Moving Blows

Please let me explain why.

First off, I was suppose to be at a Kappa's wedding in Kansas City, but decided to pull a "bad friend move" and not go due to moving on Saturday, the 500 mile drive to and from Tulsa to KC as well as another 200 mile drive to Wichita with a loaded down car, plus gas is RIDICULOUS (though I'm a bit glad I didn't go or I would not have been able to see the beautiful Stephanie Siders take 320 pictures all by her lonesome -- excuse me, I mean with her and fake Addison!).

The plan was to have Matt drive down Friday, get up early Saturday, load up his car, my mom would be to Tulsa by 11, we would load her car and Lauren's car, and my dad would roll into town by 1 to load the trailer. What a phenomenal plan, right?

Well, yes, its a great plan... when none of it involves my family!

I love these people more than anything on the planet, but sometimes they drive me bonkers.

So instead of going with the first brilliant plan, a new plan was concocted (not by me) and this is how it went:

1) Matt arrives in Tulsa Friday night - check!
2) Get up early and load Matt's car, finish by 10 a.m. - check!
3) Wait two hours until mom and Lauren show up WITHOUT Lauren's car (NOT on original plan - this one got me fuming, but...) - check!
4) Matt and mom immediately load wood chest into back of Envoy, mom pulls something in her back, can not bend down the rest of the day (also not in the original plan, but....) - check!
5) Load Envoy with as much as can be stuffed in - check!
6) Matt calls UHaul to see how late they are open and to see if they have any trailers available because I'm FOR SURE that there is no way possible all of my stuff will fit in the trailer and the vehicles since Lauren didn't bring her car (also not on original plan, but ... ) - check!
7) Sit and wait ANOTHER two hours for my dad to arrive with the trailer (at one point, we called to check on him, he said he was by the airport - I guess we should have asked which one because it is less than 15 minutes from the Tulsa airport to my apartment - and an hour later, he shows up. I'm still thinking he stopped off at the mall to shop! But... ) - check!
8) Dad arrives around 2:30 pm, we load the trailer and the back of his truck with anything and everything we can stuff in it and miraculously, we got everything in (just barely, might I add!) - check!
9) I had to stuff my wedding dress in the back of my overly full and HOT car... I almost cried. Definitely not in the original plan, but... check!

We finally got the heck out of Tulsa around 5:30 that evening, rolled in to Wichita about 8:30. Patty had dinner ready for us at the house, so we ate, and then unloaded. Unloading is so much easier than loading... until everyone leaves and you look at all the stuff you have to go through! And we still have wedding shower gifts at Patty's to bring... plus wedding gifts from the actual wedding. This should be interesting!

Two days later, I have the kitchen pretty much the way I want it, the living room is... well, it has couches and the TV set up. The rest of the house is a mess and I don't even want to touch it! I might just move a bed into the kitchen since it looks pretty and just not deal with everything else!

PS. On the way back to Wichita from Tulsa, Matt called to ask me something and said, "It just now is hitting me that you're moving back to Wichita and WHY you're moving back to Wichita." Sounds funny, but it really didn't hit me until then either... Seven weeks. Crazy.

I'm Outta Here...

Today is officially my last day at ORU. Here are some things I'd like everyone to know about this place:

1) It's not too bad a place, if you can avoid chapel, Oral, Richard, strange ORU kids. OK... so basically if I just stayed in my little cubby hole office all year long, it's not too bad!

2) When I was looking for a job last year, I wanted to go somewhere where the people I worked with were great. I lucked out because the people in the athletic department are just that! I will be sad to leave them!

3) Though Richard McCutchen will not be attending my wedding and Cliff will be attending my wedding (no grudge, Richie!), they are my favorite people from here. I would not have survived an entire year without them!

4) If you dig a little deep, you can find students that don't want to preach down your throat or explain to you that God told them to come to ORU (not that this is bad, but its not what you want to hear the first time you meet someone). We were lucky to have some great student help in our office this year -- I thoroughly enjoyed all of them and they made me feel all of 20-years-old again!

