Dog Houses, Date Nights and Other Baugher Happenings

Here's an update of what we've been up to lately as the summer starts to wind down.

Last week we had a fabulous date night! We went to see Wicked at the Tulsa PAC. I absolutely LOVED the show. I had heard from several people who had seen it that it was a great show, but it really was better than I expected. The music was phenomenal as well as the acting, props, and story line. I told Matt we have to go back whenever it comes to Tulsa again. It was well worth the money. We went to dinner before and had a fantastic night. We were able to go on a weeknight to save a little on the tickets (or at least get better seats). As we were driving home, I said that it was nice to not have to drive an hour and a half to get home (another perk of living in a bigger city).

Before the show

Lately, Matt has been spending a lot of his free time building a dog house for Rhapsody. Okay, he says it's a shed to hold our lawn stuff and free up garage space, but Rhapsody and I know better :). Rhapsody has been supervising the construction and has been helping Matt by taking all the nails out of the boxes, tearing up the boxes, and scattering the nails around the yard, so Matt can reach them easier.

Here is some of the progress he's made.

Rhapsody supervising Matt getting the foundation ready

Rhapsody enjoys having us outside with her in the evenings

We have a floor

And Walls (well some walls)

Making Progress. Rhapsody is very excited about her new house.

The last few weeks we've also been helping some friends move into their first house, and Matt has been helping to install a new shower for some other friends. We've also discovered a new board game we both like called Settlers of Catan. We've played it several times in the last month and haven't gotten tired of it yet.

We now have a full-time pastor at our church, which is very exciting. His first Sunday to preach was July 19 which happened to be the one-year anniversary of our last Sunday at our church in Stillwater. We loved our church there and that was one of the hardest parts of leaving Stillwater. We had a great Sunday school class and we loved our preacher. He was an incredible teacher and very knowledgeable of the Bible. It was hard to leave the friends we'd made from our Sunday school class when we moved and we were both anxious to get settled into a new church quickly. Hearing our new pastor in Tulsa get introduced on his first Sunday, I found myself reflecting on God's faithfulness in helping us to find a new church where we have grown spiritually and met some great friends. We are anticipating some changes in our Sunday school class in the next few weeks that we are very excited about. We took a leap of faith to join our church that was without a senior pastor at the time, but we know we're where we are supposed to be and are so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness in leading us here.

Next weekend we're heading to Branson with some friends for an end of the summer mini-vacation, and football season is just around the corner!!

One Year Ago

One year ago, we became home owners (or more fittingly, we became mortgage owners). It's hard to believe that one year has passed since we've been living in our house and since we moved from Stillwater.

On this day last year, we loaded up our Escape with some boxes, and headed to BA early that morning. We met our realtor at the house and did a final walk through.

After the final walk through... Headed to closing!

Then we headed to the Title company and spent a long time signing our names. After that we got a ring of keys and excitedly headed off on our new adventure. Matt had to go to work that afternoon after closing, so I dropped him off and headed home to unload boxes and start cleaning. When Matt got home from work that evening, we cleaned up and went out to eat to celebrate our big day.

At dinner

After dinner, we headed back to the house and did a little cleaning and took a walk around our new neighborhood. We spent the night in our new room on an air mattress.

Excited to be sleeping in our new house

Not as excited to to cleaning cabinets

The next morning we spent time cleaning light fixtures, fans, base boards, and cabinets. I'm pretty sure I remember making more than one trip to Lowes and Wal mart for supplies. That evening, we locked up the house and headed back to Stillwater, for one more week until we officially moved to Broken Arrow. What a busy and exciting weekend!

----------------------------------------------------------
On another note, today is another important anniversary for me. On this day 11 years ago, I lost my dad. I remember those days vividly too. I wish he could know my life now. I wish he could have seen me graduate college and get married. I know he would be proud. Someday, I'll get to tell him about all the blessings I had in my life.

Painting Parties

New Homeowners + Summer = Lots of home improvement projects!

This last week we helped with three painting parties. Last Saturday, we helped our friends Justin and Annie with painting in their new house. You can go HERE for more information about that painting party. They didn't have air conditioning at their house yet so we were very warm, but we enjoyed helping out and getting to see their house. Then on Sunday, we had some friends over to help us paint our guest bedroom. We had most of the prep work done before they came over, and it went so fast. I think it took just about an hour to paint the room. We're so thankful for help. The room is very green now. The color is a little brighter than we were wanting, but overall we're happy with the results. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

Last Wednesday we attended Matt and Erica's painting party. Well, actually just the girls painted while the guys did more "manly" projects. At one point we looked out the window to see three electrical engineers staring at the Reader's Digest Manual. We might have laughed just a little at them. We got one coat of paint on their master bedroom, and I think the boys were somewhat productive at their shower head project.
For someone with very little painting experience before this summer, I'm getting lots of practice. We keep laughing that we're all motivated this summer to get stuff done, but come Fall instead of working on our houses, we'll be getting together to watch movies or football games.

