Moving On

I don't want to dwell on my disappointment/frustration/anger/sadness anymore. I will say this- I remember people crying, furious, livid when Gore and then Kerry weren't elected. And now I'm unreasonable for not jumping on the Obama bandwagon? That makes no sense to me. *sigh* How quickly people forget what it's like when your guy loses. Anyway, I appreciate my like-minded friends and their comments of support and commiseration! And I appreciate my one brave liberal friend for commenting as well. :)

So...moving on!

I have my women's Bible study tonight and I'm really looking forward to it. I have absolutely loved this class! I have learned a lot and we're just getting started.

Mike and I have planned a little road trip this weekend, more details on that later. :)

Yes, I'm Bitter

And I don't really care what you think. I love all my liberal friends- feel free to pee your pants with excitement... but don't expect me to. m'kay? I remember how incredibly pissed most of you were in 2000 & 2004- and now I can relate. :)

Only 1,460 days till the next Presidential election.

A Happy Homecoming

I headed to Tulsa today to greet my Dad as he arrived home from Iraq. Here are some shots I took:

all the families lined up and waiting:

They've landed!

Slowly exiting the plane:


Everybody getting restless, trying to pick out their dad/husband/wife/mom

This little girl ran out to greet her dad and instantly started crying- so touching!

another shot of that family:

Mom & Dad! :)



Me & Dad- the only time he'll ever have a better tan than me. I guess being in the desert will do that to you. :)

My Dad is out of Iraq!!

Mom got a phone call yesterday, Dad is on his way home. :) I am so relieved and excited! This should be his last deployment which means no more war zone!! Looks like I'll be heading to Tulsa on Monday for a "Welcome Home" celebration. I'll have pictures to share when I get back.

Here's a shot of him in Iraq that he sent a few days ago:

(you can click to enlarge it.)

I also received Connor's address in boot camp. I've already written him tons of letters and sent them off this morning. I hope they boost his morale and he continues to hang in there. It's such a weird feeling to know what hell he's going through and to not be able to talk to him. Only 11 weeks left!

Halloween through the years

Happy Halloween!!

This is one of my favorite holidays, Tonight Mike and I have a date- me, him, our couch and tons of scary movies! I can't wait. :)

I was looking through old pictures on our computer and found a few from past Halloweens. I wish I had more!

me, 3rd grade as some sort of hobo clown:


Mike as a pirate (his sister Nat as a bumblebee, I think!):


me, being very bossy at a pumpkin patch- probably around 4 years old:


And of course my favorite costumes from last year:


Hope everyone has a safe & fun Halloween!

Book Club!

I heard of meetup.com about a year and a half ago, when we moved to Arkansas. It took that long before there was a meetup group that I was interested in joining! This is our Ladies Book Club- we met last night for our second meeting and it was a blast! I've really enjoyed meeting some new people and these women are fantastic. Here are 2 shots from last night:

some women are married, some are not, some have kids and some don't- a great group!

Mike Found His Egg!

Remember this picture from last Halloween?? Mike wore his bacon costume to work (everyone dresses up there!) but he was sadly missing his EGG!


Well, I just found this--- Gwen Stefani, missing her BACON!! lmao!

Pfft... Oops!

We're WHOOPIE CUSHIONS!!

We went to our friend's Gina & Larry's annual Halloween party tonight. So much fun!! Yes we look ridiculous, but we loved it! Mike is such a good sport, he didn't complain a bit. (although I think he missed his clown makeup from last year)

Seriously the most comfortable costume ever- I wore tights, a black t-shirt and ballet flats-- perfect! Unfortunately, I couldn't talk Mike into the tights :) he opted for comfy sweats.

this one cracks me up!
The house we went to had a Jason doll propped up in a car- you can't tell because of the camera flash, but it was freaky! They had a fog machine, dim lights and a horror music cd playing-- this is my scared face!

my lame picture after the food was picked over. They also served really good chili, sandwiches, veggies- tons of great stuff.

It's feeling like FALL!!

And I love it. It's been colder here and the leaves are changing- my favorite time of the year! We have a Halloween party tonight-so excited! We have some pretty hilarious costumes, I can't wait to post pictures (and once again, I can't believe that Mike agreed to wear them!!).

You know you've seen too many Golden Girl's episodes

when you start to recognize their outfits. I was watching one tonight where Dorothy was wearing a hideous green, yellow & purple silk caftan-- very Mardi Gras! Anyway, I recognized it right away as an outfit she'd worn on another episode. Yeah, embarrassing.

It's been a week

It's been a week since I updated. Lets see... Mike worked about 80 hours this week- yuck. I've been sick- allergies/nasty cold, feeling much better though. We managed to see a movie- Max Payne (Mike's choice), steam clean the carpets and hit up a local arts & crafts fair (where we consumed giant corn dogs, homemade root beer and fudge!).

