Four days later

The storm may have happened on Thursday, but it's still causing problems.

We got power back on at our house on Friday and the heat came back on late Friday afternoon, too {thanks to the repair guy making the trek to south OKC for a part we may or may not have even needed}. And, since we had power and heat, John's parents and brother have been staying with us. {Somehow they've been super unlucky and haven't had either since mid-afternoon on Thursday.}

Still, the frustration of this storm continues.

Just this evening we lost power again. Four times. And the fourth time lasted about an hour, and almost caused me a bit of a breakdown.

I'm fine now, and it seems like the power might stay on this time {crossing all appendages...}.

But, so many people and businesses are without anything and their stress level has to be sky high. So, even though I've lost power four times today {have I mentioned we lost power four times??}, I am thankful that we have power now, and heat and a warm place for my family to stay.

Emotions and frustration are worth it to help others.

But I am hoping things get back to normal sooner rather than later {and I think everyone else involved wants the exact same thing}.

Is this Wisconsin?

Ice Storm 2010 is in full effect.

Our power went out around 2:45 yesterday afternoon. And, we got our power back around 1 a.m. this morning. But, it seems like we might be one of only 2 houses with power in our town.

The main downer is that, yes, we have power, but we don't have heat. Somehow the storm knocked out a switch on the heater and we're waiting on the repair guy to bring the part so we can get heat going in the house.

Anyway, this storm has brought us just about everything. Yesterday started with rain, wind and chilly temperatures and by mid-morning ice had already started to accumulate. By around 5 or 6, the rain turned to sleet {which is a blessing, honestly, because more rain meant more ice which meant more trees and limbs would be in jeopardy}.

This morning it was still sleeting but around 10:30 or so, it turned to snow. The tv weathermen {yay, tv!!} say that right now the snow is falling at a rate of an inch an hour and we can expect anywhere from 3-5 inches.

Last night, we had a downed power line across our driveway, and were stunned when around 10:30 p.m. we heard chainsaws and some men were outside our house cutting down trees and fixing the messed up power line.

I have some crazy pictures and I'm taking full advantage of our power to show you guys just what's goin' down in central OK.

Our front "landscaping" {I definitely use that term loosely} mid-afternoon yesterday

same as above, just a little closer

One of our trees this morning. Thank goodness we had this tree trimmed before Christmas.

Same tree

A limb from that tree in our font "flower bed"

trees across the street with many broken limbs

Neighbor's house this morning. Notice the driveway is only icy

Other neighbor's tree that split in half completely and fell into a power line {far left of picture}

Aaaaand, we have snow.

the snow is really coming down

front "landscaping" with limbs down, ice and snow

So, anyway, you'd think we live in some north Midwestern state, but we live in Oklahoma. And, by June we'll be in the midst of hundred degree temperatures. Ahh, the beauty of all four seasons.

A dream come true

I love all things sweet, but when presented with cupcakes, I just cannot resist!

My personal favorite is yellow cake with rainbow chip icing. It just does.not get any better than that!

So, when I was doing my round of blog/website checks, I happened upon outblush.com. This site has lots of great things for girls {and even has a coordinating site for guys: uncrate.com}. One of their posts was for a Mini Cupcake Maker.

What??


This thing makes seven cupcakes in five minutes. Yes, five minutes. Plus, they're mini, so no guilt there {that's what I'm telling myself, anyway}!

I know I've said this before, but if you're looking for something you just have to get me, this might be a good idea. My only issue is finding a place to keep it when I'm not making mini cupcakes {which could, possibly, be never}.

Birthdays!

I wanted to start off 2010 right {a few days late} by recognizing the first couple of birthdays in a 5-month "gauntlet" of celebrations.

The family's newest four year old!

That's Mia in black in the front. That's her signature hairstyle, and I secretly love it.

Our nephew turned FOUR on the 21st and my {super fabulous} grandmother, Mia, celebrated her birthday on Sunday.

We weren't able to be with either of them for their birthdays but we conveyed our love as best we could.

Love you both and we really hope to see you very soon!

Season Roulette

Remember that crazy Christmas Eve blizzard? Well, looks like the great state of Oklahoma is in for it again. And, word is, it could be a little worse {in a shorter time-frame} than last time.

