Wedding Pics

Here are the official pictures just in case anyone would like to check them out!!

http://andreamannphoto.smugmug.com/Weddings/Katie-and-Barry/18770525_hjnKMf#1513261234_2gNrWrn

Wow I really suck at this......

Hi! I'm still alive, who would have thought.

Ok things have been a bit crazy in the past couple months, so I haven't been the best blogger in the whole world.

Here is a run down.

Got a new lab puppy - - Doc
Got a new job, my third in less than a year
Had a couple wedding showers
Got Married
Got another new job

So I will try and be better about blogging in the future no guarentees.

But just to get me started I wanted to share a picture of Barry and I's new baby. This is Bird Doctor Ruddick (Doc)

He is a beast let me tell you! But he is also the happiest most friendly dog on the planet!

He is wet, after swimming in his water bowl, he is also sitting on our picnic table. I guess it is cooler up there!

More updates soon......hopefully!

Greetings from Scotland!

So I made it to Aberdeen Scotland yesterday! It is really pretty here, so hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures soon!

Flights included Tulsa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Aberdeen. But business class was awesome! I felt bad for the people in the back of the plane :(

Also, the ash cloud is making its way into the atmosphere here, and we can't see if from the ground, but all flight into and out of Scotland have been cancelled. This means that the people from Humber, UK and the Norwegians were not able to get to our meeting! I just hope I will be able to get home Friday!

I'll keep you updated! PS I wish I could speak with a Scottish accent!

The Hunt for Doc

So I forgot to mention in the last post that Barry and I are getting a new puppy!!! We will be going to get our new Lab, June 10 and 11th. We are super excited, Barry has wanted a lab as long as I have known him, so he is pumped! After much debate we have decided to name the new baby Doc. Short and Concise! Perfect!

You may be thinking "Katie you are an idiot, what about your partially disabled puppy Stewie" Well I'm happy to report that Stuart is making a full recovery. He is now out of his kennel and running around like the old days (except way more wobbly, he now skids to a stop like a skier, by turning his back legs to the side, its pretty awesome). We have spoken to several people who have assured us that the lab will be nice to the little puppies, but we will be sure to make sure that Stu is safe. I have my money that Stu will be the alpha male anyways. Oh and did I mention that Barry and Stewie are mildly obsessed with each other. Stu now pretty much ignores me. It was devastating at first, but he needed a positive male role model :)

Here are the babies:

They snuggle/spoon...

And our new baby is coming from Endless Mountain Labradors in Columbia Cross Roads, PA. We are getting a male and we have the second pic of the litter, we got a couple pictures of the litter last week, and we can't decide if we want a black or yellow!

So take a look and let me know your vote!!!!!

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2

3

4

5

6

They are all so cute I can barely stand it!!!

Let me know which pup and which color I should choose!

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Passport Debacle

Hey all - Sorry it has been a long time since my last post. I have a ton of things to tell everyone, but I never seem to want to sit down and type them/upload photos, etc etc.

So Barry graduated from OU Saturday May 14th, and while he didn't walk (it was the whole, done it once, don't need to do it again thing), I also think he was worried I would have embarrassed him with my jumping and whistling, and sign making. It would have been fun for me. So anyways, we decided to redo our flower beds in front of the house. ie pull out the dead stuff and add some pretty stuff.

So we added some hydrangeas, a new holly, some begonia's. We also pulled out all the old mulch and put in new mulch!

I wish I had a final project picture for you, but I will add that to my list of things to do.

I also planted a few tomato plants and some Lavender in pots in the backyard.

So far we have killed the pretty yellow ones and one of the blue hydrangeas.......I have no idea how, but we are trying to bring them back from the dead!

I will keep you updated on the progress.

In other news. I got a new job.....same company just new position. I will be working in the Controllers group, so it should be a good learning experience. First thing my new boss asked me, was do you have a passport, we need you to go to Scotland, May 23rd. Awesome, I know!!!

I was super excited for about 30 seconds until I realized that I have moved 3 time in less than a year, and somehow lost my passport. I didn't think it was a big deal since I figured I would need a new one when I got married anyway.

Long story short after a couple hours running around the house screaming, I calmed down and started to do some research. Apparently you can get passport in 5-7 days, which is good cause I had 13, but you have to go to a regionally passport office, the closest of which was in Dallas, TX.

