"Synchronized Swimming"

Saturday night our church school had a Talent Show/Bake Sale. I didn't realize this until Sabbath morning at church. I knew there was a bake sale but hadn't heard about the talent show part. So during potluck we thought of some pretty crazy ideas but I'm not so sure we could have pulled them off quite like this one. Sabbath afternoon, I told Adam to come over to my house because we needed to practice our skit. I don't think he knew what he was getting into but he is always a willing soul. We quickly wrote down a few things and "practiced"a few times. I decided that Gilbert and his girls would be a great asset to our skit so I called them and asked them to grab some shorts and t-shirt/tank top so they could help us out, just as it was time to head out the door. Elisa was already in on the plan, and of course, she had the perfect outfit. A diving suit! She is quite the thrifter and has an outfit for just about everything. :) Andrew decided not to join us. We practiced twice between supper and the bake sale and I think it turned out quite nicely. We weren't "synchronized" really but it just makes it even more funny. 

I have 2 different angles and they are both funny in their own way to me so I decided to just post them both. The first is probably a little better, except when my dad was laughing so hard he forgot he was videoing and cut a few people out of the frame. :) Enjoy!

Here are a few more pictures from the evening. (Sorry some are a little blurry. Most are taken with my phone and I was a little far away.)

Lots of yummy baked goods.

Gilbert was the auctioneer until he lost his voice and then my mom took over. 

I didn't get pictures of all the talents but Sophie played a song on the piano. 

Madalyn and Anna played a song on their ukelele's and sang. 

Some of the school students were sick but the girls still pulled off their "LOVE" skit with the help of their teacher. So cute!

And yes... if you didn't notice in the earlier picture, this fashion statement happened. :) 

Love these girls! 

It was such a fun evening and something that needs to happen more often! Now I'm off to study! I really wanted to get that video posted though. So many people have been asking to see it.  

P.S. I need a tan! 

Happy Valentine's Day.

This is the first year I have been single on Valentine's day since eighth grade. Not a statement I'm really proud of but that's how it goes. 

I thought I was really going to be a hater this year but I just can't. What can I say, I'm a sucker for love.

I ran into Wal-mart because I needed trash bags. (Of all things) I don't know what I was thinking! It was a mad house in there. But as I stood in line for what seemed like forever, I watched guys picking out flowers for their girl and reading through what was left of the cards to find one just right for that special person in their life. I just had to smile. Yes, maybe they did wait 'til the last minute and so maybe it isn't so romantic but it still made me smile. 

I won't be getting any flowers today but I did get sweet cards from my family. I know that I am loved even if I don't have a special guy in my life right now. 

I have big plans to soak my incredibly soar muscles in a bubble bath and then snuggle up with Coop with some popcorn and a chick flick tonight. :) 

I will leave you with my favorite song right now. (I'm slightly obsessed with Josh Turner :))

***A friend of mine posted this to Facebook and I just had to add it to this post.

Now that is a romantic Valentine's card. ;)

And... I hope some sweet guy gives me this someday. haha

Happy Love Day!

Run.

I have been doing really good about exercising everyday. Well, except for today. I splurged and got some ice cream with Julie thinking I would go run and burn it off. Not so much, it made me feel pretty nasty so I took a nap instead. ha I haven't been eating sweets, really at all, so I guess it was a shock to my system. It sure was yummy though! 

Anyway, when I'm at school it is a lot harder to make myself exercise. I have found a place I don't mind running but it is just a pain to have to come home, get Cooper, change my clothes and drive there. When I am at home (the farm) it's so nice. I can just run down the driveway and go wherever I want. 

When I'm home Gus and Jake always come along and keep me company. 

My favorite place to run is down the road, through the fields, to this oil well.

Mainly because it is also the old vehicle graveyard. Many things have been sold but there are a few old trucks and an old car that apparently was my great grandmas. 

My dad has told me stories about some of these vehicles. One in particular I remember is about this truck. My great grandpa had Parkinson's and when he was older and couldn't get around he would ride around with people, etc. I believe it was this truck he was riding in, in OKC to pick up seed (?) with Uncle Russell (?) and it flipped on a sharp corner. 

I should really check my facts. ha But anyway, you get the idea. Lots of family history/stories here. :) 

I really enjoy this time by myself. Sometimes I listen to music but sometimes I don't and just use that time to think. It's not like I'm running a super long ways and I'm far from fast but I'm working on it. I'm happy to be doing more than just sitting around. 

I'm determined to be healthier and be in better shape before this summer. :) 

Friends and a Sweet Baby.

