Hi there!

Remember me? Yeah, yeah, I know, I abandoned my blog again. I got busy. You know the story. I really try to be a "good blogger" and blog consistently, but then that thing that I blog about (life) happens and sometimes other things just get priority.

Rather than dumping all of the last 15 days (has it really been that long?) at once, I'll start off slowly.

July 4th week!

My Independence Day week started out with a celebration of my own freedom - from debt!! I paid off my Jeep on July 2, 2013, and I've never been happier! Today was my first payday without a car payment attached to it since February 2010 (technically April 2010 since I didn't have to pay the first two months if I remember correctly... that's still a long time!). When daddy and I walked out of MeCu (never use them, btw) I couldn't stop smiling and I just wanted to scream "I'M DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So here I am, virtually yelling it.

First on July 4 I had a wedding rehearsal to attend for my friend Jessica. I wore a fantastic hot pink dress from Lucca (that of course I forgot to get a picture of. #fail). For our July 4 festivities, in addition to rocking my "Red, White & Bows" tank, I had a fantastic bow by Brenna. Of course, I wore my new found love Old Navy shorts as well. My family, Matt, Thabo & my bestie Caylee came over for food & fireworks

Friday was Jessica's wedding day! The day started with a mani/pedi at the Pink House, and I realized I hadn't had either since like my birthday. #Unacceptable. Of course I failed at getting any pictures with Jessica that day, but I did get a picture with Matt & Caylee at the reception. I'll update with the picture the photog took of Jess and I when I get it - her dress was so beautiful :)

Saturday after lunch with Caylee & her parents, Matt & I went to the mall to watch Despicable Me 2 - I LOVED it! I'm not one for animated movies but after Monsters U & Despicable Me 2 I may have to change my mind. Plus, the theater we went to had amazing seats. OKC friends, check out the renovated theater at Penn Square. You won't be disappointed! We also stopped by Sephora so I could buy the YOU + SEPHORA VIO Cosmetic Collection. The bag it comes in is wonderful, and it benefits a nonprofit of the store's choice. The Penn Square location benefits the Regional Food Bank!* The collection includes gold nail polish, gold glitter liquid eyeliner (so cute & festive!) and a lip gloss. #FancyPants. I also picked up some of the Sephora brand cream lip stain while I was there and fell.in.love.

Sunday after church, I'm pretty sure I slept all day. #Exhaustion. However, I did have time to start on a craft...which I'll share next time I blog!

-xo

*I purchased the VIO bag because I wanted to. I was not compensated by Sephora or the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma for sharing information about the promotion. 

Weekend...and Home Alone with Molly

Hi friends! Did you all have a fantastic weekend? I most certainly did! I'm going to back this up alll the way to last week though, because I didn't tell you much of anything that happened last week, for good reason - I was home alone, and I was not ABOUT to tip off any kidnappers (I'm kid-sized, I could get kidnapped) because I don't have the skillz of the Home Alone kid when it comes to warding off home invaders - instead I would have hide in my closet with Molly and cry on the phone (battery at 5%, of course) with my daddy while waiting for Granddad to show up and save the day (yes guys, that happened). Thankfully it was just some of our neighbors, but it was enough that Miss Molly and I didn't' sleep much for two nights and ended up spending Thursday night safely at my grandparents. However, the entire time my parents & brothers were at camp, I had an automatic trash can (it rolled itself to the road on trash day!), an automatic gate opener (locked every night and open before I left for work!), and an automatic cattle feeder. Oh wait, that was all Granddad - I was very well taken care of :)

Molly sleeps like a human.

Anyway, Monday night, Matt came over for dinner and it was "semi-homemade with Shae" - meaning I stopped by the grocery store and threw together something resembling a meal. I took one of their rotisserie chickens, shredded it, poured in Head Country BBQ sauce, microwaved to warm, and served on King's Hawaiian rolls, slider style. Delish! I also picked up some red potato salad and chips, just in case the chicken didn't turn out right. Of course, I made rice krispy treats to go along with dinner since they're the one thing I know I do correctly every single time.

