Home Alone

There really isn't much to say this time around. I don't have a single picture to post either. So I warn, it could get boring.

Mike spent the weekend in Arkansas at a negotiation competition for law school. His team did good, they won both of their negotiations. Unfortunately, they didn't make it to the final four, but we are just glad its over so now he can just get geared up for finals. People, we are almost half way through our law school experience. I can't believe it! And can I tell you being a law school wife is one of the most difficult things? I keep myself pretty darn busy, and Mike is smarter than the average so he doesn't have to study near as much as some of the other law school students. But I tell you what, its rough. So thank goodness that we are 3 semesters in and only have 3 semesters to go.

So its official. I am a runner again. I didn't think it would happen, but when I walked in the gym that first time this past week, I couldn't help but head for the treadmill instead of the elliptical. And let me tell you, this time around I picked it right back up. It was like riding a bike, my body just didn't forget how to do it. I am already running about an hour straight. Which is a great motivator for me to keep running. And oh how I have missed the treadmill. It is so wonderful to be back.

I did do a little crafting this weekend, but we didn't have enough time to finish it, and the game this weekend is at 2:30, so it'll be two weeks before I complete this one and get a picture posted. Speaking of games, this weekend is the last home game this season, and its very bittersweet. I have really enjoyed going and hanging out with Mike and cheering for our Sooners. OU football is definitely an experience. I am gonna take the video camera to the game on Saturday and record the whole opening before the game starts. Its spectacular.

Not much else is going on in our home here in Oklahoma. Our lives from day to day just don't really change much. I work, clean and run. Mike goes to school, works (2 jobs...crazy), and studies. It seems we keep our lives jam packed with nothingness, but we do seem to have a little fun along the way and make a few memories together.

Eat Good, Workout Hard

Happy Halloween everybody! I hope that you are all having a great day. Except its Sunday so pretty much everyone has already celebrated their Halloween. Except here in Norman where the world revolves around football and because there was a game last night, trick-or-treaters are supposed to go out tonight. The rest of the state did their trick-or-treating last night but not Norman. So I hope we don't get any trick-or-treaters because I didn't buy a single bag of candy. I think only one kid came last year so I didn't want to end up with leftover candy, because we all know what happens when I have sweets laying around the house....I eat them. Friday night Mike and I went to a little pumpkin patch, if you can call it that. The pumpkin patches around here aren't like the ones that we are normally familiar with. To actually go to a pumpkin patch and pick out your pumpkin, you have to pay like an $8 admission fee because they have like activities and stuff that you can do. And I am not even sure if that includes the price of the pumpkin. Well I wasn't feeling like I wanted to spend that much money just to go pick out a pumpkin so we just go to this little church yard where they sell pumpkins. We went to the same place last year. Except this year, we waited way too late in the season to go and all the nasty pumpkins were left, which was kind of what I expected, so we didn't even buy pumpkins but at least we got a picture.

No craft this weekend, and with Mike spending the majority of the day at the school preparing for next weeks competition, I was able to go to the mall and to Hobby Lobby and just walk around and enjoy some alone time. Not that I need alone time, I have plenty of that. But shopping is always great to make the time go by.

Saturday nights game against Colorado didn't start until 8:15 at night. We don't really know why, but because it was Halloween weekend, plus an easy OU win, plus it was such a late game, there was a bit of a lighter crowd. It was so nice. Thank goodness the drunk people in front of us only lasted through the 1st quarter. I can't stand drunk college students. OU won 43-10. Only one more home game left for us to go to this season.....bittersweet.

My gym pass paid in full by my work starts tomorrow. I will be a full fledged member of our local YMCA. I am so looking forward to it. I may actually start running again. Mike and I ran from the stadium to the car last night, and I actually kinda missed it. Plus we all know treadmill running is much easier on the knees, so we'll see how that goes.

 

Will

Why do such awful things happen to the most wonderful people? And why do the great things happen to those who don't deserve it? My dear sweet friend gave birth to her twin boys on Monday morning at 23 weeks. She had an hour with Benson and Lincoln before they returned home to our Heavenly Father. She is so strong. I can't imagine what she is going through.

