Saint-Valentin fête

Just a few pictures that we snapped before heading out for a delicious dinner at La Baguette - C'était délicieux!

Oops, silly remote...

Trickeration!

So last Friday, Sharla called and said "Hey, how about dinner tonight at one of my customer's restaurant?" I said "Sure!" and she sounded pleased but a little surprised. One small teeny tiny detail: the customer's restaurant is in Medicine Park (outside Lawton)...what I heard was Nicoma Park (outside Choctaw)...about 3 hours difference in drive time. Awesome.

But we agreed so it was off to Medicine Park to Fisherman's Cove and then a dessert stop at Ann's Country Kitchen (literally in a double wide but delicious, made-fresh-daily desserts). Small town Oklahoma at its best. Sharla posted some pics of our trip HERE.

Source is here.

Des fleurs pour Saint Valentin

Sugar and Spice...

I am so thankful for my friends who keep having little baby girls for me to enjoy! So thoughtful!

Ruby Kaye made her entrance November 16 - and she has the nummiest cheeks ever.

Hayden Michelle arrived on January 21 and everyone was so excited to meet her, even big sister Hazel.

I've only edited two pictures so far, so here they are. More to come later.

(Click the pictures to view full size in Flickr.)

Super-sized!

I don't know if you can tell from this video, but right now we are getting some of the biggest (like the size of my palm) snowflakes I have ever seen - it's gorgeous!

Do not adjust your screen.

The child really does have a blue tongue.

Hazel spent the day with us last Saturday while Mom & Dad were checking out of the hospital with her new baby sister, Hayden Michelle (check out Team Wilson for some sweet sister pics).

We took Hazel to a birthday party that morning and of course, she immediately found the blue ring pop in the goodie bag...

2009: One Last Look

Merry and Bright!

Thank goodness mom & dad's house is only 5 blocks away...we were able to brave the 13" of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas day to spend time with family.

The Reason

I think out of all the lovely ornaments on our tree,

my favorite is still this one:

It's from the Holy Land and there's just something about it that is so sweet and rough and simple and perfect. In my head, I can totally imagine the way it was that night so long ago...

Merry Christmas to all our dear friends and family. Thank you all for playing an important part in our lives. Blessings to all your families during this sweet time together.

The Littlest Angel

(circa 1981)

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Table for Two.

I finally got my new Christmas dishes in this week (thanks mom and dad!) and couldn't resist setting the table so we could enjoy them throughout the holidays.

I also received my birthday flowers (thanks Wiser!) (a little early) because I requested holiday greens from Birdie, this sweet new shop on Campus Corner. If you haven't been there yet, get thee to Birdie asap; Katie carries a wide variety of lots of local and green goodies, including plants and flowers from her family's nursery. We picked out a yummy Christmas candle when we were there and I can't wait for the current candle to run out so I can fire it up. Anyway...I'm sorry this post can't be scratch-and-sniff because the greens smell so scrumptious. I'm not missing a real tree at all this year!

(click images for full view)

Sometimes Deluxe is a good thing...

(click to enlarge poster for details)

...like when it's the Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar! This is quickly becoming one of our favorite events. Lots of local & young crafters and artists with oodles of lovely homemade Christmas (and birthday - ahem) present ideas. Some of our favorites from the last time were sock monkeys with mohawks, a photographer from Hobart OK (I have one of her books on my coffee table but am looking to add to the collection - nudge nudge, Wiser), darling feather headbands and magnets from old picture books.

This time, the Sugar Free Allstars will be playing a kids set at the end of the day and I will be manning a spin-art activity. If you have any free time this Saturday, you must come check out this event - it's great! (And it's free!)

Favorite Turkey of the holiday...

We spent most of today in the studio (yes, WE) doing some of the final recording for the next kids album. Here's a sneak peek; I'll try to get some more pictures & videos edited and posted later today. If I don't get distracted by all the Cyber Monday shopping madness...

(that's me behind that enormous base drum, click for larger pic)

Last year: My Thanksgiving Essay

Laverne and Shirley

Totally one of my favorite tv shows when I was little. This morning, I have the theme song running through my head...well, just after the schlemeel, schlemazel part:

We’re gonna do it!
Give us any chance, we’ll take it.
Give us any rule, we’ll break it.
We’re gonna make our dreams come true.
Doin’ it our way.

Nothin’s gonna turn us back now,
Straight ahead and on the track now.
We’re gonna make our dreams come true,
Doin’ it our way.

There is nothing we won’t try,
Never heard the word impossible.
This time there’s no stopping us.
We’re gonna do it.

On your mark, get set, and go now,
Got a dream and we just know now,
We’re gonna make our dream come true.
And we’ll do it our way, yes our way.
Make all our dreams come true,
And do it our way, yes our way,
Make all our dreams come true
For me and you.

