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...

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

Look away! I'm hideous!

Seriously, parents, hide your children...if you're sensitive, have a sensitive stomach, faint easily...look away. I used picnik.com to ghoul-ify my profile pic for Halloween and now I'm creeping myself out. Yikes.

For some real-life ghouls, be sure to come to Downtown OKC this Saturday for the 3rd annual Ghouls Gone Wild Halloween Parade; the Sugar Free Allstars are going to be on a float sponsored by Iguana Lounge and deadCENTER. I'm just hoping for some fish tacos out of the deal ;)

At least, I hope they're fish...mwaah-ah-aah!

Can you tell where we keep P.Kitty's food?

Are we cheapskates?

We just haven't been able to bring ourselves to turn on the heat yet. Surely we're not plunging straight into winter with no fall?? I keep thinking (hoping) that the days of 70 degrees will return. Pretty please, Mother Nature, with sugar on top?

Until then, we have been enjoying a toasty fire every night. Maybe it's not so bad...

I think I left my Clever in bed.

Wednesday evening we enjoyed another evening at Table1 in the City; it was their one year anniversary so they hosted a special evening to celebrate. It was a ridiculously fahbulous 10 course meal and a wonderful evening with friends, old and new.

Tonight we're headed to the OCGS Annual Shrimp Boil at the Harn Homestead - an entirely different culinary experience, but always really fun and we never leave hungry. My boss has been cooking since 8 o'clock this morning because there are about 900 pounds of shrimp that have to be cooked. That is a. lot. of. shrimp.

Tomorrow night, SFA will be playing at two different events, so if you don't have plans, you should check one or both of them out:

First at 6pm, they will be playing a kids set at the Plaza District Festival. This is one of our new favorite areas of town that has really been revitalized in the last year.

Then at 8pm, they will be playing the Route 66 Road Rage Block Party (on Broadway between 7th and 9th Street). Apparently the main purpose of the event is to entertain a big group of richy-riches as they cruise coast-to-coast from one end of Route 66 to the other.

I just got my daily Martha Stewart recipe email and the subject is: Chicken Pot Pie with Ham. Um, pretty much the last thing I would ever want to cook, much less consume.

In the sage words of Ice Cube: It Was a Good Day.

Dude, today is the best day!

1. For starters, I got to upgrade my iPhone yesterday to a 3GS and it is so fast and functional it's not even funny. And I can receive phone calls! And voicemail! And text messages! And even MMS-ing! I am beside myself! I feel like I've joined the 21st century, me with my properly-functioning phone...

2. Finally got a printer installed that has been IMPOSSIBLE for the last 10 months; and before you begin to wonder, it wasn't just a regular install...I had it installed on the Mac, but couldn't get it to print any MS Office documents through the Windows virtual machine (although I had the other two Macs printing Office docs just fine so conceivably should have known what needed to be done). And this morning, I tried one last time before just deciding to go buy a new printer and it worked!!

3. Got a program re-installed, functional and printing documents & reports that hasn't worked for months!

4. Also finally got an iPod synced to the office computer and music files transferred, while not a huge victory, sure goes a long ways towards quality of life at la oficina!

And this is all in spite of the fact that it's a Monday.

Shiny and Happy

So, this is me now:

I went to see Erica yesterday and she made my hair feel shiny and new and ready for fall. If anyone else is needing a hair-refreshing, you should get on down to Norman to see her. It's worth the drive, I promise :)

And this has NOTHING to do with hair, but it's making me smile so I thought I'd share:

Love is a many splendored thing.

I 'borrowed' the following quote from my newest (this week anyway) favorite blog: Quiet Life

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.

That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business.

What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.

Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)

Isn't that great?

There is a dog on the roof.

No, this is not my attempt at a funny or clever title. I just watched a dog climb up a ladder and now he's running around the roof of the office building.

Apparently, he's been doing this since he was six months old and he's already famous:

Vicks VapoSteam V1300 to the rescue!

