Community Group Christmas Fun

The Sunday before Christmas our community group was able to all get together for our Christmas party!  We had a Mexican dinner and shared presents "white elephant" style!  It was a fun time.  We got some interesting gifts... but that is why white elephant is so funny.  We kind of left early though because I still had to work the next day... bummer. :(  I was getting so excited about having a few days off of work so that we could spend some extended time with Jay's family!

I got a fun headband with Santas on it.

 An awkward family photo :)

 Millie got in the Christmas spirit, too!  She's sort of a grinch though... 

And the Winners Are...

We have had a great weekend so far.  Starting on Friday we had my quarterly work party.  It was our 2nd Annual Chili Cook-Off and it was really fun!  Jenny and I started planning a long time ago and it was definitely a huge success.  We had seven chili entries and everyone from work brought something to share.  We all invited our families and had a great time!  Everyone voted on their favorite chili and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners won a prize and bragging rights for a year. :) 

We made trophies out of cylinder and mortar molds!

Jay testing out all the chilis :)

The Winners!

Shawn Billinger (PM)- 1st Place

Bobette Puderbaugh (Accounting)- 2nd Place

Jimmie Folse (FSC)- 3rd Place

I only have two more days of work and then we are headed to Little Rock for the holiday weekend!  We can't wait to spend some time with Jay's family and are looking forward to every second!  Tonight is our community group Christmas Party at Mackenzie's so we all sorts of Christmas fun to look forward to.  I will post again as soon as I get a chance.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

The 12 Days of Christmas

Today is December 13 and there are only 12 more days until Christmas!  I am so happy to have all my shopping done and presents wrapped already!  What a great feeling.  Of those 12 remaining days: I work 7, travel 1, and relax 4! Jay and I cannot wait to spend some time with his family over the holidays but we still have a few days until we leave.  There still is a lot to do between now and then, also.  I have one more discipleship group, a work party, baking and cooking and a community group Christmas party!  The holidays are so full but so enjoyable.  I hope you can have some time to reflect on O Magnum Mysterium - the "Great Mystery" of our Lord and Saviour becoming man this season. 

Lazy Weekend for Team Thorpe

This weekend has been especially fun - because we've done nearly nothing! :)  Last night we took a meal over to some friends that just a baby a couple weeks ago and then caught a movie close by their house.  We saw Disney's new movie Tangled and it was so good!  It was so cute, and funny and romantic and we loved it!  Saturday we slept in and went to the Kolache Factory!  Kolache is like dinner-roll-sized bread stuffed with delicious filling like sausage and gravy or egg and cheese or sometimes chocolate cream!  Yummy.  We came back home to get ready and lazy around some more!  I totally took a nap because I could and Jay played a new video game we got a few months ago.  Then we took Dash to get his nails trimmed and ground and his ears cleaned for the winter.  He was such a good boy and we got him some Christmas rawhides for the holiday season!  We tried to let him pick out a new toy but he was totally uninterested and then went beserk when we walked by the rawhides so we figured he wanted those instead.  :)  We came back and since it was getting so cold we decided to have dinner in - one of our favorites, spicy garlic chicken with potstickers! We rented a movie and look forward to another day off tomorrow!  So glad I got to catch up!  Bye for now...

Do I Still Read?

The answer is absolutely!  If you saw my Christmas letter then you know that my book club has been "going strong for over a year now" and I absolutely still have time and very much enjoy reading.  I haven't blogged about in awhile but Thursday we had our big Christmas meeting.  We read Glenn Beck's The Christmas Sweater and it was a pretty good book.  The most fun was that it was a cookie exchange and PJ party!  Everyone came in their Christmas PJs and brought cookies for everyone to share.  We had a really fun time drinking apple cider and hot cocoa and eating tons of Christmas cookies!  Wow.   So fun.

Here is the spread - so delicious.  Thanks everyone!

Cuties in our Christmas PJs!  

Ashley, Shea, Heather, Nicole (baby Rowen), me, Jenny, Maggie and Katherine

Christmas at 2314!

