Skymall Edition - 2

You've seen the crazy stuff and today I have the few semi cool things:

Earbud Wristband: Organize your earbud wires conveniently on your wrist.  Show off your snazzy earphones, keep them tangle-free and have convenient access to music listening all from your wrist.  If you don't want to wear the wristband just wrap your wires around it and throw it in your bag. $24.99 * I don't think it's kinda silly to wear it as a bracelet, but I do like how you can wrap your earphones around it and it tucks away the buds and the connection piece and they won't unravel.

Gripz Baseballs:  Learn to pitch and hit like a Pro with Gripz.  The Baseballs provide pitchers with the tools to feel, memorize and perform professional pitches.  The unique finger grooves create instant muscle memory improving control and confidence on the mound.  Hitters also learn how pitches move, break and change speeds at the plate. $49.99

Snap Span: Make yard work a snap.  Snap Span hold and lock bags open.  Four latches snap closed making work faster and easier by eliminating a second person to hold the bag open. Fill the bag with yard debris, trash or recyclables. $19.99

Mini Curbside trash bins:   These might actually be a fun weird gift or secret santa thing for the office of the waste management manager! $12.95

Back in my day we had 9 planets T-shirt.  $29.95.  * I thought this was pretty funny!

Christmas Gift - Skymall edition

My favorite thing to do while flying is to look at the Skymall magazine.  There are ALWAYS crazy weird things you can buy and maybe 3% of the stuff is actually a tiny bit cool.  So, on my last plane ride in October I decided to take some pictures of the crazy and the kinda cool.

Here is the edition of the Crazy Weird stuff you can buy in the sky!

Savvy Flex Wallet - Fat wallets known leading cause of back problems (who knew!)  Ergonomic design will keep your wallet thin and flex's (yes, it's really spelled like that in the magazine) to the contour of your body.  The wallet is made from soft, high quality leather with a patented credit card insert that keeps your wallet thin while allowing you to store up to 16 credit cards.  $34.99   *how does it bend if it holds so many?

                                         

One of a kind shirts, for one of a kind men: One of a kind shirt allows you to show that you're an individual, that you're a little different than everyone else and you want them to take notice of who you are. These shirts are great for a night on the town (seriously!), frat parties, bachelor parties, stag parties or any other time you want to stand out in a crowd (that's for sure) $??

Self cleaning litter box - No more scooping! Frequently away from your favorite feline, or simply hate litter box duty?  Let Litter- Robot help.  Self-cleaning litter box features a patented sitting process that automatically activates 7 minutes after the cat leaves the box, transferring waste into a hidden drawer, leaving the globe with fresh clean litter for the next use.  $359.99 ** This simply just looks ridiculous.

 PlungeMAX - Eliminate an unpleasant problem in the home in a simple way. PlungeMAX no- mess plunger clears toilet clogs in a quick, sanitary, splash-free way - without messing with a standard plunger or harsh chemicals.  It sits atop your toilet bowl and pushes compressed air through the water toward the clog to clear it sanitarily and effortlessly. The plunger never touches water, keeping germs in the toilet bowl where they belong. $12.99  * Okay, are you serious?  Who has time to go get this out of the cabinet, attach it and then compress away while the water is about to overflow.  This is just dumb.

UpRight Sleeper - Sleep like a baby while sitting up.  The UpRight Sleeper supports the weight of the head while keeping the neck comfortably aligned and prevents the head from falling forward or sideways during sleep. The attached back strap is positioned between the back and the seat to hold it securely in place.  Fully adjustable for every face shape and size.  $39.99  *And it comes with a cover so it doesn't look obviously weird or anything!!!

iGrow - The iGrow uses the same technology pioneered by Alpha Science, the worldwide leader in clinic-based laser hair rejuvenation systems.  Until now, these systems have been sold exclusively to doctors and hair specialists for use in hair clinics around the globe.  Now you can realize the benefits of the world's most advanced laser hair rejuvenation system from the comfort of your own home. $695  Programmed for men and women.  *The demonstration pictures are just ridiculous!