Haven't you always wondered why things like this happen? What is it that God is trying to teach us? In 5 years will we look back and understand why we had to go through so much turmoil, or will we always wonder, even when such trials have passed, why we had to experience such pain? I don't know why God does things the way he does. But I was once taught by an old friend, do not pray for things to go your way, pray that the Lord's will may also become your own, that you may better understand the things that occur in your life.

I have a good life. I have a wonderful husband, a nice home, a good job, and supportive family and friends. Things definitely don't always go my way. Some days it seems like things never go my way. But who is to say that my way is the right way. Maybe we all just need to get on our knees and ask our Father what it is that He wants us to do, be the instrument.

"To Everything There Is A Season..."

Bad bad weekend for sports.

OU....how could you let us down like that? Horrible defense and not much better of an offense. You were #1 in the nation and you choked. Lame.

Yankees. Seriously? You let the Rangers go the the World Series. And quite easily I should add. Lame.

Mike finished up his first competition this week. This one was the Moot Court competition, the same type of competition he competed in last year. As always, he did great. His team made it into the top 8 and he personally won 4th place for the speaker award. Amazing. As always.

Saturday means another craft down. Yesterday we decided to use up some of the wood that we had leftover from last week's craft and create a Thanksgiving decoration. Andrea and I went our own route and both ideas turned out so adorable. Our friend Karen joined in the festivities yesterday and made the Christmas Countdown craft that we did last week. Hers turned out great! We had a lot of fun and, as always, I am looking forward to next Saturday!

 

I heard some awful news on Friday about one of my best friends back in Utah. She is pregnant with twins and on Wednesday afternoon she went into pre-term labor at 22 weeks. Things are not looking good for the babies. When I got the chance to talk to her on Friday night, she sounded exhausted but amazingly, she seemed very calm. Please pray for my sweet friend, she could absolutely use all the prayers she can get. She is such a strong person and I know she'll make it through this. Just another of our Heavenly Father's crazy ways of teaching us a little bit more about ourselves.

Michael's has started putting out there Christmas merchandise again. So I started scouting the place out at least a couple times a week waiting for my candle to appear. And on Saturday...it did! And I even had a 40% off coupon on hand. So yes, if you were to walk into my house, right now for instance, it already smells like Christmas. I seriously wait all year for this candle to come out. For all who are interested, the scent is "Holly Berry" and the brand is Ashland. I am pretty sure this candle is sold exclusively at Michael's but it is worth tracking down. And the best part about it....regular price its only $5.99 for the largest size! And thats if you ever pay full price. Usually they are on some sort of sale or you can at least find a coupon for it. Get one. I totally recommend it.

4

4 years ago today was our first date. It was Friday the 13th....but it seemed to work out pretty well for us. For all who are interested, we went to dinner and then to a corn maze.

4 years ago tomorrow (so I don't have to do a separate post tomorrow) we had what some would call a "DTR" (define the relationship) and became an official couple.

Yep, this may sound retarded to some that I remember these dates. I actually quizzed Mike last night on these dates along with what I was wearing on each day between Oct. 10-14, but he couldn't remember. I still haven't quite figured out why I can remember. But anyway, these days are special to me.

And for all who are curious, our first kiss was on Oct. 26th.

I love my Michael. And I am so grateful for the month of October in 2006. He changed my life completely. I knew it the moment I told him to be Peter Pan that Halloween, and he did. Tights and all.

Love you babe.

Us

 Look at these super cute Halloween Candy Corn Wreath's that we made! My friend Andrea and I glued and glued for over 2 hours to get these wreaths done but I am so happy with the final product. I hung it on my front door, and it looks great, but the picture that you get to see is flipped because that is what happened when I uploaded it. I, once again, couldn't get it to flip right. If anyone else has figured out how to get this fixed, please let me know. Its only the pictures that have no people in them, so I am betting its some facial recognition thing. Anyway, super fun wreath to make. The link for how to do it is right here.

