Henna Saturday

I have always been fascinated with body art and truth be told I would probably have a tattoo by now if my husband was OK with it.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, he's not so down with the permanent nature of a traditional tattoo.  So I was very excited to hear about the henna event being held today at our local library.

All I really knew about henna was that it was a form of body art traditionally applied to brides in some of the Middle Eastern countries and that the tattoos were not permanent.  I had seen some pictures of henna tattoos online and thought they were beautiful.  The designs range from very simple to extraordinarily ornate, some have a more tribal influence while others are delicate and flowery.

Some of the history of henna I learned today included some of the bridal traditions.  In some countries, where the bride may not have met her future husband until they were taking their vows, the bride was tattooed all over her body, her hands, arms, feet and legs the day before she was wed.  And, somewhere in the tattoo the husbands initials were hidden.  The initials would have to be located by the new husband before the union could be consumated.  Can you imagine how intimately he would have to examine her?  Now that would make for some nervous brides!


Here in the United States henna is generally just a way to decorate the body with art without it being permanent and has been popularized primarily by Hollywood. 


I was a little bit nervous going to this event all by myself, I generally like to drag a friend along when doing something new.  But even so, I am glad that I went today.  I have become acquainted with one of the girls that works at the front desk of the library but never managed to get past the "What book should I read next" conversation.  It was fun to learn that she was a henna artist, where she was from, and what brought her to this small town we live in.  And, it was amazing to watch the application of the henna, the artistic talent is amazing.  I also enjoyed learning a little bit more about the history of this ancient form of body art.  Not to mention I think it is beautiful.

All of these pictures were taking during the application.  After an hour or so the paste dries and starts to flake off.  At that time you scrape the dried paste off (the glitter comes off then too).  What is left behind is a orangish looking stain.  Over the next 2 days the henna dye will oxidize and darken to a brownish color and the tattoo will last for 1-3 weeks depending on how much its washed or scrubbed.  I can't wait to see it in a few days once it darkens.  I will take a picture of it on Monday and post it so you can see what it looks like once its oxidized.

Favorite Friday!!

Alright, so it is almost 9pm and I am just getting to my Friday post, but PEOPLE... I am getting to my Friday Post!!  This is huge!!


So this week I am going to tell you about one of the finest pieces of technology I've ever had..... THE BLACKBERRY TOUR.

Now I have to admit that I had wanted one for quite a long time, but as a stay at home mom it just didn't seem like it was worth the expense.  I mean, what did I have to remember other than to take my oldest child to school everyday and the occasional doctors appointment.  And as far as needing to check my e-mail, well, I was at home, with the computer.  So although I wanted one, I didn't get one.  But, once I went back to work I found that I was forgetting EVERYTHING!  I was carrying around my day planner, but it didn't beep and send me a reminder.  And now that I am in school, and occasionally working, and making dates with friends and family, and having assigments due and e-mails to read, and please, do I even need to mention the TEXTING I decided to go ahead and get one.  Especially after seeing my sisters and what it could do.

I can chat with my sister via Text all the livelongday, I can get e-mail from my parents while they are in Florida, I get to see who is tweeting me and what they are tweeting about.  I can check my friends blogs no matter where I am.  I even get Facebook on my phone.  Not to mention the calendar feature which has saved myself from forgotten appointments I don't know how many times.  Or the task list, a personal favorite.  It allows you to set a due date for your projects and reminds me when they are almost due.  It has a memo pad which is where I keep my grocery lists, my yearly goals, a list of books I want to read.  And, it fits in my pocket or my purse. 

Obviously it is one of my favorite things.  I am sure that other smart phones have similar features and some of them might even be better than what Blackberry has to offer.  But I love the Blackberry Tour.

Do you have a smart phone you'd like to share about, blog about it and leave me a note in the comments.  I will definitely check it out.  Everyone has favorites, I'm sharing mine and I want to know yours.

Favorite Friday's

I've been wanting to update my blog for a while, change it to fit who I have become and to spice it up a little bit.  I think I was bored with the old one.... I'm a girl that likes change, what can I say.  As part of the whole changing of the blog thing I decided to start Favorite Friday (at least that's what I'm calling it, obviously snappy titles are not my forte).  Basically I am going to highlight one thing a week that I use regulary that I love.  It might be hairspray, toenail polish, my camera, whatever... Just something that I think makes my life a little easier or works a little better, or in the case of 4 inch heels... makes my calves appear skinnier.  It is just going to be a little something fun.  And, hopefully, it will guarantee at least one new post a week!

