swap party

Last night was the swap party that I mentioned in the last post. The rules were like this: Everyone's clothes were mixed into a pile and divided into numbered bags. Each person drew a number and got to look through that bag first. Then we put what we didn't want into a pile on the floor and everyone just grabbed what they wanted. All of the clothes that were left at the end were donated. For accessories, all the purses, shoes, and jewelry were laid out on the table. We used our numbers again and just took turns choosing things. I ended up with some great things including a winter coat, a shirt from Loft that still had tags on it, and a sparkly summer purse. I highly recommend this as an inexpensive and very very fun girls' night activity!

what we've been up to

Here's a quick update on what's been happening in the Short household: We had the "Marriage Matters" seminar at church last sunday-wednesday. We went to the same seminar at Marcus' mom's church while we were engaged and it was great to go back. The weekend has been pretty laid back. We had some friends over for dinner last night. I made Paula Deen's meatloaf and homemade mac and cheese. It was SO unhealthy, but it was a good meal. We just love having people over and it's so much more convenient now that we are in a house. Marcus and I have been teaching the three year olds at church since June and just have a few more weeks. They are adorable and at such a fun age. I LOVE teaching class with Marcus and it really impresses me how well he explains the Bible stories to the kids.

This week, I am going to a swap party where you take a shopping bag of old clothes, jewelry, purses and accessories and trade with friends. I am super excited about getting some cute new stuff for free.

In two weeks, we are going to Mexico for an end-of-summer vacation. It's a different resort, but in the same area, Puerto Morales. I know it sounds crazy since we just went in the spring, but we got an amazing deal after the swine flu outbreak. It was cheaper than flying somewhere in the US for a 3-4 day trip. We'll also get to celebrate Marcus' 29th birthday while we're there.

procrastination

I've picked up a bad habit over the past few months. Now that we have a third bedroom and an extra bed, I throw all the laundry on it when I don't feel like putting it away. It becomes an hour- long process by the end of the week (or two weeks) to move it all to our bed, fold it, and put it away. Here's what 7 loads looks like.

***Marcus helped me with this particular batch and from start to finish it was just over 30 minutes.

girls' weekend

Last weekend I flew to Dallas for the 2nd annual girls' reunion weekend with some friends from college. We were all sad because Kim didn't get to come this year because of work stuff, but we had a new addition to the group-Sarah's baby Miss Camryn. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. I also got to hang out with my aunt Lura on sunday. She took me on my first trip to IKEA. Wow! I loved it and could have spent hours in there. I didn't take a ton of pictures of the weekend, but here are a few.

Camryn

Calling Kim to catch up on things

We played this fun game called squint...
The directions said that it's helpful if you squint while you play.

the 3rd and 4th of july

Well, the third of July was actually more eventful for us than the fourth. We were both off on friday, the third, and had a fun day together. That night some of our friends from church got together for a cookout and went to see fireworks in a small town outside of Tulsa, called Keifer. I had never even heard of this town, but the fireworks were really impressive. Saturday, Marcus made ribs in his smoker and we had a few friends over and played games. We weren't planning to go to any other fireworks displays, but there was one at a nearby golf course that we could see from our driveway. Nice!

Marcus remembered to buy my favorite flavor sno-cone, wedding cake, while we waited for it to get dark. What a nice surprise! : )

visitors!

We recently had some great houseguests. Michael and Ashleigh brought the boys to Tulsa for the first time. We went to the aquarium and of course, went to some yummy restaurants. What a fun weekend! Asher is such a happy and loving baby- he's pretty photogenic too!

Marcus isn't really sleeping, but I told him to pretend. : )

John Mark got to feed the turtles, but his favorite thing at the aquarium was the hand that was coming down from above, cleaning a tank.

really behind!

I'm so behind on blogging. I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Hopefully in the next few days I'll post about Marcus' new smoking habit (smoking meats, that is), one year of living in Tulsa, and a visit from our nephews.

Happy Fathers' Day to my wonderful dad! He's the best and we always have so much fun together. I wanted to put up a picture of us, but I don't have a good one on my camera. :(