Halloween Party at the North's

The annual Halloween party at the North's house was also last Saturday. The scavenger hunt, bonfire, food, and fellowship with our Sunday school class from church was just awesome! We had a really good time getting to know new people. We miss our friends who moved to Austria, so it was a good chance to start making some new friendships with people here. Make new friends but keep the old, though, I got international calling on my cell phone today and called Amanda (they can be seen my clicking on the "Haskew" link to the left...or on any blog posts before July for that matter:). Above is a photo of Alex and Kristy Awtry and their new (2 month old) little girl, Brinley). She was a duck. On Sunday, the Awtry's...or actually the Carnegey's invited us over to the Awtry's and we saw Brinley's other costume, the turtle. We went over there after church and ate a tremendous pot roast and watched some football. It was fun. Actually, I am in a fantasy football league with all the people who just happened to be at the Awtry's this past Sunday - Luke and Amy Carnegey and Alex Awtry. Interestingly enough, we 4 are the only people in Oklahoma in the league. The rest of the league consists of people from Colorado, New Zealand, and Austria. So, the Oklahoma division of the "Vienna Bone Crushers" met to watch football this weekend:).

Jonathan eating and talking with Nate and Chellie Ison. They went to Montana with us in June (check it out...the trip was the trip of a lifetime).

Jonathan and I just before the card tournament at the Halloween party. I came in second to last, but in my defense someone had quit and I was deprived of my last hand. It's ok, though, the loser got Oreo's and we don't eat those anyway:). It was nice to get a picture of the two of us, though. Thanks, Alex, for playing with our camera!

Tea for Two?

Kellie organized a ladies tea with all of her cousins and kindly invited me along as well. This weekend we started our flooring project (pictures coming soon) and I took a break to have tea with some girls. It was quite fun and I met several new cousins I hadn't met before. Kellie and Josh are very close to his family, so we see a lot of them. They are all very nice people.

We went for tea in downtown Guthrie, our home town. Actually, it has a very nice look to it and is very nice to spend a Saturday just walking around. It is complete with train station (model railroad museum inside), chocolate shop (yum), coffee shop (double yum), many antique stores, and other unique and fun things. Generally the people are pretty nice and it is like a quiet small town. It was the first capital of Oklahoma (this year is the OK centennial) and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Victorian towns I have ever seen. Anyway, the place we went we had hot Earl Grey tea (which I had "England style" - my friends from the UK in college taught me to put milk in my tea) and finger sandwiches. It was about 16.00 a person for tea for two, so kind of pricey, but it was a nice experience so I would do it again. We are talking about going to see a Christmas Carol around Christmas at the Pollard Theater in Guthrie.

The Replacement

Well, we decided to go for a large conifer this time. We got a Norway Spruce. It looks like a Christmas Tree and we plan to decorate it for Christmas in the next month. The guy at the nursery said it will grow between 15 and 20 foot high. It certainly is nice to get some greenery.

The bear, Fred, has been with us for a while, but he is wearing the new hat Jonathan bought me this week. I love it! The old Cleveland Brown's logo is my favorite football logo ever. Fred just volunteered to model it for me since it isn't quite cool enough yet for me to wear it (but it should be tomorrow - 49!).
The past week, Jonathan was up in Wichita, KS for his new job and I had a seminar I was teaching for my job. So, neither one of us were home and the week went by really fast. This coming week I have been called for jury duty on Tuesday and I hope it doesn't take longer than a day. Next weekend we have a Halloween party at the North's house. It is an annual event and I have pictures on this blog from last year. It is always a very fun time. Nothing much else going on this week.

Husband Tag - I was tagged by Elizabeth, so I thought I would participate.

1. Who is your man? Jonathan
2. How long have you been together? 8 years - October 1999 we met.
3. How long did you date? About 3.5 years before we got engaged.
4. How old is your man? 27
5. Who eats more? Depends on the day...I would love to say Jonathan, but I don't think that is always true.
6. Who said "I love you" first? Jonathan...though at first he mouthed it at me and I thought he was saying "elephant shoes". It was very cute how bashful he was.
7. Who is taller? Jonathan
8. Who sings better? Me
9. Who is smarter? He says I am, but it isn't true...depends what the subject is.
10. Whose temper is worse? Jonathan...we are both of Italian descent, so we both have fiery tempers, though.
11. Who does the laundry? Mostly him, but it depends on the week.
12. Who takes out the garbage? Mostly Jonathan
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If we are in bed, him.
14. Who pays the bills? Me
15. Who is better with the computer? Me
16. Who mows the lawn? Jonathan
17. Who cooks dinner? Both is us for now, but I can't wait to really cook for us!
18. Who drives when you are together? Jonathan
19. Who pays when you go out? Jonathan
20. Who is most stubborn? That's a tough one.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me...though he claims he is never wrong.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Both about equally.
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first.
24. Who asked who out? He asked me to Campus Crusade for Christ
25. Who proposed? Jonathan
26. Who is more sensitive? Me
27. Who has more friends? Me
28. Who has more siblings? One brother each
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Jonathan

Our Tree Ran Away!?

No, this isn't a mangled broomstick from a Harry Potter film. I got home this evening (Jonathan is out of town) and got on my running shoes to go for a quick jog. I only planned on going out for about a mile and a half because I am still congested and have a cough (this is one evil cold...plan on not being able to breathe for 4-6 weeks if you have it). Anyway, I walked out the front door and realized....our tree was GONE! All that was left was this stick. By definition it is a stump, I guess. Well, for any non-Okie readers out there it is one windy state here! We had been suspecting our crabapple tree was dead for a while now. Well, now we are without a doubt. The wind came and snapped the tree because it was dried out and dead. We bought it in March and we were worried because of the strange weather this year. I called the girl at TLC (a nursery here) to make sure we could get our money back and she laughed that I couldn't find the rest of the tree (it was over 6 feet tall when we bought it). I hope she has the same good attitude when I bring in these remains tomorrow and ask for 50 dollars:). Well, I guess the good thing is we won't replace it with a crabapple and won't have to worry about mowing over the fruit:). I guess we know we will be planting this weekend! Now the fun part..picking out what we will be planting.

