This will be the second year in a row that Jesse and I don't have a tree topper on our Christmas tree. This may be no big deal to some, but to me the tree looks incomplete and we can't agree on what it should be. I want something traditional like a star and of course Jesse disagrees but he can never give me an idea of what to put on there.
Here's what we have so far: I like: star Jesse likes: ? ( I am guessing something a little more modern) Reject ideas: We both agreed to not do what our parents did, a stocking cap or bow. Also no angels, they creep me out.
I was having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year for some reason. The first week of December did not feel like December. Slowly through out the past week I put Christmas decorations up, but still no Christmas spirit. It wasn't until last Saturday when we went to get our Christmas tree that it really felt like Christmas. There is just something about the tree that makes the holiday more special. Now the decorations, lights and tree are all up and it finally feels like Christmas...good thing too because it is only a few weeks away!
Here's the making of Christmas in the McKee household...
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...(all we are missing is a fire)
Putting up outside lights. We don't have a ladder so we just decided to decorate the bushes. Finding just the right Christmas tree.
This year we got a Fraser Fir, they have the perfect branches for hanging Christmas ornaments and they smell wonderful! Decorating the tree The finished look
Just a thought: For so many people Christmas will come and go without decorations, lights, a tree or presents. Think about about it...No, do something about it and give to someone who may not have any of these things this Christmas.
I have much to be thankful for this year and the Thanksgiving holiday always reminds me to be thankful for what I have. I am thankful for...my faith, family, friends, my awesome and amazing husband, my new house (and garage! Love it during these cold days), health, work. Well, I think you get the idea.
This year we were at my parents for the holiday. There was lots to keep us busy while hanging out with our niece and nephews.
Jesse, Lillian and Lucas on the four wheeler...it was very cold, but that could not stop them!
Lucas opening his early b-day gift. I just love those Little Golden Books.
Jesse chilling with the newest nephew Wade.
Spending quality time with his aunt.
Jesse also snuggled up this little guy (for those of you who don't know Jesse, this is a very rare thing).
Nathan opening his b-day gift. He was so excited to get a train.
Even Wade got a gift, it's hard to see it on his face, but he loved it :)
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
-Heather
Here are some pictures of my Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Jesse and I took a quick trip to Branson, MO this past weekend. It is only a few hours away from us and Jesse and I have a goal to do all of our Christmas shopping by the end of November (hint, hint family members, I need your lists!) and Branson has outlet shopping as well as tons of other shopping. However we were totally unmotivated and overwhelmed when we got there that we were not in the mood to Christmas shop on Saturday. We literally went through 2 shopping centers in about 3 hours, which if you know me, that's a miracle. There were so many people! It was way too crowded and they already had Christmas music playing...it was just too much. Jesse and I both have a rule not listen/watch/decorate or basically have anything to do with Christmas (except shopping of course) until AFTER Thanksgiving. So we were Grinch's. However the Christmas spirit broke through by Sunday because we were back out shopping and singing all of the Christmas songs. I was afraid I would not get the songs out of my head, and luckily I came home to my nice FALL decorated home and it felt like Thanksgiving was near once more. All I need to do is hold out for another 9 days and then I will be singing "Jingle Bells" and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" for a solid month!
View of the pretty sky as we shopped
They had lots of Christmas decorations up
Taking a walk down by the river
All-and-all it was a great weekend getaway.
In other news: My nephews birthday was yesterday, he turned 2! I can't believe how fast time flys.
According to my poll the majority (of all 2 people) would NOT pay big bucks to see a favorite celebrity, sorry Ben/Brad and all of you others. That event I was talking about was last week and I heard that Ree Drummond was there (the Pioneer Woman) and that several people attended which is great for all the non-profit organizations the event benefited.
Remember my blog about Ben Affleck? Well I had high hopes of "bumping" into him while in Bville and they are leaving in a few weeks because they are done filming and unfortunately I had zero luck of even catching a glimpse, well that all changed today because I SAW BEN AFFLECK! I saw him shooting a scene downtown while I was driving. I don't have a picture, but I can still say I have seen him and I mean he was facing me, only a few feet away, and I was at a stop sign so I got a pretty good view. And I am not for certain, but the girl he was shooting the scene with kind of looked like Rachel McAdams (her back was to me, but she is for sure in the movie). I guess I will have to wait until the movie comes out for me to know for sure.
I know you may think this is childish of me and that I should just think he is just another human being, and he is, but it is totally different when you are in a small town in OK and celebrities are hanging out at the places where you hang out.
