Flying Solo

 This is my husband. He's a jet pilot. He flies jets. By himself.

 These are his classmates. They think he's pretty cool too.

 This is his wife. She thinks his jet flying is pretty sexy...

 A congratulatory handshake.

 Damnnn boy!

 He's a happy fella.

 It's tradition to dunk fellow classmates after they complete their solo. 

(lucky for Jake it was seventy degrees today)

 His horrible wife only caught the splash. But let me assure you. The boy got some air.

 Oh he's mad...

and he'll get you.

I'm so proud of him. Seriously. He's worked so hard for this. 

There is a ways to go before he graduates from this plane in June, 

but I know he'll only continue to progress.

Because he's amazing.

Love you Maverick!

Next up: Instrument Flying. Which is learning to fly
 using your instruments only, instead of sight.

Hoopla

I'm obsessed with embroidery hoop art. 

It's just so easy! And the possibilities are endless. 

After using it in my living room and loving it, 

I wanted to do it somewhere else. 

So then I thought... uhh why not use it to hang my blasted earrings?

1. Get yourself some lace or meshy fabric to hang your dangle earrings and put some sturdy weaved fabric behind it for the posts.

2. Buy a embroidery hoop, the size of your choice, at any craft and fabric store. I got mine at Hobby Lobby for around a dollar each.

3. Trace your hoop on the fabric, cut it out leaving about 1/2 inch around the circle. Put some tacky glue on the inside of your hoops to hold the fabric in place, I found this out the hard way. Put both parts of the hoop together and pull the fabric tight! Trim the excess fabric once the glue has dried. Tighten the knob to secure it even more.

*You can loosen and tighten the hoop by twisting the thingy on top.

That's right. It is called the thingy.

After I was done, I hung it up on my wall right next my new, classy, full length mirror.

I think I will add a couple more to the mix and make an earring hanging collage! 

Canvas State Art

Guys, I finally put my big girl panties on and decorated this house. 

I hate spending lots of money on art, so lately I've been trying to 

recreate things I find on Pinterest!

 I bought some 11x14 canvas at Hobby Lobby and used some

 left over paint to make this Utah creation. 

I got my inspiration from this digital print and this canvas on Pinterest, 

but I did it a little differently. 

1. I used six pieces of paint tape and put them directly on the canvas to make the shape of Utah. You can move them around until you like the way it looks, make sure its there's an equal space on both top and bottom. Seal the tape with your fingernail to make sure no tape slips underneath. If it does, grab a clean wet paintbrush or a Q tip to dab it up.

2. Fill the state space with the color of your choice. Acrylic paint works great, I used the leftover latex paint from my desk makeover. Make sure you leave a square open around your hometown, then go in later with a small brush to line out the heart. If you want to make it easier, just go back at the end and paint a heart in the color of your choice. I was weird and wanted it to be bare canvas.

3. Let it dry, then go back in with the paint tape (it's my best friend) and block out your state shape. Finally space out your lines, I did mine about an inch and a half apart. Block out the white stripes with tape, seal it, then paint it! I went in after with some water color to add a little depth. 

 Let it dry, peel the tape off, and enjoy your fantastic, cheap, piece of homemade art!

Oscar Fashion

Oscars have come and gone!

We had a lovely little party here with 

Minnie's "Cream Pie", The Artist "Black and White" Brownies, 

and The Descendents "Hawaiian Lava Flow" Daiquiris.

Jake won the ballot contest for the second year in a row by guessing twelve awards, 

and I followed closely behind by guessing a measly six of the nominations.

Lame. 

And my favorite dresses were...

1. Penelope Cruz. A Modern Day Latino Grace Kelly.

2. Octavia Spencer. That's right girl. Get your modest on.

3. Kristen Wiig. I don't know why but I love the simplicity here. 

And a close runner up...

The Artist's Berenice Bejo.

I LOVE THE COLOR. Mint lover for life.

Not a huge fan of the structure. But still gorgeous.

*random fact: Berenice got her start as the lady in waiting in A Knight's Tale.

Thanks for all of your nice comments on our photo shoot yesterday!

Lacey Sunday

What a gorgeous weekend! 

The Spring weather is flourishing here in Enid. 

I just hope it's here to stay.

I finally got my Nikon working and I couldn't resist

walking to the park to try out the new lens. 

Hope you all had a beautiful weekend :)

OSCARS TONIGHT!

Warm Wednesday

Things that make me Happy:

Going to the Dog Park with Maizey and meeting a man who's straight out of Grumpy Old Men. 

He was hobbling all over the park talking to his dog Petey with dog treats in his coat pocket. So naturally all of the dogs were jumping on him and all he would do to keep them off is let out a little 'tiss tiss'

It was rather entertaining.

Today reached new highs in weather. I was thrilled and the warmth made me a new woman.

I cleaned the kitchen, finished the crazy crafts I've been doing, and read The Hunger Games for hours... just basking in the sunlight.

Spring please stay a while.

When family comes to town...

What a lovely holiday weekend! 

Jake and I were fortunate enough to have some of his family 

come to good old Enid, Oklahoma.

They must really like us.

We had such a fun time, it was blissful chaos.

There was a lot of eating out, Edmond time, Modern Warfare, lava tag, and family napping. With some baked goods, British television, and Bengal Spice tea on the side.

Come back soon Kearnsies!

