introducing...

i'm basically the worst aunt on the planet. my niece,rylee,has been born for a whole month and i have posted absolutely no pictures of her! in my defense,there was a good three weeks or so where i couldn't sit at a computer desk for very long due to the stupid back thing. hopefully when rylee's old enough to read this (in about 6 months) she'll forgive me.

it's official!


chillin after being born. it's hard work!


sooo tired after pushing herself through a dark, cave-like object:


big brother brought flowers for his mommy!


my favorite reynolds family <3:


time to go home! already the little diva:


big brother love:


here's some adorable video of connor bringing previously mentioned flowers and seeing his sister for the first time...he can't take his eyes off of her!! love it.


congratulations again to justin and samantha and connor on the new family member, you KNOW i'll be visiting soon! love you all!

my ipod's stuck on replay

i can't get enough of these two songs. i listen to them all the time. you should too.


10 years after "ride wit me" and "hot in herre"...i still love nelly:



the first guy to sing/dedicate this song to me wins my heart. forever.

only the good die young

the world lost a wonderful man around noon last tuesday-my grandad, Edwin Kymes.

there's so many things i could say about him and at the same time i don't know what to say. he was sick for a few months, so it wasn't an unexpected passing, but that does little in making the transition from life with him to life without him any easier. i'm sad. i miss him. i'm not just sad for me losing a grandfather,though. i'm sad for my grandma-who lost her husband and best friend of 50+ years. i'm sad for my aunts,uncles and mom-who lost their dad. losing either of those things would be devestating to me and i really admire the strength all those people have shown during this hard weekend for us, the weekend of my grandads funeral and burial.

i know this sounds cliche-but it's really amazing to me how when there is distress in a family, we all drop everything we are doing, even if it's for a short time, to be there for each other and comfort and support each other when we need it the most.

i've spent many summers, christmas' and thanksgivings at grandma and grandads house here in muskogee, oklahoma. i wanted to thank my grandad for all the wonderful memories i have and will cherish from my time with him and grandma-

so, thank you,grandad for:

*taking the boat out to eufala lake, where there's always an endless supply of fritos, clam dip, ham and cheese sandwiches and dr pepper, and you never have to wait a half hour after eating before jumping into the lake to swim. everyone had to wear a life jacket and all the grandkids got a turn to drive that boat.

*letting me blow out the match whenever you would light your pipe and the smell of the tobacco from the pipe. sorry for the times when i would wait too long and the flame got too close to your finger.

*having faith that i could drive the golf cart whenever i tagged along when you would play one of your many,many rounds of golf. remember that time i almost drove grandma off the bridge?

*the way you called grandma "sug" and your special three peck kiss you had everytime you said goodbye

*one word: uno.

*you probably didn't know this, but i LOVED the way you called soda 'sodie pop' and would often think of you when i drank some.

those are just a very few of the things i will miss but like i said, will also cherish because they make me smile whenever i think of them.

i honestly don't know how to sum this up so i guess i'll just say we love you, we'll miss you. i bet in heaven all your shots are hole in ones. <3


Edwin Kymes- "Ed","dad",and "grandad"
November 23,1932-September 14,2010

(at grandma and grandad's 50th wedding anniversary in 2006)

you want a piece of me?

oh my gosh has it really been almost a month since i've written a post? i've gotta say, it's felt a lot longer. i'm so used to writing at least a post a week that 3 weeks feels like forever! i guess i've slowed down because blogging became kind of weird for me. it's mainly used a tool for my family that's out of state to keep up with me, but a lot of my friends read it too. which is great, anyone that finds my blog entertaining enough to read-go for it. but when i would get together with friends who i don't see very often, who i know read my blog, i wouldn't have anything to say. i felt like they already knew what i had been up to, and if i was grasping for things to say, i would try to think of old posts i've done, hoping they happened to have missed reading that particular one. when i talk to people i like to tell stories, and when i feel like all my stories had already been told-that's a problem.

i think right now i'm struggling to find a good medium-what to write about, what not to write about, what do people want to read, do people even care? so please be patient while the new direction my blog is going in is under construction :) (i don't know what that direction is, so it'll be a surprise to us both)

in the meantime-i can give you a cliffsnotes version of my current going-ons!

*the biggest and best one is most definitely that i am an aunt again!! my sister gave birth to my niece rylee reynolds on aug 27th and both are doing wonderful! pictures to come soon....

*as of a week ago i've lost 31.5 lbs doing the biggest loser. i feel amazing. i'm fitting into sizes that i haven't worn since jr high, and i'm more athletically fit than i've ever been in my whole life. that's not saying much, i'm not gonna win any marathons or try out for the olympics anytime soon, but it's awesome setting personal physical goals then working to achieve them. i mentioned the warrior dash a few blog posts back, and i was SUPER stoked about it until...

*you know that ongoing back problem i have? yeah, it totally flared up again. pretty sure it's zumba's fault. i went to class one day and couldn't walk the next. i missed 3 days of work and, unless some magical back healing fairy comes along, i am pretty sure i'm not going to be well enough by sunday to do the dash. i'm actually taking an unofficial (short) break from biggest loser since i can barely walk, let alone work out.

that's about it for now...now, the fun part!

remember my last vlog where i mentioned fitting into my favorite dress of all time and my roommate doing a photo shoot of me in it?? well, here's the pictures! i think the pictures turned out great and she really did a wonderful job of capturing "me". as it turned out, the best pictures are the ones where i was just goofing off,not even posing for.so, in no particular order, here is our favorite shots:



totally trespassing,that's how i roll


sometimes i might give you the side-eye


my serious face


heidi loves this one cause she's in it




hoping for some rain...it was HOT!


my personal favorite(i think)









like what you see?? you can leave me a comment with your phone number down below(hahaaaa,just kidding :) OR, if you would like my roommate to shoot you and make you look totally amazing you can check out more of her photos here or contact her at hvladyka@hotmail.com

i'll see you guys again SOON! i promise :)