Birthday Week!

That's right, Friday is my 22th birthday!!! Man it doesn't even seem like it's that time of year already! This will be the first birthday with Jordy as my husband and I can't wait!!! But tomorrow Jordy and I will be off to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving Break and of course the celebration of my birth! :) yahoo!! I'm so ready for family time, good food and a great movie, but seriously dreading the drive. Blah!

Last weekend Jordy and I took Christmas pictures for our first annual Christmas card! Get excited! This break I'm going to be working on addressing and writing our Christmas letter. Man, I love Christmas time! Oh and great news, I FINALLY found the 24/7 Christmas radio station here! It's taken so long and it's been a little upsetting but have no fear it is officially set to Christmas in my car. It's so wonderful! And after Thanksgiving it will be Christmas in the McKaskle household. The tree that we are using is at my parents house in Oklahoma; so we will get it when we leave there and transform our apartment into a winter wonderland!!! I can't wait!!!

But in the mean time, tons of laundry is calling my name. Oh and I have to pack. Where's a magic wand when I need one??

Coupon Craze

When Jordy and I moved here just about 3 months ago, the Spence's so kindly took us in. Recently, Shelley a new friend and fellow staff wife, introduced me to coupons! I've always wanted to be a big saver, but I would only just clip coupons for things that I was going to the store to buy. But then I was introduced to bid money savers, tons of websites from women who just look for a great deal, and not to mention this lovely thing called a Sunday newspaper (on sale by the way at my local grocery store on Sundays). It's totally great! Today has just been a fantastic day!!

I started off today being advised for the spring semester and since I was anticipating the worst; things turned out actually BETTER than I expected. I am officially enrolled in 14 hours in hopes that I can get into another class racking that up to 16 total hours!! YAHOO!!! No problemo today with enrolling. Thank ULM; thanks for working to improve the life of your students :)

After that, I was offered a job at a private school here in Monroe, but due to my school next semester I am just filling in until they can find someone full time. BUT until then I get paid VERY good money and I'm on the sub list which just adds to more dough rolling in!!

The day just kept getting better and better! I then headed to the store to buy groceries before the after school rush and I brought tons of coupons with me. After successfully getting everything on my list, I decided to get reusable bags (which by the way saves every time you bring them) and then handed over all of my coupons. Grand totaling up to $90 and I saved $30!!!!!!

Today has just been a fantastic day. I mean the Lord knew that Jordy and I could use the money around Christmas time and provided us with this job for me. He knows how stressed I can get when enrolling for school and when I got there EVERYTHING went sooo well! And I saved lots today at the store! Praise be to HIM! Thank you Lord for being our provider!

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Jibberish

Since I've been married and moved to the place we all know it as "the deep south" my eyes have been opened to new vocabulary. Words that are sound crazy weird and I'm always asking what was just said. And so since this phenomenon has been happening quite often these days, I've decided to share one with you.

Lagniappe. Pronounced; lan-yap. Pure confusion; I understand.

I've never in my entire life her of this word before. I had heard it here and there but then it left the lips of my husband. We were driving home from somewhere, can't really remember where, but then he starts talking about Popeyes and he said that they give Lagniappe. So finally, I'm like what in the tar-nation does that mean? He says, "well ya know a little something extra." So at this point I'm thinking well why would even say that to someone. So we get home and I go immediately upstairs to look this one up. And low and behold it's in the dictionary and it means this specifically; Chiefly Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas. a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, by way of compliment or for good measure; bonus; a gratuity or tip; an unexpected or indirect benefit.

So I'm not sure what's up with word, but I can't talk myself into using it. This is your chief education coming straight to you from the "deep south." Stay tuned for more interesting jibberish.

BOOMER SOONER!!

And the Winner is....

I got my FIRST award people!!! Thanks to my dear friend Sam she gave me the "my blog is fabulous award!!" Hooray I'm so excited; so excited that I am updating for the first time in a while (a more detailed update coming soon) but on to my award posting.

I am supposed to blog about 5 things I am most obsessed with right now.

1. My fingers have never been so in love. I got a new phone people!! Since Jordy took a new job at North Monroe Baptist Church they pay for his cell phone and bill. So for me that means a new phone!! So I got myself an iPhone!! Say hello to my new white 3G S Apple iPhone and since you're wondering, it's super fun!




2. One Team; One Tradition: Oklahoma Football. Since I moved to Louisiana LSU fans are EVERYWHERE!!! I mean I think I might be the ONLY OU fan in this entire state. I mean it's THAT bad around here people. I mean right now LSU is #4 and OU is not, but I am standing strong people!! Sooner born and Sooner bred and when I die I'll be Sooner dead!! GO BIG RED!




3. Fall weather. The hot, nasty, I just wish I could breathe in this air, my hair always is poofy humid weather of the South is coming to an end. I could NOT be more excited!! This means that I can actually have a semi-good hair day and I can actually wear long sleeves and start into my fall fashion wardrobe. This also means its boots galore time! I have collected lots of boots and now it's time to pull them out! OH and I would like some new Rocket Dogs :) Hello Fall!




4. And since we are talking Fall, that also means good evening shows on ABC. And what I mean specifically is Grey's Anatomy. I've been a supporter since the show started. And SO much has changed since the beginning and now Seattle Grace and Mercy West are MERGING!!! Izzie and Alex are married, Meredith doesn't have a liver and Christina actually has a heart!! I love this show. Every Thursday night at 8/7c only on ABC :)




5. Wall Words. Since Jordy and I recently moved I have had the chance to rearrange and redecorate. And when out looking for various things to decorate with I ran across some sayings to stick on the walls. And let me just tell you what; when you hit a good sale at Kohl's or Hobby Lobby you can get a great deal on these things!! They spice up a room like no body's business. You should check it out the next time you're redecorating or if you're just out and about.


