Eighteen

Happy 18th Birthday to my oldest nephew, Triston Michael! ❤  In some ways, it feels surprising that we’re already here!  In others, it feels like he’s been an adult for a while now.  He's resilient, intelligent, and mature for his age, and I'm confident he has a bright future ahead of him!!

This post will be 18 pics/collages as a tribute for this milestone birthday marking official adulthood.  (Above is our 12-15-24 dinner at Tucker's to celebrate him being on Christmas Break and my last day of class!)

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We first met back in 2010 when Josh and Rachael started dating -- he was 3 and Carter was 2.  This = him looking through the kid's Bible I got him + an adorable LifeChurch lobby pic + them coming to see me and visit the Jenks Aquarium!

So little and cute in their PJs - their first Christmas Eve with us!!

T&C enjoying some watermelon at the DeBusk get together -- that pic was framed in Jace's nursery room!  And I love his bright summer smile in the pic on the right (both of these are at JB's pool/hot tub)!

Rach and T after he lost his first tooth - major news!!

He's the oldest sibling on both sides of his family, and he's always been an awesome big brother (to Carter, Jace, Kyndal, Mason, Bryson, and Emberlee)!

I'm grateful we have a good connection and loads of good memories together!
These pics = After opening his first Macbook on Christmas Eve 2019, Mandalay Bay Beach at our Vegas trip summer 2022, and Serendipity 3 during our NYC trip this January!!

Just hanging out on the stage after the R&J wedding in 2011 + the hoverboard Christmas!

❤ Christmas Eve at Pelican's, surrrious brothers in glasses, dressed up for the CHA program, his baptism Sunday, our "brinner" Christmas 2011, monkey bars at Mom and Dad's, swing at Mom and Dad's, with Alan at Kristin's wedding, and a Parrish family fall photo shoot!

True story - he's the one we call with phone, TV, or computer questions!!

Three of my favorite pics of the four of them!!  (Two at JoBug's, one at 522).

The kids surprising me in the trunk of my car as I was getting ready to head back to Tulsa! lol

Brothers! ❤

Classic tree pic at Woodward Park in Tulsa.  Love them all!!

Timeline hop:  Kindergarten Graduation, candy bar sale in 6th grade, and flying an airplane at age 17!!

Spending quality time with the niece and nephews on the day before the Niagara trip with Mom and Dad!

Rach with T&C at Josh's apartment in 2010 + their rooftop photo shoot 2024!

And #18 = Our escape room adventure + Triston's GoPro swimming pic - love it!

T,

I see you.

I believe in you.

And I'm confident you will change the world!

You've been through a lot, and you have what it takes to keep moving forward.  God is always with you and for you, and as long as I'm around, I am here to support you in any way I can.  I'm excited for your Senior year at CHA ahead!  Praying for continued growth, healing, and strength as you step into the future with a strong foundation and a bright sense of hope and purpose!

Happy 18th Birthday!!

Love you! 
~Aunt Lindsey

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No Going Back

Happy Monday, friends and fam!  I hope your week is off to a good start.  I joined Jace and Kyndal for my first swim day of 2025 on Saturday... yay for Mom and Dad having a heated pool!!  I'm a little sore from the extra hills and speed training, so it felt really great to be in the water.  We had fun playing Marco Polo and Sharks and Minnows and watching J do backflips and cannonballs, then Mom and Dad and Rach and Tman joined us for a family dinner at Ted's - all fun!

The Wilsons and Mosses got together for dinner at the Moss manor that night, and getting this pic from Chet Lee made me happy!

