Yesterday was our staff Halloween party. The first year I worked at the church I showed up wearing a pretty basic costume. I was hugely surprised when I went to the party and saw the crazy costumes some of the staff wore. Just to name a few: Super Woman, pirate, 2 Elvis', and most memorably, a pimp (ahahaha). So after that I decided the FPC staff meant business. Last year I went as Marge Simpson--it was my first day back from our honeymoon so I was more brown than yellow but oh well.
This year I went as the USA gymnast, Nastia Liukin, complete with medals, bendi-clips, and of course, the scrunchie. I didn't know if anyone still sold scrunchies or if they'd been permanently banned from all stores. I was lucky, Wal-Mart is still selling 90's gear so I was set! Dr. Miller found out halfway through lunch that the 5 medals I was wearing were actually mine from the past 10 years. He made me stand up as he read each one to the entire staff. If there's anyone who was convinced I was the coolest person ever, they now stand corrected. I think they appreciated "3rd place Science Fair, Microbiology" the most.
One of my favorite costumes this year was my boss. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we started "First Church's Biggest Loser" competition a few months ago so he dressed up as a participant on day 1. I love it.
Jaclyn dressed up as Joe the Plumber... :)
Tonight we'll be handing candy out to the kiddos. We're expecting quite a few since we think we're one of two couples in the entire neighborhood who do not have children (I looked in the covenant and it appears having kids is not a requirement to live here--I was starting to wonder)!!
If you wouldn't mind, take a look to your right and check out the baby countdown. That's right folks, Baby B is due TODAY!! We're all keeping our fingers crossed that he/she makes his/her (damn the slashy!) grand entrance very, very soon! We can't wait!!
Something I forgot to mention in yesterday's post: I saw Miss Alanis Morissette in concert last night. Several girls went and we had a great time! When I found out several months ago that she was coming to Tulsa I asked Michael if he wanted to go. His face was priceless.
I was scared--very scared--that she would not play songs from her first cd, Jagged Little Pill (aka. one of the greatest cds ever, which also happened to be my very FIRST cd). She did not disappoint.
She was not normal. A little scary even. Actually, if you watch the first minute of this video I think it explains her better than I ever could. I was expecting cute girl in the front seat. Oh no. She was crazy girl in the back seat. I have no idea how she didn't have a massive headache from swinging her hair/head around so much. Very bizarre.
We had 7th row seats, which were perfect. I took some pictures with my phone but couldn't figure out how to zoom in. Oops.
There are moments in life you know you'll remember forever. Being in a room with 2000 other females (and about 50 males) singing "You Oughta Know" at the top of your lungs was definitely one of them for me.
I have tried not to make this blog very political and I plan on keeping it that way. However, I decided subliminal messages are ok. We’ll see how it goes. :)
Had a great weekend! Friday we did a whole lot of nothing-I LOVE that kind of day. Saturday morning I woke up bright and early, picked up Kaitlin and drove to Shelley’s wedding shower in OKC. We met a lot of her friends and had a great time. It almost made me want to have another wedding shower… almost. But then there was that moment during the shower while Shelley was opening gifts and no one was talking. All were staring straight at her and her unwrapping skills. Michael and I had nightmares about those moments. So awkward. Your hands suddenly forget how to remove bows or open boxes, and you try hard to say thanks without bragging about your own taste. “Oh my God I LOVE this—it’s so BEAUTIFUL!” (Translation: "Oh my God, I picked this out! It’s so much better than anything you could have picked out yourself!! Thank you for sticking to our registry!”)
After the shower we quickly drove back to Tulsa and changed clothes. I put on my Texas shirt and Kait put on her OSU shirt. Our husband/fiancé did the same and we sat down to watch a great game. I was a little torn. I’m a Texas fan because of Michael, but I do have a place in my heart for OSU due to a long-time bff and another bff’s fiancé. I was very happy that Texas won but sad for the Cowboys.
After the game Michael and I drove to the new BOK center to watch a hockey game. I think I laughed for two hours straight. As soon as we arrived I made a mad dash towards the $9 margarita tower of greatness. It was this giant plastic thing that held a large amount of frozen margarita. Michael opted for a beer. We found our seats next to some of his work friends and I was mesmerized. The teams had not been playing five minutes when the first fight broke out. Everyone around us jumped to their feet and started screaming. I looked at Michael and he just laughed. Where the heck was I? The fight broke up and the game resumed… until 4 minutes later when another fight broke out. Once again, the crowd stood up and started chanting. People next to the glass started pounding the crap out of it.
