For Japan with Love- Bloggers Day of Silence

Today, I'm participating in a bloggers day of silence to raise awareness about the heartbreaking situation in Japan. For more information, please go to the link specified in the flyer or to Utterly Engaged. Additionally, a site has been set up for donations through the For Japan with Love site.


And please don't forget the animals in Japan that also need our help.... If you haven't already seen this about the dog refusing to leave his injured canine buddy, it will warm and break your heart at the same time...Read more about the video here.

To get an update or help animals in Japan, including the ones in the above video, please like Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue on Facebook. Or you can donate through many orgs like Animal Refuge or see a bigger list on Kinship Circle.

Happy St. Pats!

Top o' the mornin, friends! ;) Just a quick note wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! The NCAA Tourney is here this week, which is SO exciting! So, our downtown (where I work) is going to be infused with crazed bball fans AND St. Patrick's celebrations-Awesome! :) Hoping to walk down to McNellies (if the name doesn't let you know it's an Irish pub, you need to have some morning caffeine) after work for a festive green beverage!

Hope you remembered to wear green! Have a good one!



The above pic is from Chicago... I've always wanted to go when they dye the river green for St. Pat's. :) Does your city do anything festive like that? Dye the river? Have a parade? Etc?

Weekend Recap!

Thunder's crashing outside as I type this and it reminds me of spring.. *happy sigh* I don't love living in "tornado alley" but I do love the sounds of a good thunderstorm as I drift into dreamland in the spring and summer... :) That said, if it's still storming in the morning when I have to leave for work, my feelings shift a little...haha.. 

How was the weekend, friends?! Mine was glorious! Seriously.. that sounds cheesy, but it was pretty dang good. And the best part... I didn't really do much of anything. :) Somehow, last week, I managed to do something every single night... I dunno if I had spring fever or what, but week's end, I was like "Who am I and why haven't I been home all week?!" 

Anyhoo... Friday night, Eric and I were both completely UN-socially obligated and loving it! We kicked off the weekend with some Mexican food (duh). 

Makes me want some even right now... mmmmm.... (I didn't take this photo)

Hung out and then called it a pretty early night, which was good b/c we were both wiped out! Saturday, I headed for a long, leisurely walk with the pup and Eric headed out on a bike ride (he cycles). I've kinda wanted to get into cycling, but it's kinda an expensive thing to just try unless you're sure you like it. Those bikes are legit...and $$. If you cycle, opinions welcome. :) 

I'd been REALLY wanting to go thrift store/vintage store shopping. Eric was game to come with, so off we went! Wait... no.. rewind... We went and got Mexican food and then off we went. Yes, you read that correctly. Mexican on Friday night and then again for lunch on Saturday. Whatever. Don't judge me. MMmmmmm guacamole.... Admittedly, Eric is kinda awesome at the vintage store shopping. I walk in and feel overwhelmed. He walks in and starts perusing things and can end up with some random-awesome shirt for himself that I would have totally missed.. So, I was glad I talked him into coming.. 

(via google images) :)

He talked me out of a dress that I thought was retro-AWESOME! In retroSPECT, though, I probably would have never worn it and I'm rather glad he talked me out of it... (think blue, long sleeve and polka dot). Well, he didn't "talk" me out of it, but the look on his face did the talking...haha.. But, I did find an awesome purple velvet blazer that I am eagerly taking to get dry cleaned...even though I can't wear it til next fall... :)

After our vintage/thrift adventures, I went to Michael's to get some stuff to make our casa springtastic and ran some other errands, then grabbed some vino with a girl friend over an early dinner.  :)

Reconvened with Eric later and rented Unstoppable on his apple tv.... 

I dug it... Good movie based somewhat on a true story about a runaway, unmanned train carrying toxic chemicals. About an hour and a half. Good actors. Lotsa action. Not gory. Jackie approves. *pretending to stamp approval*  Still wanna see 127 Hours and Burlesque.. Seen either one? Thoughts?

