Monday, But Looking Forward to Thursday

I have been harassed and threatened to the point that I feel it is time to blog again.  Even though I have been suffering from a lack of motivation to write, and a minimal amount of confidence, I have been shamed into making a blog appearance today.  As usual, I am looking forward to Thursday and the gymnatics update from Campbell's mom and pictures.  In fact, I think I will dig out my leotard and plan to do some gymnastics myself on Thursday in celebration of Campbell going to her gymnastics class.  If I can figure out how to do it, I will try to photograph myself doing my handstand, just to share in the fun!

Campbell's mom is so so good to post so many pictures of her and her daily activities.  She has pics of finding her nearly naked in her bed in the morning because she has removed her pajamas.  She has pics of falling asleep in her carseat in the back of the car.  She has pics of her gently examining pictures and keepsakes in her home.  She even has pictures of her crawling under the furniture, and oh yeah, there was at least one time that C got caught emptying entire boxes of kleenex and baby wipes.  I AM SORRY!  I cannot EVEN compete with that!  I got nothin'! 

Here are a couple of highlights of my day.  And please forgive me, there are no pictures.  :)

1)  An insured package that I had sent via the United States Postal Service to my son with some medications in it was found, late, but nevertheless it was found.

2)  My mom has a new car, kinda sweet sportscar, and I got to drive it.  We went after a coke, and I complained about something or other.  She couldn't get a word in edgewise, which is the general opposite of our conversations.

3)  I forgot to put my power bracelet back on after I got out of the shower last night, and so I wasn't wearing it all day..... because I forgot to put it back on this morning, too.  I swear, I ran into two walls and nearly fell down three times, just trying to pull on my coat and things like that!  Guess I am going to have to just leave it on when I shower, but that just doesn't sound right.  Seems to me like it would be like taking a shower with all your jewelry on.  I don't think so.

4)  And I started my Christmas list.  Okay.  So I started a list.

Yes, people, THOSE are the highlights!  I know, it's pitiful.  Well, I didn't give you the details -- I actually accomplished a lot more -- I went to work, ran lots of errands, completed a couple of travel projects and other desk projects.  But you know this is a blog about a girl who lives in the middle of the country, and today, she's got nothing new.  Sorry. 

Please come back, and always remember that *sarcasm* is my best friend.  :)  I just want to be funny!

Thursday, YAY!

One of my favorite reasons for Thursday, is because it is Bible study day....  that, AND Campbell has gymnastics!  So this morning, I headed off to Bible study hoping and praying that there would be a post from Campbell's mom after her regular Thursday lesson.

Sure enough, she did not disappoint!  The stories about the funny things Campbell does in preparation for gymnastics, along with the sight of her in her leotard, are plenty to keep me in stitches for the whole week.  I have got to go and experience the whole deal to see how it really goes down.  But her mother's commentary about everything from getting up on Thursday mornings to the 3-way swing and why boys don't want any part of it is a hoot!

What a little punkin she is....  I hope they have enough room in their house for her trophy and medal cabinets!

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Surely I am not the only person who has ever done this. There you are, small group of people, just visiting and having a good time…. And before you know it, something inappropriate or offensive has flown out of your mouth. Now it is beyond your control – the damage is done. No amount of apologizing or backtracking can take it back. You can’t fix it.

A) Do you at least try to fix it?

or

B) Do you just skim right on over it hoping no one heard you or at least didn't take offense to it?

Age old problem.

My knee-jerk reaction to my own guffaw was to keep right on going. Pretend like it didn’t happen. Hoped no one would take personal offense. Not sure it worked, but it seemed like the best choice at the time. Meanwhile, I have stewed and worried myself silly about it. Ridiculous.

I tried to put myself in the receiving end of my own comment. It occurred to me that I have been there many times. The exact same comment! Why am I so worried that I said the same thing this time, yet I am expected to take it from someone else over and over? Well, because I don’t care if others offend me, I am not going to let two wrongs make a right.

Self-respect, patience and a desire to avoid confrontation will take you a long way. So in the future, I will not be willing to discuss race, gender, or similar types of stereotypical subjects. Don't engage me. I will just have to stay away from subjects where political correctness is required.

Whew! I feel lots better.

And PS - this happened several weeks ago. It's ancient history. :)

Cute Kid Tuesday

Everyone knows a cute kid or two.  I know I do, but today, it is time to feature one of the cutest.

Here is my darling friend's precious daughter, Campbell.  She has a wonderful blog, mapping the day-to-day life of her daughter.  It is wonderful for those of us who don't live particularly close to them and don't get to see them often enough.  Here's her blog.  If you are reading mine, you probably know her and would enjoy reading about what they are up to. 

And here she is telling me what she wanted to do next when she was at my house.  Of course, we did it.  It was read 3 books.  So we did, and we read them each 5 times.