I wish I could say I never became one with the crowd. But I did. Ohhh I did. By the second period, I was the first one to my feet when I saw a fight begin. Isn’t that terrible? Maybe it was my competitive nature rearing its ugly head, or perhaps I was just cheering for the middle-aged man who was relieving pent-up aggression by pulling the other dude’s jersey over his head. It was one giant train wreck, and I loved every minute of it.
Since I’m on the topic of sports, I want to congratulate the #18 Golden Hurricane for winning again last night. We were a little concerned after the first half but they came back and have yet to break their winning streak. I’m so proud of our school! Too bad the announcer still called us “Tulsa University.” Unacceptable!
Last but not least, I am pretty sure Michael and I will be an aunt and uncle by the end of this week. We are so excited! I talked to Michelle yesterday and she sounded great. They have everything ready, bags packed, and are just waiting for Baby B to give them the signal. If timing works out perfectly, there is a chance I could drive up to Chicago with my parents to see the little guy/gal. If not, I’ll get a chance to hold him/her in a few short weeks. I’m just glad we’re going to find out if he/she is a boy/girl soon so I can stop using the ridiculous slashy mark (/). Highly overrated.
Hope you’re all ready for Halloween! God bless my husband who bought a massive bag of candy for the kids an entire week before Halloween. They will be lucky if we have any left by the time Friday rolls around!
So I promised a recap of our trip. If you don't care for the details, feel free to stop reading........ now.
Michael's parents came up for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary and also Michael's dad's birthday (October 19). We went to Polo Grill Saturday evening and had an amazing meal. During dinner we experienced a life-changing moment--Michael announced he is now a fan of red wine. I almost jumped out of my chair to hug him. Instead, we celebrated by going to a liquor store right after dinner and buying a bottle of the glorious substance. I've never been so proud.
Sunday morning we took off for Eureka Springs around 9:30. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive, complete with fall foliage and windy roads. As soon as we arrived we went to the Mud Street Cafe for lunch and then checked out downtown Eureka. I remember going there years ago when the peasant skirts and tops were in style and thinking I'd hit a gold mine. Little did I know it was a huge coincidence that they carried what was in fashion. Fast forward three years later--still an assortment of peasant skirts, tops, and an uninterested Merd. We did find a lot of neat things for the house that you can't find anywhere else.
We were able to check into our hotel (New Orleans Hotel and Spa) around 3 and it was beautiful! It was built in 1892 and completely re-done about 5 years ago. The room and the bathroom were both HUGE and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief (no one I'd talked to had heard of it--I was quite nervous but still wanted to give it a try). That evening we went to Ermilio's for dinner. It's a great Italian restaurant in an old home.
Monday was the big anniversary so I took Michael to Thorncrown Chapel in honor of the special day. It's a gorgeous glass chapel in the middle of the woods. Unfortunately for us, there was a geriatric convention going on inside. I peeked in, saw a ton of blue hairs, and felt resigned (not to be confused with "retired," which all of these people happened to be). Most of you know we memorized our vows for our wedding so we said them again to each other as we walked on the path towards our car. I changed "...in front of God and these witnesses" to "in front of God and no other witnesses." I definitely wasn't as nervous saying them this time around, but they were just as special. :)
On our way back to the hotel I saw a sign that said you could climb 100 feet for an incredible view. I pulled the car over and told Michael to wake up (small joke from last post). As we got near the tower, I noticed a small sign that said wasps were prevalent this time of year and if you didn't care for wasps you might want to reconsider. I remembered my experience with the bees and got a little nervous but decided it was time to conquer my fear. And then I looked up. They. Were. Everywhere. I've never seen so many wasps in my life. I would say there were 1,000 but I really think there were more than that. Needless to say, we got back in the car and drove away from the wasp wonderland.
We also visited the Crescent Hotel and it was there that things got a little weird. The first isn't so weird as it is neat--there was a beautiful bouquet of tulips (my favorite flower) and red/orange/yellow calla lilies (the flowers we carried at our wedding) at the front entrance. So that put a smile on my face. We turned the corner and saw a picture on the wall of the past hotel cat (poor little guy died a few years ago). I mumbled something about missing Thumbs and then heard Michael clear his throat. I turned around and saw the new hotel cat--an overweight calico! I immediately started petting the cat while saying, "I know you look like Thumbs but you don't have her (reaches for her paws)...." What!? She was a polydactyl cat too!! It was insane. I looked at Michael who was clearly not as impressed as I was, but we both thought it was neat.