Today, had breakfast with Eric at our fav breakfast spot and then I went to the mall and tried on a zillion things a few items... :) A rarity for me... I'm usually the girl that HATES to try stuff on unless I really, really want it. I didn't really buy much- I'm saving the moolah! (giving self kudos). Got a cute dress that was on major cant-pass-up-sale for some spring/summer weddings coming up. I think I just wanted a "Jackie day." I shopped at my own leisurely pace, tried stuff on, went to the grocery store, cleaned the house, etc... :)

Alright, loves, I'm off to finish downloading some music to the ipod for some working out this week! Quick embarassing story... I worked out two weeks ago with my ipod at the gym. Right. I've been back to a couple classes, but didn't need my ipod for those. Anyway, dawned on me this week that I didn't have the dang thing. I thought I'd left it a few places...and then realized I hadn't! I called the gym and they had it (PHEW!) and the girl was so nice...but she said "We were wondering.. It's been here a couple weeks!" *head hung in shame* I wanted to say "I've been here! Just in the classes! Promise!" But, it was fruitless...haha... We had a good laugh about it as she handed it over. :) Sheesh.

Hope ya'll had a good weekend! Hooray for sunshine a little longer into the evenings! :)

{Almost} Springtime! :)

Happy Friday! It's going to be 75 here today! :) I know I know...it will be cooler tomorrow... and Tulsa always seems to get a snow in March but still... Spring is here in little glimpses...and I'm loving every bit of those little glimpses!

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens

Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn.  ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day.  ~W. Earl Hall

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.  ~Ruth Stout

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

(images via)

A Slice of Random...

1. Food is good. Period. I've had two meetings this week over lunch.. and I don't mean 11-12. I mean 11:30-at least 1:30. And there is no lunch provided. And most attendees DONT bring lunch. What the hey?! Lunch might be my favorite meal of the day. It's rarely the healthiest meal of my day, but it's my favorite. Lunch. It's a priority. This is my PSA.

2. Hip hop and you don't stop. (yes, I just said that). I just realized that Tulsa has some awesome dance classes available. I miss dancing so much from my younger years. Was on the pom squad and took dance classes since like 3rd grade. :) I've wanted to take a class for fun, but I didn't want to be stuck in some random tap class with a bunch of retirees.. which is what Tulsa had to offer for awhile. Maybe that's a little mean...but just saying. I was thinking more like this video from the movie Center Stage-something young and fun! So, when I heard we have some cool dance places cropping up, I was pretty excited. Emailed a friend who loves dancing and turns out she knows the owner to one of the places! Anyway, she put together a group for eight weeks of a hip hop class for a group of girls! I'm excited! I mean, I wanted to go by myself and totally would have...er..maybe...eventually... but there was definitely a fear of "what if all these people could practically back up dance for Britney or something?!" I mean, I danced on a pom squad...for a public high school. Over 10 years ago. I just want to have fun and get a different kind of work out!

As comedy, when she sent the email around, the subject line was "adult dance class!" and it got blocked by our work b/c it thought the content had to do with adult dancing in another capacity. Oh good grief. *yikes*

3. Wine makes it better. For the past couple weeks, the amount of wine I have consumed in the evenings is well... Let's just say my liver is probably cringing a little... I think everyone is ready for spring and therefore ready to enjoy a happy hour...or three.. :) No complaints and I'm not overdoing it, but I just think it's funny.

4. Brown hair and bronzer, etc. Thinking I'm digging the brown hair. It took a bit to get used to and I sometimes have days where I accidentally put on too much bronzer if I feel pale and look orange. Orange is not a good look for your friend, Jax..haha. Random, but I was pretty shocked at how many people said something weird about it. I mean..there weren't that many.. but it was just odd. I didn't really ask anyone, so I think that's why it was weird. In my head, I was like "What does it matter? It's just hair" but I got a lot of  "Why did you do that?" (in that tone) or "You're a better blonde." The whole thing was bizarre b/c I'd never say that to anyone, especially mere days after they did such a drastic change. 