Right now, if the storm takes the "Southern Track," we can expect rain in the morning, freezing rain/ice by noon and anywhere from 3-11" of snow that they say could fall through the night and still be falling by midday on Friday.

Cool.

I guess Gary England's arctic barn door is opening once again. It is still winter, I guess.

But honestly, if it is winter, why are we having 50 degree weather with a serious winter storm on the horizon? C'mon Mother Nature, PICK A SEASON!

.........................................................

On another note, I ran to the store today to get a few things we needed {milk, bananas ... the usual} and picked up some clementines.

My brother had these over Thanksgiving for his two {completely adorable, and, from what I hear, completely tooty} kids. I'd never had one.

But, after eating the whole bag a couple, here is what I've learned: they are super sweet and super good, they are the easiest fruit to peel and they're so small and delicious...a perfect snack!

Pick up some clementines at your local grocery, you won't be sorry {unless you hate them, because then you'll be really sorry that you wasted your money}.

funkalicious

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk for the last 4 or 5 days.

I have plenty of ideas for blog posts, but I either think they're a bit stupid or I just haven't had the time/patience to sit down and put together a decent post.

You might just find that after my dentist appointment tomorrow morning {I hate going to the dentist!} I'll be overflowing with post ideas.

I wouldn't hold your breath, but wishful thinking never hurt anyone. But, more than likely, I'll be back before anyone notices that I haven't blogged since last Thursday.

Odd {wo}Man Out

J and I {and his family} have been on a mission to get passports.

I already had one, thanks to a Christmas trip to central Mexico.

Oh, you're intrigued about a Christmas trip to central Mexico? Let me give you the cliff notes. We drove to Nuevo Laredo to then take a bus {I know...kinda ew!} to San Miguel de Allende. My grandparents had been several times {taking the exact same modes of transportation} and we decided to take a family trip for Christmas.

The city of SMdA was really beautiful and, since it was my first time to Mexico, interesting. One of the main attractions is the Monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains near there for the winter. Yes, we went there and yes, it was amazing. If it's really quiet, you can honestly hear their wings moving. Awesome.

Anyway, we stayed from Christmas eve until New Year's eve. Oh, I may have left out one bit of information: it was 1999. Yes, the world was on pins and needles over the idea that computers might spontaneously combust when the century changed.

Anyway, we made it back to the US, no harm, no foul {minus the crazy "police" with AK-47s and picking up random strangers on our way into SMdA...no big deal.}.

So, because of this trip, I had a passport. It expired back in November, so I thought I was SOL as far as just renewing it went, but it turns out I can do a renewal within 5 years of the expiration. Hello $25 savings!! {No, seriously, passports are expensive!}

But the big bummer for the day was that I have to send all my information in, while the rest of the fam got to get it all sent in at the Post Office. I guess I'll have to cross my fingers that this particular government agency can do their job efficiently. {will you cross your fingers too? I think I'll need all the help I can get.}

Definition

frus⋅tra⋅tion  [fruh-strey-shuhn]
–noun

1.	act of frustrating; state of being frustrated: the frustration of the president's efforts.

2.	an instance of being frustrated: to experience a series of frustrations before completing a project.

3.	something that frustrates, as an unresolved problem.

4.	a feeling of dissatisfaction, often accompanied by anxiety or depression, resulting from unfulfilled needs or unresolved problems.

HMT: Update

Last Sunday was my 5 mile run. I had run 5 miles on the treadmill {during our coldsnap} and thought there wouldn't be a problem doing it outside.

Oh boy... Turns out I had a problem. I was at probably 4.25 miles and my legs just wouldn't go anymore. I had to stop and walk for a couple minutes. And, even though I walked some, I ended up finishing my 5 miles strong. But, the fact that I had to walk really hit me hard.

If I have to walk when I'm doing a 5 mile run, how am I ever going to be able to finish 13?

I did my training all week {4 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday} and I knew that I had 6 mile run coming up today.

Well, on Friday for my 4-miler, I tried a little trick I saw on a running website. At about 2.5 or 3 miles, I popped a peppermint in my mouth and I had the.best.run! I was ecstatic! I know four miles isn't really that much, but after being so bummed about my 5 miles on Sunday, this was awesome!

