Highlights of 2012

Well I always do a post about our "highlights" of the year. I love to be able to look back and see all the fun things we did. So here it goes... Here are the top highlights from our 2012!

January

Mitch had his first interview for CRNA school in PA. It was so fun to travel there and we re actually talking about going back to visit soon. We loved it up there, but only for vacation- not to live ha. We both love being form the south and I don't know if you could get either one of us to move north ha!  Many of you are asking about his school process and he is just applying and we are both praying for God's timing. We know most CRNA's don't go to school for 5-7 years, so he is trying very "early" to get in and we are just waiting for the perfect time and place. We are very happy with where we are in life right now and when the time is right we will know. 

February

I accepted a new job at the University of Arkansas. I had worked in a doctors office for a year and in December I started the interview process for the U of A. It was a long process, but I officially accepted the job in February. I LOVED it and it was so hard to leave, but I am so happy teaching and couldn't imagine it any other way. Mitch and I are both big AR fans, so it was so fun during the 6 months I was at the U of A. We had so many "perks" from me working there and that is definitely something I will miss.

March

We continued the tradition of going to KC for my birthday. I love KC and seriously could live there one day. Mitch takes me every year for my b-day but this year he surprised me and is taking me over Valentines day weekend since we are going to be traveling over my birthday for spring break. 

April

April was a BUSY month for us. We celebrated Mitch's 24th birthday, I was matron of honor in my best friend, Elizabeth's wedding and our sweet Bella turned one! We spent lots of time in Dallas for wedding festivities which was so fun. We have so many close friends in Dallas, it was nice to see them all so much. 

May

May was an interesting month. I made the biggest/scariest decision of my life to quit my job and pursue teaching. We decided to both quit our jobs, sell our house and move to OK. It was a huge risk, especially not knowing if the outcome was even going to work, but we both had peace from God that we were following His plans. And it worked out even better than we ever could of imagined. 

June

June of 2012 was literally the busiest and most stressful month of my life! We followed through with all of our decisions we decided to make in May. As stressful as it was- all in the month of June, we sold our  house in Bentonville, both got jobs in OK and bought a new house in Jenks. Sounds simple, but if you try to go through what we did it is HARD, but we both knew it was what we were suppose to be doing and it brought us closer together. We also celebrated being married 2 years! We didn't get to celebrate properly because of everything going on,but we did find some time for golf and dinner :)

July

July was equally as busy as June. We officially moved to Tulsa and started flipping our house. We also had the privilege to attend youth camp with our church we went to in Bentonville and it was probably the best week of my entire year. I fell in love with some amazing girls and was able to spend a whole week loving on them. We were both blessed to witness God move in a wonderful group of students and already have the dates on our calendar for next summer. Mitch started his new job at St. Francis as a Trauma ICU nurse. He was offered 3 jobs and had the privilege too pick the one he wanted. This job was just what he needs for CRNA school

August

Although I accepted my teaching job in June, I started in August and quickly found out this is truly my calling. I couldn't imagine ever doing anything else and I am so happy. I love my school and feel so blessed to be a part of such an incredible place. 

September

This was defiantly a month to remember. Even though we had found the house and they accepted our bid, because it was a foreclosure we had to wait, and wait and wait to close on it. But we finally closed and were were so ready to move in. We also made our 2nd annual trip with Will and Michelle. Most of you know my passion for traveling and this trip we traveled to Antigua!! I cant begin to describe to you how amazing it was. It is a trip I will always remember and look forward to our trips in the future. 

October

We were officially done renovating our house and we finally we able to move in. We both are so happy with this house and looking back it makes the house hunting process so worth it. I also ran the Tulsa Run with my good friend Elizabeth. We were always running buddies in college and it was so fun to run with her again. In October we also joined our Life Group at FBC Tulsa and are so blessed with such a wonderful group.

November

I feel our lives finally started to slow down in November. We were both settled in our new house and new jobs. We are adjusting to Tulsa life as a married couple. We traveled to Breckenridge again together for a ski trip. We went over Thanksgiving and it was a blast. We love being in the mountains!

We also joined our new gym here in Tulsa, LifeTime Fitness and we are obsessed with it. It is wonderful and I might be slightly obsessed with Zumba ha! 

December

We celebrated our 3rd Christmas being married. We traveled to Branson to see the Christmas lights and it was so fun! We are finally settled and even though 2012 was a great year.. I am not sad to see it go. It was full of lots of changes and I am ready to see what God has in store for us in 2013. 

