Thank you Helen!!!

Thank you Helen and Pat for this AWESOME gift! I laughed out loud when I pulled it out of the package. Awesome. I love it! I am pretty sure this is my new favorite shirt :) For all of you who are confused right now, let me explain. Helen and Pat are the parents of this strange (but awesome!) friend of mine, Melody, who I became quite close with when we moved here to Japan. We went to Brooks together and upon graduation she moved to Japan to teach English, so naturally we hung out quite a bit when we moved here. Melody lived with us during her last month here in Japan (which was about a year ago!!) and her parents came to visit and also stayed with us for a few days in between their travels.

One of the awesome things about Helen and Pat is... well, there are many things... but one awesome one is that when we picked them up at the airport he was wearing a shirt with the same design as above that said "chillin with my gnomies". For some odd reason Brian and I love gnomes. They have been an inside joke for years and I can't even remember how it started at this point... I think it had something to do with a gnome commercial that Brian would quote. The really awesome thing though is that we have a magnet on our fridge that is the exact same as the shirt that Pat was wearing AND that I am wearing above :) I love it! Plus when Santa Claus (Pat) is on vacation his cover is a gnome :)

So THANK YOU Helen and Pat for the shirt! I really love it and it fits perfectly! And Melody, just so you know, it was practically snowing last night AND yes, I am in shorts... we DO use our heater :)