Days of Dementia: And it's root, root, root for the home team....

This past Thursday night I walked into the nursing home to find my grandfather in the middle of the hallway in his wheelchair, trucker cap on his head and looking alert. This is a bit unusual - I've never seen him wear the cap before, though its been in his room for about a month, and he was in a different section of the hallway than I usually find him in. I caught his eye.
"Hey!" I said enthusiastically, "There you are."
"Hey!" he replied, just as happily, "You're just in time!"
"In time for what?"
"In time for the ballgame!"
I grinned. "What kind of ballgame?" "Baseball? Basketball? Football?"
"Don't know."
"Where's it happening at?"
"Right down there." He pointed down the hallway. My head turned, but I already knew what I would see. I had just come from that direction. A few people in wheelchairs were in the lobby. While they were watching television, no game had been on the screen and the TV wasn't visible from our position. I smiled.
"Who's playing?"
"Don't know."
"Is it baseball?"
"Yeah!" 
"Has it started yet?"
"Not yet. Just about to."

For those who haven't heard, or have only caught the bits and pieces, my grandfather was diagnosed with dementia this past year. It's been a really difficult road full of lots of confusion - and not just on his part, in general. The past eight months or so have been filled with lots of fear, heartache and uncertainty about what's going on, what's right and what's the best way to accomplish it. There have been a lot of factors involved and while it's still an ongoing situation, he is currently in a nursing home that appears to love and take excellent care of him. And that's such an incredible, incredible blessing to us, especially considering Oklahoma is apparently 49th in the nation in terms of nursing home care. Yikes. 

We chatted for awhile about other topics. He kept trying to prop his foot up on the nurses' disposal box on the side of their cart. "I think that's Billy's tool box," he finally said.
"Ah. Then we probably shouldn't mess with it then."

A few minutes later. 
"Look! Here come the stars!"
I glanced back down the hallway. Far at the other end, one man walked slowly along on his walker.
"Anybody I know? Anyone famous?"
"Hog Bellys!"
This is actually what his trucker hat reads. Hog Bellys, Stink Bait Parlor. I have no idea where this cap came from, it just appeared one day in his room. This is something that has super impressed me in the midst of his dementia - he can still read. For a man that doesn't ever really know what's going on, he can still read. In fact, as we were sitting there during this discussion, he pointed out a word on the nurses cart and asked me what it meant. And I had no idea either, because it was some long medical term. But I knew the reason he didn't ask me about the other words was because they made sense to him - scissors, tape, medications, etc. He specifically recognized that he didn't understand what this particular word meant and he wanted to know.
But he will still misunderstand or reinterpret the words he reads. Hence, Hog Bellys, the now famous baseball player.
"Now they're all walking around the bases."

"Just a second grandpa, I'll be right back."
I stepped into his room for a minute and was caught off guard by the television being on his room since it had never been on before. In particular, it was on Thursday Night Football and I immediately understood. Since he had never talked about ball before, I wasn't sure where our sudden baseball game had come from, but now I got it.
In discussions before with various people, we've come to realize that probably most of what grandpa talks about isn't completely made up. Usually there's a connector somewhere, even if it's probably a book or movie he read thirty years ago that we just don't know about or an overheard bit from a conversation earlier in the day. And then his brain just takes a whatever tiny gem of it that gets brought up on a ride.

"Has the game started yet?"
"Nope. They're just walking around the bases."
"That's it? Just parading around the bases?"
"Yup. Maybe they'll get started soon."

We chatted awhile longer and then I headed home for the evening.

If you had told me at the beginning of all of this that eventually I would look forward to my trips to the nursing home, that it would be a joy and that it would be a piece of a puzzle that would begin to fundamentally alter my heart and mind, I probably would have doubted you. And the trips can still be, and will be often, hard. Despite that, however, there has been so much unexpected joy and love in the midst of all the mental confusion and heartache.

I got to watch a baseball game with my grandfather. I had never had the chance - or rather, took the chance - to do that before. The fact that I can say I have now, whether he remembers it or not, thrills my soul.

I hope Hog Bellys hit a home run.

Congrats to the Kings!

The LA Kings won their first Stanley Cup tonight in their 40+ year history! Which is awesome and I'm excited for them.

Their goalie's daughter decided to show up at the press conference and steal the show. She's pretty cute, so check out the video:



Congrats, guys!! You looked so happy and I'm happy for you!

(If you want more on the Cup or the games, I have no doubt Will will be detailing it out further soon.)

(My favorite tweet of the night came from Wil Wheaton: "Local LA sports media is trying to figure out how the Sacramento Kings won the Stanley Bowl Trophy for Basketpuck tonight. Good job, guys.")

