Thursday, May 20, 2010

When The Stars All Decide To Stop Shining...

You thought I forgot? Never. An elephant never forgets :)

Phillip,
When I first met you, I wasn't sure where our relationship was going. You seemed like a great guy, but I didn't think I deserved someone like you. You are smart, sweet, funny, and a very devoted Christian. I trusted God to show me the way and funny that it led straight to you. I questioned, I cried and I went off course momentarily. How lucky am I that you stuck by me. Even when I hurt you the most, you showed me forgiveness and a love that I never knew existed. Your love for me amazes me daily. I can't believe how lucky I truly am to have someone like you in my life forever. With all we've been through the last 2 years, I cannot imagine anyone else by my side. You are my rock and my best friend. I hope I can make the next 26 years, (plus many MANY more after), of your life half as wonderful as you deserve. I love you with my whole heart and I hope my actions, as well as my words, show this to you every single day. I love you!!
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Your Wife of almost 2 years ;)
infinite x's and o's





Peace to you,

"That's When I'll Stop Loving You" by 'N SYNC*

*PS - You have NO idea how close we were to having this be our wedding dance song. It was always my favorite love songs by a boy band and the bridge still gets to me every time I hear it ;)*

But The Computer Has The Evidence...

Good Grief! I was doing so well with updates. Unfortunately life continues to find new and "exciting" ways of making me exhausted. I was asleep before 11 pm last night and I'm still dragging today. I guess I needed that coffee after all.

First and foremost, I've decided to do a special "Ask Courtney" post in exactly one week, Thursday May 27th. As long as the question isn't offensive, I will be happy to answer anything you may have wondered about me. If you already know something, but want details, that's ok too! I know I don't have many readers, but I think it will still be fun :)


Monday, Phil and I got to visit/have dinner with one of our favorite married couples, Carrie and Jon (COJO)! They're the ones we visited in San Diego earlier this year. Carrie is from OK so when she comes to visit, we usually get to see her for a least an hour. This time, she brought Jon and the pups with her! We went to a new restaurant in OKC called 105degrees. It's a raw food type of restaurant because COJO recently became vegetarians. I know Phil loves his meat, but sometimes I eat vegetarian because I'm just not in the mood for meat. This place was delicious. Really! I was very impressed with the food, the server, the wine, and the overall experience. I also loved that it filled me up without making me feel just disgusting. Afterwards, we took them to our new favorite cupcake place. Turns out they were introduced to it earlier that day! HAHA They were so sweet about it. Apparently when we got there, they didn't want to say anything in case it hurt our feelings. LOL After cupcakes, we went by the bombing memorial since Jon has never been. The sun was almost set and the lights were coming on. It's always a little depressing, but it was beautiful and peaceful at the same time. I'm glad we could share that moment together. The only issue we had was the next morning. Since neither of us are vegetarians, our bodies are not quite used to digesting all of the pure vegetarian/vegan food. It was tasty, but we did not feel so hot the next day. If you want to check it out, but don't live the lifestyle; remember that your stomach may be a little iffy the next day. I'll still go back, but maybe not eat as much ;)

Last night we had some more storms. It looked like it was going to get pretty nasty so I opted to go to Norman to be with Phil. That way I wouldn't be stuck at home ALONE with three kitties with a tornado heading my way. After last night, I have a theory. *dramatic pause* I'm a tornado magnet. Seriously! There was quite a tornado outbreak last night, but most of it was north of the OKC area. Ok, we're good. Well, after I arrive in Norman, the dry line started spitting out storms. Within 30 minutes, these storms were becoming severe and dangerous. Two storms popped up at the same time around the same area. However, the one farthest to the west, in Chickasha, was following the turnpike on a NE path. The other was heading straight east. *dramatic pause* This is not what ended up happening. After it past Chickasha, the storm started changing directions. It was now going in a mostly E, slightly NE direction. MEANING it was coming STRAIGHT FOR NORMAN! Not just anywhere in Norman, the SOUTHERN MOST PORTION WHERE WE WERE LOCATED!!! Seriously?! Seriously? We go next door to the National Weather Center and watch the storms on Phil's laptop. I text my brother who says "I'm watching the news. It looks like it'll go south of me so I'll be fine." My issue? WE were south of him. The sirens were going off and the clouds were rotating. Was there a tornado in Norman? Actually, that storm never produced a tornado per se. It was rotating, but no debris cloud ever formed. After it clears, Phil decides it's safe to go home. You know why? NO STORMS HIT MIDWEST CITY AT ALL! Seriously?! Seriously? That was the entire point of me going to Norman. As I'm pointing this out to Phil, he decides to tell me he's a tornado repellent.
*dramatic pause*
I married the perfect man. Seriously.

