Not something you see everyday...

So Sam and I were driving through Edmond yesterday and this guy was stopped right in front of us at a light:

I know it's not really clear (all I had was my iPhone), but if you can't tell, that is definitely a Crockpot strapped to the back of his motorcycle.  Undoubtedly this biker dude was headed home to make some homemade stew in his slow cooker for the mom he honors with the tattoo on his left bicep.  LOVE. IT.

Happy 3rd Birthday Beast!

As you may or may not be aware, our little family would not be complete without our little beagle monster, Zoey.  Zoey just celebrated her 3rd birthday on Wednesday, which means she is now of legal drinking age in dog years.  In lieu of alcohol for this momentous occasion, I took a little trip to Walmart to buy Z some fun new toys (which she promptly de-stuffed) and some new treats.  So, in honor of Zoey's birthday, I am posting in celebration for three years of potty training, walks, barking, hunting squirrels, (click here for an up close and personal look at one of Zoey's favorite pasttimes--WARNING: viewer discretion advised), and stinky, destroyed toys, socks, shoes, and a few other household items.   Here's a cute picture I took the other night of my favorite little animal:

Please ignore the pile of crap in the background...that's just a month's worth of bills, receipts, etc. that I need to file away.  Sam and I have NUMEROUS affectionate names for Zoey, but I'll name the top 5 for your viewing pleasure...

1. Beast

2. Monster

3. Zo-Beast

4. Zo Zo

5. Little Baby Doggie (that's Sam's "pet" name for her...I kid you not)

And here's a sweet picture of that "little baby doggie" and "little baby Sam" from back in December of 2006.  They both look so young!

Cute huh?  Someday I'm sure I'll post lots of pictures on my blog of our actual children who are not of the canine species.  Until then, this is what you get from a 20-something girl who is not yet a mama :)  You asked for a blog, people, so you get what you get.  Have a good weekend!!

Newsflash...

I would just like to take a quick minute to let the world know that H1N1 is not a long-term illness and you are not going to get Swine Flu from talking to someone who had it a week ago. Not only am I no longer contagious, but I HAVEN'T been for almost 5 days now. I have gotten the weirdest looks/comments from people ever since I returned to work on Wednesday. People, do you really think I'm ignorant or inconsiderate enough to expose you to my illness? I stayed in my house (quarantined, might I add) longer than the time my doctor said I would be contagious just to make SURE I didn't infect anyone else. When I chose to return to the outside world, I only did so because I was certain I was NOT contagious or sick anymore. In fact, today I...

• Slept until 11 (not because I've been sick, I just LOVE sleeping in...)
• Ate brunch at my mom's with Sam and the fam
• Changed the sheets on both beds in the house
• Switched my summer clothes out from my main closet to replace with the winter clothes from my back-up closet (yes, I accidentally have 2 closets right now. That will definitely change someday when we have a baby...I'm not pregnant, by the way)
• Washed every item of clothing that has been used/worn/looked at in the past week
• Swept, dusted, mopped, disinfected, Windexed, and gathered trash from every room in the house
• Balanced the good ol' checkbook
• Went to dinner with the hubby
• Got 2 different baby gifts, a new dress, and 2 pairs of shoes (I love clearance!) at Target
• Went to Starbucks and edited a paper for my brother
• Watched the Office wedding from Thursday (and LOVED it!)
• Updated my blog...that's TWICE in one week!

Now does that sound like someone who is sick to you? No way, Jose. Oh crap. I just realized I've turned into one of those lame bloggers who lists everything they do each day. My point is, I'm healthy, I'm happy, I'm alive. So if you see me in my public, just know that the Scarlet S has been removed!

The Scarlet S...

Hello friends. Without further explanation, let's take a look at the past 5 days of my life...

This picture was taken on Friday when I was happily leaving work, ready for the weekend, and super excited to realize that since I upgraded my iPhone, it now allows me to send pictures in text messages . (Please ignore the fact that I took AND texted this picture to Sam while driving. I think I may have been at a stoplight for part of it, at least...)

