The Story of a Steelers Fan in the Sooner State

skipping christmas?

2010-01-15T10:20:00.003-06:00

It is so far past christmas, that I am tempted to not do a recap at all, but two reasons keep me thinking about it... one: it was our first christmas in norman, which is a good enough reason to document it, but also because we had a blizzard on christmas eve! I can't risk not remembering that. haha. and second: our christmas decorations are still up in our house, so the season is still alive on swan hollow drive.

so that's it for now... not an actual christmas recap post, but one that talks about a christmas recap.

today we are headed to OKC for the home & garden show. we've gone to several of these over the past couple years, but when vendors tried to offer their services, we always replied, "not interested. we're just renters." but now we are the real deal - homeowners! and i'm eager to hear about ways to improve our house. and there is going to be an HGTV designer there!

Wordless Wednesday - b"ash"ful bunny

2010-01-06T10:09:00.004-06:00

It's December 21st...

2009-12-21T14:20:00.003-06:00

...and I am outside raking leaves, wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses. And I'm warm! In fact, I went outside just to get warm! It is warmer outside than inside my house today. On the winter solstice! Something is wrong with the fact that I am raking leaves instead of shoveling snow. This is just not right. It's crazy. But I'm not sayin' it's global warming... so don't you put those words in my mouth (or on my blog.)

Born a child yet a King

2009-12-15T11:09:00.004-06:00

This advent season has been a very rich one for me. I've learned a lot from my husband's teaching in the small group we attend, the advent program he was in charge of a couple weeks ago, and during his sermons on sunday morning. He has been filling in for our senior pastor the last two weeks and once more this coming sunday. We also have been singing some great advent songs. Two of my favorites are: Who Is This, So Weak and Helpless? and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. (I provided the links there to the Indelible Grace website for you so you can read the lyrics.)

I have been also reading the daily advent devotional provided by Park Cities PCA in Dallas. You can find it here.

Finally, another really great advent resource is a book also titled, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Here is the link to it. The book is a collection of 22 readings for advent, and includes writings from Martin Luther, John Piper, Tim Keller, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, John Calvin, Francis Schaeffer, and many more! And, the book is dedicated to two of my favorite people in the world, Dr. Wilson & Pam Benton, so that makes it extra special.

I hope you all have a very blessed advent season.

Come thou long-awaited Emmanuel!

my first bedlam

2009-12-07T17:19:00.013-06:00

the biggest highlight of my parent's visit, other than thanksgiving and black friday, was attending the ou vs osu football game on november 28th, otherwise known simply as bedlam. yes, that is a link to the official wikipedia entry for bedlam. this is serious stuff. I even baked cookies for it.

the bad part about its seriousness is that tickets were not easy to come by. so far this year, bobby and I have been able to acquire tickets just prior to kickoff outside the stadium for a fraction of their face value. our first game was free (thanks josh! who doesn't read this blog...), second game we got two club level seats for $50, and the third game we got two tickets for $20. we knew this game was a big deal, but c'mon, the sooners have had a rough year, we lost our heisman winner (poor sammy!) and most of our starting line-up, the students were on break, AND osu has had a better than usual year. I'm thinking, no one's gonna go. HA!

we got there over two hours early because we wanted to beat the rush and get a good parking space, and my parents wanted to see all the tail-gaters and all the hoopla. so we did all that and then started asking around for tickets. well... fortunately there were not a shortage of sellers. the problem was that no one was willing to negotiate. everyone wanted face value for their tickets. and you KNOW my mom & I never pay full price for ANYTHING! so we waited, and asked, and waited, and asked again, walked around a lot, waited some more, asked even more. and finally, pre-game began and thought SURELY they would drop their prices now! nope. so we waited for kickoff. and STILL no luck. we just about gave up. (fortunately the weather was beautiful so we didn't mind standing outside for hours.) we started to watch the game outside the stadium on the jumbo-tron named sooner vision, of course. then we decided to make one more passing attempt. we saw a guy who actually congratulated us for sticking with it so long and not giving in to the sleezy ticket brokers. ugh, they gave me the creeps. and we finally found one guy who gave us four tickets for $150. much more than I wanted to pay, but yes, we were desperate.

the worst part of our deal was that the four tickets were not together. we had to split up into pairs. bobby and I were on the east side and my parents on the west side. but with the help of our zoom lens on our camera, we could see them.

they are standing at the top of the stairs, just above the handrail.

my parents took this picture trying to get us, but they missed us by a few sections. we were to the left of this photo. in the top section.

we thought we were being generous by giving them the good seats, but it turns out we were the ones that lucked out because we were in the sun and they were in the chilly shade. we all had wind-burned faces by the end though. it was so windy up way up there in our super high seats, I really was scared of blowing off the edge, even though we were in the middle of the section.

in fact, we were so high that I could see our neighborhood!

if you look on the horizon, in the dead center, that's where we live.

only in oklahoma...

oh, and did I mention it was windy?

this happened in about 6 or 7 pictures we took. ugh, I hate wind.

since we were at a football game, I should show at least one picture of the field and the players.

there were a lot of orange-clad folks there.

and they cheered their little cowboy hearts out.

but the sooners prevailed and won bedlam once again! in fact, they won it for the 80th time, thank you very much. and they did it convincingly with a score of 27-0.

