Summertime blues

 Summer has come to a close so I wanted to be sure I had some documentation of it before it all becomes a permanent blur. I have no idea what happened to the summer. I feel like we haven't really done much but then how did it disappear so friggin' fast?? Consider my mind boggled.

My sister and niece came to visit. My Bro-in-law had to stay in Washington and work and we missed getting to have him here but I'm sure he didn't mind missing out on our 100 degree summer days. While they were we got some pics of 'Nana' (my mom) with all her grandgirls.

We took a few trips to Oklahoma. Most recently (and by recently I mean like over a month ago)  to Grand Lake for family lake trip. Now you have to remember that when I say family with my husband's side that means err-body. The Oklahoma family goes BIG, y'all. A small gathering would be us and his immediate family, a regular gathering is aunts uncles, cousins, grandparents. We were so nervous cause lately B's been really clingy around big groups (even family) but she did great!

We all had so much fun visiting with family, playing in the pool, eating, playing games together, snacking, going out on the boat, eating more, golfing, taking the kids on golf cart rides, celebrating birthdays and eating of course. Oh wait, did I already say that? We had the longest drive we've made with B at about 8-ish hours with stops and all. Thanks to the DVD player we got for the car, Brooklyn was a saint for most of the car ride. On the way home we stopped in a Lowe's to let her run out some energy. McD's playplaces just don't cut it.

Daniels parents came to visit for a weekend they brought a cool light fixture that I painted and added crystals to for our entryway.

before (minus the crystals)

after

We had a former Baylor football player and his puppy come stay with us for 2 weeks to train before he had to report for NFL training camp. Those 2 weeks were the healthiest I've eaten all year and the most groceries I've ever bought! The looks on people's faces when they'd see my grocery cart was priceless. Brooklyn still often asks for "Terrance and Ronny" when we get home from school!

We've taken several trips to the splash pad, the museum, and the park had cookouts and lunches and birthday parties with amazing friends from Lifegroup, have had Sunday dinners with my parents and my brother and his family, and have volunteered in the children's ministry on Sundays at church.

All in all it's been a wonderful summer!

Need it or leave it?

Today's post is a request to you mommies out there. The interweb (as well as many retailers and baby sites full of ads) has an alarming list of baby "must haves". Apparently my kid won't survive without at least $100,000 worth of bouncers, bumbos, butt wipes, binkys and bottles. So I'd like to take a survey of sorts and all I want to know is this......

If you were to be a first time mom knowing what you now know, what are 3 things you would call "must haves" and 3 things that were a waste of money/ never used?

I know everyone has different reasons and preferences but wanted to see what pops on the lists the most. Ready......

Set.......

Go........

We love visitors!

This past weekend we had some dear friends from Oklahoma visit.

That's right- someone likes us enough to fly all the way from Oklahoma to come to Dinky Town, Oregon to hang out with us...and they aren't family members!

Of course, after dragging them all over the northwest part of the state they may regret their decision, but at least they got a 4 day respite from the 110° heat in OKC. 82° was probably cold for them. I was too lazy to bring my big kid camera so you get to see point and shoot pics.

We day tripped up to Cannon Beach one day, where we shopped, and ate, walked along the beach, and ate, and drove, and ate. We also hit up the gianormo outlet mall just north of us for some tax free shopping (no sales tax in Oregon). We took them to our favorite fruit stand for fresh raspberries, marionberries, peaches and their amazing milkshakes! They liked it so much we stopped there again later that day for round 2! We spent Sunday at a few local wineries enjoying an amazing brunch, wine tasting, incredible views and lots of laughs.

I love that we have friends who are such go with the flow people. We have our list of things we want to do, but are in no rush to get everything crammed in, there's no set times to be anywhere. It was really just about having a good time, enjoying each others company, and of course eating. :) By the end of the weekend we had walked 200 miles so we just decided to go see a movie and eat sandwiches for dinner! Relaxing ending to a fun weekend.

