girls' evening on the town.

travis was out of town this weekend, so on saturday i invited dee to have dinner with haley and me.  we decided on texas roadhouse where we discovered the most fabulous thing -- they have anyone celebrating a birthday sit on a saddle on a saw horse and wear a cowboy hat .

haley's already counting the days until her birthday {august 19th}, so dee and i told her it was all settled.  we would come back to texas roadhouse just for her.  she was less than thrilled.

after texas roadhouse i started driving to hobby lobby.  then haley informed me it was boring.  i don't know what i did before having a teenager to let me know these kinds of things.

we went to bed, bath & beyond instead.

who knew bb&b was more exciting than hobby lobby?

we spent quite a bit of time walking around checking out the different gadgets.  

haley found several ideas for her birthday including an iPod docking station that serves as an alarm clock and a speaker to play her music.  she also found some bedding she really likes. 

i can't find a picture of it online, but they had a union jack quilt mixed in with this duvet and a few of the passport and union jack throw pillows.

i really liked how it all looked together -- and while i love black and white elements of these different cities, i don't think i would have ever thought to pair it with the union jack colors.  it looked really great together.

after bed, bath, and beyond i wanted to grab a snow cone at josh's sno shack, but haley wanted ice cream, so we headed over to freckles.  dee decided not to have anything, but i tried one of their snow cones, and haley got a small vanilla custard.

they claim they had soft, shaved ice, and while it was good, it just wasn't josh's.  travis and i tried josh's sno shack for the first time a few weeks ago on a super hot day, and it just tasted like summer in a cup.  it was fantastic.  and i don't even usually eat a lot of snow cones. i've gotten them a couple of times with travis in muskogee, but before that, i probably hadn't had one since falls creek church camp in high school.

the sun was starting to set so we headed home so dee could get on the road before dark.   i don't have girls' days very often, but this evening turned out to be pretty great. 

happy fourth of july!

i somehow have very few pictures from this week, but we spent a lot of time driving back and forth between muskogee in the evenings while lou, caitlin, and kevin are in town. 

we spent the fourth at dee's house, with sue and her whole gang coming down for the holiday, too.  this was haley's first time to meet aunt lou and her grandkids.  i think she was a little nervous to meet them, but everything seemed to go really well. lou took haley and caitlin shopping for swimming suits.  while they were all shopping for suits we took kevin and headed to the castle of muskogee with amanda, zach, and tabitha to buy fireworks for later that night.  we had a little bit of a scare as we were standing in line and got a call that ryan was having an asthma attack.  luckily it was a false alarm and they were able to get it under control before we could get his inhaler to him. 

after all the shopping, everyone headed over to the a hotel pool where jim and sue were staying. 

there wasn't any sunscreen so i sat poolside most of the time covered up under my dress and a towel.  when it was closer to time to leave, {and i was sweltering under the towel} i decided to ditch the layers and hop in the pool for a bit. 

as we were getting out of the pool haley said justin would be coming to get her around 4:00 to head over to the land.  we had discussed her spending half the holiday with us and half the holiday with my mom, but a plan had never been shared with me.  i was a little frustrated because i was planning to drive out there, so it didn't make sense to me to have justin come by the house to get haley.  i had no way to get a hold of him, though, because his phone had gotten broken and he was waiting for a replacement to come in.

justin came and picked up haley and i hung out at the lears' until dinner was almost ready, then i headed over to tahlequah.  conor hopped in the car with me and away we went.  at the light in ft. gibson, we passed justin, lindsay, haley, and parker.  conor and i ended up beating them to the land.

while dad was grilling burgers, {super juicy} chicken,  and corn, conor and i followed this cute little guy around.  this mower {and wheel barrow in the background} were new toys for him.