So, today, I had my 6-miler slated.

We went to a {super fun} 30th birthday party last night, and I was a little worried that my 2 glasses of sangria and beer drinking was going to hinder my run.

NOPE!! I ate some energy beans {I tried the fruit punch flavor} about 30 minutes before and put another pack of them in my pocket {along with my trusty peppermint}. Again, when I was around 2.5 miles in, I popped in my peppermint and I really got into a rhythm!

I finished my 6 miles and jogged for another 3-5 minutes!

This is so exciting for me and I really think that I'm on my way to figuring out what will work best for my on my long runs!

It's baaaack!

I've loved Project Runway ever since {I think} Christmas break my {I think, again...} senior year of college.

I just happened to be flipping through the channels one morning while my mom was slaving a way on some eggs and bacon, and I noticed a wedding dress coming down a runway on one channel. I had already flipped ahead a couple of channels, but once that image was processed, I went back.

I was pumped! This looked like some kind of fashion show. And, then I saw that Heidi Klum was on there and they were critiquing the designs. I remember that Wendy Pepper {the loathed mom from Pennsylvania -- I think...} won this particular challenge. Her wedding dress was pretty normal, except for the peek of red. I loved that little bit of unconventionality and that's what drew me in.

So, here we are. Season 7 started on Thursday. This is the second season on Lifetime {it's first home was Bravo, but because of some lawsuits, it has made its way to Lifetime} and we are back to NYC.

I have to say that there are some very interesting characters on there this go-round. Here are a few of the designers I'm looking forward to getting to know over the next x-number of episodes!

Emilio -- His dress won the first challenge {and won him immunity for the second challenge}. I wasn't so sure about his dress at first. It kind of looked like a mess of purple and weird circles. But, I have to admit that when it came down the runway it looked really cool. I loved the skirt on the dress -- so fun and flirty and when you really looked at the bodice of the dress, it was obvious that he'd worked really hard. The illusion of the ribbons hanging out of the bodice was a nice touch. I'm looking forward to seeing what else he has up his sleeve.

Anthony -- Ok, my first reason that I love him was toward the beginning of the episode. The fourth boy roommate {of one of the boy rooms} had arrived and he was given the "broken" bed in the front room. He said, "That's ok, I'm the skinniest one here. It'll be fine." Then someone else said "well, I'm 145 lbs." someone else said "I'm 154." and another one said "I'm 200." Anthony said, "I need water!" HA! Hilarious. I kind of loved his dress also. It was definitely different and I think fabric looked a little more like upholstery fabric than fashion fabric, but I'm intrigued by his personality.

Amy -- She's young and I loved the skirt on her first outfit/dress. I thought the fabric and volume were awesome and I think she's going to have a lot of really great ideas.

Anna --She's also young, but they showed some pictures of her work and I loved it. It was so sweet and innocent and girly. I also love that she just graduated from RISD and studied print making. One of my favorite things is when people are altogether creative and can turn a love of art into interesting and beautiful fashion design.

Those are my early favorites.

Yay for Project Runway {and Heidi and Tim and Michael all being back!!!}

Heidi "I have a plastic surgery obsession" Montag

Do you watch The Hills on MTV? Even if that isn't one of your guilty pleasures, you surely know who Heidi Montag is {now Pratt, I guess}. She and Lauren Conrad {former star of The Hills} notoriously fought over her relationship with Spencer Pratt, but that's whole other post.

LC {yeah, we're close} has since left the show and The Hills now centers around Heidi and Spencer {sort of}.

Well, it seems Heidi is a little plastic surgery obsessed. According to the cover of People, she had 10 procedures in one day. If you were to see pics of her from her cameos on MTV's original series Laguna Beach, you would be floored to see the differences.

Even after her nose job and breast implants, she still pretty much looked like the same person. But now...I'm not so sure that's the case. She's morphing into someone who doesn't even look real. But, who doesn't love the constant surprised look of an eyebrow lift?

Have you ever seen this girl? I saw her on Oprah one time and she's had some 30 plastic surgeries {don't quote me on that, I can't remember the exact number, but it's up there...}.