5) I must give a shout out to Jenny Hardin and Janae Voelker (Nae was the only Kansas girl on the basketball team this year so we had that bond!). They definitely reached out to the lonely, nerdy SID this year and made it a bit more comfortable to be apart of the team. Though I wasn't the biggest fan of traveling for five-straight months, they made it a bit more worth while. And because of them, I got some nice TV time at the NCAA Tournament, got to be in the presence of the greatest women's basketball coach to ever walk to hardwood (Pat Summitt) and allowed me to get two free pairs of tennis-shoes and some nice gear!

6) People at ORU cannot drive. Obviously since they are in the state of Oklahoma, that should have been a given. But I really don't think that anyone on this campus was forced to go to driver's ed when they were younger. I have literally had people pull out in front of me five different times, while they are driving five miles-per-hour --- and then they wave to me! I wave back, but its not with a nice gesture!

All in all, I will miss the people here. I will miss the girls. I will miss the coaches. But that is it. They made this place bearable for me all year, so thanks!

Now, its time to start a new chapter in my life. When I move back to Wichita this weekend, this will be the first time in me and Matt's relationship that we will be living in the same town and be in the same place at the same time permanently (by permanently, I mean that we will always be in the same place now - not that we will be in Wichita permanently).

It's exciting, a bit strange, and something I can't wait for! Our wedding is less than 50 days away... I was thinking about it this morning and as it gets closer and closer, I find myself thinking of the moment that Father calls us husband and wife - my fear is that he'll forget our names!

Cool site

I have become addicted to kenziekate.blogspot.com. It's a fun blog that has all kinds of wedding ideas, but really is for anyone -- even those that are not getting married!

Because of the Kenzie Kate blog, I have been exposed to Etsy (www.etsy.com), a site that has anything and everything related to the word 'cute' that you could ever need!

Yesterday, I typed in 'pillow covers' ... oh my gosh, they had a million and they were all so stinkin' cute! And it's all VERY reasonably priced.

So... when you're bored, browse the site. You'll find about 30 things you want, I promise.

Painting, Painting and Painting... Oh my!

My first free weekend in ... a very long time ... was spent in Wichita at 'our house' (I put quotes around that because I still tend to call it Matt's house and feel strange calling it 'our house' ... DAMN, there are the quotes again. They almost magically appear!). Our goal for the weekend was to get all of the painting and cleaning done that would be needed for me to move in next weekend and feel OK about it.

When I say feeling OK about it, that means that I have a certain standard to which a room that I will be living/bathing in must bet met. Before I have moved into any past apartment or house, I have went in and cleaned each room from top to bottom. I don't like thinking that I am living in someone else's filth!

It should be even more understandable to all when ryou ealize that I'm moving into a house that, two years ago, was brand new, but since then, has had three males and three dogs living in it. So yes, I knew what I was getting myself into because I know what boys think cleaning is. It usually involves two words: wet rag.

Example: there is a spill on the floor -- I'll wipe that down with a wet rag. The windows are disgusting -- I'll wipe that down with a wet rag. There is dog hair in every crevice in this entire house -- I'll get that with a wet rag.

What they don't understand is though a wet rag might remove the spill or dirt, it only dampens dog hair and DOES NOT remove germs. Gross... this sickens me now just thinking about it.

Long story short, we got the entire house painted! Matt was really wanting to do some kind of faux finish to our bedroom and the guest bathroom (I'm a simpleton and like no faux anything... but decided this is something I would not battle him about and let him do what he wanted!). Our bedroom looks great... he just did some different brush strokes to it so its nothing that I can't handle! He sponged the entire guest bathroom... and realized he didn't like it so just went and repainted (thank goodness!).

I went in and cleaned all of the baseboards (otherwise known as dog hair heaven) without throwing up (props to me) and started cleaning the cabinets and sink in the master bathroom. I told Matt that I would pay to have a cleaning service come in and clean the tubs, showers and refrigerator (because that's a whole other story!) and he said that he would go and clean that stuff. I replied with, "Not to be a butthead, but I don't want you to say you're going to go clean it, take a wet rag to it, and really think that you've cleaned it and tell ME that you really have cleaned it." He said he would REALLY clean it... so we'll see. I'm grossed out just thinking about it!

Anywho, this weekend is the big move. I have no words to explain how happy I am to be moving back to Wichita ... maybe its just that I'm so excited to get the heck out of Oklahoma (Erin - this is in no reference to you!). Either way, I can't wait! Next up: finding a job and getting married.

Piece of cake, right?!

