365 Blog-Day 153

I had a "first" today. I had never been a part of a hotel evacuation before, but now I can say that I have. After we got back from the wedding at 11:30 or so, we all crashed asleep. At 12:45 or so, we all sat straight up in bed and looked at each other thinking, "Is this a dream?" There was a loud alarm going off, a bright flashing light, and a man's voice on the intercom saying, "Attention, all hotel guests and personnel, please evacuate the building immediately. This is an emergency. Avoid the elevators. Please take the stairs." Becky said, "Ok, let's go!" and we took off out the door. We went down the wrong hallway and then had to go back to get mom's purse and then found the stairs. Everyone else in the hotel was evacuating as well. All 10 floors or so were making their way to the streets. We sat on the curb for a long while before we were allowed back in. Apparently a water line broke in the broiler room. We were all running on adrenaline and couldn't sleep, so we watched a few episodes of house hunters and then finally went to sleep around 2:30 or 3AM. So, we slept in this morning and then shopped and ate at Corner Bakery before heading back home. What an adventure! haha

Here's mom and me in our matching polka-dot pjs sitting on the curb at 1 something in the morning along with everyone else in the hotel :)

365 Blog-Day 152

Marci, Michael, Sarah L., and I got up and had breakfast at Cafe Brazil. Yummy! Another Dallas favorite! Then, I met up with mom, Aunt Becky, and McKinley at Cheesecake Factory for mom's birthday lunch. We even split a vanilla bean and turtle cheesecake. It just happened to be National Cheesecake Day, so we got 50% off! What a deal! Then, we went to my 3rd cousin's wedding. It was so fun to have a girl's weekend.

365 Blog-Day 151

What a wonderful treat! I got to eat at Rusty Taco (my favorite Dallas fast food) with all of these fabulous people. My home group all got together for a fun night of food and putt-putting. From the left, Rachel, me, Sarah Beth, Sarah, April, Sarah L., Marci, Michael, Christy, Brandon, Maggie, Natalie, and Megan! Whew! What a group! I'm sure Rusty Taco was glad we decided to eat there. Parking was a nightmare though haha. At least no one got towed this time! Sarah L., Marci, and Michael and I watched Unknown afterwards and the gals had a slumber party. It was so fun to hang out with my friends!

365 Blog-Day 150

A friend of mine from work invited me out with some of her friends from school. She is also an OT student, but is in her first year. We went to McNellie's for $3 burgers again. This time, we went to the Oklahoma City location. It will have to be a new tradition, because I rocked it at darts and the burgers are amazing-not to mention the sweet potato fries that are included! I had to take a 10 min. nap when I got home! That's what you call a good meal.

365 Blog-Day 149

This is one of my neighbors. Well, he doesn't actually live next door. He lives on my staircase. He greets me every day when I get home from work. I think he wants to be my friend and lets me get pretty close, but always runs away when I get to the stairs. He loves to lay completely flat under the shade of the last stair. I guess it's the coolest place he can find-literally. He scared my cousins a few weeks ago though. They wanted to be carried down the stairs so that he wouldn't get them. haha such a ferocious creature.

365 Blog-Day 148

I made breakfast for dinner. This is one of my favorite things to do. I just love having a cup of caramel macchiato coffee with eggs and toast. I put turkey and pepper jack cheese in my eggs and they were yummy! Hot sauce on the side gives it an additional kick. I watched another Harry Potter movie. I've now watched the first 5 movies. Only 3 left!

365 Blog-Day 147

Adrianne and I cooked dinner tonight (lasagna, grilled squash and onions, and green beans)-yum! We also worked out, so please excuse our sweaty beautiful faces. We also finished watching the 5th Harry Potter "The Order of The Phoenix". Only 3 more left!

365 Blog-Day 146

I am so blessed. M'kenzi just happened to be driving through Norman today on her way back to Dallas from visiting her parents. YAY!! What a fun surprise! We got a Sonic drink, toured my fieldwork site, and sat and talked. It was so fun to have another visitor this weekend. Just when I thought I was going to have a boring weekend!

After she left, I headed to OKC with a friend from work. He invited me to an inner city church that he and his brother and sister volunteer at during bible class. It was fun to be able to worship in English and Spanish as well as hear a message translated into two languages by the same guy. He would say a phrase in English and then repeat it in Spanish. Pretty talented. We helped out with the 3-5th grade class where we learned all about King Solomon building a temple for God. Then, we went back to my friend's house and a bunch of us watched a movie "Follow That Dream"-1962. I had never even heard of this musical and had no idea that Elvis was in movies. It was quite entertaining. I also fell in love with their dog Zeek-a huge Weimaraner! :)

365 Blog-Day 145

The Hartman Girls decided to come to Norman for the day! Yay for me! Family weekend! What a lovely day!

