Count Your Blessings Day 5

Taos

My favorite place in the world is Taos, New Mexico.  Mitch and I could spend every free minute there and be 100% happy all day every day.  We love it there!  Mitch's parents bought a cabin in Taos in 2009.  Since then, we have been there around a dozen times.  Each time we go we have more fun than the last!  There is nothing more relaxing than waking up in the mountains.  We say every time how the time stands still up there.  And it stands still in such a great way. 

Our favorite things about Taos are #1, the food!  And #2 how relaxing it is at the cabin.  Our favorite places are Graham's Grill, Michael's Kitchen and The Stakeout.  The Stakeout is closing and we are so sad about it.  We have several meals we will always remember!  When we are there many times Mitch goes skiing and I stay at home and read or cook.  So many fond memories have been made there and I know we will make so many more over the next 50 years!  Taos will always be our home away from home! 

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!?!

The Jordan's joined us on Valentine's Day 2010

The scenery never disappoints!

One of my favorite pics of us.  This was taken at the Old Blinking Light.

 

Count Your Blessings Day 4

My In laws!

I feel like growing up you always hear stories and see shows or movies where people are dreading spending time with their in laws.  I am here to say, I have broke the mold!  I have hit the lottery in the in law pool.  My in laws are great!  And before you think I am just sucking up, to be honest, they don't know I even have a blog. 

I can honestly say one of the first things that attracted me to Mitch, besides him being so handsome, was his love for his family.  When I was younger, I always remember thinking how I wanted to marry someone without a parents and siblings so we could always spend time with mine for holidays, etc.  After meeting Mitch, I have switched my thoughts on wanting to marry someone without family.  I love that Mitch has such a great sense of what a family really is.  It makes me realize how silly I was to ever want to be with someone who didn't feel the same way as I did. 

My father and mother in law are two of the greatest people I know.  Since day 1 when I was brought around as Mitch's girlfriend, they have treated me as if I was one of their own.  I don't know if either one of them really know how much I truly respect and love them.  They have been married for over 35 years and being around them is such an aspiration to what I want Mitch and I's marriage to be. 

And I want to clarify about in laws, I love my father and mother in law, but I adore the whole extended in law group.  From the new sister and brothers to the aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and grandparents I have been blessed with such a wonderful new set of family.

Mitch and I with Mark and Gwyn in May

They have a blast together!

Cody is a fantastic brother in law and I am so lucky that my sister found someone who treats her like a Queen!  He's a wonderful addition to the Harris gang!

The Day's and McAfee's- I love being an Aunt to Connor, Samantha and Wyatt!  And Monica, my sister in law, is a great role model of a fantastic Mother.  

I couldn't leave out the Grandparents!  Ray, Colis, Sam and Barbara are four of the most loving poeple I have ever had the privilege to know.

Family is unconditional love and I am thankful everyday that I gained a new family who I admire and adore dearly. 



Count Your Blessings Day 3

THE WEEKENDS!

There is nothing better than leaving work on a Friday knowing you have two complete days off to do whatever you please!  This weekend I am excited that we have our Cajun friends, Kasey and Nicole, coming in town to hang out with us.  It should be a great time!

And lately I have an even bigger reason to look forward to the weekends, I get to see my Husband!  Since we are living in different places right now for work, I have come to cherish the weekends even more because I get to have quality time with him.  In our case the distance has definitely made our hearts grow fonder! 

I know one day I will look back and wonder why I loved this song so much!

Count Your Blessings Day 2

My Grandpa!

I know that sounds really simple, but I really think it is something many people take for granted.  I am very fortunate to have my Grandpa.  We lost my Granny, 2 years ago in December and when she passed away I was only left with one grandparent. 

I think so many people take for granted that they have more than one grandparent left.  And I will even say that I took for granted that they would always be here.  When Granny passed away it made me realize how special it is to have any grandparents at all.  Growing up, the only grandparent I had on my dad's side was his stepmother.  His parents both died when he was a young boy so I never got the chance to know them.      But my Grandma Vervia was such a sweet lady!  And although she wasn't technically blood, she loved us no different.  And we all loved her the same as well! 