Here's a question for you...The film crew is having a fundraiser for Bartlesville which will benefit certain organizations and they are doing a celebrity poker game. By invite only, you can pay $250 to attend the social event for the poker game OR you can pay $1,000 to actually play poker with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams or Olga Kurylenko. The question is, would you pay, for any celebrity for that matter? Now I did not get an invite (my boss did) so I don't have to actually make that decision. Now I don't think I would, but if it were Brad Pitt I think I might scrap up the $250. Anyway vote yes or no on my side panel.
Jesse and I enjoyed the Halloween festivities this weekend. Saturday we went to OKC to see The Phantom of the Opera ballet with friends Kacy and Kelli. We all went to Bricktown to eat at Zio's Italian Kitchen, walked around downtown and then it was off to the ballet. The ballet was amazing. We were a little disappointed though that it wasn't really the music from the play and of course there was no singing which for me is what makes the play so awesome.
In front of the Civic Center in OKC
Friends Kacy and Kelli
Viewing the art...a very grown up thing to do :)
Sunday I put up more fall decorations around the house (thanks to Kirklands 50% off sale) and then patiently waited for trick-or-treaters to arrive.
I waited and waited and finally the doorbell rang and I got so excited. Here was my first trick-or-treater.....
As I opened the door I started to say "trick or tr...." and then it was followed by "oh, it's you." Jesse felt bad that no one had come to our house yet so I guess he thought he was doing me a favor by getting my hopes up. He would not come inside either till I gave him a piece of candy, what a kid. We did however have about 10 trick-or-treaters. I was disappointed by the turn out. I blame the City of Bartlesville for not taking a "stance" on when Halloween trick-or-treating would be...DUH it should be on Halloween, right? However many churches had their trunk-or-treats that Saturday so I am guessing many parents wanted their kids in bed at an early time for school.
The question is what would/did you do? Allow your kids to trick-or-treat on Halloween (even if it is a school night) or take them on another day? I have my opinion, but then again I don't have kids :)
Another thing, what happened to kids saying "trick-or treat," "Happy Halloween," or even "Thank you" ? A little appreciation goes along ways. The (few) kids that said those things got a very generous helping of candy from me and those that didn't...well they got the banana laffy taffy that no ones wants. Wow, that makes me sound mean.
Let's end on a happy/friendly note, Happy Halloween!
The great debate in the McKee household over the past few months has been over pillows (of all things).
I have brought home six pairs of pillows over the past three months or so! Yes, six! You just never know what the pillow really looks like until you get it home, and even then if I liked the color it had to pass the husband.
The Pillow Fight: Pillow 1: Burnt Orange, The Problem: Jesse thought it looked too much like Texas orange. Pillow 2: Lime green and brown. The Problem: I know what you are thinking, the colors actually looked good together, and I loved the pattern, but it had fringe on it and that made it look old lady(ish).
Pillow 3 & 4: Patterned bright blue with a fun solid green pillow as an accent. The problem: Jesse hated the color combo, but I liked it.
Pillow 5: Patterned multi-color circle pillow. Problem: not enough color, too beige, plus Jesse thought it looked like a clown pillow.
And then finally, one day as I was too tired to shop and it was raining outside I decided to push through Bed, Bath and Beyond one more time and there it was, my perfect pillow (or at least in my mind). It was colorful and had the right shades of green (my favorite color) to match our fun and funky green chair. Plus with all of the other colors in it I can now have a wide array of accent color choices to decorate the room with.
THE WINNER
The lesson I took away from this pillow hunting experience: I should be thankful that our only marital problems are what our living room pillows should be. And I should be thankful that Dillard's, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Pier 1 all have excellent return policies.
-Heather
Vote: See my voting panel to decide which accent color I should go with- purple, blue, green, or orange.
As I was listening to my daily radio station the other morning on my way to work, the radio hosts were discussing this new(er) line of all natural make-up called Earth Angel Minerals.
This make-up was created by a lady named Christine Keeter in Claremore, OK and it is an organic make-up. According to the radio station it "feels like silk". Apparently her make-up was worn by a few celebrity's during the 2009 Emmy Awards. When I heard that, I thought "expensive!" but no, it's sold on etsy for no more than $10 (depending on what you get). I wear Bare Mineral make-up and love it, but I think I will be trying out this healthier, cheaper make-up soon. I'll let you know how it goes.
You can check her out on her blog, facebook or etsy. And although I wish I were being paid for this little advertisement, I am not. I just wanted to share my new found knowledge for all of you mineral make-up people.
