*Sweet & Sour*

I've been thinking for awhile now about coming up with an idea for a weekly post.  I want to have some way to talk about my daily life happenings.  I want this post to start taking place every Wednesday.  Why Wednesday?  Because Wednesday is right in the middle of everything. 

I don't know about you but on Wednesdays I look around and find myself surround by so many things and I'm stuck right in the middle.  Still remembering the week before and busy with the work week it often feels like the week has flow by with so much left to do!  On the other hand the weekend is just ahead and I'm busy starting to plan activities, events, and check off my to-do lists before it gets here!  Since I often have little time in the middle of the week, and I'm the nerdy engineering type, I think I will give you bullet points :)  Oh how I love bullet points!  If only my MBA professors would understand if I turned in papers comprised of only detailed bullet points...

So... the first rendition of *Sweet & Sour* is born.  Why call this post *Sweet & Sour*??  I thought it sounded cool.  Much better than "My World Wednesdays" which was the first title that came to mind.  And also because I love Chinese food... and they have sweet & sour sauce.  :) 

Sweet:

• The Container Store:  this place is amazing!  I am in the process of redecorating my office and I have found so many amazing organization and decoration things here.  For overly organized people like me, the Container Store is like a drug...an addictive one.  Now I kind of want to organize every corner of my house... maybe the kitchen can be next :) 
• My Nalgene water bottle - I found my nalgene the other day hidden away in the bottom of a desk drawer at work.  I have been looking for it for months!!  So excited to have it back because I actually drink the recommended amount of water when I carry in around all day.  And it's red... with polka dots... make me smile :)
• K-Love radio - I have been listening to K-love all week and it is such an inspiration!  For those of you who don't know K-Love is a nation wide Christian radio station whose slogan is "Positive, Encouraging K-Love".  They are such a blessing.  Whenever I'm stressed out at work or with life in general, I can just turn on the radio in my car and it helps me get centered again, remember what's important, and focus on the Lord in the mist of my crazy life.  For this I am so thankful. 

Sour:

• My cell phone - ugh!  This thing is seriously about to die.  It's almost two years old (my contract is up for renewal next week!!) and it's a good thing because my phone is going down hill fast.  It drops calls all the time, has recently decided to eliminate the T9Word text capability, and now the touch screen is getting faulty to the point where I have to push a button about 3 times before it actually does anything.  Next week, I am getting and iPhone.  No doubt about it. 
• Oklahoma wind - a couple nights ago the wind here was blowing so hard that it blew all my flower pots over, and knocked my Texas stars off the house.  My Texas stars are made of metal, and screwed into the brick.  Yes... crazy wind.  It also kept me awake all night... I blame the wind for making me buy Starbucks lattes the last 3 days in a row :)
• Houdini (aka: Rigby) - my little white kitten, Rigby, has discovered how to rip off his collar in record time.  He and Remington wear break away collars outside in the neighborhood to help prevent a neighbor from just picking them up and keeping them, thinking they are strays.  However this plan has quickly fallen through as Rigby has figured out how to tear off his collar less than a minute.  Now what do I do?

My Z

This post is for Dad... last week when I shared my photos from our Route 66 outing, I mentioned that we were driving our new little Z around, and Dad emailed me to say he was bummed that I didn't actually share a picture of it...

As you may have guessed, I got a new car... a new little 350Z.  Well, new to me at least.  You see, I have driven a Toyota Avalon my entire life, until now.  It was a great car, very reliable, and with plenty of room, but unfortunately it wasn't that stylish.  In fact my friends often teased me about driving a grandma car... well the grandma car is gone for good!  I found this cute little Z on Ebay, and since it was used I practically swapped my Avalon for it. 

So the girl that's always practical went crazy and bought a sports car!  I now have only 2 seats, and a rather small trunk.  Although they promise me that you can in fact fit 2 sets of golf clubs back there... I'll believe it when I see it.  That doesn't really bother me though, because this is the perfect time to have my cute little car.  And I plan to drive the wheels off of it for a few years before it's time to trade it in for my future "mom car". 

So Dad, here are the photos I have been promising you...  meet Z...

Route 66

The historic highway of Route 66 conveniently runs through the middle of Oklahoma.  Today Dwyatt and I took our new little Z out for a spin.  It was a gorgeous fall day, perfect 80 degree weather, and all the trees are starting to change.  We drove through the countryside, past some gorgeous ranches, a tree farm, and a pumpkin patch! 

I totally wanted to go to the pumpkin patch, but when we pulled in the parking lot we quickly noticed that there were about 3 kids for every adult, and absolutely no one there without kids.  Dwyatt wasn't keen on the idea of me fighting small children for the prize pumpkin, so we left, but not before I made him promise that when we have kids we get to go to the pumpkin patch EVERY YEAR!! 

We continued along and finally ended up at the historical stop known as Pops.  It has all kinds of old fashioned soda pop and some pretty amazing hamburgers!  It was a fun evening, and the place was so colorful that I just had to snap some pictures! 

Oklahoma - the land of extreme weather!

So yesterday I experienced my first earthquake... and I was in Oklahoma City.  Absolute craziness!  I have decided that Oklahoma has the strangest weather I have ever seen!  Apparently nothing is out of the realm of possibility on the plains of Oklahoma. 

The earthquake yesterday was registered as a 5.1 on the Richter scale.  That is a pretty sizable quake if you ask me!  I was sitting in an elementary school where I tutor 4th graders every Wednesday, and all of the sudden the whole place just started vibrating!  It lasted long enough that people stood up, wandered around, and were looking out windows and whatnot... very strange... 

Anyway, within the last year in Oklahoma we have experienced: 

  1)  A blizzard - with record breaking snowfall
  2)  An ice storm
  3)  Tornadoes - these are common place
  4)  Hail the size of softballs - literally
  5)  A 500 year flood
  6)  Extreme heat advisories
  7)  A dust storm
  8)  A tropical storm
  9)  And an earthquake!!!
10)  ??  - Surely we'll round out the year with a #10, I just don't know what's left on the list!!

Oh crazy Oklahoma... at least you keep life interesting :) 

Study, study, study...

Some of you probably already know this, but I am back in school... again.  I started my MBA program in August, and while I am so happy that I am working towards this degree I have to say I am already tired of studying.  Part of it is probably just trying to get back in the swing of things, and part of it is pure laziness.  I mean who wouldn't want to sleep in and watch movies rather than study for finals?

The program has courses that are short, only 8 weeks apiece!  All along I have been thinking how fabulous these short classes are, until this week... it's finals week already!  Who knew that 8 weeks could fly by so fast?  However, I have to say I have really enjoyed my classes this semester.  Studying subjects like Organizational Behavior is so different from Thermodynamics and Physics that I am actually loving school again!  Well except for finals, and all the reading, and writing papers, and all the extra stress... 

So yesterday when I should have been reading these books I took pictures of them instead :)  Hey, a girl just has to take a break sometimes!  And in just a few short years I will be able to look back at this post, comment on how fast time flew by, and how happy I am that I just pushed through and did it!  I'll have my masters degree that I've always wanted, and I'll be able to confidently say that I never have to go back to school again! 

Well, knowing me I will go back... but I plan to only study subjects like cake decorating, Spanish, or pottery :)