My Grandpa is a great man!  And I am so blessed to still have him in my life.  He is one of kind!  And I have him to thank, well at least 50%, for being blessed with such a wonderful mother.  Grandparents are very special people and although they have quirks here and there, they have probably loved you more than anyone else since the day you were born. 

So, all you people out there who are blessed with multiple sets of grandparents that are still alive, call them and tell them how much you love them today.  You really don't realize how lucky you are!  And believe me, one day they won't be around so tell them how much they mean to you while you can.  It may be just a phone call and a few minutes out of your time, but I guarantee it will make their entire week! 

Count Your Blessings Day 1

Sometimes in life you take for granted all of the small things you are truly thankful for.  So, in honor of it being November, the month of Thanksgiving, I have decided I will do a blog a day on one thing a day I take for granted that I am truly thankful for.

My parents being married for 29 years and going strong!

My parents have set such a great example on what a great marriage should be.  I know they probably have had fights and arguments, but at the end of everyday, I know God put them on this Earth for each other.  I am not sure if there is another man on this planet that loves his wife more than my dad.  And from a young age I have always wanted to marry someone who treated me the way my father treats my mother.  And I know I have found that in Mitch.

**And as a disclaimer, I know sometimes there are extenuating circumstances and things don't always work out.  And that people's "mulligan," can be a better fit all around.  Believe me I know!!

My hope is that my parents have at least another 29 (hopefully many more) years of wedding bliss together!

The Happy Harris Family

Our Weekend in Louisiana

What a weekend we just had!  While in Shreveport we made some really great friends.  Two of them being Kasey and Nicole.  Kasey actually took Mitch's place at Opeco when we were told we were moving to the panhandle of Texas to open another store.  Kasey and Nicole are a great couple!  They are a blast to be around and like most other people living in Louisiana, they are LSU Tiger fans.  They were so generous to ask us to come down and spend the weekend with them for the LSU vs. Auburn game.  We had such a great time! 

Friday after work in Oklahoma City, I drove to Amarillo to meet Mitch to fly to Baton Rouge, via New Orleans.  We had two very easy flights to get to New Orleans.  Once we were there, we grabbed our rental car and headed to Baton Rouge.  We ended up getting into Tiger Country around midnight and decided it would be best to just go to bed since we had to be up early to head to tailgate. 

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 7am and we immediately started getting ready for the day.  Nicole came and picked us up at 8:30 and by 9am there was a drink in my hand and we were tailgating Tiger style.  When we arrived the guys had already begun making gumbo.  What a treat we were in for!  While we were at the tailgate, another couple of Shreveport friends stopped by to see us, Justin and Muffin Wicker. We haven't seen them since we left Shreveport so it was awesome to get to catch up with them.  We tailgated our tails off the rest of the morning into the early afternoon.  I was a trooper to say the least!  I think tailgating alone Mitch and I gained 5 lbs. (if not more) each.  I felt like everytime I turned around there was some sort of Cajun concoction being handed to me to try.  After a bowl of gumbo they decided to tell me it was made with gator sausage.  It was great!  Then, I tried Boudin, pronounced boo-dan.  Before I tell you what all it entails, let me say that is was wonderful!!  I give it 2 thumbs up!  Ingredients included are pig intestines stuffed with pork sausage, dirty rice and spices.  Sounds a little gross, but boy was it good!

The makings of Chicken and Gator Sausage Gumbo

One of the few times you will catch us not wearing Sooner Red

 

After tailgating for a few hours, we headed to the stadium.  Before we went in to our seats we went buy Mike the Tiger's habitat.  His home is basically identical to the tiger exhibits you see at the zoo.  So cool!  After that, we went to find our seats.  Kasey's family has been sitting in those seats for over 20 years and it was fun that they knew everyone around them.  The game was great!  LSU killed Auburn.  Which we figured would happen, but it was fun to get to be there.  They have tons of great traditions that were great to get to see in person.  Mitch and I had an absolute blast!