 

this funny little face is staged.  if you ask parker to "make your face," this is what you get.  every. single. time.  he's so funny!

mom, dad, justin, lindsay, parker, haley, john bodean, his wife deb, and landon were all there.  we had fun eating dinner and cupcakes. i stayed for several hours, but as it started getting darker i decided to head back over to muskogee.  i'm glad i decided to leave when i did because conor and i had a beautiful show all the way home.  we had the ft. gibson show plus all the fireworks everyone else was shooting along the way.   we got back to muskogee in time to see a few of the larger fireworks we had purchased, but i stayed in the house with the boys.  oliver and conor really didn't like all the loud noises.

time for myself.

over the past few months everyone keeps reminding me to take care of myself.  i usually don't know what to do when someone says that, but today i decided to go to the pool, soak in some vitamins from the sun, and just try to relax.  so that's what haley and i did.

travis and matthew were out of town for the weekend picking up a bike for matthew, so i texted crystal to see if she wanted to take a break from packing* and bring the boys to swim for a little bit.  we hung out at the pool for a while and haley had fun seeing the boys.  after swimming for a bit haley and the boys were hungry so we headed up to steak and shake for dinner.

we didn't get a lot of laundry done, but it was a great weekend afternoon.

*have i mentioned matthew and crystal are moving?  when they first found out we were talking about moving they joked about needing to move, too, because we would all be too far away from one another.  well, as it turns out, they are beating us to it.  crystal put in an application with the bartlesville school system late one evening.  earlier this month they called and asked if she could come in for an interview -- it was the week we were on vacation.  she, amber, and all the kids drove to bartlesville that day so she could have her interview.  by the end of the day, she had a job, and she and matthew were putting their house up for rent.  they had several hits on it within hours of listing it and then had it rented out within two weeks.  at the same time, they found a house in bartlesville that had recently been renovated.  it has a huge backyard, is 7 minutes from work for matthew, about 4 minutes from crystal's school and is within walking distance for levi to get to his new school.  everything just fell in line for them and has been such a testament of what God can do and how everything falls into place when it's supposed to.  i keep reminding travis and myself of this the longer our house sits on the market.  it will sell when it is supposed to.

after hanging out at the pool, i came home and organized sierra's closet.  she's been keeping her room clean since moving in with us again {if you know sierra, you know this is no small miracle}. her room has been clean, but her closet has been a disaster.  i have a silver stand that i'm not able to use right now because we've already started packing up several things. i thought it would make a cute holder for her jewelry, and i think it worked out rather nicely.

lazy sunday afternoon? not for us!

yesterday we didn't accomplish as much as we set out to do. instead of mowing lawns, we spent the afternoon with travis's family. travis wanted to wait until the evening when it was a little cooler to mow, but after the day passed, he decided he wanted a shower and a nap, so we headed to my parents'. after a shower, travis {mr. indecisive! yesterday} decided that he no longer wanted a shower, but instead wanted to go to the pool hall for a bit. we haven't spent much time up there at all the past two weeks or so. he, sierra, and i jumped in the car and headed there. we were there until closing. i spent most of the time reading harry potter while travis wasted no time getting his pool fix. i'm halfway through the fourth one {the goblet of fire}. i had forgotten how much i love them. we went straight to bed when we got home last night. i think we were both pretty worn out.

this morning we woke up, loaded up connor, and headed back to the lears'. we put connor and tedo in the backyard. i walked around and picked up all of the pinecones and sticks so that travis could get right to mowing. he took off his shirts and his flipflops! i couldn't believe that he mowed all day barefoot! i went inside to find some sunscreen since the last time he worked in his parents' yard he got a terrible burn {and now has so many freckles on his back, it no longer looks like his own!}

after i picked up the yard, there was nothing else travis wanted me to do, so i went inside to read harry potter a little more. he worked on the yard most of the day {his parents have a very large lot}.

after we were finished we headed back to my parents' house. travis again thought he wanted a nap, but this time after his shower, he decided to watch harry potter and the half blood prince. we were just lazy and cooled down for a bit.

