Christmas in OKC

My mom's house...Christmas morning. It looks so pretty when it's snow-capped!Marissa opening presents....she's looking more and more like a teenager. It's painful!

Andrew opening his scooter. It was proclaimed the best Christmas present this year. My head swelled a bit about that.

All Andrew really wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth.

With their granny

The kids and my cuzzies...snowman building 101.

Finished product. Cute, isn't he?

Us with the snowman...he stole my hat. (I love how Moussey sat like a good girl)

Kids and their cuzzies

Hannah...another one who is getting too painfully close to teenagehood

Haley...so sweet and cute...I wish I could stick her in my pocket!

Kaleb...future model for sure. Check out the dimples and his collar! ha!

Christmas Eve in OKC

All I could think about was 12 o'clock. That was the time when I was going to get out of work, make a last minute, mad dash to Target and rush home to get ready for the Christmas Party later that evening. Except...things didn't go as planned. Not. At. All.

When I left work, the wind had picked up. I had a hard time walking to my car let alone driving my car. The snow was coming down hard and my already blurred vision was even blurrier. I made it about two blocks down the street before all the cars around me stopped...as if frozen. And they were...sorta. They were stuck in snow that was accumulating on the roads at a fast pace. Not to mention, the morning's sleet left a layer of sheer ice underneath the snow. People were either stuck or sliding in their mid-size cars, SUV's, and trucks...so I knew the Fit-mobile wouldn't stand a chance.

I pulled into a nearby neighborhood, called Matt, and implored him to come pick me up. But as I watched the main road, from the neighborhood, I knew there was no way he'd make it 10 miles up the street to me...or that I'd make it 10 miles down the street to him. So, I waited...I'm not sure what I was waiting for...the snow to stop? Scottie to beam me up? I called Matt back and told him to turn around and go home. It was too dangerous. Afterall, we spent last winter in the tropics...so he only had the previous year of experience driving in icy conditions. That wasn't enough experience! I'd either wait out the storm or brave it and drive really slowly. After a while, I decided I had to keep moving. My gas was half past half, I had no coat, and waiting it out didn't seem like a good option.

I began moving...slowly but surely. Phew...made it one block down the road to the next light. The car infront of me was stuck. And as he tried to get unstuck...he kept slipping and sliding...just inches away from my front end. I maneuvered my way to make a left turn, drove one more block, and parked my car at the mall. It was warm there atleast...and me and my car would be safe.

Luckily my buddy Shines was getting off work...and offered to slide by and pick me up. An hour later, I get a call from him...asking me to walk to the corner of the mall parking lot and wait for him at the bank. Although I had no coat...I was willing to make the trek through the snow, so it would be easier for him to get me. But as soon as I stepped outside, I realized that the snow was coming down harder. Within 5 seconds, my glasses were covered in snow, and I couldn't see my own hand in front of me, much less the bank on the corner! I called Shines back, and he picked me up at the mall front instead. I had never been so happy to see him...although I couldn't see him until I scraped off the snow from my glasses! "Nice blizzard appropriate outfit you have on there," he said. Even in the middle of a natural disaster...his sarcasm was still on point.

We slowly drove back to his house to retrieve his wife, so we could rescue the rest of their family, who were stranded on highways and byways...what is usually a 15 minute drive took approximately 2 hours. It didn't help that mid-way....the windshield wiper decided it was done for the day. We tried to use a make shift wiper for Shines to use, but it didn't prove to be successful. Driving with caution with your head out of your window while simultaneously wiping your windshield is not as easy as it sounds. We had some near misses and I had a few mild heart attacks...but we made it!...alive and well.

