Quartz Mountain

One of the main things about my blog is being "pseudo single" but sometimes I get to be "in a relationship." This past weekend was one of those times.

It was Chase and I's 5 year anniversary so we went on a little getaway. Let me start by saying, NO, he did not propose. Okay, got that out of the way. (I have only been asked like a million times)

Since we had just spent a lot of money on the holidays (gifts, food, alcohol) we wanted to do something economical. The last couple of years we just went and did the nice restaurant thing so we wanted to do something different, we wanted to get away. So that we did.

Quartz Mountain Resort! It is a beautiful lodge/resort right in the middle of the Wichita Mountains near Altus Oklahoma. It took us just about 2 hours to get there so it was the perfect spot to escape to. And because it is their off-season we got it super cheap. (Even cheaper than we thought because they forgot to charge us for some stuff. Score!)


The room was very nice and had a bit of a lodge feel to it which made it special.


The main area of the resort had a beautiful Christmas tree and fireplace.


We also brought some champagne to cheers our 5 wonderful years together!


The next day the weather was absolutely beautiful and ended up being perfect for hiking/mountain climbing.


We tackled some pretty serious mountains. (serious for Oklahoma anyways)




This is the resort from about half way up one of the mountains. So beautiful.


Then I made the mistake of looking down and my fear of heights kicked in. Had a little mini anxiety attack while crouching on the side of the mountain. Good times.

All in all it was a great romantic getaway. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you like the outdoors. Its pretty crazy to see these mountains in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma.

Little houses made of candy

Gingerbread houses! Believe or not, I assisted in building my very first gingerbread house this holiday season.


Because it was our first attempt at this my mom bought a gingerbread house kit from Target. We thought we probably needed to start off small then work our way up to actually making the entire thing ourselves.


My brother, my mom and I all spent a couple hours together doing some holiday bonding and arguing over who got to squeeze the icing for the shingles and who got to decorate the actual gingerbread man.


It took a steady hand to get those shingles iced correctly. I let my mom and brother handle that, I was not the best at using the icing bag.


The kit came with all different kinds of candy. It was fun trying to figure out what to do with those and stealing a bite here and there.


Our level of creativity was not super high so in the end it actually ended up looking a lot like the picture on the box. Oh well. We did add our touch on the back of the house where we attached the gingerbread man who had fallen from the roof while putting up the lights. (I failed to get a pic of this)


After we were done we displayed our handy work prominently in the family room at my parents house for all to see. We did get some compliments.


Christmas day we thought we would devour all of our hard work. Except it was gross! Gingerbread that is made to "last" over a year...not tasty.

Skip-Bo

Every holiday when the extended family is together we bring out the deck of Skip-bo cards. It is a tradition we started a long time ago and there is always a running tally of who is winning.


I am very competitive so I take this very seriously.


We brought it out again this year at the Christmas Eve gathering.


I dominated after going 0-3 at Thanksgiving! My brother, Alex, was the loser of the night.

Easter? Who wants a piece of me??

Ugly Sweater...eh Vest

A new trend emerging during the holiday season in the years of late are ugly Christmas sweaters and parties dedicated entirely to people wearing the ugliest Christmas sweaters the local thrift store has to offer.

This year was no exception. I got invites to 3 ugly sweater parties. Each offering up good times, drinks and a promise of disgustingly ugly holiday gear. Well, you know me. I LOVE it! Anything that allows someone to look ridiculous and covered in Christmas is perfect for me.

Ad2OKC crew

I could only make one of the Christmas parties, the Ad2OKC party at a local hangout. And, lucky for me I did not have to trek to a thrift store on 23rd street in fear of my life, I just had to raid my moms closet. She had two awesome Christmas vests. Now while technically the vest is not a sweater I think the level of holiday goodness and grossness made up for that no problem. In the official rulebook vests are allowed if they are indeed ugly and covered in tacky Christmas business.

Check out Santa golfing

Since I could only make one of the parties I decided to take my sweet vest to the office. It was the Friday before Christmas and my last day at work before my 2 week vacay so it was perfect. I was already all hiped up on the holiday juice and throw in vacation and I am in the prime vest wearing mood.

My awesome vest

So, ugly Christmas sweaters and their parties are always welcome on my holiday schedule. Count me in!

