Saturday, December 22, 2012

Finally!!!

It's Christmas break!!

I feel like I've been looking forward to this for a long time, okay at least for the last two weeks.  It's been crazy here in t-town this month, and by that I mean we are really blessed with community here - a community that likes to party!  First we had my work party at the convention center downtown, complete with the awkwardness that comes from being one of the only people not drinking.  I'm sorry but my personal bubble hadn't shrink that night, even if everyone else wanted to be right in my face telling me congratulations haha.  Then we had small group get togethers, dinners with work friends, dinners with TU friends, dirty santas in the office complete with a marshmellow launcher gun, an awkward neighborhood punch and cookie party with all the old folks fighting about the bilaws of our association (and they wonder why no young people come to the meetings?!!), a guy's night of drinking beer to celebrate all the babies being born in the spring (the count is up to five I think within our close group of friends at church!!!), a girl's wine night to just celebrate wine and friends (don't worry the hostess was kind enough to make delicious prego drinks for all of us non wine partakers), and that doesn't even the include the night we had three parties and decided to skip them all to go on a date, eat steak and burgers (no I didn't eat both!!) and finally watch Skyfall, which by the way was wonderful.

It's been a fun couple of weeks.  And today . . . well we are cleaning!  And nesting haha.  Okay so apparently we both have the urge to get rid of all the stuff we have lying around the house that we don't need.  Maybe it's being spurred on by baby coming or maybe by the fact that Spencer is building new closets for us in the room we'll be moving into so we can convert our room to the nursery (ahhh so weird), but either way it's been satisfying.  We've spent this morning cleaning out our current closets and making giant piles for good will, the trash, and then a pile of, man I hope we know someone who is this size because these things are barely worn or still have tags on them!  Amazing what you find when you dig through the backs of your drawers. 

Also I've been going through my clothes and putting away what I probably won't be able to wear until little munchkin gets here.  Yep the fun has started :).  Okay I thought it was going to just feel like putting on 10 pounds, but this is weird!  It's like someone is inflating a balloon inside me and my insides have to stretch to accomodate the changes, such an odd feeling!  In other baby news, in case you haven't heard, it's a BOY.  And we are both relieved haha.  I don't think either of us was prepared to have a girly girl complete with bows and tutus and barbies.  Don't get me wrong I think they are adorable, but we both are really excited about a little man in our house.  Plus I mean all the nursery stuff I looked at that I liked was blue, so this will just make everything easier.  And I much prefer crazy loudness to drama.  I know, famous last words :).

Okay I'm off to prenatal yoga.  No time like the present to acknowledge the fact that I am in fact having a baby and at some point running and rock and roll yoga complete with lunges and planks is probably not going to be feasible.  I'm going to keep trying though!  Until I feel completely miserable or I just can't do any poses due to my giant belly haha.

Hope you are all enjoying a slower pace of things for a few days at least.  Merry Christmas!

  

Friday, November 30, 2012

Something Ridiculous


I have this guy at work who likes to say funny things to me, like "would you like me to push you back to your office in your chair?" after a meeting.  Or "are you sure you should be eating that chocolate chip muffin?"  Or "your poor dog, she has no idea what life is going to be like now that baby is coming." So I decided to milk it.  I said, dear so in so in exchange for giving me a hard time for the next six months I think you should buy me baby sperrys.  (He also loves to talk about his multiple pairs of sperrys).

And ta da.  I got them!  I knew working with a bunch of rich guys old enough to be my parents was going to be fun :).  I think the jokes are hilarious (at least at this point when I still fit in my pants, well at least mostly and I'm not too crazy hormonal yet) and getting ridiculously adorable baby shoes is even better.

That's all.  I'm so glad it's almost the weekend.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Nesting Already?

Okay maybe more just like we are finally crossing some major projects off our home and yard improvement list. We're also adding to list though so we'll see how this goes . . .

First up, the driveway!!  So we've been wanting to replace the driveway ever since we had this landscape architect look at our house and make a design to die for.  I mean like our house should be featured in Better Homes and Gardens if it ever actually looks like his plan.  Which might be in 30 years when we are both retired and all we do is plant hydrangeas and weed flower beds all day long.  Okay actually we've wanted a new driveway since we moved into the house, but the master - my house will look like the ancient gardens of Babylon - plan reminded us just how much we wanted it.  So, Spencer in his handyman ways decided he wanted to do it himself.

I was a little suspicious.  

But I decided, hey so far everything he's done on his own has turned out good, so we'll see how it goes.  If he passed on the driveway I was going to let him pour the patio.  That was our deal :).

First was the prep work.  Okay first was paying a guy with a bobcat to destroy our backyard.  And dig up an ancient cistern under our sidewalk.  And kill all the grass that was still left from Blitzy.  Which, granted was very minimal.  So back to the prep work.  I'm going to pretend like I know what he did.  First he framed out the first third of driveway (it's so long and large he's doing it in three pieces).  Then he put down sand and rented a compacter to tamp the sand (see I did learn some of the lingo haha).  Then he laid down re bar to help keep the concrete from pulling apart.  This part I did actually help with.  The night before the concrete was coming I help tie together a bunch of pieces of re bar in the dark after yoga.  Note to self.  Squatting and tying together for re bar for an hour after a power yoga class is not generally a good idea if you want to walk the next day.  But enough about me and my one hour of helping ;).