The Bestest Birthday Gift Ever!!!

Thursday afternoon was my 34th birthday. My friends snagged me last Saturday and surprised me with a fantastic Pirate Party and really ya'll, as far as I was concerned it doesn't get better than dressing up like a pirate and acting silly in public with your closest friends... but boy, was I wrong...

Two of my dearest friends, Brad and Rachel, have been waiting for a long time for their son to come home to them from South Korea. The adoption has been a long process, with a lot of tears and joy mingled throughout. Needless to say, we (them, their family and friends) were anxious for Matthew to be in their arms.

Last Monday Rachel received a phone call from the adoption agency that said Matthew would be coming home on Thursday (my birthday... I KNOW, how cool is that?) We were a couple of the friends they asked to witness this miraculous moment and oh, the sweetness of it all.

Grab a tissue (or 10), sit back and enjoy an evening and birthday I will never forget!

Chad drove a van full of girls to Chicago!! Yeah for road trips!

This is me and Joanna and Sara

This is the Chicago traffic... Yeah for rush hour! Ha!

This is the Chicago skyline and let me just say almost impossible to capture in a moving vehicle on the expressway. But finally all those darn semis got out of the way...

The board showed that Matthew's plane had landed and we were just waiting for the "arrived"

One of the 50 best and totally unrateable moments of the night was when Brad gasped "There his is"!

In his Momma's arms... right where he is supposed to be.

Oh the joy!!

Father and son!

A family of 3

The new Hunt family of 3 along with the couple that escorted Matthew from South Korea

A precious moment during a prayer. The sweet man from South Korea wanted to pray for their family. Not an eye was dry. It was so beautiful to hear him praying in his native language for this new family.

And this is the eye candy... can you hardly stand it. He is so beautiful!

Congratulations dear friends! You finally have your little boy!!

Ahoy Me Mateys... Yo Ho!!

Last night my bestest friends were nothing short of a rag-tag group of scurvy pirates!





And it was all for my birthday!

When I showed up to Applebee's for our long anticipated date night I was met my friend Rachel who held a scroll in her hand...

...a scroll that I was to open...



which contained the following:



and...



along with this clue...



Which led me to the Outback where I was met by my other friend Rachel



Who held another clue...



along with some fabulously large silver hoop earrings and a pirate bandana for my hair...

This would also be the point in the story where we run into a very lovely and classy couple that attends our church... you'd think I might be embarrassed at this point... but that would indicate you don't know me very well.

Strap up ya scurvy landlubbers we're about to set sail!!

Off to the Olive Garden we go... yo ho!!







Where we had a fabulously Piratey dinner... and an extreme amount of laughter, eye patches, pirate tattoos, not to mention a few funny looks and exclamations of "Look they're pirates"!!

I think this was the most wonderful birthday surprise I've ever had and I love my friends to bits for getting dressed up and silly for me!! You guys are the bestest Piratey Pals ever! And, should I ever take to the high seas... you will be the first Scurvy Dogs I call!

Wow... So Much Going On, So Little Time To Blog...

I hope that you all are having a great summer. Ours is going by at the speed of light and I am starting to get a little bit worn out. We always start the summer with few if any weekends booked up. There are always the family reunions and what-not that we know are going to be coming up, but other than that we really try to keep the weekends open... well, here it is July 27th and the rest of the weekends -- straight through until Labor Day are busy... and I don't think we've actually had an off weekend since the summer started and all our family reunions were cancelled.

I don't know how it happens it just does. Our weeks are filled with Doctor, Dentist, Optometrist and Car Maintenance appointments along with trips to here or there for this or that.... Oh, and I try to get our laundry done and some food stashed in the refrigerator (for those rare times that we are home) and make sure that the bills get paid (Since I'm not working on a regular schedule, these things sorta go by the way-side. Fortunately, we haven't had any debacles... yet!)

