Oh, brother...

Yesterday we had dinner at my parents house.

{Side Note}...I found the wedding picture I wanted to put in their anniversary post. I knew I had it somewhere!

I told you they both wore white...



Ok, so back to our dinner. My "little" brother, the human one, came to eat as well. This is a super rare occurrence and I'm utterly shocked that my parents and I didn't faint when he pulled down the driveway.

And yes, he shoved my face into his armpit and then asked me if it smelled good. Ugh!

Other than his armpit theatrics my brother is pretty great, but sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boys head. Last week, out of nowhere, he calls me and says he's going to start a contracting business. I'm thinking oh, brother..., but I said, "don't you have to be licensed for that kind of thing?" His response was something about his friend/partner being licensed, and again I'm thinking oh, brother...

I now realize where the term "oh, brother" comes from. Someone from a million years ago must have had a schemer of a brother like I do so they were always saying or thinking oh, brother...

I wonder how long it will be before he calls me with another fabulous job idea. I swear he changes jobs more than he changes his socks.

Really, though, he is pretty great. Mostly because he brought me this present:

Isn't he so sweet? Bringing me a spoon for my collection?

{Side Note}...Yes, I have a spoon collection...I'll show it to you sometime.

I love it!

And speaking of love, don't you just love my purple glitter nail polish? I realize I'm not a tween, but I can't get enough of glitter nail polish. This bottle is by Nicole and it's in the One Less Lonely Girl by Justin Bieber Collection. Remember how I said I'm not a tween? Well, I'm apparently drawn to tween type things. Ha!

The yellow arrow is pointing to my color One Less Lonely Glitter, but I'm also totally in LOVE with Step to the Beat of My <3! I'll have to pick that baby up sometime soon. Even though I'm a closet tween at least my polish purchase went toward a good cause which you can check out here. Thanks Justin Bieber!

Memorial Day

Today I'm remembering this man.

He's my Grandpa. We lost him in 2008, but I remember him every day. My whole life I knew he had been in the Navy, but to this day I still don't know what he did or where he went or what his rank was because to me, he was my Grandpa and that's a pretty important job.

Even though I don't know the details, I'm still glad that my Grandpa chose to serve his country. I have nothing but appreciation and respect for any man or woman who has chosen or chooses to do the same. It takes great strength and courage to put your life on the line for the protection and safety of others and I thank you all.

Happy Memorial Day.

Fab Find

The other day...

Before I go on I need to get something off of my chest. I feel I should be completely upfront and honest about this. I use the phrase "the other day" for any day that has gone by in the last 28 years. I feel it's an all encompassing term which should be used when referencing any day in my life even if that day was ten years ago.

I feel much better having said that because well, you know, I'm a little weird and you might get confused when I say the other day and maybe I'm talking about something from my childhood. Just know that eventually I'll say something else that will give you a better time frame for when the other day actually was...

So, the other day, my parents and I went shopping for my very first washer and dryer. I know! 28 and I just got my first washer and dryer?! All I can say is mom's W/D has been really good to me my whole life. Ha! Anyway, on that day we also went to this really neat consignment furniture shop where I found this fantabulous cabinet.

My dad told me it was for clothes, but I had other plans for this baby. After he did some repair work, of course!

This is what it looks like after a couple months (see? I told you I would give you a "date" reference for my "the other day") in dad's barn, some glue, some clamps, some finishing nails, and a good scrubbing with Murphy's Oil Soap. Oh, and new knobs because the ceramic brown things that were on it were hideous in my opinion.

It really does look like it was meant to be a closet and the tag called it an armoire, but who puts a closet in their dining room? I turned it into a pantry!

Somebody was kind enough to have already put these metal shelving strip things in there so all we had to do was add the clips.

Then dad made me a few shelves.

Which I wrapped up like presents using leftover wrapping paper from last Christmas. I bought the paper (on sale, of course) at Hobby Lobby and their paper is really heavy duty so I won't have to worry about it ripping.

Food! Yum! It makes a much better pantry than a closet, don't you think? Who only has two outfits anyway?

I also used it to line the drawers. Genius, I say!



Now, if I could just finish the side tables I started refinishing the other day...

Oh, Snap! = Wordy Wednesday

Since becoming a self-diagnosed blog-a-holic I've noticed that quite a few bloggers do a "Wordless Wednesday" post that is generally just a picture of such utter greatness it needs no words, but I don't like to follow the rules...ok, I do like to follow the rules, but I don't WANT to follow the rules so I stepped outside the box and started my own series.

Oh, Snap! Wednesdays - coming to already at a theater near you.

Oh, Snap! does contain a picture...or pictures...and words...lots of words. I mean, really? When has anyone ever known me to be "wordLESS?"