                               

Headache Reliever - (only kind of  cool within the confines of your home, acts like a heating pad which is nice to have around)  Co-developed by a NASA spacesuit designer and a leading neurologist who treats severe headaches, this clinically proven adjustable head wrap is guaranteed to relieve headaches fast - without medication. Uniquely combines compression and thermal therapy.  Includes three reusable hot/cold gel packs $24.99

Florida Vacation

I spent a week in Florida with my sister-in-law and her three kids the week of Halloween.  We had lots of fun doing school, riding bikes, going on Mario Brother adventures, shopping and watching movies.  When the kids went to bed, Liesel and I got to have our pick with Netflix movies that our husbands would never want to watch with us. I have now seen Driving Miss Daisy, Steel Magnolias, High School Musical, and some Halloween Disney Cartoons.  I've still got to watch HSM2.  Is there a third one?

Cute Molly stood still long enough to do a quick photoshoot.  If only it wasn't cold this day and she didn't have a runny nose because of it.  Perhaps I'll be able to photoshop it.  She walked along anything that was like a balance beam.  The curb, the actual balance beam at the park, and the wooden post fence in her front yard.  On the latter, you have to hold her up up there and walk along with her.  It was super cute and as the aunt, I didn't mind walking back and forth about 50 times with her to do it.  It did cross my mind though, that her parents might not like me for it if she starts to demand they help her walk the fence beam over and over and over.  You're welcome!

Dom and Will are really good at riding bikes.  Dom can stand on the pedals and go up and down curbs.   Will's tricycle is not like normal trikes though.  The pedals are connected to the front wheel in such a way that he can only go as fast as he pedals.  So in normal conditions you would think that he'd be flying down hills, but he really just goes down them at a normal speed or as fast as he wants to go. Watching it made it look like an oxymoron.

Halloween was awesome.  Their neighborhood had so many kids walking around and so many people handing out candy.  Everywhere the boys and I went people commented on their costumes.  I taught them both to say "Mama Mia" in their best Mario and Luigi voices after they got their candy and it was a major hit.  Two girls commented that they were really cute and Dom came back to me and said "Why is everyone saying we're cute... we're just boys."

The next day, the Mario Brothers, Molly and I decided to go on an adventure around the neighborhood.      We ran into one of Bowzer's traps (sprinklers), hopped on some garden rocks (for coins), built a fire and had breakfast, ran from imaginary fireballs, and rescued Molly from Bowzer's growl (the airplanes and bombs we could hear from the base).  

We pretended to play school too.  I picked them all up in the wagon and we "drove" down the road to come mailboxes.  I gave them each a "ticket" (a leaf) and we put it the mailbox and then pretended to get our school papers out of it.  We stopped at someone's front yard and had science class.  I attempted to give them a 5 minute lesson on palm trees, florida cactuses (I have no idea what they were really called so florida cactuses seemed like a good fit), and taught them how rocks become smooth by years and years of water washing over them.  Then we went to history class and I quizzed them on state capitals.  I don't remember my state capitals though, so I had no idea if they were telling me the right answer though.  Then I gave them each a different kind of leaf and told them we were going to the library next!  We turned back towards home and I dropped them off.  They ran inside and picked out a book and then the librarian, Liesel, checked them out for us.

Dominic also lost his first tooth Thursday morning.  It was very loose the day before and he says it just popped out the next morning when he was messing with it.  Liesel and I both woke up to William saying "Are you going to tell Mom that you lost your tooth.  Your VERY first tooth!"

And here we are exploring the massive, awesome store that is Old Time Pottey.  Thankfully, the kids entertained themselves in the cart, because it's not exactly a store you want them running around in.  

Liesel gives really good anecdotes and now I have one.  I hope I'm not taking one of your post ideas!  So on Friday, the day we paid rent, went to TJ MAXX, 5 Guys, and Old Time Pottery, we were also going to leave going to the beach as a option if the kids were up to it.  So about half way through the day Liesel told them "hey guys, we might go to the beach later, if no one is melting down".  Dom asked "what is melting down?".  Liesel responded "well, it's like,  you know when Molly gets cranky and starts crying and I say, okay, we need to leave and put her down for a nap?... that is melting down"  And then, Dom thought about it for a second and with the most matter of fact straight face said " I'm melting down."  And Will chimed in later with the same comment.  At the end of our day, we ended up not going to the beach because the boys were done with being out and about and were requesting to home and were apparently "melting down".  It was really funny, but maybe you had to be there. 