Luke, Stella, Annie Time ( to the tune of 'Peanut Butter Jelly Time')

Here is your daily dose of Stella and Luke, with a side of Annie (and Meg!). I will now be spending my paycheck buying photos of this crew via Shutterfly -- screw buying stuff for the wedding!

Recap of Wedding No. 1

The weekend began early for Matt and I as we drove up to KC Friday afternoon for Brett and Emily's wedding weekend. I was reading in the wedding so I met up with all of the girls at the church. First off, I must say how much I miss my friends! Though I always feel a bit guilty, I usually drop Matt the second I see them and could sit around and talk to them for hours since it is rare for me to see them!

Luckily, everyone and their dog is getting married this summer so NOT seeing them will not be an issue for the next few months!

After the rehearsal, it was off to the dinner and the 'After Party' as I now call it at Harpo's where we met up with Abby and Gabe. Again I say, it can never be bad night when you're hanging with Abs! She was at the top of her game that night (she really seems to enjoy herself pre-wedding day!) and I enjoyed her mini waves, her talks about her dog, and sitting on Captain Morgan's lap.

As usual, I had a track story to write... and I finally got to it at around 1 a.m. I had the pleasure of riding back to Steph and Aaron's with the groom-to-be, his brother, and Meg. Brett was good to go (and Matt repeatedly told me that Brett was his hero and if he could stay out that late on the eve of our wedding!), but Brett's brother, Jeff, was another story -- we were all packed in Steph's car so Jeff had to crawl into a bawl and sit in the WAY back -- though as you can tell from the picture, he did not mind! :)

Saturday morning came and I was off to the church by 1. I'm glad Abby and I showed up then because it was right before P started to get dressed. She looked absolutely stunning... it's amazing what picking the perfect wedding dress does to a person! She has the perfect little body (which makes me want to vomit) and this dress did nothing but show it off! She was so amazingly calm through the entire process -- I'm hoping that just a little bit of that rubbed off on me. I can only hope for a teeny, tiny bit of calm on our wedding day.

Brett & P decided to see each other before the wedding and get pictures out of the way. The wedding got started at 3, I somehow didn't have any Freudian slips during my readings, and 30 minutes later, we were out of there.

We had a bit of a break in between the wedding and reception, and again, as usual, I had a track story to write. So back to Steph's we went and back to the computer I went. We eventually made it to the reception, which was in a building in downtown KC. It was the perfect spot and was a great party! My friends never cease to 'Bring it' when it comes to wedding receptions -- I do love them for this! :)

I give myself a D- for my participation in the fun -- I promise to do better next wedding, which is 2 weeks away.

All in all, it was a great wedding weekend! It's times like these that I am reminded of the many reasons I am so lucky in life - I have wonderful friends, the bestest best friend in the world, a pretty good looking fiance who can't wait to get married (no lie, I heard it many times this weekend!) and a dog to come home to. Life is good! :)

In addition to the wedding extravaganza, we started cleaning and working on our house on Sunday. I'm officially done at ORU on June 27 and move that Sunday back to Wichita. To say that I'm excited is an understatement!

This week, two candidates are coming in for interviews to replace Cliffy and I ... crazy that it was just a year ago that I was in that position.

PS. I want to see the babies! Are they not the most adorable things you've ever seen?

The Babes

How do you not love these two?

Pic A: Baby Addison rocking out in her sweet sunglasses
Pic B: Baby Stella with a smirk!

And both wondering when the heck they are going to meet me!

A post about Wedding No. 1 to come... great way to start the wedding season!

Chapman

At one point in my life, I referred to Chapman as my version of hell (and now that I think about it, I have referred to many things in my life as my versions of hell: girl scout camp, girl scouts, state track...). After last night, I feel that I should take 'ol Chapman out of that category.

The small town west of Junction City was hit hard last night be a tornado that ripped it in two. Chapman is the size of Sedan, but is a 4A school, drawing from lots of small towns around it. It is where I served as the high school wrestling cheer sponsor and substitute taught my senior year at K-State.

I only called it my version of hell because my darling cheerleaders hated me and tried to make my life a living hell! They did a nice job of it, but after looking back at my time there, they taught me alot -- maybe that I should never be a cheer sponsor again, never have teenage children... but for sure how to deal with different kinds of people, attitudes, personalities and life situations.

