Covenant Chapel Friends and Family Weekend

Jay and I had a great weekend after he finished his second national board exam Friday afternoon!  Yahoo!  He has several weeks off for rest and relaxation before rotations start in August.  We have several fun trips on the calendar and are looking forward to our time off together.  Friday night started our "Friends and Family Weekend" at church with a "Magic vs. Miracles" comedy/magic show by magician Devon Henderson.  We had a great time laughing and being awed by his magic!  It was a great way to start celebrating the fun weekend! 

Saturday we slept in and watched a movie then went shopping for new swimsuits for our lake and beach trips!  After shopping we came home and got ready for our dinner celebration at McCormick and Schmick.  I had received a $20 gift certificate for administrative professional's day so we were excited to use that!  We were there for nearly two hours just talking and enjoying a great meal together!  After dinner we came home and watched another movie (we love our free HBO previews when we get them!).  It was so wonderful to spend all day together just free and easy. 

Sunday was the Friends and Family day at church and picnic lunch afterwards.  We weren't able to go last year so we were excited to be a part of this year!  Pastor Dave preached on personality types and how we relate to each other because of the way God made us.  It was very insightful and interesting.  After church was the picnic lunch and it was a blast.  We stayed until about 2 o'clock just chatting under the shade with great friends.  I have pictures of all this stuff but I will have to upload them later!

After church we came home and did a little bit of yard work (planted my near-dead petunias from the farmer's market) and then went to the Looloian's pool!  We got to lay out for a few hours and then went to the grocery store together.  We made dinner at the house and watched another movie together!  We are such homebodies but it has been so nice to just be together without worrying about studying or anything. 

We are very much looking forward to our anniversary weekend coming up.  I have Thursday and Friday off so we head down to Norman tonight after work.  We'll head to Lake Texoma on Friday morning for our family reunion with cousins, aunts, uncles and all!  Can't wait to tell you all about it on our return.  Pictures coming soon, too! :)

We'll Call This One... BUSY!

Wow, what a whirlwind weekend!  Did you like that alliteration?  We had a great and busy weekend!  Let's just start at the beginning:  Friday night after work I came home to eat dinner with Jay.  He stayed home to relax and get to bed early because of his board exam the next day!  (I'll get to that later.)  I went to the softball game and cheered the boys on - they won!  Way to go CovChaps!  After the game there was a big get-together for two of our dear church friends' birthdays - Steve and Mackenzie!  We went over to Steve and Amber's house where they so graciously hosted a wonderful party with drinks, games and cake (thanks, Kristen!).  We played a game called "What Would You Do If?"  It was hilarious and so fun to say the least.  We have such a great group of friends!

Me and Lauren Bailey - she's one of the sweet girls I get to hang out with during Kidz Cove!

Such great friends: Mackenzie, Kristin, me, Shea and Kristen

The birthday buddies! 

Eating cake and enjoying the game!

Saturday was one of the biggest days for Jay.  He took his first national board exam, USMLE.  He woke up feeling ready and I made him a big breakfast for brain food!  I sent him off with well wishes and covered in prayer and then I was off to the farmer's market with Shea and Mackenzie!  Mackenzie had never been before so we were going as a celebration of sorts!  Plus, I was all out of cajun seasoning and it was time for more.  :)  We had a great time and bought some great stuff.  Couldn't have been a completed trip without the best kind of documentation- silly pictures!

Well done, my friends!

After the farmer's market I went over to Matt and Shea's to lay out for a couple of hours.  Then it was almost time for Jay to be done with his test and to celebrate being finished!  We got home about the same time and got ready for dinner at BRGR and a movie at the Plaza!  Dinner was delicious and the movie was great (X-Men: First Class)! 

Sunday was just as busy.  We had church plus Kidz Cove and then went out to eat at Noodles&Co for lunch.  After lunch we took a nap - the first in a long time together!  After a much needed nap, I went to the grocery store, Jay mowed the yard and I cleaned house!  We finished the weekend off with dinner at the Sterks with our community group.  Thanks for the delicious dinner and fun time, Jonathan and Heather!

This week is my last full week until vacation next week (starting Thursday) and Jay's last week of studying!  He takes the DO part of board exams on Friday and then he is done for the summer!  Yay!  We are so looking forward to the more relaxed schedule and rotations coming up this fall.  

A Wedding, An Anniversary, A Birthday

Aside from our air conditioning being broken this weekend, it has been great!  Fortunately it wasn't unbearably hot here and we are thanking the Lord for that!  From my title, I've bolded the words in my narrative so it's more clear!
Saturday Jay took his last practice test before his USMLE board exam (coming up this Saturday).  We both are so ready for those to be over!  I slept in and got the house all picked up and clean and then we did some yard work together after he got home.  Saturday night we went to a wedding party for a couple of Jay's friend from med school, Kelstan and Ransom.  They are getting married in Scotland next month so they hosted a party in the States for all of their friends and family.  It was a beautiful night and we had a great time!  The house and yard were decorated beautifully and the food was delicious.  They served scrumptious hors d'eourves and had Jack Stack Barbeque catered for dinner (one of our favorites).  Unfortunately, I left my camera in the car at the club house so I didn't take any pictures!  I really regret that because the party was amazing.  :(

Today is a special occasion on two accounts!  It is the first anniversary of being in our house and it is Dash's second birthday.  We feel incredibly blessed to be in Wes and Catherine's house and have loved every second of living here!  Here is an updated picture of the front and back of the house.  Now that it is nearly summer (and most definitely feeling like it) every thing is in full bloom and looking great.

