November 2021

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

“Be strong... and do the work.

My Spirit remains among you.  Do not fear...

The glory of this present house will be greater

than the glory of the former house.  

And in this place, I will grant peace."

~God, Haggai 2:4-9

NOVEMBER GRATITUDE LIST

• Baking and cooking with my new electric range
• Lunches with Sarah and Katherine Claire
• Getting Ruby Claire back after a month+ driving rental cars
• Dad's generosity + my new car, Ginny the Genesis!
• Going to my first Bedlam football game with Kristin + an OSU victory!
• Two fun Friendsgivings (with the Fosters group and the Wilsons group)
• A wonderful family Thanksgiving
• My new Betsy Johnson pink purse and sunglasses
• Seeing the best girlfranz in the world!

What was life-draining this month?

• Seeing the aftermath but being unable to shield my niece and nephews from the emotional pain and inner trauma that comes along with high-conflict divorce and family brokenness
• Occasional frustration over feeling unheard/undervalued

What was life-giving this month?

• Feeling more connected all around -- to God, myself, family, and friends!
• Reminding myself that my presence in the group actually matters, and I have the power to change the atmosphere... which led me to suggest us all saying what we were thankful for, which led to more good talks and changed the phone-focused mood and tone of the family conversation on Thanksgiving
• Praying for people as they come to mind and entrusting them to God
• Walk/jogging at Crescent Park or through Mom and Dad's neighborhood
• Steven Furtick's Haggai sermons on 11-7 and 11-14
• Being contacted by a birth mom from Iowa who liked my adoption profile!
• Building deeper trust/confidence in God's timing on the adoption process!
• Family time reminiscing and sorting through stacks of old photos
• The entire gratitude list above. ❤
  

HAPPY LISTS

I Read:  

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (CEB translation)

I Listened To:

• More music and fewer audiobooks than any other month this year =)
• All my usual favorite podcasts!

I Watched:  

• Bull season one on Paramount+
• Cody Rigsby on Dancing With the Stars
• Hawkeye on Disney+
• King Richard (the Venus and Serena movie) 
  

I Made:  

• 2022 Goals using my Cultivate What Matters planner
• Thanksgiving desserts (Oreo balls, peach cobbler, and chocolate cake!)
• A short list of my favorite baby names! =)
• Happy Christmas cards to mail out soon
• Crossed over 18K Peloton minutes for 2021!
• Final edits and additions to Jon and Kristin's adoption profile book
• Progress in recognizing and recovering from low-level gaslighting/narcissism in a core past relationship
• Progress in letting go of anger/comparison as I remember that God has my back and is always with me and for me! ❤

*This recap was inspired by Emily Freeman's The Next Right Thing Journal, and I'm writing one for each month of 2021!

Girlfranz Reunion + Babah's Pictures

 Last post for tonight, I promise! lol  This morning, I got to go visit David and the best girlfranz... Sam Puff and Ella Bellsy!!

My gosh, are they not the cutest things you've seen in all your life!? lol

David and I had a good talk - (*please pray for his healing as he has a rare form of lung cancer, and the doctors are not sure how to treat it).  It was so good to see the girlfranz and hold their energetic little flompy-sue selves!!  I had a legit sneezy eye-watering allergy attack through lunch and took a Benadryl-induced nap when I got home, but it was worth it!

A mostly irrelevant but annoying anecdote:  I really wanted to hit a 100-day streak on the Pause App (by John Eldredge).  My morning routine is thrown off at Mom and Dad's, so I didn't think about it until later when I had terrible reception during Carter's wrestling and again during the game... then Kristin and I got home after midnight when I finally remembered, which made today (which should've been day 100) day #1 again! lol

Random funny pic of Rach blow-drying Kyndal's jeans that came out of the dryer with a few wet spots. lol

And now I present round one of Babah's pictures... we went through one little drawer, but there are hundreds more pictures from her house in different books and albums that we haven't looked through yet!!  I adore stuff like this, and I'm sure I'll make a slideshow eventually after scanning them in.  Here are a couple of Mom and JoBug's Senior pictures!

And a behind-the-scenes shot that was new to me of JB helping Mom get ready on her wedding day! ❤

 

 

A cute high school pic of them both!

Me and Rach 30+ years ago!

A Christmas pic of the cousins at 9121!

Grandad baking his famous cookies in JoBug's kitchen!

Celebrating Mom's birthday in our most patriotic dresses!  (I'm thinking Mom would've been around my current age in this pic, but not positive.)

Mom curling my hair before Rach's Sixth Grade Graduation... + a lovely view of their master bathroom in that old house + Rach and my swimsuits on the bathtub because it was right at the beginning of summer!

