Here Lately...

Wow!!! Is it really February 15th?! I apologize to all 9 of my followers (haha) for not updating this in over a month! It has seriously been a whirlwind of a month...I will update a bit more on this in my next post.

I wanted to highlight a few things that have happened since my last post. Lots of great memories I want to keep track of on here...

First there was the BEST double date with this awesome couple:

I absolutley love these two- so much fun to be with! Megann and I call each other "Twin"...people confuse us often for one another, but I just consider that an enormous compliment to be compared to her! We had a well...."OK" meal at 105 degrees while on the "Daniel Fast" (OK only because of the interesting food- the company was PERFECT), then went to Flips (our favorite place ever) for some good conversation and LOTS of laughs!  

Then there was THE THUNDER GAME....we played the New York Knicks in a absolutley incredible game. Literally we called it a movie-moment...buzzer goes off (we are two points behind), no time left on the clock, Kevin Durant shoots for 3, and SCORES after the buzzer! We WON! It was crazy exciting. The best part of the night was enjoying dinner, and the game with Katherine, Abi, and Whitney...we also had some great laughs and maybe watched a fourth of the game due to our in-depth conversations that were going on!

Then February hit, SNOWmageddon, and many other names for the TWO crazy snow storms we had back to back, I had strep throat AND the flu, therefore I was VERY thankful for two entire days to do nothing but lay on the couch and REST.

SuperBowl Sunday happened to be my birthday this year which was pretty fun. The weekend was so great! Katherine and I went to Upper Crust for a girls night Friday, then watched Eat, Pray, Love at our house afterwards. Saturday I had lunch with Stacy, then did some fun shopping with Ryan. Saturday night was a night I'll never forget...

All these AMAZING women threw me a birthday party at On the Border!! It was an absolute blast, and I've never felt so special. I know all these girls from Life Church and I can honestly say I've never experienced "community" or such tremendous encouragement as I have from the women above!

I love this girl! SO MUCH! This is Katherine- she and I became instantly close as PC North SWITCH leaders together at our church. I don't know what I would do without her! Also...you want to meet the funniest, wittiest, most hilariously sarcastic person EVER- hang out with this girl!

NEXT WAS.... The OKC "RUNderground"...a 5k in the downtown tunnels of OKC. THE most fun run I have EVER participated in! I was so happy too- I hadn't been able to run in 2 months due to knee pain, and had ZERO pain in this run! The only problem about running in the tunnels...LOTS of escalators- turned off. Needless to say, I was VERY SORE the next day!

 NEXT BIG RACE- the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon!! Katherine and I will be on a relay team with some other Chesapeake employees...I start training TODAY actually. I will be doing a 10k leg of our race (6.2 miles) and she will be our 12k leg racer! I can't wait!

Last but absolutely NOT least...Valentine's day with the greatest husband ever. He surprised me with a purse, and the best perfume! I was VERY impressed with his ability to pick out a purse for me! That is NOT an easy task. :) Last night we enjoyed an incredible meal at Red Prime, and it was just what we needed- a romantic night to forget the busyness of life and enjoy one another's company.

I love my Valentine!

Until next time! ...

A Right Resolution

2 Corinthians 4:16: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly  we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

The first week of our New Year's Resolutions is behind us! Truth is I am NOT a big fan of making them- probably because I never keep them. Give up Carbs? Diet DP?! Are you kidding me?! No thanks. Last year I made a resolution to lose 20 lbs....I did the opposite. The list goes on: give up ADDING salt (im a salt-a-holic)...turn OFF the TV...read more...eat smaller portions...dont be a slave to my e-mail.

There is, however, one resolution worth considering- 2 Cor 4:16 says that the inner man- our inner beings, the new creation- MUST be renewed "day by day". It's a necessity! Just like drinking water, eating food....we cant live without it! The inner man has to be daily nourished whether it's a new year, spring, summer, fall, or winter. Too often we feed our inner being by going to church on Sundays or in a small group. Many of us allow the year to wear us down because we ignore the simple fact- our fellowship with God MUST be renewed day by day. "Our Inner being metabolizes quickly and just one day of neglect will bring on spiritual malnutrition." Just like in a marriage, a close friendship, etc....those relationships dont maintain themselves- they take time, quality AND quantity. They take talking, and most importantly LISTENTING.

