Memorial Day Weekend...you took a long time to get here!

Ahhh, Memorial Day Weekend...

...do you know what I had to get through to have you get here?

...five 5-day weeks in a row (don't even think about saying that that's not challenging until you step into a classroom & try to do it!  Much less teach a class that doesn't have children confined to chairs, but chucking 6 lb. metal shot puts, hard rubber discus', & running full speed around a track when other kids aren't paying attention and have to dart out of the way...whew...okay, we're all still intact, praise God!)...

...I know there were other things that I had to get through to get to you, but right now, I can't even think & don't want to think...I just want to sit...

...& veg...

...& eat...

...& do nothing but see family...

...watch countless movies...

...and spend some much QT with my new Beth Moore Bible Study "Breaking Free"...

...I think we'll hang out with these peeps...

& get some quality time with this little one (who isn't so little anymore)...

& then we'll go see these people...

& these people...

& take walks around this...

& this...

& walk across this...

& stroll along this path...

or maybe up here...

ahhh...Memorial Day Weekend...

...it's been too long since I've seen you last...

...& I can't wait to spend these next 3 days enjoying your presence  :)

Quote of the Day...

Tonight, after a sweet peck that even over 6 years after our first one still melts me every time, my dear husband kept his arms around me tight, looked me in the eyes, smirked his classic goofy smile and said,

"We can clean the house together tomorrow."

All I could do was sigh contently & think that there is nothing better I would rather do with my Friday night.

I'm a pretty lucky gal, ain't I?

To My Two Favorite Mommas...

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary."

-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
-Tenneva Jordan

"Men are what their mothers made them."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

oh, dear...

Fohner Family Update: 6 Month Rewind

There will be more pics to follow this (as I get the time to upload them...we'll see how that goes), but I realized that unless we talk to you fairly often, I've kept my faithful readers (all 3 of you) in the dark about what's been going on with us lately.

By lately, I mean since November...eeek, I'm horrible.  Scrolling through, I have realized that since Matt turned 29 almost 6 months ago, I haven't shared pretty much anything about what's been going on in our life...just mindless posts with funny videos about leprechauns & dogs, surveys, why where I grew up is awesome, & sentimental stuff about Thew, our young pup, & my momma.

So because I have been super bad here's a quick, phrased summary of what's been happening...aaannnddd go...

...some of our best friends from our Young Marrieds Small Group, Charlie & Christa became Mr. & Mrs. Rodger (& just bought their first home...yay!)...

...watched our fav GA-native family move from Fred-neck to Guam for 3 years & cried like babies watching them leave our Young Marrieds Small Group a little less whole (miss you Lee, Tif, Lyrik, Lenden, & Kinslee...sooo much!)...

...my daddy turned 60-minus-4 (we count backwards from decades in the Bateman family, which makes me less than 4 months shy from 30-minus-3...yikes)...

...I had a fabulous Bachelorette Weekend Party with my momma, her best friend, & her daughter a month shy of my mom's wedding at the Cambridge Hyatt (fabulous)...

...spent Thanksgiving break with Thew's huge family (his mom, her husband, Thew's 3 older sisters, their husbands, & our 9 nephews & nieces...super funness  :)...

...honorably served as my mom's Matron of Honor when she married Todd (super surreal, but had a blast)...

...celebrated Christmas with our 4 families (ironically around the time that "Four Christmas" came out in theaters...both sets of mine & Thew's parents are divorced...& yes, we're very busy around any holiday)...

...Thew took part in his annual post-Christmas trip back to OC with Ed while I had Christmas parties with my best friends from home & here (LOVE my ladies)...

...remembered my paternal grandfather on the anniversary of his death (whom I never had the honor of meeting since he passed away 6 years before I was born...I hope he's with Jesus so I can meet him one day)...

...sadly watched the sinking Steelers win the Super Bowl (thankfully safely surrounded by other non-Steeler fans with our Young Marrieds Small Group friends...seriously people, we are not that close to Pittsburgh to have that many Pitt fans when we are less than 40 mins. away from Baltimore)...