It was about 4 o'clock by then...we collected Merly and were off to go rescue the rest of the family. To make an already long story...a bit shorter...As we were on our rescue mission we got stuck 3 times. Each time, Merly gave the car some gas, and me and Shines pushed the car with our brute strength. It took about 15-20 minutes but we managed to get unstuck every time. This was saying a lot!...since there was so many abandoned vehicles everywhere...on the sides of the street and even in the middle of intersections! We kept saying how it felt like the end of the world...seeing people walk through the blizzard aimlessly and cars abandoned. All I could think of was...OMG...this is the last day of earth and I've been stuck with Shines for the past 7 hours?!? We finally got to my apartment at 8 pm!!...so much for being happy about getting off of work early!! We were drenched with sweat and snow and exhausted. And that, folks...is how we spent Christmas Eve in OKC.

I've got no passion for fashion...

After the recent Oprah episode about fall fashion. I was feeling pretty good about myself. It seemed I wasn't as clueless as I had assumed...I actually wore "in" colors, understood the basics of accessorizing, and made good use of tights! So, since I was "so" fashionable...I was pretty confident in wearing a dress to the last wedding I worked. Wearing Indian outfits are a job hazard. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've tripped on churidar pants as I was running around.

The dress I picked was actually a skirt and shirt. I bought it a few years ago for a Christmas party. I'm not sure what the skirt is made of, but it is charcoal gray with black velvet designs on it. I knew the colors were in this season, so I figured I could pull it off with a pair of my favorite black tights. Of course, Sheryl made fun of my shirt....and come to think of it, so did her mom. It was a 3 quarter length sleeve jacket-shirt in black velvet. Sheryl didn't get how a jacket could be a shirt and her mom didn't get why I buttoned it all the way to the collar. But, I blew them off...I mean, what do THEY know about fashion? So, I went to the wedding and felt pretty good about myself. And I felt pretty good about the outfit after...thinking I should wear it to all weddings that I work.

Until....I was at Walmart over the weekend and saw someone else sporting the exact same outfit. Now, I'm not a fashion snob who thinks I need to be wearing "originals." The problem def'ly wasn't that someone else was wearing something I owned. The problem was.................she was 60. She definitely burst my bubble. If only Stacey London wasn't so rude to her show guests....I'd def'ly sign myself up for "What Not to Wear."

Wii dont' have it...

Pardon me for my lack of posting last week. It was an extremely busy work week. I actually had to spend time at the office after 5 pm, which is very unusal because I'm usually out the door and in my car with my seatbelt strapped by 5 pm.

Let me fill you in on the events of last week. I had been dropping both subtle and obvious hints to Matt that I wanted a Wii for Christmas. Partially because I rock at Wii bowling and I also wanted the Wii Fit to excercise with. Since Walmart was giving away a $50 gift card with their Wiis Matt decided that we could finally get one. So, we woke up at 7 am one Sunday morning to beat the rush. We came home with our new purchase and I was so excited to set it up and start playing...after church, of course. So, imagine my disappointment when we stuck the game cd in and it...DIDN'T WORK!!

I could hardly concentrate in church because I knew that if we took the Wii back to Walmart, we wouldn't be able to exchange it. There were only 3 more in the store when we bought ours. Sure, I could wait until Monday to exchange it...but that totally threw a wrench in my plans of playing the Wii all afternoon long!! Church was finally over and I told M & S (not to be confused with M as in Matt or S as in Sue...) about our dilemma. They were certain it was an easy fix and offered to come by and look at it.

Unfortunately, they couldn't fix it either. We were all set to go get a refund for our purchase when Matt decided to call the 1-800 number help line. I was pretty sure that the call would get him nowhere...it was obviously a problem with the console that couldn't be fixed. Matt told the lady that he tried to put the cd in and it kept giving him the same message over and over "unable to read disc." She very patiently asked him to walk over to the console, and see if there were plastic feet on the top of it.....

And there ya have it....we had the unit upside down the whole time....so it was reading the disc upside down!!

We had to go through all these obstacles and in the end....we didn't keep the Wii afterall. Oh, it worked perfectly fine...but, SOMEONE seems to think that they're going to come out with a new and improved system next year and then by that time ours will be outdated...(blah, blah, blah).
So, there goes that Christmas wish...on to the next....

