Matt and Sharon's Blog

We're having a ...

2011-12-30T21:55:00.002-06:00

Boy!

We visited the doctor before Christmas and she took a look to see what might be going on gender-wise with the kiddo. Matt watched the monitor and said, "I may not be a doctor, but I'm pretty sure I know what that is." The doctor agreed, but said that since she wasn't the ultrasound tech that we should save the receipts on any baby blue purchases.

Well, today was the 20 week ultrasound and sure enough, our little boy was not in a shy mood. We'd post pictures but hey, we're not that kind of blog.

Sharon continues to feel well overall. She's tired of the constant middle-of-the-night bathroom trips, and the heartburn is a pain. But all in all, we're feeling very fortunate. Sharon avoided any major morning sickness (just some occasional queasy-ness, but no "toliet-hugging") and other than an aversion to chicken she's feeling pretty good.

Other aspects of our lives continue to go well, also (we do have other aspects of our lives that don't immediately involve the fetus.) Sharon is working for an HVAC wholesaler here in town doing their accounting and financial analysis. She's enjoying the reduced stress compared to her time at Walmart. She's also the 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society. She loves the sisters, but definitely misses her Primary kids! Matt's job continues to go well. There was a lot of travel at the outset, but now that it has settled down he's enjoying the work. Matt got called as the Young Men's President and is loving it! (Mostly because he hasn't had to go on any camp-outs yet.) There is plenty to keep us busy and occupied until the little bombshell arrives in May.

We'll do our best to keep this updated as we progress in the pregnancy. Thanks to all for the many well-wishes!

Worth a Post

2011-10-15T09:58:00.003-05:00

We've been hearing for a while that it was time for us to get back to the blog and let the world know what's going on with the Gosneys. Since we last posted (back in Feb. of 2010) quite a bit has happened! Matt was called into the Bishopric. Sharon was called into the Primary Presidency. Matt and Sharon made the very difficult decision to move from their good friends in Centerton for a new adventure in Tulsa. And yet, none of this was evidently deemed "blog worthy." But for those of you who know us well, you'll agree this bit of news had to be shared.

Yup, that's what it appears to be. Due 5-15-12. We'll share more as we go, there's a great story behind this little fetus (which is, by the way, the most attractive and obviously intelligent fetus either of us has ever seen.)

Quick Get-Away

2010-02-14T08:52:00.003-06:00

We decided for Valentine's Day (or close enough) to make a quick trip to Greenleaf State Park in Eastern Oklahoma for a couple of days in a cabin. Greanleaf is a one of the smaller, quieter state parks, but their cabins are relatively nice (as far as state park cabins go) and really our only goal was to just relax and do as little as possible. If those are your goals, Greenleaf fits the bill.

Here's our little cabin. It had satellite TV, so we didn't really "rough it." The beds were a little firm, so those with delicate backs probably should look elsewhere. Great for an inexpensive couple of days away, though.

The state park itself is really beautiful. You don't really think of Oklahoma as covered in trees and hills, but Eastern Oklahoma is really beautiful. Even in February.

The drive down there took us through Tahlequah, OK and dinner at the Oklahoma institution: Del Rancho (home of the Steak Sandwich Supreme.) Sharon fell in love with Del Rancho on the first visit, so another visit had to occur on the way home. Here's the famous Del Rancho. Basically unchanged since 1959.

Math by Music

2010-02-11T06:30:00.004-06:00

This is a shameless plug for Sharon's brother's project: Math by Music.

Several years ago Sharon's dad wrote a series of songs to help children learn the basics of math. He was an elementary school teacher until recently retiring, as well as a guy pretty handy with a guitar. He wrote the songs for use in his own classroom, and eventually had them produced and recorded. Sharon's brother bought the right to the music a while ago, and decided now was the right time to get them out there to a broader audience.

Sharon can still remember the lyrics to these songs from when she was little! She won't say if she sings "The Missing Addend" to herself when working on month-end close for Walmart.

If you have kiddos ags 4 and up these songs are designed for them. If you have a minute, follow the link below and take a listen to some of the songs.

http://www.mathbymusic.com/index.html

Special Needs Snowman

2010-01-30T15:31:00.004-06:00

Anyone watching the weather over the last few days knows that we had a pretty significant winter storm roar through Northwest Arkansas. We got some freezing rain, but mostly snow. It snowed from early Friday morning all the way through until the middle of the night last night, for us here in Arkansas that is a lot of snow! We are lucky enough to be able to take our laptops home and work from the kitchen table, so that's what we did on Friday. On Saturday we decided to have a crack at building a snowman. Here is what we learned:

1. Building a snowman that actually looks like a snowman is much harder than you remember from your youth.

2. You wouldn't think that rolling big balls of snow would be physically taxing. It is. Extremely.

3. The target height of the snowman will begin to diminish rapidly as construction begins.

So here's our snowman. He looks like someone whose mother may have taken drugs while pregnant with him.

We're proud of him, nonetheless. He'll last until he melts or until neighborhood kids decide to knock him down.

Have You Ever....

2010-01-12T21:18:00.002-06:00

Have you ever woken up on Saturday morning totally thinking that you had to get up for work/school but then (before you get ready) the wonderful realization hits you that it is Saturday and you can spend the next couple hours in bed? What a happy feeling! That is how I felt when I found out that mocha syrup doesn't contain coffee (thank you Jen, I don't know you but I love you!). I called Starbucks to confirm and it's true...sorry to my hubby who thought he might save some money :)

The Saddest Thing Ever :(

2010-01-10T19:54:00.002-06:00

My dear husband is the writer of the Gosney family blog. However, I found out the saddest thing ever on Friday that I felt worthy enough to be my very first post.

Friday was quite the frigid day as those of you here in AR know. I decided it would be nice to treat my team to Starbucks. My favorite warm beverage ever is Starbucks regular hot chocolate with caramel syrup (regular hc not signature, venti, no sauce, add a straw). They have the best hot cocoa on the planet and so while I was there I decided to ask what was in it (I've been drinking it for years, so why I decided to ask now I still don't know). The barista proceeded to tell me that they add vanilla and mocha syrup. MOCHA SYRUP, what?!? I must not have heard her correctly, maybe she was talking about the signature hot cocoa, which I find disgusting by the way. So I drank my hot cocoa and savored every sip. Matt checked the ingredients on line that night and the barista was in fact talking about my hot beverage of choice.

Matt is happy about this new information because it is going to save him some money. I on the other hand still have some healing to do. If there are any of you that currently drink this cocoa and shouldn't be drinking coffee, I apologize for posting this blog.

An Unexpected Christmas

2010-01-03T16:42:00.010-06:00

A good friend, Russ Brown, is a substance abuse counselor and also a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. One of his favorite sayings comes from AA; "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans." Our Christmas ended up being a good example of just how true that phrase is.

Claremore Christmas
Every year we get together with one side of Matt's extended family in and around Claremore, OK (just outside of Tulsa.) Generally it involves a Dirty Santa game but this year the game was tweaked into Let's Make a Deal. All of the kids had brought random items from home like movie ticket stubs and pencil stubs and rubber bands. (If you aren't familiar with Let's Make a Deal, the host asks the audience if anyone has some random weird item on their person. The first person that can produce said item gets to play.) Everyone provided the prizes; some were winners and some were losers. We came home with some smell-good bath stuff and Santa Claus ring-pops. A good haul.

It's always fun to get together with that side of the family. Lots of cowboys on that side; including one professional bull rider whose nose looks like he's tangled with one too many bulls. You'll notice the occasional cowboy hat in the background. Everyone eats and talks and laughs and comments on how big the kids are getting, and the day usually ends with everyone saying "we really need to get together more during the year." Not that this will happen, but we all feel better for having said it. It's a great chance for Matt's mom to get to see her brothers and sisters on that side of the family (Mom has three siblings on her Mom's side and three siblings on her Dad's side, so there are quite a few aunts and uncles to keep up with. This is Aunt Vicki, Uncle Van, and Uncle Tim and Mom's step-mom, Mary Ellen.)

Lots to Do in December
We didn't take any pictures of our Christmas tree this year, it looks a lot like our Christmas tree last year. But we did have to take a picture of the neighbor's yard across the street. We liked to say that it looked like Christmas threw up in their yard. But at least they do yard and house decorations. The Gosney home looks abandoned except on those nights we'd open up the window blinds so people could see we did in fact have a tree with lights on it.

Several of the local church wards put together a live nativity each year in conjunction with a series of Christmas concerts. Our good friends the Stapley's got to be Mary and Joseph, with one of their new twins playing the role of Baby Jesus. Matt made a short appearance as "the angel," obviously poorly cast but a fun way to serve and get in the holiday spirit.

No Christmas in Utah
Remember the AA quote above? Well, here is where it really rang true for us this year. On Wednesday the 23rd we drove down to Oklahoma City to spend the evening with Matt's folks before flying out to Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve. We alternate spending Christmas day in either Oklahoma City or Salt Lake with Sharon's family. This year was the year to be in Utah. Well, we got up on Christmas Eve and the weather was not cooperating. It was raining and the temperature was dropping quickly, to the point that it looked like it would soon be freezing rain. Even though we didn't need to be at the airport until about noon Matt decided that if they were going to make that flight they'd better get to the airport quickly. So Matt and Sharon packed it up, said goodbye to Matt's Mom and Dad, and headed out into the bad weather towards the airport. We made it just in time for them to cancel our flight. (Originally we were scheduled to fly out at 1:35 p.m. to Denver, then on to OKC. By the end of the day, all of these flights were canceled.)

By the time we made it to the airport the weather was getting worse and worse. A nice thick layer of ice was covering everything and then, by about 10:30 or so it started to snow. And it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. But it didn't just snow. The wind was also blowing. And blowing, and blowing, and blowing. We had 60 mile per hour winds and a total of 14 inches of snow in about 10 hours. This was the weather map at the airport. Not encouraging.

We definitely wanted to try all we could to get to Salt Lake, and we even got booked on a flight later that day. But with white-out blizzard conditions we were hoping against hope. Here's a picture of Sharon, trying to be a trooper at the airport as we were realizing that we wouldn't be heading to Utah for Christmas this year. And here is what it looked like at the airport as we left. That's a solid sheet of ice.

Eventually the airport canceled all flights for that day and we figured it was a good time to try and head back to Mom and Dad's. They live about 20 minutes from the airport. It took us 3 hours to make the drive back. It was definitely scary with the wind howling and blowing so much snow that you couldn't see past the hood of the car. We saw a lot of people stuck, lots of wrecks, and eventually the interstates all shut down (some people had to spend the night at the airport because they eventually closed all the roads down around it, but some folks had to spend the night in their cars on the interstate because they were closed down too. We were very grateful to make it back.) Our Christmas day was spent hanging out with Mom and Dad, nobody could leave their houses so we spent the day watching TV, reading books, and taking naps (well, Matt took the naps.) Not exactly what we'd planned for, but it ended up being a very relaxing Christmas day!

We made it out of the house on Saturday, all the way to the mall and back, and counted 14 abandoned cars along the way - all stuck in the snow including two 18 wheelers. It was crazy. On Sunday Matt's brother and sister and all of their family made it over to the house for "Christmas." The kids didn't seem to mind that everything was delayed. In fact, nephew TAG seemed to enjoy drawing out the whole opening presents experience.

