15 Years

Just finished a busy ACU Homecoming weekend ..... it was my 15 year reunion, so it was extra special.  Friday I took off work to prepare for my houseful of guests.  Enjoyed lunch at Bogie's with Mollie and Sara, then Sara and I ran a few errands. Katie met us at Rosa's for dinner before we headed to the Sullivan's house for our casual dessert reception.  The crowd was small, but it was good conversation time catching up.  Sarah met us at the Sullivan's and Dara joined us at home later.  Fun evening catching up again with my girls!

Saturday morning dawned bright and early (and cold!) for the parade.

hanging out - waiting for the parade to start

Sara, Sarah, Katie, Mollie/Mattie, Astrid/Laura, Jenni/Anna

Some of the girls went on to chapel after the parade and then we all came back to my house for lunch - with the addition of Kristen (who drove in on Saturday morning).  A yummy lunch of Hickory Street Cafe's famous chicken salad and zucchini bread, then we all split to enjoy our afternoon pursuits - some to the football game, some to visit other friends and family.

Then it was time to get ready for our reunion dinner.  It was held at the 181 Pine Event Center - songs, laughter, Sing Song memories, truths of God's faithfulness shared, and photo booth silliness rounded out the evening.  Here are a few snaps:

Such a fun idea - and so thankful Katie has a box full of props!  It was a relatively small crowd - looking forward to more of my classmates making it back for our 20 year. Then ACU had a post-reunion dessert concert and fireworks back on campus.  It was a fun way to mix and mingle with folks from other reunion years and enjoy some yummy treats.

After church this morning, everyone scattered to head back home and I've been crashed out on the couch most of the day in between transferring loads of sheets and towels -- I do LOVE having guests, but there is a bit of work to do putting the house back together when they all leave.

Adventure....

While I am definitely a person that thrives on structure and routine, occasionally the adventure bug bites me.  Earlier this summer I was able to mark one such adventure off my bucket list.

SKYDIVING!!

My friend Beth was given a birthday gift of skydiving by her brother and she asked if I'd like to go do it with her.  As skydiving is one of the things that has been on my "want to do list" for many years, I immediately said yes.  Another friend, Matt, decided to jump with us, so we worked on finding a compatible date and then booked our adventure!

I volunteered to drive since Matt's sister Holly and parents were also going to come along to cheer us on.  We all loaded up bright and early to head about 40 miles east.  Easy drive out there, interesting directions across some somewhat sketchy terrain, but finally we arrived at an airstrip.  But things looked a little off......there was no one around and certainly no planes.  We were only about 15 minutes earlier than we had been told to get there, so it seemed suspicious.  We called the number from our reservation and received some interesting news.  Apparently that particular airport wasn't allowing them to jump anymore.  What we all wondered at this point was why none of us had received a call letting us know that we needed to be somewhere else.  

After talking with the staff, we decided to go ahead and make a day of it and head for the other airport - even though it meant completely retracing our steps and then driving another 50+ miles to the west of our original starting point!

Once we got to the new airport, there were a few more snafus for us to wait through.  Sick crew members, planes at other airports, etc. But, we persevered through the wait and finally watched the girl in front of us head up.  And then, about 30 minutes later it was time for Beth and I to jump.  We put on jumpsuits and then were strapped into our harnesses.  We squeezed into a tiny plane with our two tandem instructors and the pilot and we were off!!  

me, Beth and Matt with our tiny airplane

Beth and I suited and harnessed up - ready to jump!

Smoothest takeoff I've ever experienced and my first experience on a grass runway.  About 20 minute flight to get up to 10,500 feet. Hooking our harnesses up to the tandem instructor and a reminder of the process. Open the door. Step out and then 40 seconds of freefall and about 4-5 minutes of canopy float to get back to earth.  

me on the left with the  multi stripe canopy - Beth is on the right with the red, white and blue canopy

coming down!

in for the landing!

landed perfectly standing up!

