I am considering quitting Facebook - so I can post more to my page.  I mean, I have my very own .com - that's kinda cool!  So anyway, here are some random pictures that you have probably not seen before.  It's like bonus content for the 3 people that frequent my blog and facebook!  Enjoy!

This is my wal art project.  Looks fancy doesn't it!  It's one of those vinyl quote kits and a frame.  The original quote read "All because two people fell in love . . ."  It didn't fit inside the frame.  So I took out "all" and put the " . . . " at the front.  Holly and I both agreed that we like it like this much better.  I painted the background to coordinate with the darker paint I used on our front rooms.  I think the painted background really makes it stand out.  This is a frame from Hobby Lobby (YEAH!  We got one of those out here!  I'm still excited!)  It came with no glass and no back.  It think it looks nice

This is Bill pretending to the Captain Morgan while modeling my first knitting project.  I told him to give me his best Mark Wahlburg and I got the Captain.  Silly boy.  But damn!  that scarf looks good.  :)

My little boys at the park on October 4th.  I guess they aren't so little anymore.  Shit - Stewart is a young man.  Is it obvious they are brothers!?

Who knew it would be so hard to get them to #1. sit still and #2 smile.  I think this is the third take.  Parker wanted to immediately slide down and then he refused to smile because I wouldn't let him slide down.

This hairball on a purple metallic stick represents my second knitting project.  It should be a scarf made out of this funky yarn called Fun fur.  It's hard to work with - have you ever tried to french braid a Shih Tzu's hair?  Well, neither have I, but I imagine this is what it would be like!  I hope it looks decent.  I really want a thin and super long scarf this winter.  I tend to be ridiculously picky, so I'm just gonna try to make it myself.  I hope it works out!  Wish me luck! (PS - does anyone have any pointers on how I can remember where I left off on the knitting and purling of rows?)

This is what it looked like on Wednesday when I was in Chem lab.  Maybe it looks like it could have been fun - if your idea of fun would be making molecular models using the molecular models kit!  Not really mine. 

I'm not very good at blogging on a regular basis.  I have good intentions but I get busy or tired or study or clean or sit down and watch tv.  I also have a horrible memory.  Every time I think of something that I should blog about, I always forget it.  :(

School is going well - I think.  I had my first chemistry exam last week.  Cross your fingers that I pass.  To be honest, I'm not sure how 85% of the class is going to pass that class.  It is a freshman level class.  100% of the students in there are pre-nursing.  I think this just makes me feel very old but they drink too much.  They talk about drinking and partying and drugs way too much.  The girl that sits next to me came to class, smelling like pot, and then said in pre-class conversation that she had some in her purse.  (She was concerned about alledged drug dogs on the campus.)  I don't know why I find it so annoying - I shouldn't even care.  I won't change them and they aren't my kids.  I just sit there and read email, or look at stuff online and try to ignore it all.

Last year, around this time, I took up knitting and then I promptly quit.  I took it up again this weekend.  Holly was knitting and she was using LARGE needles and cool yarn.  And I really really wanted to!  So I picked it up again, started a new project.  I have 2+ feet of a scarf with small needles.  It was taking FOREVER so I started a new scarf with LARGE needles and it's half as tall as me.  It looks good.  i feel like I have finally (maybe) conquered my inability to knit.

I've also taking up "beading" - I was lured in by the pretty strands of shiny sparkly beads.  And their tiny little plastic containers that you store them in.  (I will never be able to express how much I love little containers and organizing things.  Beading feeds this neurosis!)  So far I have made some bracelets.  I don't wear earrings and I haven't had the patience to do a whole necklace yet.  But it's fun.  It's another creative outlet for me.  my biggest complaint about beading (vs. knitting) is that it is expensive to start up.  With Knitting, all you really need is a pair of knitting needls (which only cost about $5) and some yard.  Beading requires all kinds of odds and ends.  They have about 15 different pairs of pliars that CAN be used and they say that 5 of them are needed when you start.  You need some type of string, clasps, the beads, crimp beads . . . a bead board and a bead mat.  I chose a $0.29 piece of FELT vs. buying a bead mat.  But I like that I can just make up my own designs to match my outfits.  And then when I get tired of it, I can just take it apart and use the beads to make something else.

