1 marriage, 1 death, and 5 years later...

I FINALLY GRADUATED! I graduated on December 12 with my bachelor's in Psychology (and to blow my own horn I was 1 of 4 people to graduate with honors from the psychology department). With the exception of finals, it was a good week. Michael came in from Utah on Wednesday evening, then his girlfriend, Brooke, came Thursday evening. Finished all my finals Friday morning and took the rest of the day off from work to try to get organized and went to pick out a Christmas tree with my mom. We went to Eskimo Joes Friday night then Saturday morning, bright and early, was graduation. Of course it was 30 degrees and cold and windy on Saturday while everyone was outside taking pictures. Then my parents, Mike, Brooke, Jake and my in laws went out to lunch. My brother, Robert, graduated at 2:00 on Saturday, so right after lunch my parents and Mike and Brooke went back for Robert's graduation and then Jake and I went back up after Robert's graduation to take pictures with him in our caps and gowns. We had a family graduation/birthday party for me and Robert and my nephews, Tyler and Yorke, birthdays. Then Jake and I took a 15 minute breather and headed out for a night on the town with some friends to celebrate.

Mike and Brooke headed back out to Utah on Sunday, so of course it was sunny and warm. We got together with them again and played some games at my parents and had lunch with them, then sent them off.

Traditional trip to Joes

Robert and me in front of the UCO Broncho
" It took me five years to earn these cords and I'm wearing them all day"

Getting my diploma cover from a guy I've never see before

My dad earned the nickname "Paparazzi" after this day because we have over 100 pictures of people not ready for the picture

Trichology Salon: Suited for Success Show

This past weekend I got to do a hair and fashion show for Trichology Salon's 1 year anniversary. Each stylist had their own group that they did a theme with, there were "dolls" and wild looks, etc. For my stylist, he wanted all the girls to have a classic 1920s look, so we all wore black bob wigs. Then our clothes were provided by White House/Black Market. I had so much fun, with the excpetion of when I almost fell off my shoe on the runway when someone yelled, "work it, girl" but that was hilarious and I take it I must have been doing something right. Here's a few fun pictures from the show.

Emoly, Me, and Heather

The black bob group in our finale outfits.

Undead Party

September 27 was the year anniversary of my death and resurrection, but since we missed it my mom and sister in law, Wendy, threw an undead party for me on the anniversary of the day I got home from the hospital, which was also the first day in my house. So we had a family undead party/official house warming party.

Naturally I had to steal the babies as soon as they got there. Davon is in my right arm and Nathan is in my left.

Flying baby Nathan

We kept the kids entertained by letting them paint pumpkins on the back porch.

My parents keep trying to get away from the "zombieness" of it and focus more on what a miracle my recovery was so this was the cake they got for me. It's a little blurry, but it reads "miracles remembered".

Thank you again, Wendy and Mom and everyone that brought stuff for it.

Shows and shoots

In the end of September I had a fashion show with Meg Guess Couture in which I modeled wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses and formals. Afterwards a few of us stayed and did a quick photoshoot with Colorband Photography. Here's a few of my favorites from the show and shoot.

The next week I was able to do an ad with Colorband Photography for The Oklahoma PhotoBooth that will be in Brides of Oklahoma Magazine in the beginning of 2010. Below is the composite ad they are using. I'm pretty excited to see that in print.

How can that be, I'm not that old.

Since school has taken over my life, I've seriously neglected my blog. I'll just run over a few of the fun things from the past month.
First, on September 18 Jake and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Which on its own is a major accomplishment for a couple of kids deciding to get hitched one day. Jake and I made a quick inventory of everything that we thought we was going to happen in the first five years and what we were planning on accomplishing after five years. So far we've accomplished two of our about eight 5 year goals, and we decided we would wait at least 5 years before we had kids and now that we're at 5 years, we're thinking another few years would be good before we jumped into that arena. Of course, school got in the way of this great anniversary trip we wanted to take; so we decided to go to Tulsa for the weekend and just have some time away from home.
I finally finished my first sewing project. It was a skirt or a pair of pajama pants. Since I can never find pajamas that are long enough for me I went with that option. So I completed my nice, long red pants with polka dots. I was very excited for them. After I finished them I decided I wanted to add on back pockets, which is incredibly hard to do once the pants are finished. After only a few mishaps, I added on 2 back pockets and I didn't even sew them closed.