Saturday morning was a 6-mile jog at the Station.  I didn't sleep well, so I was out there earlier than usual, and I was surprised and slightly concerned to see several Moore Police vehicles and policemen standing outside.  I hesitantly approached and asked one of them what was going on, and I learned that it was testing day for the Police Academy... so that was pretty fun!  They were running hard drills and various training exercises and had a drone filming it overhead, and it all made the run far more interesting/fun!  I cheered them on, partly in my head and partly whilst they were running circles around me... and of course, I still stopped to enjoy the flowering trees, as well! =)

Thus far (in all of life and particularly in the 75-Soft challenge), my adventures in dating have been a lot of effort with very little to show for it.  Over the years, I've sincerely tried friend setups, eHarmony, Match, Christian Mingle, Facebook dating, Bumble, Tawkify, and I'm currently trying Hinge.  At this age, I'm mostly finding panicked divorcees (or separated men pretending to be divorced) who are in a rush to find a replacement wife but aren't emotionally healed or ready to be dating again... or incredibly passive singles who are content to play video games in their spare time while messaging endlessly without taking action or asking anyone out and are "still figuring out their relationship type" in their mid-40s. #massiveeyeroll  There are a plethora of men who are too aggressive or too passive, but it only takes one normal, driven, mature man of God, so I'm holding onto hope for that!  And enlisting friends in this endeavor.  (So if you know me well and read this blog, consider this permission to play matchmaker if any good single men come to mind!)

I know precious little about it, but the Jaceman follows Paul Cuffaro on YouTube and was excited to get to talk to him on the phone this weekend, so I'm excited that he's excited!  He also had his friend TJ over to spend the night during Spring Break, and this = them checking out the new fish tank! =)

Me and my best couple franz! lol  (In my head, that's to the tune of Marshall's "Now that we're best couple friends" song on HIMYM)  I made a Tulsa trip on Sunday and joined the Wilsons and Shoemakers for Los Cabos lunch + the kids playing at the new Riverwalk playground + Marble Slab! =)  PS These sunglasses are incredibly reflective.  I meant to do a fun pic with the NYC skyline showing in them... maybe I'll find something like that in Colorado!

The kids all hopped into this canoe together... cuteness!

I got to sit by Miss Parker Elizabeth herself - one month before her 4th birthday and the much-anticipated Belle party!  It was good to chat with everyone and catch up on all that's new and changing in the Shoemakers lives!  *Happy 32nd Birthday to Mark Anthony today!!!

Then I went for a walk at the Addison Creek trail, my potential future neighborhood with a delightful tree-named street. =)

And on my way home, I stopped by Rachael's house... check out her cute front door hanger for Spring!  And her massive textbooks for the medical coding classes - yikes!!

I was there to bring her my graduation cap, as she's going to decorate it up for me!  Jaceman had to try it on first, of course! lol

In case you missed it, I'm going for my PhD at CCU starting this summer... Chettles talked about my decision to go back to school in 2022 being the first domino that started a line of things falling into place as I moved forward, and how this path would likely mirror that.  I think it's true - that God will open the right doors as I continue to step forward, and that the path will become clear one small step at a time.  Ever since I read Hero on a Mission and decided to set and pursue meaningful life goals, something inside me has gradually changed and transformed.  I'm realizing lately that there's no going back to a life of glorifying comfort and following the crowd and passively waiting on doors to open for me.  I'm taking action and my desire to lead and build and empower others is growing.  This path is decidedly harder and requires more courage and strength from me, but it's infinitely better in both the process and the outcomes!  In every area where I have made progress or gained momentum, I don't want to go back.  I want to hold on to what I've learned and keep growing and moving forward!  So cheers to living with purpose, passion, and perseverance - to believing my life can make a difference and "impact the world with grace and truth!!" #maximumeffort 

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Steadfast Sunday

Happy Sunday, friends and fam!!  I jogged 21 freaking miles today, so I had to start off with that, but I'll cover it in more detail tomorrow. =)

Here's me and Kristin on our Wednesday walk (on my 15,000th day).  We had a good talk, and I hope they're having a fun family trip to Fort Worth this weekend!

Get excited - the cap and gown arrived this week!! ❤

'Twas another victorious volleyball weekend, with Kyndal Faith and her team actually winning gold in the entire tournament!!  This = them celebrating after Kyndal's final serve that got them to 25!

They beat 5 teams (some took 3 games, as it's always best 2 out of 3, but they won them all in the end, and I'm proud of them for fighting so hard!!)

