back in O.K.

We had a great visit with our families for Christmas. The only pictures I took were of my parents' puppy, so I don't have much to post! We ended up dogsitting for 2 days while my parents went to Kentucky to see my side of the family. He was a very well-behaved puppy. It was wonderful to have 5 days in Arkansas. That's the longest we've been there since we got married and we were able to hang out and visit without being rushed or feel like we weren't spending enough time with someone. We did pretty well gift-wise too. We got several giftcards and things for our new house and Marcus' sister got us a giftcard for cooking classes. We are so looking forward to that. Hope you all had a great Christmas too!

christmas week!

I am so looking forward to the next two weeks! This week I'm only working monday and tuesday and then we are heading to see our families for 5 days. My parents both have birthdays within a week after Christmas, so we'll get to celebrate those too. We only have one more Christmas gift to buy and all the others are wrapped, so I don't have that last minute Christmas panic. The week of New Year's I am only working three days and we will be moving the weekend of the 3rd. We broke our lease and will be moving to a house!!! I cannot wait. No more noise, trash on the ground, or overflowing sinks from the people upstairs.

ice day #2

It is very icy here. Don't mistake that for pretty snow. It's just very cold and gloomy and icy. My office is open, but all the daycares and schools are closed so I am using PTO. I don't want to drive on this stuff anyway. Yesterday was kind of fun and relaxing. I got caught up on laundry, finished my christmas cards, and watched alot of Jon and Kate. Last night we went to pick up the lease agreement for the rent house and we slid into a curb really hard and cracked one of the wheels on my car. Marcus is taking a personal day to get my car fixed. What a good husband! I really hope the ice clears up soon. I am ready to go back to work.

can't sleep

I just couldn't sleep late this morning. I have too much stuff going through my mind. There are three things that are keeping me up. One is really really really great, one could be really great, and one is not great.

First, my office party last night was amazing! It was so much fun to get pampered and then it got even better. If you know me, you know I love purses but am too cheap to pay over $20 or so for one. I have alot of purses, but they are all from Target. Well, my boss bought over 30 designer purses each between $100-500 and we played dirty santa with them!!! I am not kidding, I got all shaky and thought I might pass out when she told us. I ended up with a multi-colored striped Kate Spade bag and couldn't be happier. I am not going to complain about working late anymore. :)

The thing that could be great is the rent house we looked at. It's in a good location and is a nice house. I could see us being happy there. We hate to dish out the money to break our lease and to pay the desposit, but we are seriously considering it. I know several other people have looked at it too, so we don't even know if they'll choose us if we decide to go for it.

The not good thing was that when I came home from the party last night water was leaking through the ceiling near our bathroom sink/closet and was all over the counter and carpet. The people above us left their water running on full force for hours. The water was turned off b/c maintenance was working on their water heater and they didn't realize that they left the faucet in the "on" position. A maintence guy was here until after midnight pulling up the pad under our carpet and now we have an industrial fan running in our bedroom. I think that coming home to this was a sign that we need to get out of here!!!

spa party!

I am soooo excited about my office christmas party tonight. My boss is taking everyone to a nail salon and letting each person choose two things to have done. I'm getting a manicure and a chair massage. I think it's the best christmas party idea ever. It's like the party is a gift!
Before the party, Marcus and I are going to look at a possible rental house. Cross your fingers for us. If we like it enough, we are going to break our lease and just go for it. I don't want to get my hopes up though. The last two we looked at were a drug house and a craigslist scam, so my expectations aren't super high. Tomorrow Marcus has a drivers' training at work and I am planning to finish my continuing ed for the year with a book about apraxia and an online test. We're such exciting people.

allergy season and more kids' quotes

Every other week for the past 5-6 weeks I have been having major allergy issues. This has not been such a good week in that department. I actually missed out on a fun cookie exchange party last night, because I felt so yucky. I am just glad that last week was a healthy week and that I was able to taste the good thanksgiving food. Marcus and I going to Little Rock this weekend to visit friends. We have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. Even though we just lived there for a little over a year, it feels like home and we loved our group of friends there. I could picture us buying a house and having kids there. I don't see that happening where we are now, not that there's anything wrong with Tulsa. I just still feel like a visitor here. I have a few more cute quotes from work. Some of them might not be funny if you don't know the kids, but I got quite a kick out of them.

Me: "What did you eat for thanksgiving?"
5 year old girl: "a blackbird"
Me: "Hmmm...I don't think it was a blackbird. Was it a turkey or a flamingo?"
5 year old girl: "a flamingo"

4 year old boy talking about a toy giraffe: "Him doesn't have a butt."

4 year old girl to another therapist who was taking off her coat: "You always show your chest."

4 year old girl to me: "I like your hair. You look like Dora."

my black friday so far

I have had a wonderful Thanksgiving and so far a great black friday. I hadn't seen my family since Labor Day, so just being here with them is a big deal. I actually helped prepare and inject the turkey yesteday, made an apple crisp for dessert, and made my Nonnie's fabulous beer cheese recipe. It was a very successful cooking day. :) Last night I played games with the family and watched Home Alone. Sounds cheesy, but it was so nice. Today Marcus and I did a little shopping with my parents. I got some great deals at Old Navy and some good layering shirts at Target. We have also gotten more than half our christmas shopping done. Luckily, by the time we went shopping most of the early morning shoppers had gone home. After the Razorback game is over, we are heading to Marcus' mom's house to spend a couple days with her.

random stuff

I haven't posted on here in over a week, so I have alot of random info.
1. I had a great birthday! Marcus took me to the melting pot, which was amazing and it's always nice to get special calls, cards, and emails. I got two more packages in the mail today. Thanks Jess and Colleen!
2. My friend Becky told me about a cool website that I am excited about. Maybe everyone else knows about it, but I had never heard of it until yesterday. It's shopittome.com. You enter the stores you like and your sizes and they send you 1-2 emails a week with the online sales. I am not usually a big online shopper, but it looks like you can get some great deals.
3. My kids a work crack me up. I have the best caseload right now. They are all really sweet and funny. Usually I have at least one kid that I just don't click with or who is out of control, but I don't with this job...yet. One little girl (she is pretty delayed) calls me "daddy". She runs to me and yells "DADDY" when I step into her classroom. I was playing this game today that has "rotten egg" cards in it and the little boy kept calling them "rockin eggs". SO CUTE!

