three

yesterday was our third anniversary! we spent the day home sick and had to postpone our date plans, but at least we got to spend the day together! the last three years have gone by SO fast, but I'm grateful for every moment, we're crazy blessed!

and I proud to announce that we made it three years without breaking a single plate (pretty impressive for me). we did not however make it three years and one day:


bad iPhone throw/catch, oops! didn't seem to bother our dog friend Chloe.

happy holidays

we just had the most wonderful week in kansas! merry Christmas and happy new year to all!

christmas crazyyyy

i forgot how CRAZY this time of the year can get! i was just telling a friend that i don't remember it being so busy last year...oh wait...my sister/best friend got married last december! so i guess i only remember how awesome it was (dance party anyone?), not how busy/stressful december was.

the past few weeks have been a blur of christmas parties, freezing temps, a never ending cold, meetings, tutoring, bleeding money christmas shopping, and more christmas parties!

and bowling my first turkey!! total freak accident, but awesome! as you can see, jeff totally upstaged me by bowling a turkey and scoring 196, but that's okay because i think it's probably more embarrassing to be really good at bowling than to be really bad at it...

we are four days and two fun christmas parties away from KANSAS!! can't wait to be back in the heartland with the bram fam and my besties!!!! wishing we could bring this little buddy, but both pups are going to have a great christmas with their bff chloe!

christmas sneak peek

Retro Metro Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

better than black friday!

if you have embraced the glory that is google reader, then SURELY you have heard about Shutterfly's brilliant Christmas card promotion for bloggers everywhere. we were going to skip Christmas cards this year, but Shutterfly is giving us an offer we can't refuse! and yes, 50 free Christmas cards is way better than black friday! and yes, black friday on the couch is way better than black friday in the stores. never again.


plus, on libby and ruffin's tour de thanksgiving, she managed to capture our whole family of four looking at the camera...that is a big deal and i can't let it go to waste! here are the best FAILs:

shutterfly has so many cards to choose from, here are a few i happen to love:

lancelot family...hilarious! i think this one is so interesting & modern. and all lowercase letters? even better!

i'm a sucker for stripes, what can i say?! love the colors, too.

love the cute little tree and the plaid, classic but updated at the same time.

looking for a gift idea? personalized calendars are always a win...especially with the princess golfers (hey mom!)

and a wedding idea i wish i would have thought of, so much better than plain old thank you's! several of our friends have done these and they're always adorable!

have your own blog? Don't miss out! Sign up here for the details, entries are due December 15th!

can't wait to make our final selections and get the cards in the mail! i LOVE christmas cards, can't wait to fill up our fridge with loved ones! 

thankful

so much to be thankful for! but mostly our amazing family and friends that love us so well.

and our puppies. happy 1st thanksgiving p-money! and our home. and food, i mean, there's a reason that every good holiday revolves around a feast.

i'm also thankful to be reminded of God's unconditional love and goodness and all the blessings he pours on us. life is so worth living.

college hoops

it's really important to me that i "bloom where i am planted", but with pieces of my heart in kansas and arizona and lots of other places where loved ones live, that can be a challenge.

college basketball season does not make it any easier! listen, i love college football just as much as any southerner i can find, and i know i can be a little biased about k-state. but i don't care who you are, when you get an early season basketball matchup between the #1 and the #4 teams, you get excited!!

oh atlanta. i have so much to teach you.

GO STATE!

confession

i'm developing an obsession for harry potter. i was way too cool for hp when the books came out and have been making fun of hogwarts and all things hp since then.

but over the last few weeks ricky and i (courtesy of georga and linda) have watched every single movie and i'm obsessed!!

i've never done the midnight showing thing...too many crowds and crazies and costumes, but you better believe this is on the agenda for thanksgiving week!

