Our Announcement

This is a pretty big announcement.

Although, probably not what you were thinking it was going to be.

Tricked you!

Anyway, Stephen and I have talked about this for a while now and Stephen finally decided to just take the plunge.

Stephen is now officially enrolled in the MBA program at Oklahoma Christian University!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's going to get a specialized masters' in Marketing or Finance.   I'm already super proud of him and he hasn't even started classes yet, which start on Oct 22.  Each term is 6 weeks long and he'll be taking 2 classes (or 6 hours) of class in the first term.  Classes are on Monday and Thursday for 3 hours.  Depending on how things go, he'll be graduating in 1 - 1.5 years from now.

It's definitely going to be a bit of an adjustment to our lifestyle for a while, but we're both excited about this!

Today

Today (acutally this was yesterday), my Whiz Kid Ashley guessed that I was 25 years old.  I told her that was wrong and then she guessed that I was 21.  :-)

Stephen and I also pick Ashley and her brother Joel up from their house before we take them to the tutor site.  One day they asked how Stephen and I knew eachother.  When we told them we were actually married they didn't believe us.

How do you explain to a third grader that the pural form of Moose is Moose?

Digital Book

It's been two and half years since we've gone to South Africa.  

Do I have all the pictures scrap-booked? No. 

Do I have our video onto our hard drive and edited? No.

I finally decided that I need to have something to do so I started weighing my options of getting a photo album together.  I could either print close to 300 pictures and traditionally scrapbook them, ala Creative Memories style, or I could look into doing a digital photo book.   I had done our honeymoon and our DC trip the traditional way and really thought I would do South Africa in the same manner and it would all be part of our "vacations" album.  

But...that's a lot of pictures, and time, and money.  So I did my research and decided I would use InDesign to create my page layouts and then upload them to a site called Blurb.com.  Then they would take my design and create a hardbound 10"x8" book.

Doing it this way allows me a little bit more creative freedom.  I can have pictures be the background and write little text stories, I can zoom in on pictures, and size the pictures exactly how I want them.

5 years

I had this post planned for like 2 weeks before our 5 year anniversary on September 15.  And then I forgot to post it live.  Oh well.  

Want to know what we did for our milestone anniversary?  Well I wasn't feeling too hot and had taken a nap earlier in the day.  So we both just wanted to stay home.  We picked up chinese food, and some wine (that we didn't even drink that night!) and a red box movie and called it good. Perhaps next year or at least on our 10 year we'll do something awesome.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to look at some pictures of the two of us.  All the way back to nine years ago when we first met.  Please don't judge as we may be added a few layers of insulation to ourselves over the years.  We do have plans to remedy that.

First date. September 23, 2003

First official fancy date and first kiss. Christmas 2003

First time we said "I love you".  Valentines Day 2004. 

Band nerds.

Someone's wedding.  I still have and still love that dress.  Hoping I'll be able to wear it again eventually.

1 year Anniversary date and Stephen writes me a song.

We're engaged!  April 2006.

Lake Hefner bike ride.  Summer 2007 maybe?

Our wedding.  September 15, 2007.

First Dance.  We learned the fox trot and then choreographed our dance.

 Honeymoon Maine. Oct 2007.

One year anniversary.  Pauls Valley, OK.  Just a little getaway at a 1920's Bed and Breakfast.  And we couldn't resist acting like some kids in the dress up area of the  Toy and Action figure museum. 

  Happy New year 2009.

Crested Butte, Colorado.  Prospector Run.  We've been so many times to this town, I don't even know what year this was.  Could be 2009 or 2012.

 Potomac River, Washington DC trip July 2009

Go Pokes!!!!

  Remember that year it snowed on Christmas Eve and it was a blizzard and everyone was snowed in?  That's what year we took this picture.

Simbavti River Lodge, South Africa.  The absolute most awesome, relaxing, breath taking, rejuvenating, incredible, I'd get on a plane and go there tomorrow, place I've ever been to.

Cape Town, South Africa.  On top of Table Mountain.

Thunder game!

 At a friend's wedding. June 2012

I love you babe!  I'm looking forward to whatever the next 5 years will bring us!

Stuff We've Been Doing via Instagram

Enjoying some Redhawks baseball with a cold one and a hotdog.

Watching a whole lot of Olympics and then making 104 "gold" medal sugar cookies.

Watching Stephen play indoor soccer.  Who wants to sign up their 18month old for soccer?  I couldn't even imagine that would work.

Our summer weakness at least once a week.

Humble Pie Pizza.  Deep dish Chicago style pizza.  This took me three days to eat.

Late night driving range to practice our swing.  The two older guys next to us were both entertaining and annoying.  They talked, analyzed, and took pictures of their golf posture for an hour.

Walked around the Myriad Gardens Saturday afternoon and got this great shot of Devon Tower.

Bathroom Update- Tile

We last left off at the end of May when we were texturing and painting the bathroom and it was all prepped for tiling.  Then we were out of town for I think 5 weekends straight.  Then it got hot and we just didn't want to tile.  Then I finally said "okay, for real, we have no plans for this weekend whatsover, I don't even have any chores to get done....so, let's tile."  And tile we did.

In roughly two days (spanned over two weekends), this is where we are.

We've also just recently tiled the floor of the bathroom where the toilet will go.  Our tile guy, who set all the cement board and re-sloped our shower floor, is going to be coming over Tuesday or move our niches just a tad upwards so they line up perfectly with the grout joints and then seal them up watertight.  After that is done, we'll be able to tile the rest of the walls, do the mosaic band and insert of the niches, and put the shower floor in.  Then we grout, seal it, put the toilet back in, get shower curtain rod and we're done!!!!! For now.  At least it will FINALLY be back to a useable bathroom.

We'll save up some money for a new sink countertop and frameless custom shower door.  We also want to eventually strip the sink cabinet and repaint it white.

Registry

A few weeks ago Younghouselove did a post about the top 5 things they were glad they registered for at their wedding and things they were glad they didn't register for.  I thought that sounded like a whole lotta fun so I'm going to take a crack at it, too!

Ideally I would write this post in September since that will be our 5 year wedding anniversary.  But I'm impatient and figured that while it's on my mind, I'll just post it now.

Five Things I'm glad we registered for:
1. Laundry Hamper
2. Weber Grill
3. Crockpot
4. Really nice Berndez pots.  Actually, we didn't register for these, but they're really nice.
5. Throw Blanket

Five Things we registered for and wish we hadn't
1. Coffee Maker..hardly ever gets used and is taking up space
2. Pryex glass storage containers (all the round ones) I've never used them, and they are still in the box in the very, very back on my cabinets.  But I figure someday I might need them, so I'm holding on to them
3. Root beer float mugs...again never used
4. Martini Shaker - never used
5. Black fabric napkins - why black?  I think I've used these maybe four times in five years

Now, we lived in an apartment for  a year after we got married, so it wasn't really practical to register for any home decor or furniture.  But here's a list of things that we've bought since we moved into a home 4 years ago, while we still try to figure out our "style"

Things we've bought since our wedding
1. Entertainment unit
2. Proper dining table and chairs.  A bit big for now, but I still like it.
3. New Ninja blender...it's ridiculously awesome
4. Nice bookshelves and leaning shelf
5. Front porch bench and lounge chairs for the backyard.

So, what are 5 things you're glad you registered for? 5 things you wish you hadn't?