Afterwards we did some more shopping and then had a glass of wine on our balcony and people-watched before dinner. Unfortunately for us, most of the crowd had already disappeared so we only had a few subjects to monitor. We had dinner at DeVito's and had a beautiful view of the trees. There were only a few other couples in the dining room with us. Most were whispering quietly but there was one elderly couple who obviously hadn't turned their hearing aids up and were yelling like they were 100 feet away from one another. We found out that they had known each other for 68 years and were best of friends. Just as I started to say, "Aww Michael, how sweet.." I overheard the old geezer say, "Well she wasn't very well-endowed... Not like the other strippers." I did everything I could not to burst out laughing. Way to go old man!! During the dinner Michael asked if I recognized his shirt. I smiled as I remembered it was the one he wore to dinner the last night of our honeymoon. I looked down at my shirt and sheepishly said, "Yea... mine is brand new." He smiled back and said, "Yes. I know." :)
We slept in on Tuesday, had a late breakfast and then drove back to the real world and our overweight daughter. Only one of the two we missed.
We're back from our trip to Eureka Springs!! We had such a great time and I'll write more about that in the next post. For this one, I came up with 12 things I've learned about Michael that I did NOT know before we were married (one for each month). He did the same for me. I thought it would be fun to read these in 20 years, but figured you might enjoy them as well. It's crazy--you think you know everything about someone--and then you get married! :)
He just typed up his list and I am not going to read it until I have pressed "publish post" (that way I can't change any of my answers)!
My list about Michael:
1. He tends to leave his size 12 shoes in the middle of the doorway or at least in a common walkway. I trip over them daily. And they are quite heavy so my foot always hurts afterwards.
2. He actually enjoys mowing the lawn--so much so that I think he was sad the one time I tried to be a good wife and mowed it for him.
3. He will yell and scream at the television while a game is going on even if there is no one else in the room.
4. He is the better parent to Thumbs.
5. He lets me feel sorry for myself but only for a certain amount of time. He has a huge amount of patience for me when I'm uber sensitive, which is more often than I care to admit.
6. He makes a mean Mexican fiesta. He's actually quite a good cook, but this is his specialty.
7. He talks about our future kids, plans for them, thinks about them... always with a smile on his face.
8. He can literally fall asleep in 1.2 seconds. In bed, in the car, on a couch, standing up...(harhar.) And he only needs about 5 hours of sleep each night.
9. He rarely uses butter, salt, etc. on anything. I get frustrated because most of his food could taste SO MUCH BETTER if he would add the delicious toppings. :)
10. He only knows the first seven words of any song. He'll start off so strong and then fades so fast. Lots of humming, made-up words, and "something somethings" throughout. That being said, he barely knows ANY songs from the 80's, which is pure torture to me. I blame his parents for the negligence! Regardless, he has a GREAT voice and I love it when he actually sings.
11. He always turns on our outside house lights at night, even if we're not expecting anyone. And if I run an errand, it is always on and waiting for me when I get back, even when it's not dark outside.
12. He's not perfect--but he's awful close.
Michael's list about me:
1. She is even more understanding and patient than I thought.
2. There is a mandatory period of between 15 minutes and 2 hours on which she must stew on something before she can admit it is bothering her.
3. She cares about her friends and family more than anyone I know and always keeps them and their interests in mind.
4. She definitely wants children. Whether they come in the next 6 months or 16 years still varies. Thumbs is great practice for now.
5. She secretly loves to watch football.
6. When making a purchase, she nearly always comes home with what she wanted. The decision to make that purchase requires 2 additional trips around the store, my opinion and reaffirmation of my opinion, and the phone a friend lifeline.
7. She is the best trip planner in history.
8. She will forget to unplug the camera after uploading pictures and allows the battery to die 75% of the time.
9. She could probably care less about most of the electronics and sports conversations I start, but she is always happy to listen and chime in.
10. She really enjoys decorating, and our house will look like a catalog by the time she is finished.
11. She’s the first person I’ve met that likes the Christmas season just as much as me.
12. She hates getting dressed after a shower, and will walk across the house and our many windows just to spite me.
13. She can cook a mean salmon. And she likes to pronounce it incorrectly, along with La Jolla and quesadilla, and pico de gallo.
