We're Home!

So we are officially home and on Christmas break! Mitch finished December 11th and we made our way home that day! It feels so good to be home for a little while and not worry about turning around and making that drive back. We are here until the last week of January, and I am soaking up every bit of being home. I can't grasp that for the next two years, we wont be able to come home for any holidays, or really come home much at all for that matter. Oh the joys of working in the medical field! But seriously, I am so proud of Mitch and his accomplishments this first semester. I love being able to watch him work towards something he really loves and has a passion for.

We have been super busy since we got in, but it is the good busy! I love love love this time of year and all the wonderful things that come with it. We spent a few days in AR before coming to OK but we are spending our time before christmas here in Tulsa and the headed back to Bentonville for the week after Christmas. I love that we have this break so we get to spend long periods of time with both sides of that family!

I was able to make into Tulsa the night some of my sweet girls I taught had their gymnastics showcase and so I was able to go watch them! They are the sweetest and I love that I still get to be a part of their lives. I love my time home where I get to see and spoil them so much. Their families are just too wonderful to me and I couldn't be more thankful for them.

We also were able to make it to our sunday school Christmas party. Even though we can't make it back much, I am so so so so so (I think you get it) thankful for the 2 years we had with them prior to moving. We developed so many wonderful friendships throughout this class. We have always been told the friends you make in sunday school will be there for you forever and I can honestly say this could not be more true. I know we are in TN now and yes we will make new friends there, but nothing will compare to these people! They are the real deal and Mitch and I talk everyday about how thankful we are to have met them. Its funny to look back and think about how random our move to Tulsa was and how random it was we went to First Baptist Tulsa the day they formed a brand new newly married class. Looking back it was such a God thing and even though we moved these are the friends that have helped me most with this move. I talk with them daily and have never met more encouraging and selfless people. Its always good when you find friends that strive to make you be better! So needless to say we love and miss them so much and so are happy we are not going to loose touch just because we will be gone for a few years. It just makes us so excited to get back!!

If you can't tell, I am loving being home and the time is already flying by too fast. We have several things planned for this weekend, including the Christmas Train tonight! Also, on a different note, I did something crazy, okay well not crazy, but  kind of crazy for me. I have been dying for a change with my hair lately and Mitch will not let me cut it- I know I will thank him later for that. But I decided to change the color, which is so not me. I have always been blonde, like always as in my whole life. I know no different! Now I didn't want to get rid of my blonde, I just wanted to add some warm tones to it and make my underneath dark. Well she went a shade darker (she didn't tell me this until after) because she said it would fade a lot and she added some of the dark from underneath and put it throughout my hair to blend and I think that was little much. It is definitely different. It has some of the caramel warm tones I wanted, especially on top, but the darker on the underneath and throughout is a little much for me. I do like it and I am glad I took a chance and went for a change, but I am hoping it lightens up in the next week or so- as she promised it would. I am not unhappy at all, but if it doesn't lighten up any, I may go back in and have her lighten it up some. Here are some pics, I tried to get in good lighting, but I still feel like it looks darker in person than in these pics. Mitch says I'm crazy and it looks the same.

So that has been our week. I am so ready for Christmas week and I am finally done shopping and wrapping all the presents! Some people hate it, but I am one of those people that LOVE Christmas shopping and wrapping!! I always put in a Christmas movie and wrap all night!

I always do a post on the highlights of our year, so stay tuned it is coming soon!! Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving, Nashville, and ER visits....

Well as you can tell from the title of this post, we have had a lot going on! It has been a busy past few weeks and I am happy we are almost to Christmas break! We are on the countdown and leave in 4 days to be home for a month and a half!!!!! I. CAN'T. WAIT.
So I'll fill y'all in on what we have been doing, and I'll start with Thanksgiving.

This year has been so nice and we were able to be home for a week and a half. I am not use to having Thanksgiving actually on Thanksgiving day because Mitch has ALWYAS worked Thanksgiving day. This year it was nice to feel normal and celebrate on Thanksgiving day!We spend our time in Tulsa and since we had not really been back, we were able to use that week and a half to see and catch up with lots of friends. It was so nice to spend the week with family and just relax and not have to worry about making that long drive back so soon.

