Zoo of the Dead

Carl killed another elk... and I saw it with my own eyes. It's big, brown, has antlers like the dog in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it was growling at me. He had the head hanging off the front-end loader of his tractor, right next to Bambi's mom. I had only seen the antlers of Elmer, his first elk from Colorado this past September, and antlers attached to a head is much more intense, let me tell you!

That brings the Murray Mounted Animal Count up to 5 - Art the buck, Walter the bear, Noname the other buck, Elmer the elk, and Noname the new elk. What'll be next??

I'll post pics of the new elk soon, but for now, I will leave you with Elmer.

True, unfaltering, unconditional love.

Carl and I are so lucky to have the families that we do. We've been raised with families that love each other very much, and I know those values of marriage have been passed down from many generations before us.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Carl's family this past Saturday and while we were there, Susan got out a box of old pictures. In it, there was the following article in print form. I had never read it, but I am so glad I did. I emailed the editor and had her email me the archived version of the story that was published February 13, 2001 about Clay and Jane Murray, Carl's grandparents. I only wish you could see the enormous picture that goes with this article... it's of Jane kissing Clay's forehead and they are both grinning like the day they first met I imagine. It's beautiful.

I am so fortunate to know that I have found this love also. I know that if I were sick, Carl would be right there by my side, and vice versa. That's true love, true devotion. I know we'll have ups and downs, just as every marriage does, but I am along for the ride of a lifetime. They seem like the couple they based the movie "The Notebook" on, only happier. :)

My point: I am so excited to get married in Mexico, but that's not the climax of our story. We are at the very beginning of our life stories, and I can't wait to live out all the chapters. I look forward to vacations together, family holidays, starting a family, and just the ins and outs of everyday life. Not everyone will get to come to our wedding, whether it be for babies, prior committments, or other reasons. But know that you'll be there in spirit, and that all we ask is that you be there for Carl and I as we begin this journey into what will be the beginning of a beautiful marriage. So on this holiday season, I guess you could say that I am thankful for the future, but I am loving every second of the present.

Country Critters

Most of you know of my fear of scorpions. Well, this is a new-found fear as of June 27 (move-in day). I was unpacking a box in the kitchen and as I took the last piece of newspaper out, a scorpion scampered to the corner of the box. I of course screamed, as any scorpion fearer would, and I cussed. Yes, I cussed in front of my future mother-in-law.

My fear stems from an old movie I watched as a kid. Most children weren't allowed to watch movies like Friday the 13th and Jaws because they'd get nightmares. Well, the movie that should have been banned from my house was Honey I Shrunk the Kids, starring Rick Moranis. I probably don't even have to mention this, but remember the scene when the micro-tiny kids were walking in the backyard and they come across the monstrous scorpion that eventually kills their ant friend? (Sorry if I just ruined it for you...) Apparently that left quite an impression on me. The only other times I have ever seen a scorpion: (1) in a jar of alcohol for a bug collection, and (2) in Texas Hill Country at a diabetes camp, dead behind the trash can in the ladies restroom (still screamed at this one). Here's a picture of the scorp from that movie to refresh your memory...
After insisting that we call the exterminator that the Murray's use in Talala, he comes out to spray. Turns out, spraying for scorpions does in fact kill the creatures, but when they die they come out from wherever they were hiding to die in the middle of the room. This is lots of fun, especially because I don't know what a scorpion bite does to a cat, especially a wussy domesticated cat like Herbie. Let's just say I ALWAYS wear house shoes and/or socks at minimum.

To date, we've had approximately 35 scorpions cross our threshold. (Lovely, I know... please still come visit me...) I thought this was the worst of my worries until recently...

About 2 nights ago, Carl and I were doing the dishes and Herbie would not move from underneath the dishwasher. There is a gap in the masonry that opens up to a really nice hole under our cabinets/trash can/sink/dishwasher. (We didn't build the house.) I knew he had to have seen something, so I get a flashlight (thanks, Mike and Susan for our stocking stuffers) and get down to see what he can't keep his eyes off. I see nothing but a great hide-out for mice. Carl takes the flashlight and I go back to cleaning up dinner. All of a sudden, he jumps and gets all jittery and creeped out and informs me the mouse just stuck his head out of the hole and looked straight at him! Herbie goes nuts, of course, trying to fit into the little hole himself. We know now that we have to take action, but can't until tomorrow. There's nothing we can do now, so we go back to our evening routine.

Before bed, Carl tells me that I must go look at my cat. He has not moved from the kitchen since the sighting. Carl was so proud of him... he had made himself his own little kitty tree stand or mouse blind under a shelf I have! He perched himself there and remained to my knowledge the entire night.