Our First Home

We're coming up on our one year anniversary of being homeowners and living in Broken Arrow. This week I'm spending some time reminiscing on our first year and the blessings we've experienced since beginning this new chapter in our lives. However, I'm also thinking about our first home and the two years we spent married in Stillwater. I wanted to devote this post to our "first home" and some of the special memories we shared there together.

I moved into our duplex in January of 2006, a few months before we got married. Katie lived with me in that duplex for our last semester of undergrad, and although we were both really busy with end of school projects and wedding planning, it was nice to spend that time together. I remember the night when she came home and told me, Laura, and Sarah that she was engaged. She was so excited. We had some great girls' nights at that place watching Grey's Anatomy and eating chocolate.

After graduation, I headed to Weatherford for the last few weeks before the wedding, and then after our honeymoon Matt and I came back to our first home. This was the home where we learned what it meant to be married, where we learned to fight fair, and matured as a couple. This is where we dreamed about the future, where we learned to trust God to provide for our family and saw his faithfulness over and over again. It was a perfect first home for us filled with so many wonderful memories. Here are a few of my favorites.

We came home from our honeymoon late one night to a slew of wedding gifts covering our living room floor. We had so much fun setting up our new home with all our wonderful gifts the week we got back from the honeymoon. We both had a whole week off after the wedding and honeymoon, which was so nice to get adjusted to married life and get everything in order and write lots of thank you notes.

The first summer we were married, I only worked part-time, so I was able to take care of all the housework and errands while Matt was at work, and our evenings were spent having dinner with friends, taking walks around the neighborhood and other fun things. That was one of the best summers. We had little to stress about and a lot of free time. I loved being able to cook dinner every night and spend so much time with Matt. We needed that time before our lives got hectic with the beginning of grad. school that Fall.

Matt came home one night while I was cooking dinner and told me he had been accepted to OSU's MBA program.

We had several close friends who lived in an apartment complex just across a field from our backyard throughout our time in Stillwater. There were several times we walked over to visit or to have dinner with them.

There were many times our little duplex welcomed us back from football games. We celebrated together or consoled each other in that duplex. I miss how close we were to the football stadium. We never had to deal with traffic. Those days are gone now. Not only do we have an hour and 15 minute drive now, but after a big game, we're guaranteed to sit in traffic for a long while before making it out of town.

We have many special memories of having friends over for dinner, board games, or to watch an OSU sporting event. I loved getting a chance to fix snack food to enjoy while we watched a football or basketball game.

I loved having an actual home to decorate for Christmas. I had lots of decorations that finally got to be put in our home.

After surviving our first semester of grad school and the dreaded systems final, my cohort celebrated at our duplex with fondue and a dirty Santa gift exchange.

We had recently gotten a Wii before my 22nd birthday, and after we went out for dinner with our families and friends,we came back and played wii for several hours.

I spent many long hours in our office writing papers for grad. school. I always remember those fabulous moments when I finished a big paper. It always felt like such a relief.

We spent time in our bedroom in prayer and deep conversation about God's will for our lives when Matt was looking for a job and contemplating job offers.

We hosted Easter at our house for both our families.

We had friends over for the 4th of July and grilled hamburgers and played games because the fireworks were cancelled.

We celebrated Matt's MBA graduation with an orange cheesecake with our families.

We celebrated the end of my last official class for my master's degree just a few weeks before we moved.

This duplex was so special to us and signifies a great chapter in our lives. Here's a little photo tour of our first home. I hope it brings back special memories to those of you who had a chance to spend time in it with us.

4th of July Weekend

We had a very nice 4th of July weekend in Weatherford with our families. We don't make it to Weatherford much now that we moved to the Tulsa area, so it had been several months since we had visited. It was nice to catch up with all our family and celebrate a fun holiday. After our rappelling trip on Friday, we went back to my parents' house to clean up and Barry grilled steaks for lunch. After lunch Matt went over to his parents' house to help set up a computer and my mom and I spent some time in the kitchen. We were on vacation for Matt's birthday this year, so he never got his cheesecake. We have to work out a careful balance when I make him a cheesecake because he doesn't want to eat the whole thing by himself (he's seen how much cream cheese and eggs go into it), but he doesn't want to share with lots of people, because then he'll only get one piece. So, I made it for him to share with my parents on Friday. My mom and I also made homemade ice cream for Saturday. That night Matt and Barry wanted to go see the new Transformers movie. They ended up getting the time wrong so they watched another movie instead. While they were at the movie, my mom and I went to Granny and Grandaddy's to visit and play cards. It was really nice getting a chance to hang out with my grandparents. They are very special in my life and I miss out on getting to spend quality time with them these days.
After Matt got back from the movie, we went to visit one of our high school friends who was also in town. They shot off a few fireworks while we were there.

The next day we spent time preparing for a cook out my parents were hosting that afternoon. We had both sets of my grandparents, Matt's parents, Barry's mom, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew over. Matt's friend and one of his friends came over too. Barry grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we had all the traditional sides complete with chocolate cake and homemade ice cream. It was really nice getting a chance to catch up and visit with lots of family. Every time we make it to Weatherford, I'm reminded of how blessed I am to be surrounded by such great family.

