Another Year Older

Yesterday, my wonderful boyfriend turned twenty. TWENTY. Yeah. Anyway, it was a pretty fun day. :)

Birthday Dinner #1:
On Saturday night, I took Sebastian to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Before hand, we went to Outback where he made me promise not to tell anyone it was his birthday. Now tell me, how is that any fun? Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone. I wanted him to actually enjoy the night, not get up and leave.

We had anticipated dinner taking much longer, so we ended up getting to the concert two hours early. Yup, we were hangin' out with all the old folks. We got a fantastic parking spot though! :) Our seats were suppose to be fantastic, but I'm pretty sure they were the worst seats you could have gotten.

Section: Floor C

Row: 24

Seat: 15 & 16

The seats were abnormally small and they were all locked together. Then to make it worse, our row wasn't necessarily filled with the thinnest of people... :p Then, Sebastian and I managed to get the seats directly behind the tallest couple in America. Not to mention, I sat next to a lady who had to keep getting up to get more refills, and when someone has to leave, the whole row has to stand up, which makes the rows behind you roar in frustration. It's safe to say that we now have a new appreciation for the nose bleed section.

That picture is pre-show {obviously}, but imagine all of those seats full and add the tall people. Yikes. I had never been to a TSO concert, but Sebastian has been to a few of their Christmas shows. So, when he found out they were coming here, he had said he wanted to go. He knew I didn't really have any money, so he wasn't expecting me to take him for his birthday or anything. SURPRISE! I was going to buy the tickets, not tell him, give him a card, and have the tickets in them. Then later that day, Sebastian went on my phone, got on my email {both of our accounts are on there so he can check his too}, saw the confirmation email, read it, and just like that, the surprise was ruined. Oooh well. I fell asleep during the concert, but he enjoyed it. :)

Birthday Dinner #2:
After church on Sunday, we went with his family to Yukai {?} - a Japanese restaurant. If you ever want sushi, that's the place to go. When we were almost done eating, two of the waitresses came over; one with a strawberry shortcake, and one with a little gong. Yes, a gong. It went like this:

Happy Birthday to you

BONG!

Happy Birthday to you

BONG!

Happy Birthday *mumble mumble*

BONG!

Happy Birthday to you

BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG!

"You try?" Sebastian excitedly took the drum stick thing and gave it one last good hit. He decided then that next year, he wants a gong for his birthday.

This isn't even from Yukai, but I though a picture was needed. :)

Birthday Dinner #3:
After church last night, we all piled up and went to Friendly's. Their birthday song wasn't as impressive as the other. :) Oh, I asked Sebastian to put my hair in a ponytail because it was getting in my food and my hands were dirty, so with every one's attention directed towards him, I ended up with this.

Hey, I think it's pretty cute. :) He was told by everyone else that he will never be a hair dresser. It's okay, he wasn't planning on it. :)

He said he had a very happy birthday. :)

Angels in Blue

In 1996, my dad was shot while on duty. After the shooting, my mom wrote a poem as if it were coming from my brother, Seth. Now, Seth is patrolling the same streets my dad got shot on. Pretty cool. :)

Angels In Blue

We must not forget to thank our Lord
For police officers on the street.
For they work in a world with little respect
And have many duties to meet.

Hoping for each day, justice and peace
To prevail over lawless foe,
Our officers put their lives on the line
To protect and serve, we all know.

Not too long ago, my dad and his partner
Were responding in pursuit
Of two lawless men who were dealing drugs,
They split up; our officers, too.

As drugs were recovered with his partner's win,
My dad was closing on prey.
In the blink of an eye, my daddy was shot
In the chest and in the leg.

As he fell to the ground, expecting more shots,
He received complete help from above.
As he lifted his arms and had sights on his foe,
He squeezed the gun in his glove.

At the very same time, the foe shot again,
Hoping my dad would just die.
If he'd only just known what I knew from the start,
That my dad serves the living Christ.

The bullet my dad shot went straight to the foe's chest,
The second one to the foe's head.
The last bullet the foe shot at my dad
Has yet to be found, so is said.

My dad is recovering now from the wound
Inflicted while doing his job.
His partner's now looking for the second foe
And is caring for Dad and us all.

Now I not only thank the Lord
For police officers on the street.
But I thank the Lord for protecting their lives
And the victories of which they speak.

Next time you kneel and say your prayers,
I ask this request of you:
Please don't forget to thank the Lord
For police officers, our angels in blue.