The Spring Trip to Houston

Okay, so this time I have an actual reason for not posting for awhile. I was not here.

I was in HOUSTON!

The landscape: Not the same as it was before.

Due to the drought for all of last year, I never realized that there could be anything but dry grass from here to Texas. However that is simply not true. With all the wonderful rain we've been receiving the drive from Southern Oklahoma to Houston is simply gorgeous. Thousands of wildflowers along the banks of the road in all sorts of colors. Long, tall grasses. Huge, leafy trees. And on the drive down this wispy fog all throughout the Arbuckle Mountains in the early morning hours. So incredibly pretty. So many times I wanted pictures.

Hit that ball, what a game...

In order to travel with Will to his job at the Astros Stadium, I had to pick up the pace on 45 to make it to Houston by 3:30. (I was close: 3:40. But we still made it to the Stadium, thanks to Will who navigated me through all the chaotic traffic and suddenly clogged highways.)

Therefore I made it to my very first (professional) baseball game! The Houston Astros vs. the Atlanta Braves. Which I thought was pretty funny, since as a kid I loved the Braves. Or at least, as much as I ever loved a sports team as a kid. All that pretty much means is that I loved them one particular year they went to the World Series and my dad and I had this huge game about who would win. And he wanted the other team and I picked the Braves (they lost.)  So that's it.  Anyway, I was still amused I got to see the Braves. (Although, yes, in real life their fans seem to be pretty annoying.)

Root. Root. Root. This is the Astros slogan for the year. They take this very seriously, as you can see all over this pic.

The Astros lost, but I did get to hear the home run cannon go off, and I did enjoy the extreme classic/nostalgia feeling that seems to come over you while wandering through a ballpark and the first few innings of the game. Plus, the evening was perfect. Seriously, I kept looking up, seeing cityscape, and realizing I had forgotten I was outside. Absolutely beautiful, perfect for a game.

All I could hear was bits & pieces of "What a Game" from Ragtime.

The Boys

I had a lot of great chances to play with the kiddos, especially Robbie.  Who is four and can build things like this out of K'Nex:

Robbie's Robot. No instructions here, folks. Just his thoughts and K'nex prowess. Man, I wish had a picture when he had wings on it.

 

At one point Robbie actually convinced me to try and build an airplane for him out of K'nex from the instruction manual.

Oh, guys. Me with K'nex. Can you already see the utter failure?

But I was pretty pleased with how I had finally managed to get over halfway done and looking pretty good when he slid down beside me and stated "Um.... this part is upside down."
Which prompted me to ask the dumbest question I could have possibly asked at that moment.
"Are you sure, Robbie?"
"Yes. This is upside down." And before I could blubber out something about "being sure before we changed it" he had taken it from my hands, made quick eight snaps and handed it back to me before running off on his way. He had fixed it.  (For you curious, the plane eventually did get finished with Robbie's help.) 

Death to Dust Man

I really, really love The Mega's album featuring music from Mega Man 2. But I've never touched a Mega Man game and I was wondering what they were like and Will said we could play through them together.
Um.
That sounded great until I realized how hard some of the levels were to jump into for the first three games, and I pretty much just handed off the controller to him (once with one hit point left and no lives at the boss gate.)  I did however play more of Mega Man 4, right up until Dust Man who stressed me out so much I couldn't even watch him beat the level.
And then time ran out and no more Mega Man.
But I did get to meet Rush!

The Zooooooo!
And we went to the Zoo!

Robbie & Will spying on the...gorillas? Was it gorillas?

The Houston Zoo has a lot of cool animals, many different ones from OKC which was a nice change.  My favorite part was actually at the very end where we came across red pandas running around in their exhibit, being incredibly cute. While OKC does have one, she's usually sleeping or hidden. To see them so active was lovely. (No pictures there because they were in a dark tunnel behind glass.)

Also, there were otters, sprawled on top of each other, sleeping on their backs. Also very cute.

The giraffes were feeling up close & personal. Love the tongue sticking out.

Again, great weather, great company, great Zoo. 

Bouncing (on heads) here and there and everywhere....
Tarvis!
One evening (I can no longer remember what happened what day) I was able to run over to Travis' to catch up with him which was nice. And then I watched Will & Travis play Super Mario Wii which was hysterical. Seriously, bouncing off each others heads, falling into pits, crashing around in bubble form... there's a reason I love to watch people play video games.

The Return of the Confetti Eggs
If for any bizarre reason I wasn't sure before, I've now decided I absolutely love confetti eggs.

Shamelessly stealing these pics from Will.

