Nutshell

Mike and I had a great weekend. Friday night we finally went and saw "The Blind Side". I know that Mike REALLY likes a movie when he smiles during the moving. And he smiled during this movie. Wow. Even while the old guy behind us tapped his cane annoyingly on the floor. And if you know Mike and his thoughts about that, you would be surprised to hear that I was more annoyed than he. What a great guy I am married to.

We finally made another large purchase this weekend that we have been planning on making. Mike bought his first shotgun. Like a kid in a candy store. The shotgun was purchased for protection purposes, but the reason we got a shotgun as opposed to a handgun or any other kind of gun is it can be used for recreational purposes also. But I have to say, actually owning a gun puts a new perspective on things. You know you watch those shows where the wife or the husband all of a sudden goes crazy.....and well I don't have to finish the story. Not that Mike and I would ever EVER go crazy....it was just a different perspective. Weird. But I do feel more safe with a shotgun under the bed.

Every year Norman has a Renaissance Fair. And it happened to be this weekend. People get all dressed up, I call them crazies, and go and walk around this fair. It was miserably rainy and cold yesterday, so we had a hard time staying longer than absolutely necessary to see what there was to see. In a nutshell, they had Elephant (yes, a real elephant) rides, Camel rides, blacksmiths, lingerie chainmetal (yep, its true), turkey legs, sword fighting...and all kinds of other fun booths. We didn't do much of anything (except of course, buy a turkey leg) because it was just too cold outside, but hopefully next year will be better. One of these years we are going to ride an elephant. Can't pass that opportunity up more than once.

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us because we are going to be spending the weekend in Dallas with Mike's brother and his beautiful wife and their adorable children. They live in Houston. And Dallas happens to be the halfway point between here and there. We are really looking forward to hanging out with them again and seeing what Dallas has to offer. I checked the weather and of course, its supposed to be rainy while we are there but the temperature still seems like it shouldn't be bad. I so looked forward to Spring, and getting out of the Winter weather, and now I am so ready for Spring to be over and Summer to be here. I just want sunshine. No more of this cold, rainy stuff.

 

Bracket

Syracuse Lost.

What is going on?

Small Pleasures

I pull this article from Yahoo! The original article is titled:

101 small pleasures you can enjoy every day


I pulled out a few that I didn't like (ie: a great cup of coffee) and turned it into:

90 small pleasures to enjoy every day

1. coloring
2. crisp cotton sheets
3. soft skin
4. old family recipes
5. the first daffodils of spring
6. sleeping in
7. an exercise endorphin high
8. a genuine compliment
9. the way babies smell
10. a handwritten letter
11. waking up in a good mood...for no real reason
12. singing in the shower
13. finding a couple forgotten dollars in your pocket
14. doing something nice for your neighbor
15. a home cooked meal
16. laughing
17. movie theater popcorn
18. playing hookey
19. a bubble bath
20. swimming
21. an afternoon nap
22. street musicians
23. your favorite song
24. saying thank you
25. helping someone in need
26. old fashioned photo booths
27. fresh whipped cream
28. inspiring blogs
29. rainy afternoons
30. the funny things kids say
31. a novel you can get lost in
32. finding the perfect piece of clothing...on sale
33. clean laundry
34. the wind in your hair
35. treating the person behind you at the drive-thru
36. sharing an umbrella
37. the smell of lavender
38. a long walk that clears your head
39. a bear hug
40. The Beatles
41. smiling at a stranger
42. butterflies
43. staying in your pj's all day
44. singing along to the radio and knowing all the words
45. fresh herbs
46. ordering in pizza
47. happy endings...even if they're fictional
48. flying a kite
49. puppies
50. root beer floats
51. holding open the door...
52. ...or having someone hold the door for you
53. fountain soda
54. white, fluffy towels
55. sunshine
56. spending an afternoon at a museum
57. really great advice
58. green lights all the way home
59. the sound of rain hitting the windows
60. sitting in a booth
61. holding hands
62. a great hair day with no effort
63. building a fort
64. when someone falls asleep with their head on your shoulder
65. fireflies
66. geraniums on a windowsill
67. slow dancing
68. the smell of fresh-baked bread
69. cheesy, uplifting musicals
70. great stories
71. love letters
72. old friends...
73. ...new friends
74. a pull-through parking space
75. a baguette -- crisp on the outside, airy on the inside
76. sitting at the counter at an old-fashioned diner
77. using your favorite dishes
78. reading your child a bedtime story
79. Girl Scout Cookies
80. flossing
81. kissing someone you love
82. hot chocolate
83. jumping in puddles
84. old photographs
85. a spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar
86. your softest t-shirt
87. a new magazine in the mail
88. fireplaces
89. having exact change
90. bacon and eggs cooking on Saturday morning

Speaking of funny things that kids say, I teach the 6 year olds in primary and last Sunday I was teaching about missionaries. And I asked the kids what missionaries do, and one kid raised his hand and said they eat food. Hah. They must have the missionaries over for dinner a lot. Then later I asked what you can do to prepare to go on a mission. And a different child said you can try a lot of different kinds of food. Oh man. Then later as I was telling Mike about this, I said "You'll never guess what the kids said." And Mike said, "Eat food." Hah. Oh man. Funny day.