~Anne Marie Amos~

My dad wrote a book called There is Hope - And Other Lessons Learned by a Christian Cop. If you'd like to check is out, you can click here. :) The poem is in it, too. Definitely a blessing form God!

Work, Work, Work! :)

Last week, Sebastian was hired by NCO - a collections agency. He's never wanted a sit down office job, but decided he'd give it a try. It's only day 3 of training, but so far so good! :)

Oh, and guess what? NCO received 1100 applications {and counting} for the position they were hiring for. They were accepting 275 employees and Sebastian was 1 of the first 17 they picked. :) I'm a proud girlfriend!

In the mean time, I got a nannying job! It's not full-time, which is GREAT! Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, from 9:30 to 5:30, I'll be watching little miss Cassidy.

It feels good to be employed. :)

It's a Love Story... :)

Tuesday {April 17th}, was the two year mark for Sebastian and I. 2 YEARS!!! It feels like just yesterday that we were walking into the social hall at church, laughing about nothing at all, when Sebastian asked me to be his girlfriend. Cute, right?

I had just turned 15 when our story started. I was ready for a boy to like me just as much as he was ready for a girl to like him. Unfortunately, I had liked waaayyyyy more boys than he had girls. This little crush was nothing different. That is, until a question was asked...

It was a Friday night when we had one of our church lock-ins. Randomly, I invited Sebastian and his brother, not thinking they would come. Much to my surprise, they did. After sitting and talking while everyone else played swamp man {he had a broken foot and couldn't play}, we went back over to the other building to play Phase 10. Obviously, we sat next to each other. That's when he attempted to be one of those super smooth guys.
"If you were a pirate, would you put your parrot on this shoulder, or this shoulder?"
"...I don't know?"
I was a dumb blonde and didn't get that he was trying to put his arm around me. Once everyone laughed and joked about it, I got major butterflies in my stomach. Then, I drew a heart on his hand and told him I gave him my heart. Super-duper-15-year-old-corny.  Technically, that meant absolutely nothing, but at the same time, it meant a whole lot.

The next morning, while everyone went home and went straight to bed, Sebastian and I went home and went straight to facebook chat. After a few hours of "normal talk", I typed in, "I think I like you." Again, cheesy little girl stuff, I know. I was too afraid to send it. I mean, what if he didn't like me back? MAJOR BUMMER! That's when my cousin woke up, came downstairs, passed the computer while he was on the way to the kitchen, read it, and pressed 'enter'.
"Think?"
"Know."
"Oh, well I like you too! :)"
Yep, I was in love. I was ready to plan my wedding and start naming our children. After a week of randomly planned parties so we could see each other, a Johnny English movie night so we could hold hands, and a game night, my 'love' for him had fizzled. That's when I became the teenage heart-breaker.

After that week, I wouldn't talk to him. Somehow, he managed to get over me and go for my friend. I got jealous. I mean, he was mine! Fortunately, their feelings weren't mutual, so I was able to get back in the game. It all re-started when a Skillet concert came up. Sebastian and my cousin AJ were becoming pretty good friends, and when Sebastian heard we were going to the concert, he wanted to go too. At that point, I was like "OKAY!!". That Thursday night changed my mind about that cute, sensitive guy.

On April 14th, he came to church to see me. It had been 8 months since that short lived "dating" spree, and we were back in the same situation. I liked him - he liked me. We held hands that night in the back of AJ's little yellow Geo Storm. 3 days later, I was his girlfriend. It's been two years since that day, and I love him now more than I ever thought I could.

Now, I know you might think that is one of the dumbest stories you've ever heard, but I think it's perfect. If the two of us hadn't of had our August week of being "together", there is no way we would have just celebrated our two year. I like to think both of us grew up a lot in those eight months, but who knows.

I'm so thankful that God gave Sebastian to me.

Just the Babysitter. :)

As you all know, I babysit "for a living". Mostly, I watch a 15 month old baby boy. Then there's his 7 year old brother, two 4 year olds, a 2 year old, a 13 month old, an 11 month old, and a 4 month old. Plus, I teach the 4-7's Sunday School class and Children's Church and direct the kid's plays. So pretty much, I love kids. Oh, and side note, out of all of those kids that I babysit, there's only one girl {a 4 year old}. When I have kids, I want a girl. Desperately.