Christmas Break part 2

Well this first 10 days of my break has already flown by, and the crazy thing is I still have 8 days of my break to enjoy! I just love being a teacher ha! Since Christmas is over, and all the craziness that comes with it, I am actually starting to get a little bored ha. I think since mitch is working so much this weekend, I have been super lazy and not doing anything. Sometimes that makes me more tired if I don't do anything. But I will admit, it has been nice to have NO plans and just lay around the house. Sometimes I think everyone needs a few days like that.

Will and Michelle left on the 26th and Mitch and I took a 3 hour nap ha! We were both so tired form all the traveling and everything. It was so nice to catch up on some sleep. That evening we went to Dicks- they were suppose to be having really good sales, but they weren't... or at least we didn't find any. Mitch had 5 gift cards to Dicks, so he was in heaven and he got a new North Face jacket and some training clothes for his marathon.

We spent the next two days doing about the same thing. I think there was a day when we didn't leave the house all day so about 8pm we were both going crazy! So we decided to go to Sams and walk around. It is our go to place when we don't have anything to do or just want to get out. We did end up getting some food. Some of their deals are just too good to pass up.

Sounds exciting huh? We have been super lazy and it has been nice. We are starting to get back in the swing of things for this week. I am going to dinner with a good friend tonight and then tomorrow mitch and I are going to our traditional dinner at PF Changs for New Years Eve. This year it will just be on the EARLY side since he has to go into work.  After he goes into work I am hanging out with some good friends at our house.

This week we are going to make a trip to Stillwater. We love going there for the day. I got a gift card to my favorite store, The Rhinestone Cowgirl, and I am going to check it out and eat at Eskimo Joes! So I am looking forward to that!

We have so many things gong on in these next several months and I couldn't be more excited. Mitch is going on a guys trip skiing the beginning of February... I am trying to plan a girls trip for this summer sometime. I need ideas on places to go! We are also going to be spending 4 days in KC over Valentines day weekend. In March, for Spring Break I think we have decided on spending the week in Memphis. In April, Mitch is running his first full marathon and I am still trying to decide if I'm doing the half. I have only got about 3 weeks into training and right now it is just 3-4 miles so it hasn't been that bad. In the end of May-beginning of June we are going with Mitch's parents to New Orleans and in July we are going on our annual trip with Will and Michelle. We are going to take a different route this trip and spend some time in Colorado. We are thinking about going to Denver and also hiking and golf in the mountains!

Have a safe and happy new years!!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!! I hope y'all had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We have had a wonderful week and I have loved having this time off to travel and spend time with family we don't get to see often.

Christmas Eve!

I only had to work half a week last week and then we were off for Christmas break! I am really looking forward to this long break, but honestly I will miss my kids. I have nothing really planned and I am happy to just be hanging out at home relaxing. We have finished up visiting family and now we have off until the 7th.

Merry Christmas! 

Last week, we headed back to Bentonville to celebrate Christmas wit Mitch's family. We ate at Abuelo's the first night we got there and then just spent the next day relaxing. Mitch's grandma took him to get some new running shoes for his marathon and I went shopping with Michelle. We celebrated Christmas Saturday night at Mitch's parents house. We opened gifts and had a wonderful dinner. Sunday we all went to church and then went to Christmas lunch at Pinnacle. That may have been my favorite meal all weekend :)

Pinnacle- Love this place!

Sunday afternoon, we made the trip back to Jenks. We unpacked all our stuff, and headed to Wal-Mart. It was soooo packed, so we got it and out as fast as we could. We came home and stated making snacks for my parents christmas eve party. My parents always have a big thing at their house christmas eve and we have more food than you could ever imagine. We hung out with family and played games all nights. Unfortunately, Mitch had to work Christmas eve night, so he hung out with us all day and then went in at 6. He got home at 7 christmas morning and surprisingly stayed up for most of the day and celebrated with my family that morning and then we went to my grandmas for our last christmas another big lunch! We were back home by 6 and laid around watching christmas movies. Mitch was exhausted from staying up all night and all day so it was fun to just be home with each other for Christmas night.

We may or may not be obsessed with this movie

Will and Michelle came to our house Christmas night and stayed with us for a day. We hung out with them that evening and had lunch with them Wednesday before they went back to Texas. We enjoyed having them here with us for a day and we wish we lived closer!

We went to get ready and came out matching... is anyone really surprised? Haha

Bella also loved having her cousins here!

Allie, Peanut and Bella

I hope y'all had a very merry Christmas and are enjoying time with family!! We are blessed with two wonderful families and had a great holiday with them both!

Christmas Time!

I just love this time of year! We have had so much fun this season. We decorated our house very early- one reason was because we were going to be in CO for a week and I didn't want to have to do it when I got back and second because, well, I just love having the house decorated!! I did a new mantel this year. I loved my one I have done for the past 2 years, but I was ready for something different. And this goes with the theme of our house more. It is a more homey, rustic feel with all the distressed/vintage furniture and rock. You cant see the garland very well, but it is there along with pine cones and red sparkly leaves. I just love they way it turned out!