Tuesday night was spent huddling in my closet with Molly. Oh, and she was having some MAJOR breathing issues last week so HAD anyone broken into our house they would have found us in 2.2 seconds since the locked closet door + Benadryl did nothing to mask her loud breathing.

On Wednesday, I went shopping to reward myself for surviving Tuesday night. I'd been wanting a pair of colored shorts to brighten up my life and Old Navy had the perfect pair. So perfect, in fact, that my Caylee and I both ended up wearing them on Saturday (hundreds of miles apart). #LikeBigLikeLittle #Perfect #Besties (Yes, that deserved 3 tags. #Duh). They're perfect and comfortable and I LOVE the color so much. I'm definitely going to be buying them in every color the first chance I get.

get them here

Molly and I had a slumber party at my grandparents on Thursday night, and Friday night, I went to Falls Creek! Mom & Dad had been cooking all week and the boys were campers. Kaden was leaving Saturday for a mission trip, so he wanted to sleep in his own bed for a night - Super Sis to the rescue! We drove home Friday night and I dropped him off with mom to go back to Falls Creek for training Saturday.

With Kale at Falls Creek - baby brother has officially passed me in height .

After dropping Kaden off on Saturday, I tanned (it's Jessica's wedding week!) & headed home. Matt came over and we watched movies with Dad & Kale (while mom slept) then picked up steak from Ken's. Matt took me out on a super fun date - putt-putt and the drive in! The drive in that's in Chickasha has a putt-putt course in front of the screen, so we played a game before the movies started. He beat me, but I let him win fair and square :( We saw Monsters University - LOVED IT - and stuck around for about half of Now You See Me - it was too late for us old folks.

At least we tied the first 9!

My shirt has sparkles. Love.

Sunday after church, it was time for lunch with mom, dad & Kale, hours of swimming with Kale & Kiera, then the Falls Creek service at church.

I ended the night snuggling with Molly and praying for my brother & his team to have a GREAT week on their mission trip! Please join me in praying for him, his team, their leaders and the people they'll be working with over the next week. If you'd like to follow along, FBC Tuttle will be posting daily updates of specific things to pray for on Facebook while Kaden's away. 

Don't forget - Google Reader is gone, so follow with Bloglovin' or by email (look to your left for an email box!)

Linking up with Sami.

T-minus 10 days until #Shaes24th

The title has nothing to do with the post, just thought everyone could use a reminder that on May 2, you need to use #Shaes24th and do amazing things...like wear glitter, tutus and tiaras, eat snow cones, hang out with fantastic people, and just having an awesome day in general. Anyway, on to the post.

Last Wednesday, I had plans to watch Duck Dynasty hang out with Matt & Thabo. However, in the springtime, Oklahoma likes to throw fits and have crazy weather, complete with tornadoes and flash flooding. So around lunchtime, we realized the bad weather would hit just after we got off work - slash neither of us needed to be on the road because clearly this girl is scared of tornadoes and didn't want anyone out in them. Instead, I went straight home after work to find my mom crawling out of the cellar. A little early, you crazy lady. Come to find out, she was {wisely} cleaning out our little hidey hole so that our family + neighbors could all ride out the storm underground.

Sidenote: mom was smart-ly wearing orange since a smart decision was made the same day by Marcus Smart, Markel Brown and LeBryan Nash that they'll all be returning for another year! Yes, we already bought tickets.
#BringBackTheRowdy

I'm not sure how many of you all are familiar with the May 3 tornado (aka the one that wiped out my house the day after my birthday), but it has our family a little leery of tornadoes. While some crazy brave Oklahomans may enjoy chasing them, we prefer to hide from them. So when the path of the storm pictured below resembled the one from May 3 a little too much for comfort, we headed underground. 

Julie wasn't a fan of the cellar & decided to stay on my lap most of the evening!

