OUR NEW BLOGS!!!

Welp, this is it. I have finally changed from blogger to wordpress and here to announce to change of blog addresses. I split up the blog into two, one for updates on us, and one for updates on my crafting etc. Here are the new address:

www.mattandshannonmeredith.wordpress.com

and

www.shannonsknits.wordpress.com

Please visit our new site and add it to your RSS feeds or list of sites you visit. Sorry for the inconvienence but I think it will be better for me and the frequency that I update since it is easier for me to use. See you on the flipside :)

Well, here we are!!!!!!!

We wanted to update everyone and let you know that we made it safe and sound and without too much drama. Just a little in the beginning of the trip :) but what kind of a road trip would it be without something. The picture above was taken early today by Shay. We tried to find Jack for the family pic but he was in a hidey-hole and was no where to be found until later.

Earlier this week we had a great crew of muscular men, women and babies to help load the truck on Thursday which really helped us out a lot and Friday was much less stressful in that aspect. Friday evening, some of our buddies came over for a last supper feast consisting of left overs that we were trying to eat before we left and a few more moments of fellowship together before we moved! Then some more family came in to help finish loading things and cleaning. I hated saying bye to my best bud Katie but I know she will visit soon so it helped but it was still sad.

We woke up SUPER early in the morning to finish everything up before the vet came to give Jack (our cat/panther) a sedation. That was quite the event and one I hope I dont have to do again. We had to not give him food and water after 6ish and so he was starving and confused about what was going on and really fought the vet to get the injection. She had to stick him 4 times before she was able to administer it she got it finally and then we hurried on our way. It was creepy too because I thought it would be more like an anesthetic and he would be sleeping but instead it was more like Michelle Pfeiffer in "What Lies Beneath" when Harrison Ford sedated her with a chemical and she was fully aware that he was trying to kill her and of what was happening but couldnt move her body!!!! AND his eyes were open the whole time!!! I told Matt that it was his turn next time!

Unfortunately, I was in the animal car by myself the whole time to Tulsa because Shay was in her car and was kind of freaking out the whole time that the cat was dead and that his eyes were drying out and that he was going to wake up in an hour. It was a bit of mass hysteria but then I got myself together when I stopped in Tulsa and the rest of the trip was better. I got to see my mom one more time before the move, acquired Shay to assist in the animal car for the rest of the way and continued my mission to hurry up to St. Louis before the cat could move around! We stayed ahead of the rest of the pack and made it there at 3:30 which was amazing (8 hours total even with our stops so really like 7 hours driving time). I made shay "blink the cat" like every 5-10 minutes because we were afraid his eyes were going to dry out and make sure he was still breathing along the way. Amazingly enough, he made it the whole way before he really started being able to stir which in hindsight was more enjoyable for him but very traumatic initially. He came around later that evening and is already back to his normal self but a little more loving than his norm.

We unloaded the whole truck by 8:00 pm on Saturday just in time for dinner and in time to go to bed early. My grandpa and cousins left in the morning and Shay and Janoah got to stay until today. We dined on some local pizza at Imos for lunch and cooked some turkey meatballs for dinner and Shay and I made some trips to Trader Joes before she had to go.

This last week has been an emotional one for Matt. He has been trying to be tough on the outside but crying himself to sleep at night because he is missing everyone at OKC. I have been the strong one and consoling him but sometimes he is an unstopable crying machine......NOT!!!!

But seriously, last week was tough for me especially and sad but we are really looking forward to this new stage in life. Our moving experience was about as good as it could be. Not too much furniture damage, no wrecks, no tickets, no close calls, no moving injuries or anything. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family to help and we cant thank you enough. We will miss you all like crazy so you better come visit us when you can. We have lots of room and want you all to visit when you are able and we will be back often as well. Matt starts his new job on Wednesday so please keep him in your prayers. We love you all, thanks for everything and keep in touch!!

p.s. this is the last official post on this blogging website and hopefully we will get internet in the next week or so and I will post a link here to our new blog address.

more knits

I have a huge update coming soon (not announcing a pregnancy or anything - let me put that disclaimer out there) but it will be a long post or posts so I havent been motivated to write yet. Until then, here are some pics of the recent knitted things I have been working on. We go on our family reunion week this weekend so I plan on knitting a lot there too since I am not a good book reader. We will see...

A baby hat for Katie's friend

A baby blanket for Shay's friend and a pic of my new tags in action. I didnt mean for it to look so pink camoflauge but thats how it turned out. It is hard to see the pattern in these pics but it is checkered with a seed stitch border.

