a fun weekend!

so, my computer is STILL NOT FIXED {i apologize to all my photography clients!  i am hoping that i get it back monday.}!  i am getting more and more behind with things b/c the geek squad is taking their sweet time!  luckily i had a fun filled weekend to occupy myself. 

my sister was in town, so friday night the family went to dinner and a movie.  saturday morning i got up early to go garage saling with my dad and sister.  there were multiple neighborhood sales, which i might add are crazy and dangerous to all drivers!  people parking on both sides of the street so that only one vehicle can pass, doors opening out of nowhere...it's dangerous people...dangerous!  everyone was out looking for garage sales saturday.  unfortunately the ones we found weren't that great.  maybe next time. 

after garage saling i went to the cherry street farmers market with sarah.  lots of fresh onions, lettuce and radishes everywhere.  as well as a really yummy chocolate croissant for sarah and a ham and cheese croissant for me.  then it was onto utica square where we hit up banana republic for some good sales!  and got really excited about the new anthropologie store that is going in where the harold's store use to be.  yea...really excited!  if you don't know about anthropologie, you should...checki it out!  i must say thought, you won't get the full experience until you actually visit a store.  i think it is opening in august some time, so mark your calendars! 

after hanging out with sarah i met up with mymichael and we had lunch at siegi's, which we had never tried before.  it is both a meat market and a restaurant that serves fresh made bratwurst, sausage and a bunch of other stuff.  apparently it has been around for a long time in tulsa, but they just relocated into a new building.  we both really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere.  i would highly suggest you try it!  once our bellies were full we headed home to pack up for oklahoma city. 

mymichael and some of his co-workers were on a relay team that ran in the okc memorial marathon.  instead of getting up at 3 in the morning and driving to the city sunday morning, we decided to get a hotel room there and spend the evening in bricktown.  using the urbanspoon application on my iphone we found the wedge pizzeria in deep deuce....which is very close to bricktown. 

{the view from bricktown}

we read the review and thought, what the heck, we will give it a try.  wow!  i am glad we did!  we both love pizza, especially brick oven pizza.  this was a super cool, laid back restaurant with a great patio.  it was a beautiful night, so we enjoyed our food outside. 

we got their flatbread appetizer that has hummus, olive tapenade and marinated artichokes. 

one word, delicious. 

then we got the "shuffle truffle" pizza.  chicken, sage, mushrooms drizzled with truffle oil. 

it was fabulous! 

so, definitely put it on your "i want to eat here" list and try it out when you are in okc.  we will be going back!

bricktown was extremely hopping...the thunder vs. laker game...a baseball game....high school proms and more.  it was a great people watching time!  now tell me, it may just be mymichael and i but don't you think those high school kids keep looking younger and younger?

sunday morning we were up at 4:45am to get ready and out the door for the race.  we didn't stay in bricktown/downtown, so we had a bit of a drive.  as we got closer we realized a lot of people didn't stay in bricktown and we were stuck in traffic at 5:45 in the morning.  this was the first time that we had been to the memorial marathon, so we just had to kind of guess at what we needed to be doing.  they told us that there were shuttles to the different legs of the relay and that i could ride with him to his starting point, catch a bus back to the bus station and then another bus to his finishing point.  so that's what we did.  worked great on the way there.  we stood around in the freezing cold with what felt like 40 mile wind waiting for his hand off.  i actually didn't even see him leave b/c i was looking for his team mate while mymichael spotted him, made the exchange and took off.  oh well i thought...i'll catch him finishing which is what really counts, right? 

mymichael was running the 7.3 mile leg and said it would probably take him around an hour.  so, i headed over to catch a bus.  as i got there {at 8:11am} the bus filled up and took off.  there were probably 10 of us that didn't get on.  not a problem, i'll catch the next one.  25 minutes later another bus finally came.  but instead of stopping where the last bus stopped, and where we were standing, it went all the way down the road.  during the wait there were probably 100 more runners now waiting for a bus as well, so the people at the end of the line run down and the bus fills up in no time.  the next bus takes 35 minutes to come and i will now officially miss mymichael finish.  that bus fills up and leaves.  at this point i am beyond pissed.  so i decide i will call a cab.  i locate where i am on my iphone, i download the "taxi" application and am about to call when a lady says she has 3 more busses on their way.  i wish i had gone ahead with the taxi, but i waited, as they completely tore down all the snacks and everything at that location.  i was on the last bus that left....1 hour and 45 minutes later.  by now i am thinking its stupid to go to mymichaels finishing point b/c who knows if he will be there {he left his cell phone with me}.  luckily i waited at the bus stop and he got there about 10 minutes later.  all i can say is............

