Fun Weekend

Work at Barstow is done for the summer! I am thankful to have had the job...it doesn't get much easier than getting paid to go to the pool every day. I am all "pooled out" for now though!

On Friday night we drove down to Olathe to eat at Oklahoma Joe's with Jason, Jessica and Reegan. After dinner we went back to their house so Reegan could go to bed and we could keep hanging out for a while. We had a great time talking and playing "Clue." I haven't played Clue in FOREVER and it was so much fun! Thanks for having us over guys!

This morning we slept in and then went down to the Plaza to eat breakfast at Ingredient. We had a groupon that we were really excited to use. I think this might be our third Saturday to not have anything super pressing to be doing and we are loving it.

Here are some shots from breakfast...

I had a tomato basil egg sandwich thing with cranberry apple juice.

After breakfast we hung around the Plaza and did a little bit of shopping and then came back to the house to do a some standard weekend house work. A while back we were supposed to take dinner to our friends Adam and Becca to help them after they brought their son Neylan home from Korea. Because of the boys' birthday parties, our dinner got pushed back and we ended up bringing it to them tonight. I made stroganoff and we got to eat dinner with them. They live out south, so we took Deuce along to take him to Heritage Park after dinner. Adam and Becca wanted the boys to meet Deuce, so we brought him to the backyard.

This picture was taken right after Deuce licked Neylan. Right after this picture, Neylan gave us a huge smile...he wasn't afraid of Deuce at all!

Deuce thought their water table was great for easy drinking.

We were so proud of Deuce's behavior around the little ones and it was really nice to spend the evening with Adam and Becca. After dinner we went on to the park and had a nice time. This week David will continue going to Topeka and I will be going up to my classroom to work. I got a lot done last week though. It's a four day week for us, because we are going to meet David's family in Branson on Thursday night. We're really looking forward to getting away one more time before I go back to work. As usual, we're looking forward to church tomorrow and seeing everyone. :)

Think-back Thursday

So, one of my friends from high school (Caroline Peeples) has a blog and she does a "Memory Monday" post. I was feeling nostalgic today and thought I might test it out. I'm even copying her bullet/numbering system. It being Thursday and not Monday, I came up with, "Think-back Thursday." The title is a little lack-luster, but it's all I could think of. I wouldn't be looking for this as a regular part of the blog, but who knows! For now, tonight, I'm thinking back on some of the funnest parts of being a Pi Phi at Arkansas.

I was excited to pledge, but had no idea that the girls I met would be life-long best friends. I know that's very stereotypically corny, but true! The fun of course started the minute we pledged, but I don't have any pictures on my computer from freshman year (pre digital camera--shocking). Sophomore year I lived in the Pi Phi house with about 90 other girls, which leads to my first fun memory.

1. One of my best memories from "sorority life" was getting ready for functions together. We would run from room to room, borrowing clothes, stealing clothes, laughing at outfits, and taking pictures. You have an undending supply of clothes when you live with that many girls.

"Duck Calls and Coveralls"...I also love it that I have T-shirts from all these functions.

2. My second point is...Lauren Yelvington Davis. When we moved into the house Lauren and I lived together both semesters and she is my best friend. One of my funniest/good friend memories with Lauren had to do with Razorback cheer. My grandparents were in town for the game to see me cheer and I was at the top of the pyramid for the occasion. If you were late to practices or games it was not uncommon for our coach to take you off "top spots." Well, my Dad was supposed to pick me up for the game (like 4 hours before kick-off) and my alarm didn't go off. My dad's phone call literally woke me up. Getting "game ready" is no quick task...I was going to be LATE...when my grandparents were here! I sat up in bed, shouted that I was late, and started flying around the room. Lauren also jumped up (it was 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday by the way) and started rushing around. I was in the bathroom trying to put myself together while Lauren yelled at me from the room about which top and skirt combo she needed to pull out. I wouldn't have made it without her, and she's still there for me whenever I need it. Love you Lauren.

3. Bachelor Night! Let me preface this by saying that I am well-aware that The Bachelor is trash TV. However, watching with the girls every Monday are some my best memories from being a Pi Phi. It was always casual, and always fun. The cat in the picture is Tate, Lauren's cat. :)

4. Float trips! We still take them! In fact, we took one this June. Our glasses in this picture say "Party with Pi Phi" on the side...so college. Don't worry, I still have them.

