easy like sunday morning.

today was my first real day out of the apartment since my surgery. travis had taken me to blockbuster a few nights ago, but it was a brief ride down the street, and a less than 5 minute visit in the store before we found ourselves back at home.

i wasn't feeling well on friday, and travis had to work friday evening, so while sierra was celebrating her 15th birthday with family and friends, we found ourselves unable to make the trip to muskogee. i did my first load of laundry (it was also my first thing to do other than lie on the couch) since the surgery and waited for travis to get home from work. he took care of me and checked on me while i wasn't feeling well, and then we cuddled up to do some more "taking it easy." we watched the pirates of silicon valley and while i found it a little dry in places, it was really, really interesting to watch the story of apple and microsoft unfold. we followed it with a much needed fix of grey's anatomy.

saturday morning travis had to go into work again. he was gone for most of the day; i was hoping it would only be a few hours. i played around with the logo for his computer business and worked on a couple of other designs ... and spent most of my time being bored. i can't do too much as the incisions still pull and hurt if i do, but i am definitely feeling much better than the initial few days, and find myself going a little stircrazy after some time.

once he returned home, we did a few things around the apartment and then resumed our grey's anatomy marathon.

this morning, travis had to work yet again. this time it was only for a few hours. he left for work, only to return a few minutes later to ask me to go with him. he said we would leave for muskogee right after. i got ready and we headed for his clients'. i waited in the car while he installed a server, then we headed for muskogee ... or so we thought. i think we missed about 5 entrances to the b.a. expressway. it was really quite comical as travis is the master of direction & highways. we couldn't stop laughing with each passed exit.

we spent the afternoon returning a very overdue movie, looking around hancock fabrics at the beautiful pieces of furniture and home accents that they had on sale. we then drove to see the house that justin just purchased. it is in a very nice neighborhood and is a much newer house than the one he originally considered. the lawn is very large, and i have to say i'm very excited for him.

after that, we drove to see each of our families. sierra had just taken down her decorations from the party and i was sad to have missed it. they all said that it was very beautiful. she loves the color pink (or any other bright color) and had used a lot of pink as well as white candles everywhere. i wish that i could have seen it. mom, dad, and justin had just been to the biker rally in fayetteville yesterday, and dad proudly showed off an autographed print that he had purchased from an artist who has a studio right on the strip of the main event.
he soon left to wash the camero, so mom, sierra and i chatted while travis read. mom started laughing and said she loves when i stop by to visit. we didn't stay long, but it was nice to catch up with everyone.

we headed to the lears. eric and amber were there. it was our first time to see them since their falling out. eric was chatty, but amber said nothing. steve was headed to bed, but before going he told travis that he supposed he would have to dream me up a ring since travis seems to cheap to buy me one. :) i didn't get to spend much time with dee -- actually, i fell asleep on the couch. we didn't stay too long before heading home. the trip home was a lot of fun as travis sang john mellencamp and did his best james dean. actually the trip to and from muskogee was a lot of fun. we spent a lot of time talking, laughing, and just being silly.

we weren't home very long, before we headed out again, this time to the movie theater where we saw eagle eye. it was one of the first movies we had seen in a while -- pretty sad for two movie theater junkies. i really liked the show.

now we're home, and i'm not so excited about my first day back to work. it will be nice to get out of the apartment, but i've been a little depressed the past couple of days about returning. i better get to bed if i expect to wake up on time in the morning.

oh! one more thing before i go. one of the suggested labels is "fall." it reminds me: i was just telling travis tonight how eagerly i'm anticipating fall. it's such a comfortable, cozy time of year ... i can't wait.

grey's anatomy.

the past three days travis and i watched the entire grey's anatomy season 4 disc collection. every single episode. last season we got behind when the writers' strike took effect. we wanted to catch up before watching the season 5 premier that we had dvr'd. we had a lot of fun cuddling up on the couch each evening and watching episode after episode until our eyes were too tired to stay open any longer. we're all caught up, we've watched this season's premier, and oh how we're anticipating next week's show (since, unfortunately, there will not be an episode broadcast this week). whatever shall we do?

peter pan & wendy.