Kim sweetly thought of and bought some confetti eggs for us to play with, but unfortunately the timing never quite worked out! So the day I left we managed to sneak them in after church.

Isaac seemed less concerned. Pic also stolen.

I tried to smash one on Robbie's head - instantly was afraid I was going to hurt him more than expected - and began breaking them open instead which worked just as well. But don't worry, he took great pleasure in busting them over mine, so there was definitely egg-head-smashing going on. :)

Stolen! Stolen!

I love the confetti! I don't know why. (Though maybe it harkins back to the days of the Fantasticks when I had great joy in playing with it after every performance to Philip's dismay.) I think it's all the colors. It makes everything look so cheery & bright. It's great stuff.  Next year I need to buy several packs and stock up!

One more since confetti pictures rock. Don't worry, we cleaned up the mess.

Thanks again, Kim! :)

Seven and a half hours to home.
It was a total blessing that I didn't hit any major traffic on the drive home since I left later than I originally intended. I guess Saturday night suddenly everything caught up with me and I was worn out by Sunday morning. So after the confetti eggs, I tried to lay down (and failed at sleeping.) But a fantastic lunch from Kim was enough and I was quite awake the rest of the drive home. After sailing five minutes through construction that caused me two hours of grief last spring, I was thrilled.

All in all....
It was an absolutely lovely trip. Friends, kiddos, a Zoo, games...how can you go wrong? It was perfect.

Images from Easter

While I did wish this year that we would've done something a little extra for Easter at church, simply to help me remember the true celebration behind the season, it was a very lovely Easter.

(Not that Hilltop didn't have a nice Easter morning service and not that they didn't focus on Christ. Just that I was a little hungry for a little more....weightiness. Does that even make sense? Something to snap me into the reality of what we were celebrating.) 

But we did take the Lords Supper, which is a bit rarer for us and therefore brought to mind more of the occasion, and I was certainly much more aware of The Reason this year than I have been in years past.
I'm in Numbers right now, working my way through the Old Testament, and I really loved seeing the sermons leading up to Easter we've been receiving side by side with the stories of the Old Testament. This year when Gary read the phrase: "We have no king but Caesar" it suddenly reeled in my mind how truly awful (and really blasphemous) that was since I'm also concurrently reading about how God is their Head & their King in the Old. It was shocking - as it should have been - and seeing moments like this lined up beside each other continue to help me have a better grasp of the bigger picture at the cross. Anyone else have specific memories of moments like that?

Anyway. Easter has this way of bringing out joy in another fashion: super cute kiddos.

Unfortunately, I failed miserably at getting photos of the Plumb celebration (Shannon, I'm looking at you. I saw that camera flashing. ;) ) But I did manage to get quite a few when the Kime's & McBride's came down on Easter Sunday.

I know most of them feature *ahem* me, but I was so thrilled to have updated photos with these kiddos, that I'm certainly putting them in anyway. :)

 Awwww..... look at that face. My darling Lexie Lou!

I haven't had as many pics of Brighton to feature in general, so she shows up often here. :) Plus, it was her very first Easter!

Gorgeous see-sters... (this was the "two cookie" bribe picture.)

 

I adore these faces. Can you believe they're so grown up? I can't.

Oh, I adore Lexie's face too. :)

(Please note the confetti in my hair. Story forthcoming.)

 And of course, baby Bright's as well. :)

 Picture perfect. :)

Seriously, how precious are these kids?  The amount of cuteness here is staggering.

 Ooooooh..... the confetti. Jeff & Brittany brought these eggs down called Confetti Eggs and they were awesome.  You crack the egg open (preferably by smashing them over someone's head, which appeared to be our method) and all this beautiful confetti comes flying out. But not the sticky kind, just pretty small bits of colorful paper. They brought a dozen. Next year I'm convinced they need to bring a dozen for the adults and then another dozen for the kids. :)

You see, by the end of it I was the only one that hadn't been confetti'd and all the eggs were gone. But then they found one that had still been hidden in the backyard. So while I avoided Jeff like the plague (who was whistling innocently nearby), unbeknownst to me he had swapped with my oldest kiddo and she NAILED me on the back of the head. There was a traitor in my midst! :)

Anyway, moral of story: go buy confetti eggs. They're fun. They're colorful. Buy plenty for each age group to play. :)

Last photo op.

 Priceless. :)

Welcome to the world Baby Reagan!

There was a new baby girl born into the Plumb family tonight. :) Baby Reagan arrived this evening and is 6 lbs 9 oz. of pure perfection.

We think she's a keeper. ;)

 

Welcome to the world, baby doll! We're so glad you're here!

I should be their spokesperson. With free admission.

