Back in the Saddle

Well, so to speak. I went to a crop Friday night and actually did something! Now, I use the term something lightly. In six hours, I managed to accomplish this two page spread. Mind you, each page is 5x7, so we're not even talking a full 12x12 here!! I'm not sure what takes me so darn long, but boy does it! Oh, and I didn't even finish  the pages! These are for my Circle Journal I'm participating in, and I actually did a matching tag for the sign-in page as well. If I continue to scrap like this, I'll never get any pages done!!!

Saturday, Mom hosted a reception/party celebrating her friends Eric and Brenda who eloped a few weeks ago after dating for years. I am so happy for them! I even made an Orange Chiffon cake, recipe compliments of Rachel. It turned out great! I'd never baked a cake like that before, and I was so darn proud of myself! To celebrate them, I put my scrapbooking skills (and vast supply of SB goodies) to work and made them a sort of collage inside of a 16x20 (or something) frame. It turned out awesome! I was really impressed with myself. I'll post a pic as soon as I can get them off of my mom's camera.

How Do You Spell Relief?

I spell it V-I-S-A. Yep, that's right! I got my package. The building I was scheduled to teach in lost power last night in another one of our famous Okie thunder storms, and they sent me home before I even made it into the building! So, I was able to go with my mom to get the package. I opened it up and took my passport out, and a hand written receipt fell out. Odd. I flipped to the visa pages, and there it was in all it's glory......my visa! I'm so excited and relieved and blessed. A big "Thank you, God," was heard by everyone entering the Post Office as I left. This was a answer to prayers. Oh, and just after that huge thank you, my mom said, "Well........." Um, well what? "Well, was it signed?" Oh, duh! The cause of all my worries. The answer.....nope. No signature whatsoever. Guess they didn't care so very much, huh? Doesn't matter, I'm thrilled! I'm actually going. What a blessing!!!!

Pins, Needles, Baited Breath

Waiting, waiting, waiting. The waiting game continues. Except, the ante has officially been upped. Chris checked the mail yesterday, and what to our wonderous eyes should appear, but a package slip from our friendly postman. Who, I should add, waited until as close to 5:00 as possible to deliver our mail today and ensuring that I could in no way humanly possible make it to the post office to pick it up and therefore would have to wait until today to get it. AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! I know this is the package I am so anxiously awaiting because it says in the sender section, "Consulate." Why, oh why couldn't I mark the "no signature required" box on the return slip? Oh the humanity!

And, the worst part of it is, I have a class today so, it'll be a stretch for me to pick it up. It says on the slip it'll be ready after 9:00, so Mom's going over there to check the situation out and see if she can't pick it up (I signed the slip). If she can, she's calling me IMMEDIATELY to tell me what it all says. I may go stark raving mad if she doesn't! It doesn't matter if we're right in the middle of class, I'm answering the phone. I don't know how I managed to sleep at all last night, but I was actually asleep before 10:00! It's weird, I've been a ball of nerves, but am not really feeling it now when I expect I would.

Updates to follow

Nervous, Nail-biting Nelly

I have reached full nervous capacity. Acutually, I reached full-bore nervousness a few days ago, and it has since begun to receed...ever so slightly. The source of said nervousness? My impending Ukrainian adventure. OH MY! I'm going into all of this somewhat in the dark. I know nothing about the country, nor about what we're going to be doing. Really, though, that's not the source of the nervousness. I love to travel, even in crazy situations. It's all part of the experience for me.

My visa. That's the source of my nervousness. As I may have mentioned previously, you HAVE to have a visa to enter Ukraine. No ifs, ands, or buts...even for Americans. I sent my visa application in last week, thinking all of my ducks were in a row. And promptly had a hysterical fit thinking of all of the things I think I did wrong. It's something akin to deciding you left the oven on just as you airplane takes off for your week long trip. Most of my fears were quelled within the first two hours of panic (yes, that's a lot of panic).

Unfortunately, there's still one proverbial "oven" left on....I'm not sure I signed my passport, and your passport isn't technically valid until you've signed it. Oops. I'm really hoping I signed it. I can remember thinking about it and then thinking I'd do it later, but I can't remember if I actually did it. Guess we'll find out soon enough. I should have it back by the end of the week. Maybe they'll just overlook it? Never notice it?