Toys for Tots

As some people might know, I am obsessed with Christmas! I will dedicate an entire post to my obsession later because clearly that is what it deserves. Anyways, every year for the last few years I have always gone out and bought toys to donate to the Toys for Tots program. I love buying toys, its so fun and I don't have anyone in my family that is the age to get toys.

This year I decided to take the Toys for Tots to the next level and have my office do a little mini toy drive. I sent out an email to everyone to bring in a new toy, doesn't have to be expensive, and then put it under our office Christmas tree.

The Third Degree Tree

A lot of people participated and we got some really great toys! I think several kids are going to have an awesome Christmas this year. I even scored some really sweet talking, flashing robot things, buy 1 get 1 free.

Toys Under the Tree
I had to do some serious guilt tactics on some people to get them to bring toys. I even took it to my boss pretty hard so he bought a gift off someone else for a dollar so he could contribute!

More Awesome Toys
After I collected all of our toys I took them to the Army Reserves by Tinker AFB to drop them all off. It turns out I went during the actual toy handout to the families that needed the toys. It was an amazing site. There was a line of cars 3 miles long waiting to get in to pick out toys. They had several police officers and army personnel directing traffic and trying to get people in to pick out their toys. It really made me realize how many people are in need of things this holiday season and how giving people can be. One of the Sergeants helped me unload the toys and take them to the back toy room. He told me that room had been piled to the ceiling with toys from all the donations.

Thanks to everyone who donated! I love the holidays, it brings out the best in people. (unless you are in the mall parking lot!)

My Partner in Crime

Paisley. She is the cutest dog you could ever see. When you live by yourself you need someone to pass the time with, watch TV with, cuddle up in bed with, go for walks in the park with. So, who better to share all that with than man's best friend?
Paisley and I in Stillwater
After I moved into my duplex, which didn't allow pets :) , I decided that I was lonely and needed a companion. I LOVE dogs! I have always wanted a dog and I thought it was finally the right time.

My family has always adopted dogs. There are way too many homeless dogs for me to pay money for a dog that someone has breed in some puppy mill. So I started my search. I visited several shelters, looked online, went to PetsMart on their adoption days. I filled out adoption forms, I got on waiting lists, I did it all. Then one day I came upon a posting on CraigsList for this adorable little poofy black and white puppy. She looked perfect. She was a border collie mix, exactly what I wanted. I made a phone call, met up with the owner and picked up Paisley.

Paisley's CraigsList picture

Ever since that day she has been my absolute best friend in the world. I love to just hang out around the house with her. However, dogs can't be perfect. She has some bad habits. She likes to chew things and tear up pillows which has cost me a TON of money. She also likes to protect the house which can be annoying at times because she barks like crazy when people come over.

But for all her terrors she also has talents. I have successfully taught her to sit, speak (bark), shake and twirl. We are still working on "take a bow."

She is the best dog in the whole wide world!

Let Me Explain

This is my first blog post so I figured I would do a little explaining. I have wanted to start a blog for awhile but felt I didn't really have anything interesting to say. Then I figured out that I didn't really care how interesting it was, it is kinda therapeutic. So I decided to just blog about my life. To start things off, let me introduce myself.

A little about me:

I am 24 years old. I graduated from school a year and a half ago(Boomer Sooner!). I have a pretty kick ass job in downtown OKC working at an advertising agency. I found a cute little duplex in a historic/eclectic/ghetto part of town. No worries, its safe. I have been in a relationship for 5 years, and I am totally in love. No, no ring. I live with my dog Paisley. She is a Border Collie/Blue healer/Australian Shepherd mix. So cute. I will post all about her some other time. I have a great group of friends, awesome parents and a quirky younger brother. Life is pretty good.

Pseudo Single:

I named my blog this because I live my life as a sort of single gal. My bf lives in Stillwater and our relationship has been "long-distance" style for all of its existence. I have all the perks of a relationship (love, companionship, someone to buy me nice things, etc.) but I also enjoy the goings on of a single girl (nights out with friends, freedom to watch my TV shows, Friday nights to myself etc.). I thought this was a pretty interesting thing about how I live my life. So the things you will be reading about in the future will be about my adventures and misadventures as a Pseudo Single girl.

So that is the gist of it. More to come...