Nostalgic New York

And now, as promised, my NYC collages.  It still comes in 2nd to Vegas, but New York has really grown on me!! Looking back, I am grateful for lots of good memories here from very different seasons of my life…

1998 Fam Vacation ~ After Rachael’s 6th Grade class trip to Washington D.C., we made a family road trip that included a stop in NYC… visiting Rupert’s Deli (famous on David Letterman then) and Time’s Square + taking a starlight ferry cruise to see the Statue of Liberty were the highlights!!  

2005 Side Trip with Joshua Michael and Holly Dei ~ While visiting Holly at Yale University, we took the train from New Haven to Grand Central Station and spent a day in NYC!  Highlights were seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway, singing while running to catch the train back, and going to the top of the Empire State Building! 

2010 Christmas Trip with Chet Lee and Malori Riah ~ technically late November, but the big tree was up!  Malori got sick and the city felt very aggressive and overstimulating to me that year, but highlights were seeing the famous Christmas tree, Chet meeting Holly, and my first visit to Central Park!  And the Broadway play with the lion headbands. lol

2017 Post-Niagara Falls Trip with Mom & Dad + Bill & Jill ~ Redemption for the Big Apple! Touring the five boroughs with Tom Orzo was fantastic and really helped me see it all in a new light - loved everything about that day! Other highlights were Junior’s dinner, Central Park, our lunch cruise, Levain Bakery, and our Uber driver named Seamus!

2025 New Years Trip with Triston Michael ~ Taking my oldest nephew to see several fun places there… highlights included seeing Wicked on Broadway, Serendipity 3, the Christmas tree again, and finally touring the 9/11 Memorial Museum… highly recommend!!

And finally, September 13, 2025 ~ a solo adventure because it was on my “Life List” to see Hamilton on Broadway, and what better time than while Leslie Odom Jr. is back for the 10-year anniversary run!?  Highlights were having box seats to see a truly phenomenal Hamilton cast, trying Anita Gelato - yum, randomly buying a fun painting of my fav spot in Central Park, and grabbing Junior’s cheesecake to go!

I have some ideas for trip #7 eventually, but first, I'm hoping for another trip to Disney, Vegas, and possibly Hawaii! =)

In other news, yesterday was Katelyn Marie's 40th birthday, so HBD to her!! ❤

Make it a great week ahead!

❤ ❤ ❤

Birthdays & Breaking Agreements

The Mini Miss K's 12th birthday was on Thursday!  I was able to move my Thursday clients to Wednesday night (yay!), and we had Mom's spaghetti (Kyndal's fav) for her birthday family dinner.  Here's me and the birthday girl ~ I just love her so much!!  I've realized how much I love to celebrate the people who love to celebrate themselves! lol  I always have and always will appreciate people who get excited about making a big deal of their birthday and embrace the belief that their life deserves to be richly celebrated!!  I'm on that list.  And Kyndal making us a detailed Google slideshow of her bday wishlist and spending the last couple months planning her party during family dinners puts her firmly in that category. lol #embracelife #youareworthcelebrating

She was looking so cute in her new leopard pants and pink shirt and birthday button. ❤

Mamaw with T&C!

Carter joined us for Kyndal's bday, so it was good to get caught up on his life and hear all of them catching up on the latest CHA-circle news.

MWC Sams did a slightly better job on this cake, but still not too impressed!

The Parrish boys!  J's inability to hold the serious face makes me happy. =)

The Miss K and everyone else!

And finally, a happy through-the-years slideshow!!

I really love that song and feel nostalgic whenever I hear it, thanks to S.C.  And I always call her "preshface" on the blog, so it feels appropriate! lol

Anyway, now that all the August events are over, all my best excuses for continually eating unhealthy foods are also gone.  And as my own presentation reminded me, I'm. not. stuck. and I'm. not. a. helpless. victim. in any area - I have the power to make better choices that build new habits and create real change, and I'm taking that seriously.  I don't love the trajectory I've been on lately with stress-eating and negative agreements (thinking patterns that are more aligned with the enemy's plan for my life than God's), and it's 100% up to me to fix that.  I'm gonna throw it out here that my new goal is to actually reach the 155 goal weight Dr. Matt set for me last summer.  Health is definitely not all about the scale numbers, but I was too quick to decide that number would be impossible for me.  It isn't the impossible dream, and it would actually put me at a healthy BMI and probably a size 10, which would be awesome and not extreme or absurd.  And I don't want to sell myself short by leaning into the old/familiar identity and limiting beliefs, so I'm leaning into new possibilities!  Here's to being intentional about breaking terrible agreements, setting new goals, agreeing with God's plan for me, embracing a new way of seeing myself, and staying the freaking course.  For the record, while we're on this topic, I'd like to be at 177 or below pre-pregnancy, then use wisdom and stay under 200 if God allows me to get pregnant... and then eventually (think 2027) push myself to reach 155 and try to maintain within 10 pounds of that + get 45 minutes of good exercise six days a week for the foreseeable future.  Okay then, great talk! lol  I am buckling down on healthy eating and training for my Route 66 Marathon Relay starting tomorrow! #getexcited #teamchettles

Hope you have a lovely Sunday ahead.

I love you and believe in you!
And I believe in our ability to course correct,

and I'm confident God is with us and for us in whatever we may face today!