Once the weekend arrives we are usually packing to go away to visit with family that live a couple hours away or taking a short weekend trip with our friends... I'm not going to lie and say that I don't love it because I do and I know we are very fortunate to be able to spend our summer gallivanting around and having a grand ol' time... but I do get tired. I'm sure the 2am bedtime that we seem to fall into doesn't help much. I am actually working on getting that bit back under control, it puts a bit of a crimp on my 7am workout time. Anywhoo... we've been having such great fun and I have been terribly remiss in sharing it all with you.

I don't think I could possibly put it all on one post and not put you to sleep so I'll just give you a little bit here and hopefully I'll be able to blog a little bit more later this week... or whenever... I really shouldn't promise anything.

The day after school let out (approximately 6 weeks ago) Curt and I headed out to MIS for Sprint Cup practice and qualifying. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with hubby and the boys spent their first weekend 5 days or their summer with their grandparents. Curt's parents and my parents took turns over those 5 days so they could each have a turn. Fortunately they live about 10 minutes apart and just made the swaps themselves because we live about 45 minutes away from all of them. It was great. I don't think Curt and I have been alone for 5 straight days since Jacob was born. I appreciated every minute.

On Saturday our church was a Big Top in the Park. We spent the day there playing games with the kids, handing out water to runners in the park, enjoying worship services and hearing our Associate Pastor preach twice. It was a great day!

On Sunday we were back to the track for race day! Seriously, I love Nascar... I just can't help it. I love that Curt and I actually have that in common because he is such a big sports fan and quite frankly... I'm not... But Nascar, I can get behind that! We had a great time there but we were so tired when it was over. Don't think that stopped us from heading over to Chad and Rachel's afterwards. We sat around outside with Brad and Rachel and talked while watching Chad clean the air filter in his car. It was really exciting stuff. OK, maybe not exciting but it was funny to be sitting around doing nothing while he worked on his car.



On Monday we headed up to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant with 20+ friends and acquaintances for an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Seriously, if you love seafood and you don't care that the restaurant is in a casino you should go... I think its around $20 per person but as a special treat you cannot beat it. And they have soooo much more than just seafood. I'd pay $20 just for the salad bar... I'm not even going to talk about the dessert bar.... FYI -- the seafood buffet is only offered on Monday nights.

Tuesday we got our kids back and they started VBS.

We cut off their Mohawks and started eating our fair share of Popsicles (our share isn't done yet).





We've played with worms...





and sprinklers...





When we are home and the sun is out I lay outside in the sun and read, the boys often join me and Jacob even brings his own book. Ethan just wants to talk... so napping in the sun isn't a viable option. I do laundry and fiddle around on Facebook (which my husband just joined last week and has now become slightly obsessed with), I've been Twittering and texting. I know, I have finally joined the Text Messaging Revolution (it's not a real revolution... I was being facetious). I workout at least 3 days a week, but usually 5. I still work at the church, but only on Thursdays.

This week we are going to be looking for a second car. I'm hoping that the whole car shopping thing goes smoothly. I'll try to post some more pictures from our summer because I have some really, really good ones. And we have been doing a lot of things that I just have to share with you.

This last picture is my favorite of Jacob, I think its his eyes. They look just like his daddy's.

Yes, I'm Alive...

Summer hits the Ford household sort of like a tornado... and then it carries us off to parts unknown and wears us out. I am still in the middle of the tornado (it is only July) but I thought I'd better say something to all of you since my dear friend Rachel left me this doozy of a comment:

"Summer is here & Kristy is gone. She had plenty of things to blog about but no time to do it. Is Curt hogging the computer? Is Kristy been tied up by her boys in the basement and being fired upon with Nerf guns? Or is she just reading book after book in the back yard. I don't really know but I do know she is not here on her blog. She may not be for some time if last summer's trends hold true.

Kristy, Oh how we miss your cheery prose. Do come back some day soon!"

We have been having tons of fun visiting with family and friends, driving across the state to play at the beach, going to weddings, graduation parties, overnights here, overnights there, laying in the sun, reading novels, scrapbooking, taking pictures, watching sunsets, roasting marshmallows, jumping on trampolines, catching a nap or two or three and just plain having a good 'ol time. One of these days I'll post some pictures of what we've been up to but for now I'll just leave you with a Lake Michigan sunset.