BOOMER SOONER!!

"it's no problem here in Jamaica Mon..."

I can't believe that Jordy and I have already been married a little over a month!! It just seems like yesterday I was preparing for the wedding!!! It's unbelievable how time goes by SO quickly! So because it's been a little over a month I remembered that I haven't shared much about the honeymoon!!
Here we are on the plane to Houston!! Cruise HERE WE COME!!!!!


Arriving in Galveston!!


I will start today at day 1: Ochos Rios, Jamaica. We had been on the ship for about 2 days and so Jordy and I were very eager to get off and have more fun than just swimming, ping pong and playing putt putt golf :) We decided to do the Dunn's River Falls shore excursion there in Jamaica. Dunn's River Falls is a 600 foot natural spring waterfall that by group you climb to the very top! Jordy and I had a BLAST!!!! It was so beautiful to see the creation of the Lord and to thoroughly enjoy it.

Here's part of the ship where we spent the most time soaking up the sun!




Here are some things we did while we were out to sea for 2 days!!

Jordy entered a ping pong tournament and WON FIRST!!!


Jordy in action...


The fierce and mighty ping pong player :)


Here is a shot of Jamaica from our room! Just little shops that the locals made and are wanting to sell for money.


Here's Jordy and I climbing up the falls!! We are almost there!


We did it!!! We climbed 600 ft. of Natural spring waterfalls!!


Stay tuned for more relaxing, fun filled days on our oh so exciting honeymoon!!!

Cereal, Bacon and Orange Juice

So tonight my dear husband and I were scrounging around the kitchen to figure something out to eat for dinner. Our kitchen is in that stage where you have some food but not enough to go to the store to buy a buggy full of groceries but yet not enough to fix a good healthy meal. So we decided not to go to the store and just "find something in the cabinets." So on the hunt we went and we came upon Bisquick and Bacon that needed to be eaten before it went bad. So because we are newlyweds and we haven't gotten a chance to use our new waffle maker, waffles seemed like the perfect plan!!



So Jordy wanted to use the new waffle maker so bad, so I agreed that I would fix the bacon. Off we went!! Cooking away!!! Well like I have a tendency to do, I had to bust out the manual just to make sure he was doing this right and to make sure that there wasn't anything "first time use" rules; ya know. So as I peer over his shoulder, to my wonderful eyes the waffle maker was smoking. No joke. Jordy replies to my look with "I'm just waiting for the green light to come on and that means it's ready." I'm like ok whatever you say :)
I then continue on cooking my bacon to perfection and then I hear a "OH CRAP!" I turn around and the what was supposed to be an awesome waffle turned out to be burnt on the outside and gooey inside. Totally not what I was expecting. So I say, "this is just the first one on the machine so just try again." Well after the green light goes off again to my wonderful surprise, the same thing happens again except for this time the entire thing is completely burned to the point where we are scrapping it off the cooker. So instead of having Belgian waffles and bacon, we have cereal, bacon and a side of orange juice. Maybe next time I should give it a shot. My husband still thinks the waffle maker is messed up.

"Welcome to the Deep South"

I can hardly believe that the wedding is over. I mean just the other day, I was talking to my cousin and she had warned me about this sudden feeling of "now what?" And well folks, I'm there. I loved everything about my wedding day. The preparation, the anticipation, the very moment the doors opened and I walked down to my handsome groom, the reception, all of it! And now I'm sitting in my house in Springhill Louisiana sitting in awe that Jordy and I have been married now almost 2 weeks!!!


Since the honeymoon (which by the way was AWESOME, a post will come soon) life has definitely changed. I am now a wife, a spouse, a mate, a minister's wife, a lover, a companion and the list goes on and on. However, within the last few days I have been working on becoming a resident of another state. Some of you thought changing your last name was kind of hectic, well try doing that and changing states. Whew! let me just say it's a hassle.

So today Jordy and I went to the DMV (to you Tahlequahians that is the "Tag Agent") The Department of Motor Vehicles office had a total of 3 workers in there and I'm pretty sure that you had to have "cranky pants" in your resume to be hired there. So I have tons of material to get a new license, new car tag (which by the way costs WAY TO MUCH IN LOUISIANA!) not to mention I had to get my car inspected that cost an extra $10 bucks on top of what I already had to pay for a tag and license. Pahleeze people!! So anyhow, these ladies were ridiculous. It took 2 out of the 3 to do a transfer of state for my new license plate. In the mean time, there are about 3 to 4 more customers waiting to be helped, while these to dummies can't even get it together. They have all this paper work out, flipping through pages to try and figure out what to do. I just didn't understand why it took an hour and 10 minutes to do all of this. I mean in my opinion if you have been doing this for a while (which seemed to be this way here) you would know what to do. Ya know just check a few things, check for any updates in the system, see and review all the correct documentation and KABOOM! Everything would be hunky dory. But not here. I think it might have been a "team work" idea but let's get real here, they didn't really have a clue what they were doing. I felt like I was some alien from Africa that only had a visa trying to become a resident of the U.S. but turns out I just wanted my name changed and a new car tag. Is that too much to ask??

So to say the least, things are different here in the deep south. But as of today, I am officially a resident of the state of Louisiana, but let's face it....there's only ONE Oklahoma!!