JUNE 2022!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

"God's goodness determines the story of my life.  My reality is not ruled by pandemics, politics, or anything else.  I live in God; He lives in me.  My future is absolutely wonderful!"

~John Eldredge

JUNE MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• Talking with a Dave Ramsey "SmartVestor" then creating a financial plan
• Getting a lovely fishtail rainbow loom bracelet from the Miss K in my favorite colors!
• Gym time at Planet Fitness with Tman, thanks to their High School Summer Pass
• Garth concert!!
• The Jo Bros concert!
• Swimming at Mandalay Bay!
• Two brunches at Mon Ami Gabi!
• Watching the fountains from the Eiffel Tower viewing deck!!
• Rachel's baby shower at the Wilson home
• Celebrating Mom and Dad's 41st Anniversary at The Ranch
• Celebrating Dad on Father's Day
• Watching Kyndal Faith's volleyball games
• Playing volleyball with her in the driveway
• Catching up with the Peavlers at the J. Charles lunch event
• A movie + 3-hour talk over Olive Garden dinner with Kristin!
• Finally getting to hang out with Sarah Elizabeth in person again!
• Discovering walk-and-talk therapy (stayed up late watching that video and joined the club the next day)!
• Completing my application and interview for Colorado Christian's MACMHC program
• LIFE-GIVING:  Spending five days in a mostly back-to-normal Vegas after two years of no traveling -- yes, please! Watching my future home go from stem walls to a complete frame -- fun!  Swimming with the niece and nephews (and my happy new raft-chair) -- so relaxing!  More salads and fruits in our family dinners and my work lunches - yay!  Created new Power Thoughts pages for each day of the week - powerful!  Pursuing my grad school dream and creating a more meaningful future -- personal growth milestone!! ❤
• LIFE-DRAINING:  Learning about an active shooter situation at Saint Francis in Tulsa (I'm very grateful Sarah was home that day... but she knew people working there and said it has altered the mood dramatically at work.  Tiffany also knew one of the victims - very sad.)  And on a less tragic but still draining note, learning that yet another buyer backed out of the contract on my 522 home... (that makes six buyers who wrote up an offer and then either withdrew it or changed their minds, and two signed contracts that busted one week before the closing date).  Definitely discouraging.  I'm replacing the roof now and praying that next month brings better news.*

HAPPY LISTS

I Listened To:

• 1 Thessalonians through Revelation - round 2 of the New Testament completed (3 chapters a day = 3 months to go through it)
• How to Do the Work:  Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self by Dr. Nicole LePera, The Holistic Psychologist
• Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth - and How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey
• Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times by John Eldredge
• Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
• What You Wish For by Katherine Center
• The Jonas Brothers new album (Happiness Begins) and Garth Brooks' greatest hits
• One Republic's new song ("I Ain't Worried") featured in Top Gun: Maverick
• The usual favorite podcasts + added Dave Ramsey's Call of the Day & Everyday Millionaires

I Watched:  

• Jurassic World: Dominion (with Kristin at Moore Warren)
• Black Sheep (the 1996 gem with Chris Farley and David Spade... I laughed about as often as Mom rolled her eyes! lol)
• The West Wing, Season 2 (I'm watching it a little along at Mom and Dad's)

I'm Celebrating:  

• Lots of construction progress on my future home!!
• Lots of internal progress with God & living from my heart!
• Reading (listening to) several fantastic audiobooks this month!
• Health and fitness progress - choosing better foods and creating a new daily workout routine!

So that's it for June 2022 -- what a busy and mostly wonderful month!  *Prayers appreciated for my Jenks home to sell soon!  Happy Independence Day on Monday, and I hope you enjoy the long weekend ahead!! ❤

May God's goodness and unfailing love
pursue you all the days of your life,
and may you live in the house of the Lord forever!

Progress

We've been incorporating more salads and fruits lately (at home and in restaurants), and that has been a lovely change both physically and mentally!

My niece is the very cutest... she put her sleep mask on her little fox stuffed animal in her room (but pulled it up because the sun was out), and then she put her headphones on the cat toy and turned him to face her iPad as she went outside to play! LOL #thoughtful #adorable

I am super delighted to report some major progress on my future home this week!!  The pic below = my future living room and fireplace.

Rachel with Taber Homes texted Mom and I on June 20th saying they were waiting on inspections.  Mom told me that can take a while, so I hadn't bothered driving by it that week...