SFA received their first DVD review last Friday, and you can read it here: Oklahoman Entertainment blog

Currently, promoting the dvd has taking a backseat to recording the second kids CD (10 new songs-woohoo!); they've been in the studio for the last 4 days and are pleased with their progress so far. Today was supposed to be vocal tracking but this morning all the allergy counts were at DANGER RED ALERT levels so I made an early morning emergency trip to walgreens to get vaporizers, sinus treatments, cough drops, throat sprays, a whole aresenal so Wiser can try to power through. Bless his stuffy lil head.

Saturday evening we went to a lovely outdoor wedding (thankfully our rainy OK weather decided to cooperate) and then rushed over to Bellini's for a SURPRISE birthday party for Mindy. And she was. And I don't have a single picture. What a dummy. I just got caught up in the excitement of it all. Oh well. It happened and it was wonderful.

This weekend I'm helping with a baby shower for my dear friend Ashley and I WILL get some pics. I'm very excited to see how everything comes together; lots of girly cuteness...but not enough to gag you, promise, Ash :)

Vintage Ginger Peaches Mixed Media Art GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Vintage Ginger Peaches Mixed Media Art GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Bad blogger...bad bad blogger.

This is a sunset we stumbled upon while out for a drive one night by Lake Arcadia. Wowsers.

I'm surprised I haven't forgotten my password to my blog, it's been so long since I've been here...

Just a quick update in the life of the Wisers:

This last Friday night we went to Red Pin (in Bricktown by the movie theater) with our friends Shawn and Leigh Love and then walked over to Bolero and enjoyed a dinner of tapas; I think the fried goat cheese with honey was my favorite, yummmmmy. Saturday I worked on some top secret projects *to be revealed at a later date* and then Sharla came over for sushi and OU football (Boomer!) on pay-per-view. Yesterday we had a lazy-ish day - I think the rain does it - and then we went over to the Wilson's for a yummy bucket-o-soup from Olive Garden. It hit the spot.

We do have a wedding of a dear high school friend to attend this weekend so I'll try to remember to get some pictures of us all dressed up. Things like that should certainly be documented ;)

Cherry Blossom Designs Hair Accessories GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Cherry Blossom Designs Hair Accessories GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Morning Visitor

We had a little friend in our flowerbed this morning...

And he's off!

I thought about putting him in Hazel's toy box for the next time she comes over but wasn't sure he would want to hang around that long.

Mecca...in Tulsa?

Sorry...I meant MACCA. That's right, we made our pilgrimage to Tulsa last night and spent the evening with Sir Paul. And a few other fans. It was A.MAZ.ING.

Pictures (Warning ALOT) are here: Macca 2009 Photostream

Here's a little bit of video until we can upload some more. It's ok to cry. I did. 

Editor's note: This is the song Wiser played right after he popped the question, so that might explain some of the waterworks. And also, it's Paul McCartney!!!

Something from Wiser on Vimeo.

(insert clever title here until I get some coffee)

Yesterday was a fabulous day that involved NO MANUAL LABOR. In the morning we went to a really sweet wedding reception for our friends Brian and Angeleigh that recently got married in Tampa. They had Cafe Evoke serving coffee, a cinnamon roll bar and a picture and video slideshow that let us enjoy their beautiful ceremony on the beach. After the video Wiser asked "how long do we have to wait to renew our vows?" ;)

In the afternoon, we picked up Mindy and Hazel and went to Sage for some yummy, fresh organic salads. And I know she's not my biological child, but that little stinker was extra adorable so you'll just have to grin and bear the picture onslaught:

Self portrait?

After lunch, it was more race-or-chase on the patio with a little tu-tu soccer time for good measure. By the time we got home, Boom was pooped.

And tomorrow the Wiser birthday celebration continues as we head to Tulsa for the Paul McCartney (!!!) concert. He's already prepared me for the possibility of tears. From him.