i am ready for bed, but before i say good night, i must post a few things. justin called tonight to say that he has bought a house. he seems very excited about it and expects to close on it on or before october 24th. it's so strange that he would call tonight to say that because of the direction i had intended this post to take ... it fits right in.
last night travis and i were just lying there when it suddenly became very real to me that justin will be getting married. we talk about it all of the time, but somehow it had not set in until last night. lindsay has bought a dress. they've set a wedding date. justin will be married. married. a married man. not my little brother living at home with my mom and dad. (of course he will always be my little brother; my point, he is not a little boy anymore). i started to cry, and travis held me and asked why. i explained to him how i was feeling. that i didn't want justin to move out. travis pointed out that i don't live at home anymore either. i agreed, but somehow it's different. i can't imagine that i will go home to find that my brother doesn't live there anymore. travis said ever so softly, "we're not little kids anymore. we've all grown up." even writing this now, i want to cry. i was always the one more mature than my age group ... but i never wanted childhood to end. travis was much the same -- always the adult with a childlike mind (that doesn't sound as nice as i intend for it to). i never wished for time to speed up. i always knew exactly how quickly time was passing ... how quickly time is passing. i've never been one thrilled about change. i always enjoy new experiences and new adventures, but momumental life changes such as these always throw me for a loop, making me over-nostalgic. and now we are also facing many changes, many life decisions, and all we really wish for -- someone to tell us the next few steps we need to take.

tonight we're leaving for never, neverland. all our love and kisses. :)

the gourmet-ness of travis.

when i say that travis has been a champ taking care of me, that's really an understatement. he hasn't just been taking care of me; he's been taking care of me in style. <---- exhibit a. when asking me if i would like an apple, i do not get just any ol' red apple. i get a freshly washed and polished apple, cut into perfect little slices, centered around a perfect spoonful of peanut butter. he's been like that with everything. he goes above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that i'm taken care of. he's been fixing lunch and dinner each day and making sure that i have an afternoon snack as soon as he gets home from work. often people lose weight when they go through surgery ... i may start gaining before too long. i brag about these acts, but lucky for me, they are really not out of the ordinary. travis does a terrific job around the apartment and taking care of me even when i haven't been through surgery. i am a lucky, lucky girl.

in and out.

i feel like i'm spending my days drifting in and out of a fog. travis has done a fabulous job of looking after me. this morning before he left for work he put a sheet on the couch and moved all of the pillows from our bed to the couch. he got the ottoman next to me set up with the laptop, my medicine, a bottle of water, my cell phone, snacks and napkins. i spent the morning napping and watching gilmore girls. i woke up when travis came home for lunch to check on me. he made us a delicious lunch of broccoli cheddar macaroni and sprite. the swelling in my stomach has gone down a little more, but still not completely. he wasn't able to stay at home with me for too long before heading back to work. i spent the rest of the afternoon battling a severe headache and nausea. my sister and my mom both called to check on me. sierra is not happy with her school, and im afraid she's finding herself as bored as i am.
when travis got home from work (after stopping at the store to pick up a couple of things that i needed), he immediately fixed me a snack -- goldfish crackers -- and fresh sprite. i got up and attempted to take a shower, but i'm afraid that was too much for me. i should have continued to rest, but i was beginning to feel old =). i immediately got back on the couch and got resettled. travis was buzzing around the apartment, and I told him that -- "you're buzzing around here like a crazy person." "i'm kind of starting to look like your mom aren't i?" he replied. and di he ever. he was unpacking our bags from the weekend, doing laundry, loading the dishwasher, starting dinner, and still managing to check in on his dvds and his computer game.
he made pasta with a light sauce with vegetables mixed in. he had also cut up an apple for me, saying that i needed a healthy meal. he's been great to constantly check in with me to see if there's anything i need and to see if i'm alright. i couldn't have a better guy to take care of me.
i am growing weary of watching a television screen, a phone screen, and/or a computer screen. i've read many magaxines and have spent time looking for wedding chapels for justin and lindsay and for me and travis. i keep reminding myself not to try too many things before my body is ready, though, just because i'm bored. i need to make sure that i'm much more healed. otherwise, i start to immediately regret it.
now travis has gone back to work -- he has to go in the evenings sometimes when the office is closed, so that he's not interfering with others' work -- and i'm here watching king kong. i had never seen it, and it's actually surprisingly good.
for now, i will give my eyes a bit of a rest again and wait for him to get home.

surgery.