Of course there was the normal array of pies. And what is quickly becoming the traditional Matt's lasagna. We were actually sorta glad we got to be in Oklahoma since we weren't going to be able to eat the lasagna (we made it up before we came down so that the family could just pop it in the oven for Christmas.)

We absolutely enjoyed watching the kids open up their Christmas presents. Niece Lucy is, as you can see, absolutely adorable and very adept at entertaining herself in the rocking chair.

TAG loved his policeman's outfit, declaring to all of us, "I look sharp!" He did look sharp! He blew on that whistle far too often and would wiggle through the house saying, "Officer coming through!" We were glad to be able to see that as well.

In the end, while Christmas wasn't exactly what we had in mind, it turned out to be time well spent. We were sad to not be able to make it out to Utah but we'll be shipping those gifts out shortly. We expect photos of those presents being opened and appreciated!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful, even if unexpected, Christmas!

Two Thanksgivings!

2009-12-06T08:26:00.005-06:00

A month or two ago we were introduced to the magic and wonder that is Portillo's hot Italian beef sandwiches. Portillo's is a restaurant chain in Chicago that specializes in Italian beef sandwiches as well as Chicago-style hot dogs. Chicagoans, as well as those who just appreciate the good food of Chicago, can order everything you need for a sandwich party on-line. After stuffing ourselves at our first introduction we had the idea that, instead of messing with the traditional Thanksgiving meal, why not just order the sandwich-making stuff and focus our culinary efforts on what really matters at Thanksgiving: pie.

So on Thanksgiving day at Matt's mom and dad's in Oklahoma instead of a turkey dinner everyone gathered around for Portillo's! The restaurant sends the meat packed in ice, as well as the gravy, hot peppers, buns, and detailed instructions on how the sandwiches should be prepared. After some initial doubts, all the family members decided that these are truly amazing sandwiches!

Here's a picture of nephew Tag sporting his very own Portillo's hat. As you can imagine, Tag was a big help getting dinner ready.

Niece Lucy, if she could talk, would be saying the following, "put that dumb camera down and get me out of this chair." Note that her Granddad had the excellent idea of taking some canned whipped cream and putting a huge pile of it right in the middle of her high chair tray. Hey, it's the holidays, and it kept her entertained (once we stopped taking pictures of her) for at least a few minutes. Sticky, but entertained.

The row of pies. This year it was pumpkin, pecan (definitely in the running this year for "best pie"), apple, chocolate cream (the other "best pie" nominee) and coconut.

The remains of a Portillo's sandwich. It looks like dog food, but it tastes great.

Three of Matt's favorite people: his mom, his grandma, and his wife. Notice the pies in the foreground look far less pristine at this point in the meal.

Nephew Tag watching a movie on grandma and granddad's bed! He followed this up with some coloring with Aunt Sharon, so it was a pretty good day for the Tagger.

We were quite proud of ourselves for being so unique and creative in our Thanksgiving dinner choice. Then we had a conversation with our friends the Grahams in which they told us they were not having Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving because they'd be doing some volunteer work that day (earning brownie points with the Big Guy Upstairs.) So the Grahams invited us over on the day after Thanksgiving for their traditional Thanksgiving feast! So, we got two Thanksgivings; one with family and non-traditional food on the day of and one the day after with friends and all the regular good eats. Matt volunteered to cook the turkey (he's been working on perfecting that task) and once again pie featured largely in the equation.

Yes, there were definitely left-overs.

The Graham kids mainly focused on the rolls, and with good reason. They were great!

So that was our Thanksgiving. It was great and we ate far more than we should have. Matt is glad that Thanksgiving has come and gone because now Sharon will let him listen to Christmas music in the car (she has a strict "not before Thanksgiving" policy.)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-28T08:58:00.002-06:00

If the stresses of the holidays are becoming more than you can handle, just watch this.

Three Years and Going Strong!

2009-11-08T08:24:00.005-06:00

So we've gotten pretty bad about blogging in a timely manner. Apologies to those who follow us with any regularity. September 6th Matt and Sharon celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary, and it has been three great years! Being single and LDS in our part of the world doesn't bring a lot of opportunities to meet eligible partners, we're thankful every day that we managed to find each other. Matt survived his first date with Sharon, which consisted of having dinner with Sharon ... and Laura and Jason Hammontree. Jason decided that they would need to inspect any potential suitor for Sharon and, given that Jason is one big dude, Matt had reason to be intimidated. The intimidation lasted about 30 seconds until Matt mentioned he was from Oklahoma. Jason, also being an Oklahoma-boy, immediately decided that Matt was ok and could date Sharon. It didn't take long for Matt to work his way in with the Grahams as well (the other "Sharon guardians" Matt had to seek approval from).

We found some old disposable cameras from our wedding reception and, well, disposable cameras left in the hands of wedding guests equals really bad pictures. So we thought we'd post a few of the professionally-taken shots. More than anything just to prove that Matt did at one point in time have hair.

Sharon was so excited to be married, water spontaneously erupted from the top of her head.

Lots of folks made it out to the temple, and then to the reception. Once again, erupting water.
Matt, joined by his other "former menace to society" friends staring in awe at their wedding rings. Seriously, all three of these guys blew past 30 with no marriage prospects in site. Luckily, all three managed to find women who would tolerate them. And we all three still sometimes are stunned by the fact that we actually managed to make it to the altar.

The three years since have been wonderful, full of lots of great times together. Our favorite thing to do is to sit in the big, comfy chair in the living room with the doggies at our feet, eating a yummy dinner and watching a movie or one of our favorite shows (if you can't tell by the music on the blog, Sharon is really into "Glee" right now.) We do occasionally leave the house, too. We like to go on trips (Branson, OKC, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Seattle, Washington D.C., Santa Fe, Austin, we've been a lot of places!) and we love to go to the movies and go visit family and friends. But most of all we like being with each other, and that's a pretty great thing to have in a marriage. So far, so good!

Gosney Summer Vacation - Second Blog: The Food

2009-10-04T09:59:00.007-05:00

Obviously we love food. Every time we determine where we're going to go for vacation, or even for a quick trip, we have to ask "will we eat fantastic food?" It's actually been a surprisingly fun aspect of our marriage, our common love of finding and trying new places to eat and new recipes to try. We've eaten in some very nice places, but more often than not we're trying fun little hole-in-the-wall joints. (It took quite a while to talk Sharon into trying the little taqueria here in town, however. She's not a fan of what she calls "sketchy burittos." We always look to see if any dogs are missing outside. So far, so good.

So when we were discussing if we wanted to go on a vacation this summer obviously the opportunity to try new and fun food was high on the list. New Mexico is famous for their unique, "New Mexico Mexican" cuisine. New Mexicans are very quick to tell you that their food is definitely not Tex-Mex, it's got its own particular twist on things that is probably much more authentic to Mexico. Every restaurant seemed to have lengthy discussions on their menu about the perfect elevation New Mexico enjoys in order to grow perfect chili peppers. And everything has chili (sauce) on it, either green chili or red chili. The green chili is made from fresh peppers and is a little hotter. Red chili is made from dried peppers and has a smokier flavor. Or, if you want to talk like a local you can have both on your plate. That's called "Christmas style." (Red and green, get it?) Sharon preferred the green chili and Matt preferred the red. Forget chips and salsa, that is not done in New Mexico. But you can count on sopapillas for dessert. After dealing with the "happy heat" of all that chili, the sopapillas were definitely welcome!

The Blue Corn Cafe
So here's where we went first, a fantstic place right on the edge of the square called the Blue Corn Cafe. We ate there our first night in town and it was wonderful, but we forgot to take pictures of the food! So here is our meal from lunch the very next day (we really liked this place, and it was reasonably priced! Hard to find in Santa Fe.) Sharon is enjoying huevos rancheros (this was actually probably Sharon's favorite for the entire trip, she loves loves loves heuvos rancheros.) Matt is showing off what's left of chicken tacos in blue corn tortillas.

El Meson
Santa Fe has a pretty significant Spanish history. And because of that their food is strongly influenced by Spain. So we decided to try a Spanish tapas bar to get a taste of Spanish food. Spanish tapas are sorta like appetizers, only for dinner. The idea is to order several small items and share. That way everybody gets to taste, and you get to try a bunch of different things. So we started out with an heirloom salad with goat cheese and basalmic vinaigrette. After that came the "main course" tapas. We had chili-marinated grilled lamb skewers (awesome, Sharon was surprised at how much she liked them), oven-roasted red potatoes with a red chili sauce and garlic aoli dipping sauce, and ridiculously tasty shrimp sauteed with red pepper flake and garlic that came out in the cool little ceramic bowl. You can probably still see them bubbling in the picture. El Meson was also a winner.

Coyote Cafe - Rooftop Cantina
The Coyote Cafe is a pretty swanky restaurant in Santa Fe and, after our El Meson experience, we figured we should tone it down a notch. So we went to their rooftop cantina instead. It had a fun vibe and they get pretty creative with their interpretation of New Mexican food. It helped that the night we went was stunningly beautiful, so being on a rooftop outside in Santa Fe was a great place to be. Here's pictures of both of us enjoying the evening, and then one picture that captures both dinners. Sharon got a Navajo Taco (pretty crazy, it had buffalo, beef, and chicken on it) and Matt had a chimichanga. The chimicanga was definitely better, to be honest.

We were off to Taos after three days in Santa Fe with a recommendation to try Orlando's. The manager of our B&B in Santa Fe had lived in Taos for 25 years and said it was the best in town. We didn't get a lot of time to try everything to see if she was right, but it would be hard to top the grub we put down in Orlando's. Sharon liked it so much she bought a t-shirt there! Matt got a big ol' stuffed buritto and Sharon got more huevos rancheros, this time with blue corn tortillas and pasole (the hominy side dish.) To quote Sharon, it was "freaking amazing." Orlando's kinda had a dive feel to it (no website to point you to on this one), but man the food was amazing. If you're ever in Taos, go to Orlando's!

El Meze
We decided to finish off the trip with a fancy dinner, and did we ever hit the jackpot. El Meze is owned by chef Frederick Muller who is sort of a chef/historian. He's done years of research on the food of Northern New Mexico and discovered that its influenced by quite a few different groups, including the Spanish Moors (Arabians.) So he's created a restaurant and menu that pulls from Arabic, Spanish, and Mexican tastes and is really amazing. It's pretty rare to get to eat at a place where you sit back and think "this guy is probably one of the best in the world at what he does." Well, El Meze was one of those places. But not too full of itself, either. Chef Muller came out about 3/4 of the way through our dinner and just sat down and had a cup of coffee. He asked us what we had and when Sharon told him crab salad he said, "oh yeah, I was craving that so I put it on the menu." Amazing food, great place. A picture of the restaurant is included (it's a 200 year old adobe hacienda, just to add to the awesomeness.)

So we started with hummus and olives. Sharon loves olives, so some Spanish olives hit the spot for her. The hummus was great and the pita chips were grilled, very yummy. Matt had a bone-in aged rib eye with Moroccan butter and herbed french fries. The butter should probably be a controlled substance. It was garlicky and minty and amazing with the steak. Sharon had (as mentioned) crab salad with big ol' huge chunks of crab in it. She was very happy with her choice.

