Weekend Happenings

I actually spent a FULL weekend at home. And of course it was full of fun activities. We had a lot of good family time this weekend. We started the weekend by meeting Dusty (see Friends post) for dinner and then going to see the Marshfield/Hillcrest football game. The boys go to Nixa and we don't know anyone on either team. Why did we go to that game? For Hillcrest's number 5 Dorial Green-Beckham. I guess this kid is like the number 1 college draft pick in the nation. So, the fellas - Josh and Dusty wanted to see him play. When we left the score was like 40-something to 0. And apparently, Dorial put up some great stats that game.

Saturday we had some down time at the house. That was nice. I was preparing for an evening of sports. Josh wanted to watch the Notre Dame game (ha that rhymed:)) and of course Cody and I were going to be watching the Cardinals win game 3 of the World Series.
We did get out for some bowling. This was the first game's ending scores. The 2nd game, Josh won by a landslide. He got 3 strikes the last 3 frames. But since this game was so close, I posted these scores :)

Josh's girls were in Springvegas this weekend as well. So Sunday after lunch we met them and they spent the afternoon with us. We went to the pumpkin patch. And as all great family outings go, it started a little rough. There may have been some bad attitudes, fit throwing, and yelling then there were the kids... But we survived and ended the outing with smiles and ice cream.

Although, I am getting used to our two families hanging out, it sure is different. Doubling the number of kids in a matter of minutes takes some adjustment every time we get them all together. The biggest adjustment is adding girls to environment. It is an adjustment for all of us. However, our little families are blending nicely and I enjoy the times when we can all get together.

Josh, Brayden, Jill, and Elle carved their pumkins. This is Elle and Neo posing with the finished product. The others didn't really care to have another picture taken. I can always count on Elle for a picture :)

This Run's 4 Vaughn

This weekend I went to the big town of Dexter, MO to participate in an ALS 5k benefit run/walk. Shawn's (see Friends post) dad past away last year from ALS. I never got to meet him but I've become friends with his whole family (mom and brother). Although I did not meet Vaughn, he raised two great sons and this benefit run/walk will continue to help other families with ALS. My cousin's Grandfather on their moms side was recently diagnosed with ALS as well. I am happy to be able to help raise money and awareness to the disease that affects many lives.

Dexter is about 3 hours from where I live and has about 6000 people in it. We had 7 (8 including baby Kinley) of us from Springfield that went to support the Wright family. Shawn's brother and sister-in-law went and they are from Springfield as well. The organizers said that there were about 100 participants and I actually finished 3rd in the event. According to my iPhone/GPS the course was right at 3 miles. The 2 male organizers finished before me. This was my first 5k and I was able to run the whole thing. I finished route in 26 minutes, but I went a full 5k in about 28 mintues.

A Friend

I realized that in my last 3 posts, I have referred to "a friend". In an effort to avoid my friends and family thinking that I still have imaginary friends, I decided to name said friend. This is him. This is my friend Dusty Butler. Not only is he my friend he is my insurance agent. Cody prefers to refer to him as our insurance agent and not just my friend. Makes spending so much time with "our insurance" agent seem kind of creepy, but I don't care. I figured since I have referred to him recently, he deserves to be called by name from here on out. From this day forward he shall be know in this blog as Dusty.
I cannot have a blog post about friends without talking about my best friend Holly. Since I moved away from her, I don't get to have my weekly dinners with her, nor do I get to stop by whenever I want. For now we have to settle for lunch here and there and seeing each other whenever we can. Not only is she my best friend, her son Trevor is Brayden's best friend. They are a great family and I am lucky to have them in my life. We have enjoyed many sad and happy times together, and I cannot wait for more (happy times anyway).
AND this post needs to include my new besties Shawn and Morgan. Shawn and Morgan both work with me, so not only do I spend around 40 hours a week with them, I spend several hours outside of work with them, and take vacations with them. They are practically family. Morgan is definitely Aunt Mo to Brayden. Since Shawn and Morgan are about to have their first baby, I will be Aunt Kira to him or her. I will most definitely be spending lots of time with this baby so prepare for many post/pics. From this day forward that baby will be known in this blog as my little niece or nephew!

Happy Birthday to JOSH!

I spent Saturday and Sunday helping Josh celebrate his birthday. Today is his actual birthday!! Saturday we went shopping. He bought himself a new birthday outfit. From head to toe he was decked out. I provided a watch as one of the new items and birthday gift. And of course, I bought myself a thing or two while we were at the mall to celebrate his birthday.