You see, I don't think I'll ever be ok with storms if they're endangering my life and my home. I could be a storm chaser if I didn't live where the storms were. It's just one of my quirks. I know the conditions needed for a small to large tornado. I know where to go and when to start panicking if it's getting close. However, my gut and my head never agree. My cheeks get red and I feel like I'm going to throw up for hours. I just can't remain calm. Part of it could be because I know I can't control it. *sigh* I'm living in the wrong state for sure :(

I hope y'all are having a good week!

Peace to you,

"Major Tom" by Shiny Toy Guns

Friday, May 14, 2010

Calm Down, Release Your Cares...

Today has been really weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely strange. It started off with a loud thunderstorm. In fact, one big boom set off a car alarm... at 5 am :-/ Phil and I were going to get up and stand outside of Eclipse tickets, but it was still full on storming at 6 am and we figured we'd just buy them later. Then Phil and I went to pick up my check at work, deposited it, went to Norman for a meeting he had, (that ended up being canceled), then we walked to my doctor's appointment on campus. I have some eczema on my legs that won't heal very well. Luckily the doctor thinks with some strong cream, it should be good :) The weird thing is, when I apply it at night, she wants me to wrap my legs in saran wrap. That's gonna be interesting. After the doctor's appointment, we got home and just relaxed. I haven't been feeling very good all night so it's been nice to just lay on the couch. We've watched a little SATC, then My Cousin Vinny and Pandorum thanks to the Netflix application on Phil's Xbox. We lead such an exciting life. My Cousin Vinny was really funny and Pandorum is pretty interesting. It wasn't what I expect, but not too bad.

I've been thinking about how Phil and I go back and forth with one another. I'm sure to people who don't know us that well, they probably think we're just awful. When we tease and joke around, we can get kind of mean. Every so often we may cross a line, but we work it out and we're ok again. I think it's important to always keep people's feelings in mind. Even if you have a relationship where you're hard on one another, make sure your words are more helpful than hurtful. I tell people Phil and I have had a different experience our first year and 11 months of marriage. We've had to deal with other hard issues together. This made our arguments different from most newlyweds. However, there are still a few lessons about being a new wife that I've had to learn the hard way. I try my best to lead a life worthy of my role as a wife, daughter, sister and follower of Christ. I may not always do the best job, but I always do my best :)

Peace to you,


"Recycled Air" by The Postal Service

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Diamond Ring, Tie Me Down...

So the big news I couldn't share before is....

My BFF/Favorite Person in the Whole Entire World/Venus, Ms. Annette, is ENGAGED!!!WOOHOO!!!

I'm a little excited ;)

Anyways, so now I'm dreaming up her secret bridal shower! It'll be a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme and I'm so excited! It's a secret because her grandmother read the book the movie is based off of and she decided the main character was too much of a, *cough cough*, woman of the evening type. So, we have to keep her out of the loop.

I'm looking at venues in T-town and boy are they a little pricey for my budget. However, a girl can dream. Here are some pictures of what I've found as inspiration. I don't have sources for all of them, because I found some of the pictures a few months ago. Enjoy!





Prize for winner of whatever games we play














Peace to you,

"Marry Me" by No Doubt

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

No Huggee, No Kissee Until I Get A Wedding Ring...

I am still very happy about some news I received yesterday that I cannot reveal until another time. It's great stuff though!!

Today I'm going to be domestic Courtney! I'll be going for a jog since the weather isn't too bad just yet. I bought a Women's Health magazine last night and I'm motivated again to get moving. The weather is usually a big factor for me not exercising, but it really is a silly excuse. After that I'll shower before going to the laundromat then I'll be grocery shopping! Hopefully the weather will not get too bad tonight until Phil gets home from work around 4:30 or 5.

Our 2 year wedding anniversary is coming up very soon and I finally decided what I want to give Phil. You see, when we were engaged, Zales came out with a new line of scratch resistant, sturdy rings. Knowing Phil works in labs with chemicals and all kinds of metal equipment, I figured this would be the best option for his ring! Plus, he didn't want any gems in his ring. He thought it was too girlie ;) So we bought him a tungsten ring with lazer engraved pattern on it that was similar to his promise ring I had given him years before.

