A new look...

There was a day that I swore I would NEVER be lazy about the way I present myself. I do believe I have used these words verbatim "I refuse to be one of those people that gets married and then gives up. I will always look my best and dress to impress." Then I'm pretty sure I can be quoted in saying "If I ever wear sweats and tee-shirts in public, dont fix my hair for a whole day, refuse to paint my toenails because I dont have the time, forget to put makeup on before going out or even THINK about wearing my jammies to 'run to the store,' then PLEASE LOCK.ME.UP! Cause I've done gone and lost it."
However, in the past 8 months I have

• worn my sweats in public
• not fixed my hair all day long
• worn sandals with out painting my toes
• not worn make up out in public
• worn my jammies for a quick walk around the block

For some reason after we got married I decided that it was ok to 'let my self go' as they say. I quit getting fixed up, I quit caring. I blamed most of this on living where we live. Its a small town, and there isnt really anything to get 'fixed' up for. The nicest restaurant here is well... a bar and grill. So wearing my boots and jeans or ... sweats are acceptable.
However, that brings us to today. I have a fabulous friend here at work and after a few months of building a friendship I found the guts to ask her for help. I noticed that my khakis, tee-shirt, boat shoes and jean jacket that I was wearing EVERY day was just not cutting it anymore. I wanted to be fun and cute but I had lost my... focus. I had become lazy.
She came to my house one Saturday afternoon and with the help of a couple bottles of wine and some great music we dissected my closet. Behind the black, grey & white tee-shirts, khaki pants, boat shoes and jean jacket we discovered things I had forgotten about. Things with color. Things with sass! It was fun.
My friend has a unique way of pairing different colors together and making them work. She never looks awkward or strange. Every time I see her I thing "wow! That looks fabulous and I would have NEVER thought of that."
We talked about several things as we dissected my wordrobe that day. Here are a few of the pointers that she gave me.

• wear color
• dress to fit my body
• accent my shoulders 
• draw attention to my waist
• avoid ruffles (unless around my shoulders)
• dress like a girl
• wear my hair curly 
• avoid my jean jacket 
• wear dresses

Then she went one better and put me to a dare.
To ONLY wear my khaki pants (that I have a love/hate relationship) with once a week.  If can make this happen all the way through May then she will take me out to Olive Garden for dinner. :) WoWZA!! I'm gonna take it one step farther and attempt not to wear them at ALL until the end of may.

It has been 2 weeks and I'm not going to lie... I have thought horrid thoughts some mornings as I have been getting ready and ironing my dress or skirt that I'm going to wear. However, I love the look in my husbands eyes when he sees me in something nice... more than one day in a row. That right there makes it all worth it.

So here's too dressing like a girl and giving a darn about what I look like. 

Hopefully I'll get some pictures soon and have them posted.

In other news... I'm walk/run/jogishing 2 5Ks this weekend. One here in Bartlesville and the other in Oklahoma City. The wind is currently whipping around the back of my window as I type this and I'm dreading the possiblity of wind tomorrow on our beloved Pathfinder. And... they are predicting RAIN on Sunday for the OKC run. My ROCK STAR husband is running the half there. He is amazing. He never ceases to amaze me with his drive and determination to complete something.
Sunday is also his 30th Birthday!! :)

If I Ran the Zoo...

“It’s a pretty good zoo,” said young Gerald McGrew, “and the fellow who runs it seems proud of it, too.”
Dr. Seuss 


Last week I decided that Andrew and I needed some fun. The weather was predicted to be amazing and so that fun was to be done outside. 
I did some research around the area to find something that was unusual and creative that we would both enjoy together. 
After chatting with a friend from our church I decided to go to the Safari zoological Park in Caney Kansas. Its is pretty cool to live so close to another state. It only took about 40 minutes to get out there. It was such a fun time. We got there around 2 and had a picknic lunch that was very yummy and kinda healthy. Then we got a tour around the zoo by the owner. Here are some pictures that we took. 

The monkeys were my favorite animals!

These two were very interested in each other...
they had no problem showing us just how interested they were... 

These are the famous White Tigers that were raised by a Golden Retriever. 

 The adventure was amazing!! 
It was sad to hear that the zoo isnt doing well at all! Every year for the past several years, they have to make a decision on staying open or not. If you live in the Bartlesville area PLEASE make the time to go out there this summer. It is well worth it. You will not regret taking the time! 

Dudley update...

We have had Dudley for 3 weeks now and I am truly in love with him. Other than the fact that he has tinkled 2 times in the living room tonight... he is just precious!! Typically he is well behaved and quite lovable (if you can catch him in a still moment). He is Buster's favorite side kick and Cami's favorite pest.
He was acting a little down on Thursday and so we decided it was time to take him to our vet to be checked out. We were relieved to find that there is not a thing wrong with the boy. He is growing just like any normal Boarder Collie... the catch is... the vet thinks there is another kind of dog in his breed somewhere down the line. So what we thought would be at most a 45 lb dog... is probably going to be more like 65 lbs. Its a good thing he is well behaved and adorable!! I wish I hadn't let myself get so attached, I might be asking Andrew if we could get rid of him... two 65 lb dogs is a lot of dog!! But thats ok. If he is always as precious as this then I'll be ok with it.
Here are some new pictures. :)

The weather was great one afternoon so we loaded up the clubs and took Duds out to the driving range! 

