Couple's Retreat 2013

I think it is safe to say that I am more of the "grand gesture" person in Matt's and my relationship. I come up with crazy ideas all the time for places to go or do or ways to show him I love him. For example, before our wedding, Matt and I were living far away from each other (he in Midland and I in Inola). I wanted him to have some words of love and encouragement in that special time before we got married so I sent him a card every day for about 60 days prior to our wedding. I thought it would be fun for him to get something in the mail he could look forward to...and wasn't a bill. I am always trying to find different and creative ways to show him that I love him because I think that's important in all relationships or they get stagnant.

Don't get me wrong, Matt is incredibly generous and loving, his methods are just a little different. We have read The 5 Love Languages book and Matt is more about quality time and I am gifts. It feels so materialistic to say that mine is gifts, but that's also how I communicate my love. I send people things, I buy them little things when I am thinking of them. As a result, my Christmas shopping is typically done in October. Matt is the kind of guy that will just go and fill up my car and wash it while I am working on a project and I don't even know he is gone. I think he may also have the love language of acts of service.

All that being said, when Matt planned an entire weekend get away without my knowledge or asking for my input, I was pretty blown away. He even did a "reveal" which included a PowerPoint presentation of where we were going and things to do while we were there. He decided we needed to get away on our own before I went back to school and we had a lot less time together. That just melted my heart. He's giving me a run for my money on the "grand gesture" department...

He has always talked about how pretty the Broken Bow area is down in Southeast Oklahoma. I've never been there, despite being just about every where else in this state. One night while I was reading, he booked a cabin for us in a small town next to Broken Bow, "Hochatown."

  

On our way down we stopped in McAlister at Pete's place which is also home to the Choc brewery. It had all of these little private rooms which was neat and I can imagine very difficult to get into on the weekends. We checked out the Whispering Meadows Vineyard while in McAlister. They had a lot of really great wine. We bought 2 bottles and somehow Matt picked the only wine I didn't like and I didn't reference my notes before he bought it. We later poured it out. I have never ever poured out a bottle of wine but whew it was bad. 

There were some great places to eat in Hochatown as well. There were only a few (very small town) so we tried them all. There was a pizza place called the "Grateful Head" and while we were there we were convinced (like almost to the point of asking) that one of the characters from Duck Dynasty was there having a meal with his family. 

Matt did a great job picking out the cabin as well. Really romantic and nice! A girl could get spoiled!

 The area is well known for their trout fishing (apparently even in winter!) so we bought our fishing licences and went to the stream. We didn't catch anything, but it was still fun. Well that's not true. I caught other people's lines and a couple of trees when I tried to mimic what I saw a guy down stream doing when he was "fly fishing". Apparently I haven't mastered the art.

We drove around and checked the area out. The deer were a little less skiddish than my typical experience with deer. They even posed for pictures! They did decline autographs.

 One evening we drank some wine (oh and we checked out the local winery "Girls Gone Wine". Neat atmosphere, not awesome wine). We built a fire in the fire pit and just talked for long time and discussed Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" that we got as a wedding gift. Turns out if you sit there for too long, the soles of your shoes may start to melt. Not that I had any personal experience with that.

Pistol seemed to enjoy the finer things in life. He said that as long as he didn't have to ride in the car he would go back any time.

I hope we do this every year, it's nice to just spend time away together and discuss our goals for the year. Here's to 2013!!

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The Best Year Ever

First off-

The blog is under construction. I tried a new template and I am trying to customize it, but there's a lot of code involved and it's really just Japanese to me. If anyone is particularly good a blog formatting, I would love some assistance!!

Now onto the year. And I am talking about 2013. While 2012 was incredible, I am determined that 2013 is going to be the best year of my life.

To ring in the New Year Kyle, Danielle, Matt and I went to Billy Bob's down in the Ft. Worth Stockyards to watch the Casey Donahew band.

The lines were ridiculously long, so we had to get a couple of beers at a time.

 

 

Danielle and I got our hands on some tiaras.

Matt ordered our room on Priceline (not my favorite website). Some how we ended up at the airport. The upside was that the hotel was like a space hotel with buttons next to the bed that controlled the whole room. We thought we were pretty fancy.

After a New Years Day breakfast at IHOP, we headed to the Cotton Bowl to watch the Cowboys take on Purdue. It wasn't much of a game, but it was a good time.

