And They Call It Puppy Love...

The newest addition to our family...TYKE!!! I convinced/blindsided Marty with one of my mom's puppies from Lily's first litter. He's just too cute. We've changed his name from Skamp to Scout and now to Tyke so hopefully this one sticks!

Mom took this one when all of the puppies decide to fall asleep in my lap.

Sleepy time in my chair after he came up to the office and entertained everyone for a little while.

He is 8 1/2 weeks old today!

He LOVES to sleep on his back!

Here are the two of us at our Tacky Christmas Sweater Party.

Exciting News!!!

I don't have any pictures to post other than of Lily's puppies and our two little kittens, but I will spare you those...

We closed on our house today! Whoo hoo! My friend, Becky, is coming in this afternoon to help us begin the moving process. Marty is not excited about our move interrupting his beloved hunting season, but I told him it's just a few days-max. We might have been a little overzealous, but we're hoping to host Thanksgiving at our house Thursday so we need the whole process to go very smoothly. I don't know what I'm most excited about...having more room or having a place to call "home". I still have to paint which I plan on doing Monday, but I will try and take lots of before and after pictures.

Now we'll have lots of space when people come up to visit! Girls, this means you and the kids will have to come up when all the guys come to bird hunt.

That's all for now! Happy a BEAUTIFUL, blessed weekend!!!

A Quick Trip to Dallas & A Day with T. Boone

Friday I flew to Dallas to attend The Wonderful World of Walt Disney at the Dallas Symphony with my cousin, Cory. He works for Sewell Hummer of Dallas and when I landed I called and said, "don't come pick me up in one of those new Hummer trucks, they're ugly." Poor thing. He pulled up in a few minutes in a H3T. I'll eat my words and say they are much cooler in person.

Here we are on the way to the symphony.

The view from the Grand Tier.

Afterwards in front of the H3T.

Out in Uptown.

Saturday morning Cory and all his cronies had to work so I got around and luckily one of his friends was nice enough to take me to Signature North (the hanger for private planes by Dallas Love Field). I was super nervous right before we got there because I was unsure of what to expect. Brian dropped me off and I was greeted by four people dressed in orange which made me feel strangely at ease. Soon, the pilot came to tell us we could go ahead and board the jet.

Let me back up a bit. Last Monday I had the pleasure of meeting T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeline, at the office. T. Boone is a Texas oil man and well known in these parts. You can read about him at http://www.boonepickens.com/ or http://www.pickensplan.com/. We got to discussing OSU and he asked when was the last time I had been back. He offered for Marty and I to attend the game and sit in his personal suite with he, his wife and some of their colleagues and friends. I graciously accepted and didn't mention my Dallas plans. After a day of scheming and trying to rework my travel plans, I called his Dallas office to cancel because I just couldn't figure out how to get from Dallas to Stillwater on Saturday. The lady in his office listened to my spill and then said, "Let me make it easy for you. Why don't you get on the jet in Dallas and fly to the game. They're going to the ranch after the game so if you can arrange to have someone pick you up at the ranch that will work out perfectly."

So, back to my story...we begin boarding the $55 million G5 jet. It even has OSU colored stripes down the side.

Once onboard we settled in for the 35 minute flight to Stillwater. The trees were absolutely beautiful as we landed at my almamater.

A shuttle picked us up at the airport and took us to the stadium. Once inside the suite I met all sorts of people at the top of their careers. The CFO of ExxonMobil and his wife, a guy who worked for Ross Perot for 45 years, The OSU Athletic Director and his wife, and the president of OSU's wife. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Here's the view from our suite.

I got to see some of my friends that were at the game. Joy met me downstairs right before we left.

This is Kim Rosser. Her dad is T. Boone's public relations guy. She was my partner in crime at the game. This was taken right before we left Stillwater for the ranch.

Marty met us at the ranch. He had to wait a little while because the airport is on the other side of the ranch from the lodge. It was breathtaking. I wish I could've gotten pictures of the landscape and everything.

Marty took this of me inside the stairwell at the lodge.

They invited us to stay for dinner, but as it was them and five of their couple friends, I didn't want to risk wearing out our welcome.

I must say, I probably won't ever watch an OSU game the way I did that one, but it was an amazing opportunity that I feel very blessed to have gotten to experience. T. Boone and his wife are to of the nicest, most geniune people I have ever met and I hope our paths cross again.

Matt's In...

Weekend before last we drove to Lubbock to see Matt while he was in for a few days. Of course, a trip to the Bozeman's always means LOTS of hunting and LOTS of yummy food. Vick fixed us breakfast Saturday morning and then we headed out to duck hunt.

Lubbock has received more than their usual amount of rainfall so water was standing everywhere. I saw more ducks that morning than I have in my whole life. Too bad there wasn't any cover and they all landed on the opposite side of where we sat up. I think we took home 4 teal and a pin tail.

