Oklahoma Blizzard of 2009

Looking out our front door on Christmas Eve, this is what we saw. The wind was blowing and the snow was piling up and it was just beautiful!
How grateful we were to be inside and warm and just spend some time together enjoying Christmas Eve.
When we woke up Christmas morning, the snow had stopped and most of the highways had reopened but the weatherman said to stay put if you didn't have to go anywhere. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Doug's mom's house for the festivities. Instead we stayed bundled up inside, I made some breakfast and we just enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home.

When I heard the weather was going to turn bad, I thought I would be "smart" and pull my jeep into the driveway so that if the driveway got icy, I could walk on the crunchy grass and at least get into my car. Well, that didn't work out as planned - the way the wind must have been blowing during the storm placed a four foot snow drift on our walkway from the front door right to the front of my car. Since I don't plan to get out there and shovel any time soon, I'm going to have to make my way out through the garage, down the driveway and around to the drivers side door. Or, maybe I'll just stay home until the snow all melts!

This is a view from inside Doug's car as we just pulled out of our garage and are headed down the street. Pretty icy! Glad he is driving and not me!

This is a picture of Teddy Bear sitting out by our fence. Right near where he is sitting is a little knot hole/peep hole that looks into our neighbor's back yard. Next door live two little cute dogs named Boomer & Sooner. Teddy sits by that little knot hole, listens for a while then peeks his eye up to the peep hole like this:

If Boomer and Sooner are on the other side, all the dogs go completely NUTS trying to get to one another. It's one big fun game for them. Watching him look through that peep hole is so funny! Just thought I'd share.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This is the view out my front window - we are in the middle of a blizzard! You probably can't see it in the photo but the winds are blowing the snow sideways and the snow is piling up in drifts everywhere.(If you click on the photo, it should make it bigger.) And If I didn't see and hear it for myself I wouldn't have believed that we actually had thunder and lightening - in the middle of a blizzard!
The highways in Oklahoma are closed for travel for now. I guess becareful of wishing for a White Christmas ~ you just might get it! ;) Hopefully things will look better in the morning and the roads will be cleared a little bit so we can make it to the festivities at Doug's mom's house.

Look! It's Santa!

Guess it's time to make me one of these - Bailey's in hot chocolate. Mmmmmm.

Merry Christmas!

December musings...

Isn't this little man CUTE!

Just trying to enjoy the holiday season without going too crazy.
Today I baked some peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses on top.They are for a potluck luncheon tomorrow.
I also made a delicious beef stew in the crockpot. That was for us though. Yesterday was very chilly and gray but today actually turned out fairly nice - around 60 degrees or so and sun - which I love.
Last night I worked on a few crafts upstairs in my craft room but I ran out of "snow" for my little painted houses so that meant a trip to Michaels today in all the craziness. After I get a few things done in my office I'm heading back upstairs to hopefully get those finished.
I'll try to get some pictures of the things I've been working on.
One of my goals in the new year is to really learn how to use my camera. Yes, I know it was one of my goals last year. Let's not talk about that.

Wow! This month is getting away from me!

On Friday, I drove to Oklahoma City for an Open House hosted by Barbara and Paul Cardin. Then, back to Tulsa for another Christmas party with the people Doug works with at Stryker Spine. We had dinner at D'Alesandro's and then went to Sherburn's bar for a few drinks. Saturday was spent running errands and doing things around the house. Then, Sunday it was back to Oklahoma City for my BUG investment group Christmas Party.

Monday I had to go to the dentist (no fun!) and had an incredibly busy day at work. After dinner, I went straight to bed and slept until 6am this morning. Today was another incredibly busy day and I'm ready for things to slow down a bit.

Happy December!

I've been busy with the usual December activities: planning for Christmas, Christmas shopping, decorating, crafting... I always have these big plans for all the things I want to do in the Christmas season but somehow time always gets away from me.

I DID get some crafting time in this weekend which made me very happy! I made one of the cute ornament wreaths for my front door. When I get a decent picture,I'll post it. Simple, easy, and pretty!

These little snowmen have been making appearances around the internet and decided to give one a try myself. Came out pretty cute, didn't it?