My parents came to stay with Jesse and I this past weekend. This was my dads first time to Bartlesville, so we got to give him the grand tour of our house and of the town.
Saturday we went to Woolaroc ( I have blogged about this before). I guess this is the place we have been taking most of our guests. It is a really neat place and the weather was beautiful on Saturday.
Friday night we went to Tulsa to see my brother and SIL. Went out to eat at a yummy place called Te Kai's (Asian Kitchen). And although I did not get the chance to go in it (who closes at 7 p.m.?), but for all of you Anthropologie fans, there is now one open in Utica Square.
Sunday was church, out to eat and then my parents headed out. We all had a great time. Thanks for visiting mom and dad!
So I have not blogged about this yet because I did not want to get carried away with the topic, but I might as well...
So Bartlesville has turned Hollywood, sort of. The Rose Bud film production is filming a movie here in Bartlesville and it is staring....BEN AFFLECK! And yes that did deserve all caps and an exclamation mark. Other names in the movie are (supposedly) Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurlenko (the girl off of one of the newer James Bond movies, Quantum of Solace), Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz. The only ones I for sure know are in the movie are Ben and Olga. I have met several people who have seen Ben and his lovely wife (Jennifer Garner!!) but I have yet to "bump" into anyone famous. That ALMOST changed today, I was so close to Ben but I could not see him. They were filming in my building today and he was just floor above me! I was so excited, I was just hoping they would stop by the United Way office to say hello...yeah right, but I can dream.
I have had the opportunity to meet the community relations person for the film crew on several occasions, but that is as close as I have gotten to the film crew.
I have heard that the name of the movie is "Day's of Heaven," but that could be all talk. I do know that is it a Romantic Drama.
They will be filming until November, so there is still hope for me to run into Ben and if I do, the blogging world will be among the first to know.
I am almost embarrassed on how pathetic my fall decorations look, but this is my first year to decorate for fall so the plan is to start small and build throughout the years. This year I am just focusing on the outside of my house and I am proud to say that I am the only house on my block that has decorated for fall so at least I have that going for me.
I planted orange mum's and I am hoping they will bloom soon, that will really add some color to my front porch.
I have feeling for Christmas I will be going all out on my decorations...and by "all out" I mean outside lights!
On another note, Jesse's dad came for a visit this past weekend. It was a Saturday and Sunday full of watching football for the boys. I enjoy some football but not 2 day's worth which is why I finally got motivated to decorate for fall. We all had a great time though, always love it when family gets to visit. Thanks Mike for coming out to see us, Kim we missed you!
I think this is the first time in two weeks I have had time to check my blog, e-mail's, facebook, etc. OK, so that may be a little exaggerated, but not by much. I have been working my tail off at work recently. The past two weeks I have been getting to work by 6 a.m. and some night's not leaving till 8 p.m.
The good thing is I love it! It's fun work. I am not pushing papers at six a.m., I am setting up for a golf tournament or a breakfast for volunteers and my evening work consists of having a street party, socializing, eating yummy foods and listening to music. But somehow it is still exhausting. There is a lot of behind the scenes work to prepare for these fun events and at the end of the day I am beat.
To sum it all up, I am tired! I have never felt so tired in my life. I have developed an eye twitch which I have always heard it due to lack of sleep and stress and my poor right eye can't even open for a few minutes while I have a "twitch episode."
This weekend it no work but Jesse and I are volunteering for an organization called Family Health Care Clinic in order to raise money for women who can't afford yearly mammograms. And then in the evening we are attending a YMCA event. Should be fun, but no rest. I plan on catching up in December when work calms down, until then I will have an eye twitch.
First of all I have to say I LOVE Ikea! And I have grown more fond of it ever since we got a house that we needed to decorate. This past weekend Jesse and I went to Dallas, TX to visit his uncle and aunt, which they happened to be conveniently located close to an Ikea which was a major bonus.
We got to his uncles house late Friday night (no thanks to traffic), so we pretty much said our hellos and then crashed. Saturday was fun and eventful. We went to Ikea, ate at 5 guys burgers and fries (which Jesse loves), watched football, walked/drove around their beautiful neighborhood and went to a neighbor hood block party. Sunday we went to church with them and went downtown to eat and visit the place where president Kennedy was killed. We left Sunday afternoon to head back to Oklahoma and Monday we just relaxed, cleaned and got caught up before work started again.
Out and about in their neighborhood
X marks the spot...unfortunately this is where Kennedy was shot and killed.
Our new chair from Ikea, surprisingly really comfortable.
New lamps (Ikea) for the bedroom- we got the black and white shade.