She is brilliant.  After I read the books to her, she returned the favor and read them to me!

Then she wanted to do some off-roading, so we obliged.  We wore our seatbelts, safety first!  After a day at Lily's, she was worn out.  But Campbell left Lily wanting more....  Hope she comes back soon!

I Know Someone Famous

Today, my friend Lesley's cupcakes were featured on an actual cupcake blog! 

Here it is!

If you ever get a chance to try any of the piece` de resistance, made by Cups, LLC, I would highly recommend it.  Muah!

Night on the Porch

These two showed up on my back porch this evening, and were all about showing us their dance moves.  I tried to get them to stop... but they just were so into it.

Gant was all serious and everything.  He told me it was Zumba, but I knew that wasn't right.  Then to distract everyone, he picked up this turtle and started chasing people around with it.

Just a crazy night of randomness on the back porch.  Oh, and there was a pretty sunset......

I love it when the kids are here!

Last Day in Paradise.....

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to Maui.  Always hard, it just isn't a fun thing to do.  You miss beautiful scenery, like this --

The four of us decided we could just watch the waves roll in forever.  It is a view you never get tired of seeing.  Or hearing....  waves breaking are just very calming and relaxing. 

We practically had the beach to ourselves...  okay, so that is an exaggeration, well, it was anything but crowded.  We spent so much time on the beach, just taking in the scenery, the action, and people watching.  It was beautiful, except for a couple of hours of wind, which provided all of us with plenty of exfoliation by sand blasting us with the straight line winds blowing the sand into every open orifice. 

No more scenes like this.  We thought we were so funny by using our similar credit cards to split the bill by 4. 
No more of that.  The hardest part of the trip is now.  Arriving home.  Facing piles of laundry.  Unpacking the enormous suitcases that I hauled through the airports. 

We just couldn't get enough of this!  You never get tired of watching the sun set.  Bea-u-ti-ful!  It doesn't get a whole lot better than this.  We acclimated so quickly -- maybe we should just stay.  No, we have to leave. 

It's been a rough week in paradise.  But by now we have landed, and are on our last leg home.  Gosh, it's a long way.  Not complaining!

turtle day

One day while on the trip to Maui, we went snorkeling down by Black Rock.  The waves were pretty calm, and the crowd wasn't too big, so we set out. We hadn't been in the water very long when some people started pointing and swimming to one area.  We followed along, to see what the ruckus was all about, and some kid said there was a turtle very near the place where we were.  Melissa was on a mission to see a turtle, so down we went.  Not only did we see a turtle, but it was about 4 feet in diameter and about 4 feet away from us!  Mission accomplished, Melissa came up, threw off her mask, spit out her snorkel, and yelled, #@*& $%*! -- at the top of her lungs.  Hilarious!  By far, one of the funniest things that happened that day.  Later, when I talked to Mike, he said that he had seen a turtle in our garage at home, and a water turtle leaving a pond near our house that same day.  The turtle sightings were many all over the United States.

Funny things have happened every day, but they are things like, you know, maybe you had to be there.  One thing that has happened was that I have been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.  This diagnosis was made by one of my traveling partners, and she is an RN that works for the premier cardiology practice in the Permian Basin.  She told me that my EF is 21.  I don't know what that means or how much time I have, but I have decided to make the most of it.  She keeps telling me to take it easy, and so the girls have been very encouraging and helpful.  I think it would probably be best if I just stayed here permanently.  Nurse Dianne, previous to the trip, received her own diagnosis.  Apparently, it is airborne, because I caught it from her.  A good disease makes for plenty of opportunities for humor.

We did have a situation with the rental car which required me to call Roadside Assistance.  First of all, it was a disappointment from the word go.  It was dirty, inside and out, had dents and scratches all over it, took me forever to get it checked out because you have to diagram all the dents and scratches before you leave with it... but when the air conditioner quit on the opposite side of the island, and we had a hot ride home, I was fit to be tied.  The short, happy version of this story, is that they brought us a new minivan, quite a bit nicer than the first one.  The sad thing is, we only had it for a couple of days, before we had to use it to drive ourselves back to the airport.  :(

Luckily, Dianne has been in charge of moving the cone for us to save our parking place; Bonnie has been in charge of all exercise, worship, and skinny dipping sightings; and Melissa contributed beach tunes and all technical support.  Mel's allergies, that she does not have, according to OKC Allergy Clinic, were much better in the tropical climate.  She might have to stay here, too.  The doctor is still out on that one.

4th of July - delayed posting

We had a fun and relaxed 4th of July.  Gant was in town, and so we kind of celebrated his birthday since he won't be here on the actual day later this month...

It was a plenty warm day.  But the sky was blue and full of fluffy, photogenic clouds.  We had probably 7 cameras among the 8 of us....  so we snapped and snapped away!

