TGFM

Do you ever have one of those times where you just think, Thank God for Mommas? I do. And boy, am I thankful for mine.

And I came across this on Pinny and thought I just might have to have it framed for my Mom. :-)

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” - Cardinal Mermillod

That is all. :-)

Car Wars: The Finale

Well we have an addition to our family. Meet our new baby! (No, not that kind of baby. We don't have pets or children so I sometimes think of our things as our children)

It was long over-due but Greg now has a new car! It's a GMC Terrain and he's in love. He was so excited to play around with all the new features that he chose to listen to the World Series game on the radio instead of watch on TV.

I've told you before that I'm socially awkward when car-shopping, apparently, but I'm happy to announce this purchase went off without a hitch.

I mean, I reeeeeallly wanted to look the salesperson dead in the eye and ask him if the car came with Lorenzos on Yokohama tires (bling, bling), but I resisted the desire after the cold shoulder I received from my joke with the last sales guy.

Anyways, we had originally been deciding between the GMC Acadia (my pick) and new Ford Taurus (Greg's choice), but after test-driving them both, we ultimately decided the Taurus just felt too small, but the Acadia felt like a bus. So, Greg came across the Terrain: it's smaller than an Acadia, not too "chick-like" like a Ford Escape and it's American. Buying American was an absolute must for my very patriotic hubby. (For full effect, please cue Toby Keith's "Angry American" song, if you will.)

So, here's our shiny new baby:

Funny enough, when we originally decided to purchase we didn't realize it had cool features like a car-reversing camera or a DVD player with TV screens in the headrests, which we think is so cool! (Uh, we are simple people. It does not take much to impress us.) Then, we realized it was kind of hilarious because, um, who's going to watch them? We have no children, no pets, nothing. I can just picture myself sitting in the backseat on our car trips, prissing the hubby around like he's a chauffeur. Driving Miss Lauren, anyone?

But I'm so happy for my hubby to have a sweet new ride!

Master Bedroom Part Deux: Color Scheming

Remember when I said I've been dying to re-do my bedroom? I still am. Progress? Eh, not so much. I mean, unless you count ordering and installing a headboard as major progress. I'm traveling or busy pretty much every weekend this month so I'll have to keep dreamin' a little bit longer.

I've decided on a color scheme and the hubby is totally on-board. It's going to be our Navy & Orange room! Yes, apparently I like to theme rooms after color duos (just like my gray and yellow guest bedroom). Oddly enough, I was cruising through my Blog RSS earlier today and one of my favorite blogs is also tweaking her room with orange and navy accents!)

It was actually this inspiration from Pinny that helped me make the decision:

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The wall are already painted a neutral oatmeal color with a chocolate brown accent wall, but we currently have no color (except our comforter, which we've recently decided is fugly).

Fugly comforter:

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So, while I won't be making any progress for at least the next 2-3 weeks, I'm hoping maybe I can inspire myself to get moving. So here goes...

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I just love this look; not so much the color scheme, but it's so warm and comfy!

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($479 price tag. Eesh.) As the hubby would say, "Save your money!"

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In the spirit of navy and orange, I'm actually sort of lusting over this dress. But I'm really not sure if I like the dress or I want to make a pillow out of the fabric... Either way, I think it's pretty fantastic!

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Our first goal is (still) to get furniture, then lamps, bedding, and finally decorate/do wall art. I'd like to say it won't take long, but... doesn't it always?

Well, I have to go. I'm really busy tonight watching the DVR'd Kardashian wedding special. Like I said, I'm very busy.

Gifting

Every once in a while, something comes along and it's like, wow, was this made for me? Like my fave condiment in the world - ketchup - or the movie Elf ("I'm SINGING. I'm in a store and I'M SINGING!") or my husband (cue the "awwwww") or - well you get the picture.

Recently I've come across a few items that when I saw him I had the similar ketchup/Elf/husband (editor's note: though not necessarily in that order) feeling.

1. I love me some potato chips and I also love bows. Bows on shirts, bows on headbands, bows on purses, you name it. Bows on... chip clips? Yes. Yes!

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2. I love the eff word. I've told you this before, so when I came across this next item, I literally busted out loud at the thought of being able to place these labels in random places, on signs, etc.

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3. And then I came across this magnet and I'm not sure anything describes me more.

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(Side note: when the hubby and I were in college and dating, he took me on camping trips twice - once for a concert weekend and once on a float trip. I cried and he took me home early. Um, both times.)

And then what with all the celebrating I've been doing lately (weddings, babies, etc.), I've come across a couple of gift items that I just might need to buy.

For the mommy-to-be:

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I know I'm not a Mom, but I think this is hilarious.

For the bride-to-be:

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Um, enough said.

For the friend that's always late (ahem, you know who you are):

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Looks like my gift list is taken care of! Happy Tuesday!

