A Steelers Fan Living in the Sooner State

Major Storm

2011-06-15T09:11:00.012-05:00

I salute you, Major Storm of June 14, 2011. (HIMYM fans should get that joke.) You came out of nowhere. Normally I know about storms (especially spring ones) days and weeks in advance. But you knew I had my guard down - recently home from vacation, I had a lot of housework and new real estate work to do, so I didn't have the tv on. Gary England didn't call to warn me.

I left home at 5:45pm and it was hot & sunny - 100 degrees to be exact. We were inside a training facility when it started raining, maybe around 7 or 7:15, then we heard a little bit of your hail. "Well, that sucks," we said. Then the skies turned a little darker, the rain picked up, and then the wind. Whoa, the wind! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've only seen such things on tv when watching hurricane footage. And the funny part is, the trainer never missed a beat. She just kept on talking like nothing was happening. We never lost power, but the lights flickered a lot. We were about 5 miles from home, so of course, my mind was wondering what you had done to my house.

We were dismissed around 8:40 and I was super anxious to get home. The skies were a vast array of colors - beautiful clear skies and sunset to the north, gray clouds directly above, and dark, blueish black skies to the south - it was creepy. I wish I had my camera. As we drove home, traffic lights were out everywhere, homes & buildings were dark, the hospital by our house was operating on emergency lighting, an intersection near our neighborhood had a downed power line that apparently had once blocked the road and even gone onto I-35. You have created quite a mess, Major Storm.

Still, I wonder, what will our house look like. Surely we won't have power. The rain had stopped for awhile and the temperature dropped 30 degrees. (yay!) But as we pulled in the driveway, it started back again. We wanted to pull our call into the garage in case we got more hail, and guess what, we could, because we had power! I love OEC and our underground utility lines! So as we scurried to do that, I decided to look on the right side of the house and to my dismay, a tree had split and it was now "resting" on our fence. and our roof. Crap.

We didn't know what to do. Everyone was saying storms were about to hit us again in 10-15 minutes, so do we risk being outside cutting the tree down during the storm, or do we risk the storm causing the resting tree to push over the fence, possibly causing damage to fence, roof, and possible bedroom window? Plus, we didn't have a chainsaw. And neither did our neighbors. But, our neighbor's father did, a few miles away. So neighbor's wife jumped in car with 3 kids to drive over there and get it for us, and 20 minutes later, Bobby, and two neighbor men were out there cutting down our broken tree, and I held the flashlight. Fortunately we never got that second round of storms.

We think we got away with minimal damage. The roof is still yet to be determined because we do have a couple damaged shingles on the edge. But we know we were spared, once again. We have a lot of clean-up to do, but manual labor is good, right? (ha! not in 100 degree weather!) I think it is so strange that tornadoes come and go around here all the time, we've have blizzards and ice storms, and a crazy thunderstorm sweeps through and does more damage than all of them combined. Major Storm indeed!

According to the experts, Major Storm was considered a microburst, which can have effects of a EF1 tornado. Yeah, no kidding.

As you can see in the previous photo, the cats are quite curious about what has happened in their yard.

The next photo shows where the branches landed once they were cut. these were once on our roof. and that is our bedroom window. also, the area between the bended tree and fence is where my hammock hangs. It was once a shady area. :(

The following photos show the damage done to our window screens and flowers.

Again, we know we are very fortunate that this is all we have. Many people in Norman are still without power, siding was ripped off of houses, fences & roofs totally destroyed, etc.

Finally, watch this video of a storm chaser driving through Major Storm, and prepare to be amazed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLpXTMlf8Kk

obligatory catch-up post

2011-06-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

so since my last real post, the thunder basketball team's impact on our lives really changed. we went from casual/regular fans to psycho/obsessive fans. we not only watched most of every game, we started watching every minute of every game, every post-game interview, followed every player on twitter, hung a flag outside our house, and put a sticker on our car. (those players tweet a lot, btw!) and so, did this obsession pay off? you betcha! the thunder, in only their third year of existence, not only made it to the playoffs, they played for the western conference championship! I was fortunate enough to go to one of the playoff games - game two of the first round, and it was a blowout against the denver nuggets. the oklahoma city arena (aka "loud city") was the loudest arena I have ever been in. it was awesome!

let's see. what else?

bobby is working hard getting ready to plant a church - city pres!
our friend, doug, the former (founding) OU campus pastor left RUF to co-plant city pres.
two babies were born (not ours) - meghan had paige and bobby's sister mindy had gracie (I'm an aunt!)
one of our favorite toddlers turned two; bobby turned "more than two"
we planted a garden that is now like a forest (what is in that soil!?)
did I ever blog about the cruise we went on?!?
I've been going to a bible study at our church on John
bobby got a motorcycle (a small fixer-upper for $200)
a pretty bad storm came to central oklahoma a couple weeks ago, and since it was shortly after the devastation in joplin, I was super freaked out. we were spared.
we went to a pretty fun wedding of some folks that will be a part of our church plant
other good friends moved to downtown OKC to be a part of the church plant :)
but other friends are moving to delaware :(
we hosted another international student through the university of oklahoma. it was an interesting experience.
I started going to a chiropractor/kinesiologist/nutritionist. so far she is helping my reverse-curved neck, and telling me that I'm allergic to all the foods I love. so it's good and bad.
we just got back from our denomination's general assembly - PCA GA. it was at virginia beach and it was a blast. I will blog about that soon.

oh, and I am now (well, almost...) a real estate agent! I have passed my exam, paid a million fees, and chosen a broker to work for. I think I still need to "join the board," pay a lot more fees, and go through a bunch of training before I can actually sell, but I'm certainly on my way.

good grief

2011-06-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

will I ever blog again? stay tuned to find out.

new link

2011-03-04T11:15:00.002-06:00

you may or may not have noticed that I just added a new link to my list of favorites (in the right column) - it is the prototype website for CITY PRES! check it out, let me know what you think. again, this is not the "real" version of the website, just something bobby started so we would have something out there/here on the world wide web. :)

Thunder!

2011-02-17T15:29:00.026-06:00

If you haven't heard, Oklahoma City has an NBA team. But of course you knew that because in their first season (last year) they made the playoffs! Having never been a huge fan of the NBA (other than following Duke grads) I am surprised by how much I enjoy the Thunder. I guess it's part of that "love your city" thing we're always talking about. We watch at least 1/4-1/2 of every game, sometimes the entire game. Usually the second half because they're so exciting...I have never seen a team play in so many close games, and especially overtimes. We've been wanting to go to a game (or all of them) since we moved here, and this week we finally got to go. and boy, did we go! We got free tickets to sit in the champions club seats. otherwise known as, ten rows from the court padded seats. super swanky. my only complaint was that the game was a blowout, so the stars (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, & Krstic) didn't play much. I kept jokingly saying, "I paid $3 (for bottled water) to come here and I want to see KD play!" and "I drove TWELVE miles to get here, put the starters in!"

I am still not sure what these "people" were, but they moved around well for being in giant blowup costumes

crazy fans trying to distract the free throw shooters

check out the guy with the megaphone. you really should click on the photo to see it full size.

self-portrait-at-the-thunder-game fail

let's try some further away shot of each other

much better

newly inducted governor mary fallin was there

game over. thunder win!

cue the streamers

after-game handshaking

KD in center, wearing blue jacket

gluten (free) update

2011-02-10T15:15:00.006-06:00

it's been nearly two weeks since I decided to go gluten free, so I thought I'd give a little update. and just as I predicted, I have very little to update. which, in my case (I don't have celiac disease) that's probably a good thing. I haven't had any adverse side effects other than grieving over my loss of soft pretzels and pb&j sandwiches (as I know them.) a few days (like yesterday) I have noticed that I am super hungry all day long, which is not good, but I don't know if that's any different than when I was eating all the gluten in the world. however, I have had more energy throughout the day. not sure if that is because of the lack of gluten, or because I'm taking all my vitamins/supplements more regularly, or because I've amped up my veggie intake (yuk), or if it's because of the snow and how happy it makes me. maybe all of the above?

confession: I did cheat on superbowl sunday. I just had to eat some of my cookies. and a piece of pizza. and maybe something else. ;)

mealtimes take a lot more planning, especially because we (ok, bobby) have to make two meals. bobby likes the gluten free (gf) stuff, but because of its extra cost, we need to save most of it for me. fortunately he still really enjoys preparing the main courses while I make the salads or steam the broccoli.

here's been a typical daily menu for me:

breakfast - rice chex drizzled with honey, banana, or hashbrowns & bacon, or low-fat yogurt, or gf pancakes

lunch - baked potato & broccoli/carrots, or lunch meat/cheese/apple, or chicken/salad

dinner - whatever bobby makes me. :) gf pasta/salad, or an asian meal (pad thai or something similar with chicken or pork), salad/veggies

snack - popcorn & cheese, or gf chips & scoop of peanut butter, or hard boiled egg white & gf pretzels

I know that's not very creative, but I'm a boring eater; I always have been. I'm starting to read about gf recipes to get a few more ideas so I don't quite out of boredom.

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Ted's Cafe Escondido. we went there the other night because we needed a break from making meals at home. this is quite an adjustment for us. we like making all of our meals from scratch and know the benefits of it, but we often choose convenience which means too many fast food hamburgers & french fries. but no more! ok, back to Ted's. we got a gift card for christmas (not relevant) and we heard they had a gluten free menu, and btw, we looooove ted's, so we went to check it out. first of all, we had the most amazing server. before the words "gluten free" came out of my mouth, she put in an order of gf chips & tortillas, and brought me the "menu." I loved those chips so much, maybe even more than the regular ones; I was so happy to still be able to enjoy my beloved teds and their amazing cheese sauce. I ordered a chicken tamale which wasn't too bad. I talked to the manager to tell him about the awesome service and he suggested the beef tamale with cheese sauce next time. I don't mind if I do, sir!

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

2011-02-07T10:17:00.005-06:00

the best: the Pittsburgh Steelers made it to the Super Bowl for the 8th time! more than any other team in the NFL. for two weeks, the world (ok, america) focused on the steelers. no matter where you live, sports radio stations talked about the steelers, sports television channel showed steelers clips, sports illustrated highlighted the steelers, etc. I got to keep my flag waving proudly outside and wore black & gold almost everyday. people in lowe's & walmart wore their steelers clothes with pride. camaraderie was created even here in central oklahoma amongst steelers fans. my NFL neutral friends cheered for the steelers for my sake. we got to throw a (small) party and I got to make cute little cookies, and I love making the steelers helmets.

the worst: the steelers lost

goodbye gluten

2011-01-31T08:00:00.004-06:00

well, folks, I've made the decision to stop eating all the foods I love. I am going gluten-free. ugh.

I've been reading for years about the possible benefits of a gluten-free diet, but we switched to a whole wheat diet 6 years ago and it's been treating us really well. why would I want to change that? besides, I get to eat everything I like (bread, pancakes, waffles, muffins, chips, pretzels, etc), I just trade it in for the whole wheat version. but gluten-free is a whole new ballgame. now I have to eat the rice version of everything, and it is NOT just as good.

today is just day 4, so I can't report any great effects yet. in fact, I really don't expect any significant effects (other than withdrawal) because I'm not switching due to a wheat/gluten allergy. it's not like I've been getting sick eating wheat, so now that I'm not eating wheat, I won't be sick. it's just that I have this pesky disease named endometriosis, and I've read that gluten may be contributing to it. I am also cutting out fatty meat treated with hormones. [fortunately I don't have to give up red meat all together because a friend of ours is giving us some venison, and as far as I know that deer probably wasn't given any hormones, and most deer (especially here in oklahoma) aren't fat. so yay!] caffeine intake really isn't a huge concern for me, but I'm going to cut back my 1 cup of coffee a day down to one or two a week. (baby steps, I know) of course, sugar has always been an issue, so I'm going to work harder on cutting that out. I don't eat many processed or fried foods, so that's not really an issue, but if the opportunity arises, I will just say no.

Dairy is another main concern. all the experts say to cut it out. but I don't want to. I love my milk & cheese! we buy our milk at braum's and they claim no hormones are used, so that can't be that bad, right? Of course though, I just read this sentence on an endo website: "dairy products stimulate the production of PGE2 and PGF2a, which can worsen symptoms. The primary dairy foods that you should avoid with endometriosis include milk and cheeses." dangit!

my overall expectation of these dietary changes is: that they are going to suck. but fortunately my husband has been very supportive. primarily because this means we are going to (have to) eat much more asian food (and he LOVES asian food.) we went to a gigantic asian market and the health foods store in oklahoma city saturday and stocked up on everything rice-related... rice noodles, rice flour, rice "spaghetti," and... rice.

here is what I will be trying to survive on for the next who-knows-how-many-weeks/months/years.

wordless wednesday: steelers mantel

2011-01-26T13:23:00.002-06:00

pittsburgh's goin' to the super bowl!

2011-01-23T21:14:00.003-06:00

a radical review

2011-01-17T13:23:00.012-06:00

My scheduled reading topic for this month, church history, has suffered because I got distracted by Radical by David Platt. I really enjoyed this book even though I often caught myself thinking that most of it didn't apply to me since my husband (and therefore, me) is in the fulltime ministry, and surely the author is just talking to lay people (those not in fulltime, professional ministry.) ha! I need some radical in my life just as much as everyone else.

So while it is fresh in my mind (I just finished the book this morning) I thought I would go ahead and give a brief synopsis of the book and highlight a few sections that jumped out at me. Keep in mind that I am not an expert book reviewer, in fact I don't think I really even know how to write a book review (and apparently my grammar ain't too good either.) but I liked this book and I'm going to tell you why.

The first thing I liked was that he talked about the difference between the american dream and biblical christianity. The american dream is about big, comfortable houses, cars, bank accounts, self-reliance, surrounding ourselves with people who like us and creating the perfect family; whereas christianity is about being uncomfortable, putting ourselves in (possibly) dangerous situations, abandoning everything we've earned for the sake of christ, choosing jesus even if it means offending coworkers, friends, family, and realizing how dependent we actually are. another aspect is realizing that christianity isn't an american religion. so he didn't really talk about this too much, but this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, and it extends beyond the american flag in the sanctuary. but, I need to stay on topic.

he also talks a lot about making disciples. while one (me) can read this and get overwhelmed by all that needs to be done (1.5 billion people in the world have never heard about jesus!), we realize we can't do it all or alone, we need to follow jesus' example and make disciples. this is one area where enabling is encouraged! now I admit (like it is mentioned in the book) I don't fully understand what it means to make a disciple. but I do understand this, "love them, serve them, and lead them. lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me." multiplication of leaders & followers!

The rest of the book is much of a challenge. A radical challenge. (I think that word was used 50 times.) There are stories of others who have done it. And you can do it too. You don't have to sell everything you own and move to the sudan, but you could sell your ipad and give the money to world vision. (just a little suggestion) I have a LONG way to go in this area. My life is very comfortable. we are not wealthy by any means, but I'm never worried that we might not eat tomorrow. what are our goals in life? does it matter that we have two new cars when billions of people die & go to hell because no one told them about jesus? if anything, I hope this book opens up our eyes a little. our lives and perspectives are much too small. (and I hope this little review doesn't turn you away from the book.)

"snow"

2011-01-15T19:36:00.006-06:00

I figured I should document this since it might not happen again this year. We did get a little bit of "snow" the other day. Of course it hardly seemed like real snow at all, it was more of just a dusting. But... it was white and it was falling from the sky, so I suppose it counts.

backyard

table in backyard

another backyard shot

front yard/street view

and where were the kitties during this? snug as bugs in their little bitty bed. together!

we went to austin

2011-01-10T14:45:00.023-06:00

Hey y'all, we went down to austin! I'm kidding, they don't talk like that. well, actually, maybe they do.

anyway, we decided to take a little trip south to see the home of OU's biggest football rival. (well, until this year when texas was awful! ha!) yes, I realize there is more to austin than just the longhorns, just as there is more to norman than the sooners (but not much.)

we loved austin. it was the first time there for both of us and we were really impressed. first of all, austin has an awesome downtown scene. the last place I had been that had a downtown like that was nashville or kansas city, and I think this one had them both beat (maybe.) there were streets lined with restaurants, bars, night clubs, taco trucks, live music, outdoor seating, whole foods, ice cream shops, boutiques, antique stores, and more!

on the way down, we stopped at ikea in round rock. at first, bobby thought it was a smaller store because it was only one story, unlike the one near pittsburgh, and so of course, I had to say, "everything is smaller in texas!" (go ahead and roll your eyes.) but then we walked and walked and walked, and realized it was larger than any ikea we had been to (of course.) we only bought a couple small things. everything else we wanted wouldn't fit in our car.

