What a Week

 Wow, where has the week gone?!  Wednesday I went to the Pioneer Woman book signing in Ponca City.  I know, you're probably thinking, "she drove all the way to Ponca City for a book signing."  First off, Ponca (as we call it 'round here)  is only about 45 minutes away (and that, my friends, is how you know I'm from Oklahoma, I tell distance in time).  Second off,  I wanted to go because attending her cook book signing last spring is one of my memories.  What memories am I talking about?  I'm talking about my Aubrey memories.  You see, since I don't get to make new memories with her, I cherish the everything that happened while I was pregnant.  That's part of the reason we went skiing a few weeks ago, I also went skiing when I was 11 weeks pregnant with Aubrey.  As soon as I arrived at the book signing  I was worried that I had made a mistake.  There were lots of babies there, and not just any babies, there were a couple of baby girls born last summer.  Although I teared up a few times, I managed to avoid a full blown break down.  A few hours and a couple of new friends later, I finally got my book signed and headed home. Because I look horrible in this year's picture, here is a picture from the cook book signing I went to last spring when I was about 6 months pregnant.

Today was the Piggies and Paws party at my house.  Earlier in the week I was afraid that I had made a mistake by inviting a bunch of kids to my house, especially since a few of them were the age Aubrey should be.  I can now honestly say that I'm glad I did it.  We had fun eating cookies, drinking lemonade, and ordering adorable hand and footprint art. 

Today I'm gong to leave you with a song that just won't leave my head.  It's a beautiful, sweet song about a girl named Aubrey. 

Today is Going to be a Great Day!!!

Why is today going to be a great day?  It's going to be great for multiple reasons but the biggest and best is that Sam is off work today too so I get to hang out with him for a third day in a row!  What's on the agenda?  Well, we have a bunch of stuff that we would like to accomplish, but only a few things that we have to do.  Our top adventure today will be getting Aubrey some new spring time flowers and visiting her grave.  You see, we like to change out her flowers according to the holiday (right now she has a cute rose arrangement for Valentine's, but I'm thinking it's time for some tulips).  After that we have a couple of errands to run and then we are hoping to hit the bike trails.

Another reason it's going to be a great day is that last week I entered a give away over at www.makeit-loveit.com (check it out, she does some great tutorials).  The give away was for a $100 Target gift card and guess what!  Out of over 4000 entries, I won!!!  I thought it was a joke when I got the e-mail this morning, but then I went to the website and saw that it was true.  Thank you, Ashley, for having this great give away and thank you, Jessica, for introducing me to her site.

Happy President's Day!

The Ski Slopes Were Calling Our Names

When I started this blog, my goal was to write twice a week.  I figured this was a reasonable amount without over-doing it.  Well, last week I didn't blog at all because... we were on vacation.  I planned to write at least once while we were there, I even took the computer with me, but cute little boys, good books, and the ski slopes kept calling my name.

It all started with a 7:30 flight out on Wednesday morning... or so we thought.  We realized that snow storm round two would be coming through Oklahoma before we left, so Monday I went online and moved our flight to 7:30 Tuesday evening.  I figured that would still give us plenty of time to pack Monday night then run some last minute errands Tuesday before we left.  Also on Monday, I decided to board the dogs while we were gone because I was afraid that nobody would be able to go to our house and let them in and out with all the snow they predicted, thus I had to take them to get their Bordetella vaccines since we don't normally board them and they weren't up to date (and now I remember why I take them to the vet separately). 

Tuesday I went to work expecting to work all day (who am I kidding, I get off at 2 :).  I checked the weather a couple of times that morning and realized that our 7:30 p.m. flight might be pushing it.  During his lunch break, I talked with Sam and we decided to see about an earlier flight.  I quickly changed our flight to 5:00 (thank you Southwest for having FREE flight changes) and left work like a mad woman to take the dogs to the kennel, pack the truck, and pick Sam up from work.  It's a good thing we changed flights because as we were riding the shuttle to the airport the driver told us that the airlines were closing after 7:30 that night (that's cutting it a little too close for my comfort). 

