Wii got a Wii :)

Well for Christmas, Matt and I finally gave in and got ourselves a Wii. We have been contemplating it since like last Christmas and decided to go ahead and get one. So far it is super fun! We haven't had a lot of time to play because I have been really busy with my new job and stuff for the church. However, we make time to play a few times/week. Matt found a really good deal where we got the Wii console, 2 remotes, 2 nun chucks, 2 mario cart wheels, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario Kart, Wii Fit and a bonus Wii Fit workout mat for a really good deal! We both really like the Wii Fit and it was what I was looking forward to the most out of this package. Matt really likes Mario Kart and is getting pretty good at it. We have our eyes on the new Shaun White game as well as Guitar Hero or Rock Band which i already know is super fun!

Here is a picture of me schooling Matt in Mario Kart on the first night! He is much better than me now I am sure...in fact, I haven't even played since that night :) I don't want to take a chance on ruining my record...so far I am at 100% awesome! (Just Kidding)

Grandma quality numero dos...

If you will remember, a few months ago I blogged about one of my grandma qualities which was crocheting name doilies. Now on to another grandma-ish quality, knitting. My friend Joanne recently taught me, along with 14 other girls, how to knit one evening a few months ago. I really liked it and have been working on different types of knitting stitches to make my scarves more interesting as well as using stripes, etc. thanks to my family who got me some awesome knitting books for Christmas. Also, over Christmas break, I taught myself how to knit in-the-round which allows you to make several things, one of which is beanies. I made a practice beanie while I was in Houston which was really short but thats okay, it was just practice. It was somewhere in between the size of a beanie and the size of a yamaka :)

In October, Matt and I went to a bed and breakfast in Guthrie and he graciously accompanied me to a yarn store where he picked out some yarn for a beanie. I just now got around to making it for him last weekend. I have been putting it off for a while because I thought it would take forever, but it was only about a 4 hour total project. It turned out pretty good for my first real beanie. A few mistakes but probably only I can tell what they are :) I am already on to my second one to see if I can work out some of the bugs. Thanks Joanne for adding another grandma quality to my repertoire! You are my role model for craftiness!

In case you didnt know already, Matt's favorite color is yellow!

Matt always makes silly faces!

Lucy is modeling my practice beanie...it wasnt really that small, it just stayed on her head better that way!

Cute Things Laughing!

The Cute Things Falling Asleep website has just added a new link called: Cute Things Laughing. Here is a clip of the one I saw today, it is pretty cute as advertised!

Matt got a new shirt

Have you ever heard of woot.com? Well it is this website that Matt visits everyday, along with some others, that have good deals on stuff all the time. Woot also has an extension of their website called shirt.woot.com (both of which are listed on our website links below) where they have one shirt/day that you can buy for $10.00. The past two or three he has purchased were pretty funny but this one is just weird (and by weird I mean ugly) to me. But he likes it seeing as how he is a herpatologist at heart. He said he bought it because of the illusion. Can you guess what it is? Hint: it has to do with what kind of snakes are pictured on the shirt.

Here is Matthew modeling his new shirt whilst also imitating a snake. At least he wore it to school where I wasn't :)

One dog, two dogs, three dogs, four...

Well actually, FIVE new puppies! Three boys and two girls I think. Last Sunday, my mom's Chihuahua's had another litter of puppies! Right now, they look like little mice with triangle ears but still cute! Callie, the mom dog, is a fawn, short hair (regular looking) Chihuahua and Koki, the dad dog, is a black & white long hair Chihuahua. As of now, you can't tell which ones will be long haired or short haired...their eyes aren't even open yet but we will know if a few weeks. Only 2 are officially claimed right now so if anyone out there is in the market for a new little puppy, let me know. I will get you in contact with my mom. They will be ready to go to their new homes in about 6-8 weeks. Here are some pics of a three of the wee ones. They fit in my hand! However, I forgot which ones of these are girls or boys:

The one above should be named Chubawuba because it is the biggest one.

This one is my favorite! It is dark brown almost all over which apparently is unusual in Chihuahua's (so I am told).

P.S. No animals were hurt in shooting these pics. I didnt make them blind with my camera flash because their eyes are still closed :)

A Fun Work Game

I guess I have been in the reminiscing mood lately since the last few blog posts are all past events. Anywho, here is another fun memory from my times in the office at Mayfair.

Last December, we met a lady with an interesting who pronounced it even more interestingly. Her name is Y'Vonne (in my short life, I have only heard it pronounced "yuvonne"). However, she introduced herself as "Y-Vonne," like the letter. At first I didn't fully grasp the pronounciation but then later asked Katie and Derek if that's what they heard and the census was yes.

Anyway, we proceded to play the Y-Vonne game for the remainder of the week. It's easy...all you do is change the pronounciations to some of the words you normally use and people you talk to.

For example: K-atie, see you l-ater and the c-hurch or M-erry C-hristmas! to name a few.

Out of the staff... Beau definately won the funniest name award with B-eau being the new pronounciation of his name for the week.

Well I dont know if it is funny written in blog form but at least like 6 people will remember how funny it was!

