What a crazy pregnant girl sounds like before she's even positive she's pregnant...

Let me clarify a couple of things before you finish this post. We are NOT pregnant. My monthly friend took it's sweet precious time to get here but it is here now so once again, we are NOT pregnant. Next, we do not know when we are going to try or get pregnant so do NOT get excited, yet. I'll let you know when the time is appropriate for giddiness. I was cleaning out my inbox and sent items folder at work and found this email that was written a month ago when we thought we might be. See that last bit of that line? "Thought we might be...". That's an important line to remember. The last thing I need from this blog is people going to my parents or my in-laws all giddy about Paul and I getting pregnant. Hold off people. Ok.

I wrote this in an email (this is only part of it) to my husband after my optomologist prescribed some steriod eye drops for me that recommended you not use if you are or could be pregnant. We thought we might be "with child" as I was eleven days late but didn't know for sure since the tests (and yes that is plural) said negative. Re-reading this made me laugh at how crazy I sounded. (Should be read in sort of a panic stricken tone).

I called the doctor's office and the receptionist was A) rude and B) asked the doctor for me and told me "he thinks you'll be fine..." BUT get this, I'll have to get a new eye prescription if I am pregnant because it could change. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it lady but if you kill my fetus with this eye drop first, then I won't be back for an eye appointment. EVER. I think the eye doctor either thinks its not a big deal or is just too lazy to do another one. But I feel like this is not an issue to be relaxed about. I am incredibly worked up over this for some reason and I don't know why. I am emotional and sweaty and argh. I just refuse to jeopardize this if it is or if it is to be.

I was at the office when I wrote this email and not only was I sort of yelling/crying at the nurse out in the hall for wanting me to get a new glasses prescription when I was so concerned with the state of my maybe non-existent child, I really was sweating and things just kept getting worse. For example, I used the word "argh" like a pirate. I also like my ending there, nine two letter words in a row. Who writes like that? A panic stricken 23 year old girl who thinks she could be pregnant and refuses to let some B-list eye doctor ruin that for her, that's who.

I got a kick out of re-reading it and thought you might too.

"Life itself is the proper binge." Julia Child

We are going to go see Julie & Julia this weekend. Since I saw the first ad, I've thought it looked cute; the more ads I see (and all of the hype that has been going with it), the more excited I get. I have always known of Julia Child but some recent digging has helped me to get a clearer picture of this woman. I want her first book. Not necessarily because the food looks delicious and it certainly won't help me with my goal to get rid of extra cook books but I love the vintage-ness of it. I have one more recipe to make out of one of our cookbooks before I am ready to pass three of our books on to someone else to use. One of them is an old vintage cookbook that some women (I don't even know them) in my hometown made (sort of like an original Rachel Ray concept). I stole it from the trash pile my mom had thrown it in a couple of months ago with disgust that she was willing to get rid of this vital piece of my childhood upbringing. These were the recipes she cooked for us as kids! These were some of our favorite recipes! Never mind the fact that my mom had combined them into our church cookbook - which I own a copy of, that didn't matter. The old vintage cookbook had a sentimental value to it. As I am sure this book would have if I could find a copy of it at a used bookstore sometime. Ladies and gentlemen, keep your eyes open for it because I will pay you back if you find it. Just don't spend a fortune on it, because then, I may not pay you back.


I love to cook, even though I can get entirely too lazy and skip full weeks of cooking at a time. I love the food we create, but I love the tools and the fun stuff that goes with it. If it is Le Creuset and red, we own it....except for this. And I want it.
Maybe we wouldn't have such an itch to eat and cook if we didn't watch the Food Network ALL THE TIME. But alas, the television tends to stay on that station the majority of the time it is on. I also own three aprons and use only one of them but would seriously consider buying this one - again for its shabby chic vintage appeal (found here).