We had dinner at Fedora. A local fondue place in Springfield. It was Yummy. This was my first time to eat there and his first time at a fondue restaurant. I must say it was a bit different from the Melting Pot. I need to take him there so he can see the difference. Most of the fondue at Fedora is cheese and you don't really get to cook any of your meal, it's precooked. That's good and bad. Bad because the experience is not AS fun and good because you don't the steam facial. But all in all still a good meal.

Then we met up with some friends to watch some of their friends in their band. We enjoyed...the company. I'm pretty sure Josh will appreciate this picture. ACTION SHOT!

Sunday we celebrated by spending the day inside watching TV. Since it was a rainy day, it was perfect for that. How was watch TV celebrating Josh's birthday? Well, we spent most of the day watching football. 4 different football games to be exact!! YIKES!! That was more football than I've watched in a whole season!!! I actually fell asleep quickly after the 4th game started, and yes that was about 8:30!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

NO - you know why I don't love football season? Because people get SO obsessed with football. I, for one, never get obsessed with anything. However, seriously, I never hear guys talk so much until football season. All the guys at work talk about is football. So many posts on Facebook about football. I went to a baby shower and the WOMEN were talking about football. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Friday (in prep for the weekend) it is football. Football, Football, Football.

AND - football tickets are so expensive. Who can afford to go to these games. For me, it would require a 3 hour drive, an overnight stay, and about $600!!! WHAT? Ridiculous. Cody can go to an NFL game, when he is an adult and he can pay for his own ticket and drag his wife to a game! Since I have 2 sons, I do have to indulge them in some football talk. I will here and there try to know a little about football and talk a little football for their sake, but that's enough for me.

I have friends that are so determined to turn me into a football fan. I keep saying that I will resist. One friend is determined to wear me down and prove me wrong. Josh tries the argument, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's not going to work either. I will dig in my heels and stand firm. I don't HAVE to be a football fan!

Labor Day - FL

For the Labor Day weekend, I am with Josh in Pensacola, FL visiting his sister and her family. Jodi is Josh's sister and her husband Emmanuel have 2 adorable sons Ian and Dominic. The trip started out not awesome when the air conditioning in my car went out on the way to Tulsa. So I drove for about an hour in 100 degrees. I was a gross sweaty mess when I got to Tulsa. But the drive to FL was pretty uneventful. We took the puppies and they were great travelers.

We stopped at the Louisiana boarder to use the restroom, let the puppies out, and of course take pictures. We missed the Alabama rest stop... :( And I figured we would take enough pictures of Florida.This is Dominic the baby. He is about 9 months old. He is soooooo sweet. He almost let me rock him to sleep. He loved the puppies.

This is Ian. He really loves having his Uncle Josh here to play with. And Ian REALLY LOVES Neo. Neo has been really patient with the boys.

We did actually make it to the beach even though it rained most of our first day here. It was super windy so we did not get into the water nor did we stay on the beach long. We shopped on the Boardwalk for awhile, had lunch, then went back to Emmanuel and Jodi's. We all just took it easy the rest of day. It was the perfect rainy day for naps and movies.

We shall try the beach again...

Tulsa Time

The boys and I headed to Tulsa on Saturday to spend a couple of days with some friends and family. Saturday was a pretty full day with TONS of pictures (I got a new camera!!! So picture taking resumes). So each event from Saturday will have its own blog posting. Today, I will start with the beginning and end of our trip. The main purpose of my trip was to meet Josh’s daughters Jill and Elle. Jill is 9 and Elle is 7. Saturday we had lunch with 2 of my childhood friends Ericka and Stefanie. I met Stefanie’s husband Greg for the first time. I have known these girls since 4th grade and they lived in my neighborhood so I saw them almost every day til 8th grade. I really enjoyed visiting with them again, and we had a good time.

Josh’s daughters are super adorable and a lot of fun. We had a really good time, and I had really enjoyed having girls around. It took the boys a little bit to get used to having girls around, but they all got along really great. The girls are so loving and sweet and that I think I would literally have to be the Wicked Witch for them not to like me. But apparently I got the seal of approval from them. Sunday, after lunch and a trip to Cherry Berry, we played family Twister, and then I headed home through the storm.

Before we played Twister, my friend Morganne called me to see if I was on the road yet because the terrible tornado that hit Joplin, luckily I had not left yet. We decide to hang out a little bit before heading home to make sure that I was not driving into the storm. Once I got through Tulsa, Matt informed me that 44 was closed by Joplin. So between Matt and mom, they directed me another way to get home. They had 44 blocked off about Afton and I missed my 60 turn off so I was able to get back on 44 at mile marker 18. There were dozens of police on the highway. At one point I saw 15 emergency cars in a caravan headed to Joplin and then later 6 ambulances in a row headed that way. I had SEVERAL people checking on me on my drive home and it was SO super nice to have such caring thoughtful people in my life! Our campus is off to give blood for the people in Joplin today.

