Introducing.....

You may remember that ever since Brinkley, we have been on the hunt for a standard poodle. We recently added the cutest standard poodle puppy of all time to our family, so we are excited to share.

Please give a warm welcome to Boo Johnson:

Is that not the absolute cutest puppy you've ever seen?! He has the SWEETEST personality. We are absolutely thrilled. He is so calm, and friendly to everyone. He's very curious and alert and just follows us through the house and then will sit and let you pet him forever. He and Melvin are already best friends.

He just loves to stare at you with those adorable eyes. He is just over four months right now and weighs a little more than 30 pounds. He is going to be a big guy.

We had a little scare with him at first when he got a urinary tract infection. The infection is gone but he is still drinking and peeing a little too much (but much improved since the infection) so we are giving him water three times a day and it's helped tremendously. It's kind of like he's a compulsive drinker and just drinks because he likes to. We are hoping he will grow out of this. Other than that, he is the absolute perfect dog!

Boo started his puppy obedience class tonight and was by far the best dog in the class, and no, I'm not biased. (-:

One last picture. This is Boo with Melvin, and then Karlie's dog, Bella, and one of my mom's dogs that she brought over to my house one day. Oodles of poodles. (-:

~Kathryn

A Night At the Tulsa Opera with Don Giovanni

Hello, my blog friends! Sorry for my delay in blogging. I've got lots of fun and exciting things to fill you in on. Hopefully we can do that this week. (-:

Karlie and I took a trip to our local performing arts center this weekend to see the final dress rehearsal of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Karlie had never been to an opera before, and had no idea what to expect, and I realized there were probably lots of people who have never been and may be in the same boat.

So, I thought I'd fill you guys in on some insider opera information AND tell you how AWESOME the show was, so you can go see it, too. (-:

The show was absolutely fantastic. Now, I know you might think I'm partial, but seriously. It was great. It was very entertaining. It's a story about a villain, Don Giovanni, who masquerades around causing women to fall in love with him and then leaving them behind and putting their names in a book of women he has conquested (yeah, pretty terrible!). He has a servant named Leporello who  definitely stole the show - he was hilarious. He realized his master was a scoundrel, and repeatedly told the audience. There was romance,  murder, revenge, and humor, all in one show. The singers were great and I really thought the lighting and staging was really awesome. There were some really cool visual effects that  made the show that much better.

So now that you know the show is worth seeing, let me clarify some things about opera. (-:

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about opera. First of all, there are some people who think that you can't understand what is going on when the operas are in another language. Secret number one: There are subtitles. So, if the opera is Italian, there are English words on a screen above the stage so you can understand everything they are saying. Makes it much more enjoyable, eh?

The second secret is that you do NOT have to wear a fur coat, or even high heels, for that matter. People dress in all ways to see the opera. Some people in Tulsa will even wear nice jeans and a nice top. You will have a huge range of clothing at an opera, so if you want to get all fancied up, go for it, but if you don't feel like it, throw on some nice jeans and you're good to go. (-:

Another big secret is that the singers and instrumentalists aren't using mics. It's pretty stinkin' impressive that their voices alone can fill up a large concert hall!

Also, at least in Tulsa, you can get tickets for as little as $10.00 - about the same as a movie. So it's a pretty fabulous date idea. I will say, operas are generally about three hours in length, including an intermission, so just make sure you know you're gonna be there a while. I think this one is around 2:45 in length.

Me and Karlie had a great time, lots of laughing, and some beautiful music. So now you should go to the show as well! Go to www.tulsaopera.com for tickets and enjoy some culture. (-: It opens tonight and then there are two performances next weekend as well.

Happy Saturday!

~Kathryn

Snowed In!

Well hello my fellow blog friends!

We are SNOWED IN. And I mean snowed in. We can't go anywhere! We have been stuck this way since Monday night, and the end is not yet in sight! It started blizzarding here on Monday night and continued most of the day Tuesday. In Tulsa we got a record breaking FOURTEEN inches of snow! It has been AWESOME!

You see, I love snow. I love the excitement it brings, the break from work and normal routines that it usually provides, the time of rest it gives, not to mention the snow ice cream, playing in the snow, and making memories. Perhaps my favorite part is watching it fall. It's so breathtaking. I love looking at my entire world being completely blanketed in white. It's such a beautiful reminder of God's forgiveness from Psalm 51 when David asks: "Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." It's so peaceful.

So, it started falling Monday night. I stayed up uncharacteristically late, and woke up uncharacteristically early in order to watch it fall and enjoy the historical storm.

We bundled up and ventured out on Tuesday afternoon as the blizzard was tapering off and made snow angels and face planted numerous times in the snow. Our friends who live in our neighborhood came over and we had a great time.

Today we ran out of milk, but other than that, it's been pretty stellar. The productive thing I did today is that I vacuumed. And I made dinner. And I'm blogging. (-:

So what next? Well, tomorrow doesn't look like it will be any "better". I think we have at least one more snowed in day. It's not going to be above freezing until Saturday. It's supposed to drop down to like -7 degrees tonight! That's so insane!!!

Anyway, that's what we've been doing. Laying around, playing some music, reading, playing with the dogs, sleeping in, getting fat, and enjoying the beautiful snow.

What have YOU been up to?

~Kathryn