DNOW 2010

we survived DNOW 2010 and it was incredible!! 930ish middle and high school students spent their weekends playing, laughing, and learning about how LOVED they are by God and many lives were changed! so amazing. here's what the church service with students plus leaders, co-leaders, and host homes looked like:

i guess we've already outgrown our new space because there were tons of kids sitting on the floor! awesome sight. and my small group got to stay at alton brown's house, nbd. he wasn't there, but that was probably be good because i get really starstruck and awkward. but it was weird to look around and see his wedding pictures and stuff! my girls had a great time, aren't they so cute?!

i'm taking the day off because coordinating that many people is a lot of work and i'm pretty braindead and sleep deprived! a little dvr watching, jazzercising, doggy snuggling, cookbook searching, mama jo's hot chocolate, and finishing up some mentoring homework. what's better than a random weekday off?

and a little update on ricky...he woke up at 4am yesterday morning in a lot of pain. he twisted his ankle on saturday (story of his life) and was okay saturday but yesterday couldn't even walk. the doctor said it was a really bad sprain and if it doesn't feel better in about a week then we'll need to see a specialist because there might be ligament damage. hopefully it will heal just fine because ricky has had enough surgeries already!

happy birthday hunter!

today is hunter's 11th birthday! there is no one like the fat man! here are some of my favorite things about my sweet black lab:

-every morning he wakes up SO excited. might have something to do with eating...forget trying to let him outside, he refuses to do anything before he eats

-he is the best snuggler/little spoon ever, and super warm

exhibit A

-he makes awesome grunts and noises all the time. the best one is when he yawns.

-he loves to watch tv, even barked at it while we were watching the harry potter with the werewolves last night, so funny!

-he is REALLY good. never does anything he's not supposed to...wish that would rub off on penny!

-he plays with penny even though he'd rather just hang out on the couch

-when ricky had to move to georgia while i stayed in arizona for another month, hunter stayed with me. that's when he really became my dog, and they don't come more loyal than hunter.

-he "smiles" when he gets really excited...aka bears his crooked teeth and it's so cute/funny

-there will never be another dog that is this excited when we come home.

well, i'm officially a crazy dog lady, but hunter has that affect on people! happy birthday, sweet boy!

yard crashers

this post is primarily for my mom (gotta love Pam Bram!)...a couple of weeks ago we hired some people to get our yard back to neutral...a HUGE project since our house was not lived in for quite a while before we bought it. it was hard to find the motivation to start since it was so overwhelming, but maintenance sounds a lot more doable!



the front yard, the grass seeds are starting to sprout now



side yard, we can see the gate for the first time ever! and yes, our hydrangea is massive!



backyard, a major improvement! and hi penny!

slowly but surely we're getting there!

yum!

we had our friends Brooke and Jarrod over for dinner last weekend and I was excited to try one of the Pioneer Woman's newer recipes and oh. my. goodness. you have to try her stuffed shells! so easy if you have a little time on your hands and so good!

I also made the easiest cookies in the world! ready for this?

a 15oz can of pumpkin. a box of spice cake mix. a bag of chocolate chips. mix and bake at 375 for about 14 minutes.

okay, they're not the prettiest cookies, but I will pick easy and tasty over pretty any day!

on another note, our good friends Chris and Aubrey had sweet baby Sutton last week! he is just perfect and we are excited to watch him grow up!

I'm heading to the lake this weekend with my mentor/small group, looking forward to some refreshing Jesus time and girl time! Ricky will stay busy with our sweet pups, football, and possibly a Chinese buffet...

and i won't rub it in, but it felt so good to watch k-state win big!

new (old) buys

i don't know why, but for some reason i have been intimidated to check out local antique stores/flea markets. but i had a vacation day i had to use or lose, so i finally bit the bullet, and i'm so glad i did! here are my finds from a classy flea in marietta, great store!

i've been wanting a china cabinet since we moved to our house, and i got a great deal on this one!! not too big, not too small. the finish is really cool but i'm thinking about painting it a light sage green. can't wait to fill it with mama jo's china!

great deals on these too, the white will look great in our bedroom!

i had a couple of other places on my list to check out, but i decided it was too dangerous to my wallet, one stop was enough for today!

a georgia weekend

we had a great bram fam weekend! my parents flew in on friday afternoon, and we got slapped in the face by atlanta traffic...oh well, more quality time! but after a looong drive home from the airport, they finally got to meet their other granddog!

