I think the title of my little sister's email and picture was "brown is the new pink!" they swear it was accidental. these are some of her girlfriends and roommates. she lives with nine other girls in a big ole house in milwaukee. (they go to marquette)
they have no air conditioning and it is aparantly like 90 degrees there. i still don't think it compares to the arkansas heat/humidity of the day.
pictured: emily, my sister jen, jess (whose 21st birthday celebration was just beginning in this particular shot), ali, and some other fun girl in brown named jessica. HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JESS.
Out of the approximately 55 people in my office, I was selected! Jeff, our president, announced the list of nominees at our company-wide meeting this morning. Trust me... someone else should have won - they deserve it much more! I had to stand up in front of everyone while he read nice things people had said about me and I turned about the color of a fire engine. I got a little plaque and a bag and everything!
just had to brag a bit! there is a fun picture about it on our softball blog (Newsounds link on side).
Kim and Sean's newest addition, Stone, seen here with my father-in-law Rea Graves! While Kim and Sean and the boys are in India (see below post) they are adopting a baby from a birth mom here in arkansas. the baby - stone is his name - was born this past Saturday and will be taken care of by family until they return from india! isn't he cute?
Kim and Sean and Fisher and Simeon and friends in India! Below is a quick email from kim that she sent the family. you don't have to read it all but i thought it was interesting!
An Indian friend showed us a neighborhood pool yesterday. She looked back at me in the car and said “Why are you interested in swimming when it is the COLD season?” I am in the back of the car sticky from sweat and I turn to my U.S. mommy friend and say “How can THIS be the COLD season when we are so HOT!” We both had a nice laugh over that one.
We recently had some cultural training from an Indian friend. Anyone out there remember Roshan? We met his wife, Esther, and 3 yr. old son, Ratchit (seen in above picture). One of the things he emphasized with us was to never point your foot at someone. Now most people don’t use their foot to point to someone I realize, but I am talking about never crossing your legs and have your foot out, angled toward someone. That is kinda hard! Feet are very offensive here. We are to never put our feet on furniture or have our feet touch someone. All that said, one night while eating out at a restaurant, I glanced over at Simeon to find him sitting with one foot on the edge of his chair and one leg dangling out in the aisle near people. Ha. We are learning all kinds of new things as a family!
The main mode of transportation around here is by auto rickshaw. The best way to describe it is to try to picture a 3 wheeled golf-cart painted yellow with a black top smashed down a little bit. It usually holds 3 people, but when Roshan and his family were here, we had 4 adults and 3 kids in one. It was pretty fun and the kids love going places in them. On another occasion we had a “fancy” rickshaw with lots of decorations hanging down and music blaring!! So there I was packed into this auto rickshaw riding down the crowded streets of India with an Indian version of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” blasting from tiny speakers. Memorable moment!
We are staying in a “bed and dinner” type place that is really nice. As you might guess, the dinners served are all Indian. I am happy to say that last night I felt full for the first time eating Indian food. Biriyani is an Indian dish that Hyderabad is well-known for. If you are feeling adventurous, why don’t you try it at your favorite local Indian restaurant? Simeon loves eating with his hands, and I fear that it might be a hard habit to break when we return to the U.S. Fisher is holding his own in eating—peanut butter is carrying us through some of the more difficult meals.
There are two types of women in India—the traditional woman and the college student. The clothing that they wear is very different. So as not to offend the traditional women in India, we now wear salwaar kameez outfits--Big baggy pants and a very long tunic. They are fun to wear. I even had mine TAILOR MADE and the pants are still too SHORT. I think the Indian guy who made it must have thought, “surely she is not this tall”. Yes, I think I am the tallest woman here in Hyderabad--My claim to fame!
On the flip side, most female college students are very western and trendy. They like to wear tight jeans and western type tops. A college student was over recently and she giggled when we pulled out some salwaars. Apparently our initial choices weren’t the most stylish.
I’ll close with this fun fact: Did you know that if you say “freaking out” among students here that you are NOT referring to what I was doing the night before we left for India, but instead referring to just hanging out with friends.
ha! nothing like numbers! exactly one year ago i was at 24% and six months ago i was at 19% and now 17.4%! one percent more and then i can MAINTAIN!
i am feeling slightly like my old, in shape self. now aren't you all glad i shared that with you? GO EAT MCDONALDS!
wedding kisses! Silly pic from the shower I am thinking about turning into a stamp for my thank you cards! What do you think?
mary kay and kat from the shower sans armpit fat! how fabulous! (you have to use the word fabulous ALOT at showers)
b standing in front of some of her artwork! so i finally got to see brooke and paul's house! about time! this is a shot of b in her fabulously red dining area w/ some of her framed work.
audra and i spent a couple of hours in hobby lobby looking for ribbon for the girls' dresses and paper stock for the invitations. lots and lots of orange and pink.
on a side note(er... more important note!), our house-to-be inspection was today. It's not great news. Who knew house buying was so stressful? and expensive? It's not awful however. We are thinking it will all be okay. Ok, Karl is thinking it is all going to be okay. I am freaking out.
