An Adventure of Endless Adjustments

Happy Sunday, friends and family!  Here's me, Katie, Ashley, and Jennifer - my women's lifegroup!  We met for 3 hours and had an impromptu group therapy session of sorts on Saturday - I'm grateful for each of them and happy to have these new connections here!! ❤

Nurse Kristie (our CHA friend who helped care for Mom a couple years back) celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary last week! =)

And Sarah Elizabeth celebrated her 37th Birthday yesterday!

Love this - "an adventure of endless adjustments" feels perfectly phrased. lol. God knows the details, so we don't have to!

Judge Brockman and Judge Tupper (at a Cleveland County lunch event I didn't know about, but probably would've skipped). lol

The Miss K made us a Google Slideshow of her Birthday Wishlist!

She is all about her birthday this year, and I'm here for it! lol

Seeing this the day they added it made me happy!

Why I'm always likely to have a blog or journal...

Ashley Campbell opening the box of her first published book + Ruth celebrating her 70th birthday in Scotland! ❤

Jennifer brought these InnerActive therapy cards - we each chose 3 to represent a part of our story, then shared those stories with the group - which led to super interesting and deep conversations! ❤

You are capable.  You are worth it.  You are still in the game.

Keep going!! ❤

Today started with At the Movies at MWC Life.Church followed by Pelican's lunch (a classic throwback), then my first supervision session with April, then tonight was a fun movie night seeing Superman with Rach, Jaceman, and Kyndal Faith!  The 4D motion was intense - we needed seatbelts! lol

Yes, there's chocolate in my teeth, but still a cute pic! lol

Clearly, I save a lot of Jeff Moore's posts - the encouragement to keep going and press through hard things is needed in this season!

God has full power to speak things into existence, and His plan prevails - praying for deeper faith and peace as I lean into what that means for my own life!!

That's all for today.  Thanks for being here, and goodnight!  I love you and believe in you, and I hope you've had a great weekend!!

❤ ❤ ❤

A Fond Farewell Fiesta!

Last night was a Farewell Fiesta party for the Shoemaker family, who are moving back to Texas next weekend!  Here's our bright and summery group picture, which delights my soul!! ❤  (JEM was also there but had to leave a little early with Henry and Holly.)

Chet Lee grilling the fajita veggies on the Blackstone (after the tortillas and before the chicken)!

The food was awesome!

Parker Elizabeth and Zealand being cute friends (and classmates)!

Tate Haywood ready to swim!!  I was happy he conquered his fear of the poolside slide on Saturday!  Also, their flippers make me happy!

Heidi Claire enjoying the photo wall of memories!  I printed around 75 photos of the Shoemakers and our friend group over the past six years!

Wilsons and Shoemakers!  Two of my fav families!! ❤

Pinata time!!  (Harvey, Parker, and Sophia)

So much candy!!

Mark and Rachel are both counselors, so we've had lots of great conversations about that!  I'm super grateful for their friendship, support, advice, and encouragement!!

Parker Elizabeth wanted a picture with the moon. lolol  LOVE IT.

Exactly six years ago today (7-7-19), Chet invited a few friends to help his clients paint their new home.  That was my first time meeting Mark and Rachel.  They came to Friendsgiving that November, and to nearly every fun friend group event over the past six years!  I so appreciate people who show up and participate and engage in conversation, and they've been top-tier, dependable friends in that way through the past six years!!

With this move, they will be closer to their families and better able to support Rachel's mom through her cancer treatments.  So I'm sincerely happy for them, while being genuinely sad to see them go!

Much like myself, I think Tulsa will always have a place in their hearts.  Unlike myself, I don't see them moving back down the road.

Our random patriotic final pic with Chet's flags - I couldn't love it more!!

That's all for today - proud of myself for getting these written before work!

Happy 7-7, friends!!  I love you and believe in you, and I pray God gives you the daily grace and strength you need to have an awesome week ahead!

❤ ❤ ❤

Peaches, Princesses, and a Pilgrimage

Hey, friends!  I'm about to head to Mom and Dad's to watch the last half of the NBA World Championship basketball game... GO THUNDER!!  At the moment, I'm eating a Pioneer Woman peach dumpling (YUM) and writing this lovely blog. =)

So without further ado, here's a recap of recent photos and events... starting with this throwback to hanging out with Sarah and Chettles (and Nancy and puppy Shiloh and other LG friends and cute kids and firemen) at the Eugene Field cookout SIXTEEN years ago!!  

The Walmart bakery did a rough job writing on this one, but yay for Rach being a Certified Professional Coder!  Here's hoping she can find a great remote job that starts in early fall!

Jeffrey Edward took a very hot walk from the Wynn to the Bellagio to send an awesomesauce Vegas fountains video last week... it was Celine singing My Heart Will Go On, so that's my favorite place, favorite singer, and favorite movie all at once!!  He's there for another work event this week, planning a Mon Ami trip, and it's all inspiring me to go to Vegas again (when it's a little cooler outside there).

Speaking of inspiring, this is Ali, one of my CCU classmates during last year's internship course...

She recently went on a 10-day, 110-mile oceanside backpacking pilgrimage/hike from Portugal to Spain... Google says "the Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrimage routes leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain."  She had read something about that being a pilgrimage to honor your ancestors, so she made a video every night talking about their day's journey and highlighting one of her parents/grandparents/great-grandparents with a few facts, memories, and stories about their lives.  She did this for her 50th birthday... they arrived today, and she dedicated the final video to her children and grandchildren.  I've been so inspired watching her videos - I absolutely love it - and now I wanna do this too, so who wants to join me!?   You have 8.75 years to decide. lolol  I'm adding it to my Life List, for real!

Happy 12th Anniversary to Chet Lee and Karli Marie today!!

From their fav third-wheely single fran! lol

I adore and admire them, and I'm grateful for their friendship and loads of fun memories together!

Shifting gears, I got a box of peaches from the Peach Truck on Friday!  Nom nom for us, David!

I spent Friday night washing all of my fake hair, which turned out to be a more intense and time-consuming project than I'd imagined. lolol It's a blond and dirty blond set of clip-in Cashmere extensions (as seen on Shark Tank) + the red Halo Couture extensions.  Now they're all fresh and ready to go! =)

Saturday morning was an 11am Princess Tea Birthday for Katherine Claire!! 

So much cuteness!

Kate wanted donuts instead of cake, and that was a hit and a little easier for serving!

Chet humming the song on Sarah's shirt made me laugh - an old school favorite of his for sure!

The Fulton fam... this turned out really cute!

Karli and Tate were at another birthday party that same morning.  I joined Teresa and Parker and Chet for ice cream at the Sand Springs Braums... literally all of us were planning on twist fro-yo, but their machine was broken.  #lamesauce

Group pic!

I randomly decided on the Tulsa outlet mall for my afternoon 5k walk... huzzah for ApplePay and pretzel nuggets and shade and air-conditioned stores I could pop in and out of!!

After that, Laura Allison and I had dinner at Cava and a 5-hour chat catching up on all of life!!

Today I met Kristin for lunch at Hideaway, then did a neighborhood walk 5k, then the Whitaker fam stopped by and Frankie got rid of the dirt dobber nest inside my garage!  "And then a hero comes along..." lol  I'd love for the family of bunnies to stick around, but I'm very happy the stinging insects are gone now!

The aforementioned peach dumplings... really good!  (Recipe HERE)

And now I'm ready to Thunder Up one last time this season... let's freaking go!! #maximumeffort

(Also, new AE jean shorts - yay!)

Okay, friends!  I love you and believe in you, and I hope the feeling is mutual! =)

❤ ❤ ❤