Words with Friends...

I'm really bad at this game. I just finished a game with my mom. She whooped me. This is inappropriate for young children but highly funny.

Look at this screen shot of my phone. View my last two letters. 

Sums up the score on that one. 

I thought about texting the picture to my mother, but somehow sending her a picture of the letters F and U in that formation didn't seem very respectful at the moment. It still doesn't now, but felt like the coincidence of the score and my last two letters was just too funny not to share. 

Second of all, I grilled. I am on a roll with this domestic wife thing. Not that I enjoy it or anything...cooking that is. I love being a wife. But once again I had to document it. I immediately texted my dad. I do that when I accomplish something great that he would be proud of...like building something, grilling, cooking, climbing mount everest... you know the usual. 

It is like something off the Blue Mesa menu!

And to finish off, a little bragging. My cousin took family pictures of us at Christmas. Here are a few I just had to share! 

That's my family!! My brother Tanner, Mom, Dad and us! All together. Squeezed.
On one couch.

And for the prize: As I was looking at the final picture in this post, I thought to my self about all the pictures we have taken of our family and the cousins. So I researched. And the four cousins could have made our own akward family photo website. View these gems I found.

They begin with 1990ish.

And end... here. 

Consider yourselves lucky Kale and Gage (two new additions!) that you were not here to endure
those lovely pictures....and fashion.

Hey Good Lookin...Whatcha Got Cookin?

3 Meals to be exact. That is what I've been cooking.

Until Will got hungry and took it over again.

Oh and Fried Ravioli, Fried Pickles, Poppyseed Chicken AND cookies for the youth Christmas party that I failed to document before they devoured it. It looked pretty good and was not burnt.

I did not set off any fire alarms, only had one major emotional breakdown during the chimichanga and all were edible. I got the recipes from pinterest...which brings me to another point.

This is a complete disappointment every time I go to my pinterest app. Anybody with me?

Which brings me to another thing...I semi decorated our house this year. It was actually kind of an embarassment to my college degree, but you gotta live on a budget people! Crafty Pinterest decorations take money too and I have been banned from Hobby Lobby (Maybe banned is a strong term, more like discouraged by the husband to ever drive by the craft store) and I refuse to go to Joanns. While I'm on the subject, Joanns is the new Hobby Lobby. Has anyone noticed this? When you used to go to Hobby Lobby there would be one line open and it would be a checker that was going at sloth speed...no, slower than sloth speed. You could be buying 1 marker and be in there two hours just waiting behind the old retired woman buying out the 80% off home decor aisle. I had a game in college that I would play called "Guess the fastest checker." Now I'm pretty sure that Hobby Lobby fired all of their sloths and sent them over to Joanns. In particular they all work in the fabric cutting desk. I digress. Back to Christmas, we were not going to be around at the house much at Christmas so we opted to not put up the Christmas tree. I just decorated the mantle with our stockings and used the hearth as the place for our presents. It was kinda cute. But when I was taking down the picture frames that normally inhabit the mantle...I found this hidden behind a framed engagement picture.

I once discussed this scooby doo snack situation before. I'm not sure who should be more embarassed. Will - who is eating scooby doo snacks and leaving a hansel and gretel trail. OR

Me - I haven't bought these in like two months. This means, it has been approx. 2 months since I have cleaned that area of the house. 

That is all I got. Happy 2012 friends. 

Christmas Time is Here

I have had my two faithful blog readers ask "Why no posts?" Well I'll tell you why. Because it is December and December means my busy season. I have a show coming up so every waking moment of my life has been devoted to getting Happy Days ready to be seen by the public. Nothing very funny has happened...until yesterday.

Yesterday was December 1st. Many things happened yesterday. The first being that it is the opening night of the show. I had also arranged for my two leads to be interviewed on CW33. It is a big day. This is how it began.

I woke up, much like any other day. I had a big day ahead of me so I had to shower and fix myself appropriately to be viewed by people unrelated to me. I slowly got out of bed, jumped in the shower, picked out my cute outfit that I was going to wear today. I iron it. I put the clothes on. I dry my hair. I straighten my hair. I even put on a full face of make up. The morning was going without a hitch and I was running only a couple of minutes behind. I was going to make it to work on time for the first time this week! Then I brushed my teeth.

While brushing my teeth I dripped a little bit of toothpaste on my shirt. I did not pay any attention to it, thinking it would go away. I quickly gathered my things and headed for the door. My car has been frosted over each morning so I decided to make 2 trips. The first to put my bag in the car and turn it on. The second to get the remaining things I needed. I thought maybe by my second trip the car would be mostly defrosted. So I take the first trip. Success. I take the second trip, grab the spare key and lock the door go to get in my car and it is locked. Yes. Locked. How it locked itself with the key inside running I will never know. But it did and this put me in quite the predicament.

