A Weekend of Highs and Lows

Last weekend Jason and I had our first weekend away from our adorable boys... time for just the two of us! We were both so excited to relax, sleep in, do grown-up things that did not involve changing diapers or sippy cups! hahaha! It all started back in October on Jason's birthday. Mom, Dad, Granny, Popa, the boys and I all went in together and bought tickets to a Cowboys game. Now let me set the stage for you... Jason is a DIE-HARD Cowboys fan! He cheered for them when they stuck and he cheered for them when they were Super Bowl champions. He loves, loves, loves them! In the words of our preacher, "They are HIS team!" Jason has never seen a Cowboys game live, and this is the last year they will be in Texas Stadium, so it was the perfect opportunity to make a little dream of Jason's come true.

(My story telling will now be in backwards order. I am too tired to cut and paste all the photos into the correct order!)

We left from the hotel at 10:30. It was 4.6 miles from the stadium. The game started at noon. We got to our seats at 1:05. No, that it not a typo... 1:05 - middle of the second quarter. And that was after a 25 minute walk from where we parked! The parking STINKS at Texas Stadium. I mean , really, it took us over 2 hours to go 4.6 miles! But it was all worth it, really, it was! :)

This is after the Cowboys beat the 49ers and just before our trek back to the car. Jason was truly bursting with excitement the whole game!
And this was the view from our seats! They were awesome! Second deck right in the middle of the end zone. It was a neat view of the game. Even I could see plays developing. But most importantly, Jason loved the view!

Another view of Tony Romo and crew winning! As Jacob would say, "Go touchdown!"

To commemorate our parking fiasco... this was kick-off. So close, yet so VERY far from the action. It was so poorly marked and SO many cars! It gave me Rita evacuation flashbacks

And the night before... This was the view from our room. Jason used all of his points to get us a fancy room on the 29th floor. It was so nice, comfy and relaxing. That is until 10:30pm. You see, at 10:30 pm we discovered that out of 583 rooms, we were lucky enough to get next to a single dad and his 5 yr. old and 3 yr. old sons. They apparently love to play football because we could hear "down...set...hut" until 1:30am. Yes, 3 hours of kids screaming and banging into walls. Yes, on our not-so-romantic get-away weekend. Even after a call to the desk, the noise did not stop until 1:30. Then we finally fell asleep. When what should happen at 2:00am??? A fire alarm. It said "Lobby...Lobby...Lobby" in a very loud computer voice. And in case of a fire, don't use the elevator, so we walked to the lobby. Remember we were on the 29th floor????? Yes, our legs hurt. And I was laughing through all of my huffing and puffing. I discovered that I am really out of shape! haha So we finally got back to our room at 3:30am. No fire, just a faulty wire.

Hours earlier we discovered a FUN place! I highly recommend it for a night of expensive treating to some special occasion... The Melting Pot. We got the Big Night Out which was 4 courses of delicious food! Here is Jason with the chocolate course.

This is what we dipped in the chocolate, caramel, pecan mixture... marshmallows, brownie bites, strawberries, bananas, and rice krispie treats. YUM - O!!!!

Before the chocolate was the main course. We chose Mojo style - which was a southwestern citrus broth that you cook the meat in. We ate filet minon. salmon, pork tenderloin, chicken, shrimp and spinach ravioli. It was so fun to stab a piece of meat, put in the broth of at least 2 minutes, chat, eat and do it again! The whole meal took about 2 hours. So nice and relaxing... and did I mention no Tidy Diners or sippy cups?!?!?

This is me and the salmon.

They also bring out several sauces to dip your meat in. We both liked the ginger sweet and sour sauce the best. Oh - and you also get all the veggies you want. Broccoli, squash, mushroom and new potatoes.The second course was salad. I forgot to take a photo! Jason had southwestern Cobb and I had the California salad with feta, walnuts, cranberries, mixed greens and a delicious dressing.

We are cheese people. In our fridge on any given day we have at least 4 kinds of cheese - usually more! So the first course, cheese, was a BIG hit for us! We choose the original cheese fondue and dipped bread, veggies and Granny Smith apples. It was fabulous!

As soon as our flight landed, we headed over the the Sixth Floor Museum. If you have never been and are in DFW, I highly recommend it. I think it was my 7th visit. It chronicles the life and death of JFK. Truly fascinating info. And we were there on the 45th anniversary.

So here we are... two lovebirds! hahaha But really, it was refreshing to have some time away and get to talk and laugh like we love to do. Being away from the boys was hard, but we knew they were in excellent care with my parents and we were ready to see them on Monday morning.