Eph 3:16- I pray "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Covenant with God today to invite HIM to replenish you as you spend time in His Word and in prayer. It's a must. It's one resultion you can't afford to not keep. It will make 2011 a year full of joy...not always happiness because happiness is often based on earthly circumstances...but JOY is found in Christ alone.

I often get discouraged mid-way through the year thinking, "man I really failed at all those resolutions I kept!" Last year was a rollercoaster year spiritually for me and I spent a LOT of it very "bla" spiritually. This year i want to be different! I want to come to 2012 knowing God on the most intimate level I ever have.....NO head knowledge....all heart.

What will you do to spirtually nourish yourself in 2011?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another post today?! Yep! You bet...too many memories I want to remember!

We had a fun/interesting New Years Eve this year! Our close family friend, Lisa Brown, got married on NYE, and the wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The reception was at the Will Rogers Theatre with dinner, dancing, swing dancing lessons, etc....SO fun. However, what guy LOVES going to weddings? Much less on New Years Eve...needless to say Ryan wasn't SUPER excited to stay past midnight. So he and I left around 11 and headed to Flips- my favorite place in all of OKC! We brought in the New Year just the two of us at a quiet table going over all the great things from 2010. It was very special. Kelly and Matt joined us later and the four of us ended up closing Flips down! Such a fun night!

The next night was THE FIESTA BOWL!!! We went to a very fun watch party at the home of Stephen and Melissa Cox! The Sooner's won which made me very happy knowing I would have a happy husband for the remainder of the weekend!

Sunday afternoon was spent taking down Christmas, re-decorating a few rooms, hanging new pictures, cleaning, and lots of other misc. tasks! Ryan was such a tremendous help as he re-organizged our entire pantry by himself! I was blown away! After a productive day, I took all my SWITCH girls to dinner at Macaroni Grill for our post Christmas party. We had a very fun evening together! Love these girls so much.

Christmas Celebrations!!!

Well Hello there 2011!

This new year definitely came quickly but not without a fantastic ending to 2010! I couldn't forget to blog about all the year end evens that made this past Christmas SO special.

First was the "katceymegney" dinner- yes this is about to be the cheesiest thing you've ever heard but it is Kathleen, Stacy, Megann, Whitney....all merged together into one word! :) The four of us e-mail often throughout the days which helps all of us get through our work days but more importantly- these 3 ladies have been nothing short of a blessings from God! They constantly encourage me, uplift me, and even tell me the hard truth when I need to hear it! Needless to say, our dinner at Cheevers on Dec. 22nd was a night to remember! We had THE BEST conversation, food, and some VERY fun picture-taking after dinner!

I love these ladies SO SO much!! Not a single normal pic of the night! haha!

The next night was another FABULOUS evening- dinner with my lifelong best friend, Tiffany. She flew in from LA for Christmas and we had an incredible dinner at Red Prime Steakhouse on the 23rd! This was our 16th annual "Christmas Party"! Yes, there may only be 2 of us but that is all we need for a party! We made reservations for a secluded booth so we could talk and laugh all we wanted without disturbing others- they rolled out the red carpet, brought us free champagne, sat us in a totally secluded booth, and blew us away with their first class service!

The next day was Christmas Eve- Ryan and I spent the whole day relaxing, watching "White Christmas", and "Miracle on 34th Street", then went to an AMAZING service at Life Church with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law, then headed to my Grandparents for Christmas Eve dinner and presents with Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. It was so great to have Ryan with us this year...we LOVED having our true "First Christmas" together this year. Nothing made it more special than having him home! After dinner, we went home and watched, in Ryan's words- "the greatest Christmas movie ever", aka Grimlins. Ummmm ya. I fell asleep! haha! But it was still pretty cute:) Not quite "the best ever" though.

Christmas morning was SO fun...we video'd the entire morning together with our new FLIP camera! We drank egg nog, opened presents, and relaxed- the perfect Christmas.

After that we went to my parents for soup and family present opening! After we finished there, we went to the nursing home to see my Grandma for a little bit. I was able to get some of the sweetest pictures of her holding Madelyn....such sweet memories.

4 generations represented! What a neat day...

And to finish- a few pictures of our home at Christmas...this is mainly for me to remember where I put all the lighted garland for next year! I think we put up 7 trash bags of lighted garland in the attic last night! ha!

We had our own trees on our nightstands!

First time the kitchen was clean all of December- so many parties to cook for! Had to capture the moment!

haha- classic- Franklin curled up on the chair in front of the window...ready to bark at any moment, and Ryan playing on his Christmas gift- his new iphone!