So we started off the New Year right, with good times and good music and good friends.

I've done a lot of thinking about this upcoming year and Matt and I have discussed some of our goals. 13 is my lucky number, so I figure that's just another sign that this year is going to be great.  I am determined that I am going to focus on my health and overall well being. I want to feel good all of the time and try to do things that I've never done before. I want to save every penny I can so that Matt and I can travel frequently this year. I want make financial planning a priority. I want to excel as an academic and submit my first paper for publication. I want to finish up my course work by the end of the year so I can start working solely from home in 2014.  I want to make strides in my efforts to live a green lifestyle especially in terms of food production and taking responsibility for consumption.

Matt and I are going on a "couples retreat" this weekend that he planned entirely on his own. I am really excited! We are going to spend time together and put plans into action for meeting our goals this year. It's going to be a great way to get to know each other better, have a good time, and get in some quality time before things get crazy with school in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

I hope that you have awesome plans for an incredible 2013 as well!

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The Holidays

I had imagined that the holiday seasons would be a little less crazy when we moved back to Oklahoma. I have been known to be wrong from time to time. We did benefit from less driving, which in and of itself is enough reason to move to Oklahoma. But boy we were busy. Most of it was self inflicted. I'm not even complaining. I'm just going to show you a lot of pictures and apologize in advance that these aren't separate blog posts.

Our friend Jay came to stay with us for a month for a medical school internship. He was really helpful while he was here. We miss him already!

Matt is really handy and does stuff like climb on roofs and hang Christmas lights.

On Thanksgiving this year we had both families come here instead of Matt and I driving all over Oklahoma. It was really nice and I LOVED hosting. It was great to have every one in one place and I just enjoy getting to make use of some of our wedding gifts.

 Matt, Ian, and Pistol knew to stay out of the kitchen.

 Pie display

 Ian wanted to check on the Black Friday deals while we cooked. This isn't even a staged photo. Kid knows how to shop with the best of 'em.

 Our Thanksgiving Dinner. Yum!

We had a Bedlam watch party at our house because the game was in Norman this year and well, we have no desire to go to Norman. The outcome wasn't what we wanted, but we had a great time. The Cooksey's (My big) live in Houston, but thankfully were visiting Scott's family for the holiday so they got to come and bring their precious daughter, Amelia. 

 Family picture!!

(And a legacy)

The Cooksey Family

A couple of days later we went out to the pond by the house and took our Christmas card. Get it? We're lumberjacks.

 A couple of weeks later I hosted the first annual (I'm not sure if something can be the "first annual" but what I mean is that I hope we do this again) Tacky Christmas Sweater party at my house. I was trying to set up the timer so I could actually be in the picture (Don't I have pretty friends??)

 Anna helped me get it set up...

 So did every one else...

Matt's mom gave me her old Christmas tree because it's a pre-lit tree and some of the lights went out. Being frugal like I am (Christmas trees are expensive!) and Green (recycle!) I decided that it would be really easy to just restring the lights. Matt and Jay took care of it. After a few beers and many more swear words, they got the job done. Those boys, they sure are handy. And it was beautiful!

Matt, Pistol, and I did Christmas morning a little early because we had a lot of running around to do for Christmas. Try not to be distracted by Matt's sexy camo pajamas. He's mine!



 Pistol loves Christmas

 I was a baking crazy person this holiday season. Something about watching endless episodes of Grey's Anatomy (with Jay telling me how flawed their procedures are) and baking really makes it feel like the holidays. And it's also much more fun than writing papers.

We had a holiday party at my parent's house. My mom is a genius. She got Serenity a Christmas present, but she put it in the washer and somehow talked her into moving the laundry over to find the gifts. Makes me wonder how often I got tricked into chores as a child...

I love my little pirate.

My best friend- and our annual Christmas picture! I should make a quilt of these pictures when we're old so when she doesn't remember me any more she'll still know I'm a friendly face when we're making fun of the "crazy" people at the old folks home.

 Joe and Matt won a family game of spades by some crazy miracle (I think they call it cheating)

 Love this kid.

Next year I hope someone will tell me that after 12 hours it's appropriate to reapply make up.

 I spoil.

I'm excited for when he gets a big kid job and buys me awesome Christmas gifts. Just kidding. He bought me a book off of my Amazon wishlist by Al Gore which I am VERY excited about.