Our lovely hosts for the weekend

Tiger Stadium

Mike being lead around the stadium

He's huge!

Now, after the game wasn't so much fun.  We had a great time with our friends, but we went to Buffalo Wild Wing's to eat dinner and catch the OU game.  It had been delayed so we really didn't miss too much.  Once we sat down the game started back up.  And that was were all the fun of the day ended.  Our poor Sooners lost in bad fashion.  We were very sad Sooner fans so instead of ruining everyone elses party, Mitch and I left for the day and headed back to the hotel to be pouty, mad Sooner fans by ourselves.  It was a sad day in Soonerland!

Sunday morning we slept in.  And both of us REALLY needed it to say the least.  Once we got up and around we went to campus to eat at one of LSU's staple restaurants, The Chimes.  I had the best lunch, New Orleans BBQ shrimp.  It was delicious!!  After lunch, we said goodbye to our friends and headed to New Orleans for the day.  We went to check into the hotel, take back the rental car then, headed down to the French Quarter.  We thought about going to the Saint's NFL game, but decided we had a very early morning and to just walk around, go to dinner and make an early night of it.  Mitch was in the mood for oysters so we found one of their most popular oyster houses and watched the football game. 

Bourbon Street

Monday morning we headed to the airport at 5am.  What an early day!!  Our flight left at 6:10 to head to Dallas then we were supposed to catch another plane and be back in Amarillo by 10am.  That didn't happen....  Fog in Dallas had us redirected to Austin.  By the time we made it back to Dallas our flight had already left so we went on the search to find a way home.  Luckily we got on the first flight out to Amarillo.  We ended up getting back in Amarillo at 3pm and not into Perryton until 5.  What a long day it was for us!! 

I can't even begin to say how much fun we had in Louisiana.  It made both of us remember how much we enjoyed living for the short period in Shreveport.  We hope we were good enough to be invited back again someday.  We will always be Sooner fans at heart, but it was nice to get to experience football in Baton Rouge.  They love their football as much we do!  Kasey and Nicole are coming to see how we do football in Sooner Nation in a few weeks and I can only hope they have as much fun as we did down there. 

Weekend in the Fort

One great thing about finally being back in Oklahoma is being closer to my parents!  It has been a long time coming and I am so glad to be closer to them.  You don't realize how exhausting being in the car is until you live so far away from people and end up spending every weekend driving.  Living further away than you are used to also makes "Just Because" trips a lot less frequent!  I am happy to be back now so we can see my parents and family much more.

We decided it had been long enough without see my parents so we went to see them this past weekend!  I left from work and after picking up Max, we headed to Tootsie's house!  Mitch had worked in Oklahoma this last half of the week so he met me in Fort Gibson on Friday afternoon.  It was nice getting to see my parents, I have sure missed them! 

Friday evening, Lauren and Cody came over for dinner.  My mom gave me the choice of what would be for dinner on Friday earlier in the week and I immediately knew what I wanted!  She makes the world's best lasagna!!  So lasagna it was for dinner!  We spent the rest of the night chatting, drinking wine and playing catch up! 

Saturday we laid around and watched football all day long!  And of course, my mom had more food than you can imagine for just the 6 of us.  Between, queso, cookies, beer and hot dogs, I think we all gained 5 pounds each.  The rest of the day we just laid around and relaxed. 

Sunday, Mom made a huge breakfast.  After Mitch headed home to Perryton.  I know I would get to see him in just a few days, but this time it was a little harder to say bye than usual.  Pretty sure I was a little misty eyed when he pulled out of the driveway.  I got a great surprise later in the day though when my friend, Ashley, stopped by with her daughter, Parker.  Miss Parker is the sweetest little baby on Earth!  I was so glad to see her and of course, Ashley too. 

All in all, the weekend in Fort Gibson was awesome.  I love going there and getting a chance to just hang out and relax.  It never gets old!  Hopefully being closer to home will make the trips to the Fort much more frequent now.