Here are Leah and Sarah playing my guitar

I think Leah secretly wants a nap

Hannah and I digging for fossils

Sister Cousin Michelle giving us a puppet show

Sarah and Leah were trying to stop the mammoth from stomping on Hannah! haha

Here are the girls in an Arkansas River hand carved canoe

Comparing our handprints in the wall. There was a really big handprint and Sarah said, "Look, it's God's handprint!!" I just love what kids say.

Here is Sarah and a Tri"Sarah"tops

365 Blog-Day 144

As if one amusement park wasn't enough this week, we went to White Water Bay with work today. Fridays are fieldtrip days, so we took the kids to the water park! It was quite the adventure! I was exhausted at the end of the day, but managed to still do 3 loads of laundry. As I was waiting on my laundry, I walked across the street to a baseball game going on. There must be some sort of tournament going on, because all week long I have gone to bed to the sound of the announcer's voice saying, "Now batting, shortstop, Cody Macelroy" or "Now batting, first baseman, Tyler Anderson." Yes, it is THAT clear and I am THAT close and my walls are THAT thin. Thank goodness I LOVE baseball.

365 Blog-Day 143

Adrianne, Angela, DJ, and I went to Frontier City to celebrate Adrianne passing her boards! Yay! She can continue on to get her doctorate of Occupational Therapy! Wahoo! Frontier City is an amusement park in OKC. We had a blast! We got discounted tickets since we were only there in the evening and the lines were super short! We even rode one water ride twice since there was only a 5 min. wait (we got soaked, which cooled us off as we walked around). My favorite ride was the wildcat!

365 Blog-Day 142

These old phone booths are all around the OU campus. It reminds me of Oxford and makes me feel at home. ;) It's the small things sometimes.

365 Blog-Day 141

As my roommate took her national board exam (and passed I might add!!), I decided to go on a bike ride. Someone else was on my bike when I got there! haha I was nice enough to let me off before I started out.

365 Blog-Day 140

Tonight we continued our Harry Potter marathon. I have now watched the first 4 movies. They just keep getting better and better. Marathon Mondays sure do give you something great to start off the week with. :)

365 Blog-Day 139

Sister-cousins (Darla and Michelle)

Sarah and Me

Hannah and Me

Henry and Me

Hannah, Samuel, Sarah, and Leah

Sisters Leah and Sarah

Sweet Samuel

365 Blog-Day 138

We woke up this morning and had a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage! Yum! Then, we went straight to the pool! These kids can't get enough of it. We stopped for lunch and then played Yatzee, jumped on the trampoline, and watched Tangled. I got to slumber party in "the girls room" There was a blow up bed and a bunk bed and 4 girls! We had so much fun! Next door was Cousin Darla and her two boys (and one on the way) and of course cousin Michelle and Jerry. They were nice enough to let us visit this weekend for their 16th wedding anniversary (Friday)-I was actually the flower girl in their wedding when I was 8 with my cousin Kasey. :)

"The girls" and me swimming.

365 Blog-Day 137

We went to the science museum today in Oklahoma City as a field trip with the kids at work! They loved it! We explored the exhibits, saw a planetarium presentation, and a live show with explosions! I really enjoyed this outing being the science-nerd that I am! After the museum, I packed up and headed to Weatherford, OK to spend the weekend with my cousins and their 5 kids under the age of 9! We had a blast and went swimming every chance we got!

Here I am taking one step for all humankind.

365 Blog-Day 136

We went to a nice restaurant called Blu tonight. It was fancy and very yummy. We split a Mediterranean appetizer plate with humous, goat cheese, and olives with pita bread, a Greek salad, and chicken pesto pizza! My kind of eating! Afterwards, we "helped" Angela get ready for her garage sale. We actually began to help her and then ended up just watching "Easy A". It was a really entertaining movie and the main actress is very talented and so funny!

365 Blog-Day 135

I rode my bike to Campus Corner and met my roommate, Adrianne to sit outside and read at the Chipotle patio. Adrianne treated me with froyo (frozen yogurt) at Passionberri. It was very yummy! Thanks roommie!

I look a little too excited in this picture! haha I think I was just so focused on holding it steady that I didn't realize how goofy I looked-fits me perfect.

365 Blog-Day 134

I left work a little late today to avoid the downpour that came out of nowhere. It has been raining off and on the rest of the night. I just love the rain! The smell. The sound. The power of it all. Love it. I just wanna curl up and take a nap (or at least go to bed early). :)

365 Blog-Day 133

My roommate, Adrianne, invited me to Harry Potter marathon night. We are going to start meeting at her friend's mom's house and swimming and watching a Harry Potter movie. We started off tonight with the first one-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was a really cool movie and it was neat to see all of the scenes that were filmed in Christ Church in Oxford or the 9 and 3/4 track at the train station.

I just had to pull in old pics from my days in England when I got to see all of these places. I just couldn't resist.