Friday night we headed downtown to the whole foods market where we were blown away. the store was HUGE! it was like a whole foods mega(lo) mart! aisles and aisles of health products, wine, produce, fresh seafood, bulk foods, and a gigantic walk-in beer cooler. we're not in oklahoma anymore! there was also a large eat-in cafe and an outdoor ice skating rink.

after we picked up our jaws from the whole foods experience, we went to eat at green mesquite. bobby found it on the triple D website. if guy's been there, we go there.

bobby had a pulled pork & sausage po-boy, I had a grilled chicken sandwich, and we split a delicious order of fries. they were like fair fries. sooo good!

after eating, we went to book people - which is a two story book store downtown. we definitely recommend it.

then we walked several blocks over to see the nightlife on 4th & 6th streets. like I said earlier, we were really impressed. you gotta go see it for yourself.

saturday we slept in and missed the hotel breakfast, so we walked a few blocks to IHOP and ate their delicious whole grain & nut pancakes with a mix of sugar-free syrup and hot maple syrup. yum! then we drove north to a new shopping area and I got to introduce bobby to the wonderment that is sam moon. :) we also shopped at marshall's where I finally got myself a big purse (for $16, nonetheless), another natural foods grocery store, a fancy furniture consignment store, and a couple other places.

we then headed downtown again and visited the capitol building and grounds, drove around campus, and took a few racy photographs (see below.)

the capitol building

the rotunda at the capitol

a long hallway of doors at the capitol

me at the capitol

bobby at the capitol

george w bush at the capitol

and LBJ at the capitol

the UT campus

UT football stadium (boo)

and now the fun photos... some of you may not know (and I don't blame you at all!) that UT's mascot is a longhorn named Bevo and they have several statues of him around town & campus. one of our goals for the weekend was to get a photo with Bevo, proving that he is indeed an OU fan and not a Texas fan. Here's the proof:

we are so funny, I know.

finally, we had dinner at chuy's where they were having an elvis birthday bash (who would have thought?!? - apparently if we had read their wikipedia entry, we would have known. oh well.) and had the most amazing ice cream EVER at amy's.

one bad picture of chuy's and two good ones of amy's

we were so wonderfully full, that we just went back to the hotel room and watched the colts/jets football game until we went to sleep.

we had planned on going to church the next morning in austin, where our friend is the pastor, and do a a little more sight-seeing (and eating,) but I checked the weather forecast and a winter storm was supposed to hit dallas and south OK sunday afternoon. (it was originally forecasted for monday.) so we decided to get up early and leave as soon as possible sunday morning.

fortunately the first 3 hours of our trip we drove through only rain. it was a LOT of rain, but the temperature stayed above freezing. until... just north of dallas, before gainsville, it started to snow! and it was beautiful!

however, everyone that was driving seemed to panic and we passed over 40 cars that slid off the road. it was nonsense!! why, stupid people (not you), do you do that?! there was no reason at all. the roads were not slippery, and they were certainly not frozen. it was just like they said, "oh no! it's snowing! I can't drive in snow. I must slam on my brakes and force my car to spin out of control and steer off the side of the road into the ditch. I have to. that's what texans & oklahomans do. I must live up to my stereotype!"

at no surprise to us, we arrived safely at home, and to zero snow. it's in the forecast for this week though, so we will see. and we will stay away from the bad drivers!

2011: the year of the book worm

2011-01-05T13:25:00.003-06:00

I have never been a big reader. My family never sat around reading for pleasure. Maybe some magazines and/or newspapers here and there, but you would never find us all in the same room, with our noses buried in a book unless we had to (school, work, etc.) It has taken a lot of effort for me to really get interested in reading. I'm also not a fast reader so I usually have to read things several times to really get it, and since that takes a long time, I usually just give up. Given that background information, you can imagine what a culture shock it was for me to marry someone like Bobby who read entire editions of encyclopedias for fun in the summer as a kid. He also is in his third graduate degree, so you can probably only imagine how many books he owns and has read. He recently compiled a 2010 reading list and there were 42 books, 4 magazines, several blogs, and 5+ essays on that list. So yeah, he's sort of a reader.

Well, I have decided (resoluted. whatever.) to come up with a reading plan for this year. I picked 12 topics that I want to study and Bobby helped me find a book for each. In addition, I have some fiction books (chronicles of narnia), through-the-bible-in-a-year, and other general reading materials that don't necessarily fit into a category (radical, crazy love).

I have not yet determined which topic will go in which months, but I do know that January is church history month! (surprised that bobby picked that for me?) I have just barely begun reading the scandal of the evangelical mind. for most months, I'm also going to try to read other (smaller) materials, listen to applicable pod casts, sermons, maybe even songs, prayers, and scriptures. But for this month, I have my own live-in church historian, so I should be all set!

we call this: kitty love

2010-10-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

awwwww

the sisters

Oklahoma football & the domination of Iowa State

2010-10-18T11:02:00.022-05:00

I couldn't be further behind in my blogging. I have several posts in a hold pattern right now because they involve some non-digital photos and I can't remember how to scan them, or to ask bobby to help me for the gazillionth time. So I'm just going to skip those events and tell you about this past Saturday. :)

We have been trying all season to go to an OU football game, but so far were 0-3. Fortunately the Sooners won those first 3 games and were 3-0. But bobby & I were losers. Last season (our first couple of months here in Norman) we went to 4 home games, with much ease and little money. You see, OU lost their first two games last year, as well as their star quarterback and tight end, so tickets were flying out of people's hands at very reasonable prices. Well, do you know what happens when all of your team's starters are healthy and you are ranked in the top 10? Economics is what happens. People have tickets to sell, but they are selling them at a MUCH higher rate. I learned that in the city of Norman, you can sell tickets for over face value. (did not know that before) We are not able, or willing, to spend $300 a ticket. Especially when we live 5 miles from the stadium and have a pretty nice tv to watch it on. so.... we went to campus for the first three home games hopeful, and left empty-handed.

But wait!

Another thing happens when your team is REALLY good (and still undefeated) - when they play really bad teams, people aren't quite as interested in watching a blow-out, so they sell their tickets for a cheaper price.

See how much you are learning today?!

We were able to secure some great tickets to this past Saturday's game for quite a bit under face value and sit in a section we've never sat before. bonus! There are a few people I would like to thank for this opportunity: First of all, Craig, and his list; because otherwise I would not have known that a woman named Lindsay was selling them. Secondly, Susan, my GPS lady, for getting me to Midwest City to pick them up. And finally, my parents for buying us the tickets! Glad I found a good deal for you, Mom & Dad!!

See how happy we are to be at the game!

I have to admit, I took more photos of the marching band than the football team, but they move slower and stop in cool formations, so they are easier to photograph. Plus, if I pause to take a photo of the team, I usually miss a play and get mad. So here is the Pride of Oklahoma during pregame (my favorite part!)

Looks like drum major, Matt Sumner is saying, "are you ready?!"

Yes, we are!

see how close we were to the field? awesome!

pulling out the GIANT state flag for singing of O-k-l-a-h-o-m-a

here comes the team!

this requires lots of flipping...

...and twirling.

yay megan from western pennsylvania! (sorry I didn't get a better picture)

So it turns out that I only took ONE picture during the game. (oops) It's an action shot during a field goal or extra point. Probably an extra point because OU scored a heck of a lot of touchdowns! Can you find the ball in the air?

It's too bad that guy's big red hat is in the way. jerk.

the student section looked like it was having a lot of fun.

We got to see the sooner schooner come out a lot because the sooners scored so many times.

resting the ponies in between scoring

final score

final photo

a few of my favorite things: summer edition

2010-09-05T16:01:00.013-05:00

I know I complained a lot about the heat this summer, but I did find a few things that made me happy despite the oppression, so I thought I would share them with you.

Cherry-Limeade Punch

I was pretty much obsessed with Sonic Happy Hour this year, so when I found this (very simple) recipe on Kelly's Korner recipe page, I knew it was the perfect way to get my cherry limeade fix at home. plus, it's really refreshing!

1 - 2L bottle of Sprite (I use Sprite Zero)
1 - bottle of maraschino cherries
1 - can of frozen limeade concentrate

pour all 3 items in a punch bowl and stir. I also add some ice and sliced limes.

Everytime I've served it, the first batch goes really quickly, so I normally have two or three of each on hand.

Zenni Optical

www.zennioptical.com

Where else can you get $8 prescription glasses (frames & lenses) ?!? We heard about it and were skeptical, but when we got 4 glasses in the mail for a total of $52, we were sold. You just have to have all of your prescription info and then you find frames you like and order them. It's so easy.

McDonald's Frappes

From their website: This is one frosty cup of love: the coffee-chocolate goodness of mocha blended with ice, topped with whipped cream. I couldn't have said it any better.

Netflix

You all know about netflix, but we had our first subscription this summer and really enjoyed it. We started out with a free month, and then just kept it active for a couple more. The fall is a lot busier than the summer (for us) so we are going to put a hold on our account - which is another great feature. We only get 1 dvd at a time, but we hardly watch those at all. the money is in the instant watch stuff, and thanks to our wii, we can watch it on our tv. because of these sweet amenities, we watched way too many episodes (I mean, seasons) of 24 this summer. it got kind of intense, so we had to take a break, but it was awesome!

House-a-versary

2010-09-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

I think I made that word up, didn't I?

Like our friends, Abby & Currie, we also just celebrated our first year in our "new" house! Yes, it was one year ago (last week) that we drove from Greene County, Pennsylvania to St Louis, Missouri to Norman, Oklahoma. I had all 5 animals in the car with me, and the cats only stopped crying & yelling for about 3 out of the 20 hours. (it was awful) We stayed the night with our wonderful friends in St Louis and I remember not wanting to leave their house the next morning. I was eager to get to our house, but it was unfamiliar and no one was there waiting for us, so it was kinda sad. We had friends in St Louis, so why couldn't we just stay there?? But after delaying as long as possible, we began the drive southwest. The second half wasn't nearly as bad as the first. Boring, yes, but better. No major cities like Columbus, Indianapolis, or St Louis to drive through, and certainly no mountains like West Virginia or eastern Ohio. Just flat boring plains. And then we ran into a major thunderstorm. I think that is the reason Paisley is afraid of storms now. I am too. I think one of the weirdest sights was when we got to Tulsa and I saw a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. I thought we must have made a wrong turn. A Hard Rock in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Oral Roberts wouldn't be happy about that. That was a nice diversion for my brain so I wasn't so obsessed and terrified about the torrential rain. and the screaming cats.

I was so happy when we finally reached our little abode. the garage was open and I pulled the car in to avoid getting too wet. I think the car has only been in there two times since then. ha! We unloaded the animals and slept on the bedroom floor. Home Sweet Home.

We've done quite a few small updates to the house this year. And because I LOVE before & afters, I present these to you.

Front of house then:

Front of house now:

Living room then:

Living room now:

bedroom before:

bedroom now:

backyard then:

backyard now:

It's even hotter this week

2010-08-09T15:26:00.002-05:00

didn't think it was possible

I'd like to live almost anywhere but here this week

2010-08-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

I know there are hotter places than this, and we're fortunate that the humidity isn't super high. But this is getting downright ridiculous. Week after week, and month after month. Will it ever end?!?!?

Chi-Town and The Lou

2010-08-05T10:26:00.015-05:00

Last week and weekend we went on a little tour de midwest. We flew into St Louis, then rented a car and drove to Chicago. We did this so that we could spend some time in our old stomping grounds. After grabbing a frozen cappuccino at QT for 83 cents, we drove by our old apartment. surprisingly (or not) it hadn't changed at all. except for the folks living there. for the first time in many years, no seminary students reside there, and that's sad. but apparently they are still finding some time for fun, as evident by the bouncy house in the court yard!

for all you non-athertonites reading this, our apartment was the one in the far left corner - to the left of the black door, behind the tree on the first floor. (in case you care) we lived there for the first four years of our marriage. The friends that we visited in St Louis (you'll hear more about them if you keep reading) lived in the apartment above ours and diagonal from ours. The only thing missing from our great reunion last weekend was our neighbors across the hall from us. we missed you joy & erik!

After driving thru the hood, we trekked up to chicago. For 3 days, we attended a church planter training event/conference sponsored by our denomination. it was a nice, small group and i think we learned a lot. other than the teaching being helpful, the time spent networking, sharing stories, and encouraging each other was immeasurable. and from what I've observed, church planters are some pretty crazy people. I can't believe I'm married to someone like that. haha!

and the food! oh, the food. they fed us well in chicago/naperville. we had sandwiches for lunch one day from a place called potbelly. yum. then for dinner, we had giordano's deep dish pizza. wow! lunch the next day was chicago-style hot dogs, which i butchered by only putting ketchup on mine. totally against the rules, apparently. and then for dinner that night, we were invited to the hodge's house (the host pastor) for some home-cooking. the event ended friday at noon, and we began the drive back down to st louis.

I feel asleep in the car at some point, but woke up to pouring down rain & rush hour traffic and then I saw this.

we safely arrived at the new (to us) home of our former upstairs neighbors, currie & abby. we were so excited to see their house and be a part of their day-to-day lives, even if for just one day. we enjoyed yummy pizza from dewey's, experienced the goodness of raw honey, and delighted in the blessing of sweet ellie. and bobby enjoyed staying up til 2 am talking to currie, like the old days.

after a slow & relaxing saturday morning, we left the bishops and headed west of the city to visit our former diagonal neighbors, jen & darren. but first, we took a few pictures:

bobby rode currie's motorcycle around the block

abby in her living room

abby & I on their awesome front porch

on our way to "west county," we stopped at the seminary, to see the new buildings they built right after bobby graduated.

and one more stop at QT for another 83 cent drink. yes, we're addicted.

seeing jen & darren is so much fun for us. and even moreso now that they have two of the most awesome kids we've ever met, katie & jack.

flashback: we were with them the night jen went into labor with katie and i got to ride in the car with them on the way to the hospital. we weren't there at the exact time of birth, but were still one of the first people to see katie. I think she was only 3 hours old when we got back to the hospital. so we have a very strong bond with her. and I think she knows it. it could be because we keep telling her the story over and over again. we are special and want her to know it! ha!

these two became good buds

we had such a blast with all of them, we always wish our time together was longer. while we were there, they took us to get frozen custard concretes (a st louis tradition), had our legs & arms "sawed off" by jack & his chain saws, played memory with the smartest 4 year old I've ever met (I won, but only because she helped me. seriously), and had fun with katie & jack trying to wake up bobby sunday morning. we (actually, just katie) pushed him off the bed, shouted his name as loud as possible, giggled a lot, and finally, katie said to me, "how are we going to wake him??? maybe you should kiss him." I replied, "eeeewwwwww" and as serious as can be, she said, "mommy and daddy don't think it's gross to kiss." whoa! nothing like being reprimanded (respectfully) by a 4 year old! of course I told her I was kidding and kissed him. ;-)

we tried again to convince them to move where we are, and darren told us again that there was a house for sale on their street. maybe one day we will be in the same place again! i hope so!! who wouldn't want to be neighbors with this guy?!?

sunday after church, currie, abby & ellie came to jen & darren's house for lunch. it was so good to see them all again once more before we had to leave.

we flew out of st louis that evening and returned to oklahoma city and 100 degree temps at 10 pm that night.

what a fun week/end it was, but it made me miss my sweet friends even more.

New Tags

2010-07-15T18:40:00.004-05:00

I put this off as long as possible (and actually a little too long because we got a ticket) but we finally had to change our plates from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma last week.

I don't know why I was so attached to those yellow & blue pennsylvania plates, but I did not want to let them go. Not only are the Oklahoma plates unattractive, but it seems so "official" now that I live in Oklahoma, and all of a sudden, I think I am a little homesick. (most likely it's the heat, though.) Fortunately I didn't have to surrender the cool PA plates to the tag agency (like how they meanly took my PA driver's license. jerks!) and now we get to hang them proudly in our garage.

If you can't find me, I'll be at Hobby Lobby

2010-07-13T08:39:00.004-05:00

I've really liked Hobby Lobby ever since I was introduced to the store back in 2003, but I've never wanted to go back so often as I do now. It's not just for the craft ideas, the cute home decor & wall hangings that are 50% off, or even the free air conditioning. When I walked in there last week, my eyes were happy... the shelves were lined with fall decorations! And you know what that means? Summer will be over soon!

Now, there is a lot that I love about summertime. Relaxed schedules, more free time, a break from ordinary obligations, traveling, etc. But this heat is just too much for me. Day after day after day of mid to high 90's mixed with humidity is just miserable. I just want to enjoy going outside again. We have a fire pit and I've been roasting marshmallows on my kitchen stove because it's too hot to go outside and do it. how pathetic is that?!

I want summer to slow down, but I want the heat gone. I'm probably in the wrong place (geographically) for that to happen though. So either I need to adapt and deal with the fact that I will have to be housebound for 3 (or 4) months a year, or ... well, I don't know what other option there is!

wonderful sunday

2010-07-12T11:26:00.004-05:00

Life hasn't been easy lately. Yes, I know we get to go on some great little getaways/vacations, we live in one of the best small cities in america, we finally own our own home (and it's a really good one), our families & friends are wonderful, etc. But we have struggles, upsets, anxieties, and brokenness.

