A Family of Sharp Shooters

Our time in Oklahoma has flown by and soon we will be heading to Alabama to spend Christmas with our other family.  We will stop by to see Nana in Arkansas.  That will be fun because I haven't seen her in awhile.  I feel so blessed to have had so much time to spend in Oklahoma, but I always get a little sad when it comes to an end.  I wish so badly that we could live a little closer to my family so that we could see them more often.

We all definitely took advantage of the time we had together.  Some things we did besides doing all the Christmas stuff were:  We went to look at Rema's Christmas light display...

We played games (Phase 10, Sequence, Scrabble...)

We ate like pigs and watched a lot of movies (Elf, Christmas Story, White Christmas, Iron Man, Horton Hears a Who, Dark Knight, Monster's Inc...)

I made jewelry with some of the beading things I got from my Mom and Dad for Christmas... 

We shopped a little and even went to Starbucks!!!  Momma and I have also been making cards.  I'm making Valentine's Day cards and Mom is making Winter cards...

We also did something very very memorable this Christmas...

"A Family of Sharp Shooters"

What comes to your mind when you hear that there is a place called "Happy Hollow"?  Maybe you think of a nice wooded park where you and your family could go and have a picnic.  Maybe there are trails and a big field to throw a ball in.  Overall it would be quiet right?

Wrong.

The Happy Hollow we went to was a gun range!!  It did have lots of trees and there were families out there with young children, but it most definitely was not QUIET!!!

We decided to shoot some of our pistols at this place because it was more laid back and it was cheaper than taking five people to the Tulsa firearms gun range.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I did not feel laid back when I got there!!  As we pulled out onto the highway, Dad started to relay the different rules to us about when we can shoot and when we can't, etc. etc.  He talked about the guy who would tell us what to do and how they were watching us at all times.  He said we needed to treat the official on guard like the "superior being" and obey his commands at once or they'd kick us out!!  Once we pulled into the range I heard loud thunderous noises from guns that might as well have been cannons!!!  It was very intimidating for a girl that is used to shooting coke cans in her Nana's cow pasture!  Once in, I immediately put my "ears" on to protect my hearing!!  Every time a gun went off I would jump!  I felt ridiculous!!  Daddy set me up in the wrong place to start out with.  When the guy told us that the "line was hot" my entire family lined up and started to shoot at their targets!!  I was left standing there jumping and dodging shells!  Daddy came over and set me up, but everyone was shooting at the same time I was and that made me jump.  I also felt like the brass shells flying out of my family's guns were going to hit me....  I had to take a major break.  After a little bit I got used to the noise and the shells and I wanted to try and shoot again.  Daddy set me up to the left of everyone so I wouldn't get hit by any shells!  I actually shot a few rounds out of the 9mm and I did really, really well at hitting the bulls eye!  I almost hit it every time!!  Watch out bad guys!  Don't mess with me!!

*Sigh*

Good times.  After we eat lucky beans (black eyed peas) tomorrow we will start our trek to Southern country.  I don't know how often I'll get to blog at Jared's house.  There is a lot of demand for the internet and so I might just wait until I get back home. :o)  I miss all my friends though and I love reading about how you and your families are spending your holiday together!  Take care!!

Santa, I Know Him!!!

As always, my pictures are coming in late!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!!  I know I did.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas in Oklahoma!

Later after Christmas dinner we all went outside and played a competitive game of Bocce!!  My brother, Chandler won!  Notice the athletic picture of mom as she lobs her Bocce ball!!  And me with my new scarf that Jared gave me for Christmas!!  

In the picture above my dad is holding our trusty companion, Sadie.  She was lucky she didn't get hit with any flying Bocce balls!  Jared did manage to peg my brother in the head accidently.  He has a pretty large goose-bump on top of his noggin...

We will stay in Oklahoma for a few more days and then we will begin our trek to Alabama to have a late Christmas with Jared's side of the family!!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas!! 

Catching Up

Whew!!!  How behind am I on posting pictures and blogging??  Too behind!  Here are all the fun shots that I haven't had time to post.  The first grouping are pictures of mine and Jared's Christmas decorations.  It's not much because we're just starting out.  Most of the stuff we have has been handed down from Mom and Pop Gott.  We did not purchase a real Christmas tree this year, but Mom Gott came through with letting us have the Christmas tree pictured below.  She was going to all pencil trees in her house and needed to get rid of this one.  It found a home with us and I think it made a beautiful little tree.  Hopefully we can resume our tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree next year.  It's one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time!!

