Cook's In Kansas: December 2005

Yesterday was my sister's college graduation. It was pretty exciting. The speaker was even good! It was neat to be back at Southeast. Laurie and I had not been there since our friend Stacie's graduation a few years ago. Of course we had to tell Audrey that this was where mom and dad met. My mom, dad, brother and Grandma and Papaw Provance were all there. Whitney's fiance, Jon's family also came which I thought was very nice. Some family friends, Denna Barnett, her mom Phylis and brother David also came. Dr. Tom Harte was one of the readers which was cool. He was who read my name when I graduated and he also read Whitney's name. This was also the first time Laurie and I had been to Cape in a long time. Things have changed so much. I sure wish there were that many restaurants when we lived there.

On Friday we were preparing to depart for St. Louis. Laurie and I were rushing around the house gathering up all the things we needed to take along. Audrey was in the living room(gated in with the baby gate). For the most part she was happily playing and periodically coming to the gate to call out to us. At one point both Laurie and I were in our bedroom getting clothes together to go into the suitcase. I then went into the living room. To my suprise, Audrey was holding one shortbread cookie in each hand, each one had a bite taken out of it. I asked her what she was doing and she looked up at me with this devilish grin. All I could do was laugh and call Laurie into the living room. Laurie and I have taken on the task of making shortbread cookies since the death of my great grandmother. We use her recipe and the cookie cutters she used. Laurie had put the cookies in tins and put them under the tree so we would not forget them on Friday. Crafty Audrey was able to open the tins and managed to pick the two largest shapes, the snowman and the gingerbread man. I guess that's what we get for leaving a child in close proximity to cookies .

So I have been meaning to post this story since Sunday. At our church they have asked people to bring in photos of babies that are in their lives so children, grandchildren, neices, nephews, etc. After church Laurie was holding Audrey and looking at the pictures when one of the little girls in our church came up to them. Now this little girl is very cute and of course belongs to that perfect family. Her dad was the church council president, her mom the choir director, you get the idea. Anyway, she says to Laurie, "All of these babies are so cute." And Laurie responds, "Yes they are." Then this little girl says,"But you know who the cutest baby is?" And Laurie says, "Who?" And the little girl says, "The baby Jesus." Isn't that about the cutest, sugariest thing you have ever heard!

Adventurous Weekend
Friday: Laurie went to a Candlelight party hosted by Mardee, our neighbor and the administrative hesitantly in the Residence Life office. She is kind of everybody's surrogate mom here at K-State. Laurie had a great time and I had fun with Audrey.

Saturday: We got up pretty early thanks to our little munchkin. We got around and after lunch went Christmas shopping. We had a great time believe it or not. We went to Target, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and the mall. Most people were friendly(of course Wal-Mart had the grouchiest shoppers). We then at Old Chicago.

My boss, Derek had an end of the semester gathering at his house for all of the staff. We ate, drank, and played Catchphrase. Audrey played with Garrett, Anna, and Elise. A good time was had by all. So good that Audrey feel asleep on my lap near the end of the evening.

Sunday: I had to be at church early for a meeting so Laurie and Audrey dropped me off. They went grocery shopping in the mean time. The church service was nice. I love the Advent season. Each week at our church a different family is asked to light the candles on the Advent wreath. Plus we sang Joy to the World as the closing hymn which is a great way to end the service.

After church we went to the residence halls and ate in the dining center. It is convenient and free!!! Derek was not using two of his tickets for the women's basketball game so he generously let us use them. We had a great time at the game. Audrey danced to the music and had her first sighting of the K-State mascot Willie the Wildcat. She took a little nap on my lap and then after half time woke up and clapped and cheered the rest of the game. It was so cute she would say, "Go, go go." Last night we watched the Survivor finale and ate homemade pizza (a Sunday night tradition at our house).

All in all a great weekend of family, friends and fun!

Cook's at Christmas

Bathtub Pixie

Well we had a fairly interesting weekend. On Friday we went to dinner with some friends here at K-State, Tanya and Josh Massey. They really are some of our closests friends her and it is possible that they will be leaving at semester rather than at the end of the academic year :( We ate at Famous Dave's a Bar-B-Que place we like! You know there is nothing like good BBQ. We then went to Target which is always fun.

Saturday morning the realtor that sold us our house was sponsoring a free movie so Laurie and I went(even though Laurie was not feeling well). We saw the new "Yours, Mine and Ours." It was okay. There were funny parts, but definately not better than the original. Then we went straight home because Laurie was really sick. Saturday as a result was really low key. I watched the Academy of Country Music's 40th Anniversary special. It prominately featured Reba and Barbara Mandrell, two of my favorites.

Laurie was feeling better on Sunday so we went to church. We then went out to lunch with our friend, Sarah Decke. We had to go to Wal-Mart(Boo) but we needed birdseed for our bird feeders and Laurie had to pick up something that must be for my Christmas or birthday because I couldn't see it. We then went home and began decorating our house for Christmas. We put up the tree and all of our other decorations. So, anyway, a pretty busy weekend.

The pictures that are now on here are from our trip home. Unfortunately our camera batteries were dead during our time in St. Louis. We did not intentionally leave the Weiss and Stahl families out of the photos.