Day 3 - the Jamaican Wedding...

My wakeup call came a little too early for me this morning! It is really hard to get out of bed when it is pitch black in the room!!!! I managed to get up, and clear the fuzz from my head before heading around the corner to Belinda's mom's room where they were attempting to clear the fuzz from their heads... I went to get Val and off we went to get some breakfast before starting on my hair. On the way back to my room we checked on Belinda. Her hair was started... whew... what a relief, it was going to take a while to get her hair all curled!!! I should have left well enough alone with my hair. It actually looked good straight, but alas... I thought it would be a good idea to curl it... as if humidity and strong winds would not knock the curl out in mere minutes!

We had been told that we needed to be down in the lounge at 10:45 precisely with EVERYTHING that we needed for the wedding. At 10:45 I was in the process of lacing up Belinda's dress, her mom was attempting to do something to her hair, and Val realized that she didn't have a second form of ID to get back on the ship. Oh yeah, the only way to get her second form of ID was to have RT's credit card to get into the safe. Where was RT you are probably asking yourself??? He was with Trevor and Jason in the lobby with Jason's parents... We got Belinda in an elevator with her mom and Val and I took off running to the other end of the ship since we realized that the elevator that we were on would not take us to where we needed. We tore down the hall at full speed (as fast as I could go in a long formal gown, flip flops, and both hands full of dress shoes) to try to make it to the lobby (on the 3rd floor, we were on the 2nd at this point) before Belinda and Marti (her mom) appeared. We made it in time to tell RT to go back to get Val's license when I realized that MY license was not in my camera bag where I had placed it! Apparently during our race down the hallway my license fell out!!!! So Trevor and Jason go retrace my steps to try to find my license. They came back without my license, but with my passport! So, now at 11:15 we are actually off for the wedding... until someone stops us as we were getting on the elevator with my license!!! They were awesome!!!

Here are some pics from the wedding:

Lacing Belinda up in her corset gown... Starting to think that a zipper would be easier and more time efficient... mental note for when I actually get married!

Me and Belinda before leaving the ship... this is while the guys were out searching for my license and retrieving Val's!

Isn't this just an amazing picture of the groom!?! And he says that I am the immature one!!!

Me after the wedding. It was a little windy, and a little humid! But it was B-E-A-U-TIFUL!

I took this picture all by myself... Not bad for an amature!!!

So after the wedding we drove back to the ship to take formal pictures with backdrops. These were some awesome pictures! I will post a few, but not all of them as I will have them in a photo album that I will send out...

Here is a picture of me and Trevor inside the ship with the backdrop. These are pics that we took ourselves, not the ones that the photographer took... :)



More details and pictures from Jamaica are to follow... as well as the story of driving in Jamaica! Congrats Jason and Belinda! It was a beautiful wedding and I was so honored to be apart of the ceremony!!! Even if I tried to keep the wedding ring!!!!

Days 1 & 2 - Out at sea headed to Jamaica

The first night on the ship was a fun one. The lifeboat drill was rather tedious and long... I had to agree with the comedian that if there was a real emergency it is guaranteed that there won't be four nice and pretty lines made on that deck! I somehow managed to not get any pictures of Trevor and me in our lifejackets... The funniest part of the lifeboat drill was when I started looking around and realized that all the other adults had a muster station label on the front right side of their lifejackets, and mine didn't... Mine said SMALL but neither of us noticed that it was a CHILDS lifejacket when we got them out of the closet in our room! At least the life jacket fit me and wasn't too big!!! We had a casual dinner in the dining room followed by a family centered comedian. JR McCollum puts on a good show- he is funny, both PG and "rated" R...

Day one of the cruise we were out to sea all day long! We actually slept in really late in the morning. It is amazing what having an inside stateroom will do for getting sleep at any time of the day or night! Those rooms are DARK!!!! We finally got up and managed to make it to breakfast before going out on the deck to watch the ice sculpture in action... other events during the day included the Hairy Chest competition, our first formal night, the first Las Vegas type show put on by the dancers/singers on the ship. There were tons of things to do on the ship today!!!

The ice sculptor at work...

The finished masterpiece!

Me and Trevor after our formal dinner. We were actually in the Toulouse Lautrec Lounge waiting for the show to begin. Isn't it cute how we matched! :)

Me after the show... I had to take one picture of myself... Thank God for self-timers on digital cameras!!!!

We went to the midnight comedy show tonight to listen to JR McCollum one more time. He wasn't too crude... Jason and Belinda said that he did some of the same material that he did last year when he was on the previous cruise...

Day two at sea wasn't as action packed as the first. We slept in a little, not as much as the day before. We did some more exploring on the ship... still in search of the mythical "topless" deck... We never found one... apparently not ALL ships have a topless deck. We took these pictures on the deck. As you can see it was quite windy outside! Check out the blue waters out at sea!!!


The show for the night was a tribute to Motown. Mr. Jerome Dabney was fun to watch. At the end of his show he brought out the legendary, Stevie Wonder!!! This is a picture of him on stage! I was trying to get a decent picture of him on stage singing, but this is the best that I could do without leaning over the ledge!

Since this is the night before the wedding, we decided to split up and have our own "bachelor/ette" parties on the ship! Apparently this was also the night that the ship had scheduled the Mardi Gras deck party... We (the girls) went into the Disco for a while to watch the "kids" (I will use that term loosely...) from Arkansas dance and pretend to NOT be drunk... We ordered pina coladas and strawberry daquiries in these cool tiki man coconut things... Here is a picture of all four of us on the deck before going back inside to go to bed.

It was REALLY windy on the deck... I promise that I am not pregnant!!! Like our TIKI MAN drink holders?