 
 So the next day the concrete came bright and early  . . .


 And while I did laundry and cleaned the house and shopped for groceries, the boys were hard at work spreading and leveling and cutting the edges and floating . . . and that's the extent of my knowledge on concrete.  Oh and getting blisters from dragging a long board across the concrete to get it smooth.  Oh and I almost forgot!  The leaves.  It was beautiful weather for pouring concrete but no one had taken into consider Oklahoma wind.  And our forty foot oak tree dropping leaves by the bucket onto the wet concrete!  So a lot of the time was spent rigging up a contraption to go across the concrete pad so that they could individually pick each leaf that had fallen out of the wet concrete.  I told them I didn't mind leaf prints but apparently that is not good concrete etiquette ;).


 But check it out!! Not too shabby right?


And even more impressive after it dried!


So he passed with flying colors and it was on to the patio!  The plan was originally to do the whole driveway first, but then we realized letting a concrete truck on our new driveway was not really a good idea.  Only problem was the patio required a little more ground work.  Like raking up a million leaves.  And pulling up the bricks from the old patio that we found under a layer of dirt and leaves when we moved into the house.  So I went on ground work duty while Spencer went to work framing out the design our friendly landscape guy had given us.  Oh and Blitz whined like a little baby the whole time because she couldn't be right next to us (this step required pulling out the fence too) and because she hates power tools make that any tools.  Rakes are not her friend haha.


  

Okay this is getting long so I'll just skip to the good part.  Ta Da!  Our new patio. Love, love, love it. Okay I'll love it more once we've added some greenery and installed the new fence we've been dreaming about.  Oh and put in french doors off the back room, but honestly sitting out on the patio with the chimenea has been pretty awesome even if the view is a bit lacking :).

 

So next on the list: finish the driveway.  And then added closets to our spare bedroom, which will be our new bedroom when hell baby makes an appearance.  Oh and we also just finally hung up a bunch of sweet prints in our living room from my dad's machine shop.  Pictures to come when it is not dark outside.  Iphones still hate room with no natural light . . .

And yes we had a very nice thanksgiving.  More on that later . . .



Saturday, November 10, 2012

Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been wanting to write this for awhile but it was all hush, hush, so I figured I shouldn't put it out for the whole blog world (I know I'm flattering myself) to read.  The last couple of months have been a little different around here.  We've added a baby to the mix!  A very small one, but still.  And Spencer has affectionately dubbed it "hell baby" for the time being until we find out if it'll be a little mini me or a little mini Spencer.  So here's our official online announcement (and yes don't worry my mother has known for a while now):

 Coming May 2013
Approximately the 16th of May
Baby Hellman!!!!
(Currently the size of a lemon, hopefully a cute one haha)
 
 
And as my father nicely pointed out while laughing (with me not at me I'm pretty sure haha), I am such an engineer.  I had said all along I'd like five years of work experience under my belt before moving to a different stage of life and pretty much five years exactly after graduating from the lovely TU we'll be definitely entering a different stage of life.  And .. .  we are pumped!! Freaked out for sure, but we are also really excited.
 
So let's see, yes life has already changed a little, but honestly less than I thought it would.  I think right now most of the changes are happening in our heads.  Give it a month or two though and I'm sure I'll say differently when my wardrobe no longer functions haha.  So far though, here's my list of changes:
 
- taking nasty prenatals every night before bed
- feeling like I'm going to explode every morning when I get out of bed and have to run to the bathroom (haha I know TMI)
- raw meet looks pretty nasty
- spinach and plain lattes, both of which I loved before this oddness no longer look good at all
-bacon cheeseburgers look oddly good all the time (so far I've only given in once haha)
- no martinis, I know so sad; and I am definitely already looking forward to my bday next year in June!
- umm I'm still drinking coffee, I'm not that extreme goodness.
- my reading list has expanded to include titles like "Pregnancy and Work" and "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" (yes the current plan is to go all natural at a birth center .. . . we'll see if I change my mind)
- I've become the ultimate multi tasker, I mean come on I'm growing a kid while working, going to yoga, shopping for groceries, even sleeping!  So weird. 
 
That's been about it honestly.  I know don't hate me, but I never got sick.  I felt tired, but not awful.  And Spencer says I've been a little more on edge, but nothing too extreme.  Hopefully he's not just being nice ;). My pants still fit, but give it a few weeks and I'm pretty sure that won't be true . . .
 
I think so far the nicest thing anyone has said to me has been, wow I can't believe it!  I don't think I've ever been so excited for anyone other than when I found out I was having my own kid.  I thought that was pretty awesome. 
 
Alright I'm off to do a little fall shopping and share the good news with some more friends.  For the record this has made me SO AWKWARD.  I wait really long into conversations to tell people.  And I wait till really awkward silences to say oh and by the way, we're having a kid . . . and then I sort of trail off.  Maybe I should have just put that on the post ;).


Thursday, October 25, 2012

Random

You know those things blogger does to make sure you are a human and not a computer?  The little pass code things?  When I, an actual human, have to try three times to get it right because they are so cryptic and hard to read, something is wrong.

The machines are getting too smart for me.

And I should probably not blog at 8 am either ;).

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sisters, Sisters, There Were Never More Devoted Sisters

First up this weekend would have been better with Amanda and Peter, just saying.  But don't worry Thanksgiving and the Turtle Rock festivities are just around the corner! Complete with (hopefully) weather that is more conducive for using the wrap around porch and the fire pits and the hot tub.  I. Can't. Wait.