Below are pictures of my trip to Oklahoma.  I flew out there to surprise Momma for her birthday!  It was so fun!!  She was so happy she nearly cried.  I had a lot of fun out there seeing my mom and dad.  Below are pictures of us and the Oklahoma Christmas tree.  This is before we put the ornaments on because Daddy was fixing to go to bed... hee hee.  Notice that little bitty blue bow at the top of the tree.  It looks pretty sad, doesn't it?  If you say "no it looks fine", you are just being nice!  I wanted to make Momma a beautiful blue bow to go on her tree because she likes the blue and silver Christmas decor.  I didn't get enough ribbon though and so it turned out to be way too little!!  Being a mother, she liked it and stuck it up on the tree anyway!

Above are some shots of Mom's birthday celebration.  Except for the picture of her making the snowman necklace.  That was taken from when we spent the afternoon at the beading store!  Which I must say has started a new hobby for me!!  More to come about that later.  (We'll see what Santa brings me for Christmas first.)  Notice what message Daddy wrote on her birthday cake!!  The thing on her back is what her best friend, Mrs. Hill gave her.  It is a camelback that is used for bikers to drink water and hold stuff in while they're cycling.  Mom's new exercise has been bicycling and she can go pretty far!!!  It's really impressive to me because I'd probably fall off the bike.  I don't even know if I still remember how to ride one!!  Anyway, I had a great time spending mother/daughter time with my best friend (besides my hubby).  Love you Momma!!

Beach Bums

Here are the rest of our beach pictures that I couldn't post because the internet in our beach house went out.  Notice my super crabbers in the center picture above.  These are what I wore to go sand crab hunting at night!!  Thanks for letting me borrow your shoes, Kara!!

Above are pictures Eric took of Me and Jared in front of their family Christmas tree!!  I'm excited because tonight Jared and I are going to decorate our house for Christmas!! YEAH!!

blue angels...no bites today...where's the ship?

Jared and I woke up to fly overs this morning!  I went out to see what was going on and saw four planes in a diamond formation going over the house.  Pop Gott went outside too and said it was the "Blue Angels" flying over and that they were probably doing winter training from Pensacola.  They flew over off and on all day and I was able to get some shots of them practicing.

I've been fascinated with fighting planes for awhile. Always when Daddy would hear them coming, he would go on the porch to look at them and I'd always try to make it out there with him before they flew out of my sight.  Daddy can usually identify the planes and I think that's always really cool.

After eating we went to Fort Morgan's pier to go fishing and crabbing.  Sadly we didn't catch anything but a hermit crab.  But I did get some good pictures of us fishing.  I've had to be a little more choosy in posting pics because it's taking longer than usual to post.  The below picture is my favorite one of Jared and I fishing today.  It's actually taken at the beach later this afternoon.

Believe it or not, the picture below is part of a ship that washed up on shore during Gustav.  The ship beneath the sand was supposed to be an old Cival War ship.  When we arrived we were quite disappointed that the city had covered the ship with sand.  We had seen such cool pictures on the internet! It turned out that having a washed up ship with metal things sticking out of it was dangerous.... thus the burial.  Our thought is 100 years from now some kid will dig it up and they'll make a big deal about finding an old ship in the sand! HA!

To close out, below is a picture of our beach house and our view off the porch towards the ocean.  You can see the ocean out some of the other windows a little better, but I like sitting on the porch.  It's been another good day.  Oh and since all my friends are blogging about Christmas cards... I made three tonight!  I'll try to post pictures of these later maybe :o)

The picture below is antiqued a little.  I'm trying to learn how to add cool coloring to my pictures.  I need some practice though.. :o)

Lulu's

Tonight we went to Lulu's to eat.  We weren't supposed to go there until Tuesday night, but some of us couldn't wait and we were all plesantly surprised when Pop Gott pulled into the restaurant.  I snapped a few pictures of the event because it was a really cool restaurant.  FYI: Jimmy Buffet's sister (Lulu) owns it.  It definately got a thumbs up from all of us...  We all had excellent food and there was even live music!!  

Afterwards we went to Wal-mart to pick some things up and Jared and I bought our first fishing pole!!  I can't wait to use it.  We are supposed to go crabbing maybe tomorrow and hopefully we'll get to take it out and try it then!  Enjoy the pics.  I'm on Jared's MAC so I don't have photoscape to collage everything this week.  

