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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Kickin 2013 to the curb!!!

We are on the very last day of 2013, and I have to say the weather has not been cooperative with us since November.  Seems like as soon as we got back from Galveston, the weather decided to rear its ugly head and go right into winter.  Now you might think, well, of course it did...but in Oklahoma we usually have some really nice days in November and December.

This year has really been different.  We have had the second wettest year in history.  We have had terrible tornado's...and then the snow and ice come.  I guess we are getting our share of all the different seasons.  Can't forget about all the earth quakes we are having in our state either.  Just had another one yesterday, and it was a 4.1.....crazy!

Through all this we were able to travel around 28,000 miles this year!  We traveled to Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois this year.  We traveled all those miles with Diana & Chris.  I always say this, but we really do enjoy our riding partners...can't imagine a trip without you guys!  I can say that I for one, had a great time.  Even enjoyed our tornado outbreak in West Memphis.  You know all that excitement makes for some good blog material  :)

Thanks goes out to Doreen, Allen, Lynn, Keith, Jennifer & Steve for braving some of the trips with us as well.

You know January 1st starts our riding season for 2014....Hope it is filled with lots more rides, and new discoveries.








Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas 2013

It's Christmas Eve, and time for us to fill the sleigh with presents, and head south to Norman, OK.  We will be meeting our kids and grandkids at Journey Church for Christmas Eve services.  We stop by and pick up my mom and step-dad to make the family complete.  We are a very small group, but we are family!!!!

We gather at the church with Heather's family, and worship our God!!!  You know he is the Reason For the Season.  The church was packed this evening.  The 4:00pm service was a very popular one this year.

Enjoyed watching Cash & Cooper during the service.  They are both growing so quickly.  Cooper is such a polite and sweet little girl.  She even got to hold a candle this evening during the candle ceremony.  Now Cash on the other hand, we didn't allow to hold one.  He did get to blow one out at the end.







On to our son's house to unload the sleigh, and have a little bit of dinner, before we open gifts.  The kids are really excited and of course as far as they were concerned we didn't even have to eat anything.  Let just open the presents!!!

It wasn't long before the wrapping paper was flying, and gifts were being torn into.  The kids are at such a cute age for this.  One thing we got both of them were luggage, as they are going to Disney World in February, and could use a new set.  Cash took all his loot, and packed it in his new Spider man Luggage, and rolled it to his room.  I really felt kinda bad getting them luggage, but they seemed to like it.  So all is well!


























What a great time with our little family.  Very greatful for the wonderful health they all have.  Mother is finally walking better after her "hip" break.  Louie is still dealing with his eye issues, but all in all for their age, they are doing quite well.  I am very blessed beyond words to have this family.  Thank you God.  Merry Christmas to everyone, and hope you are spending time with your friends and family as well.










Great evening, and of couse we have to feed the reindeer.  The kids didn't miss a beat...put on their pj's, boots, coat, hat and gloves and they were out the door to spread the food.  


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Going to see "The Nutcracker"




The Oklahoma City Ballet performed "The Nutcracker"" and I got tickets for my daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.  I would love to say this was totally my idea, but alas, it wasn't.  My friend Diana told me several weeks ago that she and her family were going to go, so I thought what the heck.  My son and daughter-in-law used to go every year before they had kids.  Cooper is 5 now, and we might as well start a fun tradition that we can do each year.









I got the tickets and the plans were made.  We met downtown on a beautiful Sunday afternoon for the 2pm production.  We entered the Civic Center and they have several areas set up for purchasing items.  They also had a beautiful 3 story Christmas Tree with a very nice looking Santa sitting there, just waiting to have his picture taken with the children that wanted to do it.  Of course Cooper was ready to sit on Santa's lap and get a picture.  He was so kind, and even kissed her on her cheek as she got off his lap.











We did a little shopping and got a couple of nutcrackers for Cooper and Cash's Christmas trees that they have in their rooms.  We walked a little further and Cooper spotted a hippopotamus with a tutu on....It was a stuffed one, so we had to have one of those as well.
















We walked around and actually saw a hippo worthy of a picture.  There was an area set up for the kids to write a letter to Santa and put in the mailbox to send to the North Pole.  Cooper has written several letters, so I am sure Santa will be very well informed on what she is asking for him to bring her.






























































It's showtime, so we make our way to our seats.  We see Diana and her family sitting in the seats in front of us.  Diana's sister Debbie, was here from Florida, and I thought it was so nice they all got together to do this.


Before the curtain rises, the announcer says that this has been a really good year for the ballet.  The other interesting part of the announcement is that this is the 50th year for the production of the Nutcracker.  I have to say by some of the people that are here, some of them were at the 1st production....LOL

The ballet was wonderful.  I was also impressed with how well this little 5 yr. old girl sat and watched the story unfold.  It was a fun afternoon with 2 of my most favorite girls.  I hope that we can continue this little tradition for years to come.  Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope you make some old and new memories this year.







