We should have jerseys cause we make a GREAT team!

Well, meteorologist Karen has called it again! *winks* No Blizzard conditions. We did get quite a downpour of glorious snow, and SUCH big flakes, but it just wasn't cold enough to stick to the ground.

Look at my poor hibiscus tree!

Come on little fellow you can make it!

Kenny and I were starting to feel some serious cabin fever especially after being stuck in a hotel room all of last week. We just wanted to be outside enjoying some fresh air!

Saturday night we had an indoor soccer game at 10:00pm (whew, that's past my bedtime *laughs*). We play on a team with some of Kenny's friends from college, we're called The Rockets! I get SO nervous every time we have a game scheduled, my heart starts palpitating and my palms get sweaty, but then once we get there and get on the field it is such glorious fun! I just love being sporty and being part of a team. I can't believe I went my whole childhood without playing ONE team sport ;) too shy, and too busy with music I suppose. But I really have fun with it now!

All of the kids on the team are in college right now. It's funny because I feel like we're all about the same age....but come to find out, Kenny and I are the old married couple!!! What!?! How did this happen? We're OLD *grins*

Let me just tell you, Kenny is a REALLY great soccer player! He scores goals and does fancy footwork and all kinds of maneuvers and set ups! He is FUN to watch! In fact, while I was on the bench (don't laugh, I got some good playing time in too) I heard some spectators saying "who's THAT guy!? He's GOOD!" (beams of wifely pride now glowed from my face) "Oh, THAT'S Kenny" a teammate said "He played soccer for Mid America!" Wow! I love catching those little tidbits on the side lines when he's coaching or playing, SO neat!! I'm so proud of him!

I did get in at least one really good play! An older guy on the other team (who was pretty good) was driving in directly towards our goal. Well, I rushed out straight towards him, stole the ball away and kicked it WAY down field. I literally squealed with glee "Yeeeessss!!!!" HE even gave me a high five and "good play" he could tell I was so excited! *laughs*

I told Kenny we'd have to keep playing until I score a goal.....Look out senior soccer tour, here we come!

The rest of our weekend was pretty nice and sunny! We worked in the backyard on cleaning up the swimming pool and getting it ready for swim time, Kenny prettied up the back flower beds, and I stained the back side of the remaining kitchen cabinet doors (I can't believe they're almost finished) Hoo-ray!

BLIZZARD !?!

So apparently there is supposed to be a BLIZZARD blowing in this afternoon! I can't believe it! Just when I was getting nice and ready for spring, adoring all the little buds popping out on the trees and bushes, coming to grips with the fact that we just wouldn't get any snow this winter....and BAM! Here comes the snow!

Do you think it's going to look like THIS?

I'm still not sure I believe the weather man. They're predicting three to six inches of snow, with snow drifts!! Wow! I have a sneaking suspicion that the "snow" won't even stick to the ground. It is very wet and rainy now though!

I went to the grocery store on my lunch break today just in case we're snow bound for the next few days *grins* I was going to go after work, but that is just when the snow is supposed to hit and I have a feeling the grocery stores may get pretty busy!

Kenny and I are excited for one more wintry chance to use our firewood! I called him at lunch and he's going to stop by the Redbox (movie rental) and get us some movies to watch tonight! Yay, he's so thoughtful!! Plus KU and OU are both playing basketball games tonight, so we should have no shortage of entertainment!
I hope everyone has a fun wintry evening!

SO Exciting!!

Well, I still need to share the story as to why I was missing in action for a few days the week before last.

Thanks to Kenny's Mom and Dad for entering us!!!! Kenny was selected as the Grand Prize winner for The Phillips 66 Big XII Basketball Sweepstakes!!! It was truly one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to us! I randomly enter neat-o sweepstakes like that, always wondering in the back of my head....does ANYONE ever really win these things!? I know I've never won such a great prize!

Well, Kenny found out that he was the winner back in February. He called me on my cell phone and said "I have some good news and some bad news...." (oh no)...."The bad news is we may not be going to Florida, but the good news is....I'm the grand prize winner for The Phillips 66 Big XII Sweepstakes!!" (He was afraid that part of the prize package would overlap our trip to the Florida Keys)

WHAT!?!?! I couldn't believe it!! I still didn't believe that we were THE grand prize winners. Maybe we won some free gas, or something like that, but THE top prize winners!!!!? Not until we received a notarized FedEx package directly from the head of marketing with Phillips 66 did I believe it!