After my parent's Christmas, we went down to Duncan for his Grandmother's Christmas.

What a classy table setting. I have a lot to learn!

 Some of us like to accessorize with the table setting.

 Oh, and I brought out my home made sweater because I wanted to feel appropriately dressed for the event. Grandmother told me that she hoped I didn't pay for it. Joke's on her! Making her one for next year!

The next morning was Christmas morning! Matt's sister Donna and her son Ian were staying with Matt's parents.

 Ian got a new race track. This is his excited face.

 We had to go get some fire wood because a big snow storm was supposed to come in. I'm more of a supervisor.

Then we went home. Matt and I didn't get snowed in like we were hoping. I did come home with an awful upper respiratory infection though! I'm now on the mend and we are headed to the big D tomorrow with Kyle and Danielle to watch the Cowboys beat Purdue!

Adventures to come!

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Convicted

They say that you shouldn't make a career out of a hobby because once it becomes work, you wont love it any more. I'm not particularly good enough at any of my hobbies to make them a job, so I'm good there! What I have noticed lately is that choosing my career path (Environmental Policy/Public Administration) is perfect me because I chose something essentially based on a conviction.

While I find environmental issues extremely interesting, I am even more convicted by them. I notice every single thing I don't recycle. I cringe at styrofoam. I drive 400 miles each way to school. Packaging. Oh my. Packaging may be the end of me.

You can get a 2 pack of Philadelphia cream cheese for $2.38 or $1.78 each for the Great Value brand. What would the holidays be without copious amounts of cream cheese? So in respect for budgeting, I get the two-pack. Then I get home and open it.

 ^^ Original Box

 ^^ Two boxes in a box??

^^Then a foil lining (which I guess is understandable...)

So many layers for one little thing of cream cheese. Why not 1 box with wax paper separating each block? You could have 6-packs if you wanted to. The point is, I don't get all of the packaging. If you recycle, this is in no way more convenient. What is worse, is the paper for the cream cheese box doesn't actually fit into the "paper" category for our city's recycling, so I can't recycle it anyway. This just makes me feel bad. Real bad. I hate throwing things away. I'm convicted by it. 

But in the end, this is really a good thing. To be convicted by your career choice. It's unbelievably motivating. And God bless my poor husband. He is really supportive of all (well, most of) my crazy schemes.

It can also be a little inhibiting. For example, for the past couple of days I have turned off the heater. Not too bad of a decision because yesterday was a high of 60 and I lit a fire. I never had a fire place as a kid growing up and I think a fireplace smells heavenly. I also sleep like a baby when the house is cool and I am under the covers. Poor Pistol and Matt are probably shivering while my REM cycles are taking off. This morning I get up, light a fire, enjoy the smell and go about my day. But it's still really cold. So I make the fire bigger. Then I shut all of the doors in the house. Shivering. Look at the outside temperature. 39 degrees. Look around and ponder. Begrudgingly walk to the thermostat. Temperature is pretty chilly. Ponder. Turn on the heater. To 70. Put another log on the fire. Now I feel bad.

I go through a daily struggle. How do we find the point where the lines of planet stewardship and living in the modern age enjoying the technological advances of man cross? My carbon footprint may be lower than the majority of others because I think about it so much, but in reality if the average American consumer is at 100, I'm probably hovering right around 97 due to every day consumption, food shipping, flying, travel in general, home heating and cooling, and the list goes on and on. 97 isn't good enough. Not for as much as I care. Not for the sustainability of the planet (because the planet doesn't care what I think).

I am blessed that I found a career I find fulfilling  I hope to make a difference on a large scale, collectively lowering our carbon footprint. I have serious concerns about climate change and I sincerely do not want to suffer the effects of a changing environment. Seriously, people were wearing shorts last week.

I'm working hard on my degree. I hope that I will yield an impact on my community at the very least as a result of these efforts because Lord knows it's hard on my time, my ego, and a variety of other circumstances which sacrifice for me to have the opportunity to go to school. In the mean time, I'm going to go pick up my food from the food Coop this evening. I'm going to make my family crazy by taking all of the tape off of the wrapping paper and poor Matt will have to look through the review mirror with bags of it to recycle. But I am doing my best and I am motivated by the goal. I appreciate the conviction.

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