(But you can't really hear it without schleMEEL, schleMAZEL, hasenfeffer incorporated!)

Thank you Wiser for making this the best year yet. I like you more than I did a year ago, respect you more, admire you more, and am more thankful for your kind heart and perseverance every day that I know you. We are blessed.

xoxo

And one year ago: The Next Time You See Me...

Helping me check my email.

A good rule of thumb at our house: If you're on the computer (desktop or laptop), you will have a cat in your face. I don't know why, other than she can't stand for something else to be getting more attention than her. This move is the P.Kitty Head Butt a.k.a. She Will Not Be Ignored Any Longer.

Bubble Brain: Houston Tour 2009

God is good. All the time.

This past Sunday morning I flew to Houston with my mom to be with my grandmother and uncle for his surgery Monday; he had been having horrible headaches and his doctors discovered an aneurysm that was leaking behind his eye. (You can read about the procedure to correct this problem here.) His surgery went smoothly and lasted a little more than two hours. He spent the night in icu so that they could keep a close eye on him but the next morning a ct scan and an angiogram confirmed that the aneurysm was totally gone. After spending the next night in a private room, he was able to check himself out and head home to continue recovery there. Less than 48 hours after having his head opened up, he was home. Isn't that wild? God had His hand all over Uncle's noggin.

I did try to steal his thunder in the radiology unit while waiting for the followup angiogram by having my own little fainting spell. I guess if you're going to faint, make sure you're surrounded by surgeons and radiologists. I was fine, just a little overcome by stress, worry, exhaustion, heat, hunger...pick anyone of those. Apparently my mother and grandmother have also had fainting spells at hospitals, so I'm pretty certain I come by it honestly.

I returned home Tuesday evening and was back at work Wednesday morning - mom is staying through Saturday to play nursemaid to Uncle as he continues recovering at home. Please keep him in your prayers...he's showing little to no side effects so far and making incredible progress and improvements every day. PTL!

I received Uncle's blessing to include a picture of his battle wound, so here you go:

WE DID IT!

Thursday evening, Mindy and I stood in line for 4.5 hours to meet The Pioneer Woman and get her new cookbook signed. (You can read about the craziness here where The Food Dude likened the line of eager fans to a line to see Santa: The Pioneer Woman Comes To Town)

We arrived after work at 5:45 for the signing that was to start at 6:30...we finally got our books signed at 10:00pm. Wowsers. I was anticipating to wait awhile in line but was not nearly prepared for the wait we had. My feet ached, my back was killing me, I was starving...and I couldn't even feel sorry for myself because my seven-months-pregnant best friend was standing next to me the entire time - but I wouldn't have chosen anyone else to stand with :) In fact, I'm not sure anyone else would have be crazy enough to stand in that 5 hour line with me...

Just to put it in perspective, Mindy, who has already birthed one child totally au naturale, said this was the longest she had waited for anything and at one point compared it to when she summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. Seriously. We may have been a little delirious from starvation at that point.

PW was very gracious and took time to speak with everyone that was in line. Her entire family accompanied her to the event: her husband Marlboro Man, her four punks, her sister and nephew, her mother - all the major players from her blog. They were all so sweet and people were so eager to get their books signed by someone that they were asking MM, the punks, her sister, anyone to sign their books and they very sweetly obliged.

So here is the proof that we met The Pioneer Woman:

This is the picture I took of the line when we first arrived.

Oh sooooo close....

We made it! I already know my mother will say something about my slouching, but I was tired and hungry and achey. And when we finally got to the table, I had not one funny, witty, memorable thing to say to her. Awesome.

Our new best friend, Ree. She just doesn't know it yet.

Marlboro Man in the flesh. He was quite dashing in person ;)

(PW is patting Mindy's belly to say hi to the baby.)

10:02 pm and those people still have a long wait ahead. Word in the twitterverse is that she was signing books until 12:30am. Oklahoma loves us some Pioneer Woman.

Victory!

See? We are best friends! Three hearts AND a smiley face :)

Oooohhh, do you know the Pumpkin Man?

I was invited to tag along with the Wilsons on an afternoon visit out to the Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch in Arcadia (poor Boom was still teaching lessons :-/ he was so bummed to miss out); Hazel saw a lot of "pumpkin mans" while we were there. There were pigs and goats and ducks...a hutch of rabbits...pony rides...a corn maze. There was an Oklahoma song happening almost anywhere you looked ;)

Follow this link to the photo set I added to Flickr: Pumpkin Pictures

I even got to bring this little guy home with me.

The Sugar Free Allstars got a write up in the OKGazette this week; you can read it here:

SFA: DVD write up

I feel like I've become an advertising space for children's entertainment...