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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

like Christmas morning

I woke up this morning feeling like a kid at Christmas! Here are some reasons today is awesome:

1. THE BIG DANCE begins in less than two hours!!!

2. K-State is a 2 seed! AH! I've never been more excited for the tourney, and that says a lot!

3. anything can happen in march!

4. we are going to disneyworld/spring training today with ricky's amazing parents!

5. hunter is staying at his new bff/soulmate's house. here he is asserting his dominance laziness.





6. Jax and Pax have arrived! And Cora will be here today! I love them.

7. Because the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. -Lam 3:22-23

I hope you find some reasons to be overjoyed today!

lc little ones

happy lost canyon baby month! we like to joke around that we got out of williams just in time, because clearly there has to be something if the water if there are 3 lc babies due this month! but it's times like these that it's hard to be away. but praise the Lord for how technology can be used! we got to meet sweet baby Jax on skype a couple of days ago! i feel like a proud aunt! i got the pleasure of living with Jax's incredible parents and wonderdog while ricky and i were engaged, and they are truly family to us! we're waiting for a couple more little ones to make their appearance in the next couple of weeks! and then we'll be hopefully be planning a trip out west to meet them in person! what a joy it is to us that our lost canyon family continues to grow!

and by the way...we had an incredible time at sharptop! i could do that every single weekend...maybe minus the whole lack of sleep thing! but serving the Lord and teenagers, watching their leaders love them unconditionally, watching the walls come down and the lightbulbs go off, that is what makes us feel the most alive! definitely feeling recharged after this weekend! and hooray for another weekend! hopefully with more sleep and another wilcat victory!

a YL weekend

we are SO excited that after work today we get to spend the weekend at sharptop cove! we have a lot of love for young life and it's such a blessing to be able to be a part of what God's doing through YL when we get the chance! stoked! we're going to be head leaders & hope you'll join us in prayer for the high school kids and their leaders as they spend the weekend in fun, laughter, and deep conversations about the God who loves us more than we can comprehend! woohoo!

more snow!

today was a great day! i got a new haircut! much shorter than expected but i was ready for change.

ricky asked why i was giving him peace signs like 50cent...solo pictures are awkward so being gangster always helps!

and we have yet another BLIZZARD!! but we actually might accumulate up to 4-5 inches which is huge for atlanta! we already have a couple at our house! people are hilarious about it. on my way home i drove by a church that had the sign: parents night out cancelled due to panic. love it!  but for real we'll be stuck at our house tomorrow because they don't have the equipment to clear the roads. it's been a long time since i've seen the trees absolutely covered like this and it just reminds me of northern arizona. to me, nothing is more beautiful than the trees & mountains there when it snows! but one thing that i absolutely love about the south...magnolia trees! covered in snow? obsessed.

happy love day to you all! we're thankful for your presence in our lives!

flashback!

i've been meaning to post these pictures for a while, oops!! i've been missing kc lately and i was hoping to visit this month for no reason...since the past several trips have been for a specific purpose and therefore jam packed. and i was thinking february since two of my besties celebrate bdays in february...but sometimes you just can't do it all.

dear economy, would you mind turning around so i can do what i want?

bach party fun

he put a ring on it!

my best friend is adorable.

 hottie.

bram fam fo life!

parents don't come more fun than this!

the baileys!!

love it.

this describes how i felt that night!

i really didn't get all that many pictures of the 2nd best day of my life, but lucky for you my dear friend scotty did! seriously the best wedding pictures i've ever seen. check them out. but if you read this blog you've already seen all of them and left hilarious comments on the fb album.

worthless post, but it gave me a chance to relive this incredible night! we are so blessed to have libby and ruffin in our lives!

winter

i forgot how crazy it is to get back into the swing of things after the holidays! this post has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for about two weeks! we've just been busy with fun things, i can't complain!! we had an incredible new year's eve...we went to the beach with some friends and were able to stay at a ridiculously huge and beautiful beach house with them. we watched football, ate a lot of seafood, told stories, played apples to apples, watched the hangover, and played with a couple of cute babies. we did not want to go home after that fun and relaxing weekend! but our dear friends monica and shey were on their way to hang out with us, so back to atl we went! and basically all we did with mon and shey was laugh...so perfect! conveyer belt of love, what?!

then the BLIZZARD OF 2010 hit atlanta!! ahh, quick, everyone go buy all the milk, bread, and batteries!! hilarious! we got a dusting of snow and the whole city shut down. i thought it was so funny...until i tried to drive to work and couldn't make it out of the neighborhood!! ricky had to come push my car out of an intersection...whoops! my parents had 3-4 feet of snow piled up at their house and they got to work just fine. but apparently atlanta doesn't have the equipment and manpower to salt all the roads...so SNOW DAY for the macdonald's!

that night the bailey's made there first trip to atlanta as a married couple!! ricky and i went to a wedding saturday, so our weekend was super short, but so fun! i love that we live in driving distance from each other and just being as weird as we could be and freaking out ricky and ruffin on saturday morning was the highlight! and big pie in the sky pizza, yummmmmm!

and this weekend is our first middle school trip of 2010! we're taking a great group of students to pigeon forge for a conference and an indoor waterpark...because who doesn't want to be in a swimsuit right after all the holiday food? but i'm so excited and ready to hang out with kids! pray that it will be a time of laughter and joy and growth!! and ricky is holding down the fort with hunter...a weekend of chinese food and madden, poor guy!

oh yeah, and GO CATS!! although obviously i prefer the nickname "the bram" over the "octagon of DOOM".

december 29th

two years ago...

oh heavenly day :)

and mandy...here's a better shoutout! you knew i was going to marry ricky before i did :)

merry christmas

another christmas has come and gone!! this was a unique christmas...my first without libs since i was 8 months old...but she survived christmas in mexico :). and i had plenty of reasons to keep from being sad about that! we kicked off christmas eve eve with a new tradition...christmas date night! we had cheap mexican and drove around looking at lights before the craziness began! it was so nice to have some "us" time before a family filled weekend...i hope that tradition sticks around!

on christmas eve we tied up some loose ends and spent some time with ricky's family before jim & pam bram arrived from the snowy midwest! they swapped a very white christmas for the slightly warmer climate down in georgia. bridget, their 6 pound yorkie, also made the journey...she and hunter provided plenty of entertainment! they're besties now...maybe not, but at least they don't mind being in the same room! we spent pretty much all of christmas day at the macdonald's...good thing ricky & i have parents that like each other! it was our first christmas as uncle rico & aunt angie, and it was such a joy to have kids around again at christmastime!

all in all, we had such a great time hanging out, watching football, outlet shopping (j.crew & pottery barn? yes please!), movie watching, and eating! there's nothing like family time! but i'm looking forward to an evening with ricky & the fat man, cheering on those dawgs! sorry mandy, but a&m is going down!!

santa's fave reindeer hopes you had a very merry christmas!