Okay that being said this weekend was pretty fun.  Rach and her boyfriend Dan came up - okay more like across - for the weekend.  I love chill house guests who help you do the dishes and go grocery shopping and don't mind that you have no idea what you're making for dinner.  They got in town Friday night with plenty of time to eat a delicious pizza Spencer made with our homemade pesto before we headed out to watch the cards play (for the record I think we've already made 12 jars of pesto from our basil plants and you can't even see where I picked basil - so ridiculous!).  Go Cards!!  That game was so ridiculous!  And heart attack inducing!  Good thing DMac has cable and lives 20 steps away, so we could walk across the street and watch it in the comfort of our hoodies and socks - even though he was in Bentonville not Tulsa for the night haha.

In the morning, after some yummy breakfast and coffee, it was off to Porter, OK, the home of peaches.  We went to pick . . . wait for it . . . nope not peaches :).  We went to pick apples and pumpkins!  The apples were a no go, apparently it's too late in the season but we did find some lovely pumpkins.  We decided to be cheapos and skip the hay ride and just walk out to the pumpkin patch to find us some lovely gems.


 
 


Rokcy and Blitzy also had lots of fun laying around the yard and getting in mock dog fights all weekend long.  For the record Rocky is so chill and he loves sitting on your lap and cuddling.

 
Blitz however does not love sitting on your lap.  But it is pretty funny to try and get her to cuddle with you :).
 
 
After heading back from the pumpkin patch we hit up topeca and shopped around some little botique places downtown before heading home for bunches of football and some crazy weather!!  The boys wanted to make steaks and decided it was still feasible to grill them outside even though you could barely see through the rain to the garage!  
 


 
Rach and I opted for staying dry inside and making this awesome pie from some apples we got at the pumpkin patch (you could buy them just not pick them haha).  Our dinner turned out so, so delicious.  Steaks marinated in this awesome sauce we saw on a cooking show, grilled corn on the cob, and yummy potatoes roasted to perfection with spicy mustard and garlice.  And of course the pie :).
 


Today after church we just all sat around on the front porch and chilled.  It was so, so beautiful.  75 and sunny and breezy.  And the company was delightful.  Once they headed back to Arkansas we took our crazy not lap dog to walk by the river and then it was home for a delicious breakfast for dinner with David and Kat and David, complete with pumpkin pancakes topped with delcious apples and maple syrup and whipped cream.  Yum Yum.  I'd call that a pretty good weekend :).

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Bring on the Chilly Bumps

Yes Alisha that's for you :).

It feels like fall - like yesterday we had on our air conditioning, and today I'm kind of wishing the heat were on! Instead I'm just enjoying all things fall.  Like wearing my Uggs even though it's only 47 out and getting a new pair of boots! My old ones were pulling apart from the soles, and they only cost 19 dollars so I don't feel too bad about replacing them :).  And that was all before 11 this morning!  I also drank a lovely irish cream latte and about licked the cup it was so delicious, but since I was at an establishment instead of my house and I was with friends from work I refrained haha.  Then it was off to the post office and grocery store which stressed me out - too many people shopping on Saturdays!  So I headed home to finish baking some pumpkin snickerdoodles I had started last night.  Guys, these cookies are so, so yummy.  And now we're sitting watching football and eating cheezit duos while Spencer waits for the dough to rise on a batch of homemade cinnamon roles.  I'd call that a pretty good saturday.  Ooo and we still have thai food to look forward to tonight at Libby's bday party!!  Man I am spoiled and apparently my life most definitely revolves around food :).  I guess there are worse things life could revolve around haha.

 
I really need to switch over my drawers so that they aren't full of shorts and tank tops, but right now the couch is feeling pretty good and looking at fall outfits on pinterest is calling my name.  Oh and I also started cleaning out the attic - that might have to get finished another day too ;).  I have for the record changed some of my candles from coastal se blue to a fall cinnamon color.  That's about as far as I've gotten in saying goodbye to summer.
 
Oh and I almost forgot GO CARDS!!!! :)
 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Be Prepared To Be Jealous

Check out the new table on our front porch!! Compliments of my lovely husband :).  Who would have known he could build such amazing things?!  I think it looks like it could be out of the Restoration Hardware lookbook which is currently the "book" I'm ooing and awing over.
 
 
A little zoom in on the detail . . .
 
 
 

And look, even the benches are lovely!

 
Now all I need to do is figure out how to do a centerpiece that won't blow away and Blitzy won't eat :).

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Peaceful Fall Nights

Something about the weather changing is making me okay with just staying home and resting.  Could also be that the venturing out we did do this weekend to run errands consisted of not finding what we needed and feeling like everyone on the road was in a hurry to kill someone! So back to the comforts of home. Our house smells deliciously like fall thanks to a "Leaves" candle.  The name does not do it justice.  It smells like cider and mulled wine and baking pumpkin bread all mixed together.  Lovely. Tonight I made chicken taco soup (I know, I know mom I have finally decided there is something redeeming about soup - for the record though I'm pretty sure I will never like bean soup, even if it is only on principle haha), and we sat out on our front porch on the new table and benches Spencer built from his dad's old cedar fence posts.  When it's not dark out I'll take a picture so you can see how awesome and restoration hardware like it looks :).  Then I tried a poached fig recipe (weird) while Spencer ironed and we listened to The Milk Carton Kids and now we are reading - okay Spencer is reading, I was reading till The Smartest Guys In The Room started putting me to sleep.  It's actually a really fascinating book about the fall of Enron, but I can only handle so many pages at a time that require me to really pay attention to business details!

