We Make Time..

"We make time for things that are important..."

think about it we really do.

Its not my quote, nor as anyone ever said this to me in a tacky way (although I have to admit I've shared it with a person or two). Amy and I made time last weekend to help her brother move, in a few weeks we will go to my sisters wedding, although I didn't make my other sisters graduation. It was important to me, I sent a gift; but I didn't have time in my schedule to travel to the actual ceremony.

I make time for my friends, one called me not too long ago and wanted me to fly eight hours to enjoy one day of skiing with him, I did. Amy's Mom wanted her to come to Tulsa to go shopping about a month ago, she did. Those things were important to us. I never want people to feel like they aren't important to me. I remember in High School I was OVERLY INVOLVED. It had nothing to do with my College resume (Again only Amy can do the funny little line), or my popularity (I was probably popular for being a nerd and nothing else) but I just couldn't say no to anyone. As other students would start projects I would sign on, as the Principal would ask me to spearhead a group or community service project I would sign on. It got to the point where I started letting everyone down. I was making time for everything, but not the things that were really important to me.

When Amy and I met I was a bus driver on the weekends, I operated a vending route, I taught swim lessons when I could fit it in, I worked full time as a Maintenance guy, I flight instructed weekday afternoons, and I was holding about 15 credit hours of school during the evenings.

With that schedule its a wonder I found time for her; but after the firrst date I knew she was important to me and my life. I made time for 15 minutes on Wednesdays to call her. And about 3 hours on Friday to spend time with her. Thats not much -- we spent much of that time talking about our future together and she spent a lot of time making sure our whole lives weren't going to be so tightly scheduled.

its okay to laugh -- we laugh about it..

She is so patient, when we got married I don't guess we had spent more than 500 hours together. In perspective I had spent more time flying airplanes than I had with the woman I was marrying.

If I put things on a rating scale, God always comes first, Amy second, our famililes third and then everything else. We make it a point to make time for things that are important; be we come second on the list and sometimes things lower on the list get slided for number one or number two.

The Reverend

I've always wondered what it takes to become a Reverend of the Word of God. I occasionally hear of people mentioned in the news with a Reverend title. Run from Run athletics (and the TV show Run's House) is a Reverend (evidently). I decided I too could be a reverend. I was going to enroll in Bible School and study at seminary for a few years. I told Amy she would have to get use to me being sequestered with my studies. Then I realized I could pay a small fee and skip all the other hooplah.

I'm not making light of those who have dedicated their life to the Word of God, I'm just making light of the fact that ANYONE can be a Reverend. I went to the website of an organization called World Christianship Ministries. I gave them a $37.00 'offering' and waaaa lahhh I'm a Reverend.

It was hard to decide on the title, for your enjoyment I've offered a list of my favorite available titles and the associated definitions. (I really didn't write these myself, although I could have.)

""
Evangelist: The Evangelist title is more specific. If you choose this title you feel more of a need to be on the move, maybe from church to church, ministry to ministry, wherever your Christian talents are welcome. You may also feel a need to participate in revival services and such.

I LOVE THAT YOU MAY FEEL THE NEED TO BE ON THE MOVE LOL --AND SUCH LOLOLOL

Bishop: The Bishop title is somewhat misunderstood. Generally the person who picks this title, when being ordained, feels that they will be bringing other people into their church or ministry and wish this title in order to show their leadership position.

IN OTHER WORDS THIS PERSON COULD BE A TAD IN-SECURE

MY FAVORITES ARE BELOW
Archbishop
Right Reverend
Vicar
Cardinal
Arch Deacon
Archpriest
Most Reverend
Padre

anyway all of this to say -- my Sister is getting married in June and she asked me to perform the ceremony, I am honored and glad to do it. Her and her Fiance (only Amy knows how to get the funny little symbol over the e in Fiance and resume) both love the Lord and are Christians so I agreed to do it. It required getting Ordained so that is why I shall henceforth be known as


CAPT. REV. STEVEN NORTON

AND AMY AS

MRS CAPT LADY NORTON

Have a great day

More Maggie

Maggie loves necklaces. Her collar is her favorite necklace. We suppose this is because it means that she won't have to take a bath as long as she's wearing it. Step one of bathtime is removal of her "necklace." The last step of bathtime (and her favorite part of the process) is putting her "necklace" back on her. You can put anything you want around her neck as long as you call it a necklace, and she won't even attempt to take it off.

While I was shopping over the weekend, I found an actual dog necklace. Here are some pics of Maggie sporting her latest and greatest fashion - pearls...

The Story of Us -- Part 2

Steve loves surprising people, so he refused to tell me where we were going or what we would be doing. Being that this was a blind date, I was a little bit nervous. However, he came highly recommended so I saw the whole thing as a fun adventure.