Backtracking to Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T09:11:00.009-06:00

we had another wonderful visit with my parents last week. people at church are surprised that my parents have traveled all the way out here to see us, not once, but twice, since we moved. but those who have known my parents for longer, are probably thinking, they've only been there twice in three months?!?! haha

we are very blessed every time they come because not only are they helpful and generous, they are fun!

they arrived thanksgiving morning and I picked them up at the airport alone because bobby was putting the finishing touches on his turkey and watching my sweet potato casserole bake in the oven. this year bobby cooked one of our turkeys in our ronco showtime rotisserie oven.

it was yummy!

we ate dinner at bobby's parents' house. his mom wanted him to carve the turkey before arriving for convenience, but we just couldn't forgo the norman rockwell carving-the-turkey-right-before-eating-it tradition.

it was really great to be with both sets of parents at the same time. and everyone got along! haha. I joke about that, but we know we are really fortunate to have these good relationships with our parents, and we do not take it for granted.

back to the food:

I think it's funny that we were asked to bring a turkey and potatoes, and we brought turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cookies.

after dinner we scoured the black friday ads. here are two very serious shoppers. my mom & bobby's cousin, ashley.

the cats also got a little bit of turkey & stuffing

you didn't think we would leave them out, did you?

it was good that we ate early on thursday because we had the rest of the day to recover and rest up for friday morning, which came very early for me... I only get up at 5 am on black friday! we live very close to lots of shopping places, so the decision of where to go was very difficult. we decided to split up, so my & mom and started at kohl's and the men went to home depot & lowe's. I can't tell you all we got because most, ok SOME, of it are christmas presents. we got some really good bargains at kohl's. waiting in line for over an hour was totally worth it!

bobby and my dad could not believe we waited in that line. but they got some things too so they didn't really complain. my dad was a big help saving our spot in line while the rest of us went out into the store finding more stuff!

next stop was academy, then target. bobby really wanted to go to walmart to see the fuss there, but when he got there, he said it wasn't that great. maybe because all the excitement was between 3 and 5 am, and he didn't get there until after 9.

later that day we all went to the OU campus to walk around and take a christmas card photo. the weather was beautiful. we took a bunch of pics, but this one is pretty funny. everyone was freaking out that I touched that phone because it might have the swine flu.

that is not our official christmas card picture.

we went out to dinner at - guess where ........ cheddar's! and then stopped & brought some braum's ice cream/fro-yo home for dessert.

do people still say "fro-yo?"

to start working off some of those thanksgiving calories, my mom and I played mario & sonic go to the summer olympics on wii.

see, I told you my parents were fun!

I'll close with this picture taken on sunday after church.

yes, paisley is trying to jump out of my arms and into the tree... ugh

since this post was a mile & a half long, I will have to have a part 2 of my parent's visit - the bedlam experience.

Our First Christmas in Norman - the tree

2009-12-04T07:46:00.007-06:00

(I have much to show & tell from my parents visit over thanksgiving, but I wanted to join the tour over at kelly's korner, so I am skipping ahead to show you our tree.)

We upgraded this year from the 6 foot pre-lit tree that comes in 3 simple sections to an 8 foot unlit tree that comes in 898027 sections. Fortunately my parents gave us this tree and since they are experienced in putting it together, we brought it down from the attic and assembled it while they were here last week. But don't worry, it was not up before thanksgiving. I think that should be illegal. (if I thought creating more laws were the best way to fix society... but I don't.) The tree was assembled and lights were hung mostly by my dad, and then tuesday night bobby and I added the personal touches of ribbon garland, ornaments and the star topper.

Here it is!

I wish I had a picture of it at night because it's much prettier then.

These are a few of my favorite ornaments...

This is one of a set of three given to me by my aunt as a memory of my trip to south africa a few years ago. this elephant looks a little different than the ones we saw in the bush, but it's much more festive! the other two in the set are a rhino and hippo that are equally festive.

The santa in the background of the above photo was given to us by our korean neighbors in st louis. it is santa holding an owl over his head. we never did quite understand the significance of that... is it a korean tradition? does anyone know??

this is a good picture because it encapsulates many of my favorite ornaments.

well, actually, these aren't my favorite ornaments per se, but they are symbols of places we've been... from left to right: Grove City College (my alma mater). the little minnesota vikings ornament was given to me many years ago by my former pastor's family. they are huge vikings fans (most of them) and while I never really was, it is appropriate to hang now because former OU player and superstar Adrian Peterson plays for them now, so everyone in norman is a vikings fan all of a sudden. the flying WV from west virginia university. one of bobby's guitar ornaments. and then the OU ornament in the upper right of the picture. we were worried that we didn't already have one and didn't know where we would be able to buy one here!! haha.

And then of course, I have a Pittsburgh Steelers ornament!

I have many other very special ornaments, these were just a few. Our baby's first christmas balls from 1977 are dear to me (especially since we were both born that year), our first christmas together ornaments from 2003, and now our first home ornaments. we have a bunch of bunny ornaments, wendell august forge ornaments, star wars, batman, & simpsons ornaments (those are bobby's!), and many more.

here's another shot of the entire tree

I know I cut off the top of the tree in that picture, but I wanted to get the cats. Oh, that reminds me... did you know that cats like to climb trees? even christmas trees???

this is after I pulled her (paisley) out... she's looking over at it and wanting to jump back in. bad girl!

things I like about living in oklahoma (specifically norman)

2009-11-19T21:57:00.005-06:00

haha, I love pretending to be a norman-snob. it's fun.

