Jestyn Reese

My baby girl is here!  Jestyn Reese was born on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 1:21pm.  She weighed 7 lb 15 oz and was 21 inches long.  She is perfect :)

I know that I have been a really inconsistent blogger, but this whole time I was convinced that as soon as she was born I would post about it.  I didn't want to lose any memory of her, and I wanted to make sure that I documented everything when it happened.  So I just knew I would post about her and my delivery and pictures and my feelings the day she came.  Then they placed her in my arms and this face looked up at me....

...and then my angel smiled at me.....

...and I was in love.  I didn't want to do anything except hold her and stare at her.  Seriously, what newborn is this alert and expressive 10 minutes after entering the world?  She's so special.  So anyway, I'm going to attempt to catch up.  I guess I'll start with my labor and delivery story. Then I'll have to do a post later to document her first week.

Dr. Strebel was on vacation until Friday, the 19th, so I was given strict orders to not have my baby without her.  I really thought I'd end up having to be induced sometime the week after her due date, but I listened to my doctor and didn't do any activity the week prior to my due date (the 20th).  Once she got back to town Friday, I started walking, trying to move this process along.  Anita and I walked, went to watch Unstoppable (side note: I love Denzel :) and the movie was awesome), then walked some more.  I didn't feel any different and didn't even feel like she'd started to drop.  But Saturday morning about 4:00am, I woke up with cramps.  Still didn't think anything of it, until I realized I was getting cramps every 30 min...and it finally dawned on me that I could be having contractions!  I was very calm, and decided to get up an take a shower at 6:00, just to see if the hot water would ease the cramping.  Nope.  So I woke up Jimmy at 6:30 to tell him it would probably be happening sometime that afternoon/evening.  We were calm, and even discussed going to breakfast at Jimmy's Egg, then coming home to clean up.  However, by about 7:00, my contractions started getting closer together-about every 7-10 minutes-and a little stronger.  I told Jimmy to go ahead and get ready, just in case.  By 7:30, I was sternly telling him to get me to the hospital:)  I thought they might send me home, but I wanted to make sure I didn't have a baby at my house. 

We get to the hospital and finally found labor triage.  I walk up to the 3 nurses and calmly tell them I'm in labor.  They asked me if it was my first child?  Yes.  When is my due date?  Today.  How long have I been having contractions?  Almost 4 hours, but they have gotten stronger in the last hour.  When was my last appointment?  2 days ago.  How dilated was I?  1 cm.  The longer I stand there, I realize they don't believe me that I'm in labor.  And I realized by my answers that it sounded pretty unlikely.  But I was still irritated and just wanted them to check.  So they do and it turns out that I'm completely effaced and dilated to a 5 already!  Give me the epidural!  I'm pretty sure I said that more than once.  Not so much because I was in major pain, but did not want to get it too late.  They start an IV and do all the blood work, etc, and about 45 minutes later, my water breaks, and I'm dilated to a 9.  Still don't have the epidural.  My contractions became much stronger and closer together.  I'm swiftly moved to a delivery room and the anesthesiologist finally shows up for my epidural, which I barely remember even feeling the shot after those contractions I was having.  I think I told that doctor I loved him about 4 times.  So after that shot I'm feeling good, until I started feeling contractions again and my blood pressure started dropping.  I'm still not sure what happened, but they had to give me a shot to stop my contractions to get my blood pressure under control, then give me another shot to start them again.  Craziness.  If that wouldn't have happened, she probably would've been here about 11:00am.  Anyway, Jimmy and my sister were both in the room.  My delivery was very smooth after that and I didn't have to push too many times.  I was just so exhausted and so excited at the same time.  Oh, and my nurse even admitted to me later that they did think I was nuts when I arrived, they were taking bets that I was in false labor, and that I was way too calm to be dilated to a 5.  I knew it!

So after all of that, I was given the most beautiful girl in the world.  I could not have dreamed I would fall in love with her so quickly and that my world would change so drastically.  I know that I am extremely blessed, not only because I had a great pregnancy and a fairly uneventful and quick delivery, but because Jestyn is just the most incredible baby.  I know I'm biased, but she truly is perfect.  And I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have my husband.  I never doubted that he would be a good dad.  I always knew he'd be awesome.  But he is just the proudest dad I've ever seen.  He's so hands-on and helpful and could possibly be even more smitten than I am with her.  And I'm pretty sure that every time I see him hold her I fall more in love with him.

Baby Shower Weekend

Last weekend, our friends threw us 2 different showers.  We were surrounded by so many friends, and they were both better than I could've imagined!  We have the most incredible friends, and everyone was so awesome to us.  God continues to show us how blessed we are!

First up was a couple's shower at the Bradt's on Friday night.  They are THE most generous and thoughtful couple.  We had an Italian feast.  She made her homemade spaghetti sauce and the most beautiful cheesecake!  I am terrible and forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures of all of our friends...but check out this cheesecake!

My other shower was Sunday after church at the Hughes' house.  I had so many friends show up!  I felt like a very lucky and loved girl.  Again, I didn't take my camera.  I need to work on that.  Seriously.  But I did get some pictures from people smart enough to remember their cameras:

Here are all of my beautiful hostesses with me behind the yummy food!  From left: Staci, Heather, me, Erika, Christina, Mindy, Nicole, and Teryn.  I love these girls!  They were so great to me!

And another cake!  I'm pregnant, so I can get excited about cake.  This one was tres leches though, made by Yvette, who made our wedding cakes.  I LOVE tres leches cake!  I know that not everyone does.  But it's so moist and not too sweet...mmmm....

Pile of presents!  Told ya, I'm a lucky girl.

One of the games they played was having everyone make a baby with Play-Doh.  I was supposed to pick a winner...and had no idea how hard it would be!  Some of these babies were DETAILED!  I couldn't believe how cute some of them turned out:

The orange baby in this bottom picture was the winner.  She was super detailed.  Check out the bent legs.  Wow.  And you can't tell from this view, but she also had fingers, toes, and was realistic EVERYWHERE.  Nice job, Holly.

