Glorious Day

I couldn't have asked for a better place to be last night. I was sitting between my best Arkansas friend, Anne, and the lady I go walking with on most mornings, Kelly. Both knew the situation and God knew I would need them around me. We were being silly and making small talk before Bible study started. Bran was across the hall getting ready for Men's Fraternity. Our door was open and I saw him walk out on the phone. He darted his eyes at me and I said, "Who's he talking to" and then continued my conversation with the girls.

A few minutes later he came to our door. He look at me with sad, puppy dog eyes and motioned for me. I got up, completely confused, and then I knew. I could see it in his eyes. He didn't have to say a word and I collapsed in his arms.

My sweet Grandma Arnold had made the transition from her earthly home to her eternal, heavenly home. While I was crying on my husbands shoulder, mourning her passing, she was praising our Father with the multitude in heaven. I'm sure she found my Papa, sitting at the river as Wade Jernigan said at his funeral, and took his hand. And I know they walked the streets of gold together and fell at the feet of our Savior. Praise God!

Brandon asked me if I wanted to go home. I thought about it, but it wouldn't have done me any good. I would have come home and wallowed in my sorrows. Instead, I chose to stay at Bible study and let my sisters in Christ love on me. I went to choir and I never would have guessed it would have been as healing as it was. We practiced a song called "Glorious Day". It was the first time I had heard it and it was definitely by God's design for me to hear it on such a hard day.

Glorious Day

One day, we'll fight our last temptation
One day, we'll meet our final fear,
Feel our heart break for the last time.
One day, we'll cry our final tear.
No more sad good-byes to bear.
No more sorrow anywhere.
No more breathing in the air of a fallen world.

O glorious day!
Glorious light!
Beautiful Savior,
You're a beautiful sight.
Outshine all the stars,
in splendor arrayed.
Eternity bright,
O glorious day!

One day, we'll wake up in your presence.
One day, at last we'll see your face,
run into your arms of mercy.
One day, we'll feel your sweet embrace.
And we'll join with the redeemed in the song of those set free,
as we dance the golden streets of a perfect world.

O glorious day!

Glorious light!

Beautiful Savior,

You're a beautiful sight.

Outshine all the stars,

in splendor arrayed.

Eternity bright,

O glorious day!

Holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty!

Holy, holy Lord.

Holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty!

Holy, holy Lord.
Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!

Holy, holy Lord.

Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!

Holy, holy Lord.

O glorious day!

Glorious light!

Beautiful savior,

You're a beautiful sight!

Outshine all the stars,

in splendor arrayed.

Eternity bright,

O glorious day!

Pumpkin carving!

Last night was our traditional pumpkin carving night. Every year we have soup of some kind (last night it was Paula Deen's Potato Soup with shrimp, minus the shrimp) and carve our pumpkins. It's such a delightful time. Although, I must confess, I was a bit of a cranky pants at the beginning of the night. I don't know what my problem was, but I had some apologizing to do, that's for sure.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here are the pictures.

Bran is the master carver and gut cleaner. He takes the top off and scrapes the inside out and into the bottom of the pumpkin. Then the girls scoop out the guts from their own pumpkin. Oh, I tape the pattern on the pumpkin, poke the holes, then use the miniature saw to see the carving. Then I hand the pumpkin back to Bran and he cleans it up for me. He's more of a perfectionist than I am. Alright, back to the pics...

We carve in our garage with the garage door open. I like it nice and cold to remind us it's fall and Halloween is near. (And, yes, that's a couch in our garage. I got new furniture for my birthday and we haven't sold the couch yet. It's going to the consignment shop soon though.) We let the girls pick out what pattern they want. I found a horse and all sorts of animals and was surprised they didn't chose those. Good for them with keeping the Halloween theme!

I'm sorry these are horrible shots of the glowing pumpkins. It was getting late (8 o'clock) and time for showers. Plus, my fingers were FREEZING! I didn't have the patience to play with the camera setting.

Happy Halloween!

It was definitely worth it...

