Saturday, December 19, 2009

Merry Christmas 2009

We want to wish all our friends & family a very Merry Christmas! This is our Christmas card for 2009. You'll notice that the zillion little snapshots (slight exageration) attempt to tell the story of our year together in clockwise order from the purchase of our new home at the start of the year all the way to Christmas decorating! Below are a series of links that will take you to blog entries that tell the stories behind the pictures:

Picture 1: We bought our new house at the very, very end of '08 and spent all of January moving in :) No links for this one because the blog had yet to begin!

Picture 2: A little St. Patrick's Day cheer as we got ready to celebrate Julie's birthday.

Picture 3: I got this one out of order! It didn't happen until the summer. Nonetheless, we took a trip to St. Louis and got to hang out with Kenny & Karen.

Pictures 4 & 5: We took a trip to Angel Fire, NM with friends from our "Barbarian" transformation group. Neil's parents also met us there.

Picture 6: We got to spend some great time with the Phillips for the 4th of July.

Picture 7: Neil got to sing with his Dad at one of our church's Gospel Homecoming.

Picture 8: We met Mimi & Papa in Little Rock and had a great visit! No blog entry here...how did we miss that?!?!

Picture 9: Baby Griffin has arrived!!!

Picture 10: We celebrated our 1st Anniversary by heading to Branson for some big-time Ozarkian fun :) (this blog is continued in a second entry)

Picture 11: Neil got to speak at Camp Sharon's Middle School summer camp. He & Jon baptized about 8 students in the Lake of the Ozarks! No blog entry here, either...it was a VERY busy summer ;)

Picture 12: Marty came for a visit! We were so glad to spend some fun times with him.

Picture 13: Paul, Freda, and Lori all came to see our new house and to hang out with us for the weekend.

Picture 14: Thanks to Mimi & Papa we got to spend our vacation on the beautiful white beaches of Florida. We also got to spend some way-too-rare quality time with our cousin, Krystin! (this blog is also continued in a follow-up entry)

Picture 15: Mimi & Papa told us that we should check out the Blue Angels since they practice just a few minutes away from the condo. It was awesome!

Picture 16: We went to Estes Park, CO to lead worship for a youth retreat there. Added Bonus: Getting to spend time with college friends who live so far away now.

Picture 17: We really had fun "Decking the Halls" of our house for the first time. While Julie has blogged about our Fall Decor, the Christmas Decor blog is still "Coming Soon" :)

Note from Neil: I just want to thank my wonderful wife for her work on this blog. It is a blessing to me and I know it's a blessing to many of you, too! I did not reference the blog when I first put together our "Christmas Card" and I just tried to pick some pictures that described our year. I am so impressed to look back and find that there is a blog for just about everything that's happened to us over the past year. Thank you, Julie Ann, for being the historian of our adventures! All the memories with you are my favorite part of 2009 and I can't wait to spend another wonderful year with the love of my life ;)

Monday, November 30, 2009

Fall-ification


Well, since we just decorated for Christmas, I guess I should go ahead and post my fall decor pics! haha!

When Neil and I got married we decided that we should only buy decorations for the 4 different seasons instead of each individual holiday. That way you have a few items that can easily be switched out for the seasons, and you aren't using a lot of space storing items you only put out for one month of the year! I thoroughly agreed with this logic when we decided on it, but now that we have had a full year of marriage (and we have a house to decorate) I want to put out things for every event! It just doesn't feel right to have Easter with out colored eggs... and the 4th of July just can't be fully honored with out red white and blue paraded through out the house! I'm not sure at what point I became decoration obsessed. Growing up we really only decorated for Easter and Christmas... and we put the flag up for the 4th!

My sister Karen had a really good idea, to make a chalk board sign for outside the house and write a different greeting on it for each holiday or event! I really want to try to do that too, maybe even make one for inside the house! She is brilliant! If I had one right now it would say "Happy Harvest!" If I do make one, I'll let you know!