Speaking of Monday morning... that was interesting... probably the lowest low of the weekend. We spent Monday morning filing a police report because our room was burglarized while we were at the game. Yeah, it was terrible... but we were gone and it was just stuff that got taken. And hopefully soon we can have that mess all cleaned up.

On another high - construction on the house should be starting this week!

Evolution of a Reader

I want to let you in on a little secret... I'm a reader again!!! As a child I rarely was without a book in my hands. I read The Baby-Sitters Club series up to book #112 or so. Then in jr. high and high school, reading turned mostly into the books required for assignments... A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter and Julius Caeser stand out as the major ones I remember. Then in college I started reading Biblical books or things assigned. My favorite class was Children's Literature and my favorite book we read was Bridge to Terabithia... still cry and have not seen the movie. Once I got married the reading stopped completely unless it was a picture book for school. About 6 years ago, I started doing Bible Studies with some of my friends, so I would read the Bible Study books and my Bible. I often would say, "I'm too tired to read and if I am going to attempt to read, it will be only the Bible." So for the last 6 years all I read was the Bible - which I am NOT knocking! After all, it is the best book ever written, hands down my favorite book and full of things that I read over and over again and still do not understand all of it's pages. And even though I am now reading other books, I promise not to stop reading this one too! :)

That brings me to May 2008... we stopped at Lacie's house when we were coming home from DFW and she said that she had a series of books that she thought I would like to read. Then she dropped the bomb... "I will not talk to you until you have read the first one." NO PRESSURE!!!!! So on the drive home I began ... and I could not put it down! She ended up mailing me the next 2 and sending one via Trey to Jason over a work thing so that I could finish the series. What was the series... the Canadian West by Janette*Oke. I fell in love with Canada of the 1910s. I think that Elizabeth was me! She was a school teacher and loved her job... but loved her family more. And that Wynn Delaney! Oh my! What a love story!!! I officially became a reader again.

Then that pesky Ike hit and we were back in DFW and we were back at Lacie's house and she gave me another series. This time she gave me all 5 of the Abram's Daughters series by Beverly*Lewis. Let's just say, I read all 5 in exactly one month! My mom told me that I was reading too much! It reminded me of my elementary school years! hahaha This series was so wonderful!!! It is set in Amish Pennsylvania in the 1940s and ends in the 1960s spanning 3 generations of the same family. As I read the last pages of the last book I wept! Leah Ebersol and her dedication to her family, true love and God was very inspiring. I was intrigued by the Amish customs and confused by the web of secrets that was spun. At one point I was tempted to make a chart of who knew what... it reminded me of The Young and the Restless Amish style. The characters and plots still resonate in my mind. I recommend them highly!

And then Holly shared the latest book with me... These is My Words by Nancy*Turner. It was set in Pioneer Arizona and told the story of Sarah Prine. It took me a little longer to "get into" the story, but by the end I could not put it down and was crying again at the end!!! I recommend it too.

So now I am a reader!!! For my next series I am tackling a childhood favorite of many that I never read... Little House! I think that since my mom wanted me to read it I was being a stinker and refused to! Oh well, if that was my worst rebellion that is nothing to talk about! hahaha

What are you reading?!??!?!

At the Patch and a Sunday Snippet

I love fall!!! One of my favorite things to do in the fall is to visit the pumpkin patch. This year we went to two different patches. This one was in the yard of a local Methodist church. It was quite picked over when we went, but still pretty and lots of fun for the kids. We met our friends Reid and Macy there. Here are the 4 kids sitting with the pumpkins... We also took several family photos. Granna and GPop with Rylan and Jacob.

Granny and Popa Shake Shake with all 4 of us. Granny bought the boys 2 squash-like gourds. One had a brown bottom that looked like it was dipped in chocolate. Jacob, of course, picked that one!

Our family!

And my two silly boys! Several of the pumpkins were very bumpy. They really liked to feel the different textures of each pumpkin. Rylan kept trying to pick up the huge $12 pumpkins, like Mrs. Heather bought, but they were just too big for him to lift!

And here is my Sunday Snippet for last week... Our preacher, RB, is doing a series of lessons loosely based on Charles Hodges's book My Daily Walk with God. Last week RB said to believe God is who he says he is. And who is he? He is the Almighty, Creator, Healer, Father, Jehovah and so much more. And we must believe God can do what he says he can do. And what can he do? More than we can imagine! I am glad that Rylan and Jacob were semi-quiet so that I could hear these snippets. I'm looking forward to more tomorrow!

