Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Another one bites the dust...

5/15/2007 was a day that will always stick out in my mind... that is when Season 7, Episode 22 of Gilmore Girls aired. It would be the last episode EVER! AHHH... I was so sad because it was my favorite show of all time; with Friends (also ended) as a close second.



Why do they have to come to an end!!!

Anyway I say all of that to announce that again one of the shows I like to watch will be airing for the last time. Tonight will be the last night of Ugly Betty! I know many of you are probably thinking “what a crazy show!” However, for me, it has been a wonderful way to escape my everyday life. To follow a girl who starts out wanting to write things that will make a difference in the world and ends up in the world of fashion as the side kick for the editor in chief of Mode Magazine.

I admit Ugly Betty has been somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me over the years and I am sad so to see it go. Betty has come so far and sometimes I feel like I have a little Betty inside me. In fact I think we all have a little Betty in us. We face obstacles every day at work and in life and like Betty we have to make choices. I know that she is just a TV character… but hey! can’t we all learn a little something from TV… hahah. Betty always makes the right decision in the end even when it is hard; which I believe is a positive considering some things on TV these days. (haha just sounded like a grandma) Ok so enough rambling... I will post a recap of the show tomorrow. I have high hopes that it will not leave me totally devastated at the end but we shall see.... Until tomorrow! Mrs. Wilks

PS: Here are some pictures from the show in case you are asking yourself: “Who is this Betty and why is Mrs. Wilks calling her Ugly?”

This is how Betty looked when the show first started.


This is Betty now: beautiful and confident!


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Make It Your Own!

I am and have always been a firm believer in being your own person and making things your own. So when Grandbee, Aunt Red, and I decided to throw my very good friend Mrs. T (or soon to be Mrs. T... hehe) a wedding shower, it was only appropriate that I make invitations that not only suited the shower but also reflected the wedding and the bride as well. So I went to Hobby Lobby on a search for what to do. Having made my own invitations for many events, including my own wedding, I felt confident I would have no problems with the task ahead of me. I had a hard time making my choices simply because I wanted them to be as close to perfect as possible and with the many colors being used in Mrs. T’s wedding my options were truly endless. I decided on a plain white note card and envelope. I also bought a multi color stamp pad and heart shaped stamps since I had acquired printed heart napkins and plates for the shower.

I love to use stamps to personalize things! Not only do they make your stationary unique from other stationary but each individual invite is unique. Anyone who has used a stamp pad knows, you never get the same outcome twice. Sometimes the color is darker sometimes it is lighter. However, I am a bit of a perfectionist so I like to get them as close to uniform as possible. This is why I had Mr. Wilks laughing when I drew a line down the side of my stamp so I could line it up the same each time with the multi color stamp pad.

When creating homemade invites I think it is important to personalize the message as well. This was especially important in the case of Mrs. T’s shower because Mr. Wilks and I introduced Mr. & Mrs. T (to be) on a blind date. I wanted to include something about the way they met on the invitation. After racking my brain this is how the invite read:
She dreamed of the day when her prince would arrive,
The way he would look and the car he would drive.
She found him in, a peculiar way,
With friends on a date, not hardly knowing his name.
Now the date has been set to tie the knot,
But everything they need for their house has not been got…
So Join with their Friends, as we celebrate the upcoming big day,
To give to Mrs. T and Mr. T in a big way.

It took me about two hours to print, stamp, seal, and address the invites. Thanks to my sweet hubby helping out! He is great at the sealing, putting address labels, and postage stamps on. Anyway, I say that to encourage those of you who say it takes too much time, to reconsider doing invites on your own. The other great advantage to doing them on your own is the money you save. I spent about $15.00 on supplies and now I only have to buy more note cards the next time I choose to use this design.

And now for the best part, here are some pictures of the invite!


This is the stamp pad and stamps I used for the invites.


This is a picture of the envelope. (You can see, I also stamped it to make for a more personal look)


This is a picture of the outside of the note card invite.



This is a picture of the inside of the note card invite.

If you have any questions about making your own stationary or have some you have made you would like to show off leave a comment!

Mrs. Wilks

PS Sorry for the quality of the pictures... they were taken with my camera in the living room floor. Haha And of course the black boxes were not on the real invites I just didn't want anyone's info to get posted on the web. :-)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sorry...