I drove to this town almost every day for much of the fall semester of 2004 and then on the weekends to take the girls to wrestling meets to cheer in the winter. I loved Chapman because it was small and reminded me of home.

So when I found out that a bad storm had hit Chapman and Manhattan last night, nothing prepared for me for the pictures I saw. The picture up top is the high school building -- those are the front doors that seem to the the only thing left standing. I talked to one of the former cheerleaders this morning... everyone seemed to be accounted for and safe. She just said that Chapman was no more... I sent messages to all of the girls I knew, letting them know I was thinking about them.

It is hard to know what they are going through, when you have never been through it yourself. But I know how important my hometown is to me, so I can only imagine the devastation, heartache and immense pain they are going through.

Manhattan was also hit, but not as badly. Jord was bowling when the storm hit so he had to hang out downstairs at the karaoke bar until it passed. He was safe (as well as Bob!) and nothing was damaged. But many buildings on K-State's campus were damaged and it will take awhile to get everything cleaned up.

The most important thing is that everyone is safe and made it through the tornado. What comes next will be hard, but its better to have to cope and make it through than not be there at all.

Chapman is in my thoughts...

Wedding #1

This weekend begins my Summer-o-Weddings when Emily Katherine Peine weds Brett Michael Rundle on Saturday afternoon. I am excited for this wedding because its the first time I'll be with all of my buddies (with the exception of Jenny who is busy with her beautiful baby!) in one place since Jenna's wedding last July. How sad is that?

I'm taking off work Friday and driving to Wichita to pick up Matthew. From there, we're off to KC to Steph and Aaron's and will hop in their car to drive to the rehearsal. I'm a reader in this blessed event -- I told P I would attempt to lose my Oklahoma accent by this weekend. I aint sure if it'll happen, but ya'll will find out!

After the rehearsal, we will head to the rehearsal dinner in Westport followed by a bar in Westport! We're bunking up at Steph and Aaron's with Abby and Nicole... a good time shall be head -- I predict big slumber party! :)

We are to be at the church by 1 pm on Saturday afternoon for pictures, followed by the wedding, followed by fun at the reception that is in downtown KC.

I'm so excited for the fun to begin... and I'm so happy for my good pal P. The one thing I have always said is that I want my friends to be happy and I'm so glad that wish has come true!

Wedding details will be provided on Monday.

My wedding update: invitations are addressed and will be sent out on June 17. YESSS! I can definitely say that addressing those suckers was a pain the rear -- and I did them on the computer! I started at 10:30 am and we finished up at 4:30 with the help of my mom, sister, Matt's mom, Lisa and Chelsi... they are my life savers!!!

Next up: wrapping up my year at ORU on June 27, wedding # 2 in KC (Rez's) and moving June 30. Way to pack it all in, Allyson!

Picture: Me & P -- Just call us 2 nut bags!

So she DOES have a name...

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Addison Taylor Cross ... Jenny and Shawn's newest addition to their family! She was born this afternoon at 2:24 (from what I have learned in the past week, mom's give EXACT times!) pm (mountain time) and is adorable - as you can see from the picture... and I mean seriously, did we really think this child would be anything other than that? Check out her mom! :)

My favorite email of the day was from Meg:
"Addison Taylor (I'm assuming that's the spelling...but I could be wrong.....) She was born this afternoon...probably around 3:30ish.... She was 8lbs and some ounces...not sure about length...I would assume pretty long! :)
Shawn said she's awesome, and Jenny's doing well!
Sorry I didn't get better details but I'll send pics if/when I get them...."

There seems to be a whole lot of assuming going on there, Meg!

It's nice to finally know baby Addison's name since Jenny and Shawn kept it a secret for nine months much to the dismay of many, including moi. I'm so happy she is finally here... how exciting it will be to watch my friend be a mama!

Addison's birth caps the end of a pretty great week... Stella came into the world at the beginning of the week and Addison brought her on home Sunday. If only Big Brown had won the Triple Crown.... :)

Cheers to the new mama's and their precious babies... can't wait until August to pack a church with many, many newborns!

Picture: Mama J and Baby Addison ... Courtesy of Beckman Productions

Uncle Steve's Recap of Stella's Arrival...