eureka springs

Marcus took me to Eureka Springs as an early birthday gift this weekend. We stayed in a nice log cabin that we stayed in for a weekend last fall too. It was so nice to just be somewhere peaceful for a couple of days with no dishes to wash and no laundry to put away. We spent alot of our time in the cabin just hanging out. We even took Scrabble, because we are both word game nerds. :) Yesterday we looked at some of the little shops downtown and went out for a very nice dinner. One of the most interesting parts of the trip was seeing an albino squirrel right outside our window. I didn't know albino squirrels even existed. We tried to take a picture, but he ran away. We took a couple pictures of us, but none of them were good enough to be blog worthy. I am kind of sad the weekend is almost over, but I am VERY excited about thanksgiving and seeing my family.

my fingers are crossed

On the way in from church tonight we saw a suitcase and a pile of clothes lying in the grass outside our apartment. We are really hoping one of our noisy neighbors from above got kicked out....not that I want them to be homeless or anything, but I would like some peace and quiet! They play blaring music sporadically throughtout the day and are driving us insane. My philosophy about this apartment complex is "It's like the projects, just way more expensive." Only 3 1/2 more months.

fake smiles

I used to always make fun of my friends (mainly Jessica) and my mom for the way they smiled in pictures. Not that I am the most photogenic person or anything... Jessica tended to do what I call the "fake smile" where your mouth is smiling, but you don't really look happy. We even took several pictures in college fake smiling on purpose, because I thought it was funny. My mom does the "O smile". Alot of times when someone takes a picture of her, her mouth goes into a surprised "O" shape. Well, I went to get a new drivers license today and my fake smile is HORRIBLE. I feel so bad for making fun of Jess and mom. For the next 4 years, I get to see my hideous fake smile everytime I open my wallet. I must tell you that I have been having sinus problems and was probably slightly high off allergy meds when the license picture was taken, but that's no excuse. Oh and let me add, in Oklahoma they put your weight on the drivers license too. I told the guy a very specific number when he asked b/c I had just weighed this morning and he kind of laughed. I guess most people round up or to the nearest 5 or something, but I was just honest and told him the exact number (at least I didn't tell him the decimal part).

target dollar section

There were some great Christmasy things in the Target dollar section this week. Last weekend I looked and it was pretty picked over, but Friday it was full of new stuff. I bought a cute striped candy dish and a mini reed diffuser. I wouldn't recommend buying the diffuser, because we've had ours out for 2 days and I can't smell it at all. I also saw some little popcorn containers and little takeout boxes that you could use to make inexpensive gift baskets. There were lots of good stocking stuffers too.

halloween fun-part 3

Last night we went to Cory and Brittany's house for a Halloween dinner. Brittany went all out and everything was so fun and festive. Our main course was "blood and guts" (spaghetti). She is so good at creative cooking and decorating. Here are some of the things she did:

A very cute menu

yummy ghost cookies

I had to throw in a picture of Marcus and me. My hand looks kind of weird, but at least Marcus is smiling nicely!

halloween party

Last night we went to a halloween party hosted by some friends from church. It was great hanging out with everyone on a weeknight. We had lots of yummy party food and all the babies were dressed in their costumes. My favorite was little Madeline, who was dressed as a lamb. It was precious. Marcus and I went as Dwight and Angela from the office. My wig didn't work out though, so I was a brunette Angela and looked nothing like her. Marcus made a great Dwight.

our classy apartment

Here is what has been sitting outside our apartment building since yesterday afternoon: yes, it's a tire. We love our classy apartment complex. We get cultural experiences like listening to new and exciting rap music blaring through the walls and ceiling, hearing a loud woman yell the "f" word at her kids, and playing games about counting pieces of litter on the ground. One day there were 20 pieces of trash on the ground between the parking lot and our door. Only 4 more months until our lease is up!

trunk of treats

I had a fun weekend. Two of my friends from Jonesboro, Shana and Kala, came to visit. We did some fun consignment shopping and ate lots of yummy food, including a dinner at the cheesecake factory. Last night, our church had it's annual Trunk of Treats (I keep calling it Trunk OR Treat). It was so much fun and a really cool way to reach out to the community. I did take note of some Do's and Don'ts of trick (or trunk) or treating...

Do's:

-Do dress your baby in a warm, fuzzy outfit! So cute!

-Do teach your kids how to say "trick or treat". We had lots of kids just hold out their bags and not say anything.

-Do walk around with your kids if they are little...

-Do go for a creative costume. My favorite part was checking out the fun costumes.

Don'ts:

-Don't try to get candy if you are sixteen and text messaging as you walk from car to car.

-Don't leave your baby in the van while you get candy for him/her. A lady told me she was doing this last night!!!

-Don't choose a short, sleeveless outfit with a bare midriff. It's cold in October!

-If you have a family with 2 parents, a five year old, and a newborn you don't need to carry four trick or treat bags!

Seriously though, we had a wonderful time. Here are a couple of pictures:

a blah wednesday

It's been raining all day and slowly getting colder and colder. Before I even stepped into the office this morning, my shoes were filled with water. All of my therapy materials and I got drenched and dried out three times today. Marcus is sick with some kind of cold or virus. He's been feeling bad for several days and went to the doctor today. We are having soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and watching tv in our bed tonight. With the weather like this and Marcus being sick, just being cozy sounds pretty nice.

fayetteville trip

We had a wonderful trip to Fayetteville this weekend and got to spend alot of time with our sweet nephew John Mark. We went to War Eagle for a few hours on Saturday and I bought a cute Christmas sign and some homemade soaps. It was a gorgeous day and it was so nice to get out of Tulsa for a few days! Most of the weekend was spent watching John Mark "play" the guitar that goes to the Rock Band game on Wii. He LOVED the guitar and wanted everyone to clap and sing along. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Rockin Out... He has good moves for a 2 year old!

