Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

We had big plans for Memorial Day Weekend. Kyle was supposed to take off early on Saturday and then we were heading to Wichita for a weekend with the Fox family. I was excited to see Greg, Stacie and Henry since we haven’t seen them in months. Unfortunately Kyle started feeling ill on Wednesday. It got progressively worse and by Friday at noon, I knew our weekend plans wouldn’t end up happening. Instead, we spent several days on the couch watching TV and gazing out the window. To top things off, our water heater went out on Sunday. Luckily Kyle was feeling better by Monday and so he and his dad were able to replace it while I sat on the couch blowing my nose pretty much every 2 minutes. Yay for me! It wasn’t the best weekend we’ve ever had, but it was good to have time together. It also made me thankful that feeling crummy is a relatively rare occurrence for us. My aunt has breast cancer and is doing chemo right now. I can’t image how hard it must be to feel exhausted for days and ...

It looks like we are doing things a little out of order these days but oh well. We celebrated Mother's Day with my family the weekend before. It was the day after Zach's graduation, so we were a little worn out. It was great to see everyone, though and get to spend some time celebrating Mom. Stacy, Lisa and I cooked chicken and noodles for lunch. She does so much for us and it was nice to do something for her. Pretty much every holiday or birthday Asher gets to open the gifts. That's a great perk of being the first grandchild. He is wearing a necklace in this picture. Mom lets him play with her jewelry and pretend they are snakes. That child is so spoiled! :) For actual Mother's Day, we headed to Ponca to celebrate with Kyle's family. It was just us and Jerilyn's family, so we got to spend some quality time with Mom and Conner! We visited the grandparents, had a cookout and took Conner for a spin around the block in his stroller. It was fun getting to s...

Kyle and I have had a pretty great week! There are many reasons for this, but the biggest, especially for Kyle, is that he got to go to two Thunder playoff games. One of his friends so generously offered his playoff tickets to Kyle since he couldn't go himself. By the time we found out about this, I had already made plans to play in a very serious bowling tournament Monday night. Plus, that was the season premier of The Bachelorette, so it would have been a shame to miss my watch party! :) Luckily for Kyle's brother, he went in my place. They had a great night despite the fact that Kyle got to bed about 3 hours later than he normally does and his voice was scratchy from all of the yelling. Here's a picture from the "serious bowling tournament" referenced above. Our team, Minds in the Gutter, had a great time bowling and did pretty well, but the only prize we walked away with was the 2nd best dressed award. Wednesday night was my turn to go with him. Thi...

  Bring on the bagpipes! As I mentioned earlier, my youngest brother graduated from OSU on Cinco de Mayo. There for a while I started to dread graduations. It seemed like every year we had multiple to go to for siblings, cousins, friends, etc. I know they were all special, but they kind of all start running together at some point. I think it's like that with pretty much every ceremonial event. Sure you love a good wedding every now and then, but once most of your friends and coworkers start getting married and you have at least one or two a month, it starts getting a little repetitive. Well it wasn't like that for Zach's graduation. Fortunately, I've had about a two-year break from college graduations, so it was fun to be back for one at OSU. It gave me a lot of pride in my alma mater. When you work for a university, sometimes politics get in the way of the warm, fuzzy feelings you have for it. It's good to have a reminder every now and then. Zach was the ...

I am going to post later about Zach's graduation, but first I  thought I should explain why there was dirt under his nails when he crossed the stage for that diploma. Months ago Mom asked if we would host Zach's graduation party at our house. I eagerly agreed thinking, May is months from now. When we were home for April birthdays and Mom handed me Zach's graduation announcement, I realized the months had turned into weeks and we had better get busy on our yard. While I'm all for cleaning your house when company comes, I refuse to believe that it needs to be perfect. Nothing will ever be exactly how you want it, so that shouldn't deter you from having guests over, especially family. However, there is a big difference between not-so-neat and jungle-like! Needless to say, we had some work to do. I am almost embarrassed to post these somewhat before pictures. Our side yard was absolutely out of control!  Every bed, except the one in the top picture start...

So the month of April was pretty much nonexistent according to my little blog. Fortunately, it was VERY productive on both the work front and the home improvement front. I can't wait to post before and after pictures of everything Kyle and I have been up to, but for now, I need to do a little catch-up. Here are some photos/videos I haven't shared yet. Get excited for even more coming soon! Easter in Ponca Now that's a big dog.  Fun with Grandpa Fox. Kyle was SO excited to wear his Chive shirt. He was been waiting for it for 6 months. For those of you who aren't "chivers" it's a website . Conner loves to watch himself! It's a theme among the nephews. Such a happy boy!  April Birthdays in Hennessey Uncle Kyle and Asher watching farm videos on the computer.  Happy birthday Zach (22) and Stacy (28)! Cake time! Or for Asher, frosting time. He has a sweet tooth just like Aunt Abby! The night we celebrate...