Next are the thoughts that sped through my head:

Oh no! Oh no!
How in the world did that happen?
Spare key! I'll get the spare key and unlock it.
I'm clicking the spare key and nothing is happening.
Oh Gosh.
Ok, I'll call Will.
Phone, Phone, Phone....
Oh gosh. It is in the car.
No phone, no keys.
Oh no, it is 7:20. 
Next door neighbor.
Maybe he'll help me.
No answer.
I'll ring the door bell again.
No answer.
Oh gosh. This is bad.
It's cold.
Try the spare key again.
No luck.
Oh wait! Inside my keyless entry remote is a key.
I'll try that.
Success!
Oh boy! It is 7:30.
I'll text the secretary to tell her I'm running late. At least my windows were defrosted.

So off to work I go. I get to school about 8:15. Fix all the problems of the play. Oh! What is that? A mic is broken beyond repair. Awesome. That is 250 more dollars that I will have to pay. At least I will be headed out for a while. At 9:00 I take my kids and we get in the 15 passenger van and head toward Dallas. It was pretty awesome, I must say. They kids were so excited and did great!

We get to Dallas fine. I did not get lost. I did not get in a wreck. I parked the van very well. We go in hang out for a little bit and then it is our time to be interviewed. We all get up and the sound guy hands us our mics. Alex first, Taylor, then me. I look down to put my mic on and... remember the toothpaste from earlier.  Yep. It is huge. Like two dots the size of quarters. This is not an exaggeration. I am fixing to go on the news and special over here has toothpaste on her shirt. Embarassing. I fix it the best I can and we go on. I redeemed my self with the interview, except the interviewer through a curve ball and asked me an educational question.  "uhhh ma'am. This was not on the list."

We leave and I introduced my kids to the Irving staple, Big State Drug. We enjoyed a nice burger and shake and headed back to school.

The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly with the opening night of the show. By 10:30 though I was about to fall down. I went home, immediately took off my heels, put on sweatpants and crawled in the bed just to start it all over again today.

Kids...

Line of the day yesterday:

The Situation: This week I have been teaching my students how to build. We have been building two full size diner booths for our musical. Which by the way is Happy Days and you should come see it if you are in town. So yesterday I am on top of the booth and I am screwing in a screw with the drill. I drill the first bit that makes the whole and pull it out of the wood. Apparently it was still rotating and I swung it to my side to put down on the bench. But in the path stood my pants. My pants that were on my person. As soon as that spinning bit hit my pants, it immediately attacked my pants. I screamed. The kids screamed. I looked down and my pants are completely wrapped around the bit of this drill. So I first, calm the children. I reassure them that everything is all right. I assess my situation. Blood? No. Pain? No. Leg still attached? Yes. So I unroll the drill bit out of my pants and discover what it left me with.

This:

After my horrific incident my students were pretty shaken up. They kept asking if I was ok and what not. I, as the good teacher I am, reassured them that things were fine and that I was glad it was me and not them.

Conversation:

Student: Mrs. Morris, are you ok? Are your pants ok?
Me: I'm fine. I guess it will give me an excuse to buy a new pair of sweat pants. I'm pretty sure that I've had these since freshman year of high school. Come to think of it...I think I've had these pants and these shoes since high school.
Student: (in all seriousness) They had converse back then?!?!
Me: How old do you think I am?

1. Will gave me the "and that's why you don't wear baggy sweatpants while using powertools" chat when I got home. What is the proper attire for working with power tools?
2. I should really throw those shoes away. They've built one too many sets in their day. Looking at them, I'm kind of embarrassed that I still own a pair....two pair...

It was a difficult day in the world of theater class. But we built an awesome booth! Will is hunting so I have lots of time to blog. Expect pics tomorrow!

T-minus 2 days until opening weekend

The time is nearing and the husband is getting giddy. Yes. It is November which means that the Opening of Deer season is within reach. Within hours I-20 will be full of trailers, trucks and rifles. Yesterday I learned that our very own Governor Perry announced that November is Hunter Appreciation Month. I feel like he did not consult his wife on that one. She would have said otherwise. I feel like maybe it should be Hunter's Wife Appreciation, but that is my own soap box.

But with hunting comes really nice dates that make up for the weekends away. Last weekend was our family retreat at church. We headed out to Glen Rose again. This year (just like last year) we decided to go down a day early and just have a nice "us" night. We ate at The Loft in Granbury again and it was even more delicious than last year. We had an amazing beer cheese dip with delicious garlic sourdough bread that I am still tasting in my mouth (and feeling in my hips).

But soo worth it. It was a nice night just to be us, not talk about work/church and have a nice dinner away. We ended the night with what every couple does...going to wal-mart to buy food for the retreat, going back to the retreat center, and going to bed.

But the retreat was fun! I did find a cute boutique while I was in town getting BBQ for dinner. I found this 22 dollar coozie. I feel like this sums up my life. I had no desire to spend 22 dollars on it, so I took a picture.

On the other hand, the retreat was a raging success! Will did a great job!

Well, I'm off to prepare myself for opening weekend. I am now a hunting widow from this Thursday til whenever he decides to come home. There will be a whole lot of craft making going on up in this joint.

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

Busy life has begun. Here I sit in a prop rocking chair rocking my stress away on the stage at work before rehearsal starts. I figured I needed to get my creative funny juices moving, therefore, I have a story to tell.