♥

I think that the whole world should be seen through sunglasses with a brown tint.
Everything looks so much warmer.
For some reason the colors seem brighter to me and the world seems so much more pleasant.
Mike disagrees.
How can the colors be brighter when they are seen through sunglasses that dim the light?
My response: Okay, maybe not brighter.....the colors are just more colorful.
I know, compelling argument huh?
I don't care.
I love brown tinted sunglasses.
♥
Today I felt the humidity again for the first time since last summer.
Luckily it's only 60 degrees outside so it wasn't terrible.
It actually felt kind of nice.
Its supposed to rain later today, so the humidity is just the pre-storm.
I hope we get some lightning too.
I love Oklahoma lightning storms.
♥
I started doing Zumba.
For all those who don't know, its an hour long workout class based around Latin dancing.
Personally, I feel more like I am doing a Bollywood dance.
But either way, it knocks my socks off.
So much fun!
And an awesome workout.
And the class is free.
I love free.
♥
My husband looks so good in a suit.
Wow.
Lucky for me he is going to be a lawyer.
He'll get to wear a suit every day.
Yes!
The key is, will I actually get to see him in that suit?
Working 70 hours a week.
Poor guy.
I love him.
♥

Substantialiscious

A guy at work just gave me a full size Snickers bar. I don't remember the last time I ate a full size Snickers bar. And now I am forced to stare at it all day as it sits on my desk. Oh the temptation...


Today the high is supposed to be 73 degrees. I have a date with my running shoes later. Can't pass up the amazingness of this weather.


I was at Sams Club the other day to pick up some pictures that I had ordered. In addition to a bunch of other pictures, all different sizes (working on decorating the wall in my bedroom...pictures to come), I had ordered two 8x10's from my wedding. Note: I have previously ordered wedding pictures from Sams Club. I have gotten both a 11x14 and a 5x7 there. Anyway, she would not give me the two 8x10's I had ordered. She asked if I had my copyright release form with me. Seriously? Well if I even had one of those, I probably wouldn't carry it around in my purse with me. She said she couldn't give them to me without her getting a copy of the release. But I had gotten them printed of there before! Since they were already printed, I asked her what she was going to do with them if she didn't give them to me. Oh just shred them. What?! You already spent the money on printing them off, went to all the trouble, and now you are just going to shred them? Fine. Shred them. Because I don't have a copyright to give you, even though I own all the rights and own all the CD's. Yeah I know, she was just trying to follow the rules. Well I don't care, I know I own them. So just freaking give me my pictures!! Irritating. Do you know how easy it would be for me to type up my own copyright release form, forge it and give it to her? Geez. I own those pictures. Stupid. Sams Club definitely lost brownie points in my book.

Sight-Seeing, Fishing, Cheering...

Pops is a wonderful diner type restaurant that carries over 500 varieties of bottled soda pop. It sits on the world famous Route 66. As you can imagine, it is very popular. So of course, we had to try this place out. This weekend we traveled north about 45 minutes with some friends only to find out that the wait was 1 hour. So of course we wait.

While waiting we travel down the road to another Route 66 attraction, the "Arcadia Round Barn". You can schedule events in the barn, including weddings and receptions.

To take up the rest of our waiting, we laid (and played) outside on the grass, since it was a nice day. Definitely good times with good friends.

Later that day we all decided to go fishing. It was a race against the weather since there was a storm moving in but we had a good time. Mike and I both caught our first fish of the season (small but still special in their own way). Hopefully we will be able to go fishing many more times before we leave for Utah, since our fishing licenses are only good in Oklahoma.

I have been doing well in my NCAA bracket. I am beating Mike and thats really all I care about. We had the lucky opportunity to go see BYU play Kansas State at the Oklahoma City Ford Center. Our friend was able to get tickets for us because her husband plays for BYU.

The tickets are all day tickets so we also got to see the last half of the Northern Iowa-Kansas game. Wow, that was intense. And what an upset. The player in this picture was particularly sad at the end of the game. He just cried on the court, poor guy. Mike had Kansas winning the whole thing, along with 42 percent of America. Our seats were on the second row so we were right there next to the action.

Thank you so much Kiri, it was great to see your pretty face!