...Ash & I took turns hosting some awesome events for the Youth Group Girls including a sleepover where I surprisingly got to sleep for a consecutive 6 hours without getting my hands dipped in warm water or lipstick on my face...

...celebrated our 7th Valentine's Day together (though not really, I'm kinda anti-Valentine's Day & other made up, Hallmark holidays...but Thew & I had a great time taking a night to chill out & just be together).  We also got to celebrate with Barnette's, Ash's parents, & their best friends at the annual Husbands-Pamper-The-Wives-Dinner)...

...found out I'm getting transferred to another school for the 2nd year in a ROW (I was moved from the High School Level down to Middle School Level because I took a break from coaching last year & now am being moved again because our enrollment went down making it not necessary to have 5 PE Teachers at our school anymore [me being the newbie to the school made me the unfortunate candidate])...this was a blow because I'm finally at a school that I really like teaching at with a department that rocks & has made me feel at home (I have thankfully been blessed to always work with a great department at all the schools I've taught at for the past 5 years)...

...found out as a HUGE answer to prayer that I'll be able to stay at the Middle School Level here in the county since a new PE position was created at another Middle School (their enrollment went up) close by our house (Middle Schoolers are my favorite to teach...possibly because I'm married to one that has their same maturity level?  That's up for debate)...

...got all sappy when we celebrated the 4th Anniversary of when we got engaged, which was right after our 2 Year Dating Anniversary (ahhh, memories)...

...spent an awesome weekend at the Grandparent's with my little bro's & Thew and had a blast with them & my Grandparent's best friends who always have the coolest stories (they are the equivalent of Kyle, Ashley, Thew, & I 60 years from now)...

...took 2 random days off to chill in SP & see my two fav SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Moms) & their baby girls...

...remembered my paternal Grandmother on the anniversary of her passing who I was able to spent 15 years loving before she succumbed to a long battle against lung cancer (if you use tobacco, please, for the sake of your family & friends, quit.  I have lost both my dad's parents to the deathly effects of tobacco use.  Todd, if you're reading this, you better quit before you make my mom a young widow...seriously!!!)...

...celebrated a slew of family & friend's b-days (Aslan's 3rd, Kyle's 27th, Rache's 26th, Pammie's 26th, Scotty's 25th, Jake's 28th, Heather's & Shannon's (I won't mention your ages b/c I know you don't want me to), my Grandma's 77th, as well as the actual birth day of Thew's God Daughter, Gianna...sooo beautiful!)...

...visited Ash's parent's Shabin in WV for a weekend with her parents, Kyle, Ash, her little sis, & Thew and had a blast helping them build their dream home on the mountain...

...Thew finished his season with his JV B-Ball Team only losing 4 games during the whole 4 months they played & helped coach the Varsity team to the Regional Finals of the State Tournament for the 3 year in a row...

...spent another amazing weekend at the Cambridge Hyatt with Mom, Todd, the little bro's, Thew, & my mom's best friend's family (that place is magical)...

...celebrated Easter with our 4 families (traveling from the Eastern Shore to Southern MD to VA & back...lots of time away from home, but so much fun)...

...spent a day together in DC taking pics & reminiscing about all the awesome memories I have from growing up with multiple visits there with family (Museum of Natural History, you will always be my fav)...

...watched the Wizards lose (go figure) with Mom, Todd, the little bro's, & Thew and ran into one of our friends from FCA in college (we miss your awesome fellowship, Damien!)...

...spent a day in NY exploring Central Park, taking tons of pics, & fattening ourselves with NY's finest cuisine...

...watched Thew preach an awesome sermon on how important it is to stay in God's Word to the Youth at one of our Coffee House Nights...

...continued our monthly tradition of Game Nights with our Small Group where the wives always mercilessly beat the husbands in any game we play  :)...

...started studying Ephesians & learning so much with my fav Fred-neck ladies (our original group of 5 has doubled since we first started studying together over 2 & 1/2 years ago...it's been awesome to see how God has grown our fellowship...to think that I was so lonely & knew none of the girls when I moved here just 4 years ago & how blessed I have been by their friendships once God brought us together)... 