There are new additions to the OKC Zoo! A two-week old giraffe named Sergeant Peppers, as well as a two-month old okapi named Nia. Their pictures are really cute. (And so are the names! Sergeant Peppers? Nia? D'aaaaaaaaw.....! One has to wonder what inspired the Beatles reference.)

Zoo, I was already in withdrawal. This is not helping.

Pictures not mine - they were taken by the Zoo and posted to their Facebook.

Sergeant Peppers & Mom, Ellie

Nia with Mom, Caroli

Hit me with a hot note....

I am rocking Christmas shopping. Yes, I am.

And I am covered in glitter from the shop. I feel like the Christmas fairy!

Hey, my tree is decorated! (Mmf, these pictures are pretty rough. My camera and I.... not friends.)

 

Oooo....aaaaahh....

Ta-da! Please note the awesome penguin statue in the background as well.

Hm. I promise it doesn't look quite that naked without a tree topper in real life. I haven't had any inspiration for what to use up there.

Also, it leans. But that's okay. I think all leaning Christmas trees always look like a swamp monster, so somehow it fits.

I've found I really, really like hiding in my room with all the lights off except the tree lights. Tree, you're very soothing. Good work. 

Quite by accident, I ended up with more of a rich fuschia/burgandy shade of bulbs rather than the hot pink I originally intended. In the store they looked so different. However, I think I'm much more pleased with this - it still provides a lot of color (and breaks up the blue & silver), but doesn't scream HI.I'MCOLORANDILOVEYOU.



This is my favorite ornament on the tree. It's also one of the oldest. It was originally on our tree when I was kid - in fact, I can't remember not having it and it has always been my favorite.  The one I always wanted to be sure and place. At least that's how I remember it.

I love the sand dollar and I love the way the Nativity scene is drawn. Also, it used to play Silent Night whenever you pressed the button on the back. Now, so many years later, it doesn't play but its still in great shape and makes me smile. It stands front & center on the tree.

I actually watched this movie for the first time in years the other day. It's still pretty cute. I still have to catch Charlie Brown Christmas sometime soon.

Good night, folks. That's all I have for tonight. 

Because the status is NOT quo.

Poinsettias? Check.
Grave blankets? Check.
Christmas shopping started? Check.

YAY! Christmas, Christmas time is here....

But first! Thanksgiving!

That's actually a pretty good sample of what my Thanksgiving looked like. :) It was full of kids, and that was awesome. I snagged a few pictures with some of them because I hate my camera and have very few new ones. So here's a flurry of Thanksgiving shots with the McBrides:

Seriously, can you believe that's Kylie? She's so grown up! What a beauty. 

Khloe loves to play with the iPad, so we got several shots in a row similar to these. Look at that smile. 
 

Awww....my boy!! So handsome. So sweet. I love this guy.

So we were sitting down to eat Thanksgiving lunch with the McBrides & Kimes, when suddenly I realized I was not at the kids table and that was sad. I don't think I've ever NOT eaten at the kids table (which, this year, was a picnic on the floor.) And then I realized there wasn't enough chairs for the adults so YAY! KIDS TABLE! 

While we were eating suddenly Kaden asked me if I could rap. And I said no. But would he rap for me?

I really wished I had filmed what happened next.
Not only did he rap, and pretty darn well I might add, but when he finished Khloe decided to join in. With a rap about zombies. And THEN two-year-old Lexie purposely stood up, grinned, and and made beat boxing noises while dancing. TWO YEARS OLD.

This is why you sit at the kids table. To help prevent duels to the death over deviled eggs and listen to impromptu rap sessions.

Sadly, I don't have Lexie & Brighton pictures this time around. But wait! I have to share their cuteness somehow!

Oooooooh! Those eyes! That baby face! They're so freaking cute! (Seriously, aren't those gorgeous pictures?) Lexie is so full of spunk & happiness. Love it.

Okay, one parting shot:

My cousin Sam, Kylie, & Khloe bug

And bedtime for me. I hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, friends and food and all the lovely laughter you could hope for. Mine sure was. :)

Tis the Season!

I'M SO EXCITED.

Christmas, Christmas time is here....

Why yes, that is my Christmas tree. Already up. In my room. Bwahahahaha, SO HAPPY.

That is also where my desk used to be. So that's obviously gone now too. Which was a process in itself, ha. Anytime grandma and I say something like "Yeah, I'll go get the hammer!," you can already know hijinks are going to ensue.

But my tree is up and I'm super pleased with it. I recently remembered that we have a massive amount of bright blue ornaments that we no longer use, so I think I'll pair those with some other bright colors  and just go for whimsy fun. I'm excited.
 
