Zoo Day!!

Elizabeth was nice enough to join me and let me use one of her free tickets to the Tulsa Zoo yesterday! =)  (Hi, Angie!!) That was my first time ever there, so now I can cross the letter Z off of my alphabet challenge! (Still pondering what to do for X - your ideas are welcome. lol)

Here we are in the Rainforest building!  (I brought my good camera, and people never seem to grasp how to work it, so I only had one person take a picture of us.)

It's been quite a while since I've been to any zoo, but it did bring back memories.  I took several pictures while we were there (surprise!).  I love that the red-bellied piranha fish looks like it's speckled with gold glitter... it's really pretty.  I thought several times as we walked through everything that God is so creative and fun!  I had to laugh at myself when I was surprised that the flamingos have two legs (they just tend to put one leg up and balance on one foot a lot). My animal knowledge is sub-par, so it was an educational experience. lol  

This = an African bull elephant named Sneezy (I think). One of them was named that for sure, and that made me happy!

I also had to laugh at how many of them reminded me of movie songs/quotes.  "Never smile at a crocodile!" (he's technically an alligator, but still...) "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!" "This party really died!" "We're gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed!" "Kings don't need advice from little hornbills for a start!" =)

I hope I'm not the only one who didn't know there was such a thing as African penguins who can hang out in a warmer climate.  Penguins are one of my favorite animals because of all the precious waddly cuteness, but I never knew that!

Here we are at the Penguin pool - I loved watching them waddle around, shimmy-shake to dry off, have some food, and jump in to cool off. ❤  Also, seeing this happy blue water really made me want to swim!!

This is one of my favorite pictures I got because the girl and bird looking at each other cracks me up!

The Rhino Reserve + a replica of the giant crate they used to transport the rhino to Tulsa!

Cute little sleepy chinchillas! =)  Fun fact:  Elizabeth took a class field trip to the St. Louis Zoo in elementary where they all got to spend the night at the zoo - and she remembers sleeping next to the chinchillas! =)

Random pics that make me happy:  That kangaroo rolled over right as we were walking down, which was super cute!  =)  The giant tortoise slooowly coming inside to cool off. lol  The Siamang monkey putting on an impromptu tightrope show!  And a closed exhibit, but the giant Zookeeper notepad sign made me laugh!

How sweet and precious are these giraffes!?  We learned that they only sleep 5-30 minutes per day - how crazy!  (I liked all the signs with fun facts on them!)

A few more pictures I took along the way.  The polka-dotted bog turtle was super cute, and so were the seahorses! The tarantulas and snakes and the giant velvet ant were all super cringe-worthy!  And the sea lion cove made me want to go swimming again!  That, combined with walking a lot and it being pretty warm outside! lol

So that's a recap of my zoo day! lol  It was ridiculously crowded, probably because everyone has been waiting for good weather.  But it was free and fun, so no complaints here!  Thanks again for joining me, Elizabeth! =)

I miss it already!

In an unexpected and semi-tragic turn of events, the Flipagram app has now become "Vigo Video" - I guess they were bought out or merged or something - and the new app immediately deleted several of my old slideshows, and it is far less user-friendly and will only allow for 15-second videos or slideshows with 20 pictures or less... Lamesauce. 

Me and about a thousand other users have written negative reviews, but I'm still doubting they'll bring it back.  (I mean, I fully get that this is a first-world problem, but I genuinely will miss it!)  I made a Mother's Day one for Rach a couple weeks back, which I'll post on Mother's Day weekend - I was really excited about the song I'd found and just did it a month early - and now I'm so glad I did, because it's no longer possible.  (I've looked and can't find any app that offers those same features - I'll keep looking, though, and hoping they change this app back to what it was before).

Also, I'm sooo thankful that I saved several of the videos to my phone or to Google Photos or Youtube.  Back up your memories in more than one place, people!  You never know when something will crash or change without warning.

As someone who treasures memories and loves pictures, videos, and music, Flipagram was really the perfect place to combine all those things and make great videos for trips, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc.  (I just did a search for the word Flipagram, and it turns out I've written 56 blog posts over the past four years, beginning with this one:  FLIPAGRAM! ❤)

Here are some of my favorites that I saved to Youtube:
(Family Easter 2016)


(Florida with friends 2015)


(Random friends & fam videos)


(NYC trip last June)


(Jaceman's 5th Birthday!)


(Laura Running Tribute)


(2016 Year-End Recap)


(Summer of Mom's Back Surgery)


(Christmastime 2016 ❤❤❤)


Gah, I love them all!!  So thanks for all the great memories, Flipagram!  I reeeally hope to see you again someday!!

Photo Friday!