I've also seen these trees made several different ways and tried one myself. Time consuming but I'm so happy with the result! Sorry about the dark picture. If I don't take photos in the morning when the light is bright, I have a hard time capturing good pictures.



Lots of activities coming up this month. Hopefully, I'll be a good blogger and write about the goings on. Trying to stay peaceful and enjoy the season.

Thursday is a luncheon for the Case Managers Society here in Tulsa. Dr. Webb is the sponsor this year. Thursday night I am taking a scrapping class - should be fun! Friday is an Open House for the people who manage my website.

Next Sunday is my investment group party at Suzanne's house. She always goes full out decorating and I'm sure she won't disappoint this year! When I was invited to join the group I met everyone for the first time at Suzanne's house at a Christmas party and I remember Christmas trees in EVERY room - some rooms had more than one and gazillions of Christmas decorations everywhere. I need to make something for dessert to bring to the party although my baking skills are kind of shaky as of late. I'll let you know how that turns out!

Thanksgiving and a nice weekend

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with Doug's mom and sister Dee. The turkey was delicious and turned out really nice. Don't mind the mess on the counter or the smirk on my face - Doug likes to have me say funny things while he is taking my picture so I'm pretty sure I'm mid sentence on this one. Just focus in on how delicious the turkey looks.
This year, I even remembered the rolls. Last year, they were purchased and put in the pantry where they stayed until the middle of dinner when somebody said, "Hey! Where are the rolls?" Doug's family has teased me all year about how last Thanksgiving was ruined because I forgot the rolls (didn't forget to buy them, just forgot to bake them. This year, I bought the kind that you have to defrost, let rise and then bake. I managed to remember all the steps and get them defrosted, allowed them to rise and popped 'em into the oven. They were fabulous - all light and fluffy. Yum! You can see them right behind me, all ready to go.

I made pumpkin pie and an apple pie for dessert along with seven layer cookie bars. Ever since the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Cookie disaster,(not sure if I posted about that one) it seems I'm no longer a fan of pumpkin flavor. I took a couple of bites (yeah- one bite wasn't enough) and decided I'm off pumpkin pie. The pie itself should have tasted good, in fact it tasted like it always does but I'm just not liking that flavor anymore.
Funny thing is I used to be such a good baker but I've had a few mishaps as of late. For one thing, I thought maybe our oven was "off" and it turns out I am right. I bought an oven thermometer so I could check (I didn't want to wreck Thanksgiving) and it is under by 15 degrees! However, I can't really blame the baking disasters on that.

Dee and me. And yes, I know I look chunky. I *AM* chunky. But I'm going to fix that. Doug and I are starting the gym TOMORROW! It is a tough time of year to start but I need to start now before I get any bigger. It is NOT going to be easy because I love cookies, and cake, and holiday food....I'll keep you posted how that goes.

Doug and I like to take a "self" shot so here is our Thanksgiving photo. We have fun, that is all that matters, right?
In other exciting news, Doug bought me a Gypsy for my Cricut. It is an early Christmas present. I haven't had a chance to try it out just yet but I can hardly wait! I spent 13 hours upstairs in my craft room organizing, purging and cleaning. I'm getting ready to do some serious holiday crafting. I'm not going to post any "before" pictures until it is actually all clean and I can post some after pics too.

Little House on the Prairie

When I was a little girl, I LOVED Little House on the Prairie. On Thursday nights, my mom would let me stay up past my usual bedtime and watch the show. I'm not sure exactly what I liked about it because I would NOT have liked to have lived under those conditions or during those times. I LIKE modern conveniences.


Shari (in blue) & Me in the outfits our gram made for us:
(I know, embarrasing..But I'm cutting us some slack
because we were just little girls and we didn't know
better.)

Yesterday, Doug and I went with Frank and Tonya to see the musical Little House on the Prairie. Melissa Gilbert was supposed to be starring but had a back injury requiring her to have surgery today. Even though we were disappointed we wouldn't be able to see half-pint, her understudy did a good job in her place.
The show itself started out a little slow but got better as it went along and we ended up having a nice time.