I recieved a call today on my cell...no number, no info...just said "incoming call." When I picked it up, the person said, (in a very professional voice), "May I speak to Susan?" My automatic response was, "this is Susan." That response literally took one second to come from my mouth...but in that one second of time, my brain worked over time to figure out who the caller might be. Initially, I thought it was from India...but the voice sounded American. Maybe it was a credit card collector...but wait...I have no credit card. Maybe they were going to offer me a credit card...doubtful...A real estate agent that I had contacted weeks ago? Perhaps...orrr was it church that I had recently sent my resume to?? Maybe they were calling me in for an interview. But, just as my hopes soared, they came crashing down when I heard giggling....

It was Sheryl. She was trying to convince me she was Ellen Degeneres, calling live from her show. Needless to say, she needs to brush up on her prank calling skills, and I need to be less imaginitive I guess. =/ People always tell me I have an overactive imagination. I guess they're right...

Hey...that's not an onion...it's my finger!

Last night was cooking marathon night...the one night a week where I make enough food to feed our faces for atleast 7 days. I make Indian curries...which is time consuming and stanks up the entire apartment, but it's cheap and eating leftovers isn't so bad.

So, I made beef, chicken, fish, and fried potatoes and onions. Just as I was cutting the onions, I sliced the tip off my ring finger. It started bleeding profusely. Matt ran for a bandaid, and I ran for the sink. When I finally got my finger cleaned, we inspected the wound and realized a chunk of my ring finger was mia. We walked back to the onions...I certainly didn't want to throw my finger in and fry it up with the potatoes!!! There it was...still on the knife. It looked like a piece of onion...but it was rubbery...so I knew it was my finger. I saved it ...I'm not sure why. It's not like I can super glue it back...but I'm just weird like that, I guess. So now i'm typing with out a tip of my ring finger...and it hurts...so I'm gonna stop here. Until tomorrow, folks...

So, over the weekend...I was discussing my blog...or lack of...with my friend. She asked me why I didn't write as much as I did in the beginning. I explained that I feel like nothing blogworthy or entertaining is going on in my life right now. She advised me to take a closer look at my day to day...and assured me that there's plenty of entertaining things happening that I'm just not aware of.

So, I took her advice....

Last night when I got home, Matt was raving about this pie my mom made. My mom? Made a pie? She's not the baking/pie-making type. Then he explained that the pie had meat in it. Ok, that made more sense. But, why was he raving about it? I make chicken potpie and pizza pie all the time. I never hear him raving. He described the pie as a sweet meat pie, which is why he likde it.... It was sweet. But sweet meat sounded disgusting to me. Later in the evening, I went to my mom's and saw the sweet meat pie on the counter. I helped myself to a bite. I kinda felt like Joey Tribiani on the episode when Rachel made a shepherd's pie. Meat? good. Corn? Good. Cheese? Good. Sweet crust? Good. But all together...it was kind of strange. I couldn't understand why my mom's crust was so sweet. She bought a pre-made crust...and they usually just have a tinge of sweetness. So, I took another bite to figure it out...and sure enough, I realized she used GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST! She got the recipe from my sister...who probably said, "buy a ready made crust"...and then my mom went to the baking aisle and bought the only ready made crust she could find. She was really embarrassed and made me vow not to tell my sister. So, if you're my sister and reading this....Don't tell Mummy I told you. And if you're anyone else who knows my mom...You never read this. Kapeesh?

Later that evening...Matt and I played Scrabble. I hate playing games with him because he's a cheater. But, I thought I'd give it one last try...He spelled out the word "dickory" I tell him it's not a word...and he quickly replies with "hickory dickory dock" I couldn't argue with that. Next he spelled..."heartful" To which I reply,"that's not a word" And he says..."I give you my heartful condolensces." I almost fell for it...and then remembered it's heart-FELT. needless to say, no more scrabble for me and Matt.