Monday, September 28, 2009

IF update

Since there is a variety of folks who read this blog, I sometimes struggle whether to talk about this really personal stuff or not, but I figure I'll just quit worrying about it and spill it all. I mean, that is sort of just like my personality (I like all kinds of things, I have some crazy conflicting interests, I'm a girly girl but am a hardcore sports fan, etc.) and so my blog might as well reflect my personality, right? One day I talk about food on a stick, the next day it's infertility treatments. There you go.

After all that, I really don't have much to update other than, I am officially out of menopause! woo hoo!!! If you have NO idea what I am talking about, read here. The medication and it's ugly effects have worn off and I am so happy. (I wish the extra pounds it gave me would come off as quickly though... ugh, that's gonna take awhile) My doctor in WV wanted us to pursue fertility drugs again right away, but I just can't do it. So whoever is reading this, could you pray for us that the Lupron did it's trick and the endometriosis is gone? We have been told that we only have a small window of opportunity before it (the endo) starts growing back. I am trying to remain hopeful and inspired by my dear friend Abby who had a similar situation and is now 22ish weeks pregnant!

That's all for now - thanks for caring. :)

This post is on a stick

I took a lot pictures at the oklahoma state fair last week, but most of them involve one theme: Food on a Stick.

Let's begin our tour.


Most of you have likely heard of CHICKEN on a stick.




















And I know you've heard of, seen, or probably eaten, a HOT DOG on a stick.




















But have you seen on a JALAPENO on a stick?




















Or what about CHEESE on a stick?




















I'm sure maybe you have seen STEAK on a stick...




















But what about PIZZA on a stick?




















Surely you have not seen MANICOTTI on a stick!



















I mean, seriously, how do you get manicotti on a stick?!?!


But the craziest one of all is...





















Yep, you saw that right, DEEP FRIED GARLIC MASHED POTATOES on a stick!!


Did I miss anything? Have any of you heard of any other crazy foods on a stick?

Friday, September 25, 2009

The fair was O-K!

(Eventually I will stop using the Oklahoma abbreviation as an adjective in my status titles.)




















Today we went to the State Fair and it was an overall good time. Since we went in the afternoon to avoid crowds and possible thunderstorms, we did miss out on the more "entertaining" people. Because you know that a fair in a state like Oklahoma has all the same people as in the lyrics of Toby Keith's song, "I love this bar." Regardless of the time of day, we still saw lots of short skirts, high techs, blue-collar boys, and rednecks. Just missed out on the dancing girls and hookers.



















The other highlight was certainly the food and it did not disappoint.

Bobby had a corn dog.



















And I treated myself to a yummy, butter-lathered soft pretzel, an elephant ear covered in powder sugar, and a jug of ice cold root beer.




























































This was over a span of several hours and I shared it all with Bobby, so do not think I am a total pig.

Oh, and speaking of pigs... we even watched the pig races. Those little black piggies really moved quickly!



















Just before leaving, we rode up in the space needle thingy that you can see in the first picture I posted. I was nervous going up that high with the wind blowing as much as it was, but once we got up there, I was so glad we did. I got these awesome pictures of downtown OKC and the fairgrounds.























































Stay tuned...

we're going to the state fair today, so I am sure I will have a lot of fun stories and pictures to share tonight.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Life is/in OK

We have been here for a month. Almost. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that we pulled in with our moving truck and angry animals in the car, and sometimes it feels like we have lived here forever. Yet, I only know a few people and don't really know my way around. So I guess it would be like we've lived here forever but never leave the house. And actually that is sort of how I feel most days. The first week was so nice because Bobby was here with me everyday and we did projects together and drove to stores together, but now he's busy as a bee with church stuff and I'm here alone doing the projects and shopping. But really, it's not all that bad. I do enjoy the downtime and he is able to come home for lunch most days which is wonderful.

The house is far from complete but I think we're still making progress. Last week was very unproductive because we spent two days in Dallas and the rest of the week preparing to make an even bigger mess - we decided to do a complete makeover on our little third bedroom, otherwise known as BR 3. This room is located in the front of the house when you first walk through the front door. Its short-term use is an office/library/guitar room. And the closet contains all of Bobby's clothes, of which I plan on adding some extra shelves at the top and some shoe racks at the bottom, eventually. And when my parents visit, we are going to possibly change out the main door because right now it is one of those cheap accordion doors. I am hoping to put in a sliding pocket door, but we'll see.

