Our Trip to Fayetteville!

Last weekend, we traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas to surprise our good friend Traci for her birthday. We were very close friends with the Sips in Ohio and had not been together since Mark and I moved to Oklahoma. Matt, Traci's husband, invited us down to surprise Traci and boy was she surprised!

The weekend was awesome! It was also incredibly cold! We walked around the farmer's market in Fayetteville's downtown square and we also were able to see beautiful views of the city. We spent the rest of the day catching up, watching football and playing with Jack. Mark and Jack become the best of friends through a unique and hilarious version of catch!!

That evening we had dinner at the Hog Haus Brewing Co. near the University of Arkansas Campus. Imagine our surprise, when in the lobby of the restaurant we saw our current Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice. Andrew had recently ran and lost the US Senate race in Oklahoma. We, of course, introduced ourselves and were reminded at how small our community really is.

We are so excited that the Sips live so close to us and we hope there are many more reunions in our future.

Mizzou Homecoming 2008 (game)

So here are a few more pictures from our trip to Mizzou Homecoming 2008. I think our campus is the best looking campus EVER (of course I am not biased as a former MU tour guide) but here is a great shot to show those that have not had the pleasure of being in Columbia, MO on MU's campus.While Ellen and I were in Columbia, we had to go to Bouches to get some burgers and who did we happen to sit next to at the bar... none other than the voice of the Tigers... Mike Kelly!!! He was very nice and I was able to get my picture with him. Great start to the weekend!!!

If we only had one game to make it to, this was a good one to be at... and our seats weren't that bad. 6 rows up even with the endzone. Here is a Chase Daniel pass that went for a touchdown early in the game:

Here we are cheering on our TIGERS!!!

Isn't that a beautiful site... 58-0! I had never seen Mizzou shut out anyone before (let alone a Big XII opponent). Of course Ellen did not see that as she left part way through the 3rd quarter to go hang out with some of her friends at a bar, but I will not leave a Mizzou game until the clock reads 0:00!

What an AWESOME weekend!!!

Mizzou Homecoming 2008 (friends)

Ellen and I made our annual trip back to Columbia for a MU football game. This year we were able to make it the actual Homecoming weekend for the MU vs CU football game. Of course we wanted to see as many people as possible and trying to split our time between 2 different groups of friends is always difficult, but I think we did an excellent job and all in all had an AWESOME weekend. Here is a quick recap of all the good friends we got to see:

First of all, Sarah Jean was gracious enough to offer her beautiful house for us to stay at on Thursday night. It was great to see her, Adam (her husband) and her 2 cute kids (Molly and Luke). Unfortunately, I was an idiot and never got a picture with any of them.

Then on Friday after some Mizzou shopping for me while Ellen was working on homework at Panara we were able to stop by Amanda's house and see her and her 2 (yes now 2) kids Cole and Chase.

Then that night we had to get some pizza at Shakespears and met Chelsie and her husband Jason (who recently got back from Iraq). Always lots of laughs with Chelsie!

A little later Ellen's friends Jill and Suzanne met us a Shakespears and we went to House Decs with them. Both KKG's and KA's house decs left a little to be desired (although admittedly KKG's were better).


After a night on the town, the next day we had some tailgating to do so we met Katie & Andy at Katie's parent's tailgate.

And finished it up at John & Jen's tailgate where Travis was there as well! It was good to see some old med school friends again. Ellen and I also got schooled by Travis and his wife Allison in a game of washers.


All in all a great weekend for visiting with some old friends that we unfortunately don't get to see often enough. Hopefully they all know that we have a couple of spare rooms here in OKC if they ever make it down this way!

Halloween Weekend

We had an awesome Halloween weekend. Both of us dressed up for work! Mark was Clark Kent/Superman. He wore a suit, but underneath he had on his "superman" uniform! If you look closely at the picture, you can see his Daily Planet Press Pass. I wore my German Beer Maid outfit that I bought while we were in Germany last March.

We bought a lot of candy to pass out and we invited our friend Colen over for the festivities. When we went outside, our sweet neighbors invited us to hand out candy with them. Afterwards, we went to dinner with our other neighbors.

On Saturday, we drove down to Paris to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was another great day! We ate burgers at a new Paris joint, went on a long walk, ate a delicious dinner and cursed as the Longhorns lost the game in the last second.

Dolores Arrives!!!

Ellen and I have decided to put down our roots in OKC and found the perfect neighborhood and house to do just that in:

Well, we decided to take that phrase (putting down our roots) literally and plant a tree. We think our front porch is pretty cool and one day we even plan on actually getting some patio furniture for that as a great place to just relax. However, the front porch is a little exposed and so we decided that planting a tree there will not only give us some privacy, but will also help the environment. We also thought it would be cool to plant a tree the first year we lived here and be able to watch it grow. So, after a recommendation for K & K Nursery (actually closer to Norman than OKC) we went there to learn about what tree would be good for us that will grow well in OKC. We had some limitations: could not be too tall (20-25 ft max) as it would be close to the house (and gutters), it had to be able to take full sun, wind, and the occasional ice storm, and of course, had to look cool. After a few suggestions and some extensive Internet researching (by Mark) we decided on the Shantung Maple. This glorious tree needed a equally awesome name and that is where Dolores comes in. She is the great woman who helped raise Ellen and Walker Clark in Paris, TX and we thought it was a fitting name.

We are proud to introduce to you the newest member of our family... Dolores!!

But, you can call her D-Lo!!!

Lindsay Visits!

This past weekend our dear friend Lindsay came and spent the weekend with us. Each time Lindsay has visited us, we have tried to plan the perfect Oklahoma City weekend. We are hoping that by the end of the trip, Lindsay will decide to stay! While Lindsay did not decide to stay, we still had a wonderful weekend. The highlights included a matinee movie, drinks on the rooftop, lots of football and an evening with our friends Abby, Scott and their cute son Jude. I also ordered the BIGGEST cookie cake for the weekend festivities. Fortunately we did not finish it, but we made some major progress over the weekend!!

Aubrey's Dedication

Two weekends ago, Mark and I traveled up to Ozark, Missouri (between Springfield and Branson) to see our niece Aubrey's dedication. We were fortunate to stay at our brother in law's parent's beautiful home. It was a great trip and we were so glad that we were part of such a special ceremony.