Meet Kate!

Well we are back from Arkansas and I only have one day of work!! I know I say it a lot but I just love having all these breaks. I feel like every time I turn around we are on another break.

My sweet kids before break! 

So we had a very fun and well...interesting time back in Bentonville. We got there and we noticed Mitch's parents finished off their fence. We didn't think anything of it and honestly thought it was for Bella. If you know them at all, they ADORE Bella! But come to find out... They got a dog!!!! We were so excited!  They had been thinking about it for about a year and finally got one. We all thought they had decided not to but they surprised us all.

Miss Kate

She is a 2 1/2 year old golden-doodle named Kate (I am partial to the name.. If we ever have a girl, I have always wanted to name her Kate, but I already have plans to incorporate it into her middle name :) Anyways, she was used for breeding one liter then they wanted to find her a good home. She so sweet and ready potty trained and all that but since she wasn't a "pet" she is not socialized at all! They treated her well at the breeder, but they never got her around other dogs or loved on her. So it is crazy to think all this is new to her. She has no idea that she is a "pet" now. She acts just like a shelter dog, she is scared and very unsure of everyone and everything. They had a tough week last week with her, but when we brought Bella this weekend, she learned so much! It's funny how dogs learn from other dogs.

She is now eating, playing with toys, taking treats, going on walks and coming to you to lay in your lap. This was all stuff she wouldn't do until this weekend. She is making progress it will just take her a few months to really trust and know her life had changed. She is one lucky pup though! They have 30 days to decide if they will keep her and I am praying hard they will. She is seriously the sweetest dog she just needs patience. I have never wanted two dogs and still really don't, but if they were to give her back it would be the easiest decision ever to take miss Kate with us! Mitch has already told me no a thousand times but we will see :) I hope she gets to stay with the Franks!!

So our weekend was filled with playing with Kate and Bella! We are planning for thanksgiving this week and are staying in tulsa since Mitch works.
Happy thanksgiving, y'all!

OBU Homecoming

Two weekends ago, we made the trip back to our Alma Mater for homecoming. We were planning on spending our whole weekend there, but we ended up using our days off to out towards our trip to Branson in a few weeks.  But we did have a lot of fun and it made me miss OBU so much.

We left early that morning and made it there to hang out and go to lunch before the football game. We went to Phoenix with Katie and Tommy and it was just as good as I remembered! My roommates and I had "Phoenix Friday" and literally did not miss a Friday all senior year. We love it! So it was fun to go back with Katie. We walked around campus, made some purchases from the book store and then went to the football game. I loved walking around campus. I forget how beautiful OBU is in the fall! And this is besides the point, but their clothes in the book store are way cuter than when I was there ha!  

The football game was...well... interesting, but actually really fun! I mean we are awful, but it was fun that they have football now. We really enjoyed it and it turned out to be the perfect day for a football game. After the game, Mitch and I went to Peter's house and hung out why him for the rest of the night. We watched football and yes, we made a dinner trip to Vans. We really cannot go to Shawnee and not eat at Vans-- I mean we sometimes just drive the hour and a half to eat there :)

We got back into Tulsa late that night and Mitch's brother Will was staying at our house because he had a bike race in Tulsa that weekend. So Sunday afar church, we went to watch him race and again, for November it was so pretty. The perfect day to be outside! 

Last week- I took off a few days, just to be off with Mitch and it was so nice! We spent the time putting up our christmas decor!!! I know some people say its too early, but honestly I think it is a personal decision. Everyone keeps saying "you have to celebrate thanksgiving first" or "your not being fair to Thanksgiving". When people say this is makes me laugh. It isn't like I am not celebrating Thanksgiving- trust me I don't miss out on a holiday geared around food. But I do like to get my decorations up so I can enjoy them. I put a lot of time into decorating and especially with Thanksgiving being so late this year, I want to enjoy my decorations for more than 3 weeks. And not to mention, we are SO busy these next few weeks, so that was the timing that worked best for us. So yes, our tree is up, out house is decorated and the lights are up outside! I just love this time of year!