14. We like all the same quotes from movies, and then can never remember them afterward.
15. DVR has moved into her list of top 5 favorite people.
16. Spiders don’t scare her, but my feet do.
17. She can read 3 times as fast as me.
18. She’s so much more than I expected, and that’s saying a lot.
(This is Meredith again--I have still not read them but I noticed he came up with 18. I'm a bad wife.)
Below is a video our photographers put together for us. I put it on youtube, which decreased the picture quality but it's still fun. The tune was our first dance--Jack Johnson's Better Together.
Can you guess which one of the two boys below is about to be a daddy? (Yes, one of them is actually me but I'm making fun of myself/haircut first so you don't have to...)
The good news is he's a mature adult now, so don't worry Michelle!
Juuuust kidding. :)
They are not due for another two weeks, however, I picked Monday to be the due date in their baby poll and I'm a very competitive person. That being said, I thought I'd go ahead and post this since I will be in Eureka Springs on Monday when the baby is born. :)
My mom drove up on Friday and brought a recently stained antique cedar chest. We've placed it at the end of our bed and it's so beautiful. It was my great grandmother's chest and is in fabulous condition. It used to be in my closet when I was younger--I would sit on it and considered it my "reading and writing nook." I could not believe this was the same chest! I looked at mom and said, "No, that one was much bigger!" And she kindly reminded me that no, I was just much smaller.
She also brought up old yearbooks, scrapbooks, pictures and.... the 37-day-trip-from-hell JOURNAL! I was able to read a few days and had some good laughs. I'm thinking about posting an entry or two for all of you to enjoy. It was definitely written by a typical 14-year-old girl with a lot on her mind.
Mom stayed the night and left early Saturday morning. I took Thumbs to the vet and it was not a good time for either of us. We had an appointment but ended up waiting in the "lobby" for 45 minutes. It must have been "Bring your big dog to the vet" day because there were massive dogs all around us and poor Thumbs spent the entire time hissing, growling (yes, apparently cats can do this), and shuddering. I was wearing a zip-up hoodie and she eventually stuck her entire little head in my jacket so she couldn't see anything. They called us back and we sat ANOTHER 30 minutes in the waiting room. Anywho, they finally came in, gave her the three shots required to board a cat (for when we go to Chicago over Thanksgiving) and I was able to take her home. She's getting better but the past two days she's barely eaten anything and gets a look of panic everytime I pick her up. Of course I'm reminded about THIS, so I am eyeballing her food consumption constantly. We made the decision yesterday that we are NOT going to board her. If two hours did this to her, imagine eight days! We think we have someone to come over and feed her a few times but if they can't we might be coming after YOU. Consider yourself warned. :)
Saturday night we helped host a wedding shower for Kait and Steve at Emily and Ryan's house. It was 1/4 shower, 3/4 OSU game (I wore boots with my dress). :) We had a great time and met a lot of fun people. I have never experienced a football game with such die-hard fans. Every time something good happened, it was high-fiving all over the place. I couldn't stop laughing!
Sunday we attended another wedding shower, this time for Carly and Zach (small group couple). They are getting married in less than three weeks!! Everyone was asked to bring something to eat so there was quite the assortment of food. A fun time indeed.
Michael has close this week so it'll be a few late nights for him. I plan on spending two full evenings cleaning the house (you know you're jealous). His parents are visiting this weekend and then we leave bright and early Sunday morning for Eureka Springs for several days!!! Gloooorious!
I took this picture of our tree today. Last year I was literally down on my knees praying that some of the trees would look like this on our wedding day. Apparently God had heard me claim green was my favorite color far too many times, as our reception view was very, VERY green. But lo and behold, we will celebrate our first anniversary with some beautiful foliage. I also wanted to point out our festive (and single) fall decoration--the three pumpkins. As you probably guessed, the two little ones represent Michael and I and the ginormous one is for good ol' Thumbs. Hehe. :)
Check it out--this is like the 84th post from me this week.
THIS one, however, is quite special. Any guesses? Ok, time's up. It is my 100th post--can you believe it? Those of you who have stuck with me from the very beginning (thanks, by the way) have endured 100 little pieces of my life--some good, others cheesy, and some downright ridiculous (Inspector Gadget, anyone?).
Unfortunately for YOU, I do not have insightful news to discuss for this celebratory entry, so you'll have to forgive me for what I do plan on discussing: junk mail.