Now for a little Colorado photo fun.  I know, I know it's almost a month late, where has the time gone?!


Here's me thankful I made it up the pass alive all by my lonesome.  I might not have been smiling if I knew the way down was an hour and a half of gravel roads and no cell service!  Good thing I trusted my instincts and it made it to Taylor Park safe and sound to meet the rest of the gang. 


My attempt at being artistic.  Our lovely host Roy had the most chill dog every, Panda.  Well most chill ever unless you tried to pull out his matted hair, then he was vicious, not that I would know :).  Roy also owns the cabin we got to stay in.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.  And there was no cell service and no TV and no internet which was also beautiful.  And there was a shower which was also beautiful.  I know, I know not true roughing it, but what can I say I do like to wash my hair after a long day of hiking or four wheeling . . . more on that later!


The view after our morning hike up the hill above the cabin.


My handsome hiking loving hubby and half of his mom haha.

 
My handsome hiking loving hubby pushing down a dead tree.  Boys will be boys :).


Four wheeling!!  So this looks pretty tame right?  Wrong.  We definitely ended up going up the side of the mountain and right when we were on the edge of the tree line it started hailing!  So we huddled around under the last few trees and got soaking wet with freezing rain.  After that we still had to make it up the mountain and then back down again!  It was so wet I couldn't even see out of my visor and my pants were soaked through and I couldn't feel my hands half the ride down and we almost got run over by some crazy dirt (mud) bikers who thought I was an expert at steering my four wheeler up the side of the mountain.  The view at the top was totally worth it though.  And like I said getting to take a nice hot shower when we finally made it back was pretty awesome too :). 


Probably the coolest ring bearer I've ever known.


The cute couple whose wedding was the whole reason - make that excuse - for going to Colorado in the first place.  I mean, come on how cute are they?! :)

 
And the lovely view I had of the river Spencer and his dad fly fished on while Gena and I read.  If you're looking for an easy, gratifying read, you should get Plainsong.  It's written by a guy from Salida (where the wedding was) and it was one of the most understated and yet redeeming books I have read in a long time.
 

Spencer and I came back from the trip with a rekindled love for hiking.  We took two "easy" 3 or 4 hour hikes while we were there.  At least they were easy according to the online sites.  The first one was not easy!!  But it took us up to the continental divide and to, two really pretty lakes nestled up against the mountain on the tree line.  We had a nice little picnic of Nut Thins and apples and wished we had gotten up early so we could lay in the sun by the lake.  We also wished we had brought Blitz, she would have loved it!  So now we've decided we want to make hiking a regular thing, only problem is we live in Oklahoma, hiking is not really a state past time.  We did hit up Turkey Mountain last weekend though and we're thinking Arkansas mountains sometime soon!  Anybody know any other places to hike? Other than redbud which won't let you bring your dog - lame.

Happy fall to all.  Wow on that awful cheesy note I think I'm going to head to bed! 

Monday, September 3, 2012

The Beautiful Noise Of . . . High Pitched Screaming

It is so hot today.  I want to work in the yard.  I want to go places.  I want to enjoy the great outdoors before the fall gets crazy and it's Thanksgiving and Christmas before I know it.  But, it's 108 degrees out, and it's making me feel so worn out!  So instead I'm listening to the new Avett Brother's new CD compliments of NPR's first listen while reading about canning and preserving - oh and talking to Alisha, that made me a little less ho hum haha.

So Saturday we decided to have a little cookout, well okay not really little.  Little would be like Spencer and I and a friend, instead we had a bunch of our neighbor friends including the Brennans.  We kind of like to all act like we are still in college and now we just have really big dorm rooms across from each other and on campus jobs that pay enough for us to stock the fridge with things that didn't come from the C-store. I digress.  But for the record, living within walking distance of the people that stood in your wedding is pretty awesome.  Hint, hint all you who are not here, you should probably just move on over here ;).

So we had these lovely girls over also.  And they are so loud.  And so full of life, and it was making me remember why I love little kids.  I really do!  And I don't mind the screaming, I think it's music to my ears to think they are so full of life, so excited about things like coloring books that also have Cinderella and Ariel stickers!!  Oh and styrofoam guns.  Yep they completely took apart the game cabinet and found our "Cash and Guns" game, complete with fake guns.  Let the party begin :).  They kept running around shooting eachother, well all except lizzy who kept the gun in her mouth most of the time, so now I have one gun full of teeth marks ;).    Sorry for the poor quality of these pics, apparently four moving girls in the evening light of our house is something the iphone still can't handle.  Maybe generation 6 will get that one right haha.

 
 
 


 

 
Okay I promise next time I'll put pics of Colorado.  And tell our funny ATV story, but for now these lovely little girls with guns will have to suffice :).  Happy Labor Day.  Hope it's full of brauts and watermelon and cookies.  Okay okay cookies are random, but I've thinking about making them so they are in my head.  I think I'll get on that and actually make some!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Bucket Lists

It is beautiful in Tulsa today.  80 and breezy at lunch time.  Last week it was 115 and sauna like at lunch time.  Ironically, I'm fighting off a cold today.  Who knew, colds and sinus issues in August.  So I've been ordered by my kind husband who takes better care of me than I would myself, to not run a million errands today and to just rest.  So I ran one errand to get our co-op food and called it a comprimise :).  Blitz and I are just sitting out on the front porch enjoying the glorious day.  Now if only I had a porch swing bed like thing that I've seen on pinterest . . . hmm maybe I need to add that to the bucket list.

