And the Academy Goes to....

Just wanted to fill you in on my conversation with Walt last night after the Oscars:

Walt: " Mer, I just want to let you know that YOU are my Academy Award."

Mer: "Walt, that's so sweet, but what about Gracie?"

Walt: "She would have to be my Golden Globe."

My Kind of Saturday Night

This weekend was low key....exactly how it needed to be. Walt got home from Alaska early Friday morning and mom left Saturday morning to go back to Tejas. (Thank you mom for everything! You are a huge lifesaver!) After mom left, Walt and I had some people over to watch the Baylor v. OSU basketball game. BOO on the outcome. We grilled hamburgers, had good conversation and watched the Bears LOSE...so that was a downer. After the game Sara and Brett decided to hang out with us since I wasn't exactly feeling up to going out. We decided the night would be a little bit of this equation:

+
+
+
+
+
+
(an unsure Gracie...she was worried she wouldn't measure up)
+

=

Game NIGHT!

This is exactly what I needed. It was great to stay in for the night and play games with one of our favorite couples. Brett and Walt are by far the most competitive people I have ever met, so imagine their surprise when this person took first place in Scattergories:

That's right! I do remember Brett's exact quote, "I can't believe we let a teacher beat us." Ladies and gentlemen there was not any Lettin' going on here... I beat everyone by a good 10 points! It was great! We then moved on to Trivial Pursuit and after 2 hours of trying to get a winner we finally accomplished that:Needless to say Walt and I were extremely disappointed when we didn't win...(We always win when we are teamed up together.)Brett of course loved it because there was only one loser for the entire night: AWW! Poor Walt... he was the "loser" of the night! We had such a great time and can't wait for another "game night" with our friends. We've already decided next time we might just get shirts made... Team "Bass"-holes anyone?? just kidding! Thanks for a great Saturday night!

Extremely Blessed & Thankful

I always knew that my calling in life was to become a teacher. I am surrounded by children everyday and I am always challenged....this past week I had "very minor" surgery done and was home from school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Thursday my mother got a knock at my front door... it was the Owasso florist... with a bouquet of flowers sent from my "4th grade moms." How precious is that? How lucky am I to have such supportive, caring parents? I am extremely blessed and thankful. I love each and every one of you and your children mean more to me than anything.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Alright, so since I had today off and I have seen blogs that do their weekly "not me Mondays" I decided I would give it a try:

• I most certainly did NOT watch Father of the Bride part II today and bawl my eyes out for the 500th time...NOT ME
• I am not secretly hoping that people will link themselves to my new widget on the side... no, I don't like to see who visits my blog.
• I did not make brownies from scratch and eat the entire batch by myself...NOT ME
• I have not been cooped up in my house since Thursday night and only ventured out to go to Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby...definitely NOT me.
• I did not take down all of my Valentine's on Friday the 13th because I was depressed to be spending my 3rd MARRIED Valentine's day... ALONE... again! I would never do such a thing
• I am not counting down the days until my husband is NO LONGER traveling...nah...I love him being gone, right?
• I did not get a little excited when I realized we didn't have school today....no, not me... I love my job waaaaaayyyyy too much
• I did not clean the kitchen 6 times this weekend because I was so bored....why would I do such a thing?
• I did not make a huge batch of chicken vegetable soup for the week because when my mom gets here I don't want her to have to cook....but she's the mother, shouldn't she be cooking?
• I do not have DUCT TAPE on the bottom of my foot to get rid of my plantar's wart.. it is such a fashion statement and conversation piece...
• I did not let Gracie snack on some of my Valentine's day nerds...we were watching a movie and she thought the strawberry and fruit punch combination was so good. What dog really does that?
• I have not checked my sister's blog about 5,000 times because I can't wait to see a new update on Jack... I don't love him that much now do I?
• I did not stay at home this weekend and watch 4 movies, cry in all of them, eat 5 pieces of pizza , don't forget the brownies and drink wine...of course I would never.
• Lastly.. I am not a little happy that I won't be at school Wednesday or Thursday and my momma will be here to take care of me... no way.. I'm NOT a momma's girl!

What comes after Valentine's?