Also, a word to the wise: toothpaste in the eye HURTS. Don't do it.

Eight Years Gone

Eight years ago last night - sometime around midnight - I sat on the bench between Raley Chapel & the cross and agreed to pray with no strings attached.
Just pray. Just talk.

And somewhere in the midst of that everything changed. I opened the door and Christ came swiftly running in, the blood immediately covering my sins, the relationship immediately beginning to take root.

I forget often, even now, that Christ was waiting on me. I forget that truly, He was right there, waiting, knowing, for the moment He could sweep in. Not a pause. Not a meander. Done. Finished. You're Mine. Not Satan's. Not the world's. You're Mine and as soon as you will hear My knocking, as soon as you will open the door I will be there. No waiting. No second guessing. 

Indeed, this is my favorite birthday. For this is the day I was brought back to life.

 

I came across this passage tonight in my reading and it wraps everything up.

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." 

- Hebrews 12:22-24

Amen. He is good.

Love to all and sweet dreams. 

It's all about the Owls.

Little Lexie Lou's second birthday party was today! It was super cute. I mean, look at this face:

 
She instantly makes any party rock.

And because I can't resist this photo:

BAWWWWOOOOONS!

D'aaaaw.... my kids.

Grandma and I were at Cracker Barrel last week and happened upon an owl hat that we instantly knew Lexie would love because the girl LOVES OWLS. And this hat was awesome, so I kept searching through the rack for one myself. But what gives? It only came in toddler size! What's with that? Only toddlers can have owl hats? That's so sad!

Anyway, I've been mildly searching on and off for owl hats on etsy. I've looked for these before, without success of finding one I really liked, but I stumbled on this tonight:

Happiness.

Okay, so I'm not actually buying it (yet). I've discovered how great hats are for keeping a little extra warmth in, so at some point I'll probably pick up an extra one for this year,but this one is a little pricier than I was hoping for. Nonetheless, I still think this one is awesome. Maybe it'll go on sale.

As for Lexie, she loooooved hers. They were having trouble getting her to sit down and open gifts, and when the hat was the second gift in she was pretty much done. She jumped up, threw it on sideways and went parading around. She knows what it's about.

And it goes like this.

So this past Thursday night Regina & I trekked up to the OKC Zoo Amphitheater for the Train & Maroon 5 concert. Originally there were five of us, but Brad, Holly & Sam weren't able to make it for varying reasons. :/ Sad day. Although the concert wasn't until 7:00, we headed up there right after I got off work. Since we walked into the venue right on the dot I was really glad we left when we did.

I've only been to three other concerts at the Zoo Amp, but that's enough to know with the thousands of people in the first-come-first-served outdoor venue you're never going to be able to push your way down to the front that late, and especially not be able to see even if you do. I've spent the other three concerts way off to the side or far in the back. But somehow, we made it closer than I've ever been before and had a fantastic viewing point AND managed not to block anyone else's view. Seriously. It was awesome. I was so excited. 

This concert was so FUN. Giddy. Giddy is a good word for it, because Regina & I were pretty ridiculously giddy the whole time. Partially because they were both bands we were really anticipating, but also because of how nice the crowds were and our clear line of sight to the stage. (Okay, okay, and because both bands have front men with these gorgeous tenor voices.)

Regina's Pic of Train.

Train was up first, opening with the the sounds of a train revving up (I was so stupidly happy, I didn't even get that reference until AFTER THEIR SET, ahaha. We'll blame it on the happiness. And not the obliviousness.) and launching into "Parachute." Which I thought was a strange opening song, but I was still glad to hear it. And after that I have no idea of what order the songs came in. They teased with bits and pieces of "Soul Sister" throughout the concert and finally concluded with it. They did come out for a short encore where they finally played "Drops of Jupiter" and finished out with "This Ain't Goodbye."
Also - and this works really well with all their music homages on Francisco - they did a set of cover songs for about twenty minutes as well. That included a mashup between "Heart of Glass" and "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" that was brilliant and ended with the entirety of "Dream On" that was pretty fantastic.
(Other songs included: Save Me San Francisco, She's On Fire, Meet Virgina(!), Calling All Angels, If It's Love, Words, Marry Me.)

Maroon 5 threw the gates open from the get go opening with none other than "Moves Like Jagger" and that energy maintained itself throughout the rest of the show by the crowd as well as the band. They were great, with such high energy, excellent instrumentals and very entertaining to watch even though I only knew about three songs. They, of course, also came out for an encore and concluded their whole set with (I have to admit) a beautiful rendition of "She Will Be Loved." I guess enough time has passed now that I apparently am no longer sick of the song. It just had waaay too much airtime when it first came out.
(Other songs included: Stutter, Misery, How, Wake Up Call, Hands All Over, Harder to Breathe, She Said Goodbye, Sunday Morning, Without You, Never Gonna Leave This Bed aaand a lot of others.)