It was SUCH an amazing blessing! We won round trip airfare (to Oklahoma City *grins*, so we didn't get to use that), $500 cash and $500 in free gasoline, four nights at The Renaissance Hotel downtown (super exciting because this is where we stayed for our wedding night), FRONT row tickets to ALL of the Big XII Basketball championship games, PLUS Kenny would have the chance to shoot free throws between one of the games for THOUSANDS of dollars!!!! Oh my goodness gracious!!!

We were walking on cloud nine for weeks! We decided to kind of keep this a secret so there wouldn't be any added pressure, plus we could surprise everyone when we were on tv and winning money! :)

Well, the big week rolled around and my sweet boss let me have a few days off of work and Kenny and I got to see all of the Big XII basketball games! It was such a wonderful experience! I have NEVER sat so close at any event in my life. You could see all the players facial expressions and hear them talking to each other on the court, you could hear the coaches screaming their hearts out (whoa!) it really was amazing!

We had a glorious time staying at The Renaissance hotel, it brought back a lot of wonderful memories! We just felt like celebrities the whole time *smiles* This alone was grand prize enough for me!

When Friday finally came (the day Kenny would be shooting the free throws) we were both shaking like a leaf. I was trying to hide my nervousness because I didn't want Kenny to be nervous. I think it was especially scary because we knew we were going to be on TV and in front of thousands of people at the Ford Center.look at ALL those people!!!

I don't think we paid attention to one moment of the first game that night. I know I don't remember any of it! Finally a Phillips 66 head honcho came down and was chatting with us, then he took us up to the Suite to meet all the big wigs! The CEO of Phillips 66 and heads of marketing and all sorts of people! Eeek, talk about intimidating! And they were all giving us advice and trying to tell us what to do and what to say and offering us food and drinks! Whew, we were glad when we got to leave there.

Finally the big moment arrived, we were waiting in a little tunnel to run onto the court and all the television people were trying to tell us where to go and where to stand, and then he'll talk to you on camera and ask you some questions and don't forget to say this and then walk around behind this guy, then smile at your wife and be humorous...ahhhhhhhh!!! Too much information! I was stressed and I wasn't even the one shooting the free throws!! I don't know how Kenny remembered all that stuff!

Then the actual moment flew by like a flash! Kenny shot his free throws and won us $16,500 and he did an amazing job on camera and with all the questions! I was SO proud of him! They presented us with a enormous check and then it was all over!

We eventually went back to our seats sort of overwhelmed and dazed and tried to watch some more of the basketball game. We ended up leaving a little early and going out to dinner. We made quite a sight walking out of the Ford Center with an enormous check *laughs*

We felt so blessed to have this opportunity! What a fun time! We even got to share some of our good fortune. The night of the final game Kenny and I gave our tickets to my Mom and Dad and they got to enjoy the game and spend the night at The Renaissance hotel! They said they had a great time and I'm so glad they got to experience it!

what a vacation..........I mean.........WHAT vacation!?!?!

Oh boy, I had SUCH high hopes for this vacation. I was super excited to be going to the beach (one of my VERY favorite places to be) plus a glorious week of fun and relaxation with my husband, lots of pictures and yummy visits to restaurants, seeing all the sites, exploration of the everglades, our boating excursion to the Dry Tortuga's, wow! THIS was going to be one of the greatest weeks of my life!!

Well, there was something quite different in store for me for this week....

To start off with, Kenny and I got this flight completely free. It was a promotional deal that we got when we signed up for our cell phone plan. What a cool idea right!? Two free round trip airfares to one of twelve exciting locations! WOW!..... Didn't your Mom ever tell you "Nothing is ever free"? Well, the airfare WAS free, but to get to Miami we had to fly from OKC to MINNESOTA and down to Miami!! Wow, not quite a direct flight huh? But that's okay, we're troopers.So we actually arrived in Miami at about 12:30 in the morning, got our luggage and had our rental car booked for about 1:00 am. We planned to pick up the car, go and have breakfast at an IHOP and drive on towards the everglades (which are open 24 hrs) and forgo spending extra money on a hotel room that we would only need for a few hours that night. The shuttle from the airport to the car rental place was actually faster than expected and we got to Thrifty right at 1:15 am. How exciting, I had our reservation and confirmation number right in hand and we were ready to go!