Becca (my sister), me, JFlem (or the other Jessica, whose last name is no longer Fleming), and Leah.  Aww, sweet SWOSU memories with these girls.

As you can see, it was a great day filled with great friends and family!  Like I said, Jimmy and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.  We are really so appreciative!

Now we get to find places to put all this great stuff.....

Lately...

So I'll start with what I ended my last post talking about.  It has now been so long ago, but Jimmy's mom, sister, and nephew came to visit us in August.  They came for Watonga Days, and we were so excited to get to spend some time with them.  We've only been around his nephew, Ramerio, once before, and that was last October, so we were very excited to spend some more time with him.  He is SUCH a cutie, but I may be biased because he looks identical to Jimmy's baby pictures.  I didn't get all of the good pictures uploaded, but here's one:

He only spent a few days with us, but I'm pretty sure we were both completely in love with this kid :) He was infatuated with his uncle and did not like being away from him at all.  He stayed with us every night while his mom got a little break in Watonga, and he only got upset and cried if Jimmy left the room.  It was crazy how completely attached he became to Jimmy in such a short amount of time.  I'm pretty sure Jimmy was just as attached too.  He turned 19 months during their visit.  He also became pretty good friends with Cassius.  By the time they left he and Cassius would just follow each other around as he yelled, no no Cassius!  So cute!  We miss him like crazy!

It is officially football season!  Thank goodness!!  I've missed it!  Now if the weather would just cool off...
With football season comes fantasy football.  Yes, I'm a total fanatic of fantasy football, although so far my teams are struggling, and it has been frustrating for me.  I have players that are good, solid performers and they just haven't put up big numbers in the first two weeks.  Of my 3 teams combined, over the last 2 weeks, I've only won one game.  Upsetting.  I'm going to have to ask some of them to step up and live up to their hype.

In addition to my fantasy teams struggling, I'm a little concerned about my OU Sooners.  We are 3-0, but struggled against Utah State and Air Force...huh?  I didn't see either game, but that doesn't seem like it should be happening.  I am encouraged by the way we throttled Florida State.  I just hope we play more like that in the future.  

Pregnancy update: I'm still pregnant, still getting bigger every day, still feeling my baby girl move around more and more frequently.  Still have acne, have developed heartburn, and my feet have started to swell if I overdo it.  But the good still by far outweighs the bad.  I am 31 weeks along and still not much more prepared than I was a month ago!  I called to join the birthing classes, and they informed me they could get me in during December...um, that probably won't help me much!  So I'm going to have to do some research myself I guess.  I'm sure I'll survive no matter what, but I just feel like I should prepare myself a little.  I'm sure I'll post pictures of my nursery someday, but it is so far from looking like a nursery right now that it's ridiculous. Eh, it'll happen eventually.

The Great State Fair of Oklahoma is in full swing!  We went on opening night to partake in the goodness that is called fair food!  I am slightly embarrassed at the amount that I ate, but I of course had to get the fried cheese on a stick.  Yummy.  I can't describe how much I love those things, and I really don't understand why you can't get them anywhere else at any other time of year.  The only crazy thing I tried this year was the chocolate covered bacon.  Not terrible actually.  It tasted like salty chocolate and there wasn't much bacon flavor.  I wouldn't go back and spend money on it though.  

This is season premiere week for all of the good TV shows, and I'm pretty excited.  Tonight was the premiere of The Event.  NBC has been promoting this like crazy and I had no clue what it was about.  I hadn't seen any real previews or read anything on it, so I thought I'd watch just to see.  Well, I still have no clue what it's about!  But it sucked me in.  I was thoroughly confused the first 30 minutes or so.  Things started coming together a little bit toward the end, but you end up with more questions than answers, and I'm fairly confident that is how the entire season will go.  The last thing I need is to watch another TV show, but I'm pretty intrigued.  I'm a little upset that it interferes with Monday Night Football though.  We'll see if I decide to keep watching.

We are having a couples baby shower and another baby shower this weekend.  I'm so excited to see all my friends!  Hopefully I'll be motivated to take some pictures and update my blog afterward :)

Catching Up

So...once again, I have failed to blog lately.  I  have missed some big stuff in the last few weeks, so I'm going to do a little catch-up post.

First, I'll be 28 weeks tomorrow!  Whew!  3rd trimester, which sounds so close to meeting my baby girl!  I am very ready, but not feeling at all prepared still.  I'm working on it though.  My nesting instincts have somewhat kicked in, and I'm busy cleaning out the nursery and trying to make room for all of the necessary baby stuff.  I've always felt like my house is lacking storage space, and that feeling has magnified now!  Babies require a lot of stuff, which is equivalent to a lot of space that I don't feel like I have.  Oh well, we'll make it work.  I also am going to register tomorrow!  Doing that will make me feel like I've accomplished a big task!  It may not seem like a lot, but looking at everything tends to overwhelm me!  Again, there is SO much stuff they need!

She is moving around like crazy now.  I love it!  I've just started feeling her more consistently.  And she still lets me sleep at night!  I really, really hope that continues.  I love my sleep, and I have accepted the fact that I won't get to enjoy it near as much in my future!  I feel really large, but I'm also aware that I'm not nearly as large as I'll be a few weeks from now.  And next week, my doctor's appointment is the dreaded glucose test.  I've been told all about it, so I hope I can down the drink quickly and without much nastiness.  After that, I'll start having bi-weekly appointments, which I know will make the time fly by even quicker.

A big event that I missed...and possibly I did this subconsciously :) was my big birthday.  Yep, I'm officially 30.  Weird stuff.  I don't feel it at all.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to feel like, but 30 has always seemed like it would be life-altering.  We didn't do much, which I was just fine with!  Jimmy took me out to eat at Castle Falls, a local German restaurant.  It was something different for us, and we both had a good time just talking about our future and how different this next year will be for us.  We are so excited to be at this point in our lives, and it was really fun spending my "big" day with my favorite person!