Next up- wedding this weekend, and a trip back to Oklahoma next weekend (prepare for pictures of me melting)

Home sweet home!

So I got to go home to good ole Waco, Texas couple weeks ago. For 5 whole days! This trip was particularly exciting because I wasn't going back for a wedding, or holiday where you have every second planned and you leave thinking that you didn't really get to see anyone or eat at your fave restaurant. Plus I left my spouse home to so it was just me kickin' it with my family doing whatever I wanted to do. (For the record: I did miss el husbando while I was gone.)

My to do list was short.
Hang out with friends and family.
Shop at Dillard's.
Eat at favorite restaurants.
Pay homage to the Baylor bookstore. (actually I just wanted to finally get my stinkin' Baylor gnome - see below)

Seems easy enough to fit that in to a 5 day trip, eh?? The answer, my friends, is absolutely not when your "eat at fave restaurants" includes 20 different eateries.

Luckily my mom is awesome and understands my affinity for food. I arrived at the Waco airport  to a mommy, a big hug, and a #1 with cheese, no onion no tomato, what-a-sized with a Diet Dr. Pepper!

We headed straight over to Baylor to see my mom's friend Vicky graduate and then stopped at the bookstore where I thought I'd finally get that friggin' gnome that I've been wanting forever. Yeah, I said gnome. I don't want just any gnome- I want the Baylor "foam finger" gnome. Unlike the Baylor "football" gnome, the "foam finger" gnome isn't sport specific and since I love all things Baylor I wanted a non-biased gnome.

They were sold out at Christmas and of course are currently back ordered. *womp wahhhh* And so I will continue wait for more foam finger gnomes or another non-sport specific gnome to become available at the Baylor Bookstore.

Saturday the parentals, my brother and his wife, along with their dog Wookie and I headed to Brenham, TX to see my Granny (who will be 90 in June - holla!) and aunt/uncle and cousins. No trip to Brenham is complete without a stop at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. So we stopped. And we ate. And it was good.

My brother, his wife Kristen and Wookie!

We made our way back to Waco and ate at Shorty's Pizza Shack. For those of you who are familiar with my little hometown you may be wondering how a brand new restaurant can be on my favorites list seeing as I'd never been there. Turns out "Shorty" of said establishment and I bartended together way back in the days of yore and has recently opened up his own place. and it. was. AWESOME! Great pizza, great atmosphere, and of course a most wonderful owner who was nice enough to pop out of the kitchen on a Saturday night and say hi. If you're in Waco- check it out! It's on 12th St. a block down from the "ghetto H-E-B".

Sunday we went to church and had lunch at Clay Pot! Mmmmm spring rolls, pho, and fried rice! I got to see one of my gal pals, meet her hubby and baby and my mom and I hit up Dillard's where I proceeded to have a coronary in the shoe department. $200 later, we left and picked up a shaved ice on the way home. There's not a single sno-cone stand in the state of Oregon so a sno-cone was a must. It was a glorious Sunday.

Monday I got a bonus favorite when we went to see Dr. Ron. Dr. Ron has been my chiropractor since the lovely nurse recommended I see someone about my curvy back after my scoliosis test in the ninth grade. It doesn't help that I'm also, how do you say,"top heavy". We then hit up Leal's for breakfast tacos and I got my usual lunch order to go (yes you read that right- breakfast and lunch!) to eat later because I had already planned to meet with one of my besties for lunch at Schmaltz's Sandwich Shoppe (think Schlotzsky's but wayyyyy better). I'm embarrassed to say it but for dinner my mom and I hit up Georges and ate fried pickles and crazy wings! Perfect ending to a perfect visit!

it's a hunk o' chicken stuffed with jalapeno & cheese, wrapped in bacon and fried (then dunked in ranch of course!)

Lesson for the day: You can't say small towns don't have good food! (I find it humorous that I'm referring to Waco- a city of over 100,000 as a "small town" while the town I currently live in has something like 8,000 haha!)

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend which made getting on the plane that much harder!

