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 ;).

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 :).

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? :)

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.

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 :).

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!

We're Back!!

Okay I know only one picture is a crime after being on a beautiful beach for a week, but all the pics are on Spencer's phone and I haven't taken the time to import them all onto my computer, so here you go, our happy faces in Riviera May, or actually at the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum!  And yes we are ridiculous and both have Ray Bans.  Thank Spencer's boss.

We had a really, really relaxing time.  It was beautiful and humid and green and the rooms were nice and spacious and airconditioned and the food was delicious!  So delicious in fact that after a week of wearing bathing suits and gym clothes, trying to fit back into our normal clothes was not so fun, but totally worth it ;). 

Okay so a break down of what we did:

Day 1: sleep in, get up and go to breakfast, lay on the beach, play some killer sand volleyball (guys I blocked a shot for the winning point!!!! and yes i know, i know that means the net was too low, but go with me here!), get a drink from the bartenders walking the beach, go to lunch, lay by the pool, read some good books, go back to the room and take a nap, go to dinner, drink and eat some more, go to sleep

Day 2: got up early to go to yoga (7 am!!!) repeat of day 1

Day 3: decided 7 was way to early for vacation yoga, repeat of day 1

Day 4 and 5: repeat of day 1 and 3, I start to get a little antsy

Day 6: I start to get really antsy

Day 7: drag spencer to Tulum and Playa de Carmen, get harassed by a bunch of mexicans trying to make me buy cheap jewelry, or get a tatoo, or get braids in my hair, or a massage, or anything that would let them take my money!

Day 8: get up early, walk on the beach, say goodbye to the waves, eat and drink some more, get on plane home . . . fast forward a few hours to the Houston airport (okay I had been forewarned it took a long time but still!!).  We wait in a really long line to go through immigrations.  Twice as long as the line for non US citizens!! I thought the point was to have a shorter line ;).  Then we went to get our bags and could only find one of them!  We get more and more frantic as we try to find our bag and the time for our flight to leave gets closer and closer.  At the last minute when all the other bags had come and the conveyer was slowing down our bag finally came out.  Rush through customs.  Get stopped by a lady who says we can't go up the stairs for no reason.  Lady lets us go.  Run up the stairs only to have to wait in another line for another set of security.  Get through security with 20 minutes to go.  We thought we were in the right terminal but our gate was forever far away.  At this point we start running . . . and keep running . . . and keep running.  Finally we get to our gate and get on with just a few minutes to spare!  By this point I'm all sweaty and wheezing haha.  I know pathetic.  I don't think yoga builds up your running muscles ;).  Get home to Tulsa, everyone else's kids are there to greet them and mass chaos insues complete with little Miles running up on top of the conveyer while laughing giddly.

Overall really wonderful trip.  For me to it was perfect timing at work which made it even more amazing. I had nothing to think about work related while I was there.  Instead I could think about what I was reading and about our master plan for the backyard!

Okay book review from the trip (wow I feel like this post is getting really rambly and not really with funny stories haha).  The book The Emotionally Healthy Church is amazing.  Really, really thought provoking.  I think I'll read it again after Spencer finishes it.  The Constant Princess about Henry the VIII's first wife was a fun read plus knowing the ending of the story means it was less stressful of a read ;).  Influence, the Power of Persuasion is weird.  Still trying to figure out what I think of that.  Apparently more people die in car wrecks and airplane crashes after someone famous commits suicide.  So odd. Fast Company, the magazine makes me feel like I have ADD.  Too many things on one page.  HGTV's magazine is awesome plane perusing material. 

So there you go :).  Our trip in a nutshell.  I promise to post more pics next time . . .