what a whirlwind the past few days have been. i missed work wednesday morning because i had a terrible stomachache that kept me awake all night. i still didn't feel well by the afternoon, but i had too much to do, so i went in to the office. by 4:00 kerry said that i was as pale as a ghost. travis and i took it easy and ended up watching made of honor. we had been waiting for it to come to dvd. thursday morning i still didn't feel well, so i called into work again. i had a doctor's appointment that afternoon in muskogee, so i decided to just rest and take it easy until time to go.
i wasn't at the doctor's long when he told me that he wanted to put me in the hospital on friday. i was immediately emotional and wished that travis had been able to take off work. i called him to let him know and then said i would call back with more details.
when i got out of the doctor's office, my mom was waiting for me. she said she just had a feeling that she needed to stop by. she and sierra took me across the street to the hospital to have my blood work and be admitted for the next morning.
travis called numerous times to check on me. he said that he would pack a bag and meet me in muskogee. we would just stay the night there and go to the hospital in the morning.
it seemed we had to wait in the hospital for quite a while and the hospital was everything i remembered as a child. i still hate needles and having my blood taken. :)
while in surgery, the doctor discovered a cyst the size of a lemon in my uterus which he removed and had sent off for testing. my ovaries were both full of cysts; they looked like bags full of marbles. a large fatty mass had attached itself to the bottom of my uterus and one of my ovaries, so they had to remove that scar tissue and put the fatty tissue where it was supposed to go, about 4 inches lower. they also found two other areas of scar tissue that they removed and are having tested. on top of all of that, they discovered that my appendix was about to rupture, so they removed that as well. needless to say, i am very, very sore. i have spent most of my time in bed and a large part of that time i've been asleep. travis has been a champ; i think he probably got less sleep than i did as he was in my room at my parents' checking on me every few hours.
i feel very blessed to have the love and support of my family members and friends.
dee and amanda both came to see me in the hospital and addison sent me flowers at my parents'. sierra sat with me most of the day today, and lindsay and justin helped travis get me home since i'm not allowed to drive my car.
i'm a little nervous to be here all by myself tomorrow, but think i should be fine as i should be asleep most of the day.

2 down. 3 to go.

today was a beautiful day. the weather was perfect, there was no humidity, and i could have stayed outside forever. i only wish that i felt better. i have an inner ear infection, a sore throat, and a stomach ache. sheesh!
kerry, karen, claudine, and i had lunch at olivet today. we sat out on the patio, and as i mentioned before, it was beautiful. none of us wanted to go back to the office. i really enjoy this new restaurant. kerry and i have been a couple of times and karen and claudine really seemed to like it as well.
when travis got home tonight he had a terrible headache and ended up having to take a nap with a heating pad across his face. he had a good talk with his boss, though, and is excited about the direction christopher (his boss & the company owner) is taking the company and the plans he has for travis. we are trying to decide at this point if travis will move to a new university and what exactly he should get his degree in. of course computers ... just trying to figure out which specialization as technology is a very broad subject.
tonight i waxed my legs, or part of one leg, i should say. it didn't hurt ... not until the last strip that i pulled off that decided to take a piece of my skin with it. ouch. even that didn't hurt as badly as one would think, so i think moving forward i'll head to the spa to have my legs waxed. i've just always been too nervous. now i know that i can handle it. =)
justin and lindsay put in an offer on a house on friday, but it's already under contract. now they're looking for a new house. travis and i are busy figuring out exactly what we want to do. we're excited about what the next few months have in store.

a pictures update.

since moving, travis and i had not gotten all of our electronics in order until this weekend during our fall cleaning. because of this, i have been unable to upload pictures lately. i thought i would add a few here. they're in order of most recently taken. enjoy.

this picture is of lindsay & justin. it was taken

while we all waited for the boat to come pick us up for scuba diving.

another picture of lindsay & justin taken toward the end of our

day at six flags in dallas.

group shot.

my favorite & me.

waiting for our first ride of the day
the superman tower (pictured below)

it's a bird ... it's a plane ...

waiting for everyone to head to the park.

the car ride to dallas. i'll spare you from all of the

"making out" pictures of these two.

moving day.

just the two of us.

don't we look tough?

home from morgan's wedding.

at the wedding travis asked, "do you think we're next?"

biker boyz show 2008

we're going to learn to do this.

resting at the apartment after being in the sun all day

at the biker boyz show.

more stunts.

my handsome stud.

another stunt.

dinner after the biker boyz show.

justin & lindsay at dinner after biker boyz.

fall cleaning.

the drizzle continued to come down all day today. when travis got bored, we each picked a corner of the apartment and started organizing, throwing away, and finding new homes for items. the apartment looks great.

we headed down to the garage after that ... where we found more things to give or throw away. the back of travis's truck is now filled with items that need to be taken to the compactor.

it's always such a good feeling knowing that you've gotten things in order. it's almost like breathing in a breath of fresh air.

now we're in our cozy, "pumpkin spice" filled apartment. i'm excited for fall and the upcoming holidays. i feel very "domestic" of late, wanting to cook yummy meals, decorate the house, and entertain family and friends. i've spent most of the evening reading southern living perusing for delicious fall recipes.

saturday in the ... apartment.