Playing dress up

This weekend was the 25th Annual Athletic Auction for our athletic department. It's the biggest fundraiser we do each year to raise money for student-athlete scholarships. It's a fun event to attend for many reasons but my favorite is because it's a great excuse to get all dolled up! :)

I brought my camera for 1 reason and 1 reason only- to get a picture of me and my husband together, not in sweats.

I love my DSLR becuase it takes some amazing pics but on the other hand not many folks know how to operate one. Inveitably I end up never being in any of my pics unless I can beg a stranger to hang around while I adjust settings then try to explain that no the screen isn't broken, you actually have to put your eye to the viewfinder.

 Luckily my work peeps are not only pretty, but they are also good camera button pushers. So I got pictures of all my girls looking stellar and even snagged a couple of some of our student athletes who were there.

I asked for a silly pic and this is what I got :)

Unfortunately, the only pic that was way outta focus was ............

wait for it .............

this one.......

oh well, maybe next year! 

Prom Dress Shopping

I've been on a mission. A mission to find a dress, and not just any dress.

A prom dress.

From the 80's.

Yea....that's right. The 80's.

I'd take the 90's if I had to, but I wanted the blinding hued taffeta, puffy-sleeved hideousness that is the 1980's prom dress.

Me and a few of my gal pals participated in a trivia night fundraiser for the Safe Zone chapter on our campus. Each team came up with their own name (which is dangerous) and there was a costume contest going on as well. We thought we'd 2-fer it and incorporate our costume with our team name so we needed prom dresses. Why you ask? Because our team name was "off like a prom dress." We didn't want new, fashionable, prom dresses because well it's a costume contest and there's nothing costumey about showing up to a wine bar in a trendy prom dress. We would just look like creepy cougars who were trying to cling to our youth.We wanted outlandish.

So Melissa and I made a trip to one of the local Goodwill retail stores to find the perfect dresses. I've donated a lot to Goodwill but this was my first trip in to shop. While there were some truly heinous articles of clothing, I must say Goodwill had some really nice stuff too. As a matter of fact, many of the prom dresses we saw were too current and wouldn't be very funny. The dress selection wasn't near as vintage as we'd liked but we found some glittered, too-short stunners.

Then my husband was forced bribed to join me later that same week to check out a few other Goodwill stores (because there are 5 Goodwill retail stores within a 20 mile radius of our house) Please note there are only 2 Targets within the same area. Problem??? I think so.

And that's when I saw it.

the pic doesn't do the pinkness justice!

*Cue Roxette's "The Look"*

The fuchsia, puffy-shouldered sleeves called to me from across the store.

The giant side bow screamed "Put one exactly like this in your crimped, teased side ponytail!!"

Cut to me getting in the car, grinning ear to ear, 7 dollars and 99 cents lighter and 1 hideous dress closer to the costume contest prize. (Which at this point could be a free root canal for all I know, I just know we are winning.)

So the night arrived, and I was stoked. I even make jankity homemade wrist corsages out of fake flowers, gorilla glue, and a coke zero box!

We got dressed and headed out to the car. The neighbor kids were selling lemonade on the corner...I think we scared them.  We got to Crush and walked in........

and NO ONE.......not a single. other. person. had on a costume!!! We told ourselves "It's still a little early, the costume people will come."

Nope.

We were it. Turns out we didn't win the trivia contest...actually I think we may have finished dead last. Obviously, we won the costume contest. Here's our trophy.

Our dignity however, was no where to be found.

And now for my Mister Rogers moment: Even though we were the only people dressed up, it's great to know that I have awesome friends willing to drink a glass of wine and look ridiculous with me! Love ya Mel and Steph!

Anyone in the market for a fuchsia, puffy-sleeved dress? I'll ship it to ya...fo' free!

Cheers!

Day 9: Friends

Day 9: Picture of your friends


I must say I've got some pretty cool friends and sadly I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. Wether we met while we were in college, have know eachother since Jr.High, or are related...there's nothing like a great friend!