Bella helped put up lights

We took a trip to Branson to see all the lights and just have a weekend to ourselves. Its was a blast and I want to go back next year!!

Silver Dollar City

Our Hotel

We have also had Christmas parties with church, school and work and they have been a blast. My favorite was party with our life group. We had it at our house and we had 23 people there! We all brought a traditional Christmas dish and we had SO much food! We played our game I mentioned in a previous post and we have trash bags full of toys to donate. I was sad that we didn't take one picture from that night. We are so blessed by finding this group of couples and we are quickly becoming good friends. 

I had a work party and a Christmas lunch that was today and it was so fun. I also have started getting Christmas presents from my kids and they are so sweet. Here are just a few of my favorite ones..

I only have to work one more and and I'm off until the 7th! I am very excited about the break, but I am sad about not seeing my kids everyday. They always brighten up my day and I know I will enjoy the time off, but I will be ready to get back!

Also, I have had many people ask about my hair. My friend Natalie introduced me to this curing iron.

Thanks you Natalie! It is great, wonderful, awesome and I could go on forever. I love love love this thing and it creates such cute waves! It does take a while to do, well at least for me because of the thickness and length of my hair. It takes me about 45-50 minutes, and yes I know that seems like a long time, but it stays and I can wear it down for 2-3 days and then it looks way cute in a ponytail after that. So I don't have to do my hair for 5 days! I love it! I have gotten so many compliments when I wear it like that and I just thought I would pass on the secret. I just curl it layer by layer and then when it is all curled I gently run my fingers through and go. No hair spray or anything!

Tonight, Natalie and I were suppose to go out for our Christmas dinner, but she was in a wreck this morning. Please say a prayer for her. So, since I was already in the mood for it... Mitch went ahead and took me ha! It was fun and the food was delicious, as usual. Now we are back at home relaxing and watching Christmas movies! Tomorrow at school, it is Pajama day! I just got some new Christmas pj pants and also a new pair of Razorback pj pants.. so I am currently trying to decide which to wear tomorrow :) We are having donuts and watching The Polar Express- so I would say thats a pretty good day at work ha!

Have a great week! We are headed to Bentonville the end of the week to spend a few days there and have Christmas with Mitch's family! I am so excited!

Prayers

I know y'all have probably heard and read more than you want about this horrible tragedy, but I wanted to share a little bit about what's on my heart.

I know this was far away and I have no connection at all to what happened, but I do think being a teacher makes it hit a little closer to home- just as parents with kids this age probably does too. I know we use the words "cannot imagine" a lot when something happens, but I literally cannot imagine what these people are going through. I keep thinking this could of been my school just as easy as it was Sandy Hook. I could say many words to describe my feelings, but overall it is just plain scary. We have worked so hard to make our school a safe place. I know lots of my students don't have good home life's, etc and school is their favorite place to be. I promise you tomorrow when my precious little kids come in they are going to have a different view on school- not all of them, but some. It makes my heart break and when I get a million questions tomorrow, I don't know how I am going to explain something that I don't even understand. I love these kids like I would my own. I never knew the real job of a teacher until this year and I would do anything for my kids. I honesty believe being a teacher may be one of the most rewarding things, but it is also one of the hardest. I have come home crying, dealt with parents that I will never understand and literally told Mitch don't be surprised if one day I come home with kid ha! I know part of me is just being funny, but truly I would take in anyone of these kids. I know y'all are already praying for what happened, but also I would appreciate if you keep my class and I in your prayers. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day.

I have been complaining, in fact I clearly remember complaining to a fellow teacher Friday morning because we have SO many surprise intruder drills. I cannot believe I did that. I should be so thankful we have so many. I know schools that only have one a year and we have already had 3 since August. Yes they are a pain, but I look at them a lot differently now. I am so thankful for my school.

Every time I turn on the news, I hear something along the lines of "we need more laws" or "things need to change". In fact I was telling Mitch of things I think need to be changed, not government wise, but just in schools. And when I went to Sunday school this morning I got a new perspective. We have always has laws/rules, even in biblical times. But our God tells us we can't just live by laws, we have to have something with it. If we lived our lives just by rules and no relationship with Christ- the laws would be pointless. Our society doesn't need more laws in gun control, etc to try and fix our world. Our society needs to come to know Jesus and then it would be fixed. I don't disagree with people looking at this situation and trying to prevent it, but ultimately Jesus is the answer. 

I know this is a lot, but it's my heart right now. This weekend has been hard, especially when I think about my class, but I just pray I can be a light to them each day.

