Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We hope you have a great holiday week and safe travels...see you in 2009!!!

My Last Supper(s)

Well as many of you might already know, I will be starting a new job in January. I am so sad to leave my friends and co-workers at Mayfair but at least Matt and I are going to still be members there so I should be able to see them often. However, I am looking forward to my new job. I am going to be working at a Pediatric Home Health Care Clinic getting lots of medical field experience/patient experience...plus I get to work with my mom! She is the boss!

Last Thursday, the staff took me out to lunch for my first "last supper" even though I still had a few days in the office and I will be working throughout the end of the year from Houston. It was when we could all get together before the holidays during work. I chose Musashi's but it was a really long wait so we ended up at Macaroni Grill instead. Still very delicious but in different ways.

The staff gave me a gift card to Michael's (which will come in very handy since I am always in need of crafty supplies), some beautiful pink flowers, an iTunes gift card, and some Lindor Chocolate (my favorite). Not to mention some funny and very nice cards.

On Tuesday, those of us that were in town and my sister-in-law, Deanna, went to lunch for my second "last supper." Besides almost being run over by a Crazy Christmas Shopping-Cell Phone Talking-SUV driving-Woman that wasn't paying attention, it was fun! This time we went to Poblano's. It too was delicious and then we toured the "Beautiful Northpark Mall." In the parking lot we saw a car that was decorated as a Rudolf (complete with nose and antlers) and Brennon pretended to be a dancing Santa (the proof is below)!I can't figure out how to make this video not be sideways so you will have to tilt your computer...sorry about that :)

I am really going to miss all my friends at Mayfair...no more tranny jokes (at least daily anyway), no more crazy El-ShaDerek/Katie (your name isn't funny) days and song writing days, no more Pam/Katie/Shannon antiquing lunches, no more "B"eau, "B"rennon and "D"ave and many other fun times. However, we will still have lots of fun outside of work! Plus, now I get to spend more time with my mom and I get to be back in the medical field learning all kinds of new things! And just remember former co-worker friends...I am still Adjuct Staff so you will be hearing from me often!! Have a good 2009! I will miss you all :(

A few more random pics of the Mayfair Staff just for more Christmas fun...



These two are from our Christmas Lunch at the Davis' house. We walked and sang Christmas carols to Thurman and Peggy's because they only live a few blocks but it was FREEZING!!
Peggy made us a delicious lunch and afterwards, Derek entertained us at the "kids" end of the table with his amazing magic tricks!!

Katie christened our new camera with this beautiful picture a few weeks ago :)

Streaker video

This is a funny video that Monica (Matt's mom) sent us recently. Enjoy!

El-ShaDerek

frMy friend Katie had a super-funny idea on Thursday. Derek, our-co-worker, used to be "in love" with Amy Grant when he was groing up. We have been joking about it for a while in the office and then we decided to give Derek the ultimate Christmas present: to fill his moleskine (a pocket book that he carries daily on his person) with old pictures of Amy Grant and lyrics of songs (that we altered). We started with this picture and love note from Amy to Derek because the red velvet dress was his fav!!

And there were several pictures/lyrics to follow like these two.

We had been sneaky all day so he wouldn't catch on to what we were doing until he was already gone for vacation, however, he figured it out pretty quick. When Katie gave him his moleskine back, he noticed it was a lot fatter instantly and saw what we did. It was still pretty hilarious though! Derek Waugh...you've been punked :)

Last minute Christmas idea for your husband!

Hey girls...if you have run out of ideas for your husband, check this video out. It makes a great last minute gift.





Just kidding...I just wanted to show you this funny video :)

We had our first progressive dinner...

and made tooooooo much food!! But it was really good and fun! Last Saturday, our bible class at church had a Christmas Progressive Dinner. We started out at the Waugh's, went to the Bonney's for dinner and to our house for dessert. Unfortunately, all you-know-what broke loose when our kitchen sink decided to poop out that morning (I know, those are really harsh words). This was the 4th and final party in 7 days so I had been so busy baking and cooking last week that I had pushed my baking for this party to the last minute and I paid for it. First, I decided that I would make 8 desserts, depsite that being way too much, because I couldn't decide what not to make and had much of that to finish Saturday. Then when the sink backed up, Matt spent about 4 hours trying to fix it before giving up so I had to manuver around him and I also couldn't use any water to wash dishes!!! Finally, I finished baking about 5:15 pm and we had to be at the Waugh's by 6:00 pm. I ended up going, only to pick up things from other people, and missed out on the fun but I heard everything was wonderful. All the hard work paid off in the end because we had a beautiful table of desserts that everyone enjoyed!! And, our sink got fixed on Monday afternoon at no cost to us. Its times like these that I am glad we rent our house and not own it!!!