Super Mario Brothers

Since we didn't have a blog in October, I thought I would share a few pics of our group at Halloween! I think I had this epiphany in my sleep one night that Matt and I should be Mario and Luigi for Halloween. Then we all took it to the next level, Ryan had the idea that they should be Wario and WaLuigi (whom I had never heard of in my life until then) but apparently they are the evil versions of Mario and Luigi. Then I started researching these two characters and figured out I could make their hats and facial hair too and then convinced Katie to join the group. THEN, Derek and Courtney decided to be the mushroom/coinbox and the starpower/coinbox and thus our Mario Brothers group was complete! We made a rockin playlist for the portable ipod player composed of popular tunes from Mario 1, 2, and 3 to make the entourage complete. Needless to say, we took first place overall in the costume contest and scavenger hunt.

Super Mario Brothers to the rescue!

Here we go!

Katie should have got an award for best impersonation of Wario!

We had to model mannequins for one of the pictures for the scavenger hunt.


I was mad because I lost my gold button cover at the very beginning of the night!

It was a Super-Fun-Mario Brothers Evening!

Forecast: Thunder

A week ago, Matt and I went to the last Thunder vs. Rockets home game! This time we didn't have such good seats and had to sit one row from the top in the rafters beacuse I am a dummie and bought bad seats. But it was still fun. We were rooting for the Rockets and they almost blew it but barely won by only ONE POINT! Anyway, everytime we have been to a Thunder game, we have run into local celebrities like Chad Stevens, Dean Blevins, etc. but this time, much to my surprise, we saw RICK MITCHELL my meteorologist crush!!

Well actually Matt noticed him first when we walked by him and his son on our way out and told me because he knows how much I like watching him over the other weirdo local weathermen. I said (in Katie's voice from the Saturday Night Live skit)"Ohhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyy gaaaaaaaaaaaaa...it's Rick Mitchell!" Too bad for you, Gary England, Rick Mitchell is the only meteorologist for me. For bio information on chief meteorologist Rick Mitchell, click here.

A disclaimer: I don't really have a crush on Rick Mitchell in case this rumor were to actually get out! It is just a joke...I love my husband...he is much cuter :)

Computer trouble and busy busy busy

Matt here........I feel obliged to post about our lack of posts. There are multiple reasons, and it will give you a good idea of whats been going on lately with us too. Early last week our old desktop PC went down, and on Thursday I proceeded to order a new one using some funds I have from my fellowship at school. I was fairly satisfied with the use of my funds until the day immediately after I ordered it, when my laptop proceeded to crap out on me. This is the laptop that Shannon usually posts from. Well, since I had already just ordered a brand new desktop, I took the weekend to ponder what I should do, and I ended up setting up a meeting to buy a used dell from a dude on craigslist. It was a good deal and it seems to be a good computer so far, it just needs a power cord and a "J" key, both of which I ordered off of ebay and should be arriving shortly. Couple all of this with the fact that Shannon is working full time at her new job and somewhat part time at the church and battling a cold, and you have the recipe for no blog posts. I'm actually using an OU computer to write this now while I'm waiting on some stuff to dissolve in my lab.

Aaaaaanyway, other than all that computer business, we:

-Watched OU lose last week with Leo, Rob, and Grant

-Took down Christmas stuff on Saturday and Sunday (I did the outside stuff and Shannon did the inside stuff)

-Myself and some other guys went and saw "Gran Torino," the new Clint Eastwood movie. It was awesome, of course.

-I'm sure we did more stuff, but that's all I can think of.

Keep it real fools, and if you're lucky, I'll write the next post on our blog too. (just kidding, Shannon's posts are way more exciting)

Christmas "Wrap" up

Well friends...we have let you down for about two weeks. Neither Matt or I have made a post in forever so it is about time to do some catching up. To detail EVERYTHING we did in the past two weeks would be a big pain in the butt and more than you want to read I am sure so I will attempt to make a quick re-cap. Hopefully it won't be too long but I am betting it will be...I hope you all had a great Christmas and a restful time with family and friends and away from work.

1. We went to my grandparents house on the 21st to celebrate Christmas and more importantly, my Grandpa's birthday. At Thanksgiving, I had been telling my grandma about our Bible Study Ugly Sweater party and she thought that was a wonderful idea so we implemented it this year at our family Christmas. Deanna was in town so she joined in on the fun and we bought not just ugle sweaters, but ugly outfits for the party...but alas we didn't win. Matt won with his ugly fall sweater.

In case you cant tell in the pic, Deanna and I are wearing matching poinsettia turtlenecks, she is wearing a sweater skirt with rhinestones outlining the slit in the skirt, and I have one of those fashionable gypsy skirts with a beautiful blazer. You could fit like 3 people in my skirt.

My grandma got me a tea set for Christmas! I dont know if it was a family heirloom or something from a antique store.

2. Deanna and I made a gingerbread house while she was visiting.


3. Matt, Shay and I helped my mom decorate her Christmas tree and I finally got to watch Elf for the first time ever!!! I didn't stay at our Elf party to watch it and I kept missing it on television but finally we rented it from COX and watched it Christmas Eve night. It just so happened to end at midnight to ring in Christmas morning. Maybe that will be a new tradition.