So that's my "think-back Thursday." After re-reading it, I realize that my sorority memories center around the friends I made there. There are so many more I could mention, like candlelights, flag football (take it to the house!), dance parties, talking about boys, etc, but there is not enough time! Thinking back is fun and I am thankful for such good memories. :)

Summer Continues

We had a normal, very relaxing week. I went to work each day and took 30 kids to the pool this week...kind-of a large number. This was David's last week in the clinic before he has to do his rural rotation. This weekend was great. On Friday night we hung out with our friends Brett and Sarah Busenitz after trying out some Turkish cuisine. After dinner we made smoothies at Brett and Sarah's house and just hung around. It was so great to see them!

These smoothies took lots of ingredients and were possibly the best smoothies I've ever had. I think it was the mango.

On Saturday we slept in a little bit and then decided to go shopping at some estate sales. While out, we ran in to our neighbors Larry and Joann...it wasn't that surprising...they do it every weekend. We spent a total of $2.50 and got the book "The Greatest Generation" by Tom Brokaw, about 12 light bulbs, and a new container of wiper fluid. Not your typical estate sale finds...but we were pretty darn pleased with ourselves. We layed around in the afternoon and stayed out of the heat watching a movie. In the later afternoon we did all of our yard work for the week. I had a roast in the crock pot all day, so we ate that for dinner and rented a movie!

Today was a VERY busy day! We had two free tickets to the Royals game today since David volunteered at "Team Smile" recently, so we decided to go kind-of last minute. We rushed home after church and got there right at the beginning of the fourth inning. David treated himself to some cotton candy and I got a lemon chill.

After the game we had a message from our friends and pastor, Mark and Starla to go and get Thai food for dinner. We were up for it, so we quickly did a grocery store run and headed to meet them. Thai food is not something we're very familiar with, but it was really good and the fellowship was even better.

This is my last week at Barstow, so it feels like it's my last week of summer. I am going to be going to my classroom every morning this week before work so that I can slowly start to get things together. I don't it would be wise for me to complain about being tired of my job, considering I go to the pool every day, so I won't complain. But I will say that I am ready to decrease my sun intake and sweat output for a while. :)

Tomorrow starts David's two week rural rotation, so he will be driving back and forth to Topeka every day. Yuck. Although we are very thankful he wasn't assigned to a place farther away than that. We're looking forward to a good week.

Bombed Out Basement

I write this blog exhausted. We had a really busy day and wore ourselves completely out. Before I tell you about why I'm so tired and the title of this post, I'll tell you about David and I's date night last night. We decided that we needed a date night just for us at a nice restaurant. We went to this place in Brookside called Blue Grotto. It is kind-of a gourmet pizza place and we also had some delicious bruschetta. We didn't take a picture at Blue Grotto, so I decided to steal a picture from my brother's old blog from when he was in Italy. He went to the actual "Blue Grotto," so here it is!...



The restaurant didn't look quite that good. :)

This morning we got up early and went down to Einstein Brother's and had breakfast! It hadn't gotten too hot yet, so we enjoyed sitting outside for a little bit and even walked by the tiny farmer's market. We bought Deuce a doggy bagel too.





We can't pass up an opportunity to pose by a hog. There is one just like this in Fayetteville too.



After breakfast we came home and got to work on the basement. When we moved in to our house, we pretty much just took our stuff downstairs and left it. We haven't really done much to the basement since then. Over the last three years our stuff has become progressively more unorganized, more dusty, and more intimidating to sort through. We ended up re-organizing our boxes, cleaning all the floors, cleaning all the boxes, scraping off all the old paint off the walls, and re-painting the walls with this special basement paint that's supposed to seal it up.

Sooie hung around while we worked. Why do cats love boxes so much?



For the record, I would NEVER put pictures of this dirty basement on the blog unless I knew I would also be able to put up pictures of it looking good. So....

Before...



...and after!



Before...




...and after!