Below:  I Love Palm Trees!!

Below:  All the Gott siblings and me.

Above:  Me and my sis (Kara) being silly...

Below:  I've picked my souvenior! :o)  Where should I put it?

Surf n Turf

Sunday Afternoon...  Finally able to get out on the beach.  The water is cold, and it is cool outside, but it's very pleasant and we all had fun walking on the beach and looking for shells.  I found a sand crab exoskeleton.  I'll have to try to snap a picture of it later.  These two pictures on this post are from Eric's camera.  By the way, today I got my saltwater fishing license!  Now Jared and I will be able to go crabbing all week.  It's a new law in Alabama that you have to have a salt water license to do ANY kind of fishing.  That stinks because you have to pay for a license...  but I was excited to get a new license to do something!!  It's nice at the beach in November.  We are one of the only ones here at the Heritage Shores houses and it makes for a private beach (almost).  

Last Week

Wow this week has been so busy that I haven't even had time to blog or even look at my friends' blogs. Hopefully over Thanksgiving break I can keep up, but here are the updates I promised last week.

Last Thursday, 11-13-08 was Molly's Birthday. Molly is an admissions counselor like Jared and she is one of our friends. It was really nice to be invited to her sushi birthday party. Below are some pictures of the group that came. I'm missing 3 people that were there an hour or so earlier. I believe we should have groups that go to Sakura and in general hang out more often!! I loved hanging out with these people. The funniest thing that happened while we were there was that after Molly ordered this banana dessert, Sakura gave her a complimentary birthday dessert and it was the same banana stuff she ordered but without the ice cream! Lucky for the rest of us, she was full of that and we all were able to have some!

I also promised to post the pictures of Jared's wicked wreck. This happened during "Rev it Up" on Friday late morning after chapel. Here is before the wreck shots. Jared is very apprehensive about wrecking and hurting himself....

And here are a couple shots of the wreck... "Why worry, wrecking was the best part of the race!"

I really was worried about him. I was in shock at first because I couldn't believe he actually did wreck!! But after I saw him get up he was laughing and I knew he might be sore, but he'd be okay.

Here is a picture we took before the races (sorry it's out of order). The lion is our buddy, Joe Askew!

Saturday morning we drug ourselves out of bed to go see the clubs do "Pep It Up". It was FREEZING outside. Jared promised me a sausage biscuit from Jacks though so I was a little happier about standing outside in the cold.

The top picture above is of XBX. Jared was once President of XBX and now he's a sponser so we try to go to a lot of their activities. I will claim them too because when I was in school it seemed I had more dates with XBX then PKA guys!! Thus, I went to all their banquets and retreats!! Oh yeah, and I married Jared. : )

Below is MY club and family while at Freed. PKA!!

And the winners of Homecoming!!

PHI KAPPA ALPHA!!! YAYYYYY!!

I was happy Phi Kappa Alpha won. But I remember the days when it was really hard to win anything. My hope is that the club won't let winning go to their heads. Stay humble and proud at the same time guys. OTSS!!

The other noteable winner for this blog goes to the best Homecoming Window ever!! Designed by my brother in law and most special friend - Eric of Gott. Whoo-hoo go XBX for winning this!

And saving the best for last... my favorite part of homecoming is seeing friends and family.

Remembering the memories and good times....

Love you guys and all the other wonderful people I saw during homecoming!!

I hope you enjoyed this week's post. Come back next week and I will try to have posts of my Thanksgiving Break to Gulf Shores!! Fun in the Sun!!!

Happy weekend and upcoming Turkey days to all!

Wicked wreck / Trouble with Keys

First off, Jared is lucky to be alive today.  He almost died.  Second off, I should not have keys of any kind.  Both parts of my blog today will be dealing with those topics.  Also, there will be no pictures because my camera cord was left at work and I don't have my magic keys...

Jared's wicked wreck (pics to come)

This year Jared was asked to drive the XBX soapbox car for "Rev it Up" in FHU's homecoming.  We joked and joked about how nervous he was and the possibility of a wreck.  I told him that if he wrecked I could take him to the hospital and maybe get the rest of the day off... "taking care" of him. 

Well my life seems to be like that Alanis Morissette (misspelled) song "Ironic".  

