My techy man turns 23...

Last Thursday, the 19th, was Chance's 23rd birthday. We have gotten a lot of "you two are SOOO young" kind of remarks lately, I suppose we are:) I used to tell my big sister that she wasn't an adult until she was 28. Not sure where I came up with that number. Well, we had a sort of three day celebration for his birthday. Birthdays are BY FAR my favorite holidays. I love making birthdays fun. Mostly because there is only one person you have to make super happy:) And Chance is my favorite person to make happy these days. Chance spoils me ROTTEN as you well know by now, and his birthday gives me a chance to spoil him a little for a change.
On Thursday I gave Chance his presents during lunch because he was so excited for his birthday he couldn't wait til after work! I packaged everything up and had it waiting with a special lunch of carry out pizza... I toiled for hours that morning to prepare it;) Here are a few pictures of our lunch hour...I won't bore you with all the pictures of him opening them because I put together a bunch of inside joke/sentimental type presents that only he would probably appreciate. But here are a couple I snapped ...
Presents waiting for him:

Chance reading his card: (he LOVES bulldogs by the way....I told him....someday...maybe)


I also wrote him a little poem to explain his other gift since he couldn't have that part until Friday. We have been planning to celebrate his bday on Friday because some of his friends were coming into town and wanted to go out to celebrate. So I booked the king corner suite at the Hyatt for us all to hang out and crash at on Friday. If you don't know Wichita, the Hyatt is the nicest hotel in town, and if you don't know Chance, his favorite thing to do is stay at nice hotels. I think he got this passion from his dad because they both chat about how nice their hotels have been and debate about who's room was sweetest:) The corner suite is the best under the top floor presidential sweet because it has windows on both sides of the room that overlooks Wichita from the north and the west. I prayed so hard that I would get this room because you get to see the river and downtown...and Jesus was looking out for me! Anyway...Chance was ecstatic to say the least! Here are the night time and daytime views that I attempted to grasp in picture form:





On Thursday night, my mom made Chance a super special Edie's famous meatloaf that Chance had requested for birthday dinner! He is still raving about it...I suppose I should start learning some skills from my mom so I can make him as happy with MY cooking. It was definitely delicious. She also made cupcakes with homemade frosting! Come on Edie don't make me look too unskilled! He will never accept frosting from a store again I'm pretty sure:) I arranged the cupcakes to make a make-shift birthday cake for after dinner where we sang and enjoyed mom's treats. Thanks for making Chance's birthday so extra special mom!


So that's Thursday. On Friday we had all his friends over to his apartment and we made a bunch of snacks and assorted finger foods to go along with my signature mixed drink:) We got super cute matching plates and cups for the party which started after I found a really neat martini drink shaker thing. I am a tiny bit sad that I didn't get pictures of the table after I got all the food placed, but I got a general "before" picture that will give you an idea. As soon as I got everything set, friends started showing up and I was busy playing hostess!

The drink, if you're curious, was just like this one, but I threw in some raspberries for color!

We had boneless wings, puppy chow, mom's meatballs (thanks twice mom!), Chance's famous Velveeta cheese dip concoction, and random fun candy for the blue cups. Everyone had a really good time I think...and Chance had fun he said:) He really likes having people over and he and I strangely work well together in the kitchen. We don't fight AT ALL....ok that's kind of a lie, we sometimes bicker about how we bump into each other or how I think he is cutting the lemons wrong...

Birthday equaled success! Oh, and here is just more proof that I have the best boyfriend. During the night on Friday, Chance gave me a gift! At HIS birthday party he gave ME a gift! Here is a picture...it's a super cute watch I saw out one time and he liked it too so I guess he got sneaky and went back to get it...The little jewels on the face of the watch move around on the top in a little glass section. I love it! I'm sure him giving me the watch had nothing to do with him having a few of my blue specialty drinks;).....

Thank you babe!!! You are the sweetest techy man I ever met:)

On Saturday, we went to Ark City (about an hr away) to visit Chance's dad at the Renaissance fair they were having there. His dad took the new concession trailer there to show off sell his AMAZING bbq at the fair. We initially went to help out, but we got there kinda late and ended up just walking around to see all the booths.

It was a HOOT! We saw a lot of things and took a lot of pictures so I made a short little slide show to illustrate the goings on. I took a lot of these pictures with my nieces and nephew in mind because there were fairies and knights and kings and swords and horses and and and! I think they will enjoy seeing all the outfits! We also got henna tattoos ...shocker ...I know;) Here are a few pictures of those up close. I got a coy fish and he got a cross.They last about two weeks so I guess Chance will think I'm just that much cooler for at least that much longer...



