Humor me. :)

I know I share these on here now and again, but really, most of you have never got to see many pictures of my parents. And since her birthday is now, technically speaking, today I just wanted to share a few. :)

This one is actually, in a strange way, one of my favorites. She's just washing her hair, but I think it shows how silly she liked to be and how laid back she was. She didn't really care if she was picture perfect. Look at that smile.

For Halloween one year. Okay, so I'm not sure how crazy she would be about me posting this one, despite her silliness, but I think its beautiful. :) Oh well. She'd still just laugh. I love it.

Another favorite.

And yes, that's me.

Things.

1) The Tony Nominations Happened?
Apparently they were announced today. I just happened to visit Playbill. I guess my body still has some sort of internal Tony clock that tells me when to check in. 
Anything of interest? Um... Newsies is up for Best Musical along with Once, but honestly other than that not much catches my eye. Peter & the Starcatcher is up for Best Play. Porgy & Bess is up for Best Revival. Yeah, I'll still check in at Tony time, but there's nothing here that really makes me want to keep up outside of those. Once received the most nom's this year clocking in at 11. Which doesn't surprise me either.
Sigh. In the Heights, I miss you. Miranda, come back. (Or Ahrens & Flaherty. Or Guettel. Someone, come back!)

2) It is May. And I hate May.
May, can we let bygones be bygones? You mostly don't like me. I mostly don't like you. You've set me into stressful fits of rage the last two years in a row. It's true, that was more related to work issues. The computer & whatnot. But let's just chill this year. Truce? Truce?

3) So you're preparing for Mother's Day, huh?
Actually, right now we're in a flurry of activity revamping our (entire) wedding process. It's becoming a huge investment all across the board and due to a sudden deadline we have to have part of it done by the end of this week. And then I need to update & revamp our portfolio. And then comb back over all our social media to see if it's a solid representation of us. And then make it through my wedding class in June - which I'm super excited about - but its still a touch intimidating.
Though I did learn that apparently all these classes are done only through the OKC center. Which means people fly from all over the nation to attend these classes. Cool!
And yes, Mothers Day is next week so that'll take precedence very soon. We're very busy for currently not having any daily work to do.

4) But I do get to see Holly tomorrow!
Holly and I are having a Trigun day. Season 1! The happy season! And then Phoenix Diner! It's a plan. I'm excited.

5) Again. My Kids are Freaking Cute. 
And just in case there was some part of you that doubted my kids are indeed the cutest. ever.

Pic shamelessly stolen from Amy. Great shot, Amy!

LOOK AT THAT FACE.

Seriously. Happiest face ever. I love this little now-somehow-five birthday baby. :)

6) The Moose is Back.
There is a theatre in NY called The Beautiful Soup who is reviving Moose Murders. Moose Murders, which opened in 1983, is the Carrie of plays. The big flop. The original of flop-dom. The show that played 13 previews, and opened and closed on the same night. 1 performance.

Personally, I love that they're doing this. Maybe it's just because I want to see Bring Back Birdie. But I've often thought I'd love to be near a theatre that once a season revived a major flop (or terrible show.) And whether they play it for laughs or try to attempt it legit, their intent could change depending on the show. Just giving it one more life.

They even made a trailer for it. I love it.



7) Oh, and speaking of "The Flop...."
There will be a cast recording of the recent Off-Broadway revival of Carrie! YAY! I'll get to hear Marin Mazzie tackle "And Eve Was Weak" which is very exciting.
Sadly, the song list does not include "Out for Blood." Somehow the song about hacking a pig got cut.
Oh, Carrie. You make me smile.

8) But Once Upon a Time doesn't.
This is actually the first time I've discussed Once on here I think. I almost hate to now.
Look.
.....
Look.
I've been watching this show all season. Because it's bad.
I'm sorry if you like this show.
But....it is bad. Laughably.
However, this weeks episode was not necessarily laughably bad. It was just downright painful.
And despite the fact that I've been watching this show because its bad, this episode was so bad that I don't even know that I'm willing to finish out the series. Even though we're only two episodes away.
Because it was THAT BAD.

