Thanksgiving

Hello everyone! Okay, so I meant to post this right after Thanksgiving. I'm a little late...sorry about that! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day. We sure did! We went back home to Illinois for the extended weekend and it was a great time. Here are some pics...

Above: Cousins Jimmy, Brooke, Kelsey, Justin and Sara. My mom and dad hosted Thanksgiving for my mom's side of the family this year. We always have so much fun when we get together. Lots of laughs for sure!!

Above: Me and my brother, Jimmy. Isn't he such a good dresser? He picks out all his own clothes too. I'm so proud!

Above: Mom, me, Jimmy and Dad. Oh, and Pepper the "devil dog" in the left hand corner. She is actually the sweetest dog in the world but she looks like a crazed beast in this picture!

Above we have Rory on vocals and Savanna on guitar. We spent A LOT of time playing Rock Star Hero (at least, I think that's what it's called). My mom's side of the family is pretty musically inclined so this was right up our alley. SO MUCH FUN!!

Yes folks, that is Mr. Greg Reynolds on drums. He was very into it! So much so that he dressed up for the occasion. Awesome.

Above: The Wheeler clan.

We had a little surprise birthday party for Carlie on Thanksgiving. She was so excited when she walked in the door and we all started singing "Happy Birthday". She had this huge smile on her face. Such a little cutie!!

Above: The Rade clan. We got together with my dad's side of the family the day after Thanksgiving. It was really nice to see everyone and spend some time catching up. We don't get a chance to get together very often and it's so nice when we do! We had a great time!

And last but not least....Greg and I.

Yesterday and today, Greg and I finally broke down and did some Christmas decorating. I can't believe how fast Christmas is sneaking up on us this year. I didn't feel ready for it at all until we put up the tree and played some Christmas music....that got us more in the mood for the season.

I also wanted to point out a blog that I added to my list of blogs that I follow. It's called Bring the Rain and it's written by a woman named Angie Smith. Her husband is a singer in a band called Selah. She originally started the blog when she and her husband found out that the daughter she was pregnant with would not be able to survive after she was born. Although the circumstances under which the blog was created are horribly sad, it's so inspiring to hear Angie's testimony of faith as she and her family work through the sometimes heart-breaking and, more often, joy-filled journey called life. I would recommend starting with some of her first few posts so you understand the situation she's coming from. After that, you'll probably want to read ALL of her posts. She's an incredibly talented writer. Some of my favorite posts that I highly recommend checking out are: "The Chicken" (it's hilarious), "Blink", and my very favorite, "Ransomed".

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Love,

Brooke

Hair-u-mentary

Here it is ladies and gentleman....a documentary of my hairstyles throughout the years. Not that any of you cared what my hair looked like growing up, but I thought it would be fun to provide you some laughter at my expense :-) So, sit back, laugh and enjoy....
NOTE: I recommend double-clicking on the photos to enlarge them. That way, you get the full effect.

The year was 1978 and I was 2 years old. This is a little bit longer version of the Dorothy Hamill cut that most girls in the late 1970's/early 80's sported. My mom kept me in this cut for years to come.

Yep, still the same hair cut. I'm 5 years old here and I still had this cut for another year before letting it grow out. Dig the 70's-style jogging suit....sweet! Here I am in 3rd grade. I was a big fan of pig-tails in those years. I had pretty long hair then, so it was a good way to keep it out of my face while I was playing. This was the last of my non-awkward years for a long, long time. Poor kid, I had no idea what was coming.

Oh yeah...the "Annie" cut....awesome. When I went to get my first perm, I wanted to keep my long hair and just put waves in it. This was the result. I was so upset that I bawled in front of the hair dresser responsible for this monstrosity. I mark this as the beginning of my downward spiral into full on awkwardness. Check out my necklace too. Remember those? They were those ugly plastic necklaces that you put a bunch of different plastic charms on. I remember one of the charms I had was a toilet. Classy.

Two words folks...Rug Rat!! I have no idea what I'm wearing but, whatever it is, there is no excuse for it. This was taken at my grandma and grandpa's church camp. They had one of those huge slides that they have at the fair. We spent hours on that thing. I was in fourth grade here.

Houston, we have a problem. Seriously, I don't know how I didn't get beat up or at least picked on as a kid. There are just so many things wrong with this picture I don't know where to begin. I don't know which is worse, the mullet or the teeth. I'm going to go with the mullet because it was actually a choice. As far as the teeth are concerned, all I have to say is thank god for dentists, and braces, and retainers, and crowns....

Ok, on to junior high where I'm sorry to say things on the hair front were still looking pretty bleak. I believe I was trying to grow out a perm here. My hair looked and felt like a perpetual rat's nest. The best I could do was pull the sides back into the mini side-ponytail and leave it at that.

This picture shows just how fried my hair was at this point. I was in eighth grade here and my hair was literally orange because we had well water and the iron would build up in my hair over time. I used to have to get my hair stripped of the iron every 6 months or so before we got city water where we lived. Frizzy, orange hair aside...this picture was taken in D.C. at the "tomb of the unknown soldier". Me and 3 other classmates got to participate in the wreath laying ceremony. It was really cool.

