Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Thanksgiving, Winter Fun, and Mitch's 25th!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I have written on here! Oops. Well, we haven't had too much exciting going on, but enough to post about. Get ready for picture overload!

For Thanksgiving we went to our friends' house and celebrated with friends from Mitch's class at Columbus AFB. We had a really good time and got to eat tons of food while we watched football all day...as it should be. :)

Thanksgiving Love <3

My beautiful surprise Thanksgiving flowers :)
 Since we ended up staying in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving because it was too far of a drive to go to Ohio for such a short time, we had some extra free time all to ourselves. It was really nice to just hang out together with no obligations for a few days. :) On Friday (I feel I have to clarify since it stupidly started on Thursday this year...ugh) we went 'Black Friday' shopping  in Wichita Falls, TX, about an hour and 20 minutes from Altus. We had been talking about getting a new TV, but weren't sure if we would actually get one. Best Buy had a really amazing deal on a LG 55" TV and this sound bar we had been looking at, so we decided we would splurge and get that for our Christmas this year. It worked out really nicely the past couple weekends for having people over to watch football games!

The TV barely fit in the Escape...haha
Mitch was so excited to set it up! haha
I finally got to setting up the tree and putting up our minimal decorations last week. I tried to be sensible and only pack one of my 6 bins of stuff...better than nothing! I am so excited that next year we will FINALLY be settled in one home for more than one holiday season! I haven't lived in the same house over the holidays since high school...crazy. It will be amazing but weird not having to carefully pack up all my decorations for a move after their use! :)

Our mini tree and holiday decor :)

I was trying to get the dogs to cooperate for a picture...fail haha
Of course the OSU vs "that team up north" game was a very crazy and exhausting game! We were glad to watch it on our new TV so we could clearly see all the action. :) We have made sure to mold the pups into buckeye fans, as all Ohio State dog owners do. My mom bought them these little scarves/bandanas last year for their first football season. They are a little small on them now, but I'm sentimental about them being from her. They usually just wear their buckeye collars, but the team up north game is a special occasion. :)

The boys growling at that team up north ;)

Dexter rockin' his buckeye gear!


Love my Dex :)

They were the first ones ready for nap time :)

All the boys slept after the exhausting game:)
 We got some crazy weather a few weeks ago (ice and snow storm, below freezing temps after being 70+ degrees the day before) and then it happened again last weekend. It was almost 80 degrees on Tuesday, then Thursday night we got more sleet and snow. Brutal. Luckily for us the dogs LOVE the snow and constantly beg to go play in it...they're odd. We were worried last Christmas when we went to Ohio that they would hate snow, since all they knew was the hot south, but they were surprisingly thrilled about it. Maybe they're part husky? haha Silly dogs. We live on the second floor of our apartment (which lacks a fenced in yard somehow...ha) so we took them to the city dog park to run around and play in the snow a couple times. They go absolutely nuts in it and spend a lot of time sprinting in circles, then rolling around in the snow fighting each other.

The ice that piled up on our patio
So much ice!
Video of the pups at the dog park!
Pretty snow at our complex!
As pretty as the snow can be here, it is the worst thing to happen to this city ever. They have no plow system and no salt truck system either. Their solution is to have everyone just drive on the snow and compact it into ice, then throw gravel on top of that in intersections so you can stop. It's absolutely terrible! I would rather be in Ohio with 10 inches of snow than here with 2 inches...at least Ohio can deal with it.

Friday was Mitch's 25th birthday and fortunately our truck has four wheel drive, so we were still able to go out to celebrate! We went to Back Door Steakhouse in Blair, the "town" about 10 minutes north of us. The town is one of those "one stoplight" kind of places and mainly only known for this restaurant. They have great appetizers, delicious meals, and cheap beer...it's about all a birthday boy could ask for. Our friend, Abby, has the same birthday, so we did a joint birthday dinner and had a great time with our Altus group of friends!

Mitch and I aren't really cake people, so I usually make him something else for his birthday. Last year I did lemon squares and this year I did brownies. His family all sent their gifts here so we had our own little celebration, and of course, the dogs helped. ;)

The pups are always intrigued by flames haha
My quarter-century old love :)
Dex loves unwrapping presents!

Loving his new RC helicopter

Grandma always knows best :)
Gotta represent Ohio out west! :)

His Eli and his book...he's a happy birthday boy :)
My friend Jayme and I made ornament wreaths on Sunday evening! We had to wing it with stuff from the dollar store because of lack of options of supplies, but I like how they turned out. :) I'm going to have to find some extra room in our cars for all the stuff we are accumulating while we are here! Oops :)

Thanks, Pinterest :)
That's pretty much all the exciting things that have been going on here in Oklahoma!
I am heading up to Washington (for the first time ever!) with my sister on Thursday for a long weekend to go check out some houses and get an idea of the lay of the land. It's an impossible task to try to buy a house somewhere that you've never even visited. Hopefully this trip will help us figure out where we want to be! I'm mostly excited to get to see Kaitlyn, it feels like it has been forever!!

We hopefully (weather and schedule permitting) leave for Ohio on the 20th to be home for Christmas. It's about a 15 hour drive, plus stops and traffic...gross. This will be the last time we are able to make it home before the big move to Washington, so we are hoping to make it a good one!

I honestly can't believe how fast time has gone this year... I still can't fathom that 2013 happened, either. We went into the hospital with my mom on Dec 29th, 2012 and spent the next 3 weeks in the hospital, including New Years. I missed a lot in that first part of the year; super bowl, college bowl games, new years celebrations....so it never really started to me. If that makes sense. I couldn't believe the world had moved on without me while I lived in my hospice bubble. I think I have been in a bubble ever since then, actually. I can't believe almost a year has happened since I went through all of that.
It's weird how days can seem so long, yet months and years can seem so short.

Anyway, that's what has been going on!
I will be sure to take plenty of pictures of my Washington trip to share next week :)

Happy Holidays!