I guess it just shocked me like they wouldn't think that might hurt my feelings a little...or like I owed them an explanation. And it was ALL people I barely know, like people on facebook I haven't seen since middle school *shrugs* Mind you, I got a lot of very cool and flattering comments, too, so there wasn't like a hair hate parade or anything...haha.. :) I've been dying it blonde for 15 years of my life. And I love it blonde. And it will be blonde again. But, sometimes a girl just needs a change for a little while. Needless to say, I purged some random facebook friends that I realized have no business looking at my life and commenting on it b/c I couldn't pick them out of a lineup. I asked myself if I'd say hi to them at Target if I ran into them. If the answer was no, they got unfriended. ha!

Anyway, wanted to say thank you for ya'll's positive comments a couple weeks ago when I did it. At the time, I didn't care if anyone said anything b/c I did it for myself, but when I got a few somewhat awkward/negative comments, ya'll's kind words really made me feel better... So thanks. :) I don't know about you, but I am constantly reminded how important this little blog community is to me. I really dig you guys and I'm thankful to have you in my life over the interwebs. :)

What I'm not digging=my bangs. I keep willing them to grow. They're at that length where they're pesky and can't be swept to the side. Bangs-bad idea. Brunette-good idea... haha... :)

5. Monkey bars make me happy. Sometimes I wish there was a playground at lunch...like recess style. But obviously with equipment big enough for adults. And um... if they had smoothie king that'd be awesome. And possibly girl scout cookies. This, my friends, would be a corporate America lunchtime paradise. ;)

6. Reality tv is not reality. Are you watching the Celebrity Apprentice? It's awesome. That's all.

This is reaching novel status, so I should stop....Sending happy bloggidy thoughts your way, friends! #winning #tigerblood (haha)

Weekend Recap (late)!

Hiya friends! :) I wanna do a weekend recap...even though we're already almost to the next weekend.. Whatever...

Soooo Friday, Eric and I headed to his parentals' casa for dinner! His mom's cousin was in town from Texas so we had a great time, ate ourselves silly, and called it a decently early night. (I don't think dessert counts during holidays, family visits, etc. It just doesn't. My rule.)

Saturday morning, guess what we did.... went to see BEAUTY AND THE BEAST! Remember how Eric got us tix for Christmas?! :) His mom and cousin came too and it was a great time! We were fortunate to have fabulous seats dead center just 8 rows back! After sitting so close at the past few shows, I don't think I can move farther back. It just adds such a cool element to be able to really see their faces and expressions.. :) I absolutely loved the show. LOVED. It was prolly one of my favorites.

Here are the four of us pre show.

 

I got home and took a gratuitous photo with my dog in front of our pretty tree in the backyard.. :)

Saturday, I co-hosted a reception for my alma mater's young alumni group since I'm charing that this year! We had a great turn out before the last home bball game. :)

I look awkward in this photo, buuuut whatever. 



Saturday night, Timberly and I headed to dinner... in matching blazers (total accident but funny). 

Sunday, Eric and I took G dog for a walk to TU's campus and then headed for some Mexican food. B/c it's just not a weekend without Mexican food. Duh.  

Good weekend for sure. :)

Top Two Tuesday!

I kinda took a social media hiatus for a few days. Kinda accidental, but probably needed. I thought about it and went "Wow, I haven't blogged, tweeted much, facebooked, responded to emails or even many texts..." Anyhoo... I'm playing catch up now. Wanted to participate in the Top Two Tuesday from Taylor's blog!

Top Two Things You've Learned About Relationships

1. Learn/understand each other's communication styles...and be able to communicate to them effectively. Some people are talkers. Some people are more actions-based. Some people prefer to deal with things by hashing them out in a series of emails. Some people hate confrontation. If you don't know HOW the other person likes to communicate, you often end up muttling things more when trying to talk about things, plan things, etc.