Anywho, this week, I've been watching Caleb {15 months} and Ben {7 years}. Yesterday, we went to Music Together at a church in Chesapeake. After getting to the wrong church {15 minutes out of the way} on time, we turned around to find the right church. Obviously, we were late. In I walked with a baby on my hip and a kid at my side. All the mom's looked at me funny, but there was nothing I could do! We found our place on the mat and started doing music together. :) Caleb had just fallen asleep in the car, so he was totally out of it. So there was me and Ben..."I've gotta dog whose name is Blue and I reckon you can see that he's a good dog too! Hey, Blue! You good dog, you!" Yup, we were rockin the one year old's class. 45 minutes later, it was time to go. Ben had made LOTS of new friends - the teacher not being one of them. She'd say, "Let's ball up our scarves and make a flower pop!" He'd say, "Let's ball up our starves and make a cannon!!!". There was only so much I could do to stop him. Right when I thought he was good to go, something else would come racing out of his mouth from his creative brain. Boys will be boys... :)

Today, Ben is at Busch Gardens. Therefore, it's just me and Caleb. Thursday is library time. It's okay, I was on time to this one. We went in, read some stories, sang some songs, learned some rhymes, and played with bubbles. I can't say I'd take my kids to the class, but Caleb enjoyed it!

Now, the baby's napping, I'm blogging, and the sun is shining. Soon, we'll get ready to go meet Katie at Chickfila. It's a good day. :)

BeachBeachBeachBeachBeach

Monday night {since I don't blog about anything when it actually happens...}, Sebastian and I went down to the ocean front to walk on the beach. We've tried to start walking everyday and going down the beach is much nicer than going around the neighborhood. So, off we went. We got there right in time to see one of God's many beautiful works of art. 

I know, he's beautiful too. :) Anywho, since we were down there, we were going to go ahead and eat at Dough Boys - a place my cousin used to take our youth group to. Backing up a bit, when we were trying to figure out where to park, we were kind of basing it on where Dough Boys was. We were going to eat then drive further down the beach to where we would walk. We normally park on 42nd Street, but since Dough Boys was on a 20 something street, we were going to suck it up, pay the $2.00, and park in the garage a few streets over. When we saw a sign for Dough Boys on 33rd Street we agreed that we could still park on 42nd and walk 9 streets over. It wasn't the distance of parking on 42nd and walking to 20 something that mattered, the ocean front just isn't always the safest place to be. Like I said, 9 streets was doable. It wouldn't take too long to get there, eat, and get back. 

We walked to 33rd, but it wasn't the same Dough Boys. I mean, it was the same restaurant, but not the same location? I don't know how to explain. Sebastian was good with eating at this one, but I had my heart set on going to the one Billy had always taken us to. Since my boyfriend is so amazing, he told me that we would keep walking until we found it.A little over a mile later, we spotted it. And yes, it did remind me of my crazy yet wonderful cousin. 

When we left, we didn't really know how far we were from the car. It was okay though, we went down to the edge of the water and started making our way back. About two miles later, the boardwalk ended and the lights disappeared. It wasn't much longer when we ended up on the other side of The Cavalier. Our car was just around the corner and we made it out alive. :) 

Baby Kaden --> Baby Ryder

A few weeks ago, there was a name change. My nephew was going to be Kaden Ryder Amos, but if you're on this earth and breathing, then you know that there are a ridiculous amount of Caiden, Braiden, Aiden, Zaiden, kids out there. After deciding they wanted to call him Ryder, they went ahead and changed his first name too. Lydia {my sister-in-law} has always wanted to name one of their boys Jesse, but Jesse {my brother} never wanted to have a junior. They agreed that this would be a good time to use their name. If you can put two and two together {or even one and one}, you have figured out that I will have a cute little nephew named Jesse Ryder Amos.

Since Jesse is in the police academy, I have been taking Lydia to all of her doctor's appointments. I've been to a birthing class and a third trimester class as well. I love it! Learning about being pregnant before you're pregnant is a smart thing to do. ;) I've got quite a few years before I even think about a baby. For now, I'll nanny. 

Now that I just bunny-trailed big time, we'll get back to the point of the story. In ten weeks, I should be an auntie. I don't think I could be more excited about this even if I tried! On my eighteenth birthday, I {hopefully} will be able to proudly hold my little nephew. 

The other day, Lydia and I went to the beach to go walking. It was one of those days where it was so beautiful that not going to the beach would have felt like a sin. Fortunately, we didn't have to feel that way. :D We walked a mile and a half then went to get ice cream. Yes, I understand that totally defeated the purpose. 

Saturday, we had the baby shower! It just happened to be St. Patrick's Day as well, so it felt like a green party/baby shower all at the same time. Anywho, it was fun. They got a lot of the stuff they needed and had cake too. Couldn't get much better, right?