Like Mother like daughter, they both had 12 hour labors. The party began about 9:00 am yesterday morning at the doctors office then moved on to the hospital.

Early arrivals were Nate's parents Suzi and Charles then Sherron and I arrived about 1:30 pm. Xan Janiga and two friends from Singapore came in about that time, followed by Nate's brother Carl, wife Kathy and daughter Haley. Seth, Michelle and Luke ( Annie was partying at her Aunt Nat's) arrived about 7:30pm and the party was starting to gain steam. Nate's sister Cara arrived followed by Nate's buddies Sanjeev and Brian. At about that time someone asked where the champangne was.

Megan's friend Amanda and her husband Joe came in about 8:00 pm and the party was in full swing. Megan wanted everyone to stay in the delivery room but hospital regulations would'nt allow, so the two Grandmas, Suzi and Sherron, Michelle, Xan, Amanda and, oh yeah, Nate were in attendance. The rest of the party adjourned to the waiting room.

We were joined there by Nate's brother Mark and the room was humming once again. At 9:48 pm Stella decided to join the party, she weighed in at 8 lbs, measured 20 inches, has dark wavy hair and is beautiful just like her mother.

Everyone stayed until about 11:00 pm then the party poopers, who had to get up and go to work, started leaving. About midnight someone found a bottle of champagne but by then the interest had waned and the diehards were intrigued with watching the nurses give Stella a bath.

The nurse brought Stella to the room about 1:00 am and we all got turns holding her, as we were getting ready to finally leave, I looked at Megan holding Stella and it brought a smile as I thought how much she looked like her mother.

Mom, Dad and baby are all doing fine!


Grandpa Barnes

Stella is on her way...

I got an email from my uncle Steve this morning -- the subject line read "Megan is in labor! Sherron is too!" (Sherron is my aunt!). He said that they had admitted Meg to the hospital this morning so they were on their way to Austin and aunt Sherron was yelling at him that they had to go! :)

I sent Meg a text message around 10:30, not expecting one back, just saying 'Holy cow! You're having a child!'... a few minutes later, I get one back saying, "Yeah, its baby time! We'll keep you posted!" I send her one back asking how she's doing and I get another one back, " Yes, doing great! Contractions are getting stronger though. Love you!" I just reminded her to use the drugs!

After work, I decided to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to continue to register -- since Matt and I know where we'll be living, I can dive into more house stuff! So... as I'm browsing, my phone rings and I check it out -- it's Meg! She had just gotten her epidural, they started patocin (sp?) and she was dialated to 6. She said she was just hanging out and felt nothing, but was calling to say hi because it was the last time she'd be able to!

And 30 seconds ago, as I was typing this, the phone rang and my cousin Seth was calling to say Stella is here!!! She has lots of hair... and he thinks she is about 8 pounds (hadn't weighed her yet!). Said Meg did very well... aunt Sherron, Michelle and Nate's mom were in the delivery room with her... and Seth said that he was watching Nate because he was staring at Stella!

Oh my goodness..... thank goodness she is here!

Good Weekend

For the second-straight weekend, I made my way back home to Sedan (and I'll go back AGAIN this weekend!) for my bridal shower, hosted by Kay Hills, Lisa Doty and my aunt Sally. Before that fun began, my mom, sister and I had our own fun Friday afternoon when we went to see Sex and the City!

I was a little paranoid about not getting seats and tickets being sold out that I had my mom order the tickets earlier in the week and I got to the theatre super early to make sure we'd get seats. When it was all said and done, I really hadn't needed to worry! There were about 20 people (including us) there to watch the movie! It was great... and great to see the girls together again! I miss that show!

Saturday was my shower out at Kay's house. It was wonderful! There was a large group of about 40 people that came out -- aunt's, friend's, family friends and so on. There was delish food (I ate WAY too many of my aunt Sally's mints that were fantabulous!), lots of people and lots of gifts which makes for a good party! Matt and I continue to do very well at our showers - this shower we got glasses, plates and silverware so we can now officially eat on something other than paper plates!

It was a great day and I'm so lucky to have such great people in my life!

This weekend, we will be addressing invitations on Sunday and the next weekend, we will be venturing for our first wedding of the summer, Ms. Emily Peine's! It will for sure be a grand time because whenever you get Kappa's together, fun follows! :)