Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you and yours had a marvelous Thanksgiving and reflected on all we should be thankful for along with a scrumptious feast.  We ate our big meal at Michael's parents' house along with Patrick, Becky, Will, Zach, Becky's friend Julie and our friends, the Lightner's.  We had a great time and the kids all really enjoyed playing with each other.  Not to mention the beautiful weather as well.  

 

After lunch we then headed over to Broken Arrow to spend some time with my side of the family.  My Uncle Dean was in town from Albuquerque so it was nice visiting with him as well.  On Thursday night we spent the night with my brother Chris & Carrie so the girls enjoyed the "sleepover" with their cousins Carlee and Cydnee.  Then, Carrie, myself, my mom, and Staci all met at 7:30 a.m. (minus Staci, she met us later) at WalMart for some deals.  That's about as early as we can function.  We then headed to the mall and messed around shopping there.  We had a good time nonetheless.  The guys played golf at 1 p.m. so we had to make it by so they could go.  On Friday night we all headed to Hideaway Pizza (yummy!) and then took all of the girls to Rhema to look at the beautiful Christmas lights.  On Saturday Carrie cut all of our hair and then we headed home.  Pretty busy weekend!

Becky's Birthday

Today is my sweet sister-in-law, Becky's birthday (Michael's sister).  Tonight we're heading over to the in-laws for pizza (I'm supposed to order a canadian bacon/pineapple pizza for the birthday girl - not sure what to think about that) and chocolate pie made by Patty (Becky's favorite).  She is exactly one month older than me, even though I choose to stay at age 29 Becky is truthful and has come to terms with her age.  Anyway, I am quite blessed to have her as a sister through marriage.  She is so incredibly thoughtful, caring and sweet.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKY!

Picture Tag

Sorry it's taken me a little longer to post this time than normal but Alli came down with strep throat on Tuesday afternoon and seemed to be better on Thursday and now Meredith is complaining of a sore throat so I've started her on the antibiotics now.  So far, this fall has not been good to us in the health department.  Hopefully it will get better.  It'd be nice if we could stay well for a week so we can get the flu shot before we get the flu.  

Anyway, my sweet friend, Leigh Ann, from Still Moments, picture tagged me this time.  I'm supposed to post my 4th picture in my 4th folder on my computer.  So, I looked through my files and this is what is was:

This picture was taken on February 23rd, 2007, and it was Michael and Meredith's birthday.  Yes, they have the same birthday which is pretty neat.  I didn't have to buy Michael a birthday present in 2002.  I thought a baby was good enough.  The girls hair is all fixed up (by their Aunt Carrie, of course) because Meredith as a flower girl in her great grandmother's wedding that day.  It was quite the day!

So, I now tag Patrick (he always has great pics), Corrie (tagged you back, hehe) and Trish (yet again, sorry).

Weekend

Meredith and Alli were both out of school on Friday for Teacher Meetings so we planned to head to Broken Arrow to spend the weekend.  Well, guess what!  Meredith started throwing up on Friday morning around 6;45 a.m. or so.  So, that kind of threw that plan out of the water.  So, Meredith started feeling better and acted fine and still wanted to go to BA.  So, we packed all of the bags loaded up the car and got to Roland and you got it!  Mama, I don't feel so good and I feel like I'm going to throw up.  I then whipped the car in the McDonald's parking lot (last stop before the interstate, thank goodness) and grabbed a plastic bag and handed to her and that was that.  I then left a present for the town of Roland and headed back to the Fort.  Meredith then ate dinner like normal and seemed fine the next day so we tried the trip again and this time with more success.  

It was a quick trip.  Basically, we got to my parents' house, they watched the girls while I ran to Gymboree (great sale over the weekend by the way).  We then headed to Aunt Staci's current employer, Ted's Mexican restaurant and waited for an hour so we could sit in her section.  Oh yeah, my brother Chris and niece Carlee also met us there (Carrie was babysitting a friend's baby along with Cydnee).  The girls were very well behaved which made it so much easier and Staci did an excellent job serving us.  We then packed up the van and headed back on Sunday around lunch so I could make it for choir practice.

I didn't even have time to break out the camera. 

I've Been Tagged!

Well, my friend Corrie aka the "Cent-sable Mama" has tagged me and this is a different type of tag then normal.  Here are the rules:

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open the book to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
• Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one.  Pick the closest.
• Tag five people to do the same.

Most of you that are familiar with me know that I'm not the biggest novel reader on the block, unless, of course, you're talking about children's book.  But, it just so happens the closest book to me right now is "Walt Disney World with Kids 2009."  For those of you who don't know, we're planning a trip to WDW in December so I'm busy getting tips and making reservations regarding this trip.  So, let's see, pg. 56, fifth sentence is in the chapter titled "Choosing a Hotel" and is under the subsection of "The Grand Floridian" and it says:

Pluses:

• Convenient location on monorail line.
• A private beach and marina on the Seven Seas Lagoon and numerous boating options.
• On-site child-care center.
• Three programs for children: Grand Adventures in Cooking, Disney's Pirate Adventure, and Wonderland Tea Party.
• On-site health club and full-service spa.

Sounds lovely doesn't it?  Too bad we're staying at an "off-site" resort that is probably a lot less expensive.  That child-care center does sound grand, doesn't it?!

So, I think I'm going to tag:

Trish

Jennifer M.

ShaRhonda

Emily W.

Jenni

 

Baby Shower for Emily W.

On Saturday afternoon several of us ladies from our Sunday School class had the honor of hosting a baby shower for our friend Emily.  It is so exciting because she is just waiting for a phone call from South Korea telling she and Nathan that they can go pick up their baby boy, Owen, they are adopting.  I'm sure several of you have read her story on her blog that I have linked on my sidebar.  Anyway, she received so many precious gifts and her cake was just beautiful.  In case you can't read it due to its foreign language, it says "son."  She also has pictures on her blog of Owen and he is just the cutest little thing and you just want to pinch those little cheeks.  Congratulations Emily!