penny is so polite. ricky was embarrassed that i raised such a lap dog, but she won over my parents, for sure! minus the whole barking at them when they got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, we have to work on that one!

we spent friday night at taco mac watching ku lose, and ricky's parents got to stop by and hang out for a while, so fun!

we headed up to athens on saturday to catch the georgia game! unforch, we got there a little late and missed the first quarter, but we got super cheap tickets! it was fun to show my folks sanford stadium (92,000+, my mom's first time in a stadium bigger than arrowhead). it was approximately 197 degrees and the dawgs didn't look too good, but it was a fun experience. though the bramletts all agree that the atmosphere is better at the bill, wildcats forever! ricky doesn't agree, but there's just something special at a place where the whole stadium feels like the student section! oh yeah, and mom & i completely loved the people watching. did you know that girls in the sec where dresses at football games?

we wrapped up saturday with some ridiculous cajun food at henry's louisiana kitchen in cute downtown acworth, so gooood!

we had to drop off my parents this morning at the airport, so a short weekend, but we made the most of it! see how much fun georgia is? you should come visit.

thanks for a great time mom & dad, come back soon!

improvements

quick home update! here's a couple things we've accomplished in the last few weeks:

bathroom lighting went from something like this:

to this:

i have no understanding of photography/lighting, but this was the best shot i got! and we're finally out of the 80's :)

and our bedroom went from this:

to this:

eventually we'll get curtains...but for now i'm loving "cinderella's castle"!

weekend plans

happy labor day weekend! let's celebrate working by not working! okay, so i stole that joke from ricky...kind of a dad joke, right? but we've got a GREAT weekend ahead of us! here's the plan:

-my 7th grade small group is having a sleepover tonight at our house! ricky's planning on disappearing and hunter's trying to prepare by getting as much sleep as possible:

-COLLEGE GAMEDAY! we're so thankful to have the best sport ever known to man back in our lives!! we celebrated college football's kickoff last night by eating crap buffalo chicken dip for dinner...so good!

-take the dogs over to their best buddy chloe's house for a couple of days

-fly to kc!!! and listen to the k-state game on the flight, PTL for xm radio!

-stay in kc for just long enough to grab an early dinner with a couple of my besties

-drive to branson with libs & ruff

-hang out with the fam at kdock!

-drive home! we just didn't get our fill of southern illinois, kentucky, and tennessee on our road trip last week.

um, did i mention we'll be driving home in ricky's new truck?! 08 toyota tundra, he can't wait!

cheers to a weekend of family, friends, football, and food! god bless america!

bedtime story?

we're heading to illinois for brooke's wedding, and all of our dogsitting friends are going with us, so we have to board penny again. hunter gets to stay home in his bachelor pad and get visits from ricky's parents. penny's just not at that stage yet, so boarding it is. it didn't work out at our vet this time, so i'm taking her somewhere else, and i just had to share the amenities:

suddenly i'm not feeling like a crazy dog lady anymore...

ricky's home and so am i

oh man. it is so good to have ricky back home! the past week and a half has been great! here's the rundown:

-we've made a little bit of house progress (update on that to come)
-i've been able to cook again! "cooking" for one consisted of a lot of special k red berries and honey bunches of oats
-happy dogs! ricky's been working from home a lot which means no crate for our little ball of destruction
-we went to b dub dubs...on wwe summer slam fight night. i especially enjoyed the sound effects from the major fans (BOOM!)
-catching up on our dvr. we don't always love the same shows (i'm convinced that ricky loves the bachelor pad, he just won't admit it), but one of our favorites is man vs. food. last week they featured KANSAS CITY! including two family faves, oklahoma joe's BBQ and stroud's pan  fried chicken, yum!

so yeah, that made me a little homesick. but something else makes me a lot homesick.

these two. they officially live in kansas. for a few months, at least. i have always been a major homebody. home has been a lot of places: kc, manhattan, 408 boyd hall, gphi, lost canyon, beth & nick's, mi cas, and now georgia. i do feel home here. the macdonalds, our friends, and these students that i am in love with have made it home.

