Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

In my journalism classes we learned never to write that someone died suddenly. The reason was that every death is sudden. What we meant to say was that they had passed away unexpectedly. This Christmas was full of many things and one of them seemed to be death. Whether it was national news like Sandy Hook Elementary, the firefighters who were killed on Christmas Eve, or close to home like Heather Corbett and Mack Edsel, death seemed extra prevalent this Christmas. My father is a Sunday School teacher at Emmanuel Baptist Church. He will actually presided over graveside services today and tomorrow. He is very good at visiting people in the hospital and talking to those who are losing a loved one. That is a special gift because most people, myself included, are speechless at times like this. God blesses us with people to share our lives with. Some of them are around for all of it and others come and go. I am certain that all of this is in God’s plan and sorting through the afterma

I realize this is a bit overdue, but Merry Christmas! Kyle and I had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with our families. As always, things were a bit hectic, but SO much fun. Zach was able to come home for Christmas, so that made the holidays even more special. Kyle and I took off the Thursday and Friday before Christmas. Zach was supposed to land in OKC at 10:45 on Thursday night and we were so excited to go to the airport and get him. Unfortunately 10:45 became 11:15, 12:10 and finally 1:25. By the time he actually got here, the OKC airport was pretty much shut down. It was a late night, but we were so thankful that he wasn’t delayed any more. We took him out to IHOP for a bite to eat before traveling home, and it was so fun to laugh and share stories in person. Zach and his buddy, Peter, who lives in Stillwater. They enlisted at the same time and are driving back to California together.  On Friday night, we traveled back to Stillwater because we were celebrating

December has been such a busy month that I’m having a very hard time keeping up, so while I have a few minutes, an internet connection and some time to think, let’s catch you up on our trip to Branson. We went the first weekend in December. Our 4th anniversary was Nov. 8 but because of the football schedule, we decided to postpone our annual trip a few weeks. I love taking trips with my husband around the time of our anniversary. It’s nice to have some quiet time to reflect on how far we’ve come since exchanging vows years ago. In the day-to-day craziness that is life, I forget to pause and tell him how much he means to me. Maybe this should be one of my new year’s resolutions… We were up in the air about this trip but in the end decided on Branson. My Grandpa has a condo there and very graciously allowed us to stay for free. This is important because we didn’t want to spend too much money. Next year we’d like to take a vacation to California to visit Zach and maybe another one for

So it’s that time of year again, and I can hardly contain my excitement! I forget how much I love Christmas time until I start seeing holiday commercials and hearing Christmas music. I always hold off on decorating the house until after Thanksgiving, so on the following Saturday, the time had come. Kyle did his part by taking the boxes down and assembling the trees for me the night before, so when I woke up, I was all ready to go. One Christmas movie and two cups of apple cider later, I was putting on the finishing touches just as the bedlam game was starting. It was a heart breaker, but having some holiday spirit around definitely helped get us through it. Plus, we had a great dinner with friends afterward, which always makes life better! Kyle just couldn't give up the hat for a picture in front of tree #1. We are still collecting ornaments for this one, so in the mean time, we're using it to display Christmas cards we receive.   The following Sunday, we put