Hello Again

After a break (a year), I've decided I may want to blog again. I think I like being able to explain in detail sometimes the background of pictures I take or crafts I made.  I mean I can do that with Facebook to a larger audience but this is more like a diary, just not so secret. So we will see what develops and how long this lasts.

Random Pictures from April

I finished out the last of the Broadway Series with West Side Story.  I enjoyed it very mucy even though the OKC critics did not rate it very well.  For next year, Jann has upgraded my seat (as a perk to me) and I'll be moving down 2 balconies, again on the front row.  I can't wait - I enjoy the theatre so much!

 Last weekend was Norman Music Festival 6.  Joe and I have never gone but this year rode our bicycles down and walked around Main Street where they had it blocked off and had half a dozen stages set up with different bands.

 Kaitlyn was bartending at her job. She made $250 for 8 hours of work. That's on top of what she made for the hours she waited tables.

 On the way home, Joe and I stopped at Campus Corner and had dinner at Fuzzy's Taco Stand.  Good food!

 I was reading my Oprah magazine the other day while waiting at the doctor's office and found this ad in the magazine.  This young lady was president of Kaitlyn and Kristen's sorority the year Kaitlyn was a freshman and Kristen was a senior.  She is Kaitlyn's grand-big sister.  She does national television ads for Merle Norman too. She was born with a huge port wine stain on her face but with Merle Norman she looks beautiful and you'd never know it.  And she is as southern as you get.  She is from a tiny town in Oklahoma, but lives and works in the petroleum industry in Houston now.  It's a small world.

Packing for my Trip home

I'm trying my best to not bring too many clothes on my upcoming trip.  So after researching Pinterest, I came up with my own version of packing for a "short" trip (6 days). I put together some combinations using the following: 3 tank tops (army green, white, and salmon); 2 t-shirts (white, raspberry); 2 sweaters (white, floral); 2 printed tops that can be layered or worn alone, one gold pair of skinny pants, 1 convertible army green pants (can be capris or long pants), 1 army green skirt, 1 army green convertible jacket (can be 3/4 or long sleeved). Three pairs of shoes, tennis shoes, gold flats, and jeweled sandals.  One multicolored belt, 1 long scarf (army green with salmon, white, and raspberry flowers), 2 cross-body purses (multicolored straw and gold). The clothes came from a combination of Kohls, Gap, Penneys, Eddie Bauer, Columbia, and Target.  Nothing was very expensive and almost everything was purchased on sale or at an outlet store.

The first outfit is one I LOVE to fly in and usually save it to use only when I'm flying. You can use any top you prefer (tank or tee).  The green pants and green jacket I purchased at Kohl's.  I just happened to find a long, pretty scarf that matched perfectly.  Both the pants and the jacket are convertible in that the sleeves and the pants can be buttoned up to make a 3/4 sleeve or capris.  If you get cold on the flight you can just roll them down. I plan to wear tennis shoes (I usually wear Sperry's that slip on to fly) so I'll have them to exercise (walk) with while I'm there.

 

A casul dress outfit would be to take the same raspberry tee and wear it with the green skirt, scarf and a 3/4 thin white sweater.  The skirt I purchased at an Eddie Bauer outlet store at least 5 years ago.  The sweater came from Target. I can carry my multi-colored cross-body bag and wear the jeweled sandals.

 

Here's a semi-casual look using the same skirt, but wearing a white tank with a flowered shirt over it (flowers are army green, pale green, and khaki).  I love this shirt because it's cotton, you can wad it up (has a wrinkled look to it) and the sleeves are 3/4 but you can roll them up to make them shorter.  The shirt is a Columbia shirt which I purchased at an outlet store 5-6 years ago.

This outfit is a little dressier - I took an army green tank and put it under the sheer floral top. I came across this top at a consignment store and you can match a LOT of tank tops under this floral top due to all the colors.  I paired it with the skinny gold pants and I've got the army green jacket to bring if it gets cold.  I'm going to wear the gold flats and I originally planned on bringing this gold Cole Hahn satchel purse but substituted at the last minute with a Cole Hahn cross-body purse the same color as these pants.