And, as Regina pointed out, the bands were great compliments to each other in concert. Train was a much more relaxed band onstage - not necessarily peppy or trying to overblow their songs, but just enjoying being there and focusing on interacting a lot with the crowd. Maroon 5, on the other hand, were the showmen who talked very little, paced their show very well and blasted through a ton of songs and great instrumentals.  So we enjoyed the different tempos of the two together.

Yeah, it was great. Due to city ordinances, the concert had to end by 10:30 and they landed on that number exactly, but each band still had about an hour and fifteen minutes to play. So still lots of time with both. I'm excited to hear Train's in the middle of working on their next album, and I really hope its as strong as the last one was.

Good times, good times.

Me and my cousins, and you and your cousins...

It's that time of year again....

Okay, so only one of us in this picture will be actually traveling from Oregon...

My family will be arriving in town sometime this upcoming Thursday, which means that for a week I'll probably disappear from blogger and most of the internets.

Just so you know.

But before that happens, hopefully I'll be able to share some pictures from a pretty awesome wedding we just finished this past weekend at work. It all depends on how they turn out. Fingers crossed.

Victory.

I am typing. On the internet. From my home. On my own computer. And, wait for it, wait for it - wirelessly.

After the havoc its been since May trying to keep everything working together, this is a pretty sweet victory.

Victory dances at the ready, everyone! Take it away, Nyan Cat!

Don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello....

It is with a sad heart that I say goodbye to my former desktop, Sirius.

Sirius, you were awesome. You were not only a great friend, you were excellent with finishing out my college career, keeping me in touch with friends and helping me discover videos like Numa Numa. Thank you.

Nonetheless, we must part ways. You are gone.

So (after much, much agonizing) I am now in touch with a new companion. My first laptop. And I didn't want a laptop at first. I mean, really, really did.not.want.

But this keyboard and I, we connected. I'm a fan. I think we're gonna be pretty good together. I'm looking forward to new adventures. New Youtube videos. New blogs.

It's all good.

Welcome to the family, Jon Snow!

I still don't have internet access at my house. In all this mess, apparently my modem decided to die. Sigh. Oh well. But this may be why my wireless router wasn't working wirelessly. And at least now I have something to access it from, after I make a few phone calls tomorrow and (hopefully) have another headed my way soon.

The Summer Heatwave

Truth be told, I'm not missing winter any. When the weathermen started announcing promotions lasting until Labor Day yesterday, I was a little sad. Really? We're already talking about Labor Day?

I mean, I like winter. For about a month. Right after Thanksgiving to New Years. Then I'm done. Vamoose.

(Side. Freaking. Note. I'm really beginning to detest laptop keyboards. How on earth do you guys seriously use them? I've lost more text by accidentally deleting it or suddenly having the cursor appear on an entirely different section of the screen and its about to drive me crazy. I can't imagine having to actually prepare a document on one.)

Ahem.

I think this development has only happened within the last two years. Suddenly last year my mood entirely changed when spring arrived. This year, same occurrence. I'm loving this 100+ plus heat. Admittedly, I'm not in a place of extreme heat, so I realize that could totally change with my location. But for right now, it's just about perfect. There's not even a touch of chill in the air. It's over 90 degrees right now, at 10:30 at night. Awesome.

How often do you get to hold an owl?

This is the Eurasian Eagle Owl, Ritual, at the Medieval Faire in Norman who was part of the Royal Gauntlet's Birds of Prey family. Regina & I stood in line for an hour and a half to pay $1 for the chance to hold him.




(Ha, he looks thrilled!)

The Royal Gauntlet is a bird rescue for sick or injured birds and works to release them back into the wild. Regina & I happened across their show while waiting for the boys to get their homemade root beer and ended up staying to watch the whole thing. There was a hawk that, after being mauled by a bobcat, had to have a six hour surgery with 295 stitches. Now she flies beautifully!

This particular owl apparently can puncture steel, therefore the glove used is made of Kevlar. Eurasian owl's also are known for bringing down large prey such as deer by hooking their intense talons on the back of their target, stripping the hide off of them, letting them bleed to death and then, well, feasting.

Ritual was sold to a zoo for $10,000, but after realizing how dangerous his breed was the zoo refused to take him. So the man was going to destroy the owl - now realizing the danger - but the Royal Gauntlet happened to hear about the birds plight and brought him in. After only six weeks of training he became a fully fledged member of their show.