America's Most Wanted

Hopefully a lot of you Arkansans watched or recorded America's Most Wanted on Saturday night.  The show focused on Arkansas cases and in particular Fort Smith.  It was pretty cool to see my old buddies from the Marshals Office in the background on horses behind John Walsh as he introduced the different stories.  Leisa- You did a fine job at keeping that horse under control.  I knew Leisa could ride a horse but I didn't realize the other guys could.  Anyway, much of the show was focused on the murder of Missy Witt, in particular.  She was kidnapped from a bowling alley in Fort Smith and her body was found 50 miles away in a forest area.  Since it was featured on AMW, you probably figured out that her killer has not been caught.  I specifically remember when this happened because Michael had asked for prayer for the family at the Baptist Student Union at TU during this time.  Michael and I were not dating then so I didn't know many of the specifics but remember being horrified at such a monstrous crime.  I want to encourage all of you to go to this website and read about the crime.  The website is http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=59549.  The more people that read and are familiar with this crime the better the chance that someone will come forward with information.  For example, the police believe there was a good samaritan that moved Missy's body from its original placement so that it would be more easily found.  Even if that person would come forward I'm sure it would be a great help.  The show also featured information regarding the recent gruesome murder of Little Rock reporter Anne Pressly.  It is so important to get this evil person off the streets as well so he does not brutalize someone else.  

I promise my next post won't be so depressing but I feel like this information is so important to share.

Tommy's Birthday

This past Saturday we had the honor of celebrating Tommy's (Michael's dad) birthday with all of us, Becky, Patrick, Will & Zach along with Patty, of course.  Tommy better enjoy this year because next year is a big birthday.  Kind of like I'm still 29.  Anyway, Becky picked up Popeye's Chicken for us all and Patty fixed a peach cobbler and we all had a good time.  Here's a picture of Tommy along with his little buddy, Jessie (one of his 5 little buddies).  Tommy- It's my pleasure to call you my father-in-law and I wish you the best over this next year!

Meredith's Soccer Tourney

Meredith's team did a great job in her first soccer tournament.  Their team, the "Dynamite" finished second place overall.  They managed to come up through the losers bracket and play three games on Saturday to finish second.  It's safe to say they were exhausted by the third game and they were playing a team that hadn't played yet that day so it was tough.  It's funny though how they played and beat their first game on Saturday against the same team that put them in the losers bracket but yet there were different players on their team.  Oh well, such is life.  The girls were quite excited about their trophies and all of the girls soccer teams in their age bracket had a skating party afterwards which was so fun.  Meredith and Alli had a blast.  It will be nice to have our Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays back for a while as well, until Spring season anyway.  Now we just have dance on Tuesdays and Church on Wednesdays.  YEA!

Halloween

Thank goodness we were all well for Halloween this year.  It was a close one, that's for sure.  Meredith dressed up as Cinderella and Alli was Jasmine.  Neither one wanted to wear their crowns with their costumes because "they bothered them."  Meredith didn't want to wear dress shoes with her dress, just tennis shoes and she didn't even want to wear makeup.  So, we were pretty basic princesses at that.  Oh well, that makes it easy for me.  We first headed up to our church for the Fall Festival where the girls went trick or treating at car trunks in the parking lot.  They also had hot dogs, cotton candy and popcorn along with music which was neat.  I took Alli's picture with her buddy Mason (Superman) from church and I thought it turned out so cute.  She's just crazy about him.  We then headed back home where I took Alli up and down our street to different houses and Meredith stayed home with Daddy to hand out candy.  For those of you that don't know this, Alli has a true passion about candy.  I have a feeling she'll be one of those teenagers that are 18 and still dressing up trying to get candy.  We'll see I guess.

Meredith's Awards Assembly

Meredith started off first grade with a bang this year. Her school had their awards assembly on Friday afternoon and she received the Perfect Attendance/No Tardies award as well as the Principal's Honor Roll. She was really excited about the perfect attendance award because all of the kids that received this award get to stay after school one day next week and watch "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie with the principal. We're so proud of her. She puts a lot of effort into her schoolwork and always tries to do her best. Our parent/teacher conference with her teacher went really well this week as well. She actually has a little bit of homework this year. She must read at least 20 minutes every night and one night she must write her spelling words and another night do math problems. She has spelling and math facts tests on Friday so she must study for those as well. I really dread the days when she's bombarded with homework and projects. I'm sure it will be here sooner then we think.  

On a side note, don't forget to turn back your clocks tonight!

Oh Well, Maybe Next Year

UGH! I'm sure as you have figured out, I'm pretty bummed about the game today. I really thought this was TU's year to beat the good old U of A. The Razorbacks seemed to do an excellent job shutting done our rapid scoring. If Arkansas plays us next year, maybe we can win that one. I guess there's always basketball.

Go Tulsa Hurricane!

Okay, I had to hurry up and get this posted online before out soccer games today. As a lot of you already know, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane take on the Arkansas Razorbacks today at 1 p.m. in Fayetteville. Granted, normally, I would root the Razorbacks on in victory. But.......... not in this case. I see this as being the best chance in a very long time for my little alma mater of 4,000 to 5,000 students to beat the gigantic school on the hill. Michael is still hoping the Razorbacks win, which I will never understand since he, also, went to TU so that mere fact makes it of utter importance that TU win by at least 30. I've learned to never count my chickens before they hatch because playing at the U of A is an atmosphere like no other.

GO TULSA!!