Ok, on to high school. I had finally rid myself of the frizzines but still held on to the big bangs of the 80's. It took a while to let the 80's hair go as you'll see in these next few photos.

I was a sophomore here. It was prom 1992 and I still had a firm grasp on the 80's hair and attire. It's funny because my "every day" hair all through high school was long and straight. However, anytime I had to dress up for any reason, I broke out the hot rollers and went full on 80's.

This was my class picture from my sophomore year. I'm proud of myself for attempting the no bangs look. Now if only I could pry my little fingers off the hot rollers!!

Nope, no such luck. This is my senior prom 1994 and the hot rollers were alive and well. I loved that dress.

On to college. This is the typical sorority mug shot. Velvet, off the shoulder drape, pearls and slightly tilted head. Barf. This was my freshman year.

Sing it with me folks "I'll be there for yoouuu". The year was 1996 and it was time for the "Rachel" cut. For those of you who were living under a rock in 1996, the "Rachel" was a ridiculously popular hairstyle in the mid-90's. It was the haircut of Jennifer Aniston's character "Rachel" on the show "Friends". The true embarassment in this picture, however, is the mop in Greg's head. Hee, hee. Hilarious!!

This is me on our honeymoon in 1998. I hated my hair like this and it's a shame that all of my wedding pictures are graced with this haircut that made me look like a 12 year old.

I think this was taken in 2002. It's hard to see my hair here, but it was a cute, short little flippy type haircut that I sported for about a year until I got sick of not being able to wear it in a ponytail.

And here is where we are today.

Hope you all got a good laugh. Nothing really new to report. The adoption process is still moving right along. We'll be starting the homestudy as soon as we get our medical check-ups completed. My next blog will probably be after Thanksgiving.

Love ya,

Brooke

Reunited and it Feels so Good!

This past weekend was my 10 year college reunion. This means one thing....I am OLD!! I had been debating on whether or not to go back and was leaning towards not going until I got connected with some girls from my sorority over Facebook a couple of weeks ago. When I found out they were going, I decided to go ahead and go. I'm so glad I did. We all picked up right where we left off. I hadn't seen any of them since we graduated but it almost felt like no time had passed at all! Everyone looked so good. I couldn't believe how much everyone either looked the same or better than they did 10 years ago! Here are some pics of our weekend...
From left to right: Becky, Erika, me, Jen and Susan. Hanging out at Block's Brewery.

Above: On the stairs at Alpha Chi Omega (our sorority). We always used to have our pictures taken on the stairs during college so we thought it would be a nice throw-back to the good old days.

Above: Becky showing off a sign that we stole from a bar. She had been talking about taking it all night and finally, Rebecca ripped it off the wall and stuffed it into my gigantic purse. Mission accomplished!

The Alpha Chi house. My happy home for 5 semesters.

At the Winery. From left: Erika, Susan , me, Becky, Jen, Sarah, and Rebecca. The Winery was an old hang out of ours. It's a dumpy little dive bar just off campus with the cheapest beer and burgers on the planet! The place hadn't changed a bit except that it is now non-smoking.

I also got a chance to spend some quality time with family over the weekend. My mom and dad had the family over to their house for a weenie roast. It was so nice to see everyone! It's always a good time when our family gets together. Here are some pics:

Above, the designated weenie-roasters.

Me and my brother, Jimmy.

Savanna and Carly take a break from playing soccer.

My uncle John gets a make-over from Carly, Savanna, and Rory.

Above: Some of the cousins...me, Sara, Jimmy, Justin and Kelsey.

It was a fabulous weekend! One I'll remember for a very long time!

Love,

Brooke

Back in Business

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's true, I have been a bad, bad blogger. I got a little side-tracked for about a month, but now I'm back!! A couple of my friends have been trying to get me to join Facebook and I finally broke down and did it. That's part of the reason I've been neglecting the blog....Facebook is seriously addicting! I had no idea so many old friends were on it. It has been really fun getting back in contact with people I haven't spoken to in years. Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot going on here lately so I really haven't had a lot to blog about anyway.

On the adoption front, we finally turned in our application and have attended some classes that are required by the agency. We also turned in our first stack of forms and documents that are needed before we can begin the homestudy. We have officially decided to adopt from Nepal. The adoption timeline for that country is shorter than most and we will likely be matched with a child under the age of 2, which is what we were really hoping for. Those were the two main reasons for choosing Nepal. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

My parents came to visit over the weekend and we had a great time. We took them to the Omaha zoo on Saturday. Omaha has a surprisingly good zoo. It consistently ranks in the top 5 in the country. Here are some pics from our weekend:

Above: Greg, Me, and Dad posing in front of the indoor "rain forest".

This sun bear was soooo funny. He had climbed to the tippy top of a very high tree in his cage and was literally posing for all the people with cameras. He was just fascinated by everyone and was totally hamming it up. So cute!!!!! I was so nervous he was going to fall though.