Well, enough about what I want to spend money on. I think I'd rather get my kitchen renovation underway but it seems like a much larger (and more expensive task) than a cookbook, apron and frying pan.

b-e-a-utiful weekend

This weekend is going down in the books ladies and gentlemen. Please note that nothing of significance happened this weekend.The house is still incredibly filthy and the laundry is still sitting in large piles on the bedroom floor (to which the cats are not complaining). Yesterday after I gave all that talk about getting up and cleaning the house, I sat on my rear and watched the ends of two or three various movies on television and then read Harry Potter as I laid on the front porch swing waiting for the husband to get home. I could sleep on that swing if it was just a foot longer. Once he got home from his golf tournament we proceeded to take a two hour nap. Five o'clock on Saturday evening, we finally decided to crawl out of bed and go grab some dinner and do our grocery shopping. I LOVE grocery shopping. The evening ended with some rather chunky orange no bake blobs (instead of no bake orange balls, which aren't supposed to be chunky) and a line that went something like this: "you can't unload the dishwasher angry! Go watch TV, just let me do it!", and watching golf.

Today was a smooth morning and a great day at church. Got a car wash, came home and made a delicious lunch.


I am about to head out for a baby shower (30 minutes north of our house) which means I'll be gone for two hours to spend just one hour at the shower. Bleh. The house will probably stay dirty all week at least until next Saturday comes and we go through the same cleaning debate. But as I stated earlier, if I went back to do it all again, I wouldn't have changed anything about this weekend.

fear of failure, fear of people

So after a fabulous hair cut at my favorite salon with my favorite stylist this morning, cleaning the house seems like a disgusting chore. Note to self: do not go pamper yourself first thing Saturday morning, you will ruin whatever else you had to do that day. Everything will pale in comparison. I also ran to Babies R Us to get a gift for a friend from my church class who had twin baby girls. Everything is more expensive when you have two of them! I still need to get my eye brows waxed, go to the grocery store and of course....clean the house.

But instead of cleaning the house, I've been sitting here thinking about the ridiculous things I am afraid of. One of the many art classes I had to take in college worked very hard to get you to overcome certain fears. Mainly, fear of failure and fear of people. I don't seem to have fear regarding my work any more. The class did its job I suppose. I have no problem letting people see my designs or my photos or my art. But other things terrify me. For example, on my list of 100 things to do, I have "drive a sea-doo". Why is that on my list of 100 things to do you ask? I agree that it seems like a ridiculous item to include on a life list but I am scared to drive one. I did not grow up on or near a lake and when my family did make the rare trip to the lake we were on a friend's boat. We never knew anyone that had sea-doos. Right after graduating from high school I heard my family talking about an extended cousin who had just gotten married and while on her honeymoon in Mexico, her and her new husband decided to rent and ride a sea-doo together. The sea-doo flipped and they both died. ON THEIR HONEYMOON. IN MEXICO. I cried. I didn't even know this girl, but oh did I freak out. Now that I have married into a lake family and community - wherever one lives on the lake or goes to the lake all the time - I am constantly trying to find excuses for not driving a sea-doo. I ALWAYS ride with Paul. ALWAYS. I had a great excuse last year when my friend Betsy came to Michigan with us and there were only two to drive. Betsy got one and Paul and I got the other...but that isn't always the case. Is this not one of the most ridiculous fears you have ever heard of? Well, we are going to Michigan in September and I am going to make Paul teach me how to drive one and then I am going to do it.

The next fear I have come to realize I have over the past few days is my fear in learning a new sport. Like golf. I want to play golf. I really would like to be able to go out with Paul on a Saturday morning and know what I was doing. More than that, I want my own set of clubs and cute golf shoes and clothes. Well, Paul offered to take me to the driving range last night to teach me how to hit a ball. I got super nervous and backed out and we went out for dinner and went shopping instead. I was so sure that I was going to miss hitting the ball and everyone at the range would laugh at me and I would feel ridiculous. My arm muscles were quivering thinking about it. They are quivering right now! I need to get it together. I just want to be at a course or a range with just Paul and learn without anyone around. Maybe I should add learning to play golf onto my next list of things to accomplish...

