vacation!

ok, so right now a geek squad dude is supposed to be at our house fixing our internet. but i just received a text from drew saying he hadn't showed up, and that they had no record of our appointment. really? Lord, why do you not want us to have the internet at home? i'm not really understanding.... :)

so here's a brief recap of our trip. and by brief, i mean BRIEF because who can really sqeeze 13 days of vacation into a single blog? not me! the first couple of days we were there we just kind of lounged around the apartment. we ran the 5K in the kona family fun run (there was also a marathon & half marathon in it) on sunday morning. it was pretty stinking humid cause we were running on a road right next to the beach. but it was so much fun! i ran with drew's mom most of the time while drew & his brother-in-law, scott, did their own thing. none of us finished in amazing record time, or anything, because we were really just trying to get our 30 minutes of cardio in.

every other day basically consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, deciding if we were going to lay by the pool or by the beach while i read my books. after swimming/reading (drew swam, i read) we would meet up with the rest of the family (drew's parents, sister, bro in law, and our 2 nephews went too) for lunch. after lunch i'd usually take a nap while drew swam more or played golf. and after that was more swimming/reading, or dinner! every time we went to the beach we saw sea turtles. drew even had a minor run-in with one in the ocean while he was swimming with bryson. i guess the turtle swam in between them, hit drew's leg with his leg, and that freaked bryson out enough to want to get out of the water. i think drew was a little freaked, too, though! :)

the hilton resort was right next to our timeshare, and we had access to it because our timeshare is owned by the hilton. it had the most amazing pools, restaurants, shops! i mean it! they had a water taxi service to take you down the canal so you wouldn't have to walk so far, and they also had a train! yes! a train! in case you didn't want to ride in the boats down the canal, there was a little train to take you throughout the resort! we could've lived there! in fact, maybe we'll move there. HA!

one day we got up early and drove up to the north tip of the island. drew had talked me into going saying there were 100ft waterfalls! so we made the 90 minute drive up with his parents stopping for coffee (gross!) and when we got there, no waterfalls in sight. the only thing i saw was the ocean from the top of a mountain. yes, pretty. but definitely not worth getting up at 620am! (anyone who knows me knows i am NOT a morning person, i do not get up just for the sake of going out for breakfast, and i really don't like hiking to get to yet another beach--similar to one i could've seen near the timeshare after being able to sleep in!) so anyway, i was very disappointed. we had a good 20 minute hike down the mountain to see the water, and then a 20 minute hike back up (because i was basically sprinting to the top to get the pain over with faster). grumpy guts. yes, that could've been my nickname that day. normally i would've been able to take the disappointment better, but i had gotten sick on tuesday with a head cold. the thermostat in the apartment was either off, or on 50, and that gave me some serious sniffles & congestion. no exaggeration on the temperatures, though. there was a screw in the thermostat that kept us from being able to adjust the temperature. we only needed air on at night because the highs for the days were only hitting in the mid 80s. but i was sick almost the entire time we were there--so as soon as we got back, i was at the doctor & on antibiotics!

we also went to a luau. it was the only hawaiian thing i did the whole time we were there. the food was really good & it was fun to see the dancers & the costumes. my favorite, of course, was the man twirling the fire rod. wow. i still don't know how they do stuff like that! drew's whole family had already done all the 'hawaiian' things before, so i was lucky i got to really just relax.

anyone who has been to hawaii knows they have amaing sunsets! so we tried to always eat dinner right when the sun was setting so we could watch it. the days are pretty short....the sun starts to set at about 7pm. and it's pitch dark by 720pm. it's pretty amazing how quickly it goes down.

when i think of more details to share, i'll post them. for now, here are a few pics of our trip! drew's parents & sister took more pictures, so i'll post them when i get them! enjoy!

dinner on the coast in kona


the view from the mountain with no waterfalls!


drew & the hula girls


this is the view from our apartment...the king's golf course.


here's a turtle that was sunbathing almost every day we went to the beach.


drew & our 5month old nephew, corbin


bryson learning to "surf"


another one of the beautiful hawaiian sunsets!

fishing!

its too late at night for me to come up with something clever to blog about, so i'll leave you with the cutest pictures ever of our nephew, bryson. he went fishing with grandpa libby (my father in law) yesterday in oregon, and was so excited he could hardly stand it! enjoy!

happy anniversary!

today is my 3 year anniversary! i can hardly believe that drew & i have been married 3 years...it seems like time is just flying by. we've had some pretty amazing adventures in our short marriage--good & bad. we've suffered with the break up of my parents marriage, wrecks & spiritual wrong turns of family members, and health issues; but rejoiced at births of new nephews, new churches, a new home, and re-newed faiths!

if this is an example of things to come in the future, i'm ready! it's so exciting waking up every morning knowing that you've got something God has put in place just for you--eternity. and i'm so happy to be living out my eternity with drew until we get to go 'home'. he's an amazing spiritual leader, and has been my constant thru all of our trying times. he's pushed me to study the Bible more, and encouraged me to relax and let God be in control of things. he's challenged my faith when i had unanswered questions and issues, and has pushed me into a deeper relationship with the Lord--which in turn only enhances our relationship as a married couple. he's been my accountability partner and said the hard things when no one else would. i'm so lucky to be married to him!!!

parents--you WANT my husband to teach & coach your child because of the amazing role model he is. i can only imagine what he'll be like as a parent! thank you, Lord, for knowing just what i was going to need in life--and for fulfilling that need with a wonderful patient man. i couldn't have done better myself! I LOVE GOD'S PLANS!!!! (usually! haha)

outside our church after the ceremony



cutting/feeding of the cake! YUM!



drivin away in the ferrari! (drew's favorite part!)