Can you even comprehend that level of terrible? Because I sure couldn't

Thank goodness for the Dark Knight trailer.

Eight Years Gone

Eight years ago last night - sometime around midnight - I sat on the bench between Raley Chapel & the cross and agreed to pray with no strings attached.
Just pray. Just talk.

And somewhere in the midst of that everything changed. I opened the door and Christ came swiftly running in, the blood immediately covering my sins, the relationship immediately beginning to take root.

I forget often, even now, that Christ was waiting on me. I forget that truly, He was right there, waiting, knowing, for the moment He could sweep in. Not a pause. Not a meander. Done. Finished. You're Mine. Not Satan's. Not the world's. You're Mine and as soon as you will hear My knocking, as soon as you will open the door I will be there. No waiting. No second guessing. 

Indeed, this is my favorite birthday. For this is the day I was brought back to life.

 

I came across this passage tonight in my reading and it wraps everything up.

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." 

- Hebrews 12:22-24

Amen. He is good.

Love to all and sweet dreams. 

It's all about the Owls.

Little Lexie Lou's second birthday party was today! It was super cute. I mean, look at this face:

 
She instantly makes any party rock.

And because I can't resist this photo:

BAWWWWOOOOONS!

D'aaaaw.... my kids.

Grandma and I were at Cracker Barrel last week and happened upon an owl hat that we instantly knew Lexie would love because the girl LOVES OWLS. And this hat was awesome, so I kept searching through the rack for one myself. But what gives? It only came in toddler size! What's with that? Only toddlers can have owl hats? That's so sad!

Anyway, I've been mildly searching on and off for owl hats on etsy. I've looked for these before, without success of finding one I really liked, but I stumbled on this tonight:

Happiness.

Okay, so I'm not actually buying it (yet). I've discovered how great hats are for keeping a little extra warmth in, so at some point I'll probably pick up an extra one for this year,but this one is a little pricier than I was hoping for. Nonetheless, I still think this one is awesome. Maybe it'll go on sale.

As for Lexie, she loooooved hers. They were having trouble getting her to sit down and open gifts, and when the hat was the second gift in she was pretty much done. She jumped up, threw it on sideways and went parading around. She knows what it's about.

The Wojahn Visit #2: Arbuckle Lake

Truth be told, for the longest time I couldn't remember what happened between that first couple days involving the cemetery visit and the lake (which was near the end). Which....is sad.

Although the other day I thought "Wait, what was the world's longest word again? ... ... Ha, it's totally MANILAPINYATAPEI!"

But that's not accurate. Because I can't find it on google. And I can't remember how to spell it. Because its terribly long. And apparently its not the world's longest word anyway. SO I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
But I do remember it means when two people look across a room, catch each other's eye and think the same thing. And I can sort of pronounce it. Because there's an entire song written about. BECAUSE IT EXISTS. I KNOW IT EXISTS.
So. There.

Eventually I did remember what I believe those four days entailed. And it was fun. My family came down a lot and we played canasta. Lots of kids. Lots of silliness. I walked into my room to find my almost-four-year-old niece button mashing my new laptop. This had happened several times, but it is always on password protect when they're down so its no big deal. But somehow this time the screen read "Continue system restore or delete all data? Ha, and she was still smashing keys! So after leaping to Jon's protection, I was pretty impressed. Not that I wanted my data deleted, but that's some mad button mashing skills. Someone give her a game controller.

Anyway, so that Monday Brent, Diane, Brian & I loaded up in their car and began heading towards Sulphur. My cousins make an annual summer trip to Sulphur and we were joining in. If you've never been there it's a natural spring (that is COLD) and goes out to form lots of deep pools of water, small waterfalls, creeks, etc. So imagine our surprise when my cousins called to let us know it was dry. Sulphur was dry. That still leaves me sort of speechless. I started watching ponds along the way and noticed most of them contained very little water, if any at all. This drought. Something's gotta give.