Branson Weekend

Hope y'all are having a great week so far. We literally have the busiest week... We have two Christmas parties (one at our house) and so many other things going on. We did take a little break and went to Branson last weekend before all this craziest started.

I only had to work until 1:30 on Friday and then we headed out and made the trip, first to Bentonville. I just love being back there and every time I go back I do miss living there. It's such a sweet little town. But anyways, we had dinner and then went up to the Bentonville square to see all the lights. Early Saturday morning, we made the trip to Branson. We got there, hit up the outlets and had lunch at our favorite Mexican place there. We always go there when we are in Branson. The outlet mall there isn't the best, it's pretty small for an outlet but they do have a few good stores with some really good deals! We ALWAYS hit up the Izod store. There have been times we make the drive up there just to go there ha! They have amazing deals and lets just say we stocked up! I got lots of fleece jackets, pullovers, golf shirts, running shirts and a pink golf skirt. I have been searching for a certain pink golf skirt for a year now and it is so hard to find golf stuff that doesn't look "old ladyish". But I found it and it was only $25! Mitch stocked up and got about 3x the stuff I did ha! We only go up there a few times a year so he likes to take advantage of it.

After lunch we headed to Silver Dollar City. We planned on being there earlier, but the traffic was so bad. If you have ever been to Branson over Christmas be prepared... it is super crazy and busy. It is one of the top 5 places in US to visit at Christmas. We got there around 2:30 and just spend the day there... eating, going to shows, etc. At 5:30 all the light shows, etc started and it was incredible!!! Mitch definitely knows me and knows that theres not much that will make me happier than Christmas stuff. We left late and had no idea where to go for dinner. There are so many places to eat and being Branson, you never can tell which restaurants are okay ha! So he ended up taking me to Shogun.  This was such a fun trip and we are looking forward to going back! Once again, I wish I had pics to share, but until I have some time to figure out all this blog stuff you can see pics from our trip on my
Facebook page here. I also post a lot of pics to my twitter, you can follow me @sarahbfrank, and my Instagram @ sarahbfrank.

We have our big LifeGroup party tomorrow and have been cooking, cleaning and finally finishing the last touches to our house. I feel like moving is a never ending process!

Have a wonderful Wednesday and only 13 more days until Christmas!!!

What we've been up too...

I'm sorry I have been MIA for the past few weeks! I really thought I did a Thanksgiving post, I must have dreamed it. But we had a wonderful time in Breckenridge skiing and enjoying family over the break! 

Now, I haven't blogged in a while for 2 reasons. One being it is a busy time of the year and we have had so much going on. Every time I turn around I feel like I am behind on getting something done. And my second reason is sort of... silly.. and maybe one of you can help me. When I was uploading some pictures to blogger the other day it said my limit of pictures was up and I could no longer download pictures to share on my blog. Well y'all know, I rarely do a post without pictures.. I may even be a little obsessed with pictures. So you can see how this made me upset, so therefore I haven't blogged ha! I am trying to work on it, so for a while there may be no pics on the blog. I apologize.

But on a different note... what we've ben up too.... we have fully decorated our house for Christmas and we are in the process of finishing the lights on the house. We got about half of them done last week and are trying to finish them before it gets cold. I would like to say I'll post a picture when there done, but I cant promise anything. 

We have been doing a lot of fun things with our life group and I couldn't be any happier with this group of friends we have found! We had a dinner/game night the other night and it was a blast. It is so nice to have friends that are all looking for the same thing. We are having our big Christmas party at our house and everyone is bringing a traditional christmas dish. Although white elephant is super fun, we came up with the idea to bring a wrapped toy, something that you liked as a child, and we will guess who's is who's and then donate them all to a shelter. We are also going to decorate sugar cookies! I am really looking forward to it!

This past weekend, Mitch worked all weekend, and I had a busy, but fun weekend! Friday at 3:00 as soon as I got out of school, I rode with my parents and brother to Stillwater for the Jenks game. Jenks was playing Norman North for the 6A State Championship game. We ate a Hideaway and made our way to the stadium to cheer on the trojans. It was the perfect night for football and Jenks won!! We had a blast and it was so fun to cheer on our team! 

Saturday, I got up early and went to Edmond for the day. Summer, a good friend of mine lives there and every couple months, we go to either tulsa or edmond just to catch up. Every time we meet in Edmond, we go to Inspirations. Its a cute little tea place with amazing food! We shopped all afternoon.. if I could upload pics, I would show you the 2 new Thunder shirts I got. I am in love and wear them all the time ha! They are a vintage style and are super soft! 

Sunday, Mitch worked again, so while he was sleeping all day... I went to church, Christmas shopping with my mom, to the gym(i'll talk about this in a minute) and hung out with natalie. It was a busy weekend, but fun! 