He loves his Uncle Marcus!

He was not in the mood for a picture, but at least we tried. I guess he was tired from all the rock and roll!

i'm boring

I have had nothing to blog about lately. I've tried to think of ideas, but seriously, I've got nothing. I've just felt really boring and zoned out all week. Maybe it's the rain or the beginning of my allergy season. Marcus and I are going to Fayetteville this weekend for War Eagle. It's a HUGE craft festival. We went last year and enjoyed looking at all the crazy stuff there. You could seriously be there all day and not see everything. Marcus's sister, her husband, and our nephew will be there too. It's rare for us to see family these days, so we are very very excited about getting to hang out with them. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures.

last night's date

Marcus and I try to go on a little date (usually just to a nice restaurant) pretty much every friday night. Last night we went to our favorite cheap restaurant, Chick-Fil-A last night for dinner and then went to see Fireproof. I was afraid it would be a little cheesy, but wanted to see it since it has a good message and was made by Christians. It was SO good. Besides the romance factor, it had some action and funny stuff too. Anyone who is married or is thinking about getting married should see it. It also made me cry-alot and I really like movies (and books) that make me cry for some strange reason. Marcus even liked it, even though he didn't really want to go initially. See it if you get a chance!

friday!

This week has gone by really quickly and today should be good. We have a staff meeting from 4-6 tonight, BUT I only have to actually work for 45 minutes to have my 40 hours in for the week. It's so worth it to me to be busy all week, but have a super easy friday. I have already done laundry, an on-demand workout, and am headed to Target. Then I'll go to the office, write a report, and come home until it's time for the meeting. I'm pretty pumped.

an excellent target trip

My Target trip today made me very happy. It actually made up for yesterday's rush hour from Hades. I had several great coupons and did pretty well with my grocery shopping. I also found some black heels that I like. Ever since I lost my old black heels in the move I have been looking for more and couldn't find any that compared to my old ones. The best part of the Target trip was the stuff I bought to spruce up our kitchen table. I wasn't even planning to buy anything for the table, but I LOVE fall stuff and came across these placemats. Then I found the long wooden bowl that had been $25 and was marked down to $6. Now the table looks nice and fallish.

a genius plan

Traffic today was the worst I have ever seen. Someone decided it would be a good idea to repaint the lines on the Broken Arrow Expressway and narrow it from 3 lanes of traffic to 1 at rush hour. It took me an hour and a half to get back to the clinic after my last client. Poor Marcus had to drive to Fayetteville for work this afternoon to take a truck driver some keys. He still isn't home from work. Neither of us are in good moods tonight. I am SO glad tomorrow is friday!

top 5

Last night Marcus and I were flipping between some of the music channels on our tv and the Dawson's Creek theme song was playing on the 90's station. I began to gush about how that is my favorite show ever, which led to a conversation about our top 5 tv shows. Here's my list:
5.The Wonder Years - love that time period
4.The Brady Bunch -had a huge crush on Greg
3.Friends - the staple tv show of my college career
2.The Office - my current fave
1.Dawson's Creek (duh) I had a huge Pacey poster on my wall for most of high school. Since it was on Wednesday nights, my friend Sarah would always tape it for me and I would watch it on Thursdays after school. Great memories!

exercise idea

I just had a great workout and have to share. We have digital cable that has an on demand feature. I had never even heard of on demand until we moved here (I am usually behind on technology), but it is just a channel with lists of shows and movies that you can watch anytime for free. One of the girls at work told me that there some cool exercise shows on it and I decided to see for myself. There were yoga, pilates, salsa dancing, abs, cardio, and all kinds of other workout shows. I did one called dorm room workout. It was 30 minutes of cardio and strength training. It was so much fun and the time went by really quickly. There are also a few that are only like 3-4 minutes but show you some simple exercises and then just tell you how many reps to do. I wouldn't pay for fancy cable just to get this feature; but if you already have it you should definitely check it out.

this week

I realized earlier that I haven't written on here in a week. There really hasn't been much exciting stuff going on, but here's what's happened this week and what might happen this weekend.
-Sunday we bought a wii fit!!! We've been wanting one forever. Marcus got up early sunday morning at got the last one at Target. It is so fun and I am a really good hula-hooper on it. Who would've guessed? I'm a horrible hula-hooper in real life.
-Monday we went to look at a rent house that was in a decent neighborhood and looked cute on the outside. Too bad we found a butcher knife stuck in a door frame and a syringe in a window seal. We quickly decided we wouldn't be calling that place home.
-I worked until at least 6:00 every night this week, but that means I got to come home early today.
-I loved The Office season premiere last night. I am so pumped that Jim finally proposed!!!
-Crab legs are on sale at a local grocery store so we are having a fun dinner at home tonight.
-The Tulsa State Fair is going on this weekend. Boyz II Men will be there tomorrow night. They were my favorite group in junior high. We might go if we feel brave enough to fight the crowds.

my new addiction

I didn't realize how much I used germ-x or other off brand hand sanitizers until someone at work was making fun of me (in a nice way) today. I keep some in my work car and of course in my purse. Last year I was very excited to find a huge 1/2 gallon or so of it for $3 at Walgreens. I have even taught some of the youngest kids I work with how to clean their hands. One little boy has a goal to identify body parts and the only one he knows consistently is "hand" when I say "let's clean our hands". Here are some instances that make me feel the need to clean my hands:
-shaking certain peoples' hands (I know that sounds rude- sorry)
-pumping gas
-touching gym equipment
-touching a shopping cart
-wiping kids noses (obviously)
-getting back in the car after working with kids
-sometimes touching doors at public places
-touching rails going up/down stairs
If I keep thinking about it, I'm sure I'll come up with more times that I need to use it. No wonder my hands are all dried out! I know it's probably bad to use this much, but I'm not making an effort to stop anytime soon. I think it would drive me crazy to not use it when my hands feel dirty.

pizza casserole recipe

I have kind of been on a weight watchers recipe kick. We made this last night and it was really good and easy. It made great leftovers too. Marcus seasoned the meat and tomato sauce with several different spices. It would be pretty bland without a little extra seasoning. We also added some green pepper and a diced tomato.
-1 lb. ground beef (I used the leanest I could find)
-15 oz. can of chunky Italian style tomato sauce
-1 10 oz. can refrigerated pizza dough
-1 1/2 cup shredded light mozzarella cheese

Cook meat in non-stick skillet until browned. Add tomato sauce. Cook until heated. Coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with spray. Unroll pizza dough and press into pan and up the sides a bit. Top with meat/sauce mixture and bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 5 minutes.