Well, we were already over halfway there so we kept heading that direction when Sam & Kris called back with the solution: Arbuckle Lake.

Arbuckle Lake is beautiful. And it was really perfect. Not only was the water blissfully warm, but it was clean (I totally admit: the thought of swimming in a dirty, stagnant lake makes me shudder.) But no, it was huge and the wind was constantly working the waves and the entire time was lovely. I had a massive sunburn for three days and Charlie started calling me Red. But it was worth it. We should totally go again.

So I guess this became less a post about what we did at the lake, and more about well...everything else. But y'know. We swam. We ate. It was a good time.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday wonderful! Thanks to Phyllis, Amy & Betty for lunch & all those beautiful girls for making me feel super special with handmade birthday cards. Grandma & I went out for dinner to Red Lobster and I've done nothing the rest of the evening. Watched some Lost, listened to some music. It's been pretty lovely. :)

Only because its so true.

I am so sleepy. And going to bed. We had an awesome evening celebrating Holly's birthday at Red Robin. Several of us hadn't seen in each in a few weeks so it was HYSTERICAL.

I actually should post quotes from that. Sadly, I would probably get them wrong. Which would be a shame.

But that makes me think of this: tonight Eric pulled up a video clip that had me in hysterics with this line and I have to share it.

"I watched an anime once - dude pulled a gun at the start of the episode, fired it at the end and everything in between was angst! I wouldn't mind, but he MISSED."
- The Escapist

(Don't misinterpret- I love anime.)

Happy birthday to my beautiful friend, Holly! Thank you for always being the sweet sister that brightens my day and makes me smile. I love you dearly and hope you had a most wonderful day.

Yawning. Still sleepy.

Indeed, I am back. My family left out yesterday afternoon. :( It was sad. I miss them.

So tonight my plans included going to the RAWC and finishing up birthday shopping for one of my kiddos.

Instead I slept for two hours and then gorged myself reading Hyperbole & A Half. My evening was obviously productive.

Sometimes I hate telling people what I find amusing, simply because if I tell you how amusing I found it, and then you don't feel the same way, I feel like I've disappointed you somehow. It bemuses me how one moment you can read through something and dismiss it, and then come across it again months later and it happens to hit you in a certain that you find hysterical. That's basically been my relationship with Hyperbole.
Therefore, I've actually never read that much of her blog before, with the exception of flipping through one or two posts. I'm not even sure why I started flipping through them tonight. But they were pretty hysterical. Any of her posts about her dogs were awesome and then the one on The Four Levels of Social Entrapment just really got me. Well-Intentioned Social Terrorism had me in fits of laughter, if for no other reason than the "I'm going to go inside my house and sit by myself." And then she even posted one about how evil geese are and about one attacking her in her own house. Perfect. (Sidenote: There is language throughout her blog, just so you're aware.)

Anyway, family time was awesome. I'm sure I'll be elaborating on it soon.

Lots of love on a very special birthday.

This is one of my favorite images of my dad...

But these are the ones that still steal my heart...







Happy birthday to one of the strongest, yet silliest, men I've ever known. I still think of you every day. I love you.

Happy birthday, dad. :)

Whaddya waaant?

I love Etsy. And I should probably be concerned how much time I can waste browsing through the shops. Nonetheless, I love Etsy.

Etsy is a website where people can create shops to sell their homemade items. The best part is that it ranges everywhere from jewelry to woodcarving to paper cutting to glassware to clothing to...etc, etc. The prices are usually fair, the creativity outstanding, the quality usually high and the possibilities seem endless. Often people will also offer custom services. And while I'm not always the best at going first to the small shop community, I love that I can support everyday people through their work rather than buying from a big business.

And I love that in the midst of all these beautiful objects, there's also a vast amount of quirky.