Also - we got a Hobby Lobby out here.  It may not seem like a big deal to my Oklahoma peeps - but if you are my displaced Oklahoma peeps - you may be able to realize why I was excited when I saw that a Hobby Lobby opened out here!  I went with Holly last week, and we were on a mission and trying to get back home but they had so much stuff I wanted to look at.  They had really cute fabric too.  They didn't have a TON of fabric - but I wanted a lot of what they did have.  I got a lot of new fabrics to use to make shopping bags - if you get one for Christmas, I probably bought your fabric last week.  ;)

I do find that it is hard for me to sit down and do a craft.  i feel guilty.  like I should be cleaning, doing laundry, studying, cooking, something other than just sitting here doing something fun.  I guess I need to get over that quickly!

I kinda feel like a modern day renaissance (wo)man.  I can sew, cook, knit, bead, bake, and mow - and I'm a student.  Obviously, some of these are much more fun than others.

:)

I've been doing a lot of reading this summer.  I prefer to read light in the summer - chicklit.  I like a nice fast read that I don't have to think too much about.  I want to be able to sit down and read it and enjoy it but be able to put it down to tend to screaming, hungry, bored, fighting, hitting kids - and then be able to pick it up again once the cooking, cleaning, laundry, parenting, errand running etc is complete.

I had an epiphany while watching the movie, Something Borrowed.  I really liked the book - actually I have enjoyed all but one of Emily Giffin's books.  Using my definition, they are the perfect summer read.  The movie was good - it was cute.  It was cast well and the acting wasn't horrendous - which you usually find in a chick flick.

But I had this realization - I kinda consinder myself a hopeless romantic.  Unrealisticly so.  For example: Bill goes out on a business trip and secretly, I wish he'd come home early to surprise me.  (I wonder where I got that ridiculous idea - MOVIES!  BOOKS!)  But as an old lady in her 30's, I'm starting to see things differently.  I see that a lot of what I think of relationships, or what I expect, etc has been strongly influenced by movies and books - all of the "chick" variety.  It sets you up for disappointment.  Life is not a fairy tale, relationships are hard, friendships don't last, and kids are ornery.

I don't mean to be so cynical - just realistic.  I can still be a hopeless romantic but I am probably more of a realistic romantic.  ;)

Today was a super great day.  Here are the highlights:

1.  Bill went to the gym with me and we did Body Pump with Andrea.  The shoulders track and the biceps track are 5 hours long (at least it feels like that way!)

2.  Bought some awesome lounge chairs for our deck.  I've been checking them out - I've been wanting them for a while.  I was looking at them at Target the other day and I just didn't want to drop $80 on a lounge chair.  But today, at Wal-Mart they had the exact same chair for $45.  Made it easier to spend $90 for two chairs vs. $160 for two chairs.

3.  Sangria - It started as me trying to mimic the peach sangria from Ruby Tuesday.  It was sooo delicious.  So i bought the ingredients, cut up the fruit and poured in the wine.  I had too much fruit!  So Bill went out and got some more wine.  We ended up with TWO pitchers of sangria.  It wasn't very peachy - probably should have added some peach liquor but it was very good nontheless.  It was riesling with diced up apples, pears, and peaches.  I also poured in a can of crushed pineapple, including the juice.  Oh!  and 1 cup of simple syrup.  Let it chill in the fridge for a few hours.  It was so good.

4.  The inflatable pool - we set up our deck.  We had the big inflatable pool, the two lounge chairs, wireless speakers, SANGRIA, and a little bitty pool for Madison.  We spent the whole afternoon outside on the deck.  It was a great time.

The kids are tired and chillaxing.  Bill is snoring.  I'm sitting here blogging - again.  I've blogged twice this week!

Have you ever had a dream that was just so bad you forced yourself to wake up - just so you could go back to sleep and enjoy a different dream?

Last week I was dreaming about a zombie apocolypse.  I never had to fight any off or had to run from any - actually, I never saw any zombies. I just knew.  Bill, Holly, and I were cooped up in my house.  I'm not sure where the kids were.  I didn't ever have moments were I felt sad like they were lost to the zombies or anything.  It was weird - they just weren't there and I wasn't worried about them.