Ironically, Jared did wreck.  I stared in horror from the top of the hill as his car spun out, his tires flew off, and the car collapsed.  I held my breath and when I saw him smiling and getting up out of the wreckage, I knew he was okay.  

Luckily, he's just a little sore and everyone was very entertained.  I felt bad for XBX because they had such a neat looking car, but this is definately a "Rev it Up" that I will not soon forget.  Thank you Jared for always making my life entertaining.  Look for pictures to come, but not this weekend....

The trouble with Sasha and Keys...

First off, I should NEVER be in charge of keys.  Nevertheless for some reason I am.  I'm in charge of lots of keys and they all are important.  I think I realized I shouldn't have keys when I locked myself out of my car on one of mine and Jared's first dates.  We missed our movie because we had to wait for the locksmith to unlock my car.  Then there was the time that I locked my keys in the car in N. Jackson during an inservice.  And that time when I locked my keys in the car at Madison High School (one of the roughest parts in J-Town and my boss stayed with me until Jared came to rescue me).  Oh and that time - wait no that was Jared- we locked ourselves out of the house and Jared had to call our landlords to let us in.  And very recently, that time when I thought I lost the master key to the I.T. offices.  That was interesting - the Desk Monster in my new office ate it for about three weeks!  Due to my OCD of being organized I cleaned that out and the desk monster went to one of my co-worker's offices.  All that to say, today I have not one but TWO stories of missing keys.

First there was the missing Enterprise car key of one of my co-workers.  After searching our offices up and down (even our trash cans), sending out a faculty/staff e-mail to the ENTIRE campus, much stressing of me and many calls to Enterprise, we were finally notified that the mail person took the key that was in the sealed envelope labeled "Enterprise" off my door and somehow Student Services ended up with it.  How crazy was that??  No worries now that it's found, but good grief!

The second key episode:  I have a nervous tick sometimes.  Evidently in the hub-bub of trying to find the lost car keys I was fiddling with my key ring clasp that held my key fob...  I remember doing this... (oddly enough)  Anyway after coming home and realizing that I left my camera sync cord at the office, imagine my horror when I looked at my key chain and my precious fob was missing!!  And yes, I say precious because I've lorded the power of my special I.T. status several times over Jared.  So no pictures because only the special fobs swipe through the electronic dungeon after hours.... 

Luckily I know the fob is probably in my office or one of my co-workers' offices.  The floor locks down and so it is hopefully safe for now.  If I don't find it Monday, I'll have to cancel my little key fob and hopefully get my hands on a new one soon.  But no pics this weekend (sadness).

Look for pictures soon though.  I need to document Molly's birthday Sushi Party, "Rev It Up" and the rest of homecoming this weekend!  Please, Love, and Crabs! :o)  Have a good one!

Shopped till we dropped

This past weekend was the Gott's annual Christmas Village shopping extravaganza in Birmingham.  I don't have a picture of the enormous shopping area because that wasn't allowed, but it is an all day event bound to make your feet hurt every year if you look at everything!!  This year was a lot of fun and in between all the samples we ate we made a few purchases as well!  Jared, Kara, and I were like little kids, going from booth to booth and trying all the samples from the vendors.  The food is always my favorite part!  We were there from 10:00-4:00ish and we didn't even eat lunch because of all the samples we ate!!

After we finished Christmas Village we went to eat at "Wings".  This was very awkward because the Gott's are Auburn fans.  When we walked in the entire restaurant was full of Alabama fans watching the AL/LSU game!!  Kara had her Auburn sweatshirt on and I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb!  It was definitely an experience watching everyone get so excited at every little thing Alabama did well or LSU did bad.  We just smiled and laughed at all the hub-bub that went on around us.  (We were the only table that didn't stand up and cheer, clap, or give high-fives every few minutes!)  Smile and nod, smile and nod... poor Kara she got a few stares...

After that we went to the Galleria (mall) to walk around.  The gals decided that we'd like to make Build-a-Bears and the guys agreed that we could make the animals but we'd have to wait on the clothes until another time.  So the above picture is me, Mom Gott (Kim), and Kara with our animals (Floppy, Pookie, and Twilight).  That was a very memorable time and fun moment shared!  :)

The final picture is of Me and Jared before we went into Christmas Village.  I wanted a picture of everyone else, but Mom Gott didn't want to take one because Eric wasn't there.

