Italy!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted my trip pics. Its been non-stop since I've been home. I can't believe Christmas is just next week!!

Colosseum:

Pantheon (the coldest and wettest day we were there):

Climbing to the top of St. Peters at the Vatican:

Mid week enjoying some American Cuisine at Hard Rock:

Venice:

Trevi Fountain: (Traidition to throw a coin in to ensure your return to Rome)

Last night in Rome:



We took 547 pictures! So this are just as sampling. It was an amazing trip but wore me out by the end!

Home Sweet Home...

We are home!! I will have to sift throught the 547 pics we took to see what to post and give an overview of our trip. For now I am a little bumbed to go back to work and the real world today but enjoyed sleeping in my own bed, Dr. Pepper and can't till Rory will be here when I get home from work today. After first glance at pics I think this is one of my favorites:

Marriage Retreat....

Last weekend we enjoyed retreating and focusing on our relationship. This year has been a hard one with Ryan's increased work demands and time away. We've tried to make the most of the time we get to have together like this weekend retreat and other fun get aways like Chicago and our upcomming Rome trip (one week away!).

Movies!

I just love a good movie or documentary, Sometimes you just don't feel like there are any good movies out there, but right now my holiday movie list is stacking up fast, I am considering these some must coming up on the big screen sometime over the Holidays:

1) Australia - This is with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Looks epic and wonderful. http://www.australiamovie.com/

2) Marley and Me- Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anisten. One of my favorite books, the preview looks fantastic. All dog lovers everywhere you need to see this but if its like the book was for me you will be laughing and crying throughout, If you ever loved a dog this movie is for you!
http://marleyandmemovie.com/

3) Four Christmases - Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn looks hilarious!! Reminds me a bit of Ryan.
http://www.fourchristmasesmovie.com/

I think I could watch movie previews for hours. I get so excited to see the movies! lets just hope they live up to the previews.

Home Sweet Home!

Well I don't have any pictures to post but we had a good weekend. We visited Broken Arrow, Tulsa and Bartlesville. We got to visit with Ryan's grandma and my mema. We hadn't been home over the whole summer, even though we will be back in the area in just a few weeks for Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of a weekend Ryan wasn't working to do an over night visit. I think its funny how places become home, whenever I am headed to Broken Arrow I feel like I am "going home" whenever I head back to Edmond I also feel like I am "going home". Then you have places like Bartlesville and Claremore that also have feeling of familarity and warm memories. Its was just what I wanted and needed.

Then we had the Mitchells over for dinner tonight to finalize trip plans for our side trip to Venice on our Rome Trip. Its starting to feel real! I am so excited to be going and so excited to share it with dear friends!

Halloween Happenings

Friday night we went to a Halloween party hosted by friends. The girls played cards while the boys played Wii. There was lots of laughing, I lost so bad at the card game (Nertz) it became very comical by the end, also lots of yummy yummy festive food was enjoyed.



This is post Halloween fun, I wanted to get this for Rory for a while and a friend let me know they were half off at Target on their after Halloween sale!

What could be a better costume than a dog being a hot dog!

Saturday we enjoyed a low key day of cleaning the house thoroughly and doing laundry which felt good to get so much done around the house. Today I'm starting the official count down to Rome, 27 days and counting!

Comming Home...