This year I set about trying to Fall-ify our house - while spending little to no money. It looks like I spent $1.56 :) unless you count the little pumpkin on my front porch that was deceptively priced at $0.78 but turned out to be $0.78 a pound! It cost me like $4! I'm still a little bitter....

We got the Joy sign from Neil's Aunt Vicki for Christmas last year, and Neil's mom gave us this sweet little pumpkin and baby corns. I picked up the little pumpkins at walmart because I thought the orange one needed a friend.

I tied fall leaves (another gift from Neil's mom) on my pillar candles, this was inspired by one of the blogs I follow - here

This isn't necessarily autumn-ish, but I put these candles up on the entertainment center.

I bought them for the church (we did a Fireproof series, so I needed some more candles!) but I think I will just not turn in my receipt and keep them now that we are done with them at the church. I like the soft glow they put off. I guess that brings my fall budget up to $4.56 (they were $.50 at walmart). But really, they aren't just a fall item. So I am taking them back off my budget *wink*

Last but not least, when we went to the Rutledge Wilson Farm Fall Festival when Marty was here, he bought me this Fairy Tale Pumpkin! I think it is so beautiful that I had to put it on my back porch so that I can see it every time I go in the living room, instead of on the front porch where I never look *grin*


I really enjoyed this fall decor and I am just as excited about the Christmas decorations! I'll post about them soon :)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Rocky Mountain High


This weekend, Neil and I headed west because he was asked to lead worship for the Colorado State Youth retreat.   

One of Neil's best friends from college, Justin Brown, was the director this year, and Neil's other friend (and Justin's brother-in-law) Tim Jones was the speaker!  So it was like a mini reunion.  We headed out Thursday after work and drove to Kansas City.  We had booked the hotel there months in advance for a king size room.  Well when we arrived they were completely booked and only had double beds left.  This may not sound like much of an issue for us normal people, but when you are 6'4", a double bed hits you and midway down the shin.  So the hotel said they would send us a voucher for a free stay!  Score!  So, we spent the night there and flew out the next morning to Denver.  

The retreat was being held at the YMCA of the Rockies at Estes Park.  It has just snowed the week before, so all the mountains and grassy areas had a beautiful dusting of white.  The campus was really nice and rustic and when we drove up there were several elk there to greet
 us!

We had a really great weekend and we got to interact with a lot of the kids.  Neil even joined in on the talent show when he, Justin and Tim had an impromptu Kaleo concert!

(I'll try to post a video of it here when I can get it from Justin)

I thought they did great, considering they haven't sang together in 6+ years, they didn't have the lyrics and the hadn't even practiced!  

On Sunday we headed home.  Justin and Sara took us back to their house for a few hours before our plane left, then we borrowed their car and headed to the airport.  We ended up leaving their home at 5, it took an hour to drive to the airport and our plane was taking off at 7.  So we were cutting it a little close, but it was fine.  Then we remembered we had to stop and get gas.  So we did that then drove and drove.  We were gaining time, slowly, and found the airport, then started looking for the economy lot where we were so posed to park the car for Justin to pick up.  Well we took a couple wrong turns (their directional signs were terrible!) and by the time we found the lot, we were way to late to park, wait for the shuttle and get to the airport.  So we had to park in a closer more expensive lot!  (sorry Justin!  We left you some money in the console!)  So at 6:20, we flew out of the car, and ran like mad people towards the terminal.  I was carrying Neil's big guitar, and Neil had his huge backpack, my rolling bag, and his big duffel bag.  Let me tell you, that would that have been hard in Missouri (an elevation of 1, 299"), let alone in Denver (at 5,318")!  

We could hardly breathe!  So we rocketed into the airport, headed for the checkin and waited and waited in line.  We finally got to the counter and an alarm went off!  The man said that since we were checking our bag less than 45 min before our flight, they were not guaranteed to make it on that fight.  great.  

We flashed through security (not literally flashing them, more like The Flash) and made it to the gate before they even began boarding! sweet!  Then we found out we were the very last people to board the plane.  not sweet.  I found a spot on the front row believe it or not.  Second to last person on the plane and I got to sit "first class" (if there were a first class section on this plane which there wasn't).  Neil had to cram into the back, poor guy.  

