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.

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.