So more about our gym. I have always been kind of anti gym. Well I mean when I was in college, I utilized that gym to the max ha! On average I was probably in there 2-3 times a day.  Ever since I got out of college, I have had either bad experiences or just haven't used them. I think in college I just had a lot of time and I wold stay up a lot later ha! I joined a gym when we first moved to AR and lets just say it was a horrible experience. Then when I got the job at the U of A, I was able to use the Hypr and really like that. I used it, but since I did have to stay in Fayetteville after work was over, it was hard for me to use it except for my lunch break. Anyways, this summer I did Insanity and LOVED it!!! I cannot say a bad thing about this program! It worked for me and was such a great workout. So I thought maybe I would stick with it. Well Mitch loves gyms and with both of us running a long race this spring he kept telling me we need somewhere inside to run. I disagreed until we had our first cold day and there was nothing that was going to get me out in the cold to run. So we had heard a lot about this one gym and we decided to try it. We took a tour and ended up signing up last week. WE LOVE IT! I feel like I am at a resort and it is so welcoming. It is called LifeTime Fitness and it is huge. They have everything you could ever imagine and I have been taking some of their classes and LOVE them. If you are in the Tulsa area and want a good, reliable gym you should try LifeTime! Here's the link: Check it out!

Thats about all we have going on. We are leaving for Branson Friday afternoon! Mitch has booked a little weekend get-a-way and I cant wait to relax, eat yummy food and of course.... see all the LIGHTS! 

Hope y'all have a wonderful week! 

My Weekend

Happy Monday!

I wasn't really looking forward to this weekend since Mitch was working, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! Friday when I got off at 3, I met my mom and we went to Affair of the Heart. It is held in the expo center and is a huge craft fair!! They have so many neat things and I could of spent all day there!

Saturday, Mitch came home in the morning, went right to bed and I actually got up early and was very productive. I got my nails done, picked up Bella, made a trip to Walmart and cleaned the house! By then, Mitch was up and I spend the rest of the afternoon with him. Later that night, Natalie came over and we went to dinner and just hung out at the house. I also got my chairs back.. long story short... I have never been a huge fan of our dining room table. It was my parents when they got married and it has just been scratched up a lot during the move. So we have been trying to decide what to do. We don't really want to get another one until we have a family and are actually going to invest money in a nice one, once we are all settled somewhere. The one we have now works fine for us and our situation, it is just looking kind of banged up. So I was talking to one of my moms friends and she was having the same problem, she didn't want to buy a whole new table and chairs so she had a decorator come out and she said she has been refinishing the chairs and it makes a huge difference and gives the table a whole new look. She showed me a picture of hers and it was almost identical to ours. So I decided that was the way to go. It made ours look a lot nicer without having to invest in a nice table or something to get us buy for the next few years. I am just in love with the way they turned out!

They look awesome with my distressed red china hutch and my distressed cabinets!

Sunday, I left early for church since the Route 66 marathon was going on downtown and since I was by myself. We were told Sunday a certain road as suppose to be open and that was the road we always take so I wasn't worried about anything. Well when I took the exit, it was all blocked off... just my luck. I drove around for 30 minutes, all over downtown and never made it. I stopped to asked how to get to First Baptist and no one knew how to access it with all the roads being blocked off around it. So I headed home and unfortunately didn't make it to church. Later that morning, I went back to Affair of the Heart with Natalie and made some more purchases. I wish they would do stuff like that more often in Tulsa. Here are some of my favorite purchases from this weekend...

New monogrammed phone cover!

I got a few of these necklaces in different colors. I just LOVE them! And my favorite.. Thunder scarf!

There was a booth that had OPI Nail polish for $3.00! So I stocked up and painted my nails with two of my new colors!

Today, I worked and did some last minute packing. We are headed to Colorado for Thanksgiving!!! I'll leave you with a picture of my class!! We were on our way to our "Thanksgiving Feast"! Aren't they cute??

Have a Happy Thanksgiving y'all!! 

Urgent Care Visit and OSU Game

So this has been an interesting few days. In my last post, I mentioned I have been feeling a little "under the weather" last week and well I ended up in Urgent Care Thursday night and got some news I was not expecting.

So, two weeks ago I started feeling really sick to my stomach and having severe headaches. I had no idea what was going on and about 10 days ago I started to get this small bump on the side of my bottom lip. Well I wasn't thinking this was all connected.. Mitch and I both thought I was developing a fever blister. We thought it was weird, because I have never had a fever blister in my life. I complained for days on how bad it hurt and how it wasn't just the blister that hurt, but it was the whole area around it. It was burning, itching and just really painful! I had no idea fever blisters were like this. So by Tuesday of last week, it was soooo bad I decided to go buy the expensive cold sore medicine... it was a TINY little bottle about that size of my pinky and it was $25! I was convinced it would heal me fast. Well it only got worse and by that night I had a bad ear ache as well. I was able to work through Thursday, but felt absolutely horrible!! I would come home and go straight to bed.

