An unexpected elderly friend

It appears that we at a boy, a girl and a pug have horrible luck when it comes to having a home phone number. When we first moved into our house I debated on maybe just using our cell phones instead, but we decided to go ahead with it more for peace of mind incase boy's work couldn't reach him or a family member in an emergency. And so far I believe the only people that call us on this number are my parents, boy's parents and Barack Obama. And something tells me after November he will not be calling for anymore pre-recorded conversations.

We began with our first phone number and with in hours of plugging in the phone we realized that the previous phone number owners did not like to pay their bills. Now not only is it bad that we'd get calls consistently throughout the day but more so the fact that when they'd ask to speak to Mr. Marshall (the previous owner) and we'd reply you have the wrong number they'd get really ticked and reply "Yeah right!!". It was a no win situtation and after 9 months of unsuccessfully trying to convince collectors that I was not in fact Mrs. Marshall and if I an extra grand laying around I'd be sure to give it to them so they'd quit calling, I requested a new number.

And with that number came Judy. Oh sweet Judy. Judy is an elderly lady who is in a desperate attempt to talk with Lynn. I kid you not that we receive at least 8 calls a week that go something like this.

Me: Hello?
Judy: Lynn!!!!
Me: No Judy it's me.
Judy: Oh no I've done it again.

And after wishing her well and reminding her to hit the 1 instead of the 8 I become very aware that we will repeat this same conversation shortly. It's sort of like the movie "Groundhog Day"...only worse.

The Tree

I felt we needed to discuss the NCAA standings and I should come clean with an update.

I'm losing.

Miserably.

I've mentioned before I hold a 5 year winning streak and I do believe that will end this year and be forever thrown in my face. My knowledge/luck has disappeared. My trusty Jayhawks are holding on strong so that shall make it all better. But I do have a more pressing issue on my mind. Has anyone seen the Stanford Cardinal mascot before?



It's a tree. I was not aware of this and I must say Friday night's game against Texas provided much humor at the sight of this mascot. I've seen cowboys, birds, lions as mascots but never a tree. And not that the thought of a tree isn't already funny, the costume design is a hoot as well.

I should probably go ahead and apologize for laughing if you are a Stanford fan, but know I was cheering you on to win.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I don't know about y'all, but I always try to keep a "backup meal" in the house. For those random days when we have a last minute meeting or for days like today when the cold has taken you hostage and you've spent the better part of the day blowing your nose while watching Lifetime Movie Network's finest. Melissa Gilbert is such a fabulous actress you know.

BBQ Chicken Pizza is one of our favorites. I always keep the ingredients on hand mainly because they can be frozen very easily or they keep for awhile in the pantry.


Ingredients:
1 premade pizza crust (or you can get a kit that just needs water)
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
Mild Cheddar
Mozzarella
1 cup of cooked chicken (I always buy the frozen precooked chicken that's diced and use it for tons of other recipes too).
1/4 cup red onion chopped (I only add this if I have one on hand)

Preheat oven to 400. Defrost chicken for 3 minutes in microwave, then drain excess water. Mix pizza sauce and BBQ sauce together and spoon over crust. Top with cheeses and chicken. Bke 9-10 minutes depending on the crust you use.


Super easy. Super good.

Blooming Pug

I'm so loving it being spring! I don't know if I can put into words how much I love having my windows open during the day. It's a simple pleasure we Southern folks rarely get to enjoy. And pug is most enjoying the breezy weather. Here he is at my in-laws. Apparently, the ground is repulsive to him.

We had a great Easter weekend and as of Monday night I'm still full. Sunday we had some precious family members over who are awaiting baby #1. After the blessing we all exclaimed how we are officially grownups. It's a rite of of grown-up passage cooking a holiday meal. And kudos to Honeybaked Ham. I have to admit I was just more thrilled that it was fully cooked and I wouldn't have to fear giving food poisoning to our guests, but my word it was delicious. We are savoring our leftovers. I don't believe I'll ever cook a ham...ever!

Today I awoke to the joys of a lovely cold. I'm inhaling water and orange juice praying that this cold is a mistake and not made for me. Please leave me dear cold. I use purell. Although I don't think that's ever the case. In the meantime, I'm going to plunge my whole face into water to relieve the burning in my sinuses.

Happy Easter

What a glorious day of worship, fellowship and great food. I hope you all are enjoying the day as much as we are.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16

I don't believe I sang in the rain once yesterday

It rarely rains in Texas, but when it does it seems to do so all at once. I learned a few things yesterday during the floods that I thought I would take the time to share with you today.

1. Buy an umbrella. Apparently, our house does not believe in the ownership of umbrellas because I could not find a single one. That may be a wise investment to make on my next Target outing.
2. Don't even bother straightening the hair. Why I spent 45 minutes doing my hair is beyond my understanding. I wasn't outside 5 minutes before it went into a ponytail.
3. I don't cook when it rains. This is something I just figured out. My cooking abilities seems to wash away when it pours and I loose all desire to pick up a pan. So we found ourselves chowing down at IHOP because a big stack of pancakes can make the world go round.