Well, here's the deal. I snapped exactly 2 pictures with my phone last week. Shocking, I know, so in order to keep my newly minted tradition alive I will post the photos from our AMBUCS Installation Banquet today along with many, many, many words and then add this weeks measly 2 phone pics to next weeks batch.

So nice of me isn't it? I'm always thinking of others. And bacon.

That's my daddy, on the right, being sworn in as the first Cowboy Country AMBUCS president.

Here he is receiving our official plaque. Ok, I'm sure it has some other fancy name, but I don't know what it is right now because I was busy taking these mediocre pictures and dreaming about the chocolate cake sitting in front of me.

This super cute banner was a gift from the Great Plains AMBUCS.

Oh my... What's a girl to say about this? First, that's me. Second, that's a bed pan. I was assured it had been bleached before they placed it in my hands. The bed pan also came from the Great Plains AMBUCS and was gifted directly to me because as Sergeant at Arms I will have the ability to fine people and collect monies from them for whatever I want. So, don't wear ugly socks to our meetings or I'll see them and you'll owe me a dollar!

This is a special banner given to us by the Enid A.M. AMBUCS. Once again I'm sure it has a special name, but the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake!

This is one of the two men who presented us with our Big Hats. I don't know the exact specifics involved with being a Big Hat yet, but I do know that you receive your Big Hat upon recruiting 3 new members to your club and you also receive a star pin for your hat to represent each person you recruit. All I can say is this dude has recruited a LOT of AMBUCS!

Mom and dad receiving their Big Hats.

Sharla and Cadence looking super cute in their Big Hats!

An AMBUCS first! A family of Big Hats!

My mom is the treasurer of our new club. Anna Blubaugh who is a past national president called her up to tell her how important being the treasurer is, and then...

She called me up with my shiny new bed pan (I'm not posting the picture here because I look like a dork and I'm the author of this blog so I have all the say in what is posted here and what you have to go check out on our Facebook page. Ha!) and then...

Every person in attendance proceeded to fill that shiny new bed pan with shiny monies to start off our new club with a bang!

And here's my momma doing her first official Cowboy Country AMBUCS Treasurer job. Counting our loot! We made off with just over 1600 dollars. Not too bad for a couple hours on a Saturday night.

Dad gives a mean speech. This is his first official President speech. I thought it was pretty good if I do say so myself. And I do.

And last, but never least! The shiny new bed pan filled with shiny monies! It's a little hard to see, but the bed pan isn't just shiny, it's engraved.

Cowboy Country AMBUCS, April 19, 2011 6:38pm Birth

Those Great Plains guys sure are funny!



Thank you for joining me for this weeks (unorthodox) installment of Oh, Snap!

Until next time, keep your bed pans handy!

Tornado Alley

I've lived in Tornado Alley my entire life. I've taken cover from impending tornadoes only twice. The first time was last year during tornado season and the second time was last night. I holed up in the bathtub with my cats and a flashlight for a half hour or so. The electricity had gone out so it was super dark and I couldn't hear anything because I was in the most interior room of my home with the door closed.

I was sitting there the whole time thinking, "mother nature sucks."

How can something give us beauty such as this...

 Edmond, OK - Source

And then in an instant rip it away so that you're left with this?

NW of Longdale, OK - Source

Stillwater, OK - Source

St. John's Regional Medical Center, Joplin MO - Source

It's mind numbing. You think because you have this nice home that you're safe, but really it's all just an illusion.

I, for one, cannot wait for this tornado season to be over, but there's always something else for Mother Nature to gift us with so I hope everyone watches the skies and heeds the weather man's advice even if they do get a little bit worked up now and then.

Stay safe and hug the ones you love today!

AMBUCS Installation Banquet

Saturday we had our Installation Banquet for Cowboy Country AMBUCS. If you don't know what AMBUCS is you should definitely go look it up here and read about it. (I have a ton of pictures, but I left my camera at my parents' house so I'll have to post them later.)

This is our mission statement:

National AMBUCS™, Inc. is a non-profit service organization consisting of a diverse group of men and women who are dedicated to creating mobility and independence for people with disabilities.

So, the installation banquet is where all of your incoming officers are sworn in for the year, but in our case our entire club was sworn in because we're new. This is also the banquet where I used these:

Twine Cups

The great thing about AMBUCS, besides our mission of creating mobility, is that you don't just join a club, you join a family. I've only known some of our members for just over a month, but I already consider them to be really great friends. I'll be honest. At first I was extremely reluctant to join. I had a million reasons which all revolved around this, "I'm too busy." But now that I'm a member and I've been able to spend time with other members and been able to hear stories about what other clubs are doing I'm glad I joined and didn't go with my wimpy reclusive gut.

I don't know if you're supposed to feel selfishly good about doing good (I hope that made sense), but I do. I feel like by joining AMBUCS I'm already becoming more social and meeting all kinds of people which is a huge benefit for my wimpy reclusive gut. And like my momma always says, "you can never have too many friends." Then there's the added benefit of feeling good about helping people in need.