After a less-than-restful night of sleep, I woke up to Carl saying Herbie has now chased the mouse under the tv stand in our bedroom! That's not a pleasant thing to wake up to, I'll tell you that. Once I'm up and out of bed, the mouse DARTS across the bedroom floor, Herbie hot on his tail. I didn't know this about myself, but apparently I scream at mice. Maybe it's the unpredictability that scares me. So I screamed, and Herbie cowers because he thinks I'm yelling at him! Very counterproductive for the cat and mouse game. Herbie chases him around the room, catching him a few times, but without claws, he really has no way to catch him! All he's chased in his days are crickets, scorpions, and toy mice! Never has he had the opportunity of chasing the real thing... he just thought it was a play mouse I bet! Carl was now very disappointed at his hunting abilities. I was surprised too, because Herbie Cat was originally a barn cat! He is officially not anymore. Wuss.

So moral of the story is, despite where your cat may have been born, not all of them are born with the instinct to catch and kill mice. Too bad for me, because now we have traps all over our house and I am scared to death to open a door or cabinet to find one still...

What is the silver lining, you may be wondering? Carl now insists that we get another outside cat with claws. :) If you know of any litters, please let me know!

I've added a cute pic of Herbie Cat being very scared of Carl's bear rug paw.

Kelly bags her limit...

(Thanks for the title, mom...)

Carl and I went to Jennifer and Zach Coburn's house to hand out candy. In Skiatook, not many ghosts and goblins venture back through our gates... it really is pretty spooky, so it's quite a shame! (It may have something to do with our neighbor recently putting up a sign that says "No Tresspassing: All tresspassers will be shot. Those that survive will be shot again.") Anyways, we were both coming from work, so we changed when we got there. I rang the doorbell like the good trick-or-treater I am, and lo and behold, a flamingo answered the door! Let's just say, I was almost regretting all the waters I drank with dinner!!

I know it may be hard to see us because we're in our camouflage, but look closely for Jenn and I...

Here I am with my first big kill with my trusty bow. Pretty nice 8-point, huh?

Save-the-dates soon, website up and running!

Save the dates for the Mexican wedding are going out shortly... get excited! Em did all the design work for them and they turned out great! If you're interested in hiring her for her design services, you can email her at emilygrober@gmail.com. She does great invitations, save-the-dates, programs, stationery, etc. She can also email you the work she's done I'm sure...

I've been working pretty hard on the wedding website. I believe everything you may need to know can be found on there! The only things I haven't added yet are the registry info, but that'll come soon... just have to get Carl Murray to Lowes, Target, etc to help me... (good luck, right?) :) The address is http://www.carlandkelly.com/. There you'll find all the travel information you need for the trip south! Enjoy, and leave us a comment!!

Engagement Story

I sent this email out to my friends and family announcing Carl's and my engagement. I will post here for those of you that have yet to read the story. It's long.



I have been dating the most wonderful man for (officially) 2 years or (unofficially) 3 years. His name is Carl Murray and we met in pharmacy school our first year. We were surprised to both learn that we actually sat on the same row in organic chemistry at OSU. He swears that I would walk by with my sorority friends and not pay him any mind but in actuality, he was the guy that always sat at the end of the row and slept all class because he already had the notes and was scared to talk to me and my friends. :) I have a feeling this debate will go on for the rest of our lives, by the way... :)



Anyways... we got to know each other in pharmacy school, became GREAT friends, but were always dating other people. Finally, the time came that we were no longer committed to others, and we went to a Dierks Bently/Cross Canadian Ragweed concert at the fairgrounds in Tulsa just as friends. We had a blast, danced, laughed, sang to every song, and from that day on, we realized how much we liked each other and that no other would ever compare. We started dating and fell in love LONG before we spoke those 3 little words to each other. We soon realized that it was no longer IF, but WHEN we were going to get married.



Most of you might know that I am a very traditional person (as are my parents) and am typically the rule follower in the Grober House of Women, so looking for houses together was a bit nerve-racking seeing as how we were not yet engaged. BUT, my lease was almost up and since we KNEW we'd be together, it was financially sound for us to make the decision we did. Lo and behold, we found a great house in Skiatook, 30 min from Tulsa when I'll work (more on that later), and 30 min from Pawhuska where he'll work! It was less than 2 years old, barely lived in, sits on 20 acres of fruitful hunting land, and has a shop for all of Carl's hunting gear (thank goodness)! :) It was perfect and the price was right. Carl put in an offer, and after some interesting counter offers, we finally agreed on a price! The ball was rolling...



