So, I changed my background and header…again. I’m really not very happy with it…again. I think I’m just going to have to break down and pay someone to do it for me. I’m not sure what I want, but I’m tired of not being happy with the design. Who have you guys used? Any recommendations? I’ve looked at several designers, and I just can’t make up my mind!
We headed down to the Crown Center for the play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It is an audience participation play. We got an email about a week before the play with a spelling quiz to take if we wanted to be a speller in the play. They choose three people from the online quiz and one from the audience the night of the play. I filled out the quiz and I was chosen!
Crown Center bathroom
We stopped to eat in a restaurant in the Crown Center. It was the cutest restaurant! It was a train theme, and a train brought us our food! We were all fascinated with it, and everyone had out their phones recording!
After dinner, we headed over to the theater. I was TERRIFIED!
My Momma & Me!
The play was soooo much fun! I was in it for the first hour along with another audience member. It was really cool getting to experience the play from the stage. Along with spelling, we were directed around the stage by the cast, dancing and being goofy. I loved it!
I was the third audience member eliminated. The word I misspelled was zomathacary, which I’m not sure is even a real word! Missed it by one letter! As the cast sang the goodbye song, I was escorted off the stage by the “bee security”. He handed me a juice box and patted me on the head!
Ending song
My spelling certificate and juice box!
My costar! I found out later that she is one of Kansas City’s news broadcasters! She was eliminated right after me, and was the last audience member eliminated. We had so much fun!
When we got to the hotel, we were completely exhausted! All we wanted to do was go to sleep. We had been having trouble getting into our room the whole time we had been there, so we decided to film it. I like to call it our three-part miniseries! Here ya go!
That was the longest it ever took. I think it probably took an average of 10-12 tries to open. Only twice did we get in on the first try.
Check back later for more! Brooks & Dunn pictures are coming!
Thursday morning, we woke up super early to Bob the Builder banging around in the room next to us. We decided to go ahead and head over to the Plaza for some shopping. Our first stop was Anthropologie!!
We don’t have an Anthropologie in Oklahoma yet, so I had never been to one. Tulsa is getting one soon, and OKC is supposed to be getting one in the next year or so! Really exciting! They were having a huge sale, and I got some great stuff!
I’m seriously in love with this bag!
I wear this necklace pretty much every day!
Can’t wait until it’s cooler so I can wear the sweater!
Scarves are my weakness!
Forgot to get the bathroom picture though :(
We stopped for lunch at Panera. Momma had never eaten there, and it’s one of my favorite places!
One of the bathroom sink faucets was having some serious issues!
After lunch we headed over to Barnes & Noble to walk around a bit.
Look who I found!
a book about my bestie!
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the play! That post is coming soon!
I got bored with my design again, so I’m trying out a new one! It’s kinda weird that there’s no pink in it at all!
Since I’ve decided I kinda like this blogger thing, I’m thinking about getting a custom blog design. Who should I use? I’d love to get some suggestions! Thanks!
Finally, here is the start of the vacation posts! I had this post all ready to go, then Blogger lost it! Ugh!
This year, we kept up a tradition that was started on our trip to Memphis & Nashville last year.
Bathroom Pictures!
Not disgusting bathroom pictures, just pictures of us…in the bathrooms…
You may still be wondering why, so here are the pictures from last year that started it all!
No, you aren’t hallucinating. That is a restaurant booth. Inside a bathroom stall. I wish I knew what they were thinking when they decided that this would be a good idea. :)
Unfortunately, this year we didn’t get any super exciting bathroom pictures, but we have had fun going back through all of them and laughing about the fact that we actually took pictures of ourselves in the bathrooms!
Alrighty, here we go!
1st stop-Perry, Oklahoma
2nd stop-1st McDonald’s on the Kansas turnpike
Laughed out loud when I saw this purse. Had to share it with all of you! :) I also saw a super hot cowboy, but couldn’t get any pictures. Sorry :(
Last stop before KC-Emporia, KS
We got to our hotel around 3:00 to find that it was under renovation. The fact that we had to enter through a little side door should’ve been our first clue to run away screaming. We didn’t. We also learned VERY quickly that anything that anyone told us was more of a suggestion, not necessarily the truth. We chose the hotel because it said that we would have free breakfast and a refrigerator and microwave in our room. We didn’t want to have to eat out every meal, so we had planned to make sandwiches or something for lunch and eat breakfast in the hotel. That wasn’t exactly the case. By saying ‘free breakfast’, they actually meant that the teeny tiny yogurt and cereal breakfast was actually $8. Also, you could have a refrigerator and microwave in the room…for $10 EACH!
Now, Momma and I aren’t demanding divas that have to have things a certain way, but we would’ve been a little more prepared if we had known this ahead of time. The hotel’s response? "We have made some changes and just haven’t updated the website. Enjoy your stay!"