The Love Shack

After boy and I got hitched we moved into an apartment or as we like to call it, the "love shack". It was basically an 850 sq. foot puppy pad, because pug felt it necessary to mark every inch. I clearly remember walking around with a bottle of carpet cleaner scrubbing till my hands hurt contemplating putting a pug ad in the classifieds. It was mainly my fault because I picked out our little nest. And did I mention was that this "love shack" was on the third floor of the building, on a golf course. But not some fancy Tiger Woods golf course, a wes learin' how to play golf course where people pretended that they had skills and on numerous occasions I'd be walking pug and a ball would drop right by his head. One time I do believe we almost peed ourselves in fear and when the Jack Nicholson wannabe golfer came round looking for his ball on the green I hollered him over 30 feet to the correct location and kindly remarked "next time try yelling fore as a warning". His reply, "Oh did I almost get you?". So needless to say, Pug had limited safe peeing areas outside and I really can't blame him for preferring the carpet. I mean who really wants to walk down 3 flights of stairs just because your owner decided that we needed 3 additional feet of ceiling height for a more "chic look".

It was all worth it though because we had killer calf muscles from going up and down the stairs and our neighbors thought pug was the greatest dog they ever laid eyes on. We had one set of neighbors who we referred to as "The Smokey Smokerson's" because rain or shine they'd be sitting on their balcony at all hours getting a nicotine fix. They were as sweet as can be and when pug's head got too big to fit in between the railings of our balcony, I'd put him out there for some fresh air. I started to notice that on numerous occasions lots of talking could be heard once I put pug out there. I thought it was just the neighbor's socializing, but one day I opened up the window and realized they were not talking to any neighbor's, they were talking to pug. It was really kind of funny and weird all at the same time. He'd just sit up in one of the lawn chairs on the porch and listen, captivated by the conversations. After awhile it got really sweet and if I came home from work and noticed they were sitting outside I'd put him out there for one of their chat sessions.

The day we moved we loaded up our last box and the Smokerson's hollered down, "You getting that dog a yard?" It almost broke my heart at the therapy talks we were breaking up.

All our "love shack" memories came flooding back as I sat in my office and could hear our neighbor's kiddos on the other side of the fence and knew pug was out prancing the backyard. Every now and then I hear a yelp followed by a "you stupid dog!!!" from one of the kids.

I'm going on a hunch, but I bet pug misses the apartment fame.

The randomness of the day

1. So my plan was to try out some Booscotti I saw last week on Rachel Ray for pug. I know ...I know...baking for a dog. We haven't hit the crazy pet owner title yet, but I'd say we are probably a dog bumper sticker away from it. With my bumper sticker phobia I'm betting it's a pretty safe bet to say we won't claim that title.

Anyway back to the treats. Pug loves his treats...it's a glorious word for him to know because it at least gives us some hope of controlling him. I had all the ingredients on hand, except for the carob, so I was just going to eliminate that from the top and try them anyway. I pulled them out of the oven, looked back at the recipe and realized it said baking powder instead of baking soda. DOH! Before I test them out on my little four-legged friend I better google the effects of dogs and baking soda. I'm just too tired to go the the emergency room vet tonight. This is what happens when you attempt to watch Big Brother and bake at the same time.

2. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! What a fantastic win and after 4 days of staring aimlessly at a television watching the Big 12 we forced ourselves step outside and join the real world.

3. I flipped towards the end of the HGTV Dream House giveaway tonight hoping that my house had a camera crew in front and I also needed to see if I needed to reapply my make-up. No such luck. Did anyone happen to catch the winner's expression? I have to say if I was just given a house...on a beach...fully furnished with a brand spankin' new car I'd be screaming like a mad woman.

4. So I got board with the blog header...AGAIN! But now I'm having second thoughts about this one. I kind of think I liked the other better.

5. I'm attempting to cook my first Easter dinner this weekend. Oh my. I can cook, but get rather nervous with large things of meat. Today at the grocery store I thought I'd breeze past the hams. I was sort of looking for one that's straight out the oven, plated works too. They must have been out because I couldn't find one. Any recipe suggestions would be much appreciated or I might be serving Hot Pockets instead. Fancy!

Have a happy Monday!

27 days

Just say it ain't so. 27 days until we are reunited. I can hardly contain my excitement that on April 10th my t.v. viewing will be complete.

Because I couldn't think of anything better to write about

I sat down to write something really profound and beautiful and then I was all like nah, let's make fun of myself in old school photos. So much more entertaining right? I snagged a few of these out of my mom's scrapbooks (sorry mom I put them back). Why do I have this gut wrenching feeling that I'm so going to regret this post?

Oh well, lets take a look at the first one shall we?


I like to call this piece "First Grade: Sandals Jamaica". Doesn't the large wicker chair scream "put me on the mantel"? Gotta love it. And then the outfit. Which by the way was not coordinated to go with the scenery, sadly that was just purchased and hung in the closet along side the overall collection. You just never know when you might need a hot pink and lime green sailing outfit do you?

Oh and lets breeze on down to the next portrait titled "Moving cattle with large bangs and braces".