Well, the other topic I want to blog about involves pictures, so I will have to wait until I upload those onto my computer.  Maybe in the next few days?  Or maybe next month at the rate I've been going.  I have a lot of nesting to do in the near future, you know!

23 weeks

I will be 23 weeks along tomorrow!  Crazy.  Everyone has told me that the last half of pregnancy goes much faster than the first half, and so far that has absolutely been true.  I feel like these next few months will fly by too.  Not that I mind.  I cannot wait to hold my baby girl.  I cannot wait to see what she will look like.  I cannot wait to smell her.  I especially cannot wait to watch my husband holding her.  Aw, that will melt my heart :)

All that being said, I feel like I'm not prepared at all!  The nursery is not even close to being ready.  I have a lot of work to do on that.  Once that is ready for her arrival, I'm sure I'll feel much better!  Oh, and the whole labor thing...I have no clue about that.  Any part of it.  I should probably take some birthing classes or read a book or something.  I feel like that is something I will feel better about once I study a little.

I still feel great though, thank the Lord!  Other than my crazy left hip and looking like I'm a teenager again with my acne, I have had a wonderful pregnancy so far.  And I am starting to feel her moving!  I just LOVE it.  It's just the cute little flutters so far.  I have only had one or two swift kicks, so I may take that whole LOVE statement back when I'm trying to get some sleep in the near future!

So other than pregnancy and my whole life changing, everything else is going great too.  I joined my sister, parents, and grandparents today to take a trip to Eischen's.  Yummy.  It had been months since I'd been, and I just love it every time I go.  My mom and grandparents had never been, but I think it was a successful trip all around.  Gotta love their fried chicken and okra.  And the nachos.  Mmmm.....Anyway, it was an impromptu party for my mom as tomorrow is her birthday!  Glad I got to see her and spend some awesome family time.  I'm hoping to spend the rest of the weekend with some good friends, a little relaxing, and maybe even a little nursery cleaning.  Maybe.

What's It Gonna Bee?!

Tonight was a big night!  We had a gender reveal party to find out the sex of our baby.  We went to do the ultrasound yesterday and everything looked perfect :)  All the measurements were good, and we have an active little baby.  It was waving and moving all around.  But when it came time to find out the sex, Jimmy and I looked away.  I was disciplined, even though I didn't want to be.  She wrote the sex down, put it in a sealed envelope, and Jimmy took it to a bakery.  They made a cake that had pink or blue icing on the inside so we couldn't see until we cut into it.  It was a complete surprise to everyone there.

My friends and sister put on such a fun party with the cutest theme: "What's It Gonna Bee?"  I LOVED it!

I was so ready to tear into that cake!  They made me be patient for awhile.  Not easy for me.  Not at all!  They asked everyone to wear pink or blue, depending on what they thought the sex would be.  We did not want to be bad parents who guessed wrong.  So we made pink/blue tie-dye shirts :)  Not the best shirts ever, but at least we wouldn't be wrong!

Finally, they told me I could cut into the cake.  I was supposed to cut a piece, but I had to be the first to see! This picture is a little blurry, but it's my initial reaction...yes, SHOCK!

I thought Jimmy looked, but he didn't.  So I made him look too.

I think that face is a combo of shock and excitement!  

It's a......

GIRL!!!!!  

Yay!  I really am very surprised, but I am much more excited than I could've imagined I would be with a girl.  I have always thought that I was made to be a mother to boys, but God must have a different idea :)  He always knows best, and I know we will be so thrilled with her.  

Plus Jimmy get's his daddy's girl, and that makes me very happy! 

Hubby's Birthday

So yesterday was my hubby's birthday!  I am a terrible wife and didn't even blog about it on the actual day :( Not that I should be surprised.  I'm a terrible blogger.

Anyway, he's the big 2-9!  We are the same age for about 2 months of the year...and then I leave him behind.  I knew we had plans on his big day, so I cooked dinner for him Saturday night.  Fried pork chops, rice, and pasta salad.  I haven't made that meal for him in a long time!  That used to be what I cooked him about once/week when we first started dating.  His favorite thing I made then...won his heart over!  His step-mom made his favorite pound cake and mailed it to him, so I didn't even have to worry about making that!  It was a pretty low-key birthday overall.  He's not big on birthdays ever though.  I love that low-key quality!  It's a good balance for me as I used to be pretty high strung before we met.  He's really a good balance for me in so many ways.  I know God had him picked out for me, and I can totally see why.  I'm a lucky gal.  He understands me in ways that no one else can.  He's so patient with me and when I'm crazy.  He's so loving with me when I'm sad over something silly.  He is so protective of me and already protective of our baby.  I know he'll be the best father and I just can't wait to start this parenting journey with him!

Happy Birthday to the best husband a girl could ask for!  

Happy Father's Day

Ok, so I'm officially terrible at updating my blog.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe this week I'll do better because we actually have things going on in our lives :)

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful dads out there!  I am so lucky.  My dad is one of the best men I know, and I couldn't have asked for a better example while growing up.  He has always been my biggest support, my hero, and a Godly example of what a man should be for his family.  I realize more and more as I'm preparing to be a parent that my parents were so amazing.  I truly hope that I'm able to pass that on to my children.  My dad is spending Father's Day in one of his favorite places.  He's in Canada on a fishing trip which he has done for the past few summers, and I'm so glad that he's enjoying himself!

Happy first Father's Day to my husband too!  I am so ready to see what a wonderful father he will be!  I have always known that he will be incredible as a dad, and I just can't wait to see him in action.  He has been so excited during this pregnancy and so supportive of me and my complaining...although I don't think I've been bad at all!  He may disagree.  But I know he will be such a hands-on dad and everything my dad was to me.

So to update on our lives a little bit: I'm now 18 weeks along!  Crazy to think that I'm so close to halfway.  My little belly is starting to grow, but I haven't felt any movement yet.  I know it's still a little early, but I'm so anxious to feel my precious baby moving.

We also have a big week because we get to find out the sex of the baby!  I really thought as it came closer to time that I'd have a better idea...but I have no clue at all.  Like I said before, I started out thinking girl, then I was convinced it's a boy.  The last few weeks, I have just gone back and forth.  I know I'll be ecstatic about either, but I just don't have a clue.  Hopefully Baby J will cooperate and not decide to be shy this week!