Once upon a time there was a day called Columbus Day. This is a lovely holiday for teachers because they receive the day off: the day off to do whatever they want to do. Usually getting caught up on work. This particular Columbus day, I had talked Will in to staying home from hunting. We both lazily woke up...ok I lazily woke up on that Monday morning. We discussed what we would do for the day. What should we do? I suggested bike riding in Las Colinas. There is a great trail out there and I felt like doing something active on such a beautiful day. I thought that he agreed, but before I could get off the phone with my dad asking about the bikes, Will had called some guy about dove hunting and had reserved a dove hunt that evening. Not even that evening...like 3:30. It was currently 12:00. There was no way we could go bike riding now.

Communication error: Will thought I was joking about bike riding. I thought he was joking about hunting. Joke is on me.

When I realized that he wasn't joking and that we really were going dove hunting that afternoon, I needed some support. I immediately text Christin.  She is out in Abilene and would usually be my out at a time like this. Much like Brandon or Josh would be when I suggest a night at the ballet.

 

Her response:

So we did what any young professional couple in the city does on a day off, we went dove hunting. BUT FIRST! We must start the trip off right. I needed to return some pants to Gap. So, I traded my bike ride for a trip (a very quick trip) to the mall. But on the way back we somehow ended up at Academy because I "needed" camo to wear. Apparently, my pink siggie sing song shirt is too bright for the birds. I was thinking of myself as more of a beautifully large flower than a camoflauge mound of person. So I walked out of Academy with a camo pullover and pink earplugs for my delicate womanly ears.

But don't worry my friends. We sure did stop by Rudy's to get BBQ before we hit the road.


So we are driving, driving, driving. Past Fort Worth, Past Burleson....into Godly, Texas. Yes there is a Godly, Texas.


We meet some guy at a shell gas station and he takes us to his land. We saw 1 bird. Will shot 1 bird. We were there five hours.


I get really restless and fidgety when hunting, plus, I had to go to the bathroom and wasn't about to rough it. So I suggested we play a game of pass and play words with friends. We got two turns in and Will gave up.

Here Will is living out his hunting show. He was giving me a whisper play by play of what was going on.

A man and his dog.

The bird he killed.

 

 

Copper wanting to eat the bird he killed.

But don't you worry! We finished a good evening off with a good ole fashioned Captain D's dinner. A picture from my youth. There used to be one in Irving and we would frequent the establishment. There used to be coloring contests there all the time.

Our life in pictures

Life as of late:

We went to Abilene, the church of Christ mecca, for Lectureship or Summit or whatever they are calling it now. We stopped at a gas station in Eastland:

 

Yes, you may have noticed two cop cars as was pointed out to me via a follower on Instagram. We pulled into this gas station to switch drivers and use their facilities.   We switch drivers and because something always goes wrong when I get in the driver's seat. Something went wrong. I put it in reverse and this horrible sound was coming from my back tire when I would brake. Will got out, inspected it and called my dad. Then his resident church car guy. Then the manual. We decided it was a rock in the tire. But in this time behind us was an interesting situation occurring. Behind us was Barney Fife inspecting this guy's van. The inspectee was handcuffed and taken to the car. Then pulled out of the car. Then Barney Fife's buddy came and searched the van. Gave him the walk straight test and he failed miserably. Barney's second buddy showed up and now the suspect is handcuffed again and put into the front seat of squad car #2. But by then, we were leaving. Who knows what happened. 

Later that week, I did this: 

After I took that SAT for college graduates and began other things, like cleaning the house. One day I came home from working. All I wanted to lay on my wonderful couch and relax and this is what I found: 

But Wait..... Here is what wouldn't fit in this picture:

I had heard the toe clippings the night before as I play my nightly solitaire game and catch up on words with friends but did not expect to find them on the floor. Clippers and all. 

It really is the mundane things in life that make me laugh. 

For example: Last Sunday I was fed up with having too many condiments and frozen wild game in our fridge that I could never find anything. I was tired of constantly buying chicken stock when I knew I had just bought it, but I couldn't find it. So I decided to attack the kitchen. I went straight to the fridge and began pulling stuff out, checking expiration dates and throwing things away. I started in the fridge, then moved to the freezer. This is what I found! JACKPOT!

I went to grab it and this is what I found: 

Who would do such a thing?? Who eats all the thin mints and then puts the box back?

I moved on to the pantry in a sullen mood and threw away 3 trashbags full of expired condiments, cereals, bisquik that is as old as our marriage, and spices that saw their beginnings in Abilene. I put everything back in a very organized spot and I placed our categorized condiments in the door of the fridge. 

I live with Will Morris: 

Yes, you counted right. 

1 Stubbs BBQ

1 Salt Lick BBQ

1 Sweet Baby Rays BBQ (there were two but I combined)

2 bottles of Harolds (We had three but I combined two)

1 Jack Daniels BBQ

1 can of Perini's BBQ

If you add all of those together, yes. That equals 7 bottles of BBQ sauce. 6 different kinds. Who has that many bbq sauces?