FlowerDust.net | Anne Jackson

now this is what i call simple

chris and i just finished packing. not counting furniture or other random things (which, don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of)…we only have 38 boxes of stuff to move!

that is it! i think the movers are going to laugh at us.

i remember after our second year of marriage we filled up a 24′ truck and packed our cars to the brim as we moved out of a 1400 square foot townhome. we had SOOO much stuff. and that was after we threw and gave a lot of it away.

now, i hate to brag, but 38 medium sized boxes? including our clothes, food, appliances…everything?

that is not too shabby.

the movers come tomorrow at 10 am, but we don’t leave until friday at 10 am. we’ll spend the day cleaning and…who knows? no TV, computer…nothing. fun times! i probably won’t be back online until saturday…thanks for being patient in my absence!

oklahoma city, thanks. it’s been a fun six months.

nashville, here we come!

what was your worst moving nightmare?

casinos and drive-by shootings: my friends know how to say goodbye

this is our last week in oklahoma city. two of our closest friends each wanted to celebrate the future with us one last time before we escape to nashville.

last wednesday, our friend aaron called chris and asked him if he, and his wife lorren, could take us somewhere.

where?

somewhere.

about thirty minutes later they were at our house, and thirty more minutes later we were at a casino in the middle of nowhere, oklahoma.

aaron slapped a twenty-dollar bill in our hands and told us to go to town. lorren and i lost our money in the penny slots after about 15 minutes. chris, on the other hand, managed to take his last dollar and win $60, only to lose it all playing a slot machine called the lusty devil.

those lusty devils will win every time.

it was certainly the most random farewell we have ever experienced…yet even though the cigarette smoke that permeated our clothes is now gone, our casino trip is something we’ll remember forever.

==

last night, we went over to blake and ally’s house. we’ve only known them a couple of months but every time we hang out, it’s well past 1 am when we leave.

after dinner, we got snow cones, checked out the house they’re moving into, and headed back to their home where we began discussing important theological issues such as communal living and scary times in tijuana. as chris and i spoke of our accidental trip into the slums of mexico, a loud bang echoed in the living room and glass shattered above the couch where blake and ally sat.

blake threw ally on the ground, somehow i manged to fly about 25 feet and assume the army-crawl position in the kitchen whereas my husband looked ready to fly through the window and kick the crap out of whoever just shot/threw a bomb/threw a rock through the window.

as ally and i looked at each other, trying not to let the fear-induced swear words wake their four children up, blake and chris approached the front door.

i suddenly remembered our life insurance policy ended thursday and got a little worried.

blake’s brother along with his children had decided to TP blake and ally’s yard, and for fun, he also pounded loudly on the window causing it to break.

at least nobody died.

but our car was TP’ed.

and after we recovered, continued our conversations about transgendered mexican prostitutes and (unrelated) marketing and target audiences, blake prayed over us and we drove home.

this is life.
the way it should be.
unscripted.
scary.
random.
fun.
memorable.

i feel completely unworthy of these friendships, yet completely grateful.

how twitter saves lives

maybe i am exaggerating a bit, but given a little wider tornado, or a little faster wind, the tornado that hit edmond, oklahoma last night could have been much worse, and many more of my friends could have been in danger.

chris and i live in downtown. we went to bed around 12:30 after it appeared the tornado-producing storms were weakening. an hour later, the sirens went off downtown. i jumped out of bed and turned on the tele.

the only rotation was in edmond, which is where my office is and two of the lifechurch.tv oklahoma city campuses reside. as well as most of my okc friends. like terry. and sunny. and john. and john. and aaron.

i heard on the news that power just went out to the west side of edmond where the storm was. my friends began twittering about the power loss from their phones.

since we were totally in the clear, chris and i stayed up and kept our friends informed of the weather.

tornado on the ground.

over broadway.

even though they were hiding in closets and basements, they could know exactly where the tornado was because of twitter.

and they could know when the coast was clear.

i know twitter is all about friends and fun and updates and random 140 character bits of life, but in situations like this, i wonder how powerful it will be…

what if twitter was around during 9-11? during bigger storms? hurricanes? earthquakes? blackouts?

i think twitter can save lives - and i think it will. (remember, read the tweets from the bottom up in order for them to make sense!)

and this is why i am a nerd

there is a severe weather seminar in our apartment complex’s clubhouse tonight. i am so there. and i am so excited. i’ve had this marked on my calendar for a month.

i love tornadoes. i’ve experienced 28 or so of them up close and personal (and blogged some of them here)

what makes you a nerd?

if celebrities lived in oklahoma…

brody had this on his blog.

since i am a dallas-girl-moved-oklahomian, i found this ever so appropriate and dare i say, modestly true?? (grin) i kid.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM ALL!!!

we’re here

sorry things have been slow lately…i have some posts scheduled to go up this coming week, but it’s been a little crazy with the move. we’ve made it after hitting only a little traffic…are totally digging the new place (even though we are sans couch/loveseat for a while…)

anyway, here’s to the end of 2007…and the beginning of 2008. thank you all for being a part of this…you rock!

what’s your favorite flowerdust post of 2007?

lessons in marital communication #256

an apartment full of boxes somewhere in dallas…chris and anne are discussing final moving things, including the new living room furniture they picked out last week.

chris: so, when is our furniture getting delivered?

anne: um…i thought you said we were going to wait until we moved up there to order it…

chris: yeah, i said that, but i thought you’d get it anyway!

anne: (mouth hangs open overdramatically)…i was just being a submissive wife! i’m not going to spend a bunch of money without us being on the same page.

chris: i just assumed that what i say has no meaning!

anne: so you want me to order it?

chris: it would nice to have furniture when we get there.

lesson: wives, don’t be submissive to your husbands. evidently what they say has no meaning…