We ended with dessert, even though we were stuffed. Matt had lavender-infused creme brule, and Sharon had cardamom doughnuts with a chocolate caramel sauce. Sharon wanted me to put a caption under the picture saying "check out my wife's doughuts." But since this is a family blog we won't do that. At the end is a picture of us after dinner, fat and happy. So to sum up, if you get a chance to go to Northern New Mexico (and it is absolutely worth the trip) go hungry!

Gosney Summer Vacation - First Blog

2009-09-13T17:03:00.011-05:00

In August Sharon and Matt went on a week-long vacation to Northern New Mexico; Santa Fe and Taos. It was a beautiful trip and a much needed break! Anyone who reads this blog knows one thing about the Gosneys, they love good food! So the trip will be broken down into two blog postings, the first will be about the trip and the second will be about the food! And yes, silly as it is to pull out a camera and take pictures of every meal, Matt and Sharon do not regret it for a moment. At the bottom of this blog I'll include the slide show with all of our pictures. I'll just plug in a few of the more memorable pics in the blog itself.

Traveling ...
We took off early Monday after dropping the dogs off at the doggie day care. Auggie and Penny were not pleased with their lack of invitation to participate in the family vacation. Once we'd dropped them off it was on the road to New Mexico! Driving through Western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle isn't exactly "scenic," unless you enjoy tumbleweeds. But we ensured we had excellent road trip food (no photos were taken of the bologna sandwiches we had at a rest stop in Oklahoma, don't worry.) It was really the first time we had been able to take a true "all day" road trip together and it was great! Lots of time to talk and see new things. Sharon is convinced that she does not fall asleep in the car. If that's the case, then she really needs to explain the long stretches of silence with her mouth slack-jawed and open (and a little bit of drool.) I think I'd just admit to sleeping.

Santa Fe
We decided to stay in Bed & Breakfasts in both Santa Fe and Taos, which turned out to be a great idea. The first Bed & Breakfast was the El Farolito in Santa Fe. It was beautiful! As you can see, we had our own little "casita" with a front porch to enjoy. Everything in Northern New Mexico is built in the "adobe style," which was fun. The El Farolito was within easy walking distance of the Plaza in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is an old, old town with lots of history. It was established back in the 1600's and has been a Spanish settlement, Mexican, as well as American. So lots of history. But it is also a thriving artistic community. So we were able to entertain ourselves our first evening and all day Tuesday simply by wandering around the various shops as well as stopping in at the occasional historic site. Santa Fe is at about 7000 feet in elevation, so it is easy to get winded those first couple of days. But Sharon is quite convinced that higher, dryer air is better for her hair than muggy old Arkansas. She's probably right. Anyway, we loved being up in the mountains, walking up and down the streets and smelling the pinon and mountain wildflowers. The Plaza itself is amazing, with hundreds of little shops and restaurants to check out, and live music to enjoy in the evenings.

Sharon had one goal in mind on her trip, and that was to purchase some authentic turquoise jewelry. And boy was there a lot of turquoise! And you can pretty much spend as much on it as you'd like. Fortunately as we walked into town each day we'd pass some shops just off the plaza. Should any of you ever be in Santa Fe, definitely find some shops off the beaten path. Prices are much more reasonable when you get away from the craziness of the Plaza! Sharon was successful and found a beautiful Zuni broach that she will wear as a necklace. It's a vintage piece, most likely made in the 1950's. She picked up a bracelet to go with it (not vintage) and now she is quite decked out in the turquoise.

We decided on Wednesday to sneak down to Albuquerque and take in a temple session. The temple is actually only about an hour's drive from Santa Fe and is really beautiful. Afterwards we came back and toured the Palace of the Governors, the original capital of New Mexico built in 1610. It's a beautiful adobe building filled with artifacts from the Spanish colonial era of New Mexico. Really, it's just amazing to be in a 400 year old building made of mud and straw. We finished the day wandering the streets and enjoying the sites and sounds.

The Train Ride
Thursday we checked out of the El Farolito bright and early and made our way up to Chama, NM. In the late 1800's gold and silver mining was the big business in the Southern Rocky Mountains. The Rio Grande Railroad intended to extend all the way to Denver but with the discovery of silver in and around Chama they decided to head the railroad south to be able to pull it out of there more efficiently. So in 1880 a narrow-gauge (narrower track than a standard railroad) line was built between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO. Now, of course, it is no longer used for mining. Instead the states of NM and CO jointly own the railroad and train and run scenic tours along the route. The train is a legitimate steam engine. It smells like coal and being having the window open means you'll probably get soot on you. But it's also one of the last, truly authentic steam engine experiences left in America. It's also America's longest, highest-altitude narrow gauge line, the train climbs up to around 11,000 feet elevation. As you can imagine, there were some spectacular views!

We rode for a few hours and then the train stopped in Osier, an old mining town, for lunch. Instead of continuing on to Antonito we got back on the train headed back where we came. What a beautiful trip! We only included a few photos here, but lots more down on the slide show.

Taos
After our train ride we drove the couple of hours in to Taos. Right before making it to Taos you cross the Rio Grande Gorge, and it is impressive! As you can see from the photo, storm clouds were brewing which made it all the more impressive. There were also gale-force winds, so you felt like you were about to get swept off the bridge and into the abyss. So we didn't stay long to admire it.

For our Taos Bed and Breakfast we stayed at the Adobe & Pines, and it was amazing! The Adobe & Pines is a 200 year old adobe hacienda that has been converted into a bed and breakfast. Our walls were quite literally two foot thick adobe. We were lucky and got a room with a little balcony. The grounds were really beautiful and it was easy to forget the rest of the world as we wandered around. Everything looked and smelled wonderful, lots of colors, lots of beautiful flowers. We liked the El Farolito in Santa Fe, but the Adobe & Pines was really something else entirely (and less expensive!) It was truly one of the most tranquil, beautiful places we've ever stayed.

Our Friday was originally going to begin with a horseback ride. However, those storm clouds you saw in the gorge photo developed into a downpour on Friday morning. And, being the city slickers that we are, we decided a horseback ride in the rain wasn't our idea of a fun vacation. When it cleared up we did make it over to see the Taos Pueblo. The Native American tribes that make up most of Northern New Mexico are "pueblo" Indians, meaning they build permanent pueblo structures to live and worship in. The Taos Pueblo community, and main pueblo, was over 1000 years old. Several thousand Native Americans still live in the Pueblo and abide by the Pueblo rules, meaning no running water or electricity. As you can imagine, one of the rules for visitors was to absolutely not throw anything into the stream running through the middle of the reservation. Most of the residents of the Pueblos had Native American art of some sort to sell, it was really a fascinating trip. And then, on our way back into town, Sharon decided we needed a picture of something a little less historic than the Taos Pueblo: the Adobe-style Taos McDonalds.

We were back up on Saturday and, after laying around far longer than we should, we got back on the road to head home. We took a different route, this time through the Oklahoma panhandle, hoping for more engaging scenery. Alas, no luck. The Oklahoma panhandle is just as forelorn as the Texas panhandle. But we enjoyed our drive back home and were so extremely grateful for the chance we had to spend a week together. It certainly re-charged our batteries. And now Sharon is absolutely ready to move to New Mexico. But that may be because of the food more than anything, but that's the next post!

Below is the slide show from the vacation.

Appendicitis just means "slow down!"

2009-07-23T17:22:00.002-05:00

Sharon and Matt had quite the interesting and unplanned Monday evening. Matt's stomach was not cooperating with him on Monday morning and it got worse throughout the day. By about 2:30 his boss told him to go home and Matt thought that was a pretty good idea. Sharon made it home around 5 to find Matt curled up in a ball on the bed and thought that maybe they should take him to the doctor and once again, Matt recognized the wisdom of the suggestion. They didn't make it past the waiting room of the clinic before the nurse had them sent off to the emergency room. Matt described his symptoms in detail to each nurse who asked and each one would give this knowing little nod and suggest we plan to stay for the rest of th evening. When they'd pass each other in the hall they'd describe specific symptoms to each other and give little looks as if to say, "yup, this guy is getting cut into tonight." Finally, after a glorious IV with even more glorious pain medications was administered Matt asked one of the nurses what he thought the chances were that the diagnosis was appendicitis. The nurse said, "oh, about 99.9%." Matt then asked, "are you sure it isn't just gas?" It wasn't just gas.

After the CT scan Matt and Sharon received the diagnosis that he did in fact have an angry appendix that needed to be removed. After the full day of grief that his appendix had caused, Matt was perfectly fine with seeing it go. The surgeon came in and advised that it would be removed laproscopically, sometimes called key-hole surgery, in which three holes would be cut into Matt's tummy, it would be filled with carbon dioxide like a balloon, and then the appendix cut out and removed with little clamps, knives, etc. It's really a quite cool surgery, however as this is a family blog there will be no posting of videos or pictures of similar surguries (although if one were to Google "laproscopic appendectomy, one could learn quite a bit!) The advantage of laproscopic surgery is of course the shorter recovery time, smaller amount of scaring, shorter hospital stay, etc. But, the surgeon assured Matt, it'll still hurt a lot.

Surgery started about 12:30 in the morning on Tuesday and took about 30 minutes. After recovery room time Matt and Sharon were back in their room by 2:30 a.m. Matt was out of the hospital by noon and, except for a fever for the rest of the day, in relatively good shape. Now there's just a lot of resting and occassional pacing around the house (walking helps dissipate extra carbon dioxide, which is extremely uncomfortable) and checking out the wicked-looking staple sutures. Everyone at church and at work have been extraordinarily kind and gracious and conerned and accomodating to Sharon and Matt and they are both extremely grateful. Both their lives were running at a fever pace this summer with all their various responsibilities between work and church and school, it has been amazing how an event like this reminds you of how important the important things are, and how sometimes life requires you to slow down, if only for a week or so of post-operative rest.

The Graduate!

2009-05-17T12:14:00.004-05:00

Matt and Sharon were in Oklahoma City on Saturday to see Matt's brother Will graduate from OU Law School. As anyone who follows this blog is aware, the Gosneys are die-hard OU fans. So is Lauri's (Will's wife's) family. Despite the devoted fandom, Will is actually the only individual in the two families who has a degree from OU. Both Will's undergrad and now law degree is from OU. Matt's dad started out at OU but then transfered to the University of Central Oklahoma (then known as Central State) after his military service. Then he went to law school at Oklahoma City University. Matt's mom went to Oklahoma City Community College for her Associates then went on to get two bachelors degrees from the University of Central Oklahoma. Matt did his undergrad at BYU (Will actually started at BYU then transfered to OU mid-way) got his masters at UCO, and is now working on a doctorate at the University of Arkansas. Matt's mom is academic super-star out of the group, as she was top of her class in junior college and graduated Magna Cum Laude for one of her bachelors (in computer science) and Summa Cum Laude in the other (secondary education.) Matt is definitely bringing up the rear having spent a semester on academic probation at BYU (a bit too focused on having fun and not as much on actually attending class) although he is pulling a 4.0 in his doctoral program right now. All of that could come crashing down this summer as Matt tackles what he hopes to be the last statistics class he ever is required to take for the rest of his life. Thoughts and prayers are appreciated. (It should also be noted that Sharon actually graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class and was on scholarship at the College of Eastern Utah before finishing up her degree in Accounting at the University of Phoenix. Apart from being a wonderful wife, Sharon fills a critical math deficiency in the Gosney household.) Sharon and Matt are extremely proud of the tradition of education in their families. Sharon's dad was a teacher (as was Matt's mom), so education was always an absolute priority at home. During the time spent in Salt Lake for Christmas Sharon looked through her mother's personal effects and found a consistent record of enrolling in school as soon as she moved to any new location (first Canada from Peru and then in the U.S.), as well as countless report cards and academic citations. What a great tradition upon which to build a family!

