Reason for the Season

Reflections of Christ - A Fine Art Photography Exhibit by Mark Mabry

I love everything about this photo. It helps me to remember the true meaning of the Christmas Season.

Christ was born to be our savior and redeemer. My Christmas wish is that all the world hear this beautiful message and let it into their hearts. I know it to be true, and the most beautiful message that could be shared. 

Thank you to all the missionaries who have served and who are currently serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, both young and old. 

I can't wait until Jason and I can serve a mission together so we can share the love of Christ!

Internship update.

So this whole week I have had class in Oklahoma City at the OU Health Sciences Center, what I didn't realize is that I have finally completed all the assignments for my internship! I am so excited to be completing my elective rotation at Cancer Treatment Center of America here in Tulsa, Oklahoma this January, for the last small portion of hours I need. Then I am all done!

I wish I had the words to thank my family, especially my husband for supporting me through this journey. I could not have done it alone. All of the projects, traveling, and time apart is definitely going to pay off! I am so excited that it will so be my turn to support Jason through his education!

So we finished a day early (yesterday) and I got to surprise Jason last night! I drove from Oklahoma City to Tulsa after dinner and made it just before bed time. He had the cutest look on his face! I am pretty sure it was the first time I have been able to surprise him. I loved it. I wish I could do it more often. 

It just reminded me that it really is the small things that keep a marriage going. 

Love making my Jason happy. 

Christmas Card.

Up In Lights Christmas

Customize your Christmas cards this holiday at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving my family decided it would be easiest if we all got together at the house Jason and I are staying at in Tulsa. Just about a month before Thanksgiving, my Grandma actually ended up having heart surgery, so she was in no shape to host the family’s Thanksgiving dinner, thus the reason we hosted this year’s Thanksgiving meal, and I was in charge of the turkey. Nervous yet? I was. Jason and I had only ever cooked one turkey before, and he did all the cooking. Well, to be more precise, he smoked the turkey and it was delicious. Back to this year’s bird. I decided the easiest way to cook this gal would be in an oven bag. Those do wonders. My Mom, on the other hand, was a skeptic. She didn’t think it was going to be cooked at all. She was worried the whole time. Sometimes it is nice to prove your mother wrong, as long as it’s all in good fun. : )  That was the juiciest, flavorful turkey I had in a long time...

… all thanks to Reynold’s oven bags. 

Enough with the bird.

Here’s a list of who all came: of course Jason and I, my Mom and Sean, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve (and his awesome hair), Grandma and Larry, crazy, sweet Aunt Julie and Uncle Bo, and their son Nick with his cute girlfriend. Oh, and my two ornery big brothers, Jeread and Brenan. {It was so good to see Jeread! He looks like he is doing great!} Love them!

The night before Jason and I cleaned out the garage so we could all sit in the same room during the meal. So that’s were we gathered. It turned out great! We had the drink, food, and dessert buffets set up in the house and we all ate together in the great room of the garage! It was so nice to be with family and remember the reason for the season. Truly.

I speak for both Jason and I but I’m sure he feels the same way: every day we are eternally grateful to our Father in Heaven for such a wonderful family.

While I was cleaning up the kitchen, Jason decided we all needed to help. Thus the reason for Daisy on the counter “cleaning up” the left over turkey from de-boning the leftovers. Notice I didn’t turn around for the picture…I couldn’t stand to watch.

She says, "Where's the rest?"

Day Trip.

Jason came down from Tulsa to stay with me before my last week working in Oklahoma City. It was a beautiful day in Oklahoma! Too beautiful to stay cooped up in the house! Mike, Mary, Jason & I decided to make a day trip around some fun placed in Oklahoma City. Well, really Mike & Mary knew where all the fun places are, we were just along for the ride!

The first stop we made was the round barn in Arcadia, Oklahoma, which is along the old Route 66. It was originally built in 1898 and obviously served as a place for the towns dances, oh and to house livestock as well. I won’t tell the whole story about this interesting pit stop along Rout 66, but if you are interested, here is the website- www.arcadiaroundbarn.org .

After our stop there, we headed for lunch at Pops, it is a gas station/restaurant/specialty soda shop. Jason and I had gone with his sister to a place similar a year or more ago in Scottsdale called Pops Soda Shop, but this Pops in Oklahoma is a little bigger and definitely more eye catching. For lunch I can’t remember what everyone ordered, I just remember that after we had all ordered our meals, Mike insisted that we try the buffalo burger, so he ordered another burger for all of us to share! We had so much tasty food!

After lunch, we walked around a looked at the interesting sodas for sale. If I remember correctly Jason got a butterscotch cream soda and I got a blackberry soda. Jason’s was interesting to say the least, but then again, I’m not really a fan of butterscotch.