2. When something's bothering you, don't get passive aggressive or let it fester. Just say it.

Sure not everything that bothers me is worth a comment. And I know that. B/c frankly, I'm a chick that sometimes gets moody.. *shrugs* (You never heard me say that). ;) But, if I know something genuinely bugs me, I've learned it's just SO much better if I just say "Hey, something's bothering me." Also, don't say it a hundred times. Just say it once. I have a tendency to be like "This is WHY this bothers me and then this bothers me and did I mention that this bothers me?" When I think back to those kinds of conversations, I wonder why on earth I felt the need to say the same thing 15 times in 5 minutes. (Eric is patient :) ). ;)

Can you tell I work in Communications? haha....I wrote those and went "Hm... well...that makes sense..."

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone! :) I need to do a weekend recap soon with some fun photos! :)

Happy Birthday Gracie Dog!

Yesterday was G-money's 4th birthday! Last year, I kinda was a horrible dog owner and forgot her birthday. *head hung in shame* Soooo this year, I was like "I need to get her lots of treats! And maybe a little cake!" From there, it became, "well...she kinda needs a hat...and those candles b/c they say 4...duh...and maybe also that balloon..." (I'm easily entertained).

Gracie is so chill that she'll just sit wherever you put her most of the time so I thought I'd give it a try with her sitting in the chair...haha.. She just looked at me like "whatever...this is really happening..."  :) 

"Really? I have to wear the hat? Really?"

I got Marla's dog in on the action... They both look a tinge concerned. Granted, I'd just said "who wants a treat?" to get them to look at me, soooo there's that. 

"You said treat! Finally, the reason for this dumb hat!"

Yes, I sang. And yes, I gave her a little tiny piece of cake. B/c she's awesome. :) The hat, pics, and cake all lasted about 5 minutes and then we went on to things she probably actually wanted to do on her birthday instead of what I wanted to do-an extra long walk, a little game of fetch, sniffing the other neighborhood dogs out for a walk too, and lots of praise and hugs. I think she liked all that more... :)

This little dog is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I adopted her when she was 4 months old from a friend. I think we were meant to find each other. :)   I remember she whined the whole way home after I got her. I just wanted to hold her and tell her she didn't have to worry about new owners again b/c she was officially my pup. (She'd been to a few different homes as a puppy; it was kinda sad. My friend tried to rescue her, but then couldn't keep her). I also changed her name as quickly as possible b/c my friend's 3 year old had temporarily named Gracie "Cuddles." Whoa.

She started out in the crate all day. And wasn't allowed on the furniture. And wasn't allowed any people food. I think you can guess how long that stuff lasted....

We have our own little routine. I am NOT a morning person, but neither is she. (Even further evidence that she's my fur soul mate). ;) I wake up, head for the shower, she either takes my place on the bed or just goes back to sleep after looking at me like "really, it's morning already?" I get out of the shower and she sleepily stretches to wake up and then I let her outside. She gets a treat and then we both go back in my room while I get ready. :) She loves to snuggle, is extremely smart, and is pretty much the best dog ever.. (not like I'm biased). 

I can't believe it's been almost four years that I've had this little furball, but she's definitely changed my life for the better and I'm so lucky I get to come home to her wagging tail and fabulous personality. :)  

Happy 4th Birthday to Gracie Dog aka G dog aka G-money aka G-funk aka Grace in your face... (and plenty of other nicknames...haha..). :)

Here's a pic from one of my first blog posts about her! Lookie how tiny! We'd just gotten back from the park for the first time! :)

It's SUCH a Monday

My palm phone rebooted itself on it's own and lost all my data. That's special.

I can't remember the password to a site I need to get into...and it seems to be defiant when it comes to emailing me a password reset.

And I can't stop eating the thin mints at my desk. Just go ahead and tape the girl scout cookies to my @ss. Whatever.

But, always good for a laugh... DYAC.com.... *happy sigh* :) If you've never visited this site, prepare yourself for the silent laugh mode at your desk. For reals. It's a manic Monday must.

