Merry Christmas!  I'm hoping everyone is having a peaceful relaxing Christmas.  It is a gorgeous day here in NE Oklahoma! The sun is shining and today will be around 50 degrees!  I have a sick little one so we are just relaxing watching movies and cooking.   
We've got a ham in the oven, and we're having cheese grits souffle, Grandma Julie's layered lettuce salad, green bean bundles wrapped in prosciutto with a sweet glaze, and for dessert we're having a warm blackberry cobbler with Braum's vanilla ice cream.  Can you feel the pounds packing on?  I can.  
I got everything for Christmas that I ever wanted.  A day with my sweet family and of course my little Moo dog is not only still with me but she's doing SO well.  
Soon, I'll be in a Christmas food coma so I wanted to write now and tell everyone Merry Christmas!  :) 

The kids rooms have come together one day at a time... bit by bit.  Piece by piece. 

I've gotten really lucky with some of my finds.  
For example this duvet cover was on sale at Pottery Barn. I paid less for it than I did the other one that I bought at Target.   It just happened to match the little dresser I'd found in Arkansas.  

Here's the color scheme for Evan's room.

And Evan's new bed!  

And Amy's new bed!
Her room is really coming together slowly.  It's going to be cute though, someday!

Do you like to bake or cook during the holidays?  Most of you know I'm a cook- definitely not a baker.  But I have my favorites that my friends make every year.  One friend makes a lemon poppyseed bread which is TO DIE FOR. oh my gosh, it's crazy good.  I could make it but I'm not sure mine would be as special as hers.  Another friend always brings me Italian wedding cookies.  Those melt in your mouth shortbread cookies coated in powdered sugar.  I'm not lying when I say the extent of my baking is melting almond bark to dip pretzels.  But I do love making foods like cheeseballs,  Chex Mix, spinach dip, sausage balls, etc.  And that is what I'm doing today!  What do you like to make?

This has been a year of major change for our family.  Our son graduated with an associate degree and moved on to Norman to work on his bachelor's degree.  We apartment hunted, shopped for furniture, and moved him in.  
Our daughter graduated from high school and also moved to Norman to go to college but she moved into a dorm room because the university requires that of all freshman students.  It really would have been so much easier for us if they had let her live with him, not to mention the money it would have saved.   
When we decided to shop for furniture for our son's apartment we basically decided not to move furniture from home.  The kid's bedrooms were both outdated and we wanted to give him a fresh start knowing that he would probably never be moving back in with us.  The furniture Evan had been using just about his whole life was actually MY furniture that I'd had my whole life.  I'd asked him years ago if he wanted to redo his bedroom and he said no, he liked having it the way it was.  Both kids had been living with a daybed for years because they liked having the open floor space in their room and also having a small bed to make. So, for too many years they had furniture that did not really grow with them. Here's what they had in their rooms:

The Chair.  Nobody could ever sit in this chair.  It stayed in the corner of Amy's room and was the place where laundry lived.  And anything else that she decided to throw on the heap.  Here you see an Afgan, 4 pillows, and a laundry basket.  :)

The dresser.  This was actually a little kid's dresser.  

The trundle daybed.  It's been stripped here for laundry day.  

Evan's daybed. It had to be reinforced because it would sag in the middle. I don't think it was meant for a grown kid. 

There were 6 pieces of furniture that went together.  This is just a corner desk and an end table but there was a LOT of furniture in his room.

When the kids moved out I knew that not only did I need something to do that would occupy my time and give me a project but their rooms desperately needed updating.  
The first thing we had to do was clear out the furniture.  We got most of it moved to a consignment shop and other parts were either thrown out, given away, or donated.  Just clearing out the furniture took a long time.  
Then came painting, and carpet cleaning.  Or in Amy's case: new carpet.  The carpet down in her room was just never going to recover.  
I've been working on this since the first of September.  
The idea was to not only have a room for the kids but a room that we could have guests stay in.  This became obvious Labor Day weekend when kids came home from college and we had family friends here.  Too many grown ups and not enough sleeping space.  
Part of me wanted to have the kids input... and part of me wanted to surprise them.  They certainly didn't have time to go furniture shopping so Joe and I started brainstorming.  

Things are finally coming together and we are ALMOST done.  I can't wait to share with you the new rooms!!!