Not quite, we walked in to find a line of about thirteen slightly agitated looking people, three frantic and annoyed employees and one, pulling his hair out in clumps, manager. Kenny and I stood patiently in line beaming at each other, so very proud of our sweet eight and a half by eleven piece of paper which so plainly in black and white says that our car is waiting right outside for us. Which IS of course what a reservation is right?

Well, by the time we crept closer and closer to the front of the line I started questioning the people around us...."did you make a reservation online?" to which they of course replied "yes"..... oh dear, this was not looking good. But that's okay, we're troopers.

About forty five minutes later when our turn finally arrived the gentleman who helped us (actually the nicer of the three employees) told us that they had no more cars (WHAT!?!? we have a R.E.S.E.R.V.A.T.I.O.N.!!!!) how does that even happen?....but, they are going to help us out and give us a glorious super extendo CARGO VAN! Whoa momma!
I suppose when you're starving and sleep deprived at 2:30 in the morning anything to get you OUT of thrifty car rental sounds like a plan. So we accept the whale of a van and get going. They did say we could bring it back after 5:30 in the morning and trade it in for a smaller car. Whew! I don't think Kenny was looking forward to navigating the southern keys in that beast *grins*

We found a Dennys not too far from Thrifty and ordered a nice warming breakfast. Our waitress was the sweetest angel from heaven. I will never forget her smile, like a beam of light in a room full of fog. I hope I make peoples days brighter like that. It was just so refreshing after what we'd just been through.
We were trying to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out our breakfast as long as we could so that the time would go by and we could go back and exchange our car. I went to the restroom to was my hands and splash some water on my face and when I sat back down at our booth I remember distinctly telling Kenny while squeezing my hands in and out of fists, "It feels like I have arthritis, my hands hurt so much, all my skin and my bones hurt".....OH NO, sounds like someone is getting sick. I just kept trying to think positive, to not let my brain believe that I could be sick. I'll psych myself out of this!

Eventually we had to leave Dennys, so we rested in the car for as long as we could and finally drove back to Thrifty at about 4:00am. When we pulled the van in a man snatched our paperwork, beeped a scanner and started typing in a bunch on his keyboard. Wait...wait, I said drowsily, we want to EXCHANGE this van for a smaller car, we've only had it for a few hours, we were told to come back this morning to trade it out. "WHAT!?!" he said shockily, "I've already closed out your contract, oh man, why didn't you tell me that!?" he said rudely, as if I should have known the whole Thrifty check in and check out process. Needless to say we had to go back and wait for another forty minutes while the Thrifty people decided what they could possibly do with us. We eventually got the smaller car we had on reserve all along and were on our merry way. Next time I don't think we'll be so "thrifty".

We drove South along Highway 1 for about an hour and a half, all the way to the Everglades. We arrived just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. Let me just tell you, THIS was THE HIGHLIGHT of the trip. It was just like Jurassic Park. There was a wispy fog just blowing off the water, birds were waking up and chirping their good mornings, you could smell the fresh leaves and there were so many Alligators all over the place. It was so amazing! There was a wooden walkway that winded around and over the water and you could get some close amazing pictures. We really had a great time. I was feeling weaker and more and more tired, but trying to convince myself that all was well.

By about 7:30 in the morning I was ready to head back to the car and I just fell asleep in the passenger seat while Kenny continued to drive around the everglades park. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2:00, so Kenny just tried to keep me comfortable. I kept telling myself, just rest now and you'll be perky and back to normal in the morning. I was especially anxious to feel better because we had a catamaran trip to the Dry Tortuga's booked for the next morning!

We drove on down along the Keys on the overseas highway, enjoying the view, NOT enjoying the sickness coming on more and more....all the way down to Islamorada to our hotel. We got checked in and I weakly crawled into bed. This is turning into an EXTRA long post, and I don't want to fuss about me forever, but the entire rest of the week consisted of....