Well this year we are in our new house and decorating for Christmas was so fun!  We can't believe that the Christmas season is already here but we are loving it!  The winter weather is upon us and the house is all garbed in Christmas spirit.  We even put lights on the house!  Our first time ever and I think Jay did a pretty good job!

There is a little bit of the roof that didn't get covered but we ran out of lights!

Presents wrapped and everything!

Giving Thanks (A little late...)

So earlier when I said I would blog Thanksgiving soon I didn't mean ten days later.  Nonetheless, it is a very cold Saturday afternoon in Kansas City and I am finally making some time to update all my followers.  This year Jay and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Norman.  We had Thursday and Friday off so it was a perfect long weekend that of course went by way too fast!  Thursday morning we all drove down to my Grandmother and Papa's in southern Oklahoma and spent a wonderful Thanksgiving day there.  The food was awesome and the company always a joy!  

Chris, Dad and little Stewart

 Sisters

Uncle Jay and Amelia Mae

 Lucy with her presents from Popa :)

Dad and I went Black Friday shopping at 3:30 in the morning to get some good deals!  It was my first time ever to do that and I sure am glad I did it!  Every store we went to was crazy but we got all that we were looking for and more!  Really fun!  Also on Friday we went to see the latest Harry Potter movie with everyone- it was awesome and we all enjoyed it very much!  Saturday morning Mom, Allison and I went to the craft fair and shopped around a little bit.  Both Arkansas and OU were playing one of their biggest games on Saturday so, of course, we rooted on our teams and they both won!  Both games were really good and we were all happy for our teams' wins.  Sunday we left early to head back home so we could decorate for Christmas.  We are definitely thankful for everything in our lives and couldn't be more blessed! 

Good Times, Great Oldies

Hey Everyone!

Lately I feel like time has been especially flying and I'm not sure if it is the change in season, holidays just around the corner or what!?  There have been several fun things the last few weekends including the Thanksgiving holiday.  I will blog Thanksgiving soon.  But first,  a few weekends ago we had the special treat of our good friends Justin and Lauren Davis and their son, Parker, come to visit!  They came into town Friday evening and we joined them and the Rainwaters and The Blue Moose - what a great time!!  We were totally segregated junior high style (girls on one side and guys on the other) and enjoyed drinks, food and lots of laughter!  We also took some pretty funny pictures that I will spare you all... You are welcome, Rachel. ;)  Jay and I had never been to Blue Moose and we thought that was a great suggestion by the Rainwaters.  Saturday we all met up again for lunch at Spin Pizza and then headed over to the Country Club Plaza for some walking around and shopping!  The guys (including little Parker) hit the sports stores and us girls oogled over sparkling diamonds at Helzburg!  Ha ha- so dreamy.  We tried to get some Christmas shopping done but nonetheless, were unlucky.  After the Plaza we headed back over to the Rainwaters for dinner and the Razorback game.  GO HOGS!  Rachel made a wonderful lasagna (from scratch -so good) and I brought some dessert.  We all gathered in the den to watch the hogs play Mississippi State.  It was a great game and too close! We went into overtime and I was biting my nails nearly the whole time!  Being all together with Lauren and Rachel made it feel like we were in college again and it was so fun.  We loved having them up here visiting and all had a great time together!  I will get some pictures up when I post Thanksgiving... coming soon. :)

A Little Family Weekend

Last weekend I was able to go down to Davis, OK for a fun retreat with the women from my mom's side of the family.  We do this every year and this year was the first year we didn't go down to Tyler for the Pine Cove Women's Conference.  We all had such a great time just being us and having fun.  We definitely made it like the conference with different sessions, meals and even craft time.  The material and our discussions were so good - I definitely learned a lot and brought some lessons home with me.  :) It was a great weekend but, of course, too short!  Sunday morning we headed back our separate ways - Mom, Allison and I stopped in Norman and got winter pedis all together!  Allison and I had some really good quality time together on the car ride home.  Love ya sissy!  :)  

Chit-chatting over drinksies. 