I have been observing life here in god's country. ha, that is a total joke. I actually HATE the whole "god's country" thing. and the "...on the 8th day" thing too. I don't know why I typed that.

anyway... as a citizen of norman for almost 3 months, these are the things I like about living here:

people are really stinkin' friendly. a couple weeks ago, I was in Lowe's and no joke, FOUR different people asked me if I needed assistance. and not in a, "oh, there's a girl in lowe's, I'm sure she needs help" way. actually in a nice, friendly, "how are you? can I help you with anything?" way. and it's like that everywhere.
the weather has been awesome. yes, fall was definately the time of year for me to move to oklahoma. I was terribly sad about missing western PA's fall with all the beautiful foliage (and I am!) but the weather we have had these past two months has been absolutely divine - mostly sunny with mild temps.
football!!! we have gone to THREE sooners football games this year. can you believe it?! but can you blame us? we live 4 miles from the stadium. we found a place to park for free. we tailgate with our friends from OU RUF. we buy cheap tickets from people selling them at the last minute. we go in, watch some (pretty) good football, and are home within 30 minutes of the end of the game.
shopping! have I mentioned that I can see super target from my driveway? 'nuf said.
lake thunderbird
our church. we are really enjoying the quirky, intelligent, and super interesting folks of christ the king pca.
happy hour at sonic
walking around the OU campus. earlier this week, I texted bobby and said that I saw there was a freshen's yogurt place on campus. he wrote back, let's go! so within 20 minutes he was home and we were out the door. we put our quarter in a meter which was good for one hour and walked all around campus, including the student union (where freshen's no longer exists. ugh), inside gaylord memorial stadium, the south oval, and even past the practice fields where we could see & hear 100+ players wearing crimson & cream. twenty five cents sure can buy you a lot here in norman.
campus corner. restaurants, cafes, clothing stores, salons, a theater, churches, and antique shops - it's pretty much "the bomb."
this place is hopping. everywhere I go, I see lots of people doing lots of things - shopping, driving, eating out, golfing, going to movies, sporting events, tailgating - you name it, the people of norman are doing it. ain't no sign of a recession here.
celebrities' houses.

This is just what I came up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more. And there are definately things I don't like so much. And for sure there are a bazillion things I miss about western pennsylvania that are better than norman (gasp!) but since it's thanksgiving week and all, I'll just keep this post positive.

I just realized, norman needs a slogan. Because if they had one, I would end this post with it.

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 3: REVAMPING PICTURES

2009-11-16T09:40:00.006-06:00

ok, so I know I was stretching it when I chose the word revamping for the title instead of saying "projects" or "home improvements," but I was going with a "v" theme and that was all I could think of! In case you missed them, I recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 first.

So anyway... as you read in part one (see? i'm testing you) my parents offered to help us with a lot of projects that bobby and I do not know how to do while they were in town for a few days.

Without further ado, the befores and afters.

First up - master bedroom closet doors. BEFORE:

AFTER:

I still need to paint the trim and the doors white, but they are such a huge improvement over the mirror doors. Not only were they ugly and dated, but the rollers & track were broken and so to open/close them, I had to pick them up and slide them. They were very heavy. I love my new 6 panel white doors!

Bobby installed a bunch of door hinge stopper things.

We all worked on replacing the glass section of the back door. The trim was cracked in several places (no before pictures, sorry) and I thought we could just replace that, but what I didn't know was that the glass & trim are all one unit. We thought about just buying a whole new door, but then we went to the habitat restore here in norman and found the section we needed for just $20. the old glass was removed and the new one installed.

Here is the after picture with the exterior side showing.

I will be painting the door & trim this week.

Oh, and bobby installed also two new dead bolts. One can be seen in the previous picture.

The most visible "makeover" was probably the door going into our office (aka BR3). This is the room that we replaced the flooring in several weeks ago. But the door HAD to go. It was a plastic accordion door that was basically taped on. Yes, with scotch tape. Ugh. So my dad installed the brackets, the door knob, and everything else (my mom helped.) And now we have a real (6 panel white) door that looks awesome. I cannot find our before picture of that hideous door, but here is the after...

Last week I painted the trim white. This is the view from inside the room. Door still needs a coat of white paint, but a major improvement over the accordion door.

Bobby had already replaced one kitchen ceiling light, but I really wanted a pendant light for over the kitchen sink. I've been looking for one I liked for weeks now and we finally found one. It was silver, so I painted it black and now it looks fabulous!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And finally... remember this hole in the attic floor/garage ceiling?

Well, it now looks like this:

Actually, it looks even better than that now because bobby has covered it with spakling and texture to match the rest of the ceiling.

There you go. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Yesterday

2009-11-12T09:31:00.006-06:00

was my birthday! my day started at about 6:11 when bobby had to get up to go to a men's bible study. sometimes I don't even hear him get up, but yesterday I was wide awake, but that didn't last long... he said, happy birthday, I said, thanks, and went back to sleep until he got back from the bible study. he woke me up with a card from paisley & shadow that said, thanks for feeding us! and their present to me was hotcakes from mcd's - which I have always loved. thanks kitties!!

bobby left for the office shortly after breakfast and I had a nice, relaxing morning in which I did some reading, went for a nice long walk, and watched a little tv. the weather was delightful - sunny and about 73. definately the warmest birthday I've ever had. throughout the day I received a bunch of calls from family, emails, and a gazillion birthday wishes on facebook! (that's the real reason I've racked up 434 friends on there. just kidding.) I feel very loved, which I'm thankful for, because otherwise I would have felt very lonely yesterday. Because once again, my birthday arrived just a couple months after moving to a new place, where I "know" very few people. Yes, I've met a ton of people here, but none well enough to say, hey, come over and see me on my birthday! ha! well, actually I probably could have done that, but I am just not bold enough. I just assume everyone is always busy and wouldn't be able to/want to. Eventually I'll get over that... maybe.

So my day was spent mostly just with Bobby and it was fun. When he got home from work, I was ready and waiting for to go out on my surprise dinner.

I should have cleaned up the clutter a little bit behind me. I took this picture in our GIANT mirror in the "dining room" as sort of a joke, but then decided to post it because of the cute cat in the background.