When we got off the plane we found two of our bags, but not the duffel.  So we waited for the next flight that was coming at 10:25.  We finally left the airport sometime after 11 to start our 3 hour trip home and finally get some dinner.  

I was dreading getting home so late and having to go to work the next morning.  Neil was so sweet, he told me to sleep on the way home.  Then when we got home, I was really dreading having to wake back up and unload all the luggage.  Neil said, just go on and get right in bed, I'll take care of all this!  He is so wonderful!


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Blue Angels

On our last day in Florida, we woke up early and went to watch the Blue Angels practice.  Since it was our last day, I felt a little torn about wanting to spend more time on our deserted beach, and wanting to go see this local attraction.  

When we got to the airfield in Pensacola, there were lots of planes everywhere.  It is also the location of the National Naval Aviation Museum.  

We settled into a small set of metal bleachers and I thought, oh boy, hope this was worth the drive, and the waking up early, and the missing out on our last morning on the beach... I wonder how many shells I am missing out on...

A volunteer who appeared to be a retired Naval pilot began talking to the crowd about the planes, answering questions and giving general information, and then he said, ok, they are about to take off.  We looked down the runway and sure enough two bright blue planes were slowly taxiing along.  Without warning they lifted off and swooped past us.  I couldn't believe how little space they needed to get up to flight speed.  The other 4 planes quickly took off as well, and they immediately began flying in tandem and doing daring stunts. (The military refers to them as maneuvers.  In fact, our announcer probably wouldn't like it if he knew I called them stunts!)
I was shocked at how close together they flew (18" from wing tip to cockpit at one point) but also at how close they were to us!  I guess I was expecting a farther away more visual experience, but this show vibrated my entire being!  When the planes flew by in one of their first formations, it took my breath away!  This sounds silly, but I thought I was going to cry!  My eyes welled up and it was just an overwhelming experience.  I felt brimming with pride, pride for our country, and the great men and women we have in our military.  Pride in the human race for being able to develop such incredible technology.

Blue Angels Info
During the show, the fastest speed is about 700 mph (just under Mach 1; Sneak Pass) and the slowest speed is about 120 mph (indicated speed; Section High Alpha), both flown by the solo pilots during the show. However, the plane can reach speeds just under Mach 2, almost twice the speed of sound or about 1,400 mph. 
The highest maneuver is the vertical rolls performed by the Opposing Solo (up to 15,000 feet) and the lowest is the Sneak Pass (50 feet) performed by the Lead Solo.

Here are some of the "maneuvers" we saw that day.
This is two planes flying side by side.  One is right side up, the other upside down.  (Isn't Neil an awesome photographer?)
After the show was over, they had a jet open for people to take pictures in!  I thought it was the coolest thing ever!  Neil was not as enthused, but he agreed to take my picture!  

Needless to say, it was well worth the drive, and the waking up early, and I don't think that I even missed out on any good shells ;)

Florida Part 2

One of the wonderful parts about this trip was getting to spend so much time with family.  On the way down to Florida, we stopped and stayed the night in Jackson, Mississippi with Neil's Aunt Lora and Uncle Tim.  We didn't get to spend nearly enough time with our wonderful cousins before we had to head out.  

We picked up Neil's cousin Krystin in Hattiesburg and brought her down to Florida where we met up with Mimi and Papa.  Mimi met us at the door with fresh baked cookies and we immediately felt right at home.  We loved the laid back pace of beach life.  Go to the beach when you want, hunt for shells, good eating, shopping for the girls and football for the boys.  Not to mention a few mean games of dominoes and Rook!  

We were spoiled rotten that entire trip!  Not only had Mimi and Papa paid for our plush lodging, they also cooked our meals, took us out to eat and on 
shopping excursions.  Neil even got to go scuba diving!  *Wink*


Mimi and Papa and Krystin headed back Sunday afternoon, and neil and I stayed through Tuesday.  As I mentioned before, we were basically all alone.  

