Blake's Billboard and VTN TV Venture

Blake and I went to Southeast Arkansas this weekend and Little Rock.  He had a total of 4 events...we were worn out!  On Saturday Blake sang for a festival...and on our way to it we saw this off the highway.  We had to stop!

 

Then, Blake had a TV recording slot scheduled.  They filmed him singing 3 songs and will air them at a later date.  It was cool!  Very nice studios at www.VTNTV.com 

Christmas

Things have been fun lately :)  We went to that Ball Brothers concert last week and they did a great job.  It's always good to see good people doing well!  The concert was good and we got to stay and talk with them a while afterward.

The Ball Brothers .com

 Blake up there about to sing Blue Christmas with other audience members

 Explanations happening

I've also been planning my Christmas weekend menu.  It looks something like this at the moment.  Most things are to be made in the crockpot :)
FRIDAY DINNER:
-Beef Stew (Crockpot), cornbread
-Pecan Pie
SATURDAY -
Breakfast:
Bkfst casserole (make on Friday)
Christmas Dinner
- Asian Pork Tenderloin (turn crockpot on by 9am)
- Mashed Potatoes (30 min)
- Green Beans (4 min)
- Sauteed squash and zuchinni (10 min)
- Nana's Apple Salad (10 min)
- Rolls
Dessert:
-Poor Man's Dessert (crockpot)
-Ice Cream
SUNDAY -
       LUNCH:
-BBQ Chicken, chips (crockpot)
- spinach velveeta dip (Crockpot)
 DINNER:
- cheesy chicken (crockpot)
Monday LUNCH:
-Taco Cornbread Casserole
-Dip and Chips


My inlaws are over for a couple nights before they fly out of OKC to CA.  My mother in law is NOT a cat-person.  And Doogan knows it.  He kept wanting to sit in her lap.

I forgot to post about this a week ago, but I had a wild weekend with Doogan a week and a half ago.  I noticed in his litter box that he peed BRIGHT red blood and so I had to take him to the emergency vet clinic.  With cats, they can get "crystals" in their urinary tract that can plug their bladder and be fatal, so you have to take them in immediately if you see infection signs.  I spent 2 hours at the clinic and he had a regular UTI, so I was relieved but still rattled that he was so sick.  Because the urine was SO thick with blood that had to be so painful.  I'm impressed with the little booger for handling it like a champ.  We had his follow up visit to the vet yesterday and all looked well.  They told me to include some wet food for him for now so he can get enough fluids to completely flush himself out.  After the vet visit, I got a hankerin' for some Starbucks.  It's really close by.  So we drove over and also noticed a Chickfila, and it was breakfast time! So we drove through, with Doogan, and got chicken biscuits, then drove over through Starbucks for coffee.  All the while with Doogan happily out of his box.  The Starbucks people were delighted with Doogan and gave him a small cup of whipped cream.  Strangely, this cat who eats anything, turned his nose up at the whipped cream.  I was shocked.

We were parked, eating our food.  Doogan climbed all over every inch of the car.

He did really well for about 45 minutes, then started panting and getting anxious so we hurried home and he was fine.  It was funny to see drivers on the road discover we had a cat in our car.

Today is my Christmas party at work.  They're bringing in food for lunch and we'll have a dirty santa gift exchange.  I'm holding my breath this year since my boss always is the one who gives something extremely inappropriate and rags on the whole staff for not giving inappropriate gifts of their own.  It's uncomfortable.

And I can post about that because....dun dun dun...I am quitting my job!!  I have one more week left and then I embark on a home-office situation.  I will be working full-time from home now on Blake's concerts.  It's exciting but also scary.  Even though my paycheck was small, it was something "for sure" that we could count on.  But, I am confident that this will help our concert ministry expand even further, so I'm excited.  AND to top it off I won't have to go to an 8-5 job anymore!!  I'm ecstatic.

Mark and Meagan Wedding

This past Saturday my little brother got married.  It was beautiful and he married a gorgeous and sweet girl, Meagan.  I even got to sing in the wedding, a solo!  I was freaked out, but really glad I got to participate that way.  People told me it was good, so I'll take it.  Hopefully, someone somewhere got photos of me singing, but I don't have any right now.  I got a lot of pictures with my iPhone, but some are grainy.  We had a great time.

If you can't see the slideshow, click here for the album:  ALBUM

Lately

I haven't posted in a while.  Mostly because nothing really has been going on.  My sister in law is mucho pregnant.  She was due Aug 10, and the little girl is still not coming out!  The dr checkup yesterday said the baby should be born today.  So, we'll see.  We really hope the baby comes today, my sis in law is ready to not be pregnant anymore!!

I've discovered a song I just really like:  Here In This Moment by Beckah Shae - it's so creative! It sounds like 3 girls are singing, but it's just one :) Kinda techno and fun. I've been listening to it on repeat.