And a baby elf hat for Baby Harper. I hope it turns out well in the photo shoot Bopha!!

**I had issues last night with the pictures but at least it worked today :)

DAD Life

Here's a pretty funny video made by some folks at Church on the Move in Tulsa for Father's day:

Ohhhhh snap, I got my hair did!

I have been saying for a while that I was ready to cut my hair since it was long enough to donate again and I finally did! Sticking to my sneaky ways lately, I made a secret appointment for Thursday and didnt tell anyone not even Matt or anyone at work for the whole week. But I ended up telling Shay on Wednesday night when she called because I just had to tell someone but she lives in Tulsa so I knew no one else would find out.

Thursday was a really rough day at work for me so I was so glad when it was time for my appointment because I was needing a break big time. But I was running a few minutes late and then got stuck behind a train so I thought I might not get to get it cut afterall. The cottonwood secretary lady was being really uptight about me being late so I drove incredibly unsafe and made it just barely late with no wrecks or tickets.

I have never been there but it was awesome! You get a head and temple massage as well as an arm and hand massage when your hair is being washed. Plus some other complementary services that I didnt take advantage of because I was in a hurry. And since I was donating my hair, they didnt charge me for my haircut and mailed it for me also! What a deal!!

These are the only pics I snapped that day. I was so flustered from my day at work and running late I almost forgot to take any. She cut off about 11 inches here and then about 12 total after it was all said and done.

Voila!

The above picture was taken much later in the evening when I got home and the bottom picture was right when I got back to work from my haircut.

Since no one knew, my work friends were totally shocked when I came back. Matt was shocked too because he also didnt know. I love surprises!! It has been about 3 or so years since my last major cut to donate and so I was ready for it again especially since it is getting so hot now. I love the cut and plan to keep it short for a while then start growing it again for the next Locks of Love donation!! Bring on the summer!!!

Vancouver trip re-visited (like 6 weeks later)

Well, as I do often, I have neglected my blogging and I havent even blogged about the best trip of the year so far!! I havent really forgotten I was just putting it off because I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate putting pictures on blogspot especially when there are tons to choose from. For as many people that use this website, you would think it would be more user friendly especially in the picture/movie uploading features but it definately IS NOT! I have been contemplating switching websites but dont really know of other ones that are better. Any suggestions??

But anyway, back to Vancouver...

We had an absolutely fabulous time there. Everything was beautiful and there was so much more to do that we had time for. For those who didnt know, we got to plan such a wonderful trip because Matt had a chemisty meeting conveniently located there. It takes place twice/year in various locations around the world and in April in was in Vancouver. And because he is such a brilliant fellow, we got it all payed for (except my plane ticket because i have nothing to do with OU) but we did have credit card milage that allowed me to get my ticket for almost nothing! That is part of what made the trip even more awesome!

We got to go for one whole week and few days we got to do stuff together and a few days Matt was at the meeting and I did stuff by myself. Aside from getting plantar fasciatis, I can think of no bad things to report about the trip. The town was beautiful! It is the 5th greenest city in the world and you can definately tell. The have recycling bins in the hotel room! If you stay downtown, you can do big city stuff, yet you are within walking distance of hiking, parks, beaches and a bus ride away from the mountains and kayaking. It was just wonderful.

But as previously mentioned, I hate puting lots of pics on here so I think I am just going to direct you to my facebook page and put them all up on there with comments about where we were and stuff. I took so many it is really hard to cull down for blogger. So go here and look at my pictures to see all about our wonderful Vancouver expedition. If you ever get a chance to go, I highly reccomend it!!

Baby boy beanie

This is a cute little baby boy hat I made for my friend this week. I really like the design and will probably make some elf new born hats as well for baby photos. This hat is for a 6 month old baby.

I always struggle to come up with cute ideas for baby boy stuff, but I thought this was cute and still masculine enough :)

Weekend funtivities!

This is the first weekend we have been home in a while without crazy activities and we had lots of fun! Charlie was here with us while her parents were rockin out with Josh Ritter in NYC. Friday, we came home and did a bit of yard work before we grilled out dinner. Matt cleaned out the dog pools which makes the front half of our yard a mud pit and the dogs got really nasty but had lots of fun doing it!

I dont know what Matt is doing here but Charlie is getting ready for it :)

And then Lucy is getting down and dirty with her frisbee. Needless-to-say, they got a good washing before they came in that night.