Since this is considered the off season, there were hardly any people around.  It felt a little like "Jurassic park", when the scientists are asked to come check out the park and give their endorsements.  It kept reminding me of the movie, because there was no one else there, not because of the threat of being eaten.... 

Anyway, we loved just being on the beach, listening to the waves and taking long walks along the shore.  
Neil enjoyed reading his book and I LOVED looking for sea shells, particularly mother of pearl shells which seemed to be plentiful this time of year.
It was so incredible to be so isolated in this beautiful area.  I would HIGHLY recommend going to Florida in October, and I hope that we can do it again.

Perdido Key


Last week, Neil and I were able to take a trip to Perdido Key, Florida.  His wonderful Grandparents had rented a condo at The Eden for the entire month of October, and so generously offered for us to come down and spend some time on the beach!  It was such a wonderful, relaxing and rejuvenating trip for us.  Perdido means Lost in Spanish, and it really did feel like a hidden resort.  Since this is Florida's off season, we were about the only people at the place!  The condo we stayed in was GORGEOUS!  It had flat screen tv's, two fireplaces, a full kitchen, washer and dryer, the works! 

(The living room, looking out toward the balcony)
(The master bedroom, I love that peacock blue!)
(Balcony)
(view from the balcony)

   All around the grounds were water falls, tropical flowers, palm trees and clear blue water.  Our balcony overlooked the lush resort and was right on the beach.  We loved sitting on the deck each night, listening to the waves crashing in.  

(The Eden at night)


"Have you ever looked at the ocean,
Seen the white foam at your feet,
Felt the endless thundering motion,
Then I say you've seen Jesus my Lord"

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Fall Flowers


This past weekend my wonderful parents came to visit, and Lori too!  I was so excited to get to see them, and for the three of them to get to see our house!  It felt so weird to buy a house without getting "approval" from my parents.  They are always involved in all my big decisions, and I have been waiting for the chance for them to "approve" our house!  They came up friday and spent the whole weekend with us.  Luckily for us, they did approve of our house, and really seemed to like it.  They helped us with so many little (and big!) 
items on our "honey do" list, like unsticking stuck doors, sewing patches on our jeans, and they even bought us flowers and flower pots to landscape our yard for fall!  What a wonderful surprise!  We got two large flower pots to go underneath each window in the front yard, and pansies to fill those, plus the big bed in the back. We had soo many flowers that we almost didn't fit all of us and them in the car!  It was like a botanical garden on the ride home!  



Our backyard looks so cheerful and pretty, and they say pansies are frost resistant and will last through the winter!  It so nice to look out the window and see beautiful shades of purple, white and yellow instead of a big dirt area!  Neil and I also planted some bulbs last week and two crepe myrtles.  So if our pansies make it through the winter, the bulbs should come up in the spring and we will just be set!  I'll have to add some "after" pictures later.  My sweet family spent their vacation time helping us plant the flowers in the back yard, but Neil and I just planted the rest in the front yard pots.  We had such a wonderful weekend, I wish that my family and my Oldham family could see each other every weekend :)

Friday, October 16, 2009

Showing Love

So I've been feeling a little under the weather lately.  Just the usual, sore throat, coughing, runny nose thing.  I'm just not feeling great but not bad enough to stay home from work.  So I've been going to work all week and driving my co-workers crazy with hacking, coughing, sneezing, nose blowing and the like!  I have been so shocked at how gracious they have all been.  For me, if someone is sick, I go into quarantine mode.  Its like that one time with the saran-wrapped remotes!  But sweet Neil has been playing my doctor all week, prompting me to take my medicine and drink more fluids (ha doesn't he know that "camel woman" doesn't need liquid?).  He is constantly asking how I'm feeling and urging me to go lay down and rest.  
My boss keeps asking me if I would like her to get me some hot chocolate, and when I came to work on Wednesday my co-worker had left two packets of airbourne on my desk to help me fight of my illness!  
On one of my sickest days, I was in my office dreaming of some hot green tea to soothe my parched throat, and realizing that I must be feeling pretty bad to actually want some green tea, when out of no where my friend Tara came in and said, "do you feel ok? do you want me to make you some tea?"  It was like telepathy!  When I told Neil about the kindness of my co-workers he said, "what kinda of place do you work at?! Seriously, people don't just do that kind of stuff!" And thats the truth.  I am blessed to be surrounded by such a loving wonderful office full of people.
When we got home from work, Neil sneakily told me not to come to the back of the house.  He was back there for quite a while, and when he came to get me he walked me into a spa retreat!