If anyone wants any of the recipes from that night, just let me know....

Most of the group (we had about 26 total

Their food babies gained a few pounds that night!Delicious desserts!

THUN-DER!!!

On Tuesday, Matt, Derek, Courtney and I went to the Thunder/Clippers game. Previous to that game, the Thunder record was 2-23. Yep, that's right, TWO TOTAL WINS! We had a slim amount of confidence they might win even though the Clipper's are bad as well and pretty much the only people on their team anyone has heard of is Baron Davis and Marcus Camby. Nevertheless, we were super excited to go and when we got there, we realized that we got to sit in the club level which was pretty awesome! (we didn't have any celebrity sighting this time though). The Thunder made it a good game for most of the time but lost again in the end. We also had some mediocre dance numbers performed by the Thunder Thighs (otherwise known as the Thunder Girls)!! and we are pretty sure we were sitting behind some drug dealers that had just been smoking weed previous to sitting down in front of us. There were 4 guys that fit the stereotype, using 2 cell phones each. There are no good/honest reasons to have 2 cell phones/person!! Anyway, we were greatly entertained and had a fun time despite the loss. Thanks for the tickets Michael and Annaleise!!!

Kevin Durant coming down from a dunk.

Whah, Whah :(

Mayfair Staff Christmas Party!!!

My friend Katie posted about this recently. I don't think I could say it any better so I will let her tell you about all of the hilarious fun! Just click on her name and look up the December 15th post to find out about it. As she said, if anyone would like to know how to play Pictonary Phone, just ask me (or Katie)...its a really fun game :)

Mirror mirror on the wall, who has the ugliest sweater of them all...

Last Saturday, our Tuesday bible study group had our 2nd Annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party hosted by Nate and Chellie! We had a gift exchange and we also played a super fun game called Would You Rather. I had never heard of this game before but it is a fun group game. Almost all of us had to do ridiculous or gross things to move on to the next level. Below is a sample of some of the silliness. I hope no one is mad at me for posting these pics/videos!

Erin Condict (3rd from the left) won the Ugly Sweater prize!

The guys look a little questionable in these pictures...

Nate and Justin were on the same team, they had to hold their tongues for several rounds as their challenge to advance to the next level.

Ryan and Katie had to wear socks of other people of our choosing. We chose Justin's socks because he had just come to the party from playing soccer and Tarrin's shoes (they each wore one shoe and one sock). She said Justin's socks were cold from being sweaty!!

We had to have mustaches and glasses drawn on our face with make up and we had to wear them for the remainder of the game.

Tarrin and Erin had to make any animal sound that we called out for 90 seconds!! It was pretty hilarious!

Not part of the game, but here is Matt modeling his sweater and a weird face!

Secret Date Night!

I have some catching up to do since I have been MIA in the blog world for the last week. Last weekend, my sweet husband planned a fun date for us. First, he surprised me by coming home early from work and brought me flowers and then we went to Sophabella's for dinner. We have been there before but it has been at least 2 or 3 years. It was really good!

Next, we picked up Lucy, got nicely bundled, and drove to Chickasha to see the Christmas lights!! I have wanted to go there since college but never make time to go. We walked around the whole place and then drove through at the end. I thought it was done well. The only dissapointing thing is that one section of the bridge was out (you will see in the pictures below). This was their 15th anniversary and for the first time, they did a lights display like the commercials last year. We posted a video below of one of the songs. They did 3-4 songs total. Lucy enjoyed the horses pulling the carriages! Everytime they walked by she was trying to get as close as possible so she could sniff them better.

Matt and Lucy hangin out in the camaro!Then we got inside the church...
The bridge was pretty, even though the lights were broken :( This looked like it was in the sky but it was just in some trees!

Here is a sample of the musical light display...sorry about the miscellaneous comments!!

As if the night couldn't get any better, we finished the evening with our favorite ice cream treat at DAIRY QUEEN!!! (I know you are jealous Katie!) When we go to Houston, we always stop at Dairy Queen going and coming back. I always get a dipcone and Matt always gets a Chocolate Extreme Blizzard. I also always give Lucy the bottom of my dipcone so she always expects it when we go now! So she enjoyed the trip too. Thank you Matty for a wonderful evening!