Mom, Babah, and JoBut back in the day!  JoBug looks so much like Emily there to me!

And here's this gem of an Easter season Muecke fam pic!  Not sure why I'm upset with the photographer, but I'm definitely giving him a glare look! lol

Denise Austin workouts with Grandad!!  I was so happy to find this one!!  My pink sponge rollers, that brown "big rock" couch and coffee table, and us having fun exercising with Grandad! ❤

One I'd never seen before of Mom and Grandad hanging out (and drinking Dr. Pepper) at their ranch in 1969 (her freshman year of high school)!

A classic sister pic from yester-year! lol

I adore that they dated these!  They should do that on every school pic that people hand out to this day.  This is Babah's school photo at age 12. ❤

There is SO MUCH MORE where that came from, but I'll stop there for today.

Happy Sunday, friends!  I hope you had a rich and fun-filled long weekend with people you love!  But if you had a holiday weekend that was more emotionally difficult or lonely, then I pray that God will be especially close and that you will be filled with comfort and hope for better days ahead.  Much love and gratitude for all my friends and family! ❤❤❤

Bedlam Saturday!!

My cousin, Kristin, joined me for my very first Bedlam football game this Saturday!!  I was pretty happy about getting this picture! lol

 

 

I'm coming back to that pretty soon, but since I'm recapping the weekend day by day here, we went to the Lighthouse (where K plays volleyball) to watch Carter's wrestling match on Saturday morning!  (This = Carter and Slate with Jessica and Keb Deppen!)

Rach took Jace and Kyndal shopping for their new cowboy boots... and they showed up just in time to see Carter win his final match!

I learned that wrestling is... not my favorite sport. lol  It's brutal and a little awkward, the uniforms or "singlets" are terrible, and apparently it's a co-ed sport where guys and girls wrestle each other so long as they're in the same weight range... which I find problematic for a number of reasons.  But all of that aside, it was fun to cheer for Carter Lee as he's trying something new!

One of my least favorite rule changes is the "Clear Purse Policy" for OSU games.  Thankfully, Mom had this makeup bag, so this was my classy purse for the night. lol  Tickets, handwarmers, cash, card, license, phone, and lipstick - done!

We let navigation direct us to Louie's, where I was shocked to get a front space and walk right in with no wait for our pre-game dinner!  We had fried pickles (yes, I actually tried them and liked them better than expected), "cheesy cheese" pizza for me, and a chicken pesto sandwich for Kristin!  Yum!

Finding parking for the football game was... a problem!!  We absolutely should've just walked from Louie's.  We drove round and round and finally got a spot at Mazzio's and walked about 15 minutes to the stadium (we left the house at 3 and got into the 6:30 game about 10 minutes late... but oh well!  I'd much rather be there for the end than the beginning.)  Anyway, I took this pic to post during the first quarter, but thanks to the jam-packed crowd, the reception was really terrible and it finally posted around halftime. lol

I'm so thankful Kristin was able to go with me!  While we're rooting for opposing teams, neither of us take the football stuff too seriously.  And I always have fun and feel comfortable with her, and it was great to have the whole afternoon and evening to hang out and catch up on allll the things + getting to laugh at the intensity of all the fans around us through the game!  We were both wishing the crowd would calm down enough to sit down more often... but alas, this was a game where they stood up through every moment of actual football!!

During halftime, the band played the "Hey, Mickey, you're so fine" song because it was released on that day several years back or something.  Suuuuper random, but it made me happy seeing this!  Not the spelling of my last name, but I've always claimed that song anyway. lol

The girl in front of us dropped this by our feet without realizing it, so I snapped a quick pic with it before handing it back to her! lol  #gopokes

I told Dad early on that I'd love to go to the Bedlam game if he hadn't already given those tickets to someone else... sadly, he had given them to his friend whose nephew plays for OSU.  But that friend eventually decided not to go due to COVID, and I was so excited to get to see my first (and possibly the last if OU moves to the SEC soon) bedlam game!! ❤

The "Hot Hands" hand-warmers were very helpful for both of us through the second half, so thanks to Mom and Dad for thinking of that!!  The game atmosphere was as intense and super-charged as I'd expected, and I loved the energy of it all!  The crowd really belted out Friends in Low Places between the 3rd and 4th quarter, which always delights my soul.  And those last few minutes were extra intense, everyone on their feet cheering and feeling tense!

Sports stuff makes me laugh when the mood goes so quickly from "OMG, are we about to lose this thing with just 30 seconds left!?" to "WE ARE INVINCIBLE!!" Lol  Also funny to me -- throughout the 4th quarter, they put a message on the big screen multiple times telling the fans not to go on the field after the game.  The fans did not follow directions well! lol

Anyway, hooray for a Cowboys victory, and YAY for them getting to play Baylor for the Big 12 Championship next weekend!!  I got celebratory texts from Jeffrey Edward and Rach right after the game!  Looking forward to next weekend no matter who wins!