...attended the Senior Night of the Varsity Girls Lax Team I used to coach & sat in awe of how some of them thanked me in their speeches when they didn't even know I was going to be there (you always hope you make an positive impact on the kids you teach & coach...love those girls)...

...lost horribly 18-5 to the current Salisbury team in the Alumni Lax Game, which isn't too shabby since they've been ranked #1 almost their entire season & we were missing our goalie who had just given birth only 48 hours prior (congrats, Justin, Ali, & little Noah)...was thrilled that I scored 2 goals & an assist considering I haven't played in a game since stopping playing club ball over a year & a half ago (I still got it somewhere down deep)...

...finally, after almost 4 years of living in our home, getting some landscaping done & realizing that I LOVE yard work now that we own a home...

WHEW...okay, that brings us to today where Thew & Kyle will be getting some much needed stuff done around our house while I head to out to lunch with the women in my mom's side of the family for a Mother's Day Brunch...gotta go...

Until next time...Fohner Family ouuut  :)

A Documentary Short Film Entitled "An Adventure in Driving With Thew"

I'm completely aware that this is probably only funny to me.  However, being the film buff that I am as well as being disappointingly aware that we have very few video footage of the day to day of our life since we first met almost 7 years ago, an opportunity presented itself the other night & I happened to have our camera.

Surprisingly, the subject of my documentary, who is usually reluctant to "act normal" when being filmed ("act normal" needs to be in quotation marks because I will never understand why there is such a discrepancy between the almost 27-year-old female's definition of "acting normally" and the almost 30-year-old male's definition of the same phrase).  Anyway, if you know Thew at all, this will probably seem like "normal" behavior, though after all these years, you would think I would cease to be surprised by how my husband can turn the simple monotony of the everyday into a laugh-fest.  I was actually able to stop laughing long enough to document this rare footage of the often misunderstood species known as the late-twenties human male...observe at your own risk.

Those of you who have an iTouch or iPhone know about Apple's many amazing Applications or "Apps" as they are usually referred to.  Being the late-1970's baby that he is, as soon as Thew learned of the "Light Saber App" he immediately downloaded it.  As you have probably guessed, you can turn your iTouch into a light saber from "Star Wars" at the touch of a button.  It is surprisingly fun & turns you into a kid again with a flick of the wrist.  Of course, if you already normally act like a kid, you tend to use it at completely random times.  I have been accosted by this light saber at different points throughout my day, awoken to it in my ear while drifting off to sleep, had a conversation with it's sound effects while attempting to talk to Thew on the phone constantly saying, "can I talk to my husband now, light saber? I'd really like to finish speaking to him.", etc.

I present to you a short documentary film entitled, "An Adventure in Driving with Thew"...enjoy...

An Adventure in Driving with Thew from Matthew & Lynsey Fohner on Vimeo.

Happy Belated 3rd B-Day to Our "Little Girl"

I've been a bad mommy...

...I never acknowledged our "Little Girl's" (as Thew affectionately calls her) 3rd Birthday on the 13th...

...that's okay...

...I don't think she cares too much...

...here we are...the 1st official picture of the Fohner Family...with all our current members...for now, that is  ;)

Welcome Home, Aslan :) from Matthew & Lynsey Fohner on Vimeo.

This was filmed the first night we had Aslan home with us in June of 2006.  It was such a unexpected blessing how she joined our family.

We had locked into a contract with our first choice breeder to have the 2nd pick of a chocolate female lab months before she was born, but when the day came for the litter to be born we received an e-mail from the breeder disappointingly letting us know that it was a false pregnancy & that she had to return our deposit.  We contacted our 2nd choice breeder right away & to our delight there was 1 black female available.  Aslan had been born 2 weeks prior & would be ready to be picked up the first day of Thew & mine's 1st Summer vacation from teaching...perfect.  We got a whole 2 months with her before we even had to crate her for the day.  She went with us EVERYWHERE & we loved it.

