Free time, what's that?

Well I haven't posted in a LONG time it seems - things are just so busy! Let's see - a quick overview of things that have been going on since my last post......my MIL had a birthday on April 7th - hope it was a good one! I went to the Pollard Theatre in Guthrie with my parents, sister, nieces & nephew to see Beauty & The Beast. We had a really good time and I think the kids did too ;-) Our friend Patrick got married on April 25th so we spent that Friday night and Saturday in Norman celebrating with them - congratulations Patrick & Katie - the wedding was beautiful!

The beginning of May I started a new drug so we are anxiously awaiting the end of May to see if it's working or not! May 5th I started taking golf lessons!! It was a random, spur-of-the-moment thing that popped up because a friend of mine was going to start them, but I am really enjoying myself! My wonderful & loving husband took me on a date night to go see the Lion King on May 6th - it was FANTASTIC!! Granted we had incredible seats (row D, center!!), but the show itself was just really well done. From an artistic standpoint I loved being that close because I could see all of the intricacies of the costumes and set decoration so I was in heaven the entire show! I hadn't even noticed that the kid sitting next to me threw up until lights came on at intermission - thank goodness it didn't stink or I might've too! I got yet another sinus infection so I had to miss our postponed bunco from April that my friend Stephanie hosted on May 8th - I was rather peeved about this because I love my nights I get to socialize with the girls! Mother's Day we met Greg's mom & stepdad after church for lunch and then spent the evening with my family. The ladies in my family had spent the day before together too going through my mom's closet (she has us do this about once a year so we can help her rid her closet of things that are out-of-date or that don't fit her anymore) and then shopping for new bedding/accessories for their back bedroom. I LOVE to shop for that kind of thing - especially when I'm not the one paying for it! May 11th I started back to the sand volleyball league I used to play in - it has been 3 years since I played but I actually didn't suck! I love the team I play with though (a bunch of my friends) so that always makes it fun! We did pretty good - we won the first game in 2 sets and then won the first set of the second game only to lose the other 2 sets. This past Saturday I got to see my cousin Jenny who was in from NYC for her baby shower. It was so nice to see her and the others at the shower that I hadn't seen in a long time. Yesterday while Greg had to work (ARRGG!!!) I rode with my parents, sister & her kids up to Tulsa for another cousin's daughter's baptism. My cousin Jenny was the Godmother so that is the primary reason she was in town. ANYWAY - we went to Georgia's baptism and then back to Liz & Gavin's house for a brunch. Thank goodness our two weeks of rainy, crappy weather ended and we had a gorgeous, sunny day to celebrate! We had the patio doors open and just roamed from indoor to outdoor enjoying the weather.

Tonight I am looking forward to playing some volleyball in the sunshine - we always seem to get so few sunny days that aren't scorching! Tomorrow I have my last golf lesson and will finally have a sunny day for that too! Friday I am going with one of my oldest & best friends to a stage production of Steel Magnolia's - I am looking forward to a girls night out with her - we are both so busy I hardly ever see her! And then this weekend is, of course, Memorial Day. No spectacular plans for us - maybe some golfing for me with my parents on Saturday morning. Besides all of this stuff going on our work schedules have bother been kinda crazy - I'm losing a coworker in a week (she's going to work for her BIL - we didn't have any lay-offs) and Greg's work has been CRAZY busy! As always, we are hoping things calm down a bit - but my theory is they won't until we die so we might as well live it up ;-) We leave for vacation in 19 days so we are ALL excited about that! Someday maybe I'll have time to post some pictures.....until then I hope you all are doing well and enjoying some nice weather!

a quick little note...

Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you all had as nice a day as I did, surrounded by the ones you love!

Pita Pit!