He was exhausted... which made keeping up with him much easier. 

FYI - My hubs is HOT!! 

Isnt he a doll! 

I love this picture!! Such a sweet boy! 

His favorite place is the lower shelf of our coffee table!! 

Bath time.. he was a stinky baby boy!! 

He is NOT happy! 

Baths are NOT fun! 

Andrew is literally holding him in there!! 

Thanks for checking out our new baby!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" ~Robin Williams

So after several weeks of very cold weather including 2 record setting snow storms here in Oklahoma, spring has finally started to show up... Here is some proof...

We had daffodils all around our house... it looks like someone randomly put them in odd spots. It was definitely not thought out very well. But nonetheless it was beautiful!! I loved spotting the little peaks of yellow showing up! 

This picture is random, but I decided to make cookies one night. Not sure why... but I did. Anyways, this is what happens when you turn the mixer on too fast with loose flour in it. Not a cool thing to clean up at 9:30 at night. :) Oh well. The cookies were yummy and worth it! 

3 + 2 = 5

A couple weeks ago some friends of ours asked us to watch their puppies Ellie and Emit while they made a weekend trip to Atlanta.
They are both boxers. They are precious and so much fun!! When they were here, we had only had Dudley for a week. He was so excited to have the company. Anytime the big dogs were around, he was right in the middle of them. Buster felt the same as Dudley just in a much less confused sorta way. Cami on the other hand... well she tolerated it. She preferred to have as much outside alone time as possible. When it was time for Ellie and Emit to go back home Cami was relieved, Buster was sad and Dudley was just confused on who is real brother and sister were.
Here are some pictures about our adventurous week!!

Buster and Ellie- Buster has a crush on her! 

The three big pups!

I think Andrew LOVED having the 2 extra pups! 

And Dudley needs to get in on the fun!! 

Dudley has Buster DOWN! 

Now Cami wants to see what the fuss is about.

Let the wrestling begin!

Andrew is playing the ref!

Cami kept giving the big dogs the stink eye... 

Our house was quite active for a few days... 

They were ready for bed... 

Buster had to join

I love this picture! 

And there is the Duds!!

Emit and Ellie- We miss you so much. Come visit us anytime! 

We have an announcement...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are adding to our family!!
This weekend we made the choice to expand our beautiful family. If you know us then you know of our two precious babies, Buster Boy and Cami Joe:

Well they have recently started getting along great... Cami ALMOST likes Buster. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. They run around the house chasing each other as quickly as they can... or fighting over the toy of the moment. They are a riot. I cant get enough of them.

This Saturday we went to the Bartlesville mall in search of me some workout shoes (different than 'runnin shoes') and we didn't find ANY (that weren't out of our 'decent' price range)!! However, while scavenging the mall for stylish, yet affordable workout shoes, we came across a booth set up by the SPCA.

Andrew wanted to go take a look and I thought 'why not, there was some pretty cute pups in there!!' So we stopped in and played awhile. I was drawn to a Pekineses and he found a boxer mix. According him the pekineses was too 'fluffy' and I thought the boxer was WILD!! So we quickly got ready to leave. As we were walking out there was this sweet little Border Collie sleeping in his cage. We asked if we could love on him a minute and they let us. He snuggled up to both of us both instantly. (I know they do some behind the scenes training on these dogs!!) We asked about him and found out this:

• he is a 2 month old pure bread Border Collie
• his first dad bought him to be a playmate to his dog, however that dog didnt like that idea. 
• he will only get to be 45 pounds
• he DOESNT shed 
• he is good with kids 

We walked around the mall and talked about the pros and cons about adding to our family. As you probably know, we tried this once 2 weeks after we were married. It nearly ended in us getting a divorce. I do believe my words to Andrew one night were "Me or the dog!" He picked me!! Libby (the boxer we had) now has a good home with a little girl that could give her the attention she needed. Anyways, that was a different time for us. We were still learning how to be "us" not that we have it all figured out now, but we have been married a few more months and don't have the same issues we were having back then. Anyways, we stopped to sit on a bench and talk some more and Andrew asked that we pray about this decision. And we did. We prayed that God would give us a peace about adding to the family if it was needed to be. We didnt want to get attached to another dog and then give it up a few weeks later. We did have a peace about it so we went and paid the fee for him and took him home.
He is the sweetest bundle of energy I have ever seen. He is smart, active, silly, curious, active, fluffy, cute, active... the good news is that he sleeps! The first day we had him, he took a nap with me and slept all night. Last night he woke up around 3 or 4 and Andrew took him out. It was legit... the kid needed to tinkle. So he wasnt just crying to get out of his kennel. OH yes that is right, we are kenneling this guy from day one! There will be NO other option for him. (Unless I sneak him on to the bed for a nap occasionally.... he doesn't shed!)
Well here are a few pictures to show off our little Dudley Dolots!

Buster boy...

Cami Joe...

Dudley Dolots!

He is eating the newspaper! precious!!

Daddy and Duds!

Cami was LESS than excited about this picture... she didnt want to share my attention.

Buster wanted in on this one. He is quite curious about this little guy!

They are playing over tug with one of Cams toys!

Duds is daring Cami to come play... she isnt having it. 

Well that's what we have so far. Nothing too exciting but enough to let you see just how precious our new baby is. If you are in the neighborhood come on by. He loves to play and we don't want him to be scared of new people!