Pregnancy Update

I am 14 weeks pregnant today.  Crazy!  It seems like I've known forever, but yet it seems like it's going so quickly too.  I'm officially in my 2nd trimester :)  I hear this one is the best, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I can't complain too much though.  Pregnancy has been pretty good to me so far, compared to a lot of people I guess.  Fatigue was my major complaint, and that hasn't completely gone away.  It has gotten better, but I still have days where I feel like I'm just counting down the hours til bedtime.  The nausea I was having has mostly subsided.  

I am starting to gain weight.  Yes, I'm aware that this happens, and I'm fine with that!  I'm just in the uncomfortable in-between stage where no one can tell I'm pregnant, but it's obvious I'm gaining weight.  I'm ready for the baby bump!  I did finally break down yesterday and buy a few pairs of stretchy pants.  I also got one of those lap bands that I can wear with my jeans that fit, other than the fact I can't button them.  Hopefully that'll work out for me and get me by for awhile!  

As far as food, I'm not really having weird cravings or aversions.  I don't crave strange foods, but I have been going through different stages where I crave a certain food all of the time for a week or two.  One week it was cottage cheese, one week it was eggs, one week it was grilled cheese sandwiches.  And for aversions...there's only one strange thing: my favorite gum was spearmint flavored.  Suddenly, it doesn't taste the same.  Sad!  I guess it could be a lot worse.

I'm starting to get anxious to know the sex.  I know I have about a month left, but I just want to know.  I've taken some gender prediction tests, and they are pretty split.  Most are saying a boy.  Everyone tells me that I should have an instinct.  At first, my definite instinct was a girl.  I had dreams about my baby girl.  Now that has changed to dreams of my baby boy.  So my instincts aren't really working out for me either.  Guess I'll have to just be patient and wait on the next ultrasound and hope that my baby isn't being modest that day :)

Pregnancy really is a miracle!  The changes my body is going through are unreal.  I've never really known all that a woman's body has to go through.  Like I already said, I have had a great pregnancy overall so I'm not complaining.  It is just really strange to feel my body change so much.  It's also an emotional adjustment.  Again, I think I have been lucky as far as mood swings.  Jimmy might argue, but I really don't think I have been too crazy!  I have gone through every internal emotion though.  That part has also gotten better, but I think there's so much to get used to when you're preparing to be a parent.  A baby will change our lives forever, and I know it will be the greatest thing that has ever happened to us!

My BIG Announcement...

....yep, I'm PREGNANT!  And incredibly relieved that I'm at the stage I can tell people!  Now I'll be able to document all of the different stages through this blog.  I'm going to back up and review everything that's happened since we found out.

We found out on March 21.  I had been at church and a baby shower all day and decided to stop and get some home pregnancy tests since I was late.  Not that I thought I was pregnant at all.  I didn't "feel" pregnant, as if I knew what that "felt" like.  I was just taking the test to rule it out.  And then it took about 4 seconds before a bright blue plus sign showed up...Huh?  I was shocked.  We weren't preventing, but I still had no idea that was coming.  I ran downstairs just holding it out to show Jimmy, who shrugged and said, "like I know what that means".  Really?! Think I'd run down here to show you a negative test?  I had to take a second test to convince myself.  Then we called our parents and my sister, who were all understandably excited!  I think they had all started wondering if our only kids would be 4-legged and furry.

We got confirmation the end of that week when I had my doctor's appointment.  Due date = November 20.  I had already decided I didn't want to tell many people until I was late in my 1st trimester.  So then came the hardest part.  My life had completely changed, and I couldn't even talk about it!  I spent a lot of time reading up on what I could do/not do.

As far as symptoms, I have been very lucky.  I have been exhausted.  A level of tired that I never knew existed.  I felt like I couldn't sleep enough.  I had nausea, but usually minor and at night, so that was convenient.  Once I felt nauseous, I just laid down and usually felt better...and usually fell asleep:)  I have only thrown up 4 times and that was all during my 7th week

I'm now 12 weeks.  I started telling people after my 10 week appointment when my US looked great and my doctor said everything with Baby J looked healthy.  I had to change doctors due to my insurance changing, and had an appointment with my new doctor on Friday.  That was the day that Jimmy and I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time!  I wasn't prepared for that emotion, but hearing that sound was just the sweetest thing I have ever heard!!  Oh, it was precious.  And we did another US and our baby has developed little arm and leg stubs, and it was squirming all around while we watched.  Again, precious!

So now I am just dealing with getting fat :)  I KNOW it's going to happen, and I'm ready for it.  I'm just at that uncomfortable in-between stage where it's not obvious that I'm pregnant at all, but I'm definitely bigger.  And my clothes fit, but not well.  I've even had to do the rubber band trick with a few pairs of my jeans.

And yes, we plan to find out the sex of the baby.  I have to plan things!  It's hard to do these things without knowing the sex.  I'm SOOO ready for this.  We will be thrilled with either sex, and I really have had feelings both ways, so I have no clue at this point.

But we are super excited!  I think I have gone through every emotion possible, which is apparently normal.  I'm ecstatic, I'm scared, I'm nervous, and I'm in love.  But I know that we will be awesome parents.  We have been blessed in many ways, but I know that this beautiful addition to our family is the greatest blessing that God can give us.

Happy Birthday to Griffey

Here comes another sappy dog post!  Today is the day we celebrate Griffey's birthday!  We're not exactly sure what day he was actually born.  Our vet estimated how old he was, so I just picked a birthday for him.  Every dog deserves a birthday :)


The day I met Griffey was very sad.  He was dropped off along with 5 brothers and sisters at the church early one morning.  They were all in terrible shape, covered in fleas and ticks and visibly sick and starving.  Ugh, my heart just broke for these poor puppies!  But Jimmy and I did NOT want another dog.  Cassius was handful enough.  So I quickly devised a plan to get one of them for my parents, who were looking for a dog.  I decided to take one home and take care of him until my parents could get prepared to take him and love him.  It was actually very easy to choose which one I wanted.  Griffey ran up to me and licked my hand and wouldn't leave my side.  And could you really resist these eyes?