Our first stop was Coach's in Norman. Bobby's been there quite a few times for meetings and such, but I had never been. Then we got in the car and drove to downtown OKC (Bricktown) for dinner. He had not yet told me where we were eating, but when we couldn't find it, he told me the name so I could be looking for it... Deep Deuce Grill. He said he had been to their website and it looked like a really cool place. (and he had a coupon!) We drove up and down the street that it was on and we just couldn't find it. Then on our third pass, I finally saw the sign. But it was not lit up. And the door was open, but there were no tables inside. But I did see a ladder. THEY WERE CLOSED FOR REMODELING! we called to double-check and sure enough, they were closed until Dec 1. UGH! would be nice if they could put that on their website. This is 2009! (I have contacted them to complain.)

Ok, what do we do now?!? First up, we need a restroom, so we go to bass pro shops of course!

oh so funny, isn't it?!?

back to the car now, deciding where to eat, I suggest driving all the way back to norman to try the place that I suggested a couple days ago, Victoria's Pasta Shop. I had seen it recommended a few places recently and it sounded awesome.

And that's where we ate. I had chicken parmesan. It was very good! Chicken was lightly-breaded and the sauce was light and yummy.

Bobby had a sampler of their signature lasagna rolls, whole wheat linguine, and pesto. He loved & devoured every bite. (I helped a little...)

Then we walked around campus corner a little while. It is so nice there, I just love it. For some reason they have these phone booths so we took a picture.

We grabbed a little dessert at Cafe Plaid - peanut butter & chocolate chip granola bar. Yum! when we got home I heated it up and ate it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. :-) we watched some dvr'd shows and went to bed. unfortunately I had a mild migraine for most of the evening, but overall it was a pretty nice day!

(P.S. part 3 of the visit, vegas, and revamping should appear within the next 36 hours)

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 2: VEGAS PICTURES

2009-11-06T11:11:00.001-06:00

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1: INTRO. I will not offer much explanation in this post, mostly just pictures.

And if you made it all through the intro, congrats! you are now being rewarded with lots of pictures! (fyi, captions are above the pictures)

Freezing in the lazy river

Watching the fountain show at Bellagio our first night.

Headed to the strip on day two, we stop first to take a group photo.

One of my new favorite places on Las Vegas Blvd, the m&m store. The four of us bought nearly $50 worth of m&ms and ate them all in 3 days!

after bobby finally dragged me out of the m&m store, we went to the mgm grand, home of the lion habitat. this is way better than those white tigers. I took a lot of pictures, but I picked these two to show you.

that trainer is as brave as that lion I suppose.

what has become my favorite hotel & casino, Paris Las Vegas... I don't know what it is about that place, but I love it the most. Don't bobby and I look like we are sitting in a cafe on the streets of paris sharing a gelato?

dad & daughter in paris

mom & dad standing in front of a replica of the Fontaines de la Concorde

bobby really enjoyed his meal at pampas! we all got just the meat entree, but convinced him to get the surf & turf. yeah, we really had to twist his arm really hard...

it's kind of strange that I have never been to the real new york, new york, but I've been to this fake one twice.

bobby is standing in "times square"

loving our burgers at in-n-out!

It took about 12 takes to get this photo, but it's a good one. Here we are, going out on our last night in vegas.

Close-up of the giant sphinx in front of the Luxor hotel & casino.

and finally, we had to get a picture in front of the famous sign!

two final pictures... here is what the ground in denver looked like when we landed there thursday afternoon on our layover.

I thought we were still in the clouds, but no, that is snow!

denver got hit with a horrible snowstorm that week, and even that day that we flew in, there were 4 hour delays and canceled flights. but not for us, southwest got us in and out with only a 15 minute delay. we love southwest. and even when we got to OKC and realized that two of our suitcases were missing, we didn't start hating SW, because they got it the next day, called us, we went and got them, and got two $50 travel vouchers!

Coming soon...

Part 3: the reVamping pictures

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 1: INTRO

2009-11-05T16:00:00.006-06:00

we have been waiting for nearly two months for my parents to come out and see our new home. they kept offering to come out with us when we moved and help us unpack and all that, but they have always done all the hard work for us everywhere we have moved that we decided to give them a well-deserved break this time. besides, they had already done all the hard work in pennsylvania packing us up to move out here. it really wouldn't be fair to make them do double work, now would it? additionally, I figured it would also be a good opportunity to get bobby's family in on the action and to get to know our new church family during the unpacking process. well, neither really happened due to miscommunication, and we did almost all of the unpacking on our own. haha. oh well, it was probably good for us.

but ANYway... we tried to work really hard to get the majority of stuff unpacked and settled for when my parents could come down. and that day finally came the afternoon of thursday, october 22nd. we really were so proud to show them our very own house, nestled in our little cul de sac, in our cute little neighborhood, in the great town of norman. I think they really liked it and were proud of our accomplishments so far, but right after dinner, we began discussing what projects we were going to work on while we had the time & talent of my super handy dad. bobby went to a meeting at church and we went to lowe's. that was our first of at least 9 or 10 trips there.

work began friday morning (I don't even remember eating breakfast.) the projects on the slate were: replacing the awful plastic accordion door that was taped onto the doorway going into the office with a real door (I can not figure out why they didn't do that in the first place), replacing the mirrored closet doors in our bedroom (not only were they mirrors, but the trim was brass, and the track was broken so it was like lifting a ton just to open them), fixing (which turned into replacing) the glass & trim in the back door, changing out 5 light fixtures, several switches and outlets, and repairing the hole in the attic floor.

it was so great to get all of that done, and really I can't believe we did it all in that short amount of time. we worked most of friday, saturday, and a little sunday, but then we started packing for las vegas! a little explanation in case you have a problem with vacationing in vegas (hopefully you don't) - my parents purchased a thing that is sort of like a timeshare at Tahiti Village in Las Vegas which includes a free vacation there every other year. so we picked this week and off we went. the three of us (mom dad & I) had already been to LV several times, but it was bobby's first time. you can explain vegas all you want to someone, but you really have to be there to fully experience it. I was starting to worry that maybe we had hyped it up a bit too much, but he was not at all disappointed.