A couple of years ago when my dad was considering starting this club in our town (he's the president right now) some AMBUCS from surrounding clubs were coming here to build a wheel chair ramp for the wheel chair basketball coach at OSU. All I can say is it was way cool! To see all those people come together, some of them meeting for the first time, to build something for someone else and expect nothing in return was incredible. The smile on the coach's face was amazing. She was so happy to finally be able to invite her entire team to her house and not have to make sure someone would be there to carry them up her front porch. It's such a joy to see the change you make in someone's life.

I hope that's what our AMBUCS club will be able to accomplish. I hope we're able to raise money and give back so we can see hundreds of smiles on hundreds of faces.

Source

It's a great day to be an AMBUC!

32 Years

Today is my parents 32nd wedding anniversary. I can't even imagine being with someone that long. I can barely stand to be with someone more than five minutes. Well, I guess that's not entirely true since I have been around my family for the last 28 years. Ha!

This is their engagement photo. How cute are they?! I can't seem to find a digital copy of their wedding photo. I must have it saved somewhere else, but I can tell you this, they BOTH wore white! Or off white. It makes me giggle...a lot.

I've also heard stories about my dad wearing a powder blue tux to his prom. He definitely had a sense of style. I don't think I'll call it a good one...

I ask my dad all the time how he proprosed to my mom. To this day he still hasn't told me. I ask my mom how he did it and all she can remember is that he tricked her into asking him! I say, "what?! How in the world did he do that?! Oh my goodness! That is so funny! Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me!" But, then after I calm down and start breathing again my mom shrugs and says she doesn't remember. I guess it was all just too exciting and the euphoria wiped her memory.

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! Here's to another 32 years!

Oh, Snap!

Welcome to the world as seen through my eyes. Sometimes it's a scary, scary place, but it's always interesting!

Most of my images this week are from my trip to the mall. It was rather enlightening.

Umbrella art and a super pricey plastic purse.

I thought the umbrellas were cute and I really want to stand under them and sing, "...you can stand under my um-brella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay, under my um-brella ella, ella, ay, ay, ay..." But, alas, I did not.

What is up with this plastic purse? I think I had something like it when I was a kid, and I'm sure it didn't cost $195! I just don't get it...it's plastic...

Ah, the men's department at Dillard's. Always a fun place. And by fun, I mean weird.

That headless mannequin is so dapper with his bow tie!

I felt really bad for the headless mannequin with his pants pulled up to his pits. The poor guy doesn't look at all comfortable.

Hot pink shoes! I can't wait to see a guy rockin' out in these babies.

I'm not sure what's going on with that plaid shirt, but I hope the boys don't have to wear it all bunched up under their arms like that.

This poor girl! She's definitely been around the mannequin block a time or two thousand. Someone should really take her to see a dermatologist or give her a paint job or throw her in the dumpster. Put the poor girl out of her misery!


And now, last, but not least, my favorite, albeit crappiest quality picture from last week!

How stinkin' cute are these two?! Out on a date to the movies! My mom and I about died, they were so adorable!

I think I need to work on my stealth photography, though. Ha!

Little Brothers

Little brothers are dirty and smelly and annoying and smelly and dirty and annoying and smelly. Did I mention they're smelly?

This is my little brother.

He's not very little anymore. He's so tall he shoves my face into his armpit when he hugs me. At least he isn't smelly. Not since he decided girls aren't gross. Now he smells like he bathed in cologne which is good for my nose when it's in his armpit, but it is a bit strong...

We used to be mortal enemies, but now we're friends. I honestly don't know what happened. Maybe there's a switch that flips when you reach a certain age?

I guess little brothers aren't so bad. Once they reach their mid-twenties. Ha!

But, this isn't my only little brother. I also have a couple of the canine variety.

Meet Gipper.

He's the newest addition to the family, and he's nuts. I mean crazy. Seriously.

There's something in this mower and I'm gonna get it!

But not from this side...

Well, maybe if I just sit back here and wait it out...

Mmmmm fiber glass is tasty, but I still didn't get the mower intruder...

I've almost got it. I'm so close. Just a little closer. Come on. Just get in my mouth!

I'm pooped. Better luck next time.


This dog is completely ridiculous. He's been hanging out next to this mower for hours and hours for the last couple of weeks. I've never seen such dedication...


And now, the sweet one. The well behaved one. The 3-legged wonder!

Rowdy!

He's such a handsome little devil and so well behaved.

This is while Gipper was bouncing around the mower.

This is while Gipper was bouncing around the mower.

This is while Gipper was bouncing around the mower.

I'm sensing a theme. Did I mention Rowdy is well behaved?

Little brothers sure are fun! And hairy!