We were able to spend some of the time in Arkansas too. We went to Fayetteville for the lighting of the square and were able to spend some time with Mitch's family.

When we got back to Tennessee, we had one day to unpack, do laundry and pack up again. Mitch has a class called Professional Aspects and for this class he had to spend a day in Nashville in court watching Nurses that are on trial for getting their nursing license suspended. So we decided to make a little trip out of it and spend a few days there. I love that we live so close that we don't have make a long trip out of it anymore. It was a quick few days but so much fun! We spent the first day just walking around Nashville, shopping, doing lots of eating and of course checking out Opryland hotel since they had all their Christmas lights up. Another couple from Mitch's class went with us and they had never been to Nashville before so we did a lot of the touristy stuff for them. The nest day Mitch had to be in court for a few hours, so me and the other wife decided to hit the mall! Nashville has some great malls, but my favorite and the one I go to every time I am there is the Mall at Green Hills. Well the boys left the hotel early and we slept in and decided to leave for the mall around 10. Well long story short, we got to the car and had a flat! Ah!

We tried and weren't strong enough, so we asked around and we couldn't find anyone to help. The hotel said they can't change tires because of liability. So the boys had to leave court and come help us. They had a long lunch break so we all went to lunch and then they headed back and we went to the mall. It was so fun shopping and just seeing more of Nashville. I LOVE that city!

We also made a trip to Loveless Cafe before we went home. We didn't want to eat all the day because you will eat your weight in the best food ever at Loveless. Mitch and I have been before but the couple that was with us and never been. We went on the early side that day because it gets super crowded and last time we had to wait over 2 hours. This time we got their early enough and didn't have to wait at all!

We had a great time and it was especially fun since we had another couple to do stuff with. Nashville is a about 1 hour and 45 min away but really not a bad drive at all. We always compare it to going to Oklahoma City when we lived in Tulsa. It's an easy day trip if you want it to be, but also so fun to spend a few days there. Our town that we live in doesn't have a lot going for it, buy I just love that we are right in the middle of two super fun cities! We love going to Memphis and Nashville any chance we get!

Well, when we got home things got a little more interesting. I had had something in my eye while we were in Nashville and it was awful! Well I finally got it out on our way home and it felt so much better. But they night when we got home and I was taking my eye makeup off, it started to hurt again. I gave it a day and it just got worse. I was trying to make it to the morning, but I just couldn't, so we ended up in the ER at 11pm at night. The doctor told me I had a pretty bad scratch on my cornea and gave me some numbing drops and pain pills-let me tell you how BAD this hurt. He gave me some other antibiotics as well and told me to see an eye doc the next day to double check it since it was so bad. Well I went to see the eye doc and come to find out I also have an ulcer on my cornea. Great!

So he gave me more pain pills and more antibiotics, and no contacts and very little makeup for the next several days. I am thankful it wasn't worse than it was, but man I feel for those who have experienced this before. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy! I am feeling a lot better today and hopefully will be fully recovered in the next few days.

So needless to say, our week has flown by. We spent half in Nashville and the other half in the ER. Ha! Mitch is so close to being done with his first semester, he has one more final Wednesday and he's done!! I am so proud of him and all the hard work he has put into his studies. I knew this program wasn't like your typical graduate programs, but I really had no idea how intense it was going to be. I am thankful that he got into this doctoral program and for the friends that are helping him through, but that was the easy semester. I am not quite sure what to think about these upcoming semesters :)

On a new note with me, I have been subbing a lot! I knew once I got into a school just once I would be called back and thats exactly what happened. I know from working in a school before and having to find subs before that you use who you like and don't really ask new people. So I knew once I got in once and they saw I knew what I was doing, I wold get more calls. And I am so thankful I got into a private school, Jackson Christian, and I LOVE IT!!! I mean its not Jenks, but I like learning about how private schools work and I am really enjoying it!

Our First Visitors!!