Saturday In The Park

As often as possible, we take Lucy for walks in the neighborhood. The last time we took her for a walk, we went to Smitty park. Matt took Lucy down the slide with him! We only take her on the playground stuff when there aren't kids there. Luckily, it hasn't been too cold here so that we can still take her out often without freezing to death! She looks like a puppy in this picture!

Tagged again!!!

8 THINGS ABOUT ME:


8 shows I watch:
1. Friends
2. Seinfeld
3. The Cosby Show
4. Law & Order
5. Ace of Cakes
6. Mike & Mike In The Morning
7. How It's Made
8. NFL, NBA, MLB, college football (that might not count as shows)


8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Macaroni Grill
2. Iron Starr
3. Ted's/Poblano Grill (its basically the same thing)
4. Dairy Queen
5. Taco Bell
6. Chuy's (a Mexican restaurant in Houston)
7. Zorbas
8. Cheescake Factory


8 Things that happened today:
1. Woke up and got ready for work
2. Decorated/served/cleaned up for the Ladies Lunch at church
3. Finished wrapping the gifts for our staff Christmas party tonight
4. Talked to a crazy lady on the phone today and told her she shouldn't have
married 8 men that she didn't love (maybe this should be a seperate blog
topic, it was a funny conversation).
5. Made a salad for the party
6. Played with Lucy some.
7. Went to our super fun staff party!
8. Wrote this blog and went to bed.


8 Things I look forward to:
1. Going to sleep tonight.
2. Elf the Twelfth (a party in which we will watch the movie Elf which I have
never seen and make ginger bread houses).
3. Our bible class progressive dinner.
4. Going to sleep really early on Sunday night because I will be really tired after a long crazy week!
5. Watching everyone open the presents I got them on Christmas!!
6. Going to Houston for like 9 days.
7. Teaching Deanna how to knit.
8. Teaching myself how to knit a beanie.


8 Things I wish for:
1. To be good parents one day (not anytime soon by the way).
2. To be a stay-at-home mom someday.
3. To have a maid to clean my house.
4. To be a Physician Assistant.
5. To go get a massage/pedicure/manicure every week!!!
6. To go back to Europe for a long vacation/extended stay.
7. To go to Hawaii.
8. For our family to have long, healthy lives.

8 People I tag:

*I should tag some people but I guess I am not going to because I just did one the other day and tagged some friends. If you would like to fill this out for yourself, please feel free even though you weren't tagged :)

I've been tagged..

Katie tagged me earlier this week so here it is. I have completed the questionnaire for your enjoyment. Look at the bottom to see if you have been tagged also...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I will drink hot chocolate sometimes but I prefer wassail or cider. Egg not just looks nasty so I have never tried it.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Well Santa doesn't come to my house anymore...so I wrap everything except my gifts because I love wrapping. Matt takes care of those.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White lights and red lights are my favorite. We have mostly white on our house but will probably add more red in the future.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No but I thought about it this year. I guess I forgot.

5. When do you put your decorations up? As early as possible around Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Mashed potatoes and dressing.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Watching "White Christmas" with my sister and mom, going to see the lights around Utica and the Rhema lights.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember when/how I was told the truth. Maybe I just stopped believing.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not really. If we are doing Christmas early with one part of the family I suppose we would but it is not a tradition as of yet.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Currently I have bubble lights, a ferris wheel that is as old as me that I love, some decorations that my grandma gave, cookie ornaments we made a couple years ago with Matt's family and some new ornaments we have been given or bought the past few years. When we buy a house, I plan on having a real tree rather than a fake one and probably more of a theme on the tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love everything about it except driving in it and when it turns black and slushy.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes but I haven't been in a long time. I have only been to indoor rinks and would like to go to the outdoor rink downtown. It's on my Christmas "things to do list" that I usually never complete every year!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't have a favorite.

14. What is the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with all of my family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie, Cut Out Cookies, Christmas Nuts and Ginger Cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I still love watching "White Christmas" at least 3 times and going to see Christmas lights. For at least 3 years, John & Monica have taken us and Deanna to a Texans game around Christmas time. It might be a tradition in the making! This year we are going to see the Bears and Texans on the 28th.