WARNING! SCARY STORY! (unless its daytime!)

drew & i usually go to church on saturday nights. and last night we had a guest speaker who went to acu with our minister, chris & his wife, tara. the guy who spoke is marcus brecheen and he's the campus minister at the north richland hills location of gateway church in southlake. well, marcus spoke regarding 2Kings 6 that talks about the arameans and elisha--great sermon. but there was a part in there where he told a personal story about staying in botswana, africa for the summer. i guess the people of botswana live in fear of demons, and marcus had been raised thinking that demons weren't real today like they were in the bible days. he said one night he was asleep in bed, and woke up all of a sudden to the presence of a demon--he didn't see it, but he absolutely knew it was in the room with him. he said he laid under his covers, clinching his covers, and repeatedly saying "in the name of jesus, i demand you leave!" but the demon wouldn't leave. after 5 hours of repeating that over and over, the demon finally left his room when the sun came up. he said it was the scariest night of his life. a time later, he was speaking about his experience with someone, and they told him why the demon wouldn't leave, even though he was calling on jesus. it's because the demon could sense his fear.

well, that leads to my crazy story last night. a little background information for you: first of all, i have people VERY close to me who have woken up in the middle of the night to either the audible voice of God, or they actually saw an angel. i would LOVE for this stuff to happen to me, but i kinda put God in a box--i get really freaked out at night, so i'd prefer it to be the daytime. HA! who would dare ask such a thing of the Lord? i'm weird, i know. i just get kinda freaked out at night anyway....i make drew walk with me to the other side of the house if i need something. i'm talking, REALLY freaked out (i watch the news WAY too much!). so, anyway, i was up in the middle of the night last night to go to the bathroom. and while i was in the bathroom, i had my normal freak out of "what if God decided to talk to me right now!", which turned into, "what if there's a demon in my room and he can smell my fear & won't leave!". i know. so random why i would even think about these things at 2am. so i went back to bed & tried to fall asleep. my heart was racing, i was sweating out of control, and i couldn't bring myself to move in my bed. the only comfort i had was that drew was right next to me. so, i woke him up. i told him what was going on (he already knows i freak out about talking with God in the bathroom at night) and he said, "i don't know what you want me to do!" and then rolled over and went back to sleep! so i grabbed the remote as fast as i could and turned on HGTV so i could hopefully forget. i would forget when the shows were on, but remember again when it went to commercial. it was so horrible! then when i was watching my third episode of rob & big, i finally dozed off. but i would wake back up minutes later because my dog would make a noise (toketee snores louder than drew most times!) and i'd get freaked out all over again. i found myself counting down the minutes until the sun would come up because marcus said that's when the demon left his room.

now let me clarify, i'm not saying that there was a demon in my room. i'm saying that i completely freaked myself out last night afraid that a demon MIGHT show up & that my fear would keep him from leaving! so, here it is 1030 in the morning and i'm still a little afraid that a demon might come into my house, get in my dogs, and make them go off a river bank and drown (matthew 8:32). i know i know. i must have one of the most active imaginations in the world. i need to knock it off! and so what if God decides to talk to me in the middle of the night! and so what if an angel is coming to check on me in the middle of the night and i happen to see him/her. i should feel so lucky that God chose to reveal himself to me visually--most aren't so lucky.

It is finished!

things have been super busy with moving everything out of my parents house. last saturday we went over there and helped box up rooms, take loads to my mom's storage unit, and move things into my dad's pod. closing was actually friday, so we had to get EVERYTHING out of the house before then. needless to say, we're last minute workers....drew and i showed up thursday after work to move the remaining stuff--the washer, dryer, fridge, couch, chair, entertainment center, etc. when we pulled up, the roofers were there replacing the roof, and the ac man was there servicing the ac. talk about a lot going on!!!

we loaded the uhaul up until 830 and then went to storage to unload it. we were done unloading at 950, but still had to return the truck. we were home around 11, but none of us had eaten dinner, so we sat in the kitchen eating cereal and sandwiches. it was late night fun!

i'm pretty sad that the house i grew up in is no longer my parents', but i'm so happy that the last piece of this never ending divorce fiasco is over. it's been dragging out since Oct 2004! yes, you're reading that right! 3 1/2 years! but hooray for closing on friday. we're going to cookout today and celebrate!!! it is finished!!!

here's the house and the pod


here's isaac, amidst the boxes in the garage


and judah did his part by blowing the grass out of the cracks in the concrete!

ranger game

so, saturday night (after graduation) drew & i met up with some friends at the ranger game. drew has this amazing way of cutting deals with students--we buy things for their fundraisers, and they give us unbelievable seats to sporting events....its works out great for us! so because we support the marcus marauder football team, and because nick's dad works indirectly for the rangers, we got to see the home team win their 5th straight game! our seats were right behind home plate, but we were inside in air conditioning, sitting in leather recliners, eating a free buffet, and being served by our waitress. how can i ever buy my own tickets again???

graduation!

amber, judah, jacob, dad, jimmy, mom, jamie, drew & isaac in the front!

so, jimmy graduated! Yeah! he now officially has a degree in psychology from the university of oklahoma. the ceremony wasn't too bad, but that was because we left right after he walked across the stage--we had to get a table for lunch! priorites, you know! and despite the awkwardness of my parents being at the same place together, it really turned out to be a good weekend. we had a lot of fun staying with jimmy in his apartment friday night, and spending the day with him, melissa, & my sister's family. here are some pics of the new grad and of his special day! congratulations, jimmy! we're so proud of all you've accomplished!!!

amber, jamie, & drew

jimmy & melissa (mo)

jamie, jimmy, & amber

inside lloyd noble center--where the sooners play basketball!