Staycation-Vacation!

Sigh! I would so, so love to be a stay at home mom, but I did not make the right decisions to make that happen, so I must work and be away from my family 5 days a week. With travel time, that takes a 10 hour bite out of every day! It is my own fault, so don't feel sorry for me, but I don't mind if you listen to me whine a little now and then!

So this week I took two days of vacation! Yay! Today we went to the lake for a quick day trip with Jacob and Abbey. Our family has always loved to visit Grand Lake, so we wanted to share the experience with Abbey. We had a great time swimming at Little Blue State Park. But first we took her to all of our usual stops on the way. The Blue Whale, The Totem Pole & Fiddle Gift Shop, and Jacob's favorite, Twin Arrows Trading Post, for buffalo jerky.

We finally arrived at noon. We swam and sunned ourselves for a few hours, then I grilled yummy hamburgers. We went back to swim for a while so we could cool off. Then we took a drive to show her more sights below the dam and we showed her the view across the dam from Langley to Disney throught the telescope. Kim's Grandparents owend a house in Disney when he was a little boy and we showed her where he grew up. Last, on our way out of town, we backtracked to Pistol Pete's for a chocolate dipped cone. Wow! We had to eat those so fast before they melted, I did not have time for a picture!

We had a nice, nice day! I love not working! Of course if I did not work, we still couldn't have adventures like that every week, but maybe a bit more often?

Button Bonanza Baby!

I recently became a button lover. I always thought they were interesting, but never had much use for them, so I did not keep more than a few necessary buttons on hand. Since I started making my little coin purses I have used buttons to embellish them. So I started keeping an eye out for interesting buttons. I managed to scavange a few from my Grandma's house. That was fun because I remember playing in those buttons when I was a little girl.

A week or two ago, my friend Amy decided to purge her button collection. I received a huge zip lock bag full of her buttons. Wow! So I have been sorting them, slowly. Today I was cleaning and organizing and I arranged my happy, happy button collection on the table next to my chair. I still have a tall jar that has not been sorted, but the rest I am sorting by color. I have blue, green and purple together, red, pink and orange together, and yellow in a jar of it's own so far. I also have all the white in one, the black in one and the metal buttons in a seperate jar.

I think Kim and Jacob think I have lost my marbles (buttons??). I know it probably sounds mind numbing to you, but I like looking at the buttons and they look so nice grouped by color! I also was the reciepient of some awesome button jars! Amy brought me 4 antique jars Tuesday evening. So I think it is quite easy on the eye. It makes me happy. :o)

Thanks Amy!!!

Write this down....

Today is a momentous occasion! Write it down in your record books! The day that my baby got his own wheels! Yay, Jacob! He is so proud. He can't stay in the house. Wait till you see the pictures. It is not pretty. But it is BIG. Very BIG!! He paid for it with his own money. He sold his 4 wheeler, mowed yards, peppered pigs, and traded his beloved shot gun for this, ummm.... beauty? Yes, it is a thing of beauty. Remember your first car? Tell me about it in the comments section.


Mine was a 1979 Silver Ford Pinto with a red interior, and a very odd smell. It had a sunroof... that leaked like a sieve. I thought it was going to explode a lot of the time. My friends and I had some fun trips in that clunker. We made a secret trip to Rogers, Arkansas to visit the Vaughn boys, countless trips between Tulsa and Oklahoma City and much, much more. I finally sold it for a whole dollar! The guy I sold it to, never had the title switched out of my name and a few years down the road I recieved notice that my vehicle was used in committing a crime!! Wouldn't it be cool if cars could talk? We could hear some interesting stories from that old truck out there.


Abbey and her mom Gigi came by after church so the awesome girlfriend could see the new/old awesomeness of Jacob's new/old truck. Gigi and I took advantage of the visit for a photo shoot.

Abbey is so little (in stature only...big heart, big smile, big brains!!) that none of us thought she would be able to get into the truck. Especially since she was in a dress! But she just had to hear, "You can't get up there" and before we turned around, there she was, up there! Love that girl!

Aren't they cute? I guess it is a good thing that Abbey likes vintage stuff, because this truck is definately vintage! It needs a lot of love. Congrats Jacob! I am proud of you for saving your money to pay for this! I hope you get to use it for many years!

Hot...

The dog days of summer arrived today. Yuck! Not my favorite time of year. I feel like the heat just sucks the life out of me. This is my first blog in almost a week and I really had to talk myself into it. Sorry to all 1 of you that read it. Just not feeing blogerific these days. I am sure my optimistic self will return.

Till then, stay cool.

Anniversary...

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary! It is nice to be married that long. You are comfortable with each other, you always know what to expect (almost always...) and you know there is always someone looking out for you. Nice.

After work I stopped at the drug store to get some Hydrogen Peroxide for Kim's bum foot. Yes, very romantic. I thought briefly about getting Kim a card, but I did not want him to feel bad if I got him a card and he did not get me one, so I decided not to. I was pretty sure he did not get me one because I knew he did not have any cash today. I knew we would not be exchanging gifts this year, or going out to dinner.

When I got home, he had a nice card for me. I felt really cruddy for not spending a dollar on a simple card. Here is what his card for me said on the outside:

Sometimes

when we're

lying in bed,

I look over at

you and think,

"I am so lucky."

On the inside:

Then you start snoring in

that snorty way, and I think,

"Well, that's annoying,

but I'm still lucky."

Happy Anniversary

Sweet, huh? I cracked up. Kim is very bothered by my snoring. Which I find odd because it does not bother me at all!

