Photo Friday Fun!

Happy Friday, friends and fam!!  I hope you've had a lovely day, and hope it's a relaxing, rainy weekend ahead (at least for those in Oklahoma)!

Current mindset:

Yay, royal fam!  Because where else would I throw in these photos?

So grateful for Emily's insight and for the genuine connection/trust that lets me be more open and real with her than any past counselor!

After tonight's taco salad fam dinner (yum!) and playing a few rounds of Heads Up, here's Jaceman trying Mom's new ladder to help with Christmas decor!  And on the right is Rach's favorite football stance. lol

Tomorrow = 10 years in Heaven for Aspyn Jane, so Lindsay and Wavy took cupcakes to thank the police and firemen for their help that day, and they raised over $1000 for Aspyn Arrows baby monitor donations!! ❤  I know the grief is very real.  The resilience is too!

Sophie and Melanie and Travis hanging out at their live show in San Antonio! =)  Caroline's first book released last week, so she was there doing a book signing, as well.  Love it all!!

Mel Robbins' 143 Studios team celebrating her birthday (all wearing blonde wigs and black-framed glasses with a black shirt, her signature look). lolol

Yay for all my podcast franz! lol  I hope to join them in that world down the road!!

I'm keeping it low key at my place this year, but 'tis the season for early Christmas decorating at Mom's!  Check out the creativity and attention to detail on this bow and garland!!

The outdoor wreaths with twinkling lights + the JOYful kitchen during tonight's dinner!

Truth.

Carter Lee is #1 on the leaderboard for the Junior Rodeo World Championship in Steer Wrestling!  While my knowledge of that world is very limited, I'm proud of him for putting in the hard work to reach that goal!!

My sparkly/colorful headband collection makes me happy, and now I need to throw in a few more cute baseball caps, as Vivian prefers them for comfort and ease. lol

That's all for now - keeping it light and fluffy today.

Happy Friday!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Photo Friday!

Happy Friday, friends and fam!  I hope it's been a good week!  I decided to throw in a quick blog update in these final moments tonight.  God's kindness has continued to shine in a way that makes me feel grateful, as our Wednesday-Friday jury trial settled, so I had some extra time to devote to homework and counseling paperwork and transcripts!

In addition to that, Chettles asked on Sunday if I "had to" be back at work on Tuesday... and since we had nothing set, I promptly decided to take it as a recovery day from my trip. lol  (Which honestly was needed and helpful, but I'll cover that in the next post.)

After unpacking on Monday night, I made a Tulsa trip to join Chet and Karli and Teresa for the 11am showing of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale!  Thanks to Chet and Karli for the movie ticket, and it was great getting to see all of them again, as it had been over a month, which is a rarity that I do not care to repeat.

Our pic by the movie poster that you can barely see. =)

This was after our lunch at Mission BBQ... I was happy that Teresa and Karli both randomly wore pink that day too! =)

The movie was pretty great... lots of memories with this series (starting with K-Lamb and TLT back in the day), and I'm happy that they ended it well!

I love a comeback story and I love strong female characters... most improved character goes to Lady Edith!

Panera dinner before movie #1 in 2019 + Pic outside the theater after movie #2 in 2022!  It makes me happy that I've seen all of them with the Wilsons!

Truth:

The Doubletree by the DFW airport gets a 7 out of 10 rating from me - I appreciated the complimentary cookies and shuttle ride to the airport, but the hotel itself was pretty meh.  The Embassy Suites in Frisco (pic below) gets a 9 out of 10, as I very much enjoyed my stay there!  (Only Vegas or NYC hotels can merit a 10 out of 10 in my book for a fantastic view. lol)

Surreal that I was watching Leslie perform live in NYC less than a week ago!!

The marketing genius of T-Swift continues.  She's doing a movie "release party" for one weekend only for her new album dropping October 3rd.  I hopped over to the Regal app to claim my seat 30 minutes after she made that announcement, and the theater was already half full. lol  Kristin sent me the Sugar Llamas ad, and I will gladly enjoy some Swiftie-style mini donuts! =)

Top right = the FB ad that caught my attention while they knew I was in Dallas.  Didn't take me long to decide to go... not quite as good as the one in Branson, but I enjoyed it and learned a couple new things (Like that "RMS" Titanic = Royal Mail Ship because in addition to holding over 2000 passengers, they were carrying loads of cargo across the ocean.)

Kristin with Hope and Miles at Evergreen's Pastries with Parents breakfast! ❤

My current workplace, the Cleveland County Courthouse!  I'm honestly very grateful to be there!!

Our deputies and the metal detector (I get to pass by it since I'm a courthouse employee).  This was a photo posted by the county on FB.

This = my phone notes from Mel's podcast today.  It was a very well-timed reminder for me!

Let them be confused, and let me be clear...

More on that coming right up.

I love you and believe in you, and I believe God is with you and for you today!

❤ ❤ ❤

Photo Friday!

Happy Friday to everyone, and Happy Birthday to Karli Marie!! ❤

This = the first time we hung out outside of Lifegroup - May 21, 2011 - Jimmy John's with Chet, Bobbi, Michael, and Amanda!