Last week the girls and I traveled to Oklahoma. Parent/Teacher Conferences were scheduled and that meant only half a day of school on Thursday and no school on Friday. And you know what that means! Road trip! I had talked to their teacher and I met with her during her planning period earlier in the week. So we were good to go on Wednesday! Who needs a half a day of school when there are grandparents waiting for us?!

We headed out sooner than I planned and I'm glad we did. We were nearing my parent's town when Dad called to inform me they were having to serve dinner at the church. He asked me if we wanted to stop by and I told him no. We were dressed in our traveling grubbies and I'm sure we looked a little like death. I called Brandon to tell him we reached our destination safely and told him what mom and dad were doing. When I told him we weren't going to stop by the church, I heard the sweetest comment from Bay.

"Awww, I want to stop by the church and see everybody. I love those people".

My heart melted right then and there. If there's one thing most people know about my girls it's that they are shy. It drives me insane because I love people. I have to remind myself it's in their nature to be quite, their daddy is the same way. So when Bay vocalized her love for the people she grew up around, there was no stopping us. If anyone was to love us no matter what we looked like, it would be those sweet people. And we were welcomed with open arms and loved on.

It was definitely worth it.

We didn't have any big plans for our trip, but I was hoping to have a yard sale with my mom. Those plans got pushed aside when it was cold, rainy, and windy outside. No problem, we just chilled out and enjoyed each other's company.

I know they don't look shy here, but they're with their Grampy. Perhaps the worlds least shy person. Bay thought it was funny to pretend to pick her nose in every single picture and Cay had just finished mooning the camera and sat back down. They're nuts.

Our original plans were to leave Saturday morning, but my nephew had his last football game on Saturday night. We stayed and I'm so glad we did. There's nothing like loving on them when I don't see them as often as I'd like.

It was definitely worth it.

Poor Brandon stayed home alone. Some people love the quietness of an empty house. He's not one of them. He's not a cook either. So he ate all the fast food our little town offers. He managed to get a lot of work done and he represented our family at our class Sunday School party. Sunday after church he was treated to a round of golf with a friend and came home to mow our grass so it would be nice and pretty upon our arrival home. That's when he noticed the unthinkable.

We had been vandalized. Well, maybe not vandalized, but we had been robbed.

You see, I love my Sooners. Love them with all of my heart. Last year my mom sent me a yard iron thing (I, for the life of me, could not think of what to call it) that said "Go Team" and an OU flag hung from it. So proud, I was. I also had another iron thing that hung a "B" for our last name and I hang a plant from it.

Both items were missing. The OU flag was gone and the "Go Team" had been broken into three pieces. And our "B" was nowhere to be seen. I tried to find a picture of my OU flag, but cannot find one. Oh, how sad. Here's our "B".

This was two years ago. DON'T THEY LOOK LIKE BABIES?!?!?!?! See the "B"? Please forgive the mum. I think mom beheaded it. Probably because I mistreated it and let most of them die. I'm sure it came back beautifully.

Anyway, all of this to say, it was definitely worth losing my two yard ornaments for all the memories we created this weekend. It's always a refreshing time to go back to Oklahoma.

I'm just glad those nasty thieves didn't take my pretty fall arrangement. I guess the scarecrows scared them off! : ) Oh, and yes, one pumpkin has been colored. Cay was impatient and decorated it. Carving is tonight!

My heart is broken

A few weeks ago the girls informed me I wasn't allowed to make cupcakes for their class this year. I scoffed at the idea and semi-listened to what they had to say. They mumbled something about a kid having a milk allergy and having to go to Wal-Mart for cupcakes. And then they were done talking about it. They just wanted me to know, I suppose. Being the ever proud stay at home mom I am, I laughed at them on the inside. A milk allergy, huh? No problem. In kindergarten we dealt with a peanut allergy. In first grade a girl had an allergy to the dye red40. If I can work around those two, I can definitely work around milk.

But the more I thought about it, the more insecure I became. Were the girls making this up? They weren't too open with details and had only mentioned it in passing. Then fear set it. The most horrid of thoughts came to mind....Were my girls EMBARRASSED BY MY HOMEMADE CUPCAKES?!?! I tried not to get too upset and I hadn't thought a thing about it until this weekend.

