Thankful

Today I'm thankful for this guy!

He was newly installed yesterday. Our old dishwasher had been on the fritz for awhile, sounding like it was going to explode every time we ran it. It got to the point where we were afraid to run it so we started hand washing. Hand washing = no fun so we finally broke down and purchased a new one. Hand washing every single dish for a month really makes you appreciate the luxury of a dishwasher. This guy has an adjustable top rack, back sprayers and a stainless steel inside with heating coils to help dry faster. It's the little things people, the little things!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Food For Thought

Have any of you ever tried the Fruit N' Yogurt Parfait from McDonald's? Yum - I am hooked! I was always hesitant to try one because I thought it might mimic their hot fudge sunday which has a lot of ice cream but is lacking in the hot fudge department. What a pleasant surprise; lots of fruity goodness in the middle and crunchy granola on top. The best part is they're only $1 so cheers to being a dollar menunaire ;)

Another food I wanted to bring to your attention are the new granola thins by Nature Valley. My friend Karla turned me onto them. I haven't tried the chocolate (pictured below) but I can vouch for the peanut butter, they are delish!

The problem is they are a little small. I think you're supposed to eat them as a snack so being small is actually the point but it sort of defeats my purpose of eating them for breakfast. By mid-morning I'm scavenging around at work for pork rinds and cheese puffs! JK! Not about the fact that those are the snacks offered at my office (can you believe that?) just about the scavenging part. I would rather go hungry than eat a pork rind for breakfast, or any time of the day for that matter.

Pumkin Patch Visit (I'm Behind!)

As usual I'm behind in posting current events so they really aren't too current but it's the thought that counts right? A couple of weeks ago we received a visit from this cutie!

Photo Courtesy of Addie Scott Photography

Oh yeah, these two may have been with him :)

Photo Courtesy of Addie Scott Photography

My brother Andrew, his wife Erin, and their son Jude came down for a visit. It was the weekend of OSU Homecoming so we decided to meet in Stillwater Friday evening to partake in the good food and ogle at the awe inspiring house decks that make up Homecoming Walkaround. Even if you are not an OSU fan, this is a must see event. I don't even know how to describe a house deck but lucky for you I was able to find a blog with lots of nice pictures: http://www.thestoryofjory.com/2010/10/22/homecoming-house-decks-2010/

On Saturday we got up and headed to Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch in Bixby where my friend Addie snapped some great photos of Jude. She also took some photos of these two sweeties. Don't we have the cutest nieces and nephew?

Photo Courtesy of Addie Scott Photography

Addie is an amazing photographer! Check out her website: www.addiescott.com and if you are interested in viewing more pics from our pumpkin patch visit click on proofing, then enter the password pumpkin.

The rest of our weekend was pretty relaxing, lots of college football and entertainment courtesy of Jude :)

Rollin' With His Lady

While driving home not too long ago I approached a low riding truck with tinted windows. Emblazoned on the driver’s side rear window was “Shadow” and emblazoned on the passenger’s side rear window was “Shadow’s Lady”. My first thought was how Shadow would be a good name for a horse because Shadow’s Lady sounds like something you might hear while attending the Kentucky Derby. Of course when I pulled up next to Shadow, lets just say he was not someone I pictured sipping Mint Juleps at Churchill Downs. Then I started thinking about Shadow and his Lady. I loved that he not only made himself known but he also acknowledged the fact that he was rollin’ with his lady. Forget the fact that she has her own name, she is HIS - Shadow’s Lady, and by now she probably doesn’t even remember the fact that she has her own name. Wouldn’t it be fun to roll like that? I want to be known as my husband’s lady but AB and AB’s Lady is a little too milk toast. Then there is my husband’s high school and college nickname, Doo Doo. I’m not really digging Doo Doo and Doo Doo’s Lady either. Well, it was a fun thought but I guess I’ll just stick to being known as myself :)

Football on Crack

AB recently purchased the NFL RedZone and I'm not sure how his brain doesn't short circuit at the end of each Sunday. The point of this channel is to flip to an NFL game when a team reaches the RedZone (inside the 20-yard line) this enables the viewer to see each and every touchdown made during the day. While eating lunch I sat down to experience this phenomenon, only to have my head hurt after 15 minutes. It's like football ADD! Within the 15 minutes the screen switched about 50 times, sometimes showing two games at once. After the first couple of flips, I couldn't keep up with which game we were watching...it was awful! AB on the other hand loves it! He is a fantasy football fanatic so he doesn't care about any particular game, just the players and how many points they are scoring for his fantasy teams. If you have the attention span of about 3 seconds I would highly recommend it :)

Between NFL RedZone, Thunder basketball games and the MLB Extra Innings package, AB has become quite the TV hog! I've been begging him to buy a nicer TV and a 2nd DVR for our game room so I can squeeze in a couple of shows now and then. Lucky for him I'm studying and not watching that much TV, but once this exam is behind me there are going to be some issues because my love of sports doesn't exactly equate to his.