Precious!  I brought him home and spent over 2 hours trying to kill all of the fleas and getting them off of him.  He was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open.  And who could blame him?  He was completely malnourished.  I just wanted to cry looking at him.  After his bath, he got to meet Cassius, which I was pretty worried about to be honest.  Cassius is so spoiled and does not like sharing attention with anything else.  He didn't really know what to think about Griffey.

They smelled each other out for a few weeks!  Anyway, poor Griffey was SO SICK!  He had almost every type of worm and sickness possible and spent the first 2 months with us on medications.  He never acted sick though.  This dog doesn't show any of the normal sick-dog signs.  He was always still just as active and wagging his tail as much as ever!

He quickly became healthier though and started to bond with Cassius.  We thought having 2 dogs would double our work load, but really it was so much easier for us!  They just keep each other entertained and play constantly.  And although he was tiny compared to Cassius at first, we had a feeling that wouldn't last long!

He soon equaled Cassius in size and was even stronger.  I came home one day to this.  Not that we have the strongest fence ever, but he didn't seem to have a problem tearing right through it.  This hasn't stopped to this day.  He keeps breaking the top of our fence off.  It looks pretty ghetto right now and if anyone has any other suggestions to get this to stop, we'd love to hear them!


Needless to say, my parents did not end up with Griffey because we fell in love with him and couldn't give him up.  But we aren't completely selfish!  One of the other poor puppies needed a home, so Griffey's brother, Yogi, is now living with my parents.  They look like twins!


As much as we were entertained by just having one dog, having two has made our lives so happy!  They play together like brothers should, wrestling and fighting almost all day.  But they have their moments too.  I catch them snuggling sometimes and I know they love each other :)

So happy birthday to Griffey!  Our baby.  Our calm dog.  Our big, strong dog.  Our dog who will lick your face off if you'll let him. We don't know what we'd do without him!

15 years

Today is April 19, 2010, which marks the 15 year anniversary of the OKC Murrah Federal Building Bombing.  I remember that day, fairly vividly.  I was in band at Hollis and we were on our way to Stillwater for a competition.  We drove through OKC not long after the bombing happened.  I remember being on the bus and everyone commenting on the huge cloud of smoke that we could see coming from the downtown area.  Wow, huge fire, we thought.  It was sometime later while we were in Stillwater that our band director delivered the news to us.  I think I was a little too young and naive at the time to understand the magnitude of this event.  It took a few days of watching the news footage and finding out that people I knew were affected by the situation before I really understood how huge this day was.  It seems crazy that it has been 15 years now.  A few years ago, I went through the bombing memorial, and it's a very powerful place.  I learned many details that I'd never known before and it's very moving to go through all the rooms and see the remaining damage.  I think the most moving part is the room with pictures of the 168 victims.  I didn't know any of the people personally, but it's still hard to see all of them and imagine the horrible time their families went through.

I think days like this make me even more grateful for who I have in my life.  I have been so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family and friends.  It seems like many people I know are dealing right now with the death of a friend or horrible tragedies affecting family members or some other unimaginable issue.  All of this has also made me grateful for those in my life.  I just wish it didn't take tragic events to make me so aware of how precious life really is and how appreciative I should be.

Grandma's 80th Birthday

A few weeks ago, my grandma celebrated her 80th birthday.  Last weekend our family got together to celebrate  with Grandma, her twin, and one of her friends who also had a birthday.  It was great to see everyone and it was Jimmy's first time to meet a lot of our extended family.  We had a great day!

My sister, me, Melody, and Hannah

Me and Mel.  And the lazy eye I developed in EVERY picture that day.

Jimmy and Mel

Cathy, Mom, Grandma, Dorothy, Margaret, and Anita.

Grandma and all the grandkids.

Easter Weekend Recap...a few days late

I can't believe it has taken me so long to post about Easter!  I have been so lazy this last week.  My house has been suffering too.  I must do something about that today.  I also plan to spend some time with my wonderful hubby today on my day off!  I love spending time with him, and I love that I'm married to my best friend.

Ok, here's what I've missed.  Last weekend was my sister's birthday.  She's getting old :)  She came to visit, then we all went to visit my parents and see their new kitchen.  LOVE it!  They remodeled and got new appliances and it looks like an entirely different house.  They're very excited about it, and I can't blame them.  They made us some awesome food for Becca's birthday, and we were pretty laid back other than that.  Our dogs go nuts when we go up there.  Not only do they get to play with Griffey's brother, Yogi, but they have space to run and play.  We also discovered on this trip that Griffey loves to swim.  We've never really had him around water, but he was so cute!  We'd toss something out in the lake and Cassius and Yogi would run until they could stand with their heads above water and stop, but Griffey would just leap in and swim all around.  I loved it.  All three dogs were completely wiped out when we left and spent the next few days sleeping and recuperating.

We came home Saturday to get ready for our big Easter Sunday at church, which went awesome!  We had record attendance and hundreds of salvations.  Everything went great.  Elmo even made an appearance in the kids' area and was a huge hit!  After church, we went to our favorite place, Aja Bleu, to eat some traditional Easter food since I wasn't about to cook a whole feast for just the 2 of us!  Lazy?...maybe.  But it works for us for now :)  Then we wrapped up our Sunday watching Amazing Race (go Jet and Cord!) and our new favorite show, Undercover Boss.  I know I'm a sensitive gal, but it just gets me every time!  Watching bosses learn how to better themselves and help those in their companies who are less fortunate...how can you not love that?

Community Group Fun Night

Have I mentioned how much I love my community group from church?  Well, I do.  I love the time we spend together, the relationships that have formed, the discussions we have, the support and comfort we give each other during rough times, helping each other grow, and making each other better.  I also love our fun nights!  We try to be creative and do fun and different things.  Someone suggested awhile ago that we go to a murder mystery dinner as a group.  After checking on prices, we decided it costs more money than we wanted to spend, which was disappointing.  But we have a very talented writer in our group!  He stepped up and volunteered to write our scripts for us and create our own mystery.  I've never been to a murder mystery dinner, but I'd bet money that ours was so much better!  Thanks, Russell!