Ginny the Genesis (+ Black Friday Fun!)

 Meet Ginny the Genesis, my beautiful new car! ❤

Dad and I went to pick it up at the dealership in Edmond on Friday morning... there are so many new features and things I'm still getting used to.  The blind-spot camera when you turn on your blinker makes me pretty happy!  Here's Jace standing in that spot so I could take a picture of him. lol

I love the grill and the way this green sparkles in the sunlight!

And the exhaust pipes are cool too, although I didn't notice them until Heather and Dad both mentioned it! lol  (I was much more focused on loving the name Genesis, a Biblical word that signals new beginnings!!  Yes, please! lol)

Here's the Miss K checking out the driver's seat!  The textured leather seats are also really nice... and something Mom, Chet, Rachael, and Kristin all noticed and appreciated earlier than I did. lol  Anyway, I really love it all, and I'm having fun learning more about it as I go, and I'm super thankful for this Black Friday gift!!

My plan to go see the best girlfranz got pushed back, so I actually went to see a movie by myself, which was my first time driving my car... that feels appropriate!  (*I saw King Richard, if you were wondering, and I found the story of young Venus and Serena very impressive... and thought it was a little irritating that they didn't name the movie after them.  Even though he had big dreams for them and "predicted" their success, they had to work HARD for it, and while he deserves some praise, I didn't love the level of credit they were placing on their dad for all of their accomplishments in life.)

I went to Target to grab more whipped cream for us.  Then I came home in time for a lovely taco salad dinner with the fam + Charlene and Heather!  Here's Jace getting the extra whipped cream ready. lol

And the mini Miss K helping with cutting the lettuce and the Velveeta for the queso dip!

I hope she was being very careful with her tiny precious fingers! =)

I didn't take any pics the rest of the night, but our dinner was tasty, then everyone came out to look at my new car (the ambient lighting is much cooler at night!), then we had dessert!  Jace turned on The Three Stooges and laughed it up with Mom and Dad and Charlene!  Me and Heather and Rach had a lot of fun playing Heads Up with Kyndal and T-man!!  Heather was an expert on the Disney round, the kids loved the Act It Out deck, and Rach and I aced a couple rounds of Friends trivia!  After the Parrish fam left, we had a good talk with Heather and Charlene catching up on life and filling them in on the latest news.  A fun Black Friday all around!

Thanksgiving Day 2021!

I drove down on Thursday morning to meet the fam for a lovely Thanksgiving Day! ❤

 

 

We started with lunch reservations at a surprisingly crowded Salt Grass Steakhouse... fun and tasty!  (And always makes me think of JEM being a waiter there.)

Jace commented about the guys in this painting being Dad, Bill, Bill, and Rick, so Dad had to text them about that. lol

The Miss K on Thanksgiving 2014 and Thanksgiving 2021!

After lunch, we met JoBug and Babah at Babah's house.  She's getting ready to put it up for sale, so we were starting to sort through stuff, and I got ALL THE PICTURES to scan in over the next few weeks!  It's a treasure trove that I'll definitely write more about later.  (It was a little bittersweet, but not nearly as emotional/sad as I'd anticipated to be there sorting through some of their old stuff.  Babah got to tell some good stories, and we were all together and laughed a lot about certain memories and pictures, so that kept the mood a lot lighter.)

Jace found this hat then grabbed their broom to complete the witch look! lol

The picture covering their downstairs window is toddler me in my cap and sunglasses!

I remember this little piano book... and it made me very happy to see the note they wrote me in 1985! ❤❤

 

 

Around 4:30, we came back to Mom and Dad's, and Kyndal Faith helped make some whipped cream for us! =)

 

 

Which could go along with my peach cobbler... or be eaten by itself!

 

 

 Jace grabbed a cowboy hat and talked about wanting to buy some cowboy boots on Black Friday...

We had lasagna for dinner... then I suggested we all say a couple things we're thankful for, and that became a longer conversation than I'd expected as the kids kept thinking of more things, which was delightful!  Then Kyndal suggested we all say our favorite Bible verse, which was another great talk!  And then we played several rounds of charades and HeadsUp, which was super fun for everyone now that they're all at ages where they can read and act things out and guess the clues!  Finally, we got a couple family pics using T-man's Apple Watch... we realized Dad was totally covered in this one, so we stood up and got the one at the top of this post, which I love! ❤❤  Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, friends!!

 

 

I took an excessive amount of photos this weekend, so there are a few more posts coming your way!