Friend-a-palooza!

Well, folks, I'm back in Oklahoma City for an extended period of time! After 2 weeks of traveling for work and fun, my office is a mess, my apartment (that I moved into over 2 weeks ago) remains largely unpacked and I haven't seen some of my OKC friends for weeks! Weeks!


(<---- Me and Jamie J!)













This past week (Wednesday-Sunday), 2 adult leaders from my church and myself were able to attend the National Lutheran Youth Workers Conference in Orlando, Florida. It was a blast. So, in keeping with tradition, here are the highlights of the trip

*One of the best things about the trip was getting to spend lots of time with my DCE classmates. The first and last night of the conference, we all sat around and talked for a few hours about joys and concerns of ministry, our personal lives, related funny stories about church life and generally just got caught up. I got to see my former suite-mate, the now Mrs. Dave Timmerman whom I hadn't seen since Midyear and since Marriage. I also got to see Tara Brune, whom I think is just fantastic.

*Seeing my adults get fired up about the National Gathering. I think they were able to get a little taste of what's going to happen in Orlando next year for 37,000 youth.

*Starfield and Fusebox as the bands for the weekend. They were awesome. I heart Fusebox (who was the house band at the last gathering) and now I heart Starfield.

*National News with Jeffrey Meinz. Trust me, this was hilarious.

*These Guys.

*Seeing Blanke and Moulds! My two favorite Concordia Professors!


(<---- Us and Blanke. His comment "I've never been surrounded by so many women before")












*Wednesday Night's Reunion slash Birthday Party. I have not laughed that hard... since... well, Rachel's wedding weekend. After the reunion/birthday party we went to the mall, got some dinner, Spode tried sushi and then we all hung out at the fabulous Wyndham Orlando Resort hotel pool.

*Sleepovers. Spode and I were roommates, so we had some good late night chats about boys and life.

*Dinner with the Griffins, whom I hadn't seen since 1996- back in my OAFC-ing days. It was fun to catch up with all of them.

Those are the highlights. More later this week!

Orlando!

Greetings from Sunny Orlando! We wish you were here!

(This is a picture of Jamie and I. Yes, we are wearing scarves. Yes we are wearing pajama shorts over our pants. Yes we have on party hats, and YES that is a pepto bismol pink "ask me Jesus" statuary that when you ask it questions answers with things like "Watch out for the lightning" )

Good Clean Fun

This past weekend was the Sattgast-Lail wedding extravaganza in Huron, South Dakota. I think this has been the most fun wedding weekend attended this far in all my wedding circuit touring. So, without further ado, here's my high points of the weekend.

1. Friday night at the Granite City Brewery in Sioux Falls, SD. I learned that irony is coincidence mixed with tragedy and that everything else is just arbitrary (not random). Grace coined the term "tragonic" to cover everything else that is neither random or ironic. I also learned how to play cornhole, a game where you throw beanbags (cornbags?) into a hole. For a first effort, I didn't do too shabbily. Unfortunately, the Cornholio's did not win the tournament, but not for a lack of trying (or not so subtle cheating on my part). Huron jokes were also a big hit... ex. "what do you say when you jump off a cliff? Huronimo!" "Huron the road yet?" "Huron... Hur-off!" you get the idea. Oh and the soup bowl of ranch that the waiter thought Matt actually drank.



2. The arbitrary K-mart and zesto's ice cream run. The poor Zesto's people probably thought we were crazy out-of-towners as did all of the K-mart people. (See what happens when you let loose about 6 or 7 Concordia Alums?)


(At Zestos. I got a "Krazy Krunch Kone")












3. Spending time with Grace when all the other wedding party people had to go be responsible. We got to take naps and things.

4. Bowling on Saturday. While everyone else was at the rehearsal dinner, Mark, Grace and I went bowling. Mark made the whole night fun with his bowling fun gift bags. He was an excellent date and best of all... I won! (with an 81...we're just that good)

(We take bowling very seriously in Huron. Notice the "cosmic bowling glow in the dark necklace" around Grace's neck? And our awesome headbands and wristbands? Mark made sure we were prepared to get our bowl on)










5. Dinner at the Pizza Ranch on Saturday and making Mark laugh so hard he choked on his food when I said that Grace was "housebroken".

6. The Bonfire-less Bonfire at the Sattgast farm and hearing all about Ben's horrible dating experience. Grace and I looked at the stars that aren't visible in the Oklahoma City or Lodi lights.