Happy Friday, blog-reading friends and fam!! =)

Here are a few recent pictures... starting with the painting class at River Oaks last night with my Creek County girls!  We made a pretty spring floral painting, and I'm always fascinated by how differently they all turn out!  There are step-by-step instructions, and no one in the room ends up with the same thing. God made us uniquely creative, and I love it! ❤

The instructor lady mentioned at the end that everyone should pick a signature flower to put in all their paintings, and she suggested choosing one that was part of your wedding bouquet. So I got really cracked up at that and the reactions at our table! "Welllll..."  "Thanks, life!"  "I guess we can leave ours blank." lol  Anyway, it was a fun night, even without a signature flower! =)

Yesterday was "Dress as your favorite animal" day at Kyndal's Pre-K. She chose a unicorn, which just makes me happy, and she picked out the blue lipstick. Rach got some temporary hair color for the occasion and made an awesome glittery tutu for her.  And, as always, she's a little preshface!

Speaking of hair color changes, I gave my Bitmoji girl fun pink hair since I can't have it in real life. lol  Yay!

My real life hair is more professional. lol  And look, I bought a bun donut thing and watched a Youtube video and figured out how to use it!  Whaaaat!?  I've done two very quickly and successfully, so I'm happy about that! =)

We welcomed a new Muecke girl to the world this week... precious little Gracie Mae was born to my cousin, Michael, and his wife, Melissa.  ...Maxine (my mom), Marilyn, and Melissa married into the Muecke name, then there's me and my cousin, Amanda ("Mandy"), who were born with it, and now Gracie, so currently six "Muecke" girls in our family! ❤

Here's a pic from when we picked up our race packets that I never posted here.  Yay for Tiffany and her friendship!!

My latest TV show binge is Friday Night Lights.  Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins = one of two men (the other being Chris Hemsworth as Thor) who can pull off the longer hair and still be crazy-attractive!  Both of them have piercing eyes and lots of playful arrogance, and I gotta say, it's a winning combo for me. lol

In the precious and adorable department, here are two videos of the Jaceman getting a card in the mail from Claire yesterday.  She moved to Italy with her parents around a year ago, but he still talks about her a lot and refers to her as his girlfriend. Lately, he's been talking about how "When me and Claire get married..."  There's lots of endings to that sentence, one being, "I'm gonna take her to Del Rancho and let her order whatever she wants!" lol ...He's decided that they're going to have a big house and two sons named Tom & Jerry (LOL), and a daughter named Tar-tar.  ??  Yeah, we have NO IDEA where that name came from! lolol  But him talking about Claire is just always super cute, and I for reals teared up when I saw the first video and realized it was a card from her, knowing he'd be SO EXCITED!! ❤  Childhood excitement is the best. His little laugh just makes me really happy, as does his random suddenly Texan accent when he says, "I'm wraatin' her ba-ack!" lol




It's been a good week.  Yesterday was lunch at Chuy's to celebrate Mary's birthday (with Mary, Jenni, Dianna, and Judge Hammers) - fun times!  Today, Judge is taking Laura and I to lunch since it was Administrative Professional's Day this week!  =)

And here's a pic of Dad's office staff when he took them to lunch for that yesterday. =)

And that's all for today, I guess!  Happy Friday, and have a great weekend!!

Call it what it is!

"The Bible makes plain what natural science seems unwilling to admit: that nature reveals both a Creator and a Corrupter.  Man blames the Creator for the work of the Corrupter.  Man forgets that our world is not as God made it. God made the world good; sin corrupted it. God made man innocent, but sin entered and made him selfish.  Every manifestation of evil is the result of basic sin -- sin that has remained unchanged since the moment it first entered the human race...

Today, the general reaction is: "So what?"  In fact, there is a definite attempt to popularize and glamorize sin.  Our most popular TV series are concerned with the decadent rich. Our magazine covers frequently feature the immoral, the perverted, the psychologically sick.  Sin is in.  People don't like to be told they are sinners... yet the Bible declares that every person on earth is a sinner in the sight of God.

Whenever I hear anyone take an exception to so strong a statement, I am reminded of the story of the church officer who came to talk to the minister one day about sin.  He said to the minister, 'Doctor, we of the congregation wish you wouldn't talk quite so much or so plainly about sin.  We feel that if our boys and girls hear you discuss the subject so much, they will all the more easily become sinners.  Why don't you call it a mistake or say that our young people are often guilty of using poor judgment, but please don't talk so openly about sin.'  The minister walked over and took down a bottle of poison from a high shelf and showed it to his visitor.  The bottle was plainly marked in big red letters:  'POISON. DO NOT TOUCH.' 

'What would you have me do,' asked the minister?  'Do you feel it would be wise for me to remove this label and put on one that reads: Essence of Peppermint?  Don't you see that the milder you make the label, the more dangerous you make the poison?'"