17. What tops your tree? Santa Claus

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving...I go a little crazy at Christmas buying things. We even have a stocking for our cat and dog :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carol of the Bells, What Child Is This, & O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes​!​ Yuck or Yum? The soft peppermint candy canes are good and other flavors but I don't like regular ones very well.

21. What do you want for Christmas? A new sewing machine, new winter clothes, Simple Scrapbook subscription, patterned socks, and I always enjoy crafty things from Hob Lob or someplace similiar.

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas Party? At least 2-3 every year. This year we have 5 parties we are going to. We already had our bible study party (post to come soon) last night!

23. Do you dress up on Christmas or wear PJs? PJ's for sure and then sometimes new clothes if I get them.

24. Do you own a Santa hat? Yes and I wore it for our Christmas card picture this year.

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? Depends on everyones schedule but we usually see all parts of our family within the Christmas week.

It's your turn:

Deanna

Annaleise

Anne

Chellie

Esther

Grandma Quality Numero Uno...

Several months ago, my friend Evelyn Witzke taught me how to crochet name doilies. She is the lady who has made these for every newly wed couple at Mayfair for several years. Recently, she decided to move back to Hooker, OK to be closer to her family and passed the doilie torch on to me! They look intricate and hard to make but really it is rather easy (if you know how to crochet). Generally, people frame these and hang them in the house somewhere. This isn't your typical past time of an almost 27-year old woman, however, I love making them and have been busy recently with everyone getting married! Below are a couple of examples of what they look like:

My little cuddlebug!

Last Saturday, Lucy woke up extra early like usual. But instead of going back to sleep in our room, she wanted to sleep with me on the couch in the living room. Normally, she isn't this cuddly (with me) so I gave in and let her sleep by me. She was pretty much laying all the way on top of the covers on me so I was staying extra warm. We layed there for a few hours watching my favorite show, "I Love Lucy" starting Lucille Ball, who our precious Lucy was named after. I guess we need to get Lucy a brother and name him Ricky :)

Why I dont wear a gold wedding ring

Saw this in my chemistry nerd magazine a few months ago......

Golden Years

While a GOLDEN WEDDING RING may be the most visible symbol of the everlasting bond between you and your spouse, the romantics here at Newscripts were saddened to learn that the jewelry itself is anything but eternal. Even the nuptial act of slipping the gold band on your beloved's finger is just the first of countless abrasive maneuvers that will slowly erode the ring and leave minute traces of gold wherever you go. It's even been found in laundry dryer lint.

Shutterstock

Wedding bands: Slowly wearing away.

Georg Steinhauser, a chemistry postdoc at Austria's Vienna University of Technology, decided to quantify his wedding band's weight loss during his first year of marriage. He recently published the results of the study in a paper dedicated to his wife, Veronika, on their first wedding anniversary (Gold Bull. 2008, 41, 51).

Each week—usually on Thursday—Steinhauser meticulously cleaned and weighed his wedding ring using an ultrasonic bath and a microanalytical balance. When he started, a week after his wedding day, the 18-carat yellow gold ring weighed 5.58387 g. A year later, the ring had lost 6.15 mg, with an average weekly decline of 0.12 mg.

Beachside ceremonies: Romantic, but more likely to abrade rings.

A vacation on the sandy beaches of Malta led to the highest weekly weight loss (0.23 mg), with gardening coming in a close second (0.22 mg). Steinhauser noted that hand clapping while attending a rock concert also led to an above-average abrasion (0.17 mg), as did skiing (0.20 mg). Spending two days in bed with the flu seemed to have no influence on the ring's weight loss, nor did a short trip to Spain, despite having to carry a heavy suitcase.

What was Mrs. Steinhauser's reaction to the ring research? "She is a psychologist and does not always share my enthusiasm about chemistry and science," Steinhauser says. "But she shared my happiness about every single weighing result when I came home and told her about the last week's result. Sometimes she reminded me on Thursdays to not forget to weigh the ring."

Steinhauser is continuing the research, although he now weighs the ring just every six months. "The plan is to publish this long-term study as the 'work of my married lifetime' at the end of my scientific career," he says. "Divorce is out of the question!"

And while no love may be lost from wedding-band wear and tear, there is a financial loss. "In Vienna, a city of some 1.7 million inhabitants, there are approximately 307,000 married couples," Steinhauser points out. "Assuming that approximately 60% of them wear a wedding ring (made of 18-carat gold) regularly, the abrasion of 368,400 wedding rings would cause the annual total loss of 2.2 kg of 18-carat gold." That adds up to about $59,400 of lost gold dust in Vienna alone. Following that same logic, the 55.2 million married couples in the U.S. lose about 407 kg of gold each year at an annual cost of almost $11 million.