It was set in 1985, and we were all connected in some way to a record label.  The label had much success, but there were definitely conflicts amongst all of our characters.  Once our CEO was murdered, it was our job to discover who did it and why.  Bring it on!  I love a good mystery!

Of course, the women won!  Apparently the men started out their discussion picking the right murderer and talked themselves out of it.  Hmmm....too bad!  We also dressed in full 80s gear.  Can I just say that it is scary how many styles from the 80s are coming back?  I'm not exactly a fan.  Here are some pictures from that night:

After we called out our murderer, who was our deputy, we had to use his "handcuffs" on him!

Here are the ladies, aka the winners, with the criminal:

And the men.  The gracious second placers. "Losers" just sounds rude...but they were :)

And me and hubby decked out in some hot fashionable clothes!

Our Birthday Boy

Disclaimer: If you're not a dog person, this post will probably seem ridiculous to you.  But I've become one of those dog people:)

Cassius, my oldest baby, was born two years ago today!  We met him a few weeks later, then took him home in May.  I can't believe it has been that long.  He has changed so much.  I can remember when he was this tiny and timid.

It didn't take long at all for him to become active.  If you've ever owned a Jack Russell Terrier, you will understand that they are not calm or shy.  Not even remotely.  He was soon into everything, tearing up whatever he could.  He required a lot of discipline in his early age!  He also discovered at a young age that he loves the water when we took him to the lake.  Now his favorite thing to do is find water, a puddle or a lake, he doesn't care, and get as muddy and wet as he can.

One of the reasons we got Cassius is because we wanted a small breed.  We did our research and the average size of a Jack Russell is 12 lbs.  Perfect!  Except we should've known, our Cassius is anything but normal.  It didn't take him long to pass that.  So he became our "big dog".  I'm pretty sure he weighs 26 lbs today.  One of his most noticeable characteristics is that he likes to be touching people most of the time, especially when he's sleeping.  He's a major cuddler.

I don't mind it at all!  As crazy and hyper as he is most of the time, he definitely makes up for it by being sweet and loyal.  Most people don't get to see this side of him because he loves company and he's always excited to have people come visit him.

He's also our watch dog.  I'm not sure that his bite is near as mean as his bark, but he isn't going to let anyone mess with his parents.  He's completely stubborn and too smart for his own good.  He's so dramatic and knows how to play up sympathy.  And because of all of that, we love him like crazy!  He is so special to us, and we realize that he's spoiled.  But he will always be our first born :)

  

Spring Break Update

I really planned on getting more consistent with blog posts.  Looks like that didn't really happen.  I've got to try to do better.

Last week was Spring Break in Oklahoma.  I sure do wish that still affected me :) I guess it did in a way.  My sister is a teacher so she came to spend some time with us.  It was great having her here, and my dogs sure loved having her here too!  We didn't get to do much of anything exciting, but I'm pretty sure she just enjoyed sleeping in.

Later in the week, I FINALLY got to go see my best friend from high school, Heather, and her precious new baby, Hadlea.  I'm not biased or anything, but Hadlea is one beautiful kid.

Look at those eyes!  On Friday, Heather worked from home, so I volunteered to play with this cutie all day.  She was such a fun baby!  We played a lot, ate a lot, and slept a little.  It was definitely not a huge sacrifice, and I can't wait to see them again!  Here's one of me and my new little friend:

On my way home, the Spring Break Storm hit.  Of course, we'd heard about it all week, but I was really hoping the weathermen would be wrong.  Not so much.  We got snow...again.  As I think I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of snow ever.  If I have to have it, I prefer it on Christmas day or if I'm skiing on it.  Other than that, I'm good with sun.  So I really didn't love it the day after it was 70 degrees!!  Only in Oklahoma can you have 70 degree weather one day and 6 inches of snow the next day.

Before the snow came, Jimmy brought our niece and nephew, Breylen and Braden, to our house to spend the weekend.  We were hoping for some fun, outdoor activity with them.  Since that was no longer an option, we opted for some bowling and rented movies.  By our second game of bowling, they were both really into it, and Breylen even beat me.  She doesn't know yet how much I love revenge.  We love having them with us, and hope they can come back soon for some warm weather fun.

Jimmy has been keeping busy with Primerica and all of the exciting things that are happening in the business right now.  I think the next couple of months are going to be good for us, and he has been working really hard.  I'm so proud of him!

Oscar Recap

The Acadamy Awards just ended, so here is my quick recap:

YAY for Sandra Bullock!  She looked gorgeous, and although I haven't seen all of the movies for the other nominees, I absolutely loved her in The Blind Side!  She looked gorgeous tonight, and I am just so happy for her.  I have been a fan of hers for years and I was definitely rooting for her.

A runner-up in the Best Actress category, is the Precious Gabourey Sidibe. (I know, awful pun)  I haven't see the movie yet, but I have seen her do numerous interviews, and you've gotta love the girl!  She is so sweet and apparently the complete opposite of her character.  She was just a regular college student, and her first movie gets her an Oscar nomination.  Just incredible.  I also think she looked beautiful tonight, and I hope we see more of her in the future.

The biggest surprise of the night for me was that Avatar didn't win the Best Picture category.  I'd heard some people speculate that The Hurt Locker may win, but I didn't think it ever would.  Again, I haven't seen it, so I was judging without all the facts.  But it just seemed like an upset to me.  I definitely want to see this movie now.  The director for this movie, Kathryn Bigelow, also won for Best Director, which is the first time this award has ever gone to a woman.  I also think it's ironic that she beat out James Cameron, the director of Avatar, who is her ex-husband. 

To be honest, I don't really watch or care about much during the Academy Awards, except the Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Actor/Actress, and Best Picture. 