This is the picture that we had a guy take of us in the disco... his friend was not 21 and he said it was ok for him to be drunk and not 21 because it was Spring Break... ok... maybe in ARKANSAS...

Before the cruise

I must start out my series of blogs with the "pre-cruise" fun... Trevor went out of town with the guys on Friday for a "guys weekend" off the coast of Houston. I came home from work on Friday night to relax and finish up on my last minute packing before flying to Houston Saturday morning. The flight to Houston was rather uneventful to say the least. We took off, we landed, I read about 4 chapters in my book!

Once in Houston I spent an action packed afternoon and night with Bill and Liz. And ANYTIME spent with Bill and Liz is fun!!! We went to this neat furniture store called "The Dump" and then to the "world's largest" liquor store! It was really neat! The store had different cheeses and deli stuff, as well as products from all over the world. Not to mention tons of alcohol of every variety!!!

Sunday we got up to head to Galveston where I was to meet Trevor and get on the cruise ship. This didn't quite happen to our plan... there apparently was a wreck AND road construction on the causeway into Galveston from Houston, which is one of two ways ONTO the island by car... the OTHER way onto the island is on the OTHER side. Go figure! We sat in traffic and barely moved for almost 2 hours. During this time, I took some pictures of the cars in front of and behind us... as well as the cars exiting the highway by backing up (on the highway) and going down the steep incline to the onramp, then either making a sharp turn on the onramp or driving in reverse back to the service road!!! We finally made it to the ship, and before they stopped accepting people on board! That was quite a relief!!!! I wasn't too worried since Jason, Belinda, and Jason's parents were on the Carnival shuttle just a quarter of a mile ahead of me in the traffic!!!! At least we would all be left behind together!!!

The view of the ship from a few blocks away! Isn't it big! I was so excited to finally be close enough to see the ship!!! It was sorta a bummer that it was an overcast day as the pictures from the deck of the town are very murky feeling. You could almost feel the humidity seeping from the pictures.

Our room was on deck 1, otherwise known as, Riviera. The Carnival commercials lie about the "Carnival Comfort beds" that are so plush and comfortable... the beds are hard as rocks!!!! I LOVED the comforters and the pillows though!! I slept with at least 3 pillows and sometimes 4!!!! They were great!!!!

Back on DRY land...

We made it back from our exciting cruise in one piece! Although if I stand still too long I still feel like I am swaying with the ship!!!! There will be more blogs posted with pictures and stories from the cruise...

Things to look forward to:
- the Jamaican wedding pictures
- Grand Cayman - the pirate and Senor Frog pictures
- Scuba diving pictures
- Snorkeling pictures
- the story of the boat almost leaving without us in Cozumel...
- the formal night pictures

I am glad to be home, I like my bed... however, I do miss the pillows and comforter that was on our bed in our stateroom. Not to mention having someone else clean my room AND cook all my meals for me! Did I mention it was torture to have to look out at crystal blue water all the time and to have beautiful sun shining down on us???? Yeah right, torture... hahahahahah!

Come back for more pictures soon! I am working on uploading all of the pictures to a photo album which some people will be lucky enough to receive, other pictures will be on my myspace sight in a week or so!

Cute Kenzie sayings...

Here are some of the cute things that my littlest niece, McKenzie (age 6) said to me today on the phone:

T: Whatcha doing Princess?
K: tasting grapes
T: Which one you like the best?
K: The purple ones...
T: What about the red ones?
K: Ewww... they are sour...
T: Not all of them... just some...
K: I don't care... that one was...

No arguing with that point... if one is sour, then they are all sour...

A little bit later in the short lived conversation while at the grocery store...

T: What do you want the Easter Bunny to bring you in your Easter basket?
K: I dunno...
T: You don't know what you want to find in your Easter basket?
K: I don't know what he wants to bring me...
T: Oh... do you want Aunt Tracey to come home for Easter?
K: YES!!!!
T: Why?
K: Cause...
T: Cause why???
K: Cause I love you!!!

Ok... I was driving in Friday pre-5:00 traffic at this point, coming to a stop for the slow moving cars on the off-ramp from 820N to N 35W... I almost cried! That was sooo cute and sooo sweet!!!!

On the road again...

Well more like in the air again... then on a boat...

I am getting ready to fly to Houston tomorrow before heading to Galveston on Sunday for the cruise!!!

One of my close friends in Tulsa is getting married on the cruise, which is why I am going on a cruise in the middle of the school year! I think it is quite an honor to be asked to stand up as the "BEST GIRL" for my friend Jason at his wedding! To think, when I met him 9 years ago he swore he was never going to get married, let alone have kids... and yet, he is getting married and gaining two precious daughters!!!!

Hopefully this trip will be a blast!!! If it isn't... I'm gonna ask for a refund!!! :) Keep posted as I will be putting up pictures from the cruise after we get back in April!!!

Home sweet home

Home sweet home! I am very thrilled to be back home and sleeping in my own bed! I loved being in Germany, please don't misread what is written here... it is soooo green and pretty there with awesome winding roads and tons of incredibly tall trees and hills and mountains and narrow roads and fast driving... but there is something special about being at home... the monotany of everyday normal life...

Which is what I am attempting to recreate today, my first day back in the states! I am unpacking, putting away stuff, doing laundry and oh yeah, repacking for the trip that I will leaving for on Saturday...

I am going to try to get my pictures uploaded to my computer at some point today and hopefully I will get a photoalbum sent out to my family and friends within the week!!!

Thanks for all the prayers for a safe return!

some pictures from Germany

Here are a few pictures from my trip:

This is the base that Jeremy is assigned- we have been here a few times... to get gas, groceries... to just drive through!!!!

This is in Trier. This is a roman ruin... actually it is the Porta Nigra, one of the four city gates. It is the only one remaining. Kinda cool huh?