Will's graduation itself was blessedly short. Will's daughter Lucy, pictured here, entertained herself by chewing on some keys.

A poor photo below, but the recessional was played by a bag-pipe band. Sharon and Matt resisted the urge to shout out "Attention please, we have a downed piper! Repeat, a piper is down!" (See the movie "So I Married an Ax Murderer" for the quote reference. That movie is actually responsible for Matt and Sharon's marriage, but that's a story for another day.)

The president of Will's law school class was a bit of a flaming liberal and her speech was met with many "hurumphs" from the Gosney row. It's possible the reason Will's son Talmage (below) was hiding under the chairs is because of fear of what might happen to the nation should wacko lawyers like the one who spoke actually run the country. Wait a minute, one already is.

Finally, after all of the pomp and circumstance (and more bag-pipe playing) everyone took some pictures and then had lunch. Below is a picture of Will and Lauri's very cute family (Talmage is screaming "cheeseburgers!" which he believes should be shouted at the top of one's lungs anytime one gets a picture taken) followed by a picture of Matt, Will and Tagger. (Readers of the blog also know that Tag has a strong affinity for his Uncle Matt due to their similar ornery natures. Tag is at least cute and so his orneryness is endearing. Matt doesn't have that going for him.)

It was a great time spent with family and Matt and Sharon are grateful to have at least one side of the family relatively close by. They're also grateful Will will now actually be gainfully employed.

Fun in the woods!

2009-04-29T20:21:00.002-05:00

Anyone who got within shouting distance of Matt over the last couple of weeks has been aware that Matt and Sharon had a vacation planned for a couple of days last week. Matt was just a bit excited and ready for a few days away from the office. Instead of the usual Branson vacation Matt and Sharon decided to mix it up a little bit and visit Beaver's Bend State Park in SE Oklahoma. Unlike the vast majority of Oklahoma the Southeast part of the state is extremely hilly (sometimes called the "Little Smokies" for how much it looks like the Smokey Mountains in TN.) It's densely-wooded and the state park has a river running through it that is dammed at one end forming a very large resevoir. The state park has about 50 (very economical!) cabins for rent and, given the stone tile floor, is dog-friendly. So last Thursday Matt and Sharon loaded up the car, piled in the doggies, and took off for Broken Bow, OK and Beaver's Bend State Park!

The first night Matt and Sharon just did a little exploring and decided to try out the restaurant there at the park. It was surprisingly good (Sharon believes she found the home-made chocolate cake that all others chocolate cakes should be judged by) and had a gorgeous back patio that was visited by the occasional forest creatures. Sharon shared a french fry with a squirrel who was most appreciative.

The next day provided absolutely perfect weather and so, after a hearty, non-cardiac friendly breakfast Matt decided it was time for Sharon to try her hand at horseback riding. Sharon had never ridden a horse before, so Sharon got to experience her first ride aboard the lovely Goldie. The ride was extremely scenic, winding through the forest with some white-tail deer (who clearly knew it wasn't hunting season) coming up to see what we were doing. Sharon admitted that half-way through the ride she nearly turned back to Matt and said, "I want one!" Some would argue that Auggie counts as a horse, so the Gosneys won't be full-time equestrians any time soon.

That afternoon Matt and Sharon took the dogs for a good, long walk (or as short-legged Penny deemed it, a death march.) Penny and Auggie seemed to enjoy the trip reasonably well, although Auggie made it clear he would rather go home by running to the back of the Pilot every time he walked past it as if to say "please open the tail gate, let me in and take me home so I can use the bathroom in my own back yard!" Auggie, being a somewhat timid giant, does not like using the restroom for an audience, certainly does not like the idea of doing so while attached to a leash, and certainly not in strange woods. So needless to say, Auggie was glad when we got home.

A Matt and Sharon tradition when vacationing is to stay at a place that has a grill so that Matt can grill a couple of steaks. Not to say that the steaks turned out well, but Sharon teared up a little she was so overcome with beefy emotion. Matt and Sharon of course got to enjoy some napping, reading, and puzzle-working (one of Sharon's favorite vacation activities.) The next day after some pancakes Matt and Sharon were back on the road. The trip was certainly enjoyable, despite the two ticks that Matt managed to inherit and the pollen-induced allergies that Sharon had to suffer through. Beaver's Bend is definitely recommended, however Matt and Sharon will probably hold off on another trip until the Fall to enjoy the changing leaves. And to avoid the pollen and ticks.

Below is a photo album of the trip. Hope everyone is well, and if any of you have a horse Sharon can have ... she's interested!

Football and BBQ

2009-04-18T08:28:00.007-05:00

Matt and Sharon went on their monthly Oklahoma trip last weekend and had quite the fun times, indeed. Unfortunately, Sharon was "under the gun" to get some stuff done at work. Fortunately, she can do some of that stuff at home. So before leaving Sharon knocked out quite a bit right from the comfort of her very own kitchen table. Note the look of complete and total concentration and half-eaten pop tarts next to her. That's right, it was a two pop tart kinda deal.
One of the exciting aspects of this Oklahoma trip, as opposed to most Oklahoma trips, was the opportunity to drive down to Norman to attend the annual OU Red/White Spring game.

Followers of this blog have probably noted Matt's University of Oklahoma fandom. Sharon is slowly converting over to Soonerism, a process that is aided by Matt's willingness to buy Sharon cute OU-related clothing. It was a beautiful day at the stadium and, unlike on game days, actually affordable. And because it is open seating, sitting on the 50 yard line in what would normally be the alumni (or, rich old white men) section is actually feasible.

Of course some would argue that it's not time well spent to spend several hours watching 18 to 22 year-old boys practice playing a game. It is hard to defend the behavior, so the Gosneys won't even try. But they had a good time and got some sun. So really, time well spent.
Driving back from Norman to Arkansas Matt decided to "mix things up" and take an alternate route. Most of Matt's "alternate route" decisions are based on restauraunts that he knows of that are only accessible by taking the alternate route. As usual, a fair amount of Matt's choices are based on his stomache. This time it was the iconic "Van's Pig Stand" in Shawnee, OK. From the photo below one can clearly see Matt is quite fond of the choice that was made. Matt enjoyed the best-in-class ribs while Sharon was less pleased with her "chopped pig plate." Van's redeemed themselves in Sharon's eyes, however, due to their outstanding carrot cake. Good carrot cake carries a lot of weight in that girl's opinion.
So, all in all, a very enjoyable trip. Hope everyone is happy and well!

What happened to March??

2009-04-09T21:36:00.011-05:00

So the Gosneys have been incommunicado as far as blogging goes the past several weeks. The first step in repentance is remorse, and the second is making amends. So here we go. We're sorry and we're here to make it up to all of you who actually read this. So here is a quick summary of March.

March included a trip to Oklahoma City for a temple trip as well as our nephew Lyric's first birthday party. Penny and Auggie always seem to think they get to go to OKC with us, thus the excitement in the car. Little do they know that they are on their way to the kennel. Oh well. They haven't figured it out yet.
Oklahoma City trips are always fun. It began with a visit to the Oklahoma City Temple. It was as cold as it looked.
Then over to Lyric's first birthday party! Sharon thinks that Lyric's big sister is absolutely adorable. Matt thinks that Sharon is just aware that their chances of having a little blonde baby are nil, so she'd best enjoy whatever blondie she can latch on to. Although, this is one cute kiddo.
It's hard for Matt's dad to hide his excitement at attending a one year-old's birthday party.
Most important, however, was Lyric's enjoyment of his birthday cake. Matt ate his piece of birthday cake in a similar fashion.
Matt and Sharon will from time to time honor Matt's heritage by baking a pie, what with Pecan Pie being a critical element of the "official" meal of the state of Oklahoma. What is the rest of the meal, you may ask yourself? Why, nothing short of an artery-clogging tour de force! Cornbread, Sausage and Gravy, Chicken Fried Steak, the aforementioned Pecan Pie, BBQ Pork, Fried Okra and Squash, Biscuits, Grits, Corn, Strawberries (for the vitamin C, no doubt) and Black-Eyed Peas. (H.C. Resolution #1083) What would happen if you ate all of that in one sitting? You would die, that's what would happen. Someone did the math, bless their hearts, and discovered that consuming that meal would entail 2,700 calories (you're only supposed to have about 2000 in an entire day,) 125 grams of saturated fat, and 5,250 mll. of sodium. There is a reason Matt and Sharon try not to honor that culinary heritage too often, for if they did they wouldn't be able to fit through the front door.

Nevertheless, a slice of pie from time to time is always welcome. So Sharon and Matt decided Banana Cream was the way to go. Because it's poor form for two people to sit and eat an entire pie by themselves (no comment on if it has happened in the past or not) the Gosneys felt it best to invite another family over to share in the pie-goodness. So the Flemings, who live just around the corner, came by with their two kiddos in tow. Sharon has Gavin, pictured below, in nursery. So Gavin is already a Sister Gosney fan. Feeding him pie only seemed to increase his appreciation for what Sister Gosney brings to the table (so to speak.) Although a picture of the pie didn't happen, here is Gavin wishing everyone would leave him alone to watch Kung Fu Panda.
Finally, the Gosneys spent a great Sunday evening with their good friends the Grahams and the Stapleys. Lots of good food and good visiting occurred, and as can be seen in the picture Sharon was able to spend more time with blonde children (dream on, Sharon, genetics are against us.)
Apologies for the month-long travel log as we promise to do better to update the blog more often. Life is good here in NW Arkansas. Spring is finally arriving complete with allergy-related misery. But the Lord has blessed us with Zyrtec and Nasonex, so things could be worse. Hope all is well in the far-flung corners where friends and family may be!

Whole new living room!

2009-03-01T11:01:00.002-06:00

An unfortunate hobby that Matt and Sharon adopted when they were first married was to go to new construction open houses and walk around and dream about the big, beautiful new home they might want to buy. The problem with this, of course, is that too much looking means eventually you'll find one you actually want. Fortunately Matt and Sharon would always drive home (perhaps discussing just how much house payment they could manage in order to buy whatever home they'd just fallen in love with) pull into their own driveway and be reminded that their current home was actually just what they needed. So instead of going to open houses they decided it would be a good idea to just focus on making their current home everything they want and need.