I know there are tons of other things I am afraid of doing but those have been the most recent two to show up. I also am aware of how ridiculous these are.

Knocking Off #100

After a long day (including the flooded office) the only thing I wanted to do after I got off was to relax. I met Paul at Iguana for a fabulous dinner where we briefly discussed our days as his was much more exciting (in a good way) than mine was. Paul made a comment about how he thought it was strange that Iguana had become "our" neighborhood restaurant. The more I think about it, I suppose I would have to agree. Even though the food is fabulous and I could eat it a few times a week without getting tired of it, it isn't really as local (in relation to our house) as I had originally thought. With Midtown popping out restaurants every other week I am surprised we haven't picked something to be our regular place instead. Maybe the highly anticipated Big Truck Tacos will prove to be stiff competition. We love food.

My friend Jodi took this photo while she was here visiting in June.

We also decided to knock another one of my list items off. What better way to end that long and stressful day than to spend it on the front porch in 80 degree weather drinking lemonade? Granted, Paul and I have spent many nights sitting out on our front porch. We have sat there at least once in every Oklahoman season (hot and cold). We have watched it rain and snow and we have sat there long enough you could say we watched the grass grow. We also love to watch neighbors...ya know, like critically watch. But we've never sipped lemonade the way people probably did 95 years ago when there was nothing better to do on July 28th at 9:00 pm. So we did it and it was great fun.





So, it has been knocked off and I'm feeling relaxed. I love ending a standard Wednesday evening feeling relaxed and happy.

"Among the therapeutic agents not to be found bottled up and labeled on our shelves is traveling, a means of prevention, of cure and of restoration."

I hate how much money Paul and I spend going out to eat. We love to cook and make great food, but we get so lazy sometimes and tonight was one of those nights. So we went to Taco Bell, we didn't even go out for good food. No, we chose taco bell. We have to stop wasting money at places like that.

I was really trying to figure out (over the weekend) exactly how far I wanted this blog to go. I have still yet to figure it out. There is so much I want to write about. Co-workers, family, church, but so many factors play into why I feel like I can't write about those things. I know that I could make people laugh and understand what situations are like if I wrote about things that happen to me everyday and I would love to be honest about them. To get all the things out that I can't make myself say in real life, to actually understand the things I am feeling by getting them out on paper would be great. But I know the honesty I would have would crush people if they ever read it. I wouldn't be hateful or nasty, but my humor (and writing style) is incredible straight forward and I don't think the people I was writing about would find it humorous. People would be furious with what I had to say and the people I would write about are the people that wouldn't take it well at all. Should I get over that? Should I just move past that, get it out and live with the consequences if (and when) they come? Or should I write it down somewhere other than this blog and let Paul and my mom read it just to get some laughs?

I mean we're talking about an unbelievably obnoxious co-worker, the sister-in-law, a church acquaintance, and I could continue the list. Trust me, it could be quite enjoyable. Maybe I'll write it somewhere else, let a few people read it and if they think its worth going on the blog then I could post it later. I guess we'll see.

We leave for Amsterdam in 67 days. I'm not, not excited but I'm not quite thrilled yet. I've been to Mexico a few times but other than that this will be my first trip out of the country and I don't think I know how much fun I'll have yet. We're also going to Switzerland and Germany so it will be a busy week. Here are a few things I want to do in Amsterdam.


I don't know if we'll rent bikes or not but I love this bike by Dutch Bike Co. Plus, we'll be in Amsterdam so why not travel like the locals? This bike is super cute and called Oma. Clever, right?

I also want to go on a canal ride. I think a koffie or thee (coffee or tea) ride would be fun and a good way to spend one of our afternoons.

We're also going to go to a lot of museums but I hope we don't spend too much time at them. I want to make sure we do a picnic at Vondelpark and check out the flowers at the Bloemenmarkt before heading over to the Noordermarkt to buy gifts. Ok, starting to get excited.