Like this:


(From spookcityarts etsy shop)

Yes, my friends. That is Godzilla and the Phantom of the Opera in the same photo. Love.

And then this really made me laugh:



I was even more amused to realize my name was already written in as the sample:


Ha, I can assure you I felt this way this very morning! Rar! (From kitschville)

I can't let today go by without wishing my big brother Will a very happy birthday! What would we do without you? I've watched you over and over again embody the very characteristics of love: the ability to always protect, always trust, always hope and always persevere. And you give fantastic hugs. May the rest of your week be awesome and your Godzilla movies be free of wonky trombones and scary fish masks. :)

March is wrapping up.

For Regina's birthday we celebrated in Bricktown by eating at Zios, capping it off with Marble Slab & watching Suckerpunch. For the record, I had never had Marble Slab. It was delicious - not quite Coldstone, but delicious. Rainbow Galax*E. I just can't turn down cake batter ice cream (as long as its not blue.)

Suckerpunch was curious. I wouldn't go see it again, but it held my interest. The first twenty minutes were really beautifully shot, and the soundtrack is outstanding. While admittedly my expectations were sunk pretty low, it was better than I thought it'd be.

It's 38ish degrees outside. Why, March? Why?

There's not much more entertaining than watching the cast of my church trying to catch a squirrel. My favorite part was Carolyn telling Harold he better not get bitten because she didn't have time to take him to get a rabies shot.

On Friday some salesmen-in-training will apparently be coming to our shop to study how a flower shop operates, so they can better understand the inner workings? Our representative recommended us? I think this whole thing is really strange, especially when you consider all the hundreds of other shops in the state, but okay. Sure, we do a lot of business. But, uh. I'm still skeptical about this whole thing. It just sounds weird.

A few weeks ago iTunes stopped working on my computer. I have now completely - completely- uninstalled anything to do with realplayer, quicktime, iTunes, iPod, apple, etc. and reinstalled it. Nothing. iTunes has encountered a problem. Any thoughts?

I'm looking forward to the Medieval Faire this weekend. Hurrah!

I've spent the evening watching clips from Disney movies of the 90's. They make me smile.

Help me out, yeah, you know you gotta help me out...

Confession. I started Christmas shopping last Thursday. Started.
...
This is actually very unlike me. Thankfully, the lovely Holly was willing to go along for the ride and we dashed from store to store. I can now safely say a mere few days later that half of my shopping is done. Yes.

But for most of the people I hadn't bought for I had hit a brick wall on ideas. This was...unfortunate. So tonight began Operation: Beg. Text messages went out. Pleading for ideas. And I'm grateful that all of you responded. :) You should have seen the happy dancing occurring with each message. It was gleeful. I'm sorry I had few ideas for you in the first place. I wish I had a good explanation. Next year I'll try to be more on game.

A summation of everything else:
* More poinsettias arrived in the shop today.
* We only have four grave blankets left and I am super pumped about that.
* A guy came in today just to let us know how thankful he was. Last Friday he bought a bouquet to take to his friend and he had never seen her light up like that. Aw.... that makes me smile.
* I'm about 100 or so pages into Game of Thrones.
* I've recently started listening to the Killers. Any suggestions? "Dustland Fairytale" is my favorite. (But "All The Things That I've Done" is on about its 20th play now.)
* I've attended both beautiful Amy's and snazzy Tate's birthday parties. Tate's party was Dr. Seuss. Look at this cutie. (I'm stealing the pic.)


* I listened to Amy's lovely piano recital in a room at the local library I never even knew existed. She did wonderful.
* I heard all about Carson's Santa visit.
* Phyllis, Amy & I went to see Little Women on at the local community theatre Saturday night. I approve of all of their renovations!
* But before that, Amy & I had a deliiicious dinner at Chilis.
* And at some point I went Christmas shopping.

Birthdays!

Do you realize there are four, count 'em, four birthdays in my family this week?
September through May we have lots of birthdays among family and friends. Whoohoo!