For example, one of the features that we like most about this house is about to be ripped up. A few weeks ago, we noticed water coming out of our living room floor. Two days before we hosted an awesome dance / birthday party (more to come on that someday.) For weeks we tried to figure out where the water was coming from, talked to our home warranty company, insurance companies, and other trusted experts. Finally, we called a plumber and he discovered it in less than 10 minutes. The pipe that carries the condensation from the air conditioning unit to the drainage area (?) in our garage was disconnected, so all the water was going under the floor. I know it sounds weird, but once he reconnected the hose, the leak stopped. we are thrilled at this discovery because originally, I envisioned our floor being ripped up only to find out that our slab was leaking or a pipe burst, and our house would have to be condemned. (I never used to be a pessimist.) So now we are waiting for a check from the insurance company (hallelujah!) to see how much we are going to be in the whole/how much we can spend on a new floor. Even though the leak has been stopped, the floor is warped and ruined. Not to mention all the water trapped under there. wonderful.

The floor has been one of our biggest stressors lately, but now our brand new (purchases in april) television is broken, so I'm waiting to hear back from the manufacturer. I'm skeptical yet thankful for warranties. hopefully this one will actually help us out.

And beyond those things, I just got done paying a huge stack of bills (including a bill from a doctor's visit I had february 2008!), bobby's out of pocket work-related expenses have been way higher than we anticipated, fundraising for our salary (beginning in september) has been a lot slower (and less productive) than we hoped, I'm depressed that I still can't rid of this extra weight I gained from last year's surgery & medication, and we are still childless which breaks my heart a little more each day. (after 4 1/2 years, it's amazing I still even have a heart.)

so what does all this have to do with the blog title, "wonderful sunday?"

yesterday, bobby led the worship service at our church and I stayed for both services because it was such a blessing to me. we sang sweet songs, including my favorite one that reminds me of our time at greene valley presbyterian church in pennsylvania, "on jordan's stormy banks I stand." it sounded quite a bit differently than when the band played it at gvpc, but I could still picture those awesome teenagers (and bobby) belting it out and banging on their instruments. I am so thankful for that memory. but also, bobby's sermon talked about disappointments in life and how to respond when "life" doesn't go the way we planned. it takes more than just "turning our eyes upon Jesus." Jesus didn't die so that life on this earth would be easy for us, or that when something bad happens, we just "look at him" and magically all our troubles go away. He died on the cross to share in our sufferings, to identify with our pain, to pay the ultimate penalty for our sins. Jesus claimed victory over sin at the cross. And we need to see his victory to put our troubles in perspective. I encourage you all to listen to his sermon. It's not posted to the website yet, but it will be soon. Title is "Jesus Wins."

After church we were able to enjoy lunch & fellowship with 3 other families. Our hostess made a fabulous lasagna and PW's chocolate cake. We were pretty full (in more ways than one) and tired when we got home, so we relaxed the rest of the day by watching a couple more episodes of season 2 of 24. (strangely enough, as I typed that, a helicopter flew over my house. hmmmm... are they still looking for kim bauer?!?!)

While struggles and agonies of this fallen world bring us despair during the week, I'm always thankful for Sunday. :)

january & july

2010-07-09T12:54:00.004-05:00

Remember when the crepe myrtles in our backyard looked like this in January?

Well, this is what they look like in July:

We are so glad someone planted these "trees" several years ago, because we are really enjoying them now.

(I apologize for the poor photo quality, I took the pic with my cell phone and the glare couldn't be avoided.)

I've Got Friends in Southern Places (part 2)

2010-07-06T15:27:00.027-05:00

part 1 concluded with the awesome Indelible Grace concert.

Thursday morning my dad dropped Bobby off downtown for early morning meetings and my parents & I had breakfast at the hotel and then joined him late morning. We all walked around the convention center for awhile, checked out the exhibit hall, and then sat in on the business meeting/assembly before having lunch at Ribby's (?) bbq on Broadway.

That afternoon, I went back to the convention center and my parents walked around downtown. They found Elvis!

Once the business meeting recessed for dinner, it was a mad rush to figure out how to coordinate a gathering between me, bobby, erik, joy, currie & abby. (all neighbors from seminary) the original plan was to meet downtown, but that didn't work, so we had to all drive from several different directions to meet at abby & currie's hotel room past the airport. it was crazy, but so worth it! I loved every minute with them and wish we all still lived in the same apartment building. they are part of the biggest reason I didn't want to move away from st louis. I can't believe we are all so far apart now - Missouri, Oklahoma, and New Jersey - oh my! thank goodness for GA! :) We didn't get any pictures of our hotel room dinner gathering, but we all drove back to the convention center for the worship service, so I got to get these two pictures.

Currie, Abby, and Ellie

Me, Joy, & Abby

I thought the night was over following the service, but it had only just begun... the business meeting resumed and went until 12:15 am! My parents went back to the hotel room and I was a zombie waiting around. Fortunately some friends from oklahoma had mercy on me (they saw me sitting by myself dazed and bored to tears) and invited me to hang out with them at the hotel lounge. But then they left and the meeting kept going! I really wanted to listen and follow along with what was happening, and I tried, but it was soooooo looooooong. ;-) here was my view that night:

and then... it was finally friday. normally the assembly would be over by now, but they reconvened for a few more hours in the morning. bobby spent the morning and early afternoon downtown and my mom & I spent them at the neighboring hotel's pool. I was foolish and got way too much sun. the worst burn I've gotten in a LONG time. that evening, we met up with Joy & Erik again, along with two more seminary neighbors, Parker & Nicole, and had dinner at Otter's. We love Otter's. And friends!

we said our goodbyes to the swansons for the last time and did some touristy things like walking around centennial park & the parthenon.

saturday morning we drove out to franklin - went into a couple shops on main street, walked around a cute little shopping mall thing and got some kettle corn at the farmer's market. we looked for celebrities but never saw any. boo! we went back to the hotel and got ready in the afternoon, ate pizza & food my mom brought from new castle, and then went to the Grand Ole Opry! Because of the flood, they had to move the Opry from the Opry House back to the Ryman Auditorium, so we got to go downtown again.

The show was lots of fun. Our seats were one row in front of where we sat for the hymn sing. Isn't that funny?

There were not a lot of people that we knew, but the Opry is still great because it is unique and classic. We all watched/listened to it growing up, so it is still a part of our history. Everyone sang a song or two, including the main attraction, Wynonna.

sunday morning we all went to worship at christ community church (pca) in franklin. we've been there once before, but it was my parent's first time. we all loved & appreciated it. after lunch in franklin, we went back to the hotel to begin packing and surprise my mom with early birthday presents, and my dad with a belated father's day present: playing catch in the hotel parking lot. after all that fun, we got ready and went back downtown to check out nashville's 4th of july festivities. we knew it would be crowded and hot, but it was way more crowded and hotter than we imagined.

we weren't able to get anywhere near where the entertainment was - julianne hough, jaci velasquez, and trace adkins had a little concert on the riverfront. my mom sneaked down and took this picture of julianne

so after battling the crowds for a couple hours (and seeing some cool things) we decided to check out a few honkytonks, since it was our last night and that was one of the things we wanted to do most, and it was a blast. we went into robert's western wear and heard some of the greatest musicians I've ever heard.

we stayed for a few songs, then headed to our car to start driving out of town and find a place to park to watch the fireworks.

what a great way to end our visit to nashville! :)

we left monday morning after stopping to see some friends from norman that just moved to nashville that weekend. my parents arrived back in western pa at 9/10 and we arrived back in norman at 11. we were quite tired, but so happy to be home and see our sweet little furry friends. we missed our animals a lot on this trip, but are so thankful they could be safe at home, and that we have great friends who came to take care of them!!

I've Got Friends in Southern Places

2010-07-06T14:12:00.020-05:00

This past week, we headed to Nashville for our denomination's (Presbyterian Church in America, otherwise known as PCA) annual meeting, General Assembly (GA). I have been involved in the PCA since we got married in 2003, but this was the first time I have been able to attend GA. There was no way I was missing out on this one because first of all, I was able to go (not working full-time), and second, it was in Nashville, a city I love very much. And an added bonus was that it was in driving distance from our house. Not a short drive, but driveable, nonetheless.

we packed the caliber to the brim!

I'm not sure what I was most excited about as we were planning this trip and as the time approached. I really love our denomination (for many reasons) and I was eager to see it "operate" on the national level rather than just locally/regionally. I am always impressed with the orderly fashion in which most business is operated, paired with the love & passion these men (our pastors & elders) have for serving God. There were great seminars, luncheons, and women's events I wanted to attend. I was even eager to sit in on the business/parliament meetings! Plus, as I mentioned, I wanted to experience Nashville again... live music, great food, honky tonks, the opry, shopping...

But certainly I was most excited about seeing friends from seminary!

I really wish I would have done a day-by-day post while we were there rather than cramming it all into one (or two) because now I have to rely on memory. and while I know it was just a few days ago, it was quite an overwhelming (good) experience and I'm afraid I won't remember everything. thank goodness for twitter & the ease of making daily updates there!

We got to GA a day or so earlier than most folks because Bobby was on a committee, so since I knew most of my friends weren't at the assembly hall, I stayed in the hotel that first morning (monday.) I had hoped to use the indoor/outdoor pool for a couple hours, but it was closed because some stupid guest broke some of the bricks on the edge of the pool, so they had to close it to repair and inspect before opening. (it was never reopened during our 8 day stay. ugh!) so instead, I worked out for awhile in the fitness room, unpacked & settled in, and did some reading & studying until I got ready and went and picked up bobby downtown in the afternoon. (we stayed out by the airport, 10 miles away) we walked around for a bit, then grabbed dinner at wendy's and ate in our hotel room. we knew the next day (tuesday) was going to be a busy one.

tuesday morning did not go as planned. bobby had to be downtown at 8 and I woke up with a terrible migraine. I couldn't drive him and he didn't have time to park, so we called him a shuttle/cab. we were not planning on paying $18 that morning, but we had no choice. while he was off committee'ing or commissioner'ing, I was miserable back in the hotel room, but thankful for a cool dark room. Fortunately after "sleeping" and medication, I felt better by lunchtime, so drove downtown and we got to eat lunch with Erik (our next door neighbor from seminary)! that afternoon, bobby was in the assembly (or not, can't remember) so I walked around looking for familiar faces, and found a bunch. I think we also went to a seminar that afternoon. Dinner was at San Antonio Taco Company with Amy & Andy Wood, also from seminary (and our seminary church.) What is a seminary church? ha! I fell in love with SATCo's cheese sauce. YUM!

wednesday was a big day because we left the hotel at 7 am and didn't return til almost midnight. but we got to do some really fun stuff! I meant to go to some seminars in the morning, but my watch battery was dying and it was slow, so I missed them. oh well. I talked to people instead. for lunch, we got to attend the MNA (mission to north america) luncheon and the food was gooooood! but specifically, the chocolate cake was to die for! wow. mark my words, the next time I make a chocolate cake, I will serve it with a raspberry sauce. lesson #1 learned at GA. after lunch, all the women were at an event that I neglected to sign up for, which disappointed me at first, but then I found out that Joy (erik's wife, my next door neighbor) was up at her hotel room with her boys, so I walked 12 blocks (only because I didn't know where I was going) to visit her. It was such a great time to catch up with her! we ate dinner that night with some people from pittsburgh at ... wait for it ... san antonio taco company! haha.

after dinner, we had some special guests & friends of the PCA arrive from pennsylvania. And they got there just in time to go see the Indelible Grace concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium! Bobby and I (and 2000 other people) were so excited for this event. Other than seeing friends, this may have been the REAL reason we came to GA. I'm kidding. sort of.

here we are, waiting for the concert/hymn sing to begin:

My pictures did not come out very well during the concert, but here are a couple.

The stage:

There are many members of the Indelible Grace project/family so we weren't sure who all would be there that night. But we were hoping for two special guests... and they were both there: Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken. Derek is singing lead for this song, and Sandra is backup.

And now it's reversed, Sandra is leading & Derek on backup vocals.

Did you know they are married?

The hymn sing was amazing. Indelible Grace music has ministered to me so much over the past few years, and I'm so excited that Matthew Smith and IG will be coming to Norman in the fall for a concert! hooray!!

We had to leave the concert before it was over, unfortunately, because the garage where we parked our car closed at 11 so we had to get it out. Had we known the concert would have gone that long, we would have moved it, but we never imagined that since it started at 830, it would go past 11! we are so sad we missed the end, but we needed our car. AND, my parents accidentally parked in a "cab lane" and they had a notice that a tow truck was on their way to get their car. for that reason alone, we are glad we had to leave early. oh my!

I think it's time for a part 2, so click here.

Springy Bedroom Makeover (and a garden update)

2010-06-08T11:00:00.014-05:00

I can't believe I am calling this makeover "springy" since Oklahoma apparently skipped over spring and went straight to summer. dang, it's hot! well, I guess after our two bursts of snow, winter was sort of spring-like, so it makes sense that spring feels like summer. did I mention that it's hot here? my pennsylvania people have been asking me, "so what exactly is HOT to you?" my answer is, "how about 98 degrees during the day and 92 degrees at 9:00 at night?" yeah, it's hot.

One last thing before I show you our "new" bedroom, I wanted to show you our little garden. Here is a picture right after we planted the tomatoes & peppers. date: March 26, 2010.

Here is what it looked like about a month ago:

And today!

kind of jungle-y looking, isn't it?! we have been having the hardest time keeping everything staked and tied. just when we think everything is secure, the plants have another growth spurt.

aren't those cute little tomatoes?

I was going to show you a picture of our first harvested item, a luscious jalapeno, but someone (not me) ate it already.

Ok, enough outside stuff. Moving indoors, where the a/c runs constantly these days.

You may think that getting a bedroom makeover is frivolous since we just moved in less than a year ago, but let me explain. First, the comforter set we have been using is the one we got for our wedding, seven years ago. We love it still (thankfully) but it is multi-color plaid and sort of dark. And while that is great for winter/fall, and cats, that room really needed a pick-me-up for these sunny (oh, so sunny) days. I searched high and low, and the one I really loved was at walmart. thank you, walmart! It is just what I was looking for, white background, with greens (my new obsession) and some red, so I could keep using our curtains we've had for 7 years. No, those haven't been made-over yet. (they will be going to the dry cleaners later this week) And finally, the makeover ends with the blinds. The ones that came with the house were the standard metal mini blinds and they were broken. In order to put them up, I had to tie hair bands around the bottom. and to tilt them open & closed, was a chore, so it never happened. They made the room dreary. So thanks to my parents giving us a Lowe's gift card, I got custom-sized 2" faux wood plantation blinds to match the rest of the house.

I have no before picture, but here is the after:

hooray for bright & cheery! The colors are off just a bit in this photo, but I think you still get the idea. like it? Now for the room to be complete, we just need to finish painting the trim white, get new baseboards, replace the ceiling fan/light, buy two new lamps, hang some things on the walls, and new carpeting. That's all.

And because I don't think I have ever post a picture of the guest room before, here is what it looks like:

At any given moment, there could be 6 or 12 pillows on that bed. I like to change it up all the time. Also, I usually have a green blanket folded at the foot of the bed, but I think our last house guest put it under the comforter. And yes, those blinds do cover the entire window, but they are in a perpetual state of partially open because the kitties like to look out. Normally this is Bunny's room, but we switched things up a bit when my mom came, and put Bunny (in her cage) in the office for awhile. So now the cats have taken over this room. They love it. (I think we need a 4 bedroom house...) And finally, no guest room of ours would be complete without this guy watching you sleep.

More Promises. And a Prostitute!

2010-06-02T13:43:00.006-05:00

After a week off, we resumed our Joshua study with Lesson 2 this morning, which coincidentally focused on Chapter 2. Joshua 2 tells of the account of Rahab and the spies. At the end of chapter 1, Joshua receives his charge, and in chapter 2, he begins to "take charge." (that clever sentence was stolen from the ESV study bible notes.) His first action is to send two spies into Jericho to do some recognizance in the land of which they are about to take possession. And where do these spies go first? To the house of a prostitute. huh? To us, the readers, this seems strange, but clearly this was quite a strategic move. According to scholars, Rahab's house must have been located in a logical place to gather information, and most likely because of her profession, she was "in the know." She knew the area & the people of Jericho, and in turn, she was well known because the king even knew her.

Being a fairly new student of covenant theology, this story amazes me. This was not random (a word I love, but use a little too much) encounter, the spies didn't just happen to stumble upon Rahab's house and think, "hey, let's stay at the prostitute's house. that'll be fun." They went because it is part of the bigger picture. The BIG picture, in fact. The chapter continues and Rahab tells the spies that she knows why they are there, she knows what God has done, and that the land she is living in is the land he has promised to the Israelites. So she knows that God is powerful and vengeful, and the inhabitants of her land are melting away and will all soon die. But she also knows that God is merciful, so she asks the spies that if she helps them, will they help her. She risks her life to help the spies because she believes in the Lord. In return, her life is spared when Jericho falls.