Promise Ring from James Avery
Wedding Ring

Zales online version

About a year ago, Phil noticed something was weird with his ring. It looked like the pattern was rubbing off! We tried cleaning it, we took it to Zales and they cleaned it. Nothing was helping. The more we researched it, the more we realized this has happened to other people. Since I don't have a very good background with Chemistry, (I just don't get it really), I can't explain exactly why this happened, but I can do my best to tell you have I understand it. You see, you can't have tungsten as a metal by itself. It is too brittle and can break like a piece of pottery without warning. When tungsten rings first became popular, jewlery stores used cobalt as another metal that would stablize the tungsten and make it less brittle, (Phil calls it a binding agent). Well, we are finding out that the cobalt can react to the natural oils on peoples hands and it causes the cobalt to permanetly stain the ring. Jewelry stores are actually using nickle as the binding agent now because it doesn't do this. Well, now we're left with Phil's ring that just looks sad. I mean, its not even really a vanity thing. It's more of, I want his ring to reflect the loving and beautiful words we said to each other when we promised our lives and our love to one another for the rest of our lives. Besides, my rings are beautiful and he deserves the same, without the diamonds ;)


It's blurry, but this is how it looks now

His 2 year anniversary gift will be a new ring that he can wear with pride. I decided I did not want to deal with tungsten again so we're looking at a simple white gold band. Plus, now I can get it engraved! I've been looking up bible verses to engrave on it and I think Phil has picked his favorite. Song of Solomon 8:6-7 is a beautiful verse about unbreakable love. I actually sang a song a long time ago based on this verse. I was an alto then and it has a gorgeous alto line. I found this video on youtube of it too! Fair warning: at the end of the song, when you're still taking in the beauty of the song, some one in the audience coughs and breaks the mood :-/ Its still worth listening to though.

I'm not trying to give Zales a bad reputation. In fact, they've been helpful about other things to this point in our jewelry relationship. We haven't talked to them about exchanging the ring or anything, but I'm sure they'll be helpful. Plus, I paid an extra $60 for a lifetime protection plan. This should apply to that plan, but we'll see. I'm just saying this is what happened to Phil's tungsten ring and that we're disappointed in the ring since we've only had it for 2 years.

I hope y'all have a great day today!

Peace to you,


"Keep Your Hands To Yourself" by The Calling

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Baby, Why'm I Worried Now...

It was quite an exciting evening last night. If you're not aware, Oklahoma got a large outbreak of tornadoes last night. It was pretty scary for me because I was home alone and Phil was still driving up from Norman. As the sirens started to go off, I started to panic! I'm not good with crisis situations when I'm completely alone. Granted I had three cats with me, but they're not always helpful ;) I threw the cats in our safe place, the closet/bathroom downstairs, and tried to get ahold of Phil. He said he was getting closer and listening to the radio. I then corresponded with my mom on the phone several times just so I wouldn't have a panic attack. Even after Phil FINALLY got home, (the second time the sirens went off), I was still a little panic-y. Once the storm shifted and went straight east, I started to calm down a little. You see, at the time, there were 3 storms southwest of us fighting for the same atmosphere to start up a tornado and one further south. Once I was feeling better, we watched a video of the storm in Norman that made a van on the highway spin around at least 1 full time and then flip off the road. I immediately called my bro in Norman who said it was all east of him. *side note: If you remember my tornado story from last year, after all of that I called Mikey who had been doing laundry and was blissfully unaware of how bad the storms were. Yeesh.* Luckily no one I know personally got hurt. A few have some roof damage, but nothing too bad. Phil and I were sad to see the only 24-hour Sonic nearby might be damaged. If you see coverage or pictures on your news and they're talking about a Love's gas station in Choctaw, the Sonic is across the highway from there. I know it's silly, but we love our late night trips together :) I saw we were mentioned on the Today show this morning, but then our local stations cut in so I'm not sure what they said. I'm just glad my mom and Phil helped me keep it together as much as I did!

With all that excitement, Phil and I didn't eat dinner until almost 9. It was worth the wait though! I made a favorite of ours and tried a new side dish. I've never eaten bok choy on its own before so I tried a recipe I found online! It turned out pretty good to me :D The main course is a Peanut-Chicken Stir-Fry from a Southern Homes and Gardens cookbook I got at a wedding shower. It's delicious AND it calls for jasmine rice. If you've never had jasmine rice, you should try it! We love making it in our rice cooker because it smells wonderful. We watched a little anime while we ate, then went to bed early. I'm sure my panic attacks/hot flashes are not good for my blood pressure anyways.