~Billy Graham, Peace With God 

Yesssss, PREACH!  I had to pause the audiobook then go back and listen slowly to type that out. That last illustration and final sentence says SO MUCH.  Our culture keeps wanting to relabel sin to avoid offending people, but God is clear that sin has eternal consequences, and it does far more harm than good when we try to ignore or sidestep or rewrite that truth!! ❤ 

Baseball Fun!

He looks so mischievous talking to the dugout coach here, and I kinda love it!  =)

On Tuesday night, I drove down to see the Jaceman play baseball!  (I then took 274 pictures in that one hour to commemorate the occasion. lol)  #ridiculousbuttrue #scrapbookingseason

Here he is hanging out with Jensen and Reese in the dugout... talking, laughing, chatting with the girls who walk by, and paying zero attention to the game! lol  Mess.

This = several fun pics of Jace Michael... batting, running, chatting with his coach, etc.

This = everyone else.  The Miss K with her Ring Pop, Fisher being cute and intense when he was up to bat, Huck throwing the ball, Huck and Cody, Miss K practicing her catching skills, T&C having some pretzels, Lucas on the base ready to run, and the Parrish fam leaving the ballpark.

These are pictures Mom took at their next game... Kyndal Faith was being her usual adorable self and chatting with the boys! Josh is helping coach - he's in the red hoodie next to Huck...

Aaaand that's a small sampling of our baseball pictures. lol  Mom is gonna try to make a collage for every parent on the team, and we should have plenty to work with, considering their season doesn't end until June!!  Yay for fun family memories and the cuteness of baseball pics!  ❤

2018 in 2018

This = my 2018th published post on this blog!!  Hooray! ❤❤  (I don't have anything monumental to write about, but I did want to acknowledge hitting 2018 posts in 2018. lol)

This Thursday, our women's lifegroup (Alex, Kelly, me, and Katie) volunteered at Tulsa Night Lights. They meet every Thursday to help our local homeless or very low income families...  They have several stations where you can volunteer, including grilling burgers and hot dogs, handing out food and drinks, clothing and shoes, painting nails, washing feet, praying with those who want prayer, and a "kid zone" area where the kids get to be kids for a bit! There is also a salon that volunteers to give haircuts and a company that volunteers to feed their pets! ❤ All around, it's an awesome service that they're providing, and I was surprised by the large crowd (of both volunteers and people in need).

We volunteered to hand out clothing, but they already had enough people in that area. So we volunteered for the kid zone, which was great!  They had sidewalk chalk, bracelets we could braid for them, coloring books, a 9-square ball game, checkers, and this epic game of giant Jenga!  (Kelly and Katie played each other before the kids arrived, and Katie's worried face is cracking me up! lol)

The acronym for their LIGHTS = Loving Individuals, Giving Hope, Touching Souls.  I'm cheesy, and I like that!  =)  We were asked not to take pictures during the event (from 7 to 9 p.m.), but they had a photographer who goes around getting pictures for their page, so here are a few of those...

It's so often a myriad of little things that add up to become big, life-changing things!  I think it's awesome that people can come here every week for a hot meal, some clothes or blankets to keep them warm, get their feet washed and/or get their hair cut, and talk to people who will pray with and for them!

Anyway, it was a good experience.  ...Since this kind of goes along with the kindness theme, here's a great quote by former First Lady Barbara Bush, who passed away earlier this week:

This is another picture I saved when I saw it on Facebook, because it's just a good reminder!  I don't know if it's personality or background or just the enemy at work, but it's always been a bit tempting for me to fade into the background and hide, not really offering much or using the gifts God has put in me.  So I'm trying to remind myself of this -- that God created me on purpose and for a purpose, and even when I feel unheard or undervalued for one reason or another, my voice and my heart matter to Him, so I want to be courageous and SPEAK UP and use them to glorify God!!  (And I want to encourage others to do the same!) ❤

Billy Graham Tribute

A couple weeks back, I watched a documentary on Billy Graham's life that Mom and Dad recorded.  SO GOOD!!  I had never actually heard him preach before that, but I loved learning about his heart for God and people, and the way God was with him and blessed his integrity and anointed his preaching!  They played several sermon clips, and in all of them, he was speaking with bold confidence and very directly teaching about Jesus Christ and the gospel.  Not trying to be cool or funny, and not watering anything down to avoid offense.  It's one of many things lately that is making my heart loooong for more solid gospel truth and less playing to the crowd that permeates so many of our modern churches.  We seem to have lost sight of the fact that God's Word all by itself is alive and powerful and fully complete, needing no alterations or enhancements from us.

