it's raining, it's pouring

This past weekend, we did a lot. I mean A LOT.

I got a haircut, we did our weekly grocery shopping, Paul did some volunteering, we watched a very important soccer game, we volunteered/attended an after party at the art museum, met my parents to check out their fancy new wheels, went to church and even caught a mini Flaming Lips concert.

We did not however build a moat or an ark.

Both would have been quite helpful yesterday.

Oklahoma City received a tumultuous down pour that woke us up early yesterday morning and didn’t stop until the late morning. Paul was up having his morning coffee when he noticed one of our cats staring at the floor vent. She was intent. Paul got a little closer and noticed he could hear something that sounded like water so he popped his head down into the basement to have a look see and boy oh boy was there water.

He came upstairs, put on some socks and boots and got my butt out of the bed to help him. I figured an inch or two of water in the “unfinished” basement couldn’t be that bad but I’d oblige and help him move some things around. I took one step down the stairs and saw Paul, mid-shin deep in water. There might have been an expletive escaping my mouth on those stairs.

He started hoisting boxes and tubs of things up to me which I stacked in nice neat piles on the back porch. I couldn’t get over how much water was literally pouring into the space. He grabbed the laundry that was in the dryer (already getting wet) and we headed back upstairs to watch the disaster happen. Or I did. Paul grabbed on his rain jacket and went outside (still POURING mind you) and spent the next two hours directing the gathering water away from our house with brick and sand dams he built, a trench between our house and the neighbor (whose basement was already waist deep in water) and he cleared out the tiny amount of gutters on the side of our house. The water stopped pouring in through the walls. What a rockstar. We were at that point, two feet underwater downstairs, but it wasn’t coming in anymore and we had to be positive and thankful about something.

We decided to brave the rain and the flooding (stupid idea) and get out in order to get a new hose for our pump at Home Depot. It was amazing how many roads had already been closed and how many cars were just stranded in the middle of roads. We made it to Home Depot and back (with a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit in hand) and after one more trip by Paul, got all the water pumped out of the basement and out into the street. I could see the pavement! Never mind the fact that it is filthy muddy and there is something wrong with our A/C, cable and our washer and dryer were half under water for awhile.

I spent the afternoon at home monitoring the water level and giving Paul updates every half hour or so while baking some fresh bread and marinating dinner. I’d love to only work four days a week and bake bread and cook on the other days. That is, as long as there aren’t any more natural disasters happening!

momma lovin'

A few nights ago, Paul and I were talking during the commercials of one of our favorite shows and somehow we got on the subject of people who want better for their kids than what they had or grew up with.

We both sat there for a second when I said, "I don't want better for our kids than what we had. We both had really great lives growing up (and we still do) with great parents and I want to strive to provide an equal experience for our kids and if it is better than what we had, lucky them."

Today I got this email from my mom:

We get emails, cards and phone calls all the time from our parents that say things like this.

That's what I want for our kids and I hate that there are people out there that don't have that already themselves but I'm glad they want to give it to their kids too.

summer

I think I've mentioned previously how much I do not like summer and if I have not, I am now. I especially don't like it now that I am an adult. There is no break from school to enjoy or vacations to go on (we much prefer fall/winter/spring travel). The only thing summer has going for it, in my opinion, is that it is nine o'clock before it gets close to being dark out and there is a prolific number of snow cone stands that crop up.

However, I haven't been hating on the summer as much this year as I typically do. Granted, it's only June11th and we have a long way to go here in Oklahoma City before the fall arrives, but right now, I can handle it. And believe it or not, I've only had two snow cones.

I'm very intrigued by summer entertaining right now which makes me wonder if the prospect of doing so is helping me stem off the hate.

Entertaining, like I like to do, takes a lot of effort though. Not that I am complaining, I just don't seem to have the people to invite to parties like these all the time.

These photos (found at Hostess of course) make me want to break out some mason jars, mix up some lemonade in our glass pitcher and cover my patio table in flowers with candles hanging from the trees. I've also been obsessing over 4th of July celebrating. We're not even going to be in town, rather at my parent's house, but I want to throw a party. My brother's birthday is on the 5th and every year for quite some time we threw him a party with the classic white sheet cake covered in strawberries and blueberries making a flag. I want to throw his birthday party this year (although I doubt he's even in town), and for old times sake, have his flag birthday cake.