Then Rachel sent us this photo yesterday!!  What!?  I 100% assumed she had accidentally texted the wrong person until I zoomed in and saw the numbers on it.  Mom joined me after work in coming to see it in person.  It was exciting to walk through it, and such a fun surprise to see this much progress in one week!

For around a year, I was doing 75 minutes a day with Peloton, then it became 45 minutes for a while, and then with the move and job change and everything else, I fell off the Peloton wagon for most of April and May.  And that was okay!  But I am back on board, committing myself to 20 minutes a day right now, and it's been fantastic - I've been getting up early and working out before work - yoga, cycling, barre, etc., then either swimming or walking with the kids afterward (or going to the gym with Tman).  I'm grateful for some lovely walks in this cooler weather this week, and happy to step back into an exercise commitment that feels fun and achievable in this season!!

Also, hooray for the HydroMassage at Planet Fitness!  On days when I don't bring lunch and eat with my coworkers, I've started coming here and doing a brief workout followed by a 10-minute massage! lol  Yes, please!

Rachael got me this glitzy new tumbler - love the colorful glitter, and love the verse being on there as a daily reminder that "The JOY of the Lord is my strength!!" ❤

Thanks to Mom's photography skills, Dad made the paper for "State Farm Day," and it made me happy to see that (and it's always a good surprise when they spell our last name correctly)!

This email made me laugh, but sure, I'm up for a celebratory treat any time!

Mom bought some lifts and organized all of Jace's Transformer toys!  He was very excited when he saw it (while showing his collection to literally anyone and everyone who comes over to their house), and I love that she cared enough to do this for him! =)

Reminder:

May God give you the desires of your heart
and make all your plans succeed!

Photo Friday!

Our Father's Day pic with Dad this Sunday - please note Rachael's awesome card for him!

The precious Mini Miss K also made a lovely Father's Day card for Josh!

And please note her Husky shoes (her favorite dog).  =)  This was at LifeChurch earlier that morning.

A fun Minions pic... because why not!? lol  This was when Kristin and I went to see Jurassic World last Saturday.  Thanks to a side plot with some terrifying gigantic bugs, I still prefer Top Gun: Maverick, but both were good!

I listened to Dave Ramsey's new audiobook last week.  I really enjoyed it, and I feel so much more hope about this concept now, in spite of upcoming mortgage debt.  New life goal = Become a baby steps millionaire (meaning save, invest wisely, pay off debt aggressively, and have a net worth of $1,000,000) by age 50.  More on all that later, but I'm excited about it and have added his Call of the Week and Everyday Millionaires podcasts to my list! =)

On Monday, I had a delightful lunch in Sapulpa with Laura and Tiffany (Cleveland County was closed for Juneteenth but Creek County was open).  Then I went to Sarah's and got to catch up on all of life whilst hanging out with her and Kate, then Steve joined the 3 of us for dinner at Texas Roadhouse - yay, rolls - and yay for getting some in-person time to connect with one of my best friends!

Wednesday was the Wilson's 9th Anniversary, so here's a through-the-years collage for that!

A bit of encouragement for you today.

I listened to this audiobook a while back, and I appreciate this concise summary of The Four Agreements! ❤  Not taking anything personally is my biggest challenge, but they all require personal work and commitment!

And a fun meme to end on... it's funny bc it's true - the dramatic text message exhibits are always my favorites, though!

May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace!!

Photo Friday!

Happy Friday!!

Monday this week was Mom and Dad's 41st Anniversary.  We celebrated with dinner at The Ranch Steakhouse with the Parrishes and Bill and Jill.  Bill wrapped their gift in Christmas paper because he knows we love Christmas, and that made my day! lolol  #snowflakesandSanta

And the gift... was Club Crackers, an inside joke from our last trip when Jace asked if they had them after they rattled off a long list of fancy appetizers. LOL

"This just goes to show there's no amount of money we won't spend for you guys!" ~Bill

(For the record, they were a hit - each of the kids had some with/before their meal.)

The gifts Dad bought us at M&M World -- all pretty appropriate in their messages -- and we're each doing the pose of the M&M character on our shirt or pants. =)

Me and Tman told Jace that we hit the jackpot in Vegas and wanted to split our winnings with him.  He bought it for just a couple seconds, then realized it was $$ napkins. lol

Me and the kids had a couple fun summer swim nights this week!  Jaceman conquered his fears and mastered the back dive, and we all enjoyed the new raft chairs Mom and I got a Sams!