It's about time....

I went back to school in August for my last (keeping my fingers crossed) semester. But I decided last minute that maybe I want to go to graduate school afterall. So I'm in the midst of completely my capstone class and my grad school pre-requisites that are strongly recommended to be taken separately. I currently do nothing but study these days. With all the madness of studying, I decided I also needed some easier classes too, so I'm also taking pilates and basic sewing. So far I liked my yoga class better than my pilates class, but that could still change and I love my sewing class. I like to be creative, but I really have no talent for it. I originally took the class so I could learn how to hem my own pants to make them longer, but sewing so far seems to be right up my alley because I can be creative and all I have to do is follow a pattern. I'm currently making some red and white polka dot pajamas pants that, if I did this right, they will be long enough for me.

I did take a break from my studies when my brother, Michael, came home from USU to see the new babies. While he's here we have to eat at all the local places that Mike can't get while he's away. So on the way home from the airport we had to stop and get some Braum's for some burgers and ice cream. Throughout the week we had to go to Pop's, Hobby's Hoagies, Eskimo Joe's, and Billy Sims Barbeque. There were other places on the list, but we ran out of time.

Luckily, Jake and I were both able to get Labor Day off work, so the three of us went on a motorcycle ride to Stillwater for lunch at Eskimo Joe's, then took backroads through Wellston and down to Route 66 to stop at Pops for a drink, then back to Edmond. It was a good time, but a very long ride. Then we finished off the trip with a night of karaoke and Mike flew back to Utah on Wednesday.

Also over Labor Day, Jake's sister, Heather, competed in the Mrs. America Pageant as the reigning Mrs. Oklahoma. Sadly she didn't win, but we're very proud of all of her hardwork nonetheless.

When I went into the hospital my doctors said that all of my family needed to be tested for my blood disorder because it's genetic and some of my siblings most likely have it. So my poor sister finally bit the bullet and got tested. But when you get tested for blood disorders they can't just take the normal 2-3 viles and go on their way. No, they practically drain your blood. I'm not sure how much they took of hers, but they took around 20 viles of blood when they tested me and they took it from my hand. (Luckily, I don't remember this, but I was told I cried a lot and it also explained why the entire backside and palm of my hand were bruised when I woke up from the coma.) So I checked on her after she finished and they took it from her elbow but she was still pretty sore. I'm not sure when she'll hear back on the results yet.

Cousins

For my brother's birthday we had a family dinner and we finally got the new babies together. Here are a few of my favorites from the evening.

Katharine and I realizing that our brothers having babies at the same time was the best idea ever.

Nathan and Davon discussing the comtemporary moral problems facing America's youth.

Me holding Elizabeth who is holding her baby brother, Nathan.

Nathan, the chunk, on the left and Davon on the right. Yes, Nathan really is only about 20 hours older.

And top it off with breaking and entering

Last night, Jake and I went to pick up his dad from the airport. We're almost back to the house when his dad realizes that he doesn't have any house keys and the rest of his family is in Florida with the spare keys.
Crap.
So we walked around the house for a little while, checking each door and window as we passed trying to find something open.
No luck.
It's now midnight and the guys are deciding whether or not they want to call a locksmith, break a window, stay on our couch, and whatever other options may have come up.
Then Jake finds a door on the garage that he could open (keep in mind, it wasn't unlocked, it was just one he COULD open). After he jimmy opens the garage side door. We are now in the garage. But the door into the house from the garage is locked and dead bolted.
Crap.
Jake decides he's going to go up into the attic and try to find another opening from the attic into the house.
No luck.
But he does find a return air vent. Jake unscrews the top of the return air and kicks open the vent cover on the inside of the house. Then we found a tow strap in the attic which he wraps one end around a beam in the attic and repelled down the return air vent.
SUCCESS, we're in the house.
It's the moments like this that I can't help but wonder whether this kind of ingenuity is a good thing or a bad thing.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Last week, for our pom reunion, we kept up the tradition of going to see Harry Potter on opening night. So we met up and went to dinner at Chelino's in Bricktown (yay, Mexican food), then headed over to wait in the never ending line to get into the theater. There are 3 of us that have gone to, I think, every book and movie opening together and usually dress up for them. So The Half Blood Prince was no exception.