Dear Teenage Me

The other day Jake and I went and saw The Vow. (I know, I have a fantastic husband.) We found it rather fascinating that someone could actually lose years of memory after a brain injury like that. So on the way home we discussed where we would be if we lost five years of memory. I would be eighteen in my last year of high school and Jake would be twenty right in the middle of his mission. It was bizarre to me how much my life has changed since then. It does not seem like five years ago! So then I thought, what would I tell my teenage self...

Dear eighteen-year-old me:

First of all... put down the tweezers. Thick eyebrows are awesome.
Now that we got that out of the way, I just have to tell you how extremely spoiled you are. Wow.
Milk that for all it's worth. Because soon you will be poor. Happy... but poor.
Stay away from the boy with skinny jeans and bracelets... not worth the drama.
Your friends are pretty great too, stop fighting with them over stupid things like boys.
Cherish the time you spend with your family. Having them under one roof is amaaazing.
Don't color your hair and stop shopping at American Eagle and Abercrombie. Not worth the money.
Utah State will be great. Don't worry about living alone, you're going to meet some lovely people.
Oh, and learn to sew and handle money. It will be extremely useful.

Sincerly,
Married and Ten Pounds Bigger Courtney :)

Something About Them

My lovely childhood friends Ali and Christina Christensen

 released their EP on iTunes yesterday. So cool.
They are truly the most amazing girls inside and out.

Naturally I bought it straight away and now I can't stop listening to it.

They always move me to tears...

Please support them by buying it today!

Ali and Nina on America's Got Talent in 2010

All grown up doing their first music video!

Performing the National Anthem at The New York Jets game.

Sappy Happy

The Kearns House was full of love today.

 Husband started the morning off with a lovely surprise. Love the necklace.

 I made our neighbors some strawberry treats.

  and reverted to teenage Courtney to decorate my boyfriend's locker!

It was lots of fun:) 

Hope you had a great Valentines day!

Music Monday

Found this beauty on a commercial the other day. 

I just love her voice. Makes me happy.

Loved the Grammys. 

At least the hour that I watched. 

Adele made me cry a few times but this Whitney Houston 

dedication really got me choked up.

Tragic, really.

Did you see T Swift's dress? How very Downton Abbey of her...

peace, be still

"True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment."

Another weekend is nearly gone and it was full of surprises.

Jake's brother Ben came on Friday which forced me to clean the house, it was a lovely thing to behold. Mr. Kearns even cleaned the bathroom. We should probably do that more often.

The boys spent their time playing Modern Warfare and watching Big Bang Theory. Jake loved being able to tour the base with his brother who came here for pilot training two years ago. I think brother Ben showed him that there is life after phase two, which has become less visible the last couple of weeks.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse and it's making me feel like I'm in Idaho again. Coldest wind I've ever felt and it will most likely snow tonight. Yuck. Let's bring back that June-uary weather from last month pretty please...

I got to babysit our neighbor Cora yesterday. We watched Peter Pan, made sugar cookies and ate Mac and Cheese. I love when the child inside me gets to come out.  I could watch Disney movies all day and night.

After I put Cora down for a nap, there was this blissful 45 minutes of silence. No television. No computer, just me and the dogs resting on the couch. I thought to myself, Why haven't I done this before? Why can't I just sit and think for an hour instead of constantly having the television on to muddy up my mind? No wonder I can't focus or think straight! Silence is completely underrated. I think I'll make it a goal to include quiet hour into my daily routine.

And now we close this week with a class full of four-year-olds and frosted animal cookies. Where the answer to every question is Jesus. Unless your Trenna, who answered the question 'Who is mother of Jesus?' with "A Horse!" These kids make me very happy. They remind me what life is really about... having twenty-five kids and living in Disney World.

P/S Season Two finale of Downton Abbey is tonight people. That went way too fast. Oh well, at least Walking Dead is back.     What? You don't watch either you say? GET NETFLIX PEOPLE!

update

Guys, I am so behind it's not even funny. 

In fact it's tragically intimidating. 

But here it is, and awaaay wee gooooo!

Things that are happening in the life of Courtney, Jake and Crazin Maizin:

1.Valentines has taken over my life. not really.
But I enjoy getting cute packages from my best friend and decorating my house with hearts and candy :)

 

2. I'm finally decorating our living room. Our house is lookin homey!

3. Maizey has started eating dead worms off the sidewalk. 

It's super gross. Especially when she brings them inside the house.

                          

                              4. Ray and I are best buds. I think he looks like he could be mine. Maybe I'll just steal him...

 5. We finally got out of Enid and spent the day in OKC. We started the day with delicious PW French Toast and a temple session in the city. It was a Spanish session which made things interesting and extra challenging.... We'll probably stick to English from now on. Then we made a Target run (or two) and finally found a television stand for our house! That was a great surprise. We ended the night with a Mat Kearney concert, he was so good! Did you know that he didn't even start singing until college? WTF.

Music Monday

Guys, I just can't get enough of this group OR this song.

These are the groups that we saw perform in OKC last Saturday...

Sorry I've been absent... 

I will blog lots tomorrow :) 

Have a lovely evening!

what would Kelsey do?

Happy Birthday to Lauren, my lovely sister!

If I had five words to describe her...

gorgeous. 

stubborn.

feisty.

athletic.

ambitious.

She is nothing like me and I am so thankful for that,

because I learn from her everyday. 

Have a fantastic 21st on the east coast... so jealous.