I haven't done anymore decorating.  We haven't decided what our next step is.  I still have some Home Depot giftcards left, so I think I'll get some driveway lanterns since it gets so dark out there.  But, we'll have to get an electrician to install them b/c I have no idea how to do that!!

Blake went golfing with my Dad and brother this week.  He's been golfing maybe once before in his life?  He had fun, but last night he was flat on his back, a disk out of place, so he's pretty out of commission right now.  The chiropractor couldn't even really adjust him because he was so bad, so they did some electrotherapy to loosen the muscles so Blake can come back on Monday for a real adjustment.

Anyway. I'm bored at work.

Tea Party Recap

So my tea party was so fun!  I highly recommend having one if you have a couple of girlfriends you'd like to have over for some "girl time".  The girls were good sports and wore their sundresses and brought their teapots and tea cups.  I did a good job on the food - but I have to admit, I made too many different options to sanely pull off.  I had to call Blake in the kitchen to help a lot and he was not happy about that.  He normally helps really good, but this time he griped the whole time.  Oh well.  So, note for next time: only make a doable amount of choices!  It was specifically the 3 different tea sandwiches, they were more time consuming to make than I anticipated.  Here was what my menu ended up being:

-Muffins
-no bake cookies
-spinach pinwheels
-Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
-Almond Chicken Tea Sandwiches
-Pineapple Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches
-Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts appetizers
-Turkey Sausage Breakfast Casserole 
 -fruit plate of apples and bananas

I ended up not making the muffins because I forgot about the spinach pinwheels with the oven time - so I had to choose between them.   The no bake cookies, the spinach pinwheels, and the casserole were my favorite!  The casserole was a hit out of the park.  I'll post a second blog about it after this, all to itself.  The tea sandwiches were okay, the cucumber one was actually the best.  Blake said it was his favorite out of the 3.  I think the pineapple cream cheese one would have been better had I measured out the ingredients, same with the almond chicken ones.  I just eyeballed them because I was trying to get everything done, and so the flavors weren't balanced right.  But, they were good choices if you want to throw your own tea party.  The cucumber ones were pretty darn good, but they don't keep well.  I had a couple leftover and blech.  Soggy.

Here are some pictures!

My teaset from Craigslist :)  I had splenda, sugar, and milk available.

This is the blue teaset Blake got me for my birthday one year :) I begged for it.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the layout without the stupid foil. Oh well!

The foil was covering the bacon waterchestnuts :)

The girls' teasets

Talking, waiting on my neighbor to come over :) You can see the layout better here.

Everyone is here!

My girls :)

Last weekend

This past weekend Blake did a mini-concert at First Baptist Norman, OK and that went well.  On the way to the concert we saw this:

Pretty funny. The bike wasn't even really secure, they just looped the band under the pedal-not through the spokes or anything!

Then we went to a concert to hear a quartet we know called The Williamsons on Sunday night.  We wanted to hear them and they even had Blake sing a couple of solos there, so that was fun

Blake and I had a relaxing dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings last night.  That is our go-to place for when we just want to drain away any stress or talk about how things are going.  We have this one location we go to and they have an outdoor patio area.  We sit back in the chairs under the fans and just watch the sports or whatever they have on the TV.  I could immediately feel my body relax and mind clear...and it was just great for us both.  I'm not a fan of the $30 meal ticket, but hey.  It's like we both got a massage for only $30, we left feeling so good.  Money well spent.  And I have leftovers for my lunch today! :)

More Decorating!

Blake and I had a great weekend, though it was more full than I would have preferred for a holiday weekend.  I tend to become a homebody when I have a day off work because we travel so much.

Friday we got off work and went to our next door neighbor's house, their daughter was celebrating her first birthday, so we were there for a while.  Also, Friday was the day I was trying to decide what to do with the stray cat that I found our doorstep.  He would come around every couple of weeks, and he would tear my heart out because he was so injured.  He wasn't neutered and appeared to be on the bottom of the totem pole - so he was really torn up every time I would see him.  His face was pretty disfigured from old wounds, he had a large area of his face and cheek that was without fur and had thick scar tissue.  He had trouble opening one of his eyes.  But that wasn't the part that got me.  He had a wound on his shoulder that was about the width of 2 quarters, and it was gaping.  You could see his muscle underneath.  It wasn't pouring blood or anything either, so it looked like it had been open for a while.  I saw him twice over a couple of weeks and each time that wound was open.  And he was all scruffy and his coat was really thin and dirty.  He wasn't interested in cleaning himself.  He'd just sit occasionally on our stone wall out front.  He didn't seem to be hindered walking around, but that open wound was just serious.  I fed him a couple of times, and he seemed content to adopt me as his new home.  He wasn't concerned when I'd approach, just watchful.  I brought him dry cat food, and then a half serving of tuna.  He gobbled them down.  On Friday when I got off work, when I gave him the tuna, he was so appreciative that he rubbed his head on my hand and it just broke my heart.  I called the vet to see what they do for strays, but they didn't quote a price break to fix him up, so I had to decide to take him to the OK City Shelter.  Saturday after we had sound checks at a local church, we came home and he was still on our wall out front (Sticker was not a fan of this guy). So I coaxed him into a carrier with more tuna and we took him to the shelter.  I really hope they try to heal him and not just put him down.  I know it was the right decision, but it was hard to take him there when he trusted me.