Then since we were hunting Bellatrix Lestrange, we were lucky to find her in our theater, so we had to tear her apart, naturally.

The exception that we had to this year was that we decided to bring our husbands/boyfriends with hopes that they could keep each other entertained while we reminisced, it may or may not have worked, we weren't exactly paying attention to them. Sorry guys, but thanks for being good sports anyway.

Then here's the rest of us, with the exception of the guys, who we were ignoring, but a special thanks to Jake for following us around and being our photographer.

Look! New babies!

I finally stopped slacking off and uploaded the pictures of the newest babies!
The older baby, by about 20 hours, is Nathan John Ferrell, son of John and Marisa, born on June 22, 2009. Coming in at 8lbs 15oz and 21 inches (I think):

Of course everytime Jake and I have gone to see Nathan, we've forgotten to bring the camera so this was taken on Jake's phone, so poor Nathan is all blurry.

The younger baby is Davon Michael Ferrell, son of Robert and Wendy, born on June 23, 2009. Coming in at 7lbs 5oz and 19 inches (I think, again):

This is Baby Davon, big brother Yorke, and Daddy. I just thought that was the cutest picture ever and couldn't resist.

So far all the big siblings are liking their little brothers, of course they don't have to get up with them at 3 am either. And these cousins have yet to meet each other, nor have Robert/Wendy or John/Marisa met the other baby yet, hopefully we'll have a little family reunion soon.

News 9 Spot

Every now and then I'll do a fashion spot on News Channel 9 First at Four with Anthony David of Anthony David Salons. This past Tuesday I did one for summer dresses with my sister in law, Heather. This one was definately not my finest work, at the time I was actually kind of embarrassed, but since I like to embrace my stupidity rather than hide it, I thought I'd show everyone so you all can get a good laugh about it too.




So we stand on that little platform for a good 10 minutes before they actually show us. We were standing there chatting and I turned my head and my giant earring flew off. So I debated for a second on whether I should pick it up or leave it. I decided to pick it up, so quick check on the monitor...not on us...locate earring...super quick bend down to get it....look up and hello world. As soon as the camera was off us, Heather and I turned to each other and silently made the "oh crap that was on live TV" face to each other. So for the rest of the spot, I was a little flustered and tried not to act like I was, but it made me forget simple things like "when the camera is on you, don't scratch your face". But looking back it wasn't as bad as it could be. I mean my dress did stay on and I didn't fall down or anything, and I thought I looked pretty good in the dress, so I'll count it as a success.

In other news....
My sisters in law, Wendy and Marisa, both gave birth to beautiful baby boys, Davon Michael and Nathan John, respectively, last week. But I've been super slow on uploading the pictures from my camera. As soon as I get those pictures, I will show our family's cutest new arrivals.

Best Weekend Vacation

This week Jake and I decided to take a last minute mini vacation. It was the Dahle Family Reunion in San Antonio, but we decided not to go because we couldn't get the full week off work. Wednesday we decided last minute to go for the last 2 days. So we were able to get off work for the weekend and headed to San Antonio early Thursday morning. After driving through storms pretty much the whole way there we finally got there safe and sound Thursday afternoon. After meeting at least 20 members of the family that I had never seen before and trying to figure out where everyone fit in, we enjoyed 2 days of family time. And it was tons of fun and the weather even cooperated with us. After our last minute decision to go to San Antonio, Jake's mom reminded us that Jake's cousin lived in Corpus Christi and would love for us to come by. So we called them up and headed out to Corpus Christi and Padre on Saturday. Jake's cousin and wife graciously welcomed us and we spent Saturday eating lunch with them and on the beaches of Padre. Then Sunday we went on the boat in their backyard ocean canal and went wakeboarding.

