Surprise!

Ladies and gents, I promise I didn't fall off the face of the earth. The last few months have been super crazy, and I just could not find the time to update the ol' blog.

But things have died down, and I'm back!

Now I know you're all just dying to know what has kept me so busy this summer, so I'm going to tell you, in list form! So without further ado, I give you:

The Crazy Summer of Craziness, or How Our Lives Changed in 2014

1. In the beginning of June, I started working in a salon full time. I missed the salon experience, and Brandon and I were able to make the scheduling aspect of it work. I found an awesome little shop in Claremore, called The Village. If you are in the area and need a stylist, go see Chrissy and Amy! They rock!

2. Brandon got accepted to a Masters in Biomedical Sciences degree at Midwestern University! Basically, it's a year long program that will give him a head start for medical school! Super exciting!

Which leads me to #3 on our list.

3. We moved to Arizona! Midwestern University is located in the Phoenix area, so we are now living life in the desert!

And we are loving it! I am in love with the town, our neighborhood, and our cute little house! I don't even mind the heat! 

4. Portia started kindergarten! 2 days after we moved in, Portia started school. She had a bit of a hard time at first, but is starting to get into the swing of things! She loves her teacher and has made a few friends in her class, and is learning a lot! 

So there you have it! Now that we are all moved in (mostly) and adjusting to our new routine, I will hopefully have the time to blog more. Until then, here's a picture of our cute front door!

Country Living

I've never been much of a country girl. I grew up in the city.

I know what you're all thinking: Is there a city in Oklahoma?

The answer to your question is Yes. Yes there is. Several, in fact. I grew up in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa, which had a population of 100,000 people. Then, after getting married, we moved to Norman, a suburb of Oklahoma City, which has a population of 113,000.

See? Cities.

Anyway, I've always been a bit of a city girl. I'm used to driving 5 minutes or less to the grocery store, Chinese restaurant, and the movie theater. I'm not all that opposed to sitting in rush hour traffic. I find the sound of cars passing on a busy street oddly, soothing. (This may be from growing up next door right off of one of the busier streets in town.)

Actually, up to this point, I loved being a city girl. I loved going to a big high school, and not knowing everyone in town.

But recently, we've move to Claremore (population 18,000 in case you were wondering), to a country neighborhood. We don't have a Target nearby, I hear cows lulling me to sleep instead of cars, and there are bugs everywhere. But I love it!

Claremore is an awesome town! We are 15 minutes from Oologah Lake, there are 2 museums in town, and even a haunted manion. Whaaaat!

the Belevidere Mansion

But the best part of living here is our neighborhood. Everyone in the neighborhood are friends, there's always someone out working in the yard or walking their dog, and everyone stops to chat with each other. 

There's an acre lot for Portia and Margot to run and play, and boy have they ever! We got a swingset, a little trampoline, and a pool, and the girls are playing hard! They've never slept so hard in their lives! Two days this week, they slept in till 10. 

10!!

I'm quickly becoming a country girl.

May Blogging Challenge - Sorry Dudes.

It's been a while, friends.
The last week has been absolutely crazy, and honestly, blogging hasn't even crossed my mind. We've been through storms, packed up everything we own, and moved across the state.
If you've turned the news on lately, you probably know all about the huge tornado that ripped through Moore, OK. Luckily, we were unharmed, but we only lived 4 miles from the damage. It's horrible.
Here's a video Brandon and I took while driving through the area.



Sadly, videos and pictures don't do it justice. The destruction is indescribable. Whole neighborhoods are reduced to piles of rubble. When I stop to think about what was lost, it breaks my heart.

But I have learned a great lesson from this experience. I never want to live far from Oklahoma. Confused? Let me explain.

In the last week, I have witnessed the people of this state rally together mere hours after the storms passed, to lift each other up. Cleaning up debris, donating supplies and money and time; iit's remarkable. Several large companies in the area have donated millions of dollars. The Oklahoma Blood Institute has over 4 times the normal amount of their stores. There are hundreds of churches that have been deemed "tornado relief outposts," where people who need food, water, diapers, clothes, etc. can go to receive help. The University of Oklahoma opened its dorms for anyone who lost their home to stay in for free.

Passing out diapers and wipes on the side of the road to whoever needs them.

These are only a few examples. The entire state has come together in love, and I'm so proud to be an Okie!

With all the craziness following the storms, I missed a few days of the May Blogging Challenge. And then I missed a few days more with the move.
We moved yesterday! We left Norman, since Brandon graduated from OU, and headed back home to the Tulsa area, Claremore to be exact! We are still living out of boxes, but we'll be settled in soon!

Here's the deal. I think I'm calling it quits with the challenge. I've missed 7 days in a row, and I'm predicting that I'll miss more in the next few days. Can ya blame me? I'm a busy mama lately!
Anyway, the whole point of the challenge was for you to get to know me a bit more. Who says that all has to happen in 30 days? I'll go back every once in a while and grab one of the challenge prompts, and tell you all about me.
I actually kinda like it better this way. I don't have to do them in order, and I can ignore the silly ones, and I can even make up my own (what can I say, I'm a rebel)! And, if any of you have any questions that you's like me to answer, feel free to comment!

Oklahoma Chainsaw Massacre

A few nights ago, Brandon and I were driving to Bartlesville, to visit my Jeannine-sister. We took a short-cut through some country back-roads, and as we drove, I realized something about myself.

I am definitely a city girl. Being in the country at night made me so nervous. All I could think about are those retarded horror movies where the car breaks down near the creepy farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere, and the teenagers knock on the door to use the phone, and the inbred residents kidnap, torture, hack them up, and then eat them. Raw.

Brandon is the opposite. He grew up in Claremore, and he drove country roads all the time. They make him feel safe and secure.

I made him lock the doors as we were going 60 mph.

Later that night, we drove through north Tulsa, and I felt perfectly fine. Crazy? Maybe. But when we are driving through Romona, OK and we see some guy standing all by himself in the rain in the middle of the road, and he's missing an eye, I am NOT stopping to see if he can give us directions.