Just wanted to stop in and say I am so sorry for taking so long to put an original post. Things have been so busy with school, Mr. Wilks softball and all the other fun things we have been up too… (i.e. Showers, showers, and more showers) I just have not had time to get the ball rolling. I am working on some posts about the cruise but I think instead of waiting until they are finished, I will just bring you all up to speed and then leave those posts to be mixed in here and there. I am going to promise a new post by tomorrow night. Hope everyone is having a wonderful blessed day!
Mrs. Wilks

Monday, February 22, 2010

Not Me! Monday!


Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


It is not me who wore panty hose yesterday just so I didn’t have to shave the stubble on my legs. Nope not me…. And it was also not me who held my niece while she was throwing up thinking how awesome I was to not be joining her; only to later dry heave at the mere thought that the whole thing had happened. Again there is no way that was me, cause I have a strong stomach and can handle anything. (Haha) Oh, and it was not me who made up a recipe last night using the microwave and ingredients that did not require cooking just to avoid having to actually fix supper. Nope it was definitely not me! I love to cook and have time and energy every night to cook four course meals for my husband because I am Super Wife!!! Have you had things you too are embarrassed to admit you did? If so, join in and write a comment letting us know were not the only ones out there.
Mrs. Wilks

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Mrs. Wilks Simple Pleasures

Hey everybody! Sorry it has been a few days since my last post. I have just been swamped at work and getting ready for a trip… more to come on that one in a later post. Ok, ok just one hint…



Anyway, I was reading Kelly’s Korner (a blog I have recently become an avid reader of) and today she had a post on Simple Pleasures. It prompted me to list some of mine and to encourage all of you to leave comments of some of your own Simple Pleasures.

Where to begin…

The smell of anything baking

A small vanilla Ice cream cone… actually any ice cream cone

A Lazy Saturday

Buying stationary supplies in the fall because school is starting and they are on sale everywhere

One of my nieces running up when they see me

Knowing that no matter how old she gets Katie-bug will still love me the most!

Cotton Candy

Buying something on sale that you have been eyeing for months

White Chocolate Mochas with a shot of cinnamon

Date night with Mr. Wilks… even if it is just out to the grocery story

Slobbering baby kisses

Tuesday night knitting classes (even if the only reason it is a pleasure is because of the other people in the class)

Hallmark movies… or is that a guilty pleasure?

Preschool Children’s Church

These are just a few of the things that I consider simple pleasures. Please feel free to join in and let me know what things you see as simple pleasures. And stay tuned for my next post about our trip.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Has it been a year already???

Sunday Mr. Wilks and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary! Wow how the year has flown by! To celebrate I thought I would put some pics up of the wedding day last year and share some stories of the big day and the year that followed.

This is a picture that was taken before the ceremony. Mr. Wilks was whispering in my ear and I got tickled because he was saying things that would have embarrassed me if anyone had overheard. LOL! I have had the best time getting to know him even more this year. Mr. Wilks has the most amazing sense of humor and he laughs at my dry sense of humor which can be hard for him when he can't figure out what I think is so funny.




The second pic is from the ceremony. It was such a beautiful day! I wish I could have sat and wrote it all down so I would never forget anything. We only had a few mishaps but nothing that was life changing. The first mishap was the flowers. My poor daddy (Papa) had went to pick them up and didn't know what they were suppose to look like so he had no idea they were not right. Don't get me wrong they were beautiful flowers but just not what I had envisioned. Burnt orange in my opinion does not go with my wedding colors of chocolate brown, eggplant, and sage green. Ultimately though, it was not the end of the world and at that point what could you do... in the end the only people who knew were the ones I told. Oh and all of you I have just told now... lol oops.
The second mishap was not noticeable to anybody but me and that is because of my need for perfection. (I have mentioned my A-type personality in an earlier post) I had chosen not to walk down the aisle to the traditional "Here Comes the Bride" and instead chose a song that sounded like Mr. Wilks and I. Because of how the song went we decided to have Mr. Wilks walk down the side aisle and then the ring bearer and flower girl and then me so that it would not seem like it was such a long song. However, during the ceremony the flower girl and the ring bearer got sent down the aisle during the song before the one they were supposed to. Mr. Wilks was walking down to the first verse of the song and me to the bridge so because the other two were sent early it seemed like forever until I finally got to walk down the aisle.
The last mishap is actually kind of funny! (I would have posted a picture of the three amigos and their Nintendo DS if I had remembered to ask permission from their parents to put them on the blog before I started this post) Anyway, my ring bearer, cousin, and little friend all were sitting at the reception playing their Nintendo DS but because all three of them didn’t have their own they were bickering a little over the two that were there and one of the cases got too close to the candle on the table and caught on fire. It was not a big fire and was put out pretty quickly but it is funny to think of a fire at your reception. Haha



The last pictures are of us eating the cake and us eating the topper on our 1st Anniversary. First off you will notice that we are not feeding each other the cake or twisting our arms to try and drink. Although I am a very traditional girl, I felt as though my wedding should be unique to me and my husband to be. If you are just caught up in traditions you forget to enjoy the day and forget the meaning for the whole thing. Anyway off my soap box... Mr. Wilks and I decided that one of the traditions we would forgo was shoving cake in each other's face and just eat a bite at the same time.