Cake decorating for Aunt Carolyn.  Gosh that thing was beautiful. :)

Me and Mommy.  Cute.

This past weekend I had a Women's Ministry Event on Saturday - "A Day of Thanksgiving".  The church was decorated beautifully and it truly was a a spirit-lifting time with music, food and fellowship.  Then after that, while Jay was at the school studying, my "discipler" Jennifer invited Leah and I over for some pre-Thanksgiving baking.  Another great time of fellowship and food! :)  Thanks for the invite Jenn!  Saturday night Jay and I went to eat at Mr. Gyros (a favorite of ours) and to see Megamind.  Both were great!  Fun to hang with my hubby and relax together.  Today Jay had his last midterm of the semester and we both are so ready for the holidays!  This year we get Thanksgiving with my parents and  Christmas with Jay's!  We are so excited.  Next week is Thanksgiving!  We can't believe how fast time is  flying.  Well I'm snuggled with my doggie while Jay is at a meeting tonight.  Finally getting caught up on blogging.  Hope you enjoyed another post.  :)  Until next time....

P.S. Answers to the Halloween picture:  (from L to R) Chilean miner, Thing 1 & Thing 2, tiny elephant, Wendy Waldo, Princess Leia & Darth Vader and Will Schuster & Sue Sylvester from Glee.

  

Halloween Happenings Part 2

Hi everyone!

Well this blogging thing is a little more difficult than I thought.  Can you believe it has already been two weeks since I've posted last?  Well that is how busy things have been and I will try not to make excuses.  One step at a time!  :)  The last two weeks, like I said, have been busy and I've been home for a long weekend and Jay got to get away as well on a Men's Retreat with the church.  Then this past weekend was of course Halloween!  Jay and I had a busy weekend with a birthday party, football and Halloween of course!!  Friday night we went to Jonathan Sterk's 30th birthday party at Ward Parkway Lanes.  We had a full night of bowling for everyone and I did TERRIBLE but Jay did great.  My best score was a 75!  Yikes people... that is awful.  Needless to say, I will not be bowling for awhile.  AND, my arm was even sore the next day, to boot!

Jay and our friend Bud

Sweet friends :)

Then on Saturday we went over to Mackenzie's apartment to watch Nebraska beat down on Mizzou - oh yeah!  Afterwards, we ordered Noodles&Co and came home to switch out our summer and winter wardrobes - its getting chillier here and even a local radio station has started playing Christmas music!!  Wow.  A little early, I think.  

Then, on Halloween day we all sorts of fun activities planned!  Thursday on my way home from work I called in to a local radio station and won four tickets to the Louisburg Cider Mill and Corn Maze!  Ha ha!  It was so fun to be on the radio and use the tickets Sunday afternoon.  We invited Leslie and drove down after church and walked the corn maze, drank fresh apple cider and ate cider donuts! Yummy. :)

Sissies!! and random faceless scarecrow 

Hubby and wifey

We made it through!!

Sunday night we had a Halloween costume and pumpkin carving party at the Sterks.  We had so much fun!  Jay and I dressed up as Darth Vader and Princess Leia (costumes borrowed from church friends).  We also dressed up Dash and Millie as a pumpkin and chicken, respectively.  It was a little hectic right before the party, but we got a couple good pics!  Happy Halloween and now it is November???!

The family pic!

Dashie was such a good boy dressed up

Millie was freaking out a bit

Not getting along so well here....