I also like to scrutinize the dresses, although I don't consider myself even slightly fashionable.  I loved both of the ladies above, Kate Winslet was a classic beauty, Demi Moore was fun (although I think people might not like this one), Mariska Hargitay, Queen Latifah, and Faith Hill were all great, but I think my favorite overall was...Cameron Diaz!  I'm not sure why, but I just loved this look on her:

Of course, there were also some I didn't think were great.  And I'm very sad to say that my least favorite was Charlize Theron.  I usually love her, but what was she thinking?  Love the color, but she has to know how weird this looks, right?

The Big House

Like I mentioned in my last post, this weekend was the small school state basketball tournament.  Most people do not understand this, but this is something that I was raised to attend yearly.  It's such a fun environment that I don't think you can really understand unless you've been at a small school.  The entire town comes out to cheer for their local team, and the support is just so different than what I have observed in a big school environment.  This year was no different.  I didn't even know anyone that I got to watch, but had such a great time!  I just love watching the kids live out their dreams.and seeing all their hard work become worth it.  I got to reunite with some old friends and see some really good games.  Gotta love the Big House!

The downside of the weekend is that the weather is getting nicer in Oklahoma, meaning the seasonal allergies have taken over my life.  I didn't feel great at all.  My dad was also sick, and we spent the first night they were here up with our three dogs.  They were all so hyped up, and we did not get much sleep at all.  But they were much better the next night once they got used to each other. 

And I usually don't plan to attend the big school state tournament, but hubby's alma mater, the mighty Watonga Eagles, have had an outstanding year.  They are actually still undefeated.  I hope they take the gold, which will mean another trip to the Big House!

Random Thoughts

It has been awhile since I posted something on here.  And since I've told a few people about my blog and might have 2 followers, I should probably update you guys!

We had another earthquake in Oklahoma yesterday in some town I've never heard of.  It was a 4.4.  I still didn't feel it.  I don't know what time it was at, but I'm wondering if something is wrong with me.  Everyone near me seems to be reporting that they felt it.  I don't know what I'm expecting, and I really don't want to feel one, but I'm starting to wonder.

There was another catastrophic earthquake early yesterday, this time in Chile.  So sad.  I haven't seen or heard much about it yet, but after Haiti's disaster a few weeks ago, I hope that they did not have that level of destruction.

We have had a week full of friends.  We've had dinner with some great friends and had some great times just hanging out with others.  We are so blessed to have such a variety of people in our lives. We ended this weekend tonight with our Community Group coming over.  We just enjoy these guys so much!  I'm sure this will not be the last time I rave about them, but I just love the group we have and the friendships we have formed.  It's great getting together with other Christian people, who are real and open and help each other through all the craziness of life.  Every week when they leave, Jimmy and I just sit back and talk about how much we appreciate all of them for what they bring to the group and to our lives.  That's what it's all about.

State basketball tournament starts next weekend for small schools!  I love this time of year.  Even though I'm far removed from high school basketball, I miss it so much and love going to the games at the Big House!

The Winter Olympics end tonight.  I love when the Olympics are on, but I really get into the Summer Olympics so much more than Winter.  I do like always having something to watch though.  Unless it's cross country skiing.  That's about as exciting for me as watching Nascar.  It's only exciting during the last couple of minutes. Anyway, here are some of the highlights and low points of the Olympics for me this year:

• Before the Olympics even started, the poor 21 yr old luger from Georgia was killed during a practice run.  I just cannot imagine how tragic that moment was for his family and friends.  I'm sure this kid had dedicated his life to luge, which most athletes making it to the Olympics have to do.  To have his life end before he even got to participate is just awful.
• Shaun White, the USA snowboarder, rocked!  He did some awesome move, the McTwist maybe?  I don't know, I'm obviously far removed from that sport and the lingo, but I know he was awesome and I was cheering in my living room!
• I fell in love with curling.  I know, boring to some people, but the strategy and skill involved was really intriguing to me.  Maybe I should take this up as a sport I participate in. 
• Joannie Rochette, the Canadian figure skater, made me emotional.  Her mother died just days before the skating finale and this girl showed such strength and determination by still competing.  She did not have a flawless routine, but was such a fighter, and I was happy that she received the bronze.  
• Kim Yu-Na, the Korean figure skater, had a beautiful performance.  There is some new-ish scoring system (again, I'm not up-to-date with this sport), but all I know is that she obliterated the previous record.  
• USA lost to Canada today in hockey.  Disappointing, but it was by one point in overtime.  This is huge for hockey, and although I'm not a big fan, I know this is awesome for our country!  Silver is nothing to be upset about.  Especially because....
• USA, the greatest country in the world (I'm totally biased) finished with the most medals overall! 

Nothing But Love

I love my husband.

Tonight when I got off work, he was out with our dogs, letting them run and play. I love joining him on most days, especially if it's warm out (which it was almost 60 today, yay!). We just sit in our car, watching them act crazy, and discuss our days. Nothing exciting, just love.

While sitting there, he handed me my mail. My sister had a gift card to Applebee's that we'd received at Christmas and decided to mail it to us. So we changed our plans, which had previously involved leftovers, to a date night at Applebee's. Nothing fancy, just love.

My Thursday nights are usually centered around my favorite guilty-pleasure TV shows: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice! So upon arriving home, I prepared for camping out in front of my TV. Jimmy was quick to get his book and get ready for bed. As I was heading downstairs, he asked me to come lay by him and just spend time together instead. Ummm...but my shows? He reminded me that I can always watch them tomorrow. And I decided he was right. Time together doesn't compare to watching my shows. So, that's what we did. We laid in our bed, watched the Olympics, and talked...for about 10 minutes until he fell asleep:) And I'm not going to lie, I contemplated going downstairs then to watch my shows. But then I decided to just sit here, listening to his soft snoring and playing on my computer.

Sometimes nights like these are the best. Nothing but love.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, Jimmy and I decided we wanted to be really low-key. I love having a good date with my husband and even getting a little dressed up and going somewhere nice, but this year I kinda fell into the whole idea of Valentine's Day being too commercialized. I just think Jimmy and I have such an amazing relationship, and we shouldn't celebrate our love so much more just because it's a day we're supposed to. Anyway, since V-Day was on a Sunday, we kinda had a weekend of celebration, or lack thereof.