He was incredibly beautiful and so soft! More than worth the long wait in line. Thanks to Regina for waiting it out with me and Brad for the pictures!

Sandwiches. Everyone likes 'em. Sandwiches.

My watch beeped twice today at 4:58. And then again once at 5:00. I find this very confusing. Is it taking after the watch in Stranger than Fiction? Well, if I start hearing voices...hm, never mind. :)

Roadtrip #2: HOUSTON!

"So have you heard about Cameron Mackintosh's latest musical? It's about these people who raise a pig and the rest of the town eats Spam."

How could you not miss misguided conversations like this? ;)

After three years of not making it down to Houston, I finally had the chance and had planned on flying. But I never bought the tickets. And something kept nagging at me. I had never really considered driving, simply because I usually flew. But I wasn't satisfied with the idea of flying. Until one morning in church when I was still mulling over the issue (I know, I know) and the lightbulb went off. What if I drove? But eight hours in a car? At these gas prices?

But Denton was almost halfway in between and if I didn't have to drive all eight hours in one go both ways, I was content. So Philip & Kelly graciously put me up again for another night and made it much easier. The drive though wasn't bad at all. I've never (that I can recall) been on a solitary roadtrip and it was pretty fantastic. Just driving to music? Or riding in silence? Perfect. Besides, no one needs to hear my rendition of Juggernaut after being in the car nine hours. Behind a van that won't go at stop signs.

This was such a great trip! I loved spending so much time with them. They're such a great family and Will is, of course, my very cool big brother so it was incredibly refreshing to hang out with all of them again and soak up his awesome hugs. We drove around the loop, watched the FIF documentary, had cheesebread, saw their cool library.... Ha, and we even got to go to Kroger. :)

While I was in Houston Kim began recommending books to me, and one in particular caught my eye that she had already checked out from the library: How I Killed Pluto & Why it Had it Coming. Written, as stated, by the guy who got Pluto kicked out of planet status (Michael Brown.) It's well worth the read if you have any interest in the topic, because it's not only very insightful on how astronomers and the international space community work, but it's also written well and pretty funny. Also, we almost had 100+ planets. There was so much going on at that time that we had no idea of!
As I was finishing up that one, Will highly recommended Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I managed to read the first half while I was there (and it is really beautiful) and he kindly lent the book to me to finish. Game of Thrones, my ever backup, will be on hold for awhile because this one has caught my attention more and takes precedence. Even if I haven't returned to it yet. (Still, after GoT I still plan to return to finally finishing Good Omens.)

Also, one night Dave & I had the opportunity to babysit the kiddos! Hm. Mind you, this was the very first time I have ever babysat. I mean, I've watched kids a lot, but not babies. Mostly because they terrify me. But I really wanted to help, and Kim's a great teacher, so we went with it. And, a few hiccups withstanding, everything went fine. They were lovely. I was really happy to spend time with both of them.
And to give you an idea of how sweet Isaac is: babies that small I am ambivalent about. About six months and up, I'm better. But when they can't even hold their head up, there's just too much that can go wrong. So I keep my distance and usually go play with the older kids. But I have to admit that by about the third time Isaac fell asleep against me I was pretty smitten.

Robbie is also a total doll. We played with trains, trucks, in the sandbox, had pillow fights, watched the fish movie, sharks, read books, tickled... You can't beat that. (Okay, so he was bolted past me when I first arrived and hid in the kitchen. But thankfully that was over with pretty quick. :) )

I was able to bust through Texas on the way back - I made it to Denton in a little over four hours, had dinner with Philip & Kelly, and was flying until I hit a screeching halt right. across. the. border. Seriously, maybe six miles into the border. Construction. Ridiculous traffic. As we inched our way along I glanced out of my window at a lady with her foot sticking out of the window while driving. Then a man with a basketball started dribbling up and down the highway and then made a return route doing tricks on the side of the road. And then a laptop caught my eye out of a rear windshield with a phone number on it in huge font. The laptop was then taken down and when it popped back up it read "SO BORED. SOMEONE PLEASE CALL US."
Later I saw the girl in the passenger seat of that car pump her fists as someone had apparently called her. It was pretty funny.
But I made it from Houston on one tank of gas and with that in mind and a new route through the Thackerville construction, I'm ready to go again. :)

"Mis Sherri, Mis Sherri, why did you fill the bathtub so high?! Why did you fill the bathtub so high?!"

"Are you a pillow?"
"No. I'm a Robbie. (beat) Trust me."

Roadtrip One: Denton, TX

I now have a watch that beeps on the hour. I am not pleased.