Since we left in such a hurry, we remembered to bring out camera, but not any batteries for it. So all of our pictures were taken on Jake's phone. But here's the lovely piece of beach we crashed on all day. We also were totally unprepared for the beach with the exception that we had our swimming suits and flip flops. No towels. No sunscreen. Nothing. But as it turns out, really all you need is your swimming suit.

Jake likes to tease me because I act like I'm 5 years old whenever I'm at the beach. I get close to the water then run away when the tide comes in, so this was me trying to look cool before he gets a picture of me running away from the water. But don't worry, we spent plenty of time in the water too.

Last, but not least, the designated awkward "look at us, we're at the beach" self portrait. This was obviously taken before our faces and shoulders got burnt to a crisp. It was was a great weekend and we can't wait to go back.

Time with my girls

Since I haven't updated anything for a while, this will mostly be pictures. Why pictures? Naturally, pictures are worth a thousand words.

First off, Meg Guess show from February 26, 2009.

One of my favorite dresses by Amy Kuschel:

My favorite picture from the shoot afterwards:

Early March, I had a high school pom girls reunion and as always, good times soon followed.

Our pre-going out dinner at Texas Roadhouse:

Karaoke, singing Abba's Dancing Queen
Finally, going out dancing this past weekend with my friend.

Our pre-dancing picture so we're not so sweaty yet and still have make up on:

And the very tired post-dancing picture:

Sick again? Seriously?

As the title states, yep, I got sick this week....again. I went home early from work Monday with really bad body aches and chills and went straight to bed. I knew the flu was going around, so I figured it was probably that. Tuesday I was talking to my mom and told her my symptoms and she said that it sounded more like the beginning signs of pneumonia and not the flu. With my lungs being as weak as they are pneumonia is one of those lovely illnesses that could kill me if I don't treat it early. So I called the doctor and luckily was able to get an appointment that day. After we did a some chest x-rays, blood screen, and a flu test, in which the shove a tiny wire with a cotton ball on the end all the way up your nose, they determined that I did indeed have pneumonia. Luckily we caught it at the very beginning so I was put on strong antibiotics and wasn't hospitalized or anything serious. I have a check up tomorrow to make sure it is getting better and not spreading to anything else. I have the best luck, don't I?

This weekend I had another Bridal Show with Meg Guess in Norman. So here's a picture because they make life more fun. I'm on the far right.

Valentine's Surprise

I just had to tell everyone that I have the coolest brother's girlfriend ever! For Christmas a year or so ago, she made my brother a fleece blanket with the tied ends and I told her I wanted one too. Then on Valentine's I noticed a huge box from Logan, Utah on my doorstep. She had made me a Valentine's box with a pink and black fleece blanket, Valentine's socks, and candy! It was awesome!

Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure:

THANK YOU AGAIN TO MY FAVORITE BROOKETRON!

Old Trinity Bridal Show

This past weekend I had another bridal show. Usually I just come, get dressed, do the runway, then leave. This time they did it a little differently. They had too many vendors for the space, they took out the runway and just put us on a stage in our dresses so people could look at us, then we did a photoshoot after the show. We were all a little worried at first because we had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be pretty fun. So here's some fun pictures.

The models:

Me and Jake with my "bridesmaids" posing for us:

My giant hair that had half of a styrofoam wreath in it:

Pictures in front of the Old Trinity of Paseo:

The Big Freeze is here, take cover!

This past weekend was great because Jake was taking a few days off before starting his new job today. Since he didn't have to get up at 5:00 am for work, he actually stayed awake past 8:00 pm with me. It was awesome. Friday night, we went to dinner and then went to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which I loved, but Jake thought "it was good, but you know he's gonna die in the end anyway, so they could have just hurried it up".
Saturday night we went on a double date with a friend, Cassie, that I was in Young Women's with and her husband that Jake and I had never met. We had dinner then watched "Taken". Also another great little flick. During this we also found out that Cassie's husband has got to be Jake's long lost brother or something. They both had very similar histories, mannerisms, personalities, senses of humor, everything. It was kinda creepy. He even managed to fall asleep during the movie just like Jake does. We had a good time with them.
Our church was switched from 1:00 pm to 9:00 am, which kills night owls like me and it didn't help we stayed up talking with our date couple till after midnight on Saturday. But it was nice now that Jake doesn't have to work Sundays, we had a nice time at church then I got to come home and take a nap and still had time with him before we went to have dinner with his parents.
Another big plus to Jake's new job. Since the "Big Freeze of 2009" hit today, Jake actually got to come home early instead of getting stuck having to come home after dark with ice everywhere and inexperienced drivers. I think I could get used to this. :)