One of the big "to dos" in the Gosney home re-model was to replace the carpet in the living room and front hall with a wood floor. Penny and Auggie have a lot of good qualities, but sweet-smelling is not one of them. Matt was forever shampooing carpets and sofa cushions in an attempt to keep up with the shedding, stinky, drooling machines. It was decided that wood floors and leather furniture would alleviate a lot of that concern, and also count as home improvement. So Matt and Sharon began planning and saving for the living room overhaul.

It began by selling the current furniture on craigs list (a highly recommended site, by the way.) Matt thought it would take a week or two to sell the furniture. Instead, it sold in a matter of 15 minutes. So Matt and Sharon picked the wood for the floor (with much help from Matt's Cub Scout committee, who each shared their opinion) and a date was picked to rip up the old carpet. Matt asked good friends Jace and Jason to come over for a Saturday morning full of entertainment. There are few things in this world that are more disturbing than pulling up old carpet to see just exactly how nasty it is underneath. Jace and Jason were rewarded for their efforts with a lunch catered by Sonic, and Matt and Sharon then went "rustic" as they sat on the concrete slab and awaited the floor guys to arrive.

While waiting, Sharon and Matt made a run to Tulsa to shop for furniture at Mathis Brothers. (Tip for Arkansans: Mathis Brothers has a better selection than anything in town, and since it is out of state you don't have to pay sales tax. Plus you can get a Jamba Juice while you're in town. Everybody wins.) Matt and Sharon had been looking for the right leather furniture set for months, but with the carpet up and the floor going down it became imparative that some decision be made. The Mathis Brothers sales person, weary from our multiple visits and indecisive natures, finally showed us "the one" and we drove back home the proud owners of new leather furniture.

The floor folks arrived on Monday and began a two day job of putting in the new floor. As you can see, they did outstanding work. By Thursday the new furniture had been delivered and, just like that, the Gosneys have a new living room that is easier to maintain and certainly smells less like a kennel. All are welcome to come test-drive! We won't be moving any time soon.

Valentine's and a trip to OKC

2009-02-16T12:32:00.003-06:00

First off, an apology for those who skip over the written blog and go directly to the pictures. No pictures are accompanying this post mainly because Matt and Sharon oftentimes forget to bring the camera to significant events. They promise to repent of this bad behavior.

Valentine's Day was celebrated at the Gosney house a day early and in a fairly low-key manner. Matt asked Sharon where her ideal Valentine's Day dinner would be and she responded with a large Gusano's pepperoni pizza and frozen Mrs. Smith's Deep Dish Apple Pie. Matt then remembered all over again why he married Sharon.

The Gosneys teamed up with the Stapley's for a marathon, down-and-back-in-one-day trip to Oklahoma City for a visit to the temple. It was a highly-entertaining trip in which the Stapley's little boy Cole provided endless fun. He's a sweet kid and the Gosneys had fun watching him while his parents were in the temple. The only danger experienced during the trip was when Cole was watching Kung Fu Panda on his portable DVD player and Matt kept peering back in the rear view mirror to watch his favorite parts. Unfortunately for Sharon many of Matt's tastes in entertainment are the same as the average 2 year old. Matt and Sharon took Cole over to Matt's parents where they were joined by Matt's brother (Will), sister-in-law (Lauri), and their two kiddos (Tag - age 2 1/2 and Lucy - age 6 mos). All in all it was a house full of crazy fun and Cole seemed to enjoy every second of it. Matt particularly enjoyed the story of Tag visiting his mom's family and being asked by one of her brothers who is favorite uncle was. Tag, of course not worrying about offending his mom's side of the family, replied without hesistation "My Uncle Matt!" That's a good kid. Matt plans on telling that story a lot.

Life is good here. Matt and Sharon are certainly worried about the economic uncertainty right now across the country and right here in NW Arkansas. We know lots of folks have been impacted and our thoughts and prayers are with all of those struggling at this time.

The Gosneys go to the Oprey!

2009-02-01T11:05:00.003-06:00

Matt and Sharon have been extremely excited to have Sharon's dad come and visit for the last couple of days. Dad Smith flew in to Tulsa on Thursday (after the ice started melting, thankfully) and Matt and Sharon have been able to have a lot of fun showing him around NW Arkansas and visiting. Friday was a driving tour of all of the hot spots in NWA with stops in the very cosmopolitan Hiwassee not to mention the booming metropolis of Gravette. He also got to see Bentonville and Bella Vista, but let's face it. When someone comes to this part of the country it's to see one thing and one thing only; Highfill, AR - population 341. Dad Smith has enjoyed his stay (or at least he says he has) and thinks it is beautiful out here with very friendly people, good food, and lots to do for a retiree with a penchant for country music and farmer's markets.

Speaking of country music, Matt and Sharon discovered and took Dad Smith to quite the hole in the wall music joint on Saturday called "The Little o' Oprey" in West Fork. Matt didn't even know West Fork existed prior to this weekend. The Oprey is an ancient building that has been turned into a music hall. The house band plays every Saturday evening with various performers from the area doing several numbers with the house band throughout the show. It's a great place for teen-agers and those who are just starting to get into the performing business to learn how to play in front of an audience and with a band behind them. The level of talent was varied. There was a rather unfortunate rendition of "Wabash Cannonball," and Sharon showed far too much enthusiasm in Matt's opinion for an spirited if not exactly skilled version of "Achey-Breaky Heart." The house band at the Oprey were actually very talented, particularly the steel guitar player and the keyboardist. It was fascinating to watch performers get up, tell the band the name of the song and what key it was in, and then perform as the steel guitar player watched the performer's guitar neck for chords while signaling the rest of the band when the chord changes were happening. It was clear the band were a bunch of salty old professionals just interested in helping out some kids learn their chops. The Little O' Oprey is not recommended by the Gosneys for those interested in high quality music performance. For those interested in hearing a talented band playing old country music standards behind kids who are three times younger than the songs they are singing, the Oprey may be for you. And no, the Gosneys did not spontaneously grow mullets after attending.

A few pictures from the Gosney's night at the Oprey are included, as is a video of the house band playing a song by themselves. The keyboardist is doing the singing. Pardon Matt's shakey hand (shakey-breaky?), and be sure to scroll down and push pause on the Playlist musicbox first so you can hear.

Hope everyone is happy and well!

Ice Day and Old Pictures

2009-01-27T17:45:00.005-06:00

Greetings from frigid, frozen-over NW Arkansas! For those who are not from this part of the world you may not be familiar with all of the different ways water can fall from the sky and keep you from going to work. Well, today the Gosneys (and everyone else here) experienced just about all of them. Yesterday started with freezing rain, which continued for quite some time until changing over to sleet and, finally, some snow. The snow and sleet aren't too bad, but the freezing rain encases everything in a thin (or in this case extremely thick) layer of ice, making roads impassable and power lines snappable. (Snappable isn't a word, so just go with it.) So far the Gosney household still has power, but others aren't so lucky. Needless to say, the good folks at Wal-Mart Home Office were encouraged to stay home and not risk life and limb. The Gosneys readily oblidged. Attached are a few shots taken from the front and back yard. Notice the driveway is a solid sheet of ice, probably about an inch and a half thick. Sharon, particularly, is extremely sad about not being able to go into the office and insisted she needed a chocolate cake in order to deal with her grief. (She cited "extra-ordinary circumstances" for the reason to have non-healthy food on a weekday.)

Back in Utah Sharon's family spent some time looking through old photographs and decided it was a good time to digitize as much as possible. So, after a trip to Sam's Club (where they have a cool machine that you can feed stacks of pictures into and they get scanned in with lightening speed) Sharon and her siblings were able to take home CDs with many of their photographs on them. Meanwhile, an old friend of Matts from the old house he grew up in was doing the same thing as he visited his family for Christmas. This friend, also named Matt (totally cool when you are 7 years old) lived in the house directly behind Matt (even cooler to have someone with your same name share your backyard fence.) Friend Matt sent over some pictures that brought back lots of memories. And now you get to enjoy a few pictures of Matt and Sharon as kiddos. Note how much hair Matt had. *sigh* Matt particularly enjoys the picture of Sharon looking longingly at her brother's birthday cake. Clearly, Sharon's sweet tooth was established at a young age.

For those of you in the ice storm with us, stay warm and safe! And for those who aren't, be glad!

Back in Action! Christmas '08 Redux.

2009-01-25T12:22:00.006-06:00

So yes, several of you have commented that the Gosney's have been extremely poor bloggers over the last several weeks. While there are many excuses that could be given (Christmas, Finals, depression brought on by the Obama Inauguration) Sharon probably identified the true reason for the lapse. Matt tends to write in the blog when he is attempting to avoid doing homework. Given that there was a nice break over the holidays there was no homework to be done. Thus, much less blogging. Never fear, there is plenty of homework to be done, and that means plenty of attempts to procrastinate that homework. Count on plenty of blog entries. (Despite the procrastinating Matt did still manage a 4.0 this previous semester. So there.)

Christmas was spent in two locations this year with Christmas day in Oklahoma with Matt's family. The day after Christmas saw Matt and Sharon brave the airport to fly to Utah to visit Sharon's family. Delta only lost Matt's luggage on the way back, which for them is probably above average performance. Utah was beautiful with lots of snow, and it was great to get to spend time with the Smith's. The Gosney Christmas was also great fun, Matt made lasagna as a "something different" Christmas dinner. The dinner was deemed successful as everyone slipped into a broiled cheese-induced coma. Below are two slide shows, the first from the Oklahoma Christmas and the second from the Utah Christmas. Browse at your leisure.

When in Utah Matt decided it would be fun to take a look at the old stomping grounds where he used to live down in Provo. A picture of Matt's first apartment in Provo after his mission is included. Matt lived in the basement appartment. Note the horrifically-dangerous ice sicles hanging over the basement stairs. Not dangerous at all. The hand rail was an "upgrade" that did not exist when Matt resided there. The best part of the house was, by far, the highly sustainable toliet paper caulking used around the windows. One could be sitting in the living room and experience a draft so strong items would get blown off your lap. Good times. Needless to say, Matt only stayed in the apartment for a year and then moved on to better accomodations.

After all of the traveling Matt and Sharon decided to buy themselves a Christmas present. Not known for a lot of decoration on the walls the Gosneys decided it was probably time to actually hang a picture. Matt and Sharon had seen this picture a year ago while in Utah and had coveted it for quite some time. It is a beautiful photo of a small portion of the Salt Lake Temple framed with some fall foliage (that just so happens to match the red accent wall in the Gosney home.) So they decided it would be the perfect addition to the living room wall. Matt is just glad he was capable of mounting the picture without it crashing to the ground ... yet.

Hope everyone is happy and well!

The famous Graham Christmas party!

2008-12-10T17:57:00.003-06:00

Last Friday the Gosneys enjoyed the famous, world-renowned, completely awesome Graham Christmas Party. The Grahams are good friends and they have established a great tradition of hosting an adults-only Christmas party. Matt and Sharon celebrate their attendance at the party in two significant ways. First, they buy spiffy new Christmas sweaters (although Sharon refuses to buy one with snowmen or Santa Claus on it.) Next, they find some sort of tasty new treat to make and bring. The results of the sweater purchase can be seen here, along with a very pregnant and very ready to not be pregnant anymore Laura Hammontree in the background. The tasty treats were Cheese Straws and Mini-Cheesecakes. As both were un-abashed hits at the party the Gosneys have decided they are willing to share their recipes. Rest assured, they were glorious. (Recipes are at the bottom of the post.)