I was talking (texting) with a friend and the topic came up. She thought it was absolutely crazy that I thought my girls could make something like that up. So I asked Baylee when she came through the living room. She stopped and politely explained the situation to me. She gave me the name of the student, the allergy, and what their teacher expects. I felt better and was sure they weren't embarrassed by our homemade cupcakes, but were, indeed, following the rules and passing the information on to me.

I was at choir practice yesterday and was sitting next to a teacher at their school. Her daughter and my girls are very good friends and we were chatting about how silly they were. I mentioned how I had feared they were embarrassed by the cupcakes when she stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Cari, it's a state law that you can't bring homemade treats to school".

What?!?!

I was mortified. I was a lawbreaker. And no one told me. No one ever mentioned it to me. And then something worse sat in. I take such pride in coming up with creative treats for the girls' class. Now what? The very heart of being a stay at home mom had been ripped from me. I would have to buy already made treats. And that violates everything that is within me.

So let's take a look at how I broke the law.

These are my first creations. Rudolph cupcakes. Oh they make me smile.

See this man? Yes, he's the PRINCIPAL! And he LOVED the cupcakes. AND HE NEVER MENTIONED THAT I WAS BREAKING THE LAW!!!! And for someone who has one Principal of the year, I think it would have been in his best interest to have told me.

Their birthday cookies from kindergarten. So much fun.

Birthday cupcakes for first grade. A treat and a goody to take home. How perfect!

Look how ridiculously excited I look to have all the goodies ready to go. My facncy dancy, ever so handy cupcake holder and my bag packed with drinks. Again, I walked right by the office and no one mentioned a word.

So where does that leave me? For now I am heartbroken. But I will recover. I do completely understand why it has to be a law. You never know what crazies are out there and what psycho things they would try to do. But I am still sad. And I feel silly. I bet those teachers were saying, "Bless her heart. She's a move in from Oklahoma and doesn't realize the laws we have here. Well, poor her."

Brandon quickly had a solution last night. "Why don't you just make the fun treats for us? You family?" Hmmmm, what a brilliant idea.

It's official...

...there is not one, single picture where I am alone and the picture is good. I'm not kidding, people.


I've been looking and looking for a descent picture of myself to put on here and it doesn't exist. It just doesn't. Here are the reasons...


1.) I'm the one taking the majority of the pictures to capture all of the special moments. And sometimes that means no one needs to be in the picture.

Such as this past weekend. Yes, the Sooners lost and I had to walk in the midst of crazy Texas fans, but we created memories. And had we won, I probably would have devoted a whole post to it. But the pain is still too raw and I can't think about that right now. Maybe in the future when I quit hearing "The eyes of Texas are upon you" in my dreams, I will think about telling you about our crazy, whirlwind weekend.

2.) If there is a picture of me I probably look like a psycho.

Yes, that's me. Brandon is trying to take down our massive Christmas tree from our Explorer and I don't know what in the world I am doing. I remember being sick that night with a nasty cough and I handed the camera over to the girls. I think that was a mistake.

3.) Brandon and I like to take photos of the two of us, but that means one of us is bound to have a big head.

Look at that. I'm smiling. No double chin. The make up is good. And then Bran has his head way out in front and the date is right there for the world to see. Hrmph...

4.) The girls put make-up on me and cover me with war paint.

We were bored one evening and I let them have fun putting make up on me. Everything was fine and dandy until they decided it would be best just to completely paint my face. The least they could have done was put some mascara on me!

5.) Or I'm trying to be like my Uncle mark and wear sunglasses indoors.

My sweet Uncle Mark, God bless his soul, never takes his shades off. Never. I used to think that was silly until I realized the sun can be mighty blinding and I tend to wear my shades at all times. And, yes, that means indoors if it's too bright. (Side note: Those are not my sunglasses. Mine were in the car for some strange reason and I had to borrow my cousins.)