We got done with the basement at about 5:00 p.m. and then decided to go ahead and do the yard. David gave me the job of mowing the front while he edged. I did about four lines and he walked over and said, "How about you do the back and I can do the front?" I don't think my lines were that straight. :) He got done edging and took over all mowing while I pulled weeds eventually. Now, we are relaxing and watching TV. I know that I am going to have a sore back tomorrow and definitely a sore shoulder from trying to start the dumb mower (which I never got started on my own).

Days like today are great because you really end up feeling like you got a lot of stuff done and it was good. The basement is something we have been putting off for pretty much every weekend we've been home for the last 2 years. We're proud of the way it looks and hope that re-sealing it and making it look fresh might add some value to our house. Looking forward to church tomorrow!

Summer weekend relaxing

This weekend has been SO nice. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture. I guess my rhetoric will have to be filled with wonderfully descriptive words. :)

After work on Friday, David and I decided to enjoy some more free movie tickets. We grabbed a quick dinner at Panda Express, marveled at how good and fast it was, and headed to see "Larry Crowne." The movie was entertaining, and FREE! We went to the 7:30 show, so we got home at a great time and relaxed some more.

We slept in on Saturday and enjoyed some coffee on the back porch together. Many of you might not know this, but I have not always been a coffee drinker. I fought it for a long time, insisting that I only get things like "white chocolate mocha" from Starbucks. Well, I'm in the real world now, and it makes you tired, so I abandoned my "no coffee" rule and embraced the caffeine (this happened about 2 years ago). I say all this to explain how great it was for both David and I to just sit outside under our umbrella, in such nice temperature, and drink coffee together. When we were dating, David said more than once that he hoped one day we could enjoy coffee together. We enjoyed thinking about on Saturday morning.

Because David teaches our gospel group on Thursday nights, I clean the house and David mows the yard in the middle of the week. It's quite a different Saturday when you don't have those things to do. We asked each other, "What do we need to do today?" The answer on Saturday was, "NOTHING!" So we relaxed, talked about the future, David worked on making some dental contacts, and then we took Deuce to a new dog park.

Saturday night we went to Mitch and Nicole's house for a little party. We ate fajitas and played games in the backyard. Thanks for hosting Nicole...it was great! Today was a great day at church and we went to lunch with Matt and Diana (and Collin), JJ and Mandy, Dony and Alison (and Audrey) and Travis and Jessica (and Kaylin). So so fun. This afternoon was just as relaxing as the rest of the weekend. This is shameful to admit, but I finally finished our Europe scrapbook (we went to Europe in 2007). Scrapbooking might not be for me...4 years for one trip? :)

This week David will be in the clinic (as usual), I will be working half days (as usual) and we will have gospel group (as usual). It's going to be an "as usual" week hopefully and we are soaking up every minute of summer while it lasts.

Frisbee Faux Pas

Deuce loves his old beat up frisbee more than anything. He loves to fetch it, loves to carry it around, and loves to chew on it. He hasn't been able to completely destoy it yet...until now. While I was cooking dinner the other night, I heard Deuce in the other room chewing on it, but didn't really think anything of it. I should have.

Does this dog look like he feels guilty?



He should!...



Dirty little dog...making more work for me.

It's already Friday! The week has been really good. Last night we had Gospel Group at our house and I made Granny's peach cobbler. It turned out really tasty!




David and I's thought for the week has to do with something called "functional righteousness." Functional righteousness is something we've been talking about in Gospel Group and is something that we do when we find righteousness in what we do instead of confronting our actual brokeness. This is a part of "pretending"--minimizing our own sin. Here are some examples of things that can give us a sense of personal credibility: job righteousness (I am a hard worker, so God will reward me), family righteousness (I "do things right" in my family), theological righteousness (I have better theology than others), intellectual righteousness (I am better read, more education etc. than others), schedule righteousness (I am self-disciplined etc.), tolerance righteousness (I am more open-minded than others).

None of these, in and of themselves are necessarily bad. It is good to have solid theology, it is good to be disciplined, it is good to do things right in your family etc. However, it is NOT right to very subtly replace the view of our own sinfullness with these things. They are things that can creep in without us even knowing, which means we need to stay Christ-centered, with an appropriate view of God's ultimate holiness and our sinfulness. However, we also must trust, in faith, that God is deeply satisfied with us through Jesus and we cannot "perform" enough to be saved. Our righteousness comes through Jesus alone and our "work" for God should be an outpouring of our love and gratefullness to Him.