i thought we would get to work on my parents' yard, but after the movie, travis wanted to get out of the house, so we headed to hastings for a bit. we caught up on the latest gossip, checked out a few books that we would like to read in the future ... and lost travis's wallet. he didn't realize it until we were walking out to the car. my mom had called us home for dinner. we quickly walked back inside to the aisle he had been perusing and hit up the magazine stand, but it wasn't there. i caught up with one of the managers, and luckily {thank you for small miracles!} the wallet had been handed in to the office.

we got home and had dinner with my parents. it was just the four of us as sierra had gone to her godmother's just today. she's getting in one last summer visit before the fall semester {of her sophomore year!} begins.

lindsay stopped by just as we were fixing our plates to pick up some pain meds for justin. he seems to be doing well, but is in a bit of pain right now. mom and dad had gone over earlier in the day to help bleed the brakes of his truck, since he isn't able to do anything like that right now.

the sun has set ... and the lawn here still isn't mowed and the mower {one different than we would use to mow the lawn} still is not intact. i suppose tomorrow is a new day ... with new excuses, like league! hopefully we'll get it taken care of by tuesday.

for now, i am going to head back to my book while travis and my mom pick out the pictures they are going to submit for the contest they are trying to win in billiards digest -- the chance to be featured as one of the top game rooms in the country.

hope that your week starts out wonderfully well! safe travels to jenny and tim {who should be making the long flight home from mongolia at this time}.

the real pictures update.

these first two are pictures that we took after my cousin's wedding.

we were at my aunt brenda's.

the next three pictures are of our camping trip last weekend. i wish that i would have gotten pictures of our campfire and more pictures of all of us together. i didn't have my memory card, though, and the internal memory of my camera was used up.

our first camping trip {my very first}.

i know it's been quite a few days since i last posted, but this time i promise i'm not slacking off. i've actually wanted to update several different times. i haven't had my jpg files with me each time i've wanted to update, though, and so i've postponed updating. today i decided that i have had enough of this waiting to be prepared business. i will post pictures at a later date.

on friday travis and i packed up our things and headed out for my very first camping trip. and our first camping trip together. we packed up little connor, too, and took him along for the weekend of nature-fun. travis has been promising to take me camping for some time ... and we were also tired of being bored with no money to spend. we decided this would be a great way to entertain ourselves without spending any money.

we raided our parents' refrigerators for eggs, sausage, ham, cheese, bologna, and hot dogs. (the only thing i like in that list, by the way, is cheese.) we also stocked up on chips, cookies, and trail mix. travis's parents go camping relatively often, so we were able to borrow lanterns, a cookstove, a large gatorade jug to fill with water, and a flashlight. we loaded up our sleeping bag, blankets, pillows, books, food, and the pup and away we went. we went to wahoo bay on fort gibson lake (which is only a ten to fifteen minute drive from my parents', so no gas money spent).

actually. that's not right. we packed up the car, but then i headed back to my parents' house for a family cookout while travis headed to the campsite to claim our spot. at wahoo bay you don't have to pay to camp, but people head out there pretty early on the weekends to grab a spot. the family cookout was kind of sprung on us last minute, after we had already made the plans to camp. since wahoo bay is the only campsite where you don't have to pay, we decided that travis would go ahead and grab a spot.

my dad was already at the pool hall, so dinner was with mom, sierra, justin & lindsay. my mom had set the table out on the veranda. the weather was beautiful. even though it was the middle of summer in oklahoma, the weather was surprisingly mild last weekend. the flies were abundant, however. it was all justin could do to keep them away from our table. after eating, everyone cleaned up and headed out. my mom had to get to the game room and i was anxious to get to the campsite.

when connor and i got there, travis had our tent all set up and had even built an impressive firepit. we settled in and unpacked everything. most of the weekend was spent relaxing and reading. we were about thirty feet back from the lake, and it was so peaceful. the wind blowing in off the lake kept the temperature very comfortable. it looked like it might rain on us a couple of times, but it never really did. saturday morning we woke to the sound of light rain on the tent. travis went out to secure the rain guard, and then we fell right back to sleep ... and slept until 11:00!! i never dreamed that we would be able to sleep that late on the hard, rocky ground. the fresh air must have been good for us.