I think it's sad that someone like Heidi is obsessed with plastic surgery. She's a gorgeous girl and she's supposedly very happily married {even despite their weird issues with having children}, so I don't understand why someone would want to/feel like they need to change the way they look.

Running: A Pro/Con

I know this blog has been a bit running-obsessed recently, but what can I say. I'm training for a half-marathon, what else should I be focused on?? Yes, you guessed it, nothing.

So, in honor of my newest obsession, I'm doing a bit of a pro/con of running.

Without further ado, here's my list.

PROS:
•It's a killer workout. I ran 4 miles this morning and burned around 400 calories! Talk about killer
•When done in the morning, it really gets my metabolism going {hello extra snacks!}. I love being able to sneak in a few extras when I know I've done my workout.
•The feeling of accomplishing a long run at a great pace is like nothing else! I feel so proud of myself when I can check off my daily training.

CONS:
•It's a killer workout. While running x amount of miles sounds easy, it's infinitely harder than anyone thinks. On Sunday I was doing my 5 mile long-run and after running for what I felt like was a significant amount of time, I checked my Garmin. I'd only run 2.75 miles. I thought for sure I'd run 3.5 miles. That was a bit of a setback. But, perseverance won out, and I finished my 5 miles.
•My feet are not for faint of heart. Yeah, running's great and all, but I couldn't consciously wear open-toed shoes. I'd love to get a pedicure, but honestly, who wants to deal with the running aftermath that are my feet?
•The cold weather. Ok, so that's not really a con of running. But, getting out there and running my allotted distance is tough enough, but throw in morning temperatures in the 20s, with even colder wind chills and getting out of bed to run in that? Tough.

All in all, I think the pros definitley outweight the cons and maybe that's why I'm crazy and have decided to run two halves! I'm committed and plan on doing my 6-mile long run on Sunday.

Bedlam win!

The OU Men's basketball team is {how do I say this nicely?} even worse than our football team.

There were high expectations. About as high as they can be, even after losing the Player of the Year in Blake Griffin, last year. {And, wow, we really miss him...}

We've lost to some not-so-stellar opponents. One game in particular, before Christmas in OKC, we lost to UTEP. Yes, the University of Texas at El Paso. {Which, coincidentally, is where the Sooners won their first bowl game in four years.}

Anyway, we played OSU last night. The mood was pretty grim. Word was that our "leader" Willie Warren was suspended for some unknown violation of team rules. Great. Plus the fact that our coach had kicked the team out of the locker room and prohibited them from wearing any kind of gear with OKLAHOMA on it. Nice. We've got a real nice team, Clark.

Even though the team couldn't hit a free throw to save their life and the refs couldn't see an over-the-back foul {usually on you, 33.} to save their life, we pulled out a win! Granted we had to go to overtime, but wow! No one thought we could win the game! Way to go us.

Maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of something good for the team. But, I'm not holding my breath.

Relax, don't do it...

This weekend has been so nice. We didn't have anything planned, except dinner with Kelly {and really, how crazy and stressful can that be?}.

Friday we had a drink after work, and then laid low.

Saturday we did a little cooking {we made a marinade for some flank steak} and then met Kelly at the Mont. As usual, the food was good and it was really fun to hang out with Kelly. We spend 3.5 hours at the Mont catching up!

Today has been equally low-key. I did my long run {5 miles} and have done a little work and a little laying on the couch.

We plan to cook the flank steak for dinner tonight {I'll let you know how the marinade works out} and make fajitas! I'm so pumped!

How was your weekend?

HMT: Update

Let me tell ya, last week was not my best training effort. Despite my own personal guilt, I think {it's true, I can't really remember} I only ran on Tuesday.

I told myself I'd run. I even took my workout gear to Dallas so I could hop on one of the treadmills that LT's apartment complex offers, but nope. Didn't happen.

So, this week, I know I need to get back on the training train {ha!}, but the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. As trusty Gary England said tonight on the news, the Arctic barn door is open {I know, what?} and won't shut until at least Sunday.

The low tomorrow morning? 20ish, with a windchill of 6...ish. Wednesday morning is pretty much the same, but Thursday...oh Thursday. This is when it gets really interesting.

See, Thursday has decided to throw us a little high of, oh, around 18. And I think, I think, the winds are going to be in the 30 mph range. Suuuhhhweeet!

