Jeopardy!, Three Weddings, and an Anniversary

Our summer vacation is quickly coming to a close, as we start rotations tomorrow.  As excited as I've been for rotations, I really hate to say goodbye to vacation.  It's been bliss.

We had a quick trip up to Kansas City the weekend after boards, for my Jeopardy! audition.  I'd tried out online back in February, and was invited via email in May to go to KC on June 13 for an in person audition.  As it was going to be after boards, we figured it'd be fun to take a little trip.  Julia cried almost the entire ride to Kansas City, but here's a fun photo from before the crying started.

See the tiny reflection of Julia in the mirror in the back?!

Julia playing on the hotel bed!

While Julia and I chilled at the hotel that evening. Aaron went out to get us dinner at a place we found on urbanspoon, but I guess they decided to close early for the night.  Instead, he ended up driving around until he found someplace that was still open and ended up getting us chicken for dinner.  Umm... a TON of chicken.  I think it was supposed to feed a family of four... haha!  We put the leftovers in the mini fridge... only to forget them the next day.  Of course.


My audition was held at the Westin Crown Center.  While I was busy, Aaron and Julia had fun exploring the Crown Center and played in the fountains outside.  There were forty people auditioning that day with me, but only twenty in my room.  We took another 50 question test, played a mock round of Jeopardy! with some of the other contestants, and also had a personality interview of sorts.  It was a ton of fun, thanks to the lovely folks from Jeopardy! who made it their business to ensure we all had a great experience.  I was impressed by how far some of my fellow contestants had traveled to be there.  I'm now in a pool of people that could get a call anytime in the next 18 months, inviting us to fly to LA to be on the show.  We were told we'd get about 3 weeks notice.  Two thousand people attend the in person auditions each year, and 400 get on the show, so the odds were better than I'd imagined they would be! 

When I was done, Aaron, Julia, and I went to a restaurant called Grinders for lunch.  One of the cooks chatted with us for a bit, and he mentioned that the restaurant had been featured on a show on the Food Network.  We had their Bengal Tiger pizza, which had tandori chicken and crab meat, among other toppings, and it was unique and fantastic.

Before leaving town, we took a walk around the grounds of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.  We were going to go inside, but had forgotten that many museums are closed on Mondays.  Whoops.  Julia was better on the ride home, sleeping most of the way.  I read the newest Louis Sachar book, The Cardturner, aloud to Aaron.  My grandpa plays bridge with Louis Sachar, and he'd gotten a copy of the book signed for my sister.  The book renewed our interest in bridge, and we've been practicing bidding and playing a bit ever since.

Enjoying the nice weather and sculpture gardens.

A Chiefs' fan, a tired baby, and a shuttlecock.

On Saturday, June 19, Aaron and I were honored to be among the bridal party for my sister Meghan's wedding.  The wedding mass was beautiful, the bride and groom looked spectacular and so happy, the reception was quite the party, and a good time was had by all.  We enjoyed getting to visit with all the family and friends who were able to make it, and it was special to get to introduce to Julia to many people who hadn't met her yet.

Last Friday, we had a wedding to attend up in Wichita, so we went up a bit early to enjoy some time with our family and friends up there.  The wedding was lovely and we had a nice time with some of Aaron's high school friends at the reception.

Julia, ready to go on a walk with her parents, aunt, and grandma!

Julia loved the little pool Grandma bought her!

Wedding reception

We returned to Tulsa the next day, only to shower, change, and drop off Julia at my parents' house before heading South for another wedding!  A friend of ours from med school was getting married.  It was in rural Oklahoma and, unfortunately, we got lost...
                                                                                ....so we were really late... 
                                                                                                               ....and we missed the actual wedding.  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Oops. 
But, the reception was fun and we were glad we were able to celebrate our friend's special day with her.  One highlight of the reception was when we were asked to go inside, as the patio area was being evacuated due to the presence of three skunks.  Shortly after that, we heard a loud bang, and smelled skunk.  I'm not sure whether the gunshot killed a skunk or just scared them, but either way, it made for a memorable story!

We did a lot of driving that weekend, but the time passed quickly, thanks to an audio book from the library: Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza.  It's a very powerful and inspiring story that I would highly recommend.

Sunday was our two year wedding anniversary!  My, how time flies!  It seems like only yesterday that I was the one walking up the aisle.  Our dear friend Julie watched Julia so we could go out and celebrate.  We went to the movie theatre to see a film before having a steak dinner at Outback.  We made a quick stop to Target before having a walk around our park (the one where we went on a lot of dates, where we had our first kiss in a thunderstorm, and where we got engaged :)  The evening was such a treat!

At our park after dinner, a lovely end to a lovely evening!

The past two years have been the best two of my life.  God has truly blessed us with each other!  We pray daily that God will continue to strengthen our marriage and use it as a witness for the love He has for His Church.  We also pray, as Tobiah did, that we may live together to a happy old age!  Here's to many more anniversaries, for us and for all the couples who were recently married! :)


"He began with these words: "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever.  You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.'  Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age."  They said together, "Amen, amen,"" - Tobit 8:4-8

Happy half birthday, Julia!

Julia turned 6 months old on the twelfth of the month.  I can't believe half a year has already flown by!  It seems like only yesterday that we were welcoming our precious daughter into the world.