So last night we went to Friends & Family night at The Pita Pit in Edmond to celebrate their opening. This is my friend Jen in the picture with me last night - the girl has been around forever and been with me through it all - I'm lucky (and surprised) she's kept me around! Her sister's boyfriend is the owner so we got to get the sneak peek. I was really impressed with the location, the store itself and the food - it was delicious! I highly recommend anyone that likes a good sandwich go eat at the Pita Pit. It's on 5th St. between Boulevard & Broadway in Edmond. GO EAT AT PITA PIT!! Sales pitch is now over :-)

Tonight we have our monthly dinner with the Taylors, Blake & Stephanie - we are trying out a new Mexican joint by the lake. And then tomorrow night is my monthly bunco night - I have really lucked out and only had to cook dinner two nights this week!! Next week Greg wants to start "dieting" with me. It's technically a diet, yes, but more importantly it's a lifestyle change so it will be something that we will stick with. I have been doing it (WW) since this past November and have lost over 20 pounds so far. I was going to stop there, but I decided why stop if I'm not pregnant - so I'm going to keep it up until that happens! We are starting our daily/every other day workout on Monday too. This next week is going to be a big week for us (more for Greg, but for me because I'll finally have someone doing this with me!) I've also decided to start playing in a sand volleyball league with some friends. I used to play but I quit the year I got married - I hurt my back right before the season started and then I only had a few months before the wedding and I didn't want to get hurt anymore than I already was so I stopped and just never got back into it. But, no sense in sitting around waiting to get pregnant - I'm going to do all I can while we are "waiting" for this to happen. So I'm looking forward to the next month of getting in better shape with my hubby at my side and getting back into outdoor sports. Today I am just looking forward to the beautiful spring weather coming back - a winter mix in late March, really??

college hondos

So two weekends ago I had my girls weekend in Stillwater Oklahoma. Not the glamorous destination most people would think of for a girls weekend, but a perfect spot to catch up with college friends without spending an arm & a leg for flights and hotels and such. My 'little' (little sis in the KD house) flew in from DC on Thursday night - she was SO excited to be home! We hung out all night and chatted and enjoyed some Mazzio's (her request for dinner) before turning in. The next morning we got up early and drove to Moore (her hometown - about 30 minutes SE of us) to surprise her best friend from HS who just had a baby a few weeks earlier. It was a really neat surprise - her friend had no clue, but her husband was in on the surprise so we were really able to pull it off. After visiting with their family for a whole we drove back to OKC to meet up with the other Baltimore girls that were just arriving for lunch at Ted's. Ted's is an awesome Mexican joint for those that don't know and it is a must for these girls when they come home because as they put it "the east coast doesn't do Mexican food right!" After lunch we hopped back in the car and headed to Edmond to visit my little's SIL who was in town from DC and at her parent's house recovering from back surgery. We visited there for a bit, got to see their BEAUTIFUL little girl, and then hopped back in the car yet again to head to Stillwater.

Driving into town was very strange for me. I had not been back to Stillwater since December of 2002 when I graduated. Everything is SO different! There is a nice new WalMart that they built on the highway as you come into town where there used to be nothing. Neighborhoods are gone and in their place are hotels, restaurants and new parts of campus. Things have been built up everywhere! After stopping by HES to see one of my little's former professor's we all went to the KD house to check it out. Some of the girls laughed as we asked questions about how things had changed - the fact that we were shocked that the house was all wireless and everyone had laptops now was particularly funny to them! We would've stayed a bit longer and chatted with our housemom, but she left shortly after we did and is a housemom in some other state for the Theta's of something. Mom Judy was the greatest!

We went to the hotel, got settled and met up with the KC girls before heading to dinner. Pizza at the Hideaway and then drinks at Murphy's and Dirty's Tavern. Our usual spot, The Wormy Dog, is no longer there - but the manager from our day (and a friend of all of ours) is now part owner of Dirty's so we got VIP treatment. I hung out for a bit, but only really have one beer on these meds. Bars aren't my thing really, and this weekend just confirmed that. After getting a horrible headache (courtesy again of my meds and unbeknownst to me an oncoming sinus infection) I headed back to the hotel to turn in.