I'd have lanterns, flags, galvanized tubs full of drinks and flowers to show off some serious patriotic style. I like the whole New England summer cottage covered in flags, its quite quanit and charming and it's exactly what I'd be going for.   

Who is throwing summer parties this year? Because I want to attend them.

My mom always said "If you don't have anything nice to say, then shut it."

I'm not about to say anything nice. I just need an outlet to vent today.

I want to write about my office so badly it causes a creative block for other things. Knowing the story of Dooce and how well her getting fired from her job worked out for her after she wrote about her co-workers and her job is comforting however; I don’t seem to quite grasp the concept of making a living blogging every day. I just don’t have the internet following, nor do I think I ever will.
I need to write a book or maybe a screenplay about the people I work with. And maybe publish it under a pen name. You’d read it. It would be funny and then I’d be rich.

Today has been one of those days at the office. Can you tell?

In related blogging topics, I don’t understand how it is that a newlywed couple created a blog, started charging people $250 to look at two or three photos, draw a shoddy, unscaled, wavy lined sketch of a floorplan and use Photoshop to copy and paste the same furniture pieces and artwork (from Target and Crate and Barrel) over and over again. Do you know how well I could do YHL mood boards and floorplans and in probably less the time and with a to-scale floorplan that doesn’t look like my cat drew it?

I’m just bitter. The two of them stay home with a newborn and blog and make mood boards for people all over the US because they have good taste when they remodel their own home.

I went to school for it and am working an eight to five job (design job yes, but come on) with no one knocking down my door to do an internet color board for them. Jealous. I’m just jealous.

I’d stay at home and do mood boards and floorplans for people for $250.00 a pop. And they’d be good.

So there.

NOTE: This is one of those posts that I should have saved for a few days. After cooling down, I should have come back to read it and then laugh at myself and delete it. But I'm too into it right now to not just send it out there, envy and all.

Get the Duck to do it.

Miracle of miracles.

Duct tape gets rid of warts. Gross I know.

I got a wart in high school (I think) on my pointer finger on my left hand, right at the bottom of my nail. It was so small for so long and didn't hurt so I left it alone.

I can't believe I'm writing about this.

Well it got bigger over the past few years and I decided it sucked.

Over Memorial Day weekend I decided it was time to get rid of the thing. I'd asked Paul's uncle, the Doc, about a year ago if it would hurt if I had him remove it and he told me quite frankly that yea it probably would.

I chickened out at that moment and it wasn't until this past weekend I decided to get over it and just take care of it. But then my mom told me that my cousins had been instructed to put duct tape on theirs and that they disappeared. I was a skeptic.

Plus, I didn't want to have to wear duct tape to work every day. So, I bought this stuff:

Nothing like some turquoise duct tape to keep your spirits up in the summer months. I've only been covering it up since Monday, and it's already almost gone. I can't believe it and I can't believe that it doesn't hurt at all.

So tuck that tiny piece of knowledge away for some random party chat.

what chou talkin' bout willis?

How exiciting is it that it's already Tuesday?! I have nothing to write about right now. I should but can't seem to get into the mood to think. For the first time in a few weeks, I have something that needs to be done at work that is incredibly brain stimulating, so that's exciting and I don't feel like wasting that brain power on a post I'm only half into anyways.

But, I will write about our weekend briefly. It was such a great memorial day weekend. It actually felt like a three day weekend and I was glad we got to spend it with part of our family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, old friends, etc).