Prior to the show we ate pizza at Joe Momma's. Pepperoni, half olive, half jalepeno. One review that I read online was from someone from Connecticut who remarked that the brick oven pizza could rival any of those famous pizza places in New Haven. Yeah, right...The pizza was good but by no stretch of imagination did it compare to my all time pizza love: Pepe's. Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana on Wooster Street in New Haven, Connecticut. OH. MY. GOD! If you haven't had Wooster Street Pizza, you are soooo missing out!

The other famous pizza joint on Wooster Street is Sally's. There are some pretty die hard fans that choose one place over the other but honestly, as long as I can have Wooster Street Pizza, either Pepe's or Sally's, I'm happy!
In other news, Doug made it home safely from Ft. Lauderdale. Yay!
Work has been busy for the both of us. Lots of long days and nights out networking. It is nice when we get a chance to just stay in.
I made a taco soup on Saturday night and it turned out pretty well. We are gearing up for Thanksgiving. I'm cooking again this year. Doug's mom, sister and niece are coming to dinner and I'm going to *try* to keep things low key and not go overboard cooking a million different things. We'll see what happens...

Four Dogs, No Doug...

Yep, just me and four furry little friends tonight.

Niles:

Nestle:

Teddy:

Phoebe:


Doug is in Florida for a Stryker meeting. Wish I was there too. It's very quiet around here tonight...We miss you honey!

Wedding Pics, Wendy, U2, Flaming Lips & More!

This is a LONG post, so feel free to just skip through and enjoy the pictures if you want ;)
So wow, where the heck have I been? Let's see. We got back from Maui and life has been a crazy whirlwind since. Here are a couple of wedding pics from Frank Baranik of Maui Professional Photography (must give credit where credit is due!)Thank you Frank! We LOVE our pictures!




I got one day of "rest" so to speak, if you can call doing laundry, taking one of the dogs to the vet and just trying to get ready for the next week, rest...Yes, I picked up the dogs from the Kennel on Sunday night and on Monday I was on my way to the vet with Nestle. Not only did he have an eye ulcer but he lost quite a bit of weight while we were gone. He went from 6.1 pounds to 5.5 pounds which is pretty significant in one week's time.
So, I've been putting drops and ointment in his eye since we've been back and he is STILL not healed. But, we are working on that and I am rapidly sinking into debt as we continue to try and change medications and go for follow up after follow up. Oh well, he is my baby and I don't want him to lose his eyesight. In a couple of weeks he gets his little shark teeth cleaned. Yeah - I'd better keep working. Anyway ~ I think I've fattened them all back up too.
The following day (Tuesday), I picked Wendy up from the airport. She came to visit for a few days. We did lots of fun things. We went to Oklahoma Aquarium, ate at a bunch of different places around town(Fuddrucker's, McGills, Oliveto, In the Raw, Los Cabos, BBD,) we got pedicures:

(Real Men DO Get Pedicures!), did some shopping, and did some beading:

Wendy made a couple of bracelets and I helped her attach the clasps.
She was originally going to leave that Saturday but we had extra tickets to U2 on Sunday and I convinced her to stay and go to the concert with us! Yay!

We had so much fun!
Doug called and got a limo so this was our luxurious ride to and from Norman:

I was thrilled to not have to be the designated driver!
Me & Wendy ~ I'm thoroughly enjoying my glass of wine ;)

Me and my honey enjoying the concert (it was a little cold!)


We got home around 3am and MAN! it was hard to work on Monday. In fact, it kind of made the rest of the week a little difficult.
Wendy went home on Tuesday and I was sad to see her go. It was fun to have my friend to pal around with.
The rest of the week went on as usual busy with work - I had to go to Norman for three days for the Physician's Assistant Conference and then on Saturday we went to OKC for the third annual Ghouls Gone Wild Parade. We were just spectators the first year for the March of 1000 Flaming Skeletons but we've marched this year and last. Here we are in our scary makeup!

Yep! and me getting a little squeeze from WAYNE. COYNE! (The lead man from the Flaming Lips - for those of you who don't know) He is so awesome! (Don't worry honey, YOU are my MAIN Squeeze! Mmmmwah!)