So Thursday night, I had plans to go to The Market Open House with my mom and grandma and so I decided to try and go and the whole time I was miserable. My ear was killing me and my mom told me earlier in the night when I was little I had severe ear infections and since I was around kids so much, she thought I should get it checked out and I was all for it because I knew I needed some kind of medicine. Thursday while I was getting ready to go meet my mom for the Open House, I noticed the area around my chin and up my cheek had bumps all over it. I knew fever blisters were contagious, but I didn't know it was going to be that bad that fast. So after the open house around 9:00 that night my mom took me in to get my ear checked out and I decided to ask the doctor about my face as well.

Well come to find out, I have shingles! I was shocked and kept asking "are you sure" ha! It nailed all my symptoms perfectly and then when he started explaining it all to me it made sense. They are a virus from chicken pox and they said it is more likely you will get them if you had chicken pox when you were under one and I was 8 months old when I had them. They usually connect to a nerve and make a straight line- mine happened to start at my chin and go up to my ear (hints all my ear pain). Now I don't want to speak too soon, but as of now they haven't made it all the way up my face. They are just up to my nose and the doc thinks we caught it early enough where he thinks he shouldn't spread that far, but unfortuntly the pain will be there still. And let me tell you.... this is one of the worst pains I have EVER experienced!!!  It is horrible and I am on more medicine that I know what to do with. I have to set my alarm and take 3 pills every 2 hours on top of my 5 pill steroid and pain pills. The only thing bad about the pain pill is that is is so strong I can't take it during the day unless I plan on sleeping all day, which has been mainly what Ive been doing. But that is the only thing that will help my pain and I can't take it then go to school, plus I am still contagious.

So thats my long story about our fun weekend. We did make it to the OSU game- I wanted Mitch to go and I thought if i got to feeling that bad I could go over to my grandmas. I made it through the game, but came home and was in bed by 7:30. I think it took it all out of me. I spent all yesterday and today back in bed. I am going to be at home again tomorrow, but praying I can make it back by Wednesday, especially since this our last few days before Thanksgiving break!

Summer and I at the game! 

I had planned on putting all our Christmas decorations up and was disappointed we didn't do it this weekend, so when Mitch got up today he got it all down and he helped my put the tree up! I was feeling okay to just do the tree, but the mantel and other stuff will have to wait (I think I have a new idea for our mantel this year anyways). I am happy to at least get the tree up. I love decorating for the holidays and I like my house to be all decorated before Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it and since we are going to be in Colorado next week I really wanted to get it done! I know some people think it is "rushing" the holidays, but I work so hard on getting the decorations up and honestly I just love having them up for more than month. I like the feeling of coming home to a christmas tree and it makes me so excited for this time of year!

I hope y'all are having a good week and would appreciate some prayers if you think about it. I am SO ready to be over this and feel back to normal again. Thanks!

Election Day

This was my second presidential election to be a part of and let me tell you, it was way more involved than 4 years ago. Last election I was a junior in college and I voted by absentee ballot and that was the way to go ha! They sent me all my stuff in a large envelope and I filled it out and mailed it back. Super easy.
Well this year not only did we have to deal with lines, the lobby of my school was a polling pace, so it was CRAZY! Unfortunately it was not my polling place (that would of been so nice for me) we were at some church in Bixby. But Monday afternoon we had a meeting to go over all the rules and procedures since "strangers" were going to be in our school. Out of all 6 buildings at our West campus, ours building with the smallest parking lot, was chose to be the polling place. Also on top of that, my teacher was gone for a meeting, so I was able to run the class, which I do love, but it was just a crazy day!
We had new "routes" to get places, we had to go to the bathroom with every child and I could go on forever. I LOVE that our school takes such extreme precaution for our kids, but it just makes for a busy day. After going through that, I highly think schools should not be polling places! It is too much of a risk, especially for small kids like that. I didn't realize how much preparation it takes for everyone in the school to make it go smooth and a safe place for our kids.

I got out a little later than usual since my teacher was gone, and I waited with every kid that was being picked up in the office until their parents came. Our lobby was so crowded with voters. But when I got off, Mitch and I went to vote. We had to wait a little over an hour. When we pulled up and saw the line out the church doors and to the street it was so hard not to drive away, but I know this is a privilege and it was something we both wanted to do.