Bragging on my hubby

Now that I'm finally back in the grind of school, the most exciting thing I've done this week is get my eyebrows waxed. But I get to brag on my wonderful hubby for a little bit.

Jake is very talented, hard worker and in his personal and professional spheres it does not go unnoticed. He changes jobs pretty often, but most people don't know that he does that because he generally gets around 3 job offers a week. Some are good, some are just down right ridiculous, but if he gets a legitimate offer that helps him reach his goal, he'll pursue it. But a couple weeks ago, he got a good one. The wind told him a Franchise owner was looking for a manager in Oklahoma City. He was getting pretty frustrated with his current job, so he looked into it. The offer ended up being a lot more than just a manager. This Franchisee was looking for someone to take over the store and eventually buy him out and he wanted Jake and Jake accepted the offer and he starts on Monday. Now that he won't have to work 12 hours a day/7 days a week, I get to be selfish and spend more time with him. So I wanted everyone to know how grateful I am for him and how lucky I am to have a husband who's diligent, goal oriented, and hard working.

...But I still have a headache.

First, I had my CT scan on my head yesterday and the result were negative. No tumors, hemorrhaging or cysts, which is very good, but does nothing to help this headache. When my doctor called to tell me the good news the conversation went kind of like this:

Doctor: "We got the results from your scan and it came back negative, so there was nothing there that's causing your headache."
Pause
Me: "That's good" More pausing. "So what do I for this headache?"

With my blood thinners, I can't just go take an aspirin or advil if I have a headache because most pain relievers are blood thinners. So the only pain reliever I can take is Tylenol, but with my liver still being weak I can overdose on it very easily too. Long story short, if I take enough Tylenol to get my headache to go away, it would probably kill me from overdosing on it. Either way, no bueno. I know I sound like a huge wuss even though I do have a pretty high pain tolerance. Unfortunately it was my pain tolerance and stubbornnes that got me in this trouble to begin with, so Jake does not allow me to be stubborn or tolerate pain until I'm completely better.

Now onto the fun stuff. Yesterday I also had the Meg Guess Bridal Show. I had 3 dresses I wore, so it was pretty crazy backstage trying to get in and out of these huge bridal gowns, while not messing up your hair or getting make up on them then getting back in order to go out. But I loved every minute of it. Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

When I was in the hospital I lost almost a full bra cup size, so where these dresses had always been tight across my bust, they were feeling like they were going to fall off.

Also, after my rant about how everything went wrong with my intersession class. I heard back from UCO and they dropped the class off my transcript and refunded me the tuition and fees for that class. Maybe school is looking up after all.

Time for another CT Scan

This past weekend was my high school "pom mom's" bachelorette party. Pom Mom's were started my sophomore year in high school when an upper classman would adopt an under classman and help them work on their dance techniques, etc. Basically the same thing as Bigs and Lils in sororities. So the former pom girls that were still in the state all got together to celebrate another one of us gettin' hitched. So here's a fun little picture from dinner:

The best thing about going out with former pom girls is that we were crazy before we could drink and now that we're all "of age" they're all still crazy, now they just fall down more. It's all great times.

Sunday I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting at church about the Gospel principle that helped me most during 2008. Which it was obvious why they asked me to speak on that, so I spoke on faith. But I really didn't want my talk to be a log of everything that happened while I was in the hospital. Then one of the other people that was supposed to speak was sick, so they asked me to drag out my talk as long as I could and all this with the Stake President there. No pressure. But it still went very well because public speaking is not a fear of mine. My dad did find it hilarious that I said "what the crap" from the pulpit about 4 or 5 times.