Dear February- I'm happy to be waving goodbye to you in my rearview soon... You seem to always get under my skin...  :)

And the best thing about March 1? It's Gracie dog's birthday!!!! She's excited! Okay, she has no idea, but I'm excited! :)

Weekend Recap!

Blogging with my feet up, in casual shorts and an old sorority shirt, watching the Oscars! :) 

How was the weekend, friends?! Mine? I'll just dive right in!

Friday, a group of us headed to Ghostland Observatory's concert. I'd never been, but Timberly guaranteed me lots of (1) dancing (2) glow sticks and (3) laser lights! I mean, she had me at glow sticks... :) So, Friday, I tossed on some tights under jean shorts (b/c that made me feel rocker-chic), booties, and off we went for a random good time! 

We started at our friend, Julie's, where we got the glow sticks ready... or let them confuse us.. or whatever.. 

 Then, we took some sassy photos... duh... :)

 I found this guy at Julie's... I decided to take him with me b/c he seemed like a good date... ;)

 We opted to take a group pic of the girls.. But, we had to stop dancing long enough...

We had to get Britney (the dog) in it too-duh! :)

 It was a packed house at the Cain's Ballroom! The Cain's is a fabulously historic venue here in T-town that always gets outstanding-and often eclectic-acts. It's been around since the 1920s!

Don't know who Ghostland Observatory is? Lemme help... Here's what it looked like in there... 

 (Hello awesome!)

And here's a video of what it actually was like! (Not my video. I was too lazy to upload mine, so I just stole one from youtube). Just picture re-living your college days, dancing your booty off, and wearing glow sticks while laser lights burst everywhere.... There ya go! :)

I channeled my college days had a few concert beverages. Good image of what things looked like to your blogger friend, Jax...haha... Okay, being silly, but forgetting to turn on the flash turned out kinda awesome... :)

Our feet hurt, a glow stick burst on my shirt, and our ears were ringing....In other words, a good time was had by all! haha... :)

Saturday was much more low key.... :) Eric and I headed to his friends' wedding shower at In the Raw, a local sushi place. :)  Check out these AWESOME cupcakes someone made....Those things on them.. swedish fish! ha! How adorable right?! She wrapped them in black construction paper and used white sprinkles to look like rice!

Here we are with the bride and groom! :)

From there, we headed home to watch tv and be fabulously lame...  Busy weekend!

Today has been filled with a trip to the gym (go me!), errands, errands, errands, cleaning, and now the Oscars!  Hope you had a great weekend, friends!

Advice needed!
Oh and this is random and unrelated, but if you know of a good somewhat-matte bronzer, please advise. I currently use two-faced..and I like it, but it's kinda shimmery. I'm using more now with my newly brunette-ness and need a good one that isn't too fakey-shimmery for everyday wear. :)

And the winner is....

And the winner of my Apothica $25 gift card giveaway is..... Kerr at Say Cheese!

Congratulations! I'll be emailing you as soon as I post this to get your mailing addy, etc! :) 

Thanks to everyone that entered! This was really fun! I want to do another one with some of my fav things!  Hopefully soon! :)

Hope everyone's enjoying the red carpet as much as I am.... Someone tweeted "If I was ever going to switch teams, it might be for Mila Kunis..." haha... I agreed. She's stunning! 

Giveaway Reminder!

It's dark and creepy outside....which just made me think of Meredith Grey saying "dark and twisty" .. Random. Anyway...Thought I'd pop in here while I wait for that morning jolt of caffeine to start working...  :)

Have you entered my Apothica giveaway?! It ends tomorrow at midnight, so don't forget! :) I always want to buy some fresh makeup-eyeshadow, lip gloss, etc, when spring nears, so why not enter and get a fresh look for free?!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Thursday! From the Today Show this am, looks like a lot of us across the country are either getting rain or snow today. Glad I'm in the rain category here in T-town... Bring on spring-I'm ready!