We carved the Star Wars logo into our pumpkin - it was legitimate as you can see

Here is the whole group from the party - can you guess the outfits?  Answers coming next week!  :)

Well that was fun.  Last week I joined the Covenant Chapel choir and we have practice tomorrow night. We've got a Christmas concert coming up and I just can't wait.  I'm so glad to be involved in singing again and it brings back such good memories from choir in high school!  We've got another busy weekend coming up - I will be off to an exclusively family ladies retreat in Davis, OK and Jay will most likely be studying!  We'll see how soon my turn around will be once I get back... Bye for now. :)

Splendid Saturday

Well here I am again trying out this whole blog thing for the second day in a row!  I hope I can keep it up.  I was told once "keep it small- do a little at a time" so that is what I will try.  Thanks again, Rach.  Well as I said in my last post, we went to the Carrie Underwood concert last night at the Sprint Center and let me just tell you- it was INCREDIBLE.  Even if you do not like country music, you should go see her because she is probably one of the most talented singers in the world.  I seriously do not know how she does it.  She put on a great show and Jay and I really had a great time.  We were both amazed at how well she sang and I pretty much had goosebumps the whole time.  She is one of my favorite artists and I felt really lucky to get to see her in person.  Pics of the concert:

This is when she came out on a flying blue truck- pretty cool

This is her "Just a Dream" outfit 

This is when the light show was on her gown

I can't figure out how to upload videos yet... I will try to do that soon because you have to hear just a clip of a song she sang last night.  So unbelievable.  

Anyway, hope you enjoy those pics and hopefully you'll hear from me soon.  We're off to community group tonight and are gearing up for another busy week... 

Very Bad Blogger

Dear Friends and Family and those that follow my blog:

As many of you know I have not blogged in several months.  And by several I mean 6.  Six months!?  That is half a year people.  Anyway, I have come to the ugly realization that I am a terrible blogger.  I have recently been inspired by my good friend Rachel Rainwater to be a better blogger.  She does hers so well and I want to be more like her in that regard.  Therefore, today I am coming back from the blogger dead and am attempting to start anew my blog.  It had been so long that my cute background had expired and I spent several minutes trying to edit and change all that had gone bad on my blog.  I really do have the best intentions to keep you all updated on Jay and me and our "family"; so Rachel, if you are reading this, please keep me accountable- I know you will!  :) In the last few months several things have changed/happened so here are the biggies:

1.  Jay finished his first year of med school with flying colors.
2.  We moved into Wes and Catherine's rental home in Prairie Village- and we LOVE IT.
3.  We became, once again, aunt and uncle but only to a nephew this time- welcome Stewart Christopher
4.  We celebrated our 2-year anniversary on the Fourth of July
5.  I got a promotion at work!
6.  Jay got a new car-  an incredible blessing from family!

Everyone, thanks for bearing with me while I get back on my feet and rejoin the bloggers of the world!  Tonight we head to the Sprint Center to see Carrie Underwood (a birthday present from Jay) so I will take pictures and post them soon!  :)  Goodbye for now and more to come in the very near future.. and GO HOGS and SOONERS!

Book Club Movie Night

Last Tuesday we had our March book club even though it is already April.  I decided we needed to do something a little different so for our March book we read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks and instead of hosting a get-together, we went to see the movie!  It was really fun but, of course, we all liked the book a lot better!  We had dinner together at Mr. Gyros before the movie started and then headed over to the theatre.  We all really liked the movie and the book and I was glad to share my Miley fanaticism with my friend Rachel!  I forgot to take pictures at the restaurant and the theatre so I'm sorry about that!

Easter Sunday

Last weekend we had a happy Easter weekend!  Jay had to study most of the day but I was invited over to a friend's parent's house for Easter lunch and I had a really nice time.  It was great to have a place to go for such a family oriented holiday.  I felt welcome and comfortable!  I took a few pictures so I'll share them:

This is my good friend Heather!  We were at her husband's parent's house for lunch.  Cute friends in front of a pretty tree on a beautiful day!

Pretty spring buds.

Also, Millie and Dash are getting along better each day.  She really wants to play but is still a little scared.  Today she took a nap on the couch with me while Dash was sleeping outside!  Here they are "socializing" together on the couch.

Still a little hostile... :)

April Brings Spring

Well it's already the beginning of April and time is just flying by!  Work is getting busier (finally) and Jay continues to trek on with his studies.  He has gastro-intestinal finals next week and, of course, is staying so busy with studying.  We're also finally enjoying some warmer spring weather and it is just beautiful outside!  I've got some girl time planned today while Jay is at the school and then we're going out to celebrate tonight for a couple things!  Just a catch-up blog today and I'll post some more pictures of Dash and the green eggs I made in honor of April Fool's Day!