Out of the Mine...What I Would Do First

Have you been as mesmerized by the story of the trapped miners as I have? What an amazing story! 69 days. 2,000 ft underground. Can you imagine? I can't imagine all of the "what ifs" going through their head the first 17 days they went undiscovered. To know you are trapped underground and nobody even knows you are alive down there. How scary and unnerving! Thankfully they were discovered and all 33 men were recovered in decent physical shape thanks to the strict daily regimen they kept to. I’m sure there will be psychological effects and hopefully time will heal those. This ordeal got me thinking about what I would look forward to most when getting out. The obvious would be uniting with my husband and family, seeing the light of day and breathing in fresh air. Then there are the little things, like using toilet paper, brushing my teeth and sleeping on a pillow. Besides those, I think the one thing I would look forward to the most would be taking a hot shower and pampering myself with my favorite bath and body products.

First off I would scrub my hair clean and condition it with my favorite shampoo and conditioner from Bumble and Bumble

Gentle Shampoo

Super Rich Conditioner

I would then move on to all of my favorite Origins products, starting with the best body scrub ever made. This stuff leaves your skin feeling so soft, it's amazing!

Ginger Body Scrub

To make my skin even softer and to stay relaxed I would use the Calm To Your Senses bath and body oil. I can see why they named it that, it has a very soothing sent.

Lavender and Vanilla Bath & Body Oil

After my nice hot shower I would keep myself smelling good and feeling hydrated with this great body cream.

Ginger Souffle

Last buy not least, the only perfume I'll wear (most give me a headache).

Ginger Essence

You can see why I mourned the closing of the Origins store in the mall! If I were trapped underground for 69 days, I think feeling clean and smelling good again would be at the top of my list for starting my new beginning. What about you? What would you look forward to the most (besides being united with your family, I hope that is a given!)? Are there certain products or foods you would have a hard time living without?

Marshall Getting Married

As I've mentioned AB and I traveled down to Texas for a wedding last weekend. The wedding couple was AB's cousin Marshall and his new Bride Ashley. I thought I'd share this picture of the cousins when they were cute little boys. That's AB's brother Chris in the back, cousin Marshall in the swing and trend setter AB with one pant leg down and one rolled up.

We left T-Town after lunch on Saturday and made our way down to Denton, TX where the welcome dinner was held. The dinner was at the hotel we stayed in. It was so nice to enjoy the evening then walk to our rooms! Here is a picture of AB and I with the newly minted Mr. and Mrs.

This is Marshall with his mom Linda and my MIL Melissa. Melissa and Marshall's dad, Kay are brother and sister. They have another sister, Jan, but unfortunately I didn't get any snapshots of her :(

They hired a jazz band to play at the dinner. I happen to love jazz so I really enjoyed the entertainment. Kay joined the band for a couple of numbers. He has a great voice, as does Marshall. Melissa's entire family is either musically or artistically gifted (this includes my very own husband who retired from his art career to chase his accounting dreams ;) ).

Linda and Melissa were able to get AB out on the dance floor (not an easy feat). Of course, I had to get record of this!

The wedding took place on Sunday and was held at the beautiful A&M Gardens just outside of Azle, TX. This was one of the views from our seats.

This was another one :) I wish I had a picture of the back of Ashley's dress. The ribbons that laced up the back were their wedding colors, sage and chocolate. I thought that was a neat way to incorporate color into the wedding dress.

Here is a pick of The B clan. Andy's brother Chris, his wife Shawnna, their girls Elliot (8 months), Lilly (3), my MIL Melissa, my FIL John, AB and I. Of all the beautiful backdrops, we picked a camper...LOL!