The biggest event though happened today at 1pm. My little brother Connor left for basic training. Connor has enlisted in the Marine Corps. Some of you already know this, some of you don't. It's been a fairly traumatic event for our family and I have tons of mixed emotions. I do ask that you guys keep him in your thoughts and if you're the praying type you might add him to your list. :)

While Connor leaves for basic training, my Dad has only a few short weeks left in Iraq! We're counting down the days to his homecoming! :)

Hope everyone is doing well!

edit:

this pic was taken by yesterday by my mom- Connor & his dog Venus before he left:

Mike shaved his beard!

I haven't seen him without it since we started dating- it's such a big change! I think he looks great (and about 12 years old!).

before:

and after:


such a baby face!!

How did I forget to blog about this??

My hubby got a promotion last week!! Big congrats to Mike on his new promotion- he has worked so hard for it and deserves it completely. He's really making a name for himself at his company and I couldn't be more proud of him!

Way to go babe!!

and just for fun: Business Mike:


Party Mike:


lets see how long it takes for Mike to see these pics-- and make me take them down! lmao

I <3 my new kitchen canisters

My new little glass canisters with little glass roosters on the lid. even Mike likes them! $14.99- I love a bargain.

more decorating

In the entryway:

these are some of the pew decorations I made for our wedding- fall candle rings from Crate & Barrel with a satin ribbon:

on the entryway table:

see that wall? I prepped it this weekend for paint- it was awful from all the wallpaper! I can't wait for it to be finished.

the lamp on the entry table- just an autumn-ish ribbon tied on the shade:


Above our book cases:



another antique sideboard decorated a little bit:

some pictures of the mantel:




Almost all of this stuff is leftover from our fall wedding! :)

Such a big boy!

Jack Bauer- taken this morning:

A Day Early

But I had to change my blog header. :) I've made too many Halloween themed blog headers, and I love them all, so I needed to start using them ASAP! October is almost here!

8 Things You Don't Know About Me

I've been tagged by my good friend Dusty over at All Things G&D to post 8 things you might not know about me... this is going to be tough!

1. I'm obsessed with horror movies- not the modern day version like Saw or Hostel (yuck!) but the old school version- like Halloween, Friday the 13th, even the Scream movies. I love a cheesy slasher movie.

2. I can sing every word to Legally Blonde The Musical. *insert embarrassed face here*. Yeah, I know it's not high brow, but I love it.

3. Some days I wish I could have a whole sleeve of tattoos. And then there are days that I want to dress like Audrey Hepburn. I am a true Gemini.

4. As a child I had a whole slew of hamsters- all named Snuffles. As each hamster died of old age, mysterious illness, escape (one drowned in the toilet!) I would name the next hamster Snuffles the 2nd or Snuffles the 3rd or Snuffles the 6th! lol

5. I never thought I would want to be a "homemaker" but now I love it more than anything. Cooking and baking and decorating and crafting, even cleaning! I enjoy it so much more than any job I've ever had.

6. I knew that Mike and I would get married after our first date (well our last first date- but that's another story for another day). Creepy, I know! I just had a feeling...and thankfully, I was right!

7. I love to read trashy autobiographies- Monica Lewinsky's is a favorite, Tori Spelling's latest was a guilty pleasure too! They're awful and cheesy and fun.

8. I played college softball (you might know this) but you don't know that I'm in the record books for having a perfect fielding average my junior and senior year in college! No errors... I was so proud! :)

Whew! That was hard! I'm not going to tag anyone, if you want to do it go for it.

mmmmm dinner!

I did a ton of work in our kitchen today- unpacking a few more boxes (we have so much storage in there, I still have empty cabinets!). Anyway, I had the camera in there so I snapped a few pictures while I was cooking dinner- one of our favorites: lemon pepper chicken, veggies & mashed potatoes! yummmm!

"The Bailout From Hell Must Be Rejected"

that's the title of an op-ed piece by Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for President. I agree and found the article very interesting.

Here is a snippet:

"In the name of restoring economic confidence, the Bush administration is demanding unlimited authority to implement a massive financial bailout. The Secretary of the Treasury would become an economic dictator, empowered to re-engineer the economy as he sees fit. These powers fit Kim Jong-il's North Korea, not the American republic.

The economy is in trouble, but the wrong policy could make things much worse. With the public deeply divided over the proposed bailout, and the future structure of our economy at stake, Congress must stop and take a deep breath before rushing such a far-reaching plan into law.

Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, claimed: "The private sector got us into this mess, the government has to get us out of it." In other words, "Let's just put Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama in charge and everything will be fine."

This is nonsense. This is irresponsibility of the highest order."

you can read the rest here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-barr/the-bailout-from-hell-mus_b_129190.html