Okay so the other night Spencer and I were talking about bucket lists.  What do you guys think, do they need to be realistic goals? Like things you think you can actually accomplish, it would just take a whole life time to get to all of them?  Okay this is vague, I'll just tell you our lists so far and you can judge if they are unrealistic haha.

Spencer
- go scuba diving
- be a part owner or an owner of a business
- be asked to speak at a conference

Jenny
- drive an aston martin (not own one, just drive one!)
- hike northern Ireland (thanks to Evelyn!  which by the way we saw her and Scott last night and it was wonderful.  I just wish they didn't live so far away!!)
- see the Grand Canyon, okay this is actually on both of our lists, how convenient :)
- have a kid, also on both of our lists, again convenient ;)
- have a backyard we can enjoy (I know you're thinking, what in the current state it's not enjoyable?!)
- be able to access 800 million dollars of credit instantly - okay so this is where I started wondering how realistic do the bucket lists have to be.  So the CEO of our company can access that much money just by picking up the phone, how awesome would that be?!  So I'm putting it on my bucket list.  Probably not appropriate, but you never know right? ;)

Okay that's where we got to the other night.  For the record I had been thinking about it for a couple of days before I sprung it on Spencer that we should talk about our bucket lists, so I had more time to brainstorm :).  I'm sure we'll keep adding as we go.  Any new things on your bucket lists lately?

I'm off to read some more Ray Bradbury.  I just finished Illustrated Man this week, and I loved it.  Short stories may be my new favorite thing.  They don't require you remembering what you read last night while you were falling alseep ;).


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A Series of Mostly Unfortunate Events

Okay first off this title is really probably misleading, I thought of it when we were driving back from OKC this weekend and at that point I felt like it had been the weekend of unfortunate events, but since then things have improved :).
First off, check out Michelle!!  And baby Sophia Jane, well at least the imprint she's leaving on the world so far.  So weird that my high school buddies are old enough to have babies, which means that somewhere along the line I became old enough to have a baby.  So odd.  Okay, okay I know people have babies when they are 14, but seriously?! Ready to have childern? When did that happen?!!  I can't wait to meet little Sophia and see what great parents Michelle and Simon will be :).


Woah, so I'm just figuring out how to shift my pictures around, I know, I know I'm so behind in technological advances. Maybe someday I'll learn the powers of the internet haha. Okay so the series of mostly, or at least partly unfortunate events.
  So this weekend we decided to take a little tirp to OKC to see Spencer's grandpa.  We had missed a family reunion a few weeks back while we were in Boston and he's just moved into a new retirement center, so we wanted to go check out his new digs.  Right after work on Friday (which meant I had to give up beers with my coworkers!! I know such a sacrifice haha) we headed out on the turnpike towards OKC.  We had dinner reservations at 7:30 at the Park Avenue Grill, a fancy pants place all the oil tycoons hang out in the old historic Skirvin hotel downtown.  We were driving along listening to standup comedy compliments of spotify (good thing Spencer knows how to use technology!) and all of sudden the highway came to a stand still.  There was no sign of any construction though.  We inched along for awhile and eventually came to a few hundred yard stretch that had been put down to one lane.  No construction, no signs, no nothing, just two guys standing by a couply hundred yards of blocked off highway.  At this point we're thinking not so nice things about the turnpike authority in our heads.   

 What the?!! Who blocks off the turnpike for no reason?!! So we go a little bit further down the road and then the entire turnpike is closed and they are forcing off the highway and redirecting us back towards Tulsa without any kind of indication of what in the world they are doing.  Enter google.  We had seen some smoke up in the distance and our GPS on the beamer had been freaking out telling us we wouldn't get into OKC till late so I decided to do some looking around on el interent.  Arsonist.  Threw a lit newspaper out his car.  In a burn ban.  When it was 115 degrees out.  Literally.  And windy.  Basically a whole bunch of the road between us and OKC was burning.  Well the trees and grass were burning and driving through smoke is not advised.  So they rerouted us way out of our way, into no internet land, so no more searching on what was up and no more spotify stand up comedy, only us and our annoyingness since we were both hungry and grumpy and uncomfortable since we had decided to switch into fancy clothes in Tulsa to avoid being late to dinner.  Yep we drove the whole way in a suit and in a gold party dress and green babbles.  You can guess who wore what haha.  At least we arrived in style :).  Finally around 8:30 we arrived at the Scirvin, where thankfully they hadn't given away our reservations, that would have really been icing on the cake.

Okay that's the end of most the unfortunate events, so yes basically our unfortunate events revolve around not getting food when we thought we were going too ;).  Once we were there it was really, really nice.  The food was amazing.  Delicious fried green tomatos.  Devine pork medallions with dried cherries and apples and tomato chutney over hashbrowns.  I know the hashbrowns sounds weird but it was so, so, so good.  Spencer's rib eye and truffle frites were pretty tasty too :).  Oh and my fruity goose martini totally hit the spot after the too many hours in the car.  At this point we were both pretty tired, so it was off to the hotel room for a couple of episodes of HGTV and then wonderful sleep.  Too bad we told Spencer's grandpa we would meet him for breakfast at 9 am.  I could have totally laid in that bed all morning.  So comfy! 

