MM ~ K-Lamb

Today's Memory Monday post goes to Kristin... the "K-Lamb" nickname only applies for 5 more days, since she's getting married this Saturday-- so exciting!!  =)

Cute pic of Kristin & Jon:

I have so many great memories with Kristin over the past 5 years!  She was one of the first people I met in the 'Changie' Lifegroup and has been a wonderful, loyal, genuine, funny, wise, Godly, uplifting friend from the start! =)

I knew it'd be too hard to narrow the pictures, so I just collaged them instead. :)  Enjoy...

Ice skating & "Waffle Night" -- 2007 

Campaigning, NY Eve Party, Election Night '08, My 24th B-day, Hanging out with Officer Dave

First meeting of the Diving Deeper LG!!  (we co-lead with Bobbi for the first year or so)

Hanging out, LG, Superbowl night with Rach, Chris Cullins' Going Away Party, Cuteness!

Bobbi's Christmas Shenanigans Party, Hanging out with Lovenburg and Marcy, Austin Trip 2009, Celebrating her 30th b-day (we took the limo to Krispy Kreme!) lol

Liz' b-day, Christmas party, Hanging out, Rhema lights (love the wintery cuteness!)

My 1st Bueno experience!! ...Woodward park with the Changie group, LG friends, Co-leaders (my 27th bday), Scouting the Divine Bible study, Walking around Sand Springs with the girls :)

Taking food, etc. to Billy at the hospital, LG, my V-Day party, K-Lamb and TLT, Zios dinner, our adoring fan club after the Tulsa Run! :)

K-Lamb's shower, Charlie's Angels pic (Kristin is fierce!), Celebrating Laura's B-day at Cheesecake Factory, Austin trip, K-Lamb and her bridesmaids (minus Ingrid and Lizzie)

I'm so thankful for Kristin and her friendship and very excited to be a part of her wedding and add that to the list of great memories! YAY!! ❤

Photo Friday ~ Mom's Pics

I'm at my parents' house for the weekend... they just got back from vacation to Great Wolf Lodge with Rach and Josh and the boys.  (I was definitely invited, but opted out to have a nice 3 days off to catch up on school work and focus on training.  It was a good decision, but I'll probably go next time - swimming sounds so great right now!!)

Anyway, before they started unpacking, we looked through the pictures, of course!  :)
So here are a few Photo Friday pics from my Mom's camera and camera phone:

Me and Kristin in Anthony's newly-decorated nursery... 

And their chalkboard table on Mother's Day! =)

Jace-man learning how to be a cowboy with Grandad! lol

(In his "State Farm baby" shirt - cuteness!)

Great Wolf Lodge - waterslide fun!!

Parrish family pic! :)

Cute.

Kiddie pool waterfall

Family Fun!

Jace loved the water! lol

Dad feeding Jace in the cabana they rented for the day! :)

Poooor Lexi. :(

Fan collage Mom and I made for Kristin's wedding

Rach and Jace at dinner

Carter and T-man with their wolf ears on! :)

HAPPY OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONIES DAY!!  

GET EXCITED! =)

MM ~ Chet's Surprise Party!

Last Friday, we celebrated Chet's 24th birthday with a Murder Mystery surprise party!  Karli and Jeff planned everything, and Chet thought the party would be Saturday night.  He thought he was going to help Karli and her mom decorate for something at Fellowship Church.  He was definitely startled and jumped back when we all yelled "SURPRISE!!" :-)  Then we moved to Steve's house for dinner and the Murder Mystery game - (it was a Caribbean theme, if you can't tell from the pictures. lol)  It was my first time doing anything like that, and I broke character quite often (my character was 'Managing Mo').  It was fun, though, and I definitely laughed a lot!

Here's a group shot of us at the church after surprising Chet...

Jeff was hilarious as Thurston Howard, III.  (His character was a millionaire, so he basically just went around making snide, condescending comments and being super serious in pictures, which was awesomely funny coming from him!) 

This is just a collage of some of my favorite pics from that night:

Karli made a funfetti cake and a chocolate dump cake... the candles on the funfetti cake were sparkler candles, and they got a little too sparkly! lol  These pics all make me happy:  Everyone freaking out bc the candles were out of control... Chet speeding up the birthday song... then struggling to blow them out... and finally, success! :)

Here's a fantastic pic of Chet, Kyle, and Jeff - a/k/a "the boys" or "Three Men in Paris!" lol

And finally, an awesome crazy group shot!!  (Nathan was the murderer and Dave was the victim, so they're posing in character.  So is the girl showing her wedding ring, and Jeff with his 'money hands.' lol  Bobbi was the movie star, Amanda the tattoo artist, Jessica the waitress, Kevin the cop, and Mindi the island girl!  Ahh, I love it all!!)

Fun friends, fun night... and I'm still amazed that we really surprised Chet, who for many reasons is one of the more difficult people to surprise on his birthday!  Success!! =)

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

This was posted by Christine Caine - what God's Word says about us (His children) - and I love it!!

And this was Craig's favorite quote from the We Bought a Zoo At the Movies sermon!  He did add, "if you're following the Holy Spirit," after "I promise you" so that made me happy!! :)

In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my great friend, Chet Lee!!  =)

I've known Chet for over four years now, and it's been really awesome to see God work in his life!  What I appreciate most about him is that he genuinely strives to follow Christ.  (Passion with no passivity.)  He and Karli co-lead the South Diving Deeper LG, and they are a couple with Godly values and integrity who live out what they believe and teach!  Chet is always willing to serve and goes above and beyond on MicroMissions and projects for friends.  He is driven and sets goals for himself, but keeps his main focus on the goals that will further God's kingdom.  He has grown a lot in wisdom and discretion through the years.  He expects Christians to act like Christians, and he's bold enough to confront people when necessary.  He is an encouraging, uplifting friend -- hilarious and fun, and always passionate and excited about life!!  He successfully finished his first marathon this past year and will be running with me in the October NWM 26.2 (get excited)!  I have a million great, hilarious memories with Chet, and I'm so very thankful to call him my friend!