Julia is not quite crawling, but she scoots around quite well.  She's in constant motion, and she must have really strong abs and arms with the number of crunches and push-ups she does!  She sits up on her own like a champ and she is getting more and more used to solid foods, after her first foray into the world of food - Grammy's mashed potatoes on the evening we finished taking boards.  Raspberry yogurt seems to be her favorite food thus far, but she also likes rice cereal, peas, and bananas.  Applesauce has made her gag every time she's tried it!  Julia continues to make fun sounds and we're pretty sure she's begun trying to use one of the signs (milk!) we've been trying to teach her for months now!  It's amazing to see her trying to communicate with us!  After a few months of only wanting to eat books, Julia is getting a little more patient, which makes it easier to read to her once again.  Julia loves being outside, swinging, playing in water in the tub or pool, playing with toys, jumping around in her activity center, playing with her feet and her hands (lately, she loves moving them in the air like she's conducting an orchestra!), and music.  She is such a happy little baby and she loves to smile and laugh.  Julia is also very affectionate, and loves snuggling, hugs, & kisses.

These six-month photos were so hard to capture because Julia was so squirmy!  Here, you see her about to dive out of the chair!

Doing push-ups!

And sit-ups!

Julia, I want you to know that the past six months have been the best six months of our lives! You are so beautiful, so full of life, wonder, and joy.  Thank you for the lessons you have taught us.  Thank you for being you.  We love you so much, and we come to love you more and more with each passing day. You bless your daddy & I more than words can describe.  May God bless you always, precious Julia Grace.

Done!

We're FINALLY DONE with Step 1 of boards!!!!!

Can you tell that I might be a little excited? ;)

The last month was one of the most challenging and exhausting experiences I've had, but our studying finally came to a close when we took our 8 hour (!) exam on Thursday.  Praise God for pulling us through!  And, praise God, it's over!  Now, we can take a much needed break before starting rotations in July!

Here's some snapshots of the more interesting (read: non-studying) happenings lately.

Our bathing beauty.  She loves trying to drink out of big people cups.

Julia goes swimming for the first time with her aunts!

Aaron and I were interested in the caffeine... Julia just wanted the cardboard.

Happy girl

Might she have a religious vocation in her future?  Haha!

You can tell this was on a Sunday after church, because we don't look bedraggled!

The game we were playing with Julia had her laughing hard!

Towards the end of May, Julia started getting really good at sitting up by herself!

Julia, just playing with her chain and talking to herself

My boards study party is cooler than yours.  Admit it.

Chillaxing in the backyard. 

We read First Aid while Julia read about penguins.  We wanted to trade.

Now it's finally time for summer VACATION!  Woo hoo!

A Shower for Meghan

My older sister, Meghan, is getting married this month.  So, one beautiful Saturday in May, her other bridesmaids and I threw her a bridal shower!  Since Meghan is an artist, we had an art themed shower.

I had fun drawing and designing the invitation:

We decorated my house with Meghan's artwork through the years (from 1989 onward!), as well as photographs of Meghan, trying to create an art gallery ambiance.  Besides being decorative, the artwork and photos were used for the first game.  Guests had to match each artwork with a photo of Meghan, based on how old they guessed she was when she created each piece.   We also framed images of famous paintings of weddings, and used these as decorations.

Playing the first game.

More of Meghan's art on the walls, and famous wedding paintings decorating the side table and entertainment center.

The game was quite the challenge!

A sampling of Meghan's art through the years.

Meghan's art and photos on the wall and framed famous paintings of weddings on the bookshelf.

A sampling of some of the famous wedding art used for decoration.

We had famous paintings to go with each item of food, keeping with the theme.

The spread of food.

Picasso pizza, displayed with one of his paintings.

Spinach dip, paired with an "Untitled" work by Jackson Pollack (see the resemblance?!) and Corn Tortilla chips paired with "Young Corn" by Grant Wood.

Still Life fruit cups paired with a Cezanne painting.

My dad cut us out a nice big cardboard palate so we could feature "paint splotches" of M&M's - one of Meghan's favorite treats.  Some of the many home dipped chocolate covered "paintbrush" pretzels were bagged ahead of time and sent home with guests as party favors.

Punch bowl, with more of Meghan's artwork on the walls.

We played three more games.  For one of them, I had asked Meghan's fiancee, Erik, some questions ahead of time, like what their first date was, who their favorite artists are, what their favorite paintings are, what they're looking forward to most about being married, what their biggest pet peeves are, etc.  Meghan had to guess what Erik's response was.  Party guests had to guess how many of the 25 questions she would get right. 

Another game was a wedding cake decorating contest - guests were given cupcakes and frosting and everyone made a tasty creation.  For the final game, guests had to use chalk to sketch Meghan's wedding gown... with their eyes closed!  The bride-to-be was the judge for the last two games.  The winners of all four games received a pack of 5 custom notecards, each notecard featuring a different piece of Meghan's artwork on the front.

The bride-to-be at the beginning of the wedding cake decorating contest.

The mother of the groom and the mother of the bride!

Guests getting creative!

The winning wedding cupcake!

My mom with her cupcake, made to look like the groom-to-be... haha!

Eyes closed, drawing wedding dresses!

Comparing creations

Meghan was showered with lots of beautiful gifts and enjoyed opening those throughout the shower.

Some of the shower gifts, placed on a desk we'd moved into the entryway.

Having fun opening gifts.

As Meghan opened gifts, guests colored and wrote messages for a special coloring book for Meghan to keep as a momento of the shower.  Each page featured a different picture of Meghan and Erik to be colored in, as well as a place for a fun caption to be added under the picture, and a message box for each guest to be able to share some warm wishes with Meghan. 

Guests coloring while watching Meghan open gifts.

Coloring pages + bin full of crayons = Creative momento for the bride-to-be!

I think a good time was had by all, and the other bridesmaids and I certainly had fun planning and throwing the shower for Meghan!  She is very much loved!

Meghan with her bridesmaids, hostesses of the shower!