The next day I went to work and called the travel office at COP and they told me that they could do it for me. So I had my parents overnight my birth certificate, went to Walgreen's to get my picture, visited the post office twice, and wrote a few hefty checks to the State Department. Look at the pretty guy I got in the mail one week later!!!

Kinda makes me feel important....ha ha not really.... more felling unorganized. Great way to start the new job :)

I also got the wedding invites in the mail from the nice lady at Haute Paper Couture!! I'm so happy with them. Here is a sneak peak.

Couple months to go!! YEY!

Stu Update 4

Hey everyone! Happy belated Easter!

We had an exciting weekend at the Ruddick/Haller household. Barry came in town Wednesday night to be at the house for the furniture delivery Thursday! So we now have a house almost full of furniture. We are still missing our new sectional and ottoman, but I'm just happy to have a table. I will post more on that tomorrow/tonight/whenever I get motivated.

The real point of this post is to let you all know that it has been 2 weeks since little Stu had his back surgery, and he is doing so so so well! He is such a trooper. 2 weeks of kennel rest down, 2 to go!

The first couple days he didn't really move at all, I had to hold him up when he went to the bathroom, cause he couldn't work his legs, but he did have control over his bladder, which is a really good sign!

After a few days he was able to put pressure on his back legs, so if I set him down he could stay standing if I was making sure he didn't fall from side to side. Then he was able to stand up from a laying position, which is huge!! He got lots of chicken treats for that! Every day we work on his standing to make sure he isn't developing a weird swagger (which the Dr's and Barry call a "gate", I call a "swagger" cause he looks like a drunk).

Then Stu started to move his left leg, and if he started to tip over he could catch himself on the left side!

Now he can use both legs and actually walk!!!! He is amazing! He still is a little shaky but he is really walking! You can tell he is really proud of himself!

I'm so happy with the results of the surgery, and we still have two weeks to go!

Here are some pics of my baby!

Stu's scar is about 5 inches long and has 10 staples (or did until he got ahold of one). He has to wear a soft cone whenever he is by himself cause he cannot be trusted on pain medication.

Here is Stu sitting on Barry, (they are both so cute) this is just after Barry got home on Wednesday and Stu was so excited! I think Stewie loves him more than me! He can't be out of his kennel for very long, but I figured it was a special occasion!

Stu sleeping last night while I watched Role Models and the King's Speech!

Tomorrow morning is our first vet appointment following the surgery! Hopefully the doctor will tell us that Stu is doing awesome, and they can take the staples out! I'll let you know!

Stu Update 3

Now I'm mildly obsessed, but I figure that's ok!

STEWIE'S COMING HOME!!!!

The doctor called this morning and said that Stewie was going to the bathroom all by himself so he was free to come home.

Since I drove the carpool today (yes I do that) I couldn't leave work, before the required 4 o'clock pick-up time. We could pick him up after, but the surgery staff would not be there to answer all our questions. So Barry drove from Norman to go and get him!! He was planning on coming anyways, but he shouldered the burden alone!

Stewie will be on strict cage rest for the next 4 weeks. He is allowed out to go the bathroom, but that is it. He needs time to heal, but I can still sit outside with him or carry him around for 15 minutes at a time.

He still can't walk, but he is putting pressure on his back legs. So if he starts to drag them, we are supposed to correct him. He is like a baby, we need to teach him the right way to walk, and dragging is not the right way. I will also have to hold his back up while he goes to the bathroom, until he can fully stand on his own!!

I'm just really glad he will be home, and hopefully by the time Barry graduates, Stu will be almost back to normal!!! Then we are going to have a graduation/yey for walking party, if anyone is interested.

I will upload some picks when I get home!!!

Stu update 2

We only called the vet twice today, which I was very happy with, I would have called every hour if not for my very smart and reasonable future husband, who insisted that nothing would be served by calling and harassing the doctors :)

Anyways, the surgeon spoke with us this morning and told us that Stu did great over night, he still can't use his legs or urinate by himself, but that was normal with the inflammation from the hernia and the surgery. He did say that Stewie had been taken off his IV and they were switching to oral pain medication which is a good sign.