The next day we went for lunch at Joe's (Eskimo Joe's for those that know it by it's proper name) before heading to the OSU/Baylor basketball game. I have been craving Joe's pasta salad for years now and I finally got to enjoy it! At the game we befriended a five year old boy who was sitting two rows in front of us (we had pretty bad seats, but it didn't matter) and spent about half the game talking to him or his dad. After OSU's victory we headed back to Joe's for a drink or two and then to the hotel to veg out. We decided to lay low that night because the Baltimore/DC girls had to fly out of OKC at 8:15 the next morning, so we had to hit the road by 6 to get them there. We got together one last time for dinner at El Vaquerro, a usual spot for some of us in college for some good Mexican. After dinner a few of us ran over to catch up with an old friend from the pledge class above us (an old roommate of mine) who lived in town and is a few weeks away from having her first baby. It was great to see her, she's been going through some rough stuff lately but is looking fabulous and doing well. The we gathered in one of our hotel rooms for a bit longer to chat some more before we all headed our separate ways.

All in all I had a great time getting to catch up with everyone in person instead of by email for once. I totally vote for more of a spa weekend next time or somewhere that has other things to do than bar hop. It was still nice to see everyone though and to see how much everything is changed there, but Stillwater is just not for me anymore. I have some pictures, but still need to get some from the other girls. Once I get them I will stick a link at the end of this post!

same 'ole thing

I haven't posted in a while because there just hasn't been that much going on. Greg has been working extra lately and I have been lucky to make a full 40 hour work week - things are a bit slow for us right now. We (and by that I mean "I" because Greg was working) had the pleasure of helping the Taylor's celebrate Molly's 1st birthday and then the next day I celebrated my niece Kayden's 6th birthday with her & my sis. It was a weekend of birthdays! In the midst of all of that we had some visiting to Greg's stepdad in the hospital. He had a kidney stone (rather large) that had gotten lodged and had to be surgically removed that same weekend so we spent the evening after Molly's party visiting with him and my MIL.

My "little sis" is flying in on Thursday to stay with us for the night and the two of us are heading up to Stillwater for a girls weekend on Friday with a group of ladies from my pledge class. I haven't been back to Stillwater since I graduated so it'll be a bit strange, but it will be really nice to see everyone. We have girls coming in from the Dallas/FW area, the Kansas City area, the Baltimore/DC area and then 2 of us from the OKC area. I think the last time I saw a decent-sized group of us together was at Brooke & Adam's wedding (which was 2 months after mine) so it'll be great to catch up. I'm sure I will have something to post about after this weekend and maybe even a few pictures. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

just a little praise

I just wanted to take a minute and praise God for bringing Greg into my life. He is the most incredible husband - fun to be around, really rather funny (apparently there is a side of him that has only been seen by yours truly!), he has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know, family oriented, has a good work ethic, knows how to be lazy if the need arises, knows how to make me smile when I need it and how to make me think about anything but what is troubling me at any given time after talking me through it. He has truly been my rock in quite a few instances and I'm not sure how I would've made it through those times without him by my side. I am not worried about anything that the future might hold because I know in my heart he will be there to make the journey with me.

The other day I had a really low moment (lots of moments rather) and he turned my day around by merely being there and sitting next to me. We are taking a path that we expected to take, but that is still hard to handle sometimes. He has been really beyond incredible in "handling" me and my emotions so far! I have never felt so blessed in my life as I have since he walked into it! Anyway, enough gushing on him, I just wanted to take a minute to "shout it from the rooftops".....thanks for asking me to be your wife, it's the best decision I've ever made!

a few more hours

UPDATE: Kate lost her battle to cancer about an hour ago and has joined her brother in heaven. Thank you for your love & prayers for this family. God has gained an incredible angel today.

Well Saturday Julie updated Kate's CarePage to tell us that Kate's left lung doesn't work anymore, leaving breathing up to her right lung, which is plagued with tumors. She has told her mom that she is ready to go, and has been comforted by Julie's thoughts of her daughter finally being reunited with Ryan (Kate's brother) in heaven, which made her smile. At Kate's request, she has been put in a drug-induced coma that will put her out of pain until she goes and allow her to rest and be able to breathe. It will be soon, probably today. She told her mom, dad, step-dad and brother that she was ready to go, so they called the doctor to get things started. She can't sleep anymore because her breathing is so bad that just as she falls asleep the breathing trouble wakes her up. She is very, very tired because of this. She said her goodbyes to each of her parents and her brother, and the process got started. I just can't imagine.....God, please bring them peace and comfort.