I have been doing better with eating less and more healthfully, but I have barely been exercising at all. I signed up to do Race for the Cure this weekend with my office and I hope I can make it through. We are doing the timed 5k and I am not a runner. The others have been training. I, on the other hand, think running 1/2 a mile is a big accomplishment. I can walk forever, but running has never come naturally for me. I am afraid the other girls will leave me behind, but at least it's for a great cause.

yuck!!!

It seems like I only blog about gross or weird things that happen at work. I promise, good things do happen occasionally too. Today did not start off so well though. Before I even left the apartment, I cut my finger on a sharp piece of ice as I reached into the freezer. It gets better...When I stepped out of my car at work, I stepped into a pile of vomit. (We share a parking lot with a bar). I was about to get sick myself, but managed to wipe most of it off in the grass. The first little boy I saw had a green runny nose, like pretty much every kid I work with. I asked him if he wanted a kleenex and he said yes. He proceeded to wipe his nose on his shirt and then wipe his shirt with the kleenex and handed it back to me. Finally, my next little boy picked up a dead bug off the ground and said he wanted to take it home with him. Gross! I told him that no one would want to play with him if he was carrying around I dead bug. Even with all this, it still wasn't a bad day. I was really productive and all of the kids behaved well. That's all I can really ask for.

another weekend

We had a great weekend with our friends Casey and Layne, who came to visit us from Little Rock. It rained for most of yesterday, but we still had fun. We went to a big antique store that had a ton of fun old stuff. It was kind of like a huge garage sale. We also spent quite a bit of time at bass pro shop. Layne found some really cute clothes there and Marcus and I bought some much needed rain coats. We played the shooting game upstairs, but I was terrible at it. I scored a 60 on it while everyone else scored like 300 and the gun felt really heavy and awkward to me. Oh well, I wasn't planning on becoming a hunter anyway.

After our friends left, I had the best 4 hour nap this afternoon. I hope I can sleep tonight! The only disappointing part of the weekend happened tonight. I bought a newpaper for my weekly coupons and later found that there were no coupons or sales ads in it. :( I guess someone stole them or the people at the newspaper office forgot to put them in there. What a rip off!

cheesy vegetable soup

Here's a tasty and healthy recipe. I made this for dinner tonight and will probably eat it for lunch the rest of the week. It makes about 8 servings and is 2 weight watcher points per cup.

-2 lb. bag frozen vegetables (I use California blend which is broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots)
-3 cans fat free chicken broth
-1 can rotel
-10 oz. light velveeta - cut into small pieces

Put all of the ingredients into large pot. Bring to boil. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes. When the cheese is melted, it's ready.

this week's resolution

I have been terrible about cooking lately. I don't get home until between 6 and 7 most nights, so frozen bertolli meals, sushi, and chik-fil-a have become our main sources of nutrition. Although our grocery bills have been low, I don't even want to look at our bank statement to see how much we've spent at restaurants. This week I am determined to cook (at least a few times). I have heard lots of good things about the year of crockpotting blog and am going to try the salsa chicken recipe I found on there. My friend Sarah posted a bruschetta chicken recipe that I want to try too. One night I am making a weight watchers cheesy vegetable soup recipe that I love and that makes tons of soup. Marcus is going to make one of his mom's easy recipes that is just polish sausage, peppers, onion, and stewed tomatoes on rice. It is really easy and good and will be a fast wednesday night meal. I will be so proud of myself if I actually cook three nights this week. How sad is that?

labor day weekend pics

Marcus and I stayed with our friends Casey and Layne on friday night. We had breakfast on saturday at the Ozark Country Restaurant -formerly known as the Ozark Family Country Restaurant and Smokehouse- or something equally long.

My dad and me. The little furball biting his hand is their adorable new puppy buckaroo.

The family and me before church

Marcus and our nephew John Mark watching the polar bear at the zoo. What a good uncle!

The boys taking a ride on the carousel

it's been a week!

I can't believe it has been a week since I've blogged. Marcus and I had a wonderful trip to Jonesboro and Paragould to visit our families. Some highlights of the weekend: I got to go to the Dillard's sale with my dad on saturday (one of our favorite traditions) :). Sunday we went to church with my parents. It was so great to see everyone there and my friend Shelena joined us for lunch. That afternoon we went to the Memphis zoo and with my Michael, Ashleigh, and John Mark. We had a cookout with Marcus' family on Monday. It was really hard to come back to Tulsa, even though we like it here. I have been trying to get caught up on laundry, cleaning , etc., but I'll put up pictures soon.

I never thought I'd say...

Do you ever say a weird sentence and think, "I never thought I'd put those specific words together,"? It happens to me at work. Here are a few that I have noticed recently and their context:
- The lizard is not a tissue. (To a kid sticking a squishy lizard toy up his runny nose)
-Put the penguin on the tractor. (Some arctic animals ended up with the farm set)
-Is the mustache under your leg? (Mr. Potato Head's pieces were all over the place)
I will have to keep up with sentences like these for a volume II on this topic!

surprise

Last night I had to work late and Marcus suprised me with roses, chocolate, and a sweet card. What a great husband!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Marcus's birthday wasn't ruined after all. I woke up on saturday and my stomach bug was gone. Last night we went to The Gaucho, a Brazillian restaurant with lots of meat on swords. It was good and I even felt like eating. After dinner we went to Cory and Brittany's for dessert. Today he got to open his presents. Since he guessed his first two gifts (a new Bible and a cable college football package), I also threw in a Wii game and an XBox game for him. What a lucky guy! To top it all off, tonight was the BBQ cookoff at church. He loves meat and video games, so I think he is pretty happy.

