Wilkins Ski Trip 2009

Levi and I just got back early this morning from a ski trip with his family to Crested Butte. Despite -13 degree weather, we had a great time! If only we could have taken some of the snow from OK with us, the slopes would have been perfect. As it was, there was just enough snow to ski, and each day we could see it become thinner on the slopes.

This was my fourth year to snowboard and, while I'm getting better each year, I still have a long way to go to match Levi's skills! Luckily my brother-in-law's girlfriend Becca and I started snowboarding at the same time, so we're on the same level and can stick together while Jake, Levi and their dad do the blacks.

Levi's family has gone on a ski trip every year since he was about five years old and I've enjoyed being part of that tradition for the last four years. I'm glad that Levi and I are now making it a tradition with our own family.

Stockings hung by the TV with care

Here are our new stockings! I ordered them off Ebay (they're Pottery Barn from last year) and I'm so excited that they came in time for Christmas. There's a third one in the set that is cream with snowmen, and I'm hoping that one will go on sale along with another red and green one after Christmas so I can stock up for when our family grows. I never want to have to go through the stocking search again!

More waiting

So Levi finally heard from EMSA (after a long ordeal getting his state EMT license) and they told him he's on the list to interview for the MARCH academy. We were under the impression he was applying for January. For some reason or another that's not the case, and now we have to wait some more. I'm starting to think this waiting will never end. I can't imagine how discouraged Levi's beginning to feel. Keep praying. Maybe we'll get surprised and Levi will get a firefighting job before March. We'll just have to wait and see.

Handy(wo)man

Lately, the water in our shower has been getting cold after a few minutes and it got to the point where I was only able to get one leg shaved. Since we didn't have a problem with the water temperature until it got cold outside, I did some research online and found that it may help to insulate the water heater. Well, even though it was about 10:30 PM, I looked online at Lowe's and found a water heater insulation blanket. I was sold and quickly purchased it for pick-up in the store the next day.

After picking it up at Lowe's the next day, I was excited to get it installed and have more hot water. Unfortunately, my handyman had to work that night. Realizing that I was more than able to install it myself, I got right to it! I felt quite capable after completing the project and wanted to share my handiwork with you:

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

We haven't quite found the perfect stockings yet....

Levi's job search

Since Levi's interview with the Oklahoma City Fire Department a few weeks ago, we're still waiting to hear something. After the interview, Levi was left with the unencouraging words that Oklahoma City may not hire more firefighters this year after all because of budget cuts and disagreements between the city and fire union. To make matters worse, every other department within a reasonable distance of where we live has either recently hired or isn't hiring right now.

So, instead of waiting for good news that may never come, Levi has decided to pursue being an EMT while he waits for a firefighting job offer to come along. He plans to put in his application today with EMSA (which works the area between Guthrie and Moore) and should hear within a week if he makes it into the January training academy.

Just when we thought we were almost finished with this waiting/testing/applying/interviewing/waiting period that's lasted more than six months, it turns out we're far from it. Oklahoma City could still decide to hire, especially if MAPS3 passes, which would create a use tax that could be used to fund more firefighters. And Norman plans to hire sometime after June (which probably means they won't hire until the end of next year). To sum it all up, we're just as unsure about what the future holds as we've ever been. Prayers are appreciated and we'll keep you updated.

Come on Christmas!

Although our Thanksgiving festivities are not yet over (tomorrow we'll celebrate Thanksgiving with Levi's dad), we put Christmas lights on our house this afternoon. It was a beautiful day and we were afraid that if we didn't take advantage of it, we might get stuck putting up the lights in the cold. I've also started putting up decorations inside, but will wait to unveil those after we get our live Christmas tree next weekend. 

Sew Cool

I've been working on a huge sewing project lately for a certain little boy's Christmas present and after watching me the other night, Levi decided he'd like to learn how to sew on a machine. I wasn't brave enough to let him work on my project, but I gave him some scrap fabric to practice. He kept saying he wanted to make a sock despite my insisting that those are actually knitted, not sewn. Right now he's just learning the basics, but I wouldn't be surprised if he whips out a sock-shaped piece of material soon. I'll keep you updated.

Starbucks anyone?

Until lately, the fact that Levi gets a free pound of Starbucks coffee or tea each week as an employment benefit hasn't been a problem. However, as of late, the pounds and pounds of coffee and tea he has been accumulating have resulted in quite the stockpile. Since he's the only one in the house who drinks either of them, it takes awhile for him to make a dent in even just one pound of either. We've resorted to storing these pounds of coffee and tea on the top ledge of our cabinets in the kitchen for lack of other storage room. Now it's starting to look like we're starting a franchise in our house! If anyone would like a free pound of coffee or tea, please let us know. We would be happy to share!

