We won!

Some of you might remember me pleading for you for votes for this Proposal Story Contest.  Well all my begging paid off...we won!!!  You can check us out at the Naifeh Jewelry website.

So what do we get?  Well our happy smiling faces are in the current issue of the OKC Gazette magazine.

We also get a diamond pendant necklace, a fancy bottle of Champagne, dinner for two at The Boulevard Steakhouse, limo service to and from dinner, and a complimentary photo session with photographer Eric Gfeller. We will also be featured in The Brides of Oklahoma Annual Review published in 2011.

Sweet!

So, many many thanks to all of you that voted.

Dallas Farmers Market

This past weekend my Mom came into town for a visit.  I had not seen her since Christmas...which is probably the longest its ever been since we have always lived in the same area.   It was definitely time for some bonding.

My mom had a pretty good size list of places she wanted to go while she was here.  At the top of that list was the Dallas Farmers Market.  A collection of sheds with locally grown/made goods from veggies to flowers to chimineas.



While it was still a little chilly out and the sky was cloudy it was still an awesome experience.  Just having access to all that delicious local food is amazing.

Since we were rookies we didn't come fully prepared...no cash, forgot our own bags to keep from all those plastic ones.  We will be ready the next time around.  However, we did manage to stock up on some grapefruit, grapes, Hass avacados, apples and spinach.  Yum.



We are looking forward to making this one of our routine stops come Spring and Summer.

Power Outage

If you have been wondering where my blog posts have been lately (because I know how much you to depend on them to get you through every single day), the answer is no power and busy ever changing life.

But...about that power outage that threw us in a tailspin.  A couple Thursdays ago a record snowfall of over a foot of thick, heavy, beautiful snow fell on the Dallas metroplex.  It was the most snowfall Dallas has ever, EVER, had.  All day Thursday we enjoyed the huge snowflakes falling from the sky and even made a snow evening with movies and hot chocolate.  It was awesome.  (I LOVE snow)





At around 3am Friday morning I woke up to the blue flashing of electrical sparks flying through the night sky coupled with huge loud popping sounds.  And then darkness...everywhere.  The transformer in our backyard blew.  No power.  The weight of all the heavy snow caused branches to fall on the power line.



By the next morning our house was down to 55 degrees and falling.  We couldn't take it.  We unpacked the fridge (went grocery shopping the day before) and put all our food in Chase's truck bed and then covered it with snow. Then we packed our own bags, got Paisley and headed to my cousins house where we would spend the next 3 nights and 4 days.  The snow melted by Friday afternoon but no power until Monday evening at 6pm.

So...no time for blog posts, no time for a proper Valentine's Day, no time for anything except calling our land line over and over again to see if the power had been restored.

And for the record...when we returned home on Monday we ran around the house flipping the lights on and off in every room.

Proposal Story Contest

Hey everyone!  This blog post is a shameless plug to get all you readers to vote for us!

Chase and I entered a proposal story contest with a local Oklahoma jewelry store, Naifeh Jewelry.  Most of you know our proposal story from the blog (you can read it here) and know what an amazing job Chase did in asking me to marry him.  It was one of the most special times in my life!



The winners of the contest (determined by total votes) gets a $5,000 prize package that includes a fancy dinner out, photography and some bling!  So please, please, please help us win and go vote once a day now through midnight on Thursday Feb 11th.

To vote click here and then click on the vote button at the end of our story.  Spread the word and help us win!

Thanks readers!

-Hallie & Chase

Project Hiccups

Okay so the office project wasn't all perfect and pretty and shiny all the time.  We had several hiccups and setbacks and even a big one that kicked off a little spat between Chase and myself.

One of the pieces of the project that delayed completion was our decision to paint the ceiling.  While we definitely wanted to avoid this extra component of the project we just couldn't ignore the ugliness.  So, mid painting we had to again take off for Lowe's for more tools.

Lack of the right hardware was another problem that kept resurfacing.  I don't know how many times Chase left the house to go get this kind of screw or that kind of screw.

The biggest project roadblock we hit was hanging the first of the wall shelves.  Believe me, it looks easier than it is.  What are the chances you will drill in the exact spot a cross nail is in from the stud in the wall?  We did it twice!  And because we had to remove the drywall anchors in the top holes we had already drilled we were left with huge holes in the drywall.  And major arguments on how to approach the problem...which led to more drilling and more holes.  So spackle had to be put on the walls and allowed to dry properly followed by two coats of paint over the spackle.  Set us back on the shelves big time and tought us that home projects are a real pain sometimes.  (I didn't even stop to take a picture of this because we were so pissed!)

So even though we ended up with a beautiful finished project we are thrilled with, it definitely put us through the ringer.  But the hard work makes the result that much better.  Right.