Ok, so most of you that read my blog know that I LOVE to decorate for holidays, seasons, ect. Well...now that Valentine's is over it is now time to focus on an exciting time of the year... SPRING! Granted, I know spring isn't coming until the end of March and Easter isn't even until April, but I also like to plan ahead. My weekends are completely booked until the first weekend of April, so I figured if I am going to do any kind of decorating it needed to be done now. Promise I won't show you all of my pictures....I'll save that until we are at least into March. However, I did have some pictures that I wanted to show you. I love to read blogs... especially blogs that teach people how to make certain things, or re-arrange your house without buying anything. Now... if you were to walk into my house you would see mainly primary colors. The second you walk in, you see my couch and you are drawn to this:

I love primary colors; however, when I decorated my mantle for spring, I just wasn't feeling the primary colors. So... I remembered a blog that I read talking about how to make your own pillow covers. I really didn't want to get out and go to Wal-Mart, so I started thinking....I had a needle, I had thread...but....did I have fabric? Oh wait... for Walt's birthday party, I used 3 white table covers AND I have 3 different color green pillows located in different rooms of my house. I think I'm coming up with something here... what if I put the three green pillows on my couch, and made 2 white pillow cases and placed those along side the three green pillows? Hmm...so... I got one of the table cloths from Walt's party:

This wasn't the exact one, but you get my drift. Now... technically I purchased this...but I do remember that it was on sale at Wal-Mart for $4.00. So... I started cutting, and I starting sewing...which is something I never do. When I got finished my pillows looked like this:

Oh gosh...but those green pillows would not look good with my red lamp sitting at the side table.. it's ok...you can scroll back up to see it. So... I went into my third bedroom and found a lamp shade that I wasn't using, switched it out, re-arranged my pillows and NOW look at my cozy, "spring time" couch.... I redid this whole thing using stuff around my house:

Wait.. I'm gonna let you see again
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Ok... so another "spot" in my house that needed work, and all I did was re-arrange things. I have this area right beside our dinner table and it was all dressed up for "winter"...don't worry, I took off the Santa Clauses and tree after Christmas and replaced it with something else. Well... on my fir down I had some "white" sit arounds, in my junk closet I had a frame I wasn't using and some old polka dotted scraps.... so... I brainstormed and just by re-arranging my stuff and printing off a "B" from the computer, I ended up with this:

Much more springish...I think... here's a closer look at that frame that I am now completely in love with:

and the last thing that I will show you for today... so I had some extra fabric left over from making the pillow cases... and I really wanted some curtains above my sink. I've read blogs that show you exactly how to do it....decided I would give it a try... it's not perfect, nor is it even, but I spent nothing on them and when I feel like taking them down... it will take 10 seconds.. and they only took 10 minutes to make and hang.

So... I can officially say that my house is now more geared towards spring. I do believe in changing things out every once in a while... and there's no need to spend a ton of money... I'm sure you have things just lying around the house that can be re-arranged. Come March... I'll show you my decorations! P.S. if my nana had a computer... I think she'd die if she knew I just make curtains from a tablecloth AND I didn't sew them!

Day of Love

Happy Valentine's Day! May your day be filled with hugs and kisses from the ones you love the most!

Miss Gracie's Monday Surprise....

I'm going to be honest with you...Gracie and I are struggling. We really miss Walt/Daddy. The house just isn't the same without his charasmatic ways. Sure... we get to hog the bed, and Gracie gives me all her kisses, but it still isn't the same. I could really tell that Gracie was down this morning before I left for work. It might have been one of two reasons...

1. I told her that she was going to be getting a bath when I got home from work today.

2. She really misses her dad.

I'd like to think it was the first reason, but I know deep in my heart it is the 2nd. Walt is the type of person that comes home and pays Gracie all the attention first, and then he makes his way over to kiss me. Walt is the type of man that can't go to sleep unless Gracie is on the bed, but is ok if I am in the other room watching t.v. When Walt cooks steaks, he makes a small steak for Gracie and lets her snack on it for a week. He has over 15 songs that he has written especially for her... I wouldn't say he is obsessed with her (well, I wouldn't say that on the computer...but I'd say it to his face) I'd just say that he is in LOVE with her.
So, today when I got home from work I was really excited to see this face:

AKA Miss Heart-throb (at least to all the other dogs in our neighborhood)

I told her that I had something exciting for her...but she would have to be patient and wait until Saturday to open it. This was her face while I was explaining things to her:

She listens so intently. So...what was the surprise? When I went to the mailbox today, I found this:

Straight from here:

Now, if that isn't love...then I don't know what is.... he even made sure he mailed it early so it would get here on time for Gracie on Valentine's Day. Don't worry... I got one too.

Reunited and it feels so good.......

What a wonderful weekend I had with Katie!! It was great to be back with her again. We spent a lot of time catching up, talking about the past and discussing what we want in our future. We have definitely changed since our 304 The Place days. (that was our apartment number in college) We were in bed by 12:30, up by 8ish, but the conversation was never lacking. Isn't it great to have a best friend that you can just pick back up where you left off? I am extremely thankful for my friendship with Katie and I am extremely grateful that she came all the way to Oklahoma to see me. Now I'm just counting down the days until we are re-united again! Love you Katie!!