OKC MEMORIAL MARATHON COORDINATORS:  YOU NEED MORE BUSSES! 

there were actually people who missed their legs of the relay b/c the bus did not get them there in time!  now that would be frustrating.  their relay team did really well..if i remember correctly they placed 18th out of 118 teams in their division.  not bad and i think they all had a good time.

we headed back to t-town exhausted.  once home, i went to put some sheets into the dryer from the washer, it ran a couple of minutes and i smelled something burning.  i open the dryer and it is still, even though it's turned off, blowing hot air and making a weird noise.  it's broke.  fabulous.  one more thing broke.  a great way to end a fun-filled weekend!   

wow...that was really long.  sorry if you are still reading!  does this make up for my lack of posts over the last two weeks {dang you computer}?  i have so many posts that i want to do....but my pics are on the computer and hopefully they were able to recover everything.  keeping my fingers crossed!

ashley & nate {maternity}

so, my computer is sick and trying to get fixed at the geek squad.  thus i am WAY behind in a lot of things.  a couple of weeks ago mymichael and i took a saturday to go and visit some friends and to take some maternity pictures.  here are just a couple that i have salvaged from my computer.  more to come!

is that green field not amazing!  thanks nate and ashley...can't wait to see little miss S!

garden planted

sunday we got our garden planted!  it was a beautiful day and we both got some much needed sun.  here are some quick snap shots...

as you can tell we bought the plants already started, we didn't plant from seeds.  we are trying out a couple of new things this year, lettuce and eggplant.  can't wait to be bringing in fresh vegetables for dinner each night! 

Project {Twin Hills School}

The project that i have posted about a couple of times {here & here} on my blog is now 99% complete {all that's left are those trees i mentioned in this post}.  Last night was their open house that mymichael and i attended.  They had a gymnasium full of people excited to see the new building.  channel 6 news did a story on it which you can watch below.  as soon as those trees get installed i will take some final photos!

smash burger

a couple of weeks ago {i'm a little behind in posting} mymichael, my parents and i had dinner at smash burger for the first time and it was delicious!  there is something nice to be said when you can tell that your burger isn't pre-pressed meat that they pulled out of the freezer and slapped on the griddle.  i had the original smash burger with fried pickles. 

yum-o, i love fried pickles!  they have other specialty burgers that my dad and mymichael got, they were tasty as well.  and they have 2 kinds of fries! 

besides the food being great, the atmosphere is fun as well.

i love the large words on the walls, the colors and textures.

if you get a hankering for a good burger give smash burger a try...you won't be disappointed {hopefully}!

square foot gardening

it's that time of year...time to start the garden.  last year was the first time mymichael and i planted a garden.  my grandma plants a "square foot garden" each year in addition to my grandpas traditional row garden.  the square foot garden is nice because it is above ground and it is much more manageable.  they can be as large or as small as you want.  last year mymichael and i built a 6' long by 2' wide and 6" deep box.  you want your box to be located where your yard gets lots of sun.  once you have your spot selected it is good to put landscaping material (or i have heard of newspapers) under your box to prevent grass and weeds from growing.  then fill your box with all new gardening soil.  to make the square foot gardening easy they suggest that you use string to divide your box into square foots so you can actually see your boundaries.  then select what vegetables or flower syou want to grow.  some vegetables you can only have one plant per square foot, but then others you can have 9 in a square foot.  so that we could figure out what we were going ot plant and where, i drew up this handy dandy square foot garden layout...your lucky i didn't put it in autocad to scale! 

our garden this year will consist of okra, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, banana peppers, spinach, lettuce, zucchini, white squash, yellow squash, cucumber, jalapenos, and multiple herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, parsley and sage.

