Happy List 04.09

This weekend, I'm happy that I'm away with my extended family on a little trip.  We rented a 5 bedroom cabin and there are 12 of us spending the entire weekend together in Branson, Mo.  So, as you're reading this, I'm doing a little...

and the guys are doing a little fishing...

so we should all be happy.

This could also end up on my Friday Confessional, so stick around.  You just never know how things are going to go down when all of my big crazy family is together.  I'll keep ya posted.

Hope you're all having a super awesome weekend!

P.S.  If you love cutsie headbands, don't forget to enter my Adelyn Stone Giveaway.  She has some other fabulous items, so even if you don't love headbands, hop over to her Etsy store and look around!

Monday Morning - Weekend Recap

So, it's Monday...Monday alllllllll day loooooong. Sorry. Didn't mean to bum you out or anything. Sometimes, for me, it seems to help to let it sink in a little...get used to it. I don't know about you, but my weekend went by TOO fast. Our weekend was good. We had a Dad's Day Cookout at the farm (not the virtual one, silly...my mom and dad recently finished renovating and adding on to an old farm house). I'm pretty sure that sometimes when I say "I'm going to the farm" or "I've been to the farm", people think I'm talking Farm Town. They're also probably thinking that I need a psychiatric evaluation.



Here's a few pics from the real farm...

The house...well, the front of it...it's such a nice place to sit, especially in the evenings.

Isaiah intently signing his Father's Day cards...I love that he can sign his own name now. It's so cute.

Isaiah giving his daddy the stuff he made for him at church. A blue rock (because it's blue like the Cubbies), a card with LOTS of dinosaur stickers, and a keychain with red and blue beads (because that's the colors of the Cubbies)...do you see a trend here?

The kids played on the slip-n-slide. Great fun! ☺

Michael "played" on the slip-n-slide...☺ Wish I would have had my camera ready for that one!!...or better yet, the video camera. I could be $10,000 richer! He was getting on to Isaiah for spraying people with the water hose (*gasp* not MY kid) and as he bent down to take the water hose from Isaiah, he slipped on the slip-n-slide (Note to Michael: It's not called a slip-n-slide for nothing, babe.) It gets better...while Michael is down, Isaiah picks the water hose back up and starts drenching him with it. LOL. Oh, sorry. That's not funny. right. sorry. I forgot.
We took a drive out in the pasture on the golf cart. Most people use golf carts on golf courses, we use them to "putt" around the pasture. The cows know what's up. They were knee deep in the pond...wish I could have joined them. It's been a pleasant mid to high 90's here in Oklahoma with high humidity...outdoors pretty much feels like an oven.

Here's Isaiah's knew horse...her name is Baby Belle. She's about 6 weeks old. Isn't she ADORABLE?! I love her.

I think all the dad's involved had a great time.

Hope all of your hubbys/SOs/dads had wonderful Father's Days too!

Public Service Announcement:

DON'T DO CRACK!

Does that make me a bad mom? LOL ☺

Hope everyone has a marvelous Monday!

Weekend Re-Cap and TATOO pic!

So, I know I've kept you waiting a day longer than I had said. Yesterday was a crap day and I just did NOT feel like blogging. I have to be in somewhat of a good mood before I'll even start a post. I prefer my blog to have a happy vibe, rather than an emo-cutter-kinda-vibe. The weekend was eventful. Melissa and Michelle came to Oklahoma and Renee made her way up to Tulsa. Friday night we acted like wild and crazy girls like any good girls would who hadn't seen each other in a while or ever...and we celebrated...

...by getting tattoos...