Once again in Trier- this is the Dom... or Trier Cathedral. It has been built in different segments from something like 1200 - 1500... for more information before I get home and make a kodak photo album go to www.trierer-dom.de I haven't found the ENGLISH option, so it is only in German. But it still has some cool pics!!! Also try this link: http://www.dominformation.de/internet-de/servlet/broker_uMen,ba460a2f-70d6-c7f0-eb30-bd8bc1d2b31b,ts.html It has a list of some of the different cathedrals in Trier. We also went to St. Paulus, St. Gangolf, and a few others that are not on this list.

Deutschland days 5 & 6

Gutentag!!!

Tuesday was an interesting day! After going on our little adventure to Essen and Koln (Cologne) on Monday and getting lost and detouring/touring the countryside, we slept in... really, really late... as in Jeremy got out of bed at noon and Teresa when he woke her up at 12:30! I woke up at 7:45 and read my book until almost 10:30 when I realized that no one else was going to wake up, I just went back to sleep myself! I figured if I couldn't beat them, I might as well rejoin them! I guess I needed my sleep... I have this natural tendency to wake up here every night about 1:15 or 1:30 and stay awake until about 2:00 am... then I sleep great until about 8! So anyhow, we left the house about 1:45 pm to go to this mysterious location... Jeremy wouldn't tell us where we were going. He wanted to take us to this castle in Malberg. But we got turned around in Kyllburg and visited an old catholic church, took some pictures then went back down the road, around the turn-about (again) and went a different direction! We finally made it to Grundsanierung Schloss Malberg (Malberg house). We were unable to tour the premises for reasons unknown, we didn't understand what the lady was saying from the wall and I honestly don't think she understood what we were asking of her! We did take some pictures of what we could see them we hiked over to this cemetery and up to the top of the hill that the cemetery is built in. After we finished with this adventure we stopped at this THAI restaurant to eat dinner. Yes, I ate Thai! I must say that I only agreed to eat there because Brian had already introduced me to some Americanized Thai food! I had some fried rice with chicken dinner. It was alright... I think that I like the noodles that Brian gets a little better, but I couldn't find what I wanted in the menu and it wasn't a buffet... Then finally we went into Trier to find this statue of a Roman on top of a hill. We drove up to the top and attempted to take some pictures of the nightlights of Trier. I did get a few pictures of the statue and the cross that is up there.

Wednesday (today) we slept in some... then got up and around... we went back to Trier to see the sights there. Trier has history dating back to the roman ages!!! Go to www.trier.de for more information! This town is incredibly awesome!!!! I could have spent several days in the roman part of the town just looking at the different sites and going through things! I bought some souvenirs for the girls, and managed to remember to buy something for me!

My picture count is now up to almost 200 pictures! When I arrived I had about 1250 pictures available on my memory card and now I am down to about 1000 pictures left!

Upcoming events: tomorrow we are planning on going into Luxembourg, a country that is smaller than the state of New York... there are a kazillion things to do in this country! Check out this website for some information about the country: www.ont.lu We are definitely going to be visiting the American cemetery where General Patton is buried... as well as touring some castles! YEAH!!!!!

Deutschland day 4

Well it is day four of our trip... we didn't do a whole lot today. We drove to a town north of here called ESSEN (north of Cologne or Koln) to go to a horse show... apparently this is a big deal horse show... and it is also in the states... We had quite the adventure getting home!!! It took us about 2 hours to get to Essen, and about 5 getting home! I was following the "directions" from the computer, just in reverse, only problem was that most of the signs that we saw going to the place were not the ones we were needing to see on teh way home... go figure... I did get us back to Cologne, I just managed to get us a little further to the east than we needed to be... when we stopped (cause I wasn't 100% sure where we were) we were almost to Bonn... which is between Cologne and Euskrich and to the east... We retraced our steps, went back to Cologne and tried again. We still missed the exit that we needed but that is alright we found another city on the map that we recognized and that got us home. THe problem with driving here in Germany is that the autobahns aren't labeled like our highways are in the states... Example to get to my house in Justin you would exit I-35W at exit 76 Argyle/Justin... not that way here... you have a sign with city names (which are long and hard to pronounce) with some random numbers either in a box, a circle, or in some other shape within a box that are supposed to mean something but they don't... you don't always exit the highway either when your directions say to exit...sometimes you just stay straight... yeah... it was an adventure.

I am hopeful that tomorrow we will actually do some sight seeing and get out of the house. I am DYING to see some of the castles and cathedrals and roman ruins that are in this area!!! Things that I can't see in the states!!!!

Can anyone believe that I have only taken like 6 pictures since I left my house on Thursday? Yeah... a few on the plane and one of a windmill in the sunset... shocking huh?

Deutschland days 1, 2, and 3

Gutentag! Greetings from Germany!

My friend's mom, Teresa, and I left DFW on Thursday afternoon to fly out to Luxembourg (it is a separate country, it is not part of Germany). The flight from DFW to Zurich, Switzerland was pretty boring... just cramped in a tiny space and trying to figure out how to sleep during the 10 hours we were going to be on the plane! Then in Zurich we almost missed our flight! We found our gate rather easily and went back up stairs to look around some more and decided to go back to our gate only to find out that our plane was boarding!!!! We gave our ticket to the lady, boarded a bus and drove out to the plane and left!!! This smaller plane was much MORE comfortbale than the bigger plane that we flew over on!!!! When we got to Luxembourg we realized that Teresa's checked luggage did not arrive with mine or with us! We were told that they would call when it arrived and they would bring it to us... uh huh!!! We went home, took brief naps, then went to Spangdahlem AF base to get some stuff. Mental note to everyone reading... always carry your passport with you, or at least two forms of picture ID when attempting to get on a military base!!! I finally found a second form of picture ID... my COstco card!!! When we got home we realized that the airline had called us... so I called back and was on hold for over 30 minutes when I finally hung up! I kept trying to call back but it was busy... go figure! Then I finally got through about 15 minutes from their closing time and was put on hold again for more than 20 minutes! We just decided that we would go get the luggage ourself on Saturday!