After unloading the car, we went downstairs to look at KC maps and to figure out what we were going to do during the daytime. While we were there, we watched two women complain to two managers about the hotel. They said that the leaves that had just blown in the door were disgusting, and the construction materials in the hallways were unacceptable. They didn’t want to even see any signs of renovation while they were there. They hadn’t even been in their rooms yet! They ended up getting moved to another area of the hotel and were given vouchers for free meals, and more than likely ended up getting at least part of their stay free. The whole time I was thinking ‘Who do you think you are? You aren’t celebrities. You aren’t staying in a super, ridiculously fancy hotel. They are doing renovation! COME ON!’ We had construction going on right outside our door and literally had to step over Bob the Builder or Handy Manny nearly every time we went in or out of the room!
Ok, my rant is over now! :) We decided on Cheesecake Factory for dinner! After circling the restaurant about four times and accidentally going in a maintenance parking garage, we found a place to park!
We had AMAZING wild blueberry white chocolate cheesecake! Yummers!
Cheesecake Factory had a nice bathroom! :)
We walked around the Plaza for a bit. It was really pretty out there!
We were exhausted from the drive, so decided to just go back to the hotel and relax. We ended up spending the evening with these guys!
More to come soon!
This week’s Favorite Friday topic is favorite party games!
Phase 10 is one of my family’s favorite games! We play every year during Thanksgiving week when everyone comes to stay at my great-grandparents’ old house for the week. We sometimes spend hours playing this game!
My adoptive family from church introduced me to this game a few years ago. We play this game at parties at their house a lot, and it gets very competitive. We usually end up yelling and shoving each other a bit, but it’s lots of fun!
Apples to Apples
Apples to Apples is a really fun one too!
Check out Jen’s blog for more! Also, my giveaway closes at midnight tomorrow night! If you haven’t entered, click here to see the giveaway items and click here to get entered!
I was so nervous videoing myself! I hope I don’t sound like a total dork! I’m kinda thinking about drawing the winner on video too. What do yall think about that?
To enter the giveaway:
For extra entries:
Leave me comments to let me know about extra entries!
You have until midnight on Saturday night, July 31st. The winner will be announced sometime the first week of August! Thanks yall!
Oh. My. Goodness.
What. A. Day.
Today has been absolutely crazy. I spent most of the day out distributing our marketing materials to hospitals and doctors offices, and it seemed like the more the day went on, the worse it got.
It started when I found this thing on my steering wheel while I was driving down the turnpike.
I am not kidding, this picture is actual size. It was crawling toward my hand! I was on the phone with my momma and I almost freaked out. I found a receipt in the console so I tried to grab and squish it, but it fell onto the floorboard! I exited and pulled into the bookstore parking lot and jumped out. After searching for a couple of minutes, I finally found and squished it.
When I got to one of the hospitals, I had to drop off our brochures with the case management office. The front desk worker sent me up to the case management floor. They said I had to sign in on another floor and get an ID badge, so I went down to that floor. When I told that worker who I was, she told me that I had to fill in my information on the computer and it would print my badge. She said the computer was really easy to use. It would tell me step by step what to do, and it was pretty self-explanatory. THEN, she stared at me for a few moments, then said, “I probably better help you.”
WHAT? 
Do I look like I’m a not a smart person? Am I not capable of following simple computer directions?
Several of the places I was supposed to visit had either closed or moved locations. I ended up not being able to meet a lot of the people I needed to.
On my way back to the office, I was on the highway, and the traffic started backing up. I couldn’t switch lanes quickly enough to exit, so I ended up in it. It. Was. Awful.
I got stuck in this mess! It took me about 40 minutes to go one mile. 
People were crossing over the grass to get out of the traffic! Crazy!
Several people got stuck in the grass because this area was gross and muddy from being underwater on Monday!
I called Teddie to see if she was home and could watch the news. She said that the highway was closed because a suspicious box was found inside a power substation! Someone had cut through the fence and left this box. They had to call in the BOMB SQUAD!
It ended up just being a toolbox that a worker left, and someone attached a “suspicious note” to it, so I’m glad it wasn’t anything serious.
I ended the day getting to snuggle with a precious little baby, so it made my bad mood go away.
I really appreciate all of the comments and emails expressing concern after the flooding we had on Monday. Things have dried out quite a bit, but there are still a few areas under water, and some bridges and roads that need to be repaired.
I posted this picture on Monday that I took outside my office. I wanted to show y’all what was under all of that water.
It’s kind of unbelievable that all of this was covered in water. We’re very lucky, though, because it could’ve been so much worse.
Hope you all have had a great week so far! Only two more days until the weekend! Woo hoo!
*Highway pictures are from www.newsok.com