Rebuttal:

I don't feel like Emily properly captured the beauty of the equalette in her last post. You see, by taking my cordolette (the thin little blue rope in the pictures) and doubling it up, it makes two loops of cordolette that can then be attached to two, three, or even four pieces of gear using two clove hitches and a figure-eight-on-a-bight. Because the power point is fixed, you never have to tie it while on the route and you don't have to use a figure-eight-on-a-bight. This gives you all the multidirectional advantages of a sliding X configuration but without the scary lock-up effect and with the ability to use more pieces of pro. It also has the lightweight, simple nature of a cordolette anchor, but without the sacrifice in multi-directional capability of a cordolette anchor. It's a win-win situation, you see. 

Anchor yourself

Yes, this really happened. This is what I kept telling myself yesterday when I got home from work and found Levi practicing building newly learned rock climbing anchors ON OUR ENTERTAINMENT CENTER and later on our bookshelf. Now, since marrying Levi I've noticed that he likes to occasionally pull out his climber gear and organize it or practice knots, etc. just because he loves climbing so much. However, this was a whole new level for me:

22 Years Young

Today's been a great birthday. This morning, Levi made me cinnamon rolls before work. Then, my best friend, Crystal, stopped by to surprise me with chai from Starbucks. It has become a tradition to surprise each other with Starbucks the morning of our birthdays and I really love that.

At work today, the office took me out to lunch at Tarahumara's, the best mexican food restaurant in Norman. It was delicious and only took an hour (instead of the normal 1.5-hour office lunches). Everyone also signed a card for me in which my boss wrote: "Happy birthday! We're glad you're here with us. Hey - we're growing old together!" I was a little surprised by her sentiment considering I'm only 22 and there are about 30 years of difference between us.

This evening, Levi took me to dinner at BJ's where I was surprised by a table full of friends. I did not at all expect such a surprise, but it was really great to share today with good friends. Also, Levi finished the birthday countdown today and here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Birthday Countdown

Here's a picture of the birthday countdown Levi created for me a few days ago. Each day, he pulls off a number and somehow when I get home from work every day, more "Happy Birthday" post-its have found their way to the wall. My birthday is in three days and I'm not sure there's room for 3 more days of post-its!

Emily: I don't think Regis ever ages.
Levi: Yeah, I think he's kind of like a Twinkie.

Belated NYC Pics

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from our trip to NYC a couple of weeks ago. Jake has more on his camera, and once we get those from him I'll post more. If you'd like to see all of our pictures from the trip, check out my Facebook photo album here.

Levi always got excited to see NYFD stuff

Getting ready to go see Billy Elliot on Broadway

The Registry Room where all immigrants waited to hear their fate on Ellis Island.

Big News

Levi passed the Oklahoma City Fire Department physical test yesterday! Now he has an interview with them on November 16 (my birthday). We're really excited and are even more encouraged by the fact that Levi's mom, Sharie, randomly met an ex-assistant chief from OKC named Tony on an airplane and he agreed to help Levi all he could. When Levi talked to him yesterday, Tony made sure he had the correct spelling of Levi's name so he could put in a good word, plus he invited Levi to come over next week for a practice interview. Since Tony was on the interview panel for 10 years, he should really know how to help Levi prepare! While it looks like Levi has a great chance, we don't want to get our hopes up too high. We continue to covet your prayers as we move through this process.

Back from The Big Apple

Levi and I finally made it back from NYC late last Sunday night and I’ve been recuperating from our trip home ever since. If you ever go there to see the New York Marathon, don’t make plans to leave the same day. When we booked our flight home, we didn’t realize Levi’s dad would be starting the race so late. Most marathons start early, about 6 a.m., but since there were so many people at this marathon, there were multiple start times and his dad happened to get the 10 a.m. start. Our flight left at 6:25 p.m. and we didn’t find his dad in the crowd after the marathon until 3:30 p.m. This didn’t seem to be too big of a problem because we had planned to allow two hours to get to the airport, which was only a 15-minute cab ride away from the apartment where we were staying, or so we thought.