 But since we did go to OKC to see his grandpa we pulled ourselves out of bed and headed over to pick him up for breakfast.  It was really nice to get to see him.  We got a tour of the retirement center and then it was off to the club house for breakfast.  We heard fun stories about Poppa and his wife and the RV they used to take to Colorado every summer for fishing and sewing and reading.  We heard about how she used to have to get all dolled up every day while in OKC but once they were out on the lake she roughed it with the best of them.  We asked about his current house and how they picked it out (they were doing an estate sale that day so we had driven by to look at it).  We heard about the house they lived in before that - one that they cleared the land for themselves and then helped designed the house that was built on the land. We heard about the family farm and how it was getting split up and how a brother died on the farm.  About how he didn't ever really want to do farm work, so he sold his piece of the farm.  I got distracted by these girls in the olympics doing crazy flips on the trampoline!!  We asked about what books he was reading, asked about the food in the retirement center, heard about how he mostly eats junk food and his doc said he's supposed to eat healthy but then when he's leaving the doctor's office she pulls him aside and says eat whatever you want :), we drove around Chesapeake's campus and talked about which would be worse, a giant empty huge skyscraper or a bunch of office building scattered over a campus all vacant.  Hopefully neither happens.  I'm glad we got to spend the morning with Poppa.

Wow.  This is getting long.  Okay so after seeing Poppa we stopped by and saw David and his parents ripping out wallpaper.  They are awesome.  I wish we didn't live in different cities.  I would love sitting at their kitchen table more often.  Then it was off to the Upper Crust for some amazing pizza!  We went with the special: meatball pie!  Then we walked in some ridiculously hoity toity shops with 240 dollar pillows and 8000 dollar couches I was afraid to sit on, but the lady insisted!  And 350 dollar belts.  I bought one.  Just kidding :).  At this point it was so, so hot and we wer ready to go home but not without some coffee!! I mean what Saturday trip is complete without a yummy latte or americano?  So we hit up elemental down in the hipster part of town and my latte didn't disappoint.  It was beautiful and really, really yummy.  The dark chocolate hazelnut we bar we split with our drinks didn't hurt ;). Seriously this was like the trip of delicious meals and delicious drinks.

Okay enough already on the never ending post :).  Two more pics for your enjoyment.
Our lovely dinner tonight.  I wanted to work on presentation tonight for some reason.  Lovely tomatos mostly from our garden, plus grilled pineapple and honey, add to that some cheese and a loaf from St Louis Bread Co and just for fun I picked some fresh mint for our tea.  Yum Yum.  I know, I konw where's the chicken? Ha ha.


After dinner we took a quick trip to home depot to get paint samples for the sun room (pics to come soon!) and we saw this.  Oh yes a police car getting towed.  Is it bad part of me thinks this is so awesome?  Alright time for some sleep.  Remind me next time and I'll put down some ramblings on our bucket lists.  We've been working on them.  Here's a little hint:  mine may not be things that are actually attainable, but apparently I like to dream big :).


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Whew! But In A Good Way

The last few weeks have been pretty busy.  So many activities, too little time.  But we've been having so much fun!  So even though I'm tired, I think it's a good - I really like my life right now - kind of tired.  Let's see if I can even remember what all we've been up to. 

Two weekends ago was Skeet and Jordan's wedding.  It was outside in July and it was so beautiful. They had a lake in the background and the breeze was blowing and they looked so cute and happy and YOUNG.  Okay I have to admit that I'm starting to feel just a little old.  Graduating seniors at TU now look like babies to me.   Here we are not looking so much like babies anymore :).



We had so much partying with all our church friends out on the deck, drinking lots of Riesling (sorry Skeet I drank more than my 1.5 glasses haha), talking all about life, about their kids and about how someday our future (hopefully) kids are going to force me to chill out some, about going back to school someday, about our crazy stages of life, about going to the next wedding in Colorado!!!  Sidenote:  we can't wait to go to Nick and Ruth's wedding in Salida!!  Bring on the non 116 degree weather and the mountains.  Another sidenote:  in case you haven't figured this out about me yet I really love vacations and traveling.  In fact when we talk about having kids someday I really think it is one of my biggest concerns - how are we still going to go on sweet vacations?!  I know, I know I need to chill out :). 


So let's see after Skeet's wedding it was partying with Amy and the moores on Sunday night, then yoga and Bible study and basketball on Monday night, then softball double header on Tuesday night,  Wednesday night I can't remember what we did, then a dinner party with three new couples we've met through church softball on Thursday(they are so cool by the way, super fun to hang out with even though we just met them!), then Lana Thai and Dark Night Rising on Fright night with the Moore's and Joni and Tim (more new friends!!) for David's bday, and then Saturday morning after sleeping in (i know go figure we were tired hahah) it was off to middle of nowhere Arkansas to see my sis and her boyfriend and all their fun loving peeps.