She was an unbelieving prostitute in an unbelieving land, but was given a heart of faith in the one true God.

But wait, there's more!

In the New Testament, she is listed as one of the ancestors of Christ (Matthew 1:5) and for her good works (James 2:25). A prostitute! Clearly, God is gracious and will save all who come to a genuine faith.

Another neat observation that you may or may not have ever noticed is that the symbol she put in her window to alert the soldiers to preserve her household was a scarlet cord (2:18). This is very similar to the procedure in the first Passover (Exodus 12:22). Interesting, isn't it?

At the end of each lesson, the last day is usually self-reflecting. This week we were asked to write down ways in which God's steadfast love and mercy extend to you (much like how in Rahab's story, we see God extending his mercy to the nations, even as he promised) using the following verses:

Ephesians 2:1-10

Titus 3:3-7

1 Peter 2:9-10

I encourage you to click on each of those verses, read them, and prayerfully consider how God's promises reach all the way down to us.

what a weekend!

2010-06-01T14:19:00.018-05:00

This Memorial Day weekend was the most event-filled one we have had since the one when we moved from St Louis to Pennsylvania. That was a busy weekend. This one was a little more relaxing. But what isn't relaxing compared to driving 624 miles in a U-Haul? My mom arrived in OKC Thursday morning and our first stop was the gigantic walmart on the southside. I was so overwhelmed the first time I went there; I had no idea stores could be that large. I mean it is BIG, even for a walmart. Then we came home to start getting things ready for our small group cookout that evening. One thing that has to be mentioned is the weather, because it was hot. The entire time my mom was here, it was h-o-t, and s-u-n-n-y. I was a little concerned because I had planned on the cookout being outdoors, since we were going to be grilling "outdoors," and we were excited to really use our backyard for the first time. but the heat! so I gave my guests the option of going out or staying in, and most chose the combination. it was perfect.

The inside crew: (bobby, collin, catherine, & ryan)

The outside gang: (chris, meghan, rachel, & ed)

I think their picture looks a little smokey because of the tiki torches.

The wii players: (luke, nathan, & allie)

My mom (poor lady has no friends!)

and of course, our little friend, drue!

In case you're trying to figure it all out, meghan, collin, & drue all belong together, luke & nathan go with ryan & catherine, rachel & ed are a pair, and I claim bobby & my mom. there were a few other people in attendance, but they left before I got my camera out.

Friday, my mom and I decided to brave the hotness and do a little shopping on campus corner. it was good because the stores were very chilled, it was not crowded because school is out, and there was a passionberri there! :) it is my new summer obsession. I love it. That evening we ate dinner at pepe delgados, and went to the sam noble museum of natural history because it was a free admission night and they opened their chocolate exhibit. AND gave away some free chocolate. win win win!

a pic of the museum goers:

and a wall of chocolate!

I cant remember what we did Saturday other than eat pancakes, swim a little at the norman pool, do a little shopping, and watch paisley climb a couple trees.

Sunday morning, we got to hear bobby preach & lead worship at church. always a blessing. then we went to a wedding! I love weddings and this was a fun one. Two youngins' tying the knot. so precious. I have no pictures of the bride & groom, or anyone involved with the wedding, but I do have a picture of bobby and I. and his red pants.

That night I asked my mom where she wanted to go to get some ice cream/fro yo, and she chose passionberri. yay!

And then Monday... we had the pleasure of participating in the celebration of little drue's first birthday party. She was such a charmer and really knew how to work the crowd. She had on the most beautiful red dress with a giant bow & headband, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures until the end of the party when she was in her real birthday suit. We both look a little rough in this pic because I was getting pretty hot (and not in a good way!) and she had a stained face from the punch I gave her. :) but she was still adorable and the party was so much fun!

we did a little more shopping that afternoon and then chilled for the rest of my mom's visit.

in fact, I am still chillin' and she is flying all over the country, going on standby, changing flights, and getting vouchers for free tickets. way to go, mom!

Not really a blog-worthy recipe, but...

2010-05-25T13:08:00.002-05:00

...I wanted to share it with you anyway.

I read all these amazing cooking related blogs and am so impressed. And while I will never even strive to be 10% the cooks that they/you all are, I still want to share a recipe every so often. I am sharing this one because of its pure simplicity.

As a lover of chicken pot pies, I am constantly searching for and trying out recipes that are both easy & good. And I finally found one.

Now, you cooking type people, don't laugh. I warned you that this was basic.

As with most online recipes, I found this one on allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used great value, deep dish pie crusts)
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, boiled
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup (I substituted cream of chicken)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of potato soup

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a 9 inch pie dish with pastry.
Blanch frozen mixed vegetables for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain.
Dice chicken and place in a large bowl. Add vegetables, thyme, celery soup and potato soup. Stir together.
Pour filling into pastry lined pie dish. Arrange top layer of pie crust, seal and flute the edges. Cut slits in the top of the crust to allow for steam to escape.
Place pie on cookie sheet. Put aluminum foil around the pie crust edges. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for an additional 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes and then serve.

I wish I would have taken a picture. It was so yummy! The best part, besides the crust, was that the "inside" wasn't runny. I hate a watery, runny inside. haha

garage sale - round 2 - success?

2010-05-22T09:54:00.002-05:00

After last week's weather failure, we decided to do the garage sale again. Remembering that last Friday we had 3 customers all day, I would say that one week makes a big difference because we had 3 customers within the first 15 minutes yesterday. And I made twice as much yesterday than I did all weekend of round 1. Sure, it was still only $67, but still... So what really made the difference? We decided to do a newspaper ad this time and the weather was absolutely perfect yesterday, which was much better compared to last Friday's torrential rain & frigid temperatures.

Today is Saturday and we have reached desperation levels. We want this stuff gone. You should see the deals I am making with people today. I'm a regular old Monty Hall!

Promises

2010-05-19T13:13:00.007-05:00

In my attempt to become a better blogger, I realize I need to post more often. And so I'm just going to do it. I am not going to think so much about what might make a great blog post, I'm just going to type whatever I am doing at that moment, or whatever I am thinking about, etc. So here goes.

I started attending a new bible study today and the topic is Joshua. This is actually one of the few books of the bible I've read through many times because it is only the 6th book, and nearly every year I start a read-thru-the-bible reading program, and although I never make it very far, I always get through Joshua. But I've never done a study on it. Until now.

I wasn't sure I was going to participate in this study or not, so I didn't do my homework prior to today, which is a no-no. I'm kidding. Fortunately we have a really good teacher/facilitator and she doesn't slap our hands if we aren't prepared. It is really helpful when everyone is, so I promise I will next week. and you can keep me accountable.

Today, being the first day, was mostly an intro of the book. We delved into some background info beginning in Genesis with the call of Abram (12:1-7) and God's covenant with Abram (15:1-16), Exodus 3:7-8, and God's command to go in & take possession of the promised land in Deuteronomy 1:6-8. In all these verses and especially Deuteronomy 34:4, God is repeating over and over again, his promise of the land. Why does he repeat this over and over again? Because we are human. We need constant reminders in all areas of life (grocery lists, birthday parties, paying bills), but especially for the big stuff. And so hearing & reading the historical perspective of these events, reminds us of God's promises, and most importantly the fulfillment of them.

So I am excited to study Joshua to hear the story of God bringing his redeemed people into the land he promised to them. If you want to join in, we are using "Joshua: All God's Good Promises" by Kathleen Buswell Nielson.

One last thing, teacher Sandy asked us all to talk about how God has prepared us for where we are in life right now. whoa! thought-provoking, isn't it? Usually I am really dumbfounded to come up with a good answer, but today something came to me quickly. My marriage. I think that God has really prepared me/us well for this new venture of church planting by giving us a strong marriage. No, it hasn't always been super easy and fun, but we are really blessed to never have had any major (marital) problems. We just simply work well together. Yes, we have communication issues and little tiffs here and there, but we have never had a major fight or trust issues or anything big. And we know this is nothing other than a miracle, a gift from God, because left to ourselves, we would completely fail, and probably kill each other. I'm kidding! (about the killing part.) So I think God has prepared us for a lot of rough times we may face in life by giving our marriage a strong foundation. I mean, we've already been through some really hard times through infertility, and so far, our marriage has stayed very solid. I honestly believe that if it wasn't strong before we began this trial, it probably would have fallen apart. I thank God everyday for my husband.

Ok, so that had nothing to do with Joshua, but I wanted to throw it in there anyway!

Garage Sale

2010-05-17T15:28:00.005-05:00

I attempted my first garage sale this past weekend. It was a failure.

I could just leave it at that, but I know you all want more. So I'll start at the beginning.

Eight months ago we moved to Norman, Oklahoma. We found out that we have a lot of stuff. Way too much stuff. So I began to purge. Our recliner came in a gigantic box, so I set that up in the garage and everything I decided we didn't need went in there. Soon, the box was overflowing. I began talking to some friends and we decided to have a joint sale. You know, so we could put "multi-family" in our advertisement. We picked May 14 & 15 to be the dates and began sorting & pricing. Our garage was the dumping zone, and the plan was to start really early Friday morning to pull it all out into the garage and set it up. Well... it stormed all during the night Thursday into Friday. and it never stopped raining until Friday evening. We had to keep everything in the garage, so to say that it was crowded is an understatement. and our three customers did not have much room to walk around.

Did I mention that we only had THREE customers? All day.

We had fun though and laughed about it, hoping Saturday would be MUCH better. well, it doesn't take much to improve on three customers. but it still wasn't great. It didn't rain, but it was cold & cloudy. some friends from church came, so it looked like we had customers. and a couple of our neighbors came over, so that was really great to meet/get to know them!

I did the final calculations Saturday evening and after the permit, cost of signs, etc, I officially made $31. pathetic. My one friend make $32. and the third friend made -$10. yes, negative ten dollars! We have no idea how this happened. She didn't really buy much from us (maybe $2 or $3 worth) and she paid for part of the permit ($3), but I saw her sell some stuff. So where did the money go?!?! no one will ever know... haha!!

Here are a couple pics of our junk, I mean, wares:

I wasn't kidding when I said we were crowded.

And a pic of two of the saleswomen. I am in garage sale clothes & lack of make-up, and Liz is all dressed up because she was on her way to graduate from OU! Our third friend, Janna, kept running from the camera.

I think we may try again this weekend. If so, wish us luck. we need it!

test

2010-05-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

starting to make some changes to my blog. hoping I don't lose all previous content.

This blog has moved

2010-04-28T22:31:00.001-05:00

This blog is now located at http://jenniferannegriffith.blogspot.com/.
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we are busy people

2010-04-05T18:20:00.013-05:00

since my last post we have spent a week in florida with my parents, had lots of people over to our house, planted a little garden, bought a new tv, done lots of cleaning & yard work, had a broken water pipe, got the stomach flu again (yes, I know it's not really the flu), watched lots of basketball, and celebrated friends' birthdays & new jobs, wedding anniversaries (ours & my inlaws), and Easter.

I will do my best to highlight all of these events as quickly as possible.

An entire post on florida will be created once I get all the pictures transferred to my computer.

I do not have any pictures of our broken water pipe. are you disappointed? fortunately there really wasn't anything worthy of which to take a picture. it turned out to be a busted frozen pipe leading out to our outside spigot. it wasn't covered by our home warranty, but we were glad it was an easy fix and there was no damage to the house.

There are also no pictures from my second round of the stomach virus. I know you're not disappointed this time. just like a couple months ago, it was mostly a 24 hour situation. I had wanted to lose a couple pounds right before our florida trip, but this was not how I had planned to do so.

here is our little garden. the contents consist of tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, and several kinds of peppers.

as far as yardwork, bobby has been planting more grass and I've purchased some flowers, but haven't planted them yet. we are also working on ripping out all the shrubs in front of our house. the ones that are here are way too big and ugly. today I worked on the side of our house. there were a bunch of bricks that at one time made a nice flower bed, I believe, but it looked awful. so I pulled them all out, along with the leaves and weeds, and leveled the ground. bobby planted some grass seed and I will put a big pot of flowers in the front soon. look better?

before:

after:

Friday I checked our bank account and saw that our federal tax money had been deposited, so we ran to Sam's and bought a new tv. This wasn't a complete impulse buy. we have wanted one ever since we moved here and we decided to wait til we got that big refund. in the meantime, I had done tons of research. We walked into the store and one hour later left with a much better tv than we had planned on buying for a couple hundred dollars less than we planned on paying. and we love it! (no, we did not steal it.) Here's a picture of our old set-up next to the new one. Can you say "upgrade?"

This weekend was a very momentous one - not just because of the broken water pipe or the new tv, but we celebrated Bobby's parent's 34th wedding anniversary and the death & resurrection of Jesus. We began Friday with an AWESOME hymn sing / good friday service coordinated by Doug Serven, the RUF campus pastor at OU. and then Sunday, we had a nice service at church (singing Joy to the World!) followed by dinner at our house. my sister in law, mindy, & her husband were also here.

bobby and I in our Easter outfits. I planned mine for weeks, and when he threw on a navy suit that did not match my black outfit, I was not pleased.

but I got over it quickly and grabbed paisley because she matched me. :)

another funny story about these pictures - I had washed my hair the night before and sunday morning, I wanted to do something a little more special so I put it in hot rollers, then curled pieces all over. this picture was taken 15 minutes later. do you see all the lovely curls?!?!?!?! ugh.

happy anniversary to these two:

bobby and caleb playing wii baseball:

ok, I've got to go now, the men's ncaa basketball championship game is about to start! I have been a duke fan since elementary school, and they are in the finals. this past saturday night, they played *and defeated* west virginia. I was a bit torn, since we just spent the past two years there while bobby got his MA, as you can see in this picture:

but duke won and now I am so excited to be cheering them on tonight! go BLUE DEVILS!!!

a day in the life of ME

2010-03-05T08:17:00.009-06:00

for all the inquiring minds out there who wonder what in the world I do all day, here it is.

first, a little background info...

ever since bobby and I got married, my life has been anything but routine or ordinary. I figure most people get up and go to the same job everyday of their life. that's what most people I knew growing up did. that's what I did shortly after graduating from college. I had a pretty great job (at the beginning) just north of pittsburgh and I figured I would do that everyday til I started having kids, then maybe even after that with the help of daycare, or whatever. and I would marry someone that did that also. maybe we could even carpool. haha. but my "prince charming" wasn't in pittsburgh, he was in oklahoma. but he did have the 9 to 5 job. so would we get married and both work 9 to 5 jobs together? nope. we moved to st louis for him to go to seminary. for four years bobby worked at the same job, but it was ups, so the hours changed a few times, and classes filled his off hours. and as for me, I was never able to find that stable 9 to 5 job for very long... I worked as a nanny/personal assistant, an admin, sort of a project manager, and then a travel agent/sales consultant... the goal was to make money to pay rent & bills while bobby worked to pay for seminary. our life was not ordinary.

then he graduated seminary and entered another masters program and we moved to a farm in a very rural county in southwest pennsylvania. sound ordinary to you? definately not. bobby was enrolled full-time and then had an assistant-ship as an academic advisor which paid for tuition. we were able to live rent-free so my need to work wasn't imminent. plus, there were a lot of animals/pets on this farm so I helped out when I could. (if you've read my blog for awhile you have seen lots of pictures of said animals that we miss so dearly!) it seemed like a pretty good setup for awhile. then the need arose for some additional income (aka doctor bills) so I took a job at our church. oh yeah, I forgot to mention that bobby was also the assistant pastor at our church and in charge of the youth group. soon we were both working at the same place, and once a dweek we carpooled to work! my dream came true. ha.

fast-forward to august 2009, our time in pennsylvania came to an end and we moved to oklahoma where bobby accepted the call (sounds better than "took a job") to be assistant pastor at our church / church planter apprentice. once again, I was upheaved from my job, familiar surroundings, people I knew, etc. what to do now?

here's where I finally get to the point of this post!

as many of you know, the only job I want right now is to be a SAHM. since that hasn't happened yet, I struggle daily with "my calling." I really do love the flexibility & freedom of not having a full-time job, which is really great when your husband is a pastor and has very erratic working hours. it's also great when you move to a new city because I can take time to explore the area, establish roots (whatever that means), hang out with & get to know people, and mostly set up our house because this is the first time we've ever owned our own home. so, what does my typical day look like? lately, I have been getting up around 730, make coffee, and bobby & I catch up on our social media outlets, read the news, blogs, devotions. then he goes to work and I finish my coffee & reading. (drinking coffee is a new thing to me, so I'm really enjoying it) then typically I clean the kitchen & bathrooms, workout in some capacity, shower, talk to my mom on her lunch break, then decide how to best utilize my afternoon hours. I've been trying to do a lot of home projects, so I usually have HGTV on while I'm cleaning out & organizing closets and/or the garage, painting trim or furniture, of course I spend lots of quality time with my furry friends, decorating/redecorating rooms, writing & rewriting my to-do list (which is always a mile long), bills, errands, grocery shopping, laundry, and before I know it, bobby is home from the office and it's dinnertime. (I'm also newly involved in a bible study which meets weds mornings.) I realize that what I do during the day, most people accomplish in the morning before they go to work or in the evenings, but our evenings usually do not allow for such things. and we keep a pretty late schedule so I would not be getting up any earlier to do them either. (I know... I would if I had to...) most wednesday nights we go to OURUF which doesn't end until 11 pm. that's just one of the community events that bobby likes to participate in. he really loves being with people all the time (a new development) so we have people over to our house all the time (which is great) but that proves that I need to spend a huge chunk of my day cleaning (and bobby is really messy. ha!)

this is quite a timely post because last night at small group (which bobby leads, here at our house) we talked about work & callings, specifically what proverbs has to say about the subject. I feel convicted when I read about the the diligent vs the sluggard/slothful. because frankly, somedays I'm not very productive and I fear that God (and bobby) will judge me because I'm not working full-time, outside the home, and I also feel guilty for not providing financially for us and our future. So this is definately a struggle for me. I want to be the "do-everything proverbs 31 lady" but I don't know how. I want to make some extra money, but I don't want a job to ruin our current lifestyle. Plus, I don't even know what I would do. Do I just work & do whatever, like I did the past 6 years, or do I try to pursue a career? I want to have a baby, but unfortunately for us, that takes a lot of money. How about all those catch 22's?

