Ode to Ventura

Saturday night, Andy and I went to a BEAUTIFUL wedding at Walnut Creek Chapel to celebrate the marriage of my friend, Jennifer Miller a.k.a. Ventura! The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was great. The food was YUMMY...and I think i need a permanent chocolate fountain in my living room. Serious. Congratulations to Jennifer and Tom Ventura! To infinity...and BEYOND!!!
Below are two pictures of Andy and me. I couldn't decide which was my fav!

Forced Change

All good things must come to an end--so describes my current working situation. I have two of the best bosses that a girl could ask for and, on Friday, that tense will be changed to HAD. For the past four and a half years I have been blessed with a man who has always had my back in the worst of situations and a woman with the best open-door policy ever. Now both are leaving my firm to go work for one of our competitors and are most likely taking two of my closest work buddies and I am feeling completely and utterly deserted. Fortunately for me, I have another goal in my life that I am currently working towards (and that good news will be blogged about in about a week, fingers crossed!)--and my job gives me the liberty to accomplish it; however, that fact does not take away the hurt (and, yes, there's a little bit of anger there) of losing my friends--the people that keep me sane through the work week. It isn't as if one person is leaving, but MY ENTIRE GROUP (with the exception of two attorneys) and I am going to carry the burden of all of the attorneys left behind (there are a total of six, and that's a bit too much). A co-worker told me this morning "forced change can be a very good thing". I hope she's right--I'm placing all of my bets on that quote. I am entering a place that I've never been before--a place where there is no plan, situations in which I do not know what to expect and it's happening against my will. In the end, everything will be okay, I just have to keep looking straight and barreling ahead to the future.

Book Review: Driving with Dead People

How appealing is THAT title? It certainly attracted my attention during a visit to Borders a couple of weeks ago--so much that I purchased it on a whim! I could hardly wait to finish the book I was reading to begin my journey with Monica Holloway's Driving with Dead People: A Memoir. A Memoir! Holy cow, this is going to be AWESOME--or so I thought. It turns out that the only interesting part about this book was the title. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that I know who appreciates a good book. I was not captivated by the author's life story--which, in short, is about a young girl's family struggle with an abusive dad and a selfish mother. The book is supposed to represent someone who has overcome the tragedies in her life and triumphed in the end--but I didn't feel as if she had grown as a character through the book. She played too much to the 'whoa is me, I'm such a victim' and I wasn't a big fan of it all. If it wasn't the father abusing her, or her mother ignoring her…it was that her sisters 'hated' her or her brother was mean to her…or her boyfriend left her high and dry when she got pregnant (spoiler alert: she aborts the baby!)…and it goes on and on like this.
I have since finished that book, read another (which I will blog about after book club, as it is our choice for the month of July!) and am currently in the middle of a fantastic book (again, will blog about later) and I would like to leave the driving of dead people to Monica Holloway. Her 'memoir' will soon be my distant memory.
Please Note: Unlike my other book posts, I shall not be posting the cover of the book here, as I would hate to burden you with having to look at it! I've already given it more attention than it deserves!!!

Fabulous Fourth!!

Albeit two weeks late, but--alas! I am here and am going to give you an inside glimpse to The Lopez Fourth of July! Family, Fun, Food, Friends and Fireworks are all of the wonderful F's that made up this Fantabulous day! In the morning, Andy, Jadyn and I relaxed at my parents house and took a leisurly swim in the pool. The day was BEA-utiful, to say the least! Around 4pm, we picked Ethan up and headed up to good 'ol Guthrie, Oklahoma (okay, so it's way-north Edmond, but it's on the cusp of the Guthrie border) to Andrea and Kevin's house (and baby Riley, too!) where we had a wonderful dinner and a great visit with Andy's family and Kevin's family. Much of the afternoon consisted of faulty dry-ice bombs and colorful stink bombs--darkness couldn't come fast enough, but when it did--THE MOST EXCITEMENT EVER is the best way to describe it. Armed with an ARSENOL of Fireworks provided by Kevin and Andrea, we were able to enjoy an hours-long display and the boys got to play with fire. Riley didn't even want to miss out. He decided sleeping wasn't good enough and that the adults were having too much fun so that little boy decided to stay up way past 10pm and he LOVED every second of it!!
It is amazing how many fireworks are ignited where it is legal. The boys got up on the roof and they described continuous fireworks displays blazing the sky in every direction -- all of them from private residences. At midnight, the entire neighborhood was still booming. Literally. The most fun was when the boys decided that throwing fireworks at each other was how they wanted to spend their time and it was HILARIOUS watching them jump here and there while trying to protect their toes from fire!
Around 12:30a.m., the fireworks had run out, but that only meant a trip to the fireworks stand. The girls (and Andy) went inside so the other boys could purchase more lethal weapons, when all of a sudden Kevin runs in the house and says "You guys have got to come outside and see what is going by. It's really weird" (not verbatim, but you get it)…and we go out on the front porch and all of these crazy lights are drifting soundlessly through the sky. I have never been more frightened in my entire life. They looked like UFO's trailing next to each other and going in a line. I just remember saying over and over 'This is NOT happening'…and it turns out, it wasn't--Kevin's friend (we shall call him "Q") called them Chinese Lanterns. (Those are lanterns that are released into the sky and they drift off until they burn out--mostly used in Chinese celebrations.) The feeling of fright that I had in the pit of my stomach upon seeing them is a feeling that I would NEVER like repeated again. It was even more sickening than sitting through a scary movie (Mothman Prophesies, Emily Rose…). Anyway…that concludes our Fabulous Fourth, with the exception of the long drive home at 1:30 in the morning!!!