This is life people

I did laundry last weekend.  I threw all the socks in the laundry basket and I still haven't sorted them and the basket is still on the floor.

I write how I talk, hence I know my grammar and punctuation is probably really bad.  Please don't judge me.

The cedar chest at the end of our bed is really nice and I'm really glad we have it.  BUT....we can't ever sit on it because it just catches all our clothes before we actually put them away once a week.  I know...it's a terrible habit.

Our bathroom is grouted and caulked and ready for the final touches!!!!  The one thing that got messed up though was that even though we bought the grout and the caulk in the same color from the same brand, the caulk is noticeably darker than the grout.  It's really annoying, but what can you do I guess. Oh, you say we should just rip the caulk out and buy a shade lighter?  Yeah...you can come do that for us if you want!

Today I did something that I felt God was calling me to do.  I found out two days ago that a girl I work with got behind on her car payments, but when she got the money to get caught up, she instructed her sister to take it to the dealership to pay and her sister forgot, then my coworkers car got repossessed. The fee for that was a little over $300. She's a young, single mom of 2 kids and when she told me that, she looked like she was about to cry, but also really mad at her sister.   Well anyway, I asked her today if she got it all sorted out, and she said she made the payment but still didn't have her car because she would still owe the $300.  I had told Stephen all about this and I just felt compelled to help her and pay the fee for her so she could get her car, be all caught up, and just move on and not have to worry about where she was going to get the money from.  She doesn't know I did this for her, and I suspect she may or may not figure it out, but that doesn't matter.  I just feel blessed that I was able to help someone in need.

Oh and one more thing.  I announced that Stephen will be starting an MBA program but I never announced that I got a new job.  I now work for the state of Oklahoma under the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.  I still work for Insure Oklahoma, just not has a contractor anymore.  I'm really happy that I've got a more secure job now and the pay increase is really nice as well!!

That's all the ramblings I have for today.

Our Announcement

This is a pretty big announcement.

Although, probably not what you were thinking it was going to be.

Tricked you!

Anyway, Stephen and I have talked about this for a while now and Stephen finally decided to just take the plunge.

Stephen is now officially enrolled in the MBA program at Oklahoma Christian University!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's going to get a specialized masters' in Marketing or Finance.   I'm already super proud of him and he hasn't even started classes yet, which start on Oct 22.  Each term is 6 weeks long and he'll be taking 2 classes (or 6 hours) of class in the first term.  Classes are on Monday and Thursday for 3 hours.  Depending on how things go, he'll be graduating in 1 - 1.5 years from now.

It's definitely going to be a bit of an adjustment to our lifestyle for a while, but we're both excited about this!

Today

Today (acutally this was yesterday), my Whiz Kid Ashley guessed that I was 25 years old.  I told her that was wrong and then she guessed that I was 21.  :-)

Stephen and I also pick Ashley and her brother Joel up from their house before we take them to the tutor site.  One day they asked how Stephen and I knew eachother.  When we told them we were actually married they didn't believe us.

How do you explain to a third grader that the pural form of Moose is Moose?

Digital Book

It's been two and half years since we've gone to South Africa.  

Do I have all the pictures scrap-booked? No. 

Do I have our video onto our hard drive and edited? No.

I finally decided that I need to have something to do so I started weighing my options of getting a photo album together.  I could either print close to 300 pictures and traditionally scrapbook them, ala Creative Memories style, or I could look into doing a digital photo book.   I had done our honeymoon and our DC trip the traditional way and really thought I would do South Africa in the same manner and it would all be part of our "vacations" album.  

But...that's a lot of pictures, and time, and money.  So I did my research and decided I would use InDesign to create my page layouts and then upload them to a site called Blurb.com.  Then they would take my design and create a hardbound 10"x8" book.