So, Saturday, after that heart wrenching task, we were invited to go to a friend's house with a bunch of people.  Sunday we had a concert at a local church and Blake got to do a few songs, and even one patriotic song.  He sang really well and everyone loved it.  We are always so tired after a concert, we went home and made another appearance at a friend's house for a few hours.  Then we crashed at home until 11pm when Blake got inspired to hang the ceiling fan I recently got for the guest room. With flashlights as our only lighting, he got it hung by 12:15am.  He did good :)

Monday is when the fun started!!  Inspired by the success of the ceiling fan hanging, Blake and I set off to find more guest room decor.  Kohls was having a great sale so we were picky and found exactly what we wanted for the bedding.  Here is our guest room now:

I really wanted to recreate a wheat field look so I'll be on the hunt for more items that are organic and textured with that wheat color.  I'm thinking also of doing a "frame collage" with empty picture frames above the bed. I saw that in a magazine, too, and it looked so cool!

I'd seen in a magazine a really cool burlap bed skirt that was $60.  So I thought, well, I could probably just get some burlap from Hobby Lobby.  And yep, only for $15!!  We just tucked the burlap fabric under the bed (we'll have to figure out how to make it more permanent) and it looks great and adds the organic texture that I wanted for the room.  I have one more accent pillow to get that will be the same green color as the throw.  Doogan loves the new bedding; we have to watch him because he likes to bite the throw.

Here is a pic with the new ceiling fan and I tied our curtains back with chocolate brown ribbons.

The sheets are a green paisley print.  And, if you'll notice, I have my lamp I redid, and I got a little antique clock for the bedside table.

So Blake and I keep peeking in this room, proud of our creativity and that the ceiling fan is the most expensive item in the room!  Everything else we got at over 60% off!  I really suggest going to Ross for bedding, too.  We got the sheets and throw there, as well as the curtains (at $4 each!) 

It is very possible to do a cheap room makeover.  Just be extra selective and have a general look decided on before you start.  That way you can predict what items will help you achieve your overall look.  For this room, I decided on "Wheat field after a rain storm."  So that decided my colors (white, blue, green, wheat) and textures (classic and clean, with accents of rough fabric and organic leafy-ness).  As you can see, it's not done, but the feel of the room is decided and will be easier to find accents to complete the room.

Follow up about Crockpot Cake

So the decimated remains of my crockpot cake are not the end of my story last night. Oh no. Since the cake cooked about 2 hours faster than I anticipated, I had to figure out how to keep it semi-warm and moist until our friends came over for dinner. I put it in a plastic cake display thing, shaped like a dome. Similar to this but plastic and not airtight:So I put the cake crumbs into that and figured, well, the oven should be an airtight option, so I put the cake dome inside the oven and assured myself I'd remember to take it out before I started preheating the oven for the sweet potato fries I was going to make....



15 minutes later at 425 degrees, I remember because of the melting plastic smell pervading my house. And now here is what my cake dome looks like:

The top and bottom pieces-

The bottom piece-

The top dome part-

Oddly enough, the cake wasn't ruined at all and went nicely with the ice cream our guests brought. :) But now I need another cake dome thing. Lesson learned.

Easter Sunday

We had such a great weekend. Friday we watched several episodes of "Undercover Boss" and we really like that show now! Then Saturday we went to get donuts for breakfast, then cleaned the house super good since friends were coming over Sunday. We also played with our kitties in the yard again. Doogan is getting more confident and needs closer supervision at times. We try to make sure to pet him as he wanders outside so he doesn't associate us approaching him with "time to go inside" every time. It seems to be working, he doesn't run from us so that is good. When it's time to go in I can approach him pretty easily. Then, Blake had to go up to church to run sound for their Easter service rehearsal. I hadn't intended to go along, but when he was leaving I was like, "wait!" I brushed my teeth and joined him, no makeup and my hair in a bun. Oh well. I got some pictures of our Easter service at church:

This was during rehearsal. The ladies in the back were covering the windows with a see-through purple paper.

It had this lovely effect!

This is Gary, he is also Blake's boss whenever he works at the sound company :)

Pretty service

This is our Pastor, Tim

Then we went home and grilled chicken on our wonderful grill. We're getting the hang of it and the food was delicious. I got a big album of those pictures. My mom gave me her nice camera after she upgraded to another one, so I had a lot of fun documenting the afternoon, and the Easter egg hunt that our friend's little girl had. She's so photogenic and her blond hair was fun to take pictures of!!