Another Glorious Weekend!!!

What an incredible weekend! This weekend was just what the doctor ordered- excitement, romance, and adventure!!

Friday:

David and I watched a movie and grilled at home with David's Valentine gift. Yummy!



Saturday:

My mom, granny, and I had a girls' day out. We ate out and shopped all day. I dropped some placemats off to be monogramed for our dining room, and found some great buys: high-heeled boot book ends, a vertical slender chest for my built-ins, and some damask napkins. We had such a great time chumming together.





















Sunday:

David woke me up early and said that he had a surprise for me! He wouldn't tell me where we were going, only to get ready. After trying to guess several times, David told me to write down a few guesses, and to open the paper when we got there. If the guess was right, he would take me out shopping somewhere I wanted. I wrote down two guesses- a fun, new subdivision to go house hunting in and Terra Studios, which is where he proposed eight years ago. I really couldn't think of anywhere he could take me as a surprise. When he told Bichon to get in the car and go with us, I was puzzled. Where could we go that Bichon could also go? Well, when we dropped her off at my parents' house, I knew my mom was in on it. She asked David what time we would come home, and he said 10:00 p.m. Yikes!! I reminded David that I had morning duty at 7:30 a.m.(I was totally afraid he would haul me off to timbukto!) We drove, and drove, and drove.. We drove close to two hours... where were we going??? I was so excited when we ended up in Tulsa at the zoo! My guesses were wrong of course, but he took me shopping anyway (Yeah!!!). It was a beautiful day and all the animals were out and about. The Tulsa zoo recently had two baby chimps born, and they were just the cutest little things ever. We spend a good half hour with our faces pressed to the glass, cooing. David loved the polar bear. He pointed and grinned and tapped on the glass, squeezing in between toddlers and middle school kids. The tigers were soo vocal, roaring and pacing. They were incredible. Being at the zoo somehow restored my faith in this world and in humanity. Seeing new life made me feel that all is truly, truly well with the world- that God loves and cares for all creation. I am just a fruit cake over animals! I love them! After several hours at the zoo, David and I hit some stores and went out to eat. What a sweet time it was for us! We talked, and chatted, and played games in the car. We were like two high school kids on a road trip. Thank you, David! I know you read my blog, and I want you to know how sweet I think you are to plan a day all about the things I love. I appreciate you! : )

Inspirational Organization

I am a compulsive planner. Every house we have ever owned (which is only three), I had every room's decor planned far in advance. I blame it on too much HGTV when I was in elementary school. In our last house, I made foam idea boards for every room and clipped paint swatches, fabric samples, magazine pictures, and digital photos of things that inspired me. I was most certainly a little over the top with the new house we just built this summer- I planned every room down to using graphing paper and scale to shrink all of my furniture so that during the move I would know exactly where to put things. It made moving week much smoother, and the guys were thankful to move something right in and set it up. Everyone knew to follow the chart and read the labels. For two years, David and I drove through new construction and took photos of our favorite counter tops, fireplace mantles, bathroom cabinets, tile, and brick. Our architect was impressed when we lugged that album in and knew exactly what we wanted. Our first meeting lasted only an hour tops, and he was able to draw the first version of our house plan. I am always looking for better ways to organize, as I know you probably are too.

One of my favorite hobbies is to google decorating ideas. I currently keep an online album of pictures that I refer to for ideas. It may be a picture of a gorgeous throw pillow, or a kitchen island with a great butcher block top. I even save pictures from blogs that I fall in love with. Some of your pictures now have a permanent place in my hard drive! : ) Baby showers are always fun pictures that I love to save and keep a record of. It is a nice place to keep ideas for a rainy day when you have to put something together and you are looking for a little extra "umph". The biggest folder I have is of baby's rooms. I love nurseries, especially those that are really trendy and unique. Here are a few rooms that I have saved in the last week. I love them for different reasons. None of these are from blogs, or I would most certainly direct you their way. But, they are real nurseries in someones home right now. They are not show rooms, which is what impresses me. I hope you are as inspired as I am! : )

And that is how the cookie crumbles....

I am one busy girl! I totally like it that way, but I have really been playing catch up until just today, when things have finally slowed down a bit.

This last Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for a sweet niece of mine, Trish, who is pregnant with her second little girl. It was by far the easiest baby shower I have ever hosted. The plan from the get-go was that I would not be in charge of anything-just having a clean house. I didn't have to do food, games, plates, punch, or even napkins! There were several family members hosting, and I really wasn't in charge of anything, which is nice for a change. All I had to do was have the house open and ready! It woked out perfectly since I had Kiley's visitation. I think God knew that this shower needed to be easy for me. I didn't do HALF of what I had planned- in fact, I didn't decorate at all. We just had good food, a house full of friends, and lots of laughs. It was a shower the old fashioned way- with love and family. I did paint a frame for the nursery though.























Saturday night, David and I drove to Rogers for a date night. We decided to eat at Mimi's Cafe at the promenade. When we first were seated, I said to David, "You know, Kelly Stamps did a post about this place and I swear they were sitting over there in that booth when they took the picture." We laughed about how the blog world is really such a small world and ordered our food. After we ate, we waited on the waitress to bring us our check. David grinned and said, "You will never guess who is staring at you!" I turned around and squeled, jump up, and threw my arms around Ms. Kelly Stamps herself. I hugged her like the total stalker I am. Mind you, we have never, ever met in real life. We totally recognized each other from pictures. In fact, it was Kelly's husband, Scott, who first said to Kelly, "Your blogging friend Jessica is sitting over there!" David came over, shook Scott's hand and introduced himself. We talked like we had always known each other. Kelly was so sweet, and pretty, and warm! She was as wonderful in person as you would expect her to be! It turned out to be such a nice date night! After dinner, we went to the new T.J. Maxx in Rogers, where I bought a really fun new top for Spring.


(Disclaimer: I think I ate my lipstick along with my dinner!)



Today, the weather was so warm and nice. It makes me wish for spring, even though I would still love to have one good snowfall. I seriously question global warming when we are in the middle of February and have had no snow!! David wanted to take a bicycle ride through the neighborhood to look at the new housing construction, but I wanted to spend some time with Bichon who had been cooped up all day. We decided on a walk. It was windy, but very relaxing. Walking for me is like water to my soul! I feel so much happier after I exercise.







Here is the little chandelier from T.J. Maxx that David hung in the guest bathroom. When we desigend this floorplan, I really wanted a guestbathroom that opened onto the sink and hid the potty. I was so tired of the layout in our former house where the door opened directly onto the glorious toliet. This bathroom was designed with some privacy in mind! When you first enter the door, you face the sink and a free standing floor to ceiling linen closet. You actually have to turn a corner to the left to get to the rest of the bathroom. We chose this style over a jack-and-jill layout actually, but that is a whole nother story. : )















I hope everyone is well! Have a great rest of the week! : )