Happy Tuesday! It is getting ready to get cold here and I am so not ready. Like literally the temps are dropping as I type this. I need more time for fall- winter is definitely not my season. I love the fall, cool, crisp air and I need more than a month of it. Winter, please stay away for just a little longer! I love 60's and even can do 50 degrees, but when it drops into the 40's that winter to me and I am not a fan. I have heard the area we are in will have a pretty bad winter so lets pray and hope that's wrong!

This is a picture of a tree on our street and it is so wonderful. I purposely drive down it everyday to see it. The colors are just beautiful here and I am not ready for that to end. The leaves are already slowly falling off and it makes me so sad.

On a different note- we had our first house guests this past weekend and it was oh so wonderful!! Being far from family and friends is the hardest thing, especially since we have established such wonderful ties in Tulsa. So the fact that we have friends that will make the long drive for the weekend to visit means a lot to us. My good friend Katie and her husband Tommy came in on Thursday and stayed the weekend with us. I know I have said it before, but it was so wonderful. We had familiar faces to spend the weekend with and all without having to make that horrible drive back at the end of the weekend. I loved getting to show them our "home" now and it was kinda eye opening that this is our home. We now are Tennesseans... or however you say it?? I know we have been here for 3 1/2 months now, but it still feels temporary and it definitely made it feel real. This is only a season of our life, and we both are ready to be back in Tulsa, but we are trying to always remember to make this a fun time because we will probably... hopefully.. never move this far away again. We are trying to make the best of it and we are thankful to be in beautiful Tennessee with lots of fun cities that we love so close by.

We spent Thursday evening hanging out at the house and Friday we took them and showed them around Jackson. We took them thought the University and all around town. We grabbed lunch then went up to the school for the boys to play basketball and Katie and I walked Bella around campus. For dinner we took them to the famous Country Store. It is apart of the famous Casey Jones Village and it's down home country cookin' as you can get.

It's one of those places you can only eat at like once a month-if that! So we save it for our guests! 

Saturday, we stayed in and watched the OU game and we brought it bbq for our new favorite place to get bbq. I have mentioned it on here before, Exit 87 BBQ and just hung out at home.

That afternoon we went bowling and then to play miniature golf. By the time we finished, it was dinner time so we went back to the house and grilled out and played board games all night. They left Sunday when we went to church and it was hard to say bye. I loved having my friends close and it made me so ready for Thanksgiving break! We get to be back home for a week and a half and I CAN NOT WAIT! 

Speaking of Thanksgiving break- we leave mid next week and it couldn't come sooner. I feel like every time we go home it is so quick and so busy, I feel like I haven't even really seen my parents. Our one time we had a longer break, fall break, we spent the whole time in Arkansas, which was great, but I am excited to spend some time in Tulsa. This is our only thanksgiving we get off so we are taking advantage of it and going home! These next two thanksgivings, Mitch will most likely be in clinical on thanksgiving day or on call which means he can only be 20 min away. So we will not get to go anywhere for Thanksgiving these next two years. Or Christmas either- so this year we are going to soak up being able to go home for a while!

On a completely different note I started a new workout program this week and it is kicking my butt. I have heard SO many people talk about Piyo and never really looked into it because I always ran. Especially with training for the Tulsa Run- I had no extra time. But since the race is over and my knees aren't doing well, I was looking for something I could do in-between this training ( I am running the Nashville half marathon in April) to give me strength, be low impact (esp. on my knees since running is so bad for your body) and most important, something to do inside ha! I am the biggest wimp and I HATE cold weather!!

So for the next two months I am doing Piyo and after only two workouts I know I am going to love it. They are short, but intense workouts that we just perfect for what I need! I wanted to keep running though these months, since I felt like I was pretty much trained and ready for a half. I didn't want to loose all my training I did. I officially start my training in January, but Mitch talked me into taking those months off running, especially since I just got done with and intense 10 week training program  and I will start another one in Jan. He kept telling me I need to let my body rest and recover. So I agreed- even though I will most likely run along side of doing Piyo. I will just keep my runs short to no more than 4 miles and only twice a week. That was our compromise ha! Running is my thing and a big stress relief for me so I cannot just give it up completely.

That's about all thats going on here. Mitch has a crazy busy week before we leave for break, so hopefully it goes by quick!! Have a great week and try and stay warm!!