Then he wrote a nice poem, like he always does. Bet you did not know Kim wrote poetry!

I sat and thought on how I ought

to show you how I feel.

But moneys' tight so I just write

to prove my love is real.

I think of what my life was like

before we came to be,

Just me alone, no thoughts of home,

no future did I see.

But with you now, I see just how

true love can save a life.

My greatest gift from God above

was making you my wife.

Pretty good for an ole' redneck cowboy, huh? Thanks honey! I love you too!

Friends!

Yesterday my friend, Necia, came into town. She lives in Texas and drove up to see her family in Broken Arrow. She and her two awesome sons, Alex and Kyle came to have lunch with me. Fun!! They have an action packed weekend planned. They went to see the musical Oklahoma! last night. Today they are considering a float trip down the Illinois river! Sounds great. Necia used to live here and we worked together, not just one time, but 3 different times for State Farm.

I took a few quick pictures so I could share them with you. Alex her oldest is 15, and Kyle is ... 11 or 12... I think! The kid in the yellow shirt Alex being goofy. Yes, that is a 15 year old boy acting goofy. Surprise, surprise!

This picture is of Kyle... well, you guessed it, acting goofy. Those are chicklets gum poking out of his lips to look like teeth. What can I say? Goofy!

It was great to see Necia and the boys again. Friends are so wonderful. They make you feel like YOU again. :o) Even though we talk nearly every day, either by email or texting. There is nothing like seeing your friends in person. Even if just for lunch!

Thanks Nec! I miss you, but I don't miss Texas!

I'm still here....

I just can't think of anything good or interesting to post about. So rather than bore you with ramblings, I will keep it to myself.

Have a good weekend.

Count your blessings!

I had a bad day today, so of course I complained. My friend, Necia, who read my complaint reminded me to count my blessings. So here I go. Instead of complaining, I will count.

1. God loves me, and will never forsake me.
2. I have a husband who puts up with me and loves me in spite of my big mouth!
3. Jacob loves me too! What a good son!
4. I have a lot of awesome friends.
5. I have a caring, though odd family... not you Debbie, the rest of them... ok, yes, you too.
6. I have a good job.... mostly good. {sigh!}
7. I have a home to call my own.
8. I have 3 cool pets who think I am awesome.
9. I am reasonably healthy
10. Um, did I mention God already? Well, He makes the list twice.

That is all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. God is good, all the time.....

Sisters...

Last night I taught the elementary girls at our church. Such a nice group of girls. Fun! We had so much fun. Judith, Makenzie, Anna, Kaleigh, Tabitha and Haidyn. Ranging from first grade through 5th grade. Not easy to teach such an age range, but at least they were all girls! We beaded bracelets on leather and tied them around the girls wrists. Each if them chose a word to bead on the braclet, like love, joy, I luv God, etc... I think the girls had fun, I know I did! But we sure missed Amy!!! I bet she did not miss us!

Crime Alert!

I am here to report a crime. Yes, a crime. This so called "sock monkey" is the culprit. Tell me you can look at this, this... creature and think it is cute and innocent after you hear about his dastardly deeds.

I made a quick trip home for lunch today. It is a long way to drive, but I had forgotten something at home, so I dashed home to get it. When I opened the door to the house you will not believe what I found. Feathers were all over the house. The Hayes' Cockatiel, Joey, was sitting on top of the luxury vacay condo and the Guinea Pig, Sqiurt was running around frantically trying to escape from the EVIL sock monkey who was riding on the back of my dog, Pixie. The sock monkey is pictured above.

I grabbed him off Pixie's back, well, I tried to yank him off, but it seems he (Evil Sock Monkey... for abbreviation, I will refer to him as ESM for the rest of the story.) had used the belt from my robe to lash himself tightly to Pixie's back. I finally got Pixie to stand still long enough to untie the knots. She was very relieved to be rid of ESM. She (Pixie) looked at me quite gratefully and licked my hand, then growled at the sock monkey. It seems that the sock monkey had been plotting evil against the Hayes' pets for weeks.

This is what I was able to discern from the pets. ESM's plan was initially foiled when the pets were removed from the Hayes' premisis and temporarily reolcated to my home. Apparently, ESM broke into our beautiful (ok...shabby) home and tried to get the pets. At first, Pixie thought he was cute and nice, like her dolphin. He (ESM) tricked her into letting him climb on her back. He then forced Pixie to take him into Jacob's room where he opened the cage where Squirt, the Guinea pig, stays. Squirt darted out of the cage fast, because he is afraid of sock monkeys and dogs (smart pig... smart!). Next, ESM forced Pixie to the living room where he opened the door of Joey's luxury vacay condo. Of course, Joey was shouting and whistling for Kim to help him, but Kim was sleeping like a log. ESM and Pixie chased the pets ALL over the house. Poor Joey was so upset that he lost most of his feathers. I guess I got there just in time to save them from ESM. I have locked ESM up in Joey's travel cage temporarily. I don't know exactly how to destroy a sock monkey. My greatest fear is that he cannot be destroyed. He has an evil mind and evil minds are not easy to destroy!

I hope this story proves to all of you who have doubted me when I told you not to trust sock monkeys. I think some of you may think I made this story up. I just hope you never come home to witness such a horrific scene. It took several hours, but I finally calmed the pets down enough to eat. At first when we tried to get Squirt to eat his pepper, he would only whimper. Finally, he decided he could eat a little snack, he is resting comfortably now.

Please, I beg of you, don't trust a sock monkey in your home. Especially, if you have pets!