We moved in exactly a year ago and can't believe how the time has flown!  Since we were making the big move we weren't able to celebrate our little guy's birthday; so, we kinda made a bigger deal out of it this year.  I bought him a special birthday treat at Land of Paws and took tons of pictures!  I'll try not to bore you too bad with pictures of our dog...  we can't help it sometimes, he's just too cute. :)

Here he is doing his favorite thing - scouting rabbits.

Just chilling in the shade

Snuggling with "daddy"

A big birthday treat- a peanut buttery, yogurt covered bone!

"oh my gosh what is that?!"

"Oh I know what this is, give it to me now!!"

He licked all the "icing" off first!  I only gave him half and it still took him about 10 minutes to finish the whole thing off!  He sure did love it though! :)

Once again my efforts to upload a video have been thwarted.  It was fun, but you get the idea from the pictures!  This week looks pretty much the same for me as far as work goes; but I've got a women's ministry event on Tuesday and Jay will be cramming for boards on Saturday!  Here we go!

Softball Season!

CovChap softball has started up again!  Last week was the season opener but I was unable to go because of my girls weekend (blogged below).  But last night was their second game and I of course was going to be there to support them all!  Last year was Jay's first time on the CovChaps' team and we had a blast.  This year they are hoping to be a little bit better and more competitive. :)  It was a great night for some softball and even though they lost we had a fun time.  

Warming up - Jay plays right field.

After a great inning (maybe the only one!)

Heather and me cheering on our hubbies!

The whole team - way to go guys!

The Fab Five

Last weekend was one of the most fun weekends I'd had in a long time!  It was a girls weekend with four of my best friends from college that we had planned back in February.  We knew we would have to plan something way in advance if we ever wanted to make the effort to get together every year.  All in all it was a great success!

I was able to get off a few hours early on Friday and Rachel and her husband, David, came to pick me up before we all headed down to Fay-town!  (David had also planned a guys weekend so it worked out great to all drive together.)  We met up with Lauren in Rogers and then headed down to Mr. Cashion's home office, "H.O.", to meet the other girls, Allison and Jessica!  It was pretty late so we decided to go to one of our favorite places, Common Grounds, on Dickson Street.  CG is a fun place that serves all sorts of different things: sandwiches, desserts, coffee, shakes and even adult beverages.  We had a great time catching up and hanging out!

Saturday morning we got up and decided to go floating on the Illinois River!  It was great fun and brought back so many memories.  I loved being with these girls so much.  We soaked up some sun and of course talked and talked some more!

The bus ride to the "dock" - cute girls!

On the river!

Ok, so my camera got wet and this is why this a such a terrible picture... BUT I had to put it on here because after we were finished rafting, we all put on these camoflauge hats that we found in the back of Lauren's husband's car.  It was too perfect for that day so we had to snap a picture.  What great fun!

After floating we went to lunch at another favorite place of ours - Slims Chicken!  It was so delicious and we had another great time over food and in the sun (we stayed chatting til about 4 o'clock!)  After Slims we headed back to the H.O. to get ready for our evening.  We had made reservations at Bordino's on Dickson Street but we couldn't get there without making a much-needed stop at the beloved Pi Phi house!  We toured the house (after getting in on a remembered code) and awed at how much it had changed even since we had lived there!  We even snapped a few pics outside by the fountain (thanks to Rachel for being the only one with a working camera!)

Rachel, Jessica, Lauren, Me and Allison - representin' some Pi Phi angels!

After dinner at Bordino's we walked on campus for a bit and saw everybody's names on the sidewalks.  We just love that tradition and we all have great spots on campus!  Our tour could not be finished without a stop to the newest addition (and only one in the world), Wal-Mart On Campus!  Way to be Arkansas- we love you so much.  After campus, we went back to the H.O. to play games and talk more!  We of course went to be way too late both nights so we were exhausted by the time Sunday morning rolled around.  

We had a great weekend reliving some precious memories and I know these girls will be a part of my life forever!  So happy to be blessed with such wonderful friends.  

Going, Going, Gone!

After several months parked in front of our house, we've finally sold Jay's old car - the white Ford Explorer!  It took a little encouragement from our expert Craigslist friends, David and Rachel, but I bit the bullet and said "why not?" to posting it.  I posted an ad on Monday morning thinking it was a far cry from any promising interests but not 30 minutes later I had 3 people chomping at the bit to get that old car!  Jay met up with the first guy I could contact and he gave us a deposit right on the spot!  The next day he had a tow truck ready to pick it up and gave me the rest of the money!  I couldn't believe it was that easy!  He was a very nice man and said he was going to give it to his niece after he fixed it up.  Wow - Craiglist really works and we're thanking the Lord for allowing us to sell it that quickly and efficiently!