  A full steaming bubble bath, surrounded by flickering candles!  Mood music playing and comfy clothes set out for me.  He said, you relax and take as long as you want.  No rush.  I'm going to go cook you dinner :) 

Little did he know that  all day long I had dreamed of soaking in a hot tub and relaxing my weary bones.  When I got home from work I had planned to just jump in the bath and be done before he even got home.  But for some reason, when I did get home I just plopped down in the chair and didn't even make it to the tub.  
As we speak, Neil is in the kitchen making me a wonderful pancake breakfast, complete with bacon!
All week long I have been so deeply appreciating all these acts of service and kindness, and I really feel like it is God showing his love to me through these wonderful people who strive everyday to be His servant.  They are just walking around, looking for ways to show His love, and what a blessing they are to me and so many others.  
I wanted to take this moment to brag on them, leave me a comment and brag one someone who has shown you love recently.  I'd love to hear about it!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Follow Up

Well we got our guts up and invited two neighbors.  One lives next door to us and is a news anchor so we invited him since we thought he might be intrigued that we were having news anchors coming to speak!  When we got to his house he could only crack the door open because Fred his beagle was about to escape!  So we talked through a cracked door, him hunched over holding on to Fred's collar, me and Neil trying to stoop to match his height, while not looking stupid for bending over for no reason!
I don't think we freaked him out (we tried to play it real cool) but he didn't seem super interested either.  We also invited our backyard neighbors.  They just got a new tiny poodle puppy and so Tulia kinda dominated our visit experience.  But we did invite them and they seem hopeful!
So when Sunday morning rolled around I wasn't too surprised when neither one of them ended up coming.  That's ok, hopefully we at least planted  seed.  And now they can't say that they don't come to church because no one has ever invited them!
I think the event was a success, we had about 20% higher attendance than normal and the guest speakers did a great job!  Neil's worship service was so powerful to me, he ended the worship set with "Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone", and I started crying when I heard all the voices around me singing out in beautiful harmony so loud! It is rare that our congregation sings louder than the mic-ed voices on stage, but this time was was no competition (and we even had our "powerhouse" team on stage)!  It was such a cool "God" moment and I really enjoy those times of overwhelming corporate worship.  
God is so incredible that He can take a time of Worship, which is supposed to be a time of me pouring out my heart and love and gratitude as a blessing to Him, and make it a blessing to me.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Biker

On the way home from work today I saw an old school biker in my rear view mirror.  He was really hard core!  He had the long flowing ponytail, huge white beard, brown leather jacket and fringe on his handlebars!  He was really hunched over, like he was trying to be more aerodynamic, and as he came up behind me I felt a strong need to get out of his way!  

"get your motor runnin'
da na da na da na da na
head out on the high way!
da na da na da na da na
lookin for adventure
da na da na da na da na
or whatever comes my way!"

Before I knew it I was singing this man a theme song!  Out loud! To myself in the car!  I wonder if he saw my lips moving as he speed past.  It was so funny because I didn't even realize I had started singing, and the correlation for a few seconds!  Then I cracked up for about 5 minutes on the way to the recycling center!

Yes, we have decided to start recycling our plastics.  Its a start!  We just bought a second trash can and put it in our utility room.  Whenever we have plastics that we would usually throw away I just put them in that trash can instead!  Then I took them all to the center today.  I was surprised how easy it was! And it really didn't take much time at all!