I have no idea why but my work email gets THE most junk mail I have ever seen. And before you start snickering, I don't visit or subscribe to any inappropriate websites so knock if off. Actually, I think the entire staff gets bogged down with it. On an average day around 50 emails find their way to the junk pile. 50!! Each morning I quickly scan to make sure none ended up in the pile by mistake and then I delete them all. This morning I noticed the typical "Enjoyable steamy nights will come soon" or "Quality watches at 25% discount" emails before I ran across one that made me pause.
"Set your wife on fire."
What the hell!? I actually looked around my office to make sure no one saw this. What if the FBI (or whoever it is) took this moment on this day to read all of my personal emails and here I have Philip Edwards and his sick arsonist email glaring back at me. Who would ever want to murder their wife--especially by setting her on fire? And who would ever read the email to find out how to do it?
Well, my friends, the answer is me. My curiosity was at an all-time high and I wanted to know what this sicko had to suggest. As I read the email I learned that working at a church has turned me into one innocent little girl. The post was definitely not about setting your wife on fire in the literal sense but in other ways (nudge, nudge). I laughed out loud and then deleted the post (because the FBI doesn't really need to know about that stuff either).
So for any of you who were hoping to hear exactly HOW you can set your own wife on fire, my suggestion is to pick up the latest Cosmo magazine.
Ohhhh I have so much to write and so little desire to write it. Allow me to re-introduce my best friend, the bullet point: •
Cute little guy, eh?
• I did not have to go to work on Thursday. Instead, the entire staff spent the morning doing team -building exercises at Camp Loughridge. I was hoping for a tall ropes course but our feet never left the ground. I was definitely surprised by the day. I was expecting total ridiculousness but they actually did a very good job--I had a warm and fuzzy feeling when I left. Admittedly, that feeling was partially due to the fact that we did not have to go back to work and it was only 1p. Either way, good times. I work with some great people. :)
• Friday afternoon I met up with Julie! She came by to see our house and then we went shopping for a few hours while we waited for her friend to finish work. The three of us went to Tuccis for dinner and had a fun time catching up. Julie had decided to fly to Fort Smith for the weekend and was kind enough to drive to Tulsa for the day to visit her favorite Oklahomans.
• Drove to Kansas City early Saturday morning to visit Ryan and Ashley! Ashley was at a baby shower when we arrived so the three of us had lunch at a cute wine bar and headed to the Plaza. The boys split up from me and went to the nearest Sports Bar while I was able to shop guilt-free. Met up with them an hour later and ordered the fried twinkie out of protest. I found out Saturday as we were driving that the fair would be over by the time we got back. (No cheese on a stick this year? Are you kidding me?!) Ran into a friend from college and caught up with him--it was a great afternoon! We hung out at Ryan and Ashley's house for a bit, went to dinner and then out to the Power & Light District. It was awesome! Parked ourselves at a fun piano bar and enjoyed the rest of our evening.
• Sunday I had brunch with Summer on the Plaza. It was so great to see her--she wasn't able to come to Tulsa the weekend before so this more than made up for it!
• Sunday afternoon we went to the KC Wizards game before we drove home. I accidentally fell asleep twice during the game. Some might say I was sleepy.
• In 3 hours I will be visiting the doctor. I am dreading it. I think it's a kidney infection but I really have no idea. Going to the doctor apparently gives me anxiety attacks. I did not realize this until this morning when I got on the website from hell: WebMD. Diagnosed myself with four types of cancer (slight exaggeration). I started feeling sick/nauseous so I wandered off to my own personal sanctuary, which just so happens to be THE sanctuary. I was halfway there when my boss found me and asked what I was doing (I guess it did look a bit odd that I was walking towards a dark, uninhabited room). I suddenly got light-headed and had to sit down, all the while telling him I was completely fine (riiiight). Strangely enough he didn't believe me. I finally made it to the sanctuary and discovered four people working on the organ. They heard the door open and immediately started a conversation with me. ARGH! I mumbled a few words, found a hiding place and sat down. Did not move until my breathing steadied and my heart finally decided it did actually belong in my chest. Yes indeed, a fantastic way to start my week.
• It is October!! Normally I would bullet point all of the fabulous happenings that take place this month, but then this post would look eerily familiar to a high school Engligh outline so no thank you. I would like to point out, however, that this month is two of my friends birthdays, our one-year anniversary (WOW!), Oktoberfest, AND hopefully the birth of our niece/nephew. WOOHOO!
.jpg)
