Happy Birthday Cecilia!

Today is Kenny's beautiful Mom's birthday! And I think that is a great word to describe her, "beautiful". Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but I'm even more blown away by her beauty on the inside.

I can remember even from the first time I met Cecilia she was always so positive and kind. Always making sure that everyone around her is comfortable and taken care of. I will never forget three precious words that she said to Kenny as we were leaving their home after my first visit to Kansas with Kenny.... "she's a keeper". *grins*

We are also inspired and encouraged by her and her dedication to running! I am amazed every time I think about the fact that she can and has run more than twenty six miles, on multiple occasions! Wow! I can only aspire to be that good of a runner some day. Thank you for always keeping me motivated!

Cecilia also has such a generous spirit. She gives of her time and energy to serve others through her church and would be the first one in line if you were in need of a friend.

I am so very thankful that God placed her in our lives. I know she has had such an impact on Kenny becoming the man that he is today and I couldn't ask for a better Mother-in-law and friend!

Cecilia we love you so much and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We want to wish everyone a fun and family filled Thanksgiving. We are thankful that we get to celebrate two Thanksgivings this year and spend time with both sides of our family. What a blessing to spend time with so many special people who we love so much!
We hope everyone gets to slow down and really enjoy this time, focusing on all the blessings God has placed in our lives, humbling and preparing our hearts for the upcoming Christmas season.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sister shopping

Hmmmm, that title sounds like I'm in the market for a new sister *laughs* That is not the case at all! I am head over heels happy with the one's I've got! Love you girls!!

What that title actually means is that I got to go on a much needed and far too long delayed shopping trip with my sweetie sister Lori. She's such a busy lady, going to school and holding down a nearly full time internship, plus projects on the side, it's hard to find a time meet up. We finally nailed down a Thursday evening that we were both free, yay!
We me up at Penn Square Mall and got right down to the shopping. I had some amazing coupons for Bath and Body Works where if you spent ten dollars you got a free item of your choice. Anything thirteen dollars or under.....anything! Wow! So we both got some fabulous freebies!

I got this amazing lotion. It smells restful and relaxing. I especially love the bottle. It looks classy and expensive, plus it's glass so I can re-fill it once the lotion runs out and it's green, my favorite color! *grins*

We stopped in Sephora and got to test out a billion different eye shadows and fun new makeup products. We also got to smell perfumes to our hearts content.

Next we shared a delicious dinner of Bourbon Chicken and Rice and then continued on our merry way. We stopped off at Target and I got some fantabulous black tights. They go great under a new dress I bought recently. It was kind of short and needed something stylish to make it wearable. These tights were just the trick...

those aren't really my legs (so skinny, I wish) *grins*

We really had a fun night and I can't wait to go again soon!!

Movie weekend: one of the worst and one of the best

This weekend was a bit drizzly and cloudy dark. It's starting to get cooler and is officially "fall". We got a lot of piddly projects done around the house. I cleaned all the little leaves out of the pool and made sure it was all clean and sparkling and Kenny got all the leaves picked up off the grass and made the yard look beautiful *grins*

Our trees are such a blessing to our energy bills, keeping us shaded in the summer and sunny in the winter, but they keep us busy picking up the leaves in the autumn *laughs*.

We also took care of some touch up painting in a few little different spots that needed to be done and Kenny prepared a lot of baseball cards and listed them for sale on e-bay. Then after the work projects were done, and due to the coldy weather, we decided to watch a couple movies as a treat!

The first one we watched was called The Mist. It's a suspenseful thriller based on a novel by Stephen King. It's basically about a little upstate town that gets engulfed in fog leaving a diverse mixture of the townsfolk trapped at the grocery store once they discover horrible monster aliens are in the fog! Whoa creepy! Or at least it should have been....
Kenny and I were plotting and planning the whole time about what we would do, or what the characters should have done *laughs* wouldn't Wal Mart be the perfect place to be trapped anyway, everything you need is right there on the shelf!

Another reason this movie failed to scare is because I was cracking us up about the monsters.

