Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

Our anniversary just happened to fall on the last nice fall weekend of the year. I wanted to spend Sunday in OKC seeing a movie and going out to dinner, but when Kyle found out the weather was going to be nice, he suggested golf. He recently joined the Stillwater Country Club, so he's been itching to play. Somehow it always seems to be raining on his days off. So he wore me down and I finally agreed to his plan. On Saturday night we went out to dinner at the Rancher's Club. We don't go there often so it was a nice change in pace. The food was wonderful and the only drawback was how busy it was. Afterward we stopped for ice cream and then headed home. We attended the early service on Sunday before hitting the golf course. Although we didn't play great, it was nice to be outdoors. After nine holes we decided to spend the rest of our time at the driving range. I need all the practice I can get! When we got home, it was still really nice so we decided to...

Halloween was on a Friday this year, which worked out perfectly. The holiday kind of snuck up on me, so I didn't go all out for my work party like last year . This year, I just put on a witch's hat for a few hours and enjoyed handing out candy to my coworkers' adorable children. It's always fun to see the different costumes and the creativity of some parents. That intimidates me a little if Kyle and I end up having kids who want obscure costumes. I may just have to recruit Jordan for help in that case.  Hudson the roly poly.   Sam the dragon. He was having a great time. Once he got his costume on, he came out saying, "Look at me!" He also wiggled his tail for us. It was precious!   Darth Vader joined the party as well.   Little red riding hood and the cutest little wolf you ever did see!  Robyn had my favorite adult costume by far as Rickie Fowler! And her little Mickey and baby dragon (not pictured) were pretty cu...

    The weekend before Halloween, alumni from all over came to Stillwater for America's Greatest Homecoming Celebration. I look forward to this all year long! It's usually rainy and nasty during Walkaround, but this year the weather was beautiful. We all met at Kim and Trey's for a little Frito chili pie before hitting the house decs. Unfortunately Krissi and Brandon didn't make it to campus with us because she wasn't feeling well and Kyle had to meet us there because he worked late. But regardless, we still had a great time admiring the creations that were the result of countless hours spent pomping. The next day was the big game. Temps were in the 90's...yes, you read that right. Kim, Trey and I were sweating up in the cheap seats, but at least we were in the shade. The game didn't go the way we'd hoped, but we still had fun together. Poor Kyle had to miss out since it was a 2:30 game, but I sent him a few pictures so he could pretend he was ther...

This summer, I was sitting in a morning training session when my phone rang. It was Mom. I thought that was odd since she rarely calls me during the work day, but I shrugged it off. Then I noticed she left a voice mail. During a break I listened to it and it said, "Abby, this is Mom. Call me back when you can." Then I started to worry. No explanation of why she was calling, just a straight, to-the-point message that she needed to talk to me. Who was sick? What had happened? So even though my break was over, I stayed out in the lobby to call her back. As it turns out, the news she had was of the good variety, not the bad. She told me that Uncle Greg decided the next generation should inherit some of Great Uncle Dan's estate. He had sent a check to each one of the 10 grandchildren. That was so thoughtful and completely unexpected. I had no idea what we would do with the money. I considered adding it to our emergency fund or applying it to the next item on our list of hous...