New Haircut

How hilarious that I cut my hair this week. Exactly 4 other women in our Bible class did the same thing and none of this was coordinated. Elizabeth, I do plan on responding to your "husband tag" or whatever that is:). It has been funny to read.
So, some things have changed in our lives. Jonathan no longer works for Terracon. He started a new job on the 8th with a company called MKEC. He will be in Wichita (corporate) all week this week to train. I have a training of my own (only I am doing the training) here, so it all worked out very well. We have had a busy last few weeks. I had jury duty last Tuesday. Thursday night we weekly Bible study at our neighbors and it was fun. Last Thursday we played cards with them until late. This weekend we hung out around home. Next weekend we will be doing the same and then we have a Halloween party and I have a Tea party on the 27th!:) I am looking forward to both and hopefully will have some good pictures.
Not much else I can think of right now. We are going to watch the Cowboys play pretty soon!
Have a great week!

Last weekend we went out to eat with the Richards, our neighbors. It is such a great blessing to have another couple on our street who are Christians and also have no children. We had a great time hanging out with them. We went to P.F. Changs where we got great food and then headed over to Freddy's for some nice frozen custard.

This past week, Jonathan was off of work. Why was he off of work, you ask? He actually left his job at Terracon last Friday where he had worked for the last 2.5 years and he starts his new job this coming Monday with a company called MKEC. He is changing from being a Geotechnical Engineer to being a general Civil Engineer and doing site development. He has been unhappy in his job for quite some time now, so this was the opportunity we have been praying for for about a year. It was funny how it came about. My friend from work was at a function for his church and a woman was talking about how her husband needed Civil Engineers. Marshall heard this and said, "I know a Civil Engineer who is not happy in his job" and that is how it began. Crazy how God works sometimes. Jonathan had looked at other opportunities in the past year and nothing seemed to fit, but this job that came about in such a random way was exactly what he had been seeking. Nothing is worth being miserable in your job like that! Anyway, we are very happy about this opportunity and we think he will be much happier. He is putting his MBA studies on hold, too, for which we are thankful for many reasons.
So, the past week he relaxed. We went out to lunch on Thursday and enjoyed our time together. I have been sick for a little over two weeks and finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday. I am feeling better today after 2 rounds of antibiotics and some wonderful cough medicine (I haven't slept like that in weeks). Also, our new mattress came this week and I must say that I am glad our last one was defective. I love Simmons individually pocketed coils. They form to you plus you cannot hardly feel when your spouse moves and gets up.
This Thursday night we went to Bible Study at the Richards together. Jonathan really enjoyed it. It is a great thing for us. Josh bought everyone prayer journals and did a very nice introduction to the lesson on talking about Christian unity (knocking down walls built up around us in our specific denominations, etc). The prayer journals were quite a nice surprise. After the lesson, we played Nerts (I have no idea how to spell it) which is a solitaire-like game and then came home. Today we are not doing much of anything. We are going out to eat tonight and then shopping a little bit. Tomorrow I am running a race. Recovering from this cold/infection, I haven't run in about 2 weeks, so I am going for a brisk walk right now, I think, before it heats up too much. I will jog the race tomorrow and run at Kellie's pace (which is a nice, steady pace for me). Hopefully she will be nice enough to send me some pictures of us running. I really would like to get a small camera...I can't ask Josh or Jonathan to lug around that huge camera (awesome as it is) to take pictures of us running.

The Eight Random Facts Game

Tagged by Elizabeth
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (if you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I eat my food in phases by things I like least to things I like most (which is probably bad motivation to finish my plate, but I can make it past the temptation and get a doggy bag and say "I will have great food for lunch tomorrow"). And, as I eat in these phases my food absolutely cannot touch (at least anything sweet and anything savory cannot touch).
2. My hobbies are sewing, scrapbooking, drawing, reading, exercising, baking, photography and the list goes on. I have too many and I like to do them all so much that there is never enough time in a day.
3. I play guitar, saxophone, and trumpet (not all at once).
4. It took me FOREVER to figure out Sudoku and at that I had to be stuck in an airport, bored to death, to figure it out.
5. I may not look like it, but I have run more than 8 foot races ranging from 5K to 10-mile. I am running a 5k Saturday.
6. I have had recurring nightmares about wolves and tornadoes since I was very young. I still have vivid dreams that I can remember. I found it quite ironic that we moved to Oklahoma with my tornado fear. Strangely enough, most of my nightmares I have about it to this day take place in Ohio with Jonathan, myself, my brother Chris, my parents, and our old dog Lucky who always gets swept up by the tornado.
7. I have lived in 4 states (OH, NY, NM, OK) and been a permanent resident in 3 (all but NM).
8. Some of my favorite memories from childhood revolve around my parents being the whole neighborhood's pitching and catching machines. They would all convene at our house and play baseball...Dad would pitch and Mom would catch. My brother and I always were working up some sort of clever scheme, whether it was making a sports team with the neighborhood kids or trying to start a golf ball selling business (they were used golf balls and we would collect them from the golf course out of bounds behind our house).

I am tagging: Amanda, Amy, Kari, Alisha, Kellie, Mary W, Kristen, Christine