The interior decorations were, you guessed it sodas. Floor to ceiling sodas.

The architecture was so neat, but all I could think about was if there was enough snow on the end, do you think the cover would just collapse? I hope not!

After a brief walk with the pups to stretch their little legs, we all hopped back into the car and Mike surprised us with a trip to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. They were showing an exhibit on bowie knives he has been dying to see. Of course Jason was elated. He loves that kind of stuff.

So gorgeous. There is a really neat story that includes Italy and a few artists, but I couldn't remember if I tried. You should just go and see it for yourself. : )

I love taking trips with friends. It means you will always have a photographer! 

Mary called this one the "crotch shot" because of obvious reasons with the statue.

A good time was had by all!

Snick's Gift.

Well, since November has come and gone, I better tell you all what happened in our little lives recently. I was able to spend almost all of the days working in Tulsa, and I didn’t have to commute too far to work! It kind of felt like I won the lottery…Cha-ching! Any way, the first week of November I was staying with Mike & Mary German in Edmond, Oklahoma and commuting to Harold Hamm Diabetes Center in Oklahoma City. I mentioned before how much fun Mike & Mary are I’m sure.

I have to tell this story on the pups. So every night, Mike puts the dogs outside one last time and just before heading to bed he lets them in. Well one night there were no pups waiting at the back door to be let in and he wouldn’t come when you called them. They were up to something. After some convincing we rounded up Daisy and Fritz, but Snick wasn’t giving in… he was hunting! After donning jackets, shoes, and flashlights, Mike & Mary cornered little Snick. He was caught underneath the brush pile and wouldn’t come out, so Mike had to dig the fellow out. I noted Mike’s disapproval the next morning at breakfast.

I can’t remember if it was the night before that happened, or if it was the night after, but there was another hunting expedition the pups embarked on that left both Mary & I literally screaming and jumping onto the furniture! After the pups had been outside for some time, we thought they would be ready to come in. Well, Snick was the most ready of all. He had a gift to show us! He came barreling in and ran strait under the bed in Mike & Mary’s bedroom. So me being little nosey me, crouched under the bed to see what he had. Bad idea.

That’s when the screaming began and onto the furniture I ran! He had a HUGE mole in his mouth! GROSS!! Mike immediately heard the screaming and came to Mary and my rescue and retrieved the dead mole from Snicks watering mouth. Thank goodness for brave men in my life!

These picture were mostly for Jason, so he could see how good Snick was at hunting.

 Daisy was so interested. I think if she could talk, she would have been saying, 

“Can I lick it? Can I lick it? Can I lick it?” 

She is so nasty some times.

Pumpkin’ Patch.

Jason and I found a groupon for a pumpkin patch in Porter, Oklahoma, which is where my Grandma lives, and we though it would be fun to have a family day and visit Grandma and go to the pumpkin patch. What a fun family day it was! Jason, Brenan (my brother), Lauren (brother’s girlfriend), and I (oh and the pups too Tyson and Daisy) rode together to meet Mom, Sean, Grandma, and Larry for lunch at Grandma’s house.

What a fun day we all had together! Little did we know that Grandma would be put into the hospital a little over a week later. So glad we took the opportunity to all spend time together. 

Brother's Dog Tyson really making a statement about how he feels.

Jason showing just how tall he really is. Love that face and love him.

Our ride for the day.

Best friends. The end.

Group Shot! Turned out so great! 

Had to prove how silly they really are. Especially Sean. 

Hauling the bounty of the day.

Daisy in her true light...such a sweet girl.

Rose Rehab.

In the front yard of the house we are staying at there is now a rose bush, but before if was a rose bush, there was a dried twig in the ground with a few leaves. I should have taken a before and after picture. Since we were going to be in the house for a while, I decided to adopt this little guy to see if I could get it to grow, and maybe if I were lucky put on a rose or two.

After some intense hydration and plant feedings, and surviving through the hottest summer ever recorded, it finally decided to put on a few blooms! These pictures were taken about a month ago, and even since then there have been even more bigger and beautiful blooms!

Raisin’ the roof.

Back when the sun was still up after 5 in the afternoon, Jason and I headed to Arkansas to see my parents. This trip we made a pact that we were going to actually be helpful to my parents instead of sleeping, watching movies, and eating. And luckily they had a project in mind. The shed roof.

Sean and Jason worked for 2 days on re-roofing the shed. They worked so hard! And they did such a great job. Mom and I were on the ground painting trim, picking up nails and shingles, and working on craft projects. Yes, craft projects. I have been wanting to make these cute frames with chicken wire. So with some of the scrap wood leftover, I nailed a few frames together and stapled chicken wire to the back. They turned out pretty cute! But, I think the shed turned out better!