❤ ❤ ❤

12!

My youngest niece turns 12 on Thursday!  They celebrated with a colorful slumber party on Friday!! 

Rach took them out for a movie + mall fun + Ted's dinner, then Triston, Jace, and TJ joined the girls for a glowing night swim at Mom and Dad's!

The decor was awesome and ever-so-slightly over the top, as per usual! lol

Rach went all out with the posters, banners, tents, balloons, and aerials!

Where Rach gave this party 190% effort, the MWC Sam's gave it a heartfelt 10% effort on his cake. lol Still tasty, but the decorating job was very rough!! 

Kyndal has been planning this party for several months, so I hope it was all she wanted it to be!  The matching tutus, shoes, and sunglasses are pretty cute and fun!! =)

Happy last full week of summer to the niece and nephews, and happy Monday to my lovely blog readers!

❤ ❤ ❤

72

Today is Dad's 72nd Birthday!

I joined Mom and Dad for Life.Church and lunch (5 weeks in a row now).  We did a brunchy meal at All-American Diner today.  We ❤ breakfast food! lol 

I had a virtual counseling session at 2:00 and a potential-client consult at 3:15, then I joined the fam for dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse at 5:45!  Here's our happy table pic. =)

Mom and I got the $5 strawberry pecan side salad, which was pretty awesome and much more food than I'd expected!  We talked about how we love everything except the lettuce. lol 

Our waitress was pretty great, and they brought a complimentary b-day dessert for Dad!

Random guy outside offered to take our group pic, then he took 5 from different angles, so I applaud him for that!

The last half of the past week was discouraging and emotionally-heavy, so I'm very grateful that last night's walk with Kristin and most everything I did today felt light and happy!

Since we were a mile away from the new Andy's in Norman, we ended the day with some frozen custard!

This one makes me happy... at first, you could only see my dessert, so I told J to hold his ice cream up too, then everyone did it at once, and Rach (who doesn't care for ice cream) did a quick thumbs up! lol

Happy Birthday to Dad!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Chettles!

Friday was also the 37th birthday of Chet Lee, aka Chettles, everyone's favorite realtor and the core of our awesomesauce friend group...

We celebrated that with a fun ice cream bar and pool party + Whataburger dinner on Saturday!

Here's Jeffrey Edward in his Wynn-ing hat and Gathering Place t-shirt, Lindsey Claire in her 2009 peasant top and a regrettable absence of lipstick, and Chet Lee in his classic realtor shirt... "Mockey and the boys."  Love it!

Chet has been committed to a gluten-free lifestyle for several months now, along with regular workouts with Evan, nutrition coaching with Rachel, and recently adding marathon-training runs to his schedule!  His dedication in all of the above is inspiring, and the consistency is paying off, and I love that for him!  I'm gearing up to push myself in running workouts and feeling excited about our Chet-side relay team in November!! =)

Sarah Elizabeth with Katherine Claire and Parker Elizabeth!

Chet with the aforementioned ice cream bar!  They pre-scooped it to make the line move faster - smart and creative, like most of Karli's party ideas!

Fun at the pool, under the shade of my very favorite "junk tree." lol

The statue of ice cream cones!

I blew up the balloons, Chet tied them, Karli and Melissa added streamers...

And it came together in this super-cute balloon chandelier effect!

I also helped with the charcuterie board of ice cream toppings - look how fun and colorful! =)

❤

Chet's Whataburger group selfie - love it!!

Sparklers and one final pic for his 37th bday party!

A post-party test drive of what may very well be Chet's new car!! =)

Karli and the kids made 37 candles using pool noodles to decorate their front yard!! ❤
Debbie surprised Chet with birthday desserts!

And the guys (minus Mark Anthony, the classic Umbertos-era version) went to lunch at Meddys for his birthday earlier that week!

I participated in exactly zero percent of that, but still felt it was important to document it. lol

On my Facebook memories were these pics from Chet's 2014 party... I really love that most of this friend group is still getting together regularly 11 years and 10 added children later... what a gift!!

I'm on limited time, so that's all for today.

My schedule is *very full* lately, but full of good things.  I'm growing and making progress, and I have to be more intentional with budgeting my time and energy!  I'm excited about all the new things God is doing in this season - in my life and the lives of many of my closest people!

Okay then... I love you and believe in you, and I believe in your ability to gently challenge yourself, strengthen your self-respect, learn new things, and build a life you love!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Pool Party!

Friday was the 11th birthday of Diesel Eugene, and we celebrated with a pizza party by the pool! =)

Whitaker fam + Aunt Lindsey!

2023 and 2025

The water felt great, and it was good to catch up on life with Kristin whilst watching the boys and Frankie do all kinds of jumps and tricks!

I had them pose together, knowing I was recreating this 2015 pic... love how it turned out! 

The sun was at just the right angle for fun sun-flare pics! 

Love these boys!!  And Eagle One pizza did not disappoint!  We also had rice krispie treats and cupcakes + Pokemon themed gifts. =)  (His official bday party was on Saturday, but I missed it due to being in Tulsa, so I'm glad we got to celebrate on his real birthday!)

I hope it was a fun birthday weekend and hope it's a great year ahead for Diesel!!

❤ ❤ ❤