We're supposedly still in the right conditions to get severe weather the rest of the week so I'm hoping it chooses NOT to do anything. Ugh. I feel like one of 10 people in the entire state who hates storm season. People were posting pictures on facebook of them seeding their lawns or hanging out in lawn chairs with a beer. I was pacing my apartment in between hot flashes trying not to cry. Ah well.

I thought I'd share some pictures that people posted online of the actual storms/tornadoes. I found them all here at a local news station website. It's best to watch the slideshow because sometimes people upload pictures of themselves =P The slideshow will show some of the best pictures directly related to the storm.


This is actually one of the first tornadoes that hit the Tuttle/Minco area. This is about 35 miles southwest(ish) from downtown OKC. To give you idea of where I am, I'm literally 6 miles straight east of downtown.
This is the one that hit Norman. It started off smaller, but then got this big. It wasn't the biggest one of the night, but its the reason I had to check on Mikey!

Here are some of the hail stones in the Moore area. Moore is between Norman and OKC. The hail in Midwest City was about quarter size at best. We got really lucky.

Now I'm just finishing up my first official lesson for my online class. It's Intro to Grammar and now I'm feeling very paranoid O_0 Hopefully this class will help me feel more confident with my skills :) One can hope right? HAHA It good news, I received my grades for the semester and I have 2 As and 2 Bs! One of the best semesters I've had in awhile :D Now my overall gpa has gone up to a 2.48!!! W00t! If you're still taking finals or waiting on your grades, I hope you receive good news.

I hope y'all had a better night than we did weather-wise! Stay safe and have a great day.

Peace to you,

"Middle Cyclone" by Neko Case

Monday, May 10, 2010

Could The Maker Of The Stars Hear The Sound...

After the day I had yesterday, I just have enough energy to post this. Hope all is well with y'all :)


For today...

Outside my window... Cloudy and windy. There's supposed to be serve weather/tornadoes tonight. Ugh... I don't like storm season xb

I am thinking... about my online class that starts today. Still no book so I hope I don't have an assignment due tonight.

I am praying... for patience, trust, and knowing things will turn out alright.

I am thankful... for my wonderful husband :)

I am reading... 2nd Chronicles with Phil! I'll be very happy to get out of Chronicles for awhile. Those names are so hard to pronounce sometimes

From the kitchen... we'll be having some chicken stir fry tonight! It's one of our favorite recipes and we're very happy to have it! Plus, I'm trying a new side dish, stir fry bok choy! I hope it comes out ok.

Around the house... I need to finish "spring cleaning" the upstairs of our townhouse. The downstairs has been so nice now that its de-cluttered. Time to finish up

A few plans for the rest of the week... are work, online class and cleaning. I lead an exciting life ;)

Peace to you,

"Hold My Heart" by Tenth Avenue North

Friday, May 7, 2010

All Day Long They're Singin'...

Show Us Your Life with Kelly's Korner


I thought it might be fun to participate in Kelly's Show Us Your Life today! Plus, it's baby names and who doesn't love that ;)

I've always loved coming up with names for my future children. I had a little drawing book that I would fill with poems, drawings, and names I had heard. Of course at the time I wanted at least 6 children so I had several names picked out. They've changed over time, but its always fun to look at.

Originally Phil and I picked out four names; two per gender. However, because of my recent diagnosis with PCOS, we have narrowed it to two names; one per gender. We have the other names just in case the good Lord decides to bless us more :) I'll give you our two names, then the two back ups.

Boy
Hunter James

Phil and I both love unique names that wouldn't cause children embarrassment, like Apple or Forka. We knew a few Hunters, but not very many. Plus, its a type of green which is Phil's favorite color! James is one of two family names on Phil's side. The other family name is George. In fact, his dad's name is James George! HAHA The tradition is to give the family name as the first name, but I liked the flow of Hunter James better.