When I called the vet tech this afternoon she informed me that she had been carrying stu around all day, he was in good spirits and he went outside to try and walk today. He still has no use of his right leg, but his left is starting track, another good sign.

We were very lucky to find the doctor that we did, someone with a ton of expertise in small animal neurosurgery, but Barry has been doing research on the topic and a lot of puppies are not as lucky.

http://dodgerslist.com/ is A website that is dedicated to informing puppy parents about what their options are and where to take a dog if this happens to them. So just in case!!

We will talk to the doctor again tomorrow morning and get a better idea of when we can bring the big guy home!

Stewie Update

On Saturday, my wonderful chihuhua Stewie, slipped a disk in his back. We have no idea how it happened, but over the course of Saturday and Sunday, Stu lost all use of his back legs and the ability to pee. I have never seen anything so scary and desperately sad. We went to three different vets (one saturday, two Sunday) and finally found one that actually knew what they were talking about. They sent him home Sunday night, but Monday morning he was much worse. So we took him back and they immediately put him into surgery.

He is now out of surgery and so far all the signs are good that he will make a full recovery.

But I have to say this has been so hard, I had no idea how hard the idea of loosing your dog is, especially after only a year and a half.

So if you have time say a little pray for Stu!!!

I will keep you updated!

BLOG AWARD :)

I knew I was good at this whole blog thing, and it is about time that someone recognized all the hard work I have put in on my 6 posts so far in my blogs existence. Just Kidding.... But Megan over at The Greens gave me this wonderful award.

So here is it my friends.

This award means that I have to tell you all 7 random facts about myself.

1. I have two precious puppies that have been with Barry for the past 3 days, and I miss them terribly. I will attach a baby picture of Stu that I found this week while he was gone and I wanted to cry.

And here are both my babies. They like to snuggle at night.....how freaking cute is that.

2. I love breakfast, all of it. Oatmeal, omelets, french toast, fruit, yogurt. I love it at all times of the day, and as much as I don't want to admit this, I made pancakes for dinner last night. I will tell you that pancakes are way way way better with peanut butter on them.

Now I'm starving :(

3. Every year after winter, I get nervous to start running outside. How weird is that. I will run on the treadmill, but the idea of running outside makes me tired. Once I make myself I'm fine, but the first time takes me a couple months to work up to. Not there yet!

4. I have a phobia that all headaches = brain tumors! I found an article about it yesterday at CNN.com

Article Here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/07/ep.headache.brain.tumor/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Anyways.. I sent this link to Barry with the title "I told you so"  He responded and told me that he had already seen it, and was hoping I wouldn't. Haha.

5. I love love love Microsoft Excel My favorite thing at work is figuring out how to automate reports, and getting others excited to automate with me. I love it, and my group hates me for it :) I'm sorry if you are reading this.

6. I have spent the past 3 days of my life trying to get our new lawn watered. 2 days for the backyard and 1 day for the front. At this point I don't care how much a sprinkler system cost. Its worth it. Its opportunity cost, and my time is expensive!!!

7. We have a new car in the family!!!! Barry got a new truck and I'm super excited for him. Please see below. PS Barry also got me a huge surprise with his purchase.

His new toy:

My new toy

Yes its a keychain...WOOP

Megan this was all for you! 

Furniture Shopping

So it has been a crazy couple weeks, but I'm thrilled with the progress that we've made both on the wedding planning and house furnishing fronts.

First of all, we have set a date!!! July 30, 2011 at the PhilBrook in Tulsa. We are going to keep the wedding small but I'm totally excited and only a little stressed out. I'm going to be posting more about the PhilBrook soon, but here is a picture that I absolutely love......

I think my colors are going to be light grey, green and yellow....we should blend right in!

Moving on, two weeks ago today, Barry and I closed on our wonderful new beauty of a house. And we had nothing to put in it. I have been living in a 700 sq foot apartment for the past 4 years. So we didn't have much. So....this weekend we went shopping and while we still have a lot of little decoration stuff to get, we got the big stuff.

Here are some pictures of the new stuff (Which will hopefully be delivered in the next couple of weeks, hopefully before sneak!!!!)

Most important, was a new washer and dryer and refrigerator. We got these beauties at Lowe's. Plus they were 10% off and we got 10% cash back, so we were able to buy quite a few garden hoses!!