I have now begun typing my blogs in Word before posting them on the website, because as you can see, my nine.eleven post is yet another post that “saved” all along and then disappeared when i posted it. I resorted to cutting and pasting.

Thursday Justin and Lindsay were in town getting Justin’s letter of approval for the home loan he’s taking. – writing this reminds me that I need to give him a call; he was to make an offer on a house in Muskogee on Friday. I need to see how that’s going. As I was saying, they were in town, so they came to the apartment while I was at the chiropractor. When I got home, I changed (a million times since I couldn’t find anything that would fit me); then we all chatted for 30 minutes about what we wanted to do. The kids couldn’t stay too late because they had to work in the morning. Everyone except for Travis was hungry, though, so we headed to Texas Roadhouse. Travis and I shared a chicken fried chicken and Lindsay and Justin had steak. The food was eh …
They headed back home with the understanding that we would not be joining them for our traditional Friday night ride/movie night. Travis and I decided that we needed to stay home, clean, and relax in our own place for a while. We also need to stop burning up the highway (and gasoline) between Tulsa and Muskogee.

Friday was an interesting day at work. We were concerned about a theft at one of our clients’ – not what I expected to wake up to first thing in the morning. I dealt with that most of the day. At lunch Kerry and I went to lunch with Jen. She met us at the office and we headed to Olivet. It’s a relatively new restaurant at 91st and Memorial. We ate outside and had a great visit. Jen looks adorable. She now looks pregnant and is too, too cute. Travis made fun of me when I got home because I said, “Travis, Jen looks pregnant now!” He said, “that’s probably because she is.” She seems to be doing really well, and was glad to get to see her. Lately we tend to average about a month between our visits … and that’s just too much time!

Last night Travis and I did very little. We watched Pretty Woman, and I fell asleep not long after it was over. Travis put me to bed (what a sweetie) and then stayed up reading for about five more hours or so. I don’t think I woke up a single time during the night.

This morning I woke up around 8:30. I knew Trav was looking forward to sleeping in, so I let him sleep while I got up, read, and updated my LinkedIn account.
We’ve done laundry, put a few more pictures around the apartment, made a trip to Borders, and are now enjoying the grey, drizzly, relaxing Saturday afternoon.

nine.eleven

rainy day.

drizzle. in a word, that was today.

i was so jealous of travis this morning when i awoke. it was the perfect day for sleeping in and napping, and i was getting up and ready for work, while my favorite got to spend another hour or so enjoying the welcoming arms of our comfy bed.

i was dizzy most of the day, and i never did figure out why.

we went to the grocery store tonight and bought "real" food so that we can actually fix lunches and dinners here at the apartment. it's been driving me crazy that we've had nothing here. i'm looking forward to preparing meals again.

after the grocery store, travis settled in and began reading. he's gotten a couple of books the past few days and is furiously reading through them. i headed off to the allens' house to practice with dylan. tonight's practice went really well, and we decided that we will be serious and spend time truly laying tracks next week.

i'm looking forward to getting back in the studio and getting new stuff out there. i can't wait to play new venues.

for now, i'm going to tear travis away from his book and spend some time just enjoying the relaxing, cozy weather. sweet dreams.

sounds like life.

and we're back!

today right after work travis headed to muskogee to help justin with his motorcycle. he has one that he's trying to get rebuilt so that he can sell it. i was supposed to go to the grocery store, but somehow i managed to keep myself occupied ... and ran out of time to make it to the store. that's the second day in a row. looks like i'll have to go tomorrow.

tonight dylan and i got together and practiced. we did several new covers that we had never done before and they went surprisingly well. we're looking forward to playing new venues and maybe even adding a new band member.

for now, it's late, we're tired, and travis is accusing me of writing novels, so i'll bring this to a close.

into the deep blue ... lake?

to begin again from last night. on thursday evening after work we headed to muskogee. our diving classes began on friday morning at 9:00 at tenkiller lake in gore and we wanted to make sure we got there in time. we hung out with justin and lindsay and took it easy.