Sabbath afternoon was rainy, cold and just plain ol' yucky! Normally I would have crawled in my bed and took a nice long nap on a Sabbath afternoon like this. Not this weekend. This weekend I headed to Stephen and Michelle's house to meet baby Greyson Bo! It was definitely worth skipping the nap. I snuggled with this cutie most of the afternoon. Such a sweet baby and it's always great to see friends. 

Yawning... yep I thought he was about to start screaming. :)

He is almost a week old in these pictures and doesn't quite weigh 6 pounds. So tiny! 

I had a great time visiting with Stephen, Michelle, Melissa, John and Julie. I don't see them very often even though they live close. It's sad how life get's so busy sometimes and I'm definitely trying to make friends a bigger priority this year.

Ole Bullet.

I have been studying radiology all week. (With a bit of anesthesiology thrown in every once in awhile.) It really is proving to be one of my favorite classes. I might change my mind after the test tomorrow though. ha

Now that I am figuring out what to look for and have trained myself to see things that seemed invisible at first, it's really neat. It amazes me how much can be seen and how much info can come from these things. 

We are studying the thorax right now and these are the normals we compare things to. I'm a nerd but they are just really cool! 

Did you notice something wrong in these? ha The normal we use is a dog that got shot. The bullet was in the leg so the thorax is still normal. :) 

looking back.

It has been 2 years since I went to Africa. It seems so long ago. So much has changed and life goes on.

I love looking back at the pictures and remembering the trip and the things I was able to do. 

There is a group from Ozark doing ShareHim evangelism in Zimbabwe right now. They are preaching in the churches that I helped build. Many of the students participating, are students that were Freshman/Sophomores when I was the assistant dean at Ozark. (Also the time when I went to Africa) They have seen the pictures from my trip and have heard my stories. I just think that this is really great. 

Every time they post pictures on Facebook, I tear up just looking at them. It is so neat to see the churches we built being put to use and seeing the smiling faces worshiping in them. 

Weekend Recap.

Now that it is almost Wednesday I thought I should post pictures from the weekend. 

Friday evening was just lovely. Our church Adventurer club held an agape feast for the church. I really wasn't feeling to inspired to go because, well, I was exhausted and just wanted to relax. But, I went, and it was worth it. Even if about 5 people asked me if I was feeling okay because "You just look worn out." It was great to start the Sabbath with prayer and fellowship.

After church Sabbath we went to sing at the nursing home. This is something the adventurers due the first Sabbath of every month. And every month I forget, and don't bring appropriate shoes. I literally could not feel my toes by the time we got back to the car this week. ha It was worth it though. I love walking those halls and seeing those sweet faces light up. 

Lindsey decided to come visit this weekend, and we were happy to have her. Sabbath afternoon we walked over to the farm and saw "the sights." 

We climbed the grain tower. My favorite thing to do when guests come. :) Or anytime really. 

Home Sweet Home.

Saturday night we went to another 66er's game. Always so much fun! A few more people were supposed to join us but it didn't work out. 

Emma and Mitzi spent the day with us as well and I was pretty amazed how much Emma got into the game. I snuck this picture right before it ended and she was still cheering away. 

And this is how Cooper felt about the Superbowl. Emma wore him out. 

I have very mixed feelings about the test I took Monday. I honestly have no clue where some of the questions came from. I can't find anywhere in my notes that those things were discussed, and that is a class I actually take good notes and pay attention in. That's kind of how this teacher is though. I had him last spring and I just about went crazy. ha

Well I'm off to study a bit more before heading to bed. Another test on Friday! 

Superbowl 47.

So I have a test in the morning but I pretty much watched the superbowl anyway. It turned out to be a pretty exciting game with some great commercials. Here are my two favorite commercials. I can't get over the farmer commercial. (Even if it is a ram advertisement) Makes me happy. Well the clydesdale one does too and that's why I love them both. 

Nutter Butter's.

I had a test Thursday morning and so I procrastinated Thursday afternoon. ha 

I did laundry, cleaned my little house and made these amazing cookies. Seriously, I think they are my new favorite cookie. I have no self control and am not going to say how many I have eaten but it's way to many. 

My favorite snack out of the vending machine at school are those little nutter butter cookie things. These are supposed to be the homemade version. They do taste similar but, of course, homemade is soooo much better. 

Here is the link for the recipe I found on Pinterest. Just don't think to hard about how much butter is in these things... I halved the recipe and it still made a lot of cookies! I took them to our Downton watch party and they were a huge hit.

I'm off to run a few extra miles...