NCAA

Today is a great day. I found a normal grocery store. They actually exist here in Oklahoma. And it was beautiful. I went inside and nearly cried it was so great. It was clean and new (meaning within the recent hundred years) and it had great prices. Only problem is, there isn't one in Norman. I was on my lunch break when I found this glorious place. There is one in Moore (which is the city just north of Norman), but thats still quite a drive. I am still happy that I found one though. It felt great.

Mike, at this moment, is at the first NCAA game BYU v. Florida. Thanks to our wonderful friend who's husband plays for BYU, she got tickets for us. Of course, I am stuck here at work so Mike took a friend from school to the game. I am just glad that Mike can do something fun while he is on Spring Break. We also have tickets to Saturday's game if BYU can win. I am just watching the game online and it is the 2nd OT, so we will see.

I have never been into March Madness. I usually look forward to it being over with actually. But this year, since Mike doesn't have a work pool, I thought I would attempt to be the good wife and fill out a bracket and try to get into it. It seems to be working....this BYU game has me on the edge of my seat. And I am not normally a BYU fan (For the record I am not a Utah fan either, I am a Sooner fan people....duh). Anyway, hopefully Mike can come up with a prize for the winner. Which will be me. Beginners luck.

St. Patty's Dissected

I am not one for St. Patrick's Day. From my perspective, if you don't wear green, you get harassed because, hello, its St. Patrick's Day and you have to wear green or you will get pinched. But if you do wear green, then you get harassed because apparently its childish to follow in the traditions of the holiday? I don't know, catch 22. And with my history of being surrounded by men at work all day, some form of harassment is a daily event. Therefore, I truly dread St. Patrick's Day because I never know what to wear (Sounds ridiculous but its true). This morning as I was trying to pick out my green but not so green outfit for the day, I wondered if this was even a real holiday. I don't remember what I learned in elementary school about it, imagine that. Lucky for me though, The Early Show was on and they had my answer, as they had an anchor in Ireland broadcasting from the huge parade. So it is an Irish holiday. Okay, so why in the heck do we celebrate it then? This led me to Google. I love Google. The History Channel website taught me all about the 16 year old British boy who was kidnapped and taken to Ireland and then when he was released he became a priest, adopted the Christian name Patrick, and went back to Ireland to teach Christianity. Legend has it he used a clover to teach the trinity (3 leaves....Godhead....got it). Ireland celebrates St. Patrick because of his movement for Christianity. So when people began immigrating to the US, the Irish Catholics brought their traditions with them, including this holiday that isn't really a holiday because the banks are still open. And now people celebrate by wearing green, taking off work, and drinking green beer all day. Sounds super Christian, right? It surprises me that these days, people need an excuse to go get wasted at a bar for hours on end. But apparently, they do, so that is why we have St. Patrick's Day.

(Forgive me all Irish Catholics, this post isn't meant to offend).

P.S. My attitude really isn't as bad as it sounds. I am going to a St. Patrick's Day party tonight as a matter of fact. And I promise, that when I have children, I will speak no ill of St. Patrick's Day in front of them. Can't spoil the holiday for the kiddies.

I should stay home......

......because men are creepy.

Except Mike, he isn't creepy.

And Mike is at home.

Therefore, I should stay home.

The End.

Featured Taste

1. Apples taste better when your on the on the go.

2.Water tastes better out of a plastic cup when compared to a glass.

3. Diet Coke is best from a gas station.

4. Pizza is the bomb diggity.

5. And The Beatles rock my world.


And why do people say dad gum? Or dad gummit? This is not a real word people....

The Top before the Cherry

So its been a while. Well for me anyway. We got our King Sized Bed. It is simply amazing. I feel so happy when I wake up. Even though I still can't sleep a whole night through. This morning I was wide awake at 4:22. Lame.

I turned in my notice today for my job, even though my last day isn't until May. I have never felt happier. Lots of drama has been going on here the past few days, so it makes it even easier to quit. Too many politics.

I love my friends. I love having people to spend time with when Mike is busy studying. Or friends to go on double dates with. But can I just say that I love hanging out with my handsome man when he isn't studying. With him is definitely the best way to spend my time. No offense to my awesome friends.

I lost 6 of the 10 pounds I gained in my transition from Utah to Oklahoma. Of course, this morning I ate 2 donuts at work....so I am sure I gained it all back. (They were Krispy Kreme and do you know how long its been since I have had a Krispy Kreme donut? I was just making up for lost time.)

Who is Mrs. Wilson?

Mrs. Wilson is the vegetable that is hogging up all my husbands time.

The brief that Mike is currently writing in school is about this vegetable.

I loathe her and her case.

(Note: I am not evil, she is a fictional character.)

Never Look Back

Looking back is wasteful. Looking forward is much more pleasant.

4 days until the weekend
13 days until Corned Beef and Cabbage
14 days until Mrs. Wilson leaves forever
19 days until Spring