but the best definition of home is where my family is. my family is ricky, hunter, and penny. but it is also pam, jim, pat, jo, libby, and ruffin. and a lot more people i could list that are family even though bramlett is nowhere in their name.

so yeah, when the rest of the bram fam got together for dinner this week, i was homesick. and sad that we couldn't just drive over and join them. it's always hard to not have all my homes in one location, but i'm realizing that this fall is going to be particularly difficult.

but instead of being sad, i think i'll choose to be thankful. thankful that i can now visit all of the bram fam and a whole bunch of my friends in one place. thankful that i have such wonderful people in my life to miss. thankful that i am at home here and if we were to leave this place, i would be confronted by the same feelings. thankful for this sweet life that God has given me, and that He has surrounded me with grace, purpose, and relationships that make me feel fully alive.

home

I'm too excited to sleep!! Ricky comes home TOMORROW!!! I can't believe half of my summer didn't include him. and none of my summer included yl camp. yet it was still amazing. so thankful for God pushing me out of my comfort zone! and so privileged to share life with some extremely special teenagers. and some great friends that make sure I don't get lonely. and some sweet labs.


but for real. can't wait to share my life with Ricky again! I think we've had enough of this long distance thing in our four years together, I'm over it! there's no such thing as home without him.

three things

a little fun libbo shared with me...

three names i go by:
1. ang
2. angmacbram
3. redneck (i love my husband!)

three places i've lived
1. lenexa/shawnee, kansas, represent the 913!
2. the little apple!! specifically 1807 todd road, love!
3. williams, arizona. moving there was probs the best idea i ever had.

three places i've worked
1. johnny rockets (got a number in my pocket...) first job, they made me wear a funny hat and say "soda pop"
2. young life's castaway club and lost canyon...best places/jobs in the world!
3. johnson ferry! i love my church and can't believe i get paid to love teenagers AND make spreadsheets! so perfect!

three things i love to watch
1. any college football or basketball. but i love watching k-state football and basketball the most, duh!
2. so you think you can dance dance dance
3. penny sleeping like a FREAK!

three places i've been

1. on the k-state football field and basketball court with thousands of my closest friends...both after upsetting texas
2. charleston, south carolina, love that place!
3. at the top of a little mountain named wounded ranger, looking at this

three people who email me regularly
1. libby marie bailey
2. my daddio
3. laura chmielewski! when we're being good at our plan...

three things i love to eat
1. jose peppers nachos, hold the beans
2. west coast pesto pizza at big pie in the sky, yumm!
3. rasberries...cheese-its...fro yo...oklahoma joe's...my mom's baked potato soup...edamame...holy cow, narrowing this down to three is impossible, there are so many things i love to eat!!

three things i am looking forward to
1. penny being fully potty trained! so close!
2. college football season, it's that much better in the south
3. RICKY COMING HOME!!! about a week and a half, woot!

we've messed with texas

july has been a month of work hard, play hard! by the end of the month, i will have been in my office a total of 9 days (some of them half days). i love that so much of my "work" takes place out of the office!

july began with a bram fam lake vacay! somehow took zero pictures which is really unfortunate because there were some amazing rednecks there! including my banjo picking dad :). family + large body of water + food = the perfect formula. ricky was bummed that we missed out on the shoji tabuchi show in branson.

ricky headed to dallas straight from our vacation and has been working like a maniac ever since! he was able to come home this week to recover for a couple days and will be home for good in a few short weeks! but he's really enjoying it!

our dallas mission trip was amazing!! it was a little bit warm in texas and behind the scenes, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, especially with the buses, but whatever, our students were awesome and loved on kids the way that Jesus does! i was so proud of them and we had so much FUN! God did amazing things in and through students and leaders alike. it was my last big trip with the 8th graders, but i'm working hard to avoid that thought.

k-state represent!

and a little puppy update...penny got spayed this week and she does not like the cone of shame! but she's really cute! i love being a crazy dog lady!

highlights

highlights of this week include:

-the AC breaking at jazzercise...oh wait...that wasn't awesome. but the frozen washclothes they gave us brought back some sweet childhood memories

-penny has reached FIFTY pounds!! how did that happen so fast? and how does she still manage to escape from her crate? little houdini...she's bad but at least she's not dumb!