Oh my stars. I do believe that this qualifies as a "Fierce Hot Mess". Thankfully the picture is only from the chest up and is eliminating the humility of the penny loafers that are strapped to my feet. Yes I do believe that you will not be seeing any of these items on any episode of Project Runway.

And I think I'll save myself the humiliation of the 80's Glamor Shot pictures. I do want to keep some dignity.

It's that time of year again

First off, a gazillion thanks to inworship for coming to my computer rescue and giving me the low down on firefox. I just did links in one click. The tears are flowing for a bloggy miracle.

I love the months of March & April for one particular reason. NCAA.

Shall I say more. Sort of shocking I know. I surprise myself. I've mentioned before that we are HUGE Kansas Jayhawk fans. The crimson and blue runs through my veins. By the age of two I learned that a Kansas State wildcat was a dirty word and we were never to wear purple under this roof.

Seven years ago we created a family NCAA bracket pool. It started out with just the three of us and we take it week by week to predict our wins. All strictly for fun. But let me back up and talk about my dad. He breathes, sleeps and lives ESPN and anything sports related. He is the college basketball guru. The odds were not in anyone's favor to compete with a man of his knowledge. And the first year he proved that with an impressive win.

But then the next year I won. And the year after that and after that. I now hold 5 consecutive wins.

When boy got into the game a few years ago he thought he could set me straight with his abundance in knowledge too. I'll admit I feared my winning streak was over. Nope.

It drives them crazy mainly because I know diddly squat about the world of college basketball outside the Big 12. It took me until well honestly, today to find out that Gonzaga was in the great state of Washington. And all these years I thought it was in Nevada...huh! The joke is that my picks come from my favorite colors and mascots. Not totally untrue. I really am liking the burnt orange this season in spring wear, so who knows.

That technology gets me every time

Oh no I gone and done it.

I do believe I heard your gasps threw the big wide web as you read my grammar post. Let me save myself here and first say I LOVE my mac. Its been oh so good to me and has been one of the best investments we made. I was trying to say that I have never used blogger before on anything, but on the mac, so I was surprised to see features I do not have. So dear smart and intelligent friends that read the mac manual, what am I doing wrong?

Case in point...creating a post. I found that the PC gave me more options like linking, etc. in this stage of blogging. On my mac I do not have those buttons. Here's a fancy picture to show you what I'm talking about.

I'm sure there is some way that you can capture the image on the computer and make it look classy. I instead decided for a more ghetto approach and tilted my screen at just the right angle then took a picture, mind you after I wiped the cheeto crumbs and dog snot off the screen.

Now let me ask you this, do you have a button you can link things too or do you manually punch in the HTML code like me?

Any words of wisdom for my mac mystery?

And completely off the subject, because I'm so random, there is a great bloggy book club starting at the end of the month here . I had just been telling boy I'd love to get in on a book club when I came across the link on Boomama's site . The book is "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace. I know, I know boy is probably think but "Megan, you are an excellent wife already!" Haha. Beyond my bad joke, this looks like a powerful read and I'm thrilled for the way God is going to open up are hearts and minds as we discuss it from our computers of all things. That crazy technology.

From flip-flops to long johns

One of the greatest things about living in Texas, besides our abundant usage of the word "y'all", is the unpredictable weather. We headed out for a quick visit with my family to the lake just a short drive from our home. Yesterday we were toying with the idea of taking the boat out on such a beautiful day and today we were considering snow skiing.



24 hours ago...all warm and sunny.


Pug molesting his new friend on a playdate.


Today...a little chilly.




A pug who would rather be inside. I don't think he is planning on making a big move up north anytime soon.

An error in the grammar

Oh my forgive me. I'm just coming out of denial and admitting to the fact that I am a horrible speller. Or maybe just really lousy at grammar. Or both. With my blog posts lately you wouldn't have believed that I graduated college or competed in the 7th grade spelling bee.

Oh wait I lost the spelling bee I think on like the second word. So never mind. And now that is a word that I could spell in my sleep because it is forever embedded in my mind.

I had published my previous post the other day and came back a few hours later and saw that I had totally misspelled some rather 2nd grade level words, so I sat horrified and rushed back in to blogger and fixed them. Forgive me. You poor people that commented must have just been humoring my rubbish that made no sense. Bless you for that.

And I'm feeling confident about this post being error free because we are at the lake right now and I am using my mom's computer, a dell, and I've discovered all these fancy features that PC offers in blogger that a mac does not. What is with this? If I spell a word wrong it is kind enough to let me know automatically. I can link without having to type in the whole html code all by my lonesome self. This is fancy stuff. Am I missing something?

For which I was left rather speechless

Here is a random Sunday school conversation a few weeks back.

me: Hey y'all let's throw out some names of people that are out there glorifiyng God whether it be their actions or words.

kid #1: My mom!!

me: great answer love that!

kid #2: Tony Dungy !!

me: awesome person... great brainstorming!

kid# 3: Lindsay Lohan!!

me: Well...um...well....no I would have to say no.

Oh bless that sweet child's heart, I do not believe that we are reading the same People magazine. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe to have read that Lohan was out sharing the Gospel at bars.