Another significant aspect of the Graham Christmas Party is the great and imaginative games that Cori Graham thinks up to keep everyone entertained. This year's major hit was a game in which a series of Christmas songs were written on slips of paper, and genres of music on seperate slips of paper. Each group drew from each pile and, with provided props, had to perform the song in the genre selected. Here several friends are performing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in the style of High School Musical. The Gosneys did "Deck the Halls" in a country-music style that ended up being much more redneck hillbilly than country. Frightening to behold, but highly entertaining.

Hope everyone is well!

Cheese Straws

2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry (such as Pepperidge Farm), defrosted overnight in the refrigerator
Flour, for dusting
1 extra-large egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup finely grated Gruyère cheese (or Aziago, which is what we used.)
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out each sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured board until it is 10- by 12-inches. Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the surface of the pastry. Sprinkle each sheet evenly with 1⁄4 cup of the Parmesan, 1⁄2 cup of the Gruyère, 1⁄2 teaspoon of the thyme, 1⁄2 teaspoon of the salt, and some pepper. With the rolling pin, lightly press the flavorings into the puff pastry. Cut each sheet crosswise with a floured knife or pizza wheel into 11 or 12 strips. Twist each strip and lay on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (We also found that twisting the strips and then doubling them over and twisting again worked best. Otherwise they end up way too long.)

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and puffed. Turn each straw and bake for another 2 minutes. Don't over bake or the cheese will burn. Cool and serve at room temperature.

MINI-CHEESECAKES
----------------

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 (21 oz.) can Wilderness filling or topping, any flavor,
chilled (we doubled the recipe and went half blueberry and half cherry.)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine crumbs, sugar, and
butter; press equal portions into bottoms 24 lightly
greased or paper cup lined muffin cups. In large bowl, beat
cheese until fluffy (muffin paper cups worked great.) Gradually beat in condensed milk until
smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Spoon mixture into
cups. Bake 20 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Top with
filling. Refrigerate. Makes about 2 dozen mini cheesecakes.

Thanksgiving, Christmas Trees, and Sam Bradford

2008-12-04T12:02:00.005-06:00

The Gosneys made their oft-traveled journey to Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's parents. The Gosney Thanksgiving Dinner generally consists of the traditional Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc, and this year was no exception. However, all of the main course fare is really just a precursor to the many varied and wonderful pies that are always made, drooled over, and eaten with absolute haste. The pie-to-person ratio for Thanksgiving is always a little embarassing. This year a chocolate cream, coconut cream, mixed berry, and pumpkin pie were the choices and Sharon deemed each to be successful (although she's not really a fan of coconut cream in general, citing "yucky texture" as the problem area.) Unfortunately the digital camera did not make the trip, so you will have to simply trust that it was an extremely successful Thanksgiving. Matt and Sharon even ventured out on Black Friday to do some shopping. Although both agreed that it was enjoyable, there is no question that mall pizza at 8:30 in the morning will play havoc on one's digestive system.

Saturday was the OU-OSU football game, with a trip to the Big 12 Championship riding on the outcome. Matt has never purchased a Sooner player's jersey before, however he did decide that OU's quarterback was in fact jersey-worthy. A quick view of the image here will show why. OU won, and now off to Kanas City and a chance to play for the national championship. Matt isn't sure what he enjoys most about this development, seeing OU do well or watching it come at the expense of Texas fans. Matt's new Sr. Vice-President is a die-hard Texas fan, so he has learned to temper his enthusiasm at the office. Best not to commit career suicide over football.

On Monday Matt and Sharon decorated the Christmas trees, while Auggie and Penny observed and ocassionally licked the ornaments. There are two trees that get decorated, one in the family room and one in the guest bedroom. Both look strikingly similar to the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but with enough ornamentation it isn't too bad. The first tree pictured is the living room tree. You will notice some gaping holes and an angel that is very clearly too big for the tree. One day these issues will be fixed, but not this year. Matt and Sharon bought most of the ornaments in their first year of marriage as they burned through Pier One Gift Cards (wedding gifts.) Unfortunately the tree doesn't really fit the ornaments, but it does make for a more festive living room.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful!

Movie Surprise, Cake, and Football

2008-11-23T10:56:00.003-06:00

Oh boy do we have more to report today! The Sharon birthday celebration continued on Saturday with Matt's gift (aside from looking the other way as wardrobe purchases continued unabated.) First, some back story. Sharon is a die-hard and dedicated fan of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series of books. She has read them all and is madly and deeply in love with them. She discusses them with friends, buys them for birthday presents for the un-initiated, and generally is devoted to all things Twilight. Conveniently enough, the movie version of the first book opened in theaters on Sharon's birthday. This got Matt to thinking, how could Sharon's birthday be uniquely celebrated while incorporating the Twilight movie? So he made some phone calls and discovered that, for a reasonable fee, a screen at the local theater could be rented before the theater opened for a private screening.

Matt called Sharon's good friend Cori Graham as co-conspirator. Cori first floated the idea during a book club of church friends to see if there would be adequate support for such a surprise party. Needless to say, there was adequate support. So Matt began working with the theater to set everything up. With apologies to any who work in the movie theater industry, Matt's experience with the average Malco theater general manager was less than impressive. These are definitely not the corporate and civic leaders of tomorrow (although based on the previous election maybe they are.) Success was ensured through consistent harassment of theater management. Oftentimes phone call reminders of the reservation were met with complete surprise as if Matt had never spoken to an employee of the theater before, about anything, particularly a birthday party. But tenacity of purpose is a hallmark of Matt's.

Keeping such an event a secret is nearly impossible, and Matt was seriously nervous that eventually things would get back to Sharon. The excitement over the party wasn't just within church friends, word even got out to the local hairdresser. Sharon came home from the hairdresser on Friday and mentioned that, for some reason, the hairdresser knew who I was and had been talking about me. Matt hoped beyond hope that the hairdresser resisted the innate hairdresser urge to spill the beans; luckily the secret remained safe and Sharon remained unaware. Matt's boss even fielded a phone call from his wife saying "You'll never believe what Matt is doing for Sharon!" To which he replied, "I think that is supposed to be a secret." Her response; "I'd better go make some phone calls, then."

Sharon, Matt and Sharon's sister Cathy drove over to the theater bright and early on Saturday morning with Sharon unaware of the purpose of the trip. Sharon became even more confused as they pulled into the theater parking lot. Confusion reached a peak when she began recognizing familiar cars and faces in the parking lot. In the end, Sharon was thrilled as she got to watch a movie she was highly anticipating surrounded by great friends. Attached are a few photos from the event. And as a side note, the movie did not disappoint.

After the movie folks gathered at the Gosney house for cake and ice cream (and for the Twilight officionados, a detailed discussion of the critical elements of the movie -- such as how beautiful Edward was.) Sharon's favorite aspect of the cake and ice cream, aside from the actual cake and ice cream, was the addition of some of her favorite little kiddos. Sharon is a bit of the pied piper of three year olds, as can be seen from the photos. Kids just tend to follow her around, and Sharon loved that aspect of her birthday surprise.

Finally, Saturday evening was spent having dinner and watching football with Cathy as well as Jace and Karis Stapley. Jace and Karis are dear friends (Jace and Matt went to BYU together and were even roommates for a summer back in 2002.) Jace has taken a position with Wal-Mart working on Matt's team, so they are relocating here from Arizona. (Apologies to Jace and Karis if this was still a secret, but we're thinking the cat is out of the bag.) Matt and Sharon are very excited to have them move into the neighborhood, and Jace and Karis were properly initiated into hanging out with the Gosneys by attending their very first OU football-watching party. Here is photographic evidence of the Stapleys safely in NW Arkansas. One look on Matt's face will clearly demonstrate the outcome of the game. The observer will also note that Matt took no chances with the Stapleys accidently jinxing the game, thus appropriate clothing was provided.

Apologies for a very long post! Things are going well here as you can see. Matt and Sharon are taking Cathy to the airport today, and then down to Oklahoma on Wednesday for Thanksgiving with Matt's family. If there is no posting until after Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Happy Birthday Sharon!!

2008-11-21T11:10:00.003-06:00

Sharon is 30 years old today! Or, perhaps a better way to put it is this is the first anniversary of her 29th birthday. She is a beautiful, wonderful person and Matt considers himself extremely fortunate and blessed to have her as his companion. As a senior missionary couple used to refer to each other in Matt's mission, Sharon is his "Eternal Passport."

Matt proved his love to Sharon by lying to her for the past several weeks about various activities that were designed to block off Sharon's calendar. Sharon was told that a big important dinner would be occurring on Wednesday evening with Matt's bosses' boss, so a few visiting teaching appointments were re-scheduled to accomedate. Then Sharon was invited to a day-long Franklin Covey class on Thursday. Both the dinner and the class were not real, however. Instead Matt picked Sharon up from work on Wednesday, went by Sonic (Dr. Pepper with extra ice is Sharon's drink of choice) and drove two hours to Tulsa. Sharon gave lots of puzzled looks and tried to figure out why dinner wasn't actually happening and what the plan was instead. Matt and Sharon drove to the airport with Sharon still unsure of what was occuring. It wasn't until they walked into baggage claim where Sharon's sister Cathy was waiting for them that Sharon realized her birthday surprise. (The picture is of Sharon and Cathy at the airport.) Cathy is here visiting for several days and those two are having a lot of fun hitting all of the important shopping venues. Yesterday was not spent in a Franklin Covey class but instead at the mall, Matt had arranged with Sharon's boss for a vacation day on Thursday.

As you can see, Cathy got to meet our dogs -- including Auggie. Auggie didn't know what to think about a new addition to the home, and spent most of Thursday hiding behind Sharon and occassionally barking at Cathy. But by Thursday evening he'd decided she was okay to have around and even cuddle with. Of course, cuddling with Auggie can be an overwhelming experience as Cathy is finding out in the picture. He either likes her or is trying to get her off "his" sofa, one of the two. Either way, you haven't really visited the Gosney's until you've had a Mastiff lay on you.

Happy Birthday again to sweet, wonderful Sharon!

D.I.Y. Gosney Strikes Again

2008-11-16T11:15:00.004-06:00

The Do-It-Yourselfing continues over at the Gosney household has we have been emboldened by last week's successes. This week, light fixtures! But first, some back story.

The time is 2005. Sharon has just purchased her first home and is in love with everything about it, except the battleship gray paint in every room. She decides to take a week off work and, with the help of her roommate, paints every square inch of the house -- including the master bath. In the master bath are some hideous light fixtures which must come down and so she asks for the help of a friend in removing them. Unfortunately the hideous light fixtures were poorly installed and large gaping holes are revealed behind the fixtures. Sharon vows to find some better fixtures and have them installed as soon as she finishes painting. By the time she makes it to painting the master bath, however, she is exhausted and quite possibly impaired from the effects of huffing house paint for a solid week. Therefore, she only manages one scraggly coat of paint before calling the project complete.