At The Gaucho

Sharing grilled pineapple with Elijah

Eating ribs at the church BBQ cookoff

yuck

This has not been the best week. Tuesday I lost my voice, which is really inconvenient when your job is to talk to kids all day. I don't have any paid time off yet at work, so I made it through. It only lasted for about 2 days so it wasn't horrible. Today I woke up with what I think is a stomach virus, but at first I thought it wasn't too bad. I went to work, but only made it through one session and came home. I have been laying on the couch all day which means I am fairly sick, because I usually want to be up doing things. I am finally starting to feel a little better now. Marcus's birthday is sunday and I still haven't done any shopping for him or run the errands I needed to do today. I really hope tomorrow is better and I don't want to ruin Marcus's birthday. :(

observations

This has been another not too exciting week, but here are a few observations I have made (some of them are not new observations):
1. Mysterious puddles disgust me. At church last night there was a puddle on our table and Marcus kept putting his arm really close to it. Gross! The chances it was just water were probably good, but you never know.
2. I love kids with funny names. With my job and the population I work with I get to hear alot of exciting ones. Two good ones I've heard this week are Pharoah and Realitee. Don't worry, they aren't my patients so I am not breaking HIPPA.
3.I really don't like driving on interstates. I had to drive a ton for work today and now I am really tense. I think I spent more time driving than working with kids.
4. I am bad at surprising people. Marcus already knows what both of his birthday presents are, so I am trying to come up with one more.

I love Sunday afternoons

Sunday afternoons are one of my favorite times of the week. After having lunch with our friends from church, Marcus and I come home and put our pajamas back on. Then I cut coupons and organize them (it doesn't sound exciting, but it's fun to me) :) and then take a nap for two or three hours. I always try to do my shopping and cleaning on Saturday so that Sunday can be completely relaxing. To top it all off, tonight is homemade ice cream night at church!

some websites I like

Here is a list of some of the websites I look at when I have free time - like today. I read some more often than others. Most people already know about alot of these, but I thought it might be fun to list them anyway.
www.caringbridge.org/visit/nowell
I don't know this family personally, but received the link in an email foward. I have been reading this every day for several months. I am fascinated by premature babies and it makes me so happy to see the progress that this sweet baby has made. Her parents seem like great people and their family still needs lots of prayers.
http://www.hungry-girl.com/ This is a fun website and you can sign up to get daily emails from them. They have good recipes and some useful dieting tips.
www.tripadvisor.com Marcus and I LOVE to talk about where our next vacation will be. This website is full of reviews and pictures of resorts and hotels.
www.chowhound.com This is pretty much the trip advisor of restaurants. It has helped us to find some cool places in Tulsa that we might not have known about otherwise.
www.allrecipes.com I love this. I have found some of my all time favorite recipes here. Try the California Chicken Spaghetti and the Broiled Parmesan Tilapia. Yum!
www.thenest.com This has some good advice on finances, decorating, cooking, etc. -all the stuff newlyweds need to know.
www.coupons.com These coupons don't seem to change very often, but who doesn't like printable coupons?
www.sammoon.com I love going to Sam Moon in Dallas. It is so fun to look at the cheap purses and jewelry and even better to not have to make the trip.

nothing new

I haven't blogged in awhile and really don't have alot to say. Marcus and I have both been so tired this week. We have basically had dinner, watched the Olympics, and gone to bed early every night this week. I do have a cute quote from work today: I was working on answering "when" questions with a little girl and asked "When do you go to the doctor"? She replied "When you are dead". My kids say so many cute things throughout the day, but I usually forget the majority of them. I also had a little boy wipe his green and runny nose on my pants, so I had a lovely stain on my thigh for most of the day. That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to post soon.

meeting baby Claire

Last weekend I got to meet Colleen's baby Claire for the first time. She traveled all the way from North Caroline to Arkansas to meet her family and friends. She was so tiny and cute. She slept most of the time that I was there, but that gave her Mommy and me some great shopping time. Here are some pictures Colleen took. I look super-awkward and poor Claire looks scared in the first one.

I didn't get any new pictures of Colleen and me, so this may call for another old-school post.

not a bad day

Today was one of those days where lots of little things nearly drove me crazy, but when I think about it nothing that bad happened. Alot of the annoying stuff was just my clumsiness which I should be used to. I always drop stuff and run into walls and doorways and have several bruises to prove it. I probably should have gotten physical therapy or something when I was little to work on balance and coordination! This morning I got to my first daycare and things went great with the first kid. Then I got to her brother (whose behavior was horrible last week). While I was setting up a game for us to play, he ran to the cubbies, grabbed scissors and cut the blinds (as in on the window). I was trying to run over to stop him, but he is a speedy little thing. Then he kept licking his hands and smearing spit everywhere. Needless to say, he did not get a sticker today. This afternoon I worked with an 11 year old boy who said speech is for babies, refused to play any games or look at any pictures cards, put his head in his shirt, and told me about twenty times that I was making him miss a movie in his class. After leaving his daycare, I was stuck in traffic and didn't even get back to the office until 6. I was shaking and so tired by the time I finally got in the car to come home.

When I got home, Marcus made my day alot better. He ordered pizza for us so I wouldn't have to cook. He also took out the trash, put up laundry, and emptied the dishwasher. Now I feel much better. Hopefully tomorrow will go a little more smoothly or at least I will manage to stay calm.

the perfect store for me...