Now for the title. I've had a dull, annoying headache for the last week. According to my Coumadin propaganda, if you have a sudden, severe headache or your headache won't go away you're supposed to call your doctor because it could be a sign of brain hemorrhaging, etc. I had to get my blood checked this week, so when they called to tell me the result I figured I'd tell them. They immediately scheduled me for a CT scan of my head. So I have that Thursday morning. Wish me luck.

Then the fight broke out.

During my last little rant blog, I completely forgot to mention some other fun stuff that happened. Here we go:

Jake did everything he could not to celebrate his 25th birthday, which was December 29th. But the family finally prevailed. Alleigh, his ridiculously talented sister, made him a cake in honor of his favorite college team. Check this baby out.

Now in defense of Jake, Orlando was his favorite place that he lived and has been a Gators fan since he was 15, so he didn't become a Gator fan this year because they were doing well. Then we rudely awoken him from his after dinner nap and made him open presents.

For the big OU vs. UF National Championship game, Jake went to an OU and UF watch party. There were a few OU fans and a few UF fans, but by the end of the game the other UF fans had left leaving the victorious Jake with 3 angry OU fans...and then the fight ensued. What started as teasing became an all out wrestling match between Jake and his die hard, OU loving best friend. Luckily, the other guys broke it up when it headed to the coffee table and TV, so no one was hurt.

I was able to meet up with one of my best friends, Caitlin, that I have barely seen since high school and we went game watch party hopping for the most part. Now, back story time. From the time Caitlin and I were in 6th grade all of our teachers called us by each other's names even when we had separate classes and when we met people they would always ask if we were related. So it was a great little blast from the past when I was introduced to some of her friends and their parents and they asked, "are you guys sisters or related somehow?" That was one of those "whoa, haven't heard that in about 7 years" moments--good times. Without further delay this is Caitlin:

The Good, the bad, and the could get worse.

First, we'll start out with what was good about this past weekend.

My childhood best friend and her husband came home for Christmas, so Jake and I went out to dinner with them, then came home and played the game "In A Pickle". It's a great little game, if you ever have the chance to play it--take it.



So in honor of us acting like we were 13 years old again, we took our kung fu picture because we are secretly ninjas.

Something else that I'm excited about is that Meg Guess Bridal and Couture in Oklahoma City (check out her link over to the right somewhere) is having a Bridal Fashion Show next week that I'll be modeling for. I had to stop all the modeling I was doing when I went into the hospital and wasn't able to do any when I got out because I was so weak. So I'm very excited to start modeling again!

Now for my rant....

School started this week and I was already reluctant because I'm bitter about having to start over after being in the hospital and I'm really nervous because my memory is still recovering, so I don't know how well I'll do this year.

So I get up at 5:30 this morning (which is comparable to Chinese Water Torture for me) to get to my intersession class. I show up 15 minutes before class is supposed to start and no one is there, not in the classroom, not in the building, nothing. I decide to sit on the couch outside the class and wait for someone. 30 minutes after class was supposed to start there is still no one there, so I get online to check and make sure I have the right room and....... UCO changed what day class started and didn't notify anyone, which UCO likes to do constantly. It started on Monday, instead of Tuesday. When the teacher finally comes I tell her what happened and asked if I can make up the day I lost. NOPE. She won't let me and tells me, and the other 3 people that did the same thing, that I have to drop.

Then I go the enrollment office to drop and in order to drop an intersession class in which I missed 1, yes ONE, day of I have to get written permission from my professor and write a letter to the appeals committee to get special permission to withdraw. And if they decide they won't grant the withdraw I get a big, fat, stinking F on my transcript. Now is a good time to ask, "hey, didn't you miss a month of school last semester while you were in the hospital and withdrew?"

Why yes, yes I did. I missed an entire month of class last semester while I was in the hospital and to withdraw all I had to do was sign my name on a withdraw form. I didn't have to prove I was in the hospital, no doctor's notes, no documentation. Just showed up and said take me out. But to withdraw from a class I missed 1 day of, I have to do everything short of getting an attorney! What is wrong with higher education system? HONESTLY. That's more confusing than a football bat! So if this semester keeps up like this, I'm saying screw it all and going to cosmetology school.

Okay, I feel better now.