(That last gif = how a lot of swim days go with them.  The sibling rivalry is real!)

A post from Christine that was timely and encouraging for me this morning:

Some of my favorite Peloton coaches featured in Time Magazine this month!

Big news... I have floors and plumbing! lol  And yes, my mind went right to the verses about building on a firm foundation.

Chet texted me this happy summer pic with the hashtag #missingmockey.  Glad they're having fun, and glad they thought of me! lol  And happy I finally get to see Sarah again in a couple days (haven't seen her in person since my Tacos 4 Life party two months ago)!

Today, my cousin's company had a lunch event with the Midway food truck (tasty, but way too hot outside for food trucks) and then they served drinks, cookies, and bundtinis in their office!

Justin had taken Mitch and Jake to Omaha for the World Series, but Ashley and Gene and Nancy were there, along with several of Ashley's coworkers that I got to meet, and it was fun to see them and catch up a bit!  We haven't had a real family get-together in quite some time thanks to COVID, so none of the Peavlers were aware that I was working at the Norman courthouse until this week! lol  I failed to get a pic with Ashley, but here's what we both looked like today, so just pretend the dividing line is gone. lol

Tomorrow is the new Jurassic World and Olive Garden with Kristin, and I'm very much looking forward to all of that!! ❤

This song has been so comforting and uplifting for me lately...

Song of the Week = Hold On To Me by Lauren Daigle

 

"May the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,

and may He establish the work of our hands!

Baby Shower Fun + Mini-Update

I went to Tulsa for a Baby Shower for Mark and Rachel yesterday... here's our group pic in the Wilsons' backyard! ❤

Things that make me happy in this picture include the major contrast in these babies' emotions at the time... Juliet is overjoyed while Mason (I think that's his name) is over it!

We took two group pics in a row, and when I noticed this, it made me pretty happy too!  Tate thinking it over in pic #1... and lightsaber activated in pic #2! lol  

It was a beautiful shower at Chet and Karli's house, hosted by Kelly Moss (who made the tasty funfetti cupcakes and the cute lemon decor).

We had fruit salad, chips and dips, chicken kabobs, and cupcakes - yum!

I liked these better than expected, so yay for that!  Well done, Chet and Jeff and whoever else helped with these! lol

Tate joined the girls table in the dining room, and he was talkative and cute... telling us all about Star Wars and his Stormtrooper PJs and how he watches from the window when his Dad leaves for work and how this party felt like a tea party, etc. lol

I held Katherine Claire for a bit and took some pictures for Sarah Elizabeth, who was working this weekend!

Me and Rachel... love her cute pink dress, and love that my fun new pink boots show here (at least one of them)!

Karli made the balloon garland and lovely banner, which created a great photo spot for all of us!

Kelly Marie and Rachel!

Mark and Rachel... excited for them to have a family of four in the next couple months!

Mark and Chet Lee!

A few hydrangeas from Chet and Karli's flowerbed!

My card for baby Ella Claire... or Lucy... or Alice... or to be determined! lol

I talked to Jeffrey about past and future Vegas fun whilst Steve and Tate had a lightsaber battle and Kate tried out the backyard swing after we took our group pic!

It was great seeing lots of my favorite people and meeting Danielle and baby Juliet at this party... and toward the end, it was just me and the Wilsons and Shoemakers for a while and we got to catch up on life a bit and that was nice!

Umm, how cute are these baby apples!?  Sweet and crisp and the size I want all apples to be. lol

My future home will live here someday... they had the stem wall foundation up early last week, which is fantastic news... but as you can see from all the mud puddles in the pic below, the heavy rains have kept them from getting much more done thus far.  I'm looking forward to seeing and documenting their progress as things dry out and move forward in the coming weeks and months!

Jaceman got a cap gun toy from his dad, and he is A FAN!  He actually broke his own by flipping it shut too often, so he's using Kyndal's now, which seems about right.

Kyndal Faith has started a summer volleyball team, and I've gotten to watch her as she's been working hard and practicing a lot on her overhand serve! =)

Two cute throwback pics: At the Mini Miss K's request, Rach took the kids to see the Harlem Globetrotters back in March!  I don't think I ever posted any pics from it, but I just stumbled across them randomly, so here you go! lol

And I think that's all the updates I've got for now.  Today has been good and restful day with Mom and Dad, including grocery shopping and trying Tucker's burgers for the first time.  I hope you've had a good weekend, as well!

May God open our eyes to see wonderful truths in His law!