These are a few of the FOUR DOZEN homemade chocolate chip cookies that I baked on Saturday night, with full intentions of giving the majority away to various people this week (Sam's classmates, our neighbors, my co-workers, etc.)



This is a picture I took of myself when I walked into the doctor's office on Monday morning for what I thought to be an appointment to get some medicine for a sinus infection. Apparently when you call and complain of "flu-like" symptoms, they decide it's imperative that you slap on a degrading mask and shamefully march through a waiting room full of people NOT wearing masks. The least I could do to keep from crying was to take a picture of myself in the waiting room and email it to my mom. (Insert picture below). And yes, my glasses kept fogging up repeatedly...and a small child kept pointing and laughing at me. It was one of my more dignified moments...

This is me looking disgustingly (and disgusting) at the camera when I took another self-portrait, only this time AFTER finding out that I, indeed, tested positive for H1N1. I feel like a lousy, pathetic excuse of a human-being for contracting a virus originating from pigs. It's gross. Just gross.

And this is where I've been spending the last 2 days in quarantined solitude while I wait out the required 48 hours for the Tamiflu to make me uncontagious to the outside world.

Here's a close-up of my "sick station". Please note the essentials: Kleenex, 3 remote controls (for 3 different entertainment devices), my MacBook, headphones, RedBox DVD's, TamiFlu, my inhaler, and Purel. Yeah, that Purel has obviously been working SO well for the past few weeks...

At the moment I'm starting to feel a little more alive, so I decided to blog about my experience with the dreaded Swine Flu for the rest of you healthy people out there. I'm anxiously awaiting my re-emergence into the outside world of life, hopefully tomorrow. Until then, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the 44 Swine-flu infested chocolate chip cookies I baked a few days ago. Any takers??

2009 Summer Recap

Hello again to all my fellow blogworld friends (all 3 of you that actually read this blog...) Once again, I forgot I had a blog until my BFF Marie reminded me that I desperately needed to update. (Marie, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a shout out, but I'd also like to point out that I'm still waiting for you to even CREATE a blog.) That being said, even though I haven't updated in over 3 months, I still frequently blog-stalk most of you. I just find it much more interesting to read about your funny lives then bore you with the details of my own!

I feel that I owe it to my blog, however, to upload some pictures which may aid in explaining why I've been so incredibly neglectful in posting regularly for the past several months. Sam and I definitely lived it up this summer and had a fantastic time traveling all over the place. Here is a quick photo recap of our summer, starting with...

Last Minute Road Trip to the Grand Canyon & Las Vegas

We decided on a Friday night to drive west, rented a car, packed up some snacks, and left on Sunday morning... Highlights of the trip included watching the sunset & sunrise over the Grand Canyon (after sleeping in the car that night--who wants to pay $100 for a hotel room for 7 hours when you can sleep in a parking lot for free?!), spending 2 days in Vegas without spending a dime in the casinos (that's not to say I didn't spend a pretty penny at H&M though!), and driving in the car with my beloved hubby for 32 hours (roundtrip). It was totally last minute and lots of fun, here's a brief overview...

At the Grand Canyon (duh!)

Good one, Sam. He's such a jokester... :)

At the Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

New York, New York

The Strip at Night

Sam posing at a fountain behind The Flamingo

This tray of fish & chips was purchased in New York, New York for $15...and we ate it ALL.

In front of the fountain show at The Bellagio (sorry you can't actually see the fountains...)

Camp Pettijohn Springs
Sam and I joined the staff of Camp Pettijohn to work as counselors at MRCC's Senior High Week of camp. Highlights include our wonderful family of super fun campers (Yay Family 7!), getting second to last place in the week's sports competition (I'll take full credit for that accomplishment), and sweating it out everyday in 100+ weather. I'm not kidding...it was at least 100 degrees every single day...but still a great week!