Saturday we all woke up around noon and drove into Luxembourg to retrieve the missing luggage... woohoo!!! Now we all have fresh clothes! We went onto Bitburg AF base today! The bases are neat little communities! We grilled steak and potatoes for dinner and watched a movie. From what I saw, "The Illusionist" is a good movie. I really should watch it again so that I can see the ending!

Sunday was another relaxing day. Most places in Germany are closed on Sunday so we hung out at the house then went to Bitburg again to buy a necklace for Teresa. On the way there we saw a cute old church... when we stopped to take pictures of it we saw these wooden signs that said something on them so we followed them down this muddy trail and saw what I think is a bathhouse and a little church/prayerhouse... I will have to have Jurgen translate for me and I will let you all know what we saw when I post the pictures!

Other than our few adventures so far, it has been good. Friday is was drizzly and cold!!!!! Nothing like the warm weather we have been enjoying in Texas!!! Yesterday and today were sunny and in the mid 50's! My allergies are going nuts since all the grass is blooming as well as the flowers and the cat in the house! :) Spooky (the cat) and I are friends though... I give him water from the b'dai (dunno how to spell it correctly...)

Keep checking back as I will try to post every day with our adventures in Germany!

March fun!

For most people, March is a fun month because of March Madness (need I say more) or because of spring break... For me... it is going to be fun because I will be doing a lot of travelin!!!

I will be leaving for a trip to Germany with Teresa, my best friend's mom to visit my best friend Jeremy! We will be flying out from DFW and going to Zurich, Switzerland then onto Luxembourg! We will be in Germany for 8 days!!! While in Germany we are going to be taking mini-excursions to different places in Germany to look at the old castles and cathedrals, back to Luxembourg for some sight seein there, and even to France to Paris and hopefully Normandy beach!!!

I come back and will be in the states for a week- just long enough to unpack all my stuff, upload all my pictures to my computer and burn a cd, do laundry and repack... I will be leaving on a cruise on the next Sunday... the cruise will take us to Jamaica, the Grand Caymans, and to Cozumel. My friends Jason and Belinda will be getting married in Jamaica while we are on the cruise! This trip should be a lot of fun! I have never been on a cruise before!!!!!

Keep checking back to see updates from my travels!!! I will try to post pictures from Germany as I can... and the cruise, well you will have to wait until I get back to see those pictures!!! Of course, you know that I will probably send you photo albums online to view all of my pictures!!!

Birthday Flowers

These are the beautiful flowers that were delivered to my school on my birthday! Goes to show that... guys are trainable!!!! :)

Then again it is hard to miss the hints that I left... work address placed in the Entertainment book where the flower coupons started...

I am thinking that the giver of the flowers is a pretty smart guy! Then again... maybe he is just trying to make up for never sending me flowers before and sending his sister flowers in years past!!!!

This one is for IDA

This one is for a very special Tulsa Police Officer... one whom we hold dear to our hearts... We love you very much and pray for your safety every night!

Kenzie said that she liked this shirt better than her fireman shirt...

We missed you at skating. Kenz was even skating all by herself! And even trying to skate backwards on the carpet! You and Jennie should come out instead of going to the city!!!

Happy early birthday to you!!! I have something for you when I come home in April! :)

Birthday in T-Town- pt 1 (skating)

So for my birthday weekend, Brian so sweetly set up a game night at his house with some of our friends. We played the kids version of 20 Questions, which was funny since none of us are between 7 and 12... then we moved on to more mature games, like TulsaOpoly... I chose to be banker/real estate agent since I had taken Nyquil and knew I wouldn't be able to focus very well with all the coughing I have been doing as of late... So TulsaOpoly turned out to be a riot! We had so much fun! As a non-player, I ended up having almost $2000 and one piece of property! The night was a blast, even if the ratio of girls to guys was 1:7... and none of the other girls showed up... their loss!!!

Saturday it was his idea to take my nieces skating... I invited my Ana Rae and Blake to join us along with some of my other friends from Tulsa, he also invited some friends to join us. Unfortunately, Ana was unable to join since she has been sick... :( Maybe next time I can get her and the cousins together!!!!
Look at Kenzie skating all by herself, with no help!!! She actually did a good job of skating all by herself on the carpet and even tried on the rink!!! I am so proud of her! This was only her third time to go skating!!!
Look at Syrina go! She skated on her own the whole we were there... she is too big to hold her Aunt Tracey's hand!!!
Kenzie loves Davie!!! Today she had to share him with his girlfriend Brandi! But there wasn't too much competition there, Kenzie stole Davie's heart long before Brandi entered the scene!!!!
Me and Syrina sitting while they were doing something on the rink... I love my girls!
Kenzie joined us only after I fell!! Go figure...

See the next blog for the station pictures!

Birthday fun in T-Town pt. 2 (station)

So the other day while I was out shopping with Jen, I found these shirts that said "I (HEART) FIREMEN" on them... so being intrigued I looked and much to my surprise, they had tiny sizes in them! Perfect for the girls!!! So being the good aunt that I am, I had to buy them for my nieces!!! Why you might be asking???? Well cause we love the firemen that are in our lives!!! Here are the girls at my parents house before our festivities!
Here we are at the fire station with our FAVORITE fireman of all time, PAPA!!
Even puppy got into the picture action!!!!! He is hanging out on the siren on front of the ladder truck!
Here Kenz and Syrina are posing with puppy on the front of the ladder truck. We like taking pictures at the fire station!!!
Here I finally get my picture with the little princess!!! I love my nieces soooo much!!!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my birthday weekend! Brian did such a wonderful job of planning fun activities for me while I was home! Unfortunately he only got to participate in some of the activities that he planned... see previous blog...