Elliot is wearing the same dress Lilly wore to our wedding. It's hard to believe Lilly was only 8 months old when AB and I got married!

Thank you to Marshall and Ashley for a great weekend! It was so much fun to see everyone and we really enjoyed spending time with our immediate and extended family!

It's Fall...Sort Of

Even though it's hot outside and still feels like summer...it's fall! AB's favorite part of fall is that our yard finally dies so he no longer has to mow or water. I've really been in the mood to decorate for fall so I drug AB out to buy some pumpkins and some mums for our front flower bed. We picked out pink mums, I think they look great in my red pots!

I also added a few decorations to the porch. I found this cute owl at World Market in Dallas. I just need to add a battery operated tea light so he'll light up at night. I also made a stop at Crate and Barrel while we were in Dallas and fell in love with this spider door mat. Is he not adorable? He's almost too cute to wipe your feet on, so if you come over, maybe try wiping your feet on my grass instead ;)

While AB enjoys dead grass, one of my favorite parts of fall is Halloween! I think Halloween is so much fun and I always enjoy getting out my Halloween home decor. My MIL bought me this cute tea towel and Boo! light.

My mom bought me this cute Halloween sign. It was a little hard to hang but after a few tries we finally got it even...sort of!

What Halloween would be complete without a plain ol' Jack-O-Lantern? I like putting this little guy on our entry-way table. I'm sure the Jack-O-Lantern is not what catches your eye in this picture. I don't even know where to begin with the framed photo in the picture. It sparks a lot of conversation at our house. I like to tell people who don't know us that the guy in the picture with AB is my brother...ha!

It is actually AB's favorite rapper, Crooked-I, but I will have to save that for another time and another post :)

Milo the Kitten

Sorry for the brief blogging hiatus, I've had a lot going on in the past couple of weeks! I took another test (it was terrible) and went down to Dallas for a wedding (I'll save that for another post).

While I was away from work frantically studying and then enjoying myself in Texas, my co-worker Daisi found a tiny kitten in our office parking lot. Poor guy, he easily could have been hit by a car he is so little! Daisi already has a cat, so her boyfriend has nixed the idea of keeping this precious little ball of fur. I sent pics to AB in hopes of finding a new playmate for Tavia. He told me getting a cat may have worked the first time but it won't work a second time. Luckily Daisi has a friend in OKC that is going to take him. I just had to get my kitten fix before little Milo (she named him after Dan's baby on Gossip Girl - ha!) moves away so I went over to Daisi's yesterday and took the following video.

Is this not cute overload? I would love to bring him home for just a few hours because I'm very curious to see what Tavia's reaction would be. I played the video for her last night and she was very interested. Maybe I need to set up a play date!

Baby Shower Marathon

Last Saturday I literally had a marathon of baby showers - three in one day! Luckily they were at different times so I was able to attend all three!

10:30am - Jordan

Jordan and I used to work together at SJC. We were both on the corporate side, she in HR and me in Accounting. Fun times! Jordan is having a baby boy, name to be announced upon arrival. Her five (yes five!) sisters threw her the shower, it was so nice to meet all of them and to catch up with Jordan! She just exudes cuteness!

12:00pm - Amy

I feel like I've known Amy forever. We met while working at Hogan & Slovececk and then she became my boss at SJC. I have since left but she's still trekking! Amy is always smiling, she's one of those people that continues to laugh even if she's having a bad day! She should be an inspiration to us all! This is baby #3 for Amy, Baby Boy Alex. Alex is being welcomed by big sisters Marlena and Paris. Our friend Monica thought it would be nice to have a little shower for Alex so he can have some boy stuff.

2:00pm - Rachael

Rachael works with AB and the shower was hosted by another of their co-workers, Rebecca. It seems like Rachael just returned from London where she spent 2 years on an International Exchange with the firm. (I'm very jealous of this - I've been trying to talk Andy into the program for years to no avail!) Now she is having a baby, sex unknown. I think it's so fun not to find out the sex!

Point and Shoot Part II

Shawnna and I finished our photography class...oh two weeks ago and I'm just getting around to posting about round two. In our second and final class we learned about metering mode (exposure based on brightness/color of central point) and taking pictures in thirds instead of having your subject be directly in the middle of your shot. This thirds thing is going to take some getting used to and lots of practice. I am lucky to have a grid on my camera screen but I'm still having a hard time not centering things in the center of the grid. Here are some practice shots I took of my trust worthy assistant.