Julia Story

When we are traveling I take pictures like this: Scenic pictures. Pictures of building/skylines/things. I also have them in my scrapbooks. Well we were looking at them the other day and Donna (Aunt Ev's sister) thought it was funny that I took these pictures & comment that I was taking pictures of the "road". Which I was not. HOWEVER, Julia did take pictures of our roads. Just the road. In Germany they don't have long straight roads like we do (highways). She said their "long roads" are curvy so you can't even tell how long they are. But she was shocked by our long straight roads & how many of them that we have.

And the worse thing that I heard about Germany was that scrapbooking is not really done there!! If it is, she has never heard of it or seen it!

It is fun to hear about the differences in other countries even in the 21 Century.

What a week

Whew what a crazy busy week. Let's start with last weekend. Friday, I headed to OKC, with a stop in Tulsa to eat lunch with my old youth group friends. Especially Angela & Giovanni visiting from Italy.Left Tulsa to meet up with Katie at Matt's new job to see him and to hang out with her a little. We had a little quality cousin time.

Saturday, Ashley came to OKC to see us. So had some more cousin time and then headed to two parties. A BDay party & Matt's 3rd of July Party that was held late due to scheduling issues this year.

Sunday I picked up some of my 3rd cousins Elliott & Oliver to spend the week with us while their mom & sister hang out with their Grandma. My great Aunt Ev that has pancreatic cancer. Monday, I took the opportunity to go work out, look for a new job and go on an interview for a job (it was ok-had a 2nd interview on Friday-I'm not sure how I feel about the job). Then Tuesday all the "kids" and I headed to Silver Dollar City - minus Cody - he had band practice.

Wednesday the boys got to hang out with more of Aunt Ev's grandsons Phillip, Michael and Anthony(Anthony is only 6 months old). SOOOOOOOOOO cute though.

Wednesday got some pool time in during the day.


Then Dixie Stampede that night. This is Julia (silent J). She is from Germany and she is staying with the Spillers this year. She loved Dixie Stampede. She really like horses & they have mostly formal horse shoes. And nothing that you could eat a meal & watch a horse show!!!

Thursday, the boys hung out with their mom & I went to volunteer at the hospital then I just took the two girls to Ripley's Believe it or Not. We couldn't believe it...

Friday was another relaxing day of hanging out & then that night we went to a Springfield Cardinals game. The Cards won. They played the Drillers. I was going for the Drillers. Julia wanted to make sure that she was supposed to be going for the Cardinals & she wondered if I was like the only one going for Drillers. I assured her that I was the odd one! Then they had fireworks at the end. She really enjoyed that. They aren't as free with fireworks in Germany as we are here in the states.

Crazy week but lots of good fun!! Happy to have this time to spend with this family. They go home today. Now Bray's birthday Sunday!!!

Meet Me in Saint Louis

The beginning of the month Holly had to take Carter to St. Louis for some doctor's appointments. She was going to be there for a week. So Brayden & I joined her for a couple of days. I believe it had been exactly 4 years earlier we had met our friends from Indiana in St. Louis and we did pretty much the exact same things this trip. A little deja vu ish but Bray is a lot older now and he will remember this trip better. We went to Six Flags, but we ended up getting rained on for most of the time. So we left and had dinner at Apple Bees. But we ended up going back after dinner. It was pretty dead there & we were able to ride a couple more rides. Brayden was even able to ride Batman (which he is technically an inch or so too short for).

We also went to the Arch. Here we are at the top!

This is a cool pic of Brayden & Trevor running up the stairs with the sun & the Arch in the background. A little Rocky-ish.

We went to Union Station & Bray did this trampoline thing where he was strapped in & could jump & do flips. He is so light, but has a lot of muscle control/body control, he was able to go pretty high and he managed 3 back flips in one jump, he loved that.

Here we are at the zoo, obviously. We fed the sting rays. That was pretty fun. We also ate at this place that makes their own Root Beer. That was fun & in a part of St. Louis I had not seen before. A cute little area.

Since we were going with Trevor & Carter, Cody decided that he would rather stay with a friend. So, last week I took Cody to St. Louis, that post to follow...

Cards

I have recently started a small card group at my house. We play the last Wednesday of every month. This is our 3rd time playing. We decided (or I decided) to make it a dress up time. So here is our group. One - did not dress up...

So here are the non-party poopers.

We meet from 12-3 PM. That way we do not take away from "family" time. We bring food & we are done by the time school lets out - as we all have kids in school. It has worked out really well so far.