When we tried to call to reserve a cab, they said they weren’t reserving them in our area (one block from Central Park) until 7 p.m. that night. We didn’t let that deter us; we just decided to hail a cab. No big deal – they do it all the time in movies. I have to say that hailing a cab in Manhattan after the Marathon ends in Central Park is a nightmare. All but one of the cabs were full shuttling marathoners to their hotels, and the one empty one refused to drive us out to the airport. At this point we started to panic.

It was 4:45 and we had about an hour and a half before our flight left. We decided to take the subway to Grand Central Station because we knew there would be cabs there. Unfortunately, the subway took twice as long to get there because it stopped longer at each stop for all the people. We finally got to Grand Central Station and got a cab to the airport about 5:50. By the time we got through all the traffic to the airport, we walked in the airport doors to the sound of the intercom saying “Levi and Emily Wilkins, this is your final call, please proceed to the gate immediately.” We had no boarding passes and hadn’t been through security. We felt so defeated because we had worked so hard to make it on time. Thankfully, they were able to put us on standby on the next flight, which conveniently still made our connection in Dallas. We finally got home about 12:30 that night after our good friends Ann and Trent picked us up at the airport.

Despite our travel frustrations, we had a great time in NYC. We were able to cram most of the tourist attractions into the short 2.5 days we were there. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, the famous Wall Street Bull, and got in a full day of shopping on Fifth and Madison Avenues. I’m already looking forward to going back next year when Levi will be running the marathon!

NYC here we come

Tomorrow Levi and I are headed to NYC to watch his dad run the NY marathon on Sunday. Look for an update about the trip including pics soon!

A twist on McFadden Flats

A couple of weeks ago, we had a potluck lunch at work for boss's day. Our receptionist, Carolyn, made the main dish, which was a casserole she calls "McFadden Flats". It is a layered casserole that goes like this:

1 lb. ground beef on the bottom of the pan
one layer sliced bell pepper
one layer sliced onion
one layer sliced potatoes
salt and pepper
1 can tomato soup (+ can water)

Cook on 300/325 for several hours (6ish)

Last night Levi made the casserole with a little twist. Either way it's delicious, but since I'm picky I prefer the Levi way. He made it in the crockpot like this:

1 lb. ground beef on the bottom
sliced potatoes
baby carrots
salt and pepper
Daddy Hinkles meat marinade (the powdered part only)
1 can tomato soup (+ can water)

Cook on high 4 hours or so

Enjoy! This meal makes GREAT leftovers!

Corn Maze Fun

Last weekend Levi and I went to the corn maze in Shawnee with Korey, Crystal, Jeff and Haley. We went through the main maze, which was the Thunder logo cut into the corn field, and then we went through the Haunted Cornstalker Trail. We also got a free hay ride! It was a lot of fun despite the deep mud pits/rivers in the corn maze. Next year I won't be wearing my Ugg loafers! Here are some pics from the night:

 

Volpe Wedding + U2 Concert = Amazing Weekend

Sorry for the lag in posting recently. Last week was especially busy with a work trip to Tulsa and getting ready for our trip to Grapevine for the Volpe wedding. It was great to get away for the weekend and see our good friends get married. Chris was in our wedding, and Diana and I became friends when Levi and Chris lived together during the last 2 years of college. They're a great couple and we're so happy for them. Here are some pictures from the outdoor wedding at Cross Timbers Winery in Grapevine:

After we drove back from TX Sunday morning, we did a quick turn around and had Ann and Trent over for dinner before the U2 concert. I made a spaghetti lasagna, which turned out great and yielded plenty of leftovers for this week. You can find the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Spaghetti/Detail.aspx (Linds you could probably sub olive oil for the eggs for Gray). The U2 concert was by far the best concert I've ever been to. The Black Eyed Peas opened for U2 and the concert was in the OU stadium, so we easily walked from our house. The "mother ship" stage was phenomenal and cost $40 million to build! Here are some pictures and videos from the night:

 

Pumpkin painting mess...I mean fun!

Levi and I had Grayson over today to paint pumpkins. As you might imagine, fingerpainting with a one-year-old little boy can turn out to be quite messy. We even had to throw his clothes and seat cover in the wash! Here are some pictures from the day:

More Big News

Levi took the CPAT (firefighter physical test) for a hiring list yesterday and he passed! Now any one (or several) of the 22 departments that use this list could be calling him for an interview soon. Thanks for the prayers. Now we wait....

The sweetest husband

In case you were wondering who the title refers to, that would be my husband, Levi. I came home to this today after work while Levi was at work:

Part of that note says "I tried to find a flower as beautiful as you, but I guess they just don't make 'em like they used to..."