Today I created a new tradition. Well first off, happy 4 year anniversary to Mike today who got home from his mission on October 10, 2006! (Also today is our 4 year anniversary for holding hands for the first time. Yes, Mike held my hand the day he got home from his mission, for the first time ever. It scared the heck out of me. That's a different story for a different day.) Anyway, two of Mike's favorite foods from the mission were Patacones, which are friend plantains, and what he calls "immigration hot dogs" because the vendor that sold these hot dogs was outside the immigration building in Panama. When we visited Panama in 2008, I had the pleasure of trying both and both were just as delicious as he described. So today, guess what we had for dinner? Yep, patacones and immigration hot dogs. The hot dogs are actually a kind of hot dog that is popular in Colombia, and it has pineapple sauce, coleslaw, and crushed potato chips on it, along with the typical hot dog toppings. And I think dinner was a success! Mike seemed to enjoy it anyway. After dinner he said, "You realize what you have done right?" I actually had no idea what I had done. He said, "You have created a tradition. Now every year on October 10th this is what we have to have for dinner. Even when we have kids." Yay, I love new traditions! Here are the links for the Patacones and Colombian Hot Dogs.

Cheesy I know, but we love our new carpet. And this is right after we got it in. We love it.

I became an official employee at my job on October 4th. I was supposed to be on contract until November 30th, but they must have decided that they just really love me. But that means that I will get benefits soon! I am so excited!

And look how cute we are!

I love my siblings. Miss you guys.



Joy

Oh and my sister is coming tomorrow! Happy happy joy joy!

Goodnight!

Birthday

Happy birthday to my sweetheart yesterday! He turned 25 years old! Our family birthday rule is that you can do whatever you want on your birthday, money is not an option (within reason), but the rule is that you have to make all the decisions on your own. Since Mike and I are both really bad decision makers, this gets us to make some decisions about what we really want to do without any influence from an outside party. So we got up on Saturday morning and Mike went to his normal 2 hour football game with some men from the ward and other friends. The difference this Saturday was that I went with him and watched. It was fun to sit there in the grass and watch my man sweat a bit. He even scored a touchdown!

Then we came home and I made him breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, bacon and Orange Julius. He then opened his gifts which were basically just things that he desperately needed. I also did give him the first season of "Modern Family" which he just loves. As we were out and about yesterday, he said to me..."All I want to do is sit home and watch 'Modern Family'". Haha.

Then we went and saw the new movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps". It was okay. I don't think either of us were completely thrilled but it was just fun anyway. Then we went to dinner at a restaurant called "BJ's". It was right about the same time that the OU football game was starting and this place is basically a sports bar and grill so we got to watch the game while eating.  

He got a lot of Happy Birthday phone calls from family and friends.

I made him blow out 25 tea-light candles because his cake was an ice cream cake so we didn't put candles in it.

 

Guess where we're going to be next weekend?!

Yep, the OU vs Texas game. And I have no idea why this picture is flipped this way. It would not upload the right way. Trust me, I tried like 10 times to reupload it. I even reuploaded it flipped the wrong way trying to get it to flip the right way but it just wouldn't. Anyway, I guess I shouldn't say we will be at the game, Mike and his brother are going to the game, while the rest of us will do who knows what in Dallas. The Texas State Fair is going on (the game and the fair are always the same weekend) so we will probably be doing that. But either way, we are getting away for a couple days. Ironically enough, we spent last conference weekend with Mike's brothers family. I see a tradition building here. Well for as long as we are living so close anyway. Anyway, Mike had the option to buy tickets because we are season ticket holders. And this game is a really huge deal. All the ticket purchasing for season ticket holders is random. But guess what seats he ended up with?! 4th row on the 40 yard line! We considered selling the tickets and now that we know that they are that good of tickets, we could probably sell them for way more. But Mike and his brother will have an awesome time! And of course, I can't wait to hang out with my sis-in-law and the kids.

And today is the first day that it actually feels like fall. There is a cool breeze in the air and a crispness. No humidity. Oh how I love the fall!

Modern Glee

Best news ever! The landlords replaced the fridge. We now have cold food awaiting any and all hunger or thirst. Can I tell you how wonderful cold water is? It is so wonderful. Especially after an early morning workout. Its been rough, but we persevered. And then we got some more great news. The landlord looked at our carpet and decided to replace it. And not just in the molding room. Yes, the whole house is getting new carpet! Do you know what this means?? 1) I will actually feel clean again. 2) I won't be embarrassed to have people over. 3) My house will smell good. 4) We won't have to move. 5) According to Mike's law school friends, I will be happy again which means that he can be happy. This is fantastic news. So Tuesday they will be out to measure and then we are well on our way to a pretty awesome house. So excited.