100th Day

For those of you that have children that are school age, you know that the 100th day of school is a big day to celebrate... I don't remember us having any big party or lessons that revolved around the 100th day of school, but alright... As a teacher, we usually worry about getting what our students bring to school in terms of illnesses... I am very proud to say that I managed to make it to the 100th day of school BEFORE I came down with whatever CRUD that my students brought with them to school! So I called Trevor to have him come pick me up from work (I car-pooled that day and didn't drive) only to have him tell me to "suck it up" and "unless you are throwing up, I'm not leaving work..." Gee thanks! Friends like him who needs an enemy right!?!

Well I stayed home on Friday (the 101st day of school) to rest. What a big day Friday turned out to be! I received a phone call from St. Francis Medical Center about a job opening they have in one of their inpatient rehab units and was able to set up an interview for next Saturday morning while I am home!! Then not even an hour later I had another phone call from Hillcrest Medical Center about a job opening they have in their LTAC unit!!!! I set up a phone conference with them so that I can talk with a few of their SLP's on Monday and then if that goes well I will more than likely have an interview with them on Sunday before I drive back to Texas!!! Then I talked with one of the SLPs in the central office for SoonerStart and she gave me the contact information for the lead clinician for the Tulsa County office... I have an email in to her as well!

For those of you that are confused about me looking for jobs in the Tulsa area... I have been doing some serious thinking and praying about moving home, for good... I know that I love my job (most days) here in Texas and I love my friends that I have made here... but there are so many wonderful things that I am missing out on in Tulsa. Like Kenzie's t-ball games, AnaRae's recitals, meeting lil' Miss Maggie Rae... watching my "girls" grow up in general! Please continue to keep me in my prayers as I continue to look for jobs and housing in the area as well as makin the transition. Leaving my friends and Trevor behind here in Texas will not be easy for me... but time will only tell what my future holds.

Photo Fun

The other night one of my good friends here in Texas and I went to have some pictures taken... we thought of having GlamourShots taken, but then decided to go with a different studio. Our requirements for the pictures were to be fun, flirty, and cute. My first set of pictures were the cowboy hat pictures. I figured that Trevor would love these pictures, only to find out that he (like myself) didn't like the fact that I had a black backdrop with a black shirt. But the pictures look good! We had a lot of fun that night, and hopefully the girls at the studio had fun as well!!!
This is one of my favorite pictures. Kinda reminds me of senior pictures! :)
This is me and Jen. We had pictures taken individually as well as together. We both liked this picture... this is how we usually are when we are together, heads together with smiles that make the guys wonder what we are planning next!!!!

ICE world

Well the meteorologists were right when they said we were going to get ice... and lots of it... ANY OTHER TIME when they predict a "wintery mix" nothing happens... I was banking on that when I drove to Tulsa Thursday night to spend a long weekend with family and friends. A long weekend it turned out to be... I didn't leave Broken Arrow...
Here Brian is posing by my car... showing how excited he is about the ice... that means I get to stay a little longer!!!
This is the ice on my back window after we chipped some off... it was at least an inch thick on the back window!!
The front of my car... the ice was at least 4 inches thick! In order to get through it all Brian used the back side of a hammer to chisel his way to the bottom of the ice, then I was able to use my ice scraper in conjunction with the defroster to find my window! You are probably asking yourself why we didn't put my car in the garage on Friday when it started to sleet and drizzle... answer to your question... we dunno... we didn't think about it! Now my baby is warming up in the garage... there is still ice on the top of the car, but it is much better than it was!!!!

Starting 2007 like I ended 2006...

Everyone sends out holiday cards that somewhere in them say, "May your New Year be filled with love and happiness..." or something to that line... well my 2007 is starting out to be a repeat of the end of 2006. My mom called me tonight to tell me that her dad had passed away. I had already been prepped for this earlier in the week when he went into the hospital for severe abdominal pains... and when he left the hospital they gave him 3 months to live... that was on Friday afternoon... I don't think that we ever got the official results of the biopsy that they did on him.

Right now I am feeling very numb. I am still reeling from the loss of my grandma in October and sorting through those feelings, now I have lost yet another grandparent. For those of you that know me really well know how I have felt toward my paternal grandfather... you know that it is because of his alcoholism that I wasn't allowed to have much of a relationship with him or my grandmother... it is because of his abusive behavior that my mom did not have a relationship with him... I grew up hating this man for what he did to my family... yet I still loved him so innocently. Why you may ask? Because he was my grandpa. In my eyes, even though I knew the things that he did and had done, he was still my grandpa and I still loved him.

I am very glad that I was able to go to dinner with him and my grandma Christmas Eve. He was relatively happy that day. I will always have that memory with me.

Please pray for my mom, her sister, and my grandma during this time. My mom is doing alright, as is my grandma... my aunt on the other hand has a lot of things to deal with as she didn't know her father very well and once she had the chance to get to know him, she didn't really take the opportunity to do so. She was just in Tulsa a few weeks ago and she didn't even call him...

Thank you for your prayers. I will hopefully be back in Tulsa this weekend to be with my parents. I am hopeful that my grandma will move in with my parents so that we don't have to worry about her living by herself in that neighborhood.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hello family and friends! I was attempting to do a "year in review" blog but had too many pictures and got too fed up with the upload process... I have yet to upgrade to the new and improved blogger... maybe I will do that soon!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday season. I had a great time with my family- good thing too since I probably won't be back in Tulsa for a while...