Sadly, my night pictures didn't come out too well, but here are a few good day-pics!

The kids ready for a night of fun (yes, Ethan's sportin' a gold faux-hawk!)

Riley and Mommy about to try out the Mexican Slip and Slide!

Jadyn isn't afraid to light her some fireworks!

Ethan was lighting them all night long!!!

Summer Reading: Dunces and Dogs!

I recently completed two fantastic books: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. If you are looking for a bit of light reading, I highly recommend each of these books.

Dunces is about a well-educated man (Ignatius J. Reilly) who lives with his mother and refuses to utilize his education to support himself. This book is very well written (and not to mention HILARIOUS!). Interesting fact: The author posthumously won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as he commited suicide in 1969 and his book wasn't published until 1980!

Curious Incident is told in the point of view of an autistic boy (Christopher) who wants to solve the murder of a poor little poodle in his neighborhood and ends up uncovering a dark secret of the past. This book is interesting for the fact that it shows you how an autistic person thinks--how his mind works, which I found very intriguing.

So, once again, I show you the covers of the books below--so you have no trouble identifying them at the book store:
A Confederacy of Dunces:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time:

Happy Reading!!!

Camp Funnybone 2008

Last week, Jadyn and Ethan attended clown camp at none other than my alma mater, Heritage Hall! They both had so much fun clownin' around and acquired the basic essentials of being a clown: balloons, magic and face paint! Saturday the kids put on a marvelous performance (they can spin plates on sticks like no other!!!), demonstrating all of the fun stuff they learned--and at the end of the show, each received a clown diploma. They are now *OFFICIAL* clowns, although...we already knew that! Below are a few fun pictures of our babies!
Face Paint:

In full costume:

Ethan:

Jadyn (her personality really shines through, eh?):

Clown Diplomas:

And Riley wanted to get in on the fun, too!!!

Please Note: I have no idea why the pictures are smaller than the frame...I tried to fix it with no success! Boo!

Tuesday Night Menu: YoPi

Every Tuesday night I attend a YoPi class at the downtown YMCA. For those of you who may not know, YoPi is a combination Yoga-Pilates class. It is a great activity for removing stress thrust upon the body throughout the day...I feel very relaxed and uplifted at the end of each class, which lasts roughly an hour. Also, there are three *SUPER WONDERFUL* ladies from work that attend the class with me: Monica, Jennifer and Debra!!! It is definitely more fun in a group, even though the talking is very minimal.

Below are two poses that I excel at:
The Plow:

The Firefly:

Okay, Okay, you got me...I can't do either of those poses well...In fact, the Plow hurts my neck very much and the Firefly...well, if my wrists held the weight of my entire body, supported only by the palms of my hands (leave the wiggle room for fingers and toes!)...i'm pretty sure they would collapse and I would no longer have hands. So, out of Spin (Monday and Wednesday night HELL), Running and YoPi, I would have to say this is the activity that I look forward to the most!

I Heart Musashi's!!!

Friday night I had a fabulous dinner and even better company! My bff, Julie, and her husband, Eric, came up from Dallas and took Andy and me out to dinner for my birthday!!! It was sooo good to see them (our visits are too few and far between), although the time went by super fast! Below is a picture of us...all stuffed with steak and fish! Ha!

I guess we were away too long, though, because our daughter got really OLD!

Break it down, Grandma Jadyn!!!

Happy Anniversary and Happy Father's Day!

Andy and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday...so it was a double-special day for Andy, it being Father's Day as well! I got this awesome camera for my birthday, yet I neglected to take any pictures of our Father's Day activities, which is really disappointing--so all you get is words!!!
We started the day off by going to church (the first time we were at a church since our wedding) to watch Jadyn do her VBS program. We followed that by lunch at Johnnies with Andy's mom and then a trip over to Andy's dad's house to visit with his father, Susan, Andrea, Kevin and Ri-guy! Then it was off to dinner-prep for Andy and me and we baked a delish enchilada dinner for my dad and Andy's dad. In the end, our Anniversary was a bit overshadowed by all of the Father's Day events - and freaking GOLF - but we survived the busy day! As for our Anniversary, I can only say: TO INFINITY...AND BEYOND!!!