Girl
Lillian Rose

I wanted the opportunity to honor my family using names from both sides of my family (since I love all of them and not just my mom's side or dad's side). We discovered the name Lillian when I was creating a family tree to get my CDIB (Certified Degree of Indian Blood) Card. I had to trace my tree back to my great-grandparents. Lillian was on my mom's side and Phil really liked the name. Plus, we're really into How I Met Your Mother, and one of the main characters' name is Lilly. Plus, I just think it's a cute name :) Rose is sort of a family name on Phil's side. His grandpa's mother's name was Rosa, but I like Rose better. We originally liked the middle name Mae (which is another family name on my side), but we found out a girl I know named her dog that. Awesome. Plus, now Lilly will be my bouquet of joy instead of bundle ;)

Those are our two primary names. Our secondary names are:

Boy
William Michael

I'll have to start with the middle name first. Both my father and brother have the middle name Michael. I wanted to have a son named Jonathan Michael for as long as I can remember to honor the two of them. Well, we have a good friend named Jon and we didn't want things to get confusing so we decided to find a new first name. Not many names went well that we could agree on. We talked about William and liked it best. We always joke that if we have twins, a boy and girl, we could name them Will and Lil ;) EDIT:: According to my mama, William is a family name on her side, so it works!

Girl
Margeaux Louise

This is mostly me :) I LOVE the name Margo for some reason. I think it sounds sophisticated, classy, and just beautiful. I once saw it spelled the French way and knew instantly I would spell it that way if given the chance. Louise is my mom's middle name and my dad's dad was named Louis. I felt it honored both families like I aim to do with any tribute to them.

As I said before, we hope to use all four names, (and by we I mean me ;P). However, we will be very happy with any amount of children God blesses us with. Whether they be of our own flesh and blood or if we have to adopt them all, we will love our children dearly.

Peace to you,

"Chain Gang" by Sam Cooke (Stuck in my head all morning!)

Thursday, May 6, 2010

When You Can't Contain Your Joy Inside...

I'm back! I have one last final tomorrow morning, but my first summer class starts on Monday. Luckily its online only so I'll still have plenty of time to work and relax. I realized the other day that Phil's brother, a co-worker of mine, and the wedding I'm in this summer are all happening three weekends in a row! Not complaining since I love weddings :) It's just interesting that it worked out that way.

Happy National Prayer Day! I was grouchy this morning, but listening to KLOVE reminded me its not about me and I had the opportunity to join in several prayers during their show. Whether you pray or not, as a Christian, I find it refreshing to stop and reflect on the good going on in the world and hoping for the best in the future.

Tonight Phil and I went to this cupcake place we read about in the Oklahoma Gazette. It was in downtown, but it was intriguing to us because it had a milk bar instead of the typical coffee! We got there and the cupcakes were delicious!! Their milk cups are frozen so the milk is very cold. They have white, chocolate and strawberry and it's all you can drink! I mixed strawberry and chocolate and had a red velvet cupcake. It was great. Plus, the restaurant is a refurbished home so we got to eat on the patio. Beautiful night to do that. It's called Sara Sara Cupcakes and we'll definitely going again soon :D

I decided I needed to re-watch Sex and the City since I haven't done that in our new apartment yet. Really its just an excuse to watch the series from start to finish ;) I've also been planning how to decorate our future house. Wherever we end up when we're both done with school, we'll be able to afford a house soon after moving. So I'm doing what I do best; plan. Its making me want my house now, but I guess I can wait a little longer.

This weekend we're going up to T-town to see the in-laws. We'll go bike riding down Riverside and then go to a Drillers game at the new stadium. Despite a rainy Sunday, I think it'll be a good weekend. Also, I'll get to have video call with my mom online for Mother's Day! Its not the same, but it'll be great to see her lovely face :) Mother's Day is going to be a little hard for me this year after what Phil and I went through last year. Its made me a little grouchy this week. I feel bad for Phil especially because I've been extra short with him which isn't fair to him. This is my stuff I need to get over. However, I know those I love will be very helpful in getting me through the day.

Other than that, just happy the spring semester is finally over. April was just crazy for me and just really drained me and Phil. It's been hard getting out of bed the past few days. We recently switched to our light quilt since its been warmer and its just extra comfy lately. After this weekend we should be able to catch up on sleep. We have been keeping up with our bible readings too! We haven't missed at night! I'm very proud of us.

Hope y'all have been doing well! I'll be slowly catching up on blogs so I can feel more in the loop.

Peace to you,


"Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)" by Chris Rice (beautiful song :])

But I Know What It Feels Like

This post is going to be awfully vulnerable and hard for me, but I really want to finally say it out loud. I got permission for my daughter ...