-i got to tutor one of my fave 7th grade boys yesterday. i love combining ministry and math!

-maureen is getting married tomorrow!!! can't wait! we got married december 29, 2007. within 2.5 years, all of our sibs got married...sorry dad & dad-in-law!

-RICKY GOT A NEW JOB!!! the Lord is so good to us!! ricky is now a project manager at a commercial construction company, with huge opportunities to advance and he is pumped!! they need him out of town for his first three weeks on the job, not so great. but he will happen to be out of town in dallas, which means we'll be in the same place for one of those weeks, woohoo!

-bram fam vacay in one week! it came at the perfect time!

recent happenings

bad blogger, my b! libs inspired me to post again! we've had lots going on lately, here's the rundown:

doggie update: penny is getting big & bad! she only has a few puppy teeth now, and double sets of canines until the puppy ones go, she looks like a crazy woman! but she acts like one too. she woke us up at 5:45 this morning running around our room. she sleeps in her crate...not a good wake up call! so she now gets twistie tied into her "home". we also have a third lab hanging out with us this month! murdock stayed with us last year when his parents were on yl assignment and again this year, i don't think i can give him back! i'm in love! minus the fact that he & penny bite each others faces and leave marks and scabs. hunter is enjoying the break from playing that murdock has given him. he's as sweet as ever! i gave him his summer buzz last weekend...major dog fail! sorry for the bald spots & patchiness buddy! but all in all, we LOVE having labs in our lives!

job update: my summer is crazy! we have no interns this summer and my boss is on sabbatical, so there are two of us getting the job done & i'm having a blast! i'm loving the challenge of more responsibility. and i've already gone to camp (amazing trip!), played whirlyball, and enjoyed chick-fil-a spicy chicken & fro yo with some awesome middle schoolers. do i really get paid for this? tomorrow is a scorching day at six flags & our dallas mission trip is in less than a month! oh yeah, and my pastor just got elected president of the southern baptist convention. he's a pretty big deal. and has a pretty big vision for missions, so awesome.

ricky's at an interesting transition right now. his position won't exist by the end of june, but apparently he is amazing (well duh) and has already interviewed & has his sights set on a couple of great gigs! the hope is to get him out from behind he desk and on site more and to have a new challenge since he already has this decorating thing down. :)

house update: we've been here a year and are loving it! lately it's been lots of yard work, but it is HOT in Georgia so the work is moving inside. ricky crossed a $30 mirror project off our list & we have some repainting on the agenda...

we've got some fun family stuff ahead with the royals-braves showdown on friday, maureen's wedding next weekend, and bram fam vacation the week after that, woohoo! life is good!

bailey weekend!

libby and ruffin left a few hours ago and i just now realized that we took zero pictures. dang it!! but a wonderful weekend for sure! yesterday the weather was just gross so we talked, watched movies, cooked, and just hung out. they came to church with us today & then we hit up the outlets for a little bit. pottery barn + jcrew = dangerous. and amazing. but anyway, i never wanted them to leave! and they fell in love with penny, of course! but apparently she wasn't enough to keep them here!

maybe the fact that when you're cleaning up her vomit, she pees all over the carpet. just maybe.

penny macdonald

thought i'd throw in the only picture we took at disney...everest in the background!

penny went to the vet today, she's a whopping 24 pounds! big lady! here she is displaying her cute baby belly and watching her first k-state game!

 

playing with the fat man (is ricky smelling that toy?) and taking over hunter's bone. he hasn't touched it since christmas so he's not too upset.

 

she's trouble but a sweet cuddler. and she likes to sleep in weirdo positions just like me!

she slept like an angel last night, only cried for about 10 minutes! wouldn't have mattered though because i stayed up until my heart rate slowed down after the amazing double OT K-State/Xavier thriller!! sleep was definitely hard to come by! raising a puppy is exhausting and housebreaking is already the opposite of fun, but i know it's worth it! i'm hoping hunter will rub off some of his awesomeness and laziness onto sweet baby penny! he's warming up to her...my bet is that they'll be bff by this time next week!