Needless to say, I'm saying lots of prayers!! I'm feeling kinda silly praying about this, but what else am I going to do? It certainly has calmed me down! Maybe, if you do that sort of thing and you think of it, you'll say a little one for me too?

Perspective

One of the pages in the Designing With Calendar has a page that talks about getting a different perspective when taking your photos. I was messing around with the babies yesterday (shocker, I know) and had the camera near by. Scooby will let me take as many pictures of him as I want, so I kept the perspective idea in mind as I started shooting. Of course, Mimi's a little brat and either runs away from the camera and hides or gets as close to it as possible and then tries to cuddle with me. She used to love the camera, but not so much any more. I think it's the flash.

Absence makes the heart...

Yeah, right! You've been missing me, haven't you? Go on, admit it! Well, May was simply crazy for me. I started out the month by going to Pella, Iowa for Tulip Time with my mom. I got to see two of my very dearest friends, Andi and Kristina. Oh, how I love the time of the tulips! First of all, there are tulips EVERYWHERE. Need I say more? After living in Pella for 4 years of college and in the Netherlands, tulips are my all time favorite flower. You wanna get on my good side? Give me tulips!

And then there are the poffertjes. The what? The poffertjes. It's pronounced paf-ert-chas. Don't listen to those crazy Pella-ites; they pronounce it puffer-gees. I'm what you might call a connesieur of poffertjes. I love them! They are little Dutch pancakes. They're like silver dollar pancakes. Only they're the best. They're better than pancakes. And they put powdered sugar on them. Mmmmmm.......yum! They're just so darned good. In fact, I love them so much, I bought my own poffertje making pan and of course, the mix for the batter. The best part is, the batter box is in Dutch, so they translated it into English and printed it out on stick-on-labels and stuck it on the back of the box. Too funny! Let's also not forget the ever-present meat on a stick, which was accompanied this year by chicken on a stick. You MUST have an egg roll along with the meat on a stick! Then, there's the brats and grilled chicken sandwhiches. Oh, and the Bakery. Mmmmm.....Jaarsma's bakery. It's been on the square in Pella forever, and they make the best pastries. I mean, really yummy! I had a couple of raspberry almond tarts. Oh my yum! I was totally fascinated with the windmill cake they had in the window! I didn't weigh in for Weight Watchers the Monday after! By the way, yes, I do make a habit of taking pictures of my food!

Speaking of food, I love cheese. Really, I LOVE cheese. All different kinds. I think my love affair with cheese became full-fledged when I lived in the Netherlands. You just can't avoid it. And, there are so many different kinds. You have to try them all. And they're all so good (okay, except Limburger cheese - yuck). I actually bought the aforementioned poffertje pan in the Ulrich's meat market on the Pella Square where they also specialize in cheese. Lots of cheese. Cheese from the Netherlands, Windmill shaped cheese, and my favorite.....cheese curds. Oh my! I couldn't get enough! How I love the cheese curds. I don't understand why they don't sell them here, but I can't ever find them. I almost made myself sick on cheese curds and poffertjes!

We somehow managed to tear ourselves away from the Tulip time food and went to Des Moines for dinner. I convinced Andi and my mom that we HAD to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Mom was wary. But, I convinced her, and then managed to convince her that we needed the Tamale Cakes appetizer and to share the Chicken Mediera. She was still skeptical, but after all was said and done, she'd been brought over to the dark side! I can't get over how wonderful their food is. I remember the first time I went to one, fab cheesecake, regular food not so hot. It's not the same now! I can't wait to go back. In fact, I'm a little insenced that there a Cheesecake Factory in Des Moines (a significantly smaller city than Tulsa) and not one in Tulsa. What the heck? It's driving me to distratction. I've been trying to figure out where they could put one here, and just heard there's a new shopping mall coming in. Maybe there's hope?

