Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

Have I mentioned lately how badly I want a summer break? The good, long kind where you have nothing to do but relax, cruise to Sonic in the Skylark and hang out with family. Those were the good old days when all the siblings were together and Sonic still served Heath blasts... Well I might not be able to go back there, but this past weekend we got pretty close. We went to Roman Nose with my family for one last hurrah before Zach heads to boot camp. We used to go to Roman Nose State Park all the time when we were little…like 0-6 years-old. There are certain things that stayed with me (like the big suckers Mom and Dad used to let me buy at the lodge), but I don't have a ton of memories since we were so little. So going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very nice for a destination so close to home. While we were there we did a little stream walking, played volleyball until the wind blew over our net, went swimming, saw the horses and the guys...

There’s almost nothing better than a 2 ½ day work week, which is what I got this week. I haven’t blogged in a while because I have been on a little trip. I took last Friday off to go to Hennessey for a few days before heading out of town, but more on that later. I told Stacy I wanted to come down and help her with the new house. I was thinking I might be in for some painting, decorating, talking furniture arrangement; you know, the fun stuff! But instead, they needed help with yard work. I could hardly contain my excitement! At least I’m getting good at it after our little project earlier this summer. Although it was hot and humid, it didn’t turn out to be that bad. It helped that I spent most of the day entertaining the little man while the others did the heavy lifting. Here is a little before and after action of the outside. Josh and Stacy say they still have a long way to go, but they’ve made so much progress already!  Josh took the ivy off with the help of a friendly ...

Today I went to the zoo, saw a stampede of wildebeests, watched a rodeo, learned the difference between a leopard and a jaguar, rescued a camel, gave some pony rides, saw some blue zebras and did lots of napping with "Kylee." I would say I had a great day off!

Happy Tuesday! I am loving the summer so far because although I am still plenty busy at work, things are a little more laid back. That is a common trait of all my summers in Stillwater so far. This past weekend, I had the best time going to the Miss Oklahoma pageant (of all places). Kim and Krissi wanted to go so I tagged along. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. They were celebrating the 40th year of the pageant under the organization of the Kiwanis of Tulsa. Most of the old Miss Oklahomas and Miss Americas were there. Parts of it were a little lame, but it was fun to watch it with girlfriends and give a little commentary on each contestant and who we thought would win. We followed that up with a lazy Sunday. We were supposed to golf but we chickened out because of the wind. This is NOT a good thing considering I have a golf tournament a week from tomorrow, and I haven't played picked up a golf club in over a year. My poor teammates! Thank goodness it's a s...

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but I LOVE the first Sex and the City Movie. The second, not so much, but I’m pretty sure everyone in America agrees with me on that one. I watched it while I was sick last week. In the movie, there’s an exchange between Carrie and Big that goes a little something like this: C: “Have you ever written me a love letter?” B: “Does a love fax count?” C: “When have I EVER gotten a love fax?” B: “Oh, I'm sure my secretary sent you one...at some point. What can I tell you, baby? It's just not my style. Besides, those guys had to write. They were separated from their loves by wars and hundreds and hundreds of miles. I'm right here. Hello. You make me very happy.” C: “Yeah, yeah. Put it in writing.” Comic genius. Anyway, that got me thinking that Kyle and I rarely ever stop to focus on what we love about each other. Unfortunately we spend far too much time pointing out things we wish the other would do differently....

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...