Dear Mist character creators,

If you are trying to freak us out with your creepy monster aliens, please do not give them herbivorous donkey teeth!
You could never gnash flesh with those dull square incisors. *grins*

Sincerely,

your fearless viewer

Additionally, the end of this movie was so bad that Kenny and I both wanted our money back (luckily this one was free on tv). Needless to say, I would NOT recommend this movie to anyone! We wish we had never seen it except for the whole donkey teeth joke we now have going *winks*

Now, on a happier note....

On Sunday we watched one of the best movies I've ever seen!! Disney's Up.

It was absolutely adorable. I just love the old man character and I want to adopt this sweet little boy scout *grins*
It was so precious in fact that I was brought to tears three times! Kenny just cuddled me up and probably thought his wife was losing her mind *laughs* I would watch it again right now if given the chance! It is a must see!!

Wii are family...

Kenny and I have been having a hilariously good time playing with our Wii lately. We've completely beaten the Mario Cart game, not much thanks to me, *laughs* and just beat the Mario Galaxy game as well. This is all while keeping to our "no tv" time rule mind you.

So, recently we've had a great time just playing around with some of the easy challenges and sports games and such. We've figured out a little trick to the bowling game, and Kenny can beat me at tennis without even looking at the screen! Whoa!
But one of my very favorites is Wii Baseball. The reason this is my favorite is because even though it's just me and Kenny playing the game in our living room, the Wii sets you up with a team of players who just happen to be our family! We've created Wii characters for all of them and so that is who the computer puts on our teams! *grins* Here is Kenny and me!
It is so fun! It feels like your whole family is there with you playing baseball *laughs* We'll be shouting at the tv screen "run to first mom!"....."hit a grand slam Julie"......"tag him out Bart"! It is hilarious!
So, I thought I'd share some of our Wii family with you guys! *winks* Sorry I couldn't get very clear pictures. It's hard to photograph a tv screen while you're playing a video game....

Here are my Dad and Mom...

My Mom always plays third base for me, you should see her make some diving catches!

And Kenny's Dad and Mom....Kenny's Dad hit one "out of the park" last night!Next are my brother-in-law Bart and sister Lisa....I haven't got Lisa's character quite right yet, but I'm working on it.

Here's my little sister Lori in action! *winks*

Somehow Kenny always seems to get Julie and Lori on his team....come on girls, you've got to play on my side *laughs*

And last but not least, my brother-in-law Neil and sister Julie....
Neil is wearing purple for LSU, not because he's a girly man *winks*

Well, I hope you had fun taking a little Wii tour of my family! I know "we" have a blast playing with them!

Trip to The Zoo

This weekend Kenny and I decided to take a surprise trip to the Zoo. I had some Dr. Pepper cans that had a coupon on them that would get us in for half price and it was such a beautiful weekend we just decided to go! Oh boy, you can't beat seven dollar admission for two adults, wow! We got up and around bright and early so that the animals would be awake and frisky and there wouldn't be a whole lot of people there yet. We were so surprised, that is the emptiest I've ever seen the zoo! *grins*

It's always hard for me to narrow down what pictures to post here on our blog....Kenny always takes a bunch of great shots! We love seeing all those amazing animals in one place! The first place we headed was over to the "Oklahoma Trails"....here they have animals that live in or used to live in Oklahoma.

A sleepy cougar and a frisky cougar...Can you see his tongue starting to stick out here? He was pacing back and forth along the fence smelling the deer that were right next door!

Next we saw coyotes (like the ones we saw at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge) and beside those were some wolves...
I can't believe they're so much bigger than the coyotes! Wow, look at those eyes! I'm also pretty impressed that Kenny can catch these photos through a chain link fence!

