Announcement about Christmas

I hope I'll get a chance to talk to everyone about this, but just in case it's not any time soon, I wanted to let everyone know we WILL be coming home for Christmas. Our blessings seem to be endless, and we just received one more last week: Brent received a small scholarship. It's not much, but it will be enough to help get us home for Christmas. We're not sure on the logistics of it all just yet, but we will be spending time in Brigham City (for Christmas) and Cedar City (probably for New Year's). We so excited! We miss you all sooooooo much!

All in the family...

Drew had Top Ramen for dinner on Monday and made a complete mess of his little shark shirt (a present from Aunt Angie). So Brent just took it off and let him run around like the crazy kid he is. Brent grabbed the camera and started shooting.

While I was looking through the pictures, I could just see how much Drew looks like my dad in this picture. Maybe it's just me, but there's definitely a lot of my dad in there.

And two seconds later -- it's my sister! Drew's pictures look a lot like Sarah's at the same age. I didn't think Sarah and I looked all that much alike, but my kid looks just like her, so there must be more than I thought! That's good; like I always told Sarah, she was the cute baby in the family, so I'm glad Drew took after her more than after me. :)

Splish splash!

Drew and I went to Bricktown to visit the Downtown Library on Monday. I needed to get a library card, plus I heard from my writers' group it was really cool. The drawback is you have to pay for parking anywhere downtown. I found a good spot right across the street and lucked out because the meter was broken, so I got free parking. The highlight, of course, was this wonderful little water feature by the Rotary Club in front of the library.

Drew had an absolute blast! We went inside first, or else we wouldn't have gotten to go at all. But we had to stop and play in the water when we were done. I took Drew's shoes off and just let him have at it!

And boy, did Drew make the best of it! Everyone was starting to walk by on the street for their lunch break, and I could hear each of them chuckling as they saw how much Drew was enjoying it. He was completely soaked.

He ran in and out, and sometimes just stood there laughing at this strange water jumping out of the cement. I had to strip him down afterward -- he went home in just a fresh diaper. But if he could talk, I'm sure he'd tell you it was well worth it.

You WILL think I'm cute...

It's no secret Brent and I are nerds, and as thus, we are big Star Wars fans. This year for Halloween we'll be showing that side as Obi Brent Kenobi, Padme Amegala and Yodrew. Drew, being the little Jedi he is, has already started practicing. He wanted to put on my brown jacket, and lo and behold -- a Jedi!

It was just too cute! If you know me, you'll know I am making Drew's costume, and it will be much better than this. But if I didn't care, this would have been perfect! Drew was sure enjoying it. He was running around like a wild man and laughing.

You learn something new everyday...

...and today, this was Drew's newest trick. He's showing me where his nose is. :)

Go Redhawks!

So we've been in Oklahoma City for almost two months, and we just got to go to our first ball game on Saturday (I've been wanting to go since we got here). It was perfect! The weather outlook was bleak for the weekend, so we weren't sure we would get the chance. However, we had great cloud cover that made it cool and perfect baseball weather. So we headed to Bricktown...

The AT&T Bricktown Park is awesome! We paid a little more to get the good seats and I'm glad -- they were fantastic. We were just down from the third-base dugout and could see everything well.

We had so much fun! Drew did a lot better than I expected. I think he really enjoyed all the screaming and clapping. He also liked to use the mitt to cover his face.

We got to the game with about 15 minutes to go, but we had to wait in a HUGE line at the box office to get tickets. We got in during the first inning, but we missed the free hat and little baseballs giveaway. But somehow, we left the field with not one but THREE little balls that people had given Drew. I guess he is just too cute! Everyone around us would laugh when he would keep screaming after it had gotten quiet or he'd wave at people or try to grab the hair of the lady in front of us. He's always got to be doing something!

Drew and I had to get up and take a diaper break and a walk in the fifth inning, and I had to buy us an Icee (ugh! $5 for a medium sized one!) during the seventh because I forgot his sipee cup and we didn't have anything to drink. Overall he did really well. But by the bottom of the eighth and into the ninth, this is how the game ended for Drew: Go dogs. Go!

After the game we walked around Bricktown a little. The Mickey Mantle Restaurant is right across the street, which happens to be Mickey Mantle Drive or something like that. The first statue is him on the third base side.

Each entrance has a statue of a ball player from Oklahoma. This one is Johnny Bench, an amazing catcher.

Bricktown also has a little canal that goes through downtown. We didn't stay long because Drew was getting tired. It was around 10:30. But we had a blast! The Redhawks, our Triple-A team, took home a 7-3 win over the Omaha Royals. We'll go back downtown this week if we get the chance. Brent has Monday and Tuesday off, and then one class on Wednesday and two on Friday to start the fall semester. We've been enjoying the week together. I'm just sad it's almost over.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...