So, what does all this meteorology talk mean? It means my training has moved from morning outdoor workouts to their evil stepsister of afternoon inside workouts. It always seems to happen that when I have to wait until 4:30 or 5 to get on the treadmill, I'm way less likely to do it. Ugh!

Wish me luck. I hope the damn barn door shuts. And soon. Thank you.

NYE in pictures

So these two are actually from Christmas eve, but I promised these pictures. And, as promised, here they are!

Me and LT

Me, J and LT on about our 40th attempt at a pic group pic!

Some of the girlies in attendance

Chris and J

Chris' footie pajamas

Champagne toast! {ps - you can totally get a plastic cut --similar to a papercut-- from those champagne glasses if you aren't careful!}

Not a whole bunch of pics, but I was having too much fun to catalog our whole night! Happy New Year {for possibly the third time...}!

I could've asked for a better night ... but I had a blast.

I've never really been one to make a lot out of New Year's Eve. In my opinion, it's one of those holidays when you're supposed to have fun, hence, you have minimal to no fun. So, the last couple of years, we've made loose plans in hopes that whatever we choose is chill enough, but still heavy on fun.

This year was no different. Except that it was totally different.

We've tried our hand at going to Dallas for NYE a couple of times, but each time, it just hasn't panned out, and we've ended up staying in good ol' OK. This year, however, we vowed to head south to Big D {I seriously cringe when people call Dallas this...seriously, I'm still cringing because I wrote it.}.

Nothing big. No club. No cover. No posers.

Instead, some friends were throwing a party at their house, which we would {willingly} attend and one of our best friends kindly offered up her own bed as a sacrifice to ensure that we'd be in Dallas for NYE {thanks LT!}.

Our day started with a W for the Sooners in the whatchamacallit Bowl {it was actually the Brut Sun Bowl, but seriously, who even knows what that is??}. Go Sooners! Our bowl losing streak is over!

The game was a lot longer than we thought, so we hightailed it back to LT's apartment to gussy ourselves up a bit before dinner and said house party.

Dinner was at Rocco's, a pizza place near LT's apartment. We were {of course} late, but the pizza was good. And, did I mention that we witnessed a fight between workers in the kitchen? One of the fighters {who also happened to be J's bf at Rocco's} was kicked out...never to return again {until his next shift, maybe?}. The food was good, and we were able to take some back home, for a little after-party snack!

By the time we made it to said party, it was in full swing! There were good tunes and a spread of food that, even after scarfing on pizza and cheese bread {your welcome my end of the table!}, I could hardly keep myself from hovering over.

A midnight kiss, a champagne toast, sparklers, fireworks, tearing up the dance floor and many hilarious one-liners later {hence this post's title, thanks ZB!}, it's 2010 and I can hardly believe it!

I hope everyone had a fabulous and safe NYE...onto the next one, I guess!

Hello Twenty-ten!

Can you believe that Y2K was 10 years ago? Can you believe we've been in the 2000s for ten years?

With all the craziness of starting a new decade, I have a couple of "resolutions" for the coming year. In no particular order:

•I've got to get myself in some kind of cleaning routine. I'm not so much the kind of gal to looove cleaning the house at all times. But, once I start cleaning, I'm usually a cleaning nazi, and if you stop cleaning before I think you should, you {ok, J} will get a dirty look as well as a couple of mumbled not-so-niceties. So, my plan for 2010 is to do a little bit of cleaning throughout the week. And, hey J...I'd like it if you pitche in during the week too!!

•You know this one, but I've got two half-marathons slated for early 2010, and I'd like to keep running and improve my times even after my two races.

•Organize, organize, organize. We have 3 bedrooms in our house. The master, a guest bedroom and our catch-all room. I'd really like to clean that {finally get the filing cabinet to the house, throw unneeded "stuff" away, take stuff to Goodwill/clothes closets, etc.} room out and maybe get another bed. That way, if we have more than one guest, or two male guests, they will each have their own separate bed. It's luxuries that we're trying to proved here, at casa Montgomery.

Those are the big ones {and, really, the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head}. I'm excited about what 2010 has to offer and hope that the new year is good to each of you!

Happy New Year!