All in all I thought it was a good class. When I have more free time I would like to see what else Jenks Community Education has to offer.

Mind Reading

Do you ever wish your husband was a mind reader? This is a common issue in my marriage – my husband just isn’t able to read my mind. Does anyone else have this issue? I guess I thought the day we said “I Do” meant we were one and he totally knew what was going on inside of my head. For instance, I thought when he heard me making a ruckus while loading 2 card tables and 8 chairs into my Jeep by myself he would come running or when he enters the room and I am putting new sheets on our bed that would drum up a sympathy offer to help, but this is not always the case. I tend to get upset when he doesn’t read my mind which then causes a disagreement because he expects me to actually ASK for help. What? This isn’t what I signed up for – hello, what happened to my very own Miss Cleo?

I realize it is ludicrous for me to expect him to read my mind but a girl can dream can’t she? I also need to give my husband some credit, he does a LOT and when I mean a lot, if I told you all that he does you would probably wonder what in the heck I do around here ;)

Lack of Focus

I’m lacking focus these days. Not really in the home or work department but definitely in the study department. I’ve been trying the walk/run thing to clear my head but lets face it there are only so many hours in the day and I don’t always have time to fit that in. My study buddy’s lack of motivation isn’t helping me either. I'm pretty sure the only thing that motivates her is food.

I’m using study materials from Becker (all of you CPAs know about Becker). I’m thinking about writing to them and suggesting they redo their study materials to read more like US Weekly. I seem to soak up useless celebrity information like a sponge. Maybe if my study materials used examples like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were not legally married at the end of 2010 but they lived together for the entire year, which filing status can they use? Which one of them can claim their six kids as exemptions? How much can they deduct for each of their 10 vacation homes? How much money do they have to report for foreign income earned? It would be much more interesting to learn in that type of format don’t you think? I would have this stuff down in no time! For now I’ve got to get back to my mind-numbing study materials before AB disowns me.

Baby Shower Mania

AB and I used to attend what seemed like a wedding a weekend. In recent years we have graduated from weddings to baby showers. In the past couple of months I’ve hosted two and attended one. Next weekend I have a baby shower marathon with three in one day! This past Friday we hosted a couple’s for our good friends Brian and Alisha.

Please note this pic of the expectant couple is from another shower, I am very frustrated with myself because I took absolutely no pictures of this event! I’ll just have to give you the gist of it and you can use your imagination. Baby T’s nursery is pink and green so I decided to go with a pink and green theme. I sent out these cute invites from Tiny Prints.

My friend Addie made a super cute diaper cake that I used as a centerpiece for my dining table. I was lucky to find these pink and green gems at Sam’s and I put them out on my mantle and the other tables I had set up for guests to sit at.

I also adorned the mantle with a banner my friend Katie and I made that spelled out Brian and Alisha’s last name and had their baby pictures on it.

For dinner we went with an Italian theme and served tomato vodka pasta, salad, bruschetta, a savory cheesecake and garlic bread. For dessert I had my MIL’s famous chocolate chip walnut cookies and pink and green cupcakes. The drink list included a pink martini and too keep it cold I added frozen green grapes (the frozen fruit trick is great because it doesn't water down your drink like ice). Everything turned out so cute, I'm just kicking myself for not taking any pics!! I also want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my MIL Melissa who drove to Tulsa to help me out, I couldn't have done it without her!

Since I don’t have any pics of Brian & Alisha's shower, I will share some from the baby shower my friend Addie and I threw for our friend Liz back in August. Liz is having a baby boy in October.

Addie took the pics with my dream camera, they look like they’re from a magazine! We had a brunch shower and served mini quiche, mango salsa and potato casserole. We also set up a yogurt bar and had these super cute donuts made at OK Country Donut Shoppe.

My MIL bought this super cute punch bowl for me a few months ago and I was so excited to have an opportunity to use it!

Addie also made this diaper cake so you can envision what the other one looked like. She is a woman of many talents!

I'm kind of on a roll here so I'll go ahead and share a few pics from the girls shower my friend Shonda and Karla threw for Alisha. Here is a pic of the hottie hostesses :)

Look at this spread! Shonda did the flowers herself, aren't they gorgeous? Talk about another woman of many talents!

Shonda always has funny napkins at her parties and this one was no exception.