I have already ruined our new bath mats with this baby...but I'm sure our relationship will improve over time!

She's pretty!

Then this weekend we picked up an entry way table, and a runner, but we have decided against the runner, so this is what you will see waking in the front door.

I'm so in love with this entry way table for some reason, but I just can't help it.


Barry's/Our office will get a new desk, book shelf and file cabinet.

Sorry these pictures kinda suck, you will get to see the real thing when everything gets delivered.

We have a very open floor plan so we had to get a couple tables, the loved both of them, which I think in a couple months of furniture shopping these tables were one of the first things we both loved at first site. Which is huge, refining our styles has been fun but challenging at times!!

This guy will have 4 pub chairs that swivel and have nice cushy leather seats! He will be in our kitchen nook.

Mr. Wanderlust will have six all wood chairs. But we really loved the feet of this table. I think we like the craftsman style.


Moving on to the living room, we needed a sectional to take up some of the room that my current couch can't fill. Also I have a dark leather couch that is just too heavy for the room. So we wanted to lighten it up, so we bought a new sectional with this fabric.

It has some goldish hue's to it, so it should really help lighten the place up!

Then we got a new TV stand and ottoman, so my old crap can go up stairs to "Stu's Room/Man Cave"

Overall, it has been a really fun process, now I just am excited to get all the new stuff in and start to decorate around it. I'm even more excited for the wedding so Barry can move in and we can enjoy it together, cause right now, I'm taking all the fun!

Engaged!!!

Well I know it has been a really long time since I last blogged, that is because there wasn't a whole lot going on, except eating, so maybe I will post those adventures in Bricktown, a bit later.

But way way more exciting is that this weekend Barry and I got engaged!!!!!!!!

It was totally unexpected and perfect, so I guess I should tell you all the story.

Saturday morning my two best friends, Brittany and Lauren came to Bartlesville to play. Barry and his roommate, Greg, were planning to meet us in Tulsa for dinner. So the girls and I went antique shopping (which I realize is not my strong suit, I don't have the "vision") Then we went to Utica Square in Tulsa. Brittany who has ESP or something said "maybe he will propose tonight?" Lauren whispered back, "Don't get her hopes up" - ha ha, I was thinking, "Well he is for sure not going to do anything tonight, cause he would have told the girls and they would have never said anything like that if they knew something".

Anyways while shopping I pick up a Dachshund notepad for Barry, which is a really dumb gift, but it was really cute. I immediately text Barry to tell him I have a surprise for him.

Me: I have an awesome surprise for you!!
Barry: What is it?
Me: I can't tell you
Barry: Does this mean I have to stop and get you something cause I always have better surprises
Me: You do not!! and no you don't have to get me anything

So the girls and I get to Red Rock, the worlds best restaurant. Lauren and I order our first of two bottles of wine! It was awesome.

During dinner, we delight Greg and Barry with stories of all the stupid crap that the three of us did in high school and college, including sneaking out of house, drinking, etc.

Barry decided he wanted his surprise, so I noticed him getting my keys from my purse and I knew he was going to try and sneak out there to see it. I told him that it really wasn't anything cool, and that we could get it after dinner, so he went to the "bathroom" instead. He still stole my keys but claimed he didn't go to the car!

After dinner and lot of wine, the boys were going to head back to Norman, so I went to my trunk to show Barry his notepad, which seems really stupid now, but I thought it was cute!

Barry: Wow...... a notepad that goes under my wrists, so the more I use it, the less useful it becomes
Me: haha, you hate all my surprises
Barry: Now do you want yours?
Me: You got me something?
Barry: Yep its in your car!
Me: (As I'm walking to his car) What did you get me?
Barry: YOUR CAR
Me: (I open my car door and see a lovely little box sitting on the dash) BARRY what did you do??

Then I start crying, and Barry proposes!! Meanwhile Brittany and Lauren are screaming and taking lots of pictures:

While he was talking to me

After I didn't know what hand the ring went on!

I had to take off my glasses cause they kept fogging up with all the crying and cold!

All in all, it was an amazing night, that I got to share with the love of my life and my best friends!!!

SNOW DAY!

