Friends are Friends Forever!

Tonight I had the chance to spend some time with two very good friends, Gigi and Amy. We had a yummy dinner and then went off to find adventure! We ended up at Swan Lake on a photo fest! There was so much to see, and so much to make you smile. We walked around the lake one time. Several interesting things happened. Amy ran through a sprinkler, I threw my shoes in the trash and I guess that would make Gigi the adult supervisior of the night. We saw the ducks, a snobby swan, flowers, exercising nuns and even an elusive bumble bee. I think mostly though, we enjoyed the company. I wish Nellie and Sammy could have joined us for a SMOR reunion, but they were both busy. Here are some of the sights we saw.

Chandler Park

In an effort to find a picture to submit for my friend Nellie's Weekly Photo Challenge (http://www.nellierae.com/) Jacob and I took a little field trip yesterday. We drove out to a park from my past. Chandler Park in West Tulsa. When I was a little girl, my mom would take us there to play and picnic. It has always been beautiful, but I love it more than ever now! I have not had a picnic there in 35 years. I hope that I will do something about that soon! One of these photos was my submission. Check out Nellie's blog to see which one! Jacob entered a picture too. He totally stole my original idea, but I love him anyway, and I am glad he participated!

The picture of the right is our shadows on the rocks. I was not sure if you could identify us or not!

Kim has a fond {insert odd} memory of that park too. His mom worked not too far from there when he was a munchkin, so I guess they spent some time there. He has a very odd memory, that Jacob and I are convinced was a dream, but he insists it was real. There used to be a big old rock Armory there. Kim insists that there were monkeys that lived on the roof of the armory! I giggle every time I think about it. We have asked every one we know if they remember monkeys there, no one does. Big surprise, honey... No monkeys... It was a dream!

I strongly encourage you to visit when you have a few hours to kill. Drive straight west on 21st street. Keep going past the river and proceed past all the oil drums. Classic Tulsa stuff! You can't miss it. The words "Chandler Park" are written in white stone on the side of the hill!

Thanks Nellie for giving us an excuse to go back to nature. From the photos submitted, I think everyone else had a good time finding their picture as well. I will say it again. Check out the photo challenge and join the fun. I am sure Nellie would love to see what you see!

Enough!

This heat has really got me zapped. I almost napped at my desk today. It was close to 90 degrees in our office at 5:00 today. This is just nasty. Tomorrow promises to be worse. Sigh. In spite of the heat, I had a great weekend.

Saturday we had just finished getting Jacob's hair cut when Amy called to see if we would go to the flea market with her. We jumped at the chance and met her there around 10AM. There was lots to see! I saw this beautiful quit. Love, love, love quilts. Especially old ones. I have a really old one that my great aunt and grandmother pieced when they were young. It is so special to me. I will post a picture of it for you sometime. I especailly love the fabrics used in old quilts. It is so special to think that it probably used to be a dress or a shirt that got worn out. I love that they used every scrap they could find! I wish I knew the story behind all the fabrics. If my Grandma was still alive I would ask her! I wonder whose Grandma made this one?

Yesterday, Sunday, I helped Amy set up for VBS at church. We had to make the stage look like a camp site. We added a campfire and some other touches after this picture was taken. Jacob even left one of his precious fishing poles there as a prop. I asked him if he had one that was not important. He said, "no, they are all important!" He acted like I should have known that! Amy and I decided VBS campsites are more work than real ones. I think it was Daryl who pointed out that you dont have to move trees at real campgrounds. So true! Trust the preacher to come up with the obvious, but overlooked truth!

blue...

Dawgs

It was such a nice day...as far as the weather goes! I spent part of my evening outside on the deck with the pets. They even let me take a few pictures. I was trying to get a picture of a bird I saw from the window, but of course he disappeard when I came outside. The dogs were very interested in posing for me, so here is your friendly backyard crew! The biggest and sweetest is Clyde, we call him Bubba most of the time. He is such a big lazy goof! The only time he gets in a hurry is when he thinks there is food on the line. He hardly ever barks, but when he does it is a deep rusty sound. Like his voice is cracking. And you know when you hear him that there is something going on, and you should get up and see what it is!


Then there is his bratty energetic sister, Bonnie. She barks all night and runs around like a crazy dog! She never seems to run out of energy. It makes me tired to watch her move! We filled up a kiddie pool for them in the back yard and Bubba won't do anything but drink from it. Bonnie will get in, but not if you are watching her. It is almost like she is being modest! Ha! Bonnie will chew up anything you leave in the back yard. Very destructive. I think Bubba is too lazy to chew on anything that does not taste good.

I am very thankful for my pets. They really keep things interesting. I don't know why, but I really enjoy them, even when they cause trouble. Like this weekend when they escaped the yard at least 10 times! It was very frustrating. We spent nearly $50 buying supplies to repair the fence and keep them inside. But every time we thought we had it fixed, they would be out again, laughing at us! They never ran away, just broke out and visited the neighbor dogs till we called them back in. Then they would run up to me and look at me like, "Oh, Hi Mom! We got out and visited Lucky, Zippy and Barney! Woof!" All the time, Lucky, Zippy and Barney (the neighbors dogs) are barking to raise the dead. Like they are cheering Bonnie and Clyde on to victory! I sure wish I knew what they were thinking about!

Learner's Permit

So, Jacob wants to go get his learners permit tomorrow! I have to tell you that I think I may need to hire an attorney to figure out how to go about this. I am reading through the info I can find on line and I am very confused. He had to take parent taught drivers ed, and is at the point in that course where he can go, but I am just very confused! Ugh! Beaurocrats make everything so complicated! Why would anyone ever want to give the government more power over their lives? It boggles my mind that thay can make something that should be very simple, very, very complicated!

Sorry, that is all I have to say today. Now I must go and read some more about this nonsense!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow...

Well, it is officially over. Staycation is finished. It was the best. So fun. Tuesday I went to Amy's to splash in her pool. It went without saying that we would not take pix of each other at the pool. That would be a very bad thing! But I took this picture at church Sunday while we were waiting in line for lunch, so you will have to imagine us more casual, much more casual, lounging at the pool. Amy made a mermaid body print on the pavement. That girl is so creative! Even when she is laying out at the pool, she is making art! Sammy SMOR and her SMORette Anna Kay joined us for a few splashes too.

When we got too hungry to swim, we hauled my sunburned self back to Amy's to change clothes, then we went to Ted's for lunch. So yummy! Thanks Amy for a fun day!

Today it was back to work. Ugh! I was so tempted to call in sick to work today. But I forced myself out of bed and hauled myself in to the job. I was really tired! I put my nose to the grindstone and paid the price for being gone for two measley days! I had 50 unread email in my inbox and several calls to return. And the stack of paper had really managed to multiply on my desk. To top it all off. My boss hired a new person. He started today and spent the day with the boss.

Tomorrow my boss is on vacation. So I will be working with the new person. That will mean more time away from my actual work. Oh well! I get paid the same no matter what! And, my boss left me his credit card to buy our lunch tomorrow! Free lunch is a very happy event in my book. And no work on Friday. More happiness!

God is good... all the time. All the time... God is good!!