Sick Lucy, sick!

And here is what we had on Friday night, dry rub pork chops, sweet potato fries and broccoli. We really love sweet potatoes...I have been cooking them so much lately and they are always so good and good for you. Much better than regular potatoes.

And right after dinner, we decided to go to Orange Leaf (not to be confused with Orange Tree) to get some delicious yogurt. Can you guess which one is Matthews bowl?

And headed to the lake to eat it. There was some amateur band playing at Louie's but we didnt stay for that really. They werent very good but it was fun to walk at the lake at sunset. We dont do that nearly enough. I kind of forget about going to the lake except when I am driving by to and from work.

A good picture after several tries, we are getting better at these :)

And of course a silly one, I am not good at silly faces but Matt is :)

Saturday, we took Lucy to get her annual shots and ran a few errands in Norman and then hung out at home the rest of the day. And since we were in the grilling mood, grilled out again on Saturday. This time it was steaks, sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts on the grill.

It has been a fun relaxing weekend and I am glad we had good weather to enjoy the outside.

Our Dog is a Vegan

My mom would approve of this message since she is a bigtime vegan. But yeah, if you didnt know, my dog Lucy LOVES grass! She eats it all the time and will eat it like its a treat. If Matt is about to mow the yard, she eats around the edges of the fence seemingly as if to beat him before he cuts it all off. She will eat it while laying in the grass and also loves for us to feed it to her. It is weird but funny! I tried to take some pictures but she moves too fast in them so I didnt get many but I did get a video.

I dont know if grass is good for dogs to eat so much of but it is better than table food probably, she sure does love it and its free!

Oh yeah, I'm that guy....

One of those people that has a Topsy Turvy! I bought one at the end of the year last year to try this season and ended up buying another to try and grow tomatoes and yellow peppers. And guess what, it appears to actually be working!! And here is the proof:

It is the first tomato on the vine! And I looked a little harder and there are several more tiny ones too! YEAH, I didnt actually think it would grow tomatoes but so far it is going well. Apparently, they grow where the flowers are after they die, I also didnt know that before either.

The one below is the pepper plant. Only flowers so far but then hopefully peppers. It was slower growing than the tomatoes and just started blooming flowers this week.

Too bad I didnt do a whole garden again this year, maybe next year. I am sure I will keep you updated on how these plants are doing as the veggies mature.

My Slaw is a Master!

In case you dont know what that title means, it is the nickname Deanna gave me recently. I forgot where she heard it but its pretty funny! (Slaw = sister-in-law)

Well as mentioned in the previous post, not only did Matthew just graduate with an advanced degree, Deanna did as well! Two weeks ago, Deanna graduated from Abilene with her Masters Degree in Missions. She along with a few other families have been training for over 2 years for a church planting mission in Concepcion, Chili. They are currently being funded by a church in College Station for this last year leading up to their departure in January of 2011 and they are all in the process of trying to get funding for their time in Chile. I was trying to post the link for you to read about their team but I guess they removed the promotional thing from the church website. Wah, wah :( But anyway, we are all so proud of her and the team and all their plans to do great work for God there. I know they are getting excited and nervous and I would just like to solicit the prayers of my friends for their team as they make their final preparations for this mission. So here are a few pics from her big weekend!!!!

Deanna getting hooded (and she found out later all the hood were upside down, oops!)

Post ceremony pictures:

John and Monica (the proud parents)

Aunts and uncle

Trina and Deanna visiting at the awesome burger joint we went to after the ceremony.

And for dinner, we went to this cute restaurant in the country. This band was the entertainment for the evening. They played lots of classic country tunes and it was cool that their bass player was a woman! Never seen that before.

John and Monica being silly and hiding their chins :)

They had all the saying on the trim of the ceiling and this one was the most unique and I had never heard it before.

The whole clan at the end of the evening (minus Monica, I guess she took the picture),

And our ever necessary bed picture. We probably could have squeezed John on there dont you think?

On Sunday, we cooked brunch for the family for a mini-Mother's Day Celebration. We made bacon and carrot cake pancakes. They were sooooo good!

And one last group picture...let us not forget our doggies :)

Congratulations again Deanna! I am so proud and honored to be your s-law and will be sad when you move but look forward to coming and visiting you! I am glad we got to see you two weekends in a row and I cant wait for WALTONIA!

Graduations all around!

Well as most of you know, we have been quite the busy traveling bees lately! Rather than go in chronological order and start with vancouver posts, I am going to mix it up a bit and start with this last weekends celebration since it is fresh on my mind and not as many pictures to choose from (the real reason)!

