A Little Jr. Miss Story

Clark thinks he's funny sometimes. I was crossing my fingers, praying that Hannah would win Jr. Miss. I had been texting my brother to tell me about the awards and if she won. All of the sudden, I receive a text saying SHE WON!!!!!!!!! SHE WON!!!!!!!!!!!. I proceed to call my brother and I get an answering machine saying, "hello? hello? if you haven't figured out by now this is my voice mail leave me a message!" The voice on the other end was not my brothers. It was my niece's. My devious husband had changed my niece's name in my phone to my brother's. I got my hopes up for nothing. I then proceeded to be mad at him for 10ish minutes and I then receive another text saying Hannah won! I turn to Clark and say calmly, "Really? She did! This isn't funny anymore!" He replies, "She really did Brynne! Aren't you so happy!?" It took me a while to really get excited but then I called my brother's real number and confirmed it and now I'm more excited than ever. My cousin (McKayla) and one of our great family friends (Hannah) are both going to State Jr. Miss. This gives two really good reasons to skip school in October and go!

PS... Here's a little bragging sidenote. My mom was Laken's (the recent Jr Miss) hostess and she was Hannah's (the new Jr. Miss). Saturday night, two Preston parents asked her to be their daughter's hostess too. Lance Hemsley (Laken's Dad) came up to her and said, "I'll be your agent, we can go big!" She is very modest and says to everyone, "It's not me! It's 17 years of parenting that create these talented and confident girls!" I think she is right about that but I also think she knows how to polish and fix the little details perfectly. She is one great lady that sacrifices a lot of time to help others. I hope I can be as wonderful and talented as she is someday.

The Sunday Blues

When I was growing up in the Cook house on most given Sunday evenings you could hear my mom say... "I have the Sunday Blues." What are these you ask? They are a disease, a curse, a blessing, a longing, etc. etc. My mom passed these blues to me. These are the blues you get when the excitement of Friday night is over, the catching up on everything on Saturday is finished and when Church is done for the day, dinner has been cleaned up, the muddy buddies have been eaten and you're finishing your movie with your family and getting ready to go to bed. These are the blues you get when you realize Monday is coming faster than you know and you will have to leave your comfy home and fun family and venture out to school again. I had a bad case of these blues last night.

Friday night, Clark and I drove to watch Hannah in Jr. Miss Dress Rehearsal and she was beautiful. Her talent was so good, she walked and talked perfectly and above all we knew she was a great girl with a positive/sweet personality and a strong testimony. We wanted her to win! After Dress Rehearsal, we went to my parents house and chatted and watched a Psych episode until 1 AM! Poor Clark drove us home and let me sleep most of the way. I love how he takes care of me.

Saturday morning, Clark had to work. I selpt in. We went to breakfast with Brooke. Then we drove to NSL where I met Claudia, Jayleen, Aspen and Brielle and we went to a shower for our cousin-in-law Katie. The theme was popcorn with the saying "she popped!" She had the baby earlier than expected, hence the "she popped" and not "she's going to pop!". It was darling and the baby was so tiny and sweet with beautiful olive skin. Meanwhile, Clark was rock climbing with his big bro Dave. We met back at the Evans residence to celebrate Dave and Aspen's birthday's with Mandrin food. It was so delicious. Then we stayed up chatting and laughing a lot.

Sunday, we went to church, ate, napped and drove home. When Clark and I got home we unpacked and watched a show and that's when the Sunday blues hit hard. I started crying. I know... I'm pathetic. I know it's cliche but I sincerely don't like Monday's. They are really hard for me to get through. The thought of going to work, school, doing homework and taking care of the details of my life just bombards my thoughts and I stress out a little.

I have found a good cure though: a good night's sleep + a run on Monday morning + saying over and over, "Friday is in 4 more days." These things can get you through any Manic Monday.