Here is a pic of the four of us. Karla and Shonda put on a great shower, it was lots of fun! I look forward to the one they'll be throwing for me someday...(maybe ha ha)!







Note to self: never put pics Addie has taken with pics I have taken in the same post, mine sort of pale in comparison!

Point and Shoot Part I

Last night my SIL, Shawnna, and I started a two-part photography class. We are taking it through Jenks Community Education. They offer lots of great classes and the best part is the classes are inexpensive. Our class is teaching us how to optimize the use of a point and shoot camera. Although I long to have an SLR camera, for the time being I am making the most with what I have. I currently own a Sony Cyber-shot, it's a great camera and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Last night our instructor taught us about shooting in manual mode. This makes for the best pictures because you can select settings based on your surroundings and the subject you are photographing. We learned about aperture, shutter speed and white balance. A lot of cameras allow you to set the aperture and then the camera figures out the shutter speed but my camera is full manual mode where I have to set both so it's going to take a lot of practice for me to get good at it. Last night I came home and got right to work on my favorite test subject.

Tavia makes a great model because she stays still for long periods of time :)

Channeling Flo-Jo

I’ve decided to take up running jogging again. In case you are wondering, by definition jogging is trotting at a leisurely pace and running is a fast paced jog. Anywho, I’ve been having a hard time coming home from a busy day at work and hitting the books so I thought it would be a good idea to jog or walk for 20-30 minutes to help clear my head. Although I didn’t work today, while eating breakfast I got sucked into these Librarian movies with Noah Wylie and little did I know there are multiple. When the 3rd one came on I decided to turn off the TV and activate my plan because I had a lot of studying to get done. As I was jogging along at a tortoise pace I began wondering what makes a person extremely fast? I doubt this is something that has ever crossed your mind but for some reason sprinters really amaze me. I used to be an avid runner, but I’ve always preferred long distance, sprinting has never been my forte. I always enjoy watching the track events of The Summer Olympics. Those runners have like super human speed and on top of that they are wearing 10 lbs of bling! Some of the women have quite a bit of junk in the trunk too (and mind you none of it is fat). Maybe that’s my problem, I have the figure of a prepubescent boy with absolutely no junk and no muscle anywhere! I just think it would be cool to be able to drop into conversation things like have I mentioned I can run 100 meters in 10.49 seconds? People will think you’re like Wonder Woman! For now I will accept the fact that I will never be fast and that’s ok because when would I have time to fit in training for The Olympics?

Get Out of the Road!

Today AB and I almost witnessed a catastrophe. As we were driving down Riverside a large truck swerved off the road to miss hitting a squirrel. I know they’re cute but they’re just rodents with a puffy tail, definitely not worth risking your life for! My sweet husband said “I wish they wouldn’t do that. You’d think after watching several of their friends and relatives die they wouldn’t want to run into the road.” I didn’t really have the heart to tell him that squirrels don’t exactly have the same intellect we do.

Before we witnessed the near catastrophic event, AB and I breakfasted at Dilly Deli. If you work downtown you may have eaten there for lunch but if you haven’t tried their breakfast it’s a must! It is so good and they serve breakfast all day on the weekend.

Happy Birthday Bro

Today my little brother turns 30!

Welcome to the club :)

Blonde Moment of the Week

So today I’m driving to work and I notice I’m sitting on something but when I feel the seat, I realize there is actually something in my pant leg. I get out of my car and feel the wad and wonder how in the heck I didn’t notice this during the hour I had the pants on before getting in my car. I have to proceed into the building because whatever this happens to be is in an unreachable place. I hurry onto the elevator so I can get in the back where the bulge on the back of my leg will go unnoticed. Lucky for me I work on the top floor of the building so I’m always the last one off. Once off the elevator I head to the bathroom where I strip down my jeans and pull out a pair of underwear. What the heck? I’m thankful that they were in an unreachable place because I would have died had they slipped out while I was walking into the building, but if they had I was glad they were a) clean and b) not granny panties. Although I’m pretty sure if they had slipped out I would have treated them like an illegal substance – Underwear? What underwear? I don’t own any underwear.

Pretend

Today my brother-in-law sent out some pics of the girls. There was one in particular that really made me laugh and I thought it was too funny not to share.

Our 3-1/2 year old niece Lilly is quite a character. This is her pretend bike wreck. She cracks me up!!