house stuff - extreme & not so extreme

One of these days I will get back to (almost) daily blogging, but for now, I'm still doing catch-up. or is it catsup? nope, it's definately ketchup.

My parents got to come back - their third visit since we moved here at the end of august. they're troopers, I tell ya. Everyone asks why they keep coming here instead of me/us going there to visit. The first & main reason is because we just moved from pennsylvania, and oklahoma is still new to us (me) and we're still sorta getting settled, and my parents want to see our house. (I lived in their house for 18 or 22 years, depending on whether you count my college years or not.) So I know what it looks like. haha. And they've been helping us with projects everytime they come. More on that in a minute. But the second reason is that the weather is better here right now. We got the snow I wanted, so I don't have to go to PA and see the 42 inches there. I will want to get out of oklahoma and be in the northeast from may until september. So why leave now?

Bobby had to go to Dallas for a couple days so my parents and I mostly hung out here at the house, watched some tv shows I had dvr'd for them, and played wii winter olympics. Then on Saturday I suggested we drive about 30 miles south of norman to see where Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was building a house for a family. The weather was quite chilly, and you guessed it, windy. And the process took a lot longer than we expected. The road where the house was being built was closed to traffic, so we had to go to a nearby school and take a bus over. Then we were dropped off and didn't know when/if they were coming back for us. (and we had forgotten to eat lunch.) But we weren't alone. We were surrounded by hundreds of "volunteers" who were working on the house, a bunch of press people, tons of real workers, and a few celebrities. My goal of the day was not only to see the house & the entire production, but I really wanted to see Ty & Jillian from the Bachelor/ette. (she was there because she is an interior designer.) The whole town was such a buzz all week because they were spotted all over. Most of them stayed in Norman hotels, (right by my house!!) but I reserved my inner crazy stalker and didn't pursue it that far. Ideal Homes OK were the official builders of the house. I mostly kept up with the progress & happenings on their twitter site : here.

my parents in front of the house


















my dad & I in front of the house


















The house was one day away from being completed. The day after we were there, they were did the big reveal.

the endless line of vehicles - workers & production people - the line stretched further than I could see on this straight rural road. crazy!



















well... I didn't get to see ty or jillian, which is fine, except, they were there, on the property, within feet of me, but I kept missing them. I'd walk away and they'd come out of the house. I'd come back and they would be gone again. I literally kept missing them by seconds. oh well. I did have one celebrity encounter that will make my husband jealous for years and years. It was Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. I actually called out his name and he walked over to where I was, introduced himself, and threw his arms around me for a picture. what a funny guy. hope he wasn't high. (I totally just said that because it rhymed!)

This is the most horriblest picture of me because the lady who took it for me (not my mom) zoomed WAY in, even though I asked her not to, and I was laughing because I was not expecting him to practically hug me in the picture. (he was laughing too.)










The show will air on March 14th on ABC. be sure to watch it!

So that was the extreme house stuff. The non-extreme house stuff involved our house. Super dad installed our new ceiling fan, which looks so awesome. And he also installed trim around our two bathroom mirrors. They were just big plain mirrors, and every home show I've watched, they always say that without trim, they just look unfinished, which is true. Now they look lovely and finished. Right now the trim is white and looks great. I may paint the trim in the master bath black if I pursue my goal of transforming the room into this, my inspiration.



















oh yeah, I almost forgot about the super bowl! we had a private little party of just the four of us here to watch it. not nearly as exciting as last year when the steelers won, but still a good game. I was rooting for the colts, but wasn't too upset when they lost. I was more concerned about the cookies anyway.

fastest recap ever

I am going to attempt to recap christmas, new years, & two blizzards in one little post. here goes!

December 24, 2009 - a blizzard comes sweeping into Oklahoma. Winds were gusting near 50 mph and snow was flying everywhere. I never saw snow fly in so many directions. It was hard to measure the amount of snowfall because of this. We had 2 inches in some places, and 15 in others. It came so fast, no one knew what hit us. For the first time ever, I witnessed how a little bit of snow can cripple a city, no, a STATE. within a few hours, every highway, school, church, business, you name it, was closed. (and remained closed for several days) People who had been out on the roads, just abandoned their cars and walked to safety. We were watching a map online of people that were stranded, and were about to walk over to the highway to bring people back to our warm house, but a church nearby opened up as a shelter, so we weren't needed. We were supposed to have christmas eve celebrations at bobby's grandma's house, but it was cancelled, so we stayed home. Here are some pictures from that crazy fun day:

here comes the snow! it was a pure white out... this pic of the street in front of our house was taken in late morning.


















ready to go out & play! so glad we brought some snow gear with us to oklahoma. too bad I gave my snow shovel to my parents...


















this picture best captures how much snow accumulated in a drift in our backyard


















Next day... Christmas! We had a fun little celebration planned at our house for bobby's immediate family, and we were so excited. We made a bunch of brunchy food - whole wheat banana nut waffles, monkey bread, bacon, cookies, and more. mmmm! Now keep in mind that the winter storm the day before ended as quickly as it began, so by christmas morning, it had not been snowing for about 12 hours. but no one had been out to clear the roads. I know, crazy, right?!?! So we feared that our christmas would be cancelled. however, since bobby's family has a truck, they thought they could make it. yippee! and they did, just four hours late... so our 10 am brunch began at 2pm. and they (my mother & father in law and sister & brother in law) left a little before 4 so they could get home before dark. we were all supposed to go to bobby's aunt's house for the extended family get-together, but you guessed it... cancelled! ugh. nothing would ever cancel christmas in pennsylvania!! but we made the best of it... enjoyed our little time with family, then spent the rest of the night playing mario & sonic at the winter olympic games on wii.

waiting for our guests to arrive...


















bobby's sister, mindy, & her husband, caleb


















bobby & his parents


















fast forward one week to new years. I have no pictures from nye or nyd. in fact, I can't remember what we did except go to a fun little party with some folks from church on nye. the weather was super cold and there was still snow on the ground (and roads) from the christmas eve snowfall.

enter 2010 and another snow storm! wooo hoooo! once again, on a thursday, the weathermen across the state threw fear into our heads that the world was coming to an end again because it was going to snow. omg, snow! in january!?! ha. so the day began with the dreaded winter mix - rain, sleet, then snow arrived, and it actually came down straight this time. no wind! it was awesome. and it just kept coming. we ended up with a really thick one inch of ice and then about 7 inches of snow on top of that. it was so pretty. we built a snowman. we went to walmart the next day. schools were cancelled for 4 days. church was also cancelled. but darnit, the movie theaters and cracker barrel were packed!

I took my kitty, paisley, out for a walk. normally she begs to go out, but she forgot that she is from pennsylvania, and now hates the snow. she is yelling at me in this picture.



















our sooner snowman!






































































so that's the end of my recap. I'm so happy it's over now so I can move on and catch up to real-time events. hope you enjoyed! :)