I call my mom (Grandbee) Sunday night on our way home from having anniversary dinner:

Grandbee: So did you guys eat your bite of wedding cake yet?
Me: Nope, it is still in the freezer.
Grandbee: So you didn't sit it out to be defrosting?
Me: Um.... Nope, didn't know you had to.
Grandbee: (irritated) Why would you think you could just eat a bite of frozen cake?
Me: Well, the ones you get in the freezer section at the grocery store thaw out quick and i didn't think it would be good to let year old cake defrost until you were ready to eat it... so...


We went back and forth with this till we were both laughing. So, I asked Grandbee why we save the top and eat it anyway and she said just because it is what people have always done. She ended up doing further investigation and found that the tradition was started before the wide use of birth control and that couple would save the cake for their first-born's christening. And because there was no birth control the birth of the first child usually fell around the couple’s first anniversary. So after all of that it isn't really a tradition that is backed up by a real purpose any more but we did it anyway. And surprisingly it wasn't so bad. We still threw it away though... maybe it was the idea of eating something that was a year old???



We had a great day reminiscing about the past year. We took time to thank the Lord for allowing us to find one another and for the blessings he has showered us with during our first year of marriage. I would be lying if I said the year had been too difficult because, although we faced some obstacles, over all the first year was pretty great!

Friday, January 15, 2010

And so it begins...

So I started this blog in July and was so excited about having a blog that I completely abandoned it until now! haha...

Anyway, I am a typical A-Type personality. I am very structured and like things to be a certain way. On top of that I am very analytical and so I think things through until there is no possibility I have not pondered. I do not like surprises but can warm up to them after the initial shock is over. And to me a life without a plan, is a plan to fail (This quote was taken from my boss). From all of this, one can only imagine, how I feel when something does not go the way I think it should. Most of the time it starts with uncontrollable worry and then the analytical part kicks in and I begin to think a forgotten birthday of a friend has lead to forever banishment from their life and their horrible disdain toward me. Before long I can be in full melt down mode… Imagine... tears, snot, hyperventilation, just a few of the reactions I occasionally have when my plan fails to be the way I thought it would. Something as simple as forgetting to call a friend on their birthday causes me to go into a spiral of emotions and who knows if my friend even noticed that I did not call. So this year as I was gearing up for the beginning of 2010 I decided to start the year with a goal to not stress out over things so much. I am going to try very hard not to over analyze and not to over react to things that I cannot change. Mr. Wilks believes that I will not be able to achieve my goal throughout the year, but that is because he has seen some of my numerous melt downs and knows that I am a creature of habit. However, I am going to put my best foot forward and really try to do a better job at relaxing and not sweating the small stuff. In 1Peter 5:7 the Bible says, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1Peter 5:7, NIV).How ironic that this has been my favorite verse in the Bible for most of my life and that the very verse that God has seeded within me is encouraging me to give it all to God! Let go of the things I can’t change and keep living! Hmmm… sounds to me God knew long before I did that as an adult I would need a verse like this to uplift me; he knew the adult I would become and that without me recognizing my help comes from HIM (I will strengthen you and help you… Isaiah 41:10, NIV). I would be a mess! I carry both of those scriptures in my wallet on an old index card I have carried around for years and on days when I feel like everything is going under I can pull out that card and remind myself that I am not the keeper of the stars or the one who hung the moon but God the creator of all things cares for me and wants my load to be lightened. All I have to do is call on his name and he will greet me with the peace that passes all understanding.



These are pictures of the card from my wallet.


So this year if my to do list is not finished at the end of the day I am not going to think it is the end of the world as I know it. And I am going to cling to the promises that God has set before me in his book. I leave you with the last verse on the card in my wallet, the verse that gets me all fired up! The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet Romans 16:20, NIV.

1 Peter 5:7
Isaiah 41:10
Romans 16:20