I know you'll be in shock to find out that my tattoo is Twilight related...I'll give you a minute to compose yourself...I didn't go completely crazy and get Edward's profile or RobPattz signature, which some have done. I kept it simple. I had went through sooooooo many pictures of "Twilight tattoos", apples, fonts, "sparkles"...it got so confusing, but one thing I knew I wanted from the get-go was "frequently dazzled" in Edward's font. The phrase comes from one of my favorite parts in the first book. Bella tells Edward "you shouldn't do that to people." Edwards says " do what". Bella responds "dazzle them the way you do." Edward asks "do I dazzle you"? Bella responds "frequently". Ahhhhhh. Don't you just love that?! The apple came next, it just made sense. It has such meaning in the book, but can also have other meaning outside of Twilight. Inside the realms of Twilight it mostly refers to Bella being Edward's forbidden fruit...and how we often "crave" the things we can not have. Outside of Twilight it often reflects fertility, love, sensuality and sexuality, temptation and sin. The last thing I added was the "sparkles". Anybody who knows Twilight gets that. If you don't know...Edward sparkles...plus, it's "dazzling". PLUS, I needed something to fill out the tattoo.

The tattoo... (it's on my left side...think rib area)...I'll post a better one after it heals.

I've got a few more pics to share from the weekend, but I'll save them for another post. (Edward appears in a few of them...☺)

I know you're thinking I'm totally crazy right about now, so I won't throw any more at you today...I'll let the whole Twilight tattoo thing sink in first.

Hope everyone is have a great week so far!

Friday Confessions

So, IT's FRIDAY!! Woot woot! This is better than any Friday I've had in a LOOOOONNNNGGG time. 'Why' you might ask. Well, I'll tell you...in my confessions.

• Melissa (The Crazy Daisy) and her sister, Michelle, are flying HERE...TODAY...TO SEE ME!!! It's uber exciting. I don't even think exciting is the right word. I'm about to pee my pants. I can't wait.
• Tonight, I'm getting some new ink. No, not like a printer cartridge or a fancy shmancy pen...a tattoo! I'm almost as excited about this as I am my visitors. Seriously, how much excitement can a girl take in one day?!
• To make things EVEN better, my cousin, Renee (My Glimpse of Life) is coming up this weekend too to play with us...see, I'm telling you...I might pee my pants. She's meeting me here at my work in less that 2 hours! Then, we're driving to the airport to pick up Melissa and Michelle! It's ridiculous to be this excited. I can't help it.
• I stayed up until 3:00 am. It was like Christmas Eve and wondering what Santa was going to bring...except I already knew. I can't explain it, but it kept me awake.

Monday I'll give you all full details and pics of the weekend...well, most of it. You know the saying..."what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? Well, that applies to Tulsa too. ;)

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!!!

Weekend Ramblings and Book Review

I just wanted to let you guys know that the Twilight Party was SO MUCH FUN! I'm serious. My husband thought I was completely crazy for wanting to go (well, he already knows I'm crazy, but crazy to a higher degree). My mom went with me. She's not a big Twilight fan, in fact she thinks I'm crazy too, but loves me so much that she tagged along and helped me with Isaiah...and stood in line so we could have another copy of the Borders Special Edition. Which by the way, was well worth it!! It came with not only the 2-disc DVD set, but also a set of these FABULOUS Twilight scene cards...they call them postcards, but they're so much more than that! Oh.My.Goodness. Ok, can you tell I'm still excited. I know, pretty ridiculous. I just love me some Twilight. I was introduced to a new term/acronym that is right up my alley...OME...Oh My Edward. Love that!

This is the only picture I thought to snap of the group...and this is just a small portion of them from when we were all sitting down to play a Twilight Trivia game. I know it looks like I'm surrounded by 12 year olds, but there were some there that were over 30.

Here's my coveted copy of the Twilight DVD! Not a very good picture, but the DVD itself is AWESOME!