We went back to the house and got Vick and Peter and went dove hunting. We had a great morning. The boys nabbed 54 birds in all and I shot my first dove for a total of 55 birds.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. We went back to the Bozeman's and napped and watched some College Football.

We went back to dove hunt that evening before heading to Dickens, this small town about an hour from Idalou to eat at this hole in the wall steak house. It was great!

My least favorite part-cleaning the birds...

My SEXY husband in Vick's hat.

The mosquitoes were TERRIBLE. You can see how many this spider web caught.

East Texas: Reunions, Yamboree & Birthdays

This past week we made the LONG drive from the Panhandle to East Texas. We left Wednesday after work and dropped my great aunt off at her daughter's house in Paris. And Clint and Rachel were sweet enough to let us stay the night with them. We got in sometime after 11 p.m. and stayed up visiting until 2 a.m. Baby Nolan wasn't feeling well when we got in, but Thursday before we left he was nice and cuddly.

The only pretty fall colors I saw while we where in East Texas happened to be on one of Clint & Rachel's trees...

Thursday after Dr. Clint had a look at our teeth we headed to Gilmer. We hung around until Jerrye and Kenneth got home from work and then we drove to White Oak to get Marty's deer from the taxidermist and meet Stephen. He'll be really upset I don't have a picture of his deer mount to put on here.

Friday morning I want to take Jerrye to a local winery to celebrate her birthday. It was so neat...tucked down this little oil road lined with trailer houses opens up to this beautiful 40 acre winery.

Here's the view of the deck where we had lunch. They had two bird dogs that just lounged around wherever they felt fit. I wish I had snapped a picture of them. It was SO relaxing!





We tasted their "Sweet Wine" list. The only one I didn't like was the one Jerrye loved.

Friday night was Marty's 10 year class reunion. Although I was apprehensive in the beginning we had a great time!

Here's Marty & Tron. Tron and Marty played football together and were fishing buddies in high school. Latisha was in charge of the reunion and she wanted a picture with M because she said she had a crush on him in "grade school".

I took lots more pictures, but I won't post them all on here.

Saturday morning we headed to the parade and got to see lots of friends. I just hate it that these weekends don't last longer because they go by too fast!

After YUMMY corn dogs, lemonade and sweet potato fries I tried to get a few pictures before we all dispersed and went our separate ways.

Clay, Marty & Clint

Jaymie & Marty

me & my beautiful nieces before the barn dance

I think they found Uncle Marty quite amusing...oh and that's last year's deer in the background. I did have a picture, just not of it by itself.

Justin, Marty, Adam and Wes at the barn dance

Robin & Me...she always looks so stylish...we actually went in this year to hear Johnny Lee (from Urban Cowboy) sing "Lookin' for Love in All the Wrong Places". He was SO good!

Marty & Kenneth before we left Sunday morning...

My Mom...50 & fabulous!!!

So, for the past six months I've been planning a birthday bash for my mom's 50th birthday. It wasn't a suprise party because she had to help me with the guest list, but she didn't know any of the details so there were still elements of suprise I guess you could say. I decided our theme colors would be all different shades of purple with hints of blue. I ordered invitations and included a note asking for old pictures and for guests to send me back written notes to Mom to include in her scrapbook. I am not a scrapbooker to say the least, but one of the girls I work with sells Creative Memories and another is a scrapbooking guru so I was in good shape. I felt like I was planning a mini-wedding, but it was SO much fun! My mom is the most deserving person I know so I wanted everything to be perfect.

The location of her party was the same place we had my bridal luncheon. It's this great little tea room and the food is A-MAZING!



Here's the view from the front door. I decorated the mantel with old pictures of mom, votives and flowers.

Here's a picture of the table setting. I found these adorable mini tea pot place card holders online. And the wonderful florist did the flowers for my wedding as well.

Here's the first page of Mom's scrapbook.

Here's when Mom and Grandmom arrived and her seeing the scrapbook for the first time.

Everyone else looking at her scrapbook.

The scrapbook/gift table.

Group Shot...

Mom's table: Aunt Mary, Mom, Grandmom, Lana, Shannon and Tresa.

Mom & Me

This was the dessert Mom chose...Snickers Cream Supreme. It was to die for...

This is me reading some of the "roasts". I couldn't hold it together for my little speech and I definately had a difficult time reading all the sweet things people said about Mom.

Christie was sweet enough to come and take pictures for me so that was one less thing I had to worry about. She is a sweetheart and I am so blessed to get to work with her!

It was an absolutely perfect day! I could never begin to repay my mother for a lifetime worth of love and things that she continually does for me, but this was so much fun. We are so very blessed and as we reflected on the day all we could think about was how fortunate we were to have each other in our lives. I love you, Mom!