Anyway, we were trying to plan a trip out to get some plywood to board up all of the windows on my house.  There was a "scene" where it was nightime and we were turning the lights off and we were scurrying around to unplug all of the airfresheners that have built in night lights.  The sun finally came up and it was bright and shiny and our street was clear of zombies - neighbors were sitting out on their porches and talking - we decided to venture out.

This is where it goes into what is only possible in a dream - we ended up in downtown Oklahoma City.  It really looked more like  Manhattan - lots of tall, shiny, reflective glass buildings.  We decided we should hole up in there because everyone knows that zombies don't attack tall, shiny, reflective glass buildings because when they walk up to one - all they see iare their gross zombie reflections and they don't think that people (MEAT!) may be inside.  (Apparently, I am a genuis zombie problem solver in my sleep.) We get inside and we are having to run up escalators.  Again, we never actually saw zombies, but there was that intense feeling that they were chasing us.

We got upstairs and found a safe hideout.  The end.

Sounds pretty PG huh - I guess it kinda was.  But the whole dream had that really intense, scary feeling.  (Like in The Walking Dead, when the guy is walking down the stairwell and his match burns out and it is pitch black and you can hear zombies shrieking and stomping - it was intense.)  It was a scary dream - it was a dream that I forced myself to wake up from TWICE and both times I went right back into the damn zombie apocolypse - picking right up where I left off.

ME!  YAY!

We finally decided to make the leap and we converted our HVAC and hot water heater from propane to electric.  Yes our house is only four years old.  No there was nothing wrong with the existing system.  Our house would get warm and our house would get cool.  We had hot water.  But we also had a $330 bill with Thompson gas for propane.  Nope - it wasn't just $330 during the cold months - it was $330 every month because it was our annual budget.  Because we did everything we could possibly do to lower our propane consumption, Thompson Gas rewarded us with HIGHER rates for propane.  Somehow, they don't seem to understand the idea of a family trying to budget.  

This winter we bundled up and lowered the thermostat to temperatures only a penguin would love.  I just knew that our annual budget would go down - but it went up $50 more a month.  That's when we threw our hands up in the air and decided to make the change.  I would have loved spending that money on furniture for the house or something more fun but I think we probably made a smart decision.  I did some research and found that 1 gallon of propane is equivalent to 23 kwh of electricity.  We were being charged OVER $4.50 PER GALLON for propane.  On average, electricity is $0.10-0.12 per kwh.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the cost difference.  

We only need propane for cooking and our fireplace, so I had another company come out and install a much smaller tank.  Apparently 24 gallons of propane is more than enough for cooking - FOR A WHOLE YEAR.  The largest burner on our range can burn on high for 9 hours and only use 1 gallon of propane.  I was pretty excited to call Thompson Gas and tell them to discontinue our service - they are making it miserable and it will probably be the subject of a different blog.

So - back to why I am getting this awesome Award.  :)

Wednesday, United propane came out and installed the 24 gallon tank, and disconnected us from our 500 gallon tank.  I thought everything we be fine, the temperatures were in the 50's and 60's and we would only need to turn the furnace off for 3 days.  And then goddamn Murphy heard about my little endeavor and guess what he did - he lowered the temperatures to FREEZING at night and 40's and low 50's during the day.  OUR HOUSE WAS SUPER COLD.  Because we couldn't run the furnace on 24 gallons of propane, we were using our electric space heaters.  They were trying so hard but our house was 52 in the mornings.

So I went up to Home Depot, hoping that I would be able to get a larger space heater for the living room.  (I had my fingers crossed that I would be able to get one on sale - being that it's almost spring and all.)  They only had one kind.  One damn kind of space heater - and it was on clearance but it was a damn PROPANE space heater.  It ran for about 8-9 hours on one of those little green 1 gallon propane canisters.

I'm not quite sure why everything couldn't have gone smoothly - I had it all planned out in my mind but then Murphy had to step in and insist that I win the irony award.

It is so cold.  Super cold. I am so over winter.  As I sit here freezing in my office - that is upstairs.  Heat is supposed to rise yet my office is super cold.  Go figure.  When it is ridiculously cold like this I always think about how everyone is (or was) all in an uproar about global warming - "oh!  the hole in the ozone layer!  CFC's!  COW FARTS!"  And now the trend has migrated to climate change.  I say, "WHATEVER!"  The amount of time that we have been able to accurately track and record the weather is but a miniscule blip on the history of the weather on Earth.  Oh well.