Sunday, December 8, 2013

Snow-quake in Oklahoma.

We have had snow, sleet, and earthquakes and very cold temperature here in Oklahoma the last few days.  OK, so the cold, sleet and very cold temp are OK, but mix that with a 4.5 earthquake.....you have to admit it is a bit strange.

We have been have quite a few earthquakes here in the middle of America. There is a fault line that actually goes through Oklahoma City.  If you read about the earthquakes you can find out that we have been having them since the 1800's but I guess they didn't have all the news media and coverage we now have so when the earth shook most people didn't even realize it.  

Back to the snow...usually we have snow one day and then the next day the sun comes out and it gets in the 50's and it is gone rather quickly.  This storm has been different as the article blast that brought it has decided to keep it cold.  We are experiencing temperatures in the 20's and night dropping into the single digits. 


My little ruler star! 

My friend Diana and I got out on Saturday and drove to Minco, Oklahoma for the 23rd Annual Honey Festival.  The main highways were clear and we had no problems getting to Minco. The streets off the highway were snow packed, but not that bad.  The craft show was really nice and we both found some treasures we couldn't live without. A lady had some stars made from old measuring tapes and we both bought one.











We bought honey from the local honey company.   I have lived in Oklahoma all my life and I really had no idea that we had honey so close to us.  The Ross Honey Co has been in business since 1935.  (Ross Honey Co. via their Facebook account)

Honey and Honey Straws




















A booth was set up from a local Alpaca dealer.  I wish I had bought the bundles of Alpaca they had on a stick for the birds to make their nest from.  The people have a store front in Yukon, so I will have to make a trip and get some.





We found the home made soaps and lotions from Swinging K Farms.  I was struck by the honey patchouli.  It was heavenly.  Because Diana & I are both involved with DoTerra, we ask her where she bought her essential oils from.  Sorry to say neither of us had a business card to hand her.  :(






 I noticed a man that had a stack of books.  We walked over and he told us he was the author of the books he had for sale.  His name was Art Anthony, and it was his first publishing.  Since Chris is the reader of this bunch, Diana buys him the book.  It is called Sulphur River.  The flyer boast that if you like westerns you will love Sulphur River.  Since it will be up to Chris to read the book and give his opinion on the book, I am sure you will be waiting just like us to she what he thinks of it.  If you can't wait for his book report and want to have one of your own, here is a link to his book Sulphur River.  

It was a fairly small craft show, but we scored quite nicely.  Even picked up a bucket of redskin peanuts from Binger, OK., and I almost forgot about the peanut brittle.    It was really fun buying "local".  

Back to the peanut brittle....we were making our purchase and all of a sudden there was a commotion to the side of us.  As we turned to see what was going on, I see fist flying and words being spouted out at a very loud rate!  Thank goodness there we people there attempting to pry these two ladies apart.  Oh my!  Seems a local lady that lives next to this building was having an altercation with a lady that apparently had parked in her driveway.  We proceeded to shop the other direction!  


As we leave the building with all our worldly finds we see two local police officers at a house.  Yep, you guessed it....that lady that was screaming at the other one to stay out of her drive was sitting on the porch.  The police were going up to her and as I looked at her and she glared at me.  I attempted to not make eye contact...LOL. I didn't want to get get whacked by her!  

Safely in the car with all our packages we make our way down the snow covered streets to Main Street Minco. A friend that had a booth told us of a couple of store that were only open on Saturday, so we had to stop and check them out.  As we park and get out of the car, the local fire truck with lights and sirens blaring goes by us.  

Great little town stores and we both find a little something that we just have to have.  Back in the car, I see the sign pointing to the honey factory.  Might as well drive by it, but guess that wasn't in the cards today, cause we never saw the place.  Oh well, there is always next time.




I make a call to tell the guys we are going to make one more stop, in Yukon.  We make our way to downtown.  The new craft mall was where we were headed.  I had an agenda.  The friend we saw at Minco had reminded me about something I want to check out.  There is a booth that has pieces of the Old Yukon's Best Flour Mill sign, and I think I want to own a piece of this nostalgic piece of Yukon, Oklahoma.  I am so excited to be a proud owner of an old piece of rusted sign...LOL....Yukon's Best Flour  The interesting part of this little bit of history is that Yukon's Main street is on Rt. 66 and so is the flour mill, and the sign had been dark for quite some time, and just this summer was given new life with a brand new sign.   So you see why I wanted this little bit of Yukon America.  :)




Our men that held the house down while we were gone and watched the Bedlam football game.  They tell us that they heard the earthquake ( I know this sounds strange, but you can actually hear the rumble coming down the road like a big ole truck) and actually my hanging pot rack quivered and moved.  I think it was too early for them to be drinking so Diana and I had to take their word for it. LOL.  

Great day with a mix of excitement!