Well tonight, when Neil gets home, we are going to walk across the street and yard and backyard and invite some of our neighbors to church.  Our church is having a big "invite a friend" event this Sunday, and we are having some local news anchors who are Christians come in to speak.  So this is a good opportunity to invite new people.  

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous! So is Neil.  But the worst they can say is no!  And who cares if they think we are crazy, (which I'm sure they won't - or at least won't think we are any crazier than they already think we are!) it could save their life :)

I'll let you know how it goes!

Monday, October 5, 2009

"Deuce" of Cakes

I tried my hand a cake decorating this weekend!  My friend Kimberly's birthday is tuesday so we made a cake for her!  I started mixing together the ingredients and half way through discovered that I only had 2 eggs, instead of 3!  I quickly put the entire mixing bowl in the fridge and made a mad dash to the store for the eggs.  Well anyone who knows me knows that I did not stay on task and just get the eggs and leave.  No I decided to get a few things while I was there, which turned into getting my whole list, and picking out candle holders!  Wow!  Talk about easily sidetracked!  Anyway, I did finally make it back home and I finished the cake.  I don't have any round cake pans, and I only have one square one and since I didn't want to bake the cake twice and wait for it to cool, I just made one sheet cake, cut it in half and stacked it up!  I thought it turned out pretty cool to be rectangle, plus it fit wonderfully on my rectangle tray!  So while it might not be "Ace of Cakes" quality, I was still pleased with my first real cake decorating experience.  Happy Birthday Kimberly! You are the best :)

Friday, October 2, 2009

Marty Party


This weekend, Neil's life long friend Marty came up to visit us!  We had a full weekend.  He came up Thursday when we were both at work (poor guy!) so there was no one home to greet him! Then he went to the church to hang out with Neil, but since Neil leads worship practice on Thursday nights, so he had to get ready for that.  When I got to the church Neil was practicing with the band and Marty was reading his book! So we headed on home and started dinner for Neil.  
(yes, Neil is carrying my purse)

I like hanging out with Marty.  He and I clicked easily from the first time I met him.  It feels like he and Neil are brothers because they grew up together and even when Neil moved to New Mexico, they still stayed close and went on family vacations together.

Since Neil and Marty are both men of the kitchen, I was sittin' pretty for the whole weekend!  They cooked for me, we went out to eat several times, I had two boys opening the door for me and we even went antique shopping!  Can you believe that?!  I think Marty should come visit more often *laugh*

Last week, Neil and I received a huge blessing in the way of an entertainment center!  A couple from our church had recently moved here from California and they have found that their furniture doesn't fit in this house like it did in their other house, just because of the difference of sizing in the rooms etc.  They called us and said that they were going to be getting rid of their entertainment center because it was "competing with their fireplace" and would we be interested in it.  I immediately thought - oh no, its 'competing' with their fireplace? Dear me, this must be mammoth and gaudy! I told Neil, don't get your hopes up!  It is probably huge and ugly or else why would they want to give it away?
Not to mention that after countless shopping trips and many measurements Neil and I had finally pieced together an entertainment center that was not very expensive and that we were happy with.
We went to their house to see it with low expectations.  I was trying to get Neil to work out a signal with me so that if it was questionable we could alert the other that we weren't pleased without saying a word.  

I was overwhelmed when I saw it - it was so beautiful!  This set is the kind of center we wanted but would never have been able to afford!  And even way down the road when we might have been able to afford it, I can guarantee that the frugal Oldham's would not have justified buying such an expensive piece!

So on Friday (with our newly acquired man power) we went to get the entertainment center. We borrowed a truck from Simmond's Loan and Trust (not a bank, just our awesome neighbors!) The boys did such a great job being so careful not to scratch anything (the truck or the furniture)!  We got it home and they set to work unhooking all the wires from the old set and plugging them into the new one!  

It was a lot of work - for them!  Thats right, I was sittin' pretty again! *smile*
When we finally got it all in place I told Neil, ya know I kinda think its competing with our fireplace as well.  He quickly reassured me, there's no competition - The entertainment center has won!