I've Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by my fantabulous SIL, Andrea--and am def. up for the challenge!!!

Here Are the Rules: Answer the following questions about yourself. At the end of the post you pass on the questions to 6 other bloggers and list their names. Then write them a comment telling them that they've been tagged and ask them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know that you've accepted the challenge and refer to your post.

1. What did you do 10 years ago?
10 years ago, I just graduated highschool (our reunion is coming up on September, eek!), was one month away from meeting the man I would spend the next ten years of my life with (and many more to come), Andy, and I was excited about starting college at OSU with my bff, Julie!!

2. Five items on your to-do list today:
1. Read 30 pages in my book
2. Count down every dragging hour of my working day
3. Pick up Jadyn from her grandpa's
4. Pick up the house a little bit
5. Dinner at Musashi's with Andy, Julie and Eric!

(Okay...so until number 5, my day is pretty boring!)

3. Snacks I enjoy? If you couldn't tell by looking at me, i LOVE to eat! I love cookies and candy and cake and coke! I love it all! I love chips and bread and crackers and cereal...really, the list goes on forever.

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire? Everything I could think of...I would quit working (duh) and the very first thing I would do is take my family and Andy's family (all immediate, of course) on a trip to Europe...and it will be super long because we'll all be on a boat. I, too, would make sure my whole immediate family was set for life and then live a quiet, peaceful life!

5. Places I would live: I'm stuck here in Oklahoma...but if I could go anywhere, it would definitely be to Connecticut. I don't know if I've over-glamorized it through all of my trips there and my family being there...but everytime I go back I never want to leave. The East is such a beautiful place!

I have very few people to tag! I am challenging Kelly and Stephanie to respond to my tag!

Book Club: Shantaram

I have a book club at my work that meets at lunch the last Friday of every month. We started the book club July 2007, and it's been tres fun! We read so many different genres of books...books that I normally wouldn't have chosen myself. A few of the books that we have read are Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, Fluke, or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (see? an ECLECTIC group of books!)

The discussions are thoughtful and light...and since there aren't many of us in the group, the setting is intimate! The book we are reading this month is called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. This 933-page book is PHENOMENAL and I look forward to picking it up every evening! It is about a man who has escaped from jail in Austrailia and heads to Bombay, India to 'hide-out'. Shantaram is loosely based on the author's own experiences. Roberts describes so many delectable Indian dishes and, I have to admit, a couple of times I have been enticed to head for an Indian buffet at Ajanta! I'm also tempted to try Chai (please note: I hate tea) because it seems to be the drink of choice in India! Anyway...I highly recommend this book to everyone out there! I have pasted a picture below (you know, so you can see what the cover looks like when you go to the store to buy it!)

UPDATE: I hate chai. Although it doesn't taste like regular tea, the weird-spicy taste did not sit well with my buds (tastebuds...get it? get it?...nevermind).

Wind Sucks!!

Or should I say wind blows...very flippin' hard! Andy and I went on the most dreadful jog yesterday after work and, as you can see, we only put 1.17 miles under our belt and that's because the wind was VICIOUSLY blowing. Seriously...it was like trying to run through water, it was so bad. In addition to the ridiculous Oklahoma winds, it was 5:30p and the sun was scorching hot--my skin was on fire! I think from now until the end of summer, we will only be running later in the evening (8:00p anyone?) on very low-wind days or sticking to the treadmill.

Our Nephew Has Something Really Important To Say!!

Here is our favorite little baby boy: Riley!!!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

I have the best friends and family EVER!!! They really know how to make me feel special on my birthday--and for that (and them) I am eternally grateful!!! On Friday night, I got to have a 'birthday dinner' at Bellini's followed by drinks at Henry Hudsons with some of my favorite people! Friday Night Cast: Andrea and Kevin Miller, Tiffany Benson and her fiance, Scott Short, and Jeff and Kaitlyn Eager. Also featured was my adorable husband, Andy!!! Sunday night, Andy and Jadyn took me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant -- Ajanta!!! At work today, the most festive friend I have, Amy Chavez, decorated my office with signs and purple streamers! Talk about feeling special on your birthday!!!

I love you guys!!!!!

Below is a picture of our Friday night group. Not pictured are Tiffany and Scott--pregnancy can shut a night down early!!!

Our Kids Are Brilliant!!!

Jadyn and Ethan have just completed first and third grade, respectively. At the end of the school year, both of our genius children got a plethora of awards!!! We are so very proud of both of them!!!

Jadyn and Ethan:

Jadyn got awards for the Spelling Bee (she is holding her certificate and ribbon), Mathematics and Reading!

Ethan got the Top Reader award for his class, Teacher's Honor Roll and a Health Award!