Been a long time, huh?

I can't believe how fast time has flown by this year. Can you believe it's already the end of September?! Seriously, that means that all of the 'holidays' are starting again, which usually means enduring several joyous yet stressful months... but I look forward to the insanity, haha. The best thing though I've been feeling lately has been a rush of energy from the weather. The summer heat and humidity, you know the kind that just melts you when you go outside, has finally subsided and a recent cooling, which signals the fall, has started to slide in. Its hard to explain but I just feel better. I think I need to take another trip to the mountains soon to catch some fresh air. Now if I could just find the time...
Speaking of time, I'm going to use this post today to catch you up on like 2 MONTHS worth of events that I have neglected to share. I've been in blah mode for basically the whole summer. It was hard having only one income this summer while Kimi was off waiting on the school year to begin. We were limited in what we could do but we made it. There were some MAJOR issues at my work that frustrated me to no end. I take pride in what I do, which is helping people. But with several negative events which occurred in such a short time, I had begun to ask myself if this is where I need to be for the foreseeable future. It's not just about me, it's about my family and making sure any decision I make is the right one since it will affect them as well. I'm still asking myself these questions but I am going to put off some of my anxieties about them for a bit, and just relax. I need to learn again how to listen to God's voice, especially during stressful times. I would like to ask you all to pray that I would understand deep in my being Psalms 46:10. I have it memorized but that's head smarts, not heart and spiritual smarts. "Be Still and Know That I Am God." As the leader of my family, I need this written on my heart, having God's guidance on the big and small decisions I make in my life and for my family. So if you would, pray for me, okay?

Where to begin... okay, I'm just going to make a list and go from there. Sounds good to me. Here goes...

1. Little Miss Makenna is walking like crazy! She is still slightly wobbly but her little feet try to go a million miles an hour everywhere she goes. She has such an independent spirit about her. She wants to 'do it herself'... on everything! From eating to walking to brushing her own teeth. She gets upset if you try to help out too much. It's so cute. We went to the park the other day and she climbed up to the top of the slide over and over again, but she needed daddy's help to get back down. Check out this picture I took at the park. She wanted to walk everywhere. We tried to get her to swing with us but she was just terrified by how it made her tummy feel. Check out the other pics here.

2. My mom finally got MARRIED! I know, you're thinking, how could you not tell us about that?! Sorry guys, again it was that blah thing. Anyway, she and Scotty went on a cruise to Alaska and decided it was the perfect time for a wedding ceremony. They had such a hard time planning the wedding in such short notice that they weren't able to secure a minister or a spot to actually have the wedding without spending thousands of dollars to do so. A funny little thing about Alaska is that since there is such a very small population, they have this rule on the books that ANY person can do the ceremony and legally marry two people ONE time without having to get licenced by the state. They just need to fill out this little form and voila! SO since Scotty had his brother, his sister-in-law, and his twin sister there, it worked out perfectly. His brother did the ceremony and his two sisters were the witnesses! Too funny! They said their vows on a beautiful day with clear skies at the base of Mt. McKinley to the tune of their own version of "going to Alaska, and we're g-o-n-n-a get marr-ieddd" That cracks me up but I couldn't be happier for the two of them! Congratulations mom and Scotty!

3. Kimi and I both turned 27 years young in the past two months. My birthday was on August 7th and Kimi's was on September 7th. What did we do for our birthday's? Did we take a road trip out of state? Did we go camping? Did we have any adventures whatsoever? Nah. Unless you count eating out like 4 times in celebration. Not that we didn't want to do any of those things. It's just that the timing of our birthdays this year was terrible. Mine was on like a Tuesday and hers fell on a busy weekend (not to mention the start of the NFL season...). We did however receive some presents from friends and family that we turned into some cool stuff for us. For Kimi, I took her on a shopping spree to Ann Taylor Loft, Kohls, Old Navy, and JC Penny's for a weekend of glitz and glamour. She bought more outfits than I can count and let me tell you, she looks hot. You should have seen the smile that was on her face for days. She even didn't have to shop on the sales rack this time because of such good deals she got everywhere. That was nice for a change. For my present, I chose to upgrade my gaming system. I purchase an XBOX 360 and pre-ordered HALO 3, which comes out Tuesday the 25th. I'm at a loss for words on how to describe the breath-taking pictures that are involved in high definition gaming but rest assured, it is absolutely amazing. It is so much fun playing online with my brother too. I'm thankful for the fun but it is causing me to lose sleep now because I just can't seem to put it down. I guess I'm going backwards a little with my goal to get outside more...


