Off to California

Wedding #2 is here!!

Daniel and I are all packed and ready to go. We will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and flying to Reno, NV. The two of us will get to experience Reno for the first time tomorrow night, then my whole family will be in Reno by Thursday afternoon.

Then, we are all leaving to drive three hours through the redwood forests to Redding, CA (I am not really sure exactly where that is).

It should be a lot of fun and I am really excited!! I am going to try to take lots of pictures and will definitely update when we get back!

Look Who's Here!

Jon and Mandy have gone to a Roughriders game with David and Suzanne. Daniel is at work, so look who I have all to myself!! JD is having such a good time trying to hit the toys hanging over him. He actually does a pretty good job!! What a sweetie!!

Soaking Wet

Daniel asked me to take the car to work this morning so that he could do some work on the jeep. He was wanting to rotate the tires or something...I don't know much about it :)

I just got home from work - he was standing out there doing the tire thing, dripping wet. It is pouring outside. I had the windshield wipers on as high as they could go while I was driving. When I pulled up, he was just grinning.

He walked in the door a few minutes ago, dripping water all over the tile, and told me how much fun that was. He said it started raining earlier than he was expecting.

Once a little boy, always a little boy!!

(Glad he was enjoying what he was doing though!!)

American Idol Finale

I must admit that I can be a reality TV junkie. I have done really well this spring, though, because we have been so busy in the evenings. I still have found the time to catch at least one of the two American Idols that is on each week. So, of course, I had to watch the big finale!!

I was very impressed with the way they did it. When I saw that it was going to be two hours long and you know they do not name the winner until the last 3 minutes, I was sure that the show was going to drag on with highlights from the whole season. That is what seems to happen on most result shows.

But they did not do that...they had some pretty good performers on! I loved how all of the old AI winners (besides Fantasia) were on and a part of the celebration. And GreenDay, Gwen Stefani, Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight, and Smokey Robinson were all there. I like how it was more about the music than what had already been shown thoughout the season. (We won't discuss Bette Midler)

And I must say that my favorite part of the evening was probably when Melinda sang with the Winans. That girl can sing! (She was my favorite)

Hope everyone is having an excellent day!!

Impulsive Purchase

One of the few appliances that are not provided in our new home and we are required to purchase is a refrigerator. We have been talking for a while about when we were going to get one and where we would put it until we could move in. I was afraid that if we waited until we closed on the house, we would be without a fridge for a while (our schedule will be kind of tight around then).


On Friday, we decided to just go look around and see what is out there. We left Home Depot somewhat disappointed in the prices of the refrigerators. I had no idea they were so expensive!! Because of the layout of our kitchen, we need a counter-depth fridge, which, even though it is smaller than regular sized, costs more money!!


We left Home Depot and went to Rodenbaugh's in Allen. There we got a lucky break. They have a regular showroom, but they also have a scratch and dent outlet store next door. They had one there that was in perfect condition, but was an overstock item. They had it marked off almost 800 dollars!! It was such a good deal that we had to take it. They said they started the week with ten of them and only one is left...

After we left, I asked Dan how he felt about the purchase. He said that he was very happy with it, he just couldn't believe that he had done it!! We are talking about the man who researches EVERYTHING. He looked at house stuff for almost two years before deciding he had found a good deal. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good thing as well!

Promised Pics

Because Julie at least attempted to name the plant, here are a few pictures of our newly landscaped home. We should be moving in about a month!! I am so ready!!

Name this plant...

Anybody know the name of this plant? How do you take care of it? Am I going to kill it?

Yesterday, on our near daily trip to our new house, we discovered that we have grass, trees, and plants!! I was VERY excited!! I don't know that I am a great plant person. We have a few green plants in our apartment that have all survived since we bought them when we got married, so I have managed to keep them alive for over two years. We will see how I do on the outside stuff. In the flowerbed in front of the study window, there are several shrubs and then two of these pink/purple flowered plants. Sorry if the picture isn't that great...

I will post more updated pictures of the house as soon as someone names this plant....it's your reward!! :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!! I am so sad that I am not with my mother this weekend, but she knows I am thinking about her...she's the best!!

Last night we got to go up to Daniel's parents' house and have a cook-out for Mother's Day. Ouida did not know that we had this all planned until people started randomly showing up (Good job Sarah!!) We had a lot of fun and were able to enjoy the beautiful weather outside. Here are a couple of pictures from the event.

Mercy was in charge of making the lemonade.

The guys were enjoying looking at Michael's new truck. I think they were pretending like they were busy!!

Jon was actually cooking the hamburgers, so the rest of us were relaxing for a while. This was J.D.'s first cookout and trip up to the grandparents!

We all had a wonderful time!

Hope everyone else had a spectacular Mother's Day! (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!! I love you!!)