 
We just kept snapping.  And posing.  You never know when you are going to get that phenomenal picture.  You don't!  So we kept trying....

And here were the wonderful red velvet cupcakes, made specially for the occasion by Cups, LLC.

And it just wouldn't have been the Fourth of July without some sparklers and a few fireworks! 

And we had a very patriotic and festive Fourth of July, 2010!

Some things I will see...

There is so much to see in Maui!  We are going to give it the college try, but no doubt we will fall short in some area.  But right there at the place we will stay for the week, there is one of these.....

It is brand new and very nice...  other than the fact that I wake up at 3:30 or 4:00 am for the first few days, I would say that this is out of the question.  But when you wake up, you wake up -- and they have this cool new weight room.  It is slightly inviting.  Even to a nube like me.

Frankly, I would rather sit on my hind quarters and look at the lovely view.  I can easily sit there and just watch people and listen to the waves, ALL DAY.

And after a full day that started at 3:30 or 4:00 am, I am doing good if I can make it to see this...

But, oh, it is SO worth it.

Travel Can Be Hard

There are a lot of hard things about going on a trip or vacation.  Usually, you have to work doubly hard to get things taken care of that will need to be done while you are gone.  And you have to do them in the same 24 hours that you have every single day!  No extra hours to help you get it all done!

But if you want to see the big, beautiful world, you have to make some concessions.  You might have to stay up late packing...  You might have to pack and repack in order to fit everything in your suitcase...  You might have to make arrangements for someone else to do your job for you while you are gone...  You have to gather up all the travel documents needed, make reservations and plans, -- frankly, you need a wife.  I have been saying this for years, and Bon reminded me of it today as she was checking things off of her list.

By the time you read this, she will probably be wearing one of these in her hair.  She will be planted under the umbrella, and deep into her novel. 

Mel, poor thing, traveling takes its toll on her.  Last year she got sick.  By the time we tracked down the right meds, we had lost a couple of days -- not completely -- just a bummer for her.  As you see, she can sleep anywhere, so the random flight delay will not keep her from catching a few winks.

This was one of our many trips to the drugstore -- we became very familiar with it -- and we started calling the things we bought there, souvenirs.  We had a lot of meds for motion sickness, Benadryl cream for a rash, I can't even remember what all we bought there, but we just started calling it all souvenirs, because it was cutting into our budget for other things.  I took this pic of Melis at Long's, that's our favorite drugstore, because it is super convenient to get to.  She had a basket full of souvenirs.

Just remember when you travel, as in life, that you can never be too prepared.

Distraction Trip

Remember the trip that I mentioned we would be taking Bon on as a distraction? 

Well, we have departed.  We left our homes, and we are enjoying the beach while our husbands hold down the fort.

That means, that yesterday we navigated the jungle of air travel, and have safely reached our destination.

We conquered a few of these...............

And we maneuvered through places like this...................

And because you are reading this, hopefully, we have arrived and are no worse for the wear.  We are hoping for some restful days at the beach, some good meals, -- I doubt there will be any laughing -- and maybe some fabulous new pics!  Bon's sister, Dianne, will be joining us.  She lives in Texas, but we invited her anyway. 

We will try and post when we can, but we have a lot to do.  We're thinking of you!

Believe it or not --

I happen to have more photos of the University that might be helpful for Bon as she becomes more familiar with E's new surroundings.

Like, for instance, this could be the view from his dorm room....  it really could!

And here is our basketball coach, his name is Travis Ford.  We think we like him.  We don't agree with all of his antics, but to my knowledge, no chairs have flown. 

And the lesson here, is that you want to be sitting behind this particular goal at the end of the game, because, win or lose, the players come back and jump into the stands with the students, and they all join in singing (and they put arms on shoulders of the strangers and friends all around them) the Alma Mater, which luckily -- E learned at Camp Cowboy.  So he is good to go!

So that is what is going on in that picture.  There are at least 3 players in this picture.  The kids love this!

And then you know, we will always be there for you!  This is only part of our Stillwater contingent.  We have many others and you know many yourself!  I think it is going to be a great fit, E!

Bring your orange!!!  You are going to need it!

A few more local landmarks....

Still sharing compassion and concern for my friend who is going to soon send her firstborn off to the university.  I figured I could at least help her become familiar with some of the local landmarks.

Okay, Bon, Eskimo Joe's -- don't miss the cheese fries.  And remember, potatoes are a vegetable.

The World Headquarters..... celebrating their 35th Anniversary next week, while we go on that trip to distract you.

And this is Hall of Fame...  it is the street right in front of your boy's dorm!  Definitely the place to be on game day!!!!

The Barn is on the strip.  Seriously, they have the best cokes.  Just sayin.

I'm here for ya!