My watch glitches. Despite the fact that I've fixed the date several times over the past few months, it now tells me its actually February 25th. And Sunday. Which corresponds with neither today nor this past February 25th. But I can live with that, which is strange, because I never know what the date is on my own. Nonetheless, a watch that beeps on the hour even after I have turned that particular feature off is not my friend. I don't need to know when the hour has changed, watch. I don't need your irritating, infernal beep in the background to remind me.

Anyway.
I've been MIA because I've been solitary roadtripping, which is awesome. Let me see if I can recall it all.

Part One: Denton, TX

Sometime a few months back I commented that watching Elizabethtown made me want to road trip. I would find it for you, but alas my subject titles don't help me.

Two weekends ago, I drove down to Denton for the weekend to visit with Philip & Kelly which was lots of fun & relaxing. We watched pieces of three new-to-me tv series' (Fringe, Better off Ted & the very curious documentary The Universe. Ever watched someone bowl with Jupiter?).

Kelly introduced me to downtown Denton which was a lovely smorgasbord of shops and restaurants, including one that serves homemade ice cream in chilled glasses. It was very delicious. And there was Pialo's Pizza (probably spelled incorrectly, but also incredibly delicious). And Chick Fil A breakfast. And Kelly's chicken parmigiana. And lots of Dr. Pepper. Chiptole. Wow. We ate really well. :) (Oh, and the gingersnaps! And chocolate/ginger candy bar!)

On Saturday Kelly & I visited the Dallas Zoo, which I had never been to before. What a beautiful zoo! The perfect combination of easy to view areas as well as lots of conservation information. They had recently opened a huge new section of the Zoo up (The Giants of the Savanna) filled with six elephants, impala, ostriches & giraffes to run around in (and Vern, the lone zebra!) All the exhibits were full and we managed to see almost all the park in four hours. Nicely done. Always something to look at.
But the real reason you need to go is because for $5 you can feed the giraffes. Okay, so you only get four splices of the lettuce, but it's totally worth it. I have never been that close to these gorgeous creatures. Had the Zoo lady not been constantly on guard and repeating "Reminder: Do not pet the giraffes. Please! Do not pet the giraffes! Do not pet the giraffes!" you could have hugged their sweet necks. That close. They were so beautiful. The whole thing just made me want to go to the Elephant Sanctuary of TN even more.
Mind you, I say all that as if I was the one who paid. I had no cash. Which means Kelly is my hero! Thank you!!

Hm... and we browsed through World Market and an antique...? shop full of everything from perfectly intact letters and magazines from the 40's to vintage signs to pink violins.

Meanwhile, Borders was having a closing sale and while Kelly browsed books I found over 65 hours worth of B-movie sci fi (and Gamera) in a collection. I now own it (as well as Godzilla: Final Wars), so if anyone's interested in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians or The Wild Women of Wongo please let me know.

The whole weekend was lovely. Thanks guys for such a beautiful weekend!

Stay tuned for....HOUSTON!

Also, we're almost to that 100th post. Hm.... I'm open to suggestions. I'm currently feeling a lack of creativity on the matter. Maybe we'll celebrate 101, so that I can keep my roadtrip posts together. And one more day to think about it. Ha.

All Hallows Eve

I can assure you I felt much safer this past Saturday night (between, oh say, 5:30 and 8) as I watched numerous superheroes & Buzz Lightyears wander our streets. :) Grandma & I passed out candy for about two hours before running out. We saw baby Yoda, princesses, ghosts, scary costumes, Transformers, animals... And we had one little boy who arrived at our door in Batman's cape and mask, but with bloody fangs...and a sword? Hm. I never did quite figure that one out.

Also of note, my sales self is apparently now deeply embedded in me as I found myself automatically thanking the kiddos in this fashion:
"Trick or treat!"
"Hi kids! Here you go!"
"Thank you!"
"No, thank you!"

Really, Sherri? Really? Try you're welcome.

*knockknockknock*
"Trick or treat!"
"Hi kids! Here's some treats!"
"Thank you!"
"Thank you!"

*headdoor, headdoor*

I call it the have-a-nice-day syndrome. Not that it's a bad thing to wish someone a good day, but like the thank you situation, sometimes it just comes at the wrong time and you wonder what on earth you were thinking. Anyone else suffer? Anyone?

In the meantime some of my own kiddos came to trick or treat! So I can say we have indeed entertained Superman, Iron Man, Tinkerbell, a basketball player for the Thunder, a hippie and ladybug at our house. :) Or rather, Oreo, entertained them, much to his anxiety. He did really well though. I was proud of him.

But what is a Halloween post without pictures of awesome kids? Here are my favorite ghosts & goblins!







Thanks for the pictures, guys! Happy Halloween!