4. I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to two OU games this year already! The first game was against Miami, aka "The U". Once upon a time, The U was a good team. A very proud team. Then things started to fall apart for them last year when they got into a major brawl with the instate rival, FIU, then ranked like 117th out of 117 in the nation. They fell to a .500 record or so and their pride was bruised. Beginning to get back an ounce of pride after having won their first game of the season, they traveled to Norman, Oklahoma for their first true test to see what they were made of in 2007. Apparently, it was paper mache... because we tore through their defense like they didn't have one! Oh it was so much fun! We have seats on the 20 yard line with a perfect view of the domination that OU was handing out. All of the closet Miami fans that showed up for the game were pumped up for a showdown. Unfortunately, they left with tear-streaked green and orange makeup, heads hung down low. My neighbor across the street puts up his Miami flags every Saturday in defiance of the OU dominated region. Wonder how he felt after the game? Haha! There is so much emotion involved in college football, you can't help but love it. It's not really even worth talking about the second game, Utah State, because it was like OU was playing against a junior varsity team. We left at half-time because the score was already up way high. The only highlight worth noting after we left was ONLY the 3rd longest play in OU history... Murray, one of our like 5 running backs, took a hand-off for a 92 yard run up the sidelines for a touchdown. See, I told you it was a junior varsity team...

Oh, this one is for Brenda. What is the difference between the Texas Longhorns and a mosquito? You can slap a mosquito and it stops sucking! Thought she would enjoy that one...



5. This one involves Kimi's grandma. She has been having some health problems lately that are somewhat serious. Kimi and I received a phone call at around 3am one day in August from Kimi's grandma, asking us to take her to the hospital. I drove like a madman to her house, running stop lights and fish-tailing corners to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Without going into to much detail without her permission, she is doing okay now but is still having some issues that are persistent. If you would, please say a prayer for her health and her spirits. It's hard going through what she has gone through but in her own words, she's a "tough old bird". Haha. We are doing over her house tonight to watch OU play Tulsa, so hopefully that will bring a big smile to her face.

6. Last item today is to ask for your prayers again. My friend, Andrew Coloney (the guy who I built his photography website for last year, http://www.patriotphoto.us), has just received orders to go to Iraq for I believe 11 months. He and his wife recently found out they were pregnant with his 2nd child, which will now be born while he is on the other side of the world. He's torn between serving his country and being there for the "life moments" that his family is about to go through. If you would, please pray that God takes care of him and his family during this trying time. Andrew, I want to say thank you so much for fighting for our freedom... for my freedom. Your dedication to and sacrifices made for our country is deeply appreciated by many many people. Be safe, my friend. If any of you want to send him a note of encouragement, shoot me an email or post it here and I'll make sure it gets to him.

I have several more things to post about but I will put them off for another day. Sorry again about how long I went between updates. I read someone else's blog recently that made the point, comments = love, so please send in your comments when you get a chance! I've always wondered how many people actually reads these thoughts that I put down on paper so I'd love to hear from you guys. Enjoy the game tonight!

Jason

ps. BOOMER!...