I had the chance to see another great friend from college, Colleen today. It has been wonderful to see friends from Harding two weeks in a row! I went to meet her sweet baby Claire and we even got to go shopping. We found the coolest store near her parents' house in Van Buren, AR. It is an entire store of Target closeout stuff. They have clothes, bedding, electronics, and all kinds of other stuff. You have to kind of dig to find good stuff and most of the clothes were either extra small or really big, but it was alot of fun. I bought a very cool floor lamp, a little planner for my purse, and two packages of bubbles for work for just over $13. I was quite excited and the lamp is very cool. I just hope it works :). More on my visit with baby Claire next time.

top rack only

I have a couple of different water bottles I take to work and sip on throughout the day. One of my favorites had a "top rack only" warning on it for the dishwasher. Well, it was too tall to fit on the top rack, so I usually washed it by hand. On a few occassions I have not played by the rules and washed it on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. I have never had any problems - until now. Yesterday I was about to unload the dishwasher and I smelled burned plastic and the botton rack would not pull out. My lovely bottle lid had fallen through the rack and melted onto the heating element. I had to cut the lid from the bottle, because it was attached by a little plastic piece and then pull as hard as I could to pry it off the heating element. I know that dishwashers get really hot, but this is crazy. Here is how the poor lid ended up.
All the dishes that were in there with the water bottle smell like burned plastic too. It's great. I have learned my lesson about following the dishwasher's rules.

old college pics

I am feeling a little nostalgic after my fun weekend with the girls. Here are a few old pictures from our Harding days. I have alot more, but it took longer to scan these in than I expected. Volume two maybe coming in the near future.

The girls and me after getting our jerseys during pledge week. Sarah and Kim waited until our sophomore year.

This could possibly be the worst picture of me ever, but it brings back good memories. Jessica and I "borrowed" this chair from the study lounge. We asked for permission of course and I think the dorm mom thought we were crazy. I don't remember why we wanted it in the first place. Jess covered it with her stuffed animals and it was a great conversation piece. We stayed up so late every night acting goofy. I don't know how I made it through all my classes without falling asleep. Now I am in bed by ten nearly every night.

At Sarah's lingerie shower - minus Jessica. I think she was working that day. :(

Sarah's wedding - minus Sarah

Jess and me visiting Kim in Cincinnati

girls' reunion '08

I had the best weekend in Dallas with my friends from college. These girls are some of my best friends, even after four years of being apart. Jessica and I were roommates all through college. Robin and Kim were roommates and lived down the hall every year and Sarah was their suitemate. Sarah was nice enough to invite us all to stay at her house. Some highlights of the weekend included eating cupcakes at Sprinkles (very yummy), outlet shopping, looking at old pictures from college, and of course lots of talking and laughing. We didn't turn on the t.v. or radio at all, because we all had so much to talk about. Next year I am hoping we have our reunion at Robin's house. She lives in Orlando. How fun would that be? Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Jessica and me with our Sprinkles bags

Robin, sarah, Kim, Jessica, and me

Robin, Kim, and me - modeling our j.crew bargain capris

Sarah and Robin showing off their juggling ability

I made it!

I made it through my first week of work! I know it's only Thursday, but I am off tomorrow. My new job, like any, has been a little overwhelming. It's always hard to learn a completely new system of doing things. This week I was able to follow some other therapists to daycares. I did go out by myself a couple of times. Next week I will be totally on my own. I think the hardest part about this job for me is the travel between daycares since I am not very familar with the roads here yet. Even with our GPS, I have managed to get lost several times.

Tomorrow I am going to Dallas to hang out with some of my best friends from college. We've had this trip planned for months and I cannot wait!

I can't really come up with a good title for this one...

We have had a fun,but relaxing weekend. We had the chance to have dinner with and hang out with several different people from our new church. Yesterday, I did some more shopping. I found some capris at Old Navy for $8.49 (another great purchase)! I have also been trying to get into couponing-not just using a few coupons, but combining them with store specials and getting really cheap stuff. I did manage to get two free packages of pens, dishwasher tabs for around 50 cents, and a few other good buys. I really want to make the effort to keep this up, even when I am working and don't have as much spare time. Check out "One Frugal Chick" on my blog list. She really knows how to find good deals and has helped me as I've researching the art of couponing.

Marcus decided against the whole posting on Tuesdays and Fridays idea. I kept asking (or maybe nagging) him about it, and he said he'll post again when he has a good topic.

As much as I have complained about not having a job for the past month or so, it has been pretty nice. I am not looking forward to getting up early tomorrow, but I am looking forward to "therapizing" (as Marcus says) some kids and getting a paycheck!

hermit

Ok, I guess I can officially be considered a hermit. My car has been in the shop this week, so on top of not going to work, I haven't really been able to go anywhere during the day- at least while Marcus is at work. Yesterday I decided I HAD to get out. I went to read by the pool at our apartment and only stayed out for about45 minutes. Last night I noticed a lovely little sunburn on my shoulders and legs and on one arm. It isn't a bad burn, but I think it's pretty pitiful that I burned in such a short time. Luckily, I've made a daily habit of putting sunscreen on my face and it was spared from the burn. I have never been this pale in the middle of the summer. Macus and I went on anniversary trip back in March and I had a nice spring tan. Now it's long gone and I look like I have never been outside in my life! I tried using some self tanning lotion, but it just made me sparkly - not tan. It might be because I bought the palest kind, but I was afraid anything else would make me orange. Another thing, I didn't go to our apartment's pool to socialize, but I was annoyed that I was the only person there who spoke English. More on that another day.

Marcus is planning another exciting entry. He has talked about posting every Tuesday and Friday.

I love Target!!!

I have been looking for pants or capris that are not jeans to wear for my new job (which I start a week from today!). We have to wear shirts with the company logo everyday and can wear jeans on Fridays. We can wear any shoes except the really cheap rubber flip flops. I think the company shirts are a great idea. It will be so easy to get ready in the morning. Anyway, I saw that Old Navy had some cute pants and capris for under$20, but before I made it there I went to my favorite place ever, Target. I ended up finding a pair of pale blue-gray pants AND a pair of capris for $18.96 total on the clearance rack (not including tax). The capris were $13.98 and the pants were only $4.98. The capris even came with a cute little scarf belt. Finding bargains like that makes me so happy. I absolutely love to shop for clothes and do so pretty often, but I hardly ever buy anything over $25 unless it's jeans or it's something that I just love. It's funny to me how now that I actually have a real job, I spend way less on clothes than I did when I was in school.

easy art project

This afternoon I decided to do a little art project. Last summer, Marcus and I used mod podge glue and tissue paper on a canvas to make an inexpensive piece of art for our living room. He did most of it, but I helped. I have to admit, he is a pretty crafty guy. I did the same thing today with scrapbook paper and 8x10 canvases. I just put mod podge under and on top of the paper and wrapped it around the canvas like I was wrapping a gift. The glue was dry in about an hour. I think they turned out pretty well. On other blogs, I have seen similar art with letters or pictures glued over the background that looked really cute.