We arrived Monday afternoon and it was sunny, but the wind was chilly and we couldn't believe it. we were in the dessert for heaven's sake, it's supposed to be hot all the time, right?!!? we were mostly disappointed because Tahiti Village has an amazing pool area and lazy river, and we had hoped to spend some quality time there. We tried it out for a little while the first day because that was supposed to be the warmest, but the chill was too much and we headed back up to the condo. After getting ready, we headed to the strip for the first time. Fortunately it was just getting dark so we got the full effect of the lights. And thus began the walking... I had warned bobby of the amount of walking we would do and he responded by wearing very comfortable shoes. Did I take my own advice? no. I wanted to look cute so I wore my tall black boots. and yes, I was in a lot of discomfort at the end of the night. oh well.

Since we couldn't go to the pool, we spent the rest of our vacation driving to and walking around the strip mostly. We even ventured to Freemont Street once because bobby really wanted to see the old part town, but it was just too windy and cold, (I had on 4 layers!) so we didn't stay long. Driving around in the rental car was probably my favorite thing to do because it was nice & warm and didn't hurt my feet. haha. Finally by the next to last day I got smart and ditched the fashion sense and went for comfort by wearing tennis shoes. it was so nice.

One of the perks of being an owner at TV is that you get coupons and show tickets, so we went to see the Fab Four Live - a Beatles tribute show. We really weren't too excited about it, and especially after we discovered that we were the only ones under the age of 50 there, but it turned out to be really fun. and the guys were really good. Then we ate at this amazing restaurant called Pampas. It is a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring the meat to your table on a skewer and carve it for you. I really can't explain much more than that so you just have to go to their website.

Bobby and I had a few hours to ourselves one day because my parents had to go to a meeting for all the TV owners so we went to Tropicana, New York New York, and Monte Carlo. We went all the way down one side, then walked all the way back. I'm not sure why. When my parents were done, they picked us up and we went to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. Yum! Then that night, our last night, we got all dressed up (well, my mom & I did) and hit the town again, visiting the Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and the Venetian. It was a great way to end our trip because the next morning we had to fly back to OKC to finish our projects before my parents had to fly back home.

Coming soon...

Part 2 - "vegas pictures"

Part 3 - "the revamping pictures"

Wordless Wednesday: gee, thanks for the warning!

2009-11-04T10:11:00.005-06:00

* photo taken at Lake Thunderbird on the outskirts of Norman, OK

** I am working on a 2 or 3 part post recapping my parent's visit and our trip "out west." stay tuned!

Last Weekend's Football Frenzy

2009-10-15T20:56:00.014-05:00

I really don't know why it has taken me until now to write up a recap of last weekend's activities, except for the fact that since we got smart phones, I rarely turn my computer on. So I can check facebook and twitter, and even email now, but typing or adding photos to a blog post cannot be done on that little tiny screen and keyboard. Oh yeah, and I've been kind of busy with continual setting-up-house stuff. But alas, it's Thursday night, Bobby is at a session meeting and I have finished all of my chores so that I can sit down, watch Grey's & Private Practice and type.

Football Frenzy Day 1: Saturday, October 10th - Oklahoma Sooners vs Baylor Bears

After 7 days of clouds and rain, we woke up last Saturday morning to sun & cool air - perfect football weather. We got dressed in our crimson and cream shirts (and jeans & jackets) and drove down to Owen Field, with no tickets, but planned on buying some near the stadium. On the way there, we talked to a friend from church who offered us free tickets that he wanted to get rid of, which was AWESOME. Driving down there (the whole 4 miles) and parking was a breeze. We walked nearly a mile to join some of the OU RUF college students for a little pregame tailgate. They had hamburgers, pop, chips, corn hole, washers, and ladder toss. Then it was gametime. And guess who decided to dress in his uniform and start... SAM BRADFORD!

Oh yeah! We got to see a little heisman-in-action. (in case you don't know, sam won the heisman award for being the most awesome player last year, decided to return to college for another season rather than going in to the NFL, and got hurt during the first game of this season.) The place went crazy when his name was announced.

I especially loved pregame also. but then again, I'm sort of a band geek...

Overall, the game was great. Well... they could have played a lot better. The receivers were really making me and Sam mad - they dropped a bazillion perfect passes that he threw to them. He would have had nearly 600 yards passing if they would have caught the stupid ball more, and the score would have been a lot worse/better than it was... but in the end, the Sooners won 33-7. Awesome!

Here's a little recap of our day...

Parking "near" the stadium.................................... free
Food at the RUF tailgate......................................... free
Tickets to the game in the south endzone............ free
Seeing Sam Bradford lead the Sooners to victory..... priceless!

Football Frenzy Day #2 - Sunday, October 11th - Pittsburgh Steelers vs Detroit Lions
Unfortunately we did not get to watch this game in person like the day before. And unfortunately we did not get to even watch this game from the comfort of our own smoke-free living room. This was the first week since we moved to Oklahoma that the game was not televised in our market, so we had to go on the road, and watch the game at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore. It was either that, or Hooters in Oklahoma City. We chose BWW. It's closer.