i started reading the harry potter series again on saturday. i finished the first book that day, in between a little time in the lake with travis and connor. connor, by the way, couldn't decide if he wanted to be in the lake or not. when i tried to get him in as i was going in, he wouldn't even touch the water. we had him staked by the water, but he kept coming in and barking, trying to get to us. i went over and brought him in. he quickly swam out, made a large u-turn, and headed back to shore. i tried to stake him out again, but again he kept barking and trying to get in the water. this time i held him while we were in the water and he did pretty good. it was the cutest thing, because even when i was holding him, if i put his front paws in the water at all he would begin to slowly paddle his legs. he let him swim back and forth between travis and me, making sure that we spent lots of time holding him in between, so that he would be content with staying in the water.

getting out of the water made me anxious because his wet little paws quickly turned the dirt by the lake into mud. i just knew we were going to have a muddy mess on our hands. lucky for us, that was not the case, though i'm still not sure how we lucked out on that one.

later that day we decided to throw the frisbee around. connor had great fun sprinting between me and travis as we tossed it back and forth. he never wanted to catch it or even carry it back and forth, he just wanted to run when it was flying. we had so much fun with our little guy.

on saturday travis was afraid that it was going to storm on us, and we considered packing up and heading back home. we decided against it. after dark travis told me if a storm did come in the middle of the night, we would just have to wait it out. we wouldn't be packing up and going home.

sunday was a little bittersweet. it had been nice to have some time to ourselves, but at the same time, i was ready for a shower! we tore down our camp and headed to the lears' to unpack our borrowed equipment. dee asked us over for dinner and (at my request) said she would fix homemade chips (one of my favorites!) and tacos.

we headed home to take showers and return my parents' things. then, a few hours later, feeling much more refreshed and back to normal, we headed for a yummy dinner. i can never get tired of homemade chips! which is really a problem as i keep eating and eating! i sat on the couch and read the second harry potter while waiting for dinner, dozed off for a bit, and then spent time eating and watching a movie with travis, amanda, zach and dee. all in all it was one of the best weekends we've had in some time, packed to the gills {where does that phrase come from?} with activity and fun.

30 may: day 1 of our vacation

for my birthday travis (kind of) surprised me with a vacation! when i was at addison he knew that i needed some time away and had planned this get away for us. then, when i was no longer at addison, he decided that we had both been through a lot and needed a good vacation. we packed everything on friday, headed to justin and lindsay's. we actually ended up consuming a bit too much alcohol while playing xbox, and instead of leaving at 7:00 in the morning as originally planned, we left around 12:30. it was great just to be out of town ... it's funny how things just feel different.
we were headed to oak ridge, tennessee to see travis's aunt lou, as well as other tourist-y sites throughout tennessee. travis had never been through arkansas to get to tennessee, so we decided to take the scenic route. the drive was really pretty when we first started, but after several hours of only countryside, we were ready to cross the state line. we had experienced country rap (seriously, a country guy rapping about living in the country), passed "broken down windmills" that turned out to be trees, and the best one ever (i can't believe i missed this photo opp) a salon called "pitcher perfect -- not just hair, it's art". we couldn't stop laughing. we had another giggle fit not far into missouri. there was a bright yellow building with large, multi-colored jelly beans painted all over the side of it. it was called jelly bean hill ... and here's the kicker -- turned out to be a discount tobacco distributor! what??
we drove and drove for hours (and i only slept 20 minutes) and finally crossed the mighty mississippi into tennessee around 8:00 that night. we had planned to stop in mayfield (from where all of travis's dad's family originates), but decided that the drive through arkansas had extended the driving longer than anticipated as it was. we drove about an hour south to jackson where we got a hotel room for the night. we were so tired from driving we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow -- we didn't take showers, turn on the tv or anything! i sent a message telling all of our family good night at 8:52 pm! we were asleep before 9.