About the time the hail started, some of our neighbors showed up. Just from opening the door to let them in my brother got soaked! As we sat there discussing who knows what, we realized water was leaking in a bit from the air hole in the corner. Soon, water was leaking in a lot - it was very apparent that the twirly lid had been blown off and there was nothing stopping the rain from coming in! (Sorry for those of you who aren't familiar with "the twirly lid" - I have no idea what it's called but they're on top of like every single cellar.)

My brother took a blanket we had with us and tried shoving it in the hole to stop the water, and as you'll see in the picture on the right, it didn't last! Quickly it got too heavy and fell, letting water rush in. As the corner was quickly flooding and we were imagining swimming in the cellar, dad showed up from work (thanks for missing all the excitement!) and said it was safe to come inside. Thankfully we didn't have to go back down that night! 

On Thursday after work, I went over to Aunt Kandi's to help Kiera decorate her lunch pail for school - Friday was the Land Run and she couldn't have a boring, non-themed lunch pail! Since she was dressing up like a Native American, we were sure to incorporate Chickasaw colors and a Native theme to her pail.

Our finished project! She told me exactly
where to put everything and I just glued. 

Friday afternoon, you couldn't tell there had been crazy #okwx (<-- follow during storms for humor), so Matt and I headed to go grown-up Easter egg hunting to the driving range. I'm not even sure when the last time was that I attempted to hit a golf ball, so I decided not to take it too hard on myself if I was terrible. Thankfully I managed to hit a few good balls, and should do much better next time :) Even if I would have done terrible, we had such a fun, relaxing time and I definitely hope we spend many more evenings this spring/summer playing! 

See? Grown up Easter egg hunting!

After golfing, we were hungry! I forgot to mention that we actually picked up all the range balls we used (they didn't have any and said if we pick up whatever we wanted to hit they would let us golf for free...okay!), so we definitely needed to replenish some energy! In this post I told you about this bubble pizza stuff we made, and Matt loved it so much that he requested it again Friday night! #winning #domestic So, off to the store we went for ingredients. And, since so many people have asked for the recipe, I'll put it at the bottom of this post. :) 

Bubble Pizza!

The rest of the weekend was spent laughing at Baby Tate, watching Django, celebrating my Aunt Kandi's birthday, and watching the Thunder get their first playoff W of the season! #ShearTheBeard 

Baby Tate was more interested in grabbing the spoon
than eating the food Aunt Hanna tried to feed him!

Molly was so sleepy that she dozed off during the Thunder game (imagine that. #lazydog). She decided her spot was the middle of the bed last night, and I think I might have a small Molly-foot-sized bruise on my hip  from where she kicked me all night. For a small dog, she has quite a powerful kick. 

#ThunderUp

via

Recipe for Bubble Pizza (adapted from this pin):

You'll need

a greased glass baking dish - a 9 in square would be perfect

1 can of Grand's Homestyle Butter Biscuits (these are the best, trust me - although if you don't, just use any Grand's Homestyle Biscuit...just know you'll regret not using the butter ones.)

Toppings of your choice (I used pepperoni, some full and some chopped up, but bacon or something would be good too)

1 14 oz can of pizza sauce 

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Oregano (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Using a knife, cut each biscuit into fourths and put the pieces into the pan - cover the bottom, but don't try to squish it down. It'll be a little layered. 

Put your toppings on top of the biscuits.

Evenly pour the sauce on top of the toppings/biscuits. 

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, quickly add cheese - as much or as little as you'd like.

Bake for another 5 minutes

Top with oregano if desired. Let sit for 5 minutes to cool, then cut into squares and serve! 

Easter Weekend!

It's Tuesday and I'm just now getting to post my weekend recap. Why is that? Well, because it was such an awesome weekend that I didn't want to miss a second of it to write a little blog post, of course! Plus, if I had posted about such an awesome weekend on April Fool's Day you might think I made it all up. Be sure to read all the way to the end because there's quite a treat at the bottom!! :)

Friday night I got to have dinner with one of my favorite childhood friends! We talked about all sorts of things and took plenty of time remembering fun times as kids - like the time my house blew away from a tornado the day after my birthday - two nights after my friends had been there for a slumber party, and how she came back a few days later to help clean the aftermath (which happened to be the first time I went out to the house after the tornado - such a great friend). And the time I gave her a super cute picture frame for her birthday...with a picture of me and some random other little kid that most definitely was not Ashley! It's the thought that counts, right? I am so very blessed to have friends like Ashley & her family in my life - the very genuine kind who you know will be there forever.