We became FB friends the next day, so yay for a "522" friendiversary! ;-)

Important updates:  JoBug is recovering well and feeling better today, set to be released from the hospital tomorrow afternoon - thankful for that!  Kristen is staying strong spiritually and feeling determined to choose life in every way she can - we had a mutually encouraging talk on Wednesday night.  Praying for a strong and healthy mind, body, soul, and spirit for both of them! ❤

Our Thursday fam dinner was also a graduation party for Jace! =)

Mom got him an expensive Transformer and we made him a wood panel of his Facetime call with Paul Cuffaro - he was pretty thrilled about both! lol

Triston and I had a good talk whilst J&K swam... this = Kyndal "surfing" on Jace's back! lol

I cannot even with this "smoking smarties" trend. lol  I looked over to say something to Rach and saw this out of the corner of my eye, then had to make a gif photo.

Jace:  "YES, I look like Snoop Dogg - I just need sunglasses and braids!" lolol

Cute new table Rach painted for Mom - nice and subtle, as per usual for us. ;-)

When Rach came out to her car, Jace had buckled Optimus in for their ride home. lolol "Safety first!"

He FaceTimed me later that night to show me how he'd set up the Transformers and the Paul pic in his room... here, he's diving dramatically to demonstrate the Transformers scene he's planning to recreate with his toys. lol Mess.  He's a funny one!!

The Jesus flag made me happy during my morning worship-walk today!

I had an encouraging interview at 9:30 with Integrated Therapy Solutions - loved the vibe, very flexible in all the right ways - I'm likely to start my candidacy working nights and weekends there!  HUZZAH!!

Then I had a meet and greet tour of the Federal courthouse in Muskogee... and everything I learned there was also encouraging and promising, so yay God and yay hope - good things are in store, and we shall see which doors He chooses to open!

Resume suggestions from Rach! lol

After all that, I swung by the Peach Barn for some baked pies, then went to the Wilsons for a tiny minute to bring a table for the flower bar tomorrow... here they are making me a Block Party t-shirt - fun!! =)

And my final stop for the day was CHA Graduation from 6:30-8:45ish!  Long ceremony, but I was happy to see Abby and give her the monogram necklace and card!

This made me laugh harder than it should have. lol

Last pic for today = Alan, Dad, Bill W, and Rick at a golf tournament last week... love it!!

It's been a long but productive and happy Friday!  I hope the same is true for you, and hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend ahead!!

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Wait for It!

I'm feeling better already.  Writing is such a good processing outlet for me, and I find ambiguous grief to be interesting and relatable on a personal and professional level.  I'm confident that God is at work, and if the Holy Spirit leads you to pray for me, I would value and appreciate that!

And now, on to the usual Photo Friday fun!! ❤

Sarah and her family came to OKC for a couple days this week, so I met her for a late lunch at The Mule after my adoption matching call (while Steve and Kate stayed at the Science Museum).  It was good to catch up on things as she's on a mini-break between semesters after finishing her first full year of CRNA school!

Annie F. Downs led a Zoom session on Singleness on Tuesday - it was well done, and she and Katie had a lot of encouraging things to say!  Emily and I had a good follow-up talk about that, and my homework before our next session is to research LifeGroups (any church small group Bible studies) that I might wanna join soon!

Okay, I'm still a little surprised by myself on this one, but beyond excited - yay, Life List goals! lol  I booked a solo one-day NYC trip to see a matinee performance of Hamilton on Broadway in September, with Leslie Odom Jr. back as Aaron Burr!  (I know most people won't care or get the magnitude of it, but him being back is a big deal.)  And if any of his former original castmates decide to join him or come watch, ummm, I won't be sad about it. lol  I wanna be in the room where it happens, and I'm willing to wait for it!! ;-)

Naturally, it was very nearly sold out, so I have a partially-obstructed-view box seat on the side of the stage.  (I found a site where it shows your view from different seats and people who've sat there before write in about it, and that was the best one by far of the four seats left.)  I'm SUPER EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!  (I also really need American Airlines to come through for me that morning, so praying for that, as well!)  It'll be the first time I've traveled with only a purse.  If all goes according to plan, I'll Uber to the theater district to grab a light lunch, then see the play at the Richard Rodgers Theater from 1-4, grab some Hamilton NY merch (yes, please), grab dinner and dessert at Junior's and/or Serendipity 3, then Uber back to the airport by 7:00 for my 9pm flight. lol  Perfection!

This Instagram post from Levi Lusko was pretty encouraging after the thoughts I shared earlier today!  Love him!

James Clear dropping wisdom!  On this note, I've so enjoyed my post-marathon and Graduation week, but I'm currently feeling very ready to buckle down and dive into a new health/fitness routine on Monday!

Finally picked up my Finisher t-shirt this week, and I love it!!  (They only had extra-smalls left when I reached the Finish Line).

I'm good at this in certain areas, but working on it in others... book writing definitely comes to mind!!  I think I put too much pressure on myself there (shock) to have it be perfect, but I need to treat it more like the blog - writing for friends and family in a way that's fun and honors God and my own values.  All things considered, I need to shut down the critical, perfecionistic Enneagram-1 wing and push into the decisive, determined Enneagram-8 wing side of my personality to make that happen!!

Huzzah for this 12x12 shadowbox frame that hangs in a diamond shape!! ❤

Yay for Tate Haywood winning a character award for Courage!
Happy last day of school to him today!

And finally, hooray for these final pics from my ceremony a week ago today!

Happy Friday, friends and fam!
Keep going - God is with us and for us.
Have a beautiful weekend ahead!!

❤ ❤ ❤