4A school, drawing from lots of small towns around it. It is where I served as the high school wrestling cheer sponsor and substitute taught my senior year at K-State.

I only called it my version of hell because my darling cheerleaders hated me and tried to make my life a living hell! They did a nice job of it, but after looking back at my time there, they taught me alot -- maybe that I should never be a cheer sponsor again, never have teenage children... but for sure how to deal with different kinds of people, attitudes, personalities and life situations.

I drove to this town almost every day for much of the fall semester of 2004 and then on the weekends to take the girls to wrestling meets to cheer in the winter. I loved Chapman because it was small and reminded me of home.

So when I found out that a bad storm had hit Chapman and Manhattan last night, nothing prepared for me for the pictures I saw. The picture up top is the high school building -- those are the front doors that seem to the the only thing left standing. I talked to one of the former cheerleaders this morning... everyone seemed to be accounted for and safe. She just said that Chapman was no more... I sent messages to all of the girls I knew, letting them know I was thinking about them.

It is hard to know what they are going through, when you have never been through it yourself. But I know how important my hometown is to me, so I can only imagine the devastation, heartache and immense pain they are going through.

Manhattan was also hit, but not as badly. Jord was bowling when the storm hit so he had to hang out downstairs at the karaoke bar until it passed. He was safe (as well as Bob!) and nothing was damaged. But many buildings on K-State's campus were damaged and it will take awhile to get everything cleaned up.

The most important thing is that everyone is safe and made it through the tornado. What comes next will be hard, but its better to have to cope and make it through than not be there at all.

Chapman is in my thoughts...

Wedding #1

This weekend begins my Summer-o-Weddings when Emily Katherine Peine weds Brett Michael Rundle on Saturday afternoon. I am excited for this wedding because its the first time I'll be with all of my buddies (with the exception of Jenny who is busy with her beautiful baby!) in one place since Jenna's wedding last July. How sad is that?

I'm taking off work Friday and driving to Wichita to pick up Matthew. From there, we're off to KC to Steph and Aaron's and will hop in their car to drive to the rehearsal. I'm a reader in this blessed event -- I told P I would attempt to lose my Oklahoma accent by this weekend. I aint sure if it'll happen, but ya'll will find out!

After the rehearsal, we will head to the rehearsal dinner in Westport followed by a bar in Westport! We're bunking up at Steph and Aaron's with Abby and Nicole... a good time shall be head -- I predict big slumber party! :)

We are to be at the church by 1 pm on Saturday afternoon for pictures, followed by the wedding, followed by fun at the reception that is in downtown KC.

I'm so excited for the fun to begin... and I'm so happy for my good pal P. The one thing I have always said is that I want my friends to be happy and I'm so glad that wish has come true!

Wedding details will be provided on Monday.

My wedding update: invitations are addressed and will be sent out on June 17. YESSS! I can definitely say that addressing those suckers was a pain the rear -- and I did them on the computer! I started at 10:30 am and we finished up at 4:30 with the help of my mom, sister, Matt's mom, Lisa and Chelsi... they are my life savers!!!

Next up: wrapping up my year at ORU on June 27, wedding # 2 in KC (Rez's) and moving June 30. Way to pack it all in, Allyson!

Picture: Me & P -- Just call us 2 nut bags!

So she DOES have a name...

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Addison Taylor Cross ... Jenny and Shawn's newest addition to their family! She was born this afternoon at 2:24 (from what I have learned in the past week, mom's give EXACT times!) pm (mountain time) and is adorable - as you can see from the picture... and I mean seriously, did we really think this child would be anything other than that? Check out her mom! :)

My favorite email of the day was from Meg:
"Addison Taylor (I'm assuming that's the spelling...but I could be wrong.....) She was born this afternoon...probably around 3:30ish.... She was 8lbs and some ounces...not sure about length...I would assume pretty long! :)
Shawn said she's awesome, and Jenny's doing well!
Sorry I didn't get better details but I'll send pics if/when I get them...."

There seems to be a whole lot of assuming going on there, Meg!

It's nice to finally know baby Addison's name since Jenny and Shawn kept it a secret for nine months much to the dismay of many, including moi. I'm so happy she is finally here... how exciting it will be to watch my friend be a mama!

Addison's birth caps the end of a pretty great week... Stella came into the world at the beginning of the week and Addison brought her on home Sunday. If only Big Brown had won the Triple Crown.... :)

Cheers to the new mama's and their precious babies... can't wait until August to pack a church with many, many newborns!

Picture: Mama J and Baby Addison ... Courtesy of Beckman Productions

Uncle Steve's Recap of Stella's Arrival...

Like Mother like daughter, they both had 12 hour labors. The party began about 9:00 am yesterday morning at the doctors office then moved on to the hospital.