We're also going to Michigan the first weekend in September to meet our niece who will have hopefully arrived at that time and to spend some time on the lake. I'm going to knock some of my items off my list over the next few months. I wish I didn't have to work and the only thing I had to do was accomplish things off the list. Whew, I just got excited about the thought of that and then a little disappointed when I remembered it's still Monday.

Oh well, I'm still thinking about how cute that Oma bike is.

Fun Dip = a fabulous Friday night.

I wrote an awesome post today and I am sorry that I cannot share it yet. I must wait, I must. But when it comes, you will laugh. I laughed, re-read it and laughed again.

Tomorrow is going to be busy so we are laying low tonight. Laying low right now includes vegging on the couch watching Family Guy (don't judge me) and eating the Fun Dip I bought at the grocery store (yet again, do not judge). I might as well be ten years old again, except for the Family Guy part, I'm pretty sure my parents would have had some problems with me watching this show at that age.

Some things to leave you with since this is a sort of a boring post:

Tomorrow I get a prescription for contacts again. Hallelujah. I'm sorry that wasn't quite powerful enough. HALLELUJAH. These last two weeks with my glasses have gotten easier but I still think it was a miserable way to spend two weeks. Glasses. I'm sorry for all of you out there that don't like contacts or can't wear them. I promise to take them out every night and do all the things I am supposed to up until I can get my Lasik surgery. I promise, I promise, I promise.

After I get my eyes back we are going to go watch an early showing of the new Harry Potter movie. I'm pretty stoked as I have been a HP fan for awhile now and have heard great things about the movie. I got even more excited after visiting one of my favorite blogs by Heather Bailey. She is a great fabric designer, she takes awesome photos and makes some of the most creative things, including a Harry Potter classic, Butterbeer. Check out her super cute drink and broomsticks below.

Seriously, every time I look at that photo it makes me smile. I love creative people.

We're also going to dinner with some friends tomorrow night at a Latin restaurant, 1492, that is right down the street from our house before going to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat together. I love doubles.

Progress is needed.

Due to my work load at the office (my commercial work) taking up so much of my time over the last year I have not spent a lot of time finishing our house or playing with other people's homes. I miss residential design quite a bit and sometimes wish I could go back to my little fabric showroom and enjoy a 35 hour week, art, accessories and gorgeous fabrics.

I am glad I am doing the work I am doing and I love the project I am on. I still get to pick art and furniture and everything I would do if I was doing homes but there is just a huge difference between the two (commercial and residential). I plan to go back to that showroom some day or maybe something like it but for now I need to enjoy my humongous projects and the awesome opportunities that they bring.

I feel like remodeling, or maybe just painting. Every time someone I know moves or remodels, I get the bug. I love moving and re-doing (sick, right?). One of my co-workers has up and decided she is going to sell her house and move, so of course I want to too. Just no time right now, nor do we need to make a move. I just need to keep chipping away at this house until its time to leave.

I've decided to finish our bathroom by getting the tub refinished (its the original claw foot tub) and painting the floor. I love our painted wood floors in the kitchen and office and even though our restroom isn't large, I could save a lot of money by painting the bathroom floor rather than trying to have the tub moved for tiling and getting it to work with our sub floor. Those two items should be easy to complete and maybe I can get them both knocked out before we go to Europe. My fingers are crossed.

I've also decided to grout the brick that is falling out of the wall surrounding our porch this Saturday morning. That way it can cure by the time I get around to purchasing the paint to get the exterior of the house done. I am pretty excited about getting that done, however I am sure as soon as I am an hour into painting the brick and trim, I will have had enough, go inside to get some air and let the husband finish. Yea, I'm that girl.

DO IT AT HOME (buy local)

I started following the 3/50 Project on Facebook a few months ago, spent some time on their website, really enjoyed what I saw but then moved on. After seeing an update on my page from them today, I spent another 30 minutes reviewing their website and was reminded of why I became a fan.