I have more thoughts on this subject... maybe I'll do a part 2 someday.

go here to read other people's day-in-the-life-of posts.

house stuff - extreme & not so extreme

2010-02-21T17:16:00.007-06:00

One of these days I will get back to (almost) daily blogging, but for now, I'm still doing catch-up. or is it catsup? nope, it's definately ketchup.

My parents got to come back - their third visit since we moved here at the end of august. they're troopers, I tell ya. Everyone asks why they keep coming here instead of me/us going there to visit. The first & main reason is because we just moved from pennsylvania, and oklahoma is still new to us (me) and we're still sorta getting settled, and my parents want to see our house. (I lived in their house for 18 or 22 years, depending on whether you count my college years or not.) So I know what it looks like. haha. And they've been helping us with projects everytime they come. More on that in a minute. But the second reason is that the weather is better here right now. We got the snow I wanted, so I don't have to go to PA and see the 42 inches there. I will want to get out of oklahoma and be in the northeast from may until september. So why leave now?

Bobby had to go to Dallas for a couple days so my parents and I mostly hung out here at the house, watched some tv shows I had dvr'd for them, and played wii winter olympics. Then on Saturday I suggested we drive about 30 miles south of norman to see where Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was building a house for a family. The weather was quite chilly, and you guessed it, windy. And the process took a lot longer than we expected. The road where the house was being built was closed to traffic, so we had to go to a nearby school and take a bus over. Then we were dropped off and didn't know when/if they were coming back for us. (and we had forgotten to eat lunch.) But we weren't alone. We were surrounded by hundreds of "volunteers" who were working on the house, a bunch of press people, tons of real workers, and a few celebrities. My goal of the day was not only to see the house & the entire production, but I really wanted to see Ty & Jillian from the Bachelor/ette. (she was there because she is an interior designer.) The whole town was such a buzz all week because they were spotted all over. Most of them stayed in Norman hotels, (right by my house!!) but I reserved my inner crazy stalker and didn't pursue it that far. Ideal Homes OK were the official builders of the house. I mostly kept up with the progress & happenings on their twitter site : here.

my parents in front of the house

my dad & I in front of the house

The house was one day away from being completed. The day after we were there, they were did the big reveal.

the endless line of vehicles - workers & production people - the line stretched further than I could see on this straight rural road. crazy!

well... I didn't get to see ty or jillian, which is fine, except, they were there, on the property, within feet of me, but I kept missing them. I'd walk away and they'd come out of the house. I'd come back and they would be gone again. I literally kept missing them by seconds. oh well. I did have one celebrity encounter that will make my husband jealous for years and years. It was Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. I actually called out his name and he walked over to where I was, introduced himself, and threw his arms around me for a picture. what a funny guy. hope he wasn't high. (I totally just said that because it rhymed!)

This is the most horriblest picture of me because the lady who took it for me (not my mom) zoomed WAY in, even though I asked her not to, and I was laughing because I was not expecting him to practically hug me in the picture. (he was laughing too.)

The show will air on March 14th on ABC. be sure to watch it!

So that was the extreme house stuff. The non-extreme house stuff involved our house. Super dad installed our new ceiling fan, which looks so awesome. And he also installed trim around our two bathroom mirrors. They were just big plain mirrors, and every home show I've watched, they always say that without trim, they just look unfinished, which is true. Now they look lovely and finished. Right now the trim is white and looks great. I may paint the trim in the master bath black if I pursue my goal of transforming the room into this, my inspiration.

oh yeah, I almost forgot about the super bowl! we had a private little party of just the four of us here to watch it. not nearly as exciting as last year when the steelers won, but still a good game. I was rooting for the colts, but wasn't too upset when they lost. I was more concerned about the cookies anyway.

fastest recap ever

2010-02-10T10:05:00.012-06:00

I am going to attempt to recap christmas, new years, & two blizzards in one little post. here goes!

December 24, 2009 - a blizzard comes sweeping into Oklahoma. Winds were gusting near 50 mph and snow was flying everywhere. I never saw snow fly in so many directions. It was hard to measure the amount of snowfall because of this. We had 2 inches in some places, and 15 in others. It came so fast, no one knew what hit us. For the first time ever, I witnessed how a little bit of snow can cripple a city, no, a STATE. within a few hours, every highway, school, church, business, you name it, was closed. (and remained closed for several days) People who had been out on the roads, just abandoned their cars and walked to safety. We were watching a map online of people that were stranded, and were about to walk over to the highway to bring people back to our warm house, but a church nearby opened up as a shelter, so we weren't needed. We were supposed to have christmas eve celebrations at bobby's grandma's house, but it was cancelled, so we stayed home. Here are some pictures from that crazy fun day:

here comes the snow! it was a pure white out... this pic of the street in front of our house was taken in late morning.

ready to go out & play! so glad we brought some snow gear with us to oklahoma. too bad I gave my snow shovel to my parents...

this picture best captures how much snow accumulated in a drift in our backyard

Next day... Christmas! We had a fun little celebration planned at our house for bobby's immediate family, and we were so excited. We made a bunch of brunchy food - whole wheat banana nut waffles, monkey bread, bacon, cookies, and more. mmmm! Now keep in mind that the winter storm the day before ended as quickly as it began, so by christmas morning, it had not been snowing for about 12 hours. but no one had been out to clear the roads. I know, crazy, right?!?! So we feared that our christmas would be cancelled. however, since bobby's family has a truck, they thought they could make it. yippee! and they did, just four hours late... so our 10 am brunch began at 2pm. and they (my mother & father in law and sister & brother in law) left a little before 4 so they could get home before dark. we were all supposed to go to bobby's aunt's house for the extended family get-together, but you guessed it... cancelled! ugh. nothing would ever cancel christmas in pennsylvania!! but we made the best of it... enjoyed our little time with family, then spent the rest of the night playing mario & sonic at the winter olympic games on wii.

waiting for our guests to arrive...

bobby's sister, mindy, & her husband, caleb

bobby & his parents

fast forward one week to new years. I have no pictures from nye or nyd. in fact, I can't remember what we did except go to a fun little party with some folks from church on nye. the weather was super cold and there was still snow on the ground (and roads) from the christmas eve snowfall.

enter 2010 and another snow storm! wooo hoooo! once again, on a thursday, the weathermen across the state threw fear into our heads that the world was coming to an end again because it was going to snow. omg, snow! in january!?! ha. so the day began with the dreaded winter mix - rain, sleet, then snow arrived, and it actually came down straight this time. no wind! it was awesome. and it just kept coming. we ended up with a really thick one inch of ice and then about 7 inches of snow on top of that. it was so pretty. we built a snowman. we went to walmart the next day. schools were cancelled for 4 days. church was also cancelled. but darnit, the movie theaters and cracker barrel were packed!

I took my kitty, paisley, out for a walk. normally she begs to go out, but she forgot that she is from pennsylvania, and now hates the snow. she is yelling at me in this picture.

our sooner snowman!

so that's the end of my recap. I'm so happy it's over now so I can move on and catch up to real-time events. hope you enjoyed! :)

skipping christmas?

2010-01-15T10:20:00.003-06:00

It is so far past christmas, that I am tempted to not do a recap at all, but two reasons keep me thinking about it... one: it was our first christmas in norman, which is a good enough reason to document it, but also because we had a blizzard on christmas eve! I can't risk not remembering that. haha. and second: our christmas decorations are still up in our house, so the season is still alive on swan hollow drive.

so that's it for now... not an actual christmas recap post, but one that talks about a christmas recap.

today we are headed to OKC for the home & garden show. we've gone to several of these over the past couple years, but when vendors tried to offer their services, we always replied, "not interested. we're just renters." but now we are the real deal - homeowners! and i'm eager to hear about ways to improve our house. and there is going to be an HGTV designer there!

Wordless Wednesday - b"ash"ful bunny

2010-01-06T10:09:00.004-06:00

It's December 21st...

2009-12-21T14:20:00.003-06:00

...and I am outside raking leaves, wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses. And I'm warm! In fact, I went outside just to get warm! It is warmer outside than inside my house today. On the winter solstice! Something is wrong with the fact that I am raking leaves instead of shoveling snow. This is just not right. It's crazy. But I'm not sayin' it's global warming... so don't you put those words in my mouth (or on my blog.)

Born a child yet a King

2009-12-15T11:09:00.004-06:00

This advent season has been a very rich one for me. I've learned a lot from my husband's teaching in the small group we attend, the advent program he was in charge of a couple weeks ago, and during his sermons on sunday morning. He has been filling in for our senior pastor the last two weeks and once more this coming sunday. We also have been singing some great advent songs. Two of my favorites are: Who Is This, So Weak and Helpless? and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. (I provided the links there to the Indelible Grace website for you so you can read the lyrics.)

I have been also reading the daily advent devotional provided by Park Cities PCA in Dallas. You can find it here.

Finally, another really great advent resource is a book also titled, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Here is the link to it. The book is a collection of 22 readings for advent, and includes writings from Martin Luther, John Piper, Tim Keller, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, John Calvin, Francis Schaeffer, and many more! And, the book is dedicated to two of my favorite people in the world, Dr. Wilson & Pam Benton, so that makes it extra special.

I hope you all have a very blessed advent season.

Come thou long-awaited Emmanuel!

my first bedlam

2009-12-07T17:19:00.013-06:00

the biggest highlight of my parent's visit, other than thanksgiving and black friday, was attending the ou vs osu football game on november 28th, otherwise known simply as bedlam. yes, that is a link to the official wikipedia entry for bedlam. this is serious stuff. I even baked cookies for it.

the bad part about its seriousness is that tickets were not easy to come by. so far this year, bobby and I have been able to acquire tickets just prior to kickoff outside the stadium for a fraction of their face value. our first game was free (thanks josh! who doesn't read this blog...), second game we got two club level seats for $50, and the third game we got two tickets for $20. we knew this game was a big deal, but c'mon, the sooners have had a rough year, we lost our heisman winner (poor sammy!) and most of our starting line-up, the students were on break, AND osu has had a better than usual year. I'm thinking, no one's gonna go. HA!

we got there over two hours early because we wanted to beat the rush and get a good parking space, and my parents wanted to see all the tail-gaters and all the hoopla. so we did all that and then started asking around for tickets. well... fortunately there were not a shortage of sellers. the problem was that no one was willing to negotiate. everyone wanted face value for their tickets. and you KNOW my mom & I never pay full price for ANYTHING! so we waited, and asked, and waited, and asked again, walked around a lot, waited some more, asked even more. and finally, pre-game began and thought SURELY they would drop their prices now! nope. so we waited for kickoff. and STILL no luck. we just about gave up. (fortunately the weather was beautiful so we didn't mind standing outside for hours.) we started to watch the game outside the stadium on the jumbo-tron named sooner vision, of course. then we decided to make one more passing attempt. we saw a guy who actually congratulated us for sticking with it so long and not giving in to the sleezy ticket brokers. ugh, they gave me the creeps. and we finally found one guy who gave us four tickets for $150. much more than I wanted to pay, but yes, we were desperate.

the worst part of our deal was that the four tickets were not together. we had to split up into pairs. bobby and I were on the east side and my parents on the west side. but with the help of our zoom lens on our camera, we could see them.

they are standing at the top of the stairs, just above the handrail.

my parents took this picture trying to get us, but they missed us by a few sections. we were to the left of this photo. in the top section.

we thought we were being generous by giving them the good seats, but it turns out we were the ones that lucked out because we were in the sun and they were in the chilly shade. we all had wind-burned faces by the end though. it was so windy up way up there in our super high seats, I really was scared of blowing off the edge, even though we were in the middle of the section.

in fact, we were so high that I could see our neighborhood!

if you look on the horizon, in the dead center, that's where we live.

only in oklahoma...

oh, and did I mention it was windy?

this happened in about 6 or 7 pictures we took. ugh, I hate wind.

since we were at a football game, I should show at least one picture of the field and the players.

there were a lot of orange-clad folks there.

and they cheered their little cowboy hearts out.

but the sooners prevailed and won bedlam once again! in fact, they won it for the 80th time, thank you very much. and they did it convincingly with a score of 27-0.

Backtracking to Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T09:11:00.009-06:00

we had another wonderful visit with my parents last week. people at church are surprised that my parents have traveled all the way out here to see us, not once, but twice, since we moved. but those who have known my parents for longer, are probably thinking, they've only been there twice in three months?!?! haha

we are very blessed every time they come because not only are they helpful and generous, they are fun!

they arrived thanksgiving morning and I picked them up at the airport alone because bobby was putting the finishing touches on his turkey and watching my sweet potato casserole bake in the oven. this year bobby cooked one of our turkeys in our ronco showtime rotisserie oven.

it was yummy!

we ate dinner at bobby's parents' house. his mom wanted him to carve the turkey before arriving for convenience, but we just couldn't forgo the norman rockwell carving-the-turkey-right-before-eating-it tradition.

it was really great to be with both sets of parents at the same time. and everyone got along! haha. I joke about that, but we know we are really fortunate to have these good relationships with our parents, and we do not take it for granted.

back to the food:

I think it's funny that we were asked to bring a turkey and potatoes, and we brought turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cookies.

after dinner we scoured the black friday ads. here are two very serious shoppers. my mom & bobby's cousin, ashley.

the cats also got a little bit of turkey & stuffing

you didn't think we would leave them out, did you?

it was good that we ate early on thursday because we had the rest of the day to recover and rest up for friday morning, which came very early for me... I only get up at 5 am on black friday! we live very close to lots of shopping places, so the decision of where to go was very difficult. we decided to split up, so my & mom and started at kohl's and the men went to home depot & lowe's. I can't tell you all we got because most, ok SOME, of it are christmas presents. we got some really good bargains at kohl's. waiting in line for over an hour was totally worth it!

bobby and my dad could not believe we waited in that line. but they got some things too so they didn't really complain. my dad was a big help saving our spot in line while the rest of us went out into the store finding more stuff!

next stop was academy, then target. bobby really wanted to go to walmart to see the fuss there, but when he got there, he said it wasn't that great. maybe because all the excitement was between 3 and 5 am, and he didn't get there until after 9.

later that day we all went to the OU campus to walk around and take a christmas card photo. the weather was beautiful. we took a bunch of pics, but this one is pretty funny. everyone was freaking out that I touched that phone because it might have the swine flu.

that is not our official christmas card picture.

we went out to dinner at - guess where ........ cheddar's! and then stopped & brought some braum's ice cream/fro-yo home for dessert.

do people still say "fro-yo?"

to start working off some of those thanksgiving calories, my mom and I played mario & sonic go to the summer olympics on wii.

see, I told you my parents were fun!

I'll close with this picture taken on sunday after church.

yes, paisley is trying to jump out of my arms and into the tree... ugh

since this post was a mile & a half long, I will have to have a part 2 of my parent's visit - the bedlam experience.

Our First Christmas in Norman - the tree

2009-12-04T07:46:00.007-06:00

(I have much to show & tell from my parents visit over thanksgiving, but I wanted to join the tour over at kelly's korner, so I am skipping ahead to show you our tree.)

We upgraded this year from the 6 foot pre-lit tree that comes in 3 simple sections to an 8 foot unlit tree that comes in 898027 sections. Fortunately my parents gave us this tree and since they are experienced in putting it together, we brought it down from the attic and assembled it while they were here last week. But don't worry, it was not up before thanksgiving. I think that should be illegal. (if I thought creating more laws were the best way to fix society... but I don't.) The tree was assembled and lights were hung mostly by my dad, and then tuesday night bobby and I added the personal touches of ribbon garland, ornaments and the star topper.

Here it is!

I wish I had a picture of it at night because it's much prettier then.

These are a few of my favorite ornaments...