Arkansas was lots of fun too!  We had delicious food multiple times, lots of fun swimming and drinking beer and commiserating over how women with careers really don't have an easy go once they have kids.  Something needs to change there.  I think maybe we are at a critical mass, but the problem is someone has to the be the one, or probably multiple someones have to be the ones to push the status quo and ask for more flexible schedules and more flexible carerrs.  We are not men.  Even if the bosses like to act like we are.  Okay sorry tangent.  We also had so much fun driving around with Dan and Rach, listening to Africa with Dan's dog Rocky laying in my lap (why won't Blitz do that?!!), seeing all the beautiful back roads of Arkansas.  I see why people live here.  So much slower a pace of life.

Then it was back to Tulsa and off to the races again.  Yoga and basketball again on Monday night but no Bible study.  I needed to get groceries!! And not get home at 10:30!! As it was we still didn't eat dinner till past 8!  Last night was so much drama with my little - story for another day.  And tonight, well tonight we are hanging out with some of our favorite people in the world.  David and David and Kathryn.  You know those people that don't require you cleaning your house?  That don't mind your giant dog?  That help you grate cheese and find their own glasses and wine?  And then don't mind while you take a shower and work on blogging while they watch olympic reruns and weird you tube videos?  We love them.

One last thing.  I got yellow Tom's!!! And I LOVE THEM. Okay enough random accounts of our lives for one day, time to eat DMac's mom's cake and watch men's sand volleyball.  Is it ironic to anyone that the olympics are an excuse to sit on the couth for a month? :)

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Lazy Summer Afternoon

Okay it is hot today.  We spent all morning DIYing our new church facility.  Okay that's a little extreme :).  But we did spend all morning on it - carrying multiple loads of trash to the dumpster, taking down old paper towel and soap dispensers, carrying lots of old paint cans to the "garage sale" room, sweeping up old tile, cleaning out the old storage facility.   The boys framed some new walls and took care of hoisting the heavy carpet roles into the dumpster and doing any other dirty work the rest of us stayed away from!

So this afternoon we're being lazy.  Pretty lazy.  We got Popeyes - yes I still think it is the most delicious fast food on the planet - and now we are sitting in the AC reading and blogging and answering personal emails (since apparently now my work days are way too crazy to even begin writing emails that are not work related, okay actually I do start them and then at 4:45 when I'm shutting down I see these half written emails that I was in the middle of when this meeting started or so and so called).

Okay so just some funny pictures for you today of our baby :).

This was Blitz "helping" me take a nap.  First I put her outside but she kept trying to open the front door, so then I put her back in her crate and she whined and cried and made all kinds of crazy noises, so I let her out to come by me and this is what happens.  Pretty much on my lap haha.


 Yep she's so good at taking naps :)


She also really loves the new window seat.  Any time our neighbor is outside this is her new favorite place to be, standing guard over the rest of the house :).


Yep, she's pretty awesome :).



Okay so other random thought for the day: I love having a summer garden.  It's so fun just to walk outside and think hmm what should I add to dinner tonight, some cherry tomatoes? On a salad? In pasta? On shrimp kabobs? Don't mind if I do.  Butternut squash? How about stuffing it with sausage and breadcrumbs and cheese? Yes please!  Basil, tomato salad? Yum Yum.  Stuffed peppers?  Mint in my iced tea?  Fresh lettuce salad for lunch?  Roasted poblano salsa?  The list seems endless and it's free!  And so fresh!!  And delicious :). This week I'm going to try making my own pasta sauce with cherry tomatoes, we'll see how it goes!   Too bad lattes don't grow in gardens, I'd be so much less poor haha.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Loveliness

I love summer nights.

I know, I know it's muggy, but I really don't mind.  I just drove home with the windows down and some Ryan Adams blaring (for the record not nearly as blareable as Enrique but for a five minute drive it will do haha).  Now Blitz and I are sitting out on the porch relaxing to a girly spotify playlist - don't worry Spencer's not here.  I don't subject him to my rascal flatts, one direction, regina spektor, "call me maybe" playlist - well at least not on repeat for hours on end :).

I would love summer nights even better if I didn't have to get up early for work, but that's a rant for another day.  Okay here are my random recommendations for the week:



Headhunter - really, really good movie, and not just because the main character is a headhunter like Spencer :).  It's by the guy who did the original norwegian Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Other than the random nudity we really enjoyed it.

The Second Shift - really interesting book about families with dual careers and children.  Alisha read it :).  Apparently I have a fascination with sociology books that is just not satisfied by my day job, go figure haha.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer - okay the boys wanted to see it.  I wouldn't have paid 8 bucks to see it with the girlfriends but it was pretty entertaining :).  And plus we went to the cheap theater so it was only 6 bucks, take that!

Okay so I gave you a whole week to look at my pictures and brainstorm.  Okay, okay it was sheer laziness or umm lack of planning to make time in my day for blogging :)

So here's a few more lovely ones as a bonus for your waiting patiently.  All the lovely, peaceful ones are from a day trip I took Provincetown, across the bay from Boston.  (Sidenote - on our last trip we did all the free history attractions since we were broke and in college so this time I decided to fork over a little cash and venture a little further out).  So at nineish on Monday morning while Spencer and his coworkers were slaving away at the conference I boarded a giant catamaran for the 90 minute ride to Provincetown.