I love shopping at locally owned shops all over the US and some of my best purchases have been from small local stores. I think that is why I love downtown Holland so much (minus the few chains that are on that strip). And don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for larger, national chains and I shop at them and eat at them and on and on and on. I buy my groceries at Wal-Mart Neighborhood market because they're the cheapest but love to stop at Market C when I need cheese or bread. I buy clothes at Ann Taylor Loft and JCrew but I also shop at FireFly. Being married to an Urban Planner has swayed my thinking on this issue as well. He would rather eat and shop local before ever thinking about going to a chain. He's passionate about mom and pop shops that have had to close and wants to support the ones that are still operating as much as possible. Maybe that is why we spend so much money at The Iguana Grill...

Their concept is really unique and probably pretty sound. Select three locally owned businesses that you would miss if they disappeared and stop in at them a few extra times. I could easily find more than three in Holland (which technically isn't buying local - but it's still an economy I want my money to go to) and definitely have three local OKC places too.

Next, try and spend $50 every month in a locally owned business. I know I spend more than this on dinner out in a month and so why not spend it at local restaurants? Christmas is an easy time for me to spend my money locally. Jewelry at FireFly, home accents at On a Whim and the French Cowgirl and I'm pretty well set for all of the girls on my shopping lists.

Doing those two things can help sustain those businesses longer than they would if you went somewhere else like Target or the mall (obviously, this is not a hard concept).

I think Cinda Baxter has a great thing going here. I looked at the project's supporter page when I first came across the website and was disappointed that no one in Oklahoma had either heard of it or was interested in it. Today, proved to be different. There are actually supporters from here now. Most supporters are churches or chambers of commerce but at least there are some small businesses listed and the chamber can be good at getting the word out right?

Hopefully this keeps growing not only nationally but in Oklahoma too. I hate talk about the economy and our recession - but this is a cooler way to look at it and gives people a more unique way to be supportive of the local economy without sounding so stuffy.


Well, baseboard is done and installed and looks fabulous. Time to move on to the next project.

Miscellaneous Saturday

Today was a great combination of productivity and relaxation. I can't say my husband would agree since the cats woke him up at 6:00 crying for food. I however, got out of bed at 8 am and slowly made my way to the TV room where I continued to lounge watching the Tour de France with Paul. We finally got up and moving and out the door and headed to my office to scrounge for boxes to pack my sister-in-law's baby shower present in. We went grocery shopping where we indulged ourselves with ingredients we didn't need but wanted and stocked up on BOGO free frosted flakes. We ran out and got all the items needed for our tiny little wall missing its baseboard and came home and started working on it. It's not finished because staining to match the woodwork around it was as difficult as I thought it would be.

After trying two stains we found in the basement and purchasing one at Lowe's (and then mixing them together) I think we finally got the color right. Now it needs to dry, so here's hoping for the piece to get installed tomorrow.

We decided to have a picnic for dinner and after a mini freak out in the kitchen (where my husband proceeded to laugh at me and remind me of how much I needed to learn to relax) we went to our neighborhood gourmet market right down the street, Market C, to grab some old fashioned soda. While there I nabbed a couple of deviled eggs for myself. Who could resist? We then headed to Norman where we picked up some fried chicken from our good friend the Colonel and headed to the park. We laid out our blankets and had our dinner as we listened to a family playing baseball behind us, teenage boys on their skateboards and little kids screaming as they were getting soaked at the splash ground.

After we ate our dinner we relaxed for about an hour and I read some more of my book. It was great to go somewhere and take the time to relax. When you relax at home or close to home, there are always things to get you distracted.

All there was to do at the park (far away from home) was what we brought to do or nothing and both were great. Our little setup was invaded by ants shortly after our relaxation hour so we quickly ate the cake we brought, packed up and headed home. All in all it was a great day and I am sorry it'll be over soon. Great Saturdays can be hard to come by.