The Wizard of Oz Door

In our family, Travis is the mail checker. He was out of town Monday night… the mail didn’t get checked. I think I’m gonna blame it on most of my life I never had my own mailbox. At my house growing up, we walked to a collection of small mailboxes. If you got a big package, you got a key to unlock one of the bigger mailboxes. It was the same in college, and then I went to apartment life!

So, when he got home Tuesday, he brought in a note from the mail man. We had missed a package that needed a signature. Travis asked me what I ordered… and I had no idea. The name on the slip was my maiden name. I checked my PayPal account because sometimes that shows up as my maiden name. The only thing was the towels we ordered for the lake house and we already had them. It drove me nuts all Tuesday night.

I woke up Wednesday morning and all of a sudden. I knew what it was!!!!!!! I placed an order December 27^th, and it was finally here!!! I didn’t even get an email saying it was finished or that it was being delivered!!! Actually, the last time I checked the website it still said “processing.”

All day, I waited patiently. Then I had a meeting after school at 3:30… I had already said I’m leaving at 4. But the parent didn’t show up until 4…. And I left at 5. I set off to the post office. When I arrived, I read the signs that led me to “ring the bell.”

I approached this stone cold door and rang the bell that had strict instructions above it to “RING ONLY ONCE.” When I rang the bell it sounded like a loud factory bell. I immediately imagined myself in the land of Oz and I was waiting on the Wizard. What was the password? Emerald? Dorothy? Toto? I stood… pondering all of this for about 3 minutes, which seemed like an eternity. Then, a lady walked up behind me. I told her “The sign says to ring the bell only once… I’ve already rang the bell.. but YOU can ring the bell!!!!” She laughed and rang that factory bell proudly. I then told her my theory about the Wizard of Oz theory and she told me she liked my shoes.

3 more minutes pass and we’re in the middle of conversation when the wizard opens the half door at the top!! Except, he didn’t look like a wizard.. but that’s beside the point.

I signed something and he gave me my package!!!!! I drove home as fast as I could and ripped it open immediately.

I used Christmas money to buy myself a beautiful, shiny Baylor ring.

These things aren’t cheap and I did not want to ask my parents for one. I know they would have bought one for me, but I didn’t want to ask.

Especially now, with Baylor continuously in the news, I am so proud to wear this ring. I believe I got the best education for myself at Baylor. I believe I had the best professors who had the best interest in my personal and professional being. I believe I made the best of friends who will be life long friends. I believe the Bear network extends far and wide, and I want to be a representative that exemplifies everything good and right Baylor does.

Sic ‘em Bears.

House of Cards

This weekend was another work weekend at the Lake House… except this weekend, we had beds!! And I was so thankful due to the cards I was dealt this weekend.

The lumberjack card. We began Saturday with trying out our skills for little house on the prairie. Since Naked Nick was mowing his family’s land, I decided I would throw on Travis’ working gloves and join him in chopping down some felled trees. (How do you even say that correctly? I need to work on my lumberjack lingo) I put on my pretty, casual tennis shoes… which made me think.. I need some lake house tennis shoes.. and set off with Travis and Koal in hand. We made some cuts, did some engineering on how to get the tree down without it falling on the house while Shop and Sister Laura Pocket watched from the window, and then I got my work out in. While Travis cut the tree into smaller logs, I would pick them up, and chunk them down the 5 ft rock cliff to where the ranger was sitting. Travis told me to add in a squat and a shoulder press when I threw them, so I did! We loaded the logs up in the Ranger and then stacked them neatly down by the outdoor kitchen, but not too close to the outdoor kitchen in case varmints decided to make the logs their home. Here is our proud, finished product!

The hammock card.  For Travis’ birthday, Jimbo and P gave him an awesome hammock. So, for Valentine’s day, Travis gave me my own hammock so I could join him in his hammocking. After we finished our audition for life on the prairie,  we took advantage of the beautiful sunny and 70 degree weather. It was a beautiful day. We let Koal girl go fetch a stick in the lake, and she loved every second of it. Then, she rolled all around in the grass, which I managed to capture in my selfie picture in the hammock! What a precious little nugget.

  

The Walmart card. The girls then ventured out to town. One reason we all love the lake house because we can say things like “go to town.” We had a few things on our list. Gainesville actually has a great walmart, but we definitely figured something out… don’t go on pay day. It was jam packed and our cashier informed us that the Saturday after pay day is always very busy. Noted sir. We went to Home Depot and got ourselves a new kitchen facet. Then we rewarded ourselves with a treat from Sonic!

We ate dinner and watched the Legend of Tarzan which was fantastic. Shop, Travis, and I played some pool and then we went to bed. Cue the next card.

The stomach virus card. About 2 am I woke up with the thought “I’m going to puke.” I tried to push it to the side, but laid in bed wide awake and unable to do anything but lay on my back frozen. I ran to the bathroom 7 times between 3 and 10 am. This is definitely the reason I was so thankful to have a bed… because I literally did not leave it until 2 pm. My wonderful mother in law drove my car home, and I somehow made the hour drive home without losing it in Travis’ truck. We got home and I made it to the couch where I didn’t move until we went to bed.