Caught By Surprise

So on Monday night (July 23rd), Kimi and I got into a dreamy mode and started looking at different new homes in the neighborhoods around our area. We're trying to compile a wishlist of amenities that we just "have to have", which basically turns into a drooling fest. Anyway, we stay up and talk late into the night (for us) about our plans to build or buy and were just having a great time getting lost in our thoughts. Looking at the clock and seeing it was 1 1/2 hours past our normal bedtime, we start to stir around, get ready for bed, leave the dogs in the front room and finally climb into bed about 11:30pm. But we were both so wired that we couldn't really sleep. I had left our door to the bedroom cracked so if Makenna needed us in the middle of the night, we could get up without disturbing each other. About the time midnight rolls around, there was this noise coming from the front room which sounded like a knob turning with a slight creak. Just then the doorbell sound went off, but it was in a prolonged buzz sound as if someone were pressing up against it for an extended period of time. At this, the dogs jumped off the couch and ran to the door. Kimi yelled, "Jason, I think someone is trying to come in through the front door!" Now, when you are aroused out of the beginning stages of sleep (and without your glasses), you fumble around for reality for a minute or so until it becomes clear that your hysterical wife means business and you should get a move on with your husbandly duty of checking out the "noise". I stumble to the door and try to look through the peephole to see who is out there but to no avail. Whoever had been there took off when the doorbell rang and the dogs barked. When I got a grip on reality, I ran to the place where I keep my shotgun and 22mm rifle and headed back to the front room in case they tried something else. We turned on the alarm (we used to never keep it on...) and checked all the doors and rooms to make sure everything was okay. Makenna was up at this point so we had to put her back to bed. We tried to go back to bed but our adrenaline made for terrible sleep the rest of the night. I had all these questions running through my mind. I kept thinking, "What if the front door had been accidentally left unlocked... we could have been the victim of a home invasion! What would I have done then???" As a husband and father, I am implicitly charged with the safety and protection of my family. You hear in the news about a man's family being raped and murdered in front of him and you just cringe from the horror but you never know how easily bad things can happen at a moment's notice. We specifically chose a cul-de-sac because people are less likely to be there without a purpose but it doesn't really matter much these days. We are going to keep a careful eye out from now on but it is a bit unnerving to have such a close call. What ever happened to our neighborhood watch group? It's a farce. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you all to be a little more careful and to have a plan in place in case someone tried to break into your home. I know we do now! Maybe it's time I thought about getting a little bit better methods of protection like the kid in "Home Alone"...

Switching to lighter and better subjects, Kimi has spent the last two weeks applying and interviewing at a few places for the upcoming school year. She had two interviews that went well and was offered both jobs pretty much on the spot! How cool is that? Each one, including the one she currently has now, offered different things that made them stand out over the others but it was clear as mud as to which we should choose. So we compiled a list and labored over it all weekend. We took two trips out to each school to determine the drive time, traffic conditions, ease of access to the highway/shopping areas, local daycare situations, etc. That helped a lot but the little things just kept bugging Kimi. We sought advice from friends and family and some were adamant that we should go one way while the others were adamant about the other choice! After much deliberation, Kimi finally had a peace about which school to choose. She chose the smaller of the two schools because she could have more freedom over the direction of the program, whereas the other school is already established in their ways and Kimi would be just another employee subject to someone else's way of doing things. We will (FINALLY) have consistent pay and Kimi has the option of health care and retirement benefits. All very good things in case something happens to my job (long story). So thank you family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. Kimi is extremely excited about the upcoming school year and is ready to get it started!

Oh yeah, guess what we did last week? We went to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Ford Center in OKC! The pic was taken with my cell phone camera so it's pretty terrible. But notice ALL of the people with cameras and cell phone's taking pics? So funny! Kimi dragged me talked me into using my birthday present this year to take her to her favorite country boy band since she was pregnant last year and I wouldn't let her go. (Boo, hiss, bad husband!) It's only fair I guess because the last two out of three years I've gone to NFL football games on her birthday! :) I've gotta tell you, I was having a great time making fun of all the cowboys and cowgirls in the place, drunkly singing out at the top of their lungs with their heads back, eyes closed, swaying around to the sweet lullabies of the Rascal bunch. But when they played "Life is a Highway", I couldn't help myself from really getting into it. Too bad that was the last song! Haha! I like most of the Rascal Flatts songs but I guess I'm not as big of a fan as my wife is. She kept grinning and giggling each time they played a song she recognized. Apparently, she tells me she got hooked on them because of Leah Bierwirth giving her a copy of their CD from back at the apartment days when we lived like 100 feet away from them. Now Kimi says she "needs" all 5 of their CD's and wants me to pre-order their new one coming out in September. Let me personally tell you thanks Leah, I appreciate it. :) Kimi says her perfect concert would be one in which Kenny Chesney (gag me) comes out singing a duet with Rascal Flatts (pretty boys). Yeah, I can just hear it now, "She thinks my tractors sexy-eee and I M-E-L-T every time she looks at me that-a way..." Maybe Matthew McConaughey can join in and make it a real party. That would just be super. <-- Sarcasm fully intended. Did you know that my wife gave me permission to have a crush on any Hollywood actress or singer just so long as she can have one on Matthew McConaughey? She was serious! Did you just roll your eyes like I did? Or did you think, 'Hmmm, I should try that with my husband?'. Of course, I agreed. But I just can't narrow it down between all of the Hollywood starlets. My brother would choose Avril Lavigne but do you guys have any other suggestions? I can't wait to hear them...