 

Another casual dress look is to wear the gold pants with a white tee, and wear the floral long-sleeved sweater over it (sweater from Gap outlet).  I would also wear my gold flats and use the gold cross-body bag referenced before.

 

Another casual look is to use the raspberry tee, belted over the army green convertible pants, the scarf tied differently to hang down the front and wear the 3/4 sleeve white sweater. I would wear the jeweled sandals and take the multi-colored cross-body bag.

 

 

A casual outfit would be the army green tank and the army green pants, cover it with the floral 3/4 sleeved top and wear with tennis shoes and take the multi-colored cross-body bag.

For this outfit, I would wear the army green pants as capris, and wear a white tank with the multi-floral sheer top over it.  You could actually wear either shoe or sandal and take the gold cross-body purse.

 

Another cute casual dress outfit would be to wear the salmon tank and tie the multi-colored floral sweater around your neck with the army green skirt.  Wear the gold flats and carry the gold cross-body bag.

These are just some ideas of the many combinations you could get from these 13 pieces of clothing. I think the army green travels well - it's dark enough to not show too many stains.  The cheap tank tops and t-shirts can be switched out and layered under all the other pieces.  The scarf brings all the colors together well, no matter what the combination.

Other Stuff

Someone posted this and I thought it was really cute so I took a picture of it.

 

I made the baked oatmeal again, only this time I made it with fresh strawberries.  It was really good. I liked it better than when I made it with blueberries, it tasted sweeter.  I also ate it cold out of the refrigerator it was soo good!

 

Yesterday was our annual spring clean up day.  As I was walking up the street Thursday afternoon, I saw this out by the curb by someone's house on our street.  I gave it a once-over and it looked to be in great shape so I drug it home.  It is wicker so it didn't weigh too much.  I think I'm going to put it in my sewing room to put yarn and material on.  Good score, huh?

Prayer Shawl Ministry Annual Spring Tea

Last weekend we had our annual Prayer Shawl Ministry spring tea.  Here are some of my friends that attended.  We had LOTS of goodies to eat with our tea.

We each brought a cup and saucer and then we had an "exchange" when we were done.  I actually picked a mug (not shown in this picture) because I don't really drink hot tea at home, but I do drink coffee and hot chocolate.  There were a lot of pretty cups to pick from.

New Office

We FINALLY got in all the art work we ordered or that we were waiting on the artist to finish designing for us.  So here's a tour, this is looking in the front door at my desk.

 

These are original pieces that a "potter" made in OKC for us.  He even came down and hung them on the wall for us.

 

A view as you come in the back door (private entrance) into our kitchen area.

More of the reception area by desk.

 

The open area looking toward the kitchen/back door.

 

What my view is from my desk.

 

Our conference room.

 

 

Conference rom.

 

Our extra office.

File room.

Another shot of the extra office.

Looking at our sign when it's lit up at night.

 

Art work in the open area.

Easter Weekend

Last night, all six of us (Kristen and Pat, Kaitlyn and Michael, and Joe and I) went to a local landmark, The Mont and sat on the patio and had swirls (margarita and sangria mixed in a swirl fashion - The Mont's signature drink).  It was such a beautiful day yesterday - it got up into the 80's.

 

We had dinner while sitting out there hobnobbing with the local Normanites.  Most of the students went home for Easter so it wasn't as crowded as usual.  In the middle of the night we had a really bad hailstorm/thunderstorm.  We saved one of the hailstones in the freezer.  It was about ping-pong ball sized.

 

Here some of the damage it did (beside ruining all of our cars).  The magnolia tree got torn up pretty bad and there were lots of leaves all over the front yard.

Our Pine Tree on the west side of our house lost lots of pine needles on the ground.  It was pretty scary.  Our golden retriever is afraid of the storms so she got OUT of the doghouse and ran to the back door getting pounded by the hailstones. She was pretty shooken up by the time we let her inside the garage.