This past weekend:
- we watched my cousin Marlee graduate from high school
- we ate smores by the lake as we tried to convince a three year old to "drop it like its hot"
- I ate breakfast by the lake with my mom while the boys played golf
- I finished "Salt"
- I bought a new watch
- we played Bananagrams until our brains felt like mush
- we talked on the back porch with only the christmas lights and candles until we were too tired to talk
- we went to church
- Marlee, Maryn and I drove around in golf carts keeping score for the boys as they played another round of golf
- we had pizza and hun-cal (yes Lauren, that was for you) fro-yo for dinner
- I bought turqouise duck tape in hopes of getting rid of a wart
- we watched some NCIS because really, we're addicted
- my dad, Paul and I went to the driving range and they taught me how to play golf (i'm pretty excited about it)
- we had lunch with the parental unit and we we're off
- and we finished the evening with a little Harry Potter, oh, and Taco Bueno of course

Hope you had a great weekend!

Oh, and the title has nothing to do with Coleman's death, rather it's something the three year old that was visiting for the weekend said to my cousin Marcus and we got a kick out of it. Oh and since celebrity deaths happen in threes, Nugget, on the radio this morning, predicted Betty White was next. Oh the shame.

oh snap (beans that is)!

Two years ago, Paul built this planter box and we filled it full of veggies!

We placed it in the small grassy area between our driveway and the apartment complex's driveway/parking lot. We grew tomatoes, peppers and jalapenos. Last year we did some of the same but some birds found our tomato crop and went after them with a vengeance.

Did I mention we live next door to a brick four plex?

We've run into issues with people parking in our driveway before, mainly friends of people who have resided in the apartment who didn't realize it didn't belong to the building, or people who went out late partying and thought they would get back early enough in the morning to move their cars before we would notice. And other than a few loud parties last summer and one guy (from another complex) who lets his very large dog do his very large business in our front yard WITHOUT picking it up, it's been a pretty peaceful living arrangement.

We know one of the couples that lives in this building (they got married the same month we did and moved in shortly after). We talk some and see them around town and at their jobs every now and again but other than that we don't really know the people that come and go in the apartment buildings. The neighbors to the west, in the houses, we all know each other, but everyone to the east of us changes out so often being only renters that we never really get to know them.

Well...

We got up one morning a few weeks ago and headed out to the garage and noticed that our planter box was full of vegetable plants. That we did not plant.

We have new neighbors in the apartment complex and I've only said hello to them once as they were crawling through one of their windows after locking themselves out (which I still haven't figured out). They claimed our planter box!

It wasn't too late for us to plant things yet, and we had plans to do so either that weekend or the next and were completely shocked that they had staked their claim (literally, using stakes for their tomato plants). We laughed about it, both a little shocked, but as the day went on I got sort of pissed off.

I get that it is sitting on the property between the house and the apartment complex and that it could quite possibly belong to the apartment. But why not ask first?! Ask someone in the building, ask your landlord or ask us. And even if it did belong to the apartment complex, why would you be so bold to use the entire thing assuming that no one else in the building wanted to plant something? And I know they didn't ask around the complex before they planted because the couple we know, knows it belongs to us and told Paul last night they (the couple we know) were wanting to plant some things of their own this year but didn't get around to getting a box to put next to ours.

So I chewed on it for awhile and decided that even though it wasn't the end of the world, it still was sort of rude and that we would want our box back for next year. With Paul hating confrontation so much we decided we'd just put a little garden sign in the box. So today, I made one.

My friend Lauren says it's because I'm passive aggressive. I've never thought of myself that way, I'm typically just aggressive. But I'm glad I got to be passive about this one because my note is cute.We plopped it into a small little pot I had with a hosta that came back from the dead, probably only to die again and laid it gingerly in the box. I hope it doesn't rain before they find it, I didn't laminate the thing.

The more I think about it, the whole leaving a note thing may be a bit trashy but I was actually really nice and I left off the part at the bottom about how they needed to clean up their containers and trash because that stuff seemed to always find its way onto our driveway and into our backyard (which theirs did). I just feel like if you live in a building with more people than just yourself you should be more community minded than most people. Plus, when you live on a block like we live on, everyone's looking out for each other and I'm sure they'll get the hang of it soon but until then...I guess I can leave passive notes in pots.

whoop-dee freaking-dah

This past weekend, I made bread.

I know what you’re thinking. “Whoop-dee-freaking-dah, I make bread all the time.”

Well, I don’t so it was sort of a big deal.