The rest of May just flew by. Mom did her first expo ever! She'd been to tons of HR/Training related ones, but this time she was an exhibitor. I can't even begin to express my pride in her! There were doubts and dilemmas, and she pushed through and did it, and is already seeing good results. What a rockin' gal she is! She even had personalized bottled water for the shindig. She had to borrow Chris' SUV to drive to Norman and pick it up. Five hundred bottles of water in the back of a car make some very odd sounds!

Spring has definitely sprung here, and really, we're already in the Fires of Hell Heat (quoting Glenn Beck)  that is summer in Oklahoma. It seemed like we didn't really have much spring here - went straight to HOT. It was definitely making me wonder about moving to the Pacific Northwest. I actually have plants this year! I planted some bulbs in early April, and several of my Cannas are already peaking their pretty heads. Unfortunately, the sweet little "babies" have already torn up on. Brats. Mom and I even planted flowers in front of our fence. I'm really impressed with us! We also have pots hanging over fence. Alas, they're still empty! Our neighbor keeps threatening to fill them up for us. He says I'll come home one day and they'll have stuff in them.

A new strip mall opened up this month. It's along the Arkansas River and is actually in Jenks, not Tulsa (across the river from Tulsa). It's very cool. Lots of yummy restaurants and fabulous stores. There's an ampitheater (kinda small if you ask me) where they'll have concerts every Friday night. I've already been taking everyone I know over there. Love it, love it, love it! We've become addicted to the pizza at Gina & Guiseppe's Italian diner. We even took our friends Rachel and Josh there for dinner. We're talking good stuff! Last Friday was the Grand Opening and there were over 3000 people there! Let's not get me started on the fact that this is located in Jenks (along with the Okahoma Aquarium) and there is NO river development in Tulsa. No, we won't go there.

Mimi and Scooby got their hair cut. This seems to be happening less and less frequently. Mimi looked like a veritable Ewok by the time they went. She was kinda cute, though...all scruffy looking. After I pick them up, I usually go by my mom's. The groomer is in Jenks, and she's on the way. A couple of years ago I got this amazing picture of Scooby laying on the floor at mom's right after he got groomed. I liked it so much that I blew it up and put it in a cool frame and gave it to Chris for a birthday present. I've been dying to get a similar picture of Mimi so that we can hang them side by side. Here's a surpise.....Mimi won't cooperate. I love her to pieces, but man is she like me! When she's had enough, she's had enough, and I end up with all of the pictures of her giving me coy dirty looks. Little brat! But, on the bright side, I did get yet another stellar picture of Scooby! He's so darn photogenic (yes, I'm talking about a dog here.....yes, I'm sick...it's okay, I know it).

But, Mimi does have her moments! I won't kid ya about it! She can be so stinking cute! She has officially become a little fashionista. Yep, it's true. Isaac Mizrahi has started selling doggie goodies at Target including clothes. I've always pointed out the dog clothes and talked about them, but mainly just because I know how it irks Chris. He really sees no point in clothes for dogs. (really, do little black dogs in 90 degree heat need more layers?) But, they had this darling little pink polo shirt and oh, how I wanted it for Mimi. Chris refused. He rarely refuses anything, so I said OK. Target sold out of the cutie shirts, and I thought that was the end of it. But no! They got them back in. And, they had one that was pink and orange striped. Okay, it was totally meant to be. I promptly paraded Chris through the Target and showed him. He wasn't so overjoyed. But, I can be quite convincing when I want to. I think Scooby's jealous. Maybe he needs the solid pink one?

I am currently in a Circle Journal group, and I am loving it! A group of people get together and each one buys a journal, comes up with a theme, scrapbooks the first few pages of the journal (usually with a page telling what the journal is about and laying down the grounds rules, a sign in page, and her entry into the journal) and sends it off. It's akin to a chain letter or a  round robin. Each person scrapbooks her entry when she receives the book and then sends it off to the next person and so on until each person gets her journal back. I did two entries in May. I'm really loving this. I'm usually really really bad about actually doing things like this and getting them out in the mail. While I've been a couple of days late a couple of times, I've actually done it, and am actually pretty darn proud of myself. I've been loving the work I'm doing in these journals, which also just isn't like me! Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf here? Maybe I really am "Going with the flow" as Ali Edwards suggested at CKU-A!!

And finally, some gratuitous Tulip Time pictures!