on friday, we all woke early, showered, and headed to the lake. gene, the owner of the scuba shop is an incredible, incredible man who has had so many awesome experiences. he retired from the air force after 20 years of service; retired from the troopers after 20 years of service; and retired from northeastern state university after 30 years of service. he has been on 147 rescue dives, and has a picture shaking john f. kennedy's hand. the memorabilia that is on all of the walls of the shop are like an enormous scrapbook. i'm amazed each time i walk in. we were the first to arrive out of the other students and gene introduced us to jim, our instructor. most of the day friday was spent in the classroom watching videos and then in the freezing cold pool. it was so cold that i lost feeling in my hands before the class was over and immediately jumped into a warm shower as soon as we were dismissed. lindsay's lips were purple. we headed straight for gene's shop to get wet suits for the next day. friday night we just hung out at the house and watched movies -- a typical evening in muskogee.

saturday morning was much the same as friday's. this time we got to the shop, loaded up our scuba gear and headed down to the lake. we hopped on a boat with everyone and (slowly but surely) made our way to goat island. the boat was having problems, but we finally arrived and completed our first two open water dives. i had a hard time learning neutral buoyancy, so i spent most of my time crawling along the bottom, but it was still a lot of fun. travis and i couldn't tell if lindsay and justin really liked it, but we both had a great time. when it was time to leave for the day, the boat wouldn't start and we had to be towed by another boat, the driver of which said "i'm not really a sailor" ... and was he ever telling the truth! i think we would have rather taken our chances with the busted motor. :) we got to the house, took showers, and headed to zollie's. lindsay wanted justin to eat there for a long time, and none of us had ever been, so we decided to give it a shot. the food was pretty good, but the people were really rude. i felt bad for lindsay because she had talked the place up so much; it always sucks when you really like a place and then everyone else has a bad experience. we went to the house to watch the matrix, but i think i fell asleep as soon as the lights were off.

sunday we had to get up earlier so that we could take food out to the lake. justin and lindsay ran to the store while we stayed at the house and got ready. we finished up our last three dives -- travis and i even got to do a dive by ourselves without our instructor. we didn't get to go too far because we were almost out of air and almost back to the boat, but still it was fun. the last dive was the best for me because i finally got neutral buoyancy and was able to experience the feeling of being weightless that trav kept referring to. it wasn't such a great day for lindsay. she wasn't able to complete all of her dives because she got blockage in her ears which caused a nose bleed. when we got home sunday, we didn't stick around the house long. i was ready to get back to tulsa, back to our house. we spent the rest of the afternoon home relaxing, unwinding, and getting ready for the new week.

i found out that travis's cousin tabitha was in the hospital, but we're thankful that she's doing much better now.

open water diver certifications.

i can't even believe this. i have been typing a post for over 20 mins, saving along the way, and suddenly the site started experiencing difficulties and lost my entire post ... even though i've been saving all along. ugh ...

i'm too tired tonight to repost. i'll do it again tomorrow.

i would just like to say that travis + i (+ lindsay + justin) officially have our scuba certifications. we can't wait to take our first scuba trip.

labor day weekend.

i don't know where the days are going. i often think of updating and then i look up and it's time for bed. this past weekend we spent friday doing laundry and getting the apartment in order. saturday we went to muskogee and hung out with travis's family. dee wanted to cook us dinner. we spent time around the house and driving around town. dee fixed manicotti and lindsay & justin came over to eat with us, too.

on sunday morning we spent time around town waiting for justin to get off work. when he got home we loaded up and headed to dallas. we had all been looking forward to this weekend. everyone couldn't wait to get away. it's not that dallas is overly exciting, but we just wanted to get away from everything. we got into arlington around midnight or 1:00. we got to the hotel and crashed.

the next morning we woke up, took showers, and headed to six flags. we had a lot of fun all hanging out together. it was so incredibly hot. i've been to six flags a lot of times, and i don't remember it ever being that hot. i got some great pictures of us and will get them posted soon.

it was fun to spend time with justin and lindsay. each time that we spend time with her, she seems to open up a little more. justin seems pretty crazy about her. actually, last week, they sprung some pretty surprising news on us ... i will have to wait until a later date to elaborate. =) -- and no, they're not having a baby.

now we have one more day of work and then we will start our scuba diving certification classes! we all have the day off on friday and will be in class friday, saturday, and sunday. i have a feeling that i will be just as exhausted after this upcoming weekend as i was after this past weekend. i'm just excited that we're actually doing things and not sitting by watching our lives pass by. we're spending much time making memories and being together.