Once we got to Denver we had to deal with the rental car company and the fact that our rental wasn't supposed to start until the next morning.  When we finally got our vehicle, it was out of windshield washer fluid.  Are you kidding me!  It took us a good 10 minutes (although it felt like and eternity) of driving through Denver with a dirty, slush covered windshield to find a place to clean the windshield, then it took half a bottle of fluid to fill it.

Finally we made it to our final destination which was:

That's right, we went skiing!  Well, I didn't ski the first couple of days.  Instead I spent them with a couple of adorable little boys and their awesome mom. 

This is my buddy Nash (please ignore how tired I look in this picture).  Since his younger brother is also named Sam, I told him to call my husband "Sam Parks" which sounded adorable in his two year old voice.  

How cute is little Sam's smile!

When the boys weren't skiing, they spent some quality time with us either in the cabin or hanging out downtown.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of us sledding or skiing (although I did get a great video:).

Sam didn't know this picture even existed until last night.  Look at his face talking to Nash, this picture just makes me want to have a family with him even more. 

Our whole group the morning we left (Nash was not in a picture mood). 

Brooke rode back to Denver with us and of course the boys had to stop and look at the train in town before we left.  

By this point they were saying a bunch of words that I didn't understand. 

Did I mention that it was cold out there?

The best part about coming home was that we got to see these guys:

Although she enjoyed the kennel, Bella was glad to be home on her big, comfy bed.

And Rufus was happy to have multiple toys again.

On a side note, we found an AWESOME kennel.  It is called B & P Kennel and they actually like dogs (crazy concept, I know)!  The last couple of times we boarded our dogs they did not enjoy it and came home with upset stomachs.  This time they were happy to play there and equally happy to come home.  The guy that runs it, Buddy, is familiar with giant breeds as well as little dogs (when we picked them up he had another Great Dane and a Mastiff there as well as many dogs of various sizes).  And the best part... he only charged us eight dollars per dog per day.  That's less than half the price would have paid anywhere else!  Our dogs will definitely be going back in the future. 

Our Second Date

Eight years ago tonight, Sam and I went on our second date.  Where did we go?  We went to the Vagina Monologues with some of my girl friends.  Why did we go to this particular production?  Because on our first date a few nights earlier when I mentioned that some friends and I were going to see it Sam (being the play lover that he is - NOT) said that it sounded interesting,  I promptly invited him and immediately regretted my decision.  What kind of girl not only goes to the Vagina Monologues, but also invites a guy to go with her ON THEIR SECOND DATE!  I mean look at this poster, what was I thinking?!?!

Luckily, Sam was smitten enough that he was just happy to be with me and willing to ignore the fact that he was at a feminist production deluxe.  .

How I Spent Snow Day #2

My crafting has gotten a little out of control.  I'm not talking about how much time I spend doing it, I'm talking about the fact that I have stuff everywhere.

 This was our guest bedroom.  I'm a little embarrassed to post these pictures, but I'm hoping that it will keep me from letting it get this bad again.  That's all crafting stuff.  I was just putting it where ever I could. 

I even had stacks of stuff on the bed.

As for the closet...well, that's where I would throw stuff when people would come over.

Yesterday I decided that I needed to do some major organizing.

I'm so excited with how organized it is!  I still need to get some kind of tall, thinnish shelf for the right hand side, but I'm snowed in and had to make due with what I had.  Let's play a quick game of I spy:
~every book Sam ever bought for college (top shelf, you can only see part of them in this picture).
~not one, but two sewing machines, one is a serger so they are different (oh wait, there's three, see the handy stitch still in the box on the upper shelf).
~my teacher certification portfolio (upper shelf because I busted my booty to make that thing!).
~rolled up pocket charts (you teachers know what I'm talking about, I didn't have a container the right size to put them in my shed :).
~pointer hand (see previous excuse).

And now we can have guests again!  The bookshelf is going to be moved to the kids' room when I start getting it ready.

While I was at it, I cleaned one of the hall closets too.  This is where I store Sam's gym towels, beach towels, extra blankets, and the dogs' sheets (folded and placed in baggies labeled on the outside).

The bottom of the closet holds some of our camping stuff (air mattress, sleeping bag, and pumps) and my jewelry tree (in the box).

Sorry for all the pictures, I was just so psyched about how it all turned out!