Saturday morning I made sure to sleep in because I was still majorly lacking sleep from our big event Thursday (see pictures here). Once I finally got around, I headed to the city for the adventure Matt had been planning all week. He told me to bring my camera so I knew it would be good. We got in the car for what I decided was called "Matt & Shae's Day of Fun" and headed to the Museum of Osteology - aka the Bone Museum! We spent so much time looking at all the bones and being amazed - "that's not as big as I thought it would be" or "WHOA that's HUGE!" were our most used phrases, I think.

After the Museum of Osteology, we needed a snow cone. So off we went to get the first one of the year!

Blue bubblegum = blue mouth. Whoops!

After a break to play with Thabo...

We went to my house for dinner and to hang out with my Hardy cousins! The sunset was beautiful on the way there, so clearly I had to snap a picture. I still didn't capture exactly how pretty it was though.

Molly loves Matt. Much more than she loves me, I think :(

Sunday after church, my family went to Aunt Bettie's house to eat and hunt eggs. 

the hiders

the hunters

After eating all the delicious food we could and finding all the almost-cooked eggs (side eye, Mag), we went to our land to "hunt" eggs - like skeet shooting, just with eggs - and to fish. 

Mom & her cousin Sherry, who is in town from Colorado

Kaden and Bear couldn't let Sam (Bear's dog) have all the fun in the freezing water - those silly boys had to jump in themselves!

And just as we were finishing up a great weekend, Bear and Magan had to go scare me. Watch the video below for your daily laugh. I promise, it's worth it (at my expense, nonetheless).

My cousins love {to torture} me. 

Hope your Easter weekend was full of celebrating Jesus and loving on your family!

You can't put this on your blog!

I got to Matt's house after work Tuesday anticipating a somewhat relaxing evening that would hopefully consist of watching a movie and playing with Thabo. He quickly burst that happy little bubble when he informed me it was going to be an educational date night. #UmWhat? Good thing I was in an adventurous mood, because otherwise I'm not sure he could have convinced me to go along with his plan.

"So, we need to change the oil in my car." 

"Okay, let's go get it done!" 

"No, I mean we're changing it."

<Blank stare>

Clearly I was incorrect in thinking we were going down the road to get the oil changed...and a little slow at picking up on that.

Eventually he explained that we - meaning Matt and I - were going to change the oil in his car. Like, no professionals. Since I knew this was going to be blog-worthy, I agreed to "help." 

So, off we went to Napa to buy oil and car legs. I'm not actually sure what these car legs are called, but they were leg-like and held the car up. Anyway, we got the car on the legs & Matt crawled under it to get started.

Confident he knew exactly what to do, Matt removed a few screws and a piece of metal and set them aside (also, I was clearly only supervising at this point). We realized something would be needed to catch the oil as it comes out of the car - slowly, according to every youtube video - so before he removed that part, I remembered I had one of the throw-away foil pans I bring him Rice Krispy Treats in, so I grabbed that, both of us thinking that would more than handle it.

He turned the bolt (I think, I actually have no idea as I was more interested in taking pictures and ensuring my shoes stayed clean) and we suddenly had a mini BP spill on our hands.

Not only did the foil pan not hold all the oil, it didn't even come close! Also, there was no "slowly" part to the oil draining! Within a second Matt was asking for something else to hold the oil that was quickly overflowing and going all over the driveway. #whoops. Ooey, gooey black oil, running all over the driveway.