Now, on to another little tid bit of information. I joined the Literacy Sisters Society. It's a blogging book club. Our first book to read was The Host by Stephenie Meyer. What an EXCELLENT choice. You all know how fantastic Stephenie is already. She, of course, wrote the saga most of us love and adore...TWILIGHT! I knew I would love this book, but I did not know how much I would love this book. Let me tell you...I love it a lot! The book is basically a sci-fi book for the non-sci-fi reader. It's about a girl, Melanie, who becomes the host body to a soul from another planet...or planets. I thought perhaps this book might go against everything I believe, but that is so not true. The book really speaks about humanity and love. It's about accepting people for who they are, and once again Stephenie introduces us to an unconventional kind of love. It's wonderful! I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who would like to read it, so I won't say too much more.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!

Saturday (in Denver!)...Sushi, Saki, and SURPISE

Saturday in Denver was a BLAST! It was so surreal to be there visiting with Melissa in person...just hanging out...too cool. Can you guess what we did on Saturday? Come on. Well, we went to Starbucks, of course. Then what? What do Melissa and I both hold near and dear to our heart...you know besides God, family, and friends? Did you guess?

TWILIGHT! DUH!

If you guessed Twilight, then give yourself a cookie! Melissa, Randy, and I went to see Twilight! It was our THIRD time. Well, except for Randy. ☺ I think he was surprised that it wasn't all girly. It was so fun watching the movie with Melissa (there I go with the whole "fun" thing again...I just can't help myself). Randy thought we were crazy for wanting to take a pic outside the theater...with our tickets in hand. He was a really good sport.

After the movie, we went on a drive in downtown Denver. It was BIG! Lots of enormous buildings and beautiful architecture. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I got busy just taking in the sites.

In conversation, I had told Melissa that I had never tried sushi. So, after my tour of Denver we stopped by a local sushi place and I experienced sushi for the first time. YUMM-O! I ♥ sushi! (Thanks, Melissa!)

We also had saki for the first time too. I ♥ sushi, but saki not so much. It was still fun. ☺

Following sushi and saki, we went to Melissa's mom and dad's house for a SURPRISE birthday party. Michelle and Melissa's mom had planned a Twilight Surprise Party...how perfect is that?

Melissa, Edward, and I☺

Melissa's mom and dad...they are two of the nicest people.

Melissa's totally ROCKIN' Twilight Cake!

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Hey, Melissa...could you have another birthday soon? That was too much fun to reserve for once a year! ☺

I still have a few more pics I'll post tomorrow.

If you're want to know about Friday, go HERE.

If you're still wondering why I was in Denver, go HERE.

A bunch of blogging randomness...

I don't even know what to call this blog post, that is how random it is going to be...you've been warned.

A little weekend review...

I did work on my HOT MESS, but it's not really back to an organized and clean state...just yet. I had a few road blocks over the weekend, like my washing machine being on the blitz. I was right on pace, starting a fresh load of laundry on Sunday morning. I had put all the dirty clothes into nice neat piles (at least something was nice and neat). Had it all planned out...a few loads of laundry before church, then finish it up when I got home while cleaning and organizing in the rest of the house. DIDN'T HAPPEN! I ended up spending two and half hours and an ungodly amount of quarters at the laundromat. Not my idea of fun. Isaiah thought is was fabulous. Wish I was 5 sometimes.

A current concern...

If you know me well, you know I can have some slight anxiety from time to time. I just start thinking about things TOO MUCH and freak out a little. So, as I'm scurrying out the door this morning, late again for the umpteenth time, I start thinking about Isaiah going to kindergarten next year. I have had the luxury of taking Isaiah to school at whatever time I get there. He goes to a private preschool and they are really flexible about time schedules. This morning as I'm driving Isaiah to school, it dawns on me that he'll go to kindergarten next year and they just might have a different outlook on being tardy to school. Could he get kicked out of kindergarten for being late everyday or every other day? I casually ask the director at preschool this morning, "So, you know...Isaiah will go to kindergarten next year...do they kick kids out for being "excessively" tardy?" She starts laughing at me. "No, Jen, that's one worry you can check off your list." (she knows me a little too well) I'm just double checking...he can't get kicked out right? However, I'm totally planning on correcting this little tardiness issue ASAP!