This is one of a set of three given to me by my aunt as a memory of my trip to south africa a few years ago. this elephant looks a little different than the ones we saw in the bush, but it's much more festive! the other two in the set are a rhino and hippo that are equally festive.

The santa in the background of the above photo was given to us by our korean neighbors in st louis. it is santa holding an owl over his head. we never did quite understand the significance of that... is it a korean tradition? does anyone know??

this is a good picture because it encapsulates many of my favorite ornaments.

well, actually, these aren't my favorite ornaments per se, but they are symbols of places we've been... from left to right: Grove City College (my alma mater). the little minnesota vikings ornament was given to me many years ago by my former pastor's family. they are huge vikings fans (most of them) and while I never really was, it is appropriate to hang now because former OU player and superstar Adrian Peterson plays for them now, so everyone in norman is a vikings fan all of a sudden. the flying WV from west virginia university. one of bobby's guitar ornaments. and then the OU ornament in the upper right of the picture. we were worried that we didn't already have one and didn't know where we would be able to buy one here!! haha.

And then of course, I have a Pittsburgh Steelers ornament!

I have many other very special ornaments, these were just a few. Our baby's first christmas balls from 1977 are dear to me (especially since we were both born that year), our first christmas together ornaments from 2003, and now our first home ornaments. we have a bunch of bunny ornaments, wendell august forge ornaments, star wars, batman, & simpsons ornaments (those are bobby's!), and many more.

here's another shot of the entire tree

I know I cut off the top of the tree in that picture, but I wanted to get the cats. Oh, that reminds me... did you know that cats like to climb trees? even christmas trees???

this is after I pulled her (paisley) out... she's looking over at it and wanting to jump back in. bad girl!

things I like about living in oklahoma (specifically norman)

2009-11-19T21:57:00.005-06:00

haha, I love pretending to be a norman-snob. it's fun.

I have been observing life here in god's country. ha, that is a total joke. I actually HATE the whole "god's country" thing. and the "...on the 8th day" thing too. I don't know why I typed that.

anyway... as a citizen of norman for almost 3 months, these are the things I like about living here:

people are really stinkin' friendly. a couple weeks ago, I was in Lowe's and no joke, FOUR different people asked me if I needed assistance. and not in a, "oh, there's a girl in lowe's, I'm sure she needs help" way. actually in a nice, friendly, "how are you? can I help you with anything?" way. and it's like that everywhere.
the weather has been awesome. yes, fall was definately the time of year for me to move to oklahoma. I was terribly sad about missing western PA's fall with all the beautiful foliage (and I am!) but the weather we have had these past two months has been absolutely divine - mostly sunny with mild temps.
football!!! we have gone to THREE sooners football games this year. can you believe it?! but can you blame us? we live 4 miles from the stadium. we found a place to park for free. we tailgate with our friends from OU RUF. we buy cheap tickets from people selling them at the last minute. we go in, watch some (pretty) good football, and are home within 30 minutes of the end of the game.
shopping! have I mentioned that I can see super target from my driveway? 'nuf said.
lake thunderbird
our church. we are really enjoying the quirky, intelligent, and super interesting folks of christ the king pca.
happy hour at sonic
walking around the OU campus. earlier this week, I texted bobby and said that I saw there was a freshen's yogurt place on campus. he wrote back, let's go! so within 20 minutes he was home and we were out the door. we put our quarter in a meter which was good for one hour and walked all around campus, including the student union (where freshen's no longer exists. ugh), inside gaylord memorial stadium, the south oval, and even past the practice fields where we could see & hear 100+ players wearing crimson & cream. twenty five cents sure can buy you a lot here in norman.
campus corner. restaurants, cafes, clothing stores, salons, a theater, churches, and antique shops - it's pretty much "the bomb."
this place is hopping. everywhere I go, I see lots of people doing lots of things - shopping, driving, eating out, golfing, going to movies, sporting events, tailgating - you name it, the people of norman are doing it. ain't no sign of a recession here.
celebrities' houses.

This is just what I came up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more. And there are definately things I don't like so much. And for sure there are a bazillion things I miss about western pennsylvania that are better than norman (gasp!) but since it's thanksgiving week and all, I'll just keep this post positive.

I just realized, norman needs a slogan. Because if they had one, I would end this post with it.

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 3: REVAMPING PICTURES

2009-11-16T09:40:00.006-06:00

ok, so I know I was stretching it when I chose the word revamping for the title instead of saying "projects" or "home improvements," but I was going with a "v" theme and that was all I could think of! In case you missed them, I recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 first.

So anyway... as you read in part one (see? i'm testing you) my parents offered to help us with a lot of projects that bobby and I do not know how to do while they were in town for a few days.

Without further ado, the befores and afters.

First up - master bedroom closet doors. BEFORE:

AFTER:

I still need to paint the trim and the doors white, but they are such a huge improvement over the mirror doors. Not only were they ugly and dated, but the rollers & track were broken and so to open/close them, I had to pick them up and slide them. They were very heavy. I love my new 6 panel white doors!

Bobby installed a bunch of door hinge stopper things.

We all worked on replacing the glass section of the back door. The trim was cracked in several places (no before pictures, sorry) and I thought we could just replace that, but what I didn't know was that the glass & trim are all one unit. We thought about just buying a whole new door, but then we went to the habitat restore here in norman and found the section we needed for just $20. the old glass was removed and the new one installed.

Here is the after picture with the exterior side showing.

I will be painting the door & trim this week.

Oh, and bobby installed also two new dead bolts. One can be seen in the previous picture.

The most visible "makeover" was probably the door going into our office (aka BR3). This is the room that we replaced the flooring in several weeks ago. But the door HAD to go. It was a plastic accordion door that was basically taped on. Yes, with scotch tape. Ugh. So my dad installed the brackets, the door knob, and everything else (my mom helped.) And now we have a real (6 panel white) door that looks awesome. I cannot find our before picture of that hideous door, but here is the after...

Last week I painted the trim white. This is the view from inside the room. Door still needs a coat of white paint, but a major improvement over the accordion door.

Bobby had already replaced one kitchen ceiling light, but I really wanted a pendant light for over the kitchen sink. I've been looking for one I liked for weeks now and we finally found one. It was silver, so I painted it black and now it looks fabulous!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And finally... remember this hole in the attic floor/garage ceiling?

Well, it now looks like this:

Actually, it looks even better than that now because bobby has covered it with spakling and texture to match the rest of the ceiling.

There you go. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Yesterday

2009-11-12T09:31:00.006-06:00

was my birthday! my day started at about 6:11 when bobby had to get up to go to a men's bible study. sometimes I don't even hear him get up, but yesterday I was wide awake, but that didn't last long... he said, happy birthday, I said, thanks, and went back to sleep until he got back from the bible study. he woke me up with a card from paisley & shadow that said, thanks for feeding us! and their present to me was hotcakes from mcd's - which I have always loved. thanks kitties!!

bobby left for the office shortly after breakfast and I had a nice, relaxing morning in which I did some reading, went for a nice long walk, and watched a little tv. the weather was delightful - sunny and about 73. definately the warmest birthday I've ever had. throughout the day I received a bunch of calls from family, emails, and a gazillion birthday wishes on facebook! (that's the real reason I've racked up 434 friends on there. just kidding.) I feel very loved, which I'm thankful for, because otherwise I would have felt very lonely yesterday. Because once again, my birthday arrived just a couple months after moving to a new place, where I "know" very few people. Yes, I've met a ton of people here, but none well enough to say, hey, come over and see me on my birthday! ha! well, actually I probably could have done that, but I am just not bold enough. I just assume everyone is always busy and wouldn't be able to/want to. Eventually I'll get over that... maybe.

So my day was spent mostly just with Bobby and it was fun. When he got home from work, I was ready and waiting for to go out on my surprise dinner.

I should have cleaned up the clutter a little bit behind me. I took this picture in our GIANT mirror in the "dining room" as sort of a joke, but then decided to post it because of the cute cat in the background.

Our first stop was Coach's in Norman. Bobby's been there quite a few times for meetings and such, but I had never been. Then we got in the car and drove to downtown OKC (Bricktown) for dinner. He had not yet told me where we were eating, but when we couldn't find it, he told me the name so I could be looking for it... Deep Deuce Grill. He said he had been to their website and it looked like a really cool place. (and he had a coupon!) We drove up and down the street that it was on and we just couldn't find it. Then on our third pass, I finally saw the sign. But it was not lit up. And the door was open, but there were no tables inside. But I did see a ladder. THEY WERE CLOSED FOR REMODELING! we called to double-check and sure enough, they were closed until Dec 1. UGH! would be nice if they could put that on their website. This is 2009! (I have contacted them to complain.)

Ok, what do we do now?!? First up, we need a restroom, so we go to bass pro shops of course!

oh so funny, isn't it?!?

back to the car now, deciding where to eat, I suggest driving all the way back to norman to try the place that I suggested a couple days ago, Victoria's Pasta Shop. I had seen it recommended a few places recently and it sounded awesome.

And that's where we ate. I had chicken parmesan. It was very good! Chicken was lightly-breaded and the sauce was light and yummy.

Bobby had a sampler of their signature lasagna rolls, whole wheat linguine, and pesto. He loved & devoured every bite. (I helped a little...)

Then we walked around campus corner a little while. It is so nice there, I just love it. For some reason they have these phone booths so we took a picture.

We grabbed a little dessert at Cafe Plaid - peanut butter & chocolate chip granola bar. Yum! when we got home I heated it up and ate it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. :-) we watched some dvr'd shows and went to bed. unfortunately I had a mild migraine for most of the evening, but overall it was a pretty nice day!

(P.S. part 3 of the visit, vegas, and revamping should appear within the next 36 hours)

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 2: VEGAS PICTURES

2009-11-06T11:11:00.001-06:00

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1: INTRO. I will not offer much explanation in this post, mostly just pictures.

And if you made it all through the intro, congrats! you are now being rewarded with lots of pictures! (fyi, captions are above the pictures)

Freezing in the lazy river

Watching the fountain show at Bellagio our first night.

Headed to the strip on day two, we stop first to take a group photo.

One of my new favorite places on Las Vegas Blvd, the m&m store. The four of us bought nearly $50 worth of m&ms and ate them all in 3 days!

after bobby finally dragged me out of the m&m store, we went to the mgm grand, home of the lion habitat. this is way better than those white tigers. I took a lot of pictures, but I picked these two to show you.

that trainer is as brave as that lion I suppose.

what has become my favorite hotel & casino, Paris Las Vegas... I don't know what it is about that place, but I love it the most. Don't bobby and I look like we are sitting in a cafe on the streets of paris sharing a gelato?

dad & daughter in paris

mom & dad standing in front of a replica of the Fontaines de la Concorde

bobby really enjoyed his meal at pampas! we all got just the meat entree, but convinced him to get the surf & turf. yeah, we really had to twist his arm really hard...

it's kind of strange that I have never been to the real new york, new york, but I've been to this fake one twice.

bobby is standing in "times square"

loving our burgers at in-n-out!

It took about 12 takes to get this photo, but it's a good one. Here we are, going out on our last night in vegas.

Close-up of the giant sphinx in front of the Luxor hotel & casino.

and finally, we had to get a picture in front of the famous sign!

two final pictures... here is what the ground in denver looked like when we landed there thursday afternoon on our layover.

I thought we were still in the clouds, but no, that is snow!

denver got hit with a horrible snowstorm that week, and even that day that we flew in, there were 4 hour delays and canceled flights. but not for us, southwest got us in and out with only a 15 minute delay. we love southwest. and even when we got to OKC and realized that two of our suitcases were missing, we didn't start hating SW, because they got it the next day, called us, we went and got them, and got two $50 travel vouchers!

Coming soon...

Part 3: the reVamping pictures

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 1: INTRO

2009-11-05T16:00:00.006-06:00

we have been waiting for nearly two months for my parents to come out and see our new home. they kept offering to come out with us when we moved and help us unpack and all that, but they have always done all the hard work for us everywhere we have moved that we decided to give them a well-deserved break this time. besides, they had already done all the hard work in pennsylvania packing us up to move out here. it really wouldn't be fair to make them do double work, now would it? additionally, I figured it would also be a good opportunity to get bobby's family in on the action and to get to know our new church family during the unpacking process. well, neither really happened due to miscommunication, and we did almost all of the unpacking on our own. haha. oh well, it was probably good for us.

but ANYway... we tried to work really hard to get the majority of stuff unpacked and settled for when my parents could come down. and that day finally came the afternoon of thursday, october 22nd. we really were so proud to show them our very own house, nestled in our little cul de sac, in our cute little neighborhood, in the great town of norman. I think they really liked it and were proud of our accomplishments so far, but right after dinner, we began discussing what projects we were going to work on while we had the time & talent of my super handy dad. bobby went to a meeting at church and we went to lowe's. that was our first of at least 9 or 10 trips there.

work began friday morning (I don't even remember eating breakfast.) the projects on the slate were: replacing the awful plastic accordion door that was taped onto the doorway going into the office with a real door (I can not figure out why they didn't do that in the first place), replacing the mirrored closet doors in our bedroom (not only were they mirrors, but the trim was brass, and the track was broken so it was like lifting a ton just to open them), fixing (which turned into replacing) the glass & trim in the back door, changing out 5 light fixtures, several switches and outlets, and repairing the hole in the attic floor.

it was so great to get all of that done, and really I can't believe we did it all in that short amount of time. we worked most of friday, saturday, and a little sunday, but then we started packing for las vegas! a little explanation in case you have a problem with vacationing in vegas (hopefully you don't) - my parents purchased a thing that is sort of like a timeshare at Tahiti Village in Las Vegas which includes a free vacation there every other year. so we picked this week and off we went. the three of us (mom dad & I) had already been to LV several times, but it was bobby's first time. you can explain vegas all you want to someone, but you really have to be there to fully experience it. I was starting to worry that maybe we had hyped it up a bit too much, but he was not at all disappointed.

We arrived Monday afternoon and it was sunny, but the wind was chilly and we couldn't believe it. we were in the dessert for heaven's sake, it's supposed to be hot all the time, right?!!? we were mostly disappointed because Tahiti Village has an amazing pool area and lazy river, and we had hoped to spend some quality time there. We tried it out for a little while the first day because that was supposed to be the warmest, but the chill was too much and we headed back up to the condo. After getting ready, we headed to the strip for the first time. Fortunately it was just getting dark so we got the full effect of the lights. And thus began the walking... I had warned bobby of the amount of walking we would do and he responded by wearing very comfortable shoes. Did I take my own advice? no. I wanted to look cute so I wore my tall black boots. and yes, I was in a lot of discomfort at the end of the night. oh well.

Since we couldn't go to the pool, we spent the rest of our vacation driving to and walking around the strip mostly. We even ventured to Freemont Street once because bobby really wanted to see the old part town, but it was just too windy and cold, (I had on 4 layers!) so we didn't stay long. Driving around in the rental car was probably my favorite thing to do because it was nice & warm and didn't hurt my feet. haha. Finally by the next to last day I got smart and ditched the fashion sense and went for comfort by wearing tennis shoes. it was so nice.

One of the perks of being an owner at TV is that you get coupons and show tickets, so we went to see the Fab Four Live - a Beatles tribute show. We really weren't too excited about it, and especially after we discovered that we were the only ones under the age of 50 there, but it turned out to be really fun. and the guys were really good. Then we ate at this amazing restaurant called Pampas. It is a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring the meat to your table on a skewer and carve it for you. I really can't explain much more than that so you just have to go to their website.

Bobby and I had a few hours to ourselves one day because my parents had to go to a meeting for all the TV owners so we went to Tropicana, New York New York, and Monte Carlo. We went all the way down one side, then walked all the way back. I'm not sure why. When my parents were done, they picked us up and we went to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. Yum! Then that night, our last night, we got all dressed up (well, my mom & I did) and hit the town again, visiting the Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and the Venetian. It was a great way to end our trip because the next morning we had to fly back to OKC to finish our projects before my parents had to fly back home.

Coming soon...

Part 2 - "vegas pictures"

Part 3 - "the revamping pictures"

Wordless Wednesday: gee, thanks for the warning!

2009-11-04T10:11:00.005-06:00

* photo taken at Lake Thunderbird on the outskirts of Norman, OK

** I am working on a 2 or 3 part post recapping my parent's visit and our trip "out west." stay tuned!

Last Weekend's Football Frenzy

2009-10-15T20:56:00.014-05:00

I really don't know why it has taken me until now to write up a recap of last weekend's activities, except for the fact that since we got smart phones, I rarely turn my computer on. So I can check facebook and twitter, and even email now, but typing or adding photos to a blog post cannot be done on that little tiny screen and keyboard. Oh yeah, and I've been kind of busy with continual setting-up-house stuff. But alas, it's Thursday night, Bobby is at a session meeting and I have finished all of my chores so that I can sit down, watch Grey's & Private Practice and type.