Finally on Sunday night we went to an art fundraiser at Holland Hall. Doug and I had planned to just stay in, cook a roast in the crock pot and just chill. Just after we got the roast started, the phone rang and it was Dr. Sherburn. Leigh Ann was the chairperson for the event and had extra tickets and they wanted to know if we would like to go. We picked up Frank and Tonya Tomecek and sat with them at dinner which was catered by the Palace Cafe. Overall, it was a fun evening with some laughs.
Don't ask me where this week has gone because it is Wednesday already and I have no idea how we got here.
I've been feeling the stress creeping up over the past few days so today I went and got a massage at The Spa with Amber. She is FABULOUS~ and my back and neck feel 100 times better. I've got to remember not to let myself get so stressed and to just go get a nice massage when things start feeling like they are getting to me.
This weekend is Halloween and I'm looking forward to seeing all the little goblins and ghouls spooking up the neighborhood - just hope the dogs don't go too bezerk!

Married in Maui!!

Yep! We did it! We were married Thursday evening, October 8th, 2009 at sunset on Kapalua Bay Beach. It was wonderful. Peaceful and serene and just beautiful. We were on one end of the beach by the rocks and another couple were also getting married on the other end of the beach. We took a couple of snapshots of ourselves after we were officially married. We also had a professional photographer take some photos and once he sends us the CD of photos he took, I'll post some of those too.
Below is a picture of some of the view from our balcony. The picture was taken the morning after we arrived and is a bit hazy but totally incredible!


We stayed at the Kapalua Ritz Carlton - what a great place! We walked to several beaches from the hotel and the grounds themselves were so beautiful. One of our favorite things was the incredible breakfast buffet which we indulged in every single morning of our trip. I'm going to miss the sweet fresh pineapple and the delicious orange juice and the tastiest bacon I've ever had!

Doug got to play golf at the Kapalua Bay Course. This is him playing the 4th hole. I went along to keep him company and was able to get some incredible pictures. I'll just share this one for now.

As we walked around the resort area, we stumbled upon one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen. Above the dunes is a boardwalk of sorts meant to preserve the integrity of the beach dunes. Here is my honey taking a break along the path and taking in the spectacular view.

Incredibly amazing, isn't it?

Kissing on that beautiful beach. So romantic!

This is DT Fleming Beach. On our last day in Maui, we were swimming just to the side of the rocks behind where Doug is standing and we saw a HUGE Sea Turtle playing on those rocks. It was so awesome. I was hoping he would get up on the rocks so I could get a picture of him, but he just kept sticking his head out of the water and raising his flippers. There was no way to get a good picture of him because the crashing waves on the rocks made it impossible.

That's it for now. We are still tired from our overnight flight home and headed out now to go pick up the dogs. Wonder if they missed us or if they are going to just be mad. We'll see.

Mamma Mia!

Dr. Webb called yesterday afternoon and said he had two extra tickets to Mamma Mia if Doug and I wanted to go. Of course I wanted to go! We didn't buy tickets when they went on sale because we are always so busy on the weekends, I don't like to plan too far ahead. As the show got closer to coming to town I was wishing we had purchased some. So, "Thank you" Dr. Webb for the tickets ~ and our seats were fabulous!
Yep! It's official ~ Doug and I *will* be participating in the March of 1000 Flaming Skeletons again this year! We had a blast last year and decided to do it again. Here we are in our scary makeup:

Here we are in costume (I'm not chunky, I just have BIG BONES!)(Ha! Ha!)

1000 Flaming Marching Skeletons:

If you are going to be in the Oklahoma City area on October 24th, you can participate too! Just click here for the details and to sign up!

We have our New Year's Eve all planned already too! We will be attending the Flaming Lips Concert for the third year in a row at the Cox Convention Center. Last year we had back stage passes although there was so much smoke we didn't stay back there for too long. We were lucky enough to have our pictures taken with Wayne Coyne and then went to our seats to enjoy the show!


Can't wait to do it again this year!

Other than that, looking forward to GETTING MARRIED in just a couple of weeks!!! Then Wendy is coming for a visit. Can't wait!