Fast-forward to 2006. Matt and Sharon have began dating. Many promises of home-improvement tasks are made by Matt in an effort to look impressive, including the repair of the light fixtures. After marriage these promises are promptly forgotten.

Fast-forward to mid-2008. Matt and Sharon have, in fact, repainted several of the rooms in the home already and at last tackle the master bath. They repaint the master bath, this time with the appropriate two coats of paint, and say that perhaps this is the year they will finally address the giant holes in the wall that are so large some creature could easily crawl through. Probably right as Matt gets out of the shower.

Fast-forward to Friday. Matt and Sharon visit Lowes to look at light fixtures again. This is an activity they have done in the past to make themselves feel like they might actually address the bathroom issue. Unlike previous visits, however, they actually purchase light fixtures. Matt is convinced the correct approach is to hire an electrician to install these new fixtures. Sharon asks the teen-age cashier how hard they are to install to which the cashier replies that she installed some herself for her grandmother and that they were quite easy. The take-home message, of course, is that a teen-age girl is more handy than Matt.

Fast-forward one last time to Saturday. Matt, feeling brave due to last week's blinds success and not wanting to be found less capable than a Hannah Montana fan, dutifully reads the instructions on how to install light fixtures while also ensuring that his life insurance policy is paid to date. Miraculously, after one emergency visit to the hardware store (electrical tape) and no curse words uttered, Matt and Sharon managed to install the light fixtures (and they work!) Matt feels this is a good time to retire from the D.I.Y. scene, going out on top.

Hope everyone is well!

New Background! New blinds!

2008-11-09T09:19:00.006-06:00

It's new stuff all around on the Gosney blog. Sharon is slowly becoming more and more interested in this blogging thing and has even ventured out to comment on other people's blogs. This is a fairly major step in her life, so everyone please be supportive as she embraces this new lifestyle of communicating with other people. Sharon decided we needed a new background to the blog and, thanks to sister-in-law Shonnee, we were introduced to the cool website that has free backgrounds. Free is a good price, so here it is! Ta-dah! Gosney Blog 2.0.

Yesterday we decided that if anyone ever were to stay at our house in our guest room we'd cause them extreme trauma from the fact that there are no blinds on our windows. Now, we're not saying that our neighbors are peeping toms, but still some privacy would probably be appreciated. The challenge, of course, is the fact that Matt is not exactly the most "handy" person in the world. He scores extremely low on the "Norm Abram" scale. However, he still managed to figure out how to install shades in the bedroom without destroying the shades, or the bedroom, or himself. This is a cause for celebration in the Gosney household, as other such projects have not been as successful.

Otherwise, not much to report this week. Another successful Pack Meeting was held, with more singing on the part of Cubmaster Gosney. Saturday was spent Christmas shopping and watching another University of Oklahoma victory. There is a significant compromise in the Gosney household. Matt agrees to watch Grey's Anatomy with his wife and Sharon agrees to watch OU football games with her husband. Each is reluctant to admit that they've begun to enjoy watching each other's shows, but deep down that is most likley true.
Have a great week!

Baby blessing

2008-11-02T20:22:00.005-06:00

After a really fun day spent doing homework (Matt) and working on month-end close for Wal-Mart (Sharon) we got an invitation to go down to Fayetteville with Dave and Cori Graham. The original plan was to make it down to Dickson Street and catch a band that was playing at a local club, until we found out that the band didn't even go on until 10:30 at night. Back when we were all young, single, and dumb that would've been just fine. But given the fact that we usually go to bed at about 8:30, we decided we'd have to find alternative entertainment. Luckily we were parked right next to one of our favorite seafood places down here (The Powerhouse, excellent fried shrimp says Sharon) so that became the new plan. We followed up our extremely exciting night with a dual family weekly shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Watch out, when the Gosneys and the Grahams hit the town, things are going to get crazy.

We had to actually make sure we got to bed at a decent time because we actually made a one day, there and back trip to Oklahoma to participate in the baby blessing of our niece Lucy. Lucy is Will and Lauri's second, and she is one very sweet baby (the sour look on her face in this picture not withstanding.) She is pretty much the exact opposite to her older brother Talmage (we call him TAG, for Talmage Andrew Gosney.) Tag can be a bit, uhm, spirited. But he's also smart as a whip and absolutely adorable. Tag's demonstration of how an empty bag of goldfish can be used as a telescope while being held by Grandma Gosney can be seen below. Clearly he has lots in common with his Uncle Matt. Maybe not the smart and adorable, but at least the orneryness. Evidently Matt wasn't always a joy to be around when he was 2 1/2 either. Anyway, Tag has taken quite a liking to his Uncle Matt and tends to stick like glue whenever we are around. There was quite the emotional goodbye where Tag had to be reassured that we'd be visiting again for Thanksgiving. It's nice to be loved. Photographic evidence of the 2 1/2 year old meltdown can be seen in the last picture. And yes, Matt does not look good in the extreme close-up. But it only seems fair given that Matt made Sharon take a close-up of the new braces.

So we had quite the long day of driving, but it was completely worth it. It was fun to see a lot of family and have lots of kids crawling all over us during church. Actually, that is Sharon's regular experience working in the nursery, but Matt quite enjoyed himself. We're glad to be able to participate in those kinds of events and to live close enough to at least one set of family to visit somewhat regularly. So now we're gearing up for this week, where Sharon goes in for two more teeth to be extracted. The transformation to toothless Arkansas Hillbilly is nearly complete. Matt is thinking of taking up the banjo just so he can better fit in with his wife.

Hope everyone is well!

The Cow and the Ghost

2008-10-31T22:41:00.005-05:00

Our church group did a "trunk or treat" for all of the kids this evening, so we figured it was a great time to dress up our dogs and let them meet everybody. Our poor dogs. To be honest, I always made fun of people who dress up their dogs. I mean really, it's pretty goofy. But they just looked so good. Auggie went as a cow, as you can see, which we thought was appropriate. Penny was a ghost. Auggie was definitely the star. We were mugged by little kids who didn't care about getting candy, they were so interested in Auggie. Of course, Auggie was cool with the attention. I think he dug the costume, too. We probably would've done something other than a cow, but your XXL dog costumes are a somewhat limited selection.

We also always carve a few pumpkins, so this was this year's version. We found a really cool website, www.pumpkinlady.com, where we downloaded several templates. It is sort of a shame that this much work only lasts a few hours, but it was fun nevertheless. I recommend clicking on the picture, it looks better bigger. The one on the left is a witch and an apple. The one on the right is a skeleton climbing out of the pumpkin.

Sharon survived the first round of tooth extraction, if only barely. We're definitely not looking forward to getting the other two pulled on Monday, because now she knows exactly what to expect. All I have to say is, thank goodness for vicodin. For her, not me.

Braces!

2008-10-30T11:34:00.002-05:00

Sharon got her braces yesterday, she's thrilled as you can imagine. We figured we'd better snap a picture now because she goes to get teeth pulled this afternoon and Monday, so she's not going to be feeling so hot. Once she has healed up from that they'll put the wire on the braces. Unfortunately all of this has occurred just in time for her to not be able to eat Snickers for Halloween. Now that is pretty sad. But I think she's mourning the loss of Doritos the most.

Steeples and Halloween Cookies

2008-10-26T20:23:00.007-05:00

I mentioned in a previous post that a new chapel is being built right down the street from our house. They just put the steeple on this past week, so we're pretty excited about that. They also put shingles on the roof, so it's actually really starting to look like a church instead of just a big building. We drive past it regularly so we can see the progress and dream of the day when It will only take 3 minutes to get to church instead of 20. Of course we are grateful we only have to drive 20 minutes. But still, when we have to go back to the 9 a.m. to noon schedule those extra few minutes of sleep will be wonderful!

Once a month the Cub Scout committee meets over at our house, and a lot of the committee members have little kids that they can't leave at home. So Sharon, who is a saint and will go directly to heaven after this life is over, watches the kiddos while we meet in the sunroom. This week she got to entertain Bella Williams, Brady McKesson, and Aiden, Abbott, Anna, and Adeline Patterson! All of these kids are completely cute, and Sharon teaches Bella, Brady and Anna in the nursery. So those three were very excited to get to come see Sister Gosney! The oldest two were fairly content to just sit back and watch Night at the Museum. Of course when you come over to the Gosney's you have to have a treat, so we made Halloween cookies from our super-famous Cookie Monster Cookie Dough. There is no greater recepie for cookie dough than Cookie Monster Cookie Dough. I orginally came across it when I was a little kid. It was in a Sesame Street book I had when I was little. So, if you are so inclined, here is the famous Cookie Monster Cookie Dough recepie, complete with Cookie Monster's instructions. We use some very cool ghost, black cat, pumpkin, and bat cookie cutters and some black, orange or white frosting to top 'em off. But that isn't absolutely necessary. :-)

Cookie Monster Cookie Dough

Ingredients:
3/4 c. softened butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Put the butter into a bowl; measure and pour sugar over the butter. Squish the butter and sugar together with a fork or pastry blender until totally blended. Gently break open each egg, and pour each into mixture in bowl. Measure and add vanilla; blend mixture with fork again. Measure and add flour to the mixture in bowl. Measure and add baking powder and salt, and springkle each over the top of the flour in the bowl. Mix it allllll together with the fork, or with very clean hands! Chill the dough for at least an hour. On floured surface, roll dough 1/4" thick and cut into shapes. Ordinary-sized cookies bake at 400 degrees F for 6-8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Back from OKC

2008-10-25T14:32:00.002-05:00

We just got back from a quick trip to OKC for our monthly trip to the temple and to visit family. Twice a year the members of our church here in NW Arkansas all take a day off of work and go to the temple, and that was what happened last Friday. It's actually really fun to just spend all day there, very peaceful and fun to see everybody that you know. So we really enjoyed that. If you aren't Mormon we really recommend taking a look at www.mormon.org It's a nice website that answers a lot of questions about our faith, so that it won't seem "quite" so odd that we go to the temple once a month!

We also got a chance to see my niece Rachel, her husband Jason, and their three kids. As you can see from the slide show, they are all adorable. Sharon is particularly fond of Journey, the little girl. She is a cutie! And yeah, we sorta like this slideshow program better than the other one. Highly recommended. www.slide.com

Hope everyone is well!

Slideshow of our house

2008-10-19T09:48:00.002-05:00

Braces and Dumplings

2008-10-19T08:52:00.004-05:00

The first big news of the week is that Sharon is getting braces on her teeth! She is currently enjoying the fun that is having spacers in her mouth. She can't chew on anything harder than Cream of Wheat right now, so she's having a pretty miserable time. She is at least to the point that they don't hurt all the time, but she'll be glad when the spacers are out and the braces are on. We're looking at two solid years, and she'll have to have four teeth extracted as we go along. But it won't hurt for her to bite down when this is all over, and that is the ultimate goal. Thank goodness for insurance!