I added some pops of color in our guest bathroom and I love it!
Recently, Jesse and I have been trying to think of ways we can cut back on what we spend. Here is what we have been doing so far:
1) Cut off Netflix
2) Take packed lunches to work instead of going out to eat
3) Only eat out one time a week ( I still refuse to cook after church on Sundays)
4) Turn the air condition up to 80 while we are gone during the day
5) Cut coupons for groceries
This last one has been a challenge. I have to be really careful what coupons I use because half of the time it is stuff I would not usually buy, so in the end I spend more! I mean come on, do I really need to try that new type of ice cream that is 10 cents off its regular price? I don't think so.
So I started looking into other options and that's when someone suggested I shop at Aldi.
I was curious so I checked it out. First of all they provide almost all of the same groceries you would find at any small grocery store but at lower prices.
If you plan on going, there are a few things you might want to know:
1) Take a quarter. You need a quarter to get a shopping cart, but you get it back when you are finished with it. Sounds crazy, I know, but part of them offering lower prices is by cutting back on staff. The customers are in charge of maintaining the carts rather than having a cart boy.
2) Bring your own shopping sacks (they can be from Wal-Mart). You have to bag your own groceries and believe me its not that bad. This is another way they can offer their customers lower food prices.
3) They almost always carry off-brand stuff.
The best part, other then the lower prices, is that there is hardly ever a crowd! I hate the crowds at Wal-Mart, I always feel rushed and frustrated and end up forgetting things on my list. Am I the only one that feels that way about Wal-Mart?
Anyway, here is what I have started doing even though it is a bit more time consuming. I first go to Aldi with my grocery list and get what I can there. Since they are small, they don't always carry everything on my list. Then I go to Wal-Mart and get the rest. This last time, I decided to do some research. Listed below are the foods I bought at Aldi and their prices versus what I found at Wal-Mart (Great Value or any off-brand):
Grocery Item
Aldi’s
Wal-Mart
Strawberries
$ 0.99
$1.88
Whole Carrots
$ 0.99
$1.48
Bag of Salad
$ 1.99
$2.38
5 lb sack of potatoes
$ 1.99
$2.97
Tortillas
$ 0.99
$1.38
Loaf of Bread
$ 0.99
$1.78
Rotini pasta
$ 0.78
$2.08
Eggs
$ 0.99
$1.18
½ gallon of Milk
$ 1.77
$1.98
TOTAL
$11.48
$17.11
These are just a few comparisons. You can make the decision if you think its worth it.
Check out their website: www.aldifoods.com. They have a one week food shopping challenge and a meal planner that I think are cool.
I am still looking for ways to cut down on costs so if anyone has any ideas that don't include cutting off the air condition completely, let me know!
First let me say, that right now I would really like to complain, but my husband sweetly reminded me that I was "one of the happiest people he knows and I should not complain on my blog and make myself seem like an unhappy person." So sweet, and sometimes completely not true, but I do like to think of myself as a happy person for the most part.
So I have completely rewritten my blog to not sound as complaining as it was.
Anyway, our bedroom furniture is here! To those of you who don't know the whole story you may think I am crazy and that this is nothing to get excited about, but it has been quite the ordeal. We ordered our furniture back at the end of April, we were told it would be here at the end of May and it arrived the end of July! So I have had to think happy thoughts about our furniture for a long time.
Here it is:
Now, I know the newest thing is to not have matchy furniture, but I guess I am not creative enough to pull together things that don't match and yet still go together.
In the end, Jesse and I love our new furniture and we are very happy to have settled into our completed bedroom.
This time last year Jesse and I were doing this..... We made it through our first year of marriage and I can honestly say it has been one of the best years of my life. Here is to many, many more!
Our Keepsake Pictures from each (new) state on this trip.
Mississippi- No idea where we were, we just crossed over the border to get our picture. Kentucky- Nothing like cows for a back drop! Ohio-In the corn fields. West Virgina- In a small town called Wheeling. Pennsylvania-In front of Lake Erie. New York-At the Horseshoe Falls. Ontario, Canada- At the family reunion. Michigan- We wanted a picture of old cars for this state but the graffiti had to do. Indiana- Again, no clue where we are at.
OK, I am finally done posting about this trip on my blog, enjoy! A special thanks goes out to Jesse's parents for taking all of these photos...it was much better than using my car as a stand.
The lesson I took away from this pillow hunting experience: I should be thankful that our only marital problems are what our living room pillows should be. And I should be thankful that Dillard's, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Pier 1 all have excellent return policies.