Hahaha.. I caught 'em. 

Two good men. 

After all the work was said and done, the only think left to do was, well…. go out for ice cream of course! Daisy loved that trip!

She learns pretty quick where the good stuff is. 

Loving it.

OU Game.

Okay, so anyone who had lived or even visited the south knows that college football is a HUGE deal. And OU football = even bigger. Jason and I just had to experience the mayhem that is college football in Oklahoma. After look at ticket prices though, we decided we better just stay home and watch.

One day when Jason was spraying a man’s house, I guess they got to talking about football or something, and he said he had two tickets he was looking to sell… 2 for the price of one. 

So we jumped on it!

It was the OU vs Mizzou game. Since Jason served his mission in St. Louis, I think he was secretly wanting Mizzou to win.

Did I ever mention how grateful for family I am? Seriously. I don’t know what I did to deserve such wonderful family and extended family. A couple of weeks during my community rotations it is required that I be in Oklahoma City, which also requires a place to stay during the rotation. So after I did some thinking about who I may know in the Oklahoma City area the first family that came to mind was the Germans. 

After a little convincing, they decided that they would let us stay…well okay. It didn’t take too much convincing since they are such an awesome family! They were delighted to hear from us and it has been so nice to stay with them and get to know them better. And they were happy to take out little Daisy Dog in too! See they have to wire haired dachshunds, and lets just say they took to Daisy like a bee to a flower. Those silly pups had too much fun! I think Daisy found her true roots as a country hound in the Germans back yard. 

Daisy got a little sleepy on the drive to Oklahoma City. 

OU game view from our seats

Okay so we had to park pretty far away and walk to the stadium, but it gave us a change to see the literally tens of thousands of tail-gaiters. Insane. They bring HUGE TVs with their satellite systems to watch the game, BBQ grills, Couches, Tents, basically you name it, they brought it to a football game. Every square inch of grass was staked with tail-gaiters. Wish we would have photoed that experience. 

My man.

Remember how I said the pups had too much fun? Well, here is what happens to pups who have too much fun. They crash.

Mary told us a super cute story about sand plumbs in western Oklahoma. You will just have to ask her to tell it to you. It's about her grandma and her wedding ring.
This jam is to. die. for. yummy. 

So on our way home from Oklahoma City on Sunday, my parents called and surprised us that they were in Tulsa! So we met up for dinner at Pei Wei Asian diner. Sean went a little crazy ordering from the menu. But we loved everything!

View of our very full table.

Camping Trip.

Since we have moved here to Oklahoma, we have had the opportunity to visit with my parents more often. We love seeing them! We always seem to have a great time, no matter what comes our way. 

Take last weekend for example.

No offense to the weather “people” {to be politically correct} in Oklahoma and Arkansas, but from our experiences they don’t seem have a hold on their predictions. Some days they can say sunny with a light breeze and it will be the total opposite- pouring rain. So when they threatened with a 30% chance for rain a couple weekends ago, my parents, Jason, and I all agreed not to threatening. So we planned a camping trip!

With the fishing license purchased and blankets packed, Jason and I headed after work and dinner on Friday night to Beaver, Arkansas to meet my parents. They are so sweet. We got to the camp site after dark and they had already completely set up camp, bass fish string lights included. Classy. Of course the boys immediately went to the edge of the water for a few casts before bed time. When we awoke the next morning… rain. Not just rain though lightening and thunder so loud it shook you. So I guess the weather “person” was more right than us, this time.

All the rain didn’t phase the boys though. My parents recently made a road trip on their 1978 Honda Goldwing, one necessity they needed was weather proof/waterproof suits—Frog Toggs to be exact. They are awesome. The guys literally stood in the POURING rain for a couple of hours and were kept completely dry wearing these gems. Jason and I decided we need to purchase a couple of suits for ourselves someday.

While the boys were off fishing Mom and I packed up as much of camp as we could.

After about 3 hours of rain, the girls couldn’t take any more.

Our alternative was “camping” out in the living room watching a movie. Mush better choice than literally camping in the rain. {yuck}

After getting dry and warm, the next day we decided to brave the weather to go bowling and go cart racing. {fun!} After all of our adventures, like I said before, we still had a great time! 

Trying to stay dry & warm with me. 

No matter the weather, that's still a beautiful view!

Sean says no good. Jason doesn't know what to think.

Fishin' buddies.

Little family.

That pink dot, yes pink, is Jason fishing. Beautiful scenery.

Our Alternative to being outside.