My Social Worker Rant...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSp88PBe9E

I don't post things work related very much but today at work we watched this short 3 minute video and it was just really well done and it portrays the experience of poverty so well from the eyes of its youngest victims. To invest in these little ones you must invest in their parents too. I know we all have strong feelings about why poverty occurs and how our tax dollars are spent to address this issue but I feel good that where I get to work everyday our tax dollars are being very well spent in that mental health services and assistance is being provided to family's with young kids who would not otherwise receive those services and who are the ones in the most need of them. I am also proud to be a member at a church where there is an excellent children's ministry vision for reaching into the community and bringing kids into the church to impact their lives and their family's in some really meaningful ways. Today I am feeling proud and privileged to do what I get to do and sometimes I lose site of that in the daily world of community mental health, when things get overwhelming, I'm drowning in paperwork and there is a daily on slaught of people hurting and struggling but today I was reminded its good work, its meaningful work and it matters.

Mema, Movies and Musicals...

Earlier this month, Ryan and I enjoyed a weekend in Broken Arrow. Always good to go home again.

The fun agenda was action packed:
Friday: I had a slumber party with my mema at her place.
Saturday: Tax free shopping, went and saw the Broadway musical "wicked", steak and shrimp cookout and then watched the movie "Ghost town" again (I forgot how funny that was!)
Sunday: We got to visit and see at tons of friends and family at church and then hit a new Italian restaurant in town.

Summer Saturday...

One of my favorite things is a great summer Saturday.

As there are really just a few left I enjoyed spending my time this Saturday doing lots of fun summer Saturday activities:

First item of fun was some care free shopping in flip flops. I went to Khols and the mall to pick up a few things. That was followed by a lazy afternoon with the my sis-in-law, sister and nieces at our new favorite pool. (Its worth the 20 minute drive to the MWC pool, this was our 3rd time there this summer). Allie got up the courage to go down the "Yellow" slide this time. It was a prefect sunny and hot but not too hot day to be at the pool. That evening Ryan cooked us a great summer time meal. We tried out making some sweet potato fries in the oven. So yummy:

P.S. Just so you know another great summer time event, this week is shark week on discovery. I am a sucker for this event and for the first time ever I will be watching in HD. Let the fun begin!

Birthdays and Bungees

Last weekend, we headed to Tulsa to celebrate my mom's birthday. We met and ate lunch at the cheesecake factory, then went over to the mall for some shopping:


While we were at the mall they had some bungee trampolines that Chloe & Allie had a lot of fun on:

What's on your list?

Wow, its been a whole year of book club! We've read some great books and a few duds but its been lots of fun none the less. This month's meeting was to review and discuss "The next thing on my list". General premise of this book is she finishes a list for someone else of things they wanted to do before 25. I liked this book a lot till the end, I laughed, I cried and then I was like what!? It didn't all come together in the end how I wanted it to. After we discussed the book we went to see the movie, "My sister's keeper." It was a book we read this year. So moving, cried through most of it. Another book we read is comming out in August, "The time traverlor's wife".

Its become a book club tradition to pick a great restaurant to discuss our books over great food.
Here's the group at ZIO's in bricktown.

Also a tradition to get a fabulous dessert or two to share, this is appropriately called and Oreo mountain. So yummy!!



It was interesting concept to consider a life list of things you want to accomplish. So here's what I came up with for mine so far, whats on yours?

• Visit Greece
• Camp at Yellow Stone National Park
• See waves at North Shore Hawaii during time of season they are so crazy high
• Snorkel Great Barrier Reef
• Go to cooking classes
• Go sailing
• Complete a 1/2 marathon.
• Go on a mission trip to Africa
• Write a book
• Grow out hair to give to locks of love or another place that takes hair to make wigs.
• Take my kids to Disney World

I'm sure I will think of more...

Well rested and ready.

We've had a good rest of our week home. Thursday we enjoyed massages and an afternoon movie together. Friday I went with my nieces to white water, followed by shopping and eating at the mall with Amy and Saturday I enjoyed a cookout and pool party with friends, while Ryan visited Friday and Saturday with his grandpa in Wetumka. Then Saturday evening we had a last minute change of firework watching due to thunderstorms in the area. We had a indoor picnic at my house till it blew over and then went to UCO. Tomorrow back to work, its been a fun time off! We are really excited Ryan is starting his new job in a couple weeks which will mean regular working hours for him, no more 60-80 hour work weeks and frequent traveling. So exciting for us! I feel well rested and ready to start again. Work week here I come!

Best Buddies, by that I mean the boys and their I-Phones:

Waiting for the fireworks to start at UCO:

We had a great time on our vacation to Key West, as usual best told in pictures ...

Beautiful sunsets every night:

Lots of seeing and interacting with local wild life:

We saw a mana ray and about a 4 foot nurse shark on our snorkel trip.

At the Key West aquarium:

Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park, Our favorite place on the island:

Ryan's favorite part by far, they had Bazillion steak house there his absolute favorite place to eat in the whole world:

Southern most beach, 90 miles from Cuba:

Bahia Honda Beach, Last Day we drove to another near by key: