Long Time, No Blog

Wow...so has it really been 2 months? I think I broke a cardinal rule of blogging. I appreciate my blog buddies for sticking with me and missing me while I was gone :o) So much to update on now, and I will follow up with some more pictures soon as well.

We were blessed to be able to spend Christmas with Steve's family out in California. We brought the pup along, so we made it into a road trip. It was actually quite enjoyable! We rented a Trailblazer, which made for a very comfortable ride. On the way out to CA, we saw a huge 80+ car pile-up in Amarillo, TX...something I never ever need to see again. Especially since car accidents are already a huge fear of mine. Thank God most everyone involved was ok, and it was cool to hear the stories of people unwrapping Christmas presents, etc., to share clothing with others involved who were not dressed for the cold weather. Our first stop on our roadtrip was Flagstaff, AZ, and we LOVED it there. I would definitely not mind living there someday. When we got to CA, we got to have dinner with Steve's sister Dawn, and then continued on to Newbury Park to his parents house. We spent a couple of days there before heading up to Mammoth Lakes, where Steve's folks have a condo in the mountains. What a retreat! It was exactly what we needed :o) Fun days of skiing, relaxing, playing the Wii...I'll add some pics, but Dawn's blog also has some great ones from the trip.

When we got back home in January, I went through my typical "back in Oklahoma" funk that I seem to fall into. I guess all the huge changes (pretty much constant major changes since I moved to CA in January 2004) over the past couple years have been getting to me more than I thought, and I was certainly not handling my current "life stage" very well. I am so thankful that God has really been working in my heart and I have joy back in my life that I haven't had in honestly a couple years. I feel like myself again! And I refuse to let satan steal that joy again.

I have started a fun volunteer opportunity with Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City. I'm helping out on the business side of things, as they have grown immensely as of late and their staff can be better utilized when I can help out with little things like making copies, filing, etc. Plus, I am so pumped to be back in the theatre environment in any capacity. I am hoping to become even more involved as time goes on. One thing I can say about the staff there is that they are such great people! They all remember me by name, even the first time I came to volunteer when I had just simply walked through once before. Amazing.

Another exciting new development is that I have (finally) started some voice lessons! I have been involved in community theater for several years, and even gotten some lead roles, but have never had professional voice training. I know that this will be so valuable, and although its hard to break old habits and retrain my voice, I can't wait to reap the results!

At the end of January, we took a surprise trip to Hawaii. Now before you get too jealous, don't worry, we were there for less than 24 hours. WHY??!! I know...doesn't make sense, but let me explain and it will. Steve's dad has been an airline Captain for American Airlines for many years and is due to retire this year. Due to some flux in the stockmarket, he decided to retire at the end of January. Of course, this was a very spur-of-the-moment decision, and one that he was sad to make, but we were so blessed to be able to make the quick trip out to California so we could fly on his last flights to/from Hawaii. Again, more pics to come, but here is one that I took from Dawn's blog (hope you don't mind!).

Visit her blog for lots more fun ones, too. It was truly a trip of a lifetime and we made the most of every second we had with the family. We also had a great time hanging out with the crew as well. Many of them have been flying with Steve's dad for several years and a few were even on the crew that flew us out to our Honeymoon a couple years ago!

So that's a quick update...I really will be better about adding great stories as they come. I have some fun things that I am looking forward to, and will keep my blog readers coming back for more :o)