This time, dressed in our black & gold, we parked in a jam-packed parking lot and were pleased to see several cars that had steelers memorabilia, then even happier when we walked in and saw lots of people dressed in steelers clothes. We could have chosen to sit in the dining room where the steelers game was on one of the little tv's. Or... we could go to the bar where it was on the BIG tv. duh! We endured the smoke to enjoy the large view of our team and enjoyed hearing all the cheering and shouting of "c'mon ben!" when we had the ball, or "get 'em! get 'em!" when we were on defense. It was another nail-biter at the end, but I'm happy to report that the Steelers pulled it off 28-20. Another awesome victory!

Here was the screen we watched the game on. Photo was taken on my phone after the Steelers scored their first touchdown.

Don't Step There

2009-10-10T08:51:00.009-05:00

Yesterday was the first time I was ever really in an attic. For real. Attics just really aren't that necessary in pennsylvania because everyone has basements for storage. But here in mid-america, the ground is clay, therefore, no one can dig down to build basements, so everyone has attics - thus, the mushrooms. More on that another day...

When we looked at this house before we bought it, we thought the attic space was great and had tons of storage area. Well, it turns out that it actually just has a lot of attic space potential. The previous owners only laid boards on a small portion of the attic so the storage space was limited. But we figured that was probably an easy fix, just get some more boards and finish it off, which is what Bobby and Wes (a guy from our church) did last night.

Before they could start on their pounding, I needed to get up there and move some boxes around that we had haphazardly thrown up there - mostly empty moving boxes - to give them more space to move around to work. I hate climbing ladders, but I got up there and it wasn't so bad. I was proud of my job of packing and stacking those empty boxes so well that they took up just a mere fraction of the space. I even called Bobby to come check out my handy work. He peeked up and was impressed. He got down and waited for me, thank goodness, because as I made my way over to the opening where the steps are, I stepped where I will never step again...(for obvious reasons) a spot where there were no boards, no cross-beams, no support... and my leg went through the floor!

I knew not to step there and I really didn't "step" there. I barely put any pressure there. I think I just momentarily lost my balance and just barely set my foot on that spot for a second, and bam, there went the floor. Fortunately I was holding onto something and was able to catch myself and did NOT fall all the way through to the garage. That would have been terrible. I can't even imagine. So it's funny and I'm slightly embarrassed, but mostly feel badly that we know have to repair this spot. But hopefully it can be done quickly and will not be too expensive.

Surely I can't be the first person to nearly fall through their attic, right?!

By the way, here is a picture of my neatly stacked boxes. There are probably 50 or so boxes there.

And here is some of the progress the guys made last night. My Christmas decorations can't wait to sit on those boards.

Steelers & Sooners

2009-10-08T08:50:00.013-05:00

This week Kelly is highlighting favorite sports team, traditions, and tailgating on her Show Us Your Life Series.

I am highlighting my two favorite football teams - the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Oklahoma Sooners.

I have only had the great privilege to go to a few Steelers games in my life, most of which were when I was in grade & high school, so I don't have a bunch of photos from those experiences. That was WAY before the digital camera era anyway. My most recent game that I attended was in late November 2007, it was cold and rainy, otherwise known as the mud bowl game. But fortunately we had seats under cover so we stayed mostly dry.

You may remember that Bobby & I tried to go to a game in 2007 for my 30th birthday, but that didn't turn out too well... we didn't have tickets ahead of time, so we just went to the stadium hoping someone was selling some at a good price, but we were not so lucky. Instead, we ended up watching the game from a really nice condo in Pittsburgh, just across the river from the stadium.

Before I move on, here are a couple of quick facts about my beloved Steelers:

they have won 6 super bowls - that is more than any team in the NFL
they have won 7 AFC championships
it's the fifth oldest franchise in the NFL
they are still owned by the same family that founded them in 1933
they are the only team that has the logo on only one side of their helmet

As far as gameday traditions at home, we are always decked out in black & gold, usually game jerseys, we drink out of our Steelers cups which set on our Steelers coasters. For special occassions (like the super bowl, which they won TWO of this decade!) we pull out the special steelers paper plates, napkins, and plastic ware. We're so fancy. And of course we have our Terrible Towels handy for cheering for those touchdown catches by Hines Ward, or those sacks by James Harrison.

'dem Stillers are da best!

Oh, and speaking of the Super Bowl and Steelers, I can't leave out a picture of the cookies I made for the grand event this past year.

Now on the other hand, my Sooner traditions are young. Just 7 years old, in fact. I didn't really have a college football team that I followed growing up, so when I met Bobby, (who is from Oklahoma and therefore a lifetime Sooner fan) I quickly joined Sooner Nation. We attended our first game together in November 2002, just shortly after we got engaged. It was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people were there! I finally realized why college football gets so much hype. I loved the marching band, the Sooner Schooner, the echoing "boomer" and "sooner" from opposite sides of the crowd, and the "oooooooooo......... U!" at kickoff. We went to one other game when OU played Mizzou in Missouri (we were living in St Louis at the time) and that was a lot of fun too, but our seats were in the Mizzou section and they weren't too hospitable to people dressed in crimson.

OU-Mizzou, October 2006

Now that we are living in Norman, the home of the university, we are living in the hype. There is OU stuff EVERYWHERE, and the only thing anyone talks about is the football team. It's great! Unfortunately the team is without a few of their starting players this year due to injury (hello?!?! Heisman winner Sam Bradford! I'm such a name dropper, I know.) so they have already lost two games. I'm a little disappointed because I moved here to watch a winning team, but apparently they don't care what I think.... haha.

We will (hopefully) be attending our first game together as citizens of Norman this week. Tailgating and game pictures to come. Boomer Sooner!!!