Fourth of July 2011

Ok, reader beware, this is a LONG post and is really picture heavy. I'm going to try and keep my words mildly shorter and let the pictures tell the story of the weekend. We both took Friday off of work and drove down to the lake on Thursday night. When we got there, Mom and had started work on a new dessert called the "Wave Your Flag Cake." We re-named it the "God Bless America Cake."



Tripp wasn't coming down until Saturday morning, so we spent all day on Friday with Mom and Dad! We went out onto the lake and spent some time skiing and just hanging out. It was HOT, but the water felt wonderful.

Check out my husband on the slalom!





My Dad, at almost 52 years old, popped right up on the slalom with no problem. I have a new goal for myself...being able to do this at 52. Wow Dad!



I got in on the action too and Dad helped me get my ski sized up right.



After my second run I took pretty nasty fall and managed to barrel roll and my ski banged up my knee. I got a nice big bruise! Oh well...totally worth it!





This is kind-of the first whole summer with the party barge and David got a chance to try his hand at driving it. Mom and Dad spent a lot of time reminding us of things we need to remember when we come down on our own.



Dad gave me some instruction too!



On Friday night we rode over to Shangri La and had some classic fried catfish. Yum. Then we hung out at the trailor and even took Deuce down to the launching ramp. He bolted toward the water and got completely soaked trying to catch some ducks. I was just happy to see him willing to go in! Friday was an AMAZING day with Mom and Dad. Thanks for such an amazing day!

Saturday morning Tripp arrived and brought our friends Mark and Taylor Kella. They are people we have known for a LONG time and it was fun to spend the day with them. We spent time skiing, wake-boarding and just enjoying the weather. Tripp drove and David even wake-boarded! Sorry no pictures of that. He did great though!



At one point on the barge, Dad had been swimming around the back and climbed back on, only to run straight off the front! He didn't say a word about it as he did it. It was just like he discovered it in the moment. It became on of our favorite things to do this weekend. There's a lot of joy at the lake for sure!



Getting some sun with my beautiful Mom!



Jumping off the top is always a blast. Another goal...being willing to jump off the top of a boat at almost 52 years old like my Mom (she's in the middle). Yes, I am the dork in life jacket...when I got down too deep my ears hurt!



On Saturday night we headed to Little Rock to spend some time with David's family. We had a great dinner on Saturday night of home-made pizza and salad. Then we had home-made chocolate ice-cream for dessert! We relaxed and watched a movie too.

Sunday morning was Immanuel's "God and Country" service. It's definitely a family favorite because all of the military members of our church get to stand when they hear the choir singing their division's theme song. A huge flag also drops down from the ceiling at the same time as red, white and blue poppers are popped.

After church we went back to David's parent's house and had some grilled pork tenderloin. Shepherd was there in a great patriotic outfit. He's gotten bigger even since Memorial Day!





We spent a really relaxing afternoon and then drove down to where David's parents keep their boat (Lake DeGray) and took a sunsight ride. At one point on the way down I looked at the temperature gage in the car and it said 101 degrees...at 7:00 p.m. Shepherd hung out on the dock since he's not quite big enough to wear a life-jacket yet. For dinner we went and ate at Cracker Barrel! Yum!

Shepherd with his "Gram."



On Monday we got up and drove back to Kansas City. We felt like we had already celebrated the fourth, but we realized this was our first time to be in Kansas City on the ACTUAL fourth of July. We celebrated with a nice dinner on the back porch because the weather was so nice.



Deuce got a dental exam...



...and some love.





We couldn't go without seeing some fireworks so we walked down to the Mission Hills Country Club and set ourselves up to see some! We took Deuce and weren't really sure how he would do.





He was a little jumpy at first, but then he calmed down and just watched. Some people might take a picture of their child as they watch fireworks for the first time...maybe someday, but for now, we have this! :)





We had a wonderful weekend and we're glad to be back. We drove home a new way through Harrison and Branson and it was so pretty. We got a lot of natural views of The Natural State using smaller country roads instead of main highway. Granny, Sooie isn't in any of these pictures because she spent the weekend at the kitty hotel. This week is going to be very normal and hopefully relaxed. I'm just working half days again and David continues in the clinic.