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.

summer summer summer time.

the past few days have been very eventful. thursday my office closed early for the holiday. after my chiropractic appointment, travis and i headed to muskogee. he plays in leagues every thursday night, though, this league should be ending soon. while we were at the pool hall, it started to storm, but we weren't too concerned as it appeared to just be heavy showers. before too long, though, it began to hail and strong winds came up. the dumpster was blown about 200 yards where it tipped over in front of the doors. most of the people in the poolhall were standing in front of the doors checking out the storm and those who could were checking the weather on their cell phones (myself included). the radar didn't show that the storm was going to be too bad ... little did they know that there would be a flood! the storm got pretty ugly as several transformers began to blow and light up the sky. we lost most of the power at the pool hall and people who came in out of the rain let us know that the streets were flooding -- one of the main streets was completely shut down because of the high levels of water. we waited out the storm for a bit and then headed back to tulsa. we missed most of the rain as we were driving home, but it hit tulsa right as we pulled into broken arrow. we made it home safe and sound and got ready for bed so we could prepare for our trip to edmond.
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friday we woke up early, did a little laundry, got ready for the day and packed our bags. the trip to edmond wasn't too bad. we were going to see travis's family again. aunt lou was still in town, and it was aunt sue's birthday. in addition to that, everyone was going to the grimes for the fourth of july. when we got to the house, the food was all almost ready -- we weren't expecting it to be done so soon -- and all of the family was there. i snapped some great pictures of the boys.

fireworks are illegal in edmond, so it was the first fourth that i haven't gotten to set off fireworks. there are several displays in town, but travis didn't want to go see them; it just reminded him that he wasn't allowed to shoot any off himself. instead we went to the theater and watched wanted. we've been waiting for this movie to open, so i was excited that we were finally getting to go.
after the movie we spent time driving around having a few serious talks on subjects such as love, faith, death, and the future. we talk about the future a lot, so the conversation revolved much more around some of the other subjects -- apparently edmond does that to us because last weekend we had another serious talk between the two of us. that is one thing that i believe we both appreciate -- our ability to talk to each other about anything that is on our minds. it's not always easy, but we always do. hope that it is always this way.
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saturday was uneventful. tabitha and the boys came and went and we really didn't have much time with them on saturday. travis and i came and went as well as we drove around looking for something to keep ourselves entertained. we spent time at the bookstore and also picked up some ice cream. when we got back to the house most people were outside working in the yard; we heard that things were getting tense outside, and i was thankful that we weren't a part of that. =) we planned to go home, but dinner was being prepared, and i didn't want to miss out on the yummy food. dee, sue, and lue's long-lost cousin flint was in town, and they were preparing a traditional "oklahoma meal" for him. while dinner was being fixed we went out on the back porch to watch a couple of videos. it was so nice outside, and i'm sad that we haven't spent more time outside this summer. we have decided that we would like to get our scuba diving certifications and may even look into that next weekend ... that would mean a lot more time outside. amanda and simone made it to the house late that night. we didn't get to spend a ton of time with them, but it was good to see both the girls. i felt like i hadn't seen amanda in ages. even though we're not officially, we call each other sister, and i miss her when too much time has passed.
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today we slept in, got ready, and then headed back to tulsa. coming home was bittersweet. it was nice to be back in our own home, but at the same time, it was a return to reality so-to-speak. back to laundry, back to work tomorrow, and back to the realization that we have to pack and still need to find a new place to live. we put some laundry in, cleaned up the house, fixed dinner and then decided to go watch another movie. we've not watched many movies lately, so it's been nice this weekend to escape for a bit and watch some of the ones we've been highly anticipating. this time we went to see hancock; amelia and justin came with us. j rode his bike up and for the first time in i don't know when, amelia was on time! =) she was happy to say that she was ready even before travis.
the movie was great -- though travis thinks he likes ironman better -- and afterward we all stopped for ice cream at coldstone. bub was supposed to head home right after, but now we've gotten ourselves engrossed in transformers.
i suppose i'll finish up laundry and get things in order to begin a new week. amelia, travis, and i will continue to figure out where each of us will next call home. fingers crossed! safe travels to all of our family as they head to their homes.