There is also an area that has a lot of different birds. Ducks, cranes, and these sweet little guys

I love his little face here, so timid and coy. *grins* They also had two bald eagles this time, last time we were here there was only one.Here's a picture of me next to a brass statue of a goose, I think I blend in pretty good with the birdbrains *winks*

Next we just had to see the ape area, they are always so animated and entertaining. They'll get right up against the glass and just look you over *laughs*

I think he was saying "who me??"
Next we ventured over to a building that is dry and well heated that houses dessert and warm climate animals. There were quite a few enormous tortoises.
While we were watcing them looming about one of the larger ones started climbing up on top of a smaller tortise right in front of us!I'm not sure if this was a failed mating attemtpt or what!?! But eventually he was smack dab on top and she was smushed flat to the ground just dragging him along. She just about flipped him over on his back and down into a little pond! But he escaped just in the nick of time *grins*

Outside the tortise building we caught some bright glimpses of these tropical flamingos!
Next it was on over to see the aquarium area. Everytime we see these amazing fish we just want to jet off on a plane to go snorkling!I'm never able to photograph a fish through a tank, but Kenny's new camera has an "aquarium" setting and it seems to do the trick!We happened accross a troup of sweet meerkats who were all huddled up still sleeping... they looked so cozy and comfortable...all except this one guy who was keeping watch over all the rest. He must be the Daddy *winks*Finally we ended our adventure over by the hoofed animals to take a look at the Zebras...

*PEEK*

and my favorites, the giraffes!

What an enjoyable trip! I love that we can have fun together doing ANYTHING! *grins*

Random musings...

~These are the beautiful leaves, changing color, that I get to see on the way to my Dad and Mom's house. I get to go there for lunch almost every weekday!

~I'm already listening to Christmas music on pandora! I think it's about time to put the tree up *laughs*

~Kenny and I planted some amazing purple and apricot pansies in three big pots in our backyard. They were left overs that my Mom gave to us. They make me smile so big every time I see them! ~We have been running everyday after work now that Kenny is done with soccer practice, getting ready for the half marathon. I surprised myself and was able to run the whole time without stopping to walk. I'm so out of practice I thought I'd be a wimp but I made it!

~Oh man, one of my favorite smells on earth is clean laundry....Bounce "Outdoor Fresh" scent to be specific *winks* I'm thinking about putting one of those dryer sheets in with the A/C filter so that when the air flows through it the whole house will smell yummy! (is that a fire hazard?)~I love our new burglar alarm system, it gives me a lot of peace of mind. I love hearing it chirp when the door opens and knowing that the house is safe even when we're not there. Sometimes I pretend I'm a spy (like Catherine Zeta Jones) and try to trick the motion sensor....it always catches me.

~I think I've got Kenny convinced that if by some chance of fate we end up with twin girls someday, we should name them Kendra and Kara (awwww, love that!)
~Our sermon at church on Sunday was titled "You are not alone" and the key verse was Isaiah 41:10. That's the verse I just posted along with Griffin's picture last Thursday! Wow, isn't God amazing!

~I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already! Hopefully I'll have a brain inspired post by then *grins* Love you guys!

Puppet lady

Kenny and I started playing indoor soccer games on Saturdays again with some friends in a league at Hat Trick. It is such fun!

I used to think I was fairly "sporty" and at the very least coordinated....but, I'm afraid I am a hopeless case when it comes to soccer. I'd never even seen a game until I met Kenny. But we have a fun time going to a local park and practicing my moves *grins* This weekend we had a game scheduled on Saturday night, right in the middle of handing out Trick or Treat candy, so during the day we went out in the backyard to practice and get warmed up for that evenings game.
I have to warn you. These pictures are going to make me look like a dork *laughs*, but at least I'm honest right!?

We started out just kicking the ball back and forth to each other and eventually decided to try to "dribble" the ball in the air a little before kicking it back to the other person. Kenny just had to run inside and get the camera to catch me in action!
Apparently I cannot play soccer without contorting my hands into strange, unhuman-like, gang signs. For example...
And this...
I can only determine that I must be using my hands as some sort of marionette puppet device trying to urge my feet into submission....telling them through sign language what they should be doing *laughs*

I also have to either have my mouth wide open to achieve a maximum force kick....
Or my lips sucked in, in deep concentration. So watch out you other teams....this is what's comin' atcha!!