We finally made it home and Katie and Tommy came over to watch the Thunder game. We would flip back and fourth between the game and the election coverage. Mitch cooked a big brisket in the crock pot all day and made it into BBQ. It was sooo good! He also made homemade ice cream. I laughed when he told me because it is freezing outside, but if you know Mitch at all- he LOVES his ice cream ha!

I have been feeling pretty under the weather this week and yesterday it got really bad. Everyone told me my first year working in an elementary school will be rough and they said just expect to be sick. I had no clue it would be this bad. I feel like I am sick every few weeks, and not just feel bad a little, but multiple trips to the doc, fever and lots of antibiotics. So a sweet lady at my work told me about this stuff you can get from a natural foods store called Umcka (weird I know) and you put drops in your water, drink it and it helps you feel better immediately.

Well when I started to feel bad I yesterday, I was to the point where I would try anything. So we went to Green Acres Market and got some. I drank it and to my surprise felt so much better. I woke up today still not feeling great, but I am drinking some more right now and praying it will get me through the day. Now I have only used this once, but I think I am a believer, so if you start to feel under the weather, go get some and try it!!

I am hoping I start to feel better soon. We are spending the weekend in Stillwater for the OSU game!!

Halloween and more visitors!

This past week was pretty busy for us. It was the week of Halloween, so we had all our parties at school, which was so much fun! It made the day fly by even faster than normal. On Halloween night was pretty chill for me. Mitch had to work, but I am use to that by now. I think he has worked every Halloween since we've been married. Usually its not too bad because he is home by 8 that night and while we still lived in Bentonville, I would help out at the church. Now since he is on nights, he was gone all night. He was actually scheduled not to work, but he switched with a lady that wanted the night off because she had kids and really wanted to take them trick-or-treating. We were both happy for him to switch... right now halloween is fun for us, but there is no reason for him to be here with me when another lady has kids to take out. I know when we have kids he will want the night off too.

So Bella and I went over to my parents house and had dinner with them. They never have a ton of trick-or-treaters, but they had more than normal this year. I was a little worried about Bella, just recently she has become more protective and barks at people she doesn't know. She has never done this before- she use to think everyone was her best friend (I am actually glad she is finally like this ha!). But she did awesome!! She sat by the door with my mom and I and helped pass out candy. She would sit right by us when we were handing it out and I think the kids were more excited about petting her than getting candy ha! 

Thusday night we had a cookout with our Lifegroup and it was soooo much fun. Since the class was just starting when we joined no one know anyone, so we are all really looking forward to starting to hang out more. We all brought a side dish and had burgers and hot dogs. 

Friday, Michelle flew in from Dallas and got her in the afternoon. I didn't have to work a full day on Friday, so I went and picked her up from the airport. We have had visitors the past few weekends and iI just LOVE it!! We had a relaxing night and hung out with Mitch before he went into work. Later we went to Peppers for dinner and then came home and watched a movie. 

Saturday, we got up early and made the trip to Bentonville. I think as much as I have drove the recently I could do it with my eyes closed. We had a wedding to go to at 2, but we left at 9:30 because we had some other things we wanted to do as well... one being.. lunch at MarketPlace! 

I can't tell you how many times I have eaten here, and not once do we ever pass up a chocolate mess!! Our husbands were proud of us ha! We made it to the church for the wedding and it was hands down the SWEETEST wedding I have ever been to!! Our good friend Jordan got married and I know Mitch was very disappointed he had to work and couldn't make it. He and Jordan were really good friends in high school. 

The ceremony was at the church and then the reception was at Horton Farms in their new "barn" and it was gorgeous the way they had it decorated. And not to mention Jordan looked beautiful!! It was so neat to be a part of it and we had a blast!! 

Later, Michelle and I drove back to Tulsa and just brought dinner home and watched more movies. We were so tired from getting up so early and we had to get up early because Mitch wanted to try and go to the early service sunday when he got off work. 

That afternoon, Michelle and I had lunch at Los Cabos and then did some shopping. She didn't fly out until 7pm so we had all day to shop!! I found a great deal on boots. I have been looking for extra tall, above the knee tan boots since last fall and I finally found the ones I had pictured in my mind ha. I am very picky when it comes to boots. 

Boot are also very expensive, especially the tall ones, and Belk is having an awesome sale right now!!! These were reg. $90 and I got them for $45! So If you are needing a new pair of boots for this fall, they have a huge collection and the sale doesn't end until Tuesday. I usually wouldn't by something like this so close to Christmas, but that deal was too good to pass up!