I hope this post finds you all well and happy.

Jason

Welcome Ethne and More

First and foremost, I must announce, though very late, the birth of Ethne Louise Mathias, who is almost a month old already! She was born on June 27th (two days before Makenna's BDAY!) and was just as long and weighed 6lbs 8ozs, which was about 5 ounces more than Makenna did! So cool, here is a picture from the proud new parents, BJ and Wendy, that we stole off of their website! (Hehe!) Congratulations you guys, I am SO glad and thankful that this pregnancy went so smoothly and God spared you from the cancer this time! (CHECK OUT THIS BLOG ENTRY FROM LAST YEAR WHEN LILYANAH WAS BORN). We absolutely can't wait to meet this little lady. ;) (BJ & Wendy, send more pics!)

We recently took a trip to the Arbuckle Mountains down in Sulphur, Oklahoma. If you've never been down there, it's an experience you won't soon forget. Why? The streams in Sulphur smell like rotten eggs! I'm serious, totally like undigested sour rotten festering eggs. Ugh! But this spot has been a popular tourist attraction for years b/c of it's reported "healing powers" and health benefits the streams provide. The rocks below have an unnaturally high concentration of minerals which drew thousands of sick people in the early parts of the 20th century to take a swim in the waters in hopes it would make them feel better.Not sure why smelling like feces would be an enjoyable thing, but hey I can't say much b/c we went anyway. :) There are several places where the beginning of a spring is at. The water is insanely cold but it is pure and crystal clear. Near the nature center there are a couple of spots where you can sit and put your feet into the bubbling water and I've got to tell you, it really is a refreshing experience. On the day we went, the rain clouds were starting to sprinkle so we didn't get any pics of the springs but you should check them out sometime. I remember when I was a very small child, my family took a trip down there (cheap vacation, huh?) with my Grandparents and we toured the whole area. I've got a picture of it somewhere. Anyway, there was this area that I could never remember where it was at. It turns out that my dad remembered where it was so we stopped by. Bromide Hill is a rocky outcropping that is basically a hundred feet or so above the town of Sulphur and gives you a view of miles and miles away. It makes you feel like you are standing on top of the world! We took some pics there and headed down to "Little Niagara", which is a small water fall that is popular b/c of its jumping off points and the arctic temperature of the water! We didn't do any jumping in but we did wade around and watch the local wildlife, I mean, teenagers do tricks and dives before a crowd of people. Back in my younger days, I would have been right there with them but little Makenna didn't enjoy the cold water so much. No biggie, we had fun nonetheless. Here is a link to our set on Flickr of the pics we took that day. Enjoy!

The 4th of July was actually pretty boring around our household. The weekend of Makenna's birthday party, Kimi and little Makenna headed down to Texas to spend some time with GRAMMI AND GRANDPA while dad got to pretend he was a bachelor for a few days! It wasn't much of a bachelor party though b/c there were still a list of chores I was required to do but still, I took up the whole bed to myself and slept like a baby! I also got some good XBOX Live time in with my bro, but that's a different story. On the 4th, Kimi and Makenna flew back in but had a very rough flight so I treated the girls to lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was so funny watching Makenna starting to eat table food instead of her baby food. There are some things she LOVES and others that she's not too fond of. For example, we gave here some scrambled eggs and carrots to eat. Wouldn't you know, she meticulously picked through the eggs and grabbed every single carrot and threw it on the floor while shaking her head no! I couldn't hardly believe it! She is becoming so independent and making her likes and dislikes known. At home she throws pieces of her food onto the floor for the doggies to eat up. And when we tell her "no no", she just shakes her head back and forth, as if she understands what we are saying but it doesn't quite register we actually mean STOP! Haha! We are also trying to teach her how to drink out of a cup without a lid, yikes... she likes to tip the cup up like she does with her bottles but she ends up wearing her drink instead! I can tell we're going to have some fun times in the future with food and drinks. (Say a prayer for our sanity, would ya?)

Lastly, I wanted to share a video we took from this last month when we got to catch an Oklahoma Redhawks game with Makenna. She was dancing to AC/DC's Back in Black. You gotta love this! :)


Link To Video Here