I LOVE FALL!

sweatshirts, fires, beautiful leaves, football, soup....what is NOT to love about fall?? (sidenote: i can only think of ONE thing I do not love about it--the time change. That means that I leave work in the dark of night and walk across a dark parking lot because maintenence won't fix the lights. Then I get in my car and turn my headlights on to drive home in the dark. Then when I get home I feel like I should go straight to bed. Whose idea was this time change business anyway? I think they should be fired. end sidenote) Again, I LOVE the fall! Here are some photos from the last month or so including lots of leaves and some pretty darn cute dogs, cute nieces and nephews, wedding reception, flowers from my sweet hubby, our most recent (and hopefully FINAL) home improvement projects, our future home site, and our Christmas tree!

andy was raking up all the leaves and the dogs thought it was meant just for them
then they got tired and apparently decided to pose for andyMaya, Autumn and Parker playingMike & America's wedding receptionCheck out the sweet shoes!Flowers from Andy...they were all over the houseThe hall bath when we first moved in....this has been a several stage renovationbye bye peach tile!open sewer lines dont smell great....couldnt wait to get the new toilet on. and just for future reference: press and seal wrap does seal sewer line fairly effectively when you are in a bindAFTER!!! woohoo!Kitchen beforeAfterBeforeAfterBeforeAfterAnother after shot just because I love it so much!Master bath vanity beforeAfterAnd now that we have done all that hard work....we are going to move. Building a new house means no major home improvement projects required for at least a couple years!!!Footings have been poured. It is hard to imagine that this will be a real house in just a matter of months.Here I am helping Andy decorate the Christmas tree :) Oh Christmas tree!!

10 years

Today has been a really great day. It is the 10 year anniversary of my first date with Andy.

We were juniors in high school. We had met a few weeks earlier at a band contest--sounds pretty awesome right? We were both there to support friends who were in the band. I went with a volleyball teammate who happened to have a huge crush on Andy. We all sat together and Andy fixed the broken zipper on my wallet (always the handyman). He ended up riding back with us to my house where a few other friends hung out for awhile. During that night, my friend that had the crush on Andy gave me her blessing and moved on to her next crush. Andy and I spent some more time together within a group during the next few weeks and then he called me to see if i wanted to go see a movie. Sunday night, November 1st, he came to pick me up in his orange Chevy Monza.It was raining so he pulled into the garage so I wouldn't get wet. We were going to see a movie and ended up grabbing some food at Subway and walking around the mall a little while we waited for our movie time. We saw Holy Man and it was apparently so memorable that when we were thinking of our first date about a year later, neither of us could remember what movie we saw...

One of our first pictures together

10 years later (not exactly. we took this last month...but close enough)

Mike and Ame

My brother Mike will be getting married to America on Tuesday, November 4th in Jamaica. I am so excited for them and SO happy to see my brother happy. We love Ame and are very excited for her to be "officially" a part of the family...though she really has been for awhile now already.

Mike and Ame asked Andy to do the photography for their reception (in Tulsa after they get back from Jamaica) as well as their engagement photos and Ame's bridal portraits. Here are a few of my favorite engagement photos. I would post my favorite bridal portraits, but I am not allowed to yet :)

October Stuff

Another post of randomness because I can't manage to post more than once per month...

Andy holding Parker. He will make a great dad one day :)Andy would tickle Parker until he was giggling hysterically. The second Andy would stop parker would say "Tickle...more...."Jake loves TuckerJosh, Sara and Jake came down so Andy and Josh could go to the OU-Kansas football game. Sara and I did what we do best...shopping. Jake couldn't handle it and ended up getting sick. They had to cut their trip short and head home :(I went to the Affair of the Heart with my long lost friend Season and her 4 month old Sophie. We had a great time and Sophie really enjoyed chewing on her fists...both of them...simultaneously. Isn't she cute? I went to Owasso last weekend for America's (Mike's fiance) personal shower/bachelorette party and for a Mary Kay makeover that she won at a bridal show. Her is Ame showing me what she would look like with thin lips.The Mary Kay lady had us put some lip exfoliant stuff on our lips...we thought it looked pretty good.

Me and Momma

So Andy and I are building a house. We will start construction on Dec 2nd-ish. This month we had a couple meeting to make all of our selections (tile, carpet, etc.) Here is the tile, backsplash, countertop, sink and cabinets we selected. Love it!

Here is our exterior (red brick, wood moss trim and black front door)

Here is Yoda with his friend Izzy. We were dog sitting for our friends Justin and Kelli.
Our church did Trunk or Treat last night. Andy and I made a Pumpkin bowling game and brought our big pumpkin Tucker with us. He was one popular dog.

The pumpkin is pooped after all the attention. Yes, I did buy a halloween costume for my dog and yes, I know it is pathetic.

metro 50

Tuesday night Andy and I got "all gussied up" for the OKC Metro 50 banquet. This is a banquet that honors the 50 fastest growing companies in OKC. Phoenix Hardwood and Plywood was among the companies honored and ended up at #39...

http://www.okcchamber.com/page.asp?atomid=1826

The banquet was really fairly boring, but it was a pretty big honor for the guys that work so hard at Phoenix. Plus, we got free food and got to see Mick Cornett, mayor of OKC, without too much makeup on.

Success

When a patient at our clinic graduates, or is finished with therapy, we give them a survey and this blank piece of paper that says "SUCCESS STORY" at the top. We instruct the patients to write a little about their experience in PT. These stories are intended for other patients to read if they are discouraged, or for new patients to read if they are skeptical about what PT can do for them. On one particular morning, however, it was me whe was feeling discouraged and skeptical. Through what I can only explain as God's prompting, I went into the waiting room and grabbed the Success Story book. I flipped through it for a few minutes, recognizing many of the names on these stories and thinking about how each of those patients had improved in the time we had spent with them. I came across a few of these that made me smile...a lot....and so I wanted to share them with you. This one is just pointing out some of my finer qualities :)
This was written by a 15 year old patient and is one of the most clever success stories I have seen.
And THIS is why I do what I do....