Birthday Weekend....

As many know, my birthday is probably my favorite day of the year. It's in a tie with Christmas (which is probably not a good thing to say out loud or to even think!).

This year, my birthday was on a Sunday... for future reference, Sunday birthdays aren't so much fun. Saturday birthdays are the best! I guess you could say that we really celebrated my birthday on Saturday. My fam + Matt but - Jord all came down. My mom and I wreaked havoc on Woodland Hills Mall then went back to my apartment to watch the K-State/Texas football game. And what a game it was...

I felt very confident about the Cats chances in Austin, but I felt it not safe to speak out about those feelings because, as we all know, I have bad luck and I knew the second I said anything, I would jinx their chances! So instead of me saying anything, my brother felt the need to tell anyone and everyone that we were going to win by two touchdowns. I warned him... be careful who you say that to. You'll never hear the end of it if it doesn't turn out the way we hope...

Well, he called after the game to say, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

It ended up being a great day for football by 10 pm that night. Many ranked teams fell and the Cats jumped into the polls for the first time in a few years. A very nice feeling...

Now its on to KU... I will not spill my feelings on this game, but just let me say that I REALLY hope we cream them by 40 or more points because I'm SO tired of hearing about them. The announcers for the K-State game this past weekend actually said out loud that the K-State/KU game was going to be more exciting than the OU/Texas game. Gimme a break!

Anyway... good birthday. New purse. New clothes. New fan... from Matt (yes, a VERY random gift, but to be fair, it is a cool looking fan...but that's about all I'm going to say about that gift!).

This Sunday is my mom's big 5-0... we have a big surprise for her, but I'll keep that quiet until AFTER it happens. That lady is Sneaky Sneakerson and probably reads this blog religiously, but acts like she doesn't even know I have one!

Losing a Little Piece of my Past...

Most of the Barnes side of my family will be making their way to grand Sedan for the weekend, but our reasoning for gathering isn't really for the fun and loud times that we usually have together when we are all in Sedan (although I'm sure fun and loud will still be apart of the weekend -- how can it be avoided with this group of people). Their reasoning for making the voyage to Sedan is because this is the weekend we are having a sale at my grandma Dean's house to get rid of the 'extra' stuff (and she has alot of 'extra' stuff) that nobody claimed as their own!

The house has been sold to my good pal Brett Dickens and his wife Katy. It's only right that he gets the house after the many things he had to deal with when it came to my grandma!

But its so strange... this house will no longer be apart of our family. So many amazing, wonderful things filled with nothing but laughter and stories happened in that house. But in a day, it will not be our house anymore.

Ofcourse memories stay with you forever... this house was where we learned 'Settlers of Catan' and made it a Christmas tradition, we introduced 'Newt' into our family at this house, my grandpa got sick in this house and when we found out he had passed away, we were at this house, my brother and tons of neighborhood hoodlums invented a new form of baseball that involved a whiffle ball bat and a tennis ball and played numerous games in that backyard, we tried to start the 'Barnes Bowl' tradition with my uncle Kevin in the front yard (but that one fell through after the first game), Jack, Jordan and I played church in the front living room, I fell in love with Aunt Sherron's goolash in that kitchen... to name a few.

Everything has been divvied up... Seth had his name on EVERYTHING, even Uncle Woody's pictures (funny thing is that even though he was kidding, he's really getting those!).

I know that this will be hard on everyone, but probably my mom the most. She has had to deal with the pain of her parent's decline first-hand. Yes, in a way, this will be a bit of a relief, one less thing she has to deal with. But just another blow that this is all real.

So... after all of the wine that my Uncle Steve will bring up from Texas has been drunk, our family will lose a house that has been filled with so much love and laughter. But we have the memories... and I think deep down, that's really all that matters!

My Bad Luck has Followed Me...

It looks like I'm never going to get rid of it. The only thing that I am truly lucky on (other than having wonderful friends, family, blessed life, cute dog, etc.) is finding great parking spots.

Traveled with the ORU volleyball team to Little Rock, Ark., to play UALR (you must call them that - not University of Arkansas- Little Rock - they don't like that!). Last time I went with the volleyball team to Fayetteville, Ark., we lost. This time, we drove four hours... and lost in FIVE games. That's a long trip to take to come so close to winning only to lose and have to drive four hours back home. And they were so close the whole time, which is what is really frustrating!

Well... maybe I'm just bad luck in ARKANSAS! We have our first home game this weekend so I guess we'll see if I am banished from watching them play ever again after Saturday!

(Picture is from this weekend at the best tailgate ever, but most boring game ever as well! Lauren is continuing to love college. If you have facebook and have her as your friend, you'll see that that is all the child talks about!)

I've Been a Bad Blogger...