Fast forward to June 20th (Friday)... I get a call from Tammy Thomason, USA Drug secretary to Chris Kaiser (my boss and friend, Carl's long-time hunting/fishing buddy), and she tells me there has been a goof-up in the schedule for Saturday the 21st. As a part of my residency I am supposed to work 3 days a month, two being weekend days. As you can see, this is nearing the end of the residency, so there isn't much time to make up this weekend day. I call Carl and tell him that I have the entire day Saturday to pack (minus 2 hours for a hair appointment, of course). After Saturday's hair cut, Paige Culver calls me. She is the wife and soon-to-be baby mama of one of Carl's best friends, Graham Culver. She says we should go to dinner because it's been way too long and Graham is in need of a delicious steak at McGills. I tell Carl and we set up the date for 7:15pm, only because we had to go out to the new house to learn how to use the new aerobic system, air conditioning, etc. at 6pm. At 3:45, I decide that I need to run errands. I get home at 5:10, 10 min after when we should have left for the new house, and Carl and I rush around to leave. When we're driving out there, Carl says he wants to listen to Dierks Bently and I said no. :) We settled on Cross Canadian instead (which still made sense) and started talking about that concert we went to a few years back. Since neither of us can remember our actual first date, we decided that that was it... and we're sticking to that story! We pull up to the new house (which looked lovelier than ever, now knowing that it was ours!) and Carl said he needed to call Steve and tell him we were there since "he forgot to on the way there." We got out, and Carl keeps telling me things he's bought from Steve, like "that vice over there in the shop" which I make him go show me since I'm not so manual-labor-inclined. He walks me in there, and then tries to ditch me and walk back to the truck. I of course follow him, then he tries to ditch me again saying he has to get money to pay Steve for the vice. I follow him back to the truck again! At this time, I am sure Carl is sweating it big time, so he walks me half way to the house and then SPRINTS back to the truck hoping I wont follow because he's remembered where he put the money, and I turn around and start kicking gravel, piddling my way to the truck. He describes it as a slow-motion scene from a movie where I turn around after him and SPRINT to catch up, which is not the case at all by the way! So he gets his "money for Steve," catches up to me, and as we are walking to the front of the house, he asks me, "So it's pretty great to think this is going to be your new yard soon, isn't it?" I of couse say yes, and talk about how ready I am, and then we walk up to the front porch...



There waiting on us is a table with 2 dozen roses, champagne on ice, and 2 glasses. I immediately think that we've just interrupted this couples celebration of the last weekend in their old house and that we should NOT be there at all!!! (Can you tell I didn't expect this in the slightest???) Carl turns to me, takes my hands, and immediately I know what is getting ready to happen. He tells me this is the place he wants to begin his life with me and start a family and we both ... I mean just I ... start to tear up. :) He gets down on one knee and gets the ring out of his pocket and asks me to marry him! He says he had this long speech planned out, but before he could even get his big question out, I'm already saying, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" He puts the ring on my finger and to much surprise it fits! He had tried every way to get me to try on Jennifer Coburn's and Kelly Murray's rings, but I have a huge stigma about trying on rings on THAT finger. I mean, hey, if I wouldn't even try on engagement rings on the 2nd floor of Tiffany's in NYC, I REALLY have a stigma about it! That's like a girls' wildest dream to get that opportunity!



Anyways... he comes off a knee, hugs and kisses me, and not 10 seconds later, the old owners of our house walk outside and say (in best country accent possible), "So what'd she say???" Carl had asked them for privacy, which they must have forgotten that meant we DIDN'T want to talk about how to work things in the house right at that moment, but being the nice folks we are, we decided to go inside and humor them for a while. After all we still had dinner plans with Graham and Paige.



Finally we get to the car at 7:15 (which will make us 30 minutes late for our dinner reservations) and Carl calls Graham to tell him this. We start talking about how we're going to announce our engagement to our families. Mom and Emily were in Dallas shopping for Mom and Dad's new house, and I definitely wanted to tell them in person, but knew I wouldn't see Em for another 3 weeks. She'd have to find out on the phone because I wouldn't be able to hold it in for long. Mom and Dad could maybe wait. My thing was, I wanted them to be the FIRST people I told. Carl said that maybe we should just wait until after dinner to decide what to do. I thought that'd be a great idea. So we get to McGills and Carl sees "Graham" in the bathroom and he tells him where the table is. We walk through these 2 doors and Carl had planned to have all my family and his , including Emily and Mom who had cancelled a Dallas shopping trip to be there! (with Pat, Deanna, Mac, and Tim there in spirit) We celebrated, had a wonderful dinner, and got to tell the whole story!



Needless to say, this was the biggest and best surprise of my life. I was thinking that I'd be getting engaged in Key West, and I would have been, but when Carl got wind of that, he changed plans QUICKLY!



The ring is BEAUTIFUL and more special than I could ever imagine! Carl's grandfather Major gave him 3 of the most perfect stones for the ring. The center stone is Carl's Great Grandmother on his dad's side and the other 2 are Janesy's (Major's late wife/Carl's Grandmother) diamonds. What amazing history! I can't even begin to tell you how honored I am to wear them. These diamonds saw many, many happy years of marriage and I intend on adding more years onto them for as long as Carl and I are alive!



So there you have it! The big juicy story!!! We will be getting married on the beach in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico on June 13, 2009. The reception in Muskogee will be on July 11, 2009 after we get home. I've never been happier! I am marrying my very best friend and we really look forward to starting a family (to which I am sure our parents won't object).

Inauguration Post

What a great way to keep family members up to date on what is going on in my world! Thanks for tuning in. I will do my best to post regularly.

The purpose of my blog is to let you in on what an exciting time it is in my life. I have recently become engaged to my best friend - Carl Murray. He's everything I could have imagined my husband to be ... and then some! He has opened my eyes to a world I have never known and for that I will always be grateful. I love living with him and I can't wait to make it official on June 13, 2009! Mexico, here we come!