Kenny tending to my every need while I lay in bed moaning and crying! I was SO SO SO sick! I must have caught some kind of stomach virus while we were on the plane or something. It was AWFUL! We didn't get to do ANYTHING! I have NEVER been MORE thankful for my sweet precious husband. He took such amazing care of me and never once complained that he was missing out on all the fun stuff. I can't believe we were in paradise and all we saw was the inside of a hotel room.

Kenny not only took amazing care of me, but he also said, "I got to spend time with you, and that is all I ever wanted to do on my vacation anyway". I love him more than words can say!

Julie

Happy 25th Birthday to my wonderful sister Julie!!

She is such a great friend! Julie is such an encourager to me, especially in my walk with God. It is kind of funny to say that your little sister is your example, but I love the way she loves God!

She is so fun to hang out with and we both get SO excited about the smallest things! We love music and I have such a great time when we get to play piano and guitar together!! Julie is gentle and SO creative! She makes jewelry and cards and all kinds of amazing things! I love the way she never has a bad things to say about anybody!

Julie, I love you, I wish I was right there with you in Missouri today, but I hope you have a GREAT birthday!!

Florida Keys

I'm sorry I've been missing in action for a few days. I will explain why as soon as I can.... (hee hee hee gleeful anticipatory laughter)

In the mean time, Kenny and I will be leaving on Sunday for here.....

and here....

and here....

The Florida Keys and I CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!

I wish you could all come too and have a GLORIOUS relaxing time *grins*

I am SO SO SO thankful for chances to spend time with Kenny and see all the different beautiful paradises that God created JUST FOR US, His children.

What a shiner!

Wow, yesterday was a busy day! The kind of day that just blows by and you find yourself plopping down on the couch thinking whew what just happened!?! *grins*

Kenny's first baseball game of the season was scheduled for Monday evening, but the weather was forecasting rain so we were kind of anticipating that the game would be rescheduled.....never trust the weather, ;)

At lunch I had noticed that my gas gauge was reading "E" *note to self, get gas AS SOON AS YOU LEAVE work tonight. Then when I got back to work I found out that some people were coming in to do training for a new website that we are using, so I was in that training until about 4:45 when Kenny called me to let me know that the game was ON.

I hustled and bustled to get my last few tasks at work done and flew out the door at about 5:12 (the game started at 5:00 and I was supposed to be keeping the baseball score books for Kenny)....jump in car....peel out of parking lot....divert straight into rush hour traffic....notice gas gauge for the second time...OH NO!

So now I'm scanning the road sides for a gas station as I'm gingerly driving south to the game, all the while praying and biting my nails from trying to find the location, trying to find gas and scared out of my wits to "keep the book" (you remember my lack of sports knowledge) *grins*

By this time I've got Dad on the phone with me just in case I putter completely out of gas and have to abandon my car and hitch hike to the game (only teasing). I've also called Julie (our family baseball expert) to confirm with her whether a foul ball counts as a strike or a ball *laughs*

Hallelujah, I spot a 7-11 just in time, fill'er up, zoom on down to the game, park my car and come face to face with a twelve foot chain link security fence. It's awful, I can see Kenny, see the players, see the game, but see NO way to get past this fence. I actually considered crawling under it like some kind of crazy escaping prisoner, but decided that would look odd with my work clothes and high heels on *laughs* I can hear his players now, "hey Mr. Schell, isn't that your wife crawling under that fence?"

Finally Kenny spots me and runs over to tell me to drive down to the other side of the field where there is a gate! whew :)

Once inside the game was more than half way over, but we were winning 5 to 2! Yay! I sat down, took a deep breath, smelled the freshly cut grass and just smiled.
Then as the other team took the field and their pitcher was warming up and I was finally breathing normally again... Kenny was walking behind home plate, the umpire asked him a question and as he turned to respond a ball came sailing in, bounced off the catchers glove and hit Kenny RIGHT IN THE FACE! Eeeekkkk, wifely panic! I wanted to run on the field, stop the game, tackle Kenny, inspect his eye and hold him down with an ice pack.

I couldn't even see if he was bleeding or anything. I was trying zoom my camera in from across the field to inspect his injury. Thankfully it wasn't too hard of a hit and he wasn't bleeding.