I was told yesterday by my good pal Megan that I had not posted on my blog in awhile and I realized she was quite right. Geez, it's been about two weeks... the sad thing is, not much has happened in those two weeks.
Let's see....
- Had a surprise party for Matthew... he turned 26! Yowzers! It was a great party and it's amazing that I kept it a secret for over a month. The best part of the night was when one of Matt's buddies kept buying shots and had everyone take them, including Patty Clark, but really, Matt was the only one taking the shot, while everyone else was taking water. Later he asked, "Hey (slurred words)... did you know (slurred) that everyone else was drinking (slurred) water?" It was at that point that I told Matt no more shots because I really didn't want to take care of his 26-year-old butt all night!
- Made my first road trip with the volleyball team to Arkansas. They lost, but it was quite an entertaining trip. Three-fourths of the team is from either Brazil or Croatia (we have a Nebraska girl squeezed in there). Even if they aren't trying to be funny, its still funny because of their accents. I need to grow up!
- Lauren has made it through two full weeks of college... and is LOVING it. Loves her classes, her friends, Kappa... She is really surprising the heck out of alot of people! All I have to say is that I had faith in her the whole time... :) My only complaint is that her first act as a Kappa was to show one of her new Kappa buddies my sick freshman year composite picture in which I looked like a racoon.
- And last but not least, the countdown for my birthday has begun! Three weeks and three days and I'll be 25... I'm one of the few people that enjoys getting older! This, I think, will probably only last a few more years. And usually when I'm in Manhattan, I wish I was 20 again. But other than that, I think 25 will be a great year!
Speaking of Manhattan... can't wait for the first home football game. Will be traveling up there early Saturday morning for a nice, long day of tailgating. Can life get much better than this?! :)

I Had a Bad Day...

It's weird... Monday seemed to just fly right by, which is not the norm. Monday's are usually the worst! But not this week. Tuesday was just a bad day.

First of all, it took FOREVER to get to 5 o'clock... at 3:45, I just started staring at the clock, watching the seconds tick by until it was 5! So, finally 4:55 gets here, and I'm out the door (it was close enough to 5!).

I decide to skip Curves... which ended up being a horrible idea. I drive on, get into bad traffic, which I hate because I have major road rage! Finally get past 81st and Mingo, but still stuck in traffic. I slow to stop because of the line of cars ahead of me that have done the same. The car behind me stops, but the car behind her did not do as he as supposed to and ran right into her, which in turn, led her to run right into me.

I drop a couple of unpublicizable words and get out of my car. We all decide to move over to the side of the road (if we didn't, we would probably back up traffic for miles since we were in a construction zone because they are ALWAYS working on the roads in Tulsa, but never really fixing anything!). The lady who hit me got out of her car and was crying her eyes out. She had just finished up with her chemotherapy for the week so was already having the worst day EVER! The guy that hit her was a little off -- had the shakes... but said he was OK, then dropped the line that he's leaving for Iraq soon and he was so, so sorry. What the heck do you say to that? You can't really get mad...

So... that's how I ended my day.

Should have went to Curves...

She's IN!

What a long week... It seems like forever ago when I actually went through Recruitment, so I forget how long the week is. I remember how exhausting it was on the other side since that was a little more recent... but geezmaneez! It took what seemed like forever for me to find out that Lauren... is a KAPPA!

She loved Kappa all week and felt very comfortable and at home there. There was no pressure from moi... by the time it was all over, I just wanted her in a house and happy!

This morning, as I was waiting eagerly for the telephone call, I got an instant message from my best bud Nicole, telling me her sister had just called and was a Kappa -- I then started freaking since I hadn't heard from Lauren yet! Fifteen minutes later, she calls...

Its amazing what a week does to a person. She was SO excited... Lauren Hills... excited! It's funny... I don't think many thought she would really get into all of this, but she did. She has already purchased her first Kappa stuff -- and has her first Kappa t-shirt (first of 2,648). She is definitely a tired girl because the week is stressful, long, and full of non-stop smiling. I'm not sure if I'll get many smiles out of her when I help move her up to Manhattan this weekend.

So... she's a Kappa. I can't wait to share the many, many things that there are to share about Kappa -- I know the next four years of her life are going to be filled with so much and I'm glad that we will have this special bond together.

Anyone else think that summer has went by at warp speed?

Finisimo...

It only took me a week and three days (while others finished in about 5 hours), but I finally finished the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

I will not let out any secrets of the book. But I will say that this has been my favorite book! There was SO much in it... my head literally hurt when I finally put it down after finishing the final page.

Major kudos to JK Rowling for not doing what I thought she would do. If she had done what I thought she would do, I would have to do something to her that I don't like to do! (Makes sense, right?!)

So now I will return to 'normal' books (normal = nothing revolving around the wizarding world, it also = boring)... I hope Jenna has a list for me!