About my bathroom re-do...

Just so you know, I'm X'ing the vinyl photo shower curtain off the 'maybe list'...thanks, Christy for bringing it to my attention that it just really isn't that cute. See, sometimes it takes other people's opinions to bring things to light. Also, thanks Melissa for all your wonderful ideas and linkies. I'm either leaning toward the tree shower curtain from Urban Outfitters or the floral one from Pottery Barn. Thanks to Lori for the pics and ideas. I love your framed pieces...great idea!! I also love your shower curtain! It gave me an idea to stencil red birds onto the tree shower curtain...maybe...we'll see! I really appreciate all the ideas and feedback.

Hope everyone has a great Monday! ☺

Weekend Review

I'm so thankful for Saturday mornings that are unplanned. Of course I had my huge to-do list, but it was MY to-do list and I could finish it when and how I wanted (and if I didn't, the only person who would be disappointed was me). So, I chose to be lazy and make some yummy french toast that I had wanted to make every since I read about it on Fresh Mommy's blog. She posted a recipe not long ago using egg nog to make her french toast. A big THANK YOU to Tabitha, because it totally made my Saturday morning! It was super yummy!! I'll definitely be making it again. (Notice the mug...there was a little egg nog for the recipe and a little egg nog for me☺ Kinda like when you're cooking with wine☺)

FreshMommy's Egg Nog French Toast
1 egg, slightly beaten
1C eggnog
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp sugar
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp cloves

Saturday evening, a whole mini van full of us went to see the Christmas Kingdom and Garden of Lights in a town about 15 minutes away. The Christmas Kingdom is located at a place called The Castle, where they host a Renaissance Festival every year (which is really fun). During Christmas they turn the whole place into the Christmas Kingdom and have every kind of inflatable you can think of...it's crazy!

There are penguins...by the hundreds.

Polar bears and igloos
Snoopys in airplanes
Grinches in chimneys
and reindeer...lots and lots of reindeer
and this little guy...oh, wait he was with me☺
Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

(Oh, and my tree is up, just in case you were wondering...I'll post pics tomorrow☺)

Kansas City - Part 3

Sunday we finished up our trip by going to eat at T-Rex. We were just prepared for another kid restaurant with over-priced-not-so-good-food, but surprisingly enough the food was delish. It was a really cool atmosphere with dinosaurs hovering over, making real life noises. They had a paleontologist area where kiddos can dig and explore. There was also a Build-A-Dino inside the restaurant. It was definitely worth the trip. I think even the big kids had fun☺

Kansas City Trip - Part 2

Picking up where I left off yesterday...

On our way back to the hotel, we just by chance (well, miracle really☺) came across the OU cheerleaders and the Pride "warming" up in front of the Marriott! WOOHOO!! How lucky were we?! They were getting ready to board their bus, headed to the game, and they stopped to do a mini pep rally right in front of the hotel!

We were so pumped and could not wait to get back to our room and load on our million layers of clothing and head to the game!

We finally arrived to Arrowhead...the lights shining bright, excitement in the air, fans filing in...

Once we were in the stadium it felt electric...or was that static electricity from it being so figgin' cold? BURRRRRRR

Here's a pic of the ESPN guys in the booth...I thought seeing the green screen behind them was kinda cool. I'm easily impressed.

Here is one of Stoops in all his glory...Stoops for President!

The seniors took the field for the toss...OU was receiving...game on!

Staying nice and cozy in my furry hat☺ Don't laugh! You would be wearing one too...it was 29 degrees and falling...fast.

Sam and Josh Heupel...two Oklahoma Greats!

The Pride of Oklahoma

Sam, Sam he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!

Me and mom wearing a suitcase full of clothes☺

This sign says "Chase Daniels (Mizzou QB) likes boogers"...LOL☺

Oklahoma 62, Mizzou 21

Sooners win! Sooners win!

Oklahoma...Big 12 Champions!

Boomer Sooner, Baby!