So to my loved ones who had birthdays throughout the week:

Carson: My favorite webslinger, dragonslayer, prince and friend of all things imaginary. Whether I'm the troll under the bridge or the kidnapped princess, watching you build dreams and believe in them never fails to make me smile. You are my superhero and I can't wait to watch you fly.

Grandpa Kime: Grandpa would have been 80 this year and his birthday would have been this past Tuesday. We clashed sometimes, but I never doubted he loved me and knew he was always teaching me what was good and right. Whenever I envision my "cloud of witnesses" I know he's one of my loudest supporters and on some days that is what keeps me going. His strength in the face of adversity lifts my feeble arms and strengthens my weak knees (Heb. 12:12).

Grandma Kime: My lovely, lovely grandma whom I love dearly. You are beautiful and you have always carried yourself with a grace and kindness that I can only pray & hope one day I can mirror. Thank you for all your love, all the tender care you've poured out on others over the years and, of course, all your cookies that sweeten the day. :) I love you.

Phyllis: How wonderful is my Phyllis? My Phyllis who, whether she realizes it or not, inspires me to let go and lets God as she practices it herself, who encourages me to stay on the straight and narrow and who never fails to let me know she loves me. I continually watch you lift up others and carry their burdens and I am honored to be your niece. I love you and I cherish whenever we get to chat. Thank you for always thinking of me and answering your phone when I call, even when you're almost asleep. ;)

Yay! Birthdays! I hope they were all wonderful. :)

While I'm here: look, links!

This is a photo of a baby seahorse. You should look. It'll make you smile. (Thanks Will!)

This is one of those things I'm afraid to link because it could turn around and all be a lie. Nonetheless, in case it turns out valid, it's too awesome and interesting not to post.

If you've seen The Dark Knight (which, if you haven't, we should talk) this is pretty funny. :)

The Labor Day Holiday

How to Create the Perfect Saturday:

Lunch with grandma? Check.
Going to Brad & Regina's? Check.
Out of town friends in town? Check.
ZOO!? Check.
COLDSTONE?! Check. (Birthday Cake Remix, baby!)
Holly & Sam arrive? Check.
Bohemian Rhapsody sung by everyone in the car? Double check.

And thus started off my Labor Day holiday. :) I've tried hard to use three-day weekends for major projects and I've completed a lot through that. (The mass purge of the filing cabinet and closet come to mind as recent accomplishments...) But this weekend was all play. Harvest Moon every night. Staying home Sunday and Monday. Completing small tasks on larger projects. McAlisters Deli. It was so nice.

Of course, the Zoo is always a personal favorite, but this was such a strange trip. I thought a lot of the exhibits would be lively due to being the last major summer holiday and the parking lot was packed. (Seriously, we finally sat for several minutes waiting for a family to deal with strollers and iceboxes just for the spot). But we mostly saw...exhibits? Very few animals. Mostly just their exhibits. :) We did get some fun interaction with the gorillas, and the giraffes are always lovely (elephants still in Tulsa, but next year!). Even the Sea Lions were off somewhere else. No chimps. Few wild dogs. Can't find the otters again.
However, price of admission was all worth it just for Philip & Eric filling in the meerkats inner monologues. I wish I had direct quotes, but I don't, and no amount of attemping to reprise it will do it justice.

I haven't had Coldstone since Vegas when I tracked it down in the Excalibur. It was wonderful.

And then everyone sat on the patio of Coldstone for, um, two hours? reminiscing.

Of course, everything that was on hold over the summer comes back into full swing this week. My boss told me to rest over the holiday and that we would have to come back ready to go on Tuesday. Now we'll start our holiday work -- preparing for our annual open house, Thanksgiving, Christmas silks, etc. Wednesday night Bible Study returns this week at 5:30. Drama will start back up this coming Sunday. There are no less than four birthdays this week alone and several more in the coming weeks. I'm excited for all of them.

Hello fall! Let's begin again. How are you?