Cardboard Testimony

My cousin, Sarah, sent this to me and it is amazing. It really makes you realize that all Christians struggle and have problems. But thanks to Christ, we are forgiven and can be made new.

Watch this video: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

It's Halloween!

Russ does NOT like the idea of dressing up, but I love it. It's fun to become someone else for a night. So on Friday night, I chose to be Marilyn Monroe. I made this choice for 3 reasons: 1. I couldn't think of anything 2. my friend Jennifer told me I could borrow her costume and 3. It was free. That's the best reason, I think.

But since Russ didn't want to go, I convinced my friend Heather to go. (Not much convincing was needed. Here's our conversation: "Heather, what are you doing on Friday?" "Nothing." "Do you want to go to a Halloween party with me?" "Heck yeah!") Russ was thrilled that he didn't have to go and he wouldn't hear me gripe about not getting to go. So thanks Heather for going with me.

We had so much fun. The scavenger hunt was a blast. (except for wearing 3 inch heels- give me a warning next time Jenny!) There were 12 people crammed into a van driving (very fast) around town to take pictures of things we had on a list. We only had 1 hour to do it in, but we found all but a live spider. Our team even found the headstone of someone who died on October 31. Good times.

Heather- aka Sarah Palin and me. (Yes, mother, I know the dress is low- it was higher at the beginning of the night.) (Does anyone have a full length picture of me, I didn't take one.) Todd and Pam aka- Slash and guitar hero girl.


Rusty & Mitzi aka-Mickey and Minnie. Jenny-aka Princess Leia.

Disco Man Darin, Pam and Disco Amy.

Chim chimmery, chim chim cherrie. (I have no idea how to spell that) Jamie and Susan were Mary Poppins and the guy from Mary Poppins- what's his name? And Rusty pouring 7-up into our tiny trophies for James and Jeremy for winning the scavenger hunt. Way to go team!!

video

I'm not Catholic, but this video, made by a Catholic, is very profound. I have stated that I am against Obama becoming president. There are too many reasons to list. I'm sure after I finish reading "Obama Nation", I'll have a bunch of stuff to tell you. ;) But watch this video and you'll see some of the reasons I do not want Obama to become President of the United States.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=61wj4tJICcc

A glimpse of fall

Iowa in the fall is beautiful. And we were up there at just the right time. The leaves were changing to these extremely bright colors. Some of the trees were still green on the inside, but all red or orange on the outside edges of the tree. It was awesome. You just can't imagine the beauty unless you see it first-hand. As Becca said, "God painted Iowa pretty".

Views at my Mom and Dad's Bed and Breakfast:

Love/Hate relationship

We just spent the last week in Iowa and had so much fun. We love going there to see our families and friends. I love Iowa in the fall. The weather is wonderful and the trees- wow! I'll do a post on the trees later.

But I also hate Iowa. I hate it because of my allergies. Growing up, I had terrible allergies. I was always rubbing my eyes, sneezing and coughing. It could be that we lived in the country on a rock road. Or near farms, or the moist air up there. I don't know. I didn't even realize how bad they were until I moved out of Iowa. Living in Oklahoma, I really don't have allergies unless the allergens are really bad. But within a day of being in Iowa, I rubbed my eyes so hard that I rubbed out (and pulled out) a majority of my eyelashes on my left eye. (Look for the fake eyelashes on Sunday) Russ went to the only store that stays open past 7:00 last Monday to buy me allergy eye drops and Tylenol Severe allergy medicine (over $15!). I was sneezing non-stop and it eventually went to my throat where I couldn't talk very well. Then the coughing started. One night, I coughed so hard I was sweating.

We got back Sunday night and I still didn't feel very well. But by last night, it has all cleared out and I don't have any allergy problems. Thank you Oklahoma air.

So here are a bunch of pictures of our trip.

Rylan got to meet a lot of our family and friends for the first time: (Amy- why didn't I get a picture of you and Rylan when you stopped by to see us? I think I was so out of it from all of the allergy medicine I was on!)

Russ' parents with 4 of the great-grandchildren (they have 7 and another on the way) and our 3 girls.

My Mama Pat with the girls.

Rylan and her 2nd cousin Ben. (His daddy is Rylan's first cousin- that makes him a 2nd cousin, right?) He's just 3 months older and such a doll!!

My college roommate and one of my dearest friends Jenni. We stopped for lunch in Kansas City to see them on the way home Sunday. Maddie, Lauren, Becca and Ashlyn (Jenni's girls).

Maddie and Becca with their 3rd cousins from Texas (their mom is my first cousin) Emily and Jacob.

The girls with Uncle Eric. (He's still single, anyone, anyone?)

The girls with my Mom and Dad.

Maddie and Becca at a pumpkin patch with Aunt June (Russ' sister).

Russ, Maddie, Becca and me swinging at a park. How fun!

2008 Race for the Cure

Russ ran in the Race for the Cure this year. He found a program called "From couch potato to 5K in 9 weeks". Well, he had to condense it to 7 weeks, but he did it. I'm so proud of him. And he did it in just 30 minutes and 44 seconds. Here are a few pics:



Russ (in orange shirt- easy to find) crossing the finish line.

Our little family. The girls and I got up EARLY to get up there to see him run. Rylan slept the entire way up and the whole time we were there. We got there too late for most of the free stuff, but they were able to snatch a couple of these cute lunch bags/play purses.

Cancer

It's October and Breast Cancer Awareness month. So of course I think of Melinda.


The Race for the Cure is on Saturday. I'm not running this year, since I just had a baby 2 months ago. I think my body would have collapsed if I tried to run it. So Russ is representing our family this year. He has been doing great. He ran home from church Tuesday morning after going to Men's Fraternity. That's over 3 miles. I'm so proud of him.


I watched Christina Applegate on Oprah yesterday. Wow. She's so brave to come forward and talk about having breast cancer, and a double mastectomy. And Susan G. Komen's sister was on talking about starting The Race for a Cure and how they've raised over a Billion dollars for research.


But another type of cancer has now touched our lives. Our friend, DeWayne just found out he has cancer of the esophagus. He's just a few years older than Russ.


DeWayne and Stephanie were some of our first real couple friends from church. Russ and I lived in Moore when we were first married. We met DeWayne and Stephanie at church and were excited to learn that they lived in Moore too. (Unlike now, there was no one our age who lived in Moore) So we would ride with each other to Life Group, hang out and go to the lake where they tried to teach us how to water ski. They eventually taught Russ, I think I was just better at tubing.


For years, Carla, Russ, DeWayne and I played volleyball together. We were actually pretty good. Mostly thanks to Russ and DeWayne. But I do not have one single picture that documents this part of my life. In fact, in all of the years of being friends with DeWayne and Stephanie, I found 10 pictures involving them. Five of those were either me or Russ water skiing with them.


So, my friends, I am tired of not having pictures of you all. So when you see me armed with a camera, just smile and laugh it off. I WILL have pictures of you. I have many pictures of my friends that live out of state. That's because I see them so rarely, so we are always taking pictures. But for my friends here, get ready. I'm going to be carrying my camera with me almost everywhere.


But seriously, please pray for DeWayne and Stephanie. They need many prayers for healing right now.

Thank you.
DeWayne and Makenna at a pool party.
DeWayne, Makenna, Stephanie, Mark, Russ and Kim at Russ' 30th birthday party.
Me trying so hard to learn how to water ski. DeWayne and Stephanie are great teachers, I'm just a bad student.
Stephanie on the boat. We all got very burned that day because it was a little overcast. And if I remember right, Stephanie was pregnant with Makenna here, but just like 8 weeks along. She still got out there and skiied and tubed.