In fact, I’ve never made bread. Paul threw out there that he’s made banana bread and some other things that have the word “bread” in them but he had never made the flour and yeast, sit on the counter rising type of bread either.

There has been lots of buzz on the blogs I read lately about people making bread and I figured Saturday would be the perfect day to try it. And I was right; it was absolutely the perfect day to do it. We spent the day at the grocery store and buying new plants for the backyard. And while Paul worked in the back, I made homemade bread and baked potato soup. Other than the fact that I over-thymed the soup, it was a delicious meal.

I used this recipe after We Met in A Bar raved about how simple it was. Simple was good. Simple was necessary.

And to my surprise it really was simple; in fact, it was a little TOO simple. I want to make bread all the time now. I have the recipe memorized and the amount of time it needs to rest and rise and when to knead it and when to bake it and for how long.

I also snagged this book off of Amazon over the weekend and not a moment too soon since they raised the price yesterday. Hope it’s as good as Kathleen says it is.

saving the important stuff

The weather in Oklahoma leaves plenty of room for improvement. It's either 10 degrees outside or 108. It's either icing over or we have tornados. We can't seem to find a happy balance, ever. The last 10 days around here have been full of tornados, thunderstorms and freak hail showers (I say freak, because Sunday was a gorgeous day until out of nowhere balls of ice covered the metro making it look like snow was covering the ground).

(this wasn't taken yesterday, but a few months ago from Paul's parking garage downtown)

Yesterday the metro was at a high risk for severe weather so before I left for work, I grabbed a pair of socks and my tennis shoes. I thought to myself while I was brushing my teeth, "If I have to come back to a completely demolished house and I have to sift through the wreckage, I am not doing it in heels." I also thought about what we consider to be our "safe spot" in the house (though I am debating that title as I don't feel like our house is in anyway shape or form going to do well if it gets hit). I thought about throwing a couple of things in the hall closet (our so called safe spot) that couldn't be replaced like our wedding photos, our external drive full of digital photos, etc. I didn't get around to it before I left for the day but as I was sitting at my desk, checking our weather station's website, I pictured our house getting blown over and the only thing surviving the ravaging winds to be the hall closet. Which would not be holding our wedding album or digital photos but rather 30 jackets/coats/sweaters, scarves and gloves, a suitcase, our wedding cake topper, a swiffer, our vacuum and SpotBot, a step stool, cat food and Paul's high school awards. Oh and let's not forget our graduation caps.

Yep, that's what would be spared from the tornado and what we would have to start our lives over with if that closet were to survive. Luckily, the downtown metro didn't get anything at all. In fact, it was sunny and warm all evening.

So the graduation caps are safe for now, just in case you were worried.

I love lamp.

Brick: "I love...carpet."
Brick: "I love...desk."
Ron (Burgundy, of course): "Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them?"
Brick: "I love lamp."
Ron: "Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?"
Brick: "I love lamp. I love lamp."

I never thought I'd have anything in common with Anchorman's Brick Tamland (especially with a tag line like: "I'm Brick Tamland. People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks. Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48 and am what some people call mentally retarded.") but lo and behold, I love lamp.
Or lamps to be more accurate.

There are some that are down right hideous but then there are so many options out there and the combinations are endless when it comes to the not so ugly ones. Like below:

Z Gallerie

West Elm

Williams-Sonoma Home - and yes, that is empredor marble. Hot.

I think that's why I like them so much. You can take one lamp and put 40 different shades on it for fresh looks or you can paint them or add fillers to the glass ones and everything about it is different.

Crate and Barrel

Z Gallerie

Pottery Barn

We have two large brass lamps in our living room that I used to loathe (pre-house days, back when Paul had the apartment). They came from my husband's side of the family. They had white pleated shades on them and they looked out dated and I did not like them. I made due with them for awhile in our new house/living room and then one day had the bright idea to put a black leather shade on them. They looked gorgeous. I loved, loved, loved them. Since then I have had to change to a black fabric shade but they still look good. They are the most rocking lamps on my block if not for a good few blocks and right now, they make my living room look good.