K-Faith and her friends from the 17s Charge team... and a family pic with the medal winner!  (Side note: the 17s team was sitting behind our fam, and several of those girls are big fans of Grey's Anatomy, and I was tempted to jump into their intense discussion about it! lol)

We stopped by JoBug's to meet Miss Karsten Blaire and see Asher Kenneth for a bit!  JoBug's grandma name is "Sassy," and that makes me happy!

Dabbing to match their volleyball leprechaun shirts for St. Patrick's Day! lol

The Peak gym had an entire side for beach volleyball.  Did I roll up my jeans and hop in the sand for a while?  Yes, definitely!  Did the grains of sand stay with me longer than I'd hoped?  Also yes. lol But #noragrets.

Yay, Mini Miss K and the Charge 11s team... Silver medals last weekend, and gold this weekend!!

I listened to Margaret Beck's The Way of Integrity this weekend (finished it during today's long run).  She mentioned the Drama Triangle, so I looked it up to learn more... which led to learning about the Empowerment Dynamic, which is the better side of the Drama Triangle.  ❤

There is a great deal of unresolved tension in my life lately, and it's become harder to tolerate, and I was quite literally planning to write a post tomorrow about letting go of the motherhood dream and walking away from online dating for now... and then I watched this short video while randomly researching the above triangles this morning.  Her rubber band illustration is simple but profound... or perhaps it's just that the timing was perfectly aligned for me in this moment.  I am beyond tired of the "dynamic tension" and anxiety of unmet dreams and deferred hopes, BUT I don't want to be in victim mode and shrink/lower my own dreams in order to resolve it.  So my only other choice is to be prayerful and get brutally honest about what I really want most, and stay intentional about taking action to move my current reality closer to my dreams and vision for my future.  In whatever unmet goals you may be facing, I hope this encourages you today too!  (I set it to start at the part that helped me, but feel free to start from the beginning.)

Okay, that's all for today.  God is with us and for us, and He is at work behind the scenes, even and maybe especially when we feel very tempted to give up.  His power is real; His love is steadfast; I'm praying that my resolve will be stronger and more steadfast, as well.

Song of the Week = "Precious Love" by James Morrison, courtesy of Schitt's Creek ❤

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Volleyball Victory!

It was another Tulsa tournament for Kyndal Faith and the 11s Charge team this weekend.  The Wilsons joined Mom and I for a fun dinner at Mission BBQ on Saturday night!  Parker E is cracking me up with the facial expressions and fun posses lately!! ❤

The Mini Miss K was on fire - she played with a lot of grit and heart, and it's been fun to see their whole team improving!

Dad stayed home with Jaceman, so it was another girls' weekend, which is always fun!!  Rach and Kyndal drove up on Friday night, and Mom and I came in on Saturday morning.  (We stayed at the team hotel, which was the Southern Hills Marriott where I've had several court reporting seminars.)

Of course, we had to stop at Amber Marie, which was decked out in fun Easter decor!  We grabbed a couple cute gifts for Karsten Blaire, who we will finally meet next Saturday!

Rach made these awesome signs for the team and the coaches... they handed them out on Saturday when the team had dinner at Mother Road Market!

As I expected, Mom was a fan of Mission BBQ (we split the brisket and cheesy potatoes and cornbread), and the rest of us enjoyed it again!  Parker was excited about some cornbread and ketchup, and Tate drew an impressive replica of their Mission BBQ logo.  It's always good to catch up with the Wilson fam!!

Sunday, they played at 1 and 3... later than we expected, but it was nice being able to sleep in on time change Sunday!  The girls won both of their games that day, so they got the medal for the silver division... YAY!! 

Pics with the volleyball star + Mom showing the girls some great videos she took of them playing!

So much more fun when they all leave the gym in high spirits!

We got back around 6:15 last night.  I had dinner with Mom and Dad then headed home to do laundry and watch a few episodes of Cobra Kai... I've decided Johnny Lawrence is kinda like Michael Scott... a lawsuit waiting to happen, but entertaining and occasionally endearing enough that you find him likable. =)  The pic below = Mom's lovely new table centerpiece!

We had a good talk on the drives down and back, and it was a fun weekend all around, so yay for that!!  Now I have to catch up on running today, so wish me luck!

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