One week later...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom! She turns the big 5-1 today, but doesn't look a day over 38! :)

Mom, I wish I could reminisce about the day you were born, like you do when its my birthday, but instead, I will leave you with this:

On this day in 1957, Sputnik was launched into orbit (recall the 'Friends' episode where Ross dresses up as a potato spud and called himself 'Spudnik' - one of my all time favorites!).

On this day in 1963, the first prototype Learjet a mass produced business jet takes off in Wichita, Kansas on it's maiden test flight. (Hey, hey! Who knew your oldest daughter would end up living in this famous city!)

On this day in 1982 (only seven days after the birth of your first born): following it's success in London ( 1981 ) , The Musical "Cats" Opens at the Winter Garden Theatre On Broadway with Betty Buckley as Grizabella. The show runs for a total of 7,485 performances in New York ending it's run on September 10 2000. (What a day!)

On this day in 2001: Following the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon a U.S.-led coalition begins attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with an intense bombing campaign by American and British forces hoping to locate and destroy the terrorist Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization. (WOW! I didn't even realize... )

On this day in 2003: the Governor of California Gray Davis becomes the second governor to be recalled ( mismanagement of the state budget ) in American history first was ( North Dakota's Lynn J. Frazier 1921 ). On November 17 after the recall election Republican Arnold A. Schwarzenegger is elected. (Also another historic day for our nation!)

So mom, if you are wondering if anything of real relevance ever happened on Oct. 7, you can see that you being born is 100 times more relevant than any of the other things that have occurred on your birthday (even the launching of 'Cats'!).

Happy Birthday!

Life is not fair...

And I know, I know .... who ever said that life was fair? But I mean... COME ON! This guy left his girlfriend stuck to a toilet seat... and he wins $20,000! UNBELIEVABLE!

Boyfriend of woman stuck to toilet wins $20,000

GREAT BEND, Kan. - A Kansas man whose girlfriend was physically stuck to the toilet in their home wins $20,000 in the state Lottery - for the second time this year.

Kory McFarren of Ness City cashed in his winning $2 Bonus Crossword ticket in Great Bend Monday. On July 29, the 37-year-old McFarren received six months of probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor mistreatment of a dependent adult.

McFarren called Ness County deputies in February to report that his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, had refused to come out of the bathroom for two years. Authorities found her stuck to the toilet.

Medical personnel estimated Babcock had been on the toilet for at least a month and said the seat had adhered to sores on her body. She was released from a Wichita hospital after several months of treatment.

They Say it's My Birthday .....

Today I turn the big 2-6. Because I have turned another year older (none the wiser), I feel I should reminisce over the year-o-25 and the great happenings that occurred so I can move on and prepare for the year ahead!

Great Happenings in Allyson's Life (Sept. 30, 2007 - Sept. 30, 2008)

1) I got married! One of those things I always was hoping to check off on the "List of Life Accomplishments" and I finally did it! It was by far the best day of my life (followed by a tie for getting engaged and K-State beating OU in the Big 12 Championship game).

2) I got engaged! :) I'm still proud of Matt, to this day, that he was able to pull off something so big and so important without me knowing anything! I'm the nosiest and sneakiest person I know, too... :)

3) My family gained two more beautiful babies .... Luke Vincent Barnes graced the world with his presence on May 15 while Stella Rose Little arrived to a crowded room full of people on June 3. I love my huge family!

4) K-State beat KU in basketball at Bramlage after 24 years of losses at home ... My buddy Cliff was my partner in crime that night as we sped all over Tulsa trying to find a place to watch the game. We ended up at his place with his roommate ... they lived on the third floor and probably got turned in by their neighbors underneath them due to the extremely loud screams and the continuous jumping off of furniture on to the floor that I did that night after the win! :)

5) Matt and I made our first trip over the big pond for our honeymoon! We spent eight days in London and Paris ... and I recently watched "The Devil Wears Prada" and was actually really wanting to go back to Paris after watching it!

6) Matt spent his first Christmas with the Hills' clan in Sedan. He now knows why I'm a freak about Christmas and wasn't sure if he really wanted to go back to Illinois for Christmas ever again! :)

7) I got the heck out of Oklahoma (bad drivers, bad roads) and got back to Kansas!

8) I traveled ALOT ... women's basketball at ORU took me to many places I had never been (and most likely will never go back to): Boise, Idaho, Shreveport, Louisiana, Edinburg, Texas (hell), Fort Wayne, Indiana, Lubbock, Texas, etc. But I was very fortunate (though prior to actually going I was none too excited) to travel with the team to the NCAA National Tournament where they played the evenutal national champions, Tennessee. I was up close and personal with the best women's basketball coach ever, Pat Summit, and also was around some of the biggest jackasses in my business.