Hope you all had a very special and memorable Christmas!!

CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS:

Another wonderful questionaire thanks to my friend Meredith- http://elliekateandpeyton.blogspot.com/ Definitely check out her blog! She has the sweetest family and her blog is always inspiring!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? definitely paper! then you can have fun with ribbon.

2. Real tree or Artificial? unfortunately artificial- im SUPER allergic to real trees. Fortunately with artificial you can buy pre-lit! ;)

3. When do you put up the tree? The day after thanksgiving....it would be August if it were up to me. haha!

4. When do you take the tree down? well, one year it was March...last year it was Feb...this year i'll shoot for January-ish ;)

5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE LOVE LOVE eggnog! With whipped cream and nutmeg....sweet goodness.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My barbie motorhome! I'll never forget waking up and coming in to see my dad, looking like he had NO SLEEP (cant imagine why;) putting all the tiny decals in the motorhome for me! Later in life was my full size keyboard for the praise and worship band!

7. Hardest person to buy for? well, it used to be my sister- but now she registers for gifts- haha! This actually is a tremendous help! Probably my dad because we get him the same thing every year- cologne and gift cards....exactly what he asks for. Every year I want to be creative and get him something special and different though!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Ryan- I write down hints all year of things he wants! I can NOT WAIT for Christmas morning. That man is going to be jumping around the house! :)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? actually no! I want one though, but haven't found one I really like. Also, our house doesnt have a ton of extra space to put a large scene, so it would need ot be smaller.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL! I love getting christmas cards so much it's kinda scary. EVERY day i can NOT wait to check the mail and see all the cards! I save them all and look through the past years' cards each christmas. This was our first year to send cards so I was VERY enthusiastic about the whole process.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? oh dear. a vest with teddy bears all over it. Not long ago. ha!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas by far!!! I LOVE that movie so much. My sister and I can perform the entire song "Sisters"- choreography and all.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually after Thanksgiving. This year I started MONTHS ago and was done BY thanksgiving- determined to not stress this year!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? oh yes. haha. but normally within our family to where it's a running joke of "who will get it this year" type thing.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My Grandma's butter almond toffee bars, her cheese grits, or mom's soup on Christmas day.

16. Lights on the tree (colored or clear)? Clear on the tree. Colored on the house.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Christian- O Holy Night. Other- Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. (is that the actual title?)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home...always home. We would love to go to Houston some year though to spend Christmas with Ryan's Brother Austin and his family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? name, yes. spell correctly- probably not. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, aaaaaand RUDOLPH! :)

20. Angel, star or ribbon on top of tree? Finally got a tree-topper this year...a beautiful star! One of my favorite Christmas memories will always be making our tree-topper when Kelly and I were LITTLE. We made it out of cardboard, covered it in foil, and sprinkled it with glitter. I think it's still on the top of my parents tree. :)

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Used to be Christmas eve- now Christmas morning. I like doing one Christmas eve, and the rest the day of.

22. Favorite children's Christmas song? Santa Clause is comin' to town.

23. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? TRAFFIC, people forgetting what Christmas is REALLY about (im guilty), and traffic. haha

24. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have collected the Happy Holiday Barbies from my Grandma for Christmas since 1992 so I love those, but now my mom has been collecting shoe ornaments and beagle ornaments that look like our dog. Ryan thinks we have the girliest tree ever with barbies and shoes all over it! The beagles are OUR favorites tho!

25. Turkey or ham on Christmas day? neither! Mom makes vegetable or potato soup on Christmas day. Christmas Eve is usually ham though.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? Already have it- Ryan's home this year :)

27. Does anyone in your family dress up as Santa? nope

28. Age you discovered who Santa was? not sure the exact age...sometime around 2nd grade i think. I cried a LOT! Still loved believing though...and pretending I believed. Dad would shake bells up on the roof- it was so fun! Ill never forget that! "santa" always left us a card in our stocking telling us the TRUE meaning of Christmas though- the birth of Jesus. Very neat how our parents kept the TRUTH alive, but let us have fun believing as children.

29. Eggnog, hot chocolate, or apple cider? Eggnog latte from Starbucks. ok ok just eggnog. i like eggnog. a lot.

30. Traditional colors (red and green) or other colors? traditional all the way! I do LOVE when people mix in fun one's though....such as- the Chesapeake trees! LOVE those lights. For our house though- traditional...mostly clear inside.