Football Frenzy Day 1: Saturday, October 10th - Oklahoma Sooners vs Baylor Bears

After 7 days of clouds and rain, we woke up last Saturday morning to sun & cool air - perfect football weather. We got dressed in our crimson and cream shirts (and jeans & jackets) and drove down to Owen Field, with no tickets, but planned on buying some near the stadium. On the way there, we talked to a friend from church who offered us free tickets that he wanted to get rid of, which was AWESOME. Driving down there (the whole 4 miles) and parking was a breeze. We walked nearly a mile to join some of the OU RUF college students for a little pregame tailgate. They had hamburgers, pop, chips, corn hole, washers, and ladder toss. Then it was gametime. And guess who decided to dress in his uniform and start... SAM BRADFORD!

Oh yeah! We got to see a little heisman-in-action. (in case you don't know, sam won the heisman award for being the most awesome player last year, decided to return to college for another season rather than going in to the NFL, and got hurt during the first game of this season.) The place went crazy when his name was announced.

I especially loved pregame also. but then again, I'm sort of a band geek...

Overall, the game was great. Well... they could have played a lot better. The receivers were really making me and Sam mad - they dropped a bazillion perfect passes that he threw to them. He would have had nearly 600 yards passing if they would have caught the stupid ball more, and the score would have been a lot worse/better than it was... but in the end, the Sooners won 33-7. Awesome!

Here's a little recap of our day...

Parking "near" the stadium.................................... free
Food at the RUF tailgate......................................... free
Tickets to the game in the south endzone............ free
Seeing Sam Bradford lead the Sooners to victory..... priceless!

Football Frenzy Day #2 - Sunday, October 11th - Pittsburgh Steelers vs Detroit Lions
Unfortunately we did not get to watch this game in person like the day before. And unfortunately we did not get to even watch this game from the comfort of our own smoke-free living room. This was the first week since we moved to Oklahoma that the game was not televised in our market, so we had to go on the road, and watch the game at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore. It was either that, or Hooters in Oklahoma City. We chose BWW. It's closer.

This time, dressed in our black & gold, we parked in a jam-packed parking lot and were pleased to see several cars that had steelers memorabilia, then even happier when we walked in and saw lots of people dressed in steelers clothes. We could have chosen to sit in the dining room where the steelers game was on one of the little tv's. Or... we could go to the bar where it was on the BIG tv. duh! We endured the smoke to enjoy the large view of our team and enjoyed hearing all the cheering and shouting of "c'mon ben!" when we had the ball, or "get 'em! get 'em!" when we were on defense. It was another nail-biter at the end, but I'm happy to report that the Steelers pulled it off 28-20. Another awesome victory!

Here was the screen we watched the game on. Photo was taken on my phone after the Steelers scored their first touchdown.

Don't Step There

2009-10-10T08:51:00.009-05:00

Yesterday was the first time I was ever really in an attic. For real. Attics just really aren't that necessary in pennsylvania because everyone has basements for storage. But here in mid-america, the ground is clay, therefore, no one can dig down to build basements, so everyone has attics - thus, the mushrooms. More on that another day...

When we looked at this house before we bought it, we thought the attic space was great and had tons of storage area. Well, it turns out that it actually just has a lot of attic space potential. The previous owners only laid boards on a small portion of the attic so the storage space was limited. But we figured that was probably an easy fix, just get some more boards and finish it off, which is what Bobby and Wes (a guy from our church) did last night.

Before they could start on their pounding, I needed to get up there and move some boxes around that we had haphazardly thrown up there - mostly empty moving boxes - to give them more space to move around to work. I hate climbing ladders, but I got up there and it wasn't so bad. I was proud of my job of packing and stacking those empty boxes so well that they took up just a mere fraction of the space. I even called Bobby to come check out my handy work. He peeked up and was impressed. He got down and waited for me, thank goodness, because as I made my way over to the opening where the steps are, I stepped where I will never step again...(for obvious reasons) a spot where there were no boards, no cross-beams, no support... and my leg went through the floor!

I knew not to step there and I really didn't "step" there. I barely put any pressure there. I think I just momentarily lost my balance and just barely set my foot on that spot for a second, and bam, there went the floor. Fortunately I was holding onto something and was able to catch myself and did NOT fall all the way through to the garage. That would have been terrible. I can't even imagine. So it's funny and I'm slightly embarrassed, but mostly feel badly that we know have to repair this spot. But hopefully it can be done quickly and will not be too expensive.

Surely I can't be the first person to nearly fall through their attic, right?!

By the way, here is a picture of my neatly stacked boxes. There are probably 50 or so boxes there.

And here is some of the progress the guys made last night. My Christmas decorations can't wait to sit on those boards.

Steelers & Sooners

2009-10-08T08:50:00.013-05:00

This week Kelly is highlighting favorite sports team, traditions, and tailgating on her Show Us Your Life Series.

I am highlighting my two favorite football teams - the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Oklahoma Sooners.

I have only had the great privilege to go to a few Steelers games in my life, most of which were when I was in grade & high school, so I don't have a bunch of photos from those experiences. That was WAY before the digital camera era anyway. My most recent game that I attended was in late November 2007, it was cold and rainy, otherwise known as the mud bowl game. But fortunately we had seats under cover so we stayed mostly dry.

You may remember that Bobby & I tried to go to a game in 2007 for my 30th birthday, but that didn't turn out too well... we didn't have tickets ahead of time, so we just went to the stadium hoping someone was selling some at a good price, but we were not so lucky. Instead, we ended up watching the game from a really nice condo in Pittsburgh, just across the river from the stadium.

Before I move on, here are a couple of quick facts about my beloved Steelers:

they have won 6 super bowls - that is more than any team in the NFL
they have won 7 AFC championships
it's the fifth oldest franchise in the NFL
they are still owned by the same family that founded them in 1933
they are the only team that has the logo on only one side of their helmet

As far as gameday traditions at home, we are always decked out in black & gold, usually game jerseys, we drink out of our Steelers cups which set on our Steelers coasters. For special occassions (like the super bowl, which they won TWO of this decade!) we pull out the special steelers paper plates, napkins, and plastic ware. We're so fancy. And of course we have our Terrible Towels handy for cheering for those touchdown catches by Hines Ward, or those sacks by James Harrison.

'dem Stillers are da best!

Oh, and speaking of the Super Bowl and Steelers, I can't leave out a picture of the cookies I made for the grand event this past year.

Now on the other hand, my Sooner traditions are young. Just 7 years old, in fact. I didn't really have a college football team that I followed growing up, so when I met Bobby, (who is from Oklahoma and therefore a lifetime Sooner fan) I quickly joined Sooner Nation. We attended our first game together in November 2002, just shortly after we got engaged. It was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people were there! I finally realized why college football gets so much hype. I loved the marching band, the Sooner Schooner, the echoing "boomer" and "sooner" from opposite sides of the crowd, and the "oooooooooo......... U!" at kickoff. We went to one other game when OU played Mizzou in Missouri (we were living in St Louis at the time) and that was a lot of fun too, but our seats were in the Mizzou section and they weren't too hospitable to people dressed in crimson.

OU-Mizzou, October 2006

Now that we are living in Norman, the home of the university, we are living in the hype. There is OU stuff EVERYWHERE, and the only thing anyone talks about is the football team. It's great! Unfortunately the team is without a few of their starting players this year due to injury (hello?!?! Heisman winner Sam Bradford! I'm such a name dropper, I know.) so they have already lost two games. I'm a little disappointed because I moved here to watch a winning team, but apparently they don't care what I think.... haha.

We will (hopefully) be attending our first game together as citizens of Norman this week. Tailgating and game pictures to come. Boomer Sooner!!!

FYI

2009-10-06T20:45:00.004-05:00

Earlier today Bobby and I saw our "new" $10 rug for sale at Walmart tonight for almost 90 bucks! oh yeah, that made me feel good. I looked for it online to gloat a little more, and it is listed for $79 there. Still pretty good!

Terrible (cat) Towel

2009-10-05T09:43:00.007-05:00

Last night during the Steelers game, we were trying to keep our cats awake because they tend to sleep in the evenings and then play, pounce, and wrestle on us while we are sleeping, all night. So we locked them out of the bedroom and made them stay out in the living room with us. They played and roamed around for awhile, but then soon settled on a chair next to the tv we were watching. I just happened to have a Terrible Towel laying there, and I like to think that they chose to lay there to show their support for America's football team.

First it was just Paisley sitting there.

Then she got down and Shadow got up there.

And then Paisley decided to get back up there and snuggle with her sister. Aren't they adorable?!?

Super Saturday

2009-10-04T15:10:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was a lovely day. The weather was perfect: cool in the morning, sunny and warm in the afternoon. I went to lunch with a friend from church, Liz, on Friday (Cheddar's) and we were talking about garage sales and our husbands being away Saturday mornings, so I asked if she wanted to garage-sale'ing with me and she said yes. We decided to go around the neighborhoods near her - Moore & South Oklahoma City - and it was no slim pickins' - there were a ton of sales. But we hit the jackpot when we found a storage center sale. It was like the garage sale mecca! Together we ended up with some good stuff.

I bought these cute little white bowls for a dollar.

I am such a sucker for things that nest.

Got these two books for $1.25.

This suitcase for $5.

The last thing I need is more luggage, but this one is the size I was lacking. It will be great for all of our/Bobby's overnight trips to Dallas.

I found these two shirts - the OU shirt for $1 (for me) and this blue military/work short for $2 (for bobby.)

He thought it would be a cool guitar-playing shirt. I agree.

And my big ticket item was this area rug for our living room. It is not exactly what I wanted, but because the echo is so bad in there, and the floor is so bare, I was so happy to find this. The colors match pretty well, it is in really good shape, and it was only $10! Here's a picture of it laying on our backyard table. Once we clean it and put it in place, I'll show a picture of it in action.

Later that night Liz and her husband came over to watch the OU game. We were so excited to host our first football game gathering in our new house, even though the house isn't quite ready for entertaining yet... They promised to look past the bare walls and floors, and boxes, and unfinished bathroom, oh, and the turtles in the bathtub.

Bobby waiting for the game to start - red shirt on the red couch - nice!

Me giving the #1 sign. Unfortunately OU is far from #1 this year... :-(

And you gotta have two kinds of salsa - red & green

We're so glad Liz and Jarod came over. And they brought their adorable dog, Cooper!

IF update

2009-09-28T19:13:00.005-05:00

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

2009-09-28T15:17:00.014-05:00

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?

The fair was O-K!

2009-09-25T21:06:00.013-05:00

(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...

2009-09-25T09:05:00.002-05:00

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.

Life is/in OK

2009-09-23T09:30:00.009-05:00

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.

In Norman We Are

2009-09-09T10:33:00.011-05:00

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.

Favorite Vacation Spot(s)

2009-08-13T16:00:00.006-05:00

This week on Kelly's Show Us Your Life tour, we are visiting favorite vacation spots.

I sound like Guy Fieri at the beginning of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. This week on Triple D, we're visiting western pennsylvania for some killer pierogis. haha.

Normally I would say that my favorite vacation was my honeymoon to Jamaica, but since you all just heard about that last week, I'll pick another one (or three) to highlight today.

I apologize for not including any pictures but blogger won't let me. I did include a couple links to earlier blog posts, so hopefully you'll check them out.

Bethany Beach, Delaware

This has been my family's favorite vacation spot for many many years. My earliest memories involve renting a huge condo on the beach for me & my parents, my aunt & uncle, and my grandma. Sometimes I got to bring a friend along. I love Bethany Beach. It is known as "the quiet resort" - it is located between Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth, Delaware. It has a boardwalk, quaint little shops, lots of ice cream, safe streets for bike-riding, and of course, the beach. Now the beach isn't huge and the ocean isn't pretty like the caribbean, but it's sand & water, and I like it.

I was so delighted when I was able to take Bobby there for the first time two years ago. He loved it like I knew he would, and we made arrangements to go back there last summer and this year as well. I am very sad that we are moving so far away from my favorite little beach community, but I can't wait for the day when we can return and hopefully have a little kid or two to take to the beach there. It has been my greatest desire since I was in high school. Lord, please grant me this wish!

Laguna Beach/Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Santa Monica

Bobby and I got to travel to southern California 4 years ago to attend his (extended) family reunion. After the festivities, the two of us decided to extend the trip a few days and see where the celebrities hang out.

I can't get Weezer's Beverly Hills lyrics out of my head now...

Beverly Hills... That's where I want to be!
Living in Beverly Hills...
Beverly Hills... Rolling like a celebrity!
Living in Beverly Hills...

Anyway... we loved everything about SoCal and you can read all about here.

Southern Africa

My trip of a lifetime! Words really can't describe what it is like to be in Africa. Seriously. But I'll try anyway. The full version of my trip is here, complete with MANY pictures, but I'll try and give you a short version. I worked for a deluxe travel & tour operator company as one of my many jobs while living in St Louis, supporting my darling seminarian husband, and on thursday, september 9th, 2005, I was offered a free spot on a trip to southern Africa that left in two days. There were 7 of us total on the trip and we left on September 11th to fly from Atlanta to Johannesburg. I kid you not.

We spent the first five days "in the bush" going on game drives and touring some amazing camps. Did I mention that these were 5 and 6 star camps? Again, no words to describe this experience. Then we flew to Cape Town and enjoyed all the civilization and sights there... we drove to Cape Point, went to the top of Table Mountain, visited wineries, chilled with some penguins, went shopping, and toured a bunch of hotels. (we were there to work after all. ha!)

Our last big place to visit was Victoria Falls! (That's in Zimbabwe. Seriously, who goes to Zimbabwe?!) It was so awesome, and I hate to say it, but prettier than Niagara Falls. Definitely less commercialized anyway. We went on a sundowner cruise on the Zambezi River that night, and the next day drove over to Zambia. We were so fortunate that we had next to zero major incidents worth mentioning. The worst thing was probably my terrible sinus infection & head cold that left me deaf, sleepless, and just plain miserable for the first couple of days.

Oh, and there was that one time when I couldn't get in my hotel room/cabin because an elephant was blocking the door. You know, just a usual day at the office...

hothead

2009-08-10T12:07:00.019-05:00

I think the heat has gone to our heads and we've lost it. Up to date, this summer has been so cool and mild (not to mention cloudy, rainy, and just plain dreary) but all of a sudden we got a heatwave yesterday (sunday). I'm sure most of you all reading it had a similar situation. Meanwhile, Bobby has been in need of a haircut. This is a very common occurrence because his hair grows really quickly and we hate spending money. well, on haircuts that is, not furniture, because I love spending money on furniture. And so because of these two factors, bobby has had many hair styles over the years. In fact, let's take a look at his many hairstyles.

First, the long haired hippie style he had when we first met.

Then after we got engaged he sported a really short style.

It got a little longer when/after we got married, but then he worked at UPS for 4 years so he had to keep it pretty short with no facial hair. And while we're at it, he's had a lot of different facial hairstyles too, but that's a post for another day.

Once he graduated from seminary/UPS, he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted with his face & hair, so he went with this.

I'm kidding. He did that as a joke.

This is his normal look with a beard (my favorite.)

But other times, it looks like this.

Sorry for the link instead of the actual photo, but I have been trying to post it for 4 hours now and I give up.

And then yesterday (sunday) we just plain lost our minds and we did this:

Are we crazy? Yes. But it was fun. And hey, he only has two more weeks to get away with doing stupid things using the excuse that he's in youth ministry and he's doing it for the children... (and by the way, they think it's hilarious.)

ugh, what's up blogger?

2009-08-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

I have been working on a really fun post but I can NOT get blogger to work with me. I have been trying to post pictures since noon today. now it let me add pictures to the post, but it won't let me save or publish it. UGH. will try again tomorrow.

some stuff about the house

2009-08-10T10:22:00.015-05:00

We have two big house updates. #1 - the appraisal has gone through and it was appraised at a higher amount than we are paying for it! yippee. that's "instant equity" bobby tells me. I'm still not 100% what that means, but I know it's good. and #2 - we bought a couch! a red one. my st louis friends know that we have an antique green one already, but they also know that it's not really comfortable or practical. It's really best for a parlor or a big sophisticated office, but since we have neither, it will most likely be sold in the near future. here is a picture of it when it was in our apartment in 2006. I don't blame you if you're distracted by the lovely ladies that are sitting on it, but try and look past us.

It's a pretty couch, but I need a plush comfy couch with big pillows to lay on when I watch tv. And I decided when we were house hunting that if it matched the house, I wanted a red couch. Since our house has hardwood floors and I'll be painting the walls a light neutral tan and all the trim white, I think a red couch will be lovely.

So here it is, America. the Griffith's new red couch.

(I tried to get the picture to post on here for 45 minutes and it just wouldn't go. sorry for the lame link.)

It is a bit more on the contemporary style than I prefer, but there were several factors that made this couch a must-buy. (I guess I'm all about the numbered lists today...) #1 it's red. it's not pink at all, which the picture sort of looks. (I hope.) no, in person it's definately a strong red. not orangy or pinky. just red. probably not quite OU crimson, but close. #2 it's made of that micro-fiber material that is very easy to clean. if you've met bobby, you know that is a must have. #3 it was cheap. $299 to be exact. for a new couch in perfect condition. you can't beat it, so we bought it.