So here are my besties


Me & Amber (AJ)



Mel Me and Amber (baaad hair fay for me!)

at my post rehearsal dinner outing

Me & Donna at the Texas Bowl

Lori, Me, Amber and Donna with Mel on her wedding day!

Kristin, Danielle, Donna, Me, Hayley, Mel, Amber

AJ, Lori, Donna, me & Mel at a Rangers Game

Me & Melly at Fenway

So thankful for my friends!

Christmas Cards

So I'm having a bit of a Grinch moment. Well, an inadvertent Grinch moment. 

We didn't send out a Christmas card this year...actually, we never send out a Christmas card. I figure we don't have a kid, we don't have a dog, we don't even have a plant. Nobody wants to get a holiday card from our two ugly mugs. Not to mention the last good picture of the two of us was at our wedding.  

The past 2 weeks have been a Christmas card jackpot at our house. I open our little mail cubby (no individual mail boxes, it is clustered with 10 of your closest neighbors- P.O. box style) and Christmas cards and holiday greetings just shoot out. It's glorious!! I forgot what it's like to get a piece of mail that isn't a credit card offer, bill, or sale paper. 

I've really enjoyed seeing everyones family photos, and reading about how everyone is doing, especially since we can't see friends and family whenever we want. I mean most of this I already know/see on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Skype, etc., but there's something about opening that envelope! Which leads me to the point of my Grinch moment. Here I am enjoying these holiday greetings thinking "these are so great....Daniel, look how big Sar.....oh crap, I bet everyone thinks we're cranky holiday card haters." I realized that if I enjoy getting all these holiday cards maybe folks do wanna see our ugly mugs.

So I'm sorry for being a holiday card Grinch. Seeing as Christmas eve officially starts in 8 hours Pacific time, please accept this as the 2010 Hare Family Christmas card.....

(done in homage to my new favorite blog du jour, Hyperbole and a Half, that my co-worker Lisa got me hooked on!)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Shop 'Til Ya Drop!

I seem to be surrounded by friends, old and new, who are ridiculously talented which works out well because I don't have a crafty bone in my body...and I love shopping! From jewelry to photography, footwear to graphic design these ladies have got mad skills! I wanted to share their work with all 5 of you who read this and they were all kind enough to let me. 

Happy shopping!

Fancy Footwear

These are Lea's flip-flops (she does crocs too!). We went to junior high and high school together ( I was quite envious of Lea and her sister Rachel's skills in the gym...incredible gymnasts!). Lea will customize them for your favorite team, school colors or to match any outfit! Kids and adult sizes she can do it all and they're only $15 bucks! 

E-mail Lea for more info at aggielea2003@hotmail.com!

 Perfect for game day!

I looove the flowers! 

photos by Lea Swanson

Beautiful Baubles
One of my co-workers, Lisa, makes some super fun jewelry! We got busted shopping in her office the Friday before last. Luckily, our boss is cool and didn't mind (it only took me 20 minutes to rack up a bag full of goodies!) Below are pics I took of what I bought but the best thing about Lisa's jewelry is that she makes something for everyone from trendy, to whimsical, to classic ...it's all there and it's super affordable. You can find her jewelry and other creations soon at http://carpecatto.com/ or her etsy.com store Carpe Catto!

Divine Design
Then we have Anna, one of my co-workers in OKC who recently left the 9 to 5 to pursue her design full time. She has an amazing taste in style in every sense of the word. Clothes, decor, everything! She makes fun custom stationary, invitations, announcements, Christmas cards...your wish is her command! She recently did our "new nest" cards (see below) that some of you may have gotten in the mail (and I'm still mailing some..I know. I'm bad.) . 
Check her out at http://andeverythingniceblog.blogspot.com/ you can also find ...And Everything Nice on facebook too! Contact annaelder@ymail.com

photos and images by ...and everything nice

These are just a few of the bazillion insanely gifted people I know. Do you have a talent that we need to know about?!? 

Whatcha selling?? 

Please share- we want to shop!!

Cheers!