Early arrivals were Nate's parents Suzi and Charles then Sherron and I arrived about 1:30 pm. Xan Janiga and two friends from Singapore came in about that time, followed by Nate's brother Carl, wife Kathy and daughter Haley. Seth, Michelle and Luke ( Annie was partying at her Aunt Nat's) arrived about 7:30pm and the party was starting to gain steam. Nate's sister Cara arrived followed by Nate's buddies Sanjeev and Brian. At about that time someone asked where the champangne was.

Megan's friend Amanda and her husband Joe came in about 8:00 pm and the party was in full swing. Megan wanted everyone to stay in the delivery room but hospital regulations would'nt allow, so the two Grandmas, Suzi and Sherron, Michelle, Xan, Amanda and, oh yeah, Nate were in attendance. The rest of the party adjourned to the waiting room.

We were joined there by Nate's brother Mark and the room was humming once again. At 9:48 pm Stella decided to join the party, she weighed in at 8 lbs, measured 20 inches, has dark wavy hair and is beautiful just like her mother.

Everyone stayed until about 11:00 pm then the party poopers, who had to get up and go to work, started leaving. About midnight someone found a bottle of champagne but by then the interest had waned and the diehards were intrigued with watching the nurses give Stella a bath.

The nurse brought Stella to the room about 1:00 am and we all got turns holding her, as we were getting ready to finally leave, I looked at Megan holding Stella and it brought a smile as I thought how much she looked like her mother.

Mom, Dad and baby are all doing fine!


Grandpa Barnes

Stella is on her way...

I got an email from my uncle Steve this morning -- the subject line read "Megan is in labor! Sherron is too!" (Sherron is my aunt!). He said that they had admitted Meg to the hospital this morning so they were on their way to Austin and aunt Sherron was yelling at him that they had to go! :)

I sent Meg a text message around 10:30, not expecting one back, just saying 'Holy cow! You're having a child!'... a few minutes later, I get one back saying, "Yeah, its baby time! We'll keep you posted!" I send her one back asking how she's doing and I get another one back, " Yes, doing great! Contractions are getting stronger though. Love you!" I just reminded her to use the drugs!

After work, I decided to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to continue to register -- since Matt and I know where we'll be living, I can dive into more house stuff! So... as I'm browsing, my phone rings and I check it out -- it's Meg! She had just gotten her epidural, they started patocin (sp?) and she was dialated to 6. She said she was just hanging out and felt nothing, but was calling to say hi because it was the last time she'd be able to!

And 30 seconds ago, as I was typing this, the phone rang and my cousin Seth was calling to say Stella is here!!! She has lots of hair... and he thinks she is about 8 pounds (hadn't weighed her yet!). Said Meg did very well... aunt Sherron, Michelle and Nate's mom were in the delivery room with her... and Seth said that he was watching Nate because he was staring at Stella!

Oh my goodness..... thank goodness she is here!

Good Weekend

For the second-straight weekend, I made my way back home to Sedan (and I'll go back AGAIN this weekend!) for my bridal shower, hosted by Kay Hills, Lisa Doty and my aunt Sally. Before that fun began, my mom, sister and I had our own fun Friday afternoon when we went to see Sex and the City!

I was a little paranoid about not getting seats and tickets being sold out that I had my mom order the tickets earlier in the week and I got to the theatre super early to make sure we'd get seats. When it was all said and done, I really hadn't needed to worry! There were about 20 people (including us) there to watch the movie! It was great... and great to see the girls together again! I miss that show!

Saturday was my shower out at Kay's house. It was wonderful! There was a large group of about 40 people that came out -- aunt's, friend's, family friends and so on. There was delish food (I ate WAY too many of my aunt Sally's mints that were fantabulous!), lots of people and lots of gifts which makes for a good party! Matt and I continue to do very well at our showers - this shower we got glasses, plates and silverware so we can now officially eat on something other than paper plates!

It was a great day and I'm so lucky to have such great people in my life!

This weekend, we will be addressing invitations on Sunday and the next weekend, we will be venturing for our first wedding of the summer, Ms. Emily Peine's! It will for sure be a grand time because whenever you get Kappa's together, fun follows! :)

The Good and Bad to "Sex & the City: The Movie"

The good is that I'm so happy they made a movie! It is my favorite TV show of all time -- many life lessons can be learned from that show! The bad is that as soon as the movie is over, it's really over. I do believe that I will shed tears at this event.

This morning, as always, I had the Today Show on in the background while I was getting ready. They had Cynthia Nixon aka Miranda on, talking about her character, the movie, life, etc. I was standing in front of the TV listening when Meredith, Today Show host, asked Cynthia aka Miranda, "It was really tough for your character in this movie because she is dealing with Steve's..."

That is when I screamed "NO!" and turned off the TV! How dare she try and ruin the movie for me by giving out details!!! The only thing I'm OK knowing is that Carrie and Big are supposedly getting married and that Charlotte is pregnant.

That is it.

So I'm super excited to drive to Bartlesville, meet my mom and sister at the movie theatre at 4 pm and head in for my last Sex & the City dose.

It makes me wonder... what did I ever do BEFORE this show?! :)