Do you know what else is super exciting? We got our flights booked to go home for Christmas! Its official. We will be there on December 16 and will be there until December 27! My boss finally gave me the okay, so we hurried and booked our tickets so now there is no going back. I absolutely can't wait for the holidays! I love the good food, the Hollyberry Christmas candle, the Christmas lights, the family traditions, the Christmas tree, the shopping, and the general happiness that the holidays bring. We assume we are spending Thanksgiving in Houston again with Mike's brother and his family. We should probably get the official scoop on that one before we get too certain. But I'm just so excited for holidays and some awesome family fun!

Brag Alert: Mike's just awesome. This year he will be participating in 3 law school competition. He will be doing the same moot court competition that he did so well in last year. He will also be participating in a tax competition because he has taken a liking to tax law lately (I know, kinda weird, but quite awesome at the same time). And finally, he has been chosen as 1 of 4 students to travel to Arkansas to compete in the American Bar Association (ABA) Negotiation Regional Competition. I know, awesome right? So I am a proud wife. Mike never seems to disappoint so I seem to always be a proud wife. We don't know when we will be hearing back from all the internships that he has already applied for for next summer, so we still don't quite know where we will be. Could be Utah. Could be Texas. Could be good, old Oklahoma. Could be somewhere else. As long as we find an internship, we don't really care. Okay, we...meaning I.....care a little bit. But its out of my control.

I feel like painting fingernail polish all over my nasty, old carpet before it gets ripped up. Who wants to come?

Oh! And the new season of Modern Family and Glee start this week! And Mike's turning 25 on Saturday! Gonna be an awesome week!

Football

Well the football season has begun. Its official. We both have season tickets to OU this year (compared to last year only Mike having a season ticket because we didn't perform the spouse "process" correctly....stupid). Yesterday was the season opener. And of all teams to play, we played Utah State! We were excited to have such an easy win because everyone knows Utah State isn't so great. Well, we were nearly disappointed. OU played so so so horribly! OU was always in the lead scoring-wise, but at one point we really did think it was possible that we might lose! Lose to UTAH STATE!!! That just would have been embarrassing. Luckily we pulled through and won the game. Thank goodness or we may have stopped claiming the Sooners. Before the game, we were ranked 6 or 7, and even though we won, based on yesterdays game, we definitely shouldn't have been. So hopefully things turn around. And if anyone wants to come out and go to a game, you are more than welcome to take my ticket...and we even have a room you can stay in. (I know, right after I talk about how bad our football team is....but its not how good or bad the team is....its the Oklahoma football experience). We bought our Texas/OU tickets. If you know nothing about college rivalry, you may not know that this is one of the top in the nation. This game is huge! We got first dibs on tickets because we are season ticket holders. They were $120 a piece. Yes, I know. Super pricey. But we have to go at least once while we are Sooners, and if we decided to sell them, Mike has already gotten at least one offer for $200 a piece. So in the end if we don't go, we profit quite a bit! They always play the game in Dallas and its always the same weekend as the Texas State Fair. So either way, I think we will be going to Dallas that weekend. The Texas State Fair is the fair with the hundreds of different types of fried foods! And I have got to do that while I live here. It just sounds like an absolute blast!

I started my job this week. It seems to be going well. I am just happy to be working and not having to spend every day in this nasty house. The work days are starting out slow but I am sure once I learn more, they will pick up. All I know is I get paid well and my commute is about 15 minutes. So other than that, I don't really care!

Our house is still nasty. I haven't done a thing since we cleaned up the mold. And we still haven't heard from our landlord. If they don't contact us, we will contact them as soon as our rent check gets cashed. That way we know that they are officially home from being out of town. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that they just replace the carpet and the fridge and that we won't have to move out.

Anyway, anticipate bad blogging from me until I can get myself settled. I just feel like I am not having much time lately. And I have been working out every single day (except Sundays)....go me!....so time is even more scarce! But I truly look forward to the day when I have good news to share about this house!