This week is pretty low key for us. We don't have much going on, so that will be nice. Since the weather has been so pretty, Mitch and I have been running riverside when I get off work. I love running in the weather! Mitch has always talked about running a marathon, and he has decided he is going to run the FULL marathon next April at the OKC Memorial Run. He has always dreamed of doing one and so he is starting his training. I can't even imagine running that distance, but I have no doubt he will do it. He is trying to convince me into doing the half.. I told him I would think about it ha! I know its nothing compared to what he's doing and the race is the weekend of his birthday, so I most likely will run it for him. The last time I trained for the OKC Half, I was in school and did all the training.. was up to running 10 miles and went to register and it was already full! I was SO mad, so this year I am going to have to decide quick, register and commit to running it. We'll see how it goes! 

Have a great week!! 

Tulsa Run and Friends

We had a wonderful weekend! On Friday my good friend Elizabeth got here, we have been planning a weekend for her to come for what seems like forever now. It was so nice to see her and spend the weekend with her.

When she got here, we made the trip to downtown tulsa to pick up our packets for the tulsa run. After we got done with that mess, we went to celebrate my good friend Peter's birthday. We went to his girlfriend Libby's house for a cookout. It was fun to see some old college friends, and of course enjoy some yummy food.
Later evening we me up with some friends from OBU at Starbucks. It is always good to catch up with college friends. A few of us went back to our house and just continued to have a girls night and catch up on each others lives. We stayed up way too late, especially with the run in the morning.

Speaking of the run... It was FREEZING.. literally! When we got there our car said 31 degrees!!!

We hid out in a parking garage to escape the wind until right before the run started. Well the good thing about that was, we stayed semi warm but the bad thing was we got stuck in the back with the 12:00 min pace people. Now we haven't been training much and we aren't pros by any means, but for the first mile and a half, it was so packed, we couldn't pass anyone and went SO slow!!! It was extremely frustrating and finally when we saw the 3K marker sign was when we were actually able to get by people and run our pace. So we ended with a time of 35 minutes, which was kind of disappointing, but we were literally "stuck" the whole first half of the race.

So knowing that, we actually did good at making up our time for that last mile. But other than that we had blast running it and I would do it again in heart beat! I'm hoping to run a little longer distance.. Mitch gets frustrated with me when I pay to run a 5k when I run more than that every day ha! But I love it and tell him it's about the experience :)

After the race, Elizabeth, Katie, Tommy, Mitch and I went to Los Cabos for lunch and then back to our house to relax.

Around 1, Mitch decided to take a nap.. He had worked a lot the few days before and was running on a few hours of sleep. So Elizabeth and I went to downtown Jenks and hit up all the antique shops. I love that all the shops now have all that vintage/rustic stuff thats in style now. I didn't get anything, but I do have my eye on a few things. Elizabeth got a cute little rustic end table. We may have stopped in at CookieDoodle and got Halloween cookies. These are the BEST cookies ever!
After our antique adventure, we went to the Vintage Pearl. She saw it online and wanted to order a necklace, but she had no idea they are based out of Jenks. So we went there and we both ended up getting new necklaces ha! If you have never been they have hand stamped silver jewelry. You can check it out here. They have some of the cutest stuff!!! It can get expensive, especially if you customize your order, which is almost what you have to do. Thats what Mitch did for me last valentines day. He got me two charms, one with a "f" initial on a heart and then a rectangle with our wedding date on it. But the neat thing they do is, they have a tables with jars full of older and mistake pieces that people have ordered and they aren't correct. They are not defective in any way, someone may have just ordered a name and they spelled it the wrong way, or the font wasn't the one they wanted. So they have jars full of charms of names and initials. So if you want to take this time to go through them all they are only $8 per charm. So thats what we ended up doing. Elizabeth got one with Kevin's name and her initials and I found a circle charm with "frank" on it and a small copper heart. (And they all come with a pearl). It makes the necklace SO much cheaper if you can find the name/initials you want. We were pretty excited about our new necklaces!

We just spend the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out at home and relaxing. We were so tired from getting up so early for the run. Shannon came over later and we cooked dinner at home and watched a movie. I just love we are all still so close and it is so nice to do this every once in a while!

Sunday Elizabeth left in the morning and Mitch and I went to church. After church we came home took naps.. ha.. and then went out and spent the afternoon at Woodward Park with Bella.

It was the perfect day and she loved it! There were lots of people out with their dogs. We hope to get out there more while the weather is still so nice. The park is SO pretty right now. The trees are huge and the colors are gorgeous! And it is a special place to me, because thats where Mitch proposed :)

That about sums up our weekend! We had a great time with friends and hope to do it again soon. This week we have fall parties at school, a cookout thursday with our life group and Michelle flys in friday afternoon!!! She is coming to spend the weekend in Tulsa, and we are going to make a trip to Bentonville to see one of our friends get married! I just love this time of year and all the fun things going on.

Hope y'all have a wonderful week and happy (early) halloween!