365 Blog-Day 132

I thought it was a pretty big deal that Michael let me keep our souvenir cup from White Water Bay. He is a huge souvenir guy. When we went to Six Flags, he whipped out his fanny pack and refillable cup just for the occasion. When we were getting ready for the water park on Saturday, he wore his Six Flags water shoes. This was an extra special souvenir cup because it was in the shape of a boot! haha So, I felt honored that he wanted me to have it. It deserved its own post today.

365 Blog-Day 131

Here we are after eating a wonderful from McDonalds-a clan favorite on Saturday mornings. Btw, we had one of the most enthusiastic McDonald's workers give us our meal this morning and it lit up our entire day! We were talking about how fun he was all day. Wish there were more people who enjoyed their job like he did. Anywho, we are all suited up and ready for White Water Bay in Oklahoma City. It is only 30 minutes away, so it was an easy drive. We stopped by a gas station and they had coupons for "Everyone Pays Kids Price". We were pumped! We started off the day by walking the plank just to get wet before we stood in lines. I thought since the other people in line were all under 10 that it would be a simple splash in the water. It was about a 15 foot drop and was actually pretty scary. I went really far under and got a bit disoriented when I came up. haha Way cooler than expected and a great way to start the day. We rode in the lazy river all day to get from ride to ride-it was very relaxing. We rode the family ride and were excited that we could count ourselves as a family. We made bets on how long it would take us to wait in line and I won every time :) It was a big raft that we all rode in down a huge slide and splashed at the end. Then, we went on a slide called the cannonball. You go down a slide and then it drops you about 10 feet into the water below. Marci did the slide that went straight down. Michael and I went down the windy one. Both were pretty fun, especially when you fly off the end. We got a souvenir cup that was shaped like a boot and we got fresh squeezed lemonade. We also had hot dogs and nachos before heading back out. We all were getting sleepy in the 108 degree weather and full stomachs, so we floated a few times around the lazy river and then decided to take a turn on "The Big Wedgie" haha It was terrifying but a thrill! I went first and it was a 277 foot drop straight down! I screamed the whole way down and apparently the lifeguards thought that was funny. Everyone else was acting like they were all tough. We were so high and we willingly let ourselves drop down that! Can you believe it? We needed something a little less thrilling after that, so we got in the wave pool. Then, Michael and I went down the black hole while Marci sat in the kiddie pool and relaxed in the sun's rays. Michael wanted to tackle the an obstacle course that looked like it could be on "Wipe Out". It was about 15 lilly pads long with ropes above it. You were supposed to leap from one to the other while balancing with the ropes. The lilly pads moved though, so it was pretty tough. I only made it to the 3rd one. Michael made it all the way across! To end the day, Michael and Marci jumped off the plank again and I tried out another slide. We were so exhausted from playing and being in the sun all day! We went to dinner at a place called Pepe Delgado's in Norman. It was wonderful Tex Mex. They were planning on leaving after dinner, but were so tired that they just decided to stay the night again!! Yay!!! :)

365 Blog-Day 130

Marci and Michael decided last minute to come up for the weekend for a visit! Boy was I excited! They were thinking about going to a water park and when I jokingly said that there was one in OKC, they said, "why not?". I insisted that they really didn't have to come, but they said it was great timing with their schedules since Marci just finished school last week and had a free weekend before she starts up again next week. So here we are at 11PM when they drove up and found my apartment all by themselves! :) We stayed up until 1AM talking and catching up.

365 Blog-Day 129

Adrianne, her friend Angela, and I went to dinner tonight to The Mont. It is a local favorite, so it was fun to get some good mexican food and sangria swirls! :) Adrianne and I ended the night by watching The Bodyguard. We didn't finish it because we are grandmas and have to get up early in the morning and were both zonked.

1st roommate picture!!

365 Blog-Day 128

There are archways into a park on campus that are covered in rose bushes and vines. Makes for a pretty entrance. This week has been pretty crazy with my CI (clinical instructor) being out of town for the week. I have taken over a few of her patients, have been documenting, billing, and planning treatment sessions. This whole OT thing is really starting to kick in and feel real. However, along with that comes a lot of responsibility. I'm loving playing with the kids, but it has been a challenge to keep up with everything going on. The facility I'm working at is wonderful! They have all kinds of adventures for the kids. So far the most exciting things have been horses and dogs for animal day, swimming (aquatics therapy), a huge sensory gym with 2 big slides, sensory swings, a ball pit, and field trips to go bowling!

365 Blog-Day 127

My roommate Adrianne and I have been working out everyday after work to either Jillian Michaels, Pilates, or P90X. It's good to have someone to hold me accountable to working out. After working out, I had the crazy idea to go on a walk tonight to explore more of the campus. What on earth was I thinking? It was 7:30PM, but still like 107 degrees outside. I found this gazeebo and cooled off a bit in the shade before heading back to the apartment. Pretty green for Oklahoma! This place really isn't too shabby.

4th of July Weekend

I decided that since I had so many pictures from the weekend that I'd go ahead and share them on here.

Don't try this at home!

Just Dance on the Wii

Swimming in the pool

4th of July Parade

Norman Fireworks