Yesterday, we had a Community Group Girls Day Out. (I wrote that like it was an official name...I just made it up. But I think I will make it the official title for all future outings) We went to see the brand new release called Valentine's Day:
As you can see, this was jam-packed with stars. Luckily for me, I really like most of the actors/actresses too. It was a very cute movie, funny, and mostly light-hearted. Since there are so many characters, there wasn't time to get deep and fully develop any of the stories because that would just be the longest movie on earth. But I liked how the stories all started overlapping, and I'm glad we went. We all decided it was probably good that we didn't make the guys go :)

Last night, Jimmy and I decided to go all out romantic: Big Truck Tacos! We'd heard about it from numerous friends and loved it! Hunter and Haley joined us, and we love hanging out with those two. The queso was excellent, which is my favorite! We then made a trip to Cuppies and Joe for a cupcake dessert. Loved it! It was a perfect Valentine's date for us.

Today we had a great day at church, then went to our favorite Sunday location, Aja Bleu, for some more excellent food. We have spent the rest of our day loving on our dogs, talking about our future, and just enjoying our life together. You know...what Valentine's Day should be all about:)

Super Bowl

I'm really upset with myself. We had a really fun Super Bowl party with our Community Group, and I was determined to take my camera and get some pictures. We have so many fun events, and I always wish later I had pictures. So the Super Bowl was gonna be the night...until I forgot my camera. So irritated.

But the night was really fun. The Coffman's bought a new house awhile ago, WAY out of town, and wanted to host one of our events. This one was perfect! They had much more space for everyone to get around and watch TV. They were great hosts! Like all our our CG events, we had an abundance of food. And as usual, I made many trips to the food table and tried to pace myself throughout the game so I could try it all! I almost got through it, but there was just way too much, and I loved it all. I love any time we spend as a group. We have really bonded, and I just have so much fun with all of them. They've really become some of my closest friends and it's always wonderful to find so many strong, Christian people that can all connect with each other and grow together.

As for the actual game, it was a close one this year. The Saints came out the big winners! I have to admit, I was cheering for Peyton and the Colts. But seriously, I am a Saints fan too, so there wasn't really a bad outcome for me. Plus, like everyone is saying, it's a huge thing for the city of New Orleans, so I'm really happy for them. Not to mention, they totally deserved it. They just looked better at key points in the game.

And more importantly.....the commercials! What a letdown this year! Either I'm getting more particular in my old age, or the level of humor is just not what it used to be. I have declared Doritos my official winners of the 2010 commercial competition. They had quite a few funny ones. And here is my favorite:

Simple Pleasures

I was reading another blog earlier in the week, and she was talking about simple pleasures. I love simple things, and her post inspired me to make my own list of simple pleasures. (of course, she had one of those fancy Mcklinky's that I don't know how to do yet since I'm still learning this blog thing) I think it's important to realize what things make you happy and be thankful for them. So here I go--in no particular order:

*the smell of rain

*a cup of coffee with a good friend
*hitting green lights
*hugging my husband
*a really hot shower
*the smell of cinnamon rolls baking...or pretty much any baked good:)
*a good movie
*being at the beach
*having a clean house
*watching my dogs play together, especially when they pounce or leap like deer

*hearing a song that takes me back to a particular time in my life
*seeing a rainbow
*Gerbera daisies
*marking things off my "to do" list
*when Jimmy scratches my head
*the sound of a bouncing basketball in an empty gymnasium
*snuggling with my dogs

You may have noticed that none of these involved things I love eating. That's because I love eating, and it could've easily turned into a list called "Eating Pleasures"....which, who knows, I may just do in the future :)

Yes, I know I'm a little weird. I'm okay with it.

Neti Pot

I'm still not feeling great. It's ironic, really. I lost my voice completely last week. I felt perfectly fine though. I sure got a lot of sympathy. Today my voice is almost completely back to normal...and it's the worst I've felt. I finally broke down and called a doctor. I didn't even have a local doctor, but when my cough started traveling down into my chest, I decided it was time.

Last night I decided to take some preventative action (ok, I should've probably started this last week, but that's not the point), and I decided to try the Neti Pot. I had heard about this from people at work, and they all claimed it works, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I had no idea how awkward this was going to feel. You literally pour this solution into one nostril, it goes all through your sinuses, and drains out the other nostril, along with all of the nastiness that is clogging your sinuses. Sound disgusting? That's because it is. But I have to say I felt so much better! At least I could breathe. The coughing is another story and the reason I'm going to the doctor. I do recommend the Neti Pot if you just feel like you are all clogged up though.

As I'm blogging, here is the scene on my couch:

Aren't they all so cute? :)

Snow Day!

I'm not the biggest fan of snow or cold weather in general. Especially in Oklahoma, because we usually get a lot of ice and freezing rain right before we get the snow. This often results in power outages, which I'm really not a fan of. The local news stations did a great job of getting everyone in a frenzy all week leading up to this snow storm. Not trying to say that they were far off. I just love how the entire city freaks out and shuts down. We are really grateful this time though. We have had only about 2 seconds with no electricity in the last two days, and there are thousands in our state still without power.

I was not feeling great today, so I was more than happy to stay wrapped up in a blanket in my warm house. Jimmy had some work to do, but when he got home I joined him in taking our dogs out. Here's what it looks like today.

Gorgeous! And I have a boy who LOVES the snow:

...and another one who is not so fond of it.
He plays for about 2 minutes and is ready to get back to somewhere warm.

However, Griffey soon pounced...

...and Cassius cannot resist. They wrestled around for awhile.

Jimmy and I could watch them play forever. They are so funny and keep us entertained! They have such opposite personalities, but play so well together and bring so much happiness to our lives. I just don't know what I would do without them. The snow must've worn them out too. They're cuddled up at my feet snoozing away. Guess I'll join them.