There was also a more chemically relevant lesson from Steinhauser's study: To avoid contamination, scientists should remove any gold rings before entering analytical laboratories dedicated to the analysis of trace metals. For the same reason, the winners of this year's Nobel Prizes might also want to refrain from wearing their shiny new gold medals in the lab.

From the Department of Obscure Information:

• December is the most popular month for engagements.
• Americans will spend more than $6 billion on engagement rings this year along with another $2 billion for wedding rings for the bride and groom.
• The average wedding budget in the U.S. is $27,882, not including honeymoon costs.
• With an average of 189 invitees, Wisconsin couples have the largest weddings. The national average is 153 guests.

Quote of the Day

Last Sunday night we were watching the football game (Vikings vs. Bears) as is custom on Sunday evenings if we don't have plans. Towards the end of the game, John Madden was commenting about one of the Bears defensive players and made a silly quote. He said, "That guy is the best stripper in the NFL." He finally realized what he had said and stumbled over his words to try and correct himself. It was pretty hilarious!! Maybe he should go back to doing Tinactin commercials!

I Loooooooooove Christmas Time!!!!

Saturday evening, we cooked some delicious steaks for dinner but the best part of the evening was craft time after dinner! Since Coits didn't have their Christmas trees out yet, and we hadn't had enough family activities yet :), I decided that we should make cookie Christmas ornaments together for my moms tree!!

Many of you might not know my sister, but she thinks I am too crafty to say the least. Or she likes to tease me about it anyway :) So I was very proud that she agreed to such a crafty activity in the first place. We used a very simple recipe to make the dough (4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1.5 cups water), rolled it out, and cut Christmas shapes out. You bake the "cookies" at 300 degrees for about 45 min to an hour or until they are hard. Let them cool and you are ready to make ornaments. We just used acrylic paint and glitter for ours. Matt even got in on the craft time. I am also very proud of his ornaments too. Last time we did this a few years ago with his family, he made very evil and silly ornaments. This time, he actually made some serious ones (and a few silly ones). You can probably guess which ones are his but you probably didn't guess he made the Santa face one! At the end when we were finally done, I made rob take this silly picture of us holding 2 of our favorite ornaments we made. My mom's tree should be beautiful!!

The finished products.......

Surveying The Perimeter

Last Wednesday afternoon, Matt, Lucy and I packed up and headed to the Tulsa area for a couple of days. Wednesday, we spent some time at my grandpa's place (post to come later) and Thursday we hung out with my sister most of the day.

Shay lives in an apartment on the second story in a very entertaining part of Tulsa. Every time we visit, Lucy spends a great deal of time jumping up on the window to make sure everything is in order outside! She is a very strong dog, but this picture makes her look freakishly strong!

Her cousins (Shay's dogs), Eddie and Sampson, spend their time avoiding her. They don't appreciate Lucy's friendly dominance or energy :) This time, however, they were pretty good together. As long as Lucy keeps it toned down, they get along pretty well!


On another note, this year was the first time we went out to eat on Thanksgiving day. My grandma on my mom's side had some health issues this year and we thought it would be best to go out to eat so she didn't feel like she needed to cook. As family outings can be, this was an interesting one, but I must say, Marie Calendar's is a good substitute to a home cooked meal. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a good time off work!!

Eddie (on the left) gets brave and looks outside another window with Lucy. Sampson (on the right) basks in the sun on the front porch.

Disc Golf at Dolese Park

Matt here....I figured I should write something since apparently my last post of 2 youtube videos didnt count. Friday, me, Shannon, and Rob went and played some disc golf at Dolese park right down the road from our house. It's my favorite place to play in OKC, and me and Rob have been out there countless times dating back to our days at OC. I shot a +1, which was good considering how infrequently I play now and that the hole locations were in the hard spots. (there are 2 hole locations for each hole in case you didnt know) We didnt run into any pot-smoking hippies this time, which was pretty surprising because that place is like the pot-smoking hippie hotspot for the OKC area. Anyway, here are some pictures of me and Rob dominating the course:

And here are some pictures of Lucy from the drive home. In the pic on the bottom, she was sleeping with her head up. She had too much fun today, or she was suffering from car-lag from our Trip to Tulsa!!