Family 7!

FOSHAB Weekend

The day camp ended, I actually met Amber & Mandy at a truck stop off I-35 on the way back from camp to turn around and head back south to Dallas for a weekend with my girls from college for a FOSHAB reunion at Jill's cute house in Denton. We enjoyed a fun & relaxing weekend of chatting, laughing, laying out, getting pedis, and playing with Diana's precious baby, Benjamin. I wish we could get together more often...I can't believe we've all been out of college for FIVE years. CRAZY...

Getting pedicures & LOVING it!

WICKED

As mentioned in a previous post, Sam surprised me with tickets to Wicked for our anniversary, which we THOROUGHLY enjoyed in Tulsa at the end of July. The show absolutely impressed us both more than we thought it would--if you haven't seen it, you really should. I don't have any pictures, however, because they did not allow cameras inside. Sorry...

My 27th Birthday
We celebrated my birthday with our families at Mimi's Cafe for a birthday dinner before heading to the airport at 4:30 the following morning for our vacay to Mexico (more about that in a minute), but I have such an incredible family and am so thankful for all the lovely gifts people gave me. Consider this my thank you note to each of you, since I had the fullest intentions of sending out thank you notes to everyone, (I even bought cute new thank you cards and everything), but let's face it, that's not going to happen this year... I don't have any pictures of this momentous occasion, either :(

All-Inclusive Mexico Vacation
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Swine Flu & the ensuing media frenzy which scared off travellers to Mexico to such a degree that we snagged a 7 night, all-inclusive vacation (including air, airport transfers, etc.) for about 1/3 of what we would have normally had to pay for such a trip. Obviously avoiding travel to Mexico really stopped the Swine flu, I mean H1N1, epidemic from sweeping through the US (insert sarcastic tone). We had a fabulous time laying on the beach, eating lots of yummy food (and subsequently joining Weight Watchers after returning), laughing with Matt & Bailey, and frequenting the restroom. That's all I'll say about that...

Our beach at the Catalonia Riviera Maya...the water was beautiful!

Sam drinking from a coconut he actually pulled off a palm tree at the resort...I'm not kidding.

Sam and MJ playing sand volleyball with the other resort guests.

The 4 of us before our DELICOUS dinner at the Japanese Restaurant, Mikado.

Sam wearing a "luchadore" mask that he tried on at a market, and then subsequently developed a skin fungus from. I'm totally kidding. But I can't figure out how to rotate this picture...

Overlooking the beach at the Italian restaurant we dined at...

Showing off our tans/burns (Sam) and greasy sunscreen faces...

Cheesy picture of us being in love...

Camping Trip to Missouri
2 weeks after returning from Mexico, we once again loaded up and headed to Salem, MO for a super fun camping trip with Nate, Lindsay, Matt, & Ryan. Highlights of our camping trip include floating the river for 6 hours, laughing hysterically at Matt at the campfire, enjoying the nice, cool weather of MO (as opposed to the blazing heat of August in Oklahoma), and stopping at Lamberts for an old-fashioned, home-cooked, roll-throwin' meal (see WW comment above). I don't have any pictures from this weekend either, because Lindsay was much better about taking pictures than I was...

So there you have it, folks. We really had an incredibly fun (& busy) summer that we wouldn't trade for anything. The day after we got back from camping, I immediately jumped right back into work and the new recruiting cycle (college fairs, school visits, campus visits, Fall Visit, lots of visits...) and Sam started back to school (he's acting like such a dentist these days). Hopefully you'll be a little merciful about my lack of blogging for the past several months, but as work starts to slow down just a bit, hopefully I'll be a bit more consistent about updating this blog. If not, you can look forward to another MASSIVE post in December highlighting all the things Sam and I do between now and Christmas! :)

Random afterthought: This post just took me nearly 3 hours to complete. Either I REALLY suck at blogger, or this stupid website is really difficult to use. Either way, this reiterates the reason why I only blog quarterly, people.