Those are words that I haven't said recently, but nonetheless! We have a late start today (noon), although I'm confident that we won't have to go in at all. I'm currently sitting on the couch watching the news drinking coffee, and no until I just typed this did I realize that I'm old, really old.

One thing that is less fun, is that I have to take my two tiny dogs outside, and they hate hate hate cold/now/anything below 60 degrees. So this morning I wake up to find 10 inches of snow in my back yard and two dog that are 6 inches high.

I attempt to throw them out and yell at them to "potty" but that doesn't work, and so I go and find my trusty shovel.....

I should have really invested in a real snow shovel as opposed to a dust pan, but it still worked...kinda.

I was out throwing snow in order to make a path for the dogs to get to the grass. And I think I did a pretty good job!

Long gone are the days of snow ball fights and Monopoly all day, we thought the luxury tax was $750.00 as opposed to $75.00. haha, Lauren we were really smart.
But as long as the puppies are pottied and happy so am I!

Happy Snow Day to all!

How do I get myself into this stuff?

I don't know if any of the rest of you have this problem, but I always manage to get myself into crazy and sometimes stupid situations that I later regret. These situations tend to happen way less frequestly as I get older, but they still happen none the less. Case in point. In August, I was in the midst of training for the San Francisco Womens Marathon (which is awesome, I highly recommend). I was running a ton, feeling great, so when my friend Jihaye asked me if I wanted to do the New Orleans Ironman 70.3, it took very little convincing. So I paid my $250 in entry fees (yeah crazy) and started to freak out immediately

Well this is Katie now.....

Except I would never wear those boots

So after I moved back to the ville. I figured that I would fade away, out of the mind of my friend Jihaye, she would forget all about me. No, not the case, In mid December I get an e-mail that she has booked us hotel rooms :(  well crud.... now I actually have to do this thing. I can't blow a farily sizable amount of money on this race and not do it.

So I'm still looking for motivation, and trust me, I'm starting all over, after my several weeks months of inactivity. But have no fear, this will be me, in a short couple months.

I actally don't know if its possible but I will keep everyone updated as I progress.

If you want more info for the race here's the link.

New Fireplace

So you may remember this picture... or something like this picture.

As you can see we have a pretty great mantel/fireplace set up. But we were worried about the fact that the fireplace didn't have doors, (Stewie thought the fireplace was a dog bed) and that you could see some metal pieces, see below.

See the metal piece at the top and you can also see the top of the brick :(

Well we went to a couple fireplace stores to look for ways to fix the problems...... well we find out that the fireplace box has been covered by rock so the doors for the model won't fit, so we would have to have special custom doors made.
We also didn't like the idea of a vent free unit so we ended up getting a whole new one :) and yes that will require ripping the whole stone fireplace down!! It will be totally worth it, cause look at this beauty of a fireplace that we are having installed

This has a glass panel, so no need for doors, and it has a vent to the outside.

The fireplace will now be more of a focal point. I will keep you updated as the installation actually happens!

Home Sweet Collinville

Ok, so last Friday, Barry and I signed a contract on a new house. We won't close until March, but we wanted the builder to change some stuff before close.

So here it is.....

Note: This is not our furniture, the house is staged currently, because it was a model for a bit.

Here is the front of the house, and yes that is my wonderful new Buick in front (again more on this later, and no it is not a grandma car or old person car)



Ellie is pooping outside, which is picture worthy!

 So then we go into the entry way, which has an office on you immediate right, then formal dining, the hall way to the two extra bedrooms in on the left.



 Here is the formal dining room.

Kitchen

Living Room

The fireplace is getting a complete renovation, YEY a house project!
We are also putting pot lights on the ceiling as we speak!

Master Bedroom and Bathroom



Stu was running around like a crazy!

Here is the game room and downstairs hall bathroom. Game room's are pretty standard in Oklahoma cause we don't have basements. Were do you put your crap you might ask? Well, we have a walk in attic that I can store all the decorations, junk, etc.

And the grand finale, the back yard, which is also getting resoded and fenced! Stu and Ellie should love it, assuming hawks and coyotes, stay away!



We are pretty excited about all of it, and I will let you know as we begin to change and add stuff, cause we have alot of projects lined up, that I will tell you all about later.

Bye!