Doing it this way allows me a little bit more creative freedom.  I can have pictures be the background and write little text stories, I can zoom in on pictures, and size the pictures exactly how I want them.

5 years

I had this post planned for like 2 weeks before our 5 year anniversary on September 15.  And then I forgot to post it live.  Oh well.  

Want to know what we did for our milestone anniversary?  Well I wasn't feeling too hot and had taken a nap earlier in the day.  So we both just wanted to stay home.  We picked up chinese food, and some wine (that we didn't even drink that night!) and a red box movie and called it good. Perhaps next year or at least on our 10 year we'll do something awesome.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to look at some pictures of the two of us.  All the way back to nine years ago when we first met.  Please don't judge as we may be added a few layers of insulation to ourselves over the years.  We do have plans to remedy that.

First date. September 23, 2003

First official fancy date and first kiss. Christmas 2003

First time we said "I love you".  Valentines Day 2004. 

Band nerds.

Someone's wedding.  I still have and still love that dress.  Hoping I'll be able to wear it again eventually.

1 year Anniversary date and Stephen writes me a song.

We're engaged!  April 2006.

Lake Hefner bike ride.  Summer 2007 maybe?

Our wedding.  September 15, 2007.

First Dance.  We learned the fox trot and then choreographed our dance.

 Honeymoon Maine. Oct 2007.

One year anniversary.  Pauls Valley, OK.  Just a little getaway at a 1920's Bed and Breakfast.  And we couldn't resist acting like some kids in the dress up area of the  Toy and Action figure museum. 

  Happy New year 2009.

Crested Butte, Colorado.  Prospector Run.  We've been so many times to this town, I don't even know what year this was.  Could be 2009 or 2012.

 Potomac River, Washington DC trip July 2009

Go Pokes!!!!

  Remember that year it snowed on Christmas Eve and it was a blizzard and everyone was snowed in?  That's what year we took this picture.

Simbavti River Lodge, South Africa.  The absolute most awesome, relaxing, breath taking, rejuvenating, incredible, I'd get on a plane and go there tomorrow, place I've ever been to.

Cape Town, South Africa.  On top of Table Mountain.

Thunder game!

 At a friend's wedding. June 2012

I love you babe!  I'm looking forward to whatever the next 5 years will bring us!

Stuff We've Been Doing via Instagram

Enjoying some Redhawks baseball with a cold one and a hotdog.

Watching a whole lot of Olympics and then making 104 "gold" medal sugar cookies.

Watching Stephen play indoor soccer.  Who wants to sign up their 18month old for soccer?  I couldn't even imagine that would work.

Our summer weakness at least once a week.

Humble Pie Pizza.  Deep dish Chicago style pizza.  This took me three days to eat.

Late night driving range to practice our swing.  The two older guys next to us were both entertaining and annoying.  They talked, analyzed, and took pictures of their golf posture for an hour.

Walked around the Myriad Gardens Saturday afternoon and got this great shot of Devon Tower.

Bathroom Update- Tile

We last left off at the end of May when we were texturing and painting the bathroom and it was all prepped for tiling.  Then we were out of town for I think 5 weekends straight.  Then it got hot and we just didn't want to tile.  Then I finally said "okay, for real, we have no plans for this weekend whatsover, I don't even have any chores to get done....so, let's tile."  And tile we did.

In roughly two days (spanned over two weekends), this is where we are.

We've also just recently tiled the floor of the bathroom where the toilet will go.  Our tile guy, who set all the cement board and re-sloped our shower floor, is going to be coming over Tuesday or move our niches just a tad upwards so they line up perfectly with the grout joints and then seal them up watertight.  After that is done, we'll be able to tile the rest of the walls, do the mosaic band and insert of the niches, and put the shower floor in.  Then we grout, seal it, put the toilet back in, get shower curtain rod and we're done!!!!! For now.  At least it will FINALLY be back to a useable bathroom.

We'll save up some money for a new sink countertop and frameless custom shower door.  We also want to eventually strip the sink cabinet and repaint it white.