You know... I must be living right!  Seriously.  How I ever managed to be so blessed is beyond me.  I sit here this morning snuggling with my little Mazie Moo, and she is doing so good since her surgery.  It's clear that she is 110% better.  Two weeks ago I sat here in this same spot holding her thinking she was not going to make it.  I asked for prayers and had a lot of friends come through for me.  There is no Christmas gift that could match this gift of having a well dog.  She's my little buddy that is with me every single day. 
Yesterday my husband and I took a road trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas and got a little shopping done.  We went on to Rogers and shopped some more and then went and had a cozy dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  We ended up having a waiter that we've been lucky enough to have serve us a couple of times before.  A very nice man named Randall.  If you go to that restaurant be sure to ask for him! 
Even though we didn't get to be with our son on his birthday he did go out to eat with his sister and again... I feel so blessed that they are there for each other.  That really warms my heart knowing they have that friendship.  
 My husband and I worked together making a new recipe I found for breakfast and it's such a nice morning being here inside and being warm on this cold morning. Outside our back window there is an Osprey sitting on a tree branch looking down at the lake trying to find breakfast and there is a pelican floating around.  It is all puffed up like a marshmallow.  I love how they puff up on cold days.  This view never gets old.
I can't explain why but yesterday my blog numbers were just through the roof.  I've never had anywhere even close to that many visitors.  Yay!!  I love it!
I hope you all remember to count your blessings during this busy season!  I want you to know that I count each of you as a blessing too!  

It's my son's 22 birthday today.  Which hardly seems possible since I'm just 30!!!  (I wish)
This year I wasn't able to be with either of my children on their birthday because of college.  Stupid college!!!!  I just hope they both know how very much we love them and miss them.  I can't wait until finals are behind them and they can come home.  
My son called last night and said that his little sister had tried to surprise him with a giant cookie.  I guess she was hoping to sneak it into his apartment while he was gone so that he'd find a surprise when he got home but she burst in and he was sitting there!  :)  
Even though we can't be there I am glad that they have each other.  I think they're going to go eat together today to celebrate.  

I guess it's time for me to seriously get some Christmas shopping done.  I've only bought 2 gifts. :o   I'm beyond panic mode.  This isn't like me at all.  But my husband and I are going to make a day of it!  Ending with a nice dinner together!  A date sounds good to me.  

I just went to check my stats for the blog and holy toledo!  I think a record was set today!  All time high for visitors!  yay yay!!!!!  Now, what it means that there are no comments I don't know... I'm just glad ya'll stopped by!!!!  

Have a blessed day my friends!!
<3

My whole life I've heard this song.  I didn't realize I missed it until I had moved back to Oklahoma after living out of state for years.  Apparently I'm not the only person who is hung up on the catchy commercial.

I can't figure out if she likes it or not.  But the jingle writers were successful because whether you want to or not you remember this song!  I'd say they got their money's worth.  Here's the original commercial.   I love nostalgia!!!

I can't help but smile because I know if anyone lives near the Oklahoma City area and you've heard this you're going to have this stuck in your head all day long.  Merry Christmas!!!

Hello!  I have got a long list of things I need to get done today so I'm going to make this quick.  I woke up last night from about 2 am until around 5 am.  So needless to say I'm chugging coffee working on getting myself going.  It started with a cough.  So I got up to use my inhaler.  Then I made the terrible mistake of getting on pinterest.  It's seriously ruining me.  
I ended up looking at terrariums (which I love) and then got to thinking about plant varieties that would grow in terrariums... and then ended up shopping for and reading reviews about carnivorous plants. haha!  Yes, I am sick in the head.  Was I shopping for Christmas? No.  Was I planning a menu? No.  I am reading about plants that eat bugs.  
Did I mention that this is the week I've been waiting for?!!!  The furniture I ordered weeks and weeks ago is finally coming!!!  eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!  I'm so excited!   

What a stressful time that was with my little moo dog!  She is finally recovering!  Thursday the surgeon called and wanted to see her Friday for a CT scan and surgery for a herniated disk in her neck so we zoomed to the city Friday morning.  I'm so happy that on this chilly Monday I'm back at home with my sweet puppy and she is recovering nicely.  She has a nasty looking bruise on her chest where her incision site is but you can tell she feels SO MUCH better!!  So today we have the Christmas tunes cranked up and we are in the Christmas spirit.  Ok, so it's just me.. but I'm pretending the dogs are too.  As a matter of fact I think they want to watch a Christmas movie in a little bit.  I'm in the mood for Meet Me In St. Louis.  If you haven't watched it you really should.  I loved their warped sense of humor.  My parents definitely had that type of humor and it's rubbed off on me.  My mom was born in 1932.  Every time I watch this movie I wonder if that's what her life was like.  Here's one small scene:

It feels like it could snow today and I wish it would!  I want to build snow people like Tootie. 

Speaking of Christmas... you can usually tell when it hits me because I get silly.  Here is one of last year's blogs:
http://trish-lovinlife.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-out-national-guard.html 

This was taken Thanksgiving morning.  We moved Mazie's bed into the kitchen so she could stay there with me while I was cooking.  Isn't this the sweetest little face in the whole world?  You can see how it would take someone a loooooooong time to get anything done.  Not to mention the distraction and potential for mistakes.  
Oh, I love this little doggie.  And I want her to be well.  It's been over 3 weeks now since she's been feeling bad.  It's heart breaking.