Beth and I in our Top Gun moment walking back from the plane

with my tandem jump instructor Scott

It was completely amazing.  Breathtaking for sure.  Exhilarating.  Exciting.  If I could have hopped back on the plane and gone immediately back up I absolutely would have done so.  The plane would only hold two jumpers at a time (with instructors), so we watched Matt jump next.  After all that excitement and driving all over creation, we were hungry!  We stopped at a great restaurant on the way back home.

And if my description above doesn't answer the question for you.....I can't wait to go again!!

Ten on Ten - August 2012

Well, this month's 10 on 10 found me on the eve of a major move.  Thankfully my mom came and helped me get packed up so that when the movers arrived today, they were almost surprised at how completely ready for them I was. But the move was today, the 11th of August.  The 10th brought final packing and errands before the big day.

one pile ready for the packers to do their magic

the fantastic packers - 2 hours for lots and lots of breakables to get packed up and ready to move - 14 boxes worth!

first errand after the packers finished was to drop off the cable box/modem

lunch with Sarah during our afternoon out

one last pair of new tennies from Run On - highly recommend this great store if you live in the Dallas area

afternoon distraction

first visit to Ulta - the ultimate drug store / makeup store.....wow!!

yummy supper of pizza and tortellini shared with good friends - I will miss our close proximity Sarah & Katie!

desk is last thing to be totally cleared off and ready for the movers

boxes, boxes and more boxes.....just waiting for the movers to arrive

And then bright and early today a fantastic team of Mike, Duke, Dee and Romero showed up at my house to load all of my stuff into crates on an 18 wheeler to await the direction of my new adventure.  {a special shout out to my friends Sarah and Jamie who kept me company yesterday and today} I'll be heading west in a couple of weeks to be closer to family and will be searching for a new direction of my career, as well as a new home to share with family and friends.  Pray that I'll be following closely the path God has set for me and that the fear and uncertainties will be overcome by peace.

Joseph!

This past weekend 4 out of 6 of my girls were here to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I first saw this show in college and absolutely love it. This interpretation was a little different with the addition of rap and stomp style dancing but oh so fun.


Mollie's daughter Mattie especially loved the show. It was her first live theater production and for a 5 year old, she did a great job. She was riveted and sang along with many of the songs.


If you are in the DFW area, go experience your local theater offerings - we are partial to the musical theater offerings, but I'm sure there are many many plays that are great as well. Joseph was a presentation of the Dallas Theater Center at the Wyly theater downtown Dallas (and is showing until August 5 - you still have time to go!). The Dallas Summer Musicals are always great shows as well.

Ten on Ten - April 2012

Another workday Ten on Ten....just so hard to be inspired to take photos while I'm at work.  Since my job is very cyclical, each month holds the same tasks around the same time.  So, not only is it just that work isn't fun to photograph, I'm even doing the same thing each time!  So, very few photos through the day and more in the evening.

I do have pretty bed pillows, but the bed rarely gets fully made in the morning. So these live in a box beside my bed.

pseudo ROYGBIV - in highlighter fashion

view to the west out my office window -- with the new Margaret Hunt Hill bridge spanning the Trinity River in view

train graffiti - as seen on the way to dinner

interesting sculpture in Addison Circle

sushi - it's what's for dinner!

Rainbow, Philadelphia and Spider rolls.....yum!!

great idea for upcycled kitchen utensils -- unique decorations!

knockout roses in my front flowerbeds

desk vignette.....pencil holder from an early elementary school teacher, framed scripture from the ACU College of Business, a hand-tooled leather hair tie made by my cousin Randy when he was in high school and I was very young, a glass bluebird gifted to me by sweet Tonie Scott

(all photos taken with iPhone 4S and the Instagram app)

See other Ten on Ten participants here

Ten on Ten - February 2012

button bouquet made from my Grandmommy's collection of buttons

making boxes

40 boxes filled with 2007 accounting documents ready to go to off-site storage

ornamental kale {seen on the way to lunch}

organized chaos

King Cake - yum!

which squeezy to use today for my platelet donation? {the lion wins!}

yummy dinner with Sarah

great movie

pretties on the way out of the mall

See other Ten on Ten participants here