FYI

2009-10-06T20:45:00.004-05:00

Earlier today Bobby and I saw our "new" $10 rug for sale at Walmart tonight for almost 90 bucks! oh yeah, that made me feel good. I looked for it online to gloat a little more, and it is listed for $79 there. Still pretty good!

Terrible (cat) Towel

2009-10-05T09:43:00.007-05:00

Last night during the Steelers game, we were trying to keep our cats awake because they tend to sleep in the evenings and then play, pounce, and wrestle on us while we are sleeping, all night. So we locked them out of the bedroom and made them stay out in the living room with us. They played and roamed around for awhile, but then soon settled on a chair next to the tv we were watching. I just happened to have a Terrible Towel laying there, and I like to think that they chose to lay there to show their support for America's football team.

First it was just Paisley sitting there.

Then she got down and Shadow got up there.

And then Paisley decided to get back up there and snuggle with her sister. Aren't they adorable?!?

Super Saturday

2009-10-04T15:10:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was a lovely day. The weather was perfect: cool in the morning, sunny and warm in the afternoon. I went to lunch with a friend from church, Liz, on Friday (Cheddar's) and we were talking about garage sales and our husbands being away Saturday mornings, so I asked if she wanted to garage-sale'ing with me and she said yes. We decided to go around the neighborhoods near her - Moore & South Oklahoma City - and it was no slim pickins' - there were a ton of sales. But we hit the jackpot when we found a storage center sale. It was like the garage sale mecca! Together we ended up with some good stuff.

I bought these cute little white bowls for a dollar.

I am such a sucker for things that nest.

Got these two books for $1.25.

This suitcase for $5.

The last thing I need is more luggage, but this one is the size I was lacking. It will be great for all of our/Bobby's overnight trips to Dallas.

I found these two shirts - the OU shirt for $1 (for me) and this blue military/work short for $2 (for bobby.)

He thought it would be a cool guitar-playing shirt. I agree.

And my big ticket item was this area rug for our living room. It is not exactly what I wanted, but because the echo is so bad in there, and the floor is so bare, I was so happy to find this. The colors match pretty well, it is in really good shape, and it was only $10! Here's a picture of it laying on our backyard table. Once we clean it and put it in place, I'll show a picture of it in action.

Later that night Liz and her husband came over to watch the OU game. We were so excited to host our first football game gathering in our new house, even though the house isn't quite ready for entertaining yet... They promised to look past the bare walls and floors, and boxes, and unfinished bathroom, oh, and the turtles in the bathtub.

Bobby waiting for the game to start - red shirt on the red couch - nice!

Me giving the #1 sign. Unfortunately OU is far from #1 this year... :-(

And you gotta have two kinds of salsa - red & green

We're so glad Liz and Jarod came over. And they brought their adorable dog, Cooper!

IF update

2009-09-28T19:13:00.005-05:00

Since there is a variety of folks who read this blog, I sometimes struggle whether to talk about this really personal stuff or not, but I figure I'll just quit worrying about it and spill it all. I mean, that is sort of just like my personality (I like all kinds of things, I have some crazy conflicting interests, I'm a girly girl but am a hardcore sports fan, etc.) and so my blog might as well reflect my personality, right? One day I talk about food on a stick, the next day it's infertility treatments. There you go.

After all that, I really don't have much to update other than, I am officially out of menopause! woo hoo!!! If you have NO idea what I am talking about, read here. The medication and it's ugly effects have worn off and I am so happy. (I wish the extra pounds it gave me would come off as quickly though... ugh, that's gonna take awhile) My doctor in WV wanted us to pursue fertility drugs again right away, but I just can't do it. So whoever is reading this, could you pray for us that the Lupron did it's trick and the endometriosis is gone? We have been told that we only have a small window of opportunity before it (the endo) starts growing back. I am trying to remain hopeful and inspired by my dear friend Abby who had a similar situation and is now 22ish weeks pregnant!

That's all for now - thanks for caring. :)

This post is on a stick

2009-09-28T15:17:00.014-05:00

I took a lot pictures at the oklahoma state fair last week, but most of them involve one theme: Food on a Stick.

Let's begin our tour.

Most of you have likely heard of CHICKEN on a stick.

And I know you've heard of, seen, or probably eaten, a HOT DOG on a stick.

But have you seen on a JALAPENO on a stick?

Or what about CHEESE on a stick?

I'm sure maybe you have seen STEAK on a stick...

But what about PIZZA on a stick?

Surely you have not seen MANICOTTI on a stick!

I mean, seriously, how do you get manicotti on a stick?!?!

But the craziest one of all is...

Yep, you saw that right, DEEP FRIED GARLIC MASHED POTATOES on a stick!!

Did I miss anything? Have any of you heard of any other crazy foods on a stick?

The fair was O-K!

2009-09-25T21:06:00.013-05:00

(Eventually I will stop using the Oklahoma abbreviation as an adjective in my status titles.)

Today we went to the State Fair and it was an overall good time. Since we went in the afternoon to avoid crowds and possible thunderstorms, we did miss out on the more "entertaining" people. Because you know that a fair in a state like Oklahoma has all the same people as in the lyrics of Toby Keith's song, "I love this bar." Regardless of the time of day, we still saw lots of short skirts, high techs, blue-collar boys, and rednecks. Just missed out on the dancing girls and hookers.

The other highlight was certainly the food and it did not disappoint.

Bobby had a corn dog.

And I treated myself to a yummy, butter-lathered soft pretzel, an elephant ear covered in powder sugar, and a jug of ice cold root beer.

This was over a span of several hours and I shared it all with Bobby, so do not think I am a total pig.

Oh, and speaking of pigs... we even watched the pig races. Those little black piggies really moved quickly!