Last weekend Mitch worked and I was able to spend it relaxing at home. It was once to have a weekend, because for the next few months we are busy every weekend! Yesterday, we had some fall pictures made and it was so fun. I haven't had a "photo shoot" since we got married and I forgot how fun it was. I have been wanting to go out and take some fall pics-some for me to have and some for our Christmas card, but I wasn't wanting to pay the price for the sitting fee and then also for the pics. I was telling my friend this at work last month and she told me she is getting into photography and is taking a few classes. She was wanting a family to practice on and so we dint have to pay for anything and she got her practice. We were out there for almost 2 hours and I think they are going to turn out great! I cannot wait to see them! I will post a few when I get them! 

This weekend we are headed back to Arkansas for the weekend and I can't wait to be back. Yes, I know, I feel like every time I blog, I talk about going back to AR. But we both love it there- it just isn't where we want to be living, but we love that we are so close where we can go back as much as we do. This is my last week and then I am on Thanksgiving break!!! Hope y'all have a good week and stay warm!! 

Halloween 2013

So I know I have been slacking on this post. This time of year, I may be the worst blogger EVER. I feel like we have so much going on that I forget to blog. I am really trying to remember, because I just love to go look back see "what we've been up to". But anyways, halloween is always super fun and this was actually our first halloween together since we've been married. Mitch has always worked or he has switched with someone so they could be with their kids. But this year we were actually able to dress up and celebrate together! I know it may seem "childish" but I still LOVE to dress up. I actually think it is more fun when you have spouse and can do couple costumes! This year we threw our costumes together last minute- but I thought they turned out great. I had like three events in the month of October to dress up for, so by the imd halloween came around I was tired of spending money on consumes. Luckily, I had to dress up for a murder mystery party and a lot of those accessories went with my halloween costume.

Murder mystery party-book club. I could not be more blessed by these girls!  

I already had a flapper costume- its like my go-to costume ha! And we thought making Mitch a gangster would be super easy. He pretty much had everything. And I thought we turned out pretty good. Its also fun when your spouse really gets into it :) Mitch loved dressing up and even had to get his own "accessories".

Bella is NOT a fan of dressing up-so she went as happy dog seeing as she didn't have to wear a costume. 

I guess I should tell y'all we had a party to go to- we didn't just dress up for fun, even though that would so be something we do! A couple from our life group hosted a halloween party and it was so fun. She made chili and had a fire in the backyard to roast s'mores. It was so fun!

They had the best costumes- also, its a lot funnier if you know their last name is Hines.

love this guy so much!

Halloween was also super fun for me this year with my kids at school. Now we are not allowed to celebrate halloween or dress up at school but this year halloween fell on red ribbon week (drug awareness week) and so each day is themed. We had pj day, wear red day, etc. So since thursday was halloween, they made that day- dress up as an inspirational community worker- nurse, army, doctor, etc. So it was kind of like they got to dress up and of course you always have the few where they do just wear their halloween costume ha!  Here are some pics of my kiddos.

Tell me he does not look like a mini Hunt from Grey's Anatomy?

this was one of my favorites!

my favorite little cowboy! 

So cute! It was a rough start to this year and we are still working on things, but I am really loving this group of students. Now I will still swear no class will EVER beat last years- I still miss them,  but this group is coming around :) And of course, my co-workers and I dressed up as well.

So that was our halloween! Last weekend, we went back to OBU for homecoming and had the best time! I will post on that soon!! Have a great week y'all and please pray this cold weather is not here to stay!! 

Tulsa Run 2013

Last Friday was not only pajama day at school, but my best friend and roommate from college came to spend the weekend in Tulsa. We talk all the time, so it doesn't even seem like we are in different states, but it is so nice when we actually get to hang out. We make a good effort for each of us to visit each other several times a year and it also helps that we have family in Dallas. But anyways, she got here a lot earlier than she was expecting and we went and had a girls night. We went to got our toes and nails done and then we came back home to cook dinner. It was also my good friend Peter's birthday party, but since Elizabeth was getting into town at that time, Mitch went solo.