7. The wedding. It made me cry a little bit actually (something I've not done before). Rachel looked beautiful, the messge was wonderful (especially the bit Pastor Sattgast read from one of Bob's emails to Rachel).

8. Seeing Bob and Rachel. I can't imagine two people more suited for each other. They looked so ridiculously happy and excited and in love it made me a little nauseous. just kidding.

9.The "third time's a charm" bouquet toss.

10. Dinner at Verto's and our nice waiter Larry.

11. Japanese Haiku, tent shopping, and funny text messages on the drive home.

12. Meeting new friends and seeing old ones and being able to pick up where you left off. And seeing how much everyone is still the same, but different.

13. Having an excuse for a reunion.

Spode's Nifty Little Survey

So, I took this from the spode's website and thought it was nifty so I'm ripping it and filling it out for me, even though I should SO be moving my stuff right now. I have today, tomorrow and sunday afternoon. ack. ack. ack. Anyway, on to the survey!

Two Names You Go By:
1. Hannie (or Hannie Lou to some)
2. Banana (hannah-banana)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Old Navy Tank tops- my summer love
2. My super cute long necklace

Two Things You Would Want in a Relationship:
1. Faith
2. Patience (let's face it folks, I'm gonna need it) :)
The second number 2. A large shopping budget (see why I need patience)... ok so maybe that's three things but lets face it, if you know me, well, you'll see why thats important

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies:
1.Reading
2. Shopping (Hey--spode has movie watching I can have shopping)

Two Things You Want Really Badly At The Moment:
1. A personal moving company
2. A stress-free job :)

Two pets you had/have:
1. Blaze (the dog)
2. Squeaky the cat (that lived like 3 days)

Two things you did last night:
1. Ate at Johnny Carinos
2. Packed

Two People that live in your house:
1. Me and Pretty soon, no one.. I'm moving...
2. Myself

Two things you ate today:
1. Johnny Carinos leftovers
2. Yogurt covered raisins

Two people you Last Talked To:
1. Lindsey
2. The lady at my apartment complex

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1. Moving
2. Planning my children's message

Two longest car rides:
1. Bedford, NH to Willow Hill, IL (November '93)
2. Fargo, North Dakota to Oklahoma City, OK (October '05)

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. 4th of July
2. Christmas Eve

Two Things You Can't Live Without:
1. Books
2. Sonic

Ridiculously Excited

My name is Hannah and I'm addicted to blogger.

It turns out I just can't stay away. My 10 day hiatus seemed more than enough. So I'm back.

It turns out that I'm the oddball. I used to think that EVERYONE has this big "leaving the state to go to school" experience as well as the "settling in some unknown location and setting up camp" experience. Well, it turns out that minus my friends from concordia, most people aren't like me. They go to a local school, settle somewhat close to home and have a lot of the same college friends around or close and maybe one or two people from their circle have left to pursue fame, fortune, riches, etc. in different locaitons.

God has richly blessed me here in OKC with friends and a great place to do His ministry, but there are times that I wish that all my Concordia friends had all gone to a state college and settled 10 minutes from each other or at the most an hour and that there weren't time zones and things that separated us. So, when opportunities come up to see friends--especially in large quantities, I tend to get very excited. Over-the-top-bouncing-up-and-down-Ridiculously Excited. And there are a couple coming up this very month! YAY!

1)Sattgast's Wedding! I cannot tell you how pumped I am. This is going to be one big CU reunion to witness the union of bob and rachel. Yay! I get to see and spend some QT with Grace and see Anna who's been hiding in Taiwan this past year and not to mention lots of other supercool people that I haven't seen since graduation or longer. Also on my trip to South Dakota I get to see Lindsey and "SARAH SARAH" :) As well as B! Then... on my way home, I get to see the lovely Amy for dinner/possible sleepover in scenic Lawrence, Kansas. I cannot wait. It's going to be a smorgasbord of friends!

2)The National Lutheran Youth Workers' Gathering in Orlando this summer. YAY! I get to see spode and jamie and Tara and lots of other people I haven't seen since midyear or beyond. (well spode I saw at jen's wedding... but still..not for very long and not with Jamie. It was like a spoke in our wheel was missing).

So, yes, I am ridiculously excited.In this two years of life since Concordia, God has sent so many of my friends in so many different amazing places all over the world that it's nice to have TWO (count em TWO) great chances and places to see these people that I consider closer than family sometimes. I can't wait.

RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED.