Signs of Spring!!

I am so excited that spring is coming!! Although, I guess I shouldn't get too excited yet since the weather here in Oklahoma seems to change so fast. Last week we had 2 days where it was in the low 80's & then this weekend it's been in the mid 40's. I think I'll still be waiting another month or so to plant flowers :)

Anyway, on one of the nice days last week Dwyatt and I went out to dinner at Lake Hefner. It's such a neat place because there are trails all around the lake, a Lighthouse, and even some Sea Gulls!!! They must be very confused Sea Gulls to wind up in Oklahoma, so we refer to them as the Hefner Gulls. I was able to snap a few picture of some spring blossoms and a beautiful sunset before dinner. I hope you enjoy them...

Spring Blossoms

Blooming tree ouside my office building...

Us at Lake Hefner...the wind was blowing like crazy, thus my messy hair :)

Sunset on the Lake!!

1st Attempt at Self Portraits!!

So my husband is completely tired of being my only photo subject. Seeing that we don't have children, and don't even have a pet, this presents a problem... so I had no choice but to turn the camera on myself!! These are my first attempts at semi-self portraits. I say semi because I don't have a tripod or a wireless remote which would make true self portraits possible... The next best thing I could think of was to set up the shot myself and then have Dwyatt click the shutter!!

After adjusting all the settings, taking some test shots to get the light right, Dwyatt received very explicit directions about where to stand, where to position me in the frame, etc. I think he thought I was being a control freak, but hey, at least he didn't have to be the subject this time!! I then played with my new Photoshop Lightroom 2 program for the first time. I have been learning more about it, but these are the first portraits I have gotten to edit. I'm already addicted, I absolutely love post-processing!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy these... perhaps my dream of opening my own photography company will come true someday!! :)

Flowers, Food, & Fun!!

It's been awhile since I have blogged, so I thought I'd better catch up! I know it's been over a week now, but I wanted to write about the wonderful Valentines day Dwyatt & I had together!! This year we decided to not fight the crowds at all of the crazy resturants and to stay home and cook in.

Dwyatt bought me the most beautiful flowers to celebrate the day with, not just 1 but 5 different ones!! Roses, some colorful daises, and then 3 potted tulip plants!! The cut flowers have sadly already come and gone, but I am hoping I can plant the tulip bulbs outside this spring and that they will last for a long time. It was so much fun to have flowers in every room of the house, and they smelled Heavenly! I spent an entire hour photographing them, Dwyatt probably thought I was crazy, but it was so much fun. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with 80 pictures of roses and tulips...they'll probably just get filed away somewhere, but that's ok!!

In the evening we went to the grocery store to buy food for our dinner. There were all these people all dressed up, and men in suits buying roses, and it was so fun to go to the store in our sweatpants, slippers, & glasses. I guess that's when you know you're in love and no longer have to impress anyone. For dinner we made pork tenderloin with spiced pear chutney, a tomato caprese salad, and home baked french bread. We also drank the nice bottle of Cabernet Souvignon that my parents gave us for Christmas. Thanks Mom & Dad, it was awesome!! Overall, it was the perfect Valentines day, and our first of many. It makes me so excited for all our years to come...

Tomato Caprese!!

Living in Tornado Alley

This week I experienced my first tornado!! I know that I should be prepared for this, seeing that everyone knows they happen here in Oklahoma. But, it's a little more scary when it's your house that's on the line. The weather guys kept saying how unusual storms like this were in February, they usually come in April and May. So when the sirens went off at work and we all had to go to the basement, I started wondering... turns out there wasn't a threat on the downtown area so we came back to work, but people were talking about super-cells over Edmond so I started watching the live news coverage at my desk.

Almost as soon as I tuned in they started saying a tornado was on the ground in north west Edmond. Well that's where my house is, and without any more detail than that I was freaked out!! To make matters worse, they had some guy in a helicopter (can you imagine having that job??) who was following the tornado to video it. It was unreal to think that was happening live as I watched it. Power flashes and debris going everywhere!! I have only ever seen things like that on the Discovery channel Storm Chasers show!!

Turns out my house was fine, we were a little less than 2 miles from the path of the tornado. A lot of people weren't that lucky though, and it took out houses of all types. Everything from a trailer park to a subdivision that's full of $1,000,000 homes was damaged. It's an amazing thing to see the damage, because since the path of this tornado was only about 100 yards across, one house can be gone completely and the next door neighbor can be missing only a handful of shingles.

I guess this means I have been officially inducted into the lifestyle of an Oklahoman!! It makes me think about how powerful God is, and to be thankful everyday for all we have been blessed with. Worldly possessions can be replaced with insurance checks, but lives and love ones can't. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who were affected...

Here is the link to the video I was talking about, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW5046SlHJM

NBA in OKC

Yay for OKC finally having a professional sport!! We are in the middle of our first season of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball season, and so far it's been really fun!! Devon has promised to fill like 100 seats every game or something ridiculous like that, so they are always giving away free tickets to their employees. I can't complain, we have already been 4 times this season, and every time its great lower level seats!! We went to the game on Feb. 4th, and they were playing the Denver Nuggets! I kind of felt like I was watching 2 home teams, I'm so use to cheering for the Nuggets, so it was weird...

We went and had a great dinner in Bricktown beforehand and then were off to the game!! I took my camera, and I think Dwyatt was annoyed with me because I spent about half the game snapping pictures. I had never taken pictures in that light before though, so it was a mini adventure :) I also learned that it's actually illegal for me to take a nice camera with a zoom lens into the game...how weird is that?? It made me really angry since I could have gotten much better pictures with my 200mm zoom lens!! Oh well... it was still awesome, too bad we lost by 1 point in the final 3 seconds!!!!

The sun setting behind the Botanical Gardens downtown...

Go Thunder!!He made it :)

The half time show...a marching band...weird...

Probably my favorite of the night... Dwyatt watching the game :)