here is a list of a few vegetables and how many you can plant per square foot (there is an actual square foot gardening book...so look to that for exact details and such):

okra - 1 plant

tomato - 1 plant

corn - 1 plant

onion - 9 plants

bell peppers - 2 plants

lettuce - 4 plants

spinach - 9 plants

zucchini - 1 plant

yellow squash - 1 plant

cucumber - 1 plant

basil - 1 plant

i can't wait, i love fresh vegetables and herbs.  just fyi, we don't plant from the seeds.  we buy the little plants that have already started to grow and transplant them to our garden.  if you want to start from seeds you can it just takes a lot more time and work and you have to start much earlier in the year.  last year we got quite a bit of produce, we had some plants die but over all it went well.  there is so much to know about gardening and i really don't know anything other than to water them.  my grandma and granpas are pros and have beautiful gardens each year.  mymichael is pretty good as well...i credit him for ours last year.  the things i tend to grow on my own...well they die.  so thank you mymichael for the future watering of our garden this year!

are you growing anything this year?  if so, what?

just a little spray paint

it's amazing what spray paint can do!  if you remember this post ,about an old bird cage i found at a junk store, then you will be happy to know that i have completed the makeover!  the rusty birdcage went from this:

to this:

all it took was one can of glossy white spray paint, a cute fat bird, some books and springy blossoms.  i have seen pictures with many birdcages, different sizes and different colors and they are just adorable.  i will say though, i have a new found respect for those people who build ships in little bottles.  this particular cage only had one way to get inside...a 3" x 4" door and it was a pain...the cute fat bird almost didn't make it!  i have another spray paint project that i will post about soon, so stay tuned, ya hear?

what have you transformed with spray paint?

what's cookin' this week

can you believe this weather!?!?!?  tonight we had easter dinner instead of easter lunch.  it was great fun  relaxing with family and friends.  dad and mymichael fired up the grill and we had tilapia, mahi mahi, shrimp, grilled vegetables, baked chicken, dressing, homemade rolls and last but definitely not least homemade blackberry cobbler.  to say the least, everybody was stuffed.  so, this week i am continuing my grill usage a couple of nights....here's what i have got...

grilled hamburgers with baked sweet potato fries

boursin chicken (didn't get to it last week)

chicken quesadillas (maybe italian style with fresh basil, capers, peppers, etc.)

grilled salmon

what's on your menu?

spring has sprung!

i love all 4 seasons and i love oklahoma because we get a little taste of each.  this past week as been absolutely beautiful.  70 and 80 degree weather, a spring thunderstorm, flowering trees and greening grass.  this time of year color starts to blossom everywhere.  everything from bright purples, yellows and pinks to thousands of shades of green.  absolutely beautiful.  the next time you are outside see if you can count how many shades of green you see...one of the reasons it's my favorite color....there are thousands. 

you can definitely see god's work when you look outside on a beautiful spring day!  hope everyone has a wonderful easter sunday!

operation : europe

mymichael and i have, for years, wanted to go to europe but have never really put forth the effort to go to europe...apparently it costs money to get over there!  so this year with our tax return in hand we looked at eachother and decided that this was the year that we would go to europe.  of course, any of you who know my husband knows it is not that simple.  we can't just take our tax return and head to europe...we have to work for it...save for it....regardless that we have the money in hand! 

so, operation : europe has been put into place as of april 1st.  to him this is no biggy.  to me it will be hard, a change in my everyday routine.  i will actually have to NOT turn left at 91st & mingo to go to starbucks at 81st...i will have to hold the steering wheel tight and head straight to the highway....*sigh*.  i know, sounds ridiculous, but when you look forward to your starbucks every morning {or the night before} it is a hard habit to break! 

on the other hand i am super stoked....we are going to europe!  we haven't nailed down our destination quite yet, and that is where you guys come into play.  we will most likely be going on 10-14 day tour, that way all accomodations and travel are taken care of.  we want to go everywhere in europe, so deciding where is hard.  we don't want our "vacation" to be spent on a bus or train the entire time, so we have decided to try and keep it to fewer destinations instead of the "18 country tour in 10 days" that is available.  originally we were thinking just italy, which i love the idea of. 

then the other night we were looking through some brochures and we saw a tour that hits london, paris, & rome. 

 it sounded neat as well, i just don't know. 

so, if you have been to europe please comment and let me know your thoughts!