Sadness - Eric was being responsible and painting XBX's window for Homecoming this week.  If you're in town and drive by check it out!  In my opinion it's the best!! :)  I'll try to get pics of homecoming stuff throughout the week.  I'm hoping that my brother gets to come over from Harding and enjoy the festivities with us!  Hope you have a great week!

Crabits Get a New 'Tat!

My crabits below get a new 'tat. This is a picture of them waiting on Jared to finish their new crabitat. They get a new home because their old one busted when Jared was cleaning it out. The crabs, Mika, Larry, Curly, and Lucy (from left to right) are very excited about their new home. They've been in a smaller tank for over a week!! It's really cramped their crabby style!

I've had my hermit crabs for over a year now! They've gone through many molts and most of them have grown more than twice their original size! Next is a picture of their new crabitat that Jared designed. They live in a crabby paradise!

Stay tuned for more of my Crabit updates. They are very funny to watch. You'd be surprised to know that they each have little attitudes!

Pretty Tree

I love my window in my office. I absolutely love to look at this tree. I've watched it change so many colors within the last few weeks. When we went back to standard time I noticed a little before 5:00 p.m. that it would be almost a red color! Today has been rather windy and I've seen the leaves falling outside. It is so pretty!

When I see how beautiful everything is around me, I am thankful to God for giving us "fall" and making the leaves change such vibrant colors!

I don't wanna grow up...

My two mushabellies that I promised I'd post on here. At left is "Grumbles" Pig - a very well loved and cared for member of the family. At right is "Barry" Polar Bear - from Leslie that I bought at our Yard Sale!!! These animals have a grumble (or pooting) noise when you squeeze them. Barry is a newer version though and when you press his left hand he sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Grumbles Pig has lost his (pooting noise)... very sad. I think I squeezed him too much, plus he's been washed!

One thing that's sorta cool about these guys is they have a website sorta like Webkinz. It isn't as advanced, but it's still kind of fun. As for me, I don't care as much about the website. My favorite things about them are how cute they are, the grumble noise, and I think they make perfect tummy pillows! :)

No Sticker Today... Sad.

 Jared and I went to go vote this morning.  I was very excited because this was my first time to vote as a resident of Tennessee!  We waited patiently in line for about 30 minutes.  I told Jared I was a little nervous that we were doing this electronically, because I didn't know how to work the machines.  Jared assured me that someone would show me how.  Sure enough, a nice lady showed me how to vote. She walked me completely through the process.  After the first 5 seconds, I understood but I patiently waited for her to show me everything I would need to know to cast my ballot correctly.  Next thing I knew, I was done!  Whoopee!!! I VOTED!  Republican of course =o)

The only sad thing about this whole process was that I was expecting to get an "I Voted" sticker!  I was pretty sad that I didn't get one.  I always received a sticker back home when I voted.  I even purposely passed up early voting just so I could get my sticker today and wear it on my shirt.  Oh well, maybe next time.  

Busy Weekend

7:00 a.m. Saturday Morning.  EARLY FOR THE GOTTS!!  We had a 6 family yard sale today.  It was a little chilly, but overall it was a beautiful day for a yard sale.  Jared and I made a little money and had a lot of fun with friends.  This is a picture of our sale.  

I was so excited when I found another Mushabelly stuffed animal!  Thanks to Leslie, I'm the proud owner of two very cute Mushabellies!  "Grumbles" pig who was my first and favorite Mushabelly from Jared.  And "Barry" who is a Christmas Polar Bear from Leslie.  "One person's junk is another person's treasure!"  I was so excited!  It was a successful yard sale just because I found that! I'll have to post a picture later since I'm babbling on about a silly stuffed animal.

  

Sandy and Maria.  (Notice the ugly cat Maria had)  This was the neighbor's cat that we tried to sell.  Ashley even put a price tag on its head!

 

Me and Ashley.  Freezing and enjoying hot cocoa!  Let it be noted that the girls were outside while the boys stayed inside and watched youtube videos! HA! :0)  The guys did play a big part in entertaining kiddos and Chad cleaned the house for Sandy.  Very cool!

Later that afternoon we drove down to Hamilton, AL to attend XBX's Fall Retreat.  We had a lot of fun.  This is a picture of Jared doing the annual "STARE" at the Talent Show.  After the bonfire we went to the hotel to thaw out for a few hours before getting up and going to the Hamilton Church of Christ for a school visit.  The congregation there was really nice and the lesson was good.  I look forward to going back.  All in all it was a fun and exhausting weekend!!