Anyway, I love that he taught the Word of God with boldness and always gave an invitation for people to accept Christ as Savior.  It is so obvious that God called him and the Holy Spirit used him powerfully to draw people to Christ!  *My Dad is one of the many people who accepted Christ at the end of one of Billy Graham's sermons, watching him on TV in the summer of 1969 when he was 16 years old!! ❤  Mom and Dad also saw him preach live sometime in the early '80s. =)

One of the things I LOVED and admired most was his fight against racism!  There were literally churches that would not support him or allow him to preach because he insisted on no segregation - it's so crazy.  In 1953, he was preparing to speak at a huge crusade in Tennesee when he saw that they had roped off a separate area in the back for "colored people." He immediately insisted that they remove the ropes and signs, and when they refused to do so, he went back and did it himself.  I loved that -- it struck me as exactly what Jesus would have done in that situation.  I feel like he was mostly gentle and kind, but he was quite serious about confronting sin.  And he absolutely confronted racism and prejudice as sin in many of his sermons.  He was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who joined him at his crusade in NYC in 1957.  He actually posted bail for him when he was arrested at a demonstration in 1960.  In so many ways, he made a sincere effort to fight for unity and racial reconciliation within the church at a time when that was an unpopular move.

In addition to being an international evangelist and civil rights advocate, he met with Queen Elizabeth several times and he was known as "the pastor to the presidents." He met and counseled and prayed with the thirteen U.S. Presidents from Harry Truman in 1945 to Donald Trump in 2018.  He was humble and determined to love and value every person he met, and God granted him a high level of influence with people in political power.  I love that!

So I am thankful to have learned more about Billy Graham and his life and legacy!  I am thankful for his courage and willingness to confront sin.  I am thankful that God used him to bring thousands of people to Christ throughout his 99-year lifetime, and especially thankful that my Dad was one of them!!

"Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. 

Be courageous. Be strong.

Let all that you do be done in love." 

~I Corinthians 16:13-14 ❤

Fun Friday with Friends!

The Wilsons had me and Jeffrey over for dinner yesterday (Kelly was visiting family out of state).  It was so nice to see them and hang out - hooray for fun times with old friends! =)

This = one of my favorite pics of JEM! lol  (Tate started crying as soon as Uncle Mossman held him.  Aunt Lindsey didn't fair much better. But he had just gotten several shots the day before, so I'm blaming that.)

Chettles is feeling a bit tired these days! lol

How cute is this baby teepee tent!?

Karli made us tasty pasta alfredo with chicken + garlic bread and salad, and I brought cookies from Reasors because there was no time to bake anything. lol  We had a good talk... ranging from what God is teaching us lately to Disney World trip memories to parenting and life changes to OKC painting trip memories to trendy churches to politics to our culture's ever-changing definition of truth!  I'm thankful to have friends who stand up for real truth and share my frustration with Christians who compromise as soon as something becomes unpopular!  Somewhere in that talk, we watched a video of Ben Shapiro discussing transgenderism and abortion...

(It's worth watching, so I threw it in below!)

I'm certain there were lots of good quotes and funny moments, but sadly, I didn't write them down.  Lamesauce.  I love this pic - Tate and Chet and Karli all look really happy, and JEM is in the background doing the dishes! ❤  

Trying to practice fancy lettering with the Sharpie brush markers.  We were not awesome at it. lol

And finally, a super short Flipagram because I ❤ Flipagram! lol
DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE BY VIGO VIDEO. =(

Family Fun!

And now, a picture filled family update!!

They gave their full presentation to the class earlier, then did a shorter one for all the parents at the "Presidential Tea" on Friday.

Here is Carter Lee as Ulysses S. Grant (with the girl who played his wife, Julia). =)

This face makes me so happy!  He's so proud of himself, and so glad it's all over!!

Nathaniel, aka George Washington, and Jaceman!  Nathaniel is Carter's good friend and he's always super nice to J&K, and I love that!

The Presidents. lol

And the first ladies.

The Miss K is killing me with cuteness in this pic!  Supergirl, for sure! ❤

Mr. Ralph Bullard, the CHA Headmaster the entire time Rach and I were there!

K-Faith ready to play!

Lol I love this one!

 This was on FB "On This Day" today - a pic from six years ago when they were turning 4 and 5. ❤

A white cake surrounded by chocolate cupcakes...

AND individual cookiecakes for both boys! lol

Also, baseball pinatas full of candy!

=)

  

 Mamaw got them new Bibles with their names on them! ❤

 Brooke and Rach, the party planners!

"Now take one of me like this!!" lol  ...I couldn't help thinking of JEM and laughing!

Girlfriend has the sassy "gymnastics hands" down! lol  She can do a pretty good somersault and cartwheel! 

Jaceman's cartwheeling skills could use some practice, but he has plenty of confidence to make up for it. "I can do it, too! Watch!!"  ....Nailed it! lol

Rach's latest project = painting a glittery shoe shelf for Courney's boutique shop! ❤

She also painted these happy frames for their house... cuteness! =)

That's all I've got on family pics for now!

Hope you're having a great weekend!!