As we left my apartment, Steve announced that he needed to get some gas in his truck. (This made me laugh. I knew right away that this date would not be stuffy.) With a full tank, we headed toward downtown Tulsa. After driving around for about half an hour, Steve finally admitted he was lost. I asked where we were going, and he relunctantly admitted that we had dinner reservations at Pomodoris - a swanky Italian restaurant. Fortunately, I had been there once before and had a general idea of what the building looked like. We finally found the place.

Being lost gave us time to talk and gave us much cause for laughter. It was during all of this laughing about being lost that I looked over at him and had the thought "This could be the man I'll marry." I have no idea where the thought came from, but it sure made the rest of the date interesting since I was now looking at a "perspective groom" and not just another date.

Dinner was tasty, and the conversation was very one-sided. Steve talked and talked and talked and talked and talked. Since Steve is a very fast eater, and I am a slow eater, this worked out well. We finished our meals at about the same time. And Steve is a great storyteller, so I didn't mind a bit. He spoke a lot about his mother. And as everyone knows, you should always look for a man who loves his mother.

After dinner, we headed to the location where socks are a requirement...

Introducing...

Snorkel

Snorkel is our fish. He is a male beta, and he lives in an apothecary jar on the end table in our living room.
Snorkel has one trick. He jumps on command. I know, I know - you don't really think it's possible to train a fish to do tricks, but we have. He jumps when he's hungry or if he thinks we might be getting ready to feed him (much in the same way that Maggie sits in front of us with those puppy-dog eyes begging for food).

And Snorkel got his name because Steven and I went snorkeling on our honeymoon and loved it. There were lots of beautiful fish in the Caribbean waters. And Snorkel is just a very cute name for a fish.

Maggie's Latest

Coming in for a kiss...

As Steve has mentioned before, Maggie is quite an interesting creature. She has more emotions than most people I know.

Since my dog is so vocal and sometimes inappropriate in her behavior, I have decided to teach her some new tricks to make her more appealing to those who are a bit turned off by her screaming and/or growling at children, etc. :)

Maggie has now learned to lie down and roll over on command. These are HUGE milestones for the girl. In addition to her latest tricks, she can sit and dance on command as well.

The funniest of her actions, however, is her "time out." Steven and I like to watch Super Nanny when we have time. We decided to try "time out" with Maggie to see if it would work. The first time she misbehaved, I told her to go to time out; and she went into the office and sat on the futon for 20 minutes. TOO FUNNY! Since then, we have periodically had to discipline her for getting in the trash, barking at people who are taking their evening strolls, etc. Our usual comment is "Go to Maggie's bed." (It's important to differentiate that it's "Maggie's bed," because if we just say "go to bed" she gets in ours.) Apparently she is hearing this a lot since the weather has turned warmer and more people are outside in the evenings, thus causing her to bark. She has now just started putting herself into time out when she barks. She barks and then goes to her bed! It cracks me up! We don't ever tell her when to get out of time out. She just comes out when she's ready. And she must always "make up" with us when she returns to where we are - even if we didn't send her. This usually involves jumping in our laps or begging to be picked up and then kissing us. HILARIOUS!

Some fun picks of our girl:

Playing ball...

Sunning herself on a warm spring day...
Looking for neighbors to bark at...

Just Kidding :)

The last post was, of course, an April Fool's joke, courtesy of one Steven L. Norton.

By The Way

Oh yeah and by the way We're pregnant

OH THE FUN WE SHALL HAVE

Our dog Maggie is ready to be introduced, the funniest creature you would ever like or dread to meet. She is the most emotional dog on the face of the planet; most gleefull at times and most obtuse at others. If Maggie hears us telling her something she doesn't want to hear she will simply turn her nose the other way as if we don't exist. If I have been gone for a while (5 minutes, or 4 days) she will attach her nose to my right calf (never the left for some religous reason no doubt) and keep it there following me wherever I might go. She knows that I don't allow her in the bed when I am there, so of course if I leave early in the morning while Amy is still sleeping as soon as the door shuts she pounces on the bed and makes her way under the covers to the very foot. Walks are a near impossibility with Maggie, she prefers to run and tug at the very end of her 20 foot extendable leash, me on a bicycle or in the car is more suited to her pro sprinting abilities. I could go on and will on another post; perhaps with her rendition of Happy Birthday, or a video of the time she threw her ball in the hot tub and promptly leaped in after it even though she hates water (all the while managing to keep her head dry)

Maggie lying on Amy's foot.

When Amy and I decided to get married I told her that our life would be full of fun and adventure. Since that time three and a half years ago we have had a ton of fun and a few domestic and international adventures. Our latest adventure at home has been the re-discovery of video games. For Easter Amy bought me a PS2 with Guitar Hero -- what fun, I had no idea video games were so interactive and interesting, we have had a lot of fun with it; of course we already beat the game on the 'Easy' mode, transitioning to Medium is a little more difficult than I anticipated it would be.

While this isn't the wildest thing we have done it is pretty fun to play these games and really fulfill our continued destiny of acting like children.

You will no doubtedly note that 'I Rock'

Of course one each beautiful Bride playing to exhaustion