We have had several bouts of snow this winter.   So much that I am kinda sick of the white stuff.  In fact, it is a good thing that my snowglobes are Christmas themed because I would be ready to throw them into the wall by now.  Anything snow related makes me want to sigh and grunt!  I am ready for warm - or just warmer.  It doesn't even have to reach spring-like temperatures but I could use something above freezing.  I don't like it when the temperature is a number smaller than my age.  I am but a young 31 - but as I get older, I will need to relocate to warmer climates.

Last week, we received a very healthy dose of snow.  Unfortunately, the cities in the affected area were not prepared which kinda confuses me.  If I can receive 50 BILLION weather channel alerts - texted to my phone and sent to my email - about impending weather warnings, watches and storms - how is it that the city government is not in the loop?  What about the snow plow man?  Why is it that the snow took the NATION'S CAPITAL by surprise and my husband got stuck at work because of a major road closure?  

And can someone explain this to me - when the snow plow man does finally get around to my neighborhood - why must he plow up 3 feet of snow at the base of my driveway as I am out there trying to shovel it out.  By myself.  I don't ever do it - but damn it I am playing the girl card here!  I am a WOMAN out there trying to shovel out all of the snow so my husband can pull his car into the driveway.  I'm not even a fullsize woman - I am short.  I have short legs and shorter arms so somehow in the physics of fulcrums or something I am at a power disadvantage (see all of that Physics from last semester is totally GONE!)  Yet - as I bust ass trying to shovel out the driveway, Mr. Plow comes barreling down the street leaving me a 3 foot tall present at the base of the driveway.  I get that he is just trying to do his job but I kindeve think he is an ass.  And then the cherry on top is that the husband didn't even make it home that night to appreciate a perfectly cleared driveway that required two shovelings and a full bag of ice melt.

Schools close out here at the mere mention of snow.  I think I would like to receive a brief explanation for closures/delays.  Nothing too much - just a short "School is closed.  While we understand there is not even a light dusting of snow on the ground right now, our area is forecast to receive 8 inches by 3pm thus making it unsafe for student transportation."  or "School is delayed 2 hours because the extreme cold temperature make it unsafe for children to wait at the busstop."  The school delayed for 2 hours thing kinda gets me.  Show me a busstop where the kids stand outside alone.  The busstop in our neighborhood is lined with cars, kids sitting happily inside.  Cars are running, heaters are blasting.  (hehehe, here I go with the old man talk but . . . ) Back when I was going to school, I had to walk to the busstop and stand there and wait.  In the elements.  Cold, rain, wind, sleet.  No one drove to the busstop and sat there with their kids.  Bill kinda jests me for doing it - but having said all of this, I am not comfortable sending my almost 8 year old off walking to the busstop.  I don't think he would get lost.  It's other people and he is super cute.  Cute kids are a target.  Remember the movie "Raising Arizona" - they picked the cute one!

Anyway, my friends in Oklahoma are supposed to get 10-18 inches of snow tonight/tomorrow.  It is funny to see everyone Facebooking about the snow.  People are stocking up on the essentials (my friends seem to be stocking up on alcohol) because this 10-18 inches is supposed to keep people "homebound for 2 days."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I don't want to offend anyone (April, sorry dear!) but come on.  We got 10 inches last week.  Last year we had over 4 FEET of snow.  Is this another case of Oklahoma City not being prepared for snow so roads won't be treated or plowed.  Wait - I seem to remember this happened last year at Christmas.  It is kinda lame for the city to not be prepared again! 

Maybe I am feeling so cynical because I am so over winter but I'd like to think that when winter rolls around, people know to expect ice, sleet, snow, and freezing temperatures.  It may not happen every day, week or even year but that's the kinda stuff that happens in winter.  Its why you buy a coat, gloves, boots, and a hat.  It's why your house and car have a heater. 

However, in the midst of all of this winter angst there is a light at the end of the tunnel - Target is already selling swimwear!  So summer must be only 5-6 MONTHS away!