I'm one lucky girl.

Crockpot Pork Chops

Since my sister Lindsay is the one who requested recipes on this blog, I like to try to incorporate recipes I know her family can eat. These days, that's getting complicated because (as you probably saw in a previous post) Grayson has an egg allergy and her husband, Mike, is allergic to turkey and chicken. Also, in an effort to escape beef and chicken recipes myself, I decided to try pork this week. Levi has always said he doesn't like pork, but I convinced him to try this recipe after telling him the ingredients. Surprisingly he liked it! He said it's the best "pork thing" he's ever had. 

If you like basil, garlic, oregano, etc., you should try this recipe! It was pretty good. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Pork-Chops-II/Detail.aspx

What is this thing called free time?

Lately I've had quite an abundance of free time. For about the last 15 years of my life I've been in school, which meant when I got home I would either have homework or band practice or private lessons, etc. Now that I have a full-time job that allows me to leave my work at work and I'm out of school so I have no homework, I've found myself wondering what to do in the evenings and on weekends, especially when Levi works, which is often.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm definitely enjoying free time opposed to the alternative. Levi and I have talked a lot lately about how being out of school is a lot less stressful than being in school. While this is great,  I need something to fill a healthy portion of the time without overloading myself. I don't want a commitment; just a hobby or two. You've probably noticed that I've taken up trying new recipes and baking, sometimes multiple times a week. I really enjoy this, but since Levi and I are just two people, I've found myself taking lots of baked goods to work and we're all gaining weight because of it.

When I had my fill of baking last week, I finally decided to go to the library to get a good book. I actually found two. I've really enjoyed reading the last few days, especially when it's in a bubble bath. So, I guess through all my boredom I've found a couple things to do, but sometimes I still find myself staring at the wall wondering what to do. Any fun, cheap ideas?

Grayson's Chocolate Cake

Last week, I made an eggless chocolate cake when I was looking for a way to use up marshmallows (I used them as icing). Then, later in the week, I learned that my nephew Grayson is showing signs of an egg allergy. I thought this would be the perfect cake for him. Unfortunately, I can't find the exact recipe I used, but here's one from allrecipes.com that got 4 stars and is very similar to the one I used, so you know it's got to be good! Enjoy! http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggless-Chocolate-Cake-II/Detail.aspx

Big News

This last week Levi took the EMT National Registry test and passed! Now he is officially EMT certified. Right now, he's not planning to get a job as an EMT, but he hopes the certification will help him get a firefighting position. If he doesn't get on with a department this year, he may look into becoming an EMT for awhile to get experience. He worked really hard to get this certification and I'm very proud of him!

Happy Fall!

Have strawberries about to go bad? Make this!

I made this last weekend to use up my strawberries, and it was so delicious! I followed this recipe, but made bread instead of muffins, which took about an hour to cook. Try it for yourself: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Florida-Strawberry-Muffins/Detail.aspx

The great state fair of Oklahoma

Last night Levi and I went to the state fair since Levi had never been. Plus, I won't lie, I really wanted a state fair corn dog. Well, I got a lot more than that. In fact, we practically ate our way through the fair. We had roasted corn, a corn dog (which I unfortunately dropped half of), a coke, pizza, a funnel cake, a gyro, and a root beer. We only rode the space needle, which was wise considering all the food we ate.

We both agreed that the best part of the fair is people-watching. People of all walks of life go to the fair and you can tell just by looking at the parking lot! There were all types of cars from an old VW bus to an Escalade.

We had a really great time. I grew up going to the fair, so I knew it would be fun; and now that Levi has experienced it, we decided to make going to the fair a family tradition, especially when we have kids someday.

If you haven't been yet this year, you should go. I took my camera so I could show you just how great it is, but unfortunately I didn't check the batteries before we left. Now you'll just have to go see it for yourself!

*Note from Levi: I love the fair now. Gyros are delicious! However, I have never had one served to me by someone who was wearing the colors of the Greek flag but had a hispanic accent.

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

I made this yesterday and took it over to Lindsay and Mike's for the football game. It turned out great!

Ingredients
1 lb cubed stew meat
1 can golden mushroom soup
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used rings on top so I could take them off)
4 oz sour cream

Directions
Mix all but sour cream together in crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in sour cream right before serving and serve on top of egg noodles.

Grins & Giggles

Levi and I took our nephew Grayson to the park this afternoon. It was perfect weather and we all had fun!

Checking out some stray mulch

 Levi teaching Gray how to go down the pole like a real firefighter