We had some friends from work over for dinner last night, the Barkers. They're always a lot of fun and their two kids, Destiny and Rylynn, are just as cute as anything. In the picture Rylynn is the one with the big huge cheesey grin and Destiny is trying to hide behind her spoon. When they left Destiny suggested that maybe one day we could have breakfast or lunch together. We thought that was a pretty good idea! They were quite pleased with just looking at our big dogs through the safety of a sliding glass door, but every few minutes we'd have to get up from the table so they could say hi to them. They have the best manners, always saying yes sir, no sir and yes ma'am no ma'am. A pretty good parenting job by their parents, because those two are full of energy. We did chicken and dumplings on the hope that Sharon would be able to eat at least some of it. She could eat everything but the carrots, so I figured that was a success. And yes, in case you are curious, that is Nehi Peach soda that Sharon and I are drinking. Hey, when in Arkansas ...

I'm going to attempt to put in a slide-show that shows different pictures of our house. We've had some requests to see what it looks like. Sharon bought the house a year before we got married and painted the entire enterior. It was kind of a battleship gray beforehand, and that wasn't going to work. Sharon recommends making sure windows are open if your'e going to repaint your entire house, as the fumes can do funny things to your head. Over the course of the two years we've been married we've repainted the master bedroom, both guest bedrooms, and both bathrooms. We both love the gold in the hallway and that deep pretty red in the kitchen that spills over just a bit into the living room. It's a great location, with a brand new elementary school on the same street as us, just about a mile down the road. In between us and the new school our church is building a new chapel. So from a location standpoint, we're doing pretty good! If you examine the pictures too closely you'll notice the ocassional damage to a wall or a door jam caused by a Mastiff going through a puppy/chewing phase. Luckily now the only phase he is going through is a laying around and doing nothing phase, which should last him for the rest of his life. We much prefer this phase. And yes, you may notice that there are covers on our sofa that are never there when people come over. Let's just say that a Mastiff produces a lot of drool, and nasty things tend to hide in his jowls and fall out whenever he lays down for any leangth of time. I found I had to shampoo the furniture a lot less once we adopted a "total coverage system" for the furniture when the dogs are hanging out with us. And it assures you, gentle reader, that you won't be sitting in dog drool when you come to visit the Gosneys. Everybody wins.

Horses

2008-10-13T19:49:00.002-05:00

Just a real quick note. Stacey Morrison works in the nursery with Sharon at church and she invited us out to her horse barn this evening to see her barn and help brush out her horses. Oh my, it was amazing. Stacey is a dressage instructor and owns and boards several beautiful horses. Take a look at her website, she's got a gallery with some beautiful photos of her barn.

http://www.equusmanorfarm.com/index.htm

We're back and we're not spam!

2008-10-12T08:55:00.006-05:00

Well, the good people here at "blogger" sent me a nice e-mail this past Monday stating that our blog was suspected of being spam (a log that is set up just to get advertising, like those junk e-mails you get) and that if I wanted that changed I would need to fill out a form assuring them I was not a spammer and that, if I did, they'd free my blog up two days later. Well I filled out the form and just six short days later they have my blog unlocked. Wait, they said two days. Oh well.

It was a very busy week at our house! We started out Monday morning with a sick Auggie dog. Auggie is the big one. Let me tell you, there is nothing at all pleasant about having a sick mastiff. I won't go into details, just imagine some of the things that dogs do when they are sick, then imagine multiplying the amount by about 10. So Monday morning was spent cleaning the dog's room, cleaning the dog, and making an emergency run to the vet to find out what was wrong and how to fix it. Poor Auggie had what is called "skipworm," which is actually a relatively common parasite that dogs pick up just by sniffing around outside. We were somewhat comforted in hearing that it wasn't anything we did or could have done. So Auggie got some medicine and the vet suggested we could actually treat both he and Penny every few months just preventatively. Needless to say, after our Monday experience we think that's a pretty good idea.

Monday evening through Wednesday evening I had a meeting of sorts at one of the coolest places I've ever been, Greystone Estate. Here at Wal-Mart we're trying to put together a program to train incoming executives about the Wal-Mart culture and what it takes to be successful. For those of you unfamiliar with Wal-Mart, there is definitely a unique culture here. Some things that external individuals might consider okay to do, like asking your secretary to pick up your dry cleaning or using foul language in a meeting or letting a vendor pay for your dinner, will get you into huge trouble here. So some executives struggle and even a few leave after a few months because they can't adjust. Anyway, the goal is to create a training program to help that transition. So we've partered with the Soderquist Center, which is a pretty cool organization affiliated with John Brown University, to help put together a program.

Now the really cool thing about this program, like I mentioned, was where it was held. About seven years ago Don Soderquist, he of the Soderquist Center, bought this massive mansion out here in NW Arkansas. And I do mean massive. It's 16,000 square feet and complete luxury. Don is actually an old Wal-Mart guy, he was formerly the COO of Wal-Mart and really one of the key guys in Wal-Mart's history, so he and his wife found it was just too big and audacious for them to live there. So they gave it to John Brown University to use as a place for conferences and workshops. And it is impressive. Unfortunately my camera battery died and I wasn't able to get any pictures. But here is one that shows the front entrace. Believe me, this picture does not do the place justice. It is just gorgeous. The guy who built it bought a limestone quarry specificially so he could have matching stone for the entire house (thus the name Greystone.) He had three stone masons working full time for three years to build it. There is an amazing view of Beaver Lake and the estate sits on 100 acres. Needless to say, it was a pretty nice place to have a conference. The highlight was the last night, where we were able to invite our spouses or significant others to come up for dinner. It was a beautiful night so we were able to eat out on the patio. We'd sat down to eat and Don Soderquist and his wife asked if they could join us. It was a great chance to get to know one of the legends of Wal-Mart. He's really just an extremely kind man, extremely religious. When he found out Sharon and I were Mormon he must've talked for 20 minutes about how impressed he was with the Church and with the Mormons he's known and met. So that was nice! I guess he used to sit on the board of the Albertston's Center for Retail at BYU and when he was done they presented him with a book of his personal family history. He said it was the best thing any organization has ever given him and he made copies for all of his children. Anyway, it was a pretty cool evening.

We had some great new friends from church over on Friday and we enjoyed Greek night! The weather is still holding up here so we were able to eat in the Sunroom. (Here's a picture of the Sunroom without any stuff in it. I'll work on getting the battery re-charged so I don't have to use old pictures!) Dinner consisted of flaming cheese (!), greek salad, a veggie tray, grilled kebabs, and grilled lamb. One thing is for sure, you won't go home hungry if you visit the Gosney's. We had these little homemade doughnuts (I can't remember what they were called) and Greek wedding cookies for dessert. And then we passed out from a food-induced coma.

Saturday Sharon went to the temple with her friend Charlotte and I stayed home and watched OU lose to Texas and did homework. Needless to say, I had a less-fun day. I also attended Wal-Mart's monthly Saturday Morning Meeting (we have it once a month and it is mandatory unless you can't make it, and if you can't you have to work some other Saturday to make it up.) It's actually not all bad, there are usually celebs in attendence. This one was absolutely crazy, though. Paula Deen was there, and she is as insane as she appears on the Food Network. Actually moreso. She had an obsession with attempting to kiss Lee Scott, our CEO. Lee wasn't keen on the idea. He said that as soon as he did, his wife would get about 100 e-mails from people in the audience ratting him out. But she was un-detered. Anyway, you can see why she is successful, she's got quite the personality. The other big guest was Harrison Ford. And he is just as cool in person as he is in the movies. I try not to get too geeked up over seeing some of these celebs, but Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones AND Han Solo. I'm sorry, but it just does not get cooler than that. He's about as laid back as Paula Deen is frenetic. The highlight was him taking questions from the audience. Lots of people bring their kids to the Saturday Morning Meeting, and we had little boys dressed up like Indiana Jones all over the place. One kid asked him why he punched the bad guys. Harrison's reseponse was, "It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it." Then Paula Deen showed up at the end and tried to kiss him, as well. He also declined.

So that was the week! This next week promises to be much less eventful. Hope everyone is well!

Conference was a winner

2008-10-05T18:35:00.003-05:00

General Conference was great, as usual, although to be completely honest we both missed a bit of that Sunday Afternoon session due to an unavoidable nap. But really, isn't that the point of General Conference - to watch most of Conference and also work in much needed Sunday naps? Saturday was mostly spent working on homework for me, and Sharon did some reading. She's found that since I've started work on the doctorate she has a LOT more time to read. So, if you have any suggestions on good books, Sharon is open.

Friday night we went to a bonfire with some friends from church. And when I mean bonfire, I mean bonfire. Take a look at the picture to the right.

Josh had a full head of hair before he lit that thing. Alright, not really, but the flame had to go about 30 feet in the air. It's important to understand, we don't have a whole lot else going on in Northwest Arkansas. So you sorta have to invent your own fun.

Hope everyone is well!

Pack Meeting and the Debate

2008-10-03T12:06:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Cub Scout Pack Meeting. I'm the Cubmaster, so that's sorta my gig. Sharon digs the uniform, though, so it's not all bad. And I get to lead the Cubs in great songs like "Alice the Camel," "Lord Baden Powell," and "On Top of Spaghetti." They're particularly fond of "Alice the Camel." Anyway, they all seemed to be pretty happy about the Pack Meeting and we gave out a lot of awards. My definition of a successful Pack Meeting is if none of the Cubs cry, everybody likes the treats, and we're done in an hour.

We had to hustle back last night, of course, because Sharon was keenly interested in watching the Palin - Biden debate. Of course our opinion is fairly significantly biased, but we thought Sarah Palin did a heck of a job. I don't know if it will be enough to overcome all the momentum that Barack has, but you just never know. Oh well, Mitt in 2012.

We're excited for General Conference this weekend! It is sorta nice to be able to just turn on the tv twice a year and go to church in your living room. Sharon and I have been on a pretty serious health kick since the first of the year. We exercise usually six days a week and we are extremely careful with what we eat. Except for on the weekend. Weekends are a free-for-all. It actually works out very well, because whatever craving we have we can always say, "it'll wait until Saturday." So needless to say we plan for Saturdays and Sundays. Broiled cheese in some form or fashion is usually involved. Anyway, we try to make General Conference weekend extra special. Lots of fun stuff to munch on. I'll have to get back on and give you a run-down of the menu.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Hello all!

2008-09-28T19:57:00.001-05:00

Our friends Karis and Jace suggested that starting a blog would be a good idea, given that so many of our friends and family are so far away. So here we go, Matt and Sharon go on-line!

We just got back from Washington, D.C. on Saturday. I had a conference with the Ken Blanchard Company (the guy who wrote The One Minute Manager and about a million other leadership books) so I just stayed over for a couple of extra days and Sharon flew out to meet me on Thursday. We had the opportunity to stay with Ernest and Judy Istook, the parents of my friend and old college roommate Butch. So we got to catch up with them for a while, as well. I've known the Istooks since Butch and I were in Sunbeams 30 years ago, so there was plenty to discuss.

D.C. was wonderful. We were able to take in a session at the temple, and the rain held off as we did our sight-seeing. The Museum of American History was closed for renovations, so that was sort of a bummer, but we got to see plenty. I think we both enjoyed seeing the dinosaur bones at the Museum of Natural History the most, as you can see from the photo.

Sharon also enjoyed sharing the view from the Lincoln Memorial, along with some random Chinese guy.

And, of course, Auggie and Penny were glad to see us when we picked them up from the kennel.

We'll try to keep the updates fairly regular! Hope everything is well with everyone.