Sleeping soundly in his bed :)

Just hanging out while we cook dinner

GREEN EGGS??! Yummy.

Dash the Dapple Dachshund

Well, our small family is growing!  Yesterday Jay and I went to pick up our new puppy, Dash.  Like I said previously, we purchased him from a breeder in early February who lives in northern Missouri.  I wanted to have enough time to get ready for him and also for the weather to warm up a bit before we brought him home.  So Jay and I settled on a date and that was yesterday!  We've spent the last month or so getting everything ready and he's finally home.  Jay and I headed out the door and up I-35 yesterday morning about 10.  It's too bad it was pouring down rain and about 45 degrees...  Anyway, we were meeting Lynn (the breeder) and Dash in New Hampton, Missouri which is about 2 hours away.  We got there successfully and had a nice time with Lynn talking about her farm and our new puppy.  Dash was nervous on the way back but he cuddled up with me and then Jay after our lunch stop.  We were so excited and nervous as well, especially for Millie, when we finally got back to the apartment.  We let him walk around and "go potty" before we brought him up.  I had the camera ready when we stepped in the door and shot some pics of Millie!  She didn't understand at first and then got totally freaked out!  Dash was SO excited for a friend and wanted to play with her so bad!  But of course, he scared her off after charging after her. :) Yesterday evening was great-- he just snuggled with the both of us while we watched basketball.  We were anxious for the night and wondered what he would do since he loves to snuggle.  He wanted to sleep with us on the bad but he can't jump up on it!  Plus, we didn't want him sleeping on the bed with us so we showed him his bed and said "stay here, sleep here in your bed".  He actually did pretty good-- just whimpered a few times during the night-- and we all slept great.  It is so fun to have him around and hopefully he and Millie will get along soon.  Today we shut all the bedroom/bathroom doors and she has slept peacefully (for the most part) on a dining room chair under and protected by the table.  He has done a good job of not bothering her but we can tell he wants to play so bad!  We love it so far but we haven't had to work or go to school yet so we'll see how that works out soon enough!

                                                   This is Lynn.  Dash's first mom :)

Goin' potty

THE meeting.  Cautious and freaked out.

Cutie pa tootie.

More to come soon, I'm sure of it.  :)

It's Raining Cats AND Dogs!

Tonight Jay and I are preparing our house for a new addition.  We're bringing home our puppy dog tomorrow!  He is a chocolate/tan smooth hair silver dapple miniature dachshund and he is so cute!  We purchased him in February and are finally getting everything set to bring him home!!  We are so excited for this new responsibility to be dog owners and can't wait to see what it will be like.  We are meeting the family in their hometown in northern Missouri to pick up Dash and bring him to our home!  I'm taking the camera so I'll post pictures as soon as I can!  :)

Happy Birthday, Jay

Last Tuesday was Jay's birthday!  He had a midterm the Monday before and felt really good about it so we celebrated the day before by going out for dinner and watching a movie at home.  We ate at an All-You-Can-Eat Italian restaurant called Cinzetti's.  It was delicious!  We ate so much food- salads, soups, breads, pastas, fruits, crepes, appetizers and, of course, DESSERT!  We definitely want to go back soon!  After dinner we came back to the house and watched Angels & Demons.  It was definitely a thinker kind of movie and we both really liked it!  Tuesday was Jay's actual birthday and he wanted to stay home again so I stopped at the store on my way home from work and picked up a few steaks and potatoes!  We had a yummy dinner of steak, baked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions and salad!  It was so delicious.  Afterward, Jay opened his presents and we just relaxed.  We're such home bodies, but we love it!  :)

                                                  
                                        An early morning with Millie!  She has glowing eyes...

Blueberry muffins for breakfast!

Millie was helping celebrate!