MM ~ Gunplay

Today's "Memory Monday" pics are from December 2009... Chet and I went to hear Sarah sing at her church Christmas program, then we all went to her house afterward and had a totally random impromptu photo-shoot with her dad's old guns!   These pictures all crack me up now! :) 

Standoff... this was fun!

Fierce!  If only Sarah and I could do Chet's one-eyebrow-raise thing. lol  And I think it makes the pic that much funnier that  I'm in nice slacks and Sarah is in a long skirt! :)

This one is just so Chet Lee... and I love it!

Charlie's Angels!

This might be my favorite. :)

And now we're just happy and ridiculous holding our guns. lol

Side note:  I hate that I didn't feel pretty or thin enough back then. Lesson learned!  When I get back down to this size (and I will), I believe I will appreciate it so much more this time - enough to feel really good about myself and enough to keep it off! :) 

Side note #2:  Turtlenecks and Christmas and all things winter cannot come soon enough!!  So ready!

Song & Psych Saturday! ;)

Went to LifeChurch tonight, and they played this song during worship.  (Well, they played a rock version that had me playing the hymn version in my head).  But when they got to the chorus, it was just one of those awesome, genuine worship moments for me... when your heart really connects with God in a way that makes you tear up... indescribable, but wonderful.

Anyway, I love Carrie's version - powerful - so here it is:


Not sure if the post title will stick or not, but I do like the idea of a day set aside for posting new thoughts or quotes on Psychology. :)  Here are a few brilliant quotes that I love from The Road Less Traveled...

"If an act is not one of work or courage, then it is not an act of love.  There are no exceptions."

"Dependency may appear to be love because it is a force that causes people to fiercely attach themselves to one another... It has its genesis in parental failure to love and it perpetuates the failure... It nourishes infantilism rather than growth.  It works to trap and constrict rather than to liberate.  Ultimately, it destroys rather than builds relationships, and it destroys rather than builds people."

"Many parents are unwilling or unable to expend the energy required for true listening.  Perhaps most parents... For true listening, no matter how brief, requires tremendous effort.  You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time."

"Loneliness is the unavailability of people to communicate with on any level.  Aloneness, however, is the unavailability of someone to communicate with at your level of awareness...  This kind of aloneness is 'shared' by all who travel the farthest on the journey of spiritual growth.  It is such a burden that it simply could not be borne were it not for the fact that as we outdistance our fellow humans, our relationship to God inevitably becomes correspondingly closer.  In the communion of growing consciousness, of knowing with God, there is enough joy to sustain us."

"The patient's will to grow is the one crucial determinant of success or failure in psychotherapy... people's capacity to love, and hence their will to grow, is nurtured not only by the love of their parents during childhood but also throughout their lives by grace, or God's love... I believe that grace is available to everyone, that we are all cloaked in the love of God, no one less nobly than another.  The only answer I can give, therefore, is that most of us choose not to heed the call of grace and to reject it's assistance."

"Those who have faced their mental illness, accepted total responsibility for it, and made the necessary changes in themselves to overcome it, find themselves not only cured and free from the curses of their childhood and ancestry but also find themselves living in a new and different world... even if they emerge from therapy without a belief in God, such successful patients still generally do so with a very real sense that they have been touched by grace."

~M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

Spiderman

So this post is mainly shallow, but I saw the new Spiderman movie tonight... 

Andrew Garfield - loved him!  And I love Emma Stone, and really liked this version of the movie better than the Tobey/Kirsten combo!  I also love that they are a couple in real life... just makes me happy!  And that he's British!!

Side note:  It's interesting/strange to me that so many of the celebrities and fictional characters I'm attracted to seem more Amiable than Driver.  (Mark Ruffalo, Jason Bourne, Adam Brody, Topher Grace, Andrew Garfield, Zachary Levi, etc.)  Men with a certain degree of depth, mystery, and warmth!  But I think with fictional characters, these guys can have a hybrid personality style that rarely exists in real life -- thus the cutthroat, super-wealthy, ambitious and successful businessman who spends his spare time with his adorable dog, babysitting cute kids, and writing long heartfelt emails about how he'd love to give you a bouquet of sharpened pencils.  Or the brilliant, well-trained CIA assassin whose greatest desire is to find his true identity and protect the woman he loves.  Or the lovably awkward, deep and sensitive photographer who snaps into heroic protective action when people need him most.  Etc., etc. lol  Men who are not too selfish or distant, but also not too passive.  It obviously takes both sides (putting others first and being willing to take decisive action) to be really attractive and/or heroic!!  I'd just like to see and implement more of that in real life! :)

Loved him as Eduardo, the only one smart enough to stay grounded in the Social Network!!  

*Every time I walk through double doors now, I think of him in the "lawyer up" scene. :)

Precious - I always love a half-smile.  The attraction is probably 75% personality, 25% physical... so not a totally shallow post. lol

And Emma Stone is fantastic!  Beautiful and vibrant and spunky and fun - just so much charisma! 

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow, and had hoped that this might help me choose between red and blonde.  I love both on her, so it's no help. :(  Definitely going for the bangs, though.  Cute!

Anyway, all that to say:  Go see The Amazing Spiderman!  You won't regret it!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

"DEATH ENDS A LIFE, NOT A RELATIONSHIP."  

~Morrie, Tuesdays with Morrie

"If years of wrong thinking have kept your life in a state of chaos,
it will not get straightened out until your mind does."  ~Joyce Meyer