Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

Before the New Year got here, I had very good intentions. I am not one for New Year’s resolutions, but I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought it was such a clever idea! Unfortunately with the holiday and post-holiday craziness, I never took the time to start. So I’m going to do that now. My goal is to find one original thing each day that I’m grateful for. I am hoping this will help me focus on the positive things in my life a little more in 2013. I spent far too much time in 2012 on negative thoughts and wishing circumstances were different. So that stops now! Don’t worry, I won’t be dragging you all into this resolution with daily posts, but I may update you from time to time. Another exciting thing going on in the Fox household since the New Year is a focus on healthy living. Although I’m rarely sick, I wouldn’t consider myself to be all that healthy. I don’t usually make any attempt to exercise and potatoes are my favorite food – not by themselves but smothered in butter, ...

Every now and then you get a little something you weren't expecting. It might not be earth-shattering but it makes life a little better. I love those times, and I've definitely been in need of them lately. Last weekend, we went to Hennessey on Sunday so Kyle could get a haircut. Mom and Dad are getting ready to redo the guest bedroom, so they had me go through my cup collection, which was being stored in there. (They continue to insist my stuff come live with me, although I'm pretty sure I'm the only child they're doing this with. Us middle children are so mistreated!) Most of my cups are junk now, but Asher found one cup to be particularly fascinating, so I let him keep it. I remember loving a cup just like this at Kim's house, but it had a frog in the bottom. I have so many memories of sleepovers at the Riddles!   Kim turned 26 this past weekend, so we took a little trip to Eischen's to celebrate. It was SO much fun. Kim, Trey, Krissi, Brandon, Kyle...

On Monday Tony Blair was giving a speech at OSU and I decided to go. It was a fun experience. Compared to his resume, Kyle and I have an extremely ordinary life. It’s valuable but small (as Meg Ryan might put it). I know that our future will bring many wonderful and challenging things, but for the time being, I am happy to have the life we have. We are showered with little blessings and below are just a few of them: 1. Stillwater – I never thought Kyle and I would live in Stillwater for the long haul. We met here in September of my freshman year at OSU. It was a somewhat blind date because even though we’d been talking on the phone for about a month, I’d never even seen a picture of him. That was before the days when everyone had a Facebook page. I always knew this town would have meaning to me because of the time I had planned to spend here, but when I got a job at the Foundation, I began to realize that this is where Kyle and I would make our home. It’s a great place for us and has...

I’m not super creative, but I really enjoy a craft every now and then. So when the invitation to Karin’s baby shower came, I knew exactly what I wanted to get Baby K. Since I am surrounded by baby boys, I hadn’t had the opportunity to make a girly frame, and I was so excited! I tried a few new things this time like adding a stand, ribbon and decorating the back. I think it turned out really well! I even coordinated the wrapping (see below). I wish I had taken a picture of the ladybug card that Kim insisted on making to go with it. It was the perfect finishing touch! It seems like Mark and Karin announced they were pregnant not long ago, but this little one is going to be here before we know it!  My other project was born out of necessity and a time-crunch. I mentioned that StuFu snuck up on me this year and that includes the member retreat. I was finalizing details the day before and realized I had forgotten to make place cards. OMG! Well of course we couldn’t live wi...

    Last week was a lesson in flexibility. I posted way back in March that we had ordered a new front door and it would be in "soon." I had no idea it would be another FOUR months before it arrived. This has been an extremely frustrating experience and, needless to say, if we could do it all over again, we would go with a different company. At first I was excited, then overwhelmed, then frustrated, then angry and finally just over it. By the time our door was being installed last week, I expected things wouldn't go smoothly and unfortunately, I was right. Normally this would have been really upsetting, but when things are somewhat out of your control, you just have to roll with the punches. I came to this realization when baking a cake to celebrate our newly installed door. I had a plan all worked out. I was going to make a orange cake with poppy seed filling, butter cream frosting and a red door on the front. (I was taking it to an OSUF meeting so I thought the orang...

I have been such a bad blogger as of late. Sorry about that. With trips, goodbye parties, book club and cake class, I haven’t had a ton of time. Which means I owe you a lot of updates! However, I know your time is valuable so below are some quick hits. 1. Immediately after my last post, I flew to Austin for the Donor Relations conference. It was a great time, and I learned there are few things better than Amy’s coconut chocolate rum ice cream. Thanks to Candice for introducing me to that one! I ate every drop! 2. My boss of 3 years is moving to another department! :( I am very sad to lose her but really happy that she is getting this opportunity. Thank goodness she’ll still be at the Foundation! I spent a few nights this weekend working on her going away present. 3. I’m about to have another nephew! Jerilyn is due in early August and I’m so excited. I went to Wichita a few weekends ago to plan the baby shower. That’s something I’ll be doing again very soon because Stacie is expecting a...