Surprise #2

On Friday night, we had a little party for Ryan. We went to the booming metropolis of Okarche, Oklahoma to get some of the best fried chicken and fried okra ever! It's called Eischan's Bar, and if you come to Oklahoma, it's definitely something you want to check off of your To Do list. It's a pretty famous, hole-in-the-wall place that's known for their chicken and okra. After filling our tummies with loads of grease, we went back to our house for dessert and surprise #2.
Ryan was blind folded for the surprise...

And...SURPRISE!!!!



Me and about 15 other friends of Ryan went in together to get him an electric guitar - a Fender. He was pretty darn surprised. And he loves it! He's played the acoustic guitar for a long time, but the electric guitar is now going to be his new hobby. I'm praying that it will stir up even more creativity in him and that new songs will be written! Doesn't he look like a rock star?

Happy birthday, babe. I love you.

Celebrating 33 Years

Ryan's birthday was on the 26th, and I was so excited to celebrate his life. As some of you know, I love surprises. And I especially LOVE surprising my husband, because it's so hard to get anything by him! For his special birthday dinner, I surprised him and took him to Queen of Sheba - an Ethiopian restaurant in OKC. It was delicious! If you like to try new things and you've never had Ethiopian food, I would definitely recommend it. You eat with your hands, which is so fun! They serve the food with injera, that's the spongy bread you use to scoop up the meat and veggies. Yummy. So good and flavorful! We will definitely be going back to Queen of Sheba. After dinner, we went to grab coffee at a local coffee shop called Coco Flow - another fun little stop. We had a great date night - yes, this was a real date. Graham was at home with Aunt Jami. It was such a treat to have 3 1/2 hours all to ourselves!

Study Break

Today was a "roll the windows down, turn up the music and drive to Sonic" kind of a day. It was so beautiful outside. I was working from home, but dying to be outside. So Graham and I took a "study break" and went to get a large Sonic Dr. Pepper...one of my favorite, little afternoon treats! Plus it was Happy Hour, so it was only $.80! It was 60 something degrees outside, so we had the windows down and John Mayer turned up. Yeah, it's weird, I'm liking his music more and more. His Continuum album is great, and even better when you're driving to it. Even though our little outing was all of maybe 10 minutes, it felt so good and refreshing. Yes, refreshing, as I sipped down my icy DP. Ohhhhhh....I'm so ready for warm weather!! I look forward to more "roll the windows down" moments with Graham and Mr. Mayer.

The Running Begins

A monumental thing happened this afternoon. I went to the gym. It's true. For those of you who are new moms, you too can understand the crazy changes your body goes through after you have a baby, and how incredibly hard it can be to get out and get some exercise when you've got a tiny little person in your arms most of the time. Well, my exercise life has been pretty much non-existent since I found out I was pregnant, a part from the few pilates moments, tennis matches and walks around the neighborhood and mall. My son is now 8 months old. What can I say, it's been a while. And I know, it is definitely nothing of which I should be proud. But, as I stated before, IT'S A NEW YEAR! I set a goal so that I would MAKE myself run. Yes, run. Some people are blessed with the innate desire to run, outside, inside or wherever they can. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people. I would much rather play a sport, hike a trail, climb a tree, swim in the ocean or do something that disguises the fact that I'm actually running. But Ryan and I committed to run in the Memorial Marathon Relay in OKC. We did this because we knew it would be good for us, and it's always a fun experience to run in a race. Let me be clear, I am NOT running a marathon. I'm running in the marathon RELAY. So today, the training began. The race is at the end of April. This should give me a decent amount of time to prepare for my leg of the race. I wanted to start February 1st, but that didn't happen. Today, God gave me the motivation, so I ran with it.....literally. And it felt so good. It felt so good knowing that I was doing something good for my body. Plus, it gave me more energy, which is always something I can use more of - especially now that I have a little boy to chase around the house. So here's to running, even when we don't want to! Now I just need to keep it up.

Inspired

Ok, so I know some of you are wanting me to write more, and I want to write more too. It's in my heart. But gosh, I feel the pressure, and now every time I sit down to scribble out my thoughts, they seem to get lost somewhere between my mind and the computer. But I'm trying. I've got severe writer's block. When I have a face like this to look at every day, how could I not be inspired to write! This whole blogging thing is only daunting if I let it be. Thanks for your encouragement. More words will spill out soon enough...

Just Hanging Out by the Window

Sunday Afternoon

Sometimes I think pitures speak more than words can. Let me just say that this was a great day, and we enjoyed every moment of it.