Just before leaving, we rode up in the space needle thingy that you can see in the first picture I posted. I was nervous going up that high with the wind blowing as much as it was, but once we got up there, I was so glad we did. I got these awesome pictures of downtown OKC and the fairgrounds.

Stay tuned...

2009-09-25T09:05:00.002-05:00

we're going to the state fair today, so I am sure I will have a lot of fun stories and pictures to share tonight.

Life is/in OK

2009-09-23T09:30:00.009-05:00

We have been here for a month. Almost. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that we pulled in with our moving truck and angry animals in the car, and sometimes it feels like we have lived here forever. Yet, I only know a few people and don't really know my way around. So I guess it would be like we've lived here forever but never leave the house. And actually that is sort of how I feel most days. The first week was so nice because Bobby was here with me everyday and we did projects together and drove to stores together, but now he's busy as a bee with church stuff and I'm here alone doing the projects and shopping. But really, it's not all that bad. I do enjoy the downtime and he is able to come home for lunch most days which is wonderful.

The house is far from complete but I think we're still making progress. Last week was very unproductive because we spent two days in Dallas and the rest of the week preparing to make an even bigger mess - we decided to do a complete makeover on our little third bedroom, otherwise known as BR 3. This room is located in the front of the house when you first walk through the front door. Its short-term use is an office/library/guitar room. And the closet contains all of Bobby's clothes, of which I plan on adding some extra shelves at the top and some shoe racks at the bottom, eventually. And when my parents visit, we are going to possibly change out the main door because right now it is one of those cheap accordion doors. I am hoping to put in a sliding pocket door, but we'll see.

The room looked like this when we first looked the house:

And this is what it looked like just before demolition:

Light green, stained carpet, beat-up ugly oak colored baseboard, and white walls with markings all over them.

So we decided to rip up the carpet and install wood (laminate) floors. Ourselves! We have never done anything like this. Ever. The closest I ever came to installing flooring was when I watched the carpet guy install my beautiful ruby red carpet in my bedroom when I was 8. And Bobby? Nope, never laid flooring either. But hey, this is the age of HGTV and DIY. We can do it! And so the search began... we went to about a dozen places looking for a floor we liked, as cheaply as possible, and we found our floor at Sam's Club! Crazy, I know, but I typed in "cheap laminate flooring" on the google and Sam's came up. So we went to the store, put 6 boxes in our cart and checked out. It was weird, but affordable.

But the story's not done yet... Bobby suggested that after we rip up the carpeting and before we put down the new floor, we paint the walls and trim. Good idea, but we didn't have any paint. In about 7 minutes we decided to go with green walls, white trim, and he ran to Lowe's and bought the paint. We thought we could do all the painting in about 2 hours, wrong. These textured walls suck it up and we were still painting way after dark. That meant the flooring didn't get started until the next day, which happened to be Saturday, aka Game Day. So... we watched the game and started installing the floor at 7 pm. Needless to say that we didn't get it done and are about halfway finished, but it is looking good!

We have not been able to resume work on it because Bobby started getting sick and I feared that he was getting swine flu since we actually know a lot of people who have it. He is feeling better which is good because now our pastor is sick and Bobby will be filling in for him on Sunday. Good thing he was just installed this past Sunday! Oh, did I forget to mention that? He is now officially the Assistant Pastor (and church planting apprentice) at Christ the King PCA. His ordination was successfully transferred from Pittsburgh to North Texas (our presbytery) two days after we moved here and now he is installed at our church. Just in time. So it looks like our floor (and total house in general) is taking a back seat to the duties of flock leader.

Since you've been so nice to read through this entire post, I'll leave you with a sneak peek of the room.

In Norman We Are

2009-09-09T10:33:00.011-05:00

Well this post is only 13 days late. Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been a little busy with the unpacking and the meeting of lots of people. We did arrive in Norman on the day we expected, Wednesday, August 26th, but it was a wee bit later - midnight to be exact. We had a few delays because you just can't get around as fast in a moving truck (our shortest pit stop was 20 minutes), we hit a really bad storm in Tulsa, and we spent several wonderful hours with our friends in St Louis. We certainly don't regret that part at all! So we arrived at midnight, in the rain, with some very unhappy animals. The (water) turtles had been in a box (separate boxes) for two days, the cats were in a carrier together and cried for 80% of the trip, but the Bunny was fine, chillin' in her cage in the back of the car. So we unloaded them from the car and slept on our bedroom floor on the first night in our first very own home. How very romantic, isn't it?

Since that day we have been unpacking and organizing stuff - like trying to figure out where we are going to put Bobby's clothes since mine take up our master bedroom closet. Just kidding, he gets the third bedroom closet. Well, some of his clothes are there. Some are in the second bedroom. And some of his shoes are in my closet. The rest of his shoes are still missing. So it's like a scavenger hunt for him every time he gets dressed. I try to keep things fun for him around here.

He began working in the church office yesterday, so I'm trying to use my time home wisely, and I am doing a great job of that right now, huh? We have been to two worship services at our new church and they were great. And we've been really blessed by some great meals and fellowship with folks from the church. I think our life and calendar are going to be pretty full here in Norman and we are going to love it.

We miss all of our friends in southwest PA, especially our family and the kids from our youth group. It was really hard to leave them all. We are so thankful for free long distance calls on our cell phones and facebook so we can keep an eye on them, er, I mean, keep in touch with them.

We don't have a ton of pictures since we've been here because our camera battery died and we're waiting for the new one to arrive in the mail, but I since I never actually showed you all a picture of the front our house, here it is:

This was taken when we came to Norman on our house hunt. We will definately be doing something with those boring square hedges!

FYI, if you're friends with me on facebook, I have a couple photo albums of the house on there. But more will be posted here as we make our updates and makeovers to the rooms.