Here is a picture from my stay in Tulsa, this is my good friend Brian... :)

We had a good time at Rhema... it was a little chilly... but we survived!

For those of you that had read the previous posting and were actually concerned about my "missing friend" - fear no more... he wasn't really missing, just working way too hard... We saw him on Kenzie's 6th birthday!

Fun times in T-Town

NOTE: Pictures are not necessarily in the order in which I uploaded them... maybe some of my "high-tech" friends in Tulsa can help me with this problem of mine when I go home... (hint hint Annie...)

So we had a lot of fun baking goodies the night before Thanksgiving. Here is a picture of Syrina helping to clean out the pan that the fudge was in... she somewhat looks guilty!

McKenzie was the official fudgemaker and boy did she do a GREAT job!!!! She measured and poured the ingredients into the pan, and even managed to stir the concoction from the start until there was only 4 minutes left to boil! Then after that, she wanted to stir it all together with the chocolate chips and marshmallows... she had some difficulties stirring on the countertop so we moved the bowl to the floor as seen here...

Here McKenzie is riding a horse for her very first time! I offered to ride double with her, but she did not want any part of that idea!!! She is definitely a cowgirl! Now if only we could convince her papa that she REALLY NEEDS a horse out at his house!!!!

AnaRae and Kenzie Ann FINALLY got to play together after asking to play for the last two months!!! These two girls are like two peas in a pod! It is so funny to watch them together- Kenzie is usually quiet and reserved and Ana is often a little bossy... but Kenzie will stand up to Ana and tell her NO and Ana will (most of the time) compromise!

Finally, Syrina and Kenzie eating the little remanents of fudge that were left in the pan.

Just remember... I'll be home for Christmas... You can count on me... I can't wait to see my girls (all of them!!!!) and even the random boys in my life that are in T-Town... I just hope that I can manage to find the time to see all the cousins- there is a new baby in the family that I haven't met yet!!!

Holiday season

Well I survived the Thanksgiving break at home with my parents, barely... we had a good week until my uncle decided to be a big meanie and not let me have the scrapbook I made of my grandma for her birthday last year... long story...

Anyway... was incredibly busy all week so I didn't get to do any of the fun things that I wanted to do like drive out to SS to see the M parents... and possibly their kids! I did get to see my nieces for the entire week and have a lot of quality time with them!

My princess Kenzie lost her THIRD tooth on Tuesday before Thanksgiving... she already has two teeth growing back!!! Then we went out to Claremore to ride horses with "my other mom". This was the first time for either of my nieces to ride a horse! I will upload pictures later.

I wanted to remind everyone how blessed I feel to have each of you in my life in some shape or form. I know that we may not always be together, but when we are, it seems like we have never been apart! You are the greatest friends I could have ever asked for!!!!

Well I am off to dinner! Woohoo!!!! I miss you all and hope to see all my BTW buddies in December!

Advice needed from friends

Ok, here's the deal... I need some advice... (sorry guys if this seems to be along the lines of guy bashing...)

I have this "friend" in Tulsa that I went to college with... he is really sweet, nice, kind, caring, blah blah blah... we became reacquanted when we started graduate school... we started talking, then enters Trevor... we still talked since Trevor and I were not an item... after Trevor moves, this "friend" and I decide that we might date... then he starts dating his ex, again... well Trevor and I become an item after a while.

So this "friend" and I have stayed really good friends throughout our graduate school career. We talked on the computer, texted back and forth, emailed... talked when we could, hung out. I should mention at this point, that this "friend" and I always flirted, innocently knowing that nothing would come of it since I was in Texas. This summer, this "friend" and I actually had a chance to sit down and talk about what we thought about everything. We both agreed that we liked each other and that it was a shame that we never got a chance to see if things would go anywhere, he knew what was going on between me and Trevor, and I knew where he stood with his issues about his ex.

One would think that since Trevor and I "broke" up that this guy would be interested in talking to me... but instead he has avoided me... I don't understand! WHY is it that guys do this to us girls? Flirt like crazy when we are in a relationship, tell us that they like us, then when we are single, they start dating someone else????

The funniest part of this whole scenario is that I knew that he was dating someone by the way that he was treating me, yet he wouldn't admit it to me! That is until the other night when he actually replied to one of my messages... My problem is that although I still care about Trevor and would like for us to get back together, I have always wondered what would have happened if this "friend" and I dated. I thought that I might have that chance to date this guy and figure out that mystery once and for all, but apparently he has some other intentions in mind. I hate how guys say that we play mind games, when their mind games hurt so much more and are more frequent.

Wanna know a cure for a broken heart?

I understand that ice cream can cure a broken heart... at least that is the impression that I got from TPD's HOTTEST this weekend when I saw him for dinner... (yeah, I finally managed to rope him down long enough to actually eat dinner with me and NOT stand me up... don't be jealous R,Q, & B's M&D) so... back to my story... this incredibly funny (and hot) TPD officer/friend of mine has a deep crush on my littlest niece... what's not to love? She is precious, has gorgeous, long blonde hair, the deepest blue eyes and an adorable toothless smile!!!! So this week, said TPD officer/friend wanted to see my little princess...so I mention to my princess that the TPD officer/friend wanted to talk to her on the phone, and asked her if he called if she would talk to him. Being that she was in a chipper mood, she agreed that she would talk to him and not play bashful... then I asked her if he met her and Papa somewhere if she would talk to him and take a picture with him... the response of my totally smart 5 1/2 year old niece... "Well he's gotta show up first..." -- All I can say is "WOW!" I take it that this TPD officer has stood her up on a few dates as well!!!! (Love ya IDA...) So the plans were made for my princess to meet up with the hot TPD officer on Sunday for ice cream. Boy was Mr. Officer excited about the date!!!! (I will have to publish the pictures...) Poor thing, worked all night (probably talked to his real girlfriend on the phone when he wasn't working) then set his alarm just so he could get up to meet my princess when she decided that she didn't want to go meet him. (can anyone say, "touche")... But she agreed to have breakfast with him the next morning...