Me in front of the waterfall in the rain forest display.

Monkeys napping in a tree.

The penguin display. The penguins were a riot. These three in the front were clearly the "guards". They kept their position the entire time while the rest of the penguins played.

Dad, me and mom in front of the penguin display.

That's pretty much it for now. I promise not to go another month before my next post. I think I'll be doing my hair-u-mentary sometime in the near future. Prepare yourselves.....

Love,

Brooke

Labor Day Weekend

Hey there!
Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! Ours was a lot of fun!! We started off the weekend with dinner and a movie on Friday night. We saw "The House Bunny" and it was really funny, but you'd be better off waiting for it to come out on DVD if you're considering going to see it. On Saturday, we went to our first Husker football game......
Above: Greg and I excited for the game! We were expecting extreme craziness from what everyone here says, but honestly it was just like any other college football game. The only weird part was that there weren't any good places to tailgate. Unlike most college stadiums, there aren't any big parking lots outside the stadium because it's located in the middle of the downtown area. So they block off some of the streets downtown and there are tons of food and drink vendors amidst a sea of red. You would NOT want to be separated from the rest of your group there. Everyone is dressed the same and it's soooo crowded!

Here I am sporting my Nebraska gear for the game. I had a good time at the game but I must admit it seemed to go on forever. I've never really been much of a "sports" girl. Nebraska won pretty easily against Western Michigan. The game was completely sold out for the 290th consecutive time.....crazy!!!

And here is Greg sporting his gear. Out of approximately 85,000 people in the stadium, Greg was chosen to go on the field and play this game where there were three helmets and one had a pizza under it and Greg had to watch as they switched the helmets all around and then guess which one the pizza was under. All of this was on the jumbo screen for all to see! He didn't get it right, but he got a $50 gift card for a local pizza place and our whole row got a free slice of pizza. It was pretty funny!

Greg and I finally decided to break down and buy some bikes this weekend. I was soooo excited because I've been trying to convince Greg that we need bikes for years now. Above is Greg showing off his new bike. Doesn't he look enthused?

Here I am showing off mine. It's a very girly bike which wasn't what I originally had in mind when we went to the bike shop, but when I saw it and gave it a spin...I loved it. It's robin egg blue with brown leather handle bars and seat.

We went biking for about a half hour yesterday and quickly discovered how out of shape we are. One of the bike trails is fairly close to our house, but we have to go through a couple of neighborhoods to get there and there are some nasty hills. That was rough. Today, we went on a short ride together and then I continued on by myself for awhile. Before we actually rode the bikes, I was strongly considering riding mine to work. However, after I realized how disgustingly sweaty I am after riding, I no longer think that's such a good idea.

Well, that was pretty much our weekend. For the most part it was nice and relaxing. A great way to end the summer. I'm so ready for fall now. It's my favorite season. I love the crisp smell in the air, the changing leaves, bonfires, the clothes, etc. Welcome back fall, I've missed you!

That's all for now! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Love,

Brooke

A visit from Matt....and the Owl

Hola everyone!

Things at the Reynolds' house have been busy. Fun, but busy. It took awhile to get caught up with work after being on vacation but things are looking better now.
Greg's brother, Matt, came to visit for a few days. It was really fun having him here. Greg had been looking forward to it for a while. He got in Thursday around dinner time, so we took him to dinner at Lazlo's (a local restaurant) and then watched some T.V. at home and called it a night. Greg and Matt played golf on Friday (Greg uncharacteristically got KILLED by a whopping 8 strokes!!) and then later in the afternoon they went to Omaha to play a little poker, or Pai Gow or something like that. On Saturday, we all went to see the movie "Tropic Thunder" which was hilarious and then we went to a cookout at a friend's house where everyone was THRILLED to hear that Greg got beat by someone in golf!! Thanks for coming to visit, Matt. We had a good time!

I forgot to take a picture while Matt was here, so above is a repeat picture from an earlier post. For those of you who don't know...Matt and Greg are identical twins. Can you tell which one is Greg??

Ok, I know the above picture is really dark, but if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll notice two glowing eyes and a faint outline of what looks like a small child. That is our neighborhood owl!! When we first moved here, we were warned by a neighbor that a very large owl lives in the area and has actually carried off a couple of pets!!! It wasn't long after that when we started hearing him hooting in the middle of the night. Then, all of a sudden, he disappeared and we didn't see/hear him for months. We thought he died. Not so...he showed up again a little over a week ago. This is the first time we have been able to capture him on film. He kept switching houses before we could snap his picture, but we finally got him!! He's HUGE!!!

And, here is the requisite picture of Jackson. I just took it a little while ago. When I walked in the door from work...this is what I saw on the couch. Quite an interesting little pose, huh? Yep, he's got a rough life...can't you tell??

No updates on the adoption process. We're still working on getting our application submitted. After that, the ball should start rolling and we'll have more info for you.

Love,

Brooke