So that evening we iced it down every twenty minutes and he took some Ibuprofen to stop any swelling and he's looking pretty good this morning *grins*

The guys won their game and Kenny took one for the team :)

Navy Sea Chanters Concert

Friday evening I got to go to a GLORIOUS concert with Dad, Mom, Lisa and our sweet neighbor Carolyn. It was a Navy group called the Navy Sea Chanters. Mom was able to get some VIP tickets thanks to her sweetie friend Kay from Kansas and we had excellent seats right up near the front! Kenny wished he could have been there, but he had to stay late at school for baseball practice...

They are a very elite group who performs mainly in Washington DC for presidential events (including the innaguration!), and they perform for special international guests and military functions. Needless to say I felt honored to experience their concert. I just love Patriotic things like that. It makes my heart swell with pride to be living in such a special country with all the freedoms that we enjoy, and to know that there are people serving in the military who are willing to sacrafice their lives if necessary to protect those freedoms. Wow! I can't help but get choked up when they honor military veterans with patriotic songs in the background.

It was such a fun time. Besides all of the patriotic songs they had an instrumental jazz ensemble, a duet of Papageno from "The Magic Flute" (so funny)

and also sang a medly of songs from the 60's *grins* that had the whole audience (including a 93 year old sailor, so cute!) jumping to their feet :)

One of the sentimental songs called "Letters from War" (letters from a mother and son) had us choking back tears and Lisa sobbing like a baby (poor pregnancy hormones) *laughs*

We certainly enjoyed ourselves! Thank you Kay and Mom for sharing your tickets!!

Shopping spree with Mom

Shhhhh, don't tell Kenny, but I love this store!!
I'm just kidding, he would be proud of me for being so thrifty!! Seriously, you can find some REALLY incredible deals here. I'm not a shop-a-holic like some girls, but I do like to have cute clothes, and when I can get them at a great price....why not?

I haven't bought any new clothes in quite a while and I was needing some new things for the spring weather so Mom and I went to Ross after work on Tuesday. We had a ball (of course, we always do when we're together). I bought three new shirts, a pair of black dress pants, a gray pencil skirt, and two pairs of shorts and my grand total was....drum roll please........$54.19 *laughs* SO EXCITING! That comes to less than $8.00 per item, wow!

It helped that I was able to exchange some shoes that Lori got me for Christmas (that were too big), but a good deal any way you look at it :)

I wore my gray pencil skirt to work today and just couldn't stop smiling *grins*

Omni Dome Grand Canyon Adventure!

I'm happy to report that I actually got quite a bit of spring cleaning done. I cleaned out one whole room of "stuff" and sorted and organized our wrapping paper, bags and bows so that they'll be handy when we need them. Once that room was cleaned out I also did some heavy duty dusting and vaccuming :)

On Sunday Dad Mom and Lori invited Kenny and I to go to the Omnidome with them to see the Grand Canyon Adventure! It was sure to be a great treat since Kenny and I were just at the Grand Canyon last March, and it didn't fail to entertain! I recognized several sites *grins* how cool!
The Omnidome is an amazing imax movie theater. It has stadium seating and the movie screen actually surrounds you! Wow!When they pan over the canyon or zoom past a cliff you actually feel.like.you're.flying!!! SOOOoo Fun!After the show was over there was an Omnidome employee who had a segway scooter that he was letting people test drive! Of course I jumped at the opportunity! It was such fun! At first I was a little timid, you kind of feel like you're not completely in control. But after I got the hang of it I was wanting to take that thing sailing at FULL SPEED!! The man said they can go twelve miles per hour, but little did we know he had it set at half power (for our safety...) boo *grins*


Aren't Mom and Dad cute here ridin' their segways!!

Can you imagine someday in the future when everyone has one of these, or a jet pack, or teleportation!!! WOW!

During the course of my cleaning and organizing I discovered a gift card to The Olive Garden that we needed to use before it expired, so Sunday evening Kenny and I got Olive Garden to go. Yumma num num, I LOVE their salad and breadsticks! I could eat those for every meal!!
Here are a couple of our Grand Canyon pictures from last March!! What a fun trip! Anyway, Happy March! Can you see the tree buds coming out?? I CAN.NOT.WAIT!