31. Do you have any Christmas decorations on your roof? yes, the big multi-colored bulbs. Very fun- reminds me of childhood, except we had all red. Another favorite memory- I was Dad's helper with hanging lights. I would hold them and unstring them for him....not sure if I helped at all but he made me feel like I was and I LOVED that!

32. What is your favorite holiday treat? Eggnog latte's. And Tamales from Pecos, TX...a new tradition Ryan and I are starting on Christmas night.

33. How does Santa get into your house? Chimney or magic key? ummmm not sure yet. haha. So far he uses his key to our house.

34. Do you prefer gifts or gift cards? if they know me well- gifts! If not, money! I'd rather not have gift cards unless it's to a restaurant :)

35. Favorite children's Christmas Cartoon? hmmmm this is hard....I have to go with the first one I thought of- Claymation Christmas....Rudolph!

Now YOUR turn! GO! :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Wow, I can not BELIEVE it's been almost a month since my last post! This shows how CRAZY BUSY our month has been....so so fun though! I will try to give a general re-cap- I've never been good at the "long story short stuff" though...it's usually long story long! :)

1. Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had all of our family at my parents and more food than ever! Ryan decided he would make the turkey this year- it tasted AMAZING, but the cooking/carving part- a disaster! We definitely learned lots of helpful tips to make next year a little easier! ;) This year, my close friend- Stacy, from Life Church, also joined our family for dinner. It was wonderful having her with us....she even stayed til the last people left and helped us wash and dry all the dishes! It was truly a blessing to our whole family to have her there!

Oh  forgot to mention- I ran a 5k Thanksgiving morning with my brother-in-law Brian, and his father-in-law, John. It was FREEEEZING...I mean BITTER cold! I was so bundled up it was ridiculous; so much so that when i got to about mile 2, i was burning up but couldnt de-layer because I pinned my number to the front of my fleece. haha- smart Kathleen, real smart. I was happy though- I improved my time by 2 minutes! :)

NOW TO DECEMBER: best Christmas ever already! Why? Ryan. That's why! Enough said.

*side note- i was so excited to have ALL presents bought and wrapped BY thanksgiving...the day after thanksgiving was spent converting our house into one big pile of lighted garland- ha! I don't even WANT to know what our electricity bill will be with all the lights we have on the outside AND inside our our house!

2. One of my favorite things we did this month was our Christmas card pictures with the very talented Abi Ruth, a photographer and close friend of mine from church. http://www.abiruth.com/
-We took a few pics in our living room in front of the tree...with Franklin of course, then went to the Devon ice rink downtown, then onto Chesapeake. This was the first time we ever had professional pictures taken, and it was SO fun. We especially enjoyed all the kissing pictures she "made" us take. ;) Just a fun, COLD, christmasy afternoon! Here are a few of our favorites:

3. Parties Parties Parties!!! First was a very fun Pampered Chef party I hosted for my best friend, Cassidy. We had LOTS of yummy food, and she made a strawberry tart that was PERFECTION! We had about 15 people come, and I was able to get Ryan (the cook in our home) lots of fun Christmas goodies he will love.

Next was our Life Group Christmas Party! Everyone came over in pajamas, brought their favorite christmas dish, and we played "yankee swap"! For those of you non-office fans, it's the same as Dirty Santa. It was a VERY intense game of Yankee Swap I might add....lots of stealing....made it very fun though! We ended up having Tamales (from Pecos, TX) and then lots of desserts....we were all on a sugar high so the night ended up being VERY fun! Any night with them is so great- we are so blessed that God gave us such a great group of other couples to "do life" with.

Then- the SWITCH Leader Christmas party! Another potluck...needless to say the diet has gone OUT THE WINDOW this month! haha. We had an incredible spread of turkey, ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, etc. We then played SWITCH trivia, SWITCH leader Bingo, then Christmas movie Charades. This became hilarious. For some reason I get competitive with this game. I am competitive at almost nothing...but charades. Because of this fact- things FLY out of my mouth that I can't quite catch in time. For instance, had you been at our table, you might have heard "Vomitting Christmas", "Death by Christmas", "Hanging Santa", and a few others. I promise I love Christmas! Like I sad.....flying out of my mouth. It was definitely a great night with some wonderful people. This ministry has been another GIFT from the Lord in our lives this past year. Without SWITCH we wouldnt have our Life Group, and I wouldnt have made some of the best friends I've had in my life. Here are some pics from that night:

Michelle Brown- LOVE this girl...She and her husband Jeremy are in our Life Group

WONDERFUL women: Megann, Stacy, and Whitney...these girls are seriously THE BEST!