Posing for a patriotic picture

Barry doing what he does best!

Lots of family

Rhapsody found a new drinking bowl, complete with goldfish for decoration

Barry set up horseshoes in the backyard. Matt and I need lots of practice

After the cook-out, Matt and I visited my great Aunt's house because I had some cousins in town from Texas. We got a chance to catch up with them and had a good visit. After that, Matt and Barry headed back to the movies to try and catch Transformers again. My mom and I were pretty tired so we watched some television and relaxed. When Matt got home we tried to catch some fireworks from my parent's roof but were unsuccessful. Good thing we had gotten our fireworks fix the weekend before in Broken Arrow at Rockets over Rhema.

We went to church the next day and then out to eat with Matt's parents. Then we loaded the car and headed home to recover from the long weekend.

Super Dog

We traveled to Weatherford last week for the long weekend. On Friday we along with my parents and in-laws went to a nearby state park so Matt, Barry, and I could go rappelling. We hadn't been in a couple of years, and Matt was excited to get a chance to go again. We went early in the morning to beat some of the heat. I lost count on how many times Matt and Barry climbed up and rappelled down, but they were pretty tired by the time we left. I went down a couple of times. It never really seems scary when I'm on the ground thinking about it, but those first couple of steps off the cliff always terrify me a little bit no matter how many times I go. Honestly, I feel like it's my wifely duty to share in some of Matt's recreational activities. Without him, I would have no desire to try it. I'm glad he pushes me out of my comfort zone sometimes.

Getting ready to go down. Telling Matt I love him in case I don't survive :)

Whew, I can see the ground!

Matt had to shake things up a bit and come down head first.

Then it was Rhapsody's turn. I thought she would enjoying hiking up to the top of the cliff. She scrambled up the rocks and seemed to have a good time exploring all the new smells. I rappelled down and planned to walk back up and then hike back down with her. Matt thought that would be a wasted trip, so he harnessed her into him and rappelled down with her. I don't think she understood what was going on, but she sure came down much easier than I did the first time several years ago when Matt convinced me to jump off cliffs. I think he spent a good 20 minutes convincing me to take the first step off. She was so still until she saw the ground and then she was ready to get all four paws on the ground.

Our own Super Dog!

Summer Days

I've been thinking that I needed to post something on our blog. The problem is nothing too exciting has been happening in the Baugher household. Our summer has actually been pretty boring since coming home from vacation. Then I got to thinking about last summer and realized that boring if just fine with me :). This time last year, Matt was driving back and forth from Stillwater to Broken Arrow everyday for work, I was driving back and forth from Stillwater to Edmond for my internship two days a week as well as having class and seeing clients in Stillwater. Oh and during that time we were also packing up our duplex and getting ready to buy our first house. Boring sounds really nice now that I think about that time in our lives.
So how have we been spending our first summer in Broken Arrow? Here are some of the things we've been doing.

We've been eating snowcones! We have found a great snow cone stand in Broken Arrow. They are the perfect snack on a hot day (and we've been having lots of those). The stand is about 7 miles from our house so it's not super convenient, but we manage. It's probably a good thing it's not closer. It's funny to think that in Weatherford terms something that is 7 miles away would be in another town and would seem so far away. I guess that's what living in a bigger city will do to you.

We've been taking Rhapsody to the dog park- A new dog park recently opened in Tulsa, and we've taken Rhapsody there a few times. She loves it. She gets so excited when we pull up and just runs around sniffing and playing. Sometimes she is interested in the people and makes her rounds getting lots of attention. At other times she runs around chasing and sniffing other dogs. We have a lot of fun watching her play, and her tail never stops wagging. We also enjoy getting a chance to visit with other dog lovers while we're there. We've found that dog owners (especially those who love their dogs enough to take them to a dog park) are really nice people.

We've been getting involved in church activities- We're still doing our couple's Bible study on Monday nights. I'm also enjoying some fun coffee nights with other ladies in our Sunday School class, and Matt is going to a men's Bible study and fellowship on Thursday mornings. I also went to a women's conference last weekend which was a great blessing.

We (I mean "I") have been doing some Spring cleaning- I've been cleaning out drawers and plan to tackle closets and cabinets soon. I'm taking advantage of spending more time at home by doing some reorganizing. This week I've been tackling cleaning out the cookbook shelf. I'm hoping to get everything organized and be able to try some new recipes soon.

At the beginning of the summer I had high hopes of doing lots of fun things this summer like camping, hiking, spending Saturdays at the park having a picnic, and going to the lake. With as hot as it's been though, we're rarely outside in the mornings or afternoons and avoid venturing out until after 7 or 8 at night. Sometimes Rhapsody doesn't get a walk until 10 at night. Maybe all our great plans will have to be put off until September or October when the weather cools off. In the meantime we'll have to get creative in ways to enjoy summertime in T-town.