Well we had quite the adventure on the way home from Chicago. It started with a series of unfortunate events and ended with a series of great ones. We felt confident in using the subway system to get back to the airport as we had used it over the past few days and it wouldn't cost us anything because we still had our pases. It takes about 45 minutes to get back to the airport, or so we thought. Well the main subway that goes out the airport, they all the sudden announced as we are getting close that due to construction we would have to get off, reboard buses then get off and reboard another train to get to the airport. Needless to say this added quite a bit of unexpected time to the trip. That pit of my stomach feeling starts and I practiced some self talk, we gave our self extra time surely we won't miss our flight. Well we got off and had to RUN to the check in place. I check in at the self check in but they had no place to check bags and Ryan had one to check. They informed us he would have to go upstairs to check in. So we separate he says go to the gate and see if you can hold the plan for me.
From there I go to the gate (the gate that was the very last one on that very long terminal) just in time that they are boarding the plane. I explain the situation the attendant tells me its likely he won't make the flight. I ask about possibilities of both of us flying standby for the next flight, he says that plane is over sold and would be unlikely we could get one. Ryan is having his own adventure down stairs. (I am reframing it as an adventure since its over at the time torture would be more accurate). He gets in the line to check baggage and when he gets to the front they say "Did you check in at the self check in already? You'll have to do that first". So he goes over to that line, that computer tells him "Your to late to check in". He explains the situation and that person says they aren't an agent so they can't help you need to go stand in that line and points in vague direction of where there are about 5 long lines of people. He gets back in line over there once he clarifies where exactly, they confirm he will not make this flight and put him on standby for the later one. From there he "randomly" gets selected by the airline at security for the full security search and pat down, etc. He tells me via cell phone to go ahead and get on the plane and go home. I am fighting back tears (I don't know why these situations get so emotional but they do). So I am boarding with I am sure my head cast down and making lots of swallows to keep from crying. As I am entering the plan the attendant from the desk that our gates comes and gets me. He says if I want to give up my seat and fly stand by the next flight he can offer me free round trip ticket to anywhere in the US. I call Ryan, we decide this is for sure the way to go. The Lady I gave my seat to was very grateful, she was flying standby and really wanted on that flight. Finally I meet up with Ryan we are trying to be on standby for the next flight that just left an hour later. They have a board at this gate that tells you how many seats are left and they have the list of standby people. Somehow I was number one on the list and Ryan was number 6. They had 3 seats left of people who hadn't checked in. The attendant told Ryan it didn't look good for him getting on this flight. Then they had a couple who had checked in but didn't board when it was time. They called me up and asked me to bring my husband too. We waited as they waited till the last possible minute to see if the other couple would show. They never did so they let us board the flight and we even got to sit together. We were home in OKC by noon and I have a free round trip flight to anywhere in the 48 states of my choosing!

Chicago!!

We just got back from Chicago (our trip home will deserve a post of its own)! It was lots of fun and tiring too. Here's some pics from the trip in no particular order...

Ryan and I with the City in the background at the signantrure room on the 96th floor of the hancock building.

This is actually what we did most of the time, walking and more walking...

Ryan and I at Wrigley Field, we ate a great breakfeast place close by on Saturday.

All of us at the signature lounge.

Me in front of the bean. (It has an official name, I don't know it but I prefer the bean).

Matt and I in front of Sue at the Field Museum.

Chocolate!! I had a fabulous brownie here!

Me in front of the field museum.

Can't go to Chicago and not have deep dish!

This is a really cool pic Matt took of the bean.

Girls week of fun!!

Before I left for Chicago, while Ryan was already there, we had a fun girl week! We did fun things such as going to the 50 cent movie night to see Mama Mia and sampled the new signature hot chocolate at Starbucks. It was great but wore me out :0)

October Fest!!

Top 10 things to love about October 2008~

10) Pumpkin spice smells everywhere. (will be aquiring a candle for sure!)
9) Getting out some longer sleeve things I've had in the back of my closset all summer and forgot about.
8) Perfect days of it not being to hot or to cold.
7) Book club book to read this month - Into the Woods.
6) Finishing up a training that I have been a part of for a whole year in learning a new therapy model that I've also been a part of research project with (research also always means lots of extra paperwork to fill out, video taping sessions, etc)
5) Secret Santa fun will start at work.
4) The husbands away, wives to play week (me and AM's husbands are out of town on business the same week so we have lots of fun planned to keep us a busy!)
3) Girls Dallas weekend getaway with my sis in law and mom in law.
2) Plan my budget and list for my ikea trip that we make when we are in Dallas.
1) Chicago weekend trip to visit my brother and meet with my hubby after he has a week of training there.

Free Fun!

So this weekend we went to Frontier City with Friends due to having some free passes. Our excitement was quickly contained as we entered the gates at 6:45 and see a sign reminding patrons they closed at 8:00pm. Who closes at 8:00pm on Saturday night!? Luckily it was free and we didn't pay but we had to go as fast as we could and only got in 4 rides, but one was the new roller-coaster where you dangle your feet. We finished the night with picking up some frozen custard and enjoyed visiting by the lake.