Thanks to a few towels and a trash can, we were able to stop the oil from running everywhere...not to say there isn't a giant stain he gets to clean up. We were both armed with gloves and yet somehow Matt still got oil on his hands, and we won't even discuss how gross he smelled after it was all said and done. You would think he'd been under a car or something... 

Why do I not have pictures documenting this entire adventure? Well, I was taking pictures on Matt's phone since I had left mine inside, and clearly he wasn't going to send me anything incriminating, only those showing him hard at work! ;) 

1. Matt jacking up the car
2. A Car Leg
3. Matt under the car
4. Matt needing me to hand him a tool (I think)...I was taking my sweet time :) 

Well, Matt, it certainly was an educational date night, and I think the main thing we learned is that next time we change the oil in your car we either shouldn't do it on your parents' driveway or we should just leave it to a professional! Oh, and thanks to Google we learned how to clean an oil spill, I think we can handle that one much better than BP did! #PRLessons

Weekend Recap!

Good morning, bloggy friends! 

Sidenote: I never used to write center aligned,

it's a recent thing, and it's staying around for a while. Maybe. 

How was your weekend? Good? Sweet.

Tell me about them, like in the comments, or in your own blogs. Dealio?

My weekend? It included awesome people and lots of fun. This clearly equals an awesome weekend.

I wore neon orange heels to work on Friday just to ensure I could kick the weekend off in style.

This weekend, as so many others have as of late, started off at the AmPo gym for Panther basketball.

AmPo girls and boys both beat Minco Stinko, as I called it growing up. Since it was an AmPo/Minco game, my wonderful twin and #BabyTate were at the game (Lori, is it okay that we've officially hashtagged your kid?). Tate fell asleep on me, which of course I didn't mind. He was wearing AmPo green to support Kaden & the Panthers, even though he started the night in a Bulldog outfit. 

Saturday morning started with more basketball (a weekend theme, btw), in the form of Kale's YMCA team.

After watching them kick some booty, I headed to Yukon to get my camera fixed.

Again.

I haven't expressed my annoyance here, but guys, when a camera goes out of commission two weeks before Christmas, you kind of want to cry. Then, when they keep it for almost two months to fix it and six days after you pick it up it gives you the exact same error message, you get a bit annoyed. Especially when you've been told this screen is practically the equivalent of the blue screen of death. #pcprobs. So, I took it back, and apparently although they'd replaced the motherboard, they didn't fix everything that was wrong, and there is still something wrong with the way the camera communicates with lenses regarding image stabilization. Possibly. We'll see. At least they aren't charging me this time.

Saturday afternoon, Matt and I watched basketball (I told you it was a weekend theme), and thank goodness our Cowboys got another W! T.Ford & the 'boys are onto something with this whole winning on the road idea. :)

Anyway, after an afternoon of basketball, Matt took me to Cheesecake Factory!! It was delicious. After dinner, we each picked a flavor of cheesecake, so we could try them both. We picked Hershey's and Reece's, which they accidentally swapped out for Snickers, which was delicious too, so really it didn't even matter. This cheesecake was so rich that we ended up with at least half of both pieces left over. The Snickers one is sitting in my refrigerator tempting me as I type. 

^That, my friends, is a good date night. Of course, I didn't get a picture, so just pretend you haven't seen this one yet since Matt likes the Pete 'stache so much, even though it's totally being reused from this post.

Sunday after church the family headed to Grandma & Trapaw's house to celebrate the cutest little almost-five-year-old I know - Julie! Miss Sassy Pants might have found her present from me earlier in the week (clearly it was makeup, nail polish, etc...everything her daddy - my uncle - wouldn't want her to have!), but I quickly covered so she still was surprised when she opened it (I think).

Before leaving my grandparents' house, Trapaw was sure to pass out Valentines Day presents! He's never missed a chocolate box delivery :) 

I ended the weekend with - what else - basketball! The Women's Basketball version of Bedlam was Sunday, so clearly I watched that and wore plenty of orange, followed by Thunder vs. Suns/the Grammy's. I think we all know what I watched more:

Oh, Nick Collison. #ThunderUp