Speaking of crosses, Chance also got the best gift you can ever get in life for his birthday....He accepted Jesus into his heart on Wednesday. This is something we have been praying for and talking about for oh...since we met! :) I am SO THANKFUL ...and thank you to everyone who has been praying for this as well. He is so happy and has been surprising me every day with new passions for Jesus. Needless to say, we are both HAPPY. Thank you Jesus for giving me such an amazing techy, nerdy, lover of Jesus for a boyfriend!

Here are the Renaissance highlights!

A little catching up...

Well I suppose nothing especially thrilling is going on here in little ole Wichita (or the “big city” as Chance’s Ellinwood friends call it), but although there is nothing thrilling, there is a lot of goings on that have apparently kept me away from blogging. I promise that I will try harder! I have been super busy because my position within the office has changed and I am working more within the office. I have a new corner office (with windows!) and now I only work with kids 10 hours a week and the rest of my time is spent doing paperwork, shopping for the store, or running the store. Oh ya, the “store” is “Point City”. The kids that are involved in our services earn points each time they participate in group and then every other week they are able to come spend their points at my store. So it’s pretty neat to be able to shop for toys and candy that I think the kiddos might enjoy. Sometimes I have to ask if stuff is “cool” or not still. I mean, I still think fun dips are bomb…but are they still? Turns out yes:)

I also am in charge of planning a monthly activity for everyone to show up to, helping keep our memberships up with zoos, museums, and the YMCAs, and we have an activity room up in the office that I have to maintain. Stuff like keeping snacks constant, buying new games, or finding other activities for the kids to participate in. It turns out that my week is really busy, but I kinda like being busy! Well enough about my job that I wish involved a raise (instead I am just taking advantage of more stability). I did brighten up the office, because it was AWFUL before. The kids felt like they were walking in to an abandoned dollar general with three toys on the shelf when they came in. I decided to stock those shelves and add some color. The only problem with adding color was that there is this big wallpaper-type mural on one of my walls. It is of the New York skyline. I mean, it’s kinda fun to have, but it’s really difficult to match colors with. So I chose orange and green. I wanted it to be kid and gender friendly. Everyone seems to love it so far! Here are a few pictures:)








Oh…you will also notice the AMAZING arrangement of flowers on my desk. I’ll give you one guess who they’re from. Yup…Chance. Sweetest frikin guy I ever met. No girl loves anything more than having all the office ladies jealous when a delivery guy brings those to ME! That’s right, those are from MY MAN. Sorry YOUR man isn’t thoughtful and amazing. Anyway…I’m very humble. Here is a close up of them. Notice how they ALSO match my office colors!




Ok, that whole job thing was boring, but I was pretty proud of my decorating skills and Chance and I were up til 1:30 AM making those curtains. I say “we” because he was definitely my moral support while I was taking the easy way out and using that hem tape stuff for the ends. And he was in charge of holding the 18 ft of material while I ironed it all. We were going crazy and fighting over stupid stuff like whose side of the hem was straighter. But I kept telling him how we only had to do this ONCE and then we could be done forever. That made him feel better.

Other newsies: Chance took me to see "Curtains" at the Music Theater of Wichita. It was so good!

Chance actually really likes plays and musicals :) So we had a really great time on a special date! We got dressed up and ate out with my mom's best friend, Cheryl. I call her Aunt Cordry because she was there at my birth and has basically been my second mom:) She is an amazing woman and super good at everything I'm NOT (aka gardening and cooking). But I try to learn as much as I can from her. Anyway, we went out on the town and got off Chance's comfy couch for once!
Last weekend Chance's parents came into town to see his apartment for the first time. They liked it:)...which made me happy. We had so much fun picking out everything for his place and it turns out that I love decorating! I think I was an interior decorator in a past life...
We went out to eat and spent some quality time with his parents in Wichita. It was so nice that they came into town! I know Chance misses his family a lot and even though they only live a short distance from here, we don't get to Ellinwood as often as we'd like. We try to go about once a month. Regardless, it was really nice to show them around town and catch up:)
So that's about it for now...I PROMISE that I will be trying to keep up a little better! For now, Chance and I are making our way through the Office seasons. We can't get enough of them even after seeing them a million times. He makes fun of me for the fact that after the second season when Jim tries to get with Pam and she says she's getting married to Roy I was bawling....don't judge me.