Saturday we got up early and ran the Tulsa Run and overall it went good! I was very proud of myself for running the whole thing, but it was hard on my legs!! And actually there is a funny story to go along with it. So I started my training a few months ago and was doing well with it. Then, Elizabeth called and said she was not going to be able to make it to run it with me because of her work. Well at the same time, I got super busy with school stuff and just relay slacked in my training and by slacked I mean not train at all. About 3 weeks out from the race I found out my school was going to all run together and we got money for our school. So since elizabeth wasn't coming and my training had not been going week, I decided to change and just run the 5k with my school. Well one week before the race, she called and guess what.... yes, she found someone to switch with her for work and she was coming. Now don't get me wrong, I was overjoyed she was able to come, but I told her I didn't think I was going to be able to run the 15k. We were both bummed because we love running together. So she told me to go on one long run and see how it goes and then decide from there. So that sunday, I went on what I thought was a 6 mile run (I will explain later) and it went great. I wasn't tired, wasn't hurting, my cardio was great so I decided I would run it with her. So that week leading up to the race I ran everyday, but just did little short 3 mile runs.

Well come race day, I knew I wasn't fully prepared, but I knew I could pull it out. So, back up a little bit... I have a Nike GPS chip that goes in my shoe and I use Nike+ to run with. I have had it for about 2 1/2 years and LOVE IT! I am addicted to all its features. But anyways, I have always used to on my runs and training, but never on a real race. I normally don't think about using it at a race because the miles are marked for you. But I decided I would use it Saturday so it would track my run, calories, best mile, etc. Well I guess when I got it 2 years ago, I never calibrated it. I just trusted it was right. Well... let me tell you... it wasn't. I didn't realize this until I hit my button on my iPod and it said "you have ran 5.5 miles". I was so tired I didn't realize that I really had not gone very far, but I do remember thinking "this is going by a lot faster than it feels". Well if you know the race course at all.. you start in downtown, run all the way down riverside until the turnaround and then all the way back down riverside, through downtown to 4th and boston to equal 9.3 miles. Well since it was a down and back course, I figured that at the turn around I was somewhat half way so I didn't hit my button. I finally was getting tired, so I pressed it and it said " you have ran 8.5 miles". Now at this point I was super relieved but very confused. I thought for a split second I was almost done. I wasn't even finished running riverside and I knew I had to still run though downtown. So when it told me I was at 8.5 miles, I looked up and downtown seemed so far away. I knew something was wrong. So the last several miles were so hard mentally because I thought I was pretty much finished and in reality I had many more miles to go. We found out at the end that my gps was off by over 2 miles! So really when I thought I ran 5.5- I was only at 3.5 ha! No wonder it felt easy at first. So not only did that make it the most difficult race ever mentally, I really only ran one 4 mile run for my training!

I know that is a long story y'all probably don't rely want to know, but I know I will forget if I don't document. But once the race was done I felt great and was proud of myself for completing it.  After, we all went home and cleaned up the out to Ted's for lunch. We met Katie and Shannon there and ate back all the calories we burnt off. After lunch, we went to downtown Jenks for shopping and Starbucks. We got home that evening and did nothing! We were all so tired!

Elizabeth left that morning and Mitch and I went to church. After church, we had a ver special party to go to. My best friend, Peter was proposing to his girlfriend, Libby and we had a big party at her parents house to celebrate! Peter has been like a big brother to my since I was in middle school and I am so very thankful to have him in my life. I have gotten to know Libby over the past few years and have fallen in love with her too. She is so genuine, sweet and most importantly perfect for Pete. I am so excited for them to get to experience marriage together!

Thats about all thats going on here. I am working on a halloween post so check back in!