9) My good friend Jenny gave birth to beautiful Addison Taylor Cross on June 15 ... she is precious and the official mascot of the 320 house!

10) Aunt Sherron beat the sh*t out of cancer!

11) I met a lot of good people over the course of a year and that is something I will always treasure!

I will stop there though I know I have about 50 other things to list ... it's been a fantastic year and I was asked by my cousin how to top this year. She suggested having a baby ... I think for now, I will just continue to enjoy hers :) and enjoy being 26!

Life at NASCAR

I spent the weekend in Manhattan with my family and friends, while Matthew went to the NASCAR race in Kansas City for work. Camping World, a company Matt works with, was hosting the race and gave a group of Coleman employees tickets.

Around noon today, Matt texts me to tell me that him and his boss, Tim, were going to be on the field, next to the main stage while they were introducing drivers and to watch for him. So... Lauren and I bunked up in front of the TV to watch ABC for Matt -- nothing! PS. It was boring!

Then on the way home, he texts me again to say that him and Tim were giving the winning driver the trophy on the main stage and to DVR it. Hmmm... OK. We'll see if he actually is on TV. Well .... he got some air time! He was on the screen for about 5 seconds!

In the pic, he's on the front row, looking cool in a NASCAR hat ...

How cool is he?! :)

Bad Blogger

What you would think is that since I still don't have a full time job, that I would have all the time in the world to blog. Well, that's partly true. I do have ehh.... some time in the world to blog. The problem is I have NOTHING to blog about! You'd think my life was over after the wedding, but that is far from true!

For instance, our photographer just posted our pictures online ... all 1,303 of them! Holy cow! Yes, it's alot of pictures, but I'd take a million of that day! I'll settle for over a thousand though! (If you want to see our pics, go to www.siebsphoto.com - click on events - go to the second page and click on Hills/Clark - event password is allyson)

Let me come up with some things to talk about...

I have been on the job hunt ... I've been on the job hunt since July but I'm really hunkering down now since I don't have a fun-filled wedding to plan. The job at the top of my list is at Bradley Paper - it's a sweet paper store (I'm a huge nerd) in Wichita. The job description is questionable, meaning I'm not quite sure how many people they are hiring, what all I would be doing,etc. But I went in and talked to the owner and then took in some of my work samples today. He said he will call by Wednesday -- so everyone cross your fingers! I'm not getting my hopes up because I know better than, but.... we shall see!

Umm... right this second, Matt is passed out on the couch and has not felt good all day. I also was not feeling especially well today, but he is worried that he has flu-like symptoms. Ick!!! But because he wanted to make himself think he was OK, we went to Best Buy to get surround sound speakers (SUCH a guy thing because he asked me what I liked and the one I liked was the cute one - other than that, I do note care!) and he had to go out to the car and sit because he was feeling like crap. Guess who got to carry the surround sound out????!

This weekend is Jolly's bachelorette party which should be a grand time! There will be a great group of us there so I'm excited! This is also the Sigma Nu reunion weekend so my mom wants me, Jord and Lauren to meet alot of dad's buddies in college as well as her buddies. And to top that, we are celebrating Josh graduating from K-State! So it will be a packed, fun weekend!

Last but not least ... we are getting REAL TV Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, we cannot wait! All channels, movie channels, AND all of the great shows start this week: Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and next week, Private Practice. Life is good!

Have a good week before my birthday! :)

Raining Cats and Dogs

You'd think that we were living on the coast of Texas right now ... The rain is ridiculous! I took Matt to the airport at 6:30 this morning and was lucky not to flood my car out on the way home.

I decided that since I had nothing to do at the house today, I would drive over to Matt's mom's to watch some TV, feed our dog, etc. Holy cow, the roads are crazy! They've closed some down already, but the areas around our house that are open fields are completely flooded and the water is up to the road.

Sure hope I can get home ...

If not though, atleast I have a place to stay and watch TV! :) I'll try and get pictures up later!

PS. Our photographer emailed me this morning and said our wedding photos would be up this weekend -- yay! I'll be sure to post the link to them when they are up!

It's here!

The prequel from our wedding day has finally arrived! YAY! Click on the link below - it will take you to our videographer's blog, then scroll down to the blog post about our wedding and it will be under the post.

I have yet to watch it ... somehow I am holding in my inner demon and waiting until Matt gets home so we can watch it together (insert the 'Ahhhh....')!

http://fatcatrocks.blogspot.com/

Alright ... now only seven more months until the entire video is done (insert 'wah wah wahhhhhh....')!!

PS. My birthday is in 20 days -- the big 2-6! Has anyone been placing bets on how long it would take to bring up my birthday?!!! :)