It was such a beautiful ride.  Past all these little islands in the bay, some with old forts on them, some with lighthouses, one with the Boston airport, one with a power plant, and countless ones that looked barren of all human life but oh so green!  Then it was out into the open water and on to cape cod.  At this point I realized I should have been a sailor.  Yep I was out on the deck reading and slowly people started coming out and laying on the benches looking awful.  I realized the sea was a little rough but I felt plenty fine to be reading with the ocean spraying in my face, randomly enjoying looking up at the blue water all around.  And then the fun started.  Okay not fun, three of them puked!! Into the little white bags! Right in front of me.  Yeah it was pretty gross.  And I felt bad for them, but still not sick.  Hence I've decided to take sailing lessons - hey wait! That was already on my new years resolution, perfect :).

So after 90 wonderful minutes (to me at least) the catamaran dropped us off on the end of a long pier that led into Provincetown. And then I had all day to explore.  I started out walking up and down the main street poking into all these little art galleries and local shops but quickly got bored of window shopping and I was not about to lug around a bunch of purchases - well other than a small box of fudge :).  I couldn't resist that!  So I hit up a local coffee shop for a latte and a snack and then decided to strike out for the cape.  I had seen that there was a rock bridge out to the cape and I thought what the heck I have all day, why not?  So I started walking.  About 30 minutes later I got out of town and to the lovely rock bridge:


At this point I felt totally ridiculous because I was jumping across these rocks in my sperrys with my coach purse full of fudge on my arm.  Yep I was prepared for a hike :).  But come on!! I wasn't going to let a little wardrobe malfunciton stop me from enjoying the solitaryness that awaited me on the other side of the bay:

There was no one!  I could have been in the middle of nowhere instead of a short walk from town and a short skip across the bay from millions of people hurrying around the streets of Boston.  It was so breathtaking.  I could have sat there for hours and just enjoyed the sound of the ocean and, and well nothing else. I hiked through the overgrown greenery to the light house and snooped around but decided warning signs from the US government to stay out were good enough to keep me from trying to pry open the door - I know, I know where is my bravery?  Maybe I forfeited it when I decided to carry my coach purse across the wildnerness who knows ;).


I loved the pieces of driftwood resting in the sand - I mean come on real driftwood!!  After hiking out to the lighthouse I realized if I didn't turn around soon I might miss the ferry.  Yep I had walked for over an hour and a half to get out there!  So around I turned and started headed back to town.  Someday I'll pack a picnic and spend a day journaling in that sand.  Add that to the bucket list.  On the walk back I decided it would be a good time to pray - note to self, praying while hopping over rocks right by the water might not be the best practice, but I survived ;).  The only casuality were my sperrys.  They now smell AWFUL.  Oh and my face.  I got sunburned! It was cloudy and chilly but apparently three hour hikes mid day still give you sunburns :).

Once back in town, I found a local artist who was selling prints of beach scenes and found one that a perfect addition to our mantle.  And no this is not it - this is just a beautiful sailboat that we saw on the ride out of Provincetown.  The iphone could not capture how graceful it looked with the lighthouse in the background, but maybe you can get a little glimps :).


And just in case you aren't jealous yet of all the loveliness, I most definitely got the emergency exit row on the plane ride home and had all this leg room.  Yep Spencer didn't even know what he was missing when he opted for the aisle sit :).


Okay this post is getting out of hand and super long, time to switch the laundry to the dryer and head to bead.  Go to Boston.  It is beautiful.  Take the ferry.  Hike out of town.  And then send me some more pics of it :).

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Summer Time in the City

Whew!  Where has June gone?  The last month has been crazy.  Mostly in a good - we took two vacations in three weeks - kind of way :).  Oh and I switched jobs at work and had my birthday and we had our four year anniversary and our dog puked for a day straight and we threw a wedding shower for some friends at church and we had our fridge whack out on us while we were on one of our two vacations which induced all kinds of "I can't throw a shower without a working fridge" freaking out.  Yep it has been a crazy month.

First things first, Spencer got me this sweet watch for my birthday.  Yep, he's pretty awesome.  Four years married to him has been pretty awesome too.  Don't worry I'm not kidding myself it hasn't been awesome every day, but overall I give him an A+.  A+ for helping me be a better person, for stopping me from freaking out as much over the little things (can you say Type A? haha), for being an awesome handyman (I mean come on he rebuilt the garage and built me a window seat and a coffee table and a mantle and a crate and barrell look alike mirror and I'll just stop there before you get too jealous haha), for being a hardworking recruiter (for example he just won a 1000 bucks for knowing his recruiting software better than everyone else at the conference - make that A+ for being a software nerd haha), for being a good friend who's continually getting better at listening and not just trying to fix me, and for being an awesome dancer - he definitely just did some random jig with blitz haha. 


So our last adventure was to Boston. Spencer had a work conference and his coworkers all brought their spouses, so I thought three days to explore boston on my own - heck yes!! 

Check out the view from our window!  And the other side was a view of the harbor, talk about the high life - miller high life that is haha.


We went a day early so we could enjoy a little R&R and a little time away from the office for our anniversary.  So what did we do?  Did you guess it? Yep we ate some yummy food and drank some yummy coffee thanks to some tips from my office mates and Spencer's bro and googling "best lattes in Boston."  Yes I used my company iphone for that one :).

 Us enjoying the famousness that is Mike's Pastry shop.

On to the next venue, the Sam Adams brewery tour!  Okay make that a 20 minute tour with 40 minutes of tasting beer.  Yep life is pretty good around here :).

Okay we're late to a barbecue, I'll leave you guessing on the rest of the pictures for now :).  Happy Sunday evening!