Anna Light, and her mom- Robin Meadows...These two have truly changed my life in so many ways. Anna is my trainer and Robin is my mentor

The Next party was the Oster/Goodman Christmas Party! I actually got to plan this as Andrew Oster's executive assistant. It was (to sound very cheesy) a magical night. The party was at Andrew's neighbor's home in Rose Creek, Nonna's catered, there were lights everywhere, heaters outside around the pool, live music...truly a perfect evening.

OH AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: MY EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT...my 2nd wedding band!!!! I have a video of him giving this to me- it's pretty funny! I was screaming and jumping up and down and accidentally dropped the camera- fortunately, it's still in one peice! ;) I had NO IDEA this was coming though- he said he had something for me to go with my outfit and then pulled out "the box"...the same color box I remember from almot 2 years ago! He is truly the BEST HUSBAND in the world.

Well, like I said long story LONG....that's me I guess! :) Thanks for those of you who actually read ALL this. I will close with one thing- last night we were settling in for the evening about to fold 9 loads of laundry. (that's another story- our garage and backyard filled with sewage thanks to a HUGE whole in our main line. That will be fun and expensive to fix next year....so laundry couldn't be done for 2 weeks!)

We ordered Chinese and were about to start a movie when Ryan paused it, grabbed my hand and started praying...he prayed for us to remember, in the midst of the fun/crazy/busyness of this month what the true reason for Christmas is....celebrating the birth of our Saviour. It was the perfect gentle reminder I needed to get my focus back on Jesus. He truly is the "lifter of our heads".....and He often uses Ryan to re-focus me!

This is what I fell asleep to:         :)

Merry Christmas to you all!

Celebrating a faithful life...

Yesterday, Ryan's sweet "Granny", Fanora Miller, passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her several months ago, and getting to spend some more time with her about a month ago while we were in Houston.

This is what I could already tell about her:
She LOVES her family. Her face LIT up anytime she started talking about her 3 children, or any of her grandchildren. We brought her a framed picture of Ryan and Austin (Ryan's brother), and she teared up and held it close to her heart. She told us she needs NO material posessions but things like that picture- memories of her family. She said if that was all she had in the world, she would be content.

Another thing I could tell about Granny-
She is a very STRONG person in so many ways. She told us stories about her family, her husband, and how hard they worked. Another way I could tell this was that, in her lifetime, she lost her husband, her son (Ryan's father), and her daughter-in-law, Ryan's mother,  yet still rejoiced in what she DID have. Her faith was strong and her will to live never lessened....she was content regardless of the circumstances, and when we saw her- although she may not have felt well, all she cared about was how we were doing.

What a BEAUTIFUL homecoming it must have been yesterday as she entered Heaven and was able to embrace her husband, Ryan's parents, and many other family members! Ryan told me with tears in his eyes last night that he was jealous of that aspect for sure, but SO happy Granny was re-united with them! We have no doubt when she came face to face with the Lord she heard, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for this family- my family now! Austin and Jami, and their sweet children are truly gifts from God for me, and Ryan as well. I know it's hard that so many in their family have passed away, but we have them and have never felt so blessed for each and every one of them! What a neat gift that those 3 children were able to meet and spend time with their Great Grandmother!

Last night Ryan and I sat down and made a list of every memory, fun time, quality, etc. that he remembers about his Mom, dad, Granny, and Papaw. It was fun as we listed these things so that we can one day tell our children about the amazing legacy Ryan's family has left.

I want to close with one story that Ryan said sums up perfectly how his Granny and Papaw were:
When Ryan's dad was 15, he and his brother and sister would come home from school for lunch every day. Granny would prepare amazing meals from what I've been told, and was constantly cooking! One day, she made lunch for her 3 children and her husband (Ronald),  but because Ryan's dad and uncle were teenage boys, they ate a LOT of food! Well, by the time Ronald got home, all the food was GONE! She was sitting at the table crying and apologizing that there was nothing left. Ronald reached in his pocket, handed her a $100 bill (which was HUGE in those days) and said "Go buy bigger pots."

I just loved this story- Ryan said it describes perfectly how Ronald (Papaw) was always rather serious, but a very hard worker, and had more of a dry sense of humor. Fanora (Granny) was the emotional one, but would definitely have her honory moments Ryan recalls!

Praise God we have memories to pass on when those we love go home!