Our 8th Anniversary...

Matt and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary yesterday. It's hard to believe we've been married for 8 years...the time has flown by! And here we are with three beautiful kiddos and one more that's almost here! I just love my family so much!! I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful husband and 3 (almost 4) great kids!!

Well, Matt and I were able to spend most of the day by ourselves with no kiddos! We drove to Guthrie for the day. Neither one of us had ever been. It was a lot of fun. We had some memorabilia to donate to the Oklahoma Sports Museum that had belonged to his Aunt Ka. So that was our first stop. There were many items there - I didn't recognize 3/4ths of the people or the names but Matt knew who they all were :) After that we ate lunch at a place called The Stables. It was pretty good! Then we shopped in several antique stores. There are a LOT of antique stores in Guthrie - I had no idea. The only thing I walked away with was an old metal cheese grater to put on my little ledge in my kitchen :) A big spender!! (Honestly, I have a hard time paying "antique store" prices when I know that if I'm just patient and would get to some garage/estate sales I could find a lot of that stuff at much cheaper prices! :) Then we drove around the town a bit and stopped for some fun colorful soda at Pop's on the way home. It was a really nice day all to ourselves :)

Kindergarten Graduation - Class of 2022!

My first born baby has graduated Kindergarten! It just seems like this year has flown by!! She had her ceremony last night and it was really nice. Susanna was sick, so she didn't get to come. She and Philip stayed hom with Grandma. Madeline's graduation included her class singing some of their favorite songs, reciting some of their favorite verses and a really nice slideshow of everything they've done throughout the year. I really enjoyed this since I had to miss so many activities because of work. After the ceremony they had cookies and punch. It was all very nice. It's hard to believe that she will be graduating in the class of 2022!! I was teary eyed last night - I can't even imagine what it will be like when she graduates high school!! Oh, I don't want to think about that!!

Here are a few pictures from the night. The first picture is of Madeline on her first day of kindergarten. She looked so little!! :)

Armed Forces Day Parade - 2010

We went to the Armed Forces Day Parade this past Saturday. I never even knew there was such a holiday until we started going to the parade a few years ago. I took several pictures with my new camera (which I am not posting.) But our friend Damian was there with his fancy shmancy camera and he took some pictures of us and the kids. I really like how they turned out. The girls gave him REAL smiles! Anyway, I thought I would post the pictures. I think I may have the one of the girls made into an 8x10! (Damian is starting out with his own photography business and he would love new customers. He's a great guy and he has great prices!! Let me know if you want his contact info!)

Trip to Broken Bow Oklahoma, 2010

Here are just a few of the pictures I took while we were on our cabin trip. I have many more to post - just that half of them are still on Matt's laptop. These are a few that I played with on the photo editor. I will post more later...

May 3rd, 1999

I thought that since today was the 11th anniversary of the May 3rd 1999 tornado, I would post some pictures. All of these were taken by Matt. He was actually living in Baton Rouge, La. at the time. He drove home the very next day - these were taken in the neighborhood he grew up in and in his grandma's neighborhood.

I was working at the hospital on May 3rd. I worked in the Recovery Room - where we had no access to windows or TV. My friend Tina started getting phone calls from her overly anxious mom at around 5:00pm that day. She was telling Tina that there was a tornado coming up I-44 and to just stay aware of it. Well, at this time, the tornado was in the Lawton area so we just kind've laughed and went on taking care of our patients. Then her mom kept calling - we didn't have any idea that the tornado wasn't going away and that it was actually continuing to make it's way up I-44. So, we went out to the waiting room to get a look at a t.v. She and I both lived in apartment complexes that were located off of the exit of S.W. 89th and I-44. We started to get a little worried. We just anxiously tried to keep up with the weather, watch the t.v. updates and take care of our patients. Well...just as it was getting too close for comfort, it took a more eastwardly turn and went through Moore, Oklahoma. Good for us. Bad for them!! I don't need to describe what happened - anyone that was living in Oklahoma at the time knows what happened. They've seen the pictures and heard the stories. It is one of those things that will never leave our memories. I will say, that being "stuck" at work at that time was one of the worst feelings, ever. I don't really know why. We were safe. It was just the feeling of "I can't leave" that made me anxious. So, as the surgery schedule slowed down we went to the waiting room and watched the tornado rip through Moore, Midwest City and Del City. I was very unfamiliar with all of those places - especially MWC and Del City. Little did I know that my future family was living there. Fortunately, no one in my family was injured. None of my friends were injured. It was just very scary. I will never forget seeing electrical explosions at Tinker AFB as the tornado tore across there. And the GM plant. I ended up getting to leave work at around 7:00pm. I had actually been house sitting for my boss at her home in Moore. I had locked her dog up in the crate that morning - per her request - b/c it looked like it might be stormy. I had no idea that I would never be allowed back in that house. It was right in the middle of one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in Moore. It took me 3 days to get back over there, get ahold of one of the military guards and draw them a map of where my boss's house was. I had no idea if her house was still standing - or if the dog was still in it's crate!! They made their way back into the neighborhood and found my boss's mother (she was her neighbor) and they had a home that was very much still intact. They had a generator. And they had her dog!! It was just all so strange. I have NEVER looked at a "Tornado Watch or Warning" the same way since....


This is S.E. 43rd. Matt grew up on this street...

Across from his grandma's house...her house wasn't badly damaged.

A car wrapped around a tree in Matt's grandma's neighborhood...
A view of Matt's childhood house...
Another view of his hold house...
An interior view...the cereal was untouched!

I'm Starting to Love Mod Podge!!

I bought this cute little tin dish at Target today. Stef and I saw them and thought they would be perfect for some scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. :) So, I decided to do mine with a "vintage" theme. The only problem was my scrapbook paper - I used brown cardstock. It was too thick and I had trouble getting it to stick to the dish. The little "stamps" are from a piece of vintage scrapbook paper - I just cut them out. I thought it would be cute in my window sill (sp?) in the kitchen for all of those little extra gadgets that make their way to my kitchen. In the pictures you can tell that the glue isn't completely dry. Overlook that :)