This picture makes me laugh

So does this one

Fun fact about this pic, the shirt I am wearing I got on an incredible clearance sale when Ryan and I went shopping Friday night, $3.50!

Sock Hop

Friday night I took the girls to their sock hop at school since Jen is still sick. A good time was had by all, nothing quite as funny as a bunch of kids boppin around to music. Reminded me of this commercial that is one of my all time favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cNDSPutas8

Allie and her best buddy

Notice in the picture Allie was very insistent that her pink cowboy boots went best with her poodle skirt.

Rory turns 3!

Our little Rory pie turns 3 this month (according to best estimations of how old she was when we got her from the animal shelter). We really do enjoy her and have a hard time remembering what life was like before her. I think when your our age, pre-kids stage, you have all this love and energy to put into caregiving and since we don't have our own little ones yet Rory gets all that caregiving affection and attention. So here's my top ten Rory memories and some favorite Rory pics.

1. Rory fell in our large bath when I was giving my nieces a bath one night when her curiosity got her a little too close. The girls and I still laugh and laugh about that.

2. Snugly naps are some of my favorite Rory times.

3. She is so multi-talented. This was a funny day I came in and my laptop wasn't this close to her but she was sitting so funny almost like she was typing so I pulled it closer to get a fun pic.

4. This is one of my favorite memories of when she was still pretty young and we came home to this.

5. This is the 2nd night we had her, she vomited everything up we gave her the first 24 hours and I was instructed by the vet she may not make it but I should try giving her pedia-lite every two hours otherwise she would have to be hospitalized if we couldn't keep her hydrated. So it was long night but by morning things were much better.

6. This is one of her first pics, I remember picking her out at the pound, out of all 6 puppies that looked very similar Ryan and I separately picked her out of the bunch.

7. I love how when I or Ryan is out of town she won't come to bed right away, she stays in the living room watching the door waiting for the other one to get home. She will usually give up in the middle of night and come to bed once she figures it out.

8. Its is funny when the door bell rings on TV Rory always thinks its our door bell and you can't convince her otherwise.

9. Rory has an arch-nemesis next door which is cat, but it is hilarious if they are in the yard at the same time that cat chases Rory.

10. I love the most that no matter what I look like or how bad a day I can count on an eager and overly excited greeting when I open the door for the most sincerest welcome home and a little wagging tail to say I really missed you.

Sunny Sunday

We enjoyed a good weekend, Sunday was particularly Sunny and enjoyable.
We got up early to attend early worship because Ryan was going to have to go out of town in the afternoon but those plans ended up getting cancelled so we had the whole day for playing and relaxing. We went to the Lake for a picnic and to play in the sunshine, then the girls and I went to my work for a little while so I could work on some paperwork (they love coming to my work and are always begging me to bring them) and then we relaxed at the house, I took a nap and this evening we went out to eat at MiMi's Cafe for a yummy dinner. Always hard to go back to work after so much down time!

Here's some pics from the lake:

Oklahoma State Fair

This is an annual tradition to go the fair with friends. We caught the Sea Lion show that we hadn't seen before even though its there every year. It was pretty cute. Then we did the tradition girls went shopping at the booths while boys went to the car show. It was the usual fun of people watching and gorging on fried foods.

Sea Lion Show:

Ryan doesn't usually like the fair but since he's been working alot this week and we had hardly seen each other he decided to come along so we could spend some time together.



Girl picture, not sure why I am so squinty eyed in this picture. I am noticing with both these pictures that It was along hard week at work this week, I can tell I look a little worn out in these pics. Luckily all I have planned for the weekend was to rest and relax!

A.M. holding a baby chick:

Book Club, Book #2 Review

Well our 2nd book club pic also was met with mixed Reviews. Even though a book of fiction, I found it very honest and real in its portrayl of grief/trauma. I think grief is a different process for everyone as unique as each individual. It was a heavy book at times but glad I read it. The author of this book wrote a memoir of her real life trauma story and the process of recovery from that. A friend loned it to me so I hope to read that this fall too. It is on the stack on my nightstand with four other books I am working on. So many books, so little time!

Due to the heavy nature of our last two picks the next book club pick is something a bit more light hearted, we will be reading two books since one is especially short, "Moose" and "The woman who has a flat stomach, is always tan and other annoying people".