We couldn't decide whether to get the matching loveseat or chair & ottomon, so we didn't get either. we can always order them later. (they do have furniture stores in oklahoma I'm told.) but what we're thinking is that since we now have a red couch and a toupe-colored la-z-boy, we might get a large printed chair to tie it all in together. so be on the lookout for me. I'm really excited about buying grown-up things. at age 31, I figured it's about time.

Well, it figures that I would spend more time talking about a $300 couch than the much more expensive and important appraisal, but like zach (a kid in our youth group) would say, that's how I roll.

Reception & Jamaican Honeymoon

2009-08-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

This week on Kelly's tour is "Show us your Wedding Reception and Honeymoon." Easy.

So here we are leaving the wedding, just minutes after pledging our lives together, and heading off to the reception:

Yes, I held my dress up nearly halfway down the aisle. I forgot to let go after coming down those steps!

And here we are in the limo.

We were received at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in New Castle, PA. Otherwise known to us simply as, The Cathedral.

No, we are not masons, nor do we support their mission, but this building has been a fixture throughout my entire life. I've danced in many recitals there, attended many banquets there, been to shows, sales, concerts, and even quite a few other wedding receptions. When we were looking for our reception hall, this was one of the first places we looked. They have a HUGE ballroom, but with just 250-300 guests, we would have been lost, so we chose the more intimate, yet beautiful, crystal ball room. Even the name of it sounds lovely!

The room was so pretty by itself, it didn't need a lot of embellishing. It had hard wood floors, pillars, and crystal chandeliers. But we hired a professional decorator anyway. haha. The reception began around 6, so I wanted to go with a candlelight glow, so we had lots of candles and white twinkle lights.

I was super excited when I came up with the idea for our reception favors. Chocolate covered pretzels, sprinkled with lavender-colored jimmies, and a tag that read, "Bobby & Jennifer tie the knot, 3-15-03!" Get it? Tie the knot... pretzel... ?!?! Wish I had a picture to show you how cute they were.

After our grand entrance and the blessing, we had a delicious dinner of rigatoni, meatballs, chicken, potatoes, carved roast beef, salad, rolls, and I'm not sure what else.

For dessert we had cake (of course) - you can see a picture of it in my post from last week - and a humongous cookie table. Have you all heard of these cookie tables at receptions? They are all the rage up here in this part of the country. I've never been to a reception around here that didn't have one. I'm thinking about taking the tradition out to Oklahoma with me and spreading it around there. So where do all the cookies come from, you ask? Well, a couple months before the wedding, family members & friends contact the bride or MOB and ask what kind of cookies they would like them to make, they tell them and then they make several dozen of that kind. And pretty soon that adds up to about 100 dozen or so. Yummo!

This picture hardly does it justice.

While everyone was eating and mingling, our parents had assembled a little slideshow of pictures of Bobby and I through the years. I'm a sucker for those kinds of things.

We didn't have much for entertainment despite the fact that we had a DJ. Since Bobby's family doesn't really like too much dancing, we stuck to classy background music mostly. We did a couple of the regular dances like our first dance which was to, "When the Rain Comes" by Third Day (since they were the impetus for us meeting in the first place, we figured it was only appropriate) and the father-daughter dance.

But I think the highlight of the evening was when I threw the bouquet. We had about 6 single ladies come up for it, including my sweet great-grandmother Tillie.

She did not catch the bouquet, but darnit, she tried! haha. I love that lady.

This is our staged photo of us leaving the reception. :)

Oh boy, I spent all that time talking about the reception and I haven't even started on the honeymoon.

So I went to one of those bridal fairs/shows that everyone goes to, even though you never use any of the vendors there. You go for the free stuff, right? I do. After we made our rounds and collected bags full of junk, I stopped and filled out a little card for the raffle they were having. Then about two weeks later I got a call. Actually, no, they left it on my answering machine at my parents. When I listened to the message, my chin dropped to the floor and I cried. I won a 7-day, 6-night honeymoon (including airfare for 2) to the all-inclusive Grand Lido Negril Jamaica resort! I got to choose the dates (we left at 6 am the morning after our wedding, yikes!) and everything was reserved for us, it was amazing. The only thing we had to pay for was souvenirs and excursions (we weren't even allowed to tip!). We never could have afforded a honeymoon like this otherwise.

Our favorite parts of our honeymoon were the luxurious ocean-view room, 24-hour room service, the yummy food, the beautiful and warm ocean water, the absolutely perfect weather (so if you want to go to Jamaica, go in March), snorkeling, water-skiing, kayaking, shopping at the local markets, sunset cruise aboard the M/Y Zein (Princess Grace Kelly's honeymoon yacht), seeing rasta farmers, and our excursion to the Black River/YS Falls. And did I mention it was all free?!?!

Can you believe that I do not have a single photo on a computer of my honeymoon? Not one. I had to scan all of the wedding photos, but the album that my honeymoon pictures are in is packed away in a storage unit in Oklahoma. :-(

We were in Jamaica from Sunday evening (the day after our wedding) until the following Sunday morning. We arrived back in Pittsburgh LATE Sunday night, drove one hour to my parents' house, arrived around midnight, then stayed up until 2 am talking to them and opening all of our wedding presents. I hear about these people who have these big events, even brunches, when all of the friends & families come over to watch them open their gifts. Not us! I sat there in my pajamas and braids in my hair, in the middle of the night/early morning until I collapsed.

Then we had to get up early the next morning and drive far away, to a place called Oklahoma. (we lived there for 2 1/2 months, in Bobby's bachelor apartment, before heading off to seminary in St Louis.) It was such an emotional day for me. I just got back from the most wonderful vacation of my life with my new husband and then had to leave my hometown and parents for the first time ever in my LIFE (since college was a mere 30 minutes away). We all ran to Walmart that morning and when we picked up an atlas for our trip, I started bawling. In the Walmart checkout line. It was so bittersweet. I was excited to begin my life with Bobby, but I was struggling to leave my comfortable, happy, safe life with my parents. And now I have to do it all over again in THREE WEEKS!!! Why do we keep doing this?!??! Oh, because God is leading us there. That's right...

Packing

2009-08-02T20:20:00.000-05:00

We really haven't been up to too much, at least not anything that is really worthy of blog material. Most of our free time is spent packing and visiting. We enjoyed a great Mexican dinner Friday night with some folks from church. You know, since we won't get to eat much Mexican food once we move to Oklahoma. ha! Then over the weekend, Bobby's dad and sister drove up all the way from OK with a pickup truck and small trailer to take a bunch of stuff home with them. Well, not to their home, but to Norman. To a storage place, just 1/2 mile from our house. We sent all the non-essential stuff with them like Christmas decorations, winter clothes, books, camping stuff (like that gets used so much), etc. This way we can rent a smaller moving truck on our moving day and all of that stuff will be out of sight/out of the way when we move in at first. And since it's so close to our house, we can go get it a little at a time as we make room for it.

Speaking of our house, the appraisal is this week, I think. That should be one of the last steps in this home closing process. I hope, anyway.

We've also been spending a lot of time with the youth group kids. Sunday night youth group used to last 2 hours, lately it's been 3 or 4. Plus we've added extra gatherings during the week like pool parties, and bobby's golfing tomorrow with a couple of the boys. These kids have been our friends and family over these past two years. This move is going to be so bittersweet. I know, they all are...

My Wedding Party & Flowers

2009-07-30T08:45:00.043-05:00

You may be wondering why I'm posting about this right now since it's not March (our wedding/anniversary month) and it's been 6 1/2 years since this blessed event. Well, it's because I'm participating in Kelly's Show Us Your Life tour this week and the topic is wedding party & flowers.

First, a couple pictures of the bridal party. I picked this color of dresses for them because my dress had a few amethyst-colored beads & crystals in it, so I wanted to highlight them. Plus, it was March, so I went for happy spring theme. I was so thrilled when we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and all the guests put away the dark & dreary black winter clothes and showed up wearing happy springy colors. We all coordinated so well!

Just me and the girls outside of the chapel before the ceremony:

And then everyone after the ceremony, inside the chapel.

Now let me introduce you to my bridal party...

Maid of Honor: Jodi

Jodi and I met in the summer of 1995 while we were contestants in the Lawrence County Junior Miss Pagent. We went to different high schools, but really only lived about 15 minutes away from each other. She was just the sweetest person I had ever met, so loving, kind, and at the same time athletic, smart, and has the most beautiful singing voice. We bonded over our love of God, our desire to get married and have children one day, Pittsburgh sports teams, and picky eating habits. We went off to different colleges (both were private, Christian schools), but reunited after we graduated. God certainly placed this wonderful woman in my life for a lot of reasons because for years we were both single and longing for our husbands. Then I found mine, and while I know it probably wasn't easy for her, she supported me as my maid of honor, and even sang at our wedding. It was so lovely. Then we moved away for a few years, but occassionally when we came back to town, we would visit with her and her husband. (I was in her wedding too, of course - the picture is below - but thankfully she didn't ask me to sing. haha) Then we both started trying to have a baby at the same time (without planning, because that's just weird.) And within a couple months of each other, we both miscarried our first babies. Then we both went through a couple really hard years of infertility. Now she has finally been blessed with a beautiful daughter, Chellsie, who is about 3 weeks old today. It's amazing how God places certain people in your life and I'm so thankful for my friendship with Jodi!

Ok, wow, that was just one. Fortunately for you all I had a small bridal party!

Bridesmaids: Kristianne, Mindy, & Lauren.

First, Kristianne.

She and I have been in the same class since first grade, and was one of my best friends all through elementary & high school. We played together at nearly every recess and we were so creative with the games we played. We made up companies such as pool & hotel management and a travel agency. We had customers, tenants, logos, slogans, file cabinets, briefcases, etc. And that was all before 6th grade! Once we got to high school, we were cheerleaders and twirlers together, shopping buddies, and carpoolers. Her older brother picked me everyday for high school until he graduated and I started driving, then I drove everyday and picked Kristi up and took her home. We had some good times in my Honda CSV and Pontiac Sunbird convertible! Once we graduated from high school, we went to different colleges but they were nearby so we saw each other occassionally. After college, we hung out quite often even though she was really busy living in Pittsburgh and attending grad school. (she is the second smartest girl I've ever met, for the record.) We had started growing apart (not seeing each other as much) when I got engaged and I was afraid that she wouldn't want to be my bridesmaid, but I just couldn't imagine her not being in my wedding since we had planned this event together since we were in the second grade. I am NOT kidding, I still have all the papers & pictures. So I called and she was in. Yippee!

Second, Mindy.

Mindy is Bobby's only sister so it was no brainer that I wanted her in my wedding party. I really didn't know her very well when we got engaged since we "dated" long-distance, (in other words, I didn't spend 4+ hours a day on the phone with her like I did her brother) but I knew she was a sweet Godly woman and it meant a lot to Bobby have her there. I am so excited to announce that she is getting married in just a couple weeks after searching for her Mr Right for a long time. Their wedding is just 3 days after we move to oklahoma, oh my. I am not in her wedding party, but that's ok. I'm an old lady now. haha.

Last but not least, Lauren. I don't have a picture of Lauren from my wedding because she wasn't there. Yes, a bride's worse nightmare (well, one of them) - a bridesmaid doesn't come to the wedding. Lauren has some chronic health problems even though you'd never know it by looking at her, she is one of the most fit, athletic, healthy-looking people I know. But she has dealt with colitis and kidney stones for several years now and on the week of our wedding, she came down with a kidney stone infection that put her in the hospital in Virginia. It was a last minute deal and her dress was with her, so we couldn't just slap it on someone else (I didn't want to do that anyway.) So we just went with the flow - 3 girls and 4 guys. No biggie! I really didn't stress about it and Bobby was shocked. He feared the worst and thought I would have a major meltdown, but I didn't. How could I? I was still getting married to the man of my dreams in the most beautiful chapel in America. At that point I didn't care if nobody showed up. Ha!

But anyway, back to Lauren... she was my roommate for my junior and senior years in college and I lived with her & her family in northern Virginia the summer of '99 while I did my internship, so we were really close. She was just a riot, everyone enjoyed being around her in college, and she was a very giving person. My earliest memory of her was during her freshman year (she was one year behind me even though she is two years younger than me. Another super smart girl. and we share our birthday, we're both 11/11 girls!) - she was on the swim team and she always came to breakfast after practice with wet hair and walked around mingling with everyone while drinking coffee. I thought she was so cool! I'm so annoyed that we went to college before the age of digital cameras because I don't have any pictures of her and I on my computer to show you all the fun times we had. I guess you'll just have to trust me.

Here is a little (scanned) picture of us at her wedding.

And here's another one of me from her wedding holding the flowers that were the inspiration for my wedding (more about that later.) Hope you can see them.

To finish up this super long post (which was a great walk down memory lane for me) I'll conclude with my darling little (second) cousin who was my flower girl, Rachel. She was so pretty that day with her flower petal dress and her beautifully curled hair.

Oh shoot, I almost forgot to post my flowers! I had recently been in Lauren's wedding and wanted my flowers to look JUST like hers... the Martha Stewart style of bouquets, stemmed roses wrapped in satin. So I called her florist but they were going to be out of town during the week of my wedding. I was crushed. But fortunately I have a good friend from high school that her mom owns a flower shop! I called her and she was happy to do the job for me even though she specializes in silk flowers. So here is my bouquet, the girls' bouquets, and Rachel's flower girl basket. (our wedding chapel didn't allow you to throw petals.)

Ok, so I don't really have a close-up picture of my flowers, so you'll just have to look these ones. :-)

Oh, and I also had flowers on my cake.

Four more weeks

2009-07-27T09:45:00.022-05:00

Today, well, yesterday, officially marks the beginning of our last month here in Pennsylvania. I hate saying that, I do. Because I know the days will just fly by. And speaking of time flying by, I can't believe it has been a week since we left for the beach. That is crazy! I haven't even had time to enjoy the memories of the beach (let alone unpack) and it's been a week already. What is up with that?! (whoa, 90's flashback there.) But we did have a great time at Bethany Beach. I kept thinking that I wished it would have been one day longer, but then we had a little scuffle between a couple of the kids on the last day and that reminded me why we arranged the trip like we did. If only we had left a couple hours earlier, that never would have happened... oh well. Everyone survived.

We rented a 15 passenger van for the 11 of us and we were packed to the brim when we left the church at 7:30 am last Tuesday morning. I think the only thing we forgot to bring was my toiletries bag, which remained on my bathroom sink the entire week. I didn't let it get me down though because that meant I got to make a trip to Happy Harry's Drug Store to get some supplies.

Kinda creepy, huh?

We arrived around 3 pm (we made just a mere 4 stops on a 6 1/2 hour trip) and as quickly as we could, ran in to the house and dropped our stuff off in our rooms (everyone had to have the exact same rooms as last year), put on our beach clothes and ran to the ocean (just like last year.) Isn't it funny how traditions are formed and cemented after just one year? I guess that is a testimony to how successful last year's trip was. Dinner was at 6, followed by walking around the shops on the BB boardwalk, a little basketball, and once nightfall came, we hit the beach with metal detectors and fishing poles. Ocean fishing was not successful, the wind & waves were too much for us, and the only treasures we found in the sand were crabs. But everyone had fun.

The next day (wednesday, our only full day there) was beach day and the weather was perfect. Sunny and 83! We headed down with all of our gear immediately after breakfast, stayed until lunch, and then spent the entire afternoon there as well. Everyone swam in the 70 degree ocean for hours. Some kids rented bikes to ride around town for an hour, two girls got old-time photos taken (they were so cute!), we ate DB fries and snowcones, I continuously sprayed sunscreen on everyone, read a few magazines, and took a nap. It was great.

As you can see, the beach was pretty crowded, but we didn't mind. Here was our little plot for the day (the tan colored tent.)

That night we ate dinner at Phillip's - just like last year. ha! After dinner we went back to the boardwalk, laughed hysterically while one of our kids got the word LUSCIOUS "tattooed" on his forehead, then played some cards at the house while eating lots of sour patch kids and twizzlers.

Thursday was a bummer... we woke up hoping to go back to the beach for a couple hours, but it was raining, so we decided to just start packing up and cleaning after breakfast. We made one last trip to the boardwalk shops (a couple of the boys were so annoyed with this), then had lunch, celebrated two of the kids birthdays which were that day, and headed out.

Speaking of the boys, here is a great picture I took of all of them. You have to click on it to enlarge it so you can see all of their expressions. So funny!

Things that made this trip a huge success: taking five 18 year olds with us which included 2 eagle scouts, the beach/sun/ocean, several iPods which held thousands of songs for the ride home, a big, clean, air-conditioned van (unlike last year), and even though it was sad, knowing that this is our last big outing with all of these kids (some of them are going off to college anyway) so we really cherished every moment and made the best of it.

The entire group.

Now we have a lot of work ahead of us... packing, moving, settling everything here at work and home, and saying goodbyes. Ugh, I hate moving.