HU Homecoming 2008

A few weeks ago, the four of us travelled north for Homecoming at HU. It was the first time that Rylan and Jacob had been on campus, so needless to say, we were SOOOOOO excited!!! Overall the weekend was lots of fun. We got to see lots of friends, but wished we could have seen more. We ate at old favorites and tried several new spots too. We learned to juggle campus time and nap time for the boys. It was too short, but worth the drive. So here are some of the highlights...

This trip was also the first time that we got to meet Isaac. Isaac's mom and I were roomies for three years at HU! We share a very special friendship and even though over 13 hours separate us, we are still super close! This is Beth and I with our three boys... my how we have changed since first meeting each other in 1994. Rylan and Isaac (and Jacob too) hit it off! Three boys toddling was fun to keep up with and a little tiring too! hahaha

First of many pics of our three angels! I see an 8x8 album in the making!

Another highlight was getting to see Aubrey and spend time with her! This summer she came and spent a week with us and we were all excited to see her again! Rylan and Jacob call her "Miss Aubrey" which is so cute! Thursday night she took us to Brick Oven - the newest and most delicious pizza joint in town. Then Thursday night and Saturday night we went to the park for the boys to get out and run around. I also went to the dorm on Friday night and spent about 3 hours laughing, drinking tea, watching Friends and looking at education class projects. Some things never change!!!

Here are Rylan and Jacob with Aubrey.

Jason was super excited to see his roomie Chris and I was equally excited to see his sweet wife Paula. Last summer we got to spend two days with them on our way to TN, so we were anxious to see their baby again. She was 3 weeks old last time and this time she was running around with the boys! We are already looking forward to more chat time with this sweet family!

From a girls perspective the football game is all about who is there to talk to. From a boys perspective the football game is just that - the football game. You know, yelling at every play, hollering and strategizing with other guys. From a toddler's perspective the football game was getting to wear an ultra-cool new jersey, running in the grass and playing in the shot pit pit gravel!

One of the famous parts of HU is the Front Lawn. We, of course, strolled through the trees and down memory lane too! Here is Beth and me... dear friends!

Several hours before the game, we took the boys over to campus to walk around and see the field. They had been talking about the game since Monday and we wanted them to get to have fun on the field too. Here's the family by the goal post.

Rylan's first touchdown! He kept saying, "I play where Daddy played!"

My three favorite boys in one of their favorite places... the 50 yard line.

Jason and the boys walking onto the field for the first time. Jason was so proud to get to show the boys all about football and where he played. We also got to see his position coach, who is now the head coach. It was so cute to see this 50-something big burly man melt like butter and snuggle our toddlers. I always had a soft spot for Coach H and his wife and it was a treat to get to visit with him.

Hotels... we had our fill of hotel life! We stayed at a decent place in town. The boys had fun standing by the AC and making their hair blow up. They would squeal and say "spiky hair!!!! " The worst part was having a dark and silent room while they fell asleep. But we managed OK.

Friday evening we went to go visit Melissa and her family. They have lived in town since we graduated. Beth and I met Melissa our sophomore year and got to be really close friends. Every time we are in town we see Melissa for a few hours to visit. We had lots of silly late night in the dorm! hahahaha This is Melissa, Luke and Madelyn.

And Beth, Scott and Isaac.

And the three girls! I wish I knew how to scan in a pic from 1997. That would be fun! :)

Madelyn is in first grade now! She was such a precious big sister to all the babies. I think Rylan has a crush on her. We are noticing a trend of him liking older girls...

Oh, how much do I love Dr. W?!?!?!? Friday after chapel we stopped by her office and visited for over an hour! Dr. W was my advisor and early childhood professor, not to mention my favorite! Katie and I spent hours talking about how we wanted to read stories out loud just like Dr. W. I seriously could not think more of a lady - both personally and professionally. She had three books waiting for the boys. They loved her office - it was full of Lakeshore toys! A trip to HU is not complete without a visit with Dr. W.

Oh - the HU swing! Another famous landmark on campus! Here is the old saying "Three swings and a ring!" Now it took more than three swings for Jason to give me a rind, but we did spend our fair share of time swinging and talking. I was so excited to get the boys photo on the swing. We have a framed print of the swing in our house and the boys already point to it and say "HU swing."

Last stop on our Homecoming weekend trip was the Old Mill park. This was where Jason and I had our first kiss! It was in Gone With the Wind and is simply a beautiful park! We stopped for a few photos and a chance to stretch our legs! A nice stranger took our family pic in front of the mill.

And this is inside the mill.

We loved our time at HU - then and now. Those were the BEST years!!! For those of you who were there and we missed you, we are sorry!!!! Hopefully next fall there will be many more familiar faces to see... after all it will be our 10 year reunion!