The pass the stomach virus to your husband card. This is a first for us. We have never passed anything between us before. We made it almost two years, but oh my gosh did I feel terrible. Travis ran to the bathroom at 4 am and I tried to console him by saying maybe it was just the pizza he ate for dinner. He responded with, “I’m freezing….. and my back hurts.” And I could do nothing but say, “I am so sorry”.

The pass the stomach virus to your dog card. Travis is a mastermind. He somehow made it to his meeting in North Carolina. It wasn’t 10 minutes after he left, that I fed Koal breakfast and was looking for food because I was semi hungry after a day of eating 1 clementine. Then I heard the awful sound of Koal joining in on the fun. I’m really not sure if she got the virus or if she just didn’t want to be left out of the family sickness… 

After this, I quarantined our household. Luckily, I do believe it was just a 24 hour thing, though I still want nothing to eat but popsicles and soup and drink gingerale. Hopefully we are past that and don’t pass anything between us for the next 5 years.

Or better yet, maybe next we will draw the win the lottery card.

Lake House Inspiration

Today, like one hour, and I am headed back to the lake house! I cannot wait to see our room with the bed in it! When Shop Mama and Papa Glen got the lake house, Shop Mama decided on a southwestern theme. My main excitement came from getting to decorate with things a little outside of my normal taste. The lake house is perfect for a southwestern theme. And it all starts with the bed. These were the top options I came up with.

We ended up going with the option from overstock.com. So many of the options are beautiful, but based in deep, rich tones. I really liked how the overall feel of it was light and airy while staying within the theme. 

Next up was looking for inspiration for color schemes and decorations. Here were my top options that I found.

We decided on the colors of orange and a deep teal in addition to our gray. The teal brings in a little more of the bold colors, while the orange keeps it bright!

We are going to put 1 shutter on each of our wall by the bed. Originally, we thought we would look for some big piece of art to go on the wall on my side of the bed. We also considered the idea of making something similar to the wood creation below... but in our colors. When we found the feathers on Tuesday night, we decided to scrap that idea and let the feathers be it!

On the wall across from our bed will be a collage. This wall has the light switch on it, so I might even throw it back to my apartment days and mod podge some scrapbook paper to be a decoration! We have a dream catcher to go on this wall, and picked out some pieces at Hobby Lobby on Tuesday. However, woods and metals go on sale for 50% off on Monday. So, we will wait until then to buy them!

I also bought K cups, popcorn, and clementine halos to take with me today. We’re basically set. What else do you need in life? 

What I Love

My dear friend, Rachel, who I haven’t seen in way too long has been posting to twitter all week of things she loves. And I love it. So, I am going to copy her idea.

I love that my husband suggested to go shopping on Valentine’s day. His idea. To go together to look at things for our lake house room. Good news. We decided on a color scheme and bought our first purchase! It’s feathers. Because I love feathers and I love my duck dude.  More to come on what our room is going to look like!

I love when my sister sends pudgy pictures of my chunky monkey.  When my mom was getting her roof replaced, she heated up one of the workers food in her microwave… his friend said “hungry monkey” when she brought it back. Jude is definitely our hungry monkey…. And I love it SO much.

I love that my love of seafood is back. Last September we went to a wedding in Galveston, and I ate some shrimp and haven’t been the same since. The thought of it repulsed me. Before that fateful weekend, shrimp was in our diet about once every two weeks… or whenever it went on a good sale at Sprouts. Last night, I had shrimp for the first time since then…. And it was divine!!! It was SO good. I kept telling Travis this was the best shrimp I had ever had.

I love when my kids keep me cool. Yesterday I wore the sweater I wore in Napa….. the kids asked me if I was wearing “Yeezy, Season 3.” Aka Kanye. Kanye sells clothes and apparently that sweater looks similar to some of his designs. While I informed my students I don’t buy clothes from Kanye, I was grateful they think I’m cool enough to buy clothes from Kanye.

I love my friends. Monday night we got to support my Sal Pal in her very first playoff game as a 6A basketball coach. And yall. It was phenomenal!!! They were playing a big dog… a huge school that has a 60 million dollar high school football stadium that had to be torn down and rebuilt because of bad construction. Oops! J She was down one point at half time, and we were excited. It came down to 1:36 left and they were tied. At about 45 seconds, they were on a break away and one of her best players, number 24, missed a wide open lay up. It was heartbreaking. They had the ball and the clock was winding down.. 10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5……. At this moment, one of her players picked the girl’s pocket and stole the ball!!!!  And guess who was running down the court open again? Yup, 24. She passed her the ball, she took about two dribbles, and laid the ball in as the buzzer sounded!!!!! They won!!!! And we went crazy!!!!! I have told the story about 15 times since then and I swear it gets better every time. Man, I love those friends! The ones that get so excited with us, and, of course, my Sal Pal!!! On to the next round!!