The canvases I used today are so small that I will probably make two more and group them together on a wall. The green paper is made to look distressed and the brown paper has a leathery look to it.

Today's mini-project

Last summer's project

my effort to be green

Everyone is talking about "going green". Over the past few months, we have made a few easy changes in our lives to help the environment. I really hope that this isn't just a trend and that I and everyone else will make the effort to stick with it. I am by no means as "green" as alot of people, but I figure every little bit helps. Here are some things that we are doing in order from "super easy" to "takes a little effort":

-Make sure that we turn off the lights when we leave a room

-Don't leave water running while brushing teeth, washing dishes, etc.

-Consolidate all of our errands into one trip

-Replace burned-out light bulbs with the energy efficient ones

-Give away things that someone else might want instead of throwing them away. We used the free section on Craigslist to give away all of our moving boxes. Believe me, alot of people will take anything that's free.

-I bought some cute cloth napkins at Walmart. I still use paper towels for realy messy meals, but the cloth napkins work for most meals.

-I have been buying some Method soaps and cleaning products. They are sold at Target and are supposed to be more environmentally friendly than other soaps. I have to recommend their "Sweet Water" scented handsoap. It smells SO good.

-Invest in some reusable shopping bags. I ordered "Chico Bags" from http://www.reusablebags.com/. It was under $30 for 7 of them. They are very durable and they have a variety of colors to choose from. Another good site is http://www.ecobags.com/. It can be hard to get into the habit of using them, but whenever I take them to the grocery store lots of people ask about them and seem interested in getting their own.

There are so many other changes we could make, but I think that these are good first steps.

Can I have just one bite? Please?

I love food. I watch the Food Network all the time, love to cook, and eat more than Marcus at most meals. There are so many things I love and I am always wanting to try new things. Since meeting Marcus I have added sushi and Indian food to things I enjoy. My mom started a wonderful tradition of sharing a bite of her food at restaurants when I was little. She would always share a rather large bite with me and my brother without us even asking and we would share our food with her, if her stomach would allow her to eat what we had ordered. My dad usually just stuck to his own food. Aside from my mom's tasty tradition, I usually tend to order healthier or more boring things for myself and then I'm envious of the greasy, cheesy things that others have. Fast forward to college. When my roommate Jessica and I would go out to eat, I would sometimes ask to try some of her food. Don't worry, I never asked to try her food in the Harding cafeteria. I especially remember wanting to try some yummy-looking chicken strips at T.G.I. Fridays one time. I was always willing to share my food in return. She was always nice and shared, but I think she thought it was a little strange. We were roommates for so long that it became less weird over time. Now Marcus has caught on to my taste-testing habit. For some reason, he orders rare steak at most restaurants. If we go to eat sushi, he gets the nigiri (big chunks of fish). These are two of the few things I will not eat. My theory is that he just wants to eat an entire meal without me pestering him for some of it. Last night however, he made a late-night trip to sonic and offered for me to try his banana split blast without me even asking. I did ask if it was good, which is how I ususally lead into trying stuff, but I wasn't even planning to ask to try it. I didn't say anything about his generosity at the time, but I thought it was very sweet. Thanks Marcus!

fireworks-tulsa style

Gotta love Marcus's red, white, and blue outfit.

Marcus was less than thrilled with the fireworks.

Elijah, Brittany, and Corey

We had a fun and relaxing fourth. Our friends Corey and Brittany were nice enough to have us over for dinner. Brittany made the best cheese dip and I am still full! We went to watch fireworks in Jenks, a suburb of Tulsa. We sat on a bridge over the Arkansas River, which was pretty cool. The Jenks show there wasn't that big, but we could see four or five different shows going on from there. One fireworks display looked amazing, even from far away. We heard that it was at the driller's baseball stadium. Next year, that's where we'll be.

Note to my blog-expert friends: I cannot figure out how to put up pictures anywhere I want to. They all automatically go to the top to the page and it won't let me move them around. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Marcus's First Post

So here it is my first step into the blogosphere. When Elizabeth told me she wanted to start a blog I was a bit skeptical; I didn’t want to be just another guy with a keyboard and an opinion on subjects on which I was no expert.

Before I put pen to paper (read: fingers to keyboard) I was waiting for something amazing to happen, a truly WOW event- an encounter with a life alerting hobo or inspiring little girl…you know the kind of thing fireside devos are made of. As I waited for the kid with the pig heart and the homeless guy that had it all figured out I looked around and realized my life is pretty amazing and full of interesting characters already.

Take my nephew for example -- he is turning two. In just 730 days he has lived in two countries, and visited a third. He has learned to walk, talk, feed himself, dance like a mad man and the lyrics to most Dan Zanes’ songs. He has also eaten more dirt than any human should. He also made my sister miss my wedding, but after all the laughter and happiness that he’s brought to that house on Shadow I’ll let it slide.

My wife is a pretty cool chick. She puts up with moving twice (progressively farther away from her family) in under two years so that I can make a career out of moving trucks around. She makes me laugh at how much she under estimates herself. When we were getting ready to move she was afraid she wouldn’t find a job. She interviewed for three jobs and got three offers. She has now officially been offered a job for EVERY job she has EVER interviewed for…not a bad track record. What can I say? Her poor judgment of character allowed me to marry way out of my league.

Beth and I have been blessed with a great cast of people playing supporting roles in our life. From the friends at PV who helped us load a truck while Maumelle was under a flash flood warning to the new friends we’ve met a Park Plaza who have accepted us like one of their own. Brittney who got my wife out of the apartment for the week (thanks Britt she was going batty). Mom who is…my mom. My brother in-law Chad who has the biggest heart and the best memory of anyone you’ll ever meet. The drivers at work who have been exceptionally cool through a tough situation. And the list goes on.

Hopefully someday I can add an inspiring transient to the list of the people that make my life grand, until then I guess the cast of my life will have to do.