Weekend agenda: Softball game at 9 on Saturday, MY FIRST SHOWER at 3 on Saturday at Renee's, Soccer on Sunday at 6 and who knows what in between. will keep you updated.
last night we had girls night by the pool w/ me and kristen and e and em and chandel and brooke.. it was nice and relaxing!
anyway I decided to NOT be obsessed w/ my blog at work anymore! very distracting! so no more posts during work hours (unless of course they are extremely important like the oregon trail thing)
Wendy and Alex's little boy Cole at four months! He is 'so big!' Wendy is a good friend and the girl who trained me for my current job at Arkansas Business. Isn't he a little heart breaker?
brooke and kat.. can you tell it has been six months since we have seen each other? yeah. happy girls! this is saturday night in OKC at cassie and jenny's house. They made us a yum chicken and veggie dinner on the grill (yes women can grill without men!)
where's lily? saturday night before we slept jenny and i decided to check out life as her dog, lily (better know as lily-bug). lily-bug was at her grandparents house saturday night and her cage looked so big and sad and we were being silly and climbed in! we were seriously acting like we were 14 and at a bunking party. After the dog cage incident there was jumping on the bed and lots of belly laughing. silly girls!
jenny, cassie, and b hanging out! the hat ownership was cassie's at the moment! it got passed around a lot that night! isn't it hideous? jenny bought it for me in mexico.
Kristen and her husband Cory w/ their daughter Elizabeth. SHE IS FOUR MONTHS OLD and BEAUTiFUL! It was so good to see them and meet Elizabeth! Kristen will probably be mad at me for putting this pic on here but their family is so cute i couldn't resist!
i hate having really good weekends b/c then I don't want to come to work Monday morning! Everything was fabulous and i have lots of pictures but not from my camera b/c it died! so i am waiting on them and as soon as they are here I will post them! be prepared. some are quite ridiculous (specifically from OKC on Saturday night when we didn't bust out the camera until late!)
so... it is 1:45 p.m. and i am anxiously awaiting my departure from tulsa that keeps getting pushed later and later! we will NEVER get there!
pic of the house to be! basic front view. we signed a contract this evening. we will close officially on the 18th of july and move in the last week in July! more news and pics to come.
so last night the knights (brooke's mother and father in-law) ...pam and hank were in Little Rock on their way back to Tulsa and we had dinner w/ them at the Flying Fish in the River Market. It was GREAT to see them and catch up - a nice surprise at the end of the day! we also ran into matt price and annie at the flying fish and they came over later for a quick night swim.
i have the world's worst three day headache from hell... i tried to sleep it off and showed up to work late but so far nothing has worked to make it GO AWAY. so i am not sure if i am going to make soccer practice this afternoon or not. i want to go since i haven't worked out in four or five days but i don't want to make it worse. also supposed to have girls night tonight... not sure if that will happen either!
OH and last night i got an invitation to my first wedding shower hosted by Elaine Robus and Renee Hughen. it is in a couple of weeks... here in the LR!
well, there really isn't an update on the house. they have accepted our verbal offer and want to sign a contract on Wednesday. however, i feel a lot could happen between now and then. you just never know. It has been relatively low stress and i have such great feelings about the house and the people selling the house. the people selling the house are moving NEXT DOOR so i have good feelings about the neighborhood also. i feel like we were meant to have this house. is that weird? i can not concentrate at work AT ALL!
we are headed to tulsa/okc for the weekend. i know it is only tuesday but i am so excited about this weekend it is not even funny. it will officially be 6.5 months since I have seen brooke and paul. THAT IS HALF A YEAR. HALF A YEAR. we head out friday night to hang w/ everyone and then Saturday night brooke, jenny, and I are going to jenny and cassie's house (that no one has seen even though she has lived there a year) in OKC. official girls night. karl is going to stay behind in tulsa saturday night and hang out w/ matt dill and some guys he hasn't seen in awhile.. specifically matt since we haven't seen him since he and meredith got engaged and he asked karl to be his best man!
karl and i put an offer on a house yesterday evening. and.... we find out shortly if we are going to get the thing. ugh i hate waiting!!!
last night karl decided we were to act like we were freshman in college and play some beer pong! (object: two teams. six cups on each side w/ small amount of beer or drink in them. throw or bounce ping pong balls in plastic cups of other team. you make it, they drink what is in the cup. ping pong table not required) karl and i ended the night victorious w/ THREE wins in a row!
Words of the night: BOOSH. (when you did something good) and BILLS (name of all the ping pong balls.)
Props of the night: Kat's shingaurds and Emily's undergarments. Plastic cups and ping pong balls...er.. BILLS!
Ok fine it's NOT the sun coming up. It is the porch light. sadly, our night of "reliving college" ended at the ripe ole hour of MIDNIGHT!! woo hoo! we are craaaaazy. =)
later in the night... eric shows some new attire... bra set comes w/ budweiser (half drunk), shingaurd (seen here as forearm gaurd), cigarettes, and lighter. oh and THE MAN. i think at one point he may have been in the front yard w/ this on...before emily yelled at him about the neighbors seeing..
karl squares off agaist some funk nasty bug. you can actually see the bug if you look closely. isn't that GREAT?
please come bring me $5 pizza. i have been dreaming about you and your pizza for a week and karl won't let me eat you. or your pizza.
me and elana all sweaty after scrimage practice. yes, i am playing soccer. as if i don't have enough stuff to do already! But the league is 7 v 7 and it is only six weeks! and I haven't played in SOOO long....and it was fun fun fun and I have one nice bruise to show from practice and i scored one nice goal.... the goal is so small in a 7 v 7 league and the field is super short. We play our first game this Sunday. Hmm... we also have a softball game Saturday. That means i will be seeing people i work with 7 days a week. hmm.. is this bad??? =)
anyway you can check out the "Flexers" action on our soccer blog (blogging=exploded, everywhere...isn't it great?) there is a link to the blog under my links!
So last night we checked out the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The movie line at the Rave was amusing... every single male was like (in deep, manly voice) "One for Cinderella Man" and every single female was there to see the Sisterhood.
Review: Fabulous. I loved it. Okay it was cheeky and cheesy and silly and girly. BUT it was also realistic and emotional and completely relatable. relatable. is that a word? i don't think so. anyway, there were four story lines and you could relate to a little bit in each one. big fan. ah 16 year old drama!