OU's 118th commencement ceremony was on Friday and Matt got to participate, even though he isnt quite finished yet. He still has his thesis to defend in a month or two but it was a great celebration weekend none-the-less. I have been so excited about this weekend that I could hardly sleep on Thursday and Friday. Way back in January, I asked off for those days so that I could get things together for the celebration and be able to accompany him to all the festivities in Norman on Friday. The first of which was at The National Weather Center for just the graduate college. They had some awesome food for us and Dean Williams gave a mini speech in front of the weather globe projecting the weather for the past couple of weeks.

Deanna is standing by the tornado measuring machines from Twister

The reception ended earlier than expected so some people walked around campus and we ran some errands. Matt is standing in front of one of many statues dressed in robes.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and the ceremony was moved to Lloyd Noble instead of the football stadium. Here we are freezing in line while the adults waited in the car for a little while longer :)

This Scottish bagpipe band played the processional music. I LOVE bagpipes!!

These indian head dresses were awesome! (and dave if you read this, i immediately thought of your facebook pic when i saw them and laughed at an inappropriate time)

Matt and Dr. Glathofer walking up to the hooding.

Matt and his new BFF David Boren! The doctorate candidates were the only ones who got to be hooded and walk on stage (besides the super smart undergrads).

Deanna is making good use of the glow sticks here at the end!

Dr. Glatzhofer reinacted the hooding since I couldnt see it live and the dude mispronounced Matt's name (however that is possible). And we could barely hear him at that.

This is one of my favs!

We got to go down to the floor for a bit afterward and take a few more pics.

The whole group that was able to go to the ceremony. They didnt give us enough rain tickets so my mom and grandpa couldnt come :(

And then when we got home late, we started working on the rest of the cake preparations. Here is Matt attempting to make his Ferrocene molecule that wasnt to be. But good try Matty! I didnt post a pic but Shay and I had quite the time trying to roll out the fondant. Apparently the trick is to use shortening of somesort not powdered sugar which one website suggested. We finally got it on the second try but as you will see later, it wasnt thin enough.

The girls decorating flowers, dejavu eh?

We borrowed all this cool glassware from Matt's lab for the table decor except the test tube racks, I bought those on Ebay.

I made these nerdy element placemats too. I think I just made like 10 different ones and lots of copies.

Dinner was catered by Mama Roja's and it was delicious! They need to package their food better because we had an incident with the beans but not a major problem by any means, just a big mess!

Liesel and I got to hang out momentarily for the first time. I havent ever seen her and her parents since before she was born! I am a bad friend :(

Friends and family

(p.s. Mom you are starting to semi-smile like grandma again :))

And here is the cake. It was a collaborative effort by all. Katie Rowten made the figurines, Deanna and I made the sheet cakes, Shay and I rolled the fondant, and I wrote the table elements and "strategically" placed the figurines to cover up my mistakes. It was a successfuly first attempt at using fondant in my opinon. And as I told many of my friends, I was pleased with the outcome enough to not throw it in the trash and go to Cheesecake Factory. I was annoyed by the sagging sides though. I guess our fondant wasnt thin enough and made it to heavy. I dont know. None-the-less, Matt loved it and that makes me happy!

Here you can see Matt's Houston team logos, his rubberband ball, signature yellow hat and sick duct tape sandals which he wore most of college and we still own.

His trombone, some frisbees (for frisbee golf of course), and some molecules.

A top view. I origianally wanted to shape the whole periodic table but it would have wasted too much cake. It worked out well anyway, so we could put all the stuff on it.

Ta-Da!

The table decor

Matt ate the head off of himself before we served cake.

"Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor"

Grant and Cary played most of the evening and Matt sat in for a couple of songs. He hasnt played in like 6 months, which is more than I can say for myself.

The boys popped the balloons at the end of the night. It sounded like we were being attacked with all the echoing.

Shay is excited, cant you tell.

I forgot I bought silly string for everyone to get Matt with but Shay, Deanna and Rob took care of that just before we left.

Well it was a whirlwind of a weekend but it was so much fun! I love hanging out with our family and friends and I am sooooo proud of Matthew!! He has worked so hard and is almost finished, just the thesis left to defend sometime in June or July and he will officially be Dr. Matt! Congratulations again my sweet husband and thanks for working so hard always (even though it isnt official :)!!! I love you!

Next post: Deanna's graduation, which was actually the week before Matt's.