-MWS

lazy

This is the fourth week I have been off work and it is scary how lazy I have become in such a short time. It was nothing for me to run a couple of errands, go to work, go buy food, cook dinner, do a few loads of laundry, and have friends over for dinner all in one day when we lived in Maumelle. Now if I just need to go to the bank or post office, it seems like a really big deal. I can't wait to start working and have a routine again. Right now my routine consists waking up between nine and ten, taking a shower, watching way too much tv, reading, and going to get the mail between four and five. On some days I do laundry or clean (exciting stuff). I have been sleeping later and later too, which is nice, but it's not going to be fun when I have to start getting up at six again. I should use this time to be productive, but I seem to have less and less energy the more I stay home. Since Marcus is gone this week, I don't even get to plan meals and cook. This week has been a little more productive, but still nothing like what it should be. I did a 2 hour online continuing ed. course today, which was pretty exciting. I think I need a hobby. Marcus suggested sewing, but in high school home ec. I always broke the machine. It could be fun to try again, but I don't know what I'd make. I've tried knitting a few times, but can only do it with my grandmother coaching me through it. In my time off I have finished our wedding and honeymoon scrapbooks, but I can't think of anything else to make a scrapbook about. In college, Jessica and I used to decorate boxes with pictures cut from magazines. It would be a good time-consuming activity, but do I really need any decorated shoe boxes? Any ideas for fun, cheap, crafty activities or any good single-serving recipes?

yes, i'm a lefty

What do these three have in common? They are all left handed. I have no idea how Kermit is left handed, but I read it online and think it's funny.

Here's the background on my handedness.... My mom, dad, brother, and several other relatives are all left handed. I started off being right handed, but broke my right arm in kindergarten as I was learning to write and switched to my left hand. I don't play golf or baseball often at all but when I attempt them, I do use my right hand. It really hasn't caused any problems for me except that my hand smears some types of ink and I just avoid using certain pens. I really don't think being left handed a big deal at all, but I am amazed at how people react to it sometimes. At least once a month, someone says OH MY GOSH!!! I did not know you were left handed or WOW!!! You are left handed. It is funny to me that people even care or think that it is that interesting. You'd think they just found out I had a third foot or an ability to make cupcakes magically appear or something.

I decided to google "left handed" to find more about my "fascinating" handedness. I learned that 7-10% of the population is left handed, there is a higher rate of left handedness in people with neurological disorders (yikes!), there is a higher rate in left handedness in overachievers :), and left handed men make more money than right handed men (there's no difference in women unfortunatley.) I also found that 7 presdents have been lefties, along with a ton of athletes whom I've never heard of, and many other famous people (and frogs).
That's all for now. Marcus is planning to post soon, but is waiting to come up with the perfect topic.

tulsa vs. little rock

I am really bored because Marcus had to go work in Maumelle today and won't be back until Friday night. We found out about this around 4 or 5 yesterday afternoon. It looks like he will be in Maumelle all of next week too. Yuck!!!



Some good news is our friends Corey and Brittney are moving to Tulsa today and I'm planning to have dinner with them tonight. I am so looking forward to some social interaction. (In case you haven't heard or guessed, I've found a job with a therapy company, but haven't started working yet.) I don't think I'm cut out to be a housewife -at least not until we have kids.



Here is how Tulsa compares to Little Rock so far:



1. I think Little Rock is much prettier as far as nature goes. The Arkansas River looked cleaner in L.R. than it does in Tulsa for some reason. Little Rock has more hills, trees, flowers, etc. Marcus and I never actually did any outdoor activities, but it was nice having the option. I used to love walking near our old apartment and am not sure that would be the safest option here.Tulsa does have more trees than I thought it would though.



2. I am really excited about our new church. We loved our life group in Little Rock and that was definitely the hardest thing to leave, but we were never as involved as we should have been at Pleasant Valley. It was such a big church that it was kind of overwhelming to me sometimes and it didn't help that Marcus worked on Sundays for the majority of the time we were there. I am excited about new opportunites here. Our class is a great size and everyone seems to be really involved.



3. Our apartment in Maumelle was alot nicer and newer than our current one, but the new one is in a good location and convenient to everything we need. Also, it's great to be on the first floor instead of the third. This apartment does have an old smell I don't like though. Hmmm there are definitely pros and cons to both.



4. If you know us, you know we love to go out to eat....(it's definitely not our strong point financially. :) Tulsa has a ton of good restaurants. I am especially happy that they have a cheesecake factory and a melting pot. I really miss our favorite sushi restaurant, igibon, and the yummy salad dressing from u.s. pizza. Now that I can't have it, I keep craving it. The verdict is still out on which city has better restaurants.



5. Shopping... I haven't done alot of shopping besides at target and kohls, but I think Tulsa may be better. There are several nice shopping centers and the mall looks pretty big. I like that all the places where I shop are within a mile or so of each other.



Give me about 6 months and I'll give you more details and the final results of which city I like better.

where are my shoes?

I had been thinking about starting a blog for awhile, but was afraid it would be boring. I asked Marcus what he thought about it. I expected him to make fun of me, but he was actually interested too. This seems like a fun way to keep in touch with family and friends. So here's our first exciting entry:

Packing up to move to Tulsa was no fun. We both put off packing as much as we could until about three days before the move. We moved on a Tuesday, so Saturday through Monday we were going nonstop. In the midst of the chaos, Marcus was nice enough to offer to pack up all our shoes. I saw the huge bag he had put them in and didn't think anything else about it....

A couple of days after we got to Tulsa, I was unpacking and realized I hadn't seen my shoe rack (which held about 15 pairs of shoes). After talking with Marcus, I found out that he didn't know it existed (it was kind of hidden behind a door in the old apt.) and didn't pack it or the shoes. I then realized that I only had a few pairs of shoes! I know there could be worse problems, but all you girls know how important cute shoes are. These are all that I had:

It was an honest mistake and I am really not that upset. I just can't believe that neither of us noticed the rack of shoes as we were cleaning our empty apartment. There are several good stores near our new place and it has been fun rebuilding my collection.