Celebration Marathon

It has been (and will continue to be) a whirlwind, celebratory month. It kicked off last weekend driving to Oklahoma (trip #1) for my friend and pledge sister's baby shower. Next weekend, I'll be in Oklahoma next weekend again for another friend/pledge sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party. And (you'll see a trend) we were in Oklahoma THIS weekend (trip #3) for a VERY exciting weekend.

My bro-in-law proposed to his sweet girlfriend on Friday night and we were excited to be able to attend the surprise engagement party on Friday as there was lots of celebrating to do!

We found out a few weeks ago that he would be proposing the same weekend we were coming to visit so I started thinking what would be a cute engagement gift I could buy for my sister-in-law to be. I love themed gifts and when I came across this cute "housewarming basket gift," I thought I could definitely re-purpose the idea for an engagement gift!

Here's what I came up with:

It consists of bridal magazines (a rite of passage for all brides-to-be, if you ask me. The only time in your life that it's not creepy to buy bridal magazines!), cute thank-you cards (for all the fun showers, bachelorette parties that will be thrown for the bride), a bottle of champagne (for obvious reasons) and a little ring dish (to keep by - but not too close to - your bathroom sink or in your bedroom to hold your wedding rings when you're not wearing).

I came across this adorable Etsy shop (all her items are hand-made and ceramic) where I ordered the ring dish from and just had to share!

I love the simple, yet so sweet "forever" text on the ring dish.

I was walking in to the engagement party all excited for the night and for my cute basket when I literally saw at least two other engagement baskets and about 6 other bridal mags from her friends. So, while I was mildly deflated that my engagement basket wasn't ground-breakingly creative, it turned out really cute!

While I didn't take a ton of pictures, here's a cute one of the fam:

We were able to attend the Oklahoma State football game the next day with the happy couple - Go Pokes!

All in all, a wonderful weekend. Let the celebrations continue!

Scary Stuff

How is it that it's already October? I have no idea. I swear it seems like yesterday was the snow storm, then starting a new job, the blissful beginning of pool season and suddenly the stores have Christmas decor out in the stores. Scary, right?

The only thing scarier than how fast time is flying is the fact a few neighbors have gone to trashy-town with their Halloween decorations. Greg and I were out of town last week and as we were pulling back into our neighborhood, I realized that suddenly there were Halloween decorations everywhere. Which is great! I think it's nice that they decorate, but a few select neighbors have gone too far.

It appears to be a theme I'm seeing over and over. Several neighbors have opted for the inflatable Halloween decor. (We saw the same thing at Christmas.) Maybe it's because I don't have kids, maybe it's because I don't go overboard decorating for holidays, but this is just not something we can get on board with.

Here are just some of the blow-up Halloween decor on our street.

Seriously?! You are trying to sell your house.

And the main issue is this - when it's not inflated (like during the evening or in the morning), it looks like this.

I know you're probably all thinking, OK, you took the time to creep on these innocent, holiday-loving neighbors via an iPhone camera while driving slowly by their houses (and the answer is yes, yes I did), but my point is this - if the homeowner's association is going to call us out not one, not two, but THREE times, for minor issues, yet they're fine with this trash? This should be a governance issue!

Maybe I'm just lame, maybe it's because I don't have children and get super in the Halloween spirit, but come on people. Clean it up. Come Christmastime, I'm going to be going after the inflatable Santas with scissors. Watch out! :-)

Resting Our Little Heads

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am absolutely dying to re-do our master bedroom. I had some ideas for bedroom furniture/headboards and luckily people pointed me in the right direction. We were loving these two headboard, but what we actually wanted was something in between both (the scroll shape with nail heads outlined). Lucky for me, one of my pals, Emily, even pointed me in the direction of a headboard really similar to the West Elm ones I had mentioned but this one was several hundred dollars cheaper and from... JC Penney! I know, I couldn't believe it either. (I didn't even know they had headboards!)

Since it was online-only, we sort of just had order and cross our fingers that it would work. But the price was too good to turn down. It was originally over $1,000, on sale for $599, but of course being the savvy-shopping sistah that I am, I found a promo code, which took about an additional 25% off. So with tax and shipping, we paid about $550. At least $200 then what we would have spent on the other options. (Um, holla.)

The little guy was dropped off on our doorstep. It was HUGE. Whoa

(You'll notice my hubby in the background, who is obviously just as excited as about our new arrival as me.)

Last weekend, we put it together (read: my husband put it together while I offered support and positive reinforcement) and got it all set up.

We're really happy with it, but it just makes me want new bedding (already picked out, actually), new furniture and to decorate.

I'm aiming to pick out and buy new furniture by November and from there I'm going to start piecing together the decor (more to come on that later, though) and hope to have it mostly complete by the end of the year.

In the meantime, we're loving the new addition to our bedroom!