Fast forward now to this morning... I am sure that the thought of getting to see my princess is what kept Mr. Officer going all night long... (wink wink) He gets to Braum's to meet my dad and my princess this morning and what does she do??? She plays shy and bashful... I think it is because he was in uniform, but what do I know about my niece? Apparently she did flirt with him a little and flash a few irresistable smiles his way while he ate breakfast. Once dad put my girl in her car seat in the truck she looks over and says to my dad, "Papa... look there's a cop in Braum's..." My dad in turn says, "No princess that is your friend... who happens to be a cop..." And my princess says back, "No Papa, he isn't a cop, that is a cop..." (pointing at his car...)

So basically... poor TPD officer/friend (aka Mr. Officer since we are operating on anynominity here) is no longer a police officer in her eyes... especially since he hasn't been on COPS... you gotta be on COPS to be a REAL police officer...

So Mr. Officer/friend, my question to you is this: did the ice cream help to cure your broken heart after being stood up by the 5 year old???

I hope that everyone knows that I love Mr. Officer/friend very much and I am very proud to know that he is doing an awesome job of keeping Tulsa's streets safe! (Even if he is lucky that there isn't a height and weight limit to be on the job and sometimes he might resemble Barney Fife in full uniform...) And make sure that if you are ever in a gunfight with said TPD officer to surrender if he has his pistol out, you don't have a chance... but if he grabs his shotgun... ah... don't worry... :) (love you my dear!!!!!)

Memories of Grandma

As you can see, my grandma was a big supporter of my education. She was just as proud of me on my (last) graduation day as my parents!

Yesterday I decided that I was going to make chicken noodle soup... so while at the store, I thought do I have everything I need... automatically, I picked up my phone and started to choose MaAlan out of my phone book to call... wait, can't do that... so I called my momma instead, who was at MaAlan's house. So today, I am making homemade chicken noodle soup using the same recipe that my grandma taught me and praying that it turns out as good as her soup! There are a lot of things that my grandma had left to teach me. One of those things was how to fry chicken. My grandma made the BEST fried chicken around! As a child, we woul dhave fried chicken and mashed potatoes with her special green beans for dinner every Saturday night. Boy was that good! I have tried to fry chicken, once... I think during the cooking process I called my grandma at least 4 times to make sure I was doing everything correctly!

Something else that I didn't get to fully learn from my grandma: how to get stains out of clothing. That woman could get ANY stain out of clothes, regardless if it had set in or been washed/dried already! She was a pro at getting the stains out and before we were allowed to pick up the item, she woudl wash it and have it ironed and hanging in the dining room waiting for us.

I have a lot left to learn, and I was counting on my grandma to teach me a lot of stuff. I guess I am on my own now to figure out the perfect recipe for fried chicken, and how to make real gravy (from scratch)... at least I learned how to make her scotcharoos!!!!

In memory of Grandma Alan

I wanted to take a moment to remember my precious and dear Grandma Alan. She was a very wonderful and special lady in my life. I valued all of the time that I was blessed to have with her. She not only was my grandma, she was my friend, a confident, my ally, and my partner in crime... we could spend the afternoon out shopping or at home sewing and have a good time. She passed away peacefully in her sleep the night of Oct. 5, 2006 and was found Friday Oct. 6. I rushed home to be with my family that evening after getting the news.

This week was definitely a long week for me and my family, but we muddled through each day with a smile on our faces. I know that my grandma is in heaven looking down on me and smiling each day of my life. I am sad that she is no longer here with me to talk to in the evenings, go shopping with when I am home, to discuss the newest Nora Roberts books, to help me finish my quilts... but she is in heaven with her other family and friends and I am sure that she is busy sewing, and ironing and babysitting already!

Please continue to keep my family in your prayers. Thanks so much.

I will SURVIVE...

No wait... that isn't the appropriate song for me... hmmm... For all of you that are wondering if I am being honest about how I have been affected by the breakup of mine and Trevor's relationship, please know that I am being as honest as I can be when I say that I am fine. We have been having some issues for a while now and unfortunately it had to come to this. I saw what was happening thanks to the wonderful counseling by one of Tulsa's hottest and finest police officers, as well as some other close friends. It was just a matter of time before Trevor realized and actually admitted to himself what was going on. Once that happened, we had a wonderful conversation, and have moved on. We are still roomates, getting along as roomates should. We sorta date, as we still go out with some of our mutual friends that are couples and we hang out with some of the same people. (Kinda hard not to hang out with the same people when we have been together for 4 years...)

On a different note... I am branching out... trying out the dating scene... have met some interesting people... not interested in falling in love or anything serious by any means... just hanging out, having fun, and being friends. So I am sorta dating a (soon to be former) Marine who is a little younger than me, but is really nice and really sweet. Please note the SORTA... we are mainly hanging out, having fun and being friends... just going out on dates in between all that!

As far as other potential suitors are involved... if any of you know of a specific Pi Kappa Alpha alumni member from TU that still lives in Tulsa... is something like 6'6" with an athletic body to go with the height... and drop dead gorgeous BLUE eyes that will make your knees buckle... who works for what used to be Hope Lumber, but was bought out... let him know that I would love to go on that date that we never got to go on 5 years ago...

Interesting Month...

September has been a very interesting month... indeed... interesting is a good adjective...