Congrats

Daniel's brother, Nathan, graduated from the fire academy last night. He has been going to classes, etc. 3 nights a week and all day Saturday, every week for the last nine months, so I know he was glad it was over. Way to go, Nathan!!

Official Wedding Pics

The photographer who did the wedding pictures for my cousin Brooke was absolutely amazing!! She told me that she takes around 4000 pictures a wedding so that she can choose the best ones. If you have a chance and want to take a look at some great works of art, here is her blogspot. *Click here* She also has an official website but you get a good idea from the ones on her blog. There is also a link on her blog to a quick slide show of wedding pics.....

Hope everyone is having a happy humpday!!

Wedding Weekend #1

What a busy weekend!! Brooke (my cousin) and Brian were officially married yesterday. We had so much fun going up to Lubbock to see all of my family. We had a blast! The weekend started with a wedding cookout at my sister's house - everyone who was in town was invited to attend. Saturday morning was Brooke's graduation and we all shared lunch together.

Then I was lucky enough to get to see one of my old high school friends. Les moved to Canada almost three years ago and I have not seen her since. She was in town visiting her in-laws. We only got to spend an hour together but she got to meet D and I got to meet her husband and daughter (who was born on my birthday).

We left there to go to rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. While in college, Brooke and Brian decided to have some baby turtles...since they were not allowed to keep them in the college dorms, they ended up with my mother in 7th grade science. The turtles ended up making an appearnce at rehearsal and Brooke cried and cried about seeing "her turtles".

Sunday morning we had worship services together at the hotel, and then all of the women went to a bridal luncheon hosted by all of Brooke's grandmother's and aunts (unoffically, that meant us cousins, as well, I tied lots of ribbons...).

We also got to see Brooke off from the hotel as all of the bridal party climbed into the limo. My grandmother even tried to drive off!!

Before the wedding, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and snap some photos of our family.

One of my favorite pre-wedding moments was when Brian and Brooke first saw each other in the courtyard. Everyone could look out the windows and watch. (They both cried...it was so cute!!)

I also got to see some friends (and Brooke) at the reception. We left last night as soon as the limo did to drive back home.

We had a long night drive home, but Dan did an awesome job getting us home safely!! Sorry so many pics, but they are the best way to document our weekend!! One summer wedding weekend down, 3 more to go!!

Pioneer Days

I walked into our office this morning and saw nothing but darkness. The electricity had gone off at some point in the night and had still not been turned back on. All of our phones and our computers (our charts) were down....we could not access anything!!

Some of the front office girls used their cell phones to call in to the phone service to retrieve the messages left by patients and to return their calls. We lit candles everywhere and tried to light the restroom (no windows). We then went searching for our old paper charts and presription pads. I couldn't remember how to handwrite an Rx!!

Four of our ten exam rooms have windows, so when patients did come in (and they all wanted to still be seen) we would put them in those rooms, as well as my office, and do what we could in the dark. We even got flashlights involved!!

I was surprised at how many people came in and were totally okay with the fact that we did not have power and we were not able to do everything they wanted us to do. I think what suprised me the most was the fact that most people do not know what medications they take. When we were asking what their meds were so we could write them on our paper chart to transfer later, most of them would say "I don't know. What do you have me on?" That was a difficult question to answer since we could not access any of their information. When people came in and said they had an appointment, we just took their word for it!!

Luckily, we only had to do this until 10:45, when the power came on. It did make for an interesting morning, and lunch was full of updating charts for the people we had seen in the morning.

One lady commented that it was like being on "Little House on the Prairie" They were brave people!!

Sound of Rain

UPDATE: I originally posted this before the weather decided to give us all a little excitement. I had not turned the TV on and did not know it was going to get that bad and leave us without electricity for hours!!

I love the sound of rain. I really enjoy sitting here at the computer and hearing the rain drops hit the window and the roof. I like to hear cars driving through the puddles in the parking lot of our apartment building. It is such a peaceful sound to me.

I also love the memories that come with the sound of rain. Every house/roof makes a different sound when it rains. I think of sitting in my bed at my parent's house (even though that did not happen often at all...it doesn't rain there much)...I think of being at Blue Haven and the sound of the rain through the trees and on the tin roofs. That is one of my most favorite ways to take a nap!! I think I even like the randomness of thunder. Who can truly predict the next lightning/thunder combo?

I hope it rains all night....

May already?

I cannot believe that it is already the first of May. It feels like this year has flown by so quickly!! I am excited that it is finally here because it is the start of a busy few months for us. My cousin, Brooke, is getting married (and graduating from LCU) this weekend. She will be the first of the 'summer weddings' we are to attend. I can't wait to see all my family again! (Okay, so Easter was only a few weeks ago, but still, I like my family :) As you can probably guess, Daniel can't wait for all of these weddings. I just can't imagine how soon Christmas will be here if it is already May!!