6.) Sometimes, though, it's a special occasion, such as my birthday, and I'm too preoccupied with the Carnegie deli cheesecake to look at the camera.

I got a small cheesecake that year. Small cheesecakes are not fun. Number one, you have to share. Number two, all the other people eat your cheesecake. This year, we got the LARGE cheesecake and I was much happier.

7.) Other times I'm getting jiggy with it and someone snaps a picture of my famous Dance Dance Revolution game face. I'm a competitor and I hate to lose. Focus, Cari, stay focused.

I refused to show the full body shot, because, well, it's really embarrassing. No need for that. Look how I'm biting my lip and not trying to miss a beat!

8.) And then there are those rare times when I take a good picture and so does the person next to me.

Every time I see this picture I'm immediately taken back to my childhood. I love her.

So there. You've seen me in all of my glory. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Why I felt the need to share these humiliating photos with everyone, I'm not really sure. Maybe so you guys would know I do, indeed, exist. Even if it's not captured by the camera very often.

Dallas Bound!!!

Ok. So yesterday my dad calls. Nothing unusual. I talk to my dad often (pretty much daily) and I talk to my mom several times a day. Some probably think I'm a little on the strange side. I think it's perfectly normal. I stay at home, my mom is taking care of her mom right now, and my dad works from home. It's very convenient to call them. And it works both ways. But I digress...

When dad called yesterday it wasn't our typical conversation. Oh no, no, no. My dad called to inform me he had two extra tickets to the OU/Texas game this weekend in Dallas. They were ours for the taking if we could make it to Oklahoma by Friday morning! Are you kidding me?! Of course we jumped on that band wagon and I've been a maniac all day getting things whipped into shape so we can leave this evening.

So far today I have got two girls ready for school and dropped off, walked a fast mile (no time for two miles this morning), got completely caught up on my laundry, organized my computer desk, cleaned my kitchen, vacuumed the house, took a shower, ran to Wal-Mart for diaper cake supplies, packed bags for everyone, and now I'm about head out the door and pick up my girls. Whew! No wonder I'm tired. But wait! When we get home I have to assemble this diaper cake. What was I thinking saying my contribution to the shower would be a diaper cake centerpiece?! I've never even made one before!! Why, oh why, must this baby shower be Sunday afternoon?

This should be a fun filled weekend, that's for sure. And you better believe pictures will be coming soon.

Boomer Sooner!!

Hello, blog world!

Well, here it goes. I have transitioned to a real blog. At least I'm hoping to transistion to a real blog. In the past I have journaled in various places and it's not until I go and look back when it reminds me how beneficial writing things down can be. There would have been several things I would have forgotten had I not taken the time and journaled. And as a mom of seven year old twin girls, there's a lot to write about.

I suppose I should start by telling you a little about myself. As I already mentioned, I am a mother. My husband and I were blessed with two beautiful girls and our lives have been more fulfilled because of them. We are currently living four hours away from the closest family member. When you're used to only being minutes away, four hours might as well be a lifetime away. It has certainly been an adjustment, that's for sure. I am fortuante enough to stay at home right now. I take great joy in taking my girls to school, waiting in the carpool line to pick them up each day, and I'm learning to appreciate the daily housework. I know it could be worse. I could be at work all day and still have to get it all done. I can't even imagine what that must be like!

In regards to the title of my blog, it's kind of a play on words. We are in The Natural State right now, Arkansas. And as a lifelong Oklahoma girl, seeing Razorbacks all over the place took quite some getting used to. But more than our physical location, our family is in a constant natural state. I have learned over the years to be real. Wearing "masks" to please people around you only makes life more complicated. So I've have made the choice to take the masks off and be real. Yes, I said choice. Because it is a choice. I want nothing more than for people to look at my family and see that we are your average, far from perfect family. We have our ups and downs and in this blog that's exactly what you will see. You will see us in our natural state.

Hmmmm, that was kind of a boring first post, wasn't it? Oh well, we got the awkward first post jitters out of the way. Soon I will begin introducing my family. You're going to love them!

~Cari