The month starts with my lunch with Bryan and Audra (whom I adore) and their beautiful daughter Hope (pictured on my blog...) in which after our lunch I am asked the very direct question of, "How long are you going to go on like this..." or something to that effect, referring to the limbo that my relationship with Trevor... I answered them with I wanted to talk to him and blah blah blah... they were starting to sound like my dear friend, the hot TPD officer... hmmm... think that there might be a chance that they had talked with him...

Well, Trevor's birthday rolls around... we have dinner when he got home from work... we go to bed and we are laughing and talking (kinda a shock since we haven't had that much fun in a while) when he brings up that we needed to talk but that he doesn't want to ruin my night... hmmm... wonder what the topic is... so we talk, have a NICE, LONG, open, and honest talk about our relationship... we mutually decide that it isn't working and that there were things that we should have done a long time ago to repair a lot of different things, but didn't do and that we were better off taking a break... ruin my night, I don't think so! I was very much relieved!!!! I am currently still living in the house with Trevor, as roomates, and we are enjoying being friends and hanging out. I couldn't ask for a better situation!

For those of you who are questioning my decision to stay in the house... have a little faith in me and my decisions. I know that it isn't something that you would probably do... however, this is what I THINK is best for MY LIFE right now and when I FEEL like it is time to move out on my own I WILL do so... Right now is just not the time...

On other notes... I have started teaching after school for this program called 21st Century... boy is it not easy dealing with 14 Kndg-2nd graders!!!! THANK GOD I only have them for 2 hours a week!!!! I have been told that I am about as strict as a drill seargent in the military, but with these kids, you gotta be strict! I am enjoying myself getting to actually teach and not just work on speech sounds!

Some happy things in my life... My best friend Valerie became an aunt again the other day when her precious nephew, Matthew Kristopher was born in Tulsa... and my favorite adopted family grew by one when Maggie Rae Sutton was born! I bet that Hallie and Lauren are proud big sisters!!!!

Did I mention that the other night I went to a party with Trevor and ended up giving out my phone number to a guy... and going on a pseudo date with him last night???? hahahahahahah! Well, believe it... I did!!!!

We will NEVER forget... how could we?

How could we forget what happened that horrible day in NYC 5 years ago when all last week was on TV was a buildup of today's memorial... and all that has been on TV today and probably the rest of the week is more documentary styled reports on the reports and etc!

The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers was a horrible, horrible thing. But at some point, we have got to move on from this terrible day and start our lives over. I feel so bad for the families that lost loved ones in those buildings and airplanes this time of the year. I know I get sad whenever the anniversary of the passing of my grandfather comes around, and it isn't televised on the news for 14 days!!!!

This morning hit me though... might have been that I went to bed at 11 pm, woke up at 2:45 unable to breath out of my nose... 3:15 finds me wandering through my house in search of Tylenol for the sinus headache I had acquired while attempting to sleep, 3:30ish finds me rummaging through my "medicine bag" under my sink looking for something, anything that would help my nose... 4:15 finally finds me sorta sleeping again... until 5:40 when the alarm went off. SNOOZE... 11 minutes later, alarm is telling me to get out of bed... I get up, find my way into my bathroom, shut the door, turn on the light, look at myself, turn the light back off, walk back to my bed and reset the alarm for 6:20... I looked about how I felt today... which was fine with me!

So my feeling horrible might have helped with my really sad feelings that I had as I left my house to drive to Jonathan and Amanda's to go to work. The last thing I saw on the news was the fireman's memorial. That got me... my first thought was, that could be my dad... knowing that in the months that followed 09/11 my father endured many an hour of intense search and rescue in high-rise buildings in downtown Tulsa, my father who at the time was on the hazardous materials squad responded to multiple anthrax reports, my dad who is currently finishing FEMA training for heavy search and rescue... that hits me everytime.

But then I think... what about 04/19... does anyone remember what happened on 04/19/1995???? (If you are trying to think of what happened that day, then the answer is NO!) We will never forget those lives that were lost on OKC on that day, just like we will never forget the lives that were lost in NYC on 09/11, or the lives that have been lost in the days following over in Iraq and Afghanistan in the war... but somehow, we have to put the pieces of our broken hearts together the best we can and move on. To remember those people, to honor them in all that we do, and to not dwell on our losses. It seems to me, that by our dwelling on the losses of that day, we are giving the terrorists the attention that they were craving 5 years ago...

Amanda wrote in her blog about how she remembered her day 5 years ago. I remember that morning all to well... and the remainder of that week. I had my first "real" car accident on 09/09 with my best friend/roomate... we spent that night in the ER and got home in the wee hours of the morning. After sleeping off painkillers we both woke up on 09/11 to news reports of airplanes flying into a building. I was still groggy and wasn't putting two and two together... I stumbled into my bathroom thinking that I was seeing things. Then I went off to class, to find that class had been cancelled and most of our campus was shut down. Ok, fine with me, more sleep... then on 09/13 I get a frantic phone call from one of my closet friends telling me that he loved me and how much our friendship meant to him. He was calling me cause he was on 24 hour notice to ship out. I was devastated. Much to my relief he was not shipped out until Feb 13, 2003. But that week was very odd for me. One, we didn't have any airplanes flying overhead so the skies were eerily quiet... except for the occassional blast of a F-16 from the airport... Two, I was a GA/Graduate teacher of our ESL class, mainly filled with students from the middle east. We were very uncomfortable with how things were going to be in that class for the remainder of the year, here people were accusing anyone that wasn't an "american" of being a part of the terrorism plot...

We should take a moment to remember those lives and those brave people that responded to the call of duty on that fateful day, we should pause and remember those soldiers who risk their lives every morning when they wake up in another country on the other side of the world, all to protect us from the "bad guys"...

Say a little prayer... remember those people... but don't dwell on the past... move forward... That's my advice