The room looked like this when we first looked the house:
























And this is what it looked like just before demolition:















































Light green, stained carpet, beat-up ugly oak colored baseboard, and white walls with markings all over them.

So we decided to rip up the carpet and install wood (laminate) floors. Ourselves! We have never done anything like this. Ever. The closest I ever came to installing flooring was when I watched the carpet guy install my beautiful ruby red carpet in my bedroom when I was 8. And Bobby? Nope, never laid flooring either. But hey, this is the age of HGTV and DIY. We can do it! And so the search began... we went to about a dozen places looking for a floor we liked, as cheaply as possible, and we found our floor at Sam's Club! Crazy, I know, but I typed in "cheap laminate flooring" on the google and Sam's came up. So we went to the store, put 6 boxes in our cart and checked out. It was weird, but affordable.

But the story's not done yet... Bobby suggested that after we rip up the carpeting and before we put down the new floor, we paint the walls and trim. Good idea, but we didn't have any paint. In about 7 minutes we decided to go with green walls, white trim, and he ran to Lowe's and bought the paint. We thought we could do all the painting in about 2 hours, wrong. These textured walls suck it up and we were still painting way after dark. That meant the flooring didn't get started until the next day, which happened to be Saturday, aka Game Day. So... we watched the game and started installing the floor at 7 pm. Needless to say that we didn't get it done and are about halfway finished, but it is looking good!

We have not been able to resume work on it because Bobby started getting sick and I feared that he was getting swine flu since we actually know a lot of people who have it. He is feeling better which is good because now our pastor is sick and Bobby will be filling in for him on Sunday. Good thing he was just installed this past Sunday! Oh, did I forget to mention that? He is now officially the Assistant Pastor (and church planting apprentice) at Christ the King PCA. His ordination was successfully transferred from Pittsburgh to North Texas (our presbytery) two days after we moved here and now he is installed at our church. Just in time. So it looks like our floor (and total house in general) is taking a back seat to the duties of flock leader.

Since you've been so nice to read through this entire post, I'll leave you with a sneak peek of the room.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

In Norman We Are
















Well this post is only 13 days late. Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been a little busy with the unpacking and the meeting of lots of people. We did arrive in Norman on the day we expected, Wednesday, August 26th, but it was a wee bit later - midnight to be exact. We had a few delays because you just can't get around as fast in a moving truck (our shortest pit stop was 20 minutes), we hit a really bad storm in Tulsa, and we spent several wonderful hours with our friends in St Louis. We certainly don't regret that part at all! So we arrived at midnight, in the rain, with some very unhappy animals. The (water) turtles had been in a box (separate boxes) for two days, the cats were in a carrier together and cried for 80% of the trip, but the Bunny was fine, chillin' in her cage in the back of the car. So we unloaded them from the car and slept on our bedroom floor on the first night in our first very own home. How very romantic, isn't it?

Since that day we have been unpacking and organizing stuff - like trying to figure out where we are going to put Bobby's clothes since mine take up our master bedroom closet. Just kidding, he gets the third bedroom closet. Well, some of his clothes are there. Some are in the second bedroom. And some of his shoes are in my closet. The rest of his shoes are still missing. So it's like a scavenger hunt for him every time he gets dressed. I try to keep things fun for him around here.

He began working in the church office yesterday, so I'm trying to use my time home wisely, and I am doing a great job of that right now, huh? We have been to two worship services at our new church and they were great. And we've been really blessed by some great meals and fellowship with folks from the church. I think our life and calendar are going to be pretty full here in Norman and we are going to love it.

We miss all of our friends in southwest PA, especially our family and the kids from our youth group. It was really hard to leave them all. We are so thankful for free long distance calls on our cell phones and facebook so we can keep an eye on them, er, I mean, keep in touch with them.

We don't have a ton of pictures since we've been here because our camera battery died and we're waiting for the new one to arrive in the mail, but I since I never actually showed you all a picture of the front our house, here it is:



















This was taken when we came to Norman on our house hunt. We will definately be doing something with those boring square hedges!

FYI, if you're friends with me on facebook, I have a couple photo albums of the house on there. But more will be posted here as we make our updates and makeovers to the rooms.