We loved her the 1st moment we received her picture after she was born.  We were actually able to pick her out from her 5 brothers & sisters when she was only 6 weeks old.  She was the one puppy sitting in the back of the litter box contently looking on while the rest of the litter eagerly propped themselves on the edge of the box looking at the camera.  And to this very day, she's remained true to her first days...never a barker, always easy to please, & happy to sit & snuggle rather than play (as she is in this video)...always game for fetch if there's water involved, but never one for running after something on land...that's our "Little Girl" :)

The Life of a Lab from Matthew & Lynsey Fohner on Vimeo.

This was filmed during the first summer Aslan joined our family.  Ever the curious pup, this was one of her favorite pastimes that she thankfully grew out of.  We thought then that it was the old have-to-turn-3-times-before-she-sits mannerisms that dogs have & that she was just doing it so she could feel "okay" about laying down on the couch.  We now know that it was because she couldn't figure out how to / wasn't strong enough yet to lift up the cushions on the couch to get at what lies underneath.  There are a ton of good smells that are embedded into the fibers of our living room couches (that will hopefully be banished to the basement when we finally buy the living room set we picked out at Ashley Furniture).  We inherited this current set from Thew's Dad.  These monstrous blue behemoths have been featured in pics way back from the '80s from the Fohner Family Albums...needless to say, we should get new couches soon.

Anyways, here she is doing one of the many few cute things that she often does...gotta love her :)

...we love our beautiful "Neck" (don't ask), but as you might have rightly assumed, it's a nickname for "red-neck"...we do live in Fred-neck & she was born in the hills of mid-PA, so it works...

...here she is on one of our many walks at my Grandparent's farm in VA...

...resting at home...

...Happy 3rd Birthday, Aslan...

...not like you care because you're a "just a dog"...

...but all the same...

...you'll always be our firstborn...

...love you  :)

4 Years Ago Yesterday...

...on Easter Monday...

...I was asked the best question ever...

(if you can't see it, it says, "I love you, Lynsey...will you marry me?")

While putting the last piece of that puzzle into place (the one with the ring finger on the left hand pictured on it...no, I didn't pick up on that...Thew had to tell me about it later) & I read those amazing words, Thew knelt down beside me & popped open a black leather box with a stunning colorless princess cut diamond ring.

With tears in both our eyes I managed to squeak out a "yes" and we embraced into my favorite hug of all time.  He slipped the ring on my finger and took out a piece of paper.  He had written down things he knew he wanted to say, but knew he would be too nervous to remember...no I'm not sharing what he wrote, some things need to be private, people  ;)

For a while, we just relished in the knowledge that this day had finally come.  I can still remember the pure joy & excitement that we couldn't contain...I just kept staring at my finger, struggling to believe this day had finally happened.  Snuggled up together, we picked a range of time that we thought would work to fit a ceremony in & then called our families.  My Dad already knew since Thew had taken him to lunch earlier that day to ask for his permission & blessing and Thew's whole family already knew because he had showed them the ring, but I'm pretty sure we caught everyone else in my family by surprise.

Then, Thew & I headed over to my apartment to find this waiting for us...

...I have the best college roomies ever...

If I seem sappy, I'm sorry...I get this way every year around this time.  Thew proposed right before our 2 year Dating Anniversary on Easter Monday, so from this time of the year until around September, I'm flying high in reminiscing all about our engagement & wedding.  I can't help it...I still get all giddy thinking about it.  So blog readers, beware...I'm just warning you that I'm a sappster & will be for the next few months.  If that's going to bother you, just feel free ignore this site for a few months & check back in during the Fall  :)

Until then, I'll be looking forward to celebrating the 4th Anniversary of this in less than 4 months...

Fohner Family ouuuttt...

45 Hours From Now...

45 hours from now...

...we'll be on our way to going over this...

...meaning that we're on our on our way to this...

...reminiscing about when we did this...

...& this...

...Aslan will be doing this...

...we'll be looking out over this...

...and this...

...about 1 week & 1/2 away from heading back to doing this in Central Park...

...& be exactly 4 months away from celebrating the 4th anniversary of when we did this...

Bring on Easter Break!!!