So we've heard about the crazy storms they get down here in the Sooner state. Last night we got a good taste of one. We celebrated the end of anatomy (Brent got a B! yeah!) with all the other students and their wives in our group of friends. Luckily, the storm held off until after 9 p.m. so we had a nice barbecue in our back yard, roasted some dogs and burgers and even got in a volleyball game. We saw the clouds coming, then we felt a few more drops. We wrapped up the game just in time to grab everything we could and run into our apartment. Not 2 minutes later, it turned into this --

The video isn't the best, but this will give you some taste of what it was like. Our parking lot turned into a river of rain water, and the rain started coming down in sideway sheets. The thunder and lightning was incredible! This was just the beginning of the storm. The rain finally died down, and then the light show really began! We all huddled on our little deck and oooed and awwwed at the flashes of electricity. It was so fun to watch!

Sleepy snack time

Drew fell asleep on the way home from church on Sunday, as he usually does. But he woke up after only half an hour when he usually sleeps for 2 hours. I guess he had been crawling around and gave his little baby knees a rug burn. So I sprayed his knees with some burn/pain ointment, gave him some bread to munch on and let him snuggle with Brent. Apparently he wasn't done napping because he fell asleep mid-snack. It was too cute!

Cloudy means cool ...

So I guess I can't find anything else to do in OKC except go to the zoo. Actually, my friend Cari invited me to go to a splash park with her and her kids (their little boy Preston is just a month older than Drew and they love to hang out together at church), but our heat wave is over and it's been rainy and cloudy. Bad day for the splash park, but great day for the zoo! It was nice and cool (like 75 instead of 105) and didn't rain; the animals were all out and active. It was another fun trip! Drew got to see the giraffes for the first time. And the ostrich came over and tried to get his shoes like it did last time we walked by his enclosure.

We walked around almost the entire zoo today. I guess now that I know where I'm going it doesn't take as long. Plus I was trying to get some good exercise in for myself. I tried to take a picture of us together, but I couldn't quite get the camera at the right angle. This is the best one.

Of all the animals, I think Drew has found a new favorite in the seals and sea lions. I'm sure it helps that I let him escape the confines of his stroller to stand on the ledge by the windows where they swim past. Today he was knocking on the glass. Maybe he wanted to join them in their playful display...

Not much else is going on in our lives. Drew had to get immunizations yesterday, but the Medicaid program here won't pay for them at the doctor's office. We had to go to a clinic at the downtown health department, which took a little more than two hours. It was kinda crazy, but Drew was really good for me and sat on my lap, looking at books, making the time fly by faster. Poor kid had to get three shots, but he gets immunizations really well. Now he doesn't have to get shots until February!!

Brent takes his anatomy final tomorrow (any prayers and thoughts are appreciated). He's struggled a lot with this class, but he's almost done! Then we get a week off before he starts fall semester on the 20th. Then I'll probably never see him -- he's got 25.5 credit hours. Classes start at 8 a.m. I hope he'll have breaks to study so we can actually spend some time together, but school comes first! We were hoping to catch a baseball game this weekend, but it looks like it will probably rain again. I guess we'll see.

Turtle!

I went with my friend, Keri, and her little girl, Ady, to the zoo on Friday. Ady and Drew had fun making sure each other got to see all the cool animals. We walked what's called the Oklahoma Trail that goes through the different zones of Oklahoma and animals like mountain lions, bison and bears.

Right before we went into the bear house, a zoo worker had a turtle she was showing people. Drew and Ady got to touch the turtle and see it up close. They thought that was pretty cool.

The zoo has a pair of baby snow leopards that we got to see on Friday, too. But they were far away and we didn't get to see them very well. It was still another fun trip to the zoo!

Our new home

I can't believe it's August already! It's crazy that we've been in Oklahoma City for a month now, and it's taken me that whole month to finally get pictures of our new place so everyone can see where we live.

This is what our buildings look like. They're three stories. We have a two-bedroom unit. I got to keep my washer; we did have to get a new dryer (we had a gas one and everything here is electric), but we found a new one the day we got here for a good price. We're on the second floor in the first building in the complex. We really like it. They're way nice, and the location is absolutely the best! We're just a few miles up the road from the dental school and I'm close to a lot of good spots in town.

Sorry, this picture is one of my worst, but this is what our living room looks like. We got new couches (there's something wrong with the sofa, so we're getting a new one and the ottoman we ordered on Thursday). We have lots of windows, which I really enjoy. We have a deck off to the left, Drew's room and a bathroom behind where I'm standing, the kitchen behind to the right, and our bedroom just to the right of the desk.

Here's some pictures of Drew where you can see our new couches (microfiber! i really love them) and our dining area. Drew seems to like the new place. Just waiting for it to cool down a bit so we can get out and do things again. We're in the middle of a heat wave!

Brent had his second test yesterday, and while he's not too happy with his score, I will tell you he improved his score from last time and I think he did great! His final is next Wednesday and then we get a week break. I'm so excited!