The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear!"

4. On Christmas morning, mom and Shay came over to open presents with us. We had already let Lucy pull her things out of her stocking, however, she didn't really get it this year like last year. Santa brought Jack some albacore tuna and kitty treats and Lucy lots of toys and beef stew dinner. Im sure that is just what they asked for :) As for us, we took a picture of most of our loot. Not pictured, however, is the flat screen TV that my mom gave us early. Thanks again mom! I guess we made the nice list this year!!!

I guess I forgot to take a picture of Matt and his presents. Oops!

Lucy enjoy's her rack of ribs squeaky toy.

George even got new furniture too. We got him a new tree to climb on.

5. The next morning we set out for Houston to spend time with Matt's family. On Sunday we joined 70,000 other Houstonians at Reliant Stadium to cheer on the Texans! This year, John got us seats on the bottom level and it was really cool to be that close to the field. The weather was unusually cold that day and it was also rainy. We thought we would end up in the rain so against my will, we decided not to wear our afros and face paint. I was pretty bummed about this because I wanted to look silly this time and see if they would put us on the big screen. Oh well, life has more important things than afros and face paint. Nevertheless, we had lots of fun and escaped the rain by one row (Hurricane Ike messed up the roof and it has to stay open until they get it fixed).On the walk back to the car, we saw this kid whose parents thought he would look good with a mullet...poor kid!

We had Christmas the day before:

This is a candy snake that Matt;s mom gave him...kind of morbid to see him eating it!

Monica got a new wedding ring for a late 30 year anniversary present.

6. On that Tuesday, Matt and I went to the mall and I bought LOTS AND LOTS of new clothes!! They had some really good deals and I was in the market for new professional attire for my new job. All Matt wanted to get was one pair of jeans :) After all that hard work shopping and all, I got to end the day with a one hour massage that Monica bought me for Christmas. It was very relaxing and made me wish I was rich so that I could go once/week. One day maybe :) Matt and Deanna received a massage that day as well. And for dinner, we went to Ginghis Grill. It is basically Mongolian barbeque on steroids. I loved it! I will be making a re-visit there next time we are in Houston.



7. On New Year's Eve we went to the Houston Museum of Science to the Body Worlds 2: and the Brain-Our 3 Pound Gem. It was pretty awesome! I thought it would be like science class but it was more artistic than I expected. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures so you will have to see the exhibit for yourself one day. We got some pretty awesome souvenirs though. Matt bought 2 keychains that were clear midsections of a woman's body with a fetus inside the belly for gag gifts for Christmas next year and John bought a jello mold in the shape of a brain. Remember this when you go to an exchange party with us next year. You might end up with one! We also saw an IMAX on the Grand Canyon in 3D. It was the first one in 3D that I have ever seen before. It was neat and luckily I dont get motion sickness. Later that evening, we rang in the new year with the Eppink's and ate way too much food. We used the jello mold to make brain jello for our party that night! Matt and I were even crowned chapions of Eat It! (a trivial pursuit like game all about snacks and sweets).

This is a periodic table made out of glass bricks and inside each element is something that it is used to make that we commonly use for the most part. We are going to do this in Matt's office one day when we own a house!

The Brain Jello...num num num...

8. Last Saturday, we took Lucy to play with Sudi (her boxer twin in Houston) and their new boxer, Bruno. Bruno and Sudi kept trying to lick Lucy's mouth the entire time we were there. The dogs had a grand ole time until towards the end when Lucy got into Sam's lap (Sudi and Bruno's dad) and then the girls got into it pretty bad. Sudi got jealous!! They made up at the end but it was ugly for a minute.

Bruno wanted to be Lucy's Houston boyfriend!!

9. I ate Brussel sprouts and liked them! John loves them so I made roasted brussel sprouts for his bday and decided to be brave and try one but I ended up loving them too. So much, that I have already bought some here at home to make soon :) Who would have thought that would happen!

10. Finally in between all the shopping, eating, events, games and family fun, I got to do a lot of knitting! I got several books for Christmas so I was trying out all kinds of new stiches and I tought myself how to knit a beanie in preparation for the one I promised to make for Matt soon. I also made a scarf for Shay in the car to Houston and one for me mom while I was there. And now I have made a grandma out of my sister-in-law Deanna as well. I tought her how to knit as well and she learned on the first try. She is definately more crafty than she gives herself credit!
We had a great time in Houston and glad we could stay so long. Now that we are back, I have started my new job and am busy helping at the church and getting ready to clean the house up from the Christmas season. It will have to wait until this weekend though becuase the BCS game is much more important and we are also going to go see the Rockets and Thunder on Friday. It looks like everyone had a great holiday season and I promise not to slack off this much again for a